Experience Reigns For First-Year Program Thanks To Influx Of Talent

First-year school, first-year program, low expectations, just want to get playing time in. Right?

Wrong.

The Cypress Creek Coyotes are not the team you want to schedule for Senior Night. That’s primarily because, thanks to last year’s rezoning of area high schools, Cypress Creek inherited a wealth of talented players that last year attended school at nearby Wesley Chapel High (WCH), gutting a program that was 19-8 last year and advanced to the Class 6A Regional semifinals before losing to eventual State champion Land O’Lakes.

The Coyotes’ entire infield and their new head coach are all former Wildcats, and they have a familiarity uncommon with new schools and new sports programs. Even Cypress Creek’s head coach Mike Peterson was an assistant at WCH the last two years, while also coaching the Tampa Lady Phantoms travel team for several years prior.

He’s coached many of the girls on his current team of Coyotes since they were seven and eight years old. Blending together a host of new players who have never shared a dugout, often one of the more difficult aspects of coaching, is not one of Peterson’s problems.

Cypress Creek C Neely Peterson has started the season on fire.

The Coyotes are off to an impressive  9-5 start as of our press time, with the losses coming against upper-echelon teams with a combined 51-10 record.

“There’s a level of trust when you have familiarity with your teammates,” junior Ashley Nickisher said. “You know that if you strike out or make an error that the other girls have your back. I have been really amazed at the way some of the new girls that came on have connected right away.”

Junior catcher Neely Peterson, already a verbal commitment to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, is leading the way.

You could say that Peterson is off to a blazing start — her .583 batting average, 10 doubles, four home runs and 29 RBI lead the team, and her homer and RBI totals lead all of Class 5A, District 7.

She’s a terrifying hitter out of the number three spot. Peterson remains the only hitter to park one off of Hernando ace Ali Shenefield, the top pitcher in the District.

“Last year, I got to learn from then-Chapel captain Dana Mumaw (now at Pasco-Hernando State College),” Peterson said. “I learned what it takes to be a good team captain.”

Nickisher is the other team captain. According to Peterson, she is a “smart infielder that makes the difficult plays look easy.” She has cooled off a little after a hot start, but is still second on the team with six doubles and two homers.

Jasmine Jackson, a junior second baseman, backs up Peterson at catcher and also can play shortstop. Coach Peterson says Jackson started the year on fire and she hasn’t let up – she has hits in 12 of the 13 games in which she has played and boasts a .444 average with 19 RBI, second to Peterson.

Junior Payton Hudson (.432) is a rangy shortstop with a strong arm and is a dangerous base runner as well, while sophomore first baseman Anna Margetis played for the Wildcats as a freshman and is currently tied with Jackson for second on the team with a .444 average.

“We’re very balanced offensively,” Peterson says. “We can hit for average or we can hit for power. It makes us a dangerous team.”

The Coyotes have very little depth in the pitching rotation – last year’s freshman phenom, Jordan Almasy, remained at WCH.

Instead, the Coyotes are riding the arm of right-handed junior Avery Lee. Lee came over from Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) in the school re-districting, but pitched only sparingly there. She has thrown 75 of the team’s 76 innings this year, compiling a 9-4 record with a 2.52 ERA.

“She (Lee) has a good ball-to-strike ratio and she keep us in games,” Peterson says. “She’s not going to overpower batters, but she’ll allow our defense to do their job.”

Like most new schools, especially those without a senior class, Cypress Creek had a small roster of 10 players on varsity. Emma Coons (.381), Page Mulford (.273) and Alexis Aponte (.250) round out the lineup. Peterson elected to have a JV team, where there are 10 more girls who will play, instead of riding the bench on varsity.

There have been other new school troubles that are often typical. While they are off 9-4 start as of our press time, the Coyotes had to play all of their early games on the road until their home field was finished.

They also had to forfeit a game against Land O’ Lakes in February because they had a fund raiser scheduled for the same night.

However, the Coyotes are a team to keep an eye on. They are going to be relevant even in this first year. When they field a senior-heavy lineup with a year of experience next season, watch out.

“It’s really been a joy coaching these kids since they were seven or eight and seeing the fruits of their labors,” Peterson said. “They put the hard work in and I hope to get a chance to watch many of them play at the next level.”

Saddlebrook Teen Hosts ‘Golf Fore Guts’

In some ways, Parker James is a typical high school senior — visiting colleges, awaiting acceptance letters and hoping for great scholarship offers, while spending his days at school and playing sports.

Parker’s sport of choice these days is golf, and he works hard at it — training every day after classes at Saddlebrook Preparatory School inside Saddlebrook Resort Tampa off S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel.

Parker (pictured with his golf coach, Nick Dunn) also is getting ready to do something most teenagers don’t — he will host a golf tournament to raise awareness for a health condition he suffers from, Crohn’s disease.

“Crohn’s has shaped my fighter mentality,” says Parker, explaining that fighting his disease has prepared him for the mental challenges of golf. “In golf, you can go out on the course and lose every day. You can always do better, and you have to overcome that.”

He says he’s always loved playing sports, and as a child played baseball, basketball, football, soccer, lacrosse, golf, tennis, even skateboarding and wakeboarding.

His diagnosis at 10 years old with Crohn’s disease changed things for Parker. Crohn’s is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterized by inflammation of the digestive tract.

Since then, an ankle injury and a new diagnosis — this time of rheumatoid arthritis —further limited his ability to play most of the sports he loves.

But, Parker found a way to keep his athletic dreams alive, by playing sports that are less strenuous on his joints, especially golf.

And now, he wants to raise awareness about the many people who suffer from Crohn’s, especially those who, like him, are diagnosed as kids.

“I want to inspire other young people to never feel defeated by their illnesses,” Parker says. “Don’t let it hold you back in any shape or form.”

The golf tournament Parker is organizing will be held on Saturday, April 14, at Saddlebrook Resort. All proceeds will benefit the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation.

Players can register a foursome, or sign up to play in a group with an academy student.

To learn more about sponsoring the tournament, to donate or sign up to play, visit GolfForeGuts.com.

Fears Felt Miles Away From Parkland

Students at Wiregrass Ranch (above) were some of many in Wesley Chapel who took part in a national walkout to honor those slain at Stoneman Douglas High. (WTSP)

As students across the country react to the Valentine’s Day school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida, about 13,000 people participated in Tampa’s “March For Our Lives” on March 24.

Students at schools in Wesley Chapel came out to the event, after many also attended candlelight vigils on February 19 and walk-outs on February 21, remembering and honoring the victims, while showing solidarity with those affected by the shooting and calling for changes to make schools safer.

At Cypress Creek Middle High School, a lockdown caused by an announced “active threat on campus” on March 13 inspired sophomore Brina Gutierrez to write this opinion piece for the school’s newspaper, the Cypress Creek Howler. As it turns out, there was no threat to the campus, but police responded after a student reported seeing a suspicious person walking near the school with what might be a firearm.

Here’s how one student reacted to what might have been a routine procedure just a month before (this piece has not been edited):

The way I thought I was going to react was not how I reacted.

March 13, 2018, almost exactly a month after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre occurred when 17 precious lives were lost. I was working on a memorial for the lives lost for a commemoration event our school had plans for the next day when on the intercom I heard the bone-chilling words:

Brina Gutierrez

“Teachers, we have an active threat on campus.”

My mind went blank. Panic began to overwhelm me. I wasn’t in my normal classroom, so the teacher whose room I was in rushed to make sure the door was locked, and cover the windows with paper we had just gotten twenty minutes earlier for the use of the memorial project we were working on, unaware, this was about to happen.

I could feel tears begin to rush down my face and didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t react. I didn’t know where to start or what to do. Everyone seemed to be moving sluggishly as if it were a drill. It just didn’t seem as if we were acting quickly enough. I was both mentally and physically unprepared for this such event.

The day had been normal, besides the slight chill that the air held, which was unusual from Florida’s normal weather. I had recently become more comfortable with the idea of school being safe again and suddenly, that idea shattered into a million pieces for me.

There was nothing I could do to be emotionally or physically ready for this. Time slowed down, seconds felt like minutes. My mind became slightly more coherent as I snapped into action, adrenaline coursing through my veins. I was flipping a table over to act as a barricade and shoving the usually heavy desks with such force that I’ve never had before.

After blockading the room, I immediately began texting my sister, who was in the other building. The fear I felt for her was so immensely palpable I could almost taste it. I didn’t know what was going on or if she was even alive. I didn’t know what was happening. I quickly texted her to see if she was okay and you can not imagine the relief I felt when she texted me back she was alright.

I was quickly ushered into a supply closet and in an attempt to make more room for people, I squeezed myself into a cabinet that was barely a foot high. In that room, I felt every emotion go through my body, but the most dominant was the absolute terror I felt. That terror gripped my soul. It dawned on me at that moment, I wasn’t ready to die.

I had no certainty of what the threat was, but I knew this wasn’t the way or day I wanted to go.

The moment I found out there was no active shooter, I felt like a million pounds lighter. From there, slowly the terror began to let up. Though people were returning to their normal attitudes and actions from before the lockdown, I still couldn’t fathom the idea there was even a potential threat at my school. I still can’t.

The moment I was reunited with my sister and family was a euphoric experience.

Whether or not the threat had merit or not, we need to be proactive with school safety. I can’t continue to have the fear that the place I go to ensure a good future, could also so easily end my future.

This isn’t about whether or not we should have more strict gun control laws. Take the politics out of it for a minute, what all of this is really about is us as students, and you as parents ensuring we are safe at school.

I just want to feel like I can go to school without the threat that I may not go home that same afternoon. I’m supposed to feel safe at school and somewhere along the line, someone failed us. Never again.

We got lucky this time, but what if next time we aren’t as lucky? 

Local Sharp Shooter Still Setting Records

New Tampa resident and hoops hotshot Justin Dargahi, the New Tampa Neighborhood News cover boy from June 2016 after a Guinness Book of World Records-worthy performance shooting 3-pointers, has been at it again.

Justin, who lives in Grand Hampton, is awaiting confirmation from the folks at the  Guinness Book for what would officially be his third entry into their records, this time for making the most 3-pointers in one minute, with 10.

While that number may not sound like a lot, Justin’s latest long-range conquest was a one-man, single-ball show — he had to shoot his 3-pointers, retrieve the ball himself, run back to the NBA range line, which is 23-feet, 9-inches from the hoop, and shoot it again, over and over as quickly and making as many threes as he could, for one minute.

Justin made 10 of the 11 attempts he was able to get off, tying Harlem Globetrotters Cheese Chisholm and Ant Atkinson for the single-ball record.

Both Globetrotters got off 12 shots in 60 seconds, making 10.

“What stinks is the five times I tried it, I was able to get off 12 shots (but didn’t make 10),” Justin says. “But the last time, I only got off 11.”

Justin, who coaches the girls basketball team at Gaither High in Carrollwood, shot his threes from the corner, which he thought gave him a better chance to get off more shots. He tied the record six weeks ago, and is waiting for the official certification from the Guinness Book of World Records.

His first entry, which we profiled in 2016, was for making 26 three-pointers from NBA range in one minute (where unlike his latest feat, the balls were fed to him).

A year later, Justin teamed up with former Florida Gator guard Teddy Dupay to set the Guinness Book of World Records mark for the most 3-pointers made in a minute by a tandem, with 23.

Dupay was the head coach of Cambridge Christian in Tampa, Justin’s alma mater (he says he still shows up every Saturday morning for alumni pick-up basketball games), when the two met. He and Dupay struck up a conversation about shooting and decided to try for the record, which requires the tandem to alternate three-point shots.

It took only five minutes to break the record.

The previous record holders were Chisholm and Atkinson with 22. And before that? NBA superstars Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Durant, who set the record of 15 at the NBA All-Star weekend in Los Angeles on February 19, 2011. — JCC

Edward Jones Financial Services Wants To Help You Get Retirement-Ready

Financial advisor William Morales, AAMS (Accredited Asset Management Specialist), and branch office administrator Beth Ramirez make up the Edward Jones Financial Services team in the Windfair Professional Center, located across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC).

Morales has been serving clients in this location since 2012, when he closed his Tampa Palms office and moved it to Wesley Chapel. He joined Edward Jones in 2008.

“I always wanted a Wesley Chapel branch,” says Morales, who has lived in Meadow Pointe with his wife for 20 years, where they raised two daughters, and where he now serves his neighbors.

“We are a full-service agency, and I wear many different hats,” he explains. “When I work with clients, I may serve as their stock broker, their insurance agent and their bond dealer. At its core, my work is as a financial planner.”

He explains that he helps his clients in any of five different core areas, depending upon each client’s stage of life and their individual needs:

• Planning for a comfortable retirement (for those who are currently working)

• Enjoying retirement (for those who have already retired)

• Paying for education

• Preparing for the unexpected

• Saving money on taxes

A Little History

Founded in 1922, Edward Jones has grown to be the largest financial services firm in the industry, with 16,000 financial advisors and 14,000 branches, serving more than 7 million households.

Morales explains that Edward Jones, which is headquartered in St. Louis, MO, is different than other financial firms, as it is not a publicly traded company itself, and has no Board of Directors and no shareholders. Therefore, Morales says, his singular focus can be on serving his clients. All 14,000 Edward Jones branches throughout the U.S. and Canada are small offices located in the communities where the financial advisors live and serve.

Morales works with his clients through a five-step process, starting with “Where am I today?” and “Where would I like to be?” Then, he says, the next steps — “Can I get there?” and “How do I get there?” — are his job. Once he’s worked with you through those steps, Morales says he continues to advise each client to determine, “How can I stay on track?”

“I take care of financial affairs for a select group of families in our area,” he says, “with about half of my clients working families, and the other half being already retired.”

He says this “select” group of both working families and retirees is limited not by any particular criteria, but because he limits himself to maintaining a small group of clients so that he can manage all of their needs well.

“If we try to be everything to everyone, we lose that personal touch,” Morales says. “It makes it tough to deliver the same level of service.”

He says the most important thing to do when you’re looking for a financial advisor is to find someone you feel confident in that you hopefully will want to work with for the rest of your life.

“(Your financial advisor) has to be someone you like, someone who makes you feel comfortable and someone you can trust,” he says.

Satisfied Customers

John and Debbie Engel are Wesley Chapel residents who have been working with Morales for about four years.

“Our experience has been fabulous,” says Debbie. “He’s always available. He’s extremely smart, very passionate, very caring, and he’s always there (for us).”

She adds that Morales never makes her feel rushed, and always spends time answering all of her questions. “Every question my husband and I have ever had has been answered,” Debbie says. “There were issues we didn’t understand, so we asked questions, and he gave us a very explicit explanation. I feel very safe and at-home there, like I could ask him anything.”

Debbie also explains that, “Our entire portfolio for retirement is with Edward Jones, including our investments, assets, bonds, annuities, 401ks, IRAs…our whole life, and I feel very comfortable with that.”

Morales says the way he approaches his clients is known as the Edward Jones “value proposition.”

He says, “There’s nothing more important to us than understanding what’s important to you, using an established process to help you build personalized strategies to achieve your goals, and partnering together with you throughout your life to keep you on track.”

Morales explains that a first-time appointment with him is similar to visiting a new doctor. “I’m going to ask you a lot of personal questions, so I can really understand what’s going on with you financially,” he says, adding that he also uses financial questionnaires and conversation to help determine his clients’ needs.

Payment Options

Once someone becomes Morales’ customer, they can choose to pay a flat annual fee for Edward Jones to manage all of their assets. The more traditional method is where Morales receives his payment from the mutual funds, insurance policies and other investments he sells.

“Another thing that makes us unique from our competition is that there are no Edward Jones investments to sell,” says Morales. “We sell the products of all the other companies, such as Fidelity, for the same cost to you as if you bought directly from them.”

Morales recommends working with a large firm, such as Edward Jones, “because the big firms have oversight. Unlike independent financial planners who don’t work for a larger company, Edward Jones has measures in place to watch what I do.”

He adds, “My job is relationship-driven. I have to do the ‘nerd work’ and crunch the numbers, but most of what I do is serve my clients, and there’s no cost for my advice.”

Before joining Edward Jones, Morales was president of a mortgage company in New Tampa and served six years in the U.S. Army Ordinance Corps, spending four years stationed in and around Kuwait. Originally from New York City, he and his family moved to Tampa, where he graduated from Chamberlain High.

For more info, call Wesley Chapel Edward Jones branch office administrator Beth Ramirez at (813) 991-7034, and she’ll schedule your appointment with Morales at the office located at 2748 Windguard Cir., Suite 101 (in the office plaza behind The Hungry Greek) in Wesley Chapel. Or, see the ad on page 26, or visit EdwardJones.com/William-Morales.