Author: John Cotey

Ninth Annual Tampa Fisher House Golf Classic

For the ninth consecutive year, Arbor Greene resident and New Tampa Noon Rotary Club president Valerie Casey is putting on a charity golf tournament to benefit the Tampa Fisher House, the residence on the campus of the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. (south of E. Fletcher Ave.), which houses (for no charge) the families and significant others of the wounded veterans being treated at the hospital.

Valerie and her committee, led by her fellow New Tampa Noon Rotarian Barry Shuman, invite you to join them for a day of great food and golf on Friday, October 30, at Pebble Creek Golf Club (10550 Regents Park. Dr., off BBD).

The entry fee donation of $125 per player includes lunch, greens fees, golf cart, “goody” bags, multiple prizes for top teams, putters and drivers, and the opportunity to win some great silent auction prizes. Lunch & registration begin at 11:30 a.m., with the shotgun start at 12:30 p.m.

A big shout out to the tourney’s “Event Sponsors” — Paver Works, Patriot Divers, Pepin Distributing and Stay In Step SCI Recovery Center, as well as “Patriot Sponsors” Delta Airlines, Harder Law, AT&T, Sun Coatings, Charles Schwab and Vital Network Services. This publication is one of 14 “Honor Sponsors” for the event.

For more info, email Valerie at ValCasey3@aol.com or call Barry Shuman at (516) 523-2678.

For more info about the Tampa Fisher House, visit FisherHouse.org.

Former Wharton LB awarded $2-million

The family of former Wharton linebacker Sean McNamee and the Hillsborough County School Board agreed Tuesday afternoon to a $2-million settlement — believed to be the largest in district history — involving a 2013 accident that left him in a medically-induced coma for nine days as doctors worked to repair damage to his brain.

The McNamees will receive $300,000 from the county, the largest they can receive due to a sovereign immunity law that protects the state. The family’s attorney, Steve Yerrid, will petition the state legislature for another $1.7-million, and as part of the settlement, the school board will support the claims bill.

Both parties had attended a court ordered mediation on Sept. 14 and agreed to a settlement value of $2-million, provided the school board voted in agreement.

McNamee, a 6-foot-2 junior at the time, was injured prior to a Wharton practice on Oct. 9, 2013. He was playing catch with teammates when he fell to the ground and struck his head on the corner of an unattended paint machine that had been used to line the field for that week’s game. Because practice hadn’t begun, McNamee was not wearing a helmet.

The injury fractured his skull, and a trainer who tended to McNamee called his mother Jody to come pick him up. Somehow, he was still able to slip away from school and drive himself four miles home.

McNamee was taken to the hospital where doctors had to perform emergency surgery and reduce swelling and remove blood from his brain. Doctors called in his family and told them to say their goodbyes because they were unsure he would survive. He was placed in a medically-induced coma for nine days before pulling through.

Also in the agreement, the county agreed to implement new guidelines, called “The McNamee Protocols,” in dealing with the proper training and instruction in how head injuries are handled, addressing the fact that despite the fact McNamee was looked at by a trainer, he managed to drive home and that EMS was not called.

The county school board also agreed to purchase liability insurance coverage with minimum limits of $1-million as part of the settlement.

Making Strides Event At Shops At Wiregrass Expected to Raise $175K+!

Congratulations to the American Cancer Society (ACS) of the South Nature Coast of Florida (serving Pasco, Hernando & Citrus counties), which hosted another amazing “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Pasco” event at the Shops at Wiregrass mall in Wesley Chapel on October 24, near the end of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Blessed with beautiful weather again, ACS South Nature Coast senior market manager Robyn Liska says the 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) Making Strides walk between the Wiregrass Mall and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel again attracted an estimated 5,000 people, including more than 1,250 registered participants on 176 teams, who were expected to raise more than $175,000. Whether they walked in memory of someone who lost their battle with breast cancer or in honor of someone still fighting the good fight, there’s no doubt that the sea of people dressed in pink were moved, inspired and entertained all morning and were joined together by being touched by this dreaded illness.

The top fund-raising team at this year’s Making Strides of Pasco event, by far, was the “Clerks for a Cure” squad, which raised more than $16,000, although four other teams raised between $5,000-$8,000 each. The largest team was the 53-member “Boobalicious” squad (who participated together in memory of Janet Walker, who lost her battle earlier this year), although several other teams also had at least 30 members each.

According to ACS’s website, Cancer.org, “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walks are the largest network of breast cancer awareness events in the nation, uniting nearly 300 communities with a shared determination to finish the fight.”

'Martial Arts For Life' takes aim at trafficking

By GARY NAGER

It seems you never really know what effect an event is going to have on you until you actually attend it.

A case in point — I was really only going to the “80s Flashback Bingo” event, sponsored by CORE Spine & Rehabilitation Center, LLC, to support Wesley Chapel Noon Rotary Club president-elect (and CORE owner) and chiropractor Pablo Rivera, DC, and his wife Christine in their efforts to help the “Martial Arts for Life’ Foundation, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization started by Sensei Ernesto Fuentes of the Keiko Shin Karate dojo at 3753 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. here in Wesley Chapel.

The thing I didn’t know until I went to the fun event, which was attended by more than 50 people and raised nearly $2,000 for the Foundation, was the effect Fuentes and his cause would have on me.

The Riveras have had their children trained in karate by Fuentes, who said that he moved his family from his native Venezuela a few years ago because his daughter was targeted by human traffickers and he was told by law enforcement officials that the only way “to prevent her from being taken was to take her out of the country.”

Fuentes and his family escaped to Miami but ultimately settled in Wesley Chapel. During the ‘80s-themed event, he made an obviously emotional presentation about human trafficking — including mentioning that Florida has the third highest number of children being trafficked in the U.S. and that the Tampa Bay area is unfortunately the leading location for trafficking in the Sunshine State, where the average age of the victims is only 12.

“Trafficking is a huge business,” said Fuentes, who also recently added training the children at the Everyday Blessings foster home in Thonotosassa, which specializes in caring for siblings at their location. “It is up to us to do something about it.”

For info about Keiko Shin Karate, call 994-9253. For CORE Spine & Rehabilitation (5900 Argerian Dr., Suite 101), call 373-5317 or visit Facebook.com/CoreSpine. — GN

New Tampa tennis pro Allegra Campos wins national title

Hunter’s Green head tennis professional Allegra Campos was a two-time All-American at the University of Miami, and played professionally for a few seasons as well.

Helping win a United State Tennis Association (USTA) 40&over 4.5 adult league championship this past weekend at California’s Indian Wells Tennis Garden, however, will go down as one of her biggest career thrills.

Campos was one of the key players for Harbour Island — husband Jose, a former USF standout, is the head pro there — as it swept through the regular season, state sectionals and national championships with an unblemished record of 15-0, capping its run by defeating a team from Hawaii 3-2 in the final Sunday afternoon.

Campos, who earned her pro certification at Saddlebrook Resort and has been the head pro at Hunter’s Green since 2008, teamed up with Lisa Balsera to win 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 doubles in the final against Hawaii, earning a vital point. Teams compete against each other in two lines of singles and three lines of doubles, in a best-of-five line competition.

Campos also posted a three-set win with Balsera in the final match of flight play against a Northern California team, and Harbour Island also defeated teams from Illinois, Colorado and Mississippi (in the semifinals) at Indian Wells.