Lauderdale’s Willover, CSC’s Montimurro are Broward County Softball Coaches of the Year
No one in Broward County went on deeper postseason runs than Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs Charter, and now their coaches are the Miami Herald’s Broward County Softball Coaches of the Year.
Ron Willover led the Flying L’s to new heights in 2023, guiding them to their first ever appearance in a region championship to become the Herald’s Broward County Softball Coach of the Year for Classes 7A-6A. In Coral Springs, Mark Montimurro guided the Panthers to yet another region championship to become the Broward County Softball Coach of the Year for Classes 5A-2A.
Fort Lauderdale went on its historic run to the Region 4-6A championship on the strength of only 10 players and three of them earned first-team All-Broward County honors. The Flying L’s built on the previous season, when they made it to the region semifinals for the first time. This is only their fourth ever trip to the Florida High School Athletic Association tournament and only their second since 2001. The Flying L’s have never gone on a run remotely similar to this.
The opposite is true in Coral Springs. Montimurro took the Panthers to their sixth region championship in seven seasons and they were undefeated up until the Region 4-3A title game. Coral Springs was the only undefeated team in Florida in the regular season, won the Broward County Athletic Association’s Big 8 championship and came up just three wins short of a sixth state championship.
The Panthers have won five state championships, all in the last seven seasons.
Their schools took divergent paths, but Willover and Montimurro took their teams to the same place in 2023 — the top of the county and the brink of the final four. They each had one star pitcher — Fort Lauderdale’s Kaleea Washington and Coral Springs’ Sophia Bertorelli were the Broward County Softball Pitchers of the Year — and built powerhouses around them to become two of the best teams in South Florida.
This story was originally published June 14, 2023 at 7:00 AM.