As holiday breaks approach for all of our local schools, Whartonâs band, orchestra and choir programs will get together to make music in a somewhat unexpected style that has become an annual tradition.
Called âPrism,â it will feature every large performing ensemble in the schoolâs music department, which includes the band, orchestra and chorus.
âThe concert runs in a non-traditional, continuous or circular format,â explains Justin Swaim, music department chair, âwith varying performing locations throughout the concert hall.â
So, when one ensemble finishes performing, the spotlight will instantly move to another area of the auditorium and the next piece will begin.
It might go from a vocal solo of a popular holiday song to a string quartet playing a classical piece. Then, the entire orchestra may appear on stage, while the jazz band sets up in the back corner.
Swaim says Prism is a fast-paced, fun and somewhat unexpected evening.
Groups scheduled to perform include Whartonâs Wind Ensemble, Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphonic Band, Wildcat Orchestra, Jazz Band, Lady Catz Choir, Mixed Choir, Percussion Ensemble and smaller ensembles.
The schoolâs marching band, called Wharton Regiment, will fill the auditorium in a unique way. Typically, its sounds are reserved for outdoor football fields.
But, during Prism, the Wharton Regiment brings a modified version of this seasonâs halftime show, which scored straight superiors (the highest possible score) at its MPA (Music Performance Assessment) competition last month and features music from Marvel Studiosâ âThe Avengers.â
From quiet to loud, classical to contemporary, Swaim says that at Prism, âthere is always something for all ages and all musical tastes.â
Prism will be held on Friday, December 13, at 7 p.m. in the Wharton High School auditorium, located on the south side of the school (closer to Walmart) at 20150 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
Admission is $5 for adults and free for students with student ID and children ages 12 and under. All proceeds from admission will go directly to supporting the students participating in the Wharton High music department.
For questions regarding the concert, please email Justin Swaim at justin.swaim@sdhc.k12.fl.us. â CM
Wharton High is home to two of rifleryâs sharpest shooters, and both have Olympic aspirations.
When Matt Sanchez signed his college athletic scholarship papers with West Virginia University on Nov. 14, it didnât make the nightly sports news, but it was a big deal.
It was as big as a high school football player signing a college scholarship to compete at Alabama or Ohio State. Or a basketball player signing with Kentucky or Duke.
It was history.
Sanchez and his Wharton teammate, Ben Salas, who signed with North Carolina State University in Raleigh, are believed to be the first high school kids in Tampa Bay to sign scholarships for rifle, a varsity college and Olympic sport.
While Salas is going to join a young, growing riflery program, Sanchez will be joining arguably the best shooting school in the country.
The Mountaineers have won 19 NCAA national team championships, producing 25 individual NCAA championships, 65 All-Americans and 13 Olympians.
Sanchez hopes to No. 14.
Sanchez has already made a name for himself in the world of Olympic-style shooting.
At just 17 years old, the Heritage Isles resident has spent the last year traveling the world to compete in World Cups and World Championship competitions as a member of the USA Shooting national team. Because of his age, Sanchez currently is part of the junior national team.
âMost recently, I competed in September in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the World Cup,â says Sanchez, âand Iâve also been to Germany and Austria four times each, and Switzerland, Korea and China.â
Sanchez participates in two types of competitions. One is smallbore, which is shooting a .22 caliber rifle in three positions â standing, kneeling and prone.
The other is shooting an air rifle, which is a type of pellet gun, taking 60 shots while standing.
Jayme Shipley, who represented the U.S. in the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympic games, placing sixth in the 2000 Olympics in the womenâs air rifle competition, is Sanchez’s coach. A resident of Naples, she coaches a handful of high school aged precision shooters throughout the state, and Sanchez is one of her best students.
In the smallbore event, he participated in the first round of Olympic Trials in October, where he finished in 11th place. However, a second round of competition will be held next spring âto make sure they donât get someone who just has one good day,â Shipley says.
Only two men will make it onto the Olympic team in each event, but Shipley says Sanchez is currently in contention, and his chances are probably better to make the team in the air rifle event, where he often shoots scores that rank well among not just his teammates on the juniors, but also among the adult men.
Those trials begin December 6 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO, with a second portion of competition happening in February.
Shooting has been an event in the Olympics since the first modern games in 1896. In fact, the first medal given out at every Olympics is in shooting.
âWhen I first started working with Matt almost 5 years ago, we looked at the 2024 Olympics as a goal,â says Shipley. âBut, heâs excelled so fast that he has a really good chance with this one.â
* * *
Incredibly, when Sanchez attends the Olympic Trials for air rifle, he wonât be the only Wharton High senior to compete.
Salas, a 17-year-old Live Oak Preserve resident, will compete as well.
While Salas hasnât made the national team and didnât compete in the Olympic trials for smallbore, he also trains with Shipley and also has his eyes on an Olympic prize someday.
Salas has only been shooting precision rifle since last October, but has progressed quickly enough to earn the opportunity to compete in the Olympic trials for air rifle.
Ben Salas (left) and Matt Sanchez
A relative newcomer, Salasâ growth as a shooter has been accelerated in part due to working alongside Sanchez, a veteran of the sport.
Sanchez began shooting with his dad when he was only 10 years old. The family lived in Orlando and went to a rifle club on weekends, just for fun. Sanchez entered a few competitions at the club, noticing that others showed up in some âweirdâ gear. He says he started to realize there were things he could improve on and excel at, so he started getting his own gear and working on his technique.
âI started to win little competitions, which led to state championships,â he says. âBeing able to win stuff really piqued my interest.â
At 13, Sanchez began to take the sport seriously. In 2017, his dadâs job change brought him to Wharton for the beginning of his sophomore year.
âWhen I got here, I saw they had a rifle team in NJROTC,â says Sanchez, referring to the high schoolâs Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program. âIt gave me more time to shoot during school and made things a lot easier, training-wise.â
His presence has transformed the schoolâs program.
âMatt has been a mentor to our whole team,â says Chief Wayne Boknevitz, a Naval sciences instructor who also coaches the schoolâs rifle teams. âHe got our whole precision team up and running and has elevated the entire marksmanship team.â
Boknevitz says the school previously had âsporterâ level rifle teams, but not âprecisionâ level. Sanchez worked with Boknevitz to get a team together, recruiting other students to invest in the expensive gear, while Boknevitz borrowed guns from another school.
âMatt took time from his own practice to help everyone else with form and micro-adjustments to the guns,â explains Boknevitz. âThe knowledge he shared allowed us to go to Navy nationals last year.â
* * *
Unlike Sanchez, Salas was first an NJROTC cadet, interested in pursuing a military career. He joined the schoolâs rifle team for fun. On the sporter team, Salas set a school record, and Boknevitz encouraged him to join the schoolâs new precision team.
At first Salas was reluctant â he says his parents werenât sure they wanted to spend the money on gear â but Sanchez encouraged him, explaining that precision shooting is a sport that can actually lead to a scholarship at a university. Salas says at that point, his parents were in.
âI was hoping to get into a Division II school, but my personal records kept going up very fast in a very short period of time,â says Salas.
He says it was earlier this year when he saw how well he was placing around peers who have been shooting much longer than him and wanted to take it a step further.
âI realized I could probably make the Olympics if I practice hard enough,â he says. âIâm really shooting for 2024.â
Salas is happy to give a lot of the credit to Sanchez.
âBefore he came to our school there was no precision team, so if he had gone to another school, I would have stayed on the sporter team and all of this never would have happened,â Salas says.
For the past year, the pair have trained together before and after school at Wharton using paper targets, and at home using highly sensitive Olympic-style electronic targets.
They travel once or twice a month to a specialized range â of which there are very few in the state and none locally â typically going to one in south Hollywood in South Florida, where they spend seven or eight hours a day practicing their sport with Shipley.
âThe two of them together are great friends and they are great training partners,â says Shipley. âThey push each other. Plus, theyâre both a joy to be around, just the funniest kids ever.â
* * *
While their eyes may be temporarily set on the Olympic prize as the Trials draw near, both boys say their more immediate goal has been getting a prized college scholarship.
âMost guys who make the (Olympic) team are in their 20s and some top shooters are in their mid-30s, so you can do it for a long time and have a long career,â explains Shipley. âWhen theyâre so young, my goal as a coach is to get them into school with a scholarship, because school is expensive, and the sport is expensive.â
Both Wildcats hit the bullseye when it came to receiving scholarships.
Sanchez can play a hand in restoring WVU to the top of the college ranks. The Mountaineers 19 titles is No. 1 all-time, but they havenât won one since capturing their fifth straight title 2017.
Salas will follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, who played football at NC State. He will be a big part of getting the Wolfpack on the college rifle map.
âAt first, the program was just a club,â Ben says. âBut, they just got a new coach and sheâs really stepping up and making the program bigger and proving that NC State is a good shooting school. Iâm really happy to go there and help them.â
There are only 30 universities that give scholarships in shooting, but none in Florida, although Shipley says USF used to have one of the best shooting teams in the country, with three Olympians.
Boknevitz says that to his knowledge, itâs the first time in Hillsborough County that any student has been signed to an NCAA shooting team and participated in signing day, taking pride that Wharton had not one, but two, students sign.
One way or another, both Wildcats have bright futures.
âIâm really excited for the Olympic trials, because Iâve seen what scores I can put up if I shoot my best,â Salas says. âBut Iâm more excited for college because I know thatâs a guarantee.â
The first truck pulled up to Wharton High in 1997, and head custodian Tirso âJuniorâ Cintron was waiting.
He pulled the first chair off the truck. The first desk.
âThe first everything,â says Carmen Aguero, one of the first teachers at the school.
Junior set the desks and chairs up in the classrooms and offices. He made sure the bathrooms had toilet paper and soap. The lawn was mowed. The floors were shined.
Wharton was ready.
And every day, for the next 22 years, before any teachers and students arrived for the day, thanks to the diligence, determination and dedication of Junior, you could count on one thing.
Wharton High was ready.
* * *
Juniorâs last day at Wharton was August 26. To say he will be missed hardly does his legacy justice.
âIâm telling you, and this is no exaggeration, he is the most beloved person ever to walk the halls of Wharton High,â says Tommy Tonelli, a guidance counselor and the schoolâs long-time, beloved boys basketball coach. âHe has done more for Wharton in the history of our school than any other person that has ever worked here.â
Thatâs high praise from Tonelli, who isnât prone to hyperbole. He was one of hundreds of friends that Junior made at Wharton over the years. Juniorâs retirement party on Sept. 12, Tonelli says, will be the most attended retirement party ever at New Tampaâs oldest high school.
A school custodian can be a thankless job, and rarely does one rise to the level of hallway celebrity, but Junior somehow did just that.
He was always affable, earnest, positive, productive and those who knew him say he never had a bad day.
He arrived every morning at 5 a.m., checked the air conditioning, swung by the kitchen to make sure the cooks had gas, went building to building turning off all 16 alarms, and made a sweep of the school to make sure everything was safe and ready for another day.
During the day, he answered calls on his radio for assistance, never saying no, never sighing, never hanging his head. When the school served as a hurricane shelter, it was Junior who made sure everyone was as comfortable as possible.
Even the dreaded call to clean up after a sick student â the one task he liked least â was hastily handled.
âI am an easy person,â Junior says. âI always had a good attitude, thatâs why I win so many people. If a teacher saw me in the hall and said she needed a new board in her room, when she showed up the next morning, the board was there.â
Wharton career counselor Magda Rodriguez has a student take a picture of her and Junior, one of her best friends at Wharton.
Junior, 67, was born in Puerto Rico and moved to The Bronx, NY, when he was 18. He worked as a waiter in a hotel for 17 years, met and married Rosa, his wife of 42 years, and started a family â daughters Elaine and Jennifer, who are now teachers in Hillsborough County, and son David, who is a U.S. Marine.
In 1989, the Cintrons moved to Tampa, where Junior started work at Hillsborough High from 2:30 p.m.-11 p.m., while holding a second full-time time cleaning floors at Tampa General from 11:30 p.m.-8 a.m.
Those at Wharton can thank Aguero for Junior. The two met when Junior was the head custodian at Hillsborough.
When she was promoted to the athletic director at Wharton, and the new school was looking for a custodian, she had one word for principal Mitch Muley: Junior.
Aguero lured him to Wharton, where Junior soon became indispensable.
âHe was the heart and soul of Wharton,â she says.
Aguero chuckles recalling the time Junior helped chase away the biggest squirrel either of them had ever seen, and the time he had to remove a dead alligator from the tennis courts.
When Aguero left Wharton to become principal at Webb Middle School, she had her head custodian sit down with Junior, âto teach him how to do the job right.â
Junior had his own way of dealing with problems. When parents complained that their kids said there were no soap dispensers in some of the bathrooms, Junior explained that the school couldnât replace the ones student were destroying fast enough.
When the parents showed up to discuss the issue a second time, he was ready with a pile of smashed and broken soap dispenser. âAfter that, they never call me again,â Junior says.
When some kids made fun of him for being a custodian, he pretended not to understand or would just ignore them. Those that didnât, he would fist bump or salute.
âI was like that with them all time; they would say ‘heâs cool,â Junior says, smiling proudly. âThey like me because Iâm cool.â
Junior loved joking with students and teachers, and wasnât above the occasional prank. One of his favorite victims was Tonelli.
Despite the basketball coachâs fear of frogs and snakes, that didnât stop Junior one time from putting a frog in a bag of donuts he left for Tonelli. Junior waited in an adjoining room with some other teachers, all eagerly waiting to hear the reaction. Junior leans forward as he tells the story, slapping his knee.
And yes, Tonelli was still Juniorâs biggest fan.
âThey should rename the school after him,â Tonelli says. âThatâs how much he has meant to Wharton High School.â
On Juniorâs last day at Wharton, he was summoned to the auditorium where the schoolâs teachers were waiting for him. He received a standing ovation, two sweaters for the winter â he hates the cold â and lunch.
He got a second lunch later when the ladies who work in the cafeteria made him his favorite â pork, rice and black beans.
âTwo big lunches,â Junior says, grinning ear to ear.
However, even the happiest guy in world couldnât escape the sadness on that last day. At 2:30 p.m., he took his radio and told everyone it was time for his final call. He thanked current principal Mike Rowan and all the teachers, and it was as if the entire school wept along with Junior.
Then, he walked out the front door, turned around, and gave the school he had served for 22 years one last glance.
âI looked at everything, and I say, ‘Okay. Thatâs it.ââ
Workers were putting the finishing touches on the improved A/C system at local high schools right up to today’s first day.
You may or may not have felt a pinch so far this year, with the new Âœ-cent sales tax increase to support Hillsborough Countyâs public schools, but the Hillsborough County School District certainly has felt the benefit.
As of July 22, the district already had received $40.4 million since the tax went into effect on January 1.
Of that money, officials say they have already spent $17,902,401.49, and some of that money has gone (and will continue to go) directly into New Tampaâs schools.
Work is well under way at Benito Middle School, where crews are installing a new air conditioning system. The A/C project is expected to be completed before the 2019-20 school year starts on Monday, August 12.
âIt will be huge for the students and the faculty to not have to deal with the air going in and out,â says Sharon Hineline, who now works at the front desk at Benito and was formerly the PTSA president at the school.
She says that the response from the district has typically been good when the air has not been working, and itâs usually been limited to one area or another, but the new system should mean a more reliable system throughout the entire school at all times.
âIt certainly will help to minimize the disruption of moving classrooms or having doors open,â Sharon says.
âNot having air in Florida makes people not be able to think straight,â she continues, âand we need kids to be able to think straight.â
Hillsborough County Schools spokesperson Tanya Arja says work also is under way this summer to install a new air conditioning system replacement at Clark Elementary.
Wharton Highâs air conditioning system also is being overhauled.
âWork this summer is to install two new chillers of the schoolâs three, because the third one is only a couple of years old,â says principal Mike Rowan, who adds that there also has been pipework done at Wharton over the summer.
âNext summer, they will be replacing a couple of other things that are needed, including ductwork,â he says. âThat should help a lot to balance out the air flow into the classrooms.â
The air conditioning has been an issue at the school, for both teachers and students, for many years. Rowan says he hopes the improvements will eliminate those problems.
Arja says Wharton will be getting a new roof, too, as will Hunterâs Green Elementary. Work on those projects is expected to start soon â construction on Hunterâs Greenâs new roof is expected to begin sometime this month.
âWith the roofs, they work on them at night and on weekends,â Arja explains. âItâs cooler for the crews that way and it doesnât disturb activity at the schools.â
Playgrounds, Tracks & More
Tampa Palms Elementary (TPE) already has received separate new playgrounds for grades kindergarten through second, and grades 3-5. While the students saw the installation happening towards the end of the last school year, when school starts this fall, it will be the first time TPE students have gotten to play on the new equipment.
Arja also says that by the end of this school year, funds from the half-penny sales tax will be used to replace 50 playgrounds, tracks and athletic courts countywide, as well as complete 31 painting and carpeting projects, and invest more than $1 million in school security improvements.
Over the next 10 years, the district also plans to overhaul or replace air conditioning systems at 203 schools. Each summer, school officials expect to complete about 20 major school air conditioning projects as the funds are generated by sales across the county.
More than 1,700 total projects are planned over the next 10 years, including 63 aging roof replacements, $23 million in safety and security improvements, $25 million in classroom technology upgrades, and four new schools will be built to relieve overcrowding, although none are slated to be built in New Tampa.
More than 1.3 billion will be invested into schools over the next 10 years, with at least $500,000 invested in each school.
âThis is all thanks to Hillsborough County taxpayers who supported the education referendum back in November of 2018,â Arja says.
Parents at Benito Middle School gathered last school year to remind drivers to slow down in the mornings when driving by the school, but will have crossing guards to do so this year.
Parents have long complained that despite traffic lights and clearly marked walkways, children attending Benito Middle School faced very real dangers having to cross busy Cross Creek Blvd. every weekday morning without the aid of a crossing guard.
Well, their complaints definitely have been heard.
The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) approved in April a plan to spend roughly $1 million to employ Hillsborough County Sheriffâs Office (HCSO) deputies as crossing guards at all 43 Hillsborough middle schools, the first county in Florida to do so.
Following the BOCC approval, a study was implemented to determine the countywide needs and so far, 78 crossing guard positions have been earmarked by HCSO for 37 schools, including Benito and Liberty Middle School in Tampa Palms.
According to the list released last month, Benito will have two crossing guards stationed at the two corners of Kinnan St. and Cross Creek Blvd.
Liberty will have one crossing guard stationed at Commerce Park Blvd. and New Tampa Blvd.
Other middle schools stationed in high-traffic areas will have as many as six crossing guards, such as Ben Hill Middle School near Ehrlich Rd., and Adams and Farnell middle schools, which will have five crossing guards.
âThose numbers were determined by a ratio of how many students are traveling to school (via walking or biking) and how much traffic is in the area,â says HCSO spokesperson Amanda Granit.
The push for crossing guards at middle schools was spearheaded by parents across the county who protested the elimination of courtesy busing for students who live within a two-mile radius of their school.
That left students living north of Cross Creek Blvd. who walked or biked to Benito to have to cross the very busy road to get to school in the morning.
