The Latest On The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus Of Pasco County!


Above is a 3D rendering of the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, which shows eight basketball courts that can be divided into 16 volleyball courts. Source: RADD Sports. 

After years of staring at renderings and blue prints and imagining what the new sports complex in Wiregrass Ranch will actually look like, general manager and RADD Sports CEO Richard Blalock’s vision is now coming into focus.

The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County is no longer just a large patch of cleared land, it has gone vertical, and the current schedule is looking towards a July 10, 2020, completion.

After three failed efforts since 2001 to build an athletic complex on the property located northeast of the Shops at Wiregrass and two miles east of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., off S.R. 56, the 98,000-sq.-ft. indoor gymnasium is on its way.

Blalock, however, is not letting his excitement get the best of him. While the $45-million facility — which will share a campus with a full-service, Marriott-branded, 120-room Residence Inn hotel featuring a rooftop bar — is a big part of transforming the Wesley Chapel area — and Pasco County — into even more of a sports tourism hotbed, he intends to proceed slowly out of the gate.

“We’ve got people lined up that want to sign a contract now,” says Blalock. 


A drone photo of the progress on the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus. Photo by Charmaine George.

He is proceeding, though, like a quarterback with plenty of time on the clock. It’s not that he doubts the projection. But, he’s leery of Florida’s cranky wet weather that often slows down construction, most recently during Hurricane Dorian’s trip through the Atlantic.

“We had to take all of the cranes down,” says Jannah Nager, who was recently hired as RADD Sports’ director of marketing after working for more than four years as the marketing and events coordinator at the Pasco Education Foundation. She is the wife of Neighborhood News publisher Gary Nager.

With more bad weather lurking, it may not be the last time the cranes and other equipment have to be removed from the site for safety reasons.

“Everybody is beating us up, ‘When are you going to start booking events?,’” Blalock says. “But, I will not start booking events until after this hurricane season. Once the roof is on, or the side panels, I’ll be more comfortable.”

Blalock says a new facility in North Carolina jumped the gun on its opening and, thanks to Hurricane Dorian, had to postpone that opening.

“That’s the last thing we can afford to have happen here,” he says.

By October of 2020, Blalock says, he hopes to have events ready to go at the new facility, which broke ground in June of 2018. He hopes to book at least 25 events in the first 12 months the sports facility is running. Nager’s job is to help spread the word in the community while marketing the facility to sponsors.

“Jannah knows the community, she knows the people, she knows the ins and out, and she knows the politicians,” said Blalock. “We need somebody that knows community and is popular in the community. That makes our job so much easier.”

The primary sports at the new complex will be basketball and volleyball, and cheerleading is expected to be the third core sport at the facility, which can run eight basketball courts or 16 volleyball courts at any one time.

There also is room for multiple mats for wrestling and judo tournaments, with gymnastics also a possibility. Blalock said he even has been contacted by a youth soccer team in the United Kingdom that is interested in training for a few weeks at the new facility, which will have two outdoor soccer fields and plenty of room to train inside if the weather turns bad.

Local Use During The Week!

Weekend sports tournaments, however, will be just part of the big picture at the new facility.

Blalock says there will be plenty of sports programming for local athletes to participate in, too. He says there will be a three-tier system for each of its three core sports — Academy, Competitive and Development — which will allow opportunities for all level of athletes starting at the age of 9 and going all the way through high school 

Jannah Nager and Richard Blalock are just beginning to market the complex to local sponsors. 

The Academy will be for training elite athletes for travel teams, but will also include an educational component and require participants to maintain a certain grade-point-average. He says the sports will be programmed to not interfere with the local high school seasons.

“The ultimate goal is to change the culture of how these kids are trained,” Blalock says, adding that it is well-documented that youth sports are susceptible to being overrun by overzealous coaches and parents, as well as entitled athletes.

The Competitive program also will be in-house, with three days a week of practices and games — and the chance for advancement to the Academy level, Blalock says.

The Developmental program will be “quasi-recreational,” according to Blalock. Volunteer coaches will run the teams, although those coaches will have plenty of access to paid coaches on the complex’s paid sports staff to help develop more drills and gameplans.

The programming also will be competitively priced with the local market, according to Blalock.

For those who like sports but don’t play for whatever reason, the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus will offer a Sports Administration & Hospitality program, where kids can gather data, travel with the teams and serve as managers.

And, now that ground has broken on a nearby 55-over community in Wiregrass Ranch (see story on pg. 8), more programming for older residents also may be in the offing, like pickleball and Rock Steady Boxing for those with Parkinson’s disease. There may even be room for some golf cart parking spots, Blalock says.

In addition to its youth and adult sports programs, the facility is able to provide space for conventions, banquets and other non-sports events.

Blalock and Nager are putting together sponsorship packages now, and also are accepting resumes for positions, although Blalock stresses that the actual hiring process is likely several months away. 

For more information about sponsorships and more, visit RADDSports.com or email Jannah@raddsports.com. 

Atonement Lutheran Church Cuts A Ribbon On New Fellowship Hall

A ribbon was cut on Sept. 7 for Atonement Lutheran Church’s new building, which has added more space for the church’s many ministries, including a food pantry that feeds up to 250 families each week.

The newly built structure in front of Atonement Lutheran Church may be somewhat nondescript, but the fact that it exists at all is something of a miracle, considering the church was once facing its last rites.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Sept. 7, to officially mark the opening of the church’s new Fellowship Hall.

At about 2,800 square feet, it is triple the size of the church’s former multi-purpose room, which only held about 70 people. The new room’s capacity is 200.

Pastor Scott Lindner says it’s an exciting sign of growth for the small church, which has been a part of the community for 30 years, but almost closed its doors for good in the early 2000s.

Lindner says instead of giving up, a former pastor sold five of the church’s original 13 acres to a developer to create the neighboring office park.

“When I got here in 2006, they had just burned the mortgage,” Lindner explains.

As Wesley Chapel has grown, the church has grown, too. Atonement Lutheran church regularly sees about 100 families in worship during the summer, and that number doubles in the winter when the “snowbirds” return to Florida.

The church also just celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its food pantry program, which feeds up to 250 families each week with 15,000 pounds of food.

“Our ministries have grown so much in the past five years,” says Rebecca Parker, a church member who also is a volunteer and chair of its worship and music committee. “We needed more space, so this is very exciting for us.”

Pastor Lindner agrees: “We’ve known for years this time would come.”

The new building will be used for not only Atonement’s own full congregation, but also for some ministries and outside groups to use. In fact, the New River Branch Library plans to host some of its programs in the building when it closes for renovations this fall.

The Fellowship Hall also will be used for a weekly family service the congregants call “Child of God,” which is held every Sunday at 11 a.m. 

The entire family hears a message geared toward children from the pastor. Then, the kids break off to do a craft or activity, while the pastor goes over what he calls a “home blueprint” relating to the message.

“It’s like children’s church, but also a parent support group,” explains Lindner. “There’s a story, questions, prayer guides and suggested activities, so you can make your house an extension of the church.”

Five years ago, Atonement Lutheran held a capital campaign that raised $300,000 to fund the building.

“It took us years to figure out what would work and what we could get permitted and what we could afford,” Lindner says. Over those years, prices increased, and the church will take a loan to cover the rest of the costs, which are expected to come in at about $125,000, once all of the final expenses are tallied, including permitting, landscaping and other expenses.

“We’ve been able to be generous to nonprofits by allowing them to use our building at no cost, and we will continue to do that,” says Lindner. “We believe this is a special place; that’s what keeps us going.”

The Wesley Chapel Noon Rotary Club also has announced that it will again feed hundreds of people in need at Atonement Lutheran for the club’s annual “Turkey Gobble” meal on Thanksgiving morning.  

Atonement Lutheran Church is located at 29617 S.R. 54. To learn more about the church, visit DiscoverALC.com or call (813) 973-2211.

Community Comes Together To Honor 9/11’s Heroes

(Above) Pasco commissioners Mike Moore (far left), Mike Wells and Jack Mariano (in back), retired FDNY EMT Stephen Spelman, Penelope Bastidas (with scissors), and U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis (far right) were among those who helped cut the ribbon on the new 9/11 Memorial (right) at the Tampa Premium Outlets on Sept. 7.

For most Americans, the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, will live on forever.

Where you were, what you were doing, who you were with and how the horrifying sight of the World Trade Center’s twin towers crumbling to earth left you feeling afterwards will likely never really go away.

The memories linger, and on Sept. 7, at the dedication of Pasco County’s first permanent 9-11 memorial inside the food court area of the Tampa Premium Outlets, hundreds gathered to share their recollections and honor those who died that day.

Retired New York City EMT Stephen Spelman knew many of them.

Spelman says he was standing at the foot of the north tower and being ordered by his lieutenant to search for some nearby vehicles. 

“What he did in that moment was actually save my life,” Spelman told the gathered crowd.

As he was returning from that task, Spelman said the north tower collapsed. Because of where he was located, Spelman was able to take off running north on West St. to avoid the falling wreckage.

Many of Spelman’s co-workers, including the lieutenant who gave the order, ran east on Vesey St.

Their bodies were never recovered.

Like so many who were at Ground Zero that fateful day, Spelman hasn’t really recovered, either. He retired from the fire department in 2009, and moved to the Wesley Chapel area in 2010. Years went by as he tried to cope with the psychological burden of losing so many of his friends and co-workers, as well as the lingering health problems associated with what he and so many other surviving first responders endured that day. 

In the Spring of 2017, Spelman says he got a call from the Motts Military Museum in Groveport, OH, which asked him to come tell his story.

The event was set for the 16th anniversary of 9/11, but fate and another disaster would prevent the former EMT trainer from attending.

WC Rotary president Chris Casella (left) and Simon Property Group operations director Dallas Stevens check out the memorial.

Hurricane Irma tore through central Florida on September 11, 2017, causing billions of dollars of damage and taking the lives of 129 people. Florida officials ordered 6.5 million residents to evacuate. Spelman never made that trip up to Ohio. 

A few weeks later, however, he got a package in the mail from the Motts Museum — a piece of the ladder from the Ladder 18 Truck from Battalion 4 in lower Manhattan, the station also known as Fort Pitt. 

“At first, I saw it (the piece of the ladder) as a burden, but it wound up being a real gift,” Spelman says. 

The ladder awakened something in him, spurring him to try to find the right home for it, where it hopefully would do some good.

“I didn’t want it to be in my house,” he said. ‘’It’s an important piece of history.”

Spelman began approaching different places with the idea to create some kind of memorial around the piece. It became an ongoing endeavor. After being turned down on multiple occasions, Spelman finally found some interest at the mall. 

“I finally got the ear of Tampa Premium Outlets and gave them a brief history about me and about the ladder,” Spelman said. “They said they’d see if they could help and gave me a list of things to do. I was looking for sponsors to create the display and it was frustrating. I didn’t think it was ever going to get done.”

Help From An Old Friend

Enter former NYPD officer and Spelman’s FDNY colleague Chris Casella. Casella was trained by and worked with Spelman and also came to Florida in 2002 after retiring from the NYPD. (Casella was already on limited duty due to injury before 9/11.)

As it turns out, Casella, the current president of the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon (which meets Wednesdays at noon at Omari’s Grill inside Lexington Oaks Golf Club; see ad on pg. 38), was already in talks with the outlet mall to launch a Sept. 11 Memorial Run/Walk on Sept. 7.

“From there, it didn’t take much,” Spelman said. “We started the ball rolling and at first we didn’t think people would take interest.” He and Casella would both end up being pleasantly surprised. 

“I can’t tell you the amount of emails I got, and phone calls from people wanting to be involved in it,” Casella said. “People were coming out in droves wanting to get involved. It was really uplifting and I believe it helped the community in a big way.”

Hundreds of local residents rallied around the idea of honoring 9/11’s surviving heroes Saturday morning in the presence of dozens of first responders from both Hillsborough and Pasco Counties and beyond.

The kickoff event was the one-mile Fun Run/Walk, where nearly 300 runners and walkers took a lap around the main interior road around the mall.

Casella’s predecessor as Wesley Chapel Noon Rotary president, Eric Johnson, served as master of ceremonies, and Boy Scouts from Troop 149, together with Cub Scouts from Pack 149, were on hand to support the race and to hand out miniature American flags. 

“The Wesley Chapel Noon Rotary sponsors both our Cub Scout pack and Boy Scout troop and asked us to come out,” Troop 149 Scoutmaster Kevin Wiatrowski said. “We are delighted to be out here for this special occasion. Mr. Spelman and his son Mathew have been part of our pack for years.”

Jeremiah Loo of Wesley Chapel was the first to cross the finish line as runners and walkers trickled in behind him. Bananas and bottled water were offered up by high schoolers from Cypress Creek Middle/High School, as walkers, runners and spectators from all over the area brought their families out for the event. 

Johnson drew the crowd into the food court of the outlet mall where, at exactly 8:46 a.m., the Rotary Club’s bell was rung to commemorate the first plane striking the north tower. 

The Main Event

A moment of silence and a flyover by a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office helicopter preceded the bell ringing, which concluded the morning’s outdoor events. Spectators then crowded into the food court for the ribbon cutting of the new memorial.

Pasco County commissioners Mike Moore, Ron Oakley and Jack Mariano all spoke at the podium, as did U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, before giving way to Spelman to tell his story about 9/11 and the heroes who did not live to tell about it. 

Spelman mentioned Lieutenant Mario Bastidas, who perished that day. Bastidas’ widow Penelope flew in from New York and gave a brief, but emotional address to the audience before cutting the ceremonial ribbon.

From there, the hallway leading out of the food court to the soda machines and bathrooms was opened and spectators began filing past the new memorial, which incorporated Spelman’s small section of Ladder 18.

“When Chris told me they were going to give me a wall by the bathroom, at first, I didn’t really think that was a great thing,” Spelman said. “But it wound up being that with these soda and gum ball machines down there, these kids (at the mall) are going to ask mom and dad, ‘What is that?,’ and it’s our responsibility to educate them.”

Throngs of local residents dressed in their commemorative red 9/11 shirts lined up to take in the memorial. The Italian Angels Brotherhood of Pasco County showed up in force to commemorate the event. 

“Steve (Spelman) is a good friend, I knew him when we both lived in Brooklyn,” Italian Angels of Pasco president Frank Losurdo said. 

Retired FDNY Lieutenant Mike Besignano, who now lives in New Tampa, was on hand to take in the memorial and the community support.

“Every year it’s difficult,” Besignano said. “I’m happy to see this (memorial), I’m sad but it makes me happy at the same time and people should never forget the sacrifices that were made and are continuing to be made.”

A Restaurant Survey & Contest Update & My Wife’s Exciting New Job!

Jannah & Gary Nager at a wedding on Cape Cod Aug. 17.

Pretty much every year since I took over the Neighborhood News in 1994, we have held our annual Reader Dining Survey & Contest. At one time, it was just our most popular contest for our readers but today, it is the only one we still run year after year.

And honestly, it’s also a tremendous amount of work to put together (and tabulate the results of) the contest each year, as so many restaurants continue to come and go in our distribution areas, especially recently in New Tampa, where fewer newcomers have been replacing those that exit than in Wesley Chapel, where there are so many newbies, even though most of them are regional or national chains.

This year, after participation in this annual contest dwindled somewhat the past two years, I tried to find a way to ask you to name fewer favorites yourselves but hopefully, still find a way to give every restaurant currently operating in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel and those located directly adjacent to both markets a better chance to be among our readers’ favorites. 

I also was trying to find a way to prevent “ballot stuffing” by local residents who only entered the contest to vote for one place. As always, entries that are not completely and/or incorrectly filled out will not have their votes included, but it seems that the format this year is already reducing disqualifications. 

Also new this year is the fact that if you live in New Tampa, you only got to vote last issue (and this issue) for restaurants located in New Tampa (or on Bearss Ave. near BBD in Lutz). Likewise, those living in Wesley Chapel were only asked to vote for restaurants in Wesley Chapel (and on S.R. 56 and S.R. 54 in Lutz). In our October issues, New Tampa residents will get to vote for their favorites in Wesley Chapel and Wesley Chapel residents for their favorites in New Tampa, although both surveys are available online now, and you can submit one entry in each market at NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net or by U.S. Mail.

And, based on the fact that we already have more than doubled last year’s total number of entries in just the first two (of six total) issues the contest has run so far is an indication that I may be onto something, even though the task to include every restaurant, fast food place, café and cafeteria in both of our markets has proven even more daunting than I had anticipated. 

Originally, I correctly listed all of the candidates for  “Favorite Restaurant in New Tampa” by where they were located, rather than in alphabetical order, but I ended up excluding two of my favorite pizza places in New Tampa — Taste of New York in Highwoods Preserve and Woodfired Pizza on Bearss Ave. — from the “Favorite Pizza in New Tampa” list, completely by accident. You’ll note that both of them have been added to the second run of the New Tampa survey, and you’ll also find that I have reorganized the full list of New Tampa favorites alphabetically this time around.

I did even worse in Wesley Chapel, where, among a couple of others, The Brass Tap was inadvertently left off the “Favorite Bar or Tavern in Wesley Chapel” list, and my 2018 favorite restaurant in Wesley Chapel — Dempsey’s Steakhouse in Saddlebrook Resort — was left off the “Favorite Restaurant in Wesley Chapel” list, as was TD’s Sports Bar at Saddlebrook. Yeesh.

But, that’s one reason why we run the contest multiple times, so we can get the listings right. The other is that we want as many local residents in both of our markets as possible to participate because, quite honestly, it helps both us and the restaurants themselves get a better handle on which places our readers truly like best in and near their neighborhoods. And, despite the amount of work that it takes to create and score the contests, it also is a lot of fun for me, as one of our area’s better-known “foodies,” to oversee. 

Congratulations, Mrs. Nager!     

Loyal Neighborhood News readers know that Jannah has been working for the Pasco Education Foundation (the nonprofit organization that raises money to support the Pasco School District) for the past four+ years, but she has an exciting new job that definitely will make her even more well-known and popular right here in Wesley Chapel than she has become  from all of the publicity she’s had in these pages.

As of Sept. 1, Jannah is now the director of marketing for the (mainly) indoor Wesley Chapel Sports Complex at Wiregrass Ranch (that is the working title) being developed by RADD Sports just off S.R. 56! It truly is a huge, exciting opportunity for her and Jannah already is looking to establish partnerships for the complex with local companies and sports organizations. 

Stay tuned for more announcements and congrats, babe!  

Pebble Creek Vet Helps Build Monuments At Bushnell National Cemetery

Pebble Creek resident Wayne Rich and his daughter at the 2019 Gasparilla parade as part of Ye Special Forces Krewe on Tampa Bay, representing the Special Forces Association.

A short drive north of Pebble Creek in New Tampa, where retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Wayne Rich lives, his father, mother and wife are all buried at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.

Averaging 7,000 burials a year — about 30 each day — Florida National Cemetery is the second most active cemetery in the U.S.

When Wayne arrives after the 45-minute drive up I-75, he takes in the rows upon rows of gravestones, sprawling across 600 acres. It’s hardly possible to view the markers for all 130,000 people who are laid to rest there.

At certain times of the year, volunteers come out and mark the graves with flags. Last Memorial Day, they placed 105,000 flags. Near Christmas, they laid 30,000 wreaths.

Bushnell National Cemetery, however, is lacking something you might expect to see — a monument to the veterans and their spouses who have died and are buried there.

In 2018, Wayne became part of the committee that is working to design monuments for the cemetery, raise the money to fund them, and eventually carry out their installation, as well. 

Called the Florida National Cemetery Joint Veterans Support Committee, it is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Wayne also serves on a separate subcommittee, called the monuments committee, that is working to determine the plans and the rollout of the monuments.

After 21 years on active duty, and as a combat veteran from Vietnam, Granada, and Panama, Wayne is spending his retirement in a different kind of service. He was asked to join the Joint Veterans Support Committee as a representative of the Special Forces Association, of which he is a member. That group focuses on community service, as well.

“How could I not volunteer to help in the effort?,” Wayne asks.

Wayne works with committee chair Doug Gardner, also a Vietnam vet, who was inspired to join the effort when the cemetery’s executive director, Tony Thomas, shared his vision for a memorial that would welcome Vietnam veterans home.

“That caught me in one sentence,” says Doug, who understands that the memorial is not just about veterans from one conflict, so the committee came up with a design that would honor everyone buried at the cemetery.

The centerpiece of Freedom Memorial Plaza, which will be located at the main entrance to the cemetery, will be a tribute to a military honors funeral, with two bronze military figures folding a flag which will be powder-coated red, white and blue, over a bronze casket.

It will be surrounded by 14 additional monuments, with etchings displaying memorials for specific groups, such as Vietnam and World War II veterans, special forces, and more. It also will feature the Defenders of Freedom Wall, which will be 470 feet long, using the back of a columbarium (a public storage of cremated remains) that will delineate the border of the Memorial Plaza.

The wall will have granite panels that depict scenes from every U.S. conflict since the Revolutionary War. 

Doug is not only a veteran, he’s also a volunteer who helps visitors to the cemetery by answering questions, locating graves and even taking those who can’t walk out to the gravesites they want to visit on a golf cart.

He recently drove a World War II veteran who used a walker out to his wife’s grave. It had been a few months since she passed away, and there were lots of tears. It was emotional, but Doug says he felt something was missing. He looks forward to the time when he can take those veterans to a monument that will show them how much their service to their country is appreciated.

“We’ll get in that same golf cart, but on the way, we’ll go to the Defenders of Freedom Wall,” Doug says. “We’ll stop by the World War II section and it will bring back memories for him.” 

He hopes it will be meaningful for those it is intended to tribute, and educational for everyone who sees it.  “We have a half million visitors a year at the cemetery,” Doug says. “With the monuments, now it can become an educational experience for all.”

He emphasizes that all of the monuments will focus on sacrifice, not victory, and will give those who view it an understanding of the sacrifice that has happened throughout our nation’s history.

Wayne says it will honor not only his parents, but the values that they passed on to him.

“My parents instilled into me the principals of duty and honor and serving one’s country,” he says. 

Those values will one day be on display at the cemetery where they’re buried, thanks to the efforts of the entire committee and all those who support it, making Freedom Memorial Plaza a reality to both remember and honor all of the veterans buried at the Florida National Cemetery.

To find out how you can support the effort to bring the Freedom Memorial Plaza to life, go to the Joint Veterans Support Committee website at JVSC.us or search “jvscfl” on Facebook.