Category: Sports

Feel The Thunder At The Wesley Chapel District Park!

The Wesley Chapel District Park (WCDP) on Boyette Rd. may not be as large as the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus a few miles to its south (see pgs. 8-10), but its own little mini-sports campus is rounding into shape nicely.

The latest addition is a new Tampa Bay Lightning-sponsored street, or ball, hockey rink, which officially opened a few days before Christmas. It was constructed just a few steps away from WCDP’s new 17,800-sq.-ft. indoor basketball facility, which broke ground in July and is expected to open by late summer 2021.

“It’s nice to see the park growing and offering more and more opportunities for kids to play different sports,” said District 2 commissioner Mike Moore, who has coached a variety of youth teams at WCDP, but the only basketball and volleyball offered at the park has previously been only outdoors.

In a public-private partnership between the Stanley Cup champion Lighting and Pasco County, two street hockey rinks were built in Pasco — one in Holiday, at the J. Ben Harrill Recreation Center, and the other at WCDP.

The virtually-held ribbon-cutting ceremony for the rinks were held in Holiday and were attended by Tampa Bay Lightning CEO Steve Griggs, former Lightning general manager and 2004 Stanley Cup Champion Jay Feaster, former Lightning defenseman Jassen Cullimore and Stanley Cup captain Dave Andreychuk.

“We are very proud to open these two rinks today as part of our pledge to build 10 ball hockey rinks across the Tampa Bay area,” said Griggs. “These two rinks that we opened will give local youth the opportunity to get outside and play the great game of hockey. The Lightning would like to thank Pasco County for their enthusiasm and support in helping us make this a reality for everyone in Pasco County.”

The other rinks the Lightning have opened in the Tampa Bay area are in Hillsborough, Manatee, Pinellas and Polk counties. They are of the Lightning’s Build The Thunder 2.0 and Connect the Thunder outreach programs. In 2015, through the National Hockey League (NHL) and National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) Industry Growth Fund, the Lightning announced a $6 million grass roots hockey development initiative to be delivered to young people throughout the Bay area.

The NHL club finalized its agreement to build the two rinks in Pasco County last January.

Wesley Chapel already has the popular AdventHealth Center Ice — the largest indoor ice skating/hockey facility south of New York in the United States — so Pasco County was an ideal location, says Josh Dreith, the Lightning’s community manager.

“I love Pasco County,” he said. “There is a ton of Lightning fans in Pasco, and a ton of engaged kids as well.”

The county supplied the land and built the pads the rink is built on, and the Lightning built the actual rink, which is 120 feet long by 60 feet wide, has a full dasher-board system and a scoreboard. The Lightning also is providing the equipment, and will host a series of clinics to get the program going.

The county and Lightning will then coordinate actual league play, which could begin as early as March 2021, but will be dictated by Covid-19 conditions. The rink also will offer plenty of free play time to the public.

For more information, visit LightningMadeHockey.com.

Helping Pasco Sports Tourism Rebound in 2021

If tourism is going to bounce back from the Covid-19-ravaged 2020, a series of spikes, dunks, cheers and racquet sports will have a lot to do with it.

At least that’s how it looks to Pasco County tourism director Adam Thomas, who says that after a tough year for tourism around the world, events are returning to Pasco’s “sports tourism” sites, including the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, Advent Health Center Ice and the Sarah Vande Berg (SVB) Tennis Center — all part of the county’s “Florida’s Sports Coast” branding.

Thomas says the three facilities have 14 events scheduled for the first two months of the year, with many more to come, as national governing bodies like USA Volleyball, USA Wrestling, USA Powerlifting and others look to take advantage of Florida’s open-for-business status and have eyed the Wesley Chapel-area to hold events.

“We are just now getting back to normalcy,” Thomas says, despite rising Covid numbers in Pasco, in Florida and around the nation. “We are looking at sports tourism in 2021 to really get us back to where we need to be.”

One event that won’t provide as much help as originally expected is Super Bowl LV, which is being played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on February 7. Generally, a huge event like the Super Bowl would have a major economic impact on nearby Wesley Chapel, with visitors staying in local hotels and eating and shopping at local restaurants and stores.

But, Covid-19 protocols will limit the crowd at Raymond James Stadium, which can hold 65,890 fans, to roughly 20,000 for the Big Game.

Thomas thinks Wesley Chapel will still enjoy some benefit from the Super Bowl, but in October, Pasco backed out of plans to spend $250,000 on a Super Bowl sponsorship and instead use that money for something more likely to bring a bigger return to the county.

So, while the Big Game won’t make as much of an impact, hundreds of little ones will — and that’s fine with Richard Blalock, the CEO of RADDSports, which runs the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, thanks to a public-private partnership between Pasco and RADD Sports.

The 98,000-sq.ft. AdventHealth Sports Arena will host a variety of club sporting events in 2021, bringing hundreds of teams and players and their parents’ wallets to Wesley Chapel.

The January calendar was filled with volleyball tournaments and gymnastics meets. Volleyball and gymnastics club seasons will roll into a basketball club season in the spring, and then the camp season over the summer. The Sports Campus is already proving to be responsible for a lot of hotel room nights and money spent at Wesley Chapel restaurants, malls and shopping centers, as nearly every weekend is booked through August and even Covid-plagued 2020 proved to be a success.

“We are not one-sport-specific, and that helps us,” Blalock says. “We made that decision by design. We can run a multitude of events here. As one season ends, another is starting.”

Blalock says in August and September of 2020, the first six weeks the Sports Campus was open, its events were responsible for 1,800 hotel room nights and just over $150,000 in sales, resulting in a $1.2-million indirect impact on the local economy.

He doesn’t have numbers yet for the rest of 2020, but Blalock says he expects to exceed those numbers in 2021. He says this while staring out his office window at construction workers laying masonry blocks on the fourth floor of the Residence Inn by Marriott hotel, which is being built adjacent to the arena on the Spots Campus site and is expected to open around the first week in August.

But, 2021 also is planned to include an NFL-style combine for pro football hopefuls, organized by former Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Yo Murphy, as well as the possibility of European soccer teams camping here prior to their fall 2021 seasons.

Hockey Tourism, Too

Thomas says the Sports Campus isn’t the only local venue to have a slew of events booked to meet pent up demand. AHCI currently is hosting a six-week United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) camp — a college and pro showcase with hundreds of players staying at Saddlebrook Resort and playing games at AHCI — as well as in Ellenton and Brandon.

The USPHL’s Hub City concept is designed in part to make up for the loss of games and exposure events for players last year, especially from hockey areas hit particularly hard by Covid-19, like the northeastern U.S.

Because so many events were cancelled last year and so many seasons went unfinished, Thomas anticipates eager event organizers to be heading our way.

“Our event calendar looks pretty promising,” he says.

*The SVB Tennis Center in Zephyrhills is attracting sports tourism with growing sports like padel (photo) and pickleball.*

The county won’t recover in one year, Thomas adds. He believes the Covid-19 vaccine will help make people more comfortable when it comes to travel and attending larger events, but that change will take a while. While 2021 is expected to put the Florida Sports Coast back on track, Thomas says the tourism industry is looking at 2023 before a full recovery can probably be expected.

“It’s going to take some time,” he says. “We’re still licking our wounds.”

When the pandemic hit last year, the county was coming off a record-setting February. March began the nosedive, and when the state was shut down for much of April, the county saw its tourist tax revenue drop to below $100,000 for the month, down from $430,000 in tourist tax collected in April 2019.

There is some good news, even if it is anecdotal — Thomas says the last weekend of 2020 saw 6.2 -percent growth, with almost 40 percent hotel occupancy. “We had a really good week,” he says. “Hopefully we’ll continue to see that.”

In fact, Lisa Moore, the market director of sales for the Hilton Garden Inn Tampa-Wesley Chapel on S.R. 56 says, “We’ve been at or near 100% occupancy every weekend since the Sports Campus opened. It (2020) was a tough year, but things are looking better now.”

AdventHealth Center Ice Florida Sports Coast Sarah Vande Berg tourism Wiregrass ranch sports campus

RADDSports Community Open House A Socially Distanced Success!

The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County is doing more than just helping drive sports tourism in Pasco. It is providing a unique venue for locals, both children and adults, to enjoy a variety of indoor and outdoor sports. On Jan. 3, the Sports Campus hosted a Community Open House inside the AdventHealth Sports Arena, which introduced mask-wearing, socially distant locals to these programs. And yes, it was a great success.

“We signed up more than 40 new people, mostly kids, from the event,” says RADDSports director of marketing Jannah Nager. “The event also introduced people who attended to our Sports Campus sponsors.”

At the Jan. 3 Community Open House for the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, every attendee was temperature checked. The USF Bulls cheer squad held a practice inside the AdventHealth Sports Arena at the Sports Campus. Attendees got to meet the Sports Campus sponsors, including Abdoney Orthodontics, which provided a putting green, and Island Fin Poké Co., which had people hula-hooping.

RADD Sports is the private company providing the programs and managing the Sports Campus through a public-private partnership between RADD and the county. RADD Sports founder and CEO Richard Blalock says that although the Sports Campus is already proving to be popular for both locals and competitive tournaments in the “core” sports being offered — basketball, volleyball, cheerleading and soccer (both in and outside of the AdventHealth Sports Arena) — “Events like the Open House allow more local residents the opportunity to check us out and see everything we have to offer.”

Among the sponsors with booths at the Open House were Island Fin Poké Co. (see story on pgs. 34-35), Abdoney Orthodontics, Glory Days Grill, Culver’s, Urban Air Adventure Park, the Hilton Garden Inn Tampa-Wesley Chapel, the Hampton Inn and the Neighborhood News.

For more info about programs at the Sports Campus, call (833) TEAM-RADD. For sponsorships, email Jannah@RADDSports.com.

RADDSPORTS Sports Campus Wiregrass Ranch Sports

New Tampa Basketball Preview

Wharton Boys Shooting For 20 Once Again

The Wharton boys basketball program has churned out 20-win seasons for 15 straight seasons under coach Tommy Tonelli, and once again he has a roster strong enough to reach that total in 2020-21.

Just as long as Covid doesn’t get in the way.

The fall sports seasons at Wharton and Freedom survived the pandemic’s effects due mostly to the fact that they were mostly outside events. The winter season, however, means indoor sports like basketball. Even before the season was a week old, the Wildcats had gotten into a preseason classic and a regular season tournament (going 1-1 to start the season) due to teams bowing out due to Covid.

With a total of only 23 games scheduled this season (not including an extra tournament game or two, as well as the Class 7A, District 7 tournament, there will be little margin for error when it comes to Wharton again reaching 20 wins.

Last year, the Wildcats finished 25-4 and a captured a third straight district title.

“It’s going to be interesting,” Tonelli says. “Literally, you can only take it day-to-day and can’t look too far ahead, or you’re potentially setting yourself up for disappointment. You can get shut down in the blink of an eye.”

If the season is unmarred by Covid, Tonelli thinks he has another strong team, led by returning starters Elijah Barnes and Trevor Dyson.

Barnes averaged seven points a game and was a top defender last year playing primarily off guard, but as a senior this season will take over the point guard duties. Dyson, a junior forward who averaged 11 points and led the team in rebounding, is coming off a standout season, his first as a starter.

“They will be two guys we rely on this year,” Tonelli says. “They are both very skilled, can do a lot of different things on the court and are team leaders.”

Sophomore guard Chandler Davis is hoping to carry over a strong 2019-20 campaign — where he emerged as a starter towards the end of the season — into a prominent role as a full-time starter. And, Tonelli is expecting big things from junior forward Carlos Nesbitt.

“I think he (Carlos) is really ready to have a breakout year,” Tonelli says. “He’s really starting to blossom and find his confidence. “

Junior guard Jordan Brown, who is coming off a knee injury, and Kay Julius, who is currently in the starting lineup, were both on varsity last season although neither received a lot of game experience. And, sophomore forward Reginald “RJ” Bell was a junior varsity standout. The three, along with a promising group of sophomores, help give the ‘Cats a deep rotation.

Freedom Boys Trying To Unlock The Hoop

Ken Angel took over Freedom High’s boys basketball program in 2018-19 and promptly went 25-4 in his first season with a senior-laden team. But, Angel quickly learned that whatever high school basketball giveth, it can taketh away, following graduation. Last season (2019-20), the Patriots dropped to 6-19.

“It was a tough season,” says Angel.

And, one he says the Patriots have no intention of repeating.

Angel has begun the rebuilding process at Freedom, and will do so around senior guard Jack Stone (pictured above) and junior guard Josh Germain.

Stone, the team’s leading returning scorer from last year at 10 points per contest, saw playing time on that 25-4 team, and knows what it takes it win. He is the team’s best shooter, and scored 26 and 20 points in a pair of preseason classics.

Germain is a slasher who Angel thinks will be one of the team’s top scorers. Senior forward Javil Hamlet will be Freedom’s top player in the post.

A focus on scoring points has been a point of emphasis for Angel during the offseason. Last year, the Patriots scored 50 or more points in their first three games, and managed to equal that number only four more times the rest of the season.

The defense, however, was pretty stout. The problem was that the Pats actually lost games in which they allowed only 25 and 33 points.

“Defensively, we were good,” Angel says. “I wish I knew the answer to the question (on how to score more).”

Even so, Angel says he expects marked improvement this season.

“We have quite a few seniors this year,” Angel says, “it’s just a matter of who is going to step up. Last year, we had seniors, but they just didn’t get a lot of playing time the previous season. But, we’ve been in the gym, played as many fall league games as we could, and have gotten better and stronger. It’s going to be a hard road for us, but passion and heart can go a long way and these guys are hungry and aggressive.”

Wharton Girls Ready To Break Out

With Freedom unable to field a girls basketball team this season, Wharton will be the only show in town for the 2020-21 season.

And for coach Terry Thompson, it should be his best team yet, as it assumes center stage. After back-to-back 8-win seasons, the Wildcats return every player but one from last year’s team.

“Our biggest goal is to play physical and play disciplined basketball,” Thompson says. “If we do those two things, we’ll be okay. And, we hope to be competing for a District championship. We think we have the depth to be more competitive (with last year’s champion Plant, which ended Wharton’s 2019-20 season with a 72-4 massacre).”

Marinique Redding, an All-County selection last year, is the top returner. The senior forward scored 16 points in a season-opening 51-25 win over Spoto. Junior forward Leah Jessup added eight rebounds, and senior point guard Candice Green had six steals. The play of these three veterans will determine how far the Wildcats can go this season.

Wharton also does have depth. Senior captain Jenna Onderko is “the glue” that keeps the team together, and Thompson is hoping for a breakout season from junior Nilaja Bythewood. Her sister Nielle, as well as Candice Green’s freshman sister Nina, also are expected to produce this season.

“Our defense is our strength,” Thompson says. “But offensively, for the first time, we have multiple people that can score the ball. This year, our offense is a whole lot better, and so is the team.”

Freedom preview

Freedom Swimmers Looking For State Medals

The Freedom girls swim team turned in another strong performance at the Class 3A-Region 2 championships last week, finishing second behind Sunlake by 33.5 points.

The performance qualified six of the Patriots’ swimmers in nine events for the State championships, which are being held in Stuart today. Finals begin shortly, for more information on how to follow along check out fhsaa.org.

“The girls were terrific,” said first-year coach John Olewski. “I couldn’t be prouder of their performance.”

Junior Michelle Morgan, who posted an Olympic Trials-qualifying time last year in the 500 yard freestyle, won all three of her events — the 500 free, 200 individual medley and as the anchor on the 400 free relay team — at the Regional meet and is one of the top contenders for gold at States. Morgan is seeded third at State meet in the 500 free after winning Regionals by 11 seconds with her time of 4:57.78. She also will be seeded third in the 200 IM.

Junior Carly Joerin was second in the 200 free and third in the 500 free, while senior Hannah LaBohn was third in the 50 free and 100 free. Both swimmers advanced to the State meet in those events.

Joerin also swam on the state-qualifying 400 free relay that won at Regionals by 11 seconds, along with Morgan, freshman Karis Kraf and junior Alexa Valdez-Velez.

The Freedom boys advanced one boys swimmer to States — senior Zachary Kopel, who won both the 200 and 500 free events at Regionals.

Cross Country Teams Battle For State Berths

The Freedom High boys and girls cross country teams pulled off a team sweep of the races at the Class 3A, District 8 meet in Brandon on Oct. 31. Meanwhile, at the Class 4A-11 meet, the Wharton boys finished second.

All three teams advanced to Saturday’s Regional meets.

The Wildcats earned their fifth straight trip to Regionals (Note-the top three teams and top four individuals who are not members of an advancing team all move on).

The Freedom cross country team won the Class 3A-8 meet. (Photo: @FHS_Revolution)

At the 3A-8 meet, Freedom senior Maria Melara and junior Keira Eckhardt finished 1-2, with Melara’s time of 21 minutes, 50 seconds bettering her teammate by 15 seconds. The Pats’ Katherine Vivas finished seventh.

The Freedom boys placed all five scorers in the top 14. (Photo: @FHS_Revolution)

In the boys race, all five Freedom scorers finished in the top 14, with senior Andrew Cory (17:18) leading the with his second-place finish. Senior Owen Smith (17:58) was fifth, followed by junior Brian Gardner in eighth, with a time of 18:24.

The Patriots’ girls finished with 26 points (the lower the team’s score, the better) in the three-team competition, while the Freedom boys beat second-place King 34-74.

The Freedom teams will compete at Lake Region beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday morning.

Wharton senior Jared Hammill, who set a school record at the Hillsborough County meet the week before, won the 4A-11 meet in 16:37.

Junior Alan Meriga finished seventh (17:30), and senior Thomas Walter was 11th in 17:47.

The Wharton boys scored 59 points at the district meet, behind the District’s team champion Steinbrenner, which scored 31.

The Wharton girls team finished fourth overall, missing out on advancing by just seven points, but the Wildcats’ Brooke Reif and Alex Frye, both juniors, did advance to Regionals.

Reif finished second in 19:13, while Frye took eighth in 21:53.

The Wharton teams will compete at Holloway Park in Lakeland, with the girls running at 7:30 a.m. and the boys running at 8 a.m.

The State championships for Freedom and Wharton are scheduled for Nov. 14 at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee.

cross country swimming