Coach Lynch: Retirement Tribute

by Nick Bell

Recently, we learned that Coach Jim Lynch has decided to retire from his career as a teacher and football coach, so we decided to honor him with this special tribute.

Coach Lynch has been coaching since 1994, working mainly in North Florida. He played quarterback in high school, thus he specializes on the offensive side of the game. Coach Lynch first started at Orlando Christian Prep after he learned that his former high school coach, Coach Scroggins, was retiring, leaving an offensive coordinator vacancy. He first worked as a running backs coach for two years, before becoming the full-time offensive coordinator. He continued to run the "wing T" offense that has been used here at OCP since Coach D began. His favorite play to run while at OCP was “tiger rip” which has become a very famous play here -- responsible for dozens of scores in dozens of games.

During his 4+ years at OCP, Coach Lynch enjoyed his time molding students and athletes, helping to have a positive impact on their lives through both coaching and monitoring the FLVS lab. He says his biggest accomplishment while here was winning the state championship... in fact, this was one of the biggest accomplishments of his coaching career. Having coached since 1994, Coach Lynch clearly a seasoned veteran of the game of football. As such, he felt that it was time to let a new, hungrier coach have an opportunity at the helm. Winning the state championship allowed him to feel that he had accomplished all he needed to in coaching and was ready for his next chapter.

OCPs football players had a lot to say about Coach Lynch. Jacob Brommer commented, "Man, I love Coach Lynch. He’s one of my favorite coaches I've had in all my years of playing football. If it was my choice, he wouldn’t retire. I’m gonna miss him, but I’m also really excited to see who steps in to take his place.” Carlos Tavarez said, “I’m gonna miss the bald head!" (This was a nickname for Coach Lynch.) "He was great but I'm gonna join him soon in retirement. I’m gonna have to run a "tiger rip" just for him. See you later Lynch! Peace and love!”

Coach Lynch will now spend his days in sunny Port Orange, Florida, enjoying time with his wife while getting some rays at the pool and fishing in the Intracoastal right outside his backyard. The mark he left at OCP will impact many students for many years, especially this year's players, who he brought the best out! He definitely finished his last chapter of coaching on his own terms: on top as State Champions!

Avengers Endgame: Record Breaker

by Nick Bell

“We are in the endgame now” are probably words you've heard a lately, after Avengers: Infinity War left us with an incredible cliff hanger and many of our favorite heroes were snapped out of existence. How will this change? Well that's where the Avenger: Endgame comes in. The epic Marvel movie came out on April 26th and was an immediate hit: both with critics and the viewing public.

The film's first weekend sales were more than any other movie ever: grossing $357 million! Avengers: Endgame is already the second highest grossing movie of all time (global box office), behind only Avatar. Endgame, however, has only just begun its money-making: it reached $2 billion dollars in sales in only eleven days!!

Avengers: Endgame is so popular, the directors placed a two week ban on spoilers. This ban was recently lifted, so fans have taken the chance to speak out. This movie is being talked talked about everywhere, and the hype reached even more of a high after the recent release of the trailer for Spiderman: Homecoming. At this point, if you haven't seen - or at least heard major talk of - Endgame, you've been hiding under a rock! It will soon be the highest grossing movie ever by a long shot if it continues at the expected pace. 

Critics are raving about Endgame, and about how well the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been put together over the past decade. Twenty two movies have been made so far, capped off by Endgame, which begins "Phase 4" for the MCU films. “The amount of detail the writers took to build this whole timeline is astonishing” one critic said, and I agree! There are few film franchises that have been able to build something that even comes close to what the creative writers of Marvel Studios have put together - and they're still going strong!!

Where Are They Now? - The Class of '18 Revisited

by Aaron Bass

Many of us can remember last year's seniors -- the class of 2018 -- walking the halls here at Orlando Christian Prep, as they graduated just a little under a year ago. We thought it would be fun to follow-up with a few of them and see how they're getting along.

Kai Jones, graduated from OCP but decided to "re-class" and attend Brewster Academy for another year of high school sports and personal improvement. He has recently committed to attend the University of Texas. Ronaldo Segu has been playing basketball for the University of Buffalo, where he was able to play in the second round of this year's NCAA tournament. Rondo has been a stand out player for the Bulls this season, and he looks forward to continuing his success as a sophomore next year.

Amanda Olascoaga made the move to Virginia, where she is majoring in health sciences and surrounded by beautiful mountains at Liberty University. Parker Smith is down in beautiful West Palm Beach, where he is studying finance at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Parker is looking to become an accountant in the near future.

Jeriel Irizarry was able to secure a full scholarship to attend Rollins College here in Orlando. Jeriel turned down scholarships from over ten big colleges from across the country to be able to study close to home. A few of our other graduates, such as Micayla Davis and David Moreno, have also decided to stay local and attend classes at Valencia Community College.

As you can see, many of last year's graduates are continuing their education - in different ways and in different regions of the country! We are so proud of how they are learning and growing in their new environments. We pray that they continue to find success in their educations and careers as they seek to be the World Changers they've set out to be!