Gregg Schindler feature stories

In August 2018, Gregg Schindler reached out to me, the adviser of The Hoofbeat newspaper at J.W. Mitchell High School, with a proposition. He wanted to recognize athletes each month in this publication, Tampa Bay News and Lifestyles, Trinity Edition. The concept was simple, although the execution took a collaborative effort. Mr. Schindler would secure space in the magazine, and our athletic director...

Adam Buonanno (22) showed off his skills this season for the high school throws team, and as a result, he has been named the Gregg Schindler Male Student Athlete at J.W. Mitchell High School for June. Throughout his four years of playing on the high school throws team, Buonanno participated in shot-put and other field events. Coach Alan Parmenter has been there to see profound changes in his skills...

During middle school, Kieleigh Hamor (’22) started track as a way to be involved in a sport. Now as a senior in high school, she has earned the conference championships title. Hamor has been inspired by her former NJROTC officers throughout high school and is going to University of Florida on a Navy ROTC scholarship for linguistics in Spanish. Her best meet this season has been against Sunlake where...

Hayden Cockman ('22) has taken home one of this months’ Male Gregg Schindler Athlete of the Month award for his work on the baseball diamond.  Cockman is above the national average for runs batted in, games played, batting average, on base percentage, and runs, making him one of the team’s top fielding performers. His desire to play grew when he was young. “[I decided to play baseball when...

Starting when she was younger, Kinnah Kreidler has always dominated the sport of softball. Multiple times, she was chosen for the West Pasco Girls Fast Pitch All Star team, a group of hand-selected players that traveled to other softball tournaments in the area. As she grew older, Kreidler used her experience from advanced teams such as All Stars to earn a position on a travel team, a group of girls...

At the start of this year, Jacob McLean decided to join the J.W. Mitchell High boys weightlifting team after he had started lifting two years ago. His personal record as of now is  245lb bench and 205lb clean and jerk. As the weightlifting season came to a close, Mclean prepared for districts on April 2. “I get a good night's sleep and I normally have to cut weight so I don't eat a lot before....

With leadership experience in band as well as NJROTC,  junior Alex Cortier earned a spot as one out of the three captains on the tennis team, after starting the sport just one year ago. Starting to play tennis as a way to kill time before band, Cortier soon joined the tennis team along with his friends. “Last year it wasn’t that big, so all of our friends just basically showed up and made...

Taylor Cook (‘22) started cheerleading when she was eight year old, after joining a cheer camp at a gym nearby. “I had a background in gymnastics and I decided to try it out. Ever since my first day there, I knew that would be the sport that I would be in for the rest of my life,” Cook said. The first three years at Mitchell, Cook had a hard time balancing everything that was going on,...

This month’s female Gregg Schindler athlete of the month, junior Ava Mance, is known for her ability to lead on and off the court, and for her unmatched skills while playing tennis. Mance, one of the younger of the four tennis team captains, leads her girls to victory by pushing them to play at their highest level. “[As a captain I like] helping out the girls with certain strokes and skills, tea...

Titus Johnson, has been a member of the Marching Mustangs since his freshman year, and has been a leadership member for two years. Johnson plays multiple instruments, including the barrysaxophone, the piano, viola, and double bass. “Bassoon is my favorite because it was my very first instrument that was chosen for me in sixth grade, and I've stuck with it ever since. It’s one of the most...

Starting soccer at the age of four, Dominick Phanco (’22) holds the captain position of the J.W. Mitchell varsity boys soccer team fourteen years later. Soccer was the first sport he started playing and decided to stay with. Phanco’s first year as captain has been successful. The team has won 16 games, 5 of which were tournaments, the latest one being against Jesuit on Jan. 8. “[At] the Jesuit...

Head captain of the J.W. Mitchell swim team, Antoine Fournand ('22), started competitively swimming his sophomore year at Mitchell because he wasn’t doing any other sports and had friends already on the team. “Swimming is so competitive yet so friendly. All the teams have the will to win, but they all support one another because we all realize how tough swimming actually is,” Fournand said. They...

After picking up her first club about six years ago, Lindsey Kerr now strives for success as she often looks up to the upperclassmen while remaining number one on the team. As a member of the varsity girls golf team, creating endless bonds and memories with her fellow teammates remains very important to Kerr, as it is something that she often values. “Everyone is so close, we all have such a great...

The female Gregg Schindler Athlete of the Month is Caroline Knight, an outside hitter and junior on the varsity volleyball team. Knight earned this honor by exceeding the national average for sets played, hitting percentage, kills, and triple blocks, and by impressing her coaches and her teammates. Knight began playing volleyball in seventh grade at the YMCA. Through both practice and skill, Knight...