Orange Observer: High 5 — Thursday, March 4

1. Horizon High announced Friday, Feb. 26, Dennis Thomas as the school’s first head football coach. Thomas, who turned 40 years old the day after the announcement, previously served as the head coach at Lyman High in Longwood after being the head coach at Celebration High. During his time at Celebration, Thomas led the Storm to its only winning season in 2015.
 

2. The Windermere boys track and field team dominated on its way to a first-place finish at the Windermere Meet of Champions Saturday, Feb. 27. The Wolverines saw first-place wins by Amer Amer (shot put; 49-10.5) and Ryan Flournoy (javelin; 164-5). On the girls side, Windermere finished seventh and saw a first-place finish from Katie Ranck in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:26.87.
 

3. Ocoee High wrestling’s Jordan Phillips showed his skills during the Class 3A, Region 1 wrestling tournament at Flagler Palm Coast Friday, Feb. 26, and Saturday, Feb. 27. Phillips wrestled and won his way into the 285-pound weight class championship, where he finished runner-up after falling in a 3-2 decision to Fleming Islands’ Ethan Hoffstetter. With the second-place finish, Phillips has notched a spot at states.
 

4. TFA baseball’s Isaac Sewell was as close to perfect as a pitcher can be in the Royals’ 2-0 win over Harmony Friday, Feb. 26. Sewell struck out 12 batters on his way to throwing a complete game no-hitter for the Royals, who moved to 6-0 with the victory.
 

5. The West Orange softball team had a field day at the plate in a 16-0 win over Evans Thursday, Feb. 25. Freshman Chloe Dunster helped lead the way, going 1-for-2 in three plate appearances while picking up three RBIs and two runs. Fellow freshmen Lily Barone, Zoe Calvez, Tabitha Perry, Aubrianna Sturm and Hannah Yetter racked up two RBIs each.