SIDELINE SCENE: Lamenting the winter/spring sports overlap

You’re all crazy.

By “you,” I’m referring to high-school sports fans/parents/coaches/supporters/third-cousins-once-removed — and I mean it in a completely positive and affectionate way.

It just needed to be stated as a pretext to the rest of this column. 

So here it goes.

As Dr. Phillips’ Dylan Meeks stood triumphantly on the center mat at the Silver Spurs Arena on Saturday and flexed his biceps — the newly crowned king of the 220-pound weight class in Class 3A — it was, in a way, a triumphant moment for me, too.

Far less significant? Perhaps. But triumphant nonetheless! 

I, along with preps reporters around the state, was finally done with winter sports — just in time for spring sports to hit the middle point of their respective regular seasons, or worse.

Thanks for nothing, FHSAA.

Just kidding (please don’t revoke my credentials), but in all seriousness, it has been a crazy few weeks. The biggest problem is a good one to have: Several teams from within our coverage area in West Orange made notable playoff runs in the winter sports — most notably WO’s boys soccer team reaching the Class 5A State Championship Game and Meeks’ undefeated season — only to be encroached upon by spring sport teams (see baseball, softball, lacrosse, track and field, tennis, water polo, flag football … and I’m probably forgetting one … oh, boys weightlifting!) that are also deserving of coverage.

Olympia baseball is the No. 1 team in the nation … emphasis on nation (not to be confused with county, state or Southeast region). 

Not only is it ridiculously good, but also all our local programs are, as well, and many have high-level Division I commitments with MLB Draft-potential.

In softball, West Orange is the No. 5 team in the state in Class 8A. Foundation Academy was a top-10 team in Class 2A earlier in the season.

And then there’s lacrosse.

LaxPower.com ranks Olympia’s girls as the No. 10 team in the state (both boys and girls lacrosse are single-classification in FHSAA competition), and West Orange is No. 20. On the boys side, Dr. Phillips (8-5), West Orange (7-4) and Windermere Prep (5-1) are all good and contenders in a loaded Central Florida region.

What’s more, both Olympia tennis teams are good, with the boys team headlined by a returning state champion from 2014 (Kaden Funk), Dr. Phillips boys track is No. 1 in the state — but the girls have placed first in every meet, so I can’t forget them.

My whining notwithstanding, these are awesome problems to have. You don’t become a varsity sports reporter because you like having nights and weekends off. 

Sure, the scheduling gods did us in the media no favors, and I’ve been subsidizing my energy supply with Red Bull (sugar-free — which I’m told by colleague Zak Kerr doesn’t make it any better), but this is an exciting time of year, and pretty soon, it’ll be summer, and I’ll be clamoring for football season to start.