Student athletes, coaches, teams to be recognized at third annual Breeze Breakfast of Champions Breeze Staff Report
news@breezenewspapers.com
Now in our third year of honoring local student-athletes via Athlete of the Week program, the goal for Breeze Newspapers continues to be showcasing the best and brightest local student-athletes that call Cape Coral home.
2023-24 State Champions
As we get set for our annual Breakfast of Champions end-of-year awards banquet and recognition, we hope we continue to deliver on that goal as we move forward. Being Cape Coral’s hometown newspaper for 60-plus years, we strive to bring our readers the most pertinent content on city happenings and developments, and that includes the youth that excel in the athletic realm. Countless athletes in the area's past and present -- as will future standouts -- have used their gifts to elevate not just their game, but also their mind. Sports is not only a battle of fierce competitors, or a test of mind and spirit, it is a tool young men and women can harbor into a brighter future. Our mission each and every week as we reviewed each box score, compiled every stat and made our selections, was to recognize the achievements of local student-athletes. And as we traveled all around the School District's West Zone, including stops at Cape Coral High School, Mariner High School, Island Coast High School, North Fort Myers High School and Ida Baker High School, along with Bishop Verot High School and Oasis High School, we wanted to let the community know the special happenings that were taking place and get to know the person behind the achievements as well. “It's been another great year of high school sports across Southwest Florida and especially here in our West
Maximus Brady, wrestling
MARK CLIFFORD
Island Coast center Samarrah Desir, left, gets the edge on Ida Baker’s Julianna Nieves and drives to the basket in the South Fort Myers New Year’s Howl.
Zone coverage area,” said Breeze Sports Editor Chris Strine. “As always, there were a number of outstanding teams and countless standout individual performances, highlighted again by several state champions. Our annual Breakfast of Champions is a great way to cap the year recognizing all of our top student athletes. It is always an honor to be able to publicize the accomplishments of these teams and players. We want to congratulate not only each weekly standout and our Athletes of the Month voted upon by our readers, but each and every student athlete, coach and support staffs and crews who helped make the 202324 year an exciting one.” Each and every week from the beginning to end of the school year (minus a few holiday breaks), our sports staff, with the generous help of the coaches and athletic directors, were able to shine a light on the amazing feats happening on and in athletic fields and facilities. The 2023-2024 season brought us a number of individual state champions or state runners-up in wrestling, weightlifting, track & field, soccer and others. As Cape Coral’s hometown newspaper, we really wanted to hone in on our athletes. “It amazes us to see the progression and success of student athletes at the schools we cover each week,” said Associate Sports Editor CJ Haddad. “Getting to know each and every one of the student athletes I get to chat with, as well as coaches and other staff members, is what I enjoy most. We’ve put a lot of hard work into improving our sports coverage these past few years, and we hope our local student-athletes and schools are excited when we’re on the sidelines.” Our Athlete of the Week program, that features two local student athletes from our area, is distributed in print, online and via social media each and every week. We’ve also created a fan-voted Athlete of the Month and now, a Reader’s Choice Athlete of the Year. Wanting to end each year on a jubilant note, we created our Breakfast of Champions event, to be held June 1 at the Cape Vineyard Community Church. “As Cape Coral's hometown newspaper, we're thrilled to be able to chronicle the efforts of these hometown sports heroes,” said Breeze Newspapers Publisher Ray Eckenrode. “But we couldn't do that without the cooperation of the schools, coaches and athletic directors and without the support of our program sponsors.” Our guest speaker this year is Fort Myers Mighty Mussels Manager Brian Meyer, who is a Cape Coral resident and now in his fourth season of coaching the SingleA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. We will honor each of our Athlete of the Week selections, all 68 of them, as well as reveal our Reader’s Choice Athlete of the Year, Team of the Year, Coach of the Year, and boys and girls Athlete of the Year. We graciously thank each school and their coaches and staff for working with us this year to help make this a reality, and are looking forward to continuing to grow this program -- for our students, in our area. This year's sponsors include major sponsor Torched Bar & Grill, supporting sponsors Zak's Jewelry, Experience Real Estate Group and Gavin's Ace Hardware and in-kind sponsors SP Designs and Cape Vineyard Community Church.
Mackenzie De Lisle, track & field
PHOTO PROVIDED
Camren French, wrestling
Bishop Verot’s James Little IV, Breeze Athlete of the Week on May 3, finished fourth in the 110meter hurdles event at the Class 2A FHSAA State Championship.