True North, JC Bermudez boys’ volleyball teams ousted in state semifinals
Doral JC Bermudez lost but the Thunder considered it a victory.
Bermudez was swept 3-0 by West Palm Beach King’s Academy in a Class 1A boys volleyball state semifinal on Thursday at Polk State College. But for a program just in its third season, no one is feeling bad about it.
In fact, Bermudez never even advanced out of the district tournament before this past season. So reaching the FHSAA state tournament was monumental.
“The journey to get here was long and hard fought,” Bermudez coach Wendy Kaufman said. “We are a small school so just to be here was unexpected for us.”
Bermudez lost to King’s Academy 16-25, 10-25 and 21-25 to end its season with a 14-4 record.
“We’ve played with heart,” Kaufman said. “We just try to communicate and believe in each other and when winning happens, it is great.”
King’s Academy (21-5) will square off against Tampa Sports Leadership and Management (SLAM), which beat Miami True North in the other semifinal, in the 1A state championship game at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Bermudez was led by Giancarlo Herves with four kills, 17 passes and five digs. Additionally, Carlos Flores added 10 digs, two kills and two passes in the loss.
“It was a victory getting here. We worked super hard,” Bermudez junior Julio Werner said. “We did it in rough conditions. It’s a new school and we don’t have a gym yet. But I am so proud of this team. We gave it our all.”
Class 1A state semifinal - Tampa SLAM d. True North 25-22, 20-25, 25-21, 25-20: True North was led by junior Alejandro Ruiz with 13 kills, seven passes and seven digs. Junior Roberto Romero added eight kills and seven digs.
“I am extremely disappointed,” said True North junior Aisar Hernandez, who pitched in nine digs and 12 passes. “I would have liked to make it to the state finals. We came into this game thinking it was an easy win with us being the second seed and them being third. I don’t think we took it seriously enough. I don’t think we played as hard as we could have.”
Losada said much of the team’s success this year should be attributed to how the team worked in the offseason.
“We did a lot of offseason training. The guys played together for a lot of those offseason tournaments and the chemistry was there. So we were able to run a ton of lineups this year and figure out which one was best,” Losada said. “We will be back next year.”