RADDSports Fights Back Against Pasco County’s Default Claim

Mediation is scheduled for Monday.

RADDSports chief operating officer Anthony Homer appeared at the Nov. 15 Pasco County Commission meeting to ask the commissioners to vote to overturn their previous decision to hold RADD in default. The commissioners refused without discussion. (Screenshot from Pasco Television)

Pasco County is looking to take over the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, but the company that currently runs it, RADDSports, is claiming that Pasco — primarily Florida Sports Coast director Adam Thomas — has used bogus claims to force RADD out or into a reduced role.

The two sides are at odds over how the facility, which opened in July of 2020 but officially opened in January 2021, is being run and the results of those early efforts.

The county’s Board of Commissioners (BOC) approved a Notice of Default, originally written by Thomas, as part of its Consent Agenda at the BOC’s Oct. 25th meeting, without any discussion. Included was the okay to pay Tampa law firm Carlton Fields up to $200,000 to handle the default case, as well as more than $2.8 million to cover the potential cost of the takeover plan.

Although RADDSports’ lawyers were under the impression that the two sides would be able to meet before the default notice was sent, it was delivered on Nov. 4 by attorney Dane Blunt of Carlton Fields.

“The notice claims that RADDSports is in default of a handful of sections of the contract the two sides originally signed,” said Blunt’s letter. 

However, the letter stated that it is the county’s option to allow RADDSports to continue operating the sports campus and that, “RADDSports is in full control of the future” provided it undergo a ‘radical shift in (its) current operations, promotion, and marketing’ to attain compliance with the contract.”

Anthony Homer, the chief operating officer for RADDSports, told county commissioners at the Oct. 25 meeting that he and his company were eager to come to the table and work out any differences, and appeared to be blindsided by the delivery of the Nov. 4 Notice of Default letter.

Homer also attended the Nov. 15 BOC meeting and delivered RADDSports’ refutation of the Notice of Default in person. Commissioners voted unanimously to allow it into record, but again, with no discussion

He told the commissioners they had been misled and that some data had been misrepresented at the Oct. 25 meeting, and that they approved a Notice of Default “for which the county had no support.”

Homer said he was told by the county’s attorneys after the Oct. 25 meeting that the notice of default would not be issued and, instead, discussions would be held to settle the matter.

“Since then, the county has refused to engage in any substantive discussion,” Homer said. “It has not provided any data upon which it based its claims to put RADDSports in default and, despite saying otherwise, on Nov. 4, the county’s attorneys issued (RADD) a Notice of Default.”

The Nov. 4 notice, says Homer, was different than the one the commissioners voted on at the Oct. 25 meeting, as specific data was removed after RADD supplied the correct data. And, in RADD’s letter of refutation given to the BOC, more data was provided to prove the county had been using incorrect information to make its case.

In fact, Homer said, when it comes to the county’s claims that RADDSports has focused on local residents and events and hasn’t appealed to tourists, the county paid $30,000 to Zartico, a data intelligence company that focuses on the visitor economy, to do a custom analysis of the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus visitor-to-resident ratio.

“(Zartico’s report) actually confirmed the data we had previously provided,” Homer said. “So, it’s now obvious that the county has no support for its claim that RADDSports is in default and is asserting its claims in bad faith.”

The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus has hosted dozens of sports events involving teams from all over the country.

Homer said the claims made by the county were unfairly damaging the reputation of RADDSports and were making it harder to book events. He asked that the BOC vote to immediately revoke the Notice of Default. 

He didn’t get the vote he requested, but Homer and RADDSports will still be getting a chance to make their case.

In the Nov. 4 default letter, Blunt wrote that, “At this time, the County believes it is in the best interest of both parties’ to mediate their disputes pursuant to the Agreement.”

A mediation with retired Judge Gregory Holder has been scheduled for Monday, Nov. 28, and Blunt said the county plans to participate. 

 “We ask that RADDSports come to mediation prepared to share with the county its detailed, written plan for future compliance with the Agreement,” Blunt said.

RADD will make its defense that most of the claims in the Notice of Default are false, as it already has in multiple letters to the county and to Carlton Fields.

If the contract between the county and RADDSports, which has 18 years remaining on it, is terminated by Pasco, it likely will result in an expensive legal battle.

RADD president & CEO Richard Blalock said he hopes it doesn’t come to that.

“RADDSports remains willing to work with the County and all stakeholders,” Blalock wrote. “The cloud of a bogus Notice of Default will not help those discussions, but will lead to litigation that will be expensive to both parties and hinder the mutually beneficial resolution of the County’s perceived issues.”

And, in his Nov. 14 letter to the commissioners, Homer said, “That the county would allocate $2.8M to take over operations of a facility RADDSports operates at no cost (to the county) is simply mind boggling. We can only imagine there are areas in the County which would be delighted to see that invested in additional parks and recreation offerings.”

Here are the portions of the contract between RADDSports & Pasco County that the county claims RADDSports has defaulted on & RADD’s responses to each claim:

Claim #1 — RADD has not continuously operated the Sports Park Property to ensure that 90% of the 80% annual average of participants and non-participants….are non-County residents. 
RADD’s Response — RADD President and CEO Richard Blalock said in his company’s refutation letter that the county has no supporting data for this claim, and that RADDSports has provided data from a “credible, billion dollar, national 3rd party data provider” to Thomas that shows RADDSports has exceeded those targets and is not in default.

Claim #2 — RADDSports’ events have resulted in hotel stays that are “well short” of what is needed. 
RADD’s Response — RADDSports says it is not to blame for Covid restrictions (as well as the number of people not ready to return to traveling) in 2020 and 2021, but regardless, had 74,400 non-county visits in 2021 (3.7 times more than required) and 59,000 non-county visits through three quarters of 2022 (2.8 times more than required). Blalock calls this claim “particularly egregious” considering the data Pasco received from Zartico (which it also says Florida Sports Coast never told them about) shows the number of out-of-county visitors has increased every year and 83 percent of those visitors required overnight stays.

Claim #3 — RADDSports has failed to promote and market the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus as it relates to promoting tourism, based on a review of RADDSports’ Facebook and Instagram posts and newsletters.  
RADD’s Response — RADDSports claims that the county is misreading the contract, which states that it is Pasco County’s responsibility to market the facility, and other than obligating RADDSports to “provide marketing information and material to the Pasco County Office of Tourism,” does not place any obligations on RADDSports. In fact, RADDSports argues that it is Florida Sports Coast that was in default of that part of the contract. As of September 12 of this year, the Florida Sports Coast website still referred to the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus as a “proposed 8 court indoor sports facility.” Even after asking Thomas to update it, it took more than a month for the changes to be made.

Claim #4 — RADDSports is not cooperating with the Residence Inn by Marriott hotel when it comes to marketing opportunities,     claiming that the hotel operator also has expressed concern about the way RADDSports is operating and has asked the County to step in.  
RADD’s Response — In their response to the county, RADDSports insists the operator of the Residence Inn has not made such claims,  and that the county’s lawyers “affirmatively asked the (Residence Inn) operator to make such claims, and even went so far as to draft a letter for him they asked him to sign making (those) claims….The operator refused to sign the letter drafted by the County’s Lawyers.”

Claim #5 — That RADDSports also has heard from “multiple sources” that they were rudely rebuffed when trying to book events, and failed to timely respond to inquiries while prioritizing local events.  
RADD’s Response — According to data from RADDSports, in 2021, the facility hosted 52 events, when it was projected to host only 38, and brought in 30 organizations, 26,000 athletes and 60,000 spectators. So far this year, the campus has hosted 44 events and will host 62 by year’s end, bringing in 15,000 athletes, 38,000 spectators and $5.5 million in economic impact, and already has 48 events booked for 2023, and 86% are returning events. “We believe this speaks to the professionalism and support (we give to) all event organizers that we are privileged to host at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County,” Blalock wrote.

Claim #6 — That RADDSports is in default of Section 9.03 because it has failed to provide the required annual financial audit for the year ending December 31, 2021. 
RADD’s Response — RADD claims it cannot control the timing of the audit, and due to “significant personal issues” it had been delayed.  Regardless, the contract doesn’t state a deadline for delivery and, last week, RADD said the audit was completed and delivered to Thomas.

Wharton High Drum Line Wins Lion’s Pride Competition

Wharton High’s drum line has brought home the “W” in a local battle for the best, held on Oct. 15 as part of the King High School Lion’s Pride Marching Festival.

While the festival, established in 1997, primarily helps high school bands sharpen their skills on the, ah, march to the height of the season, it allows drum lines the opportunity to choreograph a performance to show off their talents, too, in the Lion’s Pride Battle of the Drum Lines.

When the Wharton students asked director Marques Rudd if they could plan a routine for the competition, he signed them up. They did the rest.

Percussion captain Josh Benalcazar and other percussion leaders — including AJ Coveyou, Clara Riusech and Jeya Williams — came up with music, visuals, and choreography. Then, they planned rehearsals for all 18 members of the school’s drum line.

In addition to playing rhythm and cadences on snares, tenors, bass drums and cymbals, they created choreography to determine their placement on the field, and added visuals such as dancing, swaying, and moving in eye-catching and fun ways.

Wharton won the Lion’s Pride Battle for the first time ever. The Wildcats stunned five-time defending champion Strawberry Crest in the semifinals, and then were chosen as the best drum line in the finale against Spoto.

“It was crazy to me that we were able to put this together entirely student-led,” Benalcazar says proudly. “We had to really think outside the box and be creative.”

Rudd agrees that the students’ creativity is what propelled them to take home the competition’s bragging rights.

“Their interaction with the crowd was awesome,” he says. “They even threw in some cartwheels and something from the Cha Cha Slide.”

Rudd says he’s proud of the students and the fact that they came together to create something they weren’t required to do as a class assignment. He noticed their hard work, and it paid off for them.

“It was surreal when we won and they called our name,” says Josh. “It took a minute for it to process in my brain. It was a dream for me to be able to win such a big competition.”

Liberty’s Angela Brown Named Top AP In Hillsborough!

Angela Brown is escorted into the Liberty Middle School media center by principal Frank Diaz, where she is surprised by a band and Hillsborough Superintendent of Schools Addison Davis (photo on next page), who announced that she has been named the Hillsborough County Assistant Principal of the Year for 2022-23. (Photos: Hillsborough Schools)

It began as just another ordinary day for Angela Brown.

The Liberty Middle School assistant principal showed up for work in the morning, helped make sure all of the students were off to class and, after that was done, she headed to the testing room to get things ready for her day.

But then, the day took an extraordinary and unexpected turn. She got a call from Liberty principal Frank Diaz asking her to report to the media center with literacy coach Corissa Russell, who was with her.

When they had just about reached the media center, Russell handed Brown off to Diaz, who led her inside. A band started playing.

“The first person I noticed was (Hillsborough County Public Schools Superintendent of Schools) Addison Davis, then I saw my boyfriend (Ben Gainer),” Brown said. “Imagine a person who doesn’t like surprises, and likes being in full control all the time. I turned to Mr. Diaz and asked, “What’s going on here?”

What was going on was this: Davis was there to congratulate Brown for being named Hillsborough’s Assistant Principal of the Year for 2022-23.

“It was definitely a surprise,” she says. “A nice surprise.”

Brown has been at Liberty since the school opened in 2002, and the award is a testament to her skills as assistant principal of curriculum.

The school district’s Assistant Principal of the Year Angela Brown receives a gift basket from Hillsborough’s Superintendent of Schools Addison Davis.

Diaz has only been at Liberty for three months, but it was apparent from his first day that Brown was a gem.

“She’s been a rock here for quite some time,” Diaz says. “Her attention to detail is spectacular. She assures that students are placed in the right classes with the right teachers. She really looks at the students as individuals and on the basis of what they need.”

Brown’s responsibilities include student safety, overseeing the curriculum for the school, student schedules, assessments and testing, to name a few.

“A lot of it is just making sure that instruction is happening and our teachers are equipped with the tools they need to deliver excellent instruction to the students,” Brown says.

And, it often goes beyond that. While being an innovative scheduler, it’s the extra things not in her job description that makes Brown special. That includes sometimes driving kids home, visiting family homes to make that needed connection and mentoring other assistant principals who are just starting out.

“The one thing I pride myself on is building relationships,”  she says. “It’s all about navigating the world of school every day and keeping a smile on my face, because it definitely is hard work. But every day, I find something to laugh and smile about, and I try to instill that to everyone on campus.”

Brown, who recently turned 52, is a graduate of Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD, which she attended on a track scholarship.

She got her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Education degree, with a concentration in sports administration, but thought she would some day be working for a sports organization.

But, her old principal at East Bay High talked Brown into filling in as a substitute teacher for someone out on maternity leave.

“I was so in love with teaching, from that point on I did everything necessary to be a certified teacher,” Brown said, which included earning her Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale.

Brown started her teaching career at Greco Middle School in 1996, and moved to Liberty in 2002 as a Success Coach, which back then was called Student Intervention Specialist. In 2013, she became an assistant principal.

“I’m so blessed to be able to stay and see all the different families come, all of the siblings of siblings, students who are now parents and have kids at Liberty,” Brown says. “It’s definitely been amazing.”

Diaz says students continuously come back to the school to talk to her.

“She remembers the names of students from 10-12 years ago,” an impressed Diaz says. “That’s nice.”

Brown says it’s all about changing lives and providing direction. She recalls one of her students, back in 2006, having a tough time of it. Brown had to continually suspend him, and told him, “If I have to keep suspending you for you to get it, that’s what I’m going to do.”

He got it. In 2008, that student, Nelson Agholor, was named Hillsborough County’s Turnaround Student of the Year and went on to earn a football scholarship to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, won a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles and is currently a wide receiver with the New England Patriots who still visits Liberty and “Auntie Angela” each year.

“It’s very rewarding when you see certain kids (who) always seem to find me or always seem to reach out to me and stop by the school,” Brown says. “One of the good things about being at same school is they always know how to find you 15 years later, just to say thank you and tell you how grateful they are. Honestly, that’s what keeps me going from year to year, knowing that somehow I made a difference with someone.”

Judging by her recent accolades, Brown’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed.

Do You Remember When Wharton & Benito First Opened? I Do!

Gary Nager Editorial

For those of you who weren’t living in the New Tampa area when Paul R. Wharton High and Louis Benito Middle School opened in August of 1997, you may be unaware that high school-aged kids living in New Tampa in the mid-1990s were originally bused to King High on N. 50th St., a 10-mile trip for kids living in Tampa Palms and a 12-mile trek for those, like my family, who were living in Hunter’s Green — the two largest communities in the New Tampa area at the time.

I remember attending Hillsborough School Board meetings in 1996, trying to find out when High School BBB and Middle School AA (as they were first known) would open in the New Tampa area. 

Once it was determined that both schools would open for the start of the 1997-98 school year, the School Board accepted input from the community to help name the two schools. But, despite the best efforts of yours truly and other local activists at the time, neither school would be named for the area in which they were located. 

Paul R. Wharton

In fact, “New Tampa High” never made it to what the School Board said were its top-four choices for the school ultimately named for former School District administrator Paul R. Wharton  (photo), although “Northeast High” was the fourth highest vote-getter. 

As for Benito, “New Tampa Middle School” did make the School Board members’ final four, but ultimately finished fourth in their strange point-tallying system. Instead, the school was named for Louis Benito, the former owner of one of the Tampa Bay area’s largest advertising agencies and popular civic activist who had passed away a few years earlier.

I also attended the School Board meeting in December 1996, when long-time Ben Hill Middle School principal Mitch Muley was named as the first-ever principal at Wharton and former Eisenhower Middle School teacher and assistant principal Lewis Brinson was named the opening day principal at Benito.

These were exciting times for me, as having a local high school and middle school meant that my sons, who were both at Hunter’s Green Elementary at the time, would be able to walk to Benito from our Hunter’s Green home and would be living less than two miles up Bruce B. Downs Blvd. from their high school.

I remember touring both schools shortly before they opened and visiting them on the first day of school and feeling nothing but happiness and pride. I believed that having the schools in our area would help New Tampa continue to grow, would help increase our property values and would provide me, as the owner and editor of the Neighborhood News, with new sources of news for my still-young (I had only owned it for 3-1/2 years at the time), but growing publication — and all of those things did (thankfully) come true.

Considering that high school football wasn’t a big deal where I grew up in Long Island, NY (especially because my high school team was so bad), I could picture being part of the big crowds for Florida’s famous “Friday Night Lights,” at the packed gym for not only boys but girls basketball (which I never had growing up), pep rallies and so much more — all of which also came to fruition.

And, even though there also definitely were some growing pains, especially at Wharton, which opened with a super-high percentage of kids on free and reduced lunch because of desegregation-forced busing, for me, the school has been a consistent source of pride for the last quarter of a century.

And, although this issue primarily focuses on Wharton, it’s not because Benito wasn’t also very good to my sons and our community — because it was and still is — it’s because we got invited to (and were happy to attend) the 25th anniversary celebration held at Wharton on Nov. 4 (see pgs. 4-5), but heard nothing about a similar event at Benito. If we somehow missed such a celebration, or if one is still coming up, please email me at ads@NTNeighborhoodNews.com and we will try to show New Tampa’s original middle school some love, too.    

All Abilities Park Progressing Towards Opening

The New Tampa All Abilities Park, which has been in the works since 2018, could be open by the end of this year.

Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera, who represents New Tampa in District 7, says that although he hasn’t yet heard of an official opening date, he is hoping the park — which will cater to children with autism and other sensory and cognitive challenges, can open sometime next month.

The city broke ground back on the park on Feb. 14.

“The All Abilities Park is coming along great,” says Viera, who excitedly posted these pictures on his Facebook page recently. Viera has spearheaded the park’s development since first winning office in 2016. His older brother Juan is on the autistic spectrum.

The full-fledged autism/sensory park will be the first of its kind in Tampa. Tens of thousands of kids in the New Tampa area and beyond are projected to use the park once it opens.

The 10,000-sq.-ft. park will include play pieces that are wheelchair accessible and geared towards those with sensory challenges. Other sensory areas and colorful murals highlight a nature theme.

The park, which will cost roughly $2 million, paid for by the city and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal funding, will be available to everyone.

“I am grateful for the hard work of our city staff,” says Viera, a New Tampa resident. “I have worked for five years to get this park created and it is wonderful to see how beautiful it is. More than anything, this park is a symbol to families raising children with special needs that they do have a place at the table in our city.”