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Clay schools flex its muscles with 16 state championships

When it came to winning gold, few school districts in Florida ran faster, hit harder, were stronger or wrestled better than Clay County District Schools.

Four teams and SSS individual athletes were crowned state champions in the past calendar month.

It started with Middleburg 190-pound wrestler Cheyenne Cruce winning the Class 2A girls’ state championship. After finishing fourth in her freshman season a year ago, the sophomore finished the season with a 39-0 record.

She was joined on the champions’ podium by Fleming Island’s Jayce Paridon, who won the Class 2A boys 132-pound class.

The county also celebrated a runner-up finish by Oakleaf’s Adrianna Barrientos (105 pounds).

Weightlifting, however, is where Clay made its most profound footprint in the prep landscape.

The Keystone Heights boys’ team won its third consecutive 1A championship, the Clay High girls won Class 2A and the Fleming Island boys won in Class 2A.

Larry Jeffries (219 pounds) and Brian Overton (169 pounds) won their weight classes for Keystone, while Landon Hovepian (183 pounds) and Reid Begue (139 pounds) were runners-up.

Zach Davis (154) won a gold medal for Fleming Island in boys’ Class 2A, while Golden Eagles teammates Gage Isbell (unlimited) and Jered Rhodes (199) finished second. Middleburg’s Josh Senear (169) won a silver medal in 2A.

Emma Heck led the Clay girls in the 129-pound division, and Kyleigh LaFary won in unlimited. Annalee Harbison (183) finished second for the Blue Devils.

Fleming Island’s Autumn Leviston (110) won her Class 2A weight class.

Perhaps the Middleburg girls’ volleyball team was the year’s biggest surprise. The team was playing its first season following Carrie Prewitt’s retirement after 38 years on the sidelines. With first-year coach Meredith Forkum at the helm, Middleburg beat Naples Barron Collier, 3-0, on Nov. 11 to win the Class 5A championship.

But there’s more.

On the same day, the Fleming Island boys’ golf team won the Class 3A state championship by a staggering 23 shots against Lakewood Ranch. State champion sophomore Tyler Mawhinney led the Eagles with a 4-under-par performance for 36 holes to beat Winter Haven’s Anthony Monteleone by three shots.

Jaylen Abbas was fourth for the Eagles fourth, while Emmet Kuhlenkamp was sixth and Ryan Houck was 22nd to for the county’s first golf championship.

On an adjacent course, the Fleming Island girls finished seventh.

Fleming Island’s incredible athletic run finished with Maryn McDade winning the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races in the state finals. Her effort earned her the Class 3A Swimmer of the Year award from the Florida Dairy Farmers High School Sports Awards program.

School Police to move under direction of Sheriff’s Office

FLEMING ISLAND – The Board of the Clay County School District voted 4-1 on Nov. 7 to enter negotiations that will put its police department under the direction of the Clay County Sheriff’s Office for the next three years. 

If negotiations are successful, the Clay County District Schools Police Department and its $4.8 million operating budget will be overseen by the sheriff’s office. CCSO School Resource Officers would start during the next school year.

Superintendent David Broskie will spearhead the negotiations, involving multiple stakeholders, the sheriff’s office, the Board of County Commissioners and others.

Broskie and School Board Attorney Jeremiah Blocker stressed the importance of complying with state statutes.

Members agreed to include charter schools and strongly expressed mutual support for transferring the district police department’s equipment to the sheriff’s to avoid paying duplicate costs. 

The sheriff’s office would need to make a one-time $1.7 million payment to switch the equipment back to her agency, Sheriff Michelle Cook said during a workshop on Oct. 24.

Four years ago, amid cost concerns, the district separated from the sheriff’s office in 2019. After reassessment, the school board will return to the prior arrangement, citing budgetary constraints and a desire to increase safety and security.

Cook said once an agreement is reached, school resource officers would change their uniforms and continue their basic duties. She also said the sheriff’s office would intend to hire as many former district officers as possible for the same positions.

The Solite saga continues for residents living near former plant

LAKE ASBURY – In the 1950s, Solite opened on the north side of County Road 209-A. In 1996, the aggregate kiln company closed.

Solite may have left Clay County, but its effects still haunt some residents.

Since then, neighbors said the plant has caused continual health and quality of life problems 27 years later.

The plant practiced illegal and egregious health and safety practices like using hazardous materials to speed up burn processes while not requiring employees to wear protective gear or warning them of the effects. They were accused of dumping hazardous materials like jet fuel and hospital biohazards and dumping and hiding barrels on the property.

Some residents who have lived near or worked at the former Solite report numerous health defects.

Christine Robertson, a frequent visitor to her brother’s property near the plant, swam in, drank water and ate fish from the lake. Her son, born with Spina bifida, died of defect and pain in 1996. She believes that Solite is to blame.

Micheal Zelinka’s mother, lived one mile from the plant and had breast cancer. Zelinka, who had a heart attack in his 20s, said that doctors found high arsenic levels in his blood.

A developer wants to build a community on the 900-acre plot, but the county commission said it won’t re-zone the land until extensive testing is allowed.

According to Clay County Commissioner Kristen Burke, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection recently conducted testing at selected sites and found two traces of arsenic.

Joan Starnes, a nearby resident, said she wouldn’t feel safe until the property, where tests already found arsenic, lead and cyanide in the soil on a 200-acre section of the former plant, undergoes an independent, third-party testing process.

“If any of the chemicals are disturbed in the soil, they could go airborne. We don’t feel that it is safe for the property to be (worked on) until it is properly tested,” she said.

Starnes isn’t the only one who wants to see a third-party agency perform a complete and unbiased test.

“Our concern is that they will put it in names with no funding, take down the trees, disturb the soil with excavation, and then leave after they make money off of that. Then, the county taxpayers will be left with the burden of dealing with the contaminated property,” Burke said.