New Ranch Aims To Turn Your Kid Into A Baseball Rockstar

rockstar2webOn five acres of land off Old Pasco Rd., Ryan Pryor has built a ranch devoted to teaching America’s pastime.

Pryor’s Rockstar Baseball Ranch (RBR) has everything from hitting stables with seven batting cages to five bullpens for pitchers, as well as a drill field, batting tees, outfield ranges, long toss throwing lanes and a fitness corral. There’s even a pond on the property for some occasional fishing.

On Sept. 9, RBR held a grand opening event, as the ping of bat to ball rang out through the country air, and Pryor gave a glimpse into the kind of instruction prospective baseball members would receive.

“The grand opening went great,’’ Pryor says. “We got a great response from the parents, we were able to take them through the training zones; we showed them a lot of drills they hadn’t seen before.”

Those drills, Pryor says, have proven results. Although RBR is a membership facility (starting at $49 a month), it is currently offering area baseball teams (travel, recreation, softball) a chance to try it out with free hitting practice in September through Oct. 31.

Results Driven Coaching

Pryor is convinced players and coaches will see results quickly.

A former high school standout in Georgia and a college player at Fresno State (CA), he is applying a lifetime of baseball expertise to local baseball players of all shapes and sizes — as well as all talent levels.

He is known locally after coaching in the Wesley Chapel and New Tampa area for years, starting out as a softball assistant at Paul R. Wharton High in New Tampa and at Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH), before then-Wiregrass baseball coach Jeff Swymer asked Pryor to join the baseball staff. With the Bulls, Swymer and Pryor had great success, coming up a game short of the state finals in 2013. In 2014, Swymer was hired at Bishop McLaughlin High in Spring Hill, and Pryor decided to follow him. In 2015, the Hurricanes made it to the Class 3A State Semifinals.

rockstar1webPryor resigned after last season to more effectively launch his RBR. What began as a baseball training business out of his garage in 2009 has grown into a large undertaking with lots of potential. “If I could train players in a 10×10 garage, imagine what I could do on five acres,’’ he says.

The Wesley Chapel resident is hoping RBR becomes a resource for local players, parents and coaches. He sees himself as a local farm system for local leagues and high schools, giving baseball players the extra training they need.

“What we’re trying to do is be a support to coaches, parents and the players so everyone has a better baseball experience all around,” Pryor says.

In fact, he adds that he hopes to even finalize a program for adults who want to be better coaches by offering a certification course, so they can also help develop better baseball players.

The focus, right now, remains on the kids. “We prepare kids for high school, that’s kind of where we are today,’’ Pryor says.

Pryor likes to think he can turn any player into a baseball rockstar, and he uses a quick, fun and strenuous approach to smooth out a player’s rough edges.

“The big thing that the parents said at the grand opening is that we had the ability to keep the players’ attention,’’ Pryor says. “That’s important.”

The last three years, Wesley Chapel resident Max Ferrera has been taking his son Mitchell, a freshman at WRH, all the way to Bishop McLaughlin to train with Coach Pryor. The 45-minute trip each way was been worth it, Ferrera says.

“He runs the best practices I’ve ever seen,’’ says Ferrera, a former high school football coach in Hillsborough County. “For me, I looked at a lot of other places, did a lot of research, went and watched, and thought it was more people trying to recruit the best 9-12 players they could find for individual development. With Ryan, every kid was given the opportunity to develop.”

Pryor says he has hundreds of kids he has helped make high school teams, and some of them have gone on to play baseball in college.

He prides himself on fixing things in someone’s swing or pitching delivery that neither they nor their parents and coaches can see. He employs video analysis and an intricate step-by-step method of instruction. At his RBR grand opening, Pryor says he gave one 20-minute demonstration to a coach showing him how to fix a player’s swing — starting from the end of it and working backwards — and that the coach has used that lesson and has already seen a difference in his team’s results.

Pryor is all about the big picture, but not before assembling all the little pieces of it together in the right sequence.

“We like to break everything down into smaller pieces,’’ he says. “It’s sort of like baking a cake.’’

The Rockstar Baseball Ranch (8931 Elkmont Ln.) has a number of specials — from Fundamental Fridays (an 8-week course on baseball fundamentals beginning Sept. 30) to a Halloween Whiffle Ball tournament fund raiser for cancer on Oct. 30. For more info, call 992-1030 or visit RockstarBaseballRanch.com.

County Down To Two Choices To Build, Run Sports Complex

complexphoto2Four companies got into the game of trying to earn a chance to build and operate a new indoor sports facility in the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI), but only two will be allowed to keep playing, after a Pasco County committee narrowed the field last week.

Sports Facilities Management (SFM) and RADDSPORTS, a pair of Tampa Bay-based properties, are still alive and get the opportunity to present their proposals to a county evaluation committee September 30 at the West Pasco Government Center in New Port Richey.

Whoever is recommended at that meeting will go before the Pasco Board of County Commissioners (BCC) for final approval.

The complex will be built on 120 acres of land donated to the county by the Porter family, the owners and developers of Wiregrass Ranch. The county also previously agreed to contribute $8.5 million to the design and construction of the facility from money raised through its tourism development tax.

The two companies selected by the county committee — Parks, Recreation & Natural Resources department director Kelley Boree, facilities management director Ed Breitenbach, tourism manager Ed Caum, strategic policy administrator Richard Gehring and assistant county administrators Heather Grimes and Cathy Pearson — both have prior experience in the bustling sports tourism field.

Sports Facilities Management runs the successful Rocky Top Sports World in Gatlinburg, TN, which is often cited as the perfect example of what the county envisions for the Wiregrass Ranch project, which SFM refers to as the “Pasco County Sportsplex.” It also manages the Myrtle Beach Sports Center in South Carolina, the Legends Sports Complex in The Woodlands, TX, and Round Rock Sports Complex in Round Rock, TX.

According to the Sports Facilities Planning Guide,  SFM manages five of the top nine venues in the country.

Headquartered in Clearwater, SFM is proposing a $16.5-million project for Wiregrass, with a 92,000-sq.-ft. building housing six full-size basketball courts, or 12 volleyball courts, based on the configuration.

There will be a rollout synthetic turf, which can accommodate 4-6 turf fields depending upon the sport and configuration. The facility also will have locker rooms, an adventure area for multiple non-sports events, party and office areas and a mezzanine court area, along with food service.

According to SFM, the new sports facility would generate nearly 30,000 room nights in Year One from non-local users, with that number increasing to more than 40,000 by the fifth year, equating to nearly $4 million in direct economic impact to Pasco County its initial year and $24 million total over the first five years.

SFM already has begun the process of collecting letters of intent, commitments and verbal interest, and included in its proposal a handful of letters of intent to book the facility from gymnastics, cheerleading and basketball event coordinators.

Pretty RADD, Dude!

RADDSPORTS is joined in its proposal by Mainsail Development Group, Inc., which develops resorts and hotels, and real estate consultant Municipal Acquisition, LLC.

Headed up by Richard Blalock, who helped transform Newberry’s sports recreation scene as the tiny central Florida city’s recreation director, RADDSPORTS proposes an amateur sports facility of approximately 100,000-sq.-ft., with eight basketball courts, a 100+ room hotel, an open-air amphitheater with event lawn, sports turf fields, trails and playgrounds.

The cost of the hotel would be $15 million, but since a hotel wasn’t listed in the request for proposal (RFP) it would have to be negotiated and the county is looking into the deed restrictions on the property. A 92-room Fairfield Inn & Suites is being built on land sold by the Porters just south of the proposed facility off S.R. 56.

The amphitheater shell will accommodate 500-1,500 attendees for a variety of events such as concerts, festivals and theater performances. RADDSPORTS’ plan projects 36 events per nine-month season.

“The  economic  impact  of  the  project  will  easily  exceed a million dollars per year in additional visitor spending in the community,” the proposal states.

RADDSPORTS also proposed 700kw solar panels on the roof of the facility, which the company says will produce 1,075 MwH of power annually, enough to offset current energy prices by $140,000 annually.

Also in its proposal, three financing options were suggested, including a plan to increase the county’s “bed” tax (on transient lodging), or tourist development tax, to 5 percent from its current 2 percent.

Holladay Properties, a South Bend, IN, real estate development and management firm that did not make the cut, had no interest in operating the facilities, just merely developing it and supporting whoever is chosen to operate it. However, the RFP stated the county was looking for a partner to run the facility, which was suggested by the Johnson Consulting Group in their county-funded feasibility report last year.

The last bidder -— Land O’Lakes’ Ultimate Sports Complex Athletics (USCA) Management Co., founded in June, was deemed too inexperienced by the committee. Ultimate filed a lofty proposal that called for four buildings and projected $51 million in annual income, based on 500,000 visitors.

Rotary Club Of WC Planning Biggest Event

honduras-eric-copyThe Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon, which meets Wednesdays for lunch at Quail Hollow Country Club (QHCC) off Old Pasco Rd, is doing more than just planning its next humanitarian trip to Troyes, Honduras, in April 2017.

The club is selling plaques to local businesses and individuals interested in supporting our area’s largest Rotary Club — which has sent 10-20 of its nearly 100 club members each year for the past five years to install latrines and water purification systems (in conjunction with the nonprofit organization called Pure Water for the World) in one of the most impoverished areas of one of Central America’s poorest countries,.

WC Rotary Club member Troy Stevenson of Wesley Chapel Nissan (and Acme Outdoor Movies) came up with the idea because he had been part of a similar fund raiser as a member of the WC Lions Club. Club member Trevor Campbell of Cash 4 Gold off S.R. 54 and Eiland Blvd. in eastern Wesley Chapel, picked up the idea and ran with it.

Campbell, who will be making his third trip to Honduras with the club, says Stevenson’s contacts have helped the WC Rotary get 300 plaques for a reasonable price, which Campbell, Stevenson and other club members have been selling {with all checks made payable to the “Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon Foundation,” the club’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit fund} to area businesses by knocking on doors.

honduras-plaque-1-copy“For a hundred dollars, you not only get a plaque, you get to show the public that you support the biggest international humanitarian effort our club makes every year,” Campbell says. “I took three weeks off from work to knock on as many business doors as possible and people really do seem to know about our club’s efforts and want to support us. It’s been pretty gratifying.”

At our press time, Campbell and his fellow WC Rotarians have more than 100 commitments from local businesses at $100 per plaque. “And, we’ve already got $8,000 of that in-house,” Campbell says proudly. “I’m still hoping to sell all 300 plaques this year. The more we raise, the more we can do for these amazingly appreciative people.”

The WC Rotary has helped install hundreds of these life-saving water purification systems in the homes in Honduras and will continue to send — and help — as many people as possible each year, with the continued support of the community.

Current club president, Dr. Pablo Rivera of Core Spine & Rehabilitation, who has missed only one of the five previous trips, says, “No one has ever come back from our Honduras trips unchanged. Help us this year and maybe you’ll end up wanting to join us next year.”

For more information, visit WCRotary.org or attend a meeting any Wed. at noon at QHCC as my guest. First-time attendees are always free. 

New School Boundaries Set In Motion

ggg2web
Pasco School District officials will not name High School GGG off Old Pasco Rd. in Wesley Chapel until after the school’s boundaries are set.

Two days after a heated rezoning meeting took place on the west side of Pasco County, the first stage of east side of Pasco rezoning that will affect many students in Wesley Chapel kicked off Sept. 16 in the media center at Wesley Chapel High.

With a new grades 6-12 high school — currently referred to as GGG High — on the way, District officials are hoping the new school can alleviate the overcrowding at all of Wesley Chapel’s middle and high schools.

Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) currently is at 153 percent of its capacity, the most in the county by far. Built for 1,633 students, WRH today has 2,495 students enrolled. It is currently operating on a 10-period school day, adopted for the 2015-16 school year, to ease overcrowding.

WRH’s  primary feeder school, Dr. John Long Middle School, was built for 1,327 students but currently enrolls 1,870, or 147 percent of its capacity.

Wesley Chapel High (WCH) was built for 1,506 students, but has 1,669 enrolled, or at 111 percent of capacity, while Thomas E. Weightman Middle School has 1,186 students, or 122 percent of its 975-student capacity.

gggwebPasco’s School Boundary Committee (SBC), with administrative representatives from every school, as well as two parents from each school, met to begin the process of drawing the boundaries for GGG, which will open in time for the 2017-18 school year on Old Pasco Rd., just south of Overpass Rd.

Chris Williams, the director of planning for the Pasco School District,  is hoping things don’t become as contentious as they have in the Trinity area, where dozens of parents have railed against the School Board over plans to redraw J.W. Mitchell High’s attendance zone.

“At least here (in Wesley Chapel), (parents) may be concerned but they seem to be willing to wait to see how the process evolves and see what the committee does and evaluate then,” Williams says.

Both the high school committee and middle school committee came to the one preliminary opinion –— it makes sense to start filling in the boundary with students located in Quail Hollow West, Lexington Oaks, Grand Oaks, The Oaks, Cypress Estates, Stage Coach Enclave, Cypress Creek Town Center and Veteran’s East (the area located south of Veterans Elementary School encompassing Tampa Downs Heights, Saddlebrook Village West (Westbrook Estates), Willow Lake and Quail Hollow Village).

That would account for roughly 1,000 of the 1,200 high school students that would attend GGG next year, pulling 650 students from Wesley Chapel and 380 from Wiregrass Ranch, while also taking enough middle schoolers to relieve both John Long and Weightman.

That’s just for starters, though. The committee still has to consider socio-economic balance, maintaining feeder patterns, future growth in certain areas (especially in Wiregrass Ranch), transportation and subdivision integrity.

The committee came up with 3-4 other options, as it also has been tasked with helping to relieve crowding at Sunlake High and Charles S. Rushe Middle School in nearby Land O’Lakes.

GGG is being built at a cost of $65-million on 100 acres of land bought by the county 10-11 years ago., Williams said.

“We receive impact fees for new houses, so for every new regular single family house, that brought the district just under $5,000 (per home),’’ Williams says. “On average, that’s $9.5-million per year, so you can see to get to $65 million takes a few years.”

The School District generally looks for 60-70 acres of land for new schools, so Williams says there is plenty of additional space to build a middle school (and maybe even an elementary school) on the site in the future, although there currently is no timetable for building those schools.

The SBC will hold its next meeting on Thursday, September 29, at WCH’s media center from 10:30-1 p.m., and a third meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 20.

A meeting for parents to debate the SBC’s recommendations will be held at WCH on Tuesday, November 29, with the SBC meeting on Friday, December 2, to discuss feedback from the parent’s meeting

The SBC will determine if any changes are needed before forwarding the proposed GGG boundaries to the School Board for a January vote.

Mechanical failure temporarily KOs AC at FHWC

FHWC-expansion-webThe air conditioning was knocked out at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel Tuesday night, but technicians restored it in approximately two hours as the hospital returned to normal operations.

According to Pasco County public information officer Doug Tobin, Pasco Fire Rescue, Pasco Emergency Management and the Pasco Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of an explosion in the central plant at FHWC (2600 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.) around 6:20 p.m. There were no injuries reported.

FHWC did not reference an explosion on their Facebook page. “Earlier tonight, a chilled water pump failed and over pressurized, causing a small mechanical failure in the central energy plant behind the hospital,” it says on the FHWC Facebook page. “We worked very closely with Pasco County Fire Rescue and Emergency Services. Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel never lost power and did not need to go on generators. The hospital did lose air conditioning for about two hours. No patients were transferred.”

None of the hospital’s patients needed to be evacuated.

The air conditioning was back on at around 8:30 p.m.