Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
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A new school year means many things: getting used to new schedules, making new friends, and for fans of the defending state championship Lake Wales Highlanders, a new season of football. For players the 2023 football season provides an exciting new opportunity and a fresh start. Players Grady Turner, a defensive lineman and linebacker, wide receiver Carldayle "CJ" Brantley, along with athletic trainer head manager Abagail Ruble spoke with Lake Wales News.net on what they...
The Lake Wales High School Softball team is angling to bring back a second state championship in a single scholastic year after defeating Lemon Bay (Englewood) 5-0 in a semifinal game played in Clermont. The game was scheduled to start at 11:00 am, but was moved an hour earlier to avoid anticipated heavy rains in the afternoon. The Highlanders will face the winner of the other semifinal game between Key West and Wakulla. The Highlanders are the top seed in the tournament. The...
The entire Lake Wales community is invited to come out and share some Highlander Pride to celebrate the Lake Wales High School Highlanders first state football championship. The event will take place Saturday morning, February 25 in Kiwanis Park on North Lakeshore Boulevard, less than a mile east of Legion Field, where the majority of their 15 season victories took place. The Highlander's unprecedented season saw them dominate district rivals, smash their way past regional opp...
The Lake Wales Highlanders won their semi-final football game Friday night and will face the Mainland Buccaneers of Daytona Beach in the state Class 3S Championship game, which will be held in a neutral stadium on December 16. Game time, tentatively set for 11:00 am, has yet to be confirmed by the Florida High School Athletic Association. The Lake Wales Highlanders moved to 14-0 after defeating the Columbia High School Tigers by a score of 37-7 under the lights of Legion...
UPDATE: GAME TIME CHANGED TO 7:00 BY FSHAA See new story in NEWS section The Lake Wales Highlanders captured the Regional Championship and advanced to the final four in the state Class 3S football playoffs Friday night with an exciting 26-9 victory over the Zephyrhills Bulldogs. The undefeated Highlanders will host the semi-final game next Friday against Columbia, winners over Choctawhatchee Friday night. Carlos Mitchell provided much of the excitement for Highlander fans...
UPDATE: Highlanders Advance. See the story here A Friday night Regional Championship game will be the first hosted at Lake Wales' Legion Field in memory, according to long-time area football fans, and the undefeated and top-seeded Highlanders are hoping for a big turnout of support as they take on the number three seed Zephyrhills Bulldogs. When the two squads met earlier this season the Lake Wales Highlanders won the day with a 33-0 score, but such games have a way of...
The Lake Wales Highlanders took another step forward toward their long-denied state football title Friday night as they defeated the Ocala Vanguard Knights 40-0. The Knights had ended the Highlanders' last two title runs, making the victory particularly sweet. The win advances the top-seeded and undefeated Highlanders to the Regional Championship Game, which will take place Friday evening at Legion Field when they host the number three seed Zephyrhills Bulldogs. Game time is s...
The undefeated and top-seeded Lake Wales High School Highlanders football team has drawn a rematch with the eight-seeded Auburndale Bloodhounds in the first round of the Regional playoffs, state football officials have announced. Due to their seed they will host at least through the Regional games. The Highlanders are 10-0 on the season, and have outscored their opponents 429 to 41 in games that were rarely in doubt after the the first quarter. The Highlanders defeated...
The top-seeded Lake Wales Highlander football team advanced their 2022 playoff hopes Friday night at Legion Field with a decisive 34-10 victory over the eighth-seed Auburndale Bloodhounds, making a small step forward to their season-long goal of a state title that has proved elusive. The Highlanders have advanced as far as the championship game in past seasons, but never brought home the trophy. Their hopes are riding high this year on the strength of their undefeated season,...
Lake Wales voters will have an opportunity to see and hear most of the candidates seeking to represent them in city government on Monday. A forum sponsored by Rotary on the Ridge and LakeWalesNews.Net will be held at the law offices of Bill Ouelette, 151 East Central Avenue beginning at 7:00 pm. Three of the five remaining candidates will speak and answer questions during the event, which will also be streamed via Facebook. Brandon Alvarado will return as moderator of the annu...
By now a familiar voice to fans at Friday night football games, one local volunteer has made a highly successful career out of childhood inspiration, and a thread of football tradition runs through it. Local son Kent Lilly has become something of a legend in his own right. Lilly grew up in Lake Wales, and after Lake Wales High School went on to graduate from the University of Florida with a degree in accounting before heading off to law school at Florida State University,...
The small-town spirit shone through in Lake Wales Thursday as a thousand spectators gathered to watch the annual Homecoming Parade organized by the students of Lake Wales High School. Representatives of area elementary schools and cheer clubs also participating in the show, one of the events marking the special week in the school year. Each class in the school placed and entry in the parade, as did several of the school's athletic teams including the soccer, football,...
With a convincing victory at their home opener at Legion Field the Lake Wales Highlander varsity football squad improved their regular season record to 2-0. Both offense and defense sparkled as they defeated the Ridge Community Bolts 55-16. The Highlanders jumped out to a first-quarter lead of 30 -8, partly on the strength of running back Marquish Seabon's 80-yard scamper for a touchdown. He ran for 196 total yards and three scores in the Highlander's victory over Clermont...
The City of Lake Wales Recreation Team is inviting families to a free Lake Night Cinema on Saturday, Sept. 4. Weather permitting, the movie "The Goonies" will be shown beginning at dusk at Lake Wailes park. Food trucks and other activities are planned starting at 6 p.m. The date was changed to avoid conflict with Lake Wales Highlander Football. Attendees are encouraged to bring chairs or blankets. Updates will be posted on the Lake Wales Recreation Facebook page. For more...
Lake Wales will continue to enjoy the presence of a local news source focused on the community thanks to a recent business agreement. It was announced today that New Day Market Research (NDMR) has acquired the assets of LakeWalesNews.net and will continue frequent publication of important stories and community news. NDMR intends to continue the focus on local news while increasing coverage of local sports and community groups. Two and half years after its inaugural issue the...
Highlander Football is back, and local fans are anticipating a return to the playoffs following an impressive regular season opener, After raising the stakes with a solid 26-0 win over the Winter Haven Blue Devils in the annual exhibition game, the Highlanders took it to the bank Friday when they traveled to Clermont to take on East Ridge, returning with an impressive 61-7 victory. The game was played on a running clock in the second half after the Highlanders built an...
There’s simply no substitute for a hometown newspaper – except a hometown news website – and I’m thrilled to learn that we now have one! I literally grew up with the hometown newspaper – two of them, actually. Late every afternoon when I was a kid growing up in Ridge Manor, I looked forward to seeing the paperboy ride by on his bike. The pages were smaller than the big-city papers and after being rolled tight (and rubber-banded even tighter) it could be thrown a long way...
Stephen Cornelius had big plans to grow the Lake Wales High School Highlander Band, and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Now starting his second year as director, Cornelius is trying to remain optimistic about the band's future. Cornelius had to cancel marching band camp this summer, but he said marching is still part of the curriculum. Cornelius will be teaching only at Lake Wales High and Janie Howard Wilson Elementary this year, as his recent intern from Warner University,...
And then there were eight. Of the eight teams remaining with the prospect of being crowned the FHSAA 5A State High School Football champion our own Lake Wales team is very much in the hunt. Next up at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at home are the Tampa Jesuit Tigers, 10-2, opposing the undefeated Highlanders in a 5A regional final. Lake Wales is 12-0 after running over Port Orange Atlantic, ending the Sharks season last Friday in front of a boisterous partisan, standing room only,...
Stephen Cornelius recognizes that the proud tradition of the Lake Wales Marching Highlanders is still embedded deeply in the community. He understands what he faces as the new band director for Lake Wales High School, and says he's ready for the challenge. Reflecting on his new position, Cornelius wrote: "It was Theodore Roosevelt that said 'far better it is to dare mighty things...even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy...
Three former professional athletes, a coach who won two state titles, and one of the program's most ardent supporters make up the inaugural class for the newly-created Highlander Hall of Fame. Pro football players Lorenzo Hampton and Buford Long, along with pro baseball player Pat Borders, softball coach Nancy Denton, and "The Voice of the Highlanders" Richard "Dick" Howell will be inducted May 4 during a dinner ceremony at Lake Wales Country Club. "The Highlander Booster...
