RADDSports Announces AdventHealth As Top Sponsor!

Other Sponsors Include Olympus Pools, Lifestyle Home Real Estate, Coca-Cola, Hilton Garden Inn & the Neighborhood News.

AdventHealth is putting its name on another prominent sports facility in Wesley Chapel.

The healthcare system, which includes the AdventHealth Tampa and Wesley Chapel hospitals, announced on Oct. 21 that it has agreed to a multi-year sponsorship agreement with RADDSports for the naming rights to the AdventHealth Sports Arena at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County.

While the Sports Campus itself hasn’t changed names, the 98,000-sq.-ft. indoor facility will bear the AdventHealth Sports Arena name (see rendering).

AdventHealth also has owned the naming rights to the Center Ice facility on S.R. 56 since before the healthcare giant changed its name from Florida Hospital to AdventHealth.

“AdventHealth is committed to partnerships that amplify the health and wellness of the communities we serve,” said Erik Wangsness, President and CEO of AdventHealth Wesley Chapel. “We are much more than a hospital and remain focused on empowering our communities to take wellness into their own hands. The AdventHealth Sports Arena will provide a platform for athletes to showcase their skill and talent while working to stay in peak condition.”

The Sports Arena is the home for travel tournaments for basketball (the building can be configured as eight regulation-sized courts) and volleyball (up to 16 courts), as well as gymnastics and cheerleading camps and competitions, to name just a few.

The Sports Campus also will host soccer tournaments and other sports on its two outdoor fields. The campus also will be home to a 128-room Residence Inn by Marriott, which is being developed by Mainsail Development.

The eight-year Advent Health agreement is for $10,000 a month, with an option for more years.

“AdventHealth is a quality health care provider and one of the best-known names in the entire state of Florida,” said Richard Blalock, CEO and founder of RADDSports. “We couldn’t have found a better organization to serve as the primary sponsor of the Sports Campus. It means the thousands of athletes from across the country who will participate in basketball, volleyball and cheerleading events every weekend, as well as the local residents who take part in our programs during the week, will associate AdventHealth with a commitment to staying healthy and active.”

The Sports Arena opened in August. The first event, a basketball recruiting showcase, was held the last weekend in August.

Although the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed the travel and youth sports markets down, the facility has something booked “almost every weekend,” between August 2020 and Aug. 2021, according to RADDSports director of marketing Jannah Nager. 

In addition to AdventHealth, RADDSports has announced a number of its other major sponsors, including Olympus Pools (see ad below), the Lifestyle Home Real Estate Team, Coca-Cola, Hilton Garden Inn-Tampa/Wesley Chapel, New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News, GL Homes, the Shops At Wiregrass, the Fairfield Inn By Marriott and Hampton Inn Wesley Chapel hotels, as well as restaurant partners Bubba’s 33 , Culver’s of Wesley Chapel, Glory Days Grill, Island Fin Poke Co., Noble Crust, Pasta di Guy, Smoothie King and the Urban Air Trampoline & Adventure Park.

Now Open! Here’s Your First Look Inside The New Rock & Brews Of Wesley Chapel!

Rock & Brews, located at 26000 S.R. 56, wasn’t yet open when we were invited to a great Family & Friends preview on Halloween night, but it’s definitely open — and rockin’ — now!

And, you and your family should definitely go.

The place is huge, with plenty of room for socially distanced dining inside and outside and the food is excellent. And, even though Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of the rock group KISS usually attend the Rock & Brews openings (since they’re also part of the chain’s ownership), Wesley Chapel managing partner Scott Paul said that as soon as the two feel safe enough to allow themselves to be surrounded by the swarms of fans who usually greet them at the openings, “their appearance here is on hold. But, rest assured, they will be here!”

In the meantime, the new Rock & Brews should definitely be on your must-try list.

From a delicious filet, to “sweet heat” chicken and unique bruschetta, the food is obviously fresh and the atmosphere, according to Paul (and yours truly), “is pure Rock & Roll!”

Our Rock & Brews already features live music shows on its beautiful covered outdoor patio every Friday and Saturday night. For info, visit RockandBrews.com or call (813) 537-6016 and please tell them I sent you! — GN

Wesley Chapel Fall Festival Puts The Grove’s Future On Display!

Congratulations go out to The Grove, the North Tampa Bay Chamber and Florida Penguin Productions for a hugely successful, socially distant 16th edition of the Wesley Chapel Fall Festival. Held Oct. 29-Nov. 1 in a new location at The Grove, on grass (instead of asphalt), with the under-renovation Grove Movie Theater visible to all attendees, this year’s Fall Festival also featured the usual food, rides and vendor booths (all on display in the photo gallery below).

A new wrinkle was that Florida Penguin Productions upgraded the entertainment and charged attendees to see top local bands like the The Black Honkeys (shown here, bottom right) and the Greg Billings Band. The weather was hot, but beautiful. A great job by all! — GN (with photos by Charmaine George, Florida Penguin Productions & GN)

Cozy Research & Lifetime Family & Urgent Care To Begin Local Covid-19 Study

Dr. Jonathan Yousef (left) and Ryan DeWeese of Cozy Research will conduct a clinical trial out of Dr. Yousef’s Wesley Chapel office in the battle against Covid-19. (Photo: Courtesy of Ryan DeWeese)

Wesley Chapel will be helping with the fight against Covid-19, and you can help, too.

Bio-pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, with $486 million from the U.S government to accelerate its Covid-19 antibody therapy, known as AZD7442, will begin Phase-III clinical trials in various cities worldwide.

Cozy Research, LLC,  a research company founded in 2016 by Wesley Chapel resident Ryan DeWeese, has been contracted by AstraZeneca to help conduct one of its clinical studies of roughly 5,000 volunteers worldwide, including 100-200 people in the Wesley Chapel area.

“We’ve placed most of our other studies on hold just due to the importance of Covid treatment,” DeWeese says. “We’re dumping all our resources into this upcoming study.”

Cozy Research has three offices in Pasco County — one for cardiology in Zephyrhills with Dr. Binu Jacob, one for gastroenterology in Wesley Chapel with Dr. Saeed Ahmed and the Lifetime Family & Urgent Care office in Wesley Chapel of Dr. Jonathan Yousef.

Dr. Yousef’s office, located at 5801 Argerian Dr., off of S.R. 54, will be home to the AZD7442 clinical study.

“This is the biggest study we’ve done,” DeWeese says. “We haven’t seen anything like this (Covid) in 100 years, so it’s an all-hands-on-deck approach. This is groundbreaking stuff, and something that we’re ecstatic to be able to provide.”

Phase III trials are usually the last phase before seeking FDA approval.

If the trial is successful, AstraZeneca, which is based in Cambridge, UK, will supply 100,000 doses of the antibody therapy to the United States by the end of the year.

AZD7442 is a clone of antibodies, which are made by your immune system in response to infections. They stick to viruses and prevent them from infecting healthy cells. The antibodies used for engineering AZD7442 are derived from patients after they have recovered from being infected by the novel coronavirus, and mimic natural antibodies.

DeWeese said Cozy Research is looking for roughly 200 adults ages 18 and older to take part in the study. 

They need to find people who have never been infected with Covid-19 but are at high risk of exposure. The hope is that the antibodies can protect those at high risk of getting the disease due to their jobs — like teachers, healthcare workers, service industry workers and first responders — as well as those who are over the age of 60 who may not be able to tolerate a vaccine due to other medical conditions.

Participants will receive a one-time injection of the monoclonal antibodies, which should be effective for six months to a year, and will have to check back five times over the next year to see if the antibodies are still present.

“The hope of the study is that 90 percent of the people will never end up getting Covid,” DeWeese says.

Those taking part in the antibody study will not necessarily be protected from the virus. The injection of antibodies does not replace hand washing and mask wearing, DeWeese says. “You still need to exercise caution; this is just another layer of protection.”

Cozy Research will be pre-screening patients over the phone and will give priority based on medical need or risk factors. Appointments will be Tuesday-Friday, with some Saturday openings available.

Volunteers may receive compensation for their time and travel

The study was expected to begin in early November. For more info or to see if you qualify, email Ryan@cozyresearch.com or call (813) 922-2115.

How About Two Libraries For Wesley Chapel?

Wesley Chapel has been without a library for more than a year since the only previous location, the New River Branch Library on S.R. 54, began a major facelift.

That facelift, which will feature areas for teens and children, remodeled bathrooms, new furniture, an improved community garden and covered learning space, should be completed by January, but that hasn’t stopped District 2 Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore from looking ahead to another library for the area.

“I think the time is right,” Moore says, pointing to the massive growth the area has witnessed in recent years, as well as the tens of thousands of homes still planned for the future.

Moore pitched the idea to his fellow county commissioners last week.

As usual, it will all come down to finding the money to build what Moore expects would be roughly a $10-million endeavor.

It may be a few years away, but plans to add a second library in Wesley Chapel are proceeding. The rendering above shows the outdoor lounge.

The land already is owned by Pasco County, Moore says. It is right in front of Seven Oaks Elementary, off of Mystic Oaks Blvd. In 2004, that parcel was set aside as part of the development agreement for the Seven Oaks DRI with the intention that the county would use it for a future library.

In September, Moore was able to secure funding for a concept design for the 20,000-sq.-ft. facility. Renderings of the possible library show plenty of meeting spaces inside and outside, as well as large glass windows that overlook the wetlands that would be behind the library (above).

Now, he is proposing a larger expenditure, probably close to $1-million, to fund the actual design of the library.

After that, “We’ll look at all possible resources to get it built,” Moore says.

Bob Harrison, the Pasco County Libraries marketing and communications program manager, says it could take 3-4 years to bring the project to fruition. He agrees that Wesley Chapel’s rapid growth warrants a second library.

“We definitely look at the growth areas and Wesley Chapel is probably the fastest growing area in Pasco County and has been for some time,” he says. “It definitely could use another library based on its population growth.”

Many of the county’s libraries have been refurbished and received updated maker spaces. For example, the Regency Park Library in New Port Richey has a test kitchen, the Hudson library has a recording studio, and both were decided on by local residents. 

Harrison says the Wesley Chapel community will decide what special features to put in a new library via focus groups and meetings.

“As far as I know, (Moore and his fellow commissioners) are certainly committed to making it happen,” Harrison says. “Of course, funding is always a question, but I know at this point they are moving forward with it.”

Although the New River Library is still closed, it’s still available as an early voting site for this year’s General Election. For info, visit PascoVotes.com.