Royals TV News - January Week One

In this edition of Royals TV News we talk about Varsity Girls Cheerleading and their recent trip to Flagler Palm Coast H.S. to compete in Regional Competition, Varsity Boys Soccer win again, and again, Varsity Boys Basketball pull off a huge upset of top ranked Lake Highland Prep, and we also take look at past Royals making the news on the collegiate level:

Competitive Cheer:

Our TFA cheerleaders have risen to the occasion in making The First Academy proud. This year the FHSAA has deemed it mandatory for cheerleading teams in the state of Florida to compete in 4 additional ‘regular’ season competitions before the close of their season in February. So far our varsity cheerleading team has competed in 2 of those regular season competitions as well as Regionals. They placed 3rd on December 3 at the UCA Regional competition, earning them a bid to the Nationals competition at Disney’s Wide World of Sports in February, and 1st at the Bishop Moore local competition on December 17. Both of these were regular season competitions. Just this past weekend, the team placed 2nd at the FHSAA State Regional competition. TFA varsity cheerleaders will compete again on January 14 and January 28 before competing at the State final championship on February 2nd at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee.

Boys Soccer:

Quietly the Boys Soccer team is pulling off one of the better season in TFA Soccer history. The varsity soccer team is now 12-1-2 with a 9-0-1 record in district play. They have 4 games left in regular season and are the #1 seed in the upcoming district tournament.  Senior night is this Friday against Faith Christian at 7:00.  Come out and support Tanner Dodge and Sam Fritzler as they play their last regular season home game.  Go Royals, and Go Varsity Boys Soccer!

Varsity Boys Basketball:

Wow! TFA two years in a row upset in town rival Lake Highland Prep and this year it did not take overtime. Tyler Coons turned a loose ball into the game-winning basket with seven seconds to go as TFA rallied in the fourth quarter to win 56-55 over visiting Lake Highland Prep in a clash of state-ranked boys basketball teams. Dillon Graham, who scored a game-high 21 points and hit two huge 3-point shots in the closing minutes, missed inside on a well-executed backdoor bounce pass from Coons but the rebound bounced away and Coons collected it with plenty of time to make the go-ahead shot.

The Boys Basketball team also played, and unfortunately lost 75-68 against top ranked Olympia High School in the inaugural Showdown in O-Town at Orlando Christian Prep. Dillon Graham led all scorers with 26 points. He made four 3-point shots, one that closed the gap to 59-56 in the second minute of the fourth quarter.  Hudson Price had 11 and Tay Akers 10 for First Academy. - Buddy Collins (Orlando Sentinel)

Olympia Fights off TFA TFA tops Lake Highland

TFA Volleyball Alumni:

Three of our graduates, now playing for Liberty University in Virginia, are Big South Conference Champions and recently competed in the NCAA Division I Volleyball Tournament. Loren Thomas (2009) , Gabby Shipe (2011) and Ansley Gebben (2011) were big contributors to the Lady Flames Conference Championship held in Charleston South Carolina.  Loren Thomas was named MVP of the tournament.  In the first round of the NCAA National Tournament the Lady Flames faced 4 time defending National Champions Penn. State.  The Lady Flames  put up a valiant fight against the  Lions but lost in three sets to be knock out of the tournament.  We are so proud of our Lady Royals.