Gulf Coast coach Mark Woodruff wins No. 250; Palmetto Ridge wrestling wins Singletary dual meet

Mark Woodruff has coached hundreds of players in his 12 years at Gulf Coast.

There wasn't another group he would've wanted to achieve a milestone with than this year's Sharks squad.

Woodruff and Gulf Coast cruised, beating Seacrest Country Day 71-31 thanks to a defensive onslaught in the second half. The Stingrays (9-7) scored a grand total of 10 points in the final 16 minutes.

With the win, Woodruff reached win No. 250 in his career, all of which have been with Gulf Coast. Former Sharks AD Jose Arias, who hired Woodruff in the late 2000's, was in attendance watching Saturday afternoon.

"It's very special," Woodruff said. "Especially on a day where we had Coach Arias, our old AD back. He was one who hired me. Even before that, when I was a JV coach for the girls, he was the varsity head coach, and gave me a lot of guidance, so he kind of served as my mentor. So it's really special to do it with with him here. And with this group, I mean, this group's awesome.

"I love this team right here. Just special, special kids. So if I had to pick a team to win it with this would definitely be the one to do it."

That wasn't the only milestone Saturday afternoon. Reese Tremitiere, the 2020-21 Southwest Florida Girls Basketball Player of the Year, eclipsed the 1,000-point mark and ended the day with a season-high 23 points to go along with eight rebounds.

"Everyone counts my points for me on the bench," Tremitiere said. "And everyone was trying to kind of hit it on the same day, as we hit the 250th win for Coach Woody so we could celebrate a bunch of stuff at once. So it was just awesome. And then to finally hit it and everyone was like running towards me and celebrating, it felt really good. And it just made me feel like we have this really good team. And, it's just so special.

"It's probably one of the most talented teams I've been on and everyone supports each other. It's just awesome."

Added Woodruff: "That was really special. It was really special to do it on on the same day as Reese and celebrate this a little bit with her. So very special, very rewarding as a coach."

The Sharks (16-3) got out of the gate hot, jumping out to a 35-21 halftime lead thanks in part to rebounding and second-chance points. Gulf Coast grabbed 32 rebounds to the Stingrays' 17.

Earlier this year, Gulf Coast eclipsed 50 consecutive wins against CCAC opponents. The last time the Sharks lost to a Collier County opponent was in January 2016 to Barron Collier. Since then, they've won 52 straight.

"This year more than anything, I think he's done a really good job at keeping us together and reminding us like why we're here," Tremitiere added. "We're here to support each other and to have fun, and to have a memorable season. So we have meetings and we're constantly talking about how to compete. We're constantly talking about how to support each other when we're down and just keeping a growth mindset and a growth mentality 24/7.

"He's constantly looking out for us even off the court. He knows us so well as individuals. So we just all feel valued, and we all feel like we can trust each other."

Maddie Leslie finished with 17 points for Gulf Coast, while Katie Ambrose added 13. In the loss for Seacrest, Ty'Nazia Smith and Madison D'Elia both scored 14, as the Stingrays were without senior Kiley McCarty (9.1 PPG).

There's a bigger goal for Woodruff and company, and that's to finally get over the hump. He believes this year's team has the pieces to get there, but he hopes that's the next milestone.

"You know, our goal and our milestones are to get to Lakeland every year," Woodruff said. "This is a team that can do it. We have probably the toughest region in the state. But we we can do it. So that's that's what's on our mind right now."

Wrestling

Only a few days after an impressive region title victory, the Palmetto Ridge wrestling team won another crown on Saturday while paying tribute to a former teammate.

The Bears, only two days after beating Riverdale in the Class 3A-Region 4 Region Duals semifinal, won the Colby Singletary Memorial Tournament with a dominant 78-6 victory over Oasis in the finals of the gold pool at Palmetto Ridge High.

Golden Gate won the silver pool and Sunlake took first in the bronze pool.

The Bears had eight wrestlers go undefeated for the day: Xavier Barnhart at 106, Bernardo Barnhart at 120, Jean Valoria at 126, Demetri Zertopoulis at 132, Brennan Van Hoecke at 145, Roman Garcia at 160, Leonard Feliciano at 171 and Austin Foye at 285.

The Palmetto Ridge wrestlers and coach Blaine Ison figured the best way to pay tribute to Singletary, a two-time state champ who died in 2019, was with a resounding victory.

“We are happy with how everything turned out,” Ison said. “This one was a little bit special to honor Colby. We were ready to compete, and I am thankful for that. Everyone represented us well today.”

The Bears will now move on to the dual regional finals in Kissimmee on Friday. Palmetto Ridge has made it to the state final four for five consecutive years and is returning 10 of 12 state qualifiers from their second-place duals finish a year ago.

“Right now, we are exactly where we want to be,” Ison said. “We’re all looking forward to next weekend. A lot of the kids on the team were on the team that finished second last year in the state duals finals. We are hungry to get through the next few days, and hopefully, we can bring home a title.”

The Oasis team was thoroughly beaten in the finals, but coach Patrick Missaoui saw plenty of positives throughout the tournament for his Sharks.

“Our guys wrestled well all day, even though the finals were a little rough,” Missaoui said. “We were 6-1 going into the finals. But I’m proud of how well we wrestled.”

The Sharks were led by Ryan Anderson at 220, who pinned Palmetto Ridge’s Jordan Peralez in 36 seconds to get Oasis its only points of the championship round. Paul Wilcox also had a headlock on most of the competition Saturday, going 6-1 and losing only to Barnhart in the finals at 120.

“I was glad to see Ryan come through, so it wasn’t a complete shutout,” Missaoui said. “Wilcox was maybe our MVP for the whole tournament.”

Van Hoecke was the tournament MVP at middleweight and Foye was the MVP at heavyweight. Mariner’s Maximus Brady, who was 8-0 in winning the 120 title for the Tritons, was the lightweight MVP.

— Thomas Corwin

Follow Southwest Florida Sports Writer Alex Martin on Twitter: @NP_AlexMartin. For the best sports coverage in Southwest Florida, follow @newspresssports and @ndnprepzone on Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Gulf Coast coach Mark Woodruff grabs win No. 250; Tremitiere eclipses 1,000