WCH Soccer Girls’ Ferocious Forwards Also Are Pernicous Passers

After fighting through injuries her first season, Victoria Mitchell has emerged as one of Pasco County’s top strikers, leading Wesley Chapel with 32 goals heading into the District 3A-7 playoffs. (Photo courtesy of TheCSSN.com)

As the sun sets on the 2016-17 winter girls soccer regular season, the Wesley Chapel High (WCH) Wildcats are looking like a team poised to make a deep playoff run and possibly take home the first girls soccer district title in school history.

It’s thanks in large part to the team’s two high-scoring forwards, senior Bailey Hern and junior Tori Mitchell.

“It’s great to watch,” WCH head coach Michelle Clark says. “They know where the other one is going to be and even when I move them to different positions, they still play off of each other.”

Coming out of Christmas break as the team heads into the Class 3A, District 7 tournament this week as the No. 2 seed, Mitchell now has a team-best 32 goals in 14 games played, and Hern is right behind her with 30 (in 17 games) for the Wildcats, who are 13-3-2, including 10-1-2 in Class 3A, District 7 play.

Mitchell has notched seven hat tricks this season, including four in an 11-day span last month. Hern has four.

Their season totals rank both of them in the top 13 of all goal scorers in Florida’s Class 3A.

While 2016-17 has been the first full year that they’ve played together in high school, their connection dates back to their one season on the same team at Weightman Middle School, when Hern was an eighth-grader and Mitchell was in seventh. They only overlapped one season at Weightman, as Hern attended Stewart MS for her sixth and seventh-grade seasons, but the chemistry was in the air even then.

“It made the game easier for me, having someone like that playing forward with me,” Hern says. “That’s definitely where the chemistry started.”

Yet, it would take a few years before the pairing really started to come to fruition.

Hern played on a struggling 4-13-1 team her freshman year at WCH while Mitchell was still at Weightman.

Senior forward Bailey Hern has 30 goals, and has scored 82 in three years on varsity, with 45 assists. (Photo courtesy of TheCSSN.com)

The duo was reunited for Hern’s sophomore season, but an injury sidelined Mitchell and the two didn’t share the field much. Hern, however, burst onto the prep scene with 30 goals and 18 assists during the 2014-15 season.

“It was hard at first with Tori’s injury,” Clark says. “But, we knew what the future held with these two, one day.”

The knee injury that sidelined Mitchell for much of her freshman season also cut into her sophomore campaign last season as well. She managed to play in 11 of the team’s 14 games in 2015-16, and the pair combined for 41 goals, with Hern scoring 22 and Mitchell tallying 19.

WCH finished as the District 3A-7 runners up, dropping a 2-1 overtime loss to Pasco in the title game.

This season, the tenacious tandem is back together full time and devouring opposing defenses.

What’s more, they are both tallying up assists at a fairly impressive rate, too. Currently, Hern leads the team with 14, and Mitchell has eight.

“We know where the other one likes the ball, and we know where they’re going to run to get the ball,” Hern says.

Even when Hern has to drop back to the midfield, she still knows where Mitchell will be and where she is going.

“Bailey is so versatile, she can drop back and play midfield to help out if we have an injury,” Mitchell said. “I know she’s always looking for me and she really knows how to get me the ball.”

Both readily admit that most of their assists are to each other, but teammates like freshmen Sophia Mitchell (11 goals, six assists) and Sydney Martin (five goals, six assists) and seniors Kelly Vester (nine goals, 11 assists) and Lauren Campoe (three goals, nine assists) have helped make the offense one of the best in the Tampa Bay area.

Last season, the Wildcats scored 83 goals in 21 matches and made the 3A Regional semifinals. This season, they have found the back of the net 103 times in 18 matches, or more than 5.7 goals per game.

“Even if we make mistakes, we are able to come back from them,” Clark says. “Any time (we’ve fallen behind) 1-0 this season, it’s like we’ve come back even stronger.”

With the Mitchell-Hern combo up top, it can be tough for opponents to stay in the game. The Wildcats have won 11 of their 13 wins by at least five goals.

“This year, we have depth that we haven’t had in years past,” Clark says. “The girls that come off the bench this year, play at a higher level than the subs we’ve had in years past.”

Clark and her team hope that this pushes them over the top, namely against District 3A-7 rival Pasco. The Wildcats tied the Pirates earlier in the season and fell 5-3 two weeks later with an injury-plagued squad.

The Pirates, who went 12-0-1 in the district, will be the top seed in the 3A-7 tournament, which begins next week at Weeki Wachee High in Hernando County.

Bulls Prepping For Tough District Tourney

The Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) girls soccer team is 11-7-5 heading into the Class 5A, District 7 tournament this week at Steinbrenner High in Tampa.

The Bulls will play the Warriors (9-2-1) in the first round of the tournament.

They went into the Christmas break on a three-game winning streak, outscoring opponents Fivay, Hudson and Ridgewood by a combined 13-0.  Freshman keeper Hanna Taugner post all three shutouts in net. The Bulls enter the 5A-7 tournament winners of seven of their past eight matches.

Junior Rylind Robinson leads the team with 13 goals and five assists, senior Sydney Chase has nine goals, and Kat Llanos has eight goals and nine assists.

FHWC Ready To Unveil New Rooms, New Technology & A New Experience

Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) is virtually ready for another grand opening. Oops. Make that ready for a virtual grand opening.

After drawing an estimated crowd of 8,000 people to its initial Grand Opening in 2012, FHWC is set to unveil its new $78-million, 118,000-sq.-ft. expansion to the general public via social media. FHWC marketing director Tracy Clouser says that because the hospital now has patients being treated everywhere, it isn’t possible to allow thousands to stroll through the corridors, checking out the new rooms and advances in technology.

However, everyone can still attend the Grand Opening of the expansion virtually, via both YouTube and Facebook, on Monday, February 6, 10 a.m.-11 a.m. Clouser says the public will even be given the opportunity to ask questions of FHWC CEO Denyse Bales-Chubb.

“We’ll be showcasing some of the areas people wouldn’t ordinarily get to see,’’ Clouser said during an interview with Neighborhood News editor Gary Nager for the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce Featured Business Segment on WCNT-tv, which hit YouTube on Jan. 6. She added that those who RSVP will get the first look at some of the expansion that is expected to even further enhance the hospital’s standing in the local (see pg 3) and medical community.

FHWC, constructed in the shape of a “W” with North, Center and South wings, is doubling the size of the Center wing, which now has six floors instead of the original three. A three-story connector wing, called the “Southeast Connector,” between the Center and South wings, also is nearly complete.

The extra floors will allow the hospital to expand from 83 private patient rooms to 143.

Emergency room space also is nearly doubling, from 18 rooms to 35. That may be the best news for area residents, as even the influx of urgent care centers in Wesley Chapel and New Tampa hasn’t stopped the FHWC emergency rooms from overflowing some days.

Clouser said there was no true original timetable to expand, but the top brass with FHWC’s parent company, the Adventist Health System originally estimated there would be a need for expansion within 5-7 years when FHWC first opened. But, the unrelenting brisk business at the hospital hastened the need for expansion to within only three years.

“We have been very, very busy,’’ Clouser says. “Obviously, there has been a need in this area for quality healthcare close to home for (local) people.”

Even More Technology

The new patient rooms at FHWC are Cerner Smart Rooms, which offer better workflows for hospital personnel, with instant bedside access to real-time data for doctors, while providing better communication between patients, their providers and visitors.

Visitors will be able to see if the patient is with their doctor, resting or does not want to be disturbed before entering the room, while FHWC staff will know, for example, which of their patients have allergies or are fall risks.

“It’s all right at their fingertips outside the room,’’ Clouser says, adding that the older rooms at FHWC will be retrofitted with the Cerner technology as well.

The new rooms also have the Get Well Network, another technology that bridges the gap between patients and doctors and empowers patients and their caregivers to participate in their healthcare. It also helps track the care patients are receiving — like dosages of medicine or blood tests — while they may be sleeping, right down to knowing when hospital personnel are washing and sanitizing their hands.

Clouser also said that some of the expansion already has been completed. A second heart catheterization lab opened in March, and a new wing with 20 additional beds in the Southeast wing opened in October. That third-floor wing will be an all-women’s wing when all of the other new rooms have opened, all expected by the end of this month or early in February.

The majority of the new rooms and technologies will be on the new fifth and sixth floors. Clouser also said that, for now, the fourth floor will remain as shell space, until future growth dictates adding 24 more patient rooms. Until then, the fourth floor will feature conference and classrooms that will host many of the free community health and wellness programs FHWC currently hosts at the hospital’s adjacent Wellness Center.

Clouser also noted that the expansion, which will be completed by the end of the month or early in February, will attract new physicians offering new procedures, since FHWC will now have more space in the new operating rooms. “That means new treatments, new services and new programs,’’ Clouser says.

Doctors also will soon have access to the MAKO platform, which is a robotic-arm-assisted system that can perform orthopaedic surgeries like partial knee or hip replacements. FHWC also has the daVinci System, another robotic-assisted device that specializes in minimally invasive surgery, such as removing a gall bladder or performing a hysterectomy through a patient’s belly button.

“We are the only site in Pasco County able to do that,’’ Clouser said “Surgeons like it because it’s minimally invasive, there’s less scarring, less pain, shorter recovery times and less blood.”

FHWC also will feature a tech room that allows doctors to enter via keyboard the patient’s name and type of surgery being performed, prompting a shelf to open up that provides all of the tools needed to perform that particular operation.

To RSVP for the virtual FHWC expansion Grand Opening, please visit FHInspiredByYou.com. The event will be on YouTube and Facebook, on Mon., Feb. 6, 10 a.m.-11 a.m. Check out the drone footage and much more inside FHWC from Brad Hall Studios on Episode 14 of WCNT-tv on YouTube now!

GrillSmith Is Reader’s Choice In Wesley Chapel

Stonewood & GrillSmith Take Top Honors In Our 2016 Dining Survey

900° Woodfired Pizza, Hungry Greek & Burger 21 Also Grab Crowns; Three Wesley Chapel Residents Take Home This Year’s Free Dining Prizes!

There’s no doubt that New Tampa and Wesley Chapel both have a lot of restaurants, even though both areas continue to be dominated by national, regional and even local chains.

In our 2016 Reader Dining Survey & Contest, the top three restaurants — according to more than 500 readers who submitted surveys — in both of our distribution areas were all part of small local or regional chains and in New Tampa, seven of the top ten also are links in (albeit small) chains. The interesting thing to me was that the larger national and regional chains, which could only receive Write-In votes on our Dining Survey again this year, got fewer votes and points than ever before.

In fact, this is the first time ever that Bonefish Grill, Outback Steakhouse and Texas Roadhouse all failed to make the top 25 in Wesley Chapel, even though they’ve all always been among the most crowded restaurants in town. And likewise, neither Olive Garden nor Red Lobster got nearly as many write-in votes as they had in our previous contests.

It should be noted that Cheddars Scratch Kitchen, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse and Longhorn Steakhouse all opened too late in the process (our voting was from September til November) to receive many votes at all.

Stonewood Grill & Tavern made it back to the top spot as our readers “Favorite Restaurant in New Tampa.” Last year’s winner, Burger 21, dropped to #3 with our readers and last year’s #5 — Ciccio Cali — moved up three spots to #2. In fact, for the third straight year, the same ten restaurants in New Tampa received the most points from our readers as last year, although once again, the orders of those ten restaurants has changed.

Meanwhile, in Wesley Chapel, GrillSmith and The Hungry Greek took home the top two spots for the second year in a row, while Pizza Mania (#4), La Prima Pizza (#5), Dempsey’s Steak House (#9) and Wolf’s Den (#10) all moved into (or back into) our readers’ top-10. I will tell you more about many of these restaurants next issue, when I show you my 2016 Dining Favorites.

Congratulations go out to this year’s Dining Survey contest winners — all of whom happen to live in Wesley Chapel. The winners were selected by a random number generator from among the more than 500 properly-filled out entries. The 2016 winners are Roberto Davila of  Lexington Oaks , who will receive a $200 gift card to the restaurant of his choice in the Tampa Bay area; Angela Haraf of Quail Woods, who wins a  $100 gift card to the restaurant of her choice; and Melissa Spear of Meadow Pointe, who snags a $50 gift card to any restaurant she chooses.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to fill out an entry form. Look for my restaurant favorites in our next issue and for some of these listings to appear on future episodes of WCNT-tv.

Your Favorite Restaurants In Wesley Chapel (WC)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. GrillSmith

2. The Hungry Greek

3. Vallarta’s WC

4. PizzaMania

5. La Prima Pizza

6. PrimeBar

7. Burger Monger

8. Bonsai Sushi

9. Dempsey’s Steak House

10. Wolf’s Den

11. Pinchers Crab Shack

12. Yamato Japanese Steakhouse

13. PDQ

14. 900 Woodfired Pizza

15. CineBistro

16. Asian Buffet

17. Little Italy’s Family Restaurant & catering

18. Amici Pizza

19. Buttermilk Provisions

20. Best NY Pizza

21. Capital Tacos

22. Hibachi Express

23. NY NY Pizza

24. Latin Twist Café

25. (tie) Don Pan International Bakery

365 Caffe Italiano

John C. Cotey
Assistant Editor
The New Tampa & Wesley Chapel
Neighborhood News
P.813.910.2575
F. 813.910.2483

www.ntneighborhoodnews.com

Dining Survey: New Tampa Favorites

In our 2016 Reader Dining Survey & Contest, the top three restaurants — according to more than 500 readers who submitted surveys — in both of our distribution areas were all part of small local or regional chains and in New Tampa, seven of the top ten also are links in (albeit small) chains. The interesting thing to me was that the larger national and regional chains, which could only receive Write-In votes on our Dining Survey again this year, got fewer votes and points than ever before.

Stonewood Grill & Tavern made it back to the top spot as our readers “Favorite Restaurant in New Tampa.” Last year’s winner, Burger 21, dropped to #3 with our readers and last year’s #5 — Ciccio Cali — moved up three spots to #2. In fact, for the third straight year, the same ten restaurants in New Tampa received the most points from our readers as last year, although once again, the orders of those ten restaurants has changed.

We will be posting winners in individual categories all week, so make sure you check back! For now, here are your overall favorites in New Tampa.

1. Stonewood Grill & Tavern

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Kobe Japanese Steakhouse
7. Mr. Dunderbak’s
8. Oakley’s Grille
9. Koizi Endless Hibachi & Sushi
10. Vallarta’s TP
11. Café Ole
12. Cappy’s Pizza
13. Thai Ruby
14. Little Greek
15. Las Palmas
16. Mulligan’s Irish Pub
17. Sukhothai
18. Full Circle Pizza
19. Sushi Café
20. Woodfired Pizza (Bearss)
21. Lanna Thai
22. Taste of NY Pizza
23. Casa Ramos
24. Peabody’s Billiards & Games
25. Saffron Indian Cuisine
*-Zaytoun Mediterranean Grill was 24th, but has since closed

26-50 in alphabetical order
Cantina
Capri Pizza
Chick-fil-A
China City
China Wok
Cross Creek Deli
Fong’s Sushi
Fushia Asian Bistro
Ginza Edndless Hibachi & Sushi
Glory Days Grill
Hawkeye’s NYS Pizza
Ho King
Hoosier’s Grille (Heritage Isles CC)
Hunter’s Green Country Club
Minerva Indian Restaurant
Orchid Thai
Petra Mediterranean Express
Pita’s Republic
PJ Dolan’s Irish Pub
Ruby Tuesday
Season’s Fresh Café
Sushi Avenue
Tabla Indian Cuisine
Tarek’s Café
Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club
Top Thai

 

Hunter’s Green Father-Son Duo Still Chasing Tennis Gold

Clint Bowles (left) and his father Jim pose with runner-up Silver Ball trophies from last month’s USTA National Clay Court Championships in Sarasota.

Hunter’s Green resident and local dentist Jim Bowles won a Big 8 doubles championship while playing for the University of Oklahoma (in Norman) in 1972, but 45 years later, he says it is his latest tennis quest that gives him the most pleasure.

One of Hunter’s Green Country Club’s best players, Bowles, 64, recently teamed up with his 28-year-old son Clint to finish second at the USTA National Father-Son clay court championships at The Landings Racquet Club in Sarasota.

For Jim and Clint, it was another tantalizingly close finish in their fifth attempt to win a Golden Ball together.

In 2012, their first year playing in national championship tournaments together, the duo finished second and won a Silver Ball. That was followed by consecutive consolation round wins and a Bronze Ball in 2015 after a third-place finish.

On Nov. 20, Jim and Clint made the final again before falling to Jerry and Brett Morse-Karzen of Wilmette, IL by a 6-4, 7-6 score. Jim says he and Clint didn’t convert on a couple of crucial break points in the second set, dooming their upset bid.

“Clint said, ‘Dad, we’re going to win one one of these days,’” Jim said, chuckling. “I said, ‘Well, let’s hurry up. The sun is setting.’”

It won’t be easy. The Morse-Karzens are the all-time leaders in USTA National Father-Son championships, have beaten the Bowles duo all four times they have met, and their win was their fourth straight national title on clay.

Oh, and there’s this: Jerry Morse-Karzen is 6 feet, 5 inches tall, and his son Brett is 6’10”.

Meanwhile, both Jim and Clint are around 5’9”.

“We call them the twin towers,’’ Jim said of the Morse-Karzen duo. “The son can just stand at the end and stretch out his arms and cover the whole court. It’s tough when you’re giving away that much height.”

But, the Bowles duo will keep on trying. It’s in the family’s blood — Jim’s wife Joy is also an accomplished tennis player, and younger son Spencer was a baseball standout at Wiregrass Ranch High before playing at Saint Leo University near Dade City.

Jim grew up in Shawnee, OK, playing football, baseball and basketball. A knee injury in junior high put him on the sidelines for awhile, and one of his substitute teachers talked him into giving tennis a try.

“He was like the pied piper of tennis,’’ Jim recalled. “He was the type of guy who stayed after you. If you didn’t show up for a while, he would call and ask you where you’ve been and tell you he had a kid there he thought could beat you.”

Jim says he never looked back after taking up tennis. While earning a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Oklahoma, he also played on the Sooners’ tennis team, where his serve-and-volley style helped win a Big 8 (now Big 12) championship in doubles.

When Clint was born, Jim started him on tennis almost immediately. However, because they were living in Wyoming at the time, the tennis competition was subpar, and Clint gravitated to his other favorite sport, hockey.

It wasn’t until the Bowles family moved to Hunter’s Green 21 years ago that Clint’s tennis talent fully emerged.

After spending some time at the Saddlebrook Tennis Academy, Clint ended up training under renowned coach Nick Saviano, a former Stanford University All-American who has coached Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) stars Sloane Stephens and Eugenie Bouchard and other top players.

Within four months of training with Saviano, Clint, a lefty with what Jim proudly calls “world-class baseline strokes,” captured his first Gold Ball, winning the national clay court title in the 14-year-old division in 2003.

In 2005, Clint was 16 years old when he captured his second Gold Ball, winning the 18s on the hard courts. In 2007, he won another national clay court title in the 18s before attending Florida State University in Tallahassee.

As a Seminole, Clint was named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference team twice while finishing third on FSU’s all-time singles wins list with 92.

With Jim — who also earned his D.D.S. degree from the University of Oklahoma Dental School — working as a dentist at Family, Implant & Cosmetic Dentistry in The Walk at Highwoods Preserve, and Clint teaching at Saviano High Performance Tennis in Fort Lauderdale, tennis time together is sparse.

The times they get to play together at nationals, Jim says, are special.

“It’s a chance to spend some quality time with him and re-connect,’’ Jim says. “We have a great time. We laugh on the court…we’ll look at each other funny if one of us hits a weird shot. I really enjoy it.”

Jim pauses for a second, and then smiles, adding, “Then again, when you win something, it’s even more fun.”

“We really, really look forward to it every year,’’ Clint says. “We get to play in a super national tournament against the best in our age group, it’s really close to home and it’s my birthday week. That makes it a great trip.”

Having won three Silver Balls together, Jim says that Clint is working hard at getting him his first gold one.

“Quite honestly, in the middle years (at the USTA Nationals where the tandem won the consolation bracket and finished third) Clint wasn’t really playing that much and wasn’t all that fired up to play,’’ Jim says. “But this year, he was highly motivated. He practiced, he’d call me and ask, “Hey dad, how are you doing? You practicing? How’s your serve?’”

Jim admits that his best chance to win a Gold Ball probably was the first year he and Clint competed together. They lost 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. They also finished second that year at the hard court finals in California.

After this year’s narrow loss in the final, Clint texted his dad and promised he’d get him a championship.

“The father-son doubles, it just creates a special bond between the father and son,’’ Clint says. “It’s really fun to go out and play with him. It makes it that much more enjoyable to play for him, try to win it (with) him.”

He adds, “I promised him we’re going to win at least one Gold Ball. Now I have to live up to that promise and follow through on it.”