Westminster Academy’s Wallhoff, Douglas’ Fitz-Gerald are Broward Coaches of the Year
Shannon Wallhoff finally got the Westminster Academy girls’ basketball team over the hump. Todd Fitz-Gerald kept his Stoneman Douglas baseball team among not just the state’s best but the country’s top squads.
They were two of the great story lines among Broward County high school sports this year.
And it’s why Wallhoff and Fitz-Gerald are the Miami Herald’s Broward Coaches of the Year for the 2021-2022 athletic season.
Let’s start with Wallhoff, who guided Westminster Academy’s girls’ basketball team to success it hadn’t been in more than three decades with the Lions winning their first basketball state title since 1991.
“Unbelievable” was the way Wallhoff described it after the 44-41 win over Sarasota Cardinal Mooney in the 3A title game at Lakeland’s RP Funding Center.
But the opportunity to win the state title only came about because Westminster Academy finally got past state powerhouse Miami Country Day in the regional finals after losing at that spot in the playoffs for five consecutive years.
Once they got the opportunity to make a title run, they didn’t look back.
And they’re poised to keep competing, too. Westminster Academy only graduates one senior, although that senior was a big piece to their success in point guard Claire Erickson.
Fitz-Gerald, meanwhile, saw his Stoneman Douglas team once again emerge as one of the country’s top high school baseball teams. The Eagles finished the season 30-2, won their third state title since 2016 and this week was named national champions in the final NHSBCA/Baseball America rankings. It’s the second consecutive season Douglas wins a national title and the third time during Fitz-Gerald’s tenure it has won both a state and national championship in the same season.
They cruised through their schedule and rattled off 22 consecutive wins to end the season, with their lone losses being one-run defeats to Taravella (4-3 on Feb. 22 to open the season) and Park Vista (4-3 on March 22). Douglas won the 2022 USA Baseball National High School Invitational, going 4-0 in Cary, North Carolina, crushing its first three opponents by a combined score of 38-1 before beating Orange Park St. Johns Country Day 5-3 in the title game.
“It’s so rewarding because these guys give it every day at practice,” Fitz-Gerald said. “These guys make me who I am. I just keep their minds and focus in the right place.”
Other Finalists
Boys sports
▪ Cypress Bay’s Colin Ilgner guided the Lightning boys’ soccer team to a 22-1 record, a Class 7A state title (the school’s sixth overall and first since 2017) and a No. 4 national ranking by MaxPreps.
▪ St. Thomas Aquinas’ Terry Crowley led the Raiders boys’ lacrosse team to its third state title in the sport and first since winning back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017.
▪ Calvary Christian’s Cilk McSweeney took a star-studded roster filled with Division I talent and cruised to a second consecutive FHSAA state title before capping the season by winning the State Champions Invitational in Tampa with a pair of lopsided wins.
▪ Chaminade-Madonna’s Dameon Jones got the Lions back to familiar territory by winning their fourth Class 3A state football title in five years and then beating Gilbert (Arizona) Highland 35-24 in a GEICO State Champions Bowl Series game to cap the season with a 12-1 record.
Girls sports
▪ After dealing with heartbreak in the state championship a year ago, James O’Brien’s Western flag football team went undefeated this year and finally took home the coveted Class 2A state title.
▪ In his first year as Western softball’s head coach, Johnny Bradshaw led the Wildcats to a 16-9-1 record and a state final four appearance.
▪ American Heritage’s Greg Farias and St. Thomas Aquinas’ Oliver Berens led their respective girls’ basketball teams back to state titles — with Heritage winning its fifth consecutive championship and Aquinas its second.
▪ Carol Deopsomer’s St. Thomas Aquinas girls’ tennis team capped a perfect season with its first team state title since 2008 and 12th overall.
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 8:00 AM.
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