Fletcher sweeps Gateway All Sports titles by slimmest of margins

JACKSONVILLE-“I’ve been waiting for this moment, all my life” was a great lyric Phil Collins sang about in the 1980’s.

Perhaps the song was in the mind of longtime Fletcher athletic director Joe Reynolds, who had been waiting for this moment for a long time, 17 plus years in fact.

In one of the closest competitions in the Gateway Conference history, Fletcher held off nemesis Mandarin 166.5-165.5 to win the girls title and 147-136 to win the boys title.

A third of the way into the 2016-2017 high school sports season and it appeared likely Fletcher had already clinched the Gateway Conference Best Athletic Program awards.

Through the completion of the fall standings, Fletcher dominated the Gateway Conference All-Sports standings winning 6 of the 9 sports titles.

gateway-fletcher-bowling — One of the many conference titles the Senators won in the fall was girls bowling.

One person not compeletely surprised by this is longtime Fletcher Athletic Director Joe Reynolds, who is in 26th year.

“Traditionally we have always done really well in the Gateway Conference All-Sports Standings,” Reynolds said. “Over the years its always come down to Mandarin, Fletcher, Sandalwood and sometimes Stanton for the title. Although since Mandarin opened (in 1990) we haven’t won the overall title.”

A big reason why the Senators have done so well in the overall award is the success of its fall sports programs.

“We have really done well in the fall too, it helps us to have strong swimming, golf, cross country and volleyball programs as well,” Reynolds added.

gateway-fletcher-boys-golf — Another conference title for the Senators this time in boys golf

Reynolds was quite humble of the Senators success and was quick to point out why their so successful.

“This is really all about the student athletes, there really is no secret formula, its just about the kids working really hard and our coaches working hard as well,” Reynolds.

Being so close to the beach is all huge advantage for the majority of its sports programs as well as many teams use the beach to run and condition its athletes year round.

“Absolutely its advantage for us,” Reynolds said. “Several of our teams use the beach to train.”

Reynold also mentioned the fact several former Senators including himself have also come back to the school and coach as a big advantage too.

“Our boys swim coach Bob Anderson swam at Fletcher, our girls cross country coach Dan Holloway ran track and cross country here and Kevin Brown our football coach was a three-sport all-conference athlete here in football, track and soccer,” Reynolds added.

gateway-fletcher-volleyball — Traditionally an area power, the Senators brought home another Gateway Conference title winning the girls volleyball tournament.

The conference is comprised of 17 public schools within the city limits of Jacksonville including: Atlantic Coast, Baldwin, Ed White, Englewood, First Coast, Fletcher, Jackson, Lee, Mandarin, Paxon, Raines, Ribault, Sandalwood, Stanton, Terry Parker, Westside and Wolfson.

Schools compete in 22 sports in the conference including boys golf, girls golf, boys swimming, girls swimming, boys cross country, girls cross country, girls volleyball, boys football and girls bowling in the fall.

Through the fall, it was a banner year so far the for the Senators sports program winning conference titles in girls swimming, boys swimming, girls cross country, girls bowling, girls volleyball and boys golf.

Boys and Girls golf conference tournaments officially kicked off the season Oct 3-4 at Blue Sky golf course, with Fletcher winning the the boys title and finishing second in the girls behind Stanton.

A few days later Oct. 8, the swimming championships were held at Cecil Field Aquatics Center. Fletcher dominated both meets beating Mandarin and Atlantic Coast, who finished second and third in both meets.

A week later, the Gateway Conference Volleyball Tournament was held Oct. 10-14 at various locations across the city before concluding at Fletcher. With home court advantage, the Senators knocked off nemesis Mandarin to win the title, while Stanton and Atlantic Coast tied for third.

The cross-country championships were held Oct. 12 at Patton Park with Fletcher taking the girls title over Mandarin and Mandarin taking the boys title over Stanton and Fletcher.

The fall season wrapped up Oct. 20 at Bowl America Southside where the Senators claimed their sixth conference title holding off Sandalwood and Mandarin.

While football doesn’t compete in a season ending tournament, the regular season ended with three teams having a chance to win the outright title by winning their last game, however Raines, Mandarin and Baldwin all lost their final game.

The result was a 8-way tie for first between Lee (6-1), Fletcher (5-1), Westside (4-1), Raines (3-1, Mandarin (3-1), Sandalwood (3-1), Ribault (3-1) and Baldwin (2-1). Lee was officially declared county champions by county athletic director Tammy Talley.

Both Fletcher and Mandarin benefited from strong football seasons as well to help boost their title hopes going into the winter.

Heading into the winter, conference championships were held Dec 8 at Mandarin (girls weighlifting), Jan 9-13 at various sites (boys and girls soccer), Jan 10-13 at various sites (girls basketball), Jan 20-21 at Sandalwood (wrestling) and various sites Jan. 17-11 (boys basketball).

As the winter seasons concluded, Mandarin claimed the girls weightlifting title over Atlantic Coast, Ribault girls claimed the basketball title ahead of Sandalwood, Stanton knocked off Fletcher in the girls soccer final, Fletcher won the boys wrestling title over Sandalwood, Ribault claimed another boys basketball title and Mandarin won the boys soccer title over Atlantic Coast.

Usually the overall award comes down to just a few points separating Fletcher from Mandarin or Sandalwood.

“We’re fortunate to do really well in wrestling and boys and girls soccer in the winter, but it really comes down to how we do in baseball or softball,” Reynolds said. “Both of those are up and down and if we can win either of those titles we can win the overall title as well. It will probably come down to Mandarin and Fletcher again.”

Turns out he was right.

As Fletcher swept both titles with a one point difference in the girls competition and 11 point difference in the boys competition.

Fletcher finished second in baseball losing in the championship game to arch-rival Sandalwood to pick up vital points for the Senators.

Atlantic Coast won the girls tennis tournament over Stanton and Fletcher, while Stanton claimed the boys tennis title over Fletcher.

The Stingrays held off Baldwin in the finals of the girls softball tournament, while Parker won its third straight flag football title with a win over Baldwin.

The final event of the year was the boys and girls track meet at UNF, the meet would help decide the girls overall title as whoever finished ahead of the other would claim the overall title.

Paxon cruised to the girls track title ahead of Atlantic Coast; however Fletcher finished fourth one spot ahead of Mandarin, which allowed the Senators to finish one point ahead of Mandarin for the girls overall All-Sports title.

Sandalwood cruised to the boys track title ahead of Mandarin and Raines, Fletcher finished sixth overall but it was still enough of a lead to hold onto the boys overall title.