Campbell To Coach PHSC & WPSL Teams At The Sports Campus

Stuart Campbell

Congratulations, mate! Stuart Campbell, the director of soccer at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, has added some new highlights to his already-impressive resumé.

First of all, Campbell (photo), the Wesley Chapel resident who also is a former Tampa Bay Rowdies player and head coach, will be the first-ever head coach of the new women’s soccer program Pasco-Hernando State College (PHSC).

PHSC, which already competes in basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball and cross country at its main campus in New Port Richey, is adding girls soccer to its athletic program beginning in August.

The twist is that PHSC’s women’s soccer side won’t play in New Port Richey, but instead will call the PHSC Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch home. That also means the women will play their home matches at the new Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus off S.R. 56.

But wait, there’s more! Campbell also will also head up Wesley Chapel’s entry in the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL), which will be called RADD FC and also will play its home games at the Sports Campus for this upcoming season.

The WPSL is the longest active women’s pro soccer league in the U.S. It was created in 1998 and is an affiliate of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), the ruling body of soccer in this country. Most of RADD FC’s players are current student-athletes.

There are 141 WPSL teams nationwide, in 32 different states, as well as teams in Vancouver, British Columbia.

RADD FC will compete in the Northern Division of the Sunshine Conference, along with the Clermont Kicks FC, Florida Krush (Winter Park) and Tampa teams Florida Premier FC and Tampa Bay United. 

“I can’t wait to be part of RADD FC’s WPSL team,” Campbell said.“This will take women’s soccer to another level, as well as grow within our community.”

Campbell, 43, was born to Scottish parents in England, played professionally from 1996-13, including a stint with Leicester City of the renowned English Premier League. He signed with the Tampa Bay Rowdies in 2013, playing one season, and then served as an assistant coach from 2014-15 and as the team’s head coach from 2015-18.

Both RADD FC and the PHSC women’s team are expected to elevate the footprint of women’s soccer in the Tampa Bay area.

Go, Bobcats!

The PHSC Bobcats will be a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) at the Division II level, as well as the Florida College System Activities Association (FCSAA).

PHSC athletic director Steve Winterling thinks the idea of providing another opportunity for women athletes is great timing, considering that many colleges are dropping athletic programs to save money in the wake of Covid-19, while also offering an extra year for the athletes already at their schools, creating a potential backlog. It also helps PHSC meet Title IX requirements.

“The college was looking to expand its athletic program, and you’re always dealing with gender equity so it helped balanced us out in several areas,” Winterling says. “Also, financial times are tough, and we were looking at also giving women an opportunity to participate (in what is a relatively inexpensive sport).”

As for playing at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, Winterling says he has been thinking about ways to bring PHSC athletics to the east side of the county for years. While the school considered playing at other sites on the west side of the county, he says RADD Sports CEO Richard Blalock, who manages the private side of the Sports Campus in the public-private partnership with Pasco County, expressed interest in a relationship, especially with soccer.

“It’s a great opportunity for us,” Winterling says.

Campbell was chosen to lead the program from a pool of 13 applicants.

PHSC has a lot of work ahead of it before it opens the season in August against Polk State College. One of the first issues to solve after finding players will be finding teams to play. Winterling says there are only three other NJCAA Division II women’s soccer teams in the state — Daytona State College, Eastern Florida State and Polk State College. PHSC has already scheduled Polk State four times this upcoming season.

“We’ll have to scramble a little and maybe travel out of state to find some competition,” he says. “We have a few questions to iron out, but we’re really excited to get this going.”

Time To Go Camping!

Meanwhile, Campbell also will be part of the Nike US Sports Camps at the Sports Campus, which will include basketball, soccer, volleyball and cheerleading camps for boys and girls, ages 8-18. 

Quail Hollow Residents Prepare For Another Fight

A likely-to-be-proposed development will affect three different communities, according to Quail Hollow residents opposed to it.

Lane Mendelsohn has had his eye on the more than 1,000 acres of land next to where his family lives in the Quail Hollow area for a few years now. Not because he wants to buy it, but because those who own it have plans he feels aren’t best for that area.

SoHo Capital, LLC,  the developers of the proposed Dayflower Master Planned Unit Development (MPUD), may be prepping to ask the county for a rezoning that will increase how many homes it can build on the land from roughly 1,000 to almost 1,500. Mendelsohn is worried about overcrowding, flooding, damage to wetlands and roads buckling under an influx of new traffic, to name a few.

So, instead of sitting back and waiting to see what happens, Mendelsohn and a group of Quail Hollow residents are on a mission to stop a potential rezoning of the land before it even gets started.

Mendelsohn has spent a good deal of his own money founding the Quail Hollow Alliance (QHA), creating a website and forming a team of land and environmental experts. He has rallied the communities of Quail Hollow, Angus Valley and Lexington Oaks — and residents of those developments account for the many of the more than 2,000 signatures in opposition he has collected — in a proactive effort to save the area.

“I’m not an activist that goes around county looking for a fight,” Mendelsohn says. “I got involved because this affects me, my family and my community. We’ve got one shot to stop this proposed development on a very environmentally sensitive piece of property and once built on, that’s it, there’s no turning back. If someone didn’t step up with the time and financial resources, my feeling was we may blow it and have to live with the adverse effects. If I didn’t do this, I would never be able to forgive myself.”

SoHo Capital is likely to bring its plans to the Pasco County Planning Commission in the near future. It owns 1,007 acres north of Wesley Chapel Blvd. and west of Old Pasco Rd. The property touches three established communities, but mostly Quail Hollow and Angus Valley, communities which date back to the 1950s, where home lots are generally three quarters of an acre or larger.

Mendelsohn owns a 75-acre lot just north of the property, a six-acre plot and a 2-acre plot where he lives next to his parents’ 14-acre lot.

Mendelsohn says Soho Capital wants to fill the developable areas (probably 500 acres, due to how much of the property is wetlands) with 40-foot lots.

While he says he respects a land owner’s rights to do what is allowed under its zoning, he is opposed to rezoning to allow even more homes.

While SoHo is already permitted to build around 1,000 homes (2.2 homes per buildable acre due to its current Res-1 zoning), Mendelsohn says the developer  is working towards a rezoning which would allow for 1,439 homes.

“My feeling is development has to be responsible, and has to be consistent and compatible with the surrounding areas,” Mendelsohn says.

Jennifer Seney, a Quail Hollow resident who researches most of the information that fills the group’s website, feels the same.

“I’ll even go a step further,” Seney says, “I’ll say that what is being proposed for this piece of land is completely inappropriate.”

The additional density from a rezoning, not what is currently allowed, is where the QHA finds the problem. 

According to Mendelsohn, SoHo Capital estimates the development would add 13,309 additional day trips on three small country roads that run right through Quail Hollow and Angus Valley. Mendelsohn says those roads — Sandy Ln., Mangrove Dr. and Armenian Ln. — are already classified as substandard by the county for not being thick or wide enough, and there is no room to widen them without getting rid of the swales that help control the area’s persistent flooding.

Seney has particularly strong feelings about the roads, because she says SoHo Capital is requesting that the county allow it to pay “fair share” on the road improvements, which means splitting the costs with the county, rather than footing the bill themselves. She believes the county’s share would end up as an assessment on those living near and using the roads. In other words, the residents of Quail Hollow and Angus Valley.

“The road improvements are solely for the benefit of the developer,” Seney says. “We don’t need them (with the current population that uses them), and would never ask for them, but will have to pay for them.”

Seney, who worked for Pasco County as a recycling supervisor from 2008-18, fears the county may see this as an opportunity to bring the roads up to a higher level of service without having to pay for anything.

Following a March 1 required virtual public meeting with the developer, QHA members also claimed the project, which is adjacent to the Cypress Creek Preserve, would destroy “at least 11 acres of pristine wetlands, which help recharge Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater’s water supply through Pasco’s Cypress Creek Watershed.”

SoHo Capital, or SoHo Dayflower LLC, does not yet have any meetings scheduled yet before the planning commission, which would be the next step. Mendelsohn is hoping that such meetings won’t happen at all. The main goal of his group is to convince county staff that the project isn’t worth putting to any vote, due to the numerous questions — which Mendelsohn says have not been answered — put forth by the QHA.

“I don’t want this to get in front of the planning commission and then the county commissioners and have us have to fight this out in front of them,” Mendelsohn says. “If the Pasco County Planning department really takes a look at this, they would see that this project is not a good project for this area.”  

District 2 County Commissioner Mike Moore says he has been contacted by the group, but until the project moves onto the planning commission agenda, he has little to say about it.

The QHA is not trying to stop SoHo from building any homes on the land it owns. Mendelsohn says he is not anti-development. And in fact, if developers were only trying to build the number of homes the property  was currently zoned for, the QHA wouldn’t even exist.

However, if a rezoning does take place, he feels that more homes will equal more problems for long-time residents of Quail Hollow and Angus Valley.

“My main point is, building 40-foot lots is just not compatible in an area where the lots are bigger and there isn’t that kind of density,” Mendelsohn says. ““I do believe property owners have rights and I respect that, however my hope is that the county commissioners are listening to the people and just because a developer requests a rezoning, that is not something they are entitled to or that the commissioners are required to grant.”

For more information, check out QuailHollowAlliance.org

Why The Neighborhood News Is Still Your Best Local News Source

Gary Nager

I have to admit that I was really excited to see (on Mar. 26) WFTS-TV’s ABC Action News set up its “Good Morning Tampa Bay” morning show outside the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, where my wife Jannah is the director of marketing for RADDSports, which manages the programs at the campus. 

“Good Morning Wesley Chapel” was the fifth stop on the morning show’s ongoing tour of Tampa Bay communities, so I had hopes to find some new information that maybe managing editor John Cotey, videographer Charmaine George and I haven’t been able to bring you because we’re a three-person team, while ABC Action News has an entire team of reporters, anchors and producers who created multiple features between 5 a.m.-7 a.m. that day about our area.

As a 27-year veteran of covering the news and information coming out of Wesley Chapel, I have to say that I was expecting more  — and better — information coming out of that show.

First of all, anchor Deiah Riley started off by calling the Sports Campus the Sports Complex and repeated throughout the morning that the Sports Campus features 16 volleyball courts and eight (at first she said 18) basketball courts (both correct), plus 56 fencing “lanes” and 8 wrestling mats?

Here’s the thing — the Sports Campus does have room for that number of fencing pistes (the correct term) and wrestling mats, but has yet (or any plans) to host a fencing or wrestling event. There was no mention of the Sports Campus’ state-of-the-art cheerleading facility, indoor and outdoor soccer under the direction of former Tampa Bay Rowdies head coach Stuart Campbell or the Yo Murphy Performance training area we told you about in our Feb. 16 issue. 

OK, so the producers of “Good Morning Wesley Chapel” obviously didn’t read any recent issues of the Neighborhood News to get their information, but there were mistakes and discrepancies throughout the morning.

Screenshot, Deiah Riley

For example, Riley’s pre-recorded report mistakenly repeated multiple times during those two hours that the ever-expanding Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd. is part of the county’s sports tourism efforts and re-branding as “Florida’s Sports Coast” — when the WCDP always has been intended for local residents (unlike the Sports Campus). That report also said that WCDP’s inclusive playground (the first of its kind in Pasco) was paid for by impact fees without mentioning the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, AdventHealth, the Lennar Foundation and others who gave money for that project.

And, speaking of sports tourism, there was no mention of AdventHealth Center Ice, in the heart of Wesley Chapel, or the Sarah Vande Berg Tennis & Wellness Center in nearby Zephyrhills.

Plus, while there was a short feature about the new Grove Theater, there was no interview clip with developer Mark Gold, nor any mention of The Grove’s coming-soon KRATE container park, which will bring dozens of new eateries to Wesley Chapel. The theater piece also mentioned its sushi bar, but not the Bistro restaurant.

And, while there were good stats provided about the rise in average home prices in Wesley Chapel, the Realtor interviewed is based out of South Tampa and featured an interview with a family who bought a home with a large body of water behind it which likely also wasn’t located in Wesley Chapel. 

The two best features were about Wesley Chapel youngsters, one of which was an update on Janiah Hinds, who we featured back in August 2020 for her “Slay it Proud” T-shirt line. The other was an excellent “Deiah’s Brag Book” feature about 12-year-old soccer player Peyton Wheatley, who suffered a life-threatening event back in late Feb., too late to get the story in our Mar. 16 issue. To help Peyton’s family, visit GoFundMe.com and search “Peyton’s Road to Recovery.”  

Coyotes Packing A Punch

Schwartz has nine home runs in just 13 games this season, while pitcher Hailey Vazquez (below) is sporting a sub-1.00 ERA, and both have helped Cypress Creek High to an impressive 10-3 start this season. (Photos: Charmaine George)

Mandy Schwartz digs the long ball.

Through the first 15 games this season, the Cypress Creek High (CCH) junior third baseman has launched 10 pitches over the softball fences at various high schools, from Zephyrhills (twice) to Wiregrass Ranch to Berkeley Prep, where home run No. 10 in the sixth inning lifted the Coyotes to a 1-0 district win.

Her eighth home run, which came in the sixth inning against Class 5A, No. 3-ranked River Ridge, tied a game the Coyotes eventually lost 5-4, but it also set a school record for a season, breaking Neely Peterson’s previous mark of seven set in 2019.

Schwartz’s ninth homer, three days later, tied her for the state lead with two other players. 

Her 10th, April 8 against the Bucs, is merely putting the record further out of reach for the coming classes of Coyote softball players — and there’s still three games to play.

She’s not just a player who can crush a lot. In fact, Schwartz doesn’t see herself as a home run hitter, just someone who hits the ball hard.

“I definitely think I am a power hitter, but not necessarily a home run hitter,” she says. 

Schwartz combines her power with contact, and is hitting .608 with only three strikeouts in 48 plate appearances this season. It is one of the primary reasons the Coyotes got off to a surprising 12-3 start in 2021, including 6-0 in the District.


Hailey Vazquez

And, there have been other bright spots. Senior centerfielder Emma Coons is hitting over .300 with 12 stolen bases, junior Jillian Hudson is batting .382 with a team-high five doubles, and senior Hailey Vazquez has given Cypress Creek a legitimate ace in the circle for the first time in its four years of existence.

Vazquez boasts a 0.74 ERA, and has struck out 112 batters in 66 innings while posting a 9-2 record.

“I can’t ask more of Hailey,” says first-year Coyotes’ head coach Jennelle Day. “She’s a great leader on and off the field and has a confidence the girls follow. She’s done a lot of big things for us.”

Schwartz has been a starter since her freshman year, when she batted .467 with three homers, eight doubles and 25 RBI. That team won a District title, a Regional playoff game and came within a run of making it to the Regional championship game. 

She credits her offensive numbers to Tommy Santiago, who was her private hitting coach before rejoining the staff of the University of South Florida softball team last year. Santiago changed Schwartz’s swing a few years back, and after struggling a few months to get the mechanics just right, she has been on a tear.

Last season, she didn’t get a chance to follow up her impressive freshman season due to Covid-19, which cut the season short (but not before she was able to hit a home run in the Coyotes’ season opener against Mitchell).

Schwartz was unsure what to expect in 2021, and has been a little surprised by CCH’s hot start.

“Honestly, I really didn’t expect this because we lost a majority of our players (the past two seasons),” Schwartz says. “We currently have eight freshmen on our roster, so I thought it might be a little rocky. But, everything just clicked early on.”

Even with Schwartz’s big bat and Vazquez’s stalwart arm filling two important areas, the CCH defense may deserve just as much credit for the team’s success. Through 15 games, the Coyotes had committed just nine errors.

“The bats can be shaky, but the defense has really stepped up,” Schwartz says.

As a result, she thinks this year’s version of the Coyotes can match what the 2019 team did, and maybe even advance in the State playoffs.

“I think as long as we stay focused we can definitely do that again,” Schwartz says.

Garden Mediterranean Grill — So Close & So Authentic!

Even though there are quite a few Mediterranean/Middle Eastern restaurants located in New Tampa, based on what I’ve already tasted and heard from customers, it’s still well worth a few-minute drive to the Eagle Plaza on Oak Grove Blvd. at S.R. 54 in Lutz to try the new Garden Mediterranean Grill.

gggg

Owners Raja Saad and her husband, Chef Hedi Jlassi (top photo) are both from the Arabic North African nation of Tunisia and they offer a huge variety of delicious Mediterranean-influenced food in a beautiful, but casual setting.

The restaurant now called Garden Mediterranean Grill has had a number of previous tenants, including a Latin restaurant and a number of coffee shops, but Raja and Hedi and their family believe that they have brought the right cuisine and the right price to the location — and yes, the food is delicious!

Whether you dine as a couple of bring a large family or group of friends to the Garden, you’re sure to find plenty of options, as well as huge portions.

  • Lamb chops
  • Meat lovers platter
  • Foule
  • Half chicken
  • Interior of restaurant
  • Al Bohsali Dessert
  • Appetizer Dip and Pita

To start, try the Foule (pronounced “fool”; center photo, far right), a delicious dish of puréed fava beans, garlic, lemon and topped with virgin olive oil. It’s served with the fluffiest pita bread I’ve had anywhere. To really get into the variety of starters, however, Raja and Hedi recommend the appetizer platter, which includes hummus, baba Ghanouj (mashed, cooked eggplant), labneh (strained yogurt), falafel (fried, ground chick peas) and grape leaves. Other starters include fried calamari, Nabulsi fried cheese, tabouli (chopped parsley, diced tomatoes, onions, dry mint, lemon juice and olive oil), shakshouka merguez (sautée of Merguez sausage and eggs cooked with tomatoes, onion, garlic and spices and even shrimp scampi. 

So far, the only salad I’ve sampled is the tangy house salad (diced tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, lettuce, parsley, herbs, olive oil and lemon juice), but there also is a great-looking Greek salad, fattoush, tahini and Caesar salads. You also can top your salad with a variety of meats and seafood, including chicken kabobs (so good) or shawarma, beef or lamb shish kabobs, kufta (ground lamb) kabobs, delicious, fresh-cut gyro meat, salmon or shrimp.

I haven’t sampled any of the sandwiches yet, but I have had several of the meats available as sandwiches as entrée platters. The sandwich that looked the most interesting to me was the chicken shawarma quesadilla, which is a nice Middle Eastern take on the popular Mexican dish which combines sliced chicken shawarma meat and a delicious garlic sauce with cheese, onions and tomatoes stuffed inside a soft tortilla. There’s also fish, shrimp and falafel wraps on the menu.

The perfectly-season meat entrée platters all include long-grain yellow rice and amazing grilled veggies (onions and red and green peppers; Jannah and I order them well-cooked). Among my favorite entrées so far are the gyro, beef shawarma and chicken kabob platters, but my can’t-miss option so far is the lamb chop platter. You get four tender, delicious rib chops that are grilled to perfection. 

Lamb chops.

Other entrée options include Turkish kabobs (ground lamb and beef, but Raja says they are different from kufta kabobs), Merguez sausage, lamb shanks and chicken tekka, which is a marinated half-chicken char-grilled in what appears to be an Indian-influenced blend of spices. I didn’t taste it but photographer Charmaine George said it was outstanding.

Although I can’t eat shrimp and personally don’t love salmon or tilapia, the seafood entrées include shrimp kabobs, salmon, fish and mixed seafood platters, as well as the char-broiled whole fish of the day, usually red snapper or bronzino. There are also are large meat-lovers’ platters (with shish, kufta and chicken kabobs, gyro and beef and chicken shawarma) and royal meat-lovers’ platters (add lamb chops, shrimp and salmon), both in sizes to serve 2-3 and 4-6 people, although all of them honestly look like they could serve even more people to me.

Desserts & Beverages!  

Like most Mediterranean restaurants, Garden Mediterranean Grill offers dessert favorites like baklava, warbat (filo dough stuffed with cream) and a variety of cakes, but my favorite so far are the almond baklava fingers shown and the salted caramel cheesecake. I’ve yet to try the baklava with ice cream, but it’s definitely on my list. As for beverages, try the Turkish coffee, the Moroccan mint green tea and the fresh mint lemonade.

Left to right: Mint lemonade, salted caramel cake and hot tea being poured.

Garden Mediterranean Grill is located at 1900 Oak Grove Blvd., Lutz (zip code 33559) and is open Mon.-Thur., 10 a.m.-10 p.m., 10 a.m.-11 p.m. on Fri., 9 a.m.-11 p.m. on Sat. and 9 a.m.-10 p.m. on Sun. For more information, call (813) 528-8088 or see the ad on pg. 39 of our latest issues for a Grand Opening Special 15%-off coupon.