Jaylen McCall poses with his dad and biggest supporter Jamal (left) and with his dad and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Selling kids on the importance of writing gets harder and harder every year, according to Liberty Middle School language arts teacher Alycia Marcarian. She says itâs true even when the prize is a full scholarship to any university in the state of Florida.
However, Jaylen McCall, 13, might be changing that, at least at Liberty.
The eighth-graderâs 500-word essay about former Black Seminoles leader John Horse was chosen last month as the winner of the middle school division of the Florida State Black History Month Essay Contest.
The prize: a full ride to the Florida university of his choice.
âItâs incredible,â says Jaylenâs father, Jamal. âI had to look at (the prize) a couple of times.â
It was Jamal, who does data and analytics for MetLife, who found out first that his son had won. He says he was in a midday meeting and missed a call. He didnât recognize the area code, but called back anyway and received the good news.
He was able to keep it a secret while picking Jaylen up, bringing him home to change clothes, and dropping him off at practice for his West Florida Flames club soccer team.
From there, Jamal hustled over to Publix to buy some celebratory cupcakes, and returned to the field.
âI had to play it cool,â Jamal says. âI ended up with a bunch of Valentineâs Day cupcakes and passed them out to a bunch of 13-year-old boys.â
The soccer celebration shocked Jaylen â âI thought it was somebodyâs birthday or somethingâ â and he says his teammates have now nicknamed him âScholar.â
Sadly, plans for Jaylen and Jamal to attend a celebratory Miami Heat vs. Chicago Bulls NBA game had to be scrapped due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Getting Jaylen, who says he enjoys writing, to enter the essay contest wasnât that tough a chore. He says that he tries to write at least five stories every summer about âinteresting and entertainingâ things, and finds the craft relaxing and a great stress reliever.
When Alycia told him about the contest, he set out to write about someone whose story hasnât been widely told. He had read about the Black Seminoles, a group of free blacks and runaway slaves who fought alongside the Seminole Indians during the Seminole Wars, the year before, and that led him to John Horse.
âI wanted to do somebody that nobody has heard of, so they could be interested in it,â Jaylen says.
Once he started researching, he found himself wowed by the John Horse story â a former slave who earned his freedom and went on to help other slaves escape, while wielding a large amount of influence as one of the leaders of the Black Seminoles.
It was a difficult process fitting everything he learned into 500 words. After days of researching, writing and editing, he entertained thoughts giving up.
âBut I kept working on it, and when I was done, I was really excited about it,â Jaylen says.
Not only did Jaylen win a scholarship for his essay, he got to visit the governorâs mansion in Tallahassee and received his award from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
âThere were a lot of other people there and the governorâs mansion was really cool,â Jaylen says. âThey also served food. They had some really good pineapple. It was really good.â
Jamalâs essay, and the significant prize that goes with it, is sure to inspire other students to enter next year. He says many of his classmates have already told him that next year they will be participating, and some sixth graders recently told him they were amazed he got to go to Tallahassee and meet the governor.
âItâs a really hard sell, even when the prize is something great like this,â Alycia says. âA lot of kids donât want to do the extra work or think they wonât win. Itâs a challenging task, but writing is something they have to do in college and beyondâŠ.luckily we have kids like Jaylen that work hard and do it anyway.â
The Comfort Corner at HGE is the Hillsborough County School Districtâs largest sensory room, thanks to the Sydney Has A Sister foundation.
For students who deal with sensory processing disorders such as autism, having a safe, comfortable space to calm down can make a difference in how successful that child is at school.
At Hunterâs Green Elementary (HGE), to meet this need, a brand new sensory room was unveiled on January 30. While a few other schools throughout Hillsborough County also have sensory rooms, the one at He is housed in a large classroom, making it the largest in the District.
Dubbed the âComfort Cornerâ â with fabric softening the roomâs lights and translucent curtains dividing it into many separate spaces â it doesnât feel like a classroom. Filled with quiet areas with dark spaces, hanging hideaway chairs, and weighted blankets, as well as active areas with fidget toys and fine motor skills activities, the room meets the many varied needs of diverse students.
âSome kids with autism have a sensory overload,â explains Joni Cagle, HGEâs Exceptional Student Education (ESE) teacher, âwhile others donât get enough sensory input. We wanted a place for kids who have differences to feel safe and learn coping strategies to meet them where they are so we can help them to be successful at school.â
But, Joni is quick to add, âItâs not just for kids with labels.â
She says typical kids who get anxiety before a big test, for example, can come to the room and bounce on a ball for a few minutes to help reduce that anxiety.
David and Veronica Mardo have two kids at HGE, a daughter in third grade and a son with special needs in pre-Kindergarten.
âThis will help my son for sure,â David says. âI think itâs great the school has something like this for him.â
To bring the Comfort Corner to the school, more than $8,000 worth of equipment â from bouncing balls to rope lights to a weighted blanket in the shape of a hamburger â was donated by a local foundation called Sydney Has A Sister, founded in 2014 by Ernie and Becky Black of Land OâLakes.
Sydney Has A Sister was established to provide scholarships that recognize the sacrifices that typical children make when they have siblings with special needs, such as long hours in doctorsâ waiting rooms.
It expanded its mission to help provide sensory rooms at schools after seeing one in Jacksonville.
âThis is our fourth sensory room,â says Ernie. âSome other sensory rooms are a small room or even a longer hallway. The challenge is they donât have enough space. This is what we envisioned. And, even though itâs large, weâve created these nooks so itâs not as sterile and the space is intimate.â
He says every item chosen for the Hunterâs Green sensory room was intentional, based on the recommendations of specialists and what they have learned creating rooms at other schools.
âFor example, the way the room has dividers,â explains Ernie. âThere can be five kids in here that donât feel like theyâre in the same room. And, the curtains are transparent so the teachers can still supervise all of them.â
He and Veronica believe the Hunterâs Green Comfort Corner will be a model for future rooms.
âThis is a place that gets kids geared up to learn and focus and gets them back into the classroom,â Ernie says. âThatâs the whole point.â
He says that Sydney Has A Sister was able to fund the room through the generosity of its sponsors and fundraising events.
In addition, a family at the school, who asked to not be named in this story, provided a donation to purchase additional needed furniture and supplies and ensure the ongoing success of the Comfort Corner.
Joni says the total cost of the room is more than $10,000. The good news is that itâs already making a difference.
âWeâve seen attention spans increase,â Joni says. âWeâve seen social skills increase. Fine motor skills. Gross motor skills. It really affects the whole child in a positive way.â
Kids squealed with delight upon arriving at the brand-new inclusive playground designed for those with virtually any type of disability at the Wesley Chapel District Park. There were swings and tubes and things to sit and spin on, a soft, cushioned floor to walk on and roll over and lots of bright colors.
It was all theirs.
The glee in their faces was contagious, and it was exactly the moment Pasco County Board of County Commissioners chair Mike Moore had envisioned when he first pitched the idea to the countyâs Parks and Recreation department.
The kids werenât the only ones overwhelmed.
âIâll be honest with you, when the kids first came out here, I was watching and I had to walk away because it was a little overwhelming,â Comm. Moore said. âI had a couple of tears in my eyes, I really did. This is a miracle.â
***
On December 4, a large gathering of overjoyed kids, dedicated caregivers and teachers, Pasco County government dignitaries and generous donors from the Wesley Chapel Rotary Club, the Lennar Foundation and AdventHealth Wesley Chapel took a few snips at the ribbon cutting, officially opening Pascoâs first-ever inclusive playground.
It was a perfectly sunny day, with a slight chill in the air. But, most everyone there had their hearts warmed by the excitement of the kids, most of whom arrived on a bus from the Exceptional Student Education (ESE) programs from John Long Middle School and Wiregrass Ranch Elementary.
âIâm having a ball,â shouted Eric Piburn, a terminally ill 13-year-old in glasses, gloves, a knit cap and a face mask. Piburn, who needs a heart and double lung transplant, excitedly described his experience as he swung back and forth from a disc swing (that looked like an over-sized basket), the tube from his oxygen tank swaying along with him.
âIâve loved swings since I was little,â he exclaimed. âI never ever ever ever ever ever want to leave. Ever.â
Another Long student walked around giving everyone a hug. Others wide-eyed but trepidatiously wandered from ride to ride, looking to find something they enjoyed.
âThis is really cool,â said Deborah Collin, assistant principal in charge of ESE services at Long. âI keep saying to myself, where can we get some of this stuff?â
****
For every 1,000 children in Pasco County, there are 85 who have some type of special needs. Countywide, the Pasco County School District says there are about 16,000 children with special needs. Collin says there are 55 children in the ESE program at her school, spread over three different classifications of disability, with five teachers and eight instructional aides.
While they have adaptive physical education for the students, it is confined to a room.
âItâs still not enough movement or variety,â she said.
Which is why the playground is such a gamechanger for children with disabilities.
âThis is huge,â said Barbara Hayes, a physical therapist with Pasco County Schools for 22 years. âThere arenât a lot of areas for those children to access. You can see the smiles on their faces. This gives them an opportunity to play with children more at their developmental level. This is a wonderful thing and very well done.â
Collin said one of her students, seventh grader Zakyla McKenzie, spends a lot of time playing with a plastic bottle. It fulfills some of her sensory needs, with its texture and the sound it makes when squeezed. But, itâs been the only exercise she usually gets each day.
At the inclusive playground, however, Zakyla was able to find something she liked more.
âShe was having such a good time on the swing, she did not want to get off,â said Nellie Reilly, a behavioral specialist at Long who seemed as overjoyed as many of the students.
****
While many area parks may be compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines, few truly meet the standards of what proponents consider to be inclusivity. To do so requires wider pathways and easier-to-navigate surfaces, activity panels that are at ground height, larger swings with more back support and sensory elements that include touch and music.
There are multiple swing sets on the playground, an inclusive spinner that allows kids in wheelchairs to have a merry-go-round experience with their friends, a tube to crawl through â âI like to pretend Iâm a cat!â said Eric â and four springy chairs. The surface throughout the playground is made of rubber and, combined with the spread-out rides, allows easy access for wheelchair-bound kids to move around and interact with others.
In the spring, a butterfly garden, which will be tended to by the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, should be in full bloom.
âI didnât see anybody that didnât find something that worked for them,â Collin said.
****
The inclusive park is the first of its kind in Pasco County and one that Moore said he hopes to replicate in other places. It was not, however, your typical project for the county â it was introduced, funded, approved, designed and built in less than five months, which is light speed by traditional governmental standards.
As a volunteer coach at the District Park for a variety of sports, Moore had for many years seen kids who could run fast, jump high and were able to revel in what the park had to offer.
However, he also had seen the kids who couldnât, those relegated to the sidelines because of a disability. The park wasnât for everyone, he realized, and he said the thought bothered him and prompted him to try and change that situation.
After a few months of research, Moore introduced the idea to Keith Wiley, Pascoâs director of Parks and Recreation, earlier this year. Wiley had been thinking similarly â he already had been planning some special needs camps for the county.
****
To fund the project, since it wasnât in the countyâs budget, Moore turned to the 53-member Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel â of which he is an honorary member â which just happened to be looking for a big project, and the club agreed to donate $50,000 for the playground.
Chris Casella, the Rotary Clubâs current president, told the ribbon-cutting ceremony crowd of roughly 100 that he was motivated by his own experiences as a kid, and the times spent at the park with friends and family.
âToday,â he said, âthis can be a reality for so many families from this area that are going to be able to bring children to this park and have memories that will last a lifetime.â
The Lennar Foundation, the homebuilderâs charitable arm, donated another $50,000, and Advent Health Wesley Chapel chipped in another $25,000.
In August, the county commission voted 5-0 to approve roughly $215,000 in public funding to cover the rest of the project. Ground was broken in September. The ribbon was cut in December.
It was money well spent. As the kids slowly filed back to their school bus, and the adults headed back to work, Eric Piburn continued to rock back and forth on the disc swing, still planning to never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever leave.
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
