Freedom sophomore tennis standout Julianna Gibson has been playing the sport since she was five years old, and so far has been unbeatable during her high school career as the No. 1 player at Freedom High in Tampa Palms. (Photo: John C. Cotey)
Freedom High tennis player Julianna Gibson doesn’t race across the tennis court, she glides.
Her forehand and backhand aren’t harried, they are harmonious.
Her demeanor isn’t delirious, it is docile.
It all works together to make Gibson one of the top high school tennis players around.
Last year, as a freshman, she played line 1 (where typically the best players at each school line up) and went 14-0 in singles, winning District and Regional titles on her way to the State tournament.
She kicked off her sophomore season on Valentine’s Day by winning 8-0 against Gaither in singles, and teaming up with Zoe Rosen for another 8-0 win at doubles. She is 4-0 so far this season.
“I think it’s gone pretty smoothly,” Julianna says of her brief high school career. “A few of the matches were pretty competitive, but I have gotten through most of them pretty easily.”
Gibson has been playing tennis since she was 5. Her parents, Mike and Carri-Ann, say Julianna tried a number of sports, like soccer and volleyball and even earned a black belt in Tae Kwan Do.
“I coached her Little League softball team, and she was a really good hitter and threw really well,” Carri-Ann says. “I thought, “We might have a softball player here.’
But, Julianna gravitated to tennis. Carri-Ann and Mike remember Julianna running around and chasing balls to hit as a toddler while her parents played.
Despite having physical gifts — Julianna is 5-feet, 9-inches tall with a long reach — that lend themselves to almost any sport, none had the amount of action to keep his daughter’s attention like tennis, according to Mike.
“She took to tennis like a fish to water,” he says. “It was a sport she seemed she could really get into. I remember she said in tennis, the ball comes right back to you and you get another chance. It’s a constant engagement. You have to be constantly engaged when you’re playing tennis.”
As an only child, Julianna said she enjoys the individual aspect of playing singles. She started out in playing in the USTA’s Junior Team Tennis leagues, but most USTA junior tournaments focus on singles.
The competition can range from friendly to fierce. Many of the opponents Julianna has faced in her junior career are training 5-6 hours a day at expensive and prestigious academies away from their families.
The Gibsons prefer a more balanced approach. Julianna has hopes for playing in college, and does train with personal coaches, but she says her obsession for being a professional tennis star takes a back seat to enjoying her high school years.
And so far, she says she has been enjoying them.
“It’s nice playing on a team with other girls, and cheering them on,” Julianna says. “I like that part of it.”
Her height and long frame give Julianna an advantage over most opponents when it comes to serving and her forehand, her two strengths.
Still More To Accomplish
That helped catapult her to her unbeaten season last year, and the Patriots advanced to the Class 3A Regionals as the District runner-up.
Gibson won her singles match at Regionals against Largo, with her opponent remarking that she couldn’t believe Julianna was only a freshman.
At States, Julianna lost her first match 7-5, 6-2 to Fort Myers’ sophomore lefty Shani Idlette, still the only blemish on Julianna’s high school record.
“It was a lot more competitive there,” says Julianna, who says she was sick the week of the match. “I lost, but it was pretty competitive.”
Her main goal for this season is to make it back to States, but she doesn’t plan on going alone.
“I want the whole team to go,” says Julianna. “The one thing I thought when I was there last year was that this would be more fun as a team.”
Former Liberty Middle School standout Nelson Agholor celebrates a catch against the Washington Redskins last year. Photo by Keith Allison, Hanover, MD.
Liberty Middle School’s Joe Merritt remembers the best flag football player he ever coached scoring four touchdowns on four straight plays — and none of them counted.
It was overtime, against Benito he thinks, and his Liberty Eagles were on the 2-yard-line. His best player rushes for what Merritt says was a sure touchdown, before the refs ruled he was down at the 1.
On the next play, the same kid throws for a touchdown, but the refs said the receiver was out of bounds. And, the play after that, the very same kid lines up at wide receiver and catches a touchdown pass, although the ref said he didn’t land with his feet inbounds.
Twice. Seriously.
Years later, Merritt couldn’t help but remember that game as he sat and watched that same player, Nelson Agholor, catch nine passes for the other Eagles, of Philadelphia, in a thrilling Super Bowl win over favored New England.
Merritt has taught and coached the boys flag football team since Liberty opened, and his list of former players include Matt Patchan and Jordan Sherit (both of whom went on to the University of Florida in Gainesville out of high school), Matt’s brother Scott Patchan (currently at the University of Miami, FL) and Chaz Neal (who signed with Florida State University in Tallahassee on Feb. 7).
The night of the Super Bowl, however, was the first time Merritt says he had chills watching a former player, sitting on the couch at his parents’ house, jumping up and yelling every time Agholor grabbed a pass on his way to 84 yards receiving.
“It’s like you knew he was going to be a good athlete, but with each passing year, there was a new accolade that made you just feel happy for him,” said Merritt, who had Agholor in his sixth grade reading class. “He reached the pinnacle in high school, he reached the pinnacle in college, he was a first-round draft pick out of college, and he wins the Super Bowl? I mean, come on. That’s what every kid dreams of, holding up that Lombardi Trophy.”
A Humble Beginning…
Agholor, who was born in Nigeria, grew up in northeast Tampa, in the Suitcase City area near the University of South Florida. He attended Liberty from 2005-08, where he starred on both the football field and the basketball court. In fact, his overtime performance aside, some remember Agholor as a better basketball player initially than football.
“I didn’t see the talent as much in football as in basketball,” says Phil Lana, who taught Agholor in his sixth grade science class. “He was an incredible basketball player in middle school. I thought that would be what he ended up going to college for.”
Merritt agrees. “I thought his older brother Franklin was the better football player,” he says, laughing.
In previous stories written about him, Agholor has talked about avoiding the trouble that dogged many of the friends he grew up with in northeast Tampa. The temptation to take the wrong path when that fork in the road presented itself was hard for many to resist.
It was at Liberty, some teachers who remember him say, that Agholor had help in fighting those urges.
“Nelson was a bit of a knucklehead coming in here,” Merritt recalled. “There were some teachers that took him under their wing, to get him right. He was smart…great personality…athletic. And, we started preaching to him how far those things can take you in life.”
“He was a genuinely nice kid, very charismatic,” says Brendan Paul, who had Agholor in his seventh grade math class. “He definitely grew quite a bit throughout the time he was here. If you listen to his interviews, he talks a lot about being given opportunities and making the most of those opportunities, and he definitely made the most of his time here. Liberty got him on right track. He had a lot of teachers looking out for him.”
Agholor responded to the mentoring. As an eighth grader, he was one of the most popular kids in school, and was named one of Liberty’s Turnaround Achievement Award winners. “By the end of his eighth grade year, I remember seeing him as more of a leader than anything else,” Lana says. “He was already helping the younger kids then.”
After graduating from middle school, Agholorwent to Berkeley Prep, where he became one of Florida’s top football recruits as both a running back and a defensive back. He rushed for 4,732 yards in four seasons, and added 921 receiving yards, 12 interceptions and eight kickoff returns for touchdowns.
As a senior, Agholorled the Bucs to the Class 3A State semifinals, rushing for 1,983 yards and 28 touchdowns, and won the Guy Toph award as Hillsborough County’s top high school football player. He chose the University of Southern California at Los Angeles from dozens of college suitors, where he blossomed as a wide receiver and caught 104 passes for 1,313 yards and 12 touchdowns as a junior.
That was enough to make Agholor the 20th overall pick of Philadelphia in the 2015 NFL draft.
“He was one of those kids that stayed in touch,” Paul says. “Before the draft, he visited and spent time with students in a mentoring group here. I had the opportunity to go to his very first game in Atlanta (with Lana), and we met up with him afterwards.”
Agholor disappointed during his first two pro seasons in Philly, before a breakout 2017 campaign that saw him catch 62 passes for 768 yards (more than his first two seasons combined) and 12 touchdowns. In the postseason, he was brilliant, including a 42-yard TD catch in the NFC Championship game. His nine catches in the Super Bowl were a career high.
Few were happier to see Agholor bounce back than his former Liberty mentors.
“It’s definitely surreal,” Paul says. “I think his career thus far just speaks volumes about who he is. He had two really rough years, and just turned it around. It’s just that attitude and effort he has.”
Lana, who is now the Director of Operations and logistics for the Atlanta Football Host Committee bringing the Super Bowl to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium next year, watched Agholor’s performance in person.
“It really added to the whole experience, knowing I was actually watching someone I knew playing in the game,” says Lana, who wasn’t shy about letting everyone know about Agholor’s days at Liberty.
“Pretty much everybody around me knew I had taught him in sixth grade,” Lana says. “I sat in a section heavy with Patriots’ fans, but they knew when I stood and cheered every time he caught a pass.”
Agholor comes back to Liberty a few times a year to preach to kids, many from the same rough-around-the-edges neighborhood he grew up in, the same message he was taught — make good choices, listen to your teachers and school administrators, and they will help you reach the goals that you strive for. His words will carry added weight, as a newly-minted Super Bowl champion.
“The fact that he does come back, and does impact other kids and that’s something that’s important to him, that just tells you the kind of dude that he is, the kind of character he has,” Merritt says.
Agholor has purchased shoes, helmets and other equipment for kids who can’t afford them. He has given them his cell phone number and told them to text him if they need something, even just a little advice. Merritt says Agholor reaches out to kids that he sees a little of himself in, to do what he can.
It is that connection, more than a decade later, that makes it easy to cheer for Agholor, to tune in on Sundays and root for the former Liberty Eagle.
“The whole school is super proud of him,” Merritt says. “There’s a lot of pride that Nelson used to go here. The fact that he turned out to be great kid, and did great things, it’s just icing on the cake that he won a Super Bowl. When I watch, I still see that 12-year-old kid.”
Wesley Chapel resident Norm Dann (in the goalie gear) recently competed in the 80s Division at the Hall of Fame Games in Ottawa, Canada. Dann’s team was comprised of octogenarians from all over the country, the oldest playing being 86 years old.
Florida Old Timers Hockey Association secretary/treasurer Norm Dann is looking for a few good (older) men — and women — to come out in support of ice hockey in Wesley Chapel.
The Canadian-born Dann just turned 80 years old, and amazingly, he says 75 of those have been spent playing organized hockey. He also says he once had pro aspirations while playing in a juniors league for the Ontario Hockey Association, but says a back injury torpedoed his chances. As a teenager, he moved to Tampa in the 1950s, but never stopped playing hockey.
It’s easier to find venues these days for Dann, who lives in Wesley Chapel and is already taking part in some senior hockey programs already going at Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI).
The USA Hockey Adult Nationals Program has been at the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon since 2004. Dann says in 2015, at its zenith, the program produced 50 teams of 50-over players, 12 teams of 60-over, eight teams of 65-over and six teams of 70-over.
There were even 24 ladies teams for ages 50-over. Yes, ladies. There is room for you in senior hockey leagues, too.
Meanwhile, FHCI hosts a myriad of hockey leagues for many different age groups, from beginners to ages 50-over, but Dann is pushing for an even older hockey division.
“It’s definitely something we could do,” says FHCI general manager Gordie Zimmerman. “Last year, we had a very successful adult nationals hockey tournament here.”
Finding the older skaters is the next goal. Dann says he meets seniors frequently at FHCI, many of them snowbirds who had no idea that there is an opportunity to play locally.
“I’ve met 12 guys just standing around and when I ask them where their gear is and they say, ‘Up home, up north,’” Dann says. “I go over there (FHCI) two or three times per week, just to see who’s there and to get on the ice. Most guys I talk to are interested, we just have to let people know that if they are interested, to contact us.”
The leagues and the membership are already strong in the Tampa area for older hockey players.
Currently, Dann, who credits a 125-over-65 blood pressure with a resting heart rate of 50 to the health benefits of playing hockey, skates at Clearwater Ice Arena in Largo, and his bonds run deep there.
He says the camaraderie and warmth in a hockey locker room is like no other, and that spirit is what makes it difficult to start a league in Wesley Chapel.
“There’s guys that would like to play here (Wesley Chapel) but they play in Brandon or Oldsmar and they’ve made friends there,” Dann says. “They don’t want to leave their leagues.”
But, Dann is hoping to create those same bonds here in Wesley Chapel.
“It’s a beautiful facility here, everything anyone could want,” Dann said. “They have a studio, a half rink (aka “minipad”), weight rooms and off-ice facilities. It’s so new you can still smell the paint.”
Dann and his teammates don’t bang each other around like they might have in their youth. In fact, checking and other overly physical contact is not allowed.
“It becomes more of a finesse game, “ Dann says. “All these guys have great stick handling.”
Appreciation for the sport over decades isn’t lost on Zimmerman, who also grew up playing hockey in Canada before moving south.
“I’ve been playing since I was three and I’m 52 now,” Zimmerman says. “I enjoy it as much now as I did back then. You can play until you’re someone like Norm’s (Dann) age and still enjoy it.”
Anyone interested in joining a senior hockey league at FHCIcan reach Norm Dann at Florida Old Timers’ Hockey Association, PO Box 7218, Wesley Chapel, FL 33543-0103. Or, call (813) 973-3654 or email old.puck@juno.com.
Naufil Keshwani batting at Rodney Colson Park. (Photo by Nagesh Nayak)
Nagesh Nayak is on a mission.
The Tampa Premier League (TPL) president, a K-Bar Ranch resident, has taken his power point presentation to Hillsborough and Pasco county commissioners, emailed and spoken to local politicians, shown up at town halls and, even in the midst of the heated budget battle last year, where Tampa City Council members argued over spending, Nayak stood up and asked for money to build what to him seems logical.
A cricket field in the New Tampa or Wesley Chapel area.
Sure, he says, land is sparse these days. Business development of what land is available takes precedence. But, look around New Tampa, in places like Cory Lake Isles, Arbor Greene and Tampa Palms, and you might notice Tampa Bay’s largest concentration of Indian residents.
Their game is cricket, and they would like a place to play it.
“So much of the population would be interested,” Nayak says.
A large portion of the more than 26,000 or so households in New Tampa’s 33647 zip code are of Indian and Asian descent, a number Nayak says he believes may be as high as 10 percent. Another zip code with a heavy Indian population, 33620, borders New Tampa at the University of South Florida.
In fact, the USF Cricket Club, founded by TPL chairman Satish Hanumanthu in 2007, is one of the top programs in the American College Cricket (ACC) league. The ACC, founded in 2009, has more than 70 teams, and holds its national championship in South Florida during spring break.
Nagesh Nayak (right) and Satish Hanumanthu, two of the leaders in an effort to bring cricket fields to New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. (Photo by John C. Cotey)
“USF has won 80 percent of the (collegiate) tournaments it has played in,” Hanumanthu says.
“I would safely say, without any disrespect to anyone, you could safely call us the (New England) Patriots of college cricket,” Nayak adds.
The program is so esteemed, Hanumanthu says, that the club is often the deciding factor for Indian students coming to attend college in the U.S.
“It helps them choose USF over other universities,” he says. “It’s important they have a place to play.”
Nayak feels the same way about the New Tampa (and Wesley Chapel) Indian population, which he says continues to grow and includes the Tampa Palms Cricket Club, which Nayak says has roughly 80 members.
The TPL, which has 18 teams of roughly 22-25 players each – 65 percent of whom live in New Tampa — currently plays many of its matches on a small field at Hamilton Park near Tampa International Airport, but it has no lights and can be an hour drive from this area.
“We would really like two fields with lights,” Nayak says.
Nayak sees a cricket field — which is a rectangular pitch (like a baseball infield) surrounded by a large oval field (like a baseball outfield) — offering a recreational opportunity for adults to play and teach their children the sport they grew up playing, like U.S.-born families do with baseball, basketball and football. He has already looked into attracting new players from Freedom and Wharton high schools, and has led some youth clinics teaching the sport.
He also sees a permanent field as a business opportunity, as some of the U.S.’s largest cricket tournaments can draw tens of thousands of spectators over the course of a weekend, filling hotel rooms and local businesses.
About The Game…
Cricket has many nuances but most closely resembles baseball, in that the object is to score runs by hitting a ball thrown by a pitcher, or in cricket parlance, a bowler, who hurls it on one bounce towards a wicket. There are 11 fielders, and the batsman continues to hit until he makes an out (or is dismissed).
A batted ball that makes it through the defense on the ground and to the boundary of the field is worth four runs. A ball hit over the boundary in the air, like a baseball home run, is worth six.
Ashish Rawat Bowling at Rodney Colson Park. (Photo by Nagesh Nayak)
Championed by Hillsborough County Commissioner Al Higginbotham, the county, at a cost of $800,000, opened its first designated cricket fields at Evans Park in Mango back in 2015, and there also is a dedicated cricket field at Rodney Colson Park in Seffner.
Nayak has had discussions with Tampa’s District 7 City Councilman Luis Viera, and asked Viera and Hillsborough County District 5 Commissioner Ken Hagan at a town hall last year about making room for a cricket field at a potential K-Bar Ranch park being developed by the city and county on roughly 60 acres of land.
Hagan said it sounded like a good idea, while Viera has promised to look into it. But otherwise, Nayak says, the response from Tampa and Hillsborough County has been lukewarm.
Go North, Young Cricketers?
But, just north in Wesley Chapel, Nayak has found a friend in District 2 commissioner Mike Moore, who sees the potential in a cricket field, from a business perspective, and also a chance to please a large base of his constituents.
Moore likens the game to lacrosse, which he says has grown from being a niche sport to one of the most popular youth games in America. And, with Pasco County’s focus on capturing a big chunk of the sports tourism market, he sees it as another opportunity to potentially fill hotel rooms
Moore put Nayak and Hanumanthu in contact with RADD Sports, the Clearwater-based sports facility management & development company that is building a large indoor/outdoor sports facility, with a Residence Inn by Marriott hotel on site, in Wiregrass Ranch.
“I definitely think there is potential (for cricket) to do very well,’’ Moore says.
Until then, Moore and the county have provided a large patch of currently unused land that is designated for future development behind the soccer fields at Wesley Chapel District Park (WCDP) for Nayak and his league.
The TPL poured $20,000 into removing the dirt and replacing it with rocks and clay to create the pitch, as bowlers throw their pitches on one-bounce to the batsman and need a smooth, hard and level surface. They say the field is still a work in progress, but they are hugely appreciative of Moore’s efforts to help.
In fact, TPL will host the Wesley Chapel Invitational Championship February 3-4, at their makeshift home. TheMinnesota Strykers Club, three-time MN Cricket Association Champions, will compete against the Tampa Stars and USF Bulls. Nayak says the Minnesota team will be staying at the Wesley Chapel Holiday Inn Express, showing the sports’ potential value to sports tourism. Nayak hopes it is the start of something big.
Auden Tate catches a touchdown pass for Wharton in a 2014 game against King. Tate and former Wharton quarterback Chase Litton have both declared that they will be entering the 2018 NFL Draft. (Photo: Andy Warrener)
In 2013, the last year Wharton High’s football team went to the playoff, Wildcats’ quarterback Chase Litton was throwing passes to wide receiver Auden Tate.
Next year, they may both be on NFL rosters.
Tate, a starter for Florida State at wide receiver last season, and Litton, the starting quarterback at Marshall University in Huntington, WV, have both declared for the 2017 NFL draft, scheduled for April 27-29 in Philadelphia.
The former Wildcats just completed their junior years in college, passing on their final years of eligibility.
If they ended up drafted, as expected, that would make three members of the 2012 Wharton football team, including Tampa Bay Buccaneer Vernon Hargreaves, on NFL rosters.
Tate will forego his senior season at FSU after catching 40 passes for 548 yards and a team-leading 10 touchdowns in 2018. At 6-5, 225, he has all the measurables NFL scouts want these days in a wide receiver. He has very good speed and hands, exceptional height and a physical style that gives him an edge against smaller defensive backs in the red zone.
Auden Tate
Shoulder and foot injuries limited his playing time at FSU in his first two seasons. However, a solid junior campaign and the changing of the coaching staff at FSU nudged him to go pro.
CBS Sports ranks Tate as the No. 7 wide receiver in the upcoming draft. A mock draft at DraftUtopia.com has Tate going 10th overall in the first round to the Los Angeles Rams, while other mock draft “experts” have him being selected in the first three rounds.
USA Today ranked Tate as the 39th best prospect in the draft.
One mock draft, WalterFootball.com, has Tate going 77th overall to Cincinnati, with Washington taking Litton a pick later.
At 6-6, 235-pounds, Litton also has many of the tools NFL scouts drool over, including a lively arm to go with his height.
Chase Litton
Litton graduated from Wharton a year earlier than Tate, and was a three-star recruit (Rivals.com, 247Sports) who initially committed to hometown USF and reportedly had offers from LSU and Western Kentucky, but settled in on Marshall, where he was a three-year starter.
He became one of only two quarterbacks in school history to complete at least 60 percent of their passes in three straight seasons.
Litton’s draft prognosis, however, is not as rosy as Tate’s, as he is coming out in a quarterback-heavy year and with some scouts feeling he could benefit from an additional year of college.
Although both former Wildcats were very good basketball players in high school, it looks like football has turned out to be the right choice for both of them.
But, Julianna gravitated to tennis. Carri-Ann and Mike remember Julianna running around and chasing balls to hit as a toddler while her parents played.
The competition can range from friendly to fierce. Many of the opponents Julianna has faced in her junior career are training 5-6 hours a day at expensive and prestigious academies away from their families.
