Freedom’s Megan Clark Determined To Be The Best

Freedom senior Megan Clark scores two of her game-high 26 in the Patriots’ 78-0 win over Leto.

Basketball is always on the mind of Freedom High guard Megan Clark. It occupies her thoughts, her dreams, virtually every hour of her life, awake or asleep. She’s just as intense in a hard-fought, cross-town rivalry game against Wharton as she is in a 78-0 blowout of Leto (see story, next page).

“She never takes a play off, she will not take a play off,” Patriots head coach Laurie Pacholke says. “She goes 32 minutes, all out. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. She’s put herself in shape to go all out for 32 minutes.”

The level of dedication Clark exhibits is uncommon.

“People don’t realize that those are the little things that will help you be successful at the next level,” Pacholke says.

Clark’s level of dedication can be chalked up as obsession.

She wakes up before dawn, most days of the week, to hit the New Tampa YMCA for a 5 a.m. shoot around and practice session. She is almost always the first player to arrive at team practice, and the last to leave.

“She bought the WNBA TV package with her own money, if that doesn’t tell you something,” Pacholke says. “She just has a love for the game. I’ve seen that growth in her (more than in any other player) over the years.”

It wasn’t always that way for Clark.

In sixth grade, while at Liberty Middle School, she decided to try out for every sport she could, just to get an idea of what she liked. She played youth soccer but stepped up to track, volleyball, soccer and basketball that year. “I was bad, awful at basketball in middle school,” Clark said. “I just really liked playing it and thought I’d get better at it.”

And yes, she did.

Clark made the Freedom varsity team her freshman year, a significant feat considering the Patriots the year before made the State semifinals.

Pacholke remembers Clark coming to a game with her father and the post-game discussion revolved around how Clark might see the floor by her junior year.

Clark sped up her coach’s timetable. If she wasn’t at the YMCA in the morning, she was draining buckets at the local outdoor court in Tampa Palms’ Compton Park neighborhood.

When she stayed until the lights went out, she’d come home and shoot at the hoop in her driveway. She not only made the varsity team her freshman year, she scored 18 points in the third game that season.

“She’s a student of the game,” Pacholke says. “She has passion, athletic ability and that really sets her up. I knew then (after the 18-point game) that in her four years at Freedom, her growth was going to be even greater.”

Clark went from averaging 7.3 points per game as a freshman, to 9.7 as a sophomore, 14.7 as a junior and as of the Leto game, she’s averaging 23.6 points per game, third-best in Class 8A, this season.

“I’d say that in a span of four years, Megan has probably improved more than any other kid I’ve coached,” Pacholke says.

Playing At The Next Level

The hard work and dedication have paid off. Clark went to a summer camp at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville. There, she said that she had one of the best camps of her life and that she loved the facility, the players and the coaches.

She came away from that 2016 camp with her heart set on where she wanted to continue her career. The call came a week later. Clarke was taking a walk in her neighborhood when the phone rang. She recognized the number — because she had saved it in her cell phone— it was Tennessee Tech head coach Kim Rosamond.

“I knew it was Coach Rosamond,” Clark says. “She told me pretty quickly in the conversation that they wanted to offer me a scholarship and I (verbally) committed right there.”

Clark signed her letter of intent this past November and entered into a final phase of her prep career, one that few high school athletes get to enjoy.

“Those few months after a player has signed are really the first time in their lives they are playing for fun,” Pacholke says. “When you find the right place (to go to college), you’re going to know, and I don’t think Megan could have found a better fit than Tennessee Tech.”

Rosamond and Clark should develop nicely together. The current season is Rosamond’s first as head coach of the Division I program, which competes in the Ohio Valley Conference and is 6-12 overall. Clark is Rosamond’s first recruit.

With Clark’s team-first mentality and dogged determination, the future is bright for both athlete and program.

“If she (Clark) improved that much over the four years here at Freedom, I can only imagine how much she’ll improve over four years with a collegiate program,” Pacholke says.

78-0? Really?

Pacholke found herself in an unusual position during a game on Jan. 17 against Leto.

She was rooting for the Falcons to score a basket. Any basket.

Alas, it did not happen.

Final score: Freedom 78, Leto 0.

That is not a typo.

“I felt bad,’’ said Pacholke, who has coached in her fair share of routs in her eight years at Freedom, but last week’s shutout was a first.

“We were saying ‘Please shot go in, please shot go in, please shot go in’ in the fourth quarter,’’ Pacholke said. “We wanted them to get on the board. We definitely weren’t playing for a shutout.”

Pacholke said she was able, however, to use the game as a teaching moment for her players, who she felt had given up late in their previous game, a loss to Plant.

Leto may not have scored, but they kept coming.

“They had fight in them,’’ Pacholke said. “I think a lot of times that gets lost, but those kids, they never gave up.”

Leto has had a rough time of it against New Tampa teams. The Falcons previous worst loss was a 50-1 defeat against Wharton on Jan. 4.

“It’s such a tough situation,’’ Pacholke said. “Do you just stop playing? Do you not play? I look at it from my perspective, and I’m a very competitive person, so if I’m in that kind of situation, I’d be insulted if the other team just stopped playing.”

In retrospect, Pacholke says she wishes she had called up some junior varsity players for the game, but didn’t think of it.

But, she says she played her starters as little as she could with her small roster, and the team did not press or run the ball up the floor on every possession.

And, while it was the first time one of  her teams ever shut out an opponent, she says she hopes it is the last.

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.”

HGCC Tennis Talents To Play At States

Joy Allee hits a forehand during the combo tennis season. The 6.5 combo team Allee plays on, along with three men’s combo teams from Hunter’s Green Country Club, will help break in the brand new $70-million USTA National Campus in Lake Nona next week.

When the sparkling new U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) national campus in Lake Nona (part of Orlando) is unveiled this week, much of the Hunter’s Green Country Club (HGCC) tennis community will have the best view of the beautiful $70-million facility — right from the service lines of some of the campus’ 120 courts.

HGCC produced four league championship teams that will compete for a State championship the next two weekends.

The USTA, which was headquartered in Miami Shores for many years before moving to Daytona Beach in 2002, will host sectionals for the first time at the new state-of-the-art complex.

This weekend (Jan. 6-8), the club’s men’s and women’s 6.5 teams — which combines 3.0- and 3.5-rated players — as well as the men’s 8.5 team (combining 4.0- and 4.5-rated players), will compete in Lake Nona.

For the 6.5 men, it is their third straight trip to Sectionals.

The following weekend, HGCC’s 7.5 men (combining 3.5- and 4.0-rated players) will travel to Lake Nona seeking a championship banner.

“I think the last time we sent four teams to one championship was 2002,’’ said head tennis pro Allegra Campos. “It is a pretty incredible accomplishment.”

A number of HGCC men will be playing for at least two of the three mens’ teams competing the next two weekends: Erik Hajek and John Slatniske play for both the 6.5 and 7.5 teams, while Greg Morrissey, Rudy Paul, Chris Baker, Mike Bitting and Richard Helme all played for the 7.5 and 8.5 teams.

The three men’s teams combined for a 19-3 record during the regular season in the best-of-3 doubles format against other clubs in Tampa Bay, including West Meadows, Tampa Palms and Arbor Greene.

Helme (7-0), Hajek (5-0), Ron Reiter (5-0), Jim Dicesaro (4-0) and James Hann (3-0) were among those posting perfect records.

The 6.5 women, who advanced to the semifinals last year, return after going 6-0 during the regular season. The ladies only lost three lines all season, and six different players — Cherie Smith, Marisol Casablanca, Trina Hoyrod, Marisa Martin, Julie Sakre and Nini Torres — finished with team-best 3-0 record.

Casablanca, Hoyrod, Martin and Torres also played on the women’s over-50 combo team that went 3-1 at sectionals in early December, just a tiebreaker away from the championship match.

GIRLS HOOPS: Freedom Looks To Rebound, Wharton Fighting Injuries & Youth

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Freedom High senior standout Megan Clark (center) signed her letter of intent with Tennessee Tech last month.

When you build a winning basketball program, new players can tend to think that the successes of the past will automatically continue. Freedom High girls basketball coach Laurie Pacholke says she sees it all the time.

But, very often, she says, it doesn’t.

And, that kind of lesson is never very easy for a coach to drill into his or her players’ heads.

After a six-year run that included 127 victories, four trips to the playoffs and a state semifinal appearance in 2013, the Patriots suffered through the first losing season since Pacholke became head coach in 2009.

Freedom’s 13-15 record included the Pats’ first loss to New Tampa rival Wharton High since 2010.

Pacholke’s team did still make the playoffs and nearly upset traditional state powerhouse Winter Haven High in the playoffs — losing by one point — but Pacholke says, “Looking at the record…yeah, that’s brutal.”

Freedom, which opened the 2016-17 season with a 33-30 loss to Alonso but has bounced back with consecutive wins over Gaither and Wiregrass Ranch, returns six seniors in its effort to bounce back this season, including Megan Clark, who averaged 14.7 points a game last year after missing the first month and a half with an injury.

Pacholke says that Clark — a 5-foot-9 senior forward who has signed to play college ball for Division I-A Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, TN — has a high basketball IQ, a sterling work ethic and a nose for the ball.

“She’ll lead us in offensive rebounds, that is for sure,’’ Pacholke says, adding that Clark’s pull-up, mid-range jumper and three-point shot are as good as anyone she has ever coached.

Olivia Williams will, “shock a lot of people,” Pacholke says. The 6-1 senior center is a top rebounder with a nice shot from 14 feet in, and has great hands. Taraja Leon, a 5-7 senior, will take over the starting point guard duties after scoring 7.2 points a game in a reserve role last year, and 5-10 senior forward Ashley Bell brings lockdown defense and a strong physical style to the Pats.

Another senior, 5-7 forward Gazal Refaee, will add some strength in the post, and 6-foot sophomore center Ragen Roger has made significant progress after playing in 14 games as a freshman.

“I like the pieces that we have,’’ Pacholke says. “It’s a new year, and I told them you can’t worry about anything that happened in the past.”

(Right) Wharton High’s Ashley “A.J.” Jones (left) & Parker Onderko will be counted on to help carry the team until they can find their footing.
(Right) Wharton High’s Ashley “A.J.” Jones (left) & Parker Onderko will be counted on to help carry the team until they can find their footing.

Wildcats Looking For A Spark

Wharton, which was 12-14 last year, will have to overcome offseason injuries to key players to reach double-digit wins again.

Seniors Dawn Norwood and Sabrina Eye, two post players at 5-10 and 6-1, respectively, both suffered torn ACLs. Coach Chad Reed says he hopes to get Eye back before the end of the season.

“Those are significant,” he says. “They will hurt.’’

They have hurt. The Wildcats got off to a slow start, losing their first five games to open the season. They are, however, coming off a 51-49 victory over Gaither on Nov. 30.

Two starters from last year — 5-8 senior point guard Ashley Jones and 5-4 senior guard Parker Onderko — will be asked to carry the load early. Reed says he the Wildcats will have to find success with a rotation of transfers and new and old players, such as 5-10 junior forward Regina Henry, 5-11 sophomore center Semera Wilson and 5-3 sophomore guard Mecca Bythewood, as well as from promising freshmen like 5-10 forward Julian Trice and 5-4 guard Angelica Ayala.

Reed said he has some good shooters, so the Wildcats will rely on quick ball movement to create open shots. He thinks because of all the new pieces, Wharton will take its lumps this year, but he believes the future is bright.

“We have to take it game to game,’’ Reed said. “It can’t be about wins and losses (right now). If we get better each game, the wins will come.”

Boys Hoops: Wharton Expected To Challenge Again; Freedom? Maybe

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(l-r) Tray Gildon, Dae’son Barnes and Isaiah Thomas are returning starters for Wharton, which is looking for another 20-win season.

Since taking over the Paul R. Wharton High boys basketball program in 1997, coach Tommy Tonelli has had nothing but success.

Only one time have his Wildcats not won at least 18 games. And, Tonelli has guided the Wildcats to eleven straight 20-win seasons, seven district titles and nine playoff appearances.

But last year, despite going 21-5, the Wildcats did not make the playoffs, losing in the District semifinals to arch-rival Freedom High in Tampa Palms.

The two teams renew their rivalry tonight in a Class 8A, District 8 clash at 6:30 p.m. at Wharton, with the Wildcats looking to get back to the postseason and Freedom looking at a rebuilding year.

“I feel this team definitely has a real good outlook and can achieve whatever they want,’’ says Tonelli, who is just another 20-win season shy of 400 career wins with the school. “They just have to earn it and pay the price and go out and compete for it. It is a talented group. We have the necessary pieces.”

Three of those pieces are returning senior starters: Tray Gildon, Dae’son Barnes and Isaiah Thomas. Another big piece should be transfer Reggie Jennings, a 6-3 senior guard who averaged 20.1 points and 10 rebounds a game last year for Wesley Chapel High.

Gildon started every game as a junior, and the 6-foot-1 point guard is poised to have a big season. Tonelli said Gildon shined during the offseason, showing leaps forward in maturity and leadership. Combine that with a smooth handle, great vision and a solid jumper, and Gildon could emerge as one of the Tampa Bay area’s top point guards.

“He has good natural point guard ability,’’ Tonelli says. “He has all the intangibles.”

Barnes, a 6-2 shooting guard, also played a lot as a junior. He has improved his jump shot and his defense and Tonelli thinks Barnes can raise his scoring average into double digits.

“He can put the ball in the basket a lot of different ways,’’ the coach says.

Thomas is a 6-3 forward who started last year as a reserve and played his way into the starting lineup midway through the season. He provided a lift for the ‘Cats on offense, and is a tremendous leaper who plays above the rim.

Wharton, which is 2-0, isn’t a very big or physical team this year, but they are athletic and fairly long, with players like 6-2 sophomore guard Darin Green,  6-5 junior point guard D.J. Henderson and junior varsity call-up Renaldo Williams all expected to play big roles this season.

“I’m real excited about our guys,’’ Tonelli says, “and what I think we can accomplish.”

Freedom Hoping To Reload

Freedom coach Cedric Smith is taking a more muted tone with the Patriots as he waits to see how his team gels.

The Pats lost seven seniors from last year’s team, including about 41 of the 57 points per game the team averaged in winning a school-record 23 games.

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Freedom head coach Cedric Smith

Freedom, which is 1-1 after beating Gaither to open the season and then dropping a close 60-56 decision to Wiregrass Ranch in a pair of Class 8A, District 8 games, will rely on Chase Creasy, a 6-4 senior wing player that Smith thinks can be better than he has been. Last year, Creasy averaged just 6 points per game in limited minutes but was third on the team in three-pointers made.

The Patriots also return 6-8 junior Alek Rojas and 6-7 senior Nicola Maganuco, two centers. Neither player made a big impact last year, averaging a combined 5.7 points and 2.8 rebounds, but Smith is counting on them to put up bigger numbers in 2016-17.

Gerald Fleming, an athletic 6-4 senior forward, and 5-8 sophomore point guard Nicholas Butler round out the starters for Freedom.

“We have some work to do,’’ said Smith, the former USF star who took over the program in 2011 and finished 8-14 his first season, but has improved the team’s win total every year since then.