Southwest Florida Sports Awards: Singletary, Dempsey take home top honors

Naples

The event is dubbed “The Best Night in Southwest Florida High School Sports,” and the winners of the 28 trophies handed out Wednesday at the Southwest Florida Sports Awards would agree.

For the second year in a row, the Daily News and the Fort Myers News-Press teamed up to present the ceremony at Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, handing out their Player of the Year awards in all 21 varsity sports for the 2017-18 school year.

The highlight of the night came as the Daily News announced its Boys and Girls Athletes of the Year, the top overall award. The winners were multi-sport athletes who were the best in at least one of their sports, and both were just sophomores.

Collier County athletes of the year pose for a photo together on Wednesday during the Southwest Florida Sports Awards at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall in Fort Myers.

Palmetto Ridge wrestler and football player Colby Singletary was named the Boys Athlete of the Year, while Naples High cross country runner and track athlete Jillian Dempsey earned the girls’ top honor.

After finishing state runner-up as a freshman last season, Singletary won the Class 2A title at 182 pounds this year as a sophomore. He also was named Wrestler of the Year on Wednesday after finishing the wrestling season with a 48-7 record and district and Collier County Athletic Conference titles.

“It’s pretty special,” said Singletary, still surprised by the award after the ceremony. “I need to give a big shoutout to my coaches, especially (Palmetto Ridge wrestling coach) Blaine (Ison), and my parents.”

Singletary also started at linebacker for the Palmetto Ridge football team that finished 6-3 and made the playoffs. He finished with 98 tackles, including 13.5 for loss and three sacks.

“Honestly, I probably like football a little more,” Singletary said. “Don’t get me wrong, I still have a lot of passion for wrestling.”

Dempsey won the Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year award at Wednesday’s ceremony after finishing 13th in the state individually this past fall. Just a sophomore, she won her second straight district title this season.

Dempsey also made the Girls Track All-Area first team in the spring. She advanced to state in the 1,600 meters and ran on the 4x800 relay team that won district and regional championships.

“It’s really special,” Dempsey said of the award.

Even though she earned the Athlete of the Year mostly for her individual performance, Dempsey said the team aspect of running it what makes her the happiest.

“I think what really won me (Athlete) of the Year is our relay team,” Dempsey said. “We have a really special set of girls. We all have that drive to become the best team in the state.”

The Coach of the Year award was given to Gulf Coast boys golf coach Kim Benedict. In her sixth season coaching the Sharks, Benedict led them to the first boys golf team state championship in Collier County history.

Benedict had to get her team past a set of obstacles to win state. First was Hurricane Irma, which wiped out nearly a month of the golf season, which already one of the shortest of the high school sports.

Then Gulf Coast was in fourth place after the first day of the Class 3A state finals, trailing by five strokes. The Sharks won the title on the second day by one stroke.

“We believed in each other the entire year,” Benedict said. “It wasn’t the year we expected with the hurricane, but it really was the year we expected as far as winning state.”

The overall Coach of the Year award was started last year, and both winners have come from Gulf Coast. Girls tennis coach Mark Voorhees won for the 2016-17 school year after leading the Sharks to their first state championship.

Naples High senior Brianna Garcia, a finalist for Girls Soccer Player of the Year, won the Academic Achievement Award at the ceremony. Garcia was MVP for the Golden Eagles girls soccer team as well as class president for two years. She sports a 5.5 GPA and is ranked second in her class of 401 students. Garcia is a four-year academic scholar at Naples.

The I AM SPORT award was created last year to honor athletes who use sports to give back to children in their community. Immokalee junior soccer player Sandra Garcia won this year’s award. Garcia is a volunteer middle school coach in Immokalee.

For Lee County, Canterbury basketball and track star Berrick Jeanlouis won the News-Press Boys Athlete of the Year. Destanni Henderson was named News-Press Girls Athlete of the Year after leading the Fort Myers High girls basketball team to its third straight state championship.