2019: You weren’t so bad

Like construction site dirt through an hourglass, these were the days of our lives.

And in New Tampa in 2019, there was a lot of construction dirt.

Whether it was the New Tampa Recreation Center expanding, the New Tampa Performing Arts Center beginning or The Village at Hunter’s Lake – anchored by Sprouts — taking shape, there were plenty of dump trucks to go around.

Not bad for an area that seemed to be showing its age last year. After a series of closings in previous years and months across New Tampa – HH Gregg, Staples, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ruby Tuesday, etc. – there was enough concern that a few area folks decided our ‘hood needed a good looking at.

In June, local residents packed a room at Compton Park to voice concerns as a study by the USF School of Public Affairs kicked off.

Then, as if on cue, it was revealed that the old HH Gregg was going to be taken over by Urban Air Adventure Park, and a 16,000-sq.ft. Indian market called Taza was taking over the old Staples building, and Aldi was interesting in the Ruby Tuesday spot, and The Brunchery was moving into the former Boston market, and get this
.are you sitting down
.there is a light at the end of the long tunnel that is the vacant Sweetbay Supermarket.

LL Cool J would tell us not to call it a comeback, but we’re going to anyway.

New Tampa is back, baby!

But seriously though, it was a good year for the area, and 2020 is very likely going to be, as the kids like to say, off the chain, as most of the aforementioned places will all be opening.

So, what else happened in 2019?

How about this:

Fire Rescue Station No. 23 opened, giving the New Tampa area 17 fire rescue stations! We jest, it’s actually four fire stations, but you should feel pretty darned safe. Speaking of safe



. Unincorporated New Tampa will once again be covered by City of Tampa Fire rescue in 2020, thanks to the efforts of District 2 Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan and new mayor Jane Castor, who are both quite popular in New Tampa. Speaking of popular
.

Tampa City Council member Luis Viera (center) celebrates his win on March 5 with Heritage Isles’ retired Colonel Mike Escudie (left) and Jon Fletcher, president of Vietnam Veterans of America of Tampa.


. District 7 City Councilman Luis Viera was re-elected, with a higher percentage of the vote than any of the other 23 people who ran for the six available city council seats. Viera received 82 percent of the vote in New Tampa There is no truth to the rumor he is seeking out the 18 percent who did not vote for him, and inviting them to coffee and a chance to prove himself. And by no truth to the rumor, we mean there is totally some truth to that rumor. Speaking of rumors
.


the sale of Pebble Creek Golf Club never materialized, but the search is not over. But it’s still on the market. Speaking of markets



..Sprouts is coming! Did we mention that already? It should be a slam dunk winner for New Tampa. Speaking of slam dunks


Darin Green leads Wharton in scoring.


. Wharton’s Darin Green was named Hillsborough County’s top basketball player for the 2018-2019 season. He shined for one of the county’s best hoops programs. Speaking of high school athletes shining



.Wharton’s Zach Goldbold won a Class 4A state championship by throwing the javelin a whopping 171 feet and 11 inches, and Freedom swimmer  Michelle Morgan qualified for the 2020 Olympic Trials, and both Freedom tennis teams won district championships, and Freedom’s Cooper Smith went to state in golf and Wharton’s Teiley Vaughn won a gold medal with the USA Softball U-17 Women’s National Team and sorry are we rambling? We tend to suffer from logorrhea at times. Speaking of logorrhea
.

Nupur Lala


. that was the word that Benito eight-grader Nupur Lala spelled correctly to win the Scripps Spelling Bee 20 years ago. She’s currently doing her residency at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, and is hoping to do a fellowship in neuro-oncology, specifically glioblastoma multiforme, which we could have never spelled if she hadn’t told us how when we interviewed her for a story in June. She was an absolute delight, and still super smart. Speaking of super smart


Drew Falkowitz


Tampa Palms resident Drew Falkowitz, 16, became the youngest graduate in University of South Florida history in June, earning a degree in cellular and molecular biology. Sure, that sounds impressive, but my kids can play Fortnite until they pass out in a puddle of their own drool at 5 a.m., so who’s the better father now, Steve Falkowitz? Speaking of fathers
.


Father David DeJulio departed St. Marks after 16 years. It was, pardon the pun, a rather dispiriting event for many of the Catholics in New Tampa. Not to be outdone, Tirso “Junior” Cintron retired as Wharton’s head custodian after 22 years, which also broke up a surprising amount of people. Not to be outdone, publisher Gary Nager held a party celebrating 25 years of the Neighborhood News. That was another sad and heartbreaking event, but enough about Gary singing karaoke.

We hope you had a great 2019, and strap yourself in because 2020 is already shaping up to produce some monumental moments.

P.S. Kinnan-Mansfield. Sorry. We couldn’t do an end of year wrap-up without mentioning it.

Tennis Center Adds To ‘Sports Coast’ Brand

As large trucks filled with dirt and tall cranes roll by a flattened lot, local Wesley Chapel tennis guru and businessman Pascal Collard smiles.

The trucks are slowly but surely allowing Pascal’s vision come to life.

The parking lot is there, he says, pointing to his left. Tennis courts, pickleball courts and padel courts over there, surrounding the tennis center.

And, what about way over there, all the way to the right?

Pascal says that will be a 30,000-sq.-ft. indoor training facility with space for both more tennis courts and removable turf for other sports.

“It is beautiful, no?,” Pascal asks.

The Sarah Vande Berg Memorial Tennis & Wellbeing Center in Zephyrhills  (at 6585 Simons Rd.) has broken ground, and is expected to open in late spring or early summer of 2020.

When it is done, the $4.9-million project will feature 11 tennis courts, including a main court with spectator seating, eight pickleball courts — one of the fastest growing sports in America — and four courts for padel, another racquet sport that can best be described as a cross between, well, almost every other racquet sport.

The 7,400-sq.-ft. indoor tennis center will house a fitness and rehabilitation center, a restaurant and cafĂ©, a salt room, cryotherapy, a pro shop and a kid’s club.

The tennis center is another feather in the “Florida’s Sports Coast” cap, joining AdventHealth Center Ice, Saddlebrook Resort and the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, as the area continues to transform itself from ranches to recreation.

“It fits right in with (our new) Florida Sports Coast vision,” says Adam Thomas, the county’s tourism director. “This will make an impact.”

The tennis complex is a public-private partnership between the City of Zephyrhills, the Sarah Vande Berg (SVB) Tennis Foundation  and Pascal, the president of Tennis P.R.O., LLC, and the director — and driving force — behind the new facility.

It is the hope of Pascal, who ran the renowned tennis program at Saddlebrook Resort from 2003-06 and lives in Estancia, that the SVB Memorial Tennis Center reaches far and wide into the surrounding communities to help bring it to life.

“It is something that people want,” says Pascal. “I hear it all the time. It will be a place where mom can do fitness and dad can do tennis, or vice versa, and the kids can do the Kids Club, or daycare. That is huge.”

Pascal says he also is teaming up with Buttermilk Provisions owner Dana Morris for a restaurant at the tennis center as well.

“We think this will be something special and unique,” says Pascal, who never stops smiling as he describes the project.

The tennis center, which is located off Eiland Blvd. just a few miles north of eastern Wesley Chapel, is named for former Zephyrhills High tennis standout Sarah Vande Berg, who died in an automobile accident at the age of 21 in 2015.

It will be equipped to host regional (like college) and even national events like United States Tennis Association (USTA) and International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournaments, and also will provide a place for area residents looking for courts on which to play. Pascal would like to see the area active in USTA league tennis, where Saddlebrook Resort may field an occasional team limited by membership restrictions.

It also will offer instructional tennis for children, and training for the more serious players. 

And, speaking of memberships, Pascal is hoping to sign up hundreds at a price he said will be fair and less expensive than the clubs in the area. Depending on what type of membership you buy, it also could include membership to the Silverado Golf & Country Club, which is adjacent to the tennis complex.

While tennis will be the central focus of the facility, Pascal also has formed the United Global Academy, which will be an online school limited to 32 students from a variety of sports, similar to what IMG Academy in Bradenton offers but on a smaller scale initially. Mark Shepherd, former director of student services at Saddlebrook Prep on the resort’s property, will help run the academic side.

Pascal has reached into Wesley Chapel’s sporting community to help develop those athletes, who will be able to train in the 30,000-sq.-ft. indoor facility, which can accommodate four tennis courts and a synthetic turf soccer field.

“Why not create a sports association?,” he says. “Get all the best ex-athletes in the area to come together once a month to promote sports to kids…kids who cant afford it!”

Athletes will be able to receive training from coaches like former English Premier League Soccer player and local club coach Gary Blissett, former New Orleans Saints lineman Mel Williams, Silverado Golf & Country Club golf pro Sean Klotz and others.

“The vision is to bring the community together by offering a family-friendly experience,” says Pascal, who most recently was the tennis director at Merion Cricket Club, a private club in Haverford, PA, with more than 2,000 members. “There will truly be something for everyone here.”

For more information, visit the SVBTennisCenter.com.

93-LOVE

Williamsburg resident Francesca Caravella is 93 years old, but that doesn’t stop her from playing tennis 3-4 days a week and whipping up on the young‘ns.

Three times a week, and sometimes more, Francesca Caravella slings her tennis bag over her shoulder and trudges across the grass from her home just a few hundred yards away in search of competition.

She arrives at the court each morning, and effortlessly reaches down like a gymnast stretching for a routine to remove little plastic bags from her shoes, her protection against the morning dew.

Here at Williamsburg, one of Wesley Chapel’s oldest communities where she has lived since 1983, Francesca is tennis royalty. The 93-year-old left-handed racquet-wielding spitfire also is something of a freak of nature.

“You wouldn’t know she’s that old, the way she plays,” says Glenn Dimiccio, who maintains the courts at Williamsburg and also is one of the community’s top players.

Dimiccio is warming her up on this day, and it is brutally hot and humid. And yet, Francesca is moving side-to-side, hitting backhands and forehands undaunted. 

She had her left meniscus surgically repaired a few years ago, ending her singles career, and her right knee is bone-on-bone and can get quite sore, but Francesca is remarkably agile for someone her age. She still cracks a steady forehand and will liberally mix in high lobs to keep her opponents off the net.

“You gotta do what you gotta do,” she is fond of saying. 

In matches, Francesca lets her partners do the work at the net. She was once smacked so hard in the face by an overhead, “I had to spend thousands of dollars on new dentures.”

Francesca definitely knows the game of tennis. She is picky about her racquets and tennis gear and she watches the game closely on the Tennis Channel. 

Her friends at Williamsburg have asked her why she doesn’t get an official USTA ranking. The USTA holds national events in all age groups, including 90+, and her teammates and opponents are almost certain she is one of the best 90-year-olds in the country.

“I don’t want to travel far to play people,” she says. “Being number one is just not that big a deal for me.”

The daughter of immigrants who hailed from Messina, Sicily, Francesca grew up in Brooklyn, NY, where she says exercise was always a way of life.

She played handball in junior high and stickball in the streets. She says she joined a gym at 16 years old, and after meeting her husband Sal at age 18, learned to ballroom dance. After she had children, she would exercise along with Jack LaLanne on television.

It wasn’t until she moved to Florida in 1985 that she picked up a tennis racquet.

“Nobody ever gave me a lesson,” Francesca says. “Not one. I picked up things by watching players on television. I remember watching (Bjorn) Borg, (Andre) Agassi and (Pete) Sampras. I learned the basics by watching them.”

After tennis, Francesca heads back home to shower, and then it’s off to the New Tampa YMCA for some cardio and yoga. When her workout is over, she will spend many afternoons on her Ÿ-acre lot, tending to her gardens.

Francesca takes her tennis seriously. She keeps a journal and a log of every potential player. She plans matches at least two weeks in advance. And, if you don’t show up to play when scheduled, you will learn something else about Francesca.

“She is feisty,” Dimiccio says.

The two became fast friends, after DiMiccio moved to Williamsburg long after Francesca had already established herself as the Queen of the Courts in the tight-knit community.

Dimiccio had just started playing tennis again after putting away his racquet decades ago, and he says “she was kicking my butt.”

The two are now inseparable mixed doubles partners. Dimiccio is more advanced, with a high 4.0 USTA rating, while Francesca is more of a 3.0. He serves as her unofficial coach and protector, and they make an ideal pair.

“I promised her I’ll play with her every Friday as long as she’s around,” DiMiccio says, then jokingly adding, “but now it looks like she just might bury me.”

Special thanks to Wes Henagan for his help on this story.

Battle of BBD Recap (with photo gallery)

Defensive scores by senior linebackers Ed Marcelin and Steven Joseph (pictured left), a rushing touchdown by 6-foot-4, 325-pound lineman OC Davis and a perfect night of kicking by Zach Godbold gave Wharton a 42-7 win — and New Tampa bragging rights — over Freedom in the annual football showdown between our area’s local high school rivals.

The Wildcats’ win was the second-most lopsided ever (only the 36-0 win in 2006 was worse) against the Patriots, and Wharton now leads the series 11-6.

The Wildcats rushed for 246 yards and four touchdowns, with senior Ben Williams leading the way with 155 of them on 13 carries, two for touchdowns. Davis’ touchdown harkened back to William “The Refrigerator” Perry’s days as a member of the Super Bowl XX-winning Chicago Bears, when the defensive lineman was a short yardage sensation. Davis, by the way, is two inches taller than The Fridge in his prime, but about 30 pounds lighter.

 Godbold, one of the top junior javelin throwers in the country, also is adept with his right foot. He was 6-for-6 on extra points, and booted three of his seven kickoffs into the end zone. Two others were fielded near the goal line and resulted in Freedom starting drives at their own 11- and 15-yard lines.

The Wildcats snapped a two-game losing streak to Freedom, and improved their overall 2019 record to 3-2 as of our press time. The Patriots, who picked up their first win of the season the week before by defeating Spoto 22-15, fell to 1-3.

‘CATS TOPPLE PLANT

The Wharton volleyball team ended a long stretch of  frustration against arch-nemesis Plant High. 

Every Wharton volleyball season since 2014 has been just about exactly the same.

Post a great regular season record. Make the District final…lose to Plant. Two weeks later in the Regional playoffs, lose to Plant again. Season over.

However, the Wildcats may be poised to write a different ending this year. In their first meeting with the Panthers on Aug, 28, Wharton thrilled a boisterous home crowd with a nerve-wracking 3-2 victory, snapping a 10-match losing streak against their Class 7A, District 7 rivals.

The 25-21, 25-16, 16-25, 18-25, 15-12 win was the first against Plant since the Wildcats posted a regular season win on Sept. 16, 2015.

In other words, it was the first win over Plant for Wharton’s four seniors, and they all played key roles in the win.

Middle blocker Jamie Koopman (#14, above) led the team with 12 kills and six blocks, while outside hitter Jeanette Henderson added 10, including a miraculous play in the third set, where she went running off the court to save an errant hit, only to get back in time to take the set and smash a kill. Henderson and Koopman have played since their freshman year, and were 0-8 against Plant.

Senior middle blocker Alexis Morse, who joined the varsity as a sophomore, added three kills, while Deborah Rodriguez, in her second season, had 11 kills and 13 digs.

Kills by Morse and Rodriguez in the first set helped seal it after Plant had pulled within 22-20.

Rodriguez set the tone in the second set with a thunderous cross-court shot that put the ‘Cats ahead 15-12 as they cruised to a 25-16 win and a 2-0 lead.

Plant, however, did not go down easy, no surprise considering they are 10-time State volleyball champions.

The 25-16 and 25-18 wins by the Panthers in the middle sets were decisive and seemed to shift the momentum.

“We had to try and get back to basics,” said Wharton head coach Eric Barber. “Games one and two, we were playing our game plan. I think we were too amped for games three and four and we had to get back to doing the little things.”

The Wharton Blue Crew student section got back into the match for the fifth and deciding set, exchanging chants with the Plant faithful.

Koopman (#14, pictured right) and Rodriguez stuffed the very first Panther kill shots at the net to start the decisive set. Koopman made another block at the net that put the Wildcats up 5-3.

Wharton looked well on the way to the win when the ‘Cats took a 10-6 lead, but the Panthers very quickly knotted it 10-all.

Koopman put the Wildcats on her shoulders, presenting a ferocious obstacle at the middle of the net, both blocking and swatting down short sets. It would be a touch shot from Koopman, snuck just beneath a Panther block attempt, and then an angled shot that found the floor that clinched a 15-12 win in the set and 3-2 win of the match, setting off a wild, bench-clearing celebration.

While the seniors were the stars, contributions from the underclassmen may prove to be the key to keeping the old script flipped on Plant come playoff time.

Junior setter Payton Kenny had 21 assists, and sophomore Gabrielle Frye added 17 for Wharton, while junior libero Jacquelyne Kelly had a team-high 25 digs and sophomore hitter Isabella Bonatakis added four kills and three blocks.

The Wildcats are now 8-1 on the season.