Winter Park Wildcats basketball leaps to big start

Winter Park boys basketball is on a roll under new coach Donald Blackmon, who has led the Wildcats to a 9-1 season start as of the start of the week. The boys team is coming off a 17-11 season last year in which they bowed out of the first round of the regional playoffs.

The team is off to its best start since 2011, when the team won a second straight Class 6A state championship led by soon-to-be NBA point guard Austin Rivers. The team has been rebuilding ever since Rivers’ graduation, beginning with an implosion in 2011-2012 when the team finished the season 6-21.

At the Hoops with a Heart tournament in Oviedo last Saturday, the Wildcats edged Gateway (6-3) in a 65-60 win. They played Cypress Creek and Boone at press time this week.

The Wildcats will face district rival University (6-3) at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 20 before they take off to the Boca Raton High Christmas Tournament on Dec. 26. The Cougars have been a perennial thorn in the Wildcats’ sides. Since Rivers graduated, the Wildcats have lost every meeting the two schools have had. They’ll be looking to reverse that trend before Christmas break.

The girls basketball team has jumped out to a 7-2 record to start the season, led by Kathryn Thompson, Alexis Bertrand and Katie Price, who regularly score in the double digits.

The Wildcats hosted Apopka at press time Monday. They’ll travel to Oak Ridge for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff Dec. 19 before taking a break for Christmas.