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Your CBD Store has many other award-winning CBD-based products — including oil tinctures, edibles, raw hemp, beauty products, gel capsules, vapes and more — some of which are treats to help your pet — and they do offer some free samples for new visitors.
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The rumors that have been circulating the past 18 month of popular electronics retailer Best Buy closing its New Tampa location have turned out to be true.
The store, located in The Walk at Highwoods Preserve off of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. between the HomeGoods and Michaels store, has that announced it is shutting down on Oct. 31. The announcement points customers to the nearest locations in Brandon and Wesley Chapel (in The Grove).
The store has already begun the moving process. Many of the aisles in the New Tampa Best Buy have empty shelves and are blocked off, while some aisles are selling open box items at a 15-20 percent discount.
It is unclear if the effects of Covid-19 had a hand in the closing, although it had been rumored before the pandemic that the big box electronics giant’s New Tampa location had been struggling.
According to a recent report by CNN, Best Buy is at a disadvantage fighting companies like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Costco, because those others also sell food and other household essentials. Beat Buy is also facing higher costs when it comes with the rise in online orders. The CNN report says that “Best Buy’s gross profit rate fell 1.2 percentage points to 22.8% during the three months ending August 1, compared with the same period last year.”
The loss of Best Buy will leave a number of vacancies in the cross-section of BBD and around Highwoods Preserve Pkwy., such as the old Sweetbay grocery store (which has been vacant since 2013) and the former Romano’s Macaroni Grill restaurant (which has been closed since 2017, after two failed attempts after being revived as a Mexican restaurant) on the west side of BBD and the Pier 1 Importa (currently closing) on the east side.
The AMC Theater, which had to postpone a major renovation project and has been hit hard by Covid-19, and former Ruby Tuesday restaurant, which will be replaced by Aldi, are also on the east side on BBD.
Tyriq Outen honed his hockey skills while living in New Tampa, and is riding high after an MVP performance in a major invitational tournament this summer has him a little closer to his dream of playing goalie in the NHL. (Photo courtesy of the Outen family).
The first time Tyriq Outen skated on ice at the Brandon’s Ice Sports Forum, he was 4 years old and decided immediately he wanted to be a goalie.
A few weeks later, during his first lesson, his promising ice hockey career began…with his pads on backwards.
“Then, he fell behind the net and got his helmet caught in the net,” recalls his father, Ronnie. “It was a comedy of errors.”
That imperfect start, however, soon gave way to success at nearly every level at which “Ty,” as his family calls him, has played since. He went from being entangled in the nets to starring in them, and from being a junior standout to a legitimate NHL draft prospect with a bright future ahead of him.
“I feel like this is where I belong,” he says. “I fell in love with it right away.”
Tyriq grew up in New Tampa, and attended Turner Bartels Middle School. While his friends played Little League baseball and basketball and soccer at the New Tampa YMCA, Tyriq was part of a small but budding hockey community.
He played for one of the best youth hockey teams in Florida, comprised of players from all over the state, but that meant lots of travel. He traveled by plane 2-3 times a month for big tournaments in the northeast and Canada, but mostly spent lots of time in the car with Ronnie driving all over the southeast.
Ronnie, the basketball director at the new Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, understood the lifestyle and demands for a high-caliber youth athlete. A former college basketball player who played professionally overseas, Ronnie understood it was all about exposure and training. When it was time to choose a high school, Ronnie and Tyriq moved to hockey-hotbed Boston and lived in an apartment.
“When we were in Boston, he was literally on the ice 5-6 days a week,” he says. “No knock on Florida, but there was a rink in every neighborhood. Imagine if Hunter’s Green had one, and Arbor Greene and Live Oak had one, if you had 5-6 rinks in this area, think of the pool of talent you’d have to draw from. That’s how it is up there. That is why the competition was so good.”
First Stop – Foxboro
Tyriq hooked up with the South Shore Kings in Foxboro, MA, and began to take off as a player. He had a 3.08 goals-against average (GAA) and a 90% save percentage in his two seasons.
At the age of 17, Tyriq made it onto the coveted NHL Central Scouting list as No. 19 among all North American goalie prospects. His athleticism, Ronnie says, is off the charts — he can roll out of bed and dunk a basketball — and his skating and stick skills are exceptional. Tyriq’s vision and game management continue to improve.
Toronto Maple Leafs development camp, June 30, 2018. Mark Blinch/Toronto Maple Leafs
Once a growth spurt got him to 6-feet, 3-inches, it completed the package, making him an enticing prospect at a position where taller, athletic goaltenders — like the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Andre Vasilevskiy, who also is 6’-3” —seem to be the future.
In Boston, NHL scouts were watching every game. “It definitely got the heart pumping,” Tyriq says.
Although Ronnie had spent most of his life playing and coaching basketball, he had married Heather, a native Canadian, who came from a family of goalies.
Tyriq was born in Miramichi, New Brunswick, where his grandfather Hugh Moar — Tyriq called him Grampy — was in the town’s Hall of Fame and his uncles were accomplished junior goaltenders.
Ronnie jokes that basketball never had a chance. Which, he adds, was fine by him.
“It wasn’t a disappointment at all,” he says. “I didn’t want him growing up with anyone comparing him to me or anything like that. I was just happy that every time he came off the ice, whether after practice or a game, he had a smile, and five minutes into the drive home, he wanted to talk about the game.”
Dealing With Adversity
After graduating high school in Boston, Tyriq had to choose between pursuing a Division I college career, or signing with a major junior hockey team, which would end his amateur status.
Tyriq with “Grampy”, Hugh Moar.
With a chance to sign with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), the former team of NHL stars like Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy and Roberto Luongo, and just an hour north from his birthplace, where his goalkeeping family had built a following, how could he resist?
It turned out to be the first speed bump in Tyriq’s career.
The QMJHL is one of three major junior ice hockey leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League, along with the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and Western Hockey League (WHL). Acadie-Bathurst had loaded up the previous season to win the QMJHL President’s Cup, and they captured the Memorial Cup against the winners from the OHL and WHL.
Tyriq says many of the players acquired to win the title in 2017-18 departed after that season. His new team won just eight games in 2018-19, and he finished with an 0-20 record, a 5.89 goals against average and faced nearly 1,000 shots in only 1,364 minutes. After a coaching change, Tyriq was released.
“The fact that it was (so close to Miramichi) made it even worse,” Ronnie says. “The whole town was hurrah hurrah, the hometown boy is coming, everybody was happy for that to happen. So, it made it double the monkey on his back.”
Ronnie worried about how Tyriq would handle his first-ever adversity. “I would be lying and he wouldn’t be human if I said it didn’t get him down.”
Ronnie says he reached out to Tampa Bay Lightning goalkeeping coach Frantz Jean for some guidance, concerned his son might retire his pads. Jean, however, reassured Ronnie that Tyriq was still highly regarded, and that NHL scouts will be watching to see how he reacted to his adversity.
“The ones that are successful come out the other side stronger,” Ronnie remembers being told.
Getting Back In The Pads
Tyriq got back to work. Determined to come back even stronger, rather than give up, he doubled down on his efforts. When he was tired, he thought about Bathurst. When he didn’t want to work out, he thought about Bathurst.
“I’m already up,” Tyriq would say as his dad walked into his room to wake him up early in the morning.
“That showed me just how tough he really is,” Ronnie says.
The Outen family — (l.-r) Tyriq, Kiana, Heather and Ronnie — has lived in Live Oak Preserve in New Tampa since 2006.
Tyriq’s bounceback started in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, in the Maritime Hockey League, a league below major junior. If playing near his hometown made the Bathurst experience more painful, then his first appearance at the Miramichi Civic Centre, against the hometown Timberwolves, offered some redemption — he stopped 34 of 35 shots in a 6-1 win.
He went on to beat the Timberwolves two more times at the Civic Centre, and stopped 145 of 156 shots the hometown team fired at him over five games.
Covid-19 ended the 2019-20 season early, so Tyriq returned to New Tampa. He worked out with the Lightning before the team entered the bubble en route to the Stanley Cup. Tyriq continued to grind, ready for his next challenge, which came when he was chosen to play at the prestigious invite-only Beantown Summer Classic in August in Exeter, NH, where NHL scouts handle the coaching duties.
“He was so proud of having some of the Lightning players’ phone numbers in his phone,” Ronnie says. “That was pretty cool for him.”
The NextGen MVP!
Tyriq was the only goalie invited to play for an all-minority team — NextGen AAA Foundation, a nonprofit that offers mentoring to hockey programs in underserved communities.
NextGen, which is coached by NHL players Bryce Salvador and Mike Grier, steamrolled the competition at the annual Beantown Classic in Boston, and went undefeated to win the title. Tyriq was 4-0, and even added five assists — a shockingly high number for a goalie but a tribute to his stick skills — and was named the tournament’s MVP.
“That was a big deal for me,” Tyriq says. “I feel like I’m ready to do bigger things. It was a great experience.”
Tyriq can’t return to Canada right now due to Covid, but was approached by a Calgary Flames scout at the Beantown Classic, who hooked him up the Maine Nordiques of the North American Hockey League. He left New Tampa last month to begin training, and the season began earlier this month.
In three games so far with Maine, Tyriq is 2-1 with a 2.94 goals-against-average and a .924 percent save percentage.
“He was in a bad situation before, but he’s recalibrated now,” Ronnie says. “This is a good situation for him. It’s going to be a good year. He is totally happy — you can hear it in his voice. And, that’s the best thing.”
LifePoint Church, which took over the Winn-Dixie Supermarket in 2006, has moved to Wesley Chapel and AdventHealth is moving in. (Photo: Charmaine George)
The LifePoint Church building located on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in front of Hunter’s Green, has been sold to Advent Health, which intends to renovate it into a “care pavilion.”
AdventHealth paid $7.4 million for the 5.84-acre property and reportedly will spend $8.44 million more to renovate it, and plans to include exam rooms and imaging capabilities such as MRIs, X-rays and CT scans.
“We are still working to determine which care services will best fit the needs of the community,” says Richelle Hoenes-Ahearn, a spokesperson for AdventHealth. “We are excited about the opportunity to bring this kind of facility to the area and make it more convenient and accessible for people to prioritize health and wellness.”
Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who represents District 7, which includes New Tampa, says he is working with AdventHealth to be sure the facility meets the needs of the New Tampa community.
He plans to have a meeting with AdventHealth in November to allow neighborhood leaders to ask any questions they may have about the project.
“This is a facility with a lot of potential benefits to the New Tampa area,” he says. “Dialogue is key.”
Meanwhile, LifePoint Church has moved its services to Wesley Chapel and also changed its name to The Gathering Church.
Executive pastor Brian Brown says the sale of the building is not related to the effects of Covid-19. In fact, he says, discussions with AdventHealth started well before the pandemic hit, when the hospital system approached the church with an offer.
Brian says the church had previously been approached by other suitors looking to purchase the building, but the offer from AdventHealth was, “the right price at the right time.”
The sale closed in mid-September, which was at the end of at least nine or ten months of discussion and work towards that goal, says Brian. He added that the lengthy process AdventHealth had to go through for permitting and rezoning was somewhat delayed because parts of the government had been shut down due the pandemic.
LifePoint originally purchased the building in 2006, when it was a vacant former Winn-Dixie supermarket and the church was meeting at the New Tampa Family YMCA. LifePoint opened its doors at the building in 2007.
“It was great for us,” says Brian, “but we’ve had a change in focus as a ministry.”
Brad White is the senior pastor for the church, which at one time had multiple campuses in Hillsborough and Pasco counties. Now, the church is exclusively in Wesley Chapel, meeting at Wiregrass Ranch High on Mansfield Blvd. on Sundays at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and noon.
“We have now focused all of our attention on the Wesley Chapel area,” says Brian. “That’s where all the growth is going.”
He says the church did a demographic study of its database and found that the majority of its congregation was coming from Wesley Chapel anyway, so the decision was made to move into the area where its people are living.
While the church may purchase another building in the future, for now, that’s not its priority.
“Our focus is just to love people and to help them begin a relationship with God,” says Brian, adding that buildings that are only used once a week cost a lot of money to maintain. “Now, dollars that were being spent on a facility are being used to facilitate relationships. We’re excited. It’s a great location for AdventHealth, so it’s a win-win for everybody.”
Tampa Bay Lightning head trainer Tom Mulligan & chiropractor Tim Bain may not have laced ‘em up, but they did contribute to the second Stanley Cup in team history!
Tampa Bay Lightning head trainer Tom Mulligan (holding the Stanley Cup) and his family (l.-r., Tyler, Abby, Zachary & Kellie) finally got to celebrate Tom’s second Cup win with the Bolts on Sept. 30. (Photo provided by Tom Mulligan)
The first Tampa Bay Lightning game of the NHL postseason went to one overtime, then two, three, four and five.
In between periods, Arbor Greene resident Tom Mulligan, the team’s head trainer, scrambled to tend to cramps and injuries, keep the players hydrated and their energy levels up with grilled chicken, slices of pizza and bananas.
“It was controlled chaos in between periods,” Mulligan says.
And, unbridled joy afterwards. When Brayden Point scored the game-winning goal to give the Lightning the 3-2, five-overtime win over Columbus, it set off a raucous celebration and catapulted Tampa Bay on a run that would eventually lead to the team’s second Stanley Cup championship.
“That night, I felt this could be something special,” Mulligan says. “It was six hours, and just to see the controlled chaos in between periods was something. It really was all hands on deck. We still needed 15 more wins after that, but if that would have turned out differently, who knows what happens?”
The Lightning ended up getting those 15 wins. After dropping the first game of the Stanley Cup finals to Dallas, the Lightning won the next four, including a 2-0 shutout pitched by goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy to clinch the title.
For many, including Mulligan — one of the few staffers remaining from the 2004 crew that took home the team’s first Cup — it was a long time coming. There have been a series of close calls in recent years, including a conference finals loss in 2018 and mostly noticeably, a devastating sweep by Columbus in the first round last year after the team tied an NHL record with 62 wins.
“We won it in my second year in the NHL, and I thought, ‘This isn’t so bad,’” Mulligan says, chuckling. “We had most of the team back, we’re going to have more chances. Then the years start ticking by, players come and go, and you realize: it’s not that easy.”
Mulligan is still coming down off the high of his second cup. There are few things like hockey celebrations, and Mulligan says Tampa outdid itself with the homecoming boat parade along the Hillsborough River and subsequent party held at Raymond James Stadium.
The most recognizable trophy in sports, Mulligan says he is hoping to be able to bring the Stanley Cup to New Tampa. It is a tradition that each member of the organization gets to spend at least a day with the trophy. In 2004, he took the Cup to Massachusetts to share with his parents.
While he is not sure of the parameters this year, due to Covid-19, he and wife Kelly have some ideas for a New Tampa celebration.
“That’s the plan,” he says.
But first, some family time is in order. Mulligan spent 65 days in the NHL bubble, first in Toronto and then in Edmonton.
Counting a few days of quarantining before he left Tampa, he was away from wife Kellie and their three children for a total of more than 70 days.
In 2004, only son Tyler had been born; he was 14 months old when the Lightning won the cup. Tyler is now 17-years old and a senior at Wharton, and since, brother Zachary, 15, and sister Abby, 13 have joined the family.
“It was really special coming home with the Cup and seeing them,” Tom says. He laments the sports and school events he has had to miss because of his job, and the bubble isolation made that even more difficult.
“They have had to make a lot of sacrifices over the course of their lives,” he says, but adds that they are all old enough now to truly appreciate what dad does and the significance of winning the Stanley Cup.
And, he was able to return home in time for Abby’s 13th birthday on Oct. 5. He told her before he left Edmonton he was bringing her a special present.
“She probably won’t ever get another gift like it,” he says. — JCC
Dr. Tim Bain hoists the Stanley Cup. (Photo provided by Dr. Tim Bain)
Bain Helps Victorious Bolts Deal With Aches & Pains
Wesley Chapel resident Tim Bain, D.C. (Doctor of Chiropractic), who has been the Lightning’s official team chiropractic physician since 2009, says he actually has been treating Lightning players since a year or two before the Bolts won their first Stanley Cup in 2004.
“I had just moved to the area and was living in West Meadows, along with a number of Lightning players, including Marty St. Louis, Nikolai Khabibulin and Fredrik Modin,” Bain says, “and Tom Mulligan, who was already the team’s trainer, started sending some of the players my way.”
Fast forward to the unique season of 2019-20, and both Mulligan and Bain were among the 52 players, coaches and staff sent by the Bolts to live in the NHL’s “bubble” in Toronto for this year’s no-fans, two-bubble (the other was in Edmonton) playoff format. And, when the Lightning emerged victorious 65 days after first entering the Toronto bubble, Dr. Bain was among those celebrating with the new Cup champs.
“There’s no doubt that hockey players are among the toughest of all professional athletes,” says Bain, whose office is in the Cory Lake Professional Center on Cross Creek Blvd. “They don’t like to come off the ice or complain about their aches and pains. But, once the team started to embrace the idea of chiropractic care, they could see that they could recover from injuries faster and get back on the ice even faster.”
Bain adds that with the even-quicker-than-usual turnaround times between games (because of not having to travel) in this year’s playoff format, he was even busier caring for the players than usual. He also was the person responsible for conducting concussion protocols for the players who sustained head injuries.
One of the Bolts’ players who attracted the most attention for his ongoing injury woes was, of course, team captain Steven Stamkos. Although the nature of his injury was never revealed, Bain says no one worked harder to get himself back into playing shape than Stammer.
“Even though he only played 2:47 in one game (Game 3 of the Cup final series against Dallas) of the entire playoffs,” Bain says, “I think the goal he scored while he was in there got the entire team as excited as the moment we won the Cup. Even though he ended up not seeing the ice again, he gave the whole team such a huge lift.”
Bain agrees with Mulligan that the hardest thing about their time in the bubble for all of the Lightning players and staff was being separated from their families for so long.
“I have a tendency to get homesick anyway, even just on road trips,” Bain says. “But, having to spend 70 days away from my wife and children was even harder. Especially when we shifted to the Edmonton bubble (for the last two playoff series), there was literally nothing for us to do. Being able to come home and celebrate winning the Cup with our families and the fans was so amazing.”
And, Bain adds, the goal now is to “bring the Cup home again next year. It can’t be more challenging than this year has been.”
He says that he plans to be on hand when next year’s team has to recover from injuries and everyday aches and pains. “I definitely hope to be part of another celebration!” — GN
