Editorial — WCNT-TV Explained

Gary_WCNT_TVSo, considering that my Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Florida (in Gainesville) College of Journalism & Communications was in Broadcast News — not print journalism — I guess you could say that it’s taken me long enough to finally start working on what I’ve dreamed of doing since I earned that diploma more than 30 years ago.

One of my top goals back then, and even when I first moved back to Florida in 1993, was to one day own and create original programming for my own TV station.

But, in the “good old days” of even cable TV’s infancy, in order to own a TV station/network, you had to have at least about a million dollars to be able to purchase your Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license, the equipment and personnel you need to keep it on the air.

Today, anyone can shoot better footage with their mobile phones than was even possible with top-level equipment in the 80s or even the 90s. And, if you have the ability to write and produce any type of programming — from news and public affairs to sitcoms and drama series — the internet provides a way for you to find an audience — even if you’re not on the cable or satellite TV lineups of BrightHouse or DirecTV.

Whether you have your own website, a Youtube channel or both, if enough people see it, like it and return to see what else you can do, you can build an audience and even make a living doing something most people in my generation could only dream of doing.

I had my own advertising agency from the mid-1980s until 1995-96, and I did produce a few TV commercials and wrote “treatments” of a few TV pilot ideas, but despite personal auditions for/interviews with the likes of ESPN, NBC-TV, HBO and the Disney Channel before moving here in 1993, I set aside my dreams of creating programming to focus on a certain local news publication.

Two years ago, I wrote and co-anchored a video segment previewing the last Taste of New Tampa, but our website (NTNeighborhoodNews.com) was really in its infancy and I wasn’t happy with the production itself. The end result: very few people saw it, even though I know the idea of web-based video news focused specifically on New Tampa and Wesley Chapel was certainly valid, especially if I had the right people working with me.

And, after being part of one local commercial production last year, which was directed and produced by Craig Miller, the owner of Full Throttle Intermedia (FTIntermedia.com, a local multimedia advertising agency and video production company), I knew who I really wanted to work with on my project…if I could afford him.

Well, at about the same time as my Taste project, Craig, who also is an Ambassador for the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) and a Board member of the New Tampa Rotary Club, also had spoken with WCCC CEO (she was just the “executive director” at the time) Hope Allen about doing a webcast for the Chamber. But, both admit they “got busy” and set the idea aside.

Then, about four months ago, Craig approached Hope about reviving the idea and she told him I had already come to her with my own concept and that we should probably all work together on it — especially if Craig was the production guy involved.

Although I’ve teased it in a couple of previous issues, the end result of those discussions is just about ready to rock and roll. I was hoping to be able to announce in this issue who our “Studio Sponsor” will be, but nothing was finalized at our press time.

Even so, Craig and I are partnering with the WCCC to present “WCNT-tv” — the fun and informative web-based video magazine show, written and co-hosted by yours truly, which will be all about Wesley Chapel (WC) and New Tampa (NT) and have its own Youtube channel.

And, it is launching soon — we hope to begin recording episodes this month. WCNT-tv will be promoted in full-page ads in every issue of my two publications, on the WCCC’s website and, hopefully, on the websites of every Wesley Chapel Chamber member business.

When it launches, WCNT-tv will be a bi-weekly news magazine show that will include a 1.5-2-minute local news segment, a 60-90-second WCCC “Featured Business of the Week” and a 60-90-second “Neighborhood Dining News” segment that will take me (and, I believe, thousands of my closest friends) inside a different restaurant from all over the Tampa Bay area — since we all know that those of us who live and work in and around New Tampa and Wesley Chapel have too-few local, non-chain fine dining options.

Best of all, based on some of the incredible numbers our website has done recently (as reported in previous issues on this page) — without any video coverage — and the feedback we’ve gotten so far, we’re all confident that WCNT-tv will become a truly local phenomenon.

For WCNT-tv sponsorship information, or to have us play the pilot episode for you, call our office at 910-2575. For a short clip, check out our previous post on the show HERE. 

Synchronized Swimmers Getting Ready For NY

 

synchronized swimmers
Some team members of the New Tampa YMCA Synchronized Swim Team pose underwater for a photo after a recent practice. The synchronized swimmers will perform June 4 at 10:30 a.m. to raise money for 14 team members to attend the Junior Olympics next month in New York.

Kids and adults stream in and out of the New Tampa Family YMCA in Tampa Palms, some headed for the basketball and volleyball courts, others to the activity rooms and exercise equipment. At the pool, kids learn to swim, while other more advanced swimmers churn out lap after lap under the direction of the YMCA swim team coaches.

It’s about what you might expect at any YMCA.

But, tucked away beyond that in the far end of the same 50-meter pool, there’s something you might not expect.

Amongst the din of splashing swimmers, one of the New Tampa Y’s more successful programs toils in relative peace, a group of tightly-coiffed, nose-clipped synchronized swimmers, young and old, dancing beneath the water and working together in perfect harmony.

The Tampa YMCA Synchro (TYS) team, based at the New Tampa YMCA since starting in 2004 and one of the few programs in the central part of Florida — but a regular on the state and region competition circuit — is coming of age.

“The key to a successful team is when swimmers get a taste of improvement and get a taste of excellence and the winning,’’ said 26-year-old Camille Albrecht, who started as an assistant coach in 2009 and has been head coach of the TYS program since 2013. “A lot of our younger girls saw some of the success the older girls were having, and they want those same things and they’re working harder because they already know what success looks like.”

Success is measured by competitors like 19-year-old Wesley Chapel resident Saloni Mehrah, who participated at the U.S. Nationals in Mesa, AZ, along with 13-year-old Benito Middle School student Julianna Silva.

Success also is sending synchronized swimmers to compete for a spot on the U.S. National Team, which Silva, 12-year-old New Tampa resident Katie Wieckowski and 10-year-old Jennah Hafsi, who are both homeschooled, did in Coral Springs, FL, this spring.

Success also is sending almost half your team — which qualified with top-3 finishes at Regionals — to the Junior Olympics next month, to compete against roughly 1,000 other synchronized swimmers.

Mehra and Meghan Wieckowski will compete in the 18-19 age group, and Abby Eckhardt, Kyra Okin and Zoe Keegan have qualified in the 16-17s.

Silva, Camila Acuna, Maria Pinilla-Baquero and Ariana Alonso are in the 13-15 age group, while Katie Wieckowski, Jennah Hafsi, Jennifer Lynfatt, Lilly Weber and Teghan Theile are all competing in the 12-under division.

The 14 synchronized swimmers heading to the Junior Olympics, held June 24-July 2 at the Nassau County Aquatic Center at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, NY, is the most the program has ever sent, better than the previous best of 10 swimmers last year.

Synchronized Swimmers Ice Cream Fund Raiser

In order to travel to the prestigious event, the TYS is hosting a New York-themed Ice Cream Social on Saturday, June 4, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., at the New Tampa YMCA. The synchronized swimmers will show off their latest routines and custom-made suits (that can cost $150 and more), and even the dads and brothers will get into the act as the “SyncBros” perform a routine.

The show is free to attend and the TYS and the parents will be selling ice cream, root beer floats, pizza, salad and drinks. There also will be baskets filled with prizes, and tickets to enter the drawing are just $2 each or $5 for three.

Albrecht has helped grow her team by holding two summer camps each year, to teach the finer points of her sport to younger kids. Her hope is to make synchronized swimming, which until the turn of the century was known as “water ballet,” a primary sport.

A former synchronized swimmer herself for the Tampa Bay Synch Rays, Albrecht says she started competing when she was 7.

“My mom wanted me to have a sport, and I loved to dance and I loved swimming,’’ she says. “I had already broken both my arms, so we thought that would be safe.”

Abby Eckhardt, 15, who has been on the New Tampa team for five years, started her athletic career as a gymnast, competing for three years until a neck injury sidelined her. She found her athletic outlet in the pool.

“It fell right into place for her,’’ said her mother, Amy. “It’s the perfect sport.”

“I think its challenging and I like all the friendships you make with all the girls,’’ said Abby. “We’re like a giant family.”

Many synchronized swimmers on the team come to the sport after trying swimming, gymnastics, ballet and/or dancing. In fact, synchronized swimming has always been described as a hybrid of those sports.

The daughter of former Tampa Bay Buc offensive tackle Steve Young (not be confused with the former Bucs and San Francisco 49ers quarterback of the same name), Albrecht says her girls are hard workers. While most people’s first question is always, “How do they hold their breath so long?,” Albrecht says the swimmers are as fit and strong a group as you will find.

“People don’t know how much work we do outside the pool,” she said. “The basic skillset we look for is flexibility, and then it’s strength. We do a lot of cross training, a lot of land work. You have to be strong.”

Albrecht says it takes years to perfect synchronized swimming. Mastering the solo aspect of the sport is challenging enough, but then to be able to synchronize your routine with others takes years of practice.

To get her swimmers ready, Albrecht has former SynchRay swimmers Amanda Olson and Brittany McCauley on her staff. And Lily Hu, a USF student, joined the staff after moving here from China, where she competed internationally in the sport.

For more information about the synchronized swimming program at the New Tampa Family YMCA (16221 Compton Dr. in Tampa Palms), visit TampaYMCA.org/locations/new-tampa, or call 866-9622.

 

Three-Alarm Fire Damages Student Housing at Saddlebrook Resort

saddle
This fire displaced 28 students at Saddlebrook Prep on June 9, the day before the school’s graduation. Saddlebrook GM Pat Ciaccio says that the amount of damage is still being evaluated and that rebuilding the housing unit will take nine months. Until then, students returning in September will be placed in a different dorm.

Thanks to an alert student and some smart thinking, the only casualty of a fire at Saddlebrook Resort & Spa off S.R. 54 on June 9 was the building where the blaze started.

The fire, which never got out of the control of local firefighters that morning, caused excessive damage to one of the buildings used to house Saddlebrook Preparatory Academy golfers and tennis players, but all 28 students were able to escape unharmed, as well as 12 others that were in the building.

According to Saddlebrook general manager Pat Ciaccio, a student smelled smoke in his dorm room around 2:30 a.m. and called security before going outside of his room to pull the fire alarm. He and another student then went room to room to alert the other students.

“Each month, we do a fire drill in school, and it went just as they practiced it,’’ said Ciaccio. “Security was there within seconds. The fire department was there within minutes. It went about as good as it can go. I hope we never have to deal with one again.”

The fire is believed to have started due to a short circuit in the second-floor bathroom ceiling, Ciaccio said.

Pasco County Fire Rescue’s Shawn Whited said it took 55 firefighters to control the blaze, until all of the hot spots were extinguished around 8 a.m.

The three-alarm fire required eight fire engines and one ladder truck to extinguish, including an “aerial assault” on the fire.

The students were moved to another building. The following day was their graduation ceremony.

Saddlebrook Resort was developed in 1979 by current Chairman and CEO Tom Dempsey, and opened in 1981. Highly regarded for its posh accommodations, golf course and professional tennis players who have trained there, the resort started Saddlebrook Prep in 1992. A boarding school for budding golf and tennis professionals within the resort, Saddlebrook Prep has almost 100 students hailing from 26 different countries.

All have returned home for the summer, Ciaccio said, and those who were in the fire-damaged building will be assigned different housing in September when they return.

Ciaccio says he does not yet have a dollar amount for the damage to the two-story building — which had 16 suites with two rooms in each suite — and won’t know the cost of damages until restoration finishes the clean up and the insurance companies finish their work.

“There is going to be a pretty extensive rebuild,’’ he said, estimating that it will be at least nine months before the building can be used again.

Cypress Preserve Dr. will be closed this weekend

unnamedCypress Preserve Dr., south and east of Bruce B. Downs Blvd., will be closed on Friday at 6 p.m. and reopen on Monday at 5 a.m. as the BBD Blvd. roadway widening project continues.

New 30” wastewater force mains will be installed over the weekend. The thru lanes on BBD Boulevard will remain open, and pedestrian access will also be maintained.

The map has suggested detour routes.

 

DICK’s Lacrosse Tournament Will Return

lacrosse19Good news for the new hotels and businesses sprouting in Wesley Chapel — the DICK’S Sporting Goods Tournament of Champions is returning for the 2016 and 2017 tournaments.

The National Development Program (NDP) Lacrosse announced Wednesday, June 1, that the pre-collegiate club lacrosse national championship will return to its long-time home of Pasco County’s Wesley Chapel District Park and Wesley Chapel High for the 9th and 10th straight years.

 

 “Pasco County’s Board of County Commissioners, its Tourist Development Council and the Wesley Chapel Athletic Association have provided tremendous support to the event for nearly a decade,” said NDP Vice President of Business Operations Josh Gross in a press release. “I’m excited that the event will return to Pasco County.”

 The tournament, which started in 2006, has been held in Wesley Chapel since 2008. Last year’s event featured 73 teams from 16 different states.

Teams earn bids at regional qualifying tournaments to compete for the DICK’s national championship across five divisions. One of those qualifiers, the Derek Pieper Memorial Cup, is held in Wesley Chapel and the new deal keeps that tournament viable.

The DICK’S Sporting Goods Tournament of Champions is held every December 29-31, with an estimated economic impact of $3 million in Pasco County.

“This has been our anchor sporting event for many years,” said Chairwoman Kathryn Starkey of the Pasco Board of County Commissioners and the Tourist Development Council. “We are glad to have them back again for the next two years.”