Al Honor, coach of Lake Highland Prep’s 19-0 state championship team, was named the 2021 Naismith girls basketball high school coach of the year on Wednesday.
Honor, a West Orange alum, led the Highlanders to their fourth state title since 2015 with a team that is ranked No. 1 in the nation by MaxPreps.
The Highlanders repeated as the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 4A state champs and extended their winning streak to 36.
“Thank you to [sponsor] Jersey Mike’s and the Atlanta Tipoff Club Naismith Award Selection Committee for noticing a coach being a shepherd behind a great group of young women,” Honor said in a Naismith news release.
Lake Highland is scheduled to extend its season at the GEICO High School Nationals Tournament in April.
Honor has compiled a record of 243-47 in 10 seasons at LHP, including state championships in 2015, 2016, 2020 and 2021. The Highlanders have also been state runners-up twice while reaching the state final six times in the past seven seasons.
He’s the second Florida coach to receive the award, which dates to 2008. Miami Country Day coach Ochiel Swaby won the Naismith honor in 2019.
OCP stacks titles: Orlando Christian Prep’s boys basketball 2A championship win Saturday continued its record-setting success.
OCP’s nine championships in a span of 14 seasons since 2008 is unprecedented, and the Warriors reached the final four 13 times in that stretch. That includes two runner-up finishes and two semifinal losses.
The Warriors aren’t universally loved due to their track record of gaining transfer talent, but there’s no arguing they play up to their abilities.
Fifth-year OCP coach Treig Burke is one of the few in FHSAA history to rack up four titles in five seasons.
The record for consecutive titles was achieved by the late Rex Morgan as coach of a dynastic and controversial Jacksonville Arlington Country Day program. The Apaches won five straight from 2005 through 2009 before OCP ended their reign with a 59-54 victory in the 2010 Class 1A state final.
Reggie Kohn, who coached the OCP team that ended ACD’s championship streak in 2010, had four title teams in his six seasons with the Warriors (2008-14) before he left to become head coach at The Master’s Academy.
Burke, who was an assistant coach for OCP’s first five title teams, was promoted to replace Kohn and has built on the school’s status among Florida’s most successful programs.
This season’s 27-0 team is the first at OCP to go undefeated. The Warriors won 20 of their 21 regular-season games against larger-classification schools. That included victories vs. 7A state runner-up Oak Ridge and two other 7A top-10 teams, Windermere and Apopka.
The Warriors were the only undefeated boys team in the state.
OCP did not get to play 7A champ Dr. Phillips (24-3) but did end up No 1 in the MaxPreps power ratings among FHSAA playoff teams. The Panthers were No. 2.
Four coaches have won four consecutive championships in Florida boys basketball: Vernon Eppinette for Port St. Joe (1996-99); Matt Anderson at Malone (1995-98); Darryl Burrows of Fort Lauderdale Dillard (2000-03); and Lawton Williams of Miami Norland (2012-15).
Melvin Randall matched Burke’s mark by winning four championships in five seasons at Pompano Beach Ely. Randall took it a step further and won five in seven seasons through 2018.
As a school, OCP now ranks No. 3 on the all-time titles list behind ancient Miami High (18 championships) and tiny Malone (14) of the Panhandle.
Miami High’s first hoops championship came in 1925. The Stingarees won seven in an 11-year stretch (1987-97) orchestrated by legendary coach Shakey Rodriguez and then Frank Martin, the current University of South Carolina coach.
NIBC title game: Montverde Academy (20-1) will play Sunrise Christian (19-2) of Bel Aire, Kan., in a nationally televised Friday night showdown that will determine the champion of the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference, which was formed this season as a platform for powerhouse academy programs, including Oak Hill of Virginia, La Lumiere of Indiana and Wasatch Academy of Utah.
Montverde and Sunrise split games during the regular season. Montverde topped the Buffaloes 58-52 in a neutral-court game played in Springfield, Va., in January but then saw its 44-game winning streak snapped on its home court when it lost an overtime game 69-66 to Sunrise Feb. 5 in the Montverde Academy Invitational Tournament.
Friday’s game is another neutral-court matchup. It will be played at Arlington High School of Memphis, Tenn., tipping off at 8:30 p.m. and televised by ESPN3.
MaxPreps ranks Montverde No. 1 nationally, just ahead of AZ Compass Prep (27-1) of Arizona, which lost at Montverde 76-65 in overtime and beat Sunrise 50-47. Sunrise is No. 3, followed by IMG Academy (20-2) of Bradenton.
All four of those teams are expected to be invited to the eight-team GEICO Nationals boys field, which is scheduled for April 1-3 at a site still to be announced.
The event was played in New York City from 2014-19 but was canceled last year due to the COVID-19 outbreak. High schools sports are still shut down in NYC this year.
Lake Highland’s Honor told the Orlando Sentinel the event will be played in Fort Myers. That has been reported elsewhere, but there has been no official announcement.
Ruta steps down: Matt Ruta has stepped down after five seasons as boys basketball coach at Orangewood Christian. He will remain at the school as a dean of students.
Ruta said he and his wife must manage a lengthy surgical procedure for both of their young children, who were born with a rare genetic disorder called TAR syndrome.
The First Academy graduate was Apopka’s head coach for two seasons and OCP’s coach for two years before taking the Rams position prior to the 2016-17 season.
State stats: Last week’s FHSAA boys basketball state tournament showcased some stellar statistical performances.
Amen Thompson, a 6-foot-6 junior, had 43 points, 13 rebounds and eight steals to lead Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest (21-1) to a wild 90-83 double-overtime win against Alachua Santa Fe (20-6) in the 4A final. In his team’s two games in Lakeland, Thompson had 61 points, 20 rebounds, 15 steals and 11 assists. His twin brother, Ausar Thompson, scored 27 points in the semifinal and 20 in the title game.
Georgia Tech recruit Dallan “Deebo” Coleman of West Nassau scored 33 points in a 64-63 semifinal loss to Santa Fe.
Santa Fe sophomore Dontrell Jackson made 10-of-15 3-point shot attempts and totaled 53 points and 10 steals in two games.
Bishop McLaughlin shooting guard Emanuel Sharp, one of the state’s top junior prospects, made 28 of his 30 free throw attempts (99.3%) in two Class 3A games and totaled a tournament-high 72 points. He scored 39 point in a 79-71 semifinal win against Jacksonville Jackson and 33 in a 85-76 loss to Fort Lauderdale Calvary Christian in the final.
OCP junior A.J. Brown scored 47 points on 66.7% shooting (18-of-27) in two games and was picked as the 2A Most Outstanding Player by SourceHoops.
Ernest Udeh, Dr. Phillips’ 6-foot-10 junior center, blocked 11 shots in the two wins that gave the Panthers the Class 7A championship.
Extra points:
The Dr. Phillips’ state championship boys basketball team was honored by the Orange County school board Tuesday night.
The championships for DP and OCP mark the third time two Orlando schools have been boys basketball state champs. Lake Highland Prep and OCP were champs in 2014 and OCP joined Oak Ridge as state champs in 2018.
Florida’s two McDonald’s All-American players –– Montverde’s Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate of IMG –– both are 6-foot-10 Michigan signees. No Florida player made the 24-player girls roster. The McDonald’s All-American games will not be played this year due to the pandemic.
This story was first published at OrlandoSentinel.com. Varsity Content Editor Buddy Collings can be reached by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.
