Tampa Palms resident Patrick Callahan (left) and former Liberty Middle School student Julio Plata both earned two-year scholarships to play soccer in England.
Like most serious soccer players, Tampa Palms’ Patrick Callahan has dreams of playing professionally, and there are few places better to do that than in England’s Premier League.
And, while he is still years away from playing at that level, the chance to play and study nearby in one of soccer’s hotbeds was too good for Callahan and recent Liberty Middle School student and Lutz resident Julio Plata to pass up.
Both players were recently awarded scholarships to Brooke House College football academy in Market Harborough, England, less than an hour north of London by train.
Brooke House College is similar to Bradenton’s IMG Academy and Saddlebrook Prep in Wesley Chapel, in that it attracts international athletes to board at the school while undergoing intensive training in their sport while maintaining high academic standards.
The two-year scholarships are valued at roughly $45,000 per year. That includes travel costs; the academy went to Budapest, Hungary, for a tournament last month.
“They have a lot of great facilities,’’ said Callahan, who completed his freshman year at King High last spring. “It’s a great school, they have a really nice gym and training facility. When you train, they have you wear a vest tracking everywhere you run, it’s state of the art. School is like 5-6 hours a day, with small classes, tutoring and you train like six days a week. That’s the amazing part, that you get to play that much.”
Callahan’s father, John, encouraged his son to accept the scholarship offer. John was pleased with both the athletic and academic aspects of the program.
“He will be SAT-ready when he’s done,’’ he said.
The 15-year-old Callahan currently plays club soccer for the Temple Terrace-based Florida Soccer Club (FSC) Spirit of Tampa Bay U16, and already has some experience playing soccer abroad. His mother, Grace Amparo Callahan, is from Ecuador, and on past family summer trips to her country, he would often practice and play with the college players there.
“That’s what I’m expecting at Brook House, a high level of play,’’ he said.
The first day of tryouts for this unique “futbol” academy consisted of soccer drills and scrimmages, with Brooke House College coaches Mickey Adams and Lawrie Dudfeld looking on.
Callahan, who is tall and fast for his age, said was nervous at first.
“I remember I messed up one or two times, and they were like, ‘All right, big guy, get back to it,’” Patrick said. “At first I was playing kind of iffy. But in the scrimmage, I felt I was doing good and standing out. I felt that’s what got me to the next day.”
Plata, 13, who has been playing for the FC TampaRangers club team, felt he did well in the drills. A midfielder, he said he just tried to keep the ball at his teammates’ feet.
“I really just wanted to pass the ball and not lose it,’’ he said, smiling.
Day 2 featured a number of games, and Callahan remembers scoring a particularly impressive goal — beating two defenders before depositing the ball into the upper corner — that caught the coaches’ attention
The coaches pared down the group, and announced they would be picking two players to receive the scholarships. Callahan and Plata were among more than 20 finalists at the final day interviews.
Callahan wasn’t sure he pulled it off in the interviews, but was relived to hear his name called.
“At first, I was so excited,’’ he says. “I called my grandma, she lives with my aunt, and I heard them screaming and excited on the other line. I posted a picture with the news on Instagram and, in an hour, gained like 100 followers. That was really cool, too.”
For Plata and Callahan, the Brooke House College football academy opportunity is a chance to hone their soccer skills with top, hand-selected competition.
Founded in 2008, the program boasts more than 70 players ages 13-19 filling four club teams that play in the Junior Premier League and other leagues, while also competing in various cups across Europe, and has produced 12 professional players.
Callahan and Plata, though, both say that if they can come back better players than when they left, it will help their chances to play collegiately in the U.S.
They are both awaiting their visas from the British Consulate in New York, and are eager to book their flights.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking,” Plata says, “but I’m excited to go.”
City officials say the New Tampa Recreation Center should be back to full speed following repairs to a roof leak that caused damage to the pit and TumbleTrak area.
On June 23, a portion of the ceiling fell through, closing a portion of the recreational side of the gym for repairs.
The damage interfered with summer camps and regular City of Tampa classes, forcing parents who have children in the NTRC’s popular gymnastics program to drive their kids to the Wayne C. Papy Center in Seminole Heights for two weeks.
“I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause, but this is the best solution for all of the children in our program. If you need help with transportation, talk with some of the other parents to possibly set up a carpool,” read a text sent to parents following the issues with the roof.
The area of the roof that was leaking was repaired the same day, according to Ocea Lattimore, director of the city’s Logistics & Asset Management Department.
A couple of screws had started to back out of the metal roof at a joint in the metal panel, Lattimore wrote in an email to the Neighborhood News. That repair cost $300, and Lattimore says that the other areas in the roof with the same detail were inspected as well.
The insulation, however, must be repaired. The vendor that was scheduled by the city to do the repairs said the 5’ wide insulation was a special order with a two-and-a-half week wait time. Lattimore’s department was researching other vendors for the insulation in hopes of speeding up the process.
Tampa District 7 City Councilman Luis Viera, who represents much of New Tampa, says he was informed of the leak the day after it was discovered.
“If something happens out here, I want to know about it,’’ says Viera, a Hunter’s Green resident who offered to do what he could to nudge along the process. “I’ve always worked in the private sector. Things run a little bit slower in the public sector.”
This is the second significant repair done at the New Tampa Recreation Center in the last two months. In May, the turf under the outside playground equipment split at the seams, closing that area for a month.
The turf was replaced under warranty at cost of $16,500.
The rec center has been a point of contention for many New Tampa residents. It has been planned for expansion for five years, but twice has had the money earmarked for the project diverted to another project elsewhere in the city.
Last year, the City Council voted to provide funds for the Cuscaden Park pool in Ybor City instead of the $1.5-million, 14,000-sq.ft. NTRC expansion.
At a recent town hall meeting hosted by Viera at the rec center, local attorney Tracy Falkowitz drew loud applause when she complained to Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s chief of staff Dennis Rogero that the NTRC has been getting shortchanged by the city.
The recent inconveniences caused by the playground being closed and local parents having to drive to Seminole Heights for dance lessons is likely to raise more eyebrows.
“I can say that the way I looked at it, it’s symbolic of the rec center and the need for more attention to the New Tampa area,’’ Viera says. “It needs more attention.”
The City Council should receive Buckhorn’s fiscal year 2017-18 budget on Thursday, July 20. Prior to the need for these playground and roof repairs, however, the new budget was not expected to include any additional money for the NTRC expansion.
For more info, visit TampaGov.net and search “parks-and-recreation.”
Dave Andreychuk #25 of the Tampa Bay Lightning skates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Calgary Flames in game seven of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals on June 7, 2004 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida. The Lightning won the Stanley cup by defeating the Flames 2-1. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
For more than a decade, a familiar face around New Tampa and one of the community’s leaders, long-time area resident Dave Andreychuk, has been greeted by many a local, eager to say hello, to thank him for the Stanley Cup he helped the Tampa Bay Lightning win in 2004, and, of course, to tell him he should be in the National Hockey League (NHL) Hall of Fame.
But now…finally…those same fans have a chance to say this: “It’s about darn time!”
Andreychuk received what many feel was a long-overdue call on June 26, telling him his wait was over. The former Lightning captain is an NHL Hall of Famer.
“It’s a great feeling,’’ Andreychuk says. “I’m happy the call finally came.”
Andreychuk, who moved into Arbor Greene in 1999 after signing with the Lightning, before his family moved to their current home in Hunter’s Green, said he was on his way to the airport when his cell phone rang around 2 p.m.
He looked down and saw a Toronto number. “Can it be?,” Andreychuck thought.
Unsure if it was the media calling to ask him his thoughts on not being selected again, or someone from the NHL, he answered to discover it was Lanny MacDonald, fellow Hall of Famer and currently the chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, with good news.
“It was really a surprise,’’ Andreychuk said. “I had no idea. I immediately pulled over to collect my thoughts. It really was very exciting.”
A native of Hamilton, Ontario, Andreychuk says he knew his day would eventually come. He has been eligible since 2009, and he thought each of the last two years might have been his day. This year, he says he hadn’t been giving it nearly as much thought.
He only hoped that he would make it into the Hall while his parents, Roz and Julian, were still around to celebrate it with him.
“That’s really what I wanted,’’ he said. “So, that it happened now, and they can celebrate it with me, is the best thing.”
Andreychuk will be officially inducted on Monday, November 13, in Toronto.
His inclusion into the Hall of Fame comes after a 23-year career that began when he was drafted in the first round by Buffalo in 1982 and made meaningful contributions in Toronto, New Jersey, Boston and Colorado before coming to Tampa Bay.
Andreychuk is the NHL’s all-time leader for career power-play goals with 273 (Brett Hull is second all-time, with 265), and is the 14th-leading all-time scorer with 640 goals. His 1,639 games are seventh all-time, and his 1,338 points tie him with Denis Savard for 29th on the all-time scoring list.
But Andreychuk’s greatest moment was captaining the Lightning Stanley Cup team in 2004. Outside of Amalie Arena, there is a bronze statue of him holding the Cup over his head.
He said he remembers taking the Cup home to Hunter’s Green the night the Lightning clinched their first championship, to party with his teammates, and then bringing it to the clubhouse a few days later to share it with the Hunter’s Green and New Tampa community.
“The support I’ve always gotten up here has been great,’’ Andreychuk said.
Andreychuk is currently the Lightning’s VP of Corporate & Community Affairs, and continues to be active in the community as a hockey ambassador. In fact, the Captain (as many in New Tampa still call him) was on hand as a dignitary for the opening of Florida Hospital Center Ice.
When Patrick Abad, the managing partner and VP of the Lexus of Wesley Chapel dealership scheduled to open later this year, regaled the June 21 audience at the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC)’s Economic Development Briefing with updates about the area’s next luxury car dealership, he drew oohs and ahhs from the crowd.
And, he did a lot of that without even mentioning the cars.
Thanks to a local family median income in the $80,000 range, an influx of new homes on the horizon and rapid business growth, Wesley Chapel has become a hot destination for luxury car dealers. Lexus of Wesley Chapel, being built just south and west of Wesley Chapel Toyota at 5300 Eagleston Blvd. (south of State Road 54 between Bruce B. Downs Blvd. and I-75), will be joining what is growing into a booming luxury car market that already includes Mercedes-Benz of Wesley Chapel, which opened in 2015, and Audi Wesley Chapel, which will open a little later this year than Lexus.
(L.-r.) Randy Newbold of Williams Automotive Group, Steve Domonkos of the Shops at Wiregrass, Eric Johnson of Williams Auto, Jennifer Tussing of the Wesley Chapel Chamber and Patrick Abad, the managing partner and VP of Lexus of Wesley Chapel.
Abad wowed the WCCC audience with details of what will be a state-of-the-art facility that he expects will revolutionize the local car-buying experience.
“We have visited over 40 Lexus dealerships in the last 18 months, and we took the best from each one,’’ Abad said. “When we sat down with the architect, we said we want all of these things.”
Those things include simple, but expensive touches like the $2 million being spent on a double car wash. “Lexus said we didn’t have to build a car wash,” Abad says, “so we didn’t…we built two.”
A pavilion, equipped with a grill, refrigerator and televisions and able to host small corporate events, will link the Lexus dealership to the adjacent Wesley Chapel Toyota dealership. Inside, a cafe featuring fresh sandwiches and a smoothie machine, massage chairs, a business center and even a “quiet” room for those working while they wait for their cars is being incorporated into the dealership.
Abad is part of the Williams Automotive Group of Wesley Chapel, which also operates Wesley Chapel Toyota and Wesley Chapel Honda on Wesley Chapel Blvd. (or C.R. 54), the Wesley Chapel Used Superstore on S.R. 54 and Tampa Honda on N. Florida Ave.
Williams Automotive, run by brothers John and David Williams, has been chasing a Lexus dealership — there are only 236 in the country, Abad says — for years. They even did their own market study, which showed a need for a Lexus dealership in Wesley Chapel, and as one of about 500 applicants, presented it yearly in the hopes of being awarded one. Once chosen, the process included five thorough on-site interviews at Toyota.
“Two grueling years,’’ Abad said, adding that it was the first time in 12 years a new dealer had been brought into the Lexus family. He said that the success of Wesley Chapel Toyota, chosen as the WCCC Large Business of the Year in 2015, played a big role.
The new dealership is being built on eight acres of land, and though the standard Lexus dealership is roughly 20,000-sq.-ft., the Wesley Chapel location will be 64,000-sq.-ft.
“It’s bigger because we know what’s going to happen in this market,’’ Abad said. “And, we’ll be ready.”
High-tech customer care, though, will be a centerpiece. “Technology like you will not see in any other store,’’ Abad said.
When Lexus owners pull in, radio-frequency identification (RFID) will alert their customer service rep inside. An electronic tire reader will tell you if you need new tires before you even take a seat inside. WiFi in the poles in the parking lot will allow employees to better address customer needs via their tablets.
As for sales, gone are the days of what Abad called the “27 steps of the sale process.” With smarter shoppers these days due to computers and the internet, Abad said sales reps do not have to drag customers through all 27 steps.
“Customers are all at different spots in the process,’’ he says. “If they come in and know the price they want to pay, what their car is worth, what they want to buy, can’t we just skip steps 1-22 and go right to 23?”
In fact, due to tablet technology, Abad said in some cases it might be feasible to skip right to 27, and sign the paperwork for your car on a tablet in your own driveway.
Lexus will hire 100 people, and Abad said they are looking more to the customer service and hospitality industries. He also said he has received 1,200 applications from all over the country — even one from a director of concierge at a Ritz-Carlton Hotel in California.
Lexus will hit the ground running. Abad is handling a promotion called the Founding 100, which will provide various perks for the first 100 customers to buy a Lexus at the Wesley Chapel location. It includes upgrades like a lifetime warranty, lifetime oil changes and car washes, as well as other VIP services.
The promotion already has been a hit. Six months before Lexus is set to open, 95 cars already have been pre-sold. “The average Lexus store sells about 100 monthly,’’ Abad said. “We’re doing 100 the first week.” Or more. Abad added that Lexus of Wesley Chapel they may widen the promotion for additional customers.
“I think this is going to be great for the community,’’ he says. “I think you are going to be proud of what we do.”
For more information, check out Lexus of Wesley Chapel’s website at Lexus OfWesleyChapel.com.
Tampa Bay Curling Club president Bernie Skerkowski guides his stone.
It is Saturday night in Wesley Chapel, a typical summer night where a 90º+ day has given way to a torrential downpour. But, inside chilly Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI), the atmosphere couldn’t be a more perfect for the Tampa Bay Curling Club (TBCC).
A cart with plastic pitchers of beer is hoisted onto a rink — where stones and brooms and a collection of mismatched locals with rubber bands on their shoes (to keep from slipping) — men and women, ranging in ages from 15 to 70, are ready for their favorite night of the week.
Annie Gargasz gets busy sweeping.
In a cacophony of stones clacking together and teammates cheering each other on, club president Bernie Skerkowski’s voice seems to boomerang off the boards.
“No……no……Yes! Sweeeeeep! Sweeeeeep!”
Skerkowski teaches the sport and runs the curling program at FHCI, but he also is on a team — Curl Jam — in the inaugural season of curling that is now less than halfway through its first season in the Tampa Bay area. He is exhorting his teammates to brush the ice, which is covered with tiny droplets of water that harden into little pebbles of ice, and smooth it out so the 42-pound stone that he has just slid towards the “house,” or target, can pick up some steam and trajectory.
“Sweeeeeeeeeeeep!”
Although the sport of curling is definitely in its infancy at Florida Hospital Center Ice, more than 60 people already are participating in the first-ever curling league in the Tampa Bay area, including curling vet Scott Gargasz (squatting) of Advanced Hands.
When the stone finds its mark inside the house, he flashes a smile towards his teammates, and is greeted with two thumbs up.
This happens on all five sheets (or rows) of ice on one of the three NHL-sized rinks every Saturday night at FHCI, over and over, by an enthusiastic group excited about being curling pioneers in Wesley Chapel. The “Spirit of Curling,” a common phrase used in the game by players to describe the sportsmanship, camaraderie and etiquette that is supposed to define the sport, is on display.
“We can’t wait for Saturday nights,’’ said DJ Bonoan, a computer engineer who formed a team, House of Chapel, with his friends Noah Bethel, Orlando Rosales and Billy Still.
Bonoan and his teammates have so embraced curling’s arrival, he is documenting their first season on a blog called TheHadjiChronicles.com, where he posts a video series he shoots and edits called “STONED.”
“We’re always thinking about it,’’ Bonoan says. “I’m at work, looking at better strategies for playing, looking for game plans, trying to figure out better ways to get the stone down the ice. Man, we love it!”
Bonoan has even downloaded a curling game app for his cell phone.
Skerkowski isn’t surprised that Bonoan and others have quickly developed an obsession with curling.
He and FHCI general manager Kevin Wolter had talked about hosting a curling league long before the doors were even open at the facility, with both feeling it would be a big hit in the community.
When they were able to convince developers to build room for five sheets of curling ice (one sheet for each game being played), they knew they could make it work. “I am still a little surprised,’’ Skerkowski says. “It’s more people than I expected. When we had our informational meeting, I thought we’d get 30-40 people out, but we had 100.”
Big Numbers, Big Fun!
The TBCC (visit TampaBayCurlingClub.com) currently has 63 members, and 80 percent of them had no curling experience when they signed up. The league, which has 10 teams, is co-ed, although, if interest increases, Skerkowski is open to a women’s-only league in the future.
Liz Mitchell was just “along for the ride” until she got curling fever herself.
The league already utilizes five sheets every Saturday. The Orlando Curling Club, which has been around for a few years, usually only has access to three or four, according to Skerkowski.
“They can’t believe how many we’ve got,’’ says Skerkowski.
The league has recently been accepted into the Grand National Curling Club (GNCC), a 150-year-old organization that has more than 4,700 members, or roughly a quarter of all curlers in the U.S., according to its website. Skerkowski says getting in the GNCC was a coup for a club so young.
“Even they (GNCC) were surprised by how many members we have,’’ he said.
The current TBCC league, which was about to complete (at our press time) the fourth week of a 10-week season, is just the tip of the, well…iceberg.
By the start of the next season, an influx of snowbirds returning to Florida and word of mouth is expected to increase the number of local curling participants. The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in February in PyeongChang, South Korea, which will give the sport another boost, with the TBCC expecting to see an influx of new members as a result.
Wolter says there could also be plans for a Sunday morning league, which are very popular up north, as well as bonspiels, or weekend tournaments.
“It has been very successful so far, so we can definitely see this expanding into a number of different things,’’ he says.
Curling reminds many of shuffleboard, a popular game with the older set in Florida, although it is more commonly referred to as “chess on ice” and dates back to the 1500s.
Each game is played on a rectangular sheet of ice which is roughly 150 feet long and 16 feet wide. At FHCI, the five sheets of ice are laid down side. The ice is “pebbled,” a process where small droplets of water are frozen across the surface. Without pebbling, Skerkowski says, the stone would barely move. With it, the stone is able to glide more effectively and spin, or curl…hence the name.
While players take turns “throwing,” or pushing, the stone, their teammates play the role of sweepers, using a broom to brush the ice to the front and side of the stone. The brushing reduces friction underneath the stone and allows its path, speed and spin to be manipulated.
Teams alternate shots and are aiming for the house, the area that looks like a target, as they try to score points for being closest to the center. Each team throws eight stones to complete an “end” (or inning, like in baseball). Although the number varies, a typical match consists of eight ends.
“When we were first got here, I was thinking, ‘How hard could this be?,’’’ says Bonoan, who is no stranger to working out. “But, I’ll tell you this, it’s a lot more challenging than it looks on TV. I was actually sore after the first Learn To Curl class.”
Although curling is huge in Canada — where national finals are televised — and in the northern U.S. (it has even been featured in an episode of “The Simpsons”), the only time most Americans ever see the sport is during the Winter Olympics.
The game enjoyed a spike in popularity when it returned as an Olympic sport in 1998, after its exclusion from the Olympic programs since 1924. In 2010, it was prominently featured during Olympic TV coverage, creating another boost of popularity. “People laugh at it, but when it is on during the Olympics, everybody watches it,” Skerkowski says.
Catching The Fever…
New Tampa resident Raquel Aluisy, who convinced best friend Janice Tuffy to join her and started researching the sport before it even started at FHCI (only to find the closest clubs were in Orlando or Fort Myers), says “I remember curling during the Olympics, watching it at 3 a.m. when I was little, and thought it looked so cool and fun,’’ Aluisy says. “A couple of months later, they announced it at Center Ice and I called Janice and said ‘WE’RE DOING IT!’”
Raquel and Janice met Chris Ansey and Dave Hobbs at one of the Learn To Curl classes in May, and decided to form a team, Kuch’s Kurlers, for the league.
“Everybody was just so friendly and nice,’’ she says. “We all learned together, fell together and got back up together.”
Raquel tried to recruit others, “but all my friends at work think I’m crazy.”
Saturday night may not ideal for many, but Raquel has no problem making her way to Wesley Chapel for league matches. At least, so far. A Tampa Bay Lightning season ticketholder, she expects a few of the hockey games to conflict with her curling career. “That will be a tough choice,” she says, laughing.
Mike Meyers of Dade City watched curling during the last Olympics, and when he read that an ice rink was being built nearby, he told his wife if they ever started curling, he was going to play.
One of the first few curlers to sign up at FHCI, Meyers and his son Chris, who is 15, play on Get Your SHEET Together. On a recent Saturday night, Chris found the bulls eye a few times, although the team fell short against License to Curl.
“He’s not a big sports kid at all, but he has picked it right up,’’ Mike said.
Their teammates, Danny Winters and his fiancé Liz Mitchell of Wesley Chapel, signed up together. Danny says he was debating trying the sport out after stumbling across a curling demo one day at FHCI, when his 8-year-old son Avery nudged the guy at the sign-up table and said ‘My dad wants to try it out.’”
That guy happened to be Skerkowski, who closed the deal with Winters.
“I was along for the ride,’’ said Mitchell, who admits she has also developed a fondness for the sport.
It’s not cheap to curl, a fact that nearly scared off Mitchell and others.
To join the Tampa Bay Curling Club, the annual dues are $75 (which covers insurance) and to register a team is $250 (or what amounts to $25 a match). That comes out to $250 per player, though Skerkowski says a team of eight that alternates the weeks they play cuts that in half.
Ice time is not cheap. In fact, the league started a three-week hiatus after the games June 24 because other scheduled events need the rink. And creating the particular curling sheets is time consuming. “We’ve made it as cheap as possible,’’ he says. “Nobody is making any money off this.”
While the club provides some brooms, most members have gone online to buy their own, which start at around $50 for a fiberglass version if you shop around. There are specially-made curling shoes, which is another cost for the serious player, there are slider slippers to share and you can get by with rubberbands to keep from slipping.
You do not, however, need the most expensive piece of equipment, the stone. The FHCI is leasing 16 of the granite stones for the league, for a cost of $6,000 a year, but will eventually own them.
Some teams have also decided to buy matching uniforms for the games.
“It’s been worth every penny,’’ says Bonoan. “I can’t wait to see what other stuff they have planned.”
For more information about upcoming Learn To Curl Classes, current league standings and future leagues, visit TampaBayCurlingClub.com or contact president Bernie Skerkowski at (813) 758-2279.
