Former Wharton LB awarded $2-million

wharton-sliderThe family of former Wharton linebacker Sean McNamee and the Hillsboroughย County School Board agreed Tuesday afternoon to a $2-million settlement โ€”ย believed to be the largest in district history โ€” involving a 2013 accident that leftย him in a medically-induced coma for nine days as doctorsย worked to repairย damage to his brain.

The McNamees will receive $300,000 from the county, the largest they canย receive due to a sovereign immunity law that protects the state. The familyโ€™sย attorney, Steve Yerrid, will petition the state legislature for another $1.7-million,ย and as part of the settlement, the school board will support the claims bill.

Both parties had attended a court ordered mediation on Sept. 14 and agreed to aย settlement value of $2-million, provided the school board voted in agreement.

McNamee, a 6-foot-2 junior at the time, was injured prior to a Wharton practiceย on Oct. 9, 2013. He was playing catch with teammates when he fell to the groundย and struck his head on the corner of an unattended paint machine that had beenย used to line the field for that weekโ€™s game. Because practice hadnโ€™t begun,ย McNamee was not wearing a helmet.

The injury fractured his skull, and a trainer who tended to McNamee called hisย mother Jody to come pick him up. Somehow, he was still able to slip away fromย school and drive himself four miles home.

McNamee was taken to the hospital where doctors had to perform emergencyย surgery and reduce swelling and remove blood from his brain. Doctors called inย his family and told them to say their goodbyes because they were unsure heย would survive. He was placed in a medically-induced coma for nine days beforeย pulling through.

Also in the agreement, the county agreed to implement new guidelines, calledย โ€œThe McNamee Protocols,โ€ in dealing with the proper training and instruction inย how head injuries are handled, addressing the fact that despite the fact McNamee was looked at by a trainer, he managed to drive home and that EMS was not called.

The county school board also agreed to purchase liability insurance coverageย with minimum limits of $1-million as part of the settlement.

New Tampa tennis pro Allegra Campos wins national title

allegraHunter’s Green head tennis professional Allegra Campos was a two-time All-American at the University of Miami, and played professionally for a few seasons as well.

Helping win a United State Tennis Association (USTA) 40&over 4.5 adult league championship this past weekend at California’sย Indian Wells Tennis Garden, however, will go down as one of her biggest career thrills.

Campos was one of the key players forย Harbour Island — husband Jose, a former USF standout, is the head pro there — as it swept through the regular season, state sectionals and national championships with an unblemished record of 15-0, capping its run by defeating a team from Hawaii 3-2 in the final Sunday afternoon.

allegra2Campos, who earned her pro certification at Saddlebrook Resort and has been the head pro at Hunter’s Green since 2008, teamed up with Lisa Balsera to win 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 doubles in the final against Hawaii, earning a vital point.ย Teams compete against each other in two lines of singles and three lines of doubles, in a best-of-five line competition.

Campos also posted a three-set win with Balsera in the final match of flight play against a Northern California team, and Harbour Island also defeated teams from Illinois, Colorado and Mississippi (in the semifinals) at Indian Wells.

 

 

 

Pollo Tropical on the way?

PolloTropicalPasco County’s planning staff is scheduled to meet next week with project engineers looking into building a Pollo Tropical restaurant at the Cypress Creek Town Center Development of Regional Impact (DRI, across from the new Tampa Premium Outlets mall) at the Northeast corner of State Road 56 and Wesley Chapel Boulevard.

The permit pre-submittal meeting is scheduled for Nov. 2. “Right now, it is just conceptual,” said project engineer Zach Thornton.

The permit proposal is looking at a 3,600-square-foot restaurant and a drive-through lane”. A pre-application conference was already held Feb. 18 regarding the site plan but, according to the meeting request form, changes have been made since that meeting.

The Pollo Tropical chain was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Kendall in Miami-Dade County, and is best known for its flame-grilled chicken.ย  It has more than 180 locations and more than 3,000 employees mostly across the southern United States.

Wesley Chapel man killed in crash

fhp-150x1501Robert Michael Rudman, 33, of Wesley Chapel was killed early Friday morning ย when his 2006 Honda Civicย collided head-on with a semitrailer truck on SR-50 (Cortezx Blvd.) west of Richloam Clay Sink Road in Hernando County.

Rudman was traveling westbound shortly after midnight when, for unknown reasons, he crossed into the wrong lane and into the path of 50-year-old Jose Antonio Moux Rivera of Orlando. The two vehicles collided into each other, proving fatal for Rudman who died at the scene of the crash. Rivera suffered serious injuries and was transported to Dade City Hospital..

 

2nd 'Trick's Kicks' Tourney Nets nearly $11K!

KICK2Kingshyre at Cross Creek residents Dick & Kathy Strom, who lost their son Patrick to a single-vehicle accident a little more than three years ago, are proud to report that the second annual “Trick’s Kicks” golf outing at Heritage Isles Country Club on Oct. 17 raised about $10,800.

Dick says that amount is about $3,500 more than last year, which will buy, “a lot of sneakers for a lot of needy kids in our area.”

Trick’s Kicks is a nonprofit organization started by the Stroms and their friends in honor of Patrick (who was called “Trick” for short), who loved to collect athletic shoes (“kicks”). Since starting the organization, Trick’s Kicks has donated dozens of pairs of sneakers to kids in need, including 35 pairs donated to the kids at the Everyday Blessings orphanage in Thonotosassa.

Dick says that a full field of golfers, increased sponsorships and promotion in the Neighborhood News all helped the second tourney beat last year’s total, and he says the hope is that “we can do even better again next year.”

Food was provided for the event by Hoosier’s Gille, the restaurant located inside Heritage Isles CC. Among the prizes given away was a 55-inch flat-screen TV, which was won by Kyle Taylor, the last entrant in the event’s putting contest and the only contestant to sink the 60-footer.

For more info, visit Facebook.com/Trick’s Kicks.