Scots are only spring champion
Published May 15th, 2008
By Mario Sarmento
SPORTS EDITOR
The last sports season this high school year finally ended in this area when the Spanish River High boys volleyball team lost its semifinal match to Olympia High, thus depriving the Sharks of a chance to win a third straight state title.
It was a season that saw only one area team win the championship, the Saint Andrew’s boys lacrosse team.
The Scots won their sixth straight state title, and their 12th in 14 years, with a 16-8 win over Lake Brantley.
For Scots coach Jeff Goldberg, it was a special win, and not just because it was the first state sanctioned title in school history.
Shortly after the victory, upon arriving at his home, Goldberg’s wife Jennifer went into labor with their second child.
A son, Smith Jaxon, was born after the greatest triumph in Goldberg’s career, thus making it a championship he’ll always remember.
“Without a doubt,” he said. “Obviously, the baby takes precedence.”
In rolling through all comers, Saint Andrew’s lost just one match to an out-of-state team, McDonough High (Md.). But the Scots made up for that with their first-ever win against powerhouse Boys’ Latin.
Saint Andrew’s was also ranked in the top 25 of Lax Power all season for the first time in school history.
But Goldberg knew those achievements would mean little unless the Scots could win another state title.
“There was so much pressure because it was the first one,” he said. “The monkey was on our back. They didn’t want to be the first one to lose in six years.”
While the Scots were the only team to triumph this spring, there were some state-winning individual performances in tennis.
Olympic Heights senior Enrique Andrade won the Class 2A state championship a year after falling in the semifinals.
It was a sweet win for a player who didn’t even want to join the tennis team when he first arrived on campus.
“Just pure happiness,” Andrade said.
“From the beginning of this year I said I was going to come, win all my matches, come to states. I didn’t come to mess around, I came to win.”
Also winning state championships were teammate and No. 3 singles player Natasha Philllips, American Heritage-Delray’s No. 4 singles player, Irnya Serduyk, and Stallions No. 5 boys player Bob Kadera.
The American Heritage-Delray boys were state runners-up, as were the Spanish River girls.
Coming close were the Sharks boys volleyball team, the Saint Andrew’s boys and girls water polo teams, which lost in the state semifinals, and the Atlantic High flag football team, which was a state quarterfinalist.
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