Wharton’s Flag Football Team Faces A Tough Road To Make It To States

Top left: Flag football is not exactly no-contact, as Wharton’s Lauryn Thompson gets face-palmed after coming down with a catch. (Photos by Andy Warrener)

When Tina and Mike Roberts took over the Wharton High flag football team six years ago, they had just 22 girls try out, and very few fans attended their games.

“In years past, no one came to the games, not even the home games,” Mike Roberts says.

Fast forward to the 2018 preseason, and the Wildcats had 50 girls try out for this year’s team. Wharton maintains a 16-girl varsity squad and a 19-player JV team, and while currently unranked has spent most of the season ranked in the Class 2A Top 20 poll, according to FloridaHighSchoolFootball.com.

At last week’s game at Leto, the Wildcats showed off their firepower by throttling the Falcons 46-0. They also brought about two dozen fans along to stock the visitor stands, outnumbering those on the home side.

The victory improved Wharton’s record to 7-3 at the time, with the Class 2A District 7 playoffs looming. But getting out of districts is no easy task, as Plant showed Wharton two days after the Leto win.

Top Right: Wharton’s Parker Onderko leaps and makes the catch in the victory over Leto.

The Panthers, the defending Class 2A State champions, beat Wharton 26-0.

Currently ranked No. 3 in the state, Plant isn’t even ranked as the best team in the district — Alonso is ranked No. 1 in the state.

“If you can get through this district, you have a good chance to go far,” Mike Roberts said.

The Wildcats will need some upsets to get out of districts and into the State playoffs. Last year, they shocked Alonso in the District quarterfinals, before falling the following game to Plant in quadruple overtime.

The Roberts family has grown into coaching the sport of flag football. Tina says she came by it by pure accident. She was assigned the sport from the school administration seven years ago when it began. A year later, her husband Mike came on board. A year after that, their son Travis (23) also joined the coaching staff.

“Tina asked me to come on and help after an assistant left that first year and I fell in love with it,” Mike says.

Flag football runs the same way regular football’s 7-on-7 exercises do. Seven players line up in a passing formation. One defensive player is allowed to rush the quarterback and offenses can either pass or run with the ball. The offensive team must gain 20 yards to earn a first down.

There is no kicking in the game, so after each touchdown, the team has the option of running or passing for a one- or two-point conversion.

Girls flag football has grown from niche sport to one of the most popular offerings for female athletes. It only became an official Florida High School Athletic Association sport in 2003, but has more than doubled its participation numbers to more than 250 teams and 6,000 players competing since then.

“I loved just being a part of the team and having the opportunity to play and have fun,” says quarterback Marinique Reddin, one of the team’s top players.

Starting this school year, middle schools in Hillsborough County — including Benito, Turner-Bartels and Liberty — offer girls flag football. This is expected to help the high school game, which until now has basically had to rely on players competing in flag football for the first time. Tina says for years, most of her players had to be taught the game from scratch, which was a major disadvantage compared to other high school sports.

The Wharton High girls flag football team is 7-4 this season, and hopes to pull off a few upsets at the District tournament in a bid for the state playoffs.

“It’s going to make the sport that much better,” Mike Roberts says. “Next year, we’ll have eighth graders coming in that know the sport and you’ll see the payoffs.”

The Roberts’ dedication to the sport has helped build Wharton into one of the area’s better programs.

Reddin is tall and athletic and has the skill set to either pass the ball or tuck it and run, and scored four touchdowns in the win over Leto. Lauryn Thompson is another tall player with enough speed to score a touchdown any time she touches the football, which she did twice against Leto while adding an interception.

Both players are just juniors who have found their calling in the still relatively new sport.

“I love how competitive the game is and how the team has become so close, like one big family,” says Thompson. “If one of us needs help, we help each other out without downing each other. I look forward to practice every day.”

On defense, Ja’Nessa Ellis, Sade Seraaj and Mecca Bythewood had interceptions against Leto. Bythewood and Seraaj ran theirs back for touchdowns. Junior   Williams rushes the quarterback.

“It’s great to see what these girls can do with the football,” Mike Roberts said. “We put in plays and they execute them.” Look for updates at NTNeighborhoodNews.com.

Safety & Fighting The Primary Topics At Five Local Wharton Meetings

(L.-r.) Wharton High principal Brad Woods talks to a few parents at Heritage Elementary as Area 3 leadership coach Kristin Tonelli & athletic director Eddie Henderson look on.

In response to community concerns about violence and increased law enforcement at Wharton High earlier this year, school administration and district officials held a series of five meetings — at Turner Bartels K-8 school, Hunter’s Green (HGE) and Heritage elementary schools and Van Buren and Benito middle schools — between April 4 and April 11.

Designed to be smaller, more intimate gatherings where parents could ask questions freely, the meetings were attended by what could hardly be called “crowd” — in fact, a fraction of the hundreds of parents who showed up back in February for a larger meeting held on campus at Wharton were at the five meetings combined.

The meetings were led by principal Brad Woods, who, in a strange twist, announced his resignation from Wharton after 10 years at the school the morning after the final meeting at Benito.

In addition to Woods, the school’s six assistant principals and district staff — including Area 3 superintendent Dr. Anna Brown, who oversees Wharton and all of the New Tampa-area Hillsborough County public schools, and former HGE principal Kristin Tonelli, who is now the Area 3 leadership coach — attended all five. New Tampa-area Hillsborough District 3 School Board member Cindy Stuart attended all but one.

At the New Tampa-area meetings, attendance varied.

Administrators outnumbered parents 7-4 at the Heritage meeting, by far the least attended. The meetings at Hunter’s Green and Benito had about 30 parents each; roughly 20 were at Turner Bartels.

Some parents in attendance did express concern about the low turnout.

“I’d love to see more parents here,” said Jennifer Brooks, a Wharton parent.

But, administrators say their goal was to connect with the parents who did show up, no matter how many there were.

“It didn’t matter if the turnout was large or small,” Tonelli said after the last meeting. “We knew the community had questions and we wanted to provide answers.”

Woods stressed at each meeting that school officials had heard from parents on issues like better communication and student support, and improving school pride, which could include things like beautification.

A request has been made to have Wharton painted, but the cost could be $225,000 and the School Board would have to approve funding for that project. A campus clean-up and beautification day will be held on Saturday, April 28.

Parents and community members are invited to attend, although details on time and exactly what improvements will be made were not available at our press time.

Woods explained at the first meeting that new soap dispensers were being ordered that could not be as easily removed from the walls. Apparently, some students would empty the dispensers so that it was difficult to keep them filled. At the last meeting at Benito, Woods announced that the new dispensers had been installed.

He also addressed the issue of the smell of marijuana coming from the 100 Hall bathrooms at two of the meetings. Woods reported that a teacher reported the smell to the office earlier last week, and when no one was found in the restroom at the time, administrators reviewed security video and searched students seen going into or coming out of the bathroom during that time.

One student who was found with marijuana was suspended and arrested.

While administrators insist problems at the school stem from both local students who attend Wharton from New Tampa’s 33647 zip code and those who are bused in from outside of it, Woods reported that one parent has met with School Board member Cindy Stuart to propose new boundaries for Wharton, beginning a long process that could potentially end in rezoning at some point in the future.

Parents seemed to be reassured that the violence that was prevalent on campus a few months ago had calmed down. So, questions turned to issues of safety.

“We have your prized possessions here,” Woods said, adding that at Wharton, the perimeter of the school is being examined, and changes have been made to keep the students safer, such as opening and closing gates as needed, rather than leaving a gate open all day.

“It’s comforting to hear they’re managing the fighting situation and bringing it down to a normal level,” said Dale Miller, whose two children attend Wharton.

Following the final meeting at Benito on April 11, Brooks echoed the sentiments of several parents who attended the meeting. “I think they’re moving in the right direction,” she says. “I don’t expect everything to be fixed overnight, but I want to be kept in the loop.”

She says her 10th-grade daughter loves Wharton and she has no hesitations about her eighth-grade daughter attending the school next year.

“My two questions for any school are always, will you be safe, and will you be challenged?,” said Brooks. “The answer at Wharton is yes (to both).”

Brooks’ friend Christine Bonatakis has a daughter in eighth grade who will attend Wharton next year. “We have lots of friends and neighbors who attend Wharton and they’re happy,” Bonatakis said. “I feel very comfortable with my decision.”

Tampa Fire Station No. 23 Taking Shape On County Line Rd.

As new homes and apartments continue to pop up in New Tampa, the City of Tampa is delivering on its promise to keep new residents safe.

Tampa Fire Rescue (TFR) Station No. 23 is on its way.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and TFR Chief Thomas Forward were among those on hand on April 9 as ground was broken on the new station, albeit ceremoniously, as the building located in the Grand Hampton area at Trout Creek Dr. and County Line Rd. has already begun to take form.

It is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

“This is one of the things I like to do,” said Mayor Buckhorn at the groundbreaking ceremony, “to prepare for the next generation in our community, the next chapter in Tampa history, the next chapter in New Tampa. We’re happy to make this investment. It’s a great day for New Tampa.”

Buckhorn, who has presided over five fire stations being built or rehabilitated since becoming mayor in 2011, praised District 7 Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera for his diligence in getting the $1.4 million (of 2018 Community Investment Tax proceeds) earmarked for the station’s completion.

Viera says it was past time to build New Tampa’s fourth fire station, and first since 2012, considering the continued growth of new homes and apartments in the area. For example, the Tampa City Council authorized nearly 800 new homes roughly 18 months ago for K-Bar Ranch (although most of the calls from that area will be handled by Station 22 near Morris Bridge Rd. (see below).

Not only is Fire Station No. 23 located right down County Line Rd. from Grand Hampton’s 900 or so homes, as well as another 480 apartment units at Colonial Grand at Hampton Preserve, it also will help take some of the pressure off the existing Stations No. 21 and 22, both of which are located on Cross Creek Blvd.

“It just gets down to the basic idea that as you have expanding communities like we’ve had in New Tampa, you have to build basic local government responses for the needs of those local families,” Viera says. “We’ve been building more and more neighborhoods out here, but not building local government responses for the people moving in.”

Back in 2008, Tampa originally bought the 2.2 acres of land for Station 23 for $1.2 million, but the recession put plans to actually build it on hold.

The fire station is part of the city’s $120.3-million Capital Improvement Program (CIP), which is addressing many of the recession-induced deferred infrastructure projects. Another fire station, No. 24, is planned for the K-Bar Ranch area, but it hasn’t received funding yet.

Fire Station 23 will house nearly 40 firefighters, an engine company, a truck company and a rescue unit.

“The rescue car is one of the most important things for this area because the majority of our calls are not fire calls, they are medical calls,” said TFR public information officer Jason Penny. “The brand new unit will do wonders for the people of this area.”

While the Tampa Fire Rescue Training Division is located in Palmetto Beach, Penny said the new station also will have a separate building that will serve as a training area for potential firefighters. It will be the only fire station that has a standalone detached classroom/meeting area.

“This gives the whole district an area where they can train,” Penny said.

Also, Station 23 will be home to a new District Fire Chief, who will coordinate responses between all four of New Tampa’s fire stations (including Station No. 20 in Tampa Palms (see Community Calendar on pg. 18).

With more homes and apartments coming, Chief Forward said the timing of a new fire station couldn’t be any better.

“Fire Station 23 will definitely enhance the response in this (area),” Penny said. “We have been looking at runs and looking at the response packages, and we could not ask for this station to come in and provide….service at a better time. By putting this in place…we absolutely ensure that the (New Tampa) area will realize that exact same level of emergency response as the rest of our greater Tampa area.”