The Tavares Patriots Cross-Country team is a middle school program coached by Kevin Von Maxey and his wife April Von Maxey, Tavares always puts out great athletes every single year. This is part of the reason that the team has won a combined 21 Lake County District Championships and 3 State Championships in 2016, 2017 and 2022. The team are also 5-time state runners-up. 2023 will hopefully bring much of the same. When the program started 2 decades ago no one in Lake County had middle school running programs. In fact, the very first year that Von Maxey started the running program the team only consisted of 11 runners total.

The husband-and-wife coaching duo have worked very hard to build the Lake County programs from the ground up. In the year 2023 every school in the area now has a cross-country team and most of the charter schools also have them. They have built the Tavares Middle School program to have 80 or more kids on the team for over 15 consecutive years.

(Kevin Von Maxey stands far right with the Tavares Patriots. Von Maxey was one of the leaders in getting Cross-Country to grow at the Middle School levels in Central Florida.)

Von Maxey told us that “The first few years we had a district championship for Lake County but beginning in 2010, the Florida Youth Running Association (FLYRA), created a middle school state cross-country championship. So, our goals have changed from competing locally to competing statewide. We estimate that there are over 300 middle school and youth cross-country teams in Florida, with just a fraction of those each year qualifying to compete in the Florida Middle School Cross-Country Championship. We are the only team in Florida to qualify every single year since the inception and we have done it with both the boys and girls’ teams.”

(Former Tavares Patriots Runner Matthew Raucci Committed to Clemson.)

(Former Tavares Patriots Runner Noah Musselwhite committed to run for Florida.)

(Noah Musselwhite when he was in middle school. He will now compete in the SEC running for Florida.)

(Riley Novak was a former Tavares Patriot and will be running for Florida in 2023!)

Kevin Von Maxey and his wife April have built an amazing program and now compete at the highest level of Middle School each year. Von Maxey is a former high school cross-country, soccer, and track athlete himself. Von Maxey was the athletic director at Tavares Middle School and found out that there were similar programs at Windy Hill Middle School and Gray Middle School. With the support of coaches and the administration, they put on the first cross-country Tri-Meet. Once they did that, middle school cross-country in Lake County was born. Building upon the success of Von Maxey the current Athletic Director of Tavares Middle School is Ashley Metz. She is very supportive of the program.

Coach Von Maxey talks a lot about the philosophies that he teaches his runners. “We talk a lot about doing things “The Tavares Way.” We believe in creating a caring and hard-working team that cheers on not only our kids, but all the kids on the course. We work very hard, as hard as some of the top high school programs in Florida. We teach them to love and respect one another.”

“Tavares Middle School separates their students into developmental zones. Each group is a different level of skill. Each runner in the top group had individual training plans so it’s possible in a given workout that we might not have any runners doing the exact same training or pacing.” say Von Maxey. The school just ultimately has a step up on the competition due to how long they have been going about it and that shows in the results.

“Coaching with my wife is the highlight of my career.  She is a huge part of the program and a role model to our girls.  We spend a lot of time with our teams year-round, whether it is cross-country or track season or team building activities, so being able to do it together makes it extra special.  Both of our children, now older, ran for our program as well, with our oldest son Taylor running in college.  Our youngest son Alex is a junior at Tavares High School and one of the top pole vaulters in the area.”

(Coach Kevin Von Maxey stands with his wife April. Together these two have created an amazing program that is a top contender every season.)

Cheyenne Thomas won the individual Florida state championship 3 consecutive years and her 3K race time at state last year broke the state record.  She later won the individual Milesplit National Championship in Louisville, Kentucky.  Thomas and her teammate Caitlyn Noll were named All-Americans for their performance at Nationals. Her sister Cassidy Noll placed 6^th at state last year, followed closely by Kylie Mahair in 8^th place. Jacob Kelley was our boys captain last season and was a state medalist in XC last year as was 7^th grader Maddox Mars who placed 10^th at state.

(Cheyenne Thomas broke a few school records and won many state medals during the 2022/2023 season.)

Cheyenne Thomas won the individual Florida state championship 3 consecutive years and her 3K race time at state last year broke the state record.  She later won the individual Milesplit National Championship in Louisville, Kentucky. Thomas and her teammate Caitlyn Noll were named All-Americans for their performance at Nationals. Her sister Cassidy Noll placed 6^th at state last year, followed closely by Kylie Mahair in 8^th place. Jacob Kelley was our boys captain last season and was a state medalist in XC last year as was 7^th grader Maddox Mars who placed 10^th at state.

(The Tavares Patriots posing at the FLYRA Championships.)

Lake County is one of the top areas in the state for youth distance running and I do not expect anything different this year. While our entire girls scoring team has moved on to high school, I still expect the next generation of Tavares girls led by Laken Hartley, Jillian Hernandez, Lindsey Mishler, Sophia Maldonado, and Bella Neal and Jimena Nava-Garcia to have a great season and we are OK with not being the favorites and flying under the radar.

(We hope the Tavares Patriots can have another solid year in 2023.)

The girls teams from Mount Dora Middle School and East Ridge Middle School return almost their entire teams that placed at state last year and will be the favorites locally and maybe for a state title. Round Lake Charter will also be one of the best girl’s charter school teams in Florida. On the boy’s side, our boys are hungry and ready to take that next step. A solid core of Maddox Mars, Eric Chen, Nate Meloy, Omar Castillo, Jonathan Kelley and Nick Alvarez, lead a very deep squad that has championship aspirations after being state runners-up last year. East Ridge, Minneola Charter, Lake Pointe Academy, and Windy Hill also return solid boy’s teams

The last question I asked Kevin Von Maxey is what his favorite part about being a coach was. He says “It brings us so much joy to watch kids leave our program and continue their success in area high schools and in college. We stay very close to many of the families that come through our program and catch up often. To see the confidence and opportunities that the sport gives the kids makes all the time and energy worth it.”

We are so happy that Tavares Middle School has such a great coach and program. It’s a great feeder program into some great high school programs. We look forward to seeing what The Tavares Patriots can do this upcoming year and wish them the best of luck!