Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
JAMAL THALJIThey are named tops in their classification statewide by the Florida Dairy Farmers.
LAND O'LAKES - The Florida Dairy Farmers' Class 2A girls soccer player of the year didn't mind missing out on state player of the year honors.
Winning two state titles can make up for that.
Stacy Bishop won the Class 2A state title at Land O'Lakes and can now add a club state championship, the Florida Youth Soccer Association State Cup. And Bishop won that one by beating Florida player of the year Alison Tradd in the semifinals.
"I didn't even know they had one," Bishop said of the annual award. "But we actually played the girl that won it in the semis and we beat them, and that was much better than actually winning it."
Bishop wasn't the only one from Pasco County so honored. Her coach, Vicky King, was named 2A girls soccer coach of the year. Ridgewood baseball standout Matt Laliberte was voted 4A baseball player of the year.
None of the county's honorees earned the state's top honor, which is selected from the coaches and players of the year from each classification. The Dairy Farmers' awards are selected by a statewide panel of coaches.
King came closest to winning but Parkland Stoneman Douglas coach Laura Roundtree, whose team went 28-0-1 and won the 4A state title, edged King by eight points.
King, who led the Gators to a 26-3 record and the 2A state title, their first, said she's pleasantly surprised to see honors still rolling in from her team's remarkable season.
"Just when when you think everything is done with," said King, who has 233 wins, seven district and four conference titles in 16 seasons. "There's always one more. It's always great to be recognized by your fellow coaches, and the team has everything to do with it. It's how your players play for the coach, it's not what you did.
"To have them give me this award is a credit to the team, because they rose to the occasion."
Bishop always rises to the occasion. The four-time Sunshine Athletic Conference Player of the Year and LSU signee graduated with a county-record 192 goals.
But Bishop has been too busy to be concerned with more awards. She is in an offseason college conditioning program and her club team, Hillsborough United's 18-under squad, plays in the regionals at Greensboro, N.C. next week.
After Hillsborough United beat Tradd's Seminole Ice team in the FYSA Cup semis, Bishop scored the winning goal in United's 2-1 win over Team Boca in the final on June 8. Bishop scored with 20 seconds left to upset the seven-time defending state champion. Now Bishop and Land O'Lakes teammates Shannon Aitken and Tara Eugenides will head to North Carolina with United.
"It was kind of a scrappy goal," Bishop said, "and no one even knew there was 20 seconds left. Everyone thought there was 10 minutes left, and everyone was surprised when the whistle blew right after we kicked it off."
Ridgewood's Laliberte, the SAC pitcher of the year and Class 4A first-team all-state hurler, was selected to play for Team Florida after winning the county's pitching triple crown with 11 wins, a 0.98 ERA and 113 strikeouts.
But a severe sinus infection forced Laliberte to skip the team's trip to Oklahoma to play in a national tournament. Playing wasn't the problem, but a doctor told Laliberte the plane ride there would not have been good for his condition.
Still, Laliberte deserves all the honors he has earned, Rams coach Larry Beets said.
"That's a big-time (honor)," the coach said. "Team Florida, that's the best you can compete against."