Candlelight Christian Academy Wins Mid-Florida Athletic Conference
by James Coulter
In a banner night for Candlelight Christian Academy, the middle and high school basketball teams each battled their way to Mid-Florida Athletic Conference championships.
Both the middle school and junior varsity teams for Candlelight Christian Academy rose to the top as Mid-Florida Athletic Conference champions on Thursday evening.
The junior varsity team has especially remained “competitive in their district” with the team “navigating a challenging mid-season stretch” and maintaining a 5-1 district record as of this month, according to reports from MaxPreps.
Their victory proved especially triumphant as the team defeatedan otherwise undefeatable team, which had maintained the upper hand last season, explained Chris Wiseman, Athletic Director of Candlelight Christian Academy.
“One of the things that I am most excited about for our JV team: they defeated a team that was undefeated this season and had beaten us over the regular season, so we were able to overcome them by a pretty good margin earlier this season and were able to beat them at the tournament,” he explained.
Not only did both the middle school and junior varsity teams pull off victory at the conference, but the middle school team maintained a three-year winning streak, Wiseman said.
Wiseman explained that the middle school team experienced a major setback with most of their 8th-grade players moving on to high school, leaving their team high and dry on players, with only one returning starter.
Their success this past season hinges upon the Christ-centered philosophy of the two coaches: Coach Gieloy Cordero (JV) and Coach Sam Rogers (MS).
Keeping true to the Christian school’s commitment to having their staff demonstrate “a relationship with Christ”, as their website states, both coaches have remained equally committed to Christian principles as they have been to athletic prowess and good sportsmanship.
“They are very Christ-centered,” Wiseman said. “They put it at the forefront of everything that they do. Prayer is a big part of it. And then just [them] putting in the work, whether it be their summer camp this past summer, and then just working throughout the off-season and again during the season, practicing daily and never giving up on one another.”
While it would be easy to single out one star player, Wiseman truly believes their success has been a team effort, with not one player being better than the others, and each player playing a pivotal role on the court.
“I don’t think I want to single anyone out or leave anyone out,” he said. “I think this was a team effort. Everybody yesterday during the tournament had a chance to play. Everyone on the roster participated. So, I would hate to single anyone out.”
