FLEMING ISLAND - In two of the toughest sports in high school sport, with Fleming Island High offerings fans a rare level of prowess in multiple sports, girls weightlifting state champion Bradi Johnson and boys wrestling state runnerup Laird Duhaylungsod both executed a near perfect plan of laser focus and dedication to their craft to emerge as the leaders for the Golden Eagles athletic program.
For Johnson, a senior state champion in both disciplines of her sport; Olympic and Traditional scoring, the laser focus started after an internally disappointing second place and fourth place finish in her junior season that turned into her seething intensity to grab the gold in her final season.
"I knew what I had to do about a week after the state meet," said Johnson, who dominated her senior season throughout to fuel a first place team finish (tied at 16 points with powerhouse Leesburg High) that put Fleming Island into the state conversation. "Coach Coultis had us in the room every day for the whole year and the result was the state title for me and for the team."

As Johnson stormed to her title in Olympics and put Fleming Island in the mix with such state perennials as Leesburg, River Ridge and New Smyrna Beach, Coultis credited the success with a shift in culture that he has nurtured in the past four years.
"I make it fun, make it a lot about team and put a strategic plan together that we can achieve," said Coultis, after his team title performance in Lakeland. "If you start from zero; we had no state qualifiers and did not win a meet four years ago, then push to only win state titles without a plan, then you push for goals that take time to achieve. This is the end result of the girls on this team buying into the long range plan."
With the plan, Coultis got enough team point from his crew of athletes including a sixth by Kyla Marshall, a fifth by Kathryn Ward, a second by Lily O'Steen with Coultis' daughter Peyton eighth in O'Steen's weight class adding bonus points and a sixth by Layla Decristofaro to score enough points for the title.
"Every one of them has stayed the course with Layla coming through with big lifts in the post season and my daughter going big in the biggest meet of her life," said a beaming Coultis in Lakeland. "Credit goes to every coach in Clay County, Rodney Keller at Clay at the top, who has added their expertise to making girls weightlifting what is has become."
Coultis referred to Keller, a two time team weightlifting champion coach and now coach of girls weightlifting at St. Johns Country Day School.
"Rodney put the blueprint out and we all followed it in our own way," said Coultis, reminding that Middleburg's girls won the Traditional title at the same meet.
Also to be considered as a top performer in the girls realm, two time state diving champion Ava Brinkman completed her tension-created comeback from a season ending injury four years ago to get her gold medal back. Brinkman, as a freshman, suffered her injury in a diving practice mishap after preseason whispers of a possible four year state title run, but had to forego year one.
She returned to win in her sophomore season, finished second in the junior season, then upended the defending gold medalist in her senior season to bring two gold medals to the University of Florida.
"I liked having to face off against her year after year because she makes me better," said Brinkman. "I have to focus on what I do because she doesn't make mistakes."
For Laird Duhaylungsod, who had two seasonal hiccups for his quest to be a wrestling state champion; his equally talented wrestling brother Shane choosing to pursue other interests, mainly surfing, and a coaching turmoil that left the Fleming Island coaching staff in disarray despite astounding outside coaching keeping the program viable.


Duhaylungsod took his silent but deadly approach to wrestling against the best wrestlers in the southeastern United States; mainly Camden County and other Georgia powers, plus the south Florida powerhouses to build his season resume into a state title chase that ultimately ended with a hard fought silver medal at the state champions.
"I would have liked to have my brother out there, but I had to chase my own season and stay focused despite all the distractions," said Duhaylungsod, who lost an overtime 2-1 finals match to Tristan Sainz of Somerset who entered with a 45-1 won loss record with Duhaylungsod at 38-7.
For Fleming Island, Sebastian Bonachea finished eighth and heavyweight Kevin Reyes finished sixth with Reyes giving up his shot at a third weightlifting state title to have a strong wrestling season. Reyes was also planning on playing college football at Minot State.
Speaking of football, returning former coach Derek Chipoletti got the keys to the Porsche with an all everything quarterback and running back; Cibastian Broughton and Dehmir Jackson, and put the Golden Eagles back into playoff land with a region semifinal finish. Both Broughton and Jackson head to college with Chipletti stepping down and another familiar Clay County coaching name, Tom Macpherson, to take over. Macpherson has his hands full with a strong graduating class; minus Kevin Reyes on the line, minus linebacker AJ Witt to West Point and a few key players transferring to other schools.
In the fall seasons, volleyball under alum coach Amy Yoder made a strong play to a season knowing that Middleburg was going to be the ultimate challenge in one of the toughest districts in north Florida. Yoder had a handful of stout seniors; four college bound-Kaylee Kirkland, Bailey Montgomery, Savannah Jackson and Emily Topp, pushing to a 17-8 season, a district runnerup to Middleburg and a first round exit to Beachside in the regions with a gutwrenching injury during warmups of a key player. Yoder returns with sophomore Lilly Eason as one of her top hitters and a record chasing scorer as well a three year starter Lauren Brosky.
For cross country, senior Jacob Campbell and junior Andrew Boyer were top contenders in most races with Campbell getting as fast as 15 minutes, 41 seconds in the 3.1 mile trek Boyer top finisher at the Class 3A championships with an 18th place in 16:05.
In golf, Fleming Island got its first individual and team title a year ago led by then sophomore Tyler Mawhinney with the Golden Eagles having to up their game to face off against a whole new cadre of teams after moving to Class 2A after nearly a decade in Class 3A.
Mawhinney, the Class 3A champion as a sophomore, repeatedly articulated that his primarily goal was to repeat the team title which he did while finished second in the individual scoring by just four strokes.
Golf coach Bruce Cloud achieved outstanding big meet efforts with four players all within 12 strokes led by senior Emmet Kuhlenkamp's 146 and junior Carson Moore's 158 with junior Ryan Houck at 152 and senior Dylan Frein at 155 giving Fleming Island a 582 - 620 winning score over American Heritage (Palm Beach). Mawhinney was second to American Heritage (Broward) sophomore Sohan Patel 134-138 with the pair most likely to see each other in 2025.
For the girls golf, senior Chloe Blanc got to the state tournament to finish 22nd overall.
For cross country, for girls, senior Ava Hendryx was strongest finisher with a 16th place in Class 3A in 19:03.5 with junior Brooke Reynolds at 25th with a slew of young runners to return in 2025.
In winter sports, sophomore swimmer William Shoesmith was one of the fastest in the state with a fourth in 200 individual medley and an eighth in 500 free.
For the girls, with the graduate of multiple state champion Maryn McDade to FSU, Fleming Island relied on Brinkman for big team points as well as junior Elizabeth Loehr who got eighth in 200 free and 10th in 500 free plus relays.
Basketball had it sharer of success with the boys team, led by sharpshooters Bryce Robinson, Luke Frisbee and Nate Lowery behind center Carson Crawford winning some big tournament titles, and a region number one seed, to go 23-6 en route to a region semifinal finish to Tallahassee Leon.
Cooper returns as does Lowery and his 53 threes with Robinson's 23 threes.
Girls basketball had an early exit against Orange Park in districts but return with just senior guard Devyn Dudones graduating. Freshman Gianna Crawford led the way with 12.5 points per game with another freshman, Seven Gourdet, also an outstanding flag football athlete, returning.
In soccer, another coach coming back, Roger Dailey for the boys, engineered a blanket attack of offense with son Ryker Dailey the main goal getter, to get the Golden Eagles into a dogfight region semifinal with eventual champion Arnold High, who scored a 2-1 win in that region semi and only scored five more goals in three games to win the Class 5A title.
For the girls soccer, coach Taylor Berry worked her magic, but also lost an excruciating 2-1 game to Mosley High in the region opener.
In the spring, girls softball put on the magical season behind a district runnerup slugfest with Middleburg that ended 5-4 after a first inning homer by sophomore Ashlyn Madine broke the game open 4-2 before the Broncos got their own homers in the fourth to win the game.
The Bucklew coaching staff returns next year without talented seniors; Olivia Sikes, Lauren Abram, Mallory Blackwell, Emma Massey, Brooke Wilson and Anisten Kurlander, who left a strong legacy in their final season.
Baseball had a topsy turvy season with a young team (one senior Ryan Kiley) with coach Mike Martone squeezing as much lemonade out of a team depleted by transfers, but still competitive on its merit to a 6-19 record with some close losses to big teams; including a 1-0 loss to region semifinalist Columbia in the district tournament.
Junior Caden Swartz was top stat guy wiht a .338 batting average and a solid ERA of 2.73 on a 3-4 win lost record.
In tennis, Fleming Island sent two pairs of players to state; Katie Baird and Tessa Wilson for girls and Kesl Cumpstone and Zach Hyatt for the boys losing in the doubles finals with the girls exiting in round two with Baird and Hyatt both out in round two singles.
In track and field, junior Mikayla Shavers finally got her gold medal after two runnerup finishes with a 1.5 inches gap over runnerup Jayce Miller of Hillsborough; 39'-.5" to 38'-11" with both girls landing their best jumps on their first attempts.
Shavers also finished fourth in long jump for team points.
For the boys, the defense of their 4 x 800 relay gold of last year fell short at 14th with hurdler Jarius Rodgers finishing ninth in his big brother Glenn's gold medal event in 2019.
In boys weightlifting, without defending champion Kevin Reyes, Fleming Island got sixth from Dehmir Jackson to lead the Golden Eagles.
In lacrosse, the boys team went 9-8 with five wins to end the regular season led by Ty Teschner's 47 goals and Daniel Hawley's 34 goals.
Girls lacrosse finished 7-8 with sophomore Meredith Giebeig scoring 46 times and sophomore Brylee Thomas adding 36.
And, in flag football, with graduate London Jenkins getting a spot on the USA Womens National team over the summer, the Golden Eagles had four wins to end their season before a 13-12 district loss to Fletcher turned into a region playoff win over Fletcher 26-09 just eight day later. Unfortunately, the Golden Eagles lost a tough 7-6 region semifinal to eventual 3A runnerup Chiles.
Fleming Island flag coach Clinton Lyons loses only senior quarterback Devyn Dudones (370 rushing, 5TDs, 1835 Yds passing, 27TDs) with a flurry of standout returners including Emily Poucher (75 tags, 8INTs), Daisy Fletcher (81 tags) and freshman Seven Gourdet (20 catches) and sophomore Audrey Ellis (37 catches/4TDs,5INTs).