The rumors that have been circulating the past 18 month of popular electronics retailer Best Buy closing its New Tampa location have turned out to be true.
The store, located in The Walk at Highwoods Preserve off of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. between the HomeGoods and Michaels store, has that announced it is shutting down on Oct. 31. The announcement points customers to the nearest locations in Brandon and Wesley Chapel (in The Grove).
The store has already begun the moving process. Many of the aisles in the New Tampa Best Buy have empty shelves and are blocked off, while some aisles are selling open box items at a 15-20 percent discount.
It is unclear if the effects of Covid-19 had a hand in the closing, although it had been rumored before the pandemic that the big box electronics giant’s New Tampa location had been struggling.
According to a recent report by CNN, Best Buy is at a disadvantage fighting companies like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Costco, because those others also sell food and other household essentials. Beat Buy is also facing higher costs when it comes with the rise in online orders. The CNN report says that “Best Buy’s gross profit rate fell 1.2 percentage points to 22.8% during the three months ending August 1, compared with the same period last year.”
The loss of Best Buy will leave a number of vacancies in the cross-section of BBD and around Highwoods Preserve Pkwy., such as the old Sweetbay grocery store (which has been vacant since 2013) and the former Romano’s Macaroni Grill restaurant (which has been closed since 2017, after two failed attempts after being revived as a Mexican restaurant) on the west side of BBD and the Pier 1 Importa (currently closing) on the east side.
The AMC Theater, which had to postpone a major renovation project and has been hit hard by Covid-19, and former Ruby Tuesday restaurant, which will be replaced by Aldi, are also on the east side on BBD.
Tyriq Outen honed his hockey skills while living in New Tampa, and is riding high after an MVP performance in a major invitational tournament this summer has him a little closer to his dream of playing goalie in the NHL. (Photo courtesy of the Outen family).
The first time Tyriq Outen skated on ice at the Brandonโs Ice Sports Forum, he was 4 years old and decided immediately he wanted to be a goalie.
A few weeks later, during his first lesson, his promising ice hockey career began…with his pads on backwards.
โThen, he fell behind the net and got his helmet caught in the net,โ recalls his father, Ronnie. โIt was a comedy of errors.โ
That imperfect start, however, soon gave way to success at nearly every level at which โTy,โ as his family calls him, has played since. He went from being entangled in the nets to starring in them, and from being a junior standout to a legitimate NHL draft prospect with a bright future ahead of him.
โI feel like this is where I belong,โ he says. โI fell in love with it right away.โ
Tyriq grew up in New Tampa, and attended Turner Bartels Middle School. While his friends played Little League baseball and basketball and soccer at the New Tampa YMCA, Tyriq was part of a small but budding hockey community.
He played for one of the best youth hockey teams in Florida, comprised of players from all over the state, but that meant lots of travel. He traveled by plane 2-3 times a month for big tournaments in the northeast and Canada, but mostly spent lots of time in the car with Ronnie driving all over the southeast.
Ronnie, the basketball director at the new Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, understood the lifestyle and demands for a high-caliber youth athlete. A former college basketball player who played professionally overseas, Ronnie understood it was all about exposure and training. When it was time to choose a high school, Ronnie and Tyriq moved to hockey-hotbed Boston and lived in an apartment.
โWhen we were in Boston, he was literally on the ice 5-6 days a week,โ he says. โNo knock on Florida, but there was a rink in every neighborhood. Imagine if Hunterโs Green had one, and Arbor Greene and Live Oak had one, if you had 5-6 rinks in this area, think of the pool of talent youโd have to draw from. Thatโs how it is up there. That is why the competition was so good.โ
First Stop โ Foxboro
Tyriq hooked up with the South Shore Kings in Foxboro, MA, and began to take off as a player. He had a 3.08 goals-against average (GAA) and a 90% save percentage in his two seasons.
At the age of 17, Tyriq made it onto the coveted NHL Central Scouting list as No. 19 among all North American goalie prospects. His athleticism, Ronnie says, is off the charts โ he can roll out of bed and dunk a basketball โ and his skating and stick skills are exceptional. Tyriqโs vision and game management continue to improve.
Toronto Maple Leafs development camp, June 30, 2018. Mark Blinch/Toronto Maple Leafs
Once a growth spurt got him to 6-feet, 3-inches, it completed the package, making him an enticing prospect at a position where taller, athletic goaltenders โ like the Tampa Bay Lightningโs Andre Vasilevskiy, who also is 6โ-3โ โseem to be the future.
In Boston, NHL scouts were watching every game. โIt definitely got the heart pumping,โ Tyriq says.
Although Ronnie had spent most of his life playing and coaching basketball, he had married Heather, a native Canadian, who came from a family of goalies.
Tyriq was born in Miramichi, New Brunswick, where his grandfather Hugh Moar โ Tyriq called him Grampy โ was in the townโs Hall of Fame and his uncles were accomplished junior goaltenders.
Ronnie jokes that basketball never had a chance. Which, he adds, was fine by him.
โIt wasnโt a disappointment at all,โ he says. โI didnโt want him growing up with anyone comparing him to me or anything like that. I was just happy that every time he came off the ice, whether after practice or a game, he had a smile, and five minutes into the drive home, he wanted to talk about the game.โ
Dealing With Adversity
After graduating high school in Boston, Tyriq had to choose between pursuing a Division I college career, or signing with a major junior hockey team, which would end his amateur status.
Tyriq with “Grampy”, Hugh Moar.
With a chance to sign with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), the former team of NHL stars like Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy and Roberto Luongo, and just an hour north from his birthplace, where his goalkeeping family had built a following, how could he resist?
It turned out to be the first speed bump in Tyriqโs career.
The QMJHL is one of three major junior ice hockey leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League, along with the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and Western Hockey League (WHL). Acadie-Bathurst had loaded up the previous season to win the QMJHL Presidentโs Cup, and they captured the Memorial Cup against the winners from the OHL and WHL.
Tyriq says many of the players acquired to win the title in 2017-18 departed after that season. His new team won just eight games in 2018-19, and he finished with an 0-20 record, a 5.89 goals against average and faced nearly 1,000 shots in only 1,364 minutes. After a coaching change, Tyriq was released.
โThe fact that it was (so close to Miramichi) made it even worse,โ Ronnie says. โThe whole town was hurrah hurrah, the hometown boy is coming, everybody was happy for that to happen. So, it made it double the monkey on his back.โ
Ronnie worried about how Tyriq would handle his first-ever adversity. โI would be lying and he wouldnโt be human if I said it didnโt get him down.โ
Ronnie says he reached out to Tampa Bay Lightning goalkeeping coach Frantz Jean for some guidance, concerned his son might retire his pads. Jean, however, reassured Ronnie that Tyriq was still highly regarded, and that NHL scouts will be watching to see how he reacted to his adversity.
โThe ones that are successful come out the other side stronger,โ Ronnie remembers being told.
Getting Back In The Pads
Tyriq got back to work. Determined to come back even stronger, rather than give up, he doubled down on his efforts. When he was tired, he thought about Bathurst. When he didnโt want to work out, he thought about Bathurst.
โIโm already up,โ Tyriq would say as his dad walked into his room to wake him up early in the morning.
โThat showed me just how tough he really is,โ Ronnie says.
The Outen family โ (l.-r) Tyriq, Kiana, Heather and Ronnie โ has lived in Live Oak Preserve in New Tampa since 2006.ย
Tyriqโs bounceback started in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, in the Maritime Hockey League, a league below major junior. If playing near his hometown made the Bathurst experience more painful, then his first appearance at the Miramichi Civic Centre, against the hometown Timberwolves, offered some redemption โ he stopped 34 of 35 shots in a 6-1 win.
He went on to beat the Timberwolves two more times at the Civic Centre, and stopped 145 of 156 shots the hometown team fired at him over five games.
Covid-19 ended the 2019-20 season early, so Tyriq returned to New Tampa. He worked out with the Lightning before the team entered the bubble en route to the Stanley Cup. Tyriq continued to grind, ready for his next challenge, which came when he was chosen to play at the prestigious invite-only Beantown Summer Classic in August in Exeter, NH, where NHL scouts handle the coaching duties.
โHe was so proud of having some of the Lightning playersโ phone numbers in his phone,โ Ronnie says. โThat was pretty cool for him.โ
The NextGen MVP!
Tyriq was the only goalie invited to play for an all-minority team โ NextGen AAA Foundation, a nonprofit that offers mentoring to hockey programs in underserved communities.
NextGen, which is coached by NHL players Bryce Salvador and Mike Grier, steamrolled the competition at the annual Beantown Classic in Boston, and went undefeated to win the title. Tyriq was 4-0, and even added five assists โ a shockingly high number for a goalie but a tribute to his stick skills โ and was named the tournamentโs MVP.
โThat was a big deal for me,โ Tyriq says. โI feel like Iโm ready to do bigger things. It was a great experience.โ
Tyriq canโt return to Canada right now due to Covid, but was approached by a Calgary Flames scout at the Beantown Classic, who hooked him up the Maine Nordiques of the North American Hockey League. He left New Tampa last month to begin training, and the season began earlier this month.
In three games so far with Maine, Tyriq is 2-1 with a 2.94 goals-against-average and a .924 percent save percentage.
โHe was in a bad situation before, but heโs recalibrated now,โ Ronnie says. โThis is a good situation for him. Itโs going to be a good year. He is totally happy โ you can hear it in his voice. And, thatโs the best thing.โ
LifePoint Church, which took over the Winn-Dixie Supermarket in 2006, has moved to Wesley Chapel and AdventHealth is moving in. (Photo: Charmaine George)
The LifePoint Church building located on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in front of Hunterโs Green, has been sold to Advent Health, which intends to renovate it into a โcare pavilion.โ
AdventHealth paid $7.4 million for the 5.84-acre property and reportedly will spend $8.44 million more to renovate it, and plans to include exam rooms and imaging capabilities such as MRIs, X-rays and CT scans.
โWe are still working to determine which care services will best fit the needs of the community,โ says Richelle Hoenes-Ahearn, a spokesperson for AdventHealth. โWe are excited about the opportunity to bring this kind of facility to the area and make it more convenient and accessible for people to prioritize health and wellness.โ
Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who represents District 7, which includes New Tampa, says he is working with AdventHealth to be sure the facility meets the needs of the New Tampa community.
He plans to have a meeting with AdventHealth in November to allow neighborhood leaders to ask any questions they may have about the project.
โThis is a facility with a lot of potential benefits to the New Tampa area,โ he says. โDialogue is key.โ
Meanwhile, LifePoint Church has moved its services to Wesley Chapel and also changed its name to The Gathering Church.
Executive pastor Brian Brown says the sale of the building is not related to the effects of Covid-19. In fact, he says, discussions with AdventHealth started well before the pandemic hit, when the hospital system approached the church with an offer.
Brian says the church had previously been approached by other suitors looking to purchase the building, but the offer from AdventHealth was, โthe right price at the right time.โ
The sale closed in mid-September, which was at the end of at least nine or ten months of discussion and work towards that goal, says Brian. He added that the lengthy process AdventHealth had to go through for permitting and rezoning was somewhat delayed because parts of the government had been shut down due the pandemic.
LifePoint originally purchased the building in 2006, when it was a vacant former Winn-Dixie supermarket and the church was meeting at the New Tampa Family YMCA. LifePoint opened its doors at the building in 2007.
โIt was great for us,โ says Brian, โbut weโve had a change in focus as a ministry.โ
Brad White is the senior pastor for the church, which at one time had multiple campuses in Hillsborough and Pasco counties. Now, the church is exclusively in Wesley Chapel, meeting at Wiregrass Ranch High on Mansfield Blvd. on Sundays at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and noon.
โWe have now focused all of our attention on the Wesley Chapel area,โ says Brian. โThatโs where all the growth is going.โ
He says the church did a demographic study of its database and found that the majority of its congregation was coming from Wesley Chapel anyway, so the decision was made to move into the area where its people are living.
While the church may purchase another building in the future, for now, thatโs not its priority.
โOur focus is just to love people and to help them begin a relationship with God,โ says Brian, adding that buildings that are only used once a week cost a lot of money to maintain. โNow, dollars that were being spent on a facility are being used to facilitate relationships. Weโre excited. Itโs a great location for AdventHealth, so itโs a win-win for everybody.โ
Tampa Bay Lightning head trainer Tom Mulligan & chiropractor Tim Bain may not have laced โem up, but they did contribute to the second Stanley Cup in team history!
Tampa Bay Lightning head trainer Tom Mulligan (holding the Stanley Cup) and his family (l.-r., Tyler, Abby, Zachary & Kellie) finally got to celebrate Tomโs second Cup win with the Bolts on Sept. 30. (Photo provided by Tom Mulligan)
The first Tampa Bay Lightning game of the NHL postseason went to one overtime, then two, three, four and five.
In between periods, Arbor Greene resident Tom Mulligan, the teamโs head trainer, scrambled to tend to cramps and injuries, keep the players hydrated and their energy levels up with grilled chicken, slices of pizza and bananas.
โIt was controlled chaos in between periods,โ Mulligan says.
And, unbridled joy afterwards. When Brayden Point scored the game-winning goal to give the Lightning the 3-2, five-overtime win over Columbus, it set off a raucous celebration and catapulted Tampa Bay on a run that would eventually lead to the teamโs second Stanley Cup championship.
โThat night, I felt this could be something special,โ Mulligan says. โIt was six hours, and just to see the controlled chaos in between periods was something. It really was all hands on deck. We still needed 15 more wins after that, but if that would have turned out differently, who knows what happens?โ
The Lightning ended up getting those 15 wins. After dropping the first game of the Stanley Cup finals to Dallas, the Lightning won the next four, including a 2-0 shutout pitched by goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy to clinch the title.
For many, including Mulligan โ one of the few staffers remaining from the 2004 crew that took home the teamโs first Cup โ it was a long time coming. There have been a series of close calls in recent years, including a conference finals loss in 2018 and mostly noticeably, a devastating sweep by Columbus in the first round last year after the team tied an NHL record with 62 wins.
โWe won it in my second year in the NHL, and I thought, โThis isnโt so bad,โโ Mulligan says, chuckling. โWe had most of the team back, weโre going to have more chances. Then the years start ticking by, players come and go, and you realize: itโs not that easy.โ
Mulligan is still coming down off the high of his second cup. There are few things like hockey celebrations, and Mulligan says Tampa outdid itself with the homecoming boat parade along the Hillsborough River and subsequent party held at Raymond James Stadium.
The most recognizable trophy in sports, Mulligan says he is hoping to be able to bring the Stanley Cup to New Tampa. It is a tradition that each member of the organization gets to spend at least a day with the trophy. In 2004, he took the Cup to Massachusetts to share with his parents.
While he is not sure of the parameters this year, due to Covid-19, he and wife Kelly have some ideas for a New Tampa celebration.
โThatโs the plan,โ he says.
But first, some family time is in order. Mulligan spent 65 days in the NHL bubble, first in Toronto and then in Edmonton.
Counting a few days of quarantining before he left Tampa, he was away from wife Kellie and their three children for a total of more than 70 days.
In 2004, only son Tyler had been born; he was 14 months old when the Lightning won the cup. Tyler is now 17-years old and a senior at Wharton, and since, brother Zachary, 15, and sister Abby, 13 have joined the family.
โIt was really special coming home with the Cup and seeing them,โ Tom says. He laments the sports and school events he has had to miss because of his job, and the bubble isolation made that even more difficult.
โThey have had to make a lot of sacrifices over the course of their lives,โ he says, but adds that they are all old enough now to truly appreciate what dad does and the significance of winning the Stanley Cup.
And, he was able to return home in time for Abbyโs 13th birthday on Oct. 5. He told her before he left Edmonton he was bringing her a special present.
โShe probably wonโt ever get another gift like it,โ he says. โ JCC
Dr. Tim Bain hoists the Stanley Cup. (Photo provided by Dr. Tim Bain)
Bain Helps Victorious Bolts Deal With Aches & Pains
Wesley Chapel resident Tim Bain, D.C. (Doctor of Chiropractic), who has been the Lightningโs official team chiropractic physician since 2009, says he actually has been treating Lightning players since a year or two before the Bolts won their first Stanley Cup in 2004.
โI had just moved to the area and was living in West Meadows, along with a number of Lightning players, including Marty St. Louis, Nikolai Khabibulin and Fredrik Modin,โ Bain says, โand Tom Mulligan, who was already the teamโs trainer, started sending some of the players my way.โ
Fast forward to the unique season of 2019-20, and both Mulligan and Bain were among the 52 players, coaches and staff sent by the Bolts to live in the NHLโs โbubbleโ in Toronto for this yearโs no-fans, two-bubble (the other was in Edmonton) playoff format. And, when the Lightning emerged victorious 65 days after first entering the Toronto bubble, Dr. Bain was among those celebrating with the new Cup champs.
โThereโs no doubt that hockey players are among the toughest of all professional athletes,โ says Bain, whose office is in the Cory Lake Professional Center on Cross Creek Blvd. โThey donโt like to come off the ice or complain about their aches and pains. But, once the team started to embrace the idea of chiropractic care, they could see that they could recover from injuries faster and get back on the ice even faster.โ
Bain adds that with the even-quicker-than-usual turnaround times between games (because of not having to travel) in this yearโs playoff format, he was even busier caring for the players than usual. He also was the person responsible for conducting concussion protocols for the players who sustained head injuries.
One of the Boltsโ players who attracted the most attention for his ongoing injury woes was, of course, team captain Steven Stamkos. Although the nature of his injury was never revealed, Bain says no one worked harder to get himself back into playing shape than Stammer.
โEven though he only played 2:47 in one game (Game 3 of the Cup final series against Dallas) of the entire playoffs,โ Bain says, โI think the goal he scored while he was in there got the entire team as excited as the moment we won the Cup. Even though he ended up not seeing the ice again, he gave the whole team such a huge lift.โ
Bain agrees with Mulligan that the hardest thing about their time in the bubble for all of the Lightning players and staff was being separated from their families for so long.
โI have a tendency to get homesick anyway, even just on road trips,โ Bain says. โBut, having to spend 70 days away from my wife and children was even harder. Especially when we shifted to the Edmonton bubble (for the last two playoff series), there was literally nothing for us to do. Being able to come home and celebrate winning the Cup with our families and the fans was so amazing.โ
And, Bain adds, the goal now is to โbring the Cup home again next year. It canโt be more challenging than this year has been.โ
He says that he plans to be on hand when next yearโs team has to recover from injuries and everyday aches and pains. โI definitely hope to be part of another celebration!โ โ GN
Lisa Michelangelo (left) with Brianna at the recent Derby Day celebration at the Hyatt Place Hotel in Wesley Chapel. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Michelangelo)
When Brianna, a Wesley Chapel teenager with Cerebral Palsy, graduated from high school in 2019, she could have rolled herself across the stage in the wheelchair she has been confined to for most of her life.
Instead, she walked.
For Lisa Michelangelo, who had helped make that miracle possible at her Emerald M Therapeutic Riding Center in Brooksville, it was the type of moment she lives for and why she does what she does.
โIt was really one of the most awesome things Iโve seen,โ Michelangelo says.
Michelangelo, formerly a physical therapist in New Tampa, founded the Emerald M ranch six years ago. Named for the stone that Michelangelo says stands for โhope, renewal and growth,โ Emerald M offers physical therapy that incorporates hippotherapy, which utilizes the movement of horses for rehabilitative purposes.
It has been a godsend for many like Brianna. It was the first time any of her Center Academy classmates had ever seen Brianna walk. Thanks to the therapy she received at the Emerald M Therapeutic Riding Center, Brianna made her graduation one of the most memorable days of her life โ and the same can be said about many of those in attendance.
โI canโt express how much doing this has changed my whole perspective,โ Brianna said in a video that played at the Emerald Mโs second annual Derby Day fund raiser earlier this month at the Hyatt Place Hotel in Wesley Chapel. โItโs definitely life changing. I believe that wholeheartedly. It was one of the best decisions me and my family ever made.โ
The fund raiser, like Briannaโs graduation, was a hit. It raised more than $20,000 to help the Emerald M ranch continue to provide its unique form of therapy.
Usually held on the same day as the Kentucky Derby in May, the fund raiser almost didnโt happen this year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
โWe were planning and then stopped planning and then started planning again,โ says Michelangelo. โIt was a real blessing to be able to do it.โ
The event was limited to 120 people, or half of capacity, and about 100 attended. Those not ready to venture out or concerned about the size of the crowd despite a host of coronavirus precautions taken by the hotelโs staff, the event also was streamed to provide a virtual experience.
Because most of Emerald Mโs participants are more susceptible to coronavirus, the 20-acre ranch had to shut down in March, and re-opened in June. It features 10 horses, and more than a dozen volunteers.
The center, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, usually hosts two fund raisers a year โ the Derby Day event in May, which was moved to September 5, and a gala dinner in October, which had to be cancelled.
โDerby Day did not offset the gala, but we did benefit with twice what we raised at Derby Day last year,โ Michelangelo says. โThat is tremendous. It puts us in a much better place moving forward.โ
Source: EmeraldMTherapeuticRidingCenter.org
According to Michelangelo, hippotherapy, or equine-assisted therapy, is a growing and effective way to improve oneโs coordination, balance and strength, especially in cases with children suffering from Cerebral Palsy.
According to the American Hippotherapy Association, Inc., and others, the horseโs pelvis and hips move in the same way as a humanโs. By riding on a horse and maintaining balance, sometimes even riding sideways and even by sitting backwards, the movement of the horse is channeled to the brain and can enhance neuromuscular development.
Not only does it help build things like strength and control, it has various sensory benefits and also helps improve motor skills.
Sarah Clanton spent the first five years of her life with nothing. She existed chained to a bed in the Ukraine, and when she was adopted by Yvonne and her husband Jon Clanton, she could barely sit up by herself.
Sarah is one of the Emerald M Therapeutic Riding Centerโs most successful patients, who despite being blind and mentally underdeveloped, is now walking with assistance and responding to instructions and showing major improvement in her motor skills, thanks to hippotherapy.
Emerald M has participants who suffer from autism, processing disorders, emotional disorders, cerebral palsy, paralysis and brain tumors. It also offers beginner horseback riding lessons for siblings of program participants, which helps keep everyone in the family involved.
The center also offers therapeutic adaptive riding, which is more recreational and teaches someone with a disability horsemanship skills and how to ride.
Regardless of the help needed, Michelangelo says thereโs a good chance they can provide it at Emerald M.
โI love what I do,โ Michelangelo says. โIt doesnโt feel like therapy. Weโre out in a recreational environment, and once the kids get on the horses, Iโm golden because they donโt ever want to get off.โ
Emerald M Riding Center is located at 4022 Goldsmith Rd. in Brooksville. For more information or to donate, visit EmeraldMTherapeuticRidingCenter.org, or call (352)-244-7471.ย
