Wildcats volleyball has eyes on postseason run


Wesley Chapel High volleyball sisters Chloe (left) and Jordan (right) Danielson led WCH to a 14-11 season in 2019 and are eyeing a district title in 2020. (Photo: Mike Camunas) 

The Wesley Chapel High (WCH) volleyball program — barely older than its players — may be coming of age.

Although its past is littered with losing records — prior to last season, the team had won as many as eight games just once (in 2013) — the Wildcats (11-4) are streaking heading into Tuesday’s showdown against Sunlake (11-1), winning six straight games.

WCH team is coming off a 14-11 season.

“The year before that we were 3-17, so, yeah, it was a complete turnaround… and we’re looking to be (Class 4A, District 6) champs this year,” said Brittany Collison, who is in her fourth season as the team’s head coach. “That’s the endgame.”

Turnarounds happen a lot quicker when you add a couple of high-jumping, spike-pounding, six-foot volleyball players like sisters Jordan and Chloe Danielson. The duo, who also play for Collison’s Club Steel team in the offseason, played together up on the net last season.

Chloe leads the team in kills with 121; Jordan is right behind her with 107, and leads the team with 197 assists.

In her first high school season, Chloe, now a sophomore, led the team in kills (216) and blocks (95), while Jordan, a senior, was second in kills with 204 and led the team with 328 assists.

“They play all year for me at Club Steel, so I know what I’m getting with them,” said Collison, a former collegiate libero at Eastern Florida State College. “There’s high-level playing from both of them. They just bring the energy and passion to this team.”

But, it wasn’t always this much fun, especially for Jordan.

“My freshman year was super rough,” she said. “We weren’t good at all and neither was I. I wasn’t even close to how good I am now or how good we are now. … I’ve only been playing club for 3-4 years, but there I’m not the captain. Here, I’m the captain, so I’m like, ‘Let’s get this done.’” 

It is not, however, only a two-person show at WCH, which boasts plenty of experience. Senior middle blocker Amiya Oliver is a force at the net with 77 kills and 38 blocks, sophomore setter Vanessa Campos is emerging as a standout with 131 assists and senior libero Carina Santiago-Sanchez led the team in digs last year with 247.

But, once Chloe was added to the roster, the Wildcats’ success — especially at the net — could not contained.

“We were good and were winning, so that helps,” Chloe said. “Jordan was already here, so that made it easier and things were great from the start. She has a lot of energy up on the net, which gets me really hyped at the net, too. She’s a really huge role model for me because I’ve watched her even before I started playing, so when I see her and what she can do, it makes me want to improve myself and my game, too.”

The two sisters are able to feed off each other, and their versatility is an added bonus. They can both play most any position, and in fact, Jordan led the team in assists and was second in digs, and Chloe was first with serving aces last year.

“Since we’re used to each other’s energy, we just bounce off each other all the time,” Jordan says. “When she does something good, it pushes me to do something good, and I push her back. So, it’s nice to have the same energy as someone playing next to you.”

LIFE IN THE BUBBLE

Candice Dupree pushes her 3-year-old twins Cali and Demi on swings near their home in The Ridge at Wiregrass Ranch.

Her 15th WNBA season is over for former Wharton High star Candice Dupree, and while she wishes her summer also included the WNBA playoffs, she says she couldn’t be happier. 

It was time to head home to be reunited with her three-year-old twins, Cali and Demi.

“I told my mom, whenever that last game is, I need you here the next morning to get me out of here,” Dupree said from Bradenton, where she wrapped up the season with her Indiana Fever teammates in the WNBA bubble at the IMG Academy on Sept. 12. “I want to get home.”

Home is Wesley Chapel, just up the road from Wharton, where Dupree remains the school’s all-time leading scorer.

Today, she says, her greatest accomplishments are raising the twins with wife DeWanna Bonner, a job she is eager to resume full time.

Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images

Because Dupree and Bonner are both WNBA players, it is often no easy task. They play for different teams, have different schedules and because most women’s basketball players make more money playing overseas — before coronavirus and this summer’s WNBA season, Dupree was playing in Hungary, DeWanna in China — they have a hectic travel schedule and few days off.

While some WNBA players brought their children into the bubble — basically an isolation zone to keep the players coronavirus-free so the season could be played — Dupree was able to rely on mom Patty and Dupree’s twin sister Crystal, who she jokes enlisted as the nanny the day Bonner gave birth to the twins.

“We didn’t really know what we’d be getting ourselves into inside the bubble,” Dupree says. “At home, they have school, they play outside and in the pool. They wouldn’t have been able to do that (in Bradenton).”

The bubble was an experience Dupree says she won’t forget. She was playing in Hungary when President Donald Trump enacted a travel ban from Europe because of coronavirus, and, the very next day, she was hustling to get back to Florida. 

Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images

When she entered the bubble in June for the WNBA’s 22-game schedule, the league was at the forefront of the social justice movement (photo on next page) in the wake of the death of George Floyd and nationwide protests. 

Dupree was active in the league’s initiatives and personally met with the League of Women Voters in hopes of becoming more involved with the voting community.

With the season over, Dupree is eager to spend time with the girls. 

“My girls are to the point where, when we talk, they are like, “Momma, come home, when are you coming home?,” Dupree says. “Initially, they were not like that. But, they are starting to miss their parents.”

Dupree is not looking to return to Europe to play hoops anytime soon and, at the age of 36, her WNBA career is finally winding down.

She will be a free agent. Her stats this year were in line with her career numbers of 14.4 points and 6.6 rebounds a game, and she is in great shape physically. She could play another two years, she says.

“But if a different job opportunity comes my way, I wouldn’t hesitate to take it,” she added. Opportunities she is interested in exploring include coaching at the professional level.

Do You Remember When…

Dupree was a silky smooth forward for the Wildcats, becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer and winning the Dottie McGahagin Award as Hillsborough County’s best girls player in 2001-02 (to go with a 4.8 GPA). She went on to be an All-American at Temple University, playing for three-time Olympic gold medalist Dawn Staley, and was the No. 6 pick by Chicago in the WNBA draft in 2006.

One thing she never imagined while making buckets at Wharton is that she would one day be where she is today — a 15-year WNBA veteran, a seven-time All-Star, a 2014 WNBA champion and one of the best players the women’s league has ever seen. 

“I never wanted to play in WNBA,” Dupree says. “I’m not going to lie. I didn’t even know what it was. I was so busy competing in so many different sports I never even watched pro sports on TV. I was just excited to be recruited and get a full ride somewhere.”

While it has been her consistency and steadiness that has defined her — she has never averaged less than double figures in points — Dupree is fifth all-time in WNBA career scoring, having put up more points than women’s basketball legends like Lisa Leslie, Sue Bird and Tina Charles.

In fact, for someone who never imagined playing professionally, Dupree is all over the WNBA career record book: second behind all-time leading scorer Diana Taurasi in field goals made, fourth in minutes played, and seventh in rebounding and games played.

In 2010, she put together one of the best WNBA seasons ever, averaging 15.7 points, 7.6 rebounds, shooting a blistering (and league-leading) 66.4 percent from the floor, and was second from the free throw line at 93.6 percent.

“I put together a pretty good resume,” Dupree says. “I’m on some lists with some very elite company. At some point, when I have I have time to sit back and reflect, I’ll say that was one helluva career. But, right now, I’m still wrapped up in it, playing and trying to win games, so I don’t pay it too much attention.”

Now that she’s home, Dupree plans to relax. She may check out the new Wiregrass Sports Campus of Pasco County near her home in The Ridge at Wiregrass, which recently hosted the seventh annual Candice Dupree Invitational, a girls basketball tournament for college hoops hopefuls. Dupree has sponsored teams for the tournament organizers, the East Tampa Youth Basketball Association, for years by buying them shoes and uniforms.

“It sounds great, we’ve needed something like that in that area for years,” Dupree says. She says one of her daughters may be interesting in the Sports Campus’ cheerleading program; the other, she laughs, leans more towards playing football.

And while she takes her kids on walks and plays with them in the pool, she’ll contemplate her next move.

“I’m not really in a rush,” Dupree admits. “I usually leave for Europe after Christmas but who knows if that will be happening. I just want to spend time with the girls and hang out for the time being. Then, we’ll see what happens.”

One Former New Tampa Standout Is Chasing Big-Time Soccer Dreams

Former New Tampa youth soccer standout Austin Amer (in purple) started 26 matches last season for Orlando City B of the United Soccer League.

Austin Amer has lofty goals. The 20-year-old native of New Tampa is now in his second season as a professional soccer player with Orlando City B, which is in the second tier United Soccer League. 

Eventually, Amer says he would like to move on to play overseas, where the passion for soccer, as well as the paychecks, are higher. 

For now, like all of us, Amer is in his own little bubble. His world revolves around getting up early, driving to the training facility, filling out a coronavirus questionnaire, training before the midday heat becomes unbearable and heading back to his apartment for the rest of the day. 

His short-term goals during the pandemic are much smaller: “Going to Publix is the big highlight of the day,’’ Amer says. 

If he’s going to be in a bubble, it might as well be a soccer bubble. 

Amer grew up in Hunter’s Green, where there was always a soccer ball at his feet. By the time he was four, he was playing rec league soccer for the New Tampa Comets. One of the league’s directors noticed Amer’s talent and suggested to his father, Fred, that Austin practice with a group of seven-year-old club players. 

By the time Austin was seven, he could juggle a ball with his feet more than 3,000 times. There is a video on his twitter page (@austinamer) showing him juggling a roll of toilet paper. 

“Ever since I could walk I’ve been around a soccer ball,’’ Amer says. “My dad and I would always go up to the fields at Hunter’s Green and we would work on technical stuff. I’ve always been around soccer. It’s the only sport I’ve ever enjoyed playing.’’

Fred Amer, who introduced his son to the game, can vouch for that.

“He always had his ball with him,’’ he says. “It was in his blood.’’

Austin Amer as a six-year-old playing in New Tampa.

By the time Amer was playing U-9 club soccer, he moved from the New Tampa league to the more competitive Hillsborough United, which is now Tampa Bay United. He stood out so much that the family, which also includes his mom, Jan, and his younger sister, Alexi, decided it would be best for Amer to play on an elite U-12 club in Orlando when he was in the sixth grade. 

During that year, Amer attended Benito Middle School. On most days, he and his father would drive to Orlando right after school and not return home until 11 p.m. By the seventh grade, Amer started virtual school. His day consisted of morning workouts by himself in Hunter’s Green, school work, then practice in Orlando. 

By the second year, he was spending a few nights in Orlando with a fellow club player to ease the travel. 

“After that first year, it was just too much,’’ Amer says. 

“We’ve gone through quite a few cars,’’ Fred Amer adds. 

Austin’s travels were just beginning.

Before his senior year, when he was 17, he had a chance to play for the Barca Residency Academy in Casa Grande, AZ. The brand new academy was partially run by FC Barcelona, an elite club in the top-level “La Liga” in Spain. Think IMG Academy in Bradenton, except strictly for soccer.

After a tryout, he was given a full scholarship to play for Barca’s U-18 team. Leaving home was another sacrifice in chasing his soccer dream. 

Amer, a midfielder, thrived on both the U-18 and U-19 teams in his year-plus with the club. During a showcase in the winter in Lakewood Ranch, he was spotted by some Orlando City scouts. Ironically, the scouts didn’t realize that just two years earlier, Amer’s club team was affiliated with Orlando City. They wanted him to join their B team, which was one step down from Orlando City of Major League Soccer. 

He decided to leave his Barca team during the season, when Amer became the first Barca player to sign a professional contract. 

“He’s chasing the dream that he has,’’ his dad says. “If he really wanted to go through with the sport, he had to follow this path.’’

The Amers were able to see Austin play last season. He played in 26 matches as a 19-year-old and was impressive enough for Orlando City to bring him back this season. 

The 2020 season hasn’t gone exactly as planned. The only way the Amers can see him play is via livestream. Earlier in the year, Amer suffered a shoulder injury that kept him out of a few games. Also, an inconclusive Covid-19 test forced him to sit out a bit longer until he got two straight negative tests. 

However, he’s back on the field now and doing the thing he loves to do. The season runs until late October. After that, Amer’s contract will be up and he could move on yet again. 

“My goal in the future is to play in Europe at some point,’’ he says. 

High School Fall Sports Season To Be ‘Challenging’

At our press time, Freedom High was expected to open its 2020 football season on Sept. 11, hosting its New Tampa neighbor and archrival Wharton High, but the toughest opponent for both teams to combat that night likely wasn’t each other.

It was Covid-19.

And, that doesn’t just go for football. Avoiding the virus is arguably the biggest challenge facing teams across Hillsborough County (and the country), as high school athletes, their coaches and administrators try their best to remain socially distant and safe in what is certain to be the strangest prep sports season ever.

“It’s going to be very…what’s the word I’m looking for? Intensive,” says Wharton athletic director Eddie Henderson “It’s going to be a lot of work.”

The county is following all CDC guidelines for sports and also has issued its own 18-page guide, which covers everything from daily cleaning and sanitizing to quarantining and tracing those who become infected. The rules, which include the difficult-to-enforce ban on handshakes and high fives, seek to prevent a major outbreak of the virus.

Social distancing will be the key to keeping crowds at athletic events from spreading the virus.

One of the rules that will make football feel very different is that the bands and cheerleaders will not be permitted to travel to away games. That means that when the Wharton Social Distancers traveled to take on the Freedom Social Distancers, they had to leave behind some of their loudest and most ardent supporters, not to mention a group that is woven into the very fabric of the Friday night football experience.

The crowds will be smaller. A limited number of fans will be allowed into sporting events like football and volleyball this fall — players (and band members) are allowed to choose only four spectators, but they have to be registered on a list at least a day before each game, so they can be issued electronic tickets. Each player’s foursome will be a “spectator pod” and will be required to sit together.

Fans, who must wear masks in the stands, will find seats clearly marked off in groups of four, socially distant from other pods.

The biggest hurdle, however, will be keeping the athletes healthy. If an athlete tests positive, he/she and anyone in close contact with them will be quarantined for 14 days. That can wipe out any team’s roster in a hurry.

Football will be a huge challenge, due to the unavoidable closer quarters presented by bus transportation and the sheer number of players (often ranging anywhere from 50 to 80 or so) cramming into small locker rooms.

The football teams at Hillsborough and Jefferson high schools have already had infected players and, as a result, may not be able to play the first two weeks of the season.

“I’m holding my breath, and the reason is that, when we’re putting this many people together, you just don’t know,” Henderson says.

While football is the biggest concern, every sport will present its own set of issues. 

For example, cross country will have to stagger its starts to avoid large gatherings of runners from multiple schools. Volleyball players will be expected to avoid the traditional high-five after every point, and swim meets with multiple teams may be hard to find. In fact, Wharton’s usual “home” pool at the New Tampa YMCA is not permitting the Wildcats to host any meets there.

Provided that high school sports can make it all work under such unique and demanding circumstances, middle school sports will not begin until the second quarter, with track starting first on Oct. 12, followed by flag football and volleyball on Oct. 19.

“Everything is so uncertain,” Henderson says. “Are we gonna be able to push through or will there be a setback? I hope we can push through — I want to see the kids play. They have suffered enough the last six months with (the 2019-20 school year) getting cut short, and the makeshift way of doing school. I hope we push through.”

Play Ball!

The Neighborhood News wasn’t the only news medium on hand in June of 2018 when Wiregrass Ranch developer JD Porter, four of the five Pasco County commissioners, Pasco County/“Florida’s Sports Coast” tourism director Adam Thomas, RADDSports president and founder Richard Blalock and several other local dignitaries threw some dirt in the air at the groundbreaking for a new indoor sports facility to be located just north of S.R. 56 and a mile or so from both the Shops at Wiregrass and AdventHealth Wesley Chapel. 

Also in attendance that day were representatives of Mainsail Development, which was getting ready to build a Marriott-branded Residence Inn with Wesley Chapel’s first and only rooftop bar adjacent to the planned sports campus.

Fast forward to Aug. 15 of this year, when the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County held its first-ever Open House to show off the brand-spankin’-new, 98,000-sq.-ft., state-of-the-art indoor sports facility to local families. This time around, photographer/videographer Charmaine George and I were the only media folks on hand to let you know about it. And, let me just say…WOW!

The fulfillment of the dream Blalock (pointing in top right photo) has had for more than four years is everything anyone could possibly have hoped for — and really, so much more. Although I obviously am raving about it, since my wife Jannah is the director of marketing for the facility, I could be accused of being unfairly biased about it.  

On the other hand, my favorite thing about the open house was walking around the facility, seeing the smiles (and often, gritty determination) on the young athletes’ faces, and hearing the buzz from all of the parents, all of whom were saying, “This is exactly what we need here.” They all let me know that I wasn’t alone in feeling the excitement that day. 

“I’m speechless about the facility,” said parent and Wesley Chapel resident Yanet Hernandez. “It’s amazing. Very clean and there’s a vibe that you get when you walk into the gym.”

Hernandez also pointed out something heartwarming, something that Blalock says also is part of his vision for training young athletes to be not only the best athletes they can be, but also the best people (and teammates) they can be. “Seeing the (volleyball) girls of all races and backgrounds playing together, being so polite to each other — it’s just such a great atmosphere!”

Open House Nuts & Bolts

Blalock (top right photo) and his RADDSports team have been chomping at the bit to get open (despite all of the obvious Covid concerns; more on that below), and he said the main purpose of the Open House was to help the local community get acquainted with this unique facility and everything it has to offer. 

Even though the Sports Campus will be bringing in tournaments in one of its four core sports — basketball, volleyball, cheerleading and soccer (both indoor and outdoor) — virtually every weekend, Blalock is equally excited about the programs that will be available just about every weekday throughout the year for local residents of all ages. 

He says all levels of athletes, from as young as three years old to adults, will be able to enjoy the Sports Campus during the week, and young athletes have three different levels (Developmental, Competitive & Elite) of instruction and competition in all four core sports — with evaluations and programs for each beginning this month.

Meet The RADD-Star Team!

The Open House also was an opportunity for most attendees to meet the amazing team of directors who will help pick the teams and the coaches who will be running the programs and training the kids. Cheer directors Matt McDonough and Lyric Hill, volleyball director Eric Praetorius, basketball director Ronnie Outen and soccer director Stuart Campbell were all on hand at the event, running the day’s program and meeting all of the interested young athletes. 

Hill and McDonough were helped with coaching and demonstrations of cheer stunts by the high school cheer squads from both Wiregrass Ranch and Cypress Creek high schools. Cheer participants even got to try their hands (and feet) on the 40-foot-long spring floor that looks very much like what Olympic gymnasts also use for training.

Praetorius brought in some of the truly outstanding high school volleyball players who have participated in other programs he has directed. The two volleyball courts set aside for the Open House were filled the entire four hours, with the elite players setting each other up to spike home winners and risking floor burns while diving on the shiny, new gym floor for digs, while everyone who was interested in the sport (no matter what level of player they were) received quick instructional tidbits from Praetorius and other coaches on hand — and lots of play time.

Outen somehow recruited an early morning adult full-court basketball game for the event, with separate full courts set aside for younger players. You could hear several parents and coaches cheering on the young hopefuls — including several talented girls, one of whom repeatedly did a great job of taking older, bigger boys to the hoop — from the sidelines.

And, although I left before he got there, Outen’s son Tyriq, a 6’-4” ice hockey goalie who recently was named the MVP of a major invitational tournament in Canada with his all-minority hockey team that was the surprise winner of the tournament, showed up to take pictures with his dad. We’ll tell you Tyriq’s story next issue.

And, you could just see soccer director Stuart Campbell, a former professional “footballer” in England (he’s actually of Scottish descent) and a former player and head coach for the Tampa Bay Rowdies — who probably is the RADDSports director who has most anticipated the day he can start actually coaching, rather than sitting in all-day meetings — absolutely beaming as he checked out the local soccer talent.

“This is quite an event,” Campbell said. “The kids are just loving the place!”

RADDSports director of programs Nicole Baker (another former cheerleader herself) also was on hand, doing temperature checks of everyone who entered the building, and helping Jannah and several volunteers make sure every participant signed an online or on-paper waiver before they entered the gym. There was plenty of hand sanitizer available and even though there were at least 300-400 people who stopped by at some point during the event, the spacious interior of the Sports Campus had plenty of space for social distancing.

One of my favorite things was the mezzanine, which has viewing available of the action in both Arenas A & B of the Sports Campus — each of which was designed for four basketball or eight volleyball courts. There’s also seating in the mezzanine overlooking the amazing cheer area.

The Wesley Chapel Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton Inn, two of the Sports Campus’ hotel partners, and Culver’s and Bubba’s 33 restaurants — which are located on S.R. 56 and stand to receive a lot of out-of-town business from the facility on the weekends — had tables inside the lobby to show their support for the RADDSports team (which has held most of its meetings at the Hilton during the construction).

“We had a few potential sponsors come through to check us out, too,” Blalock said. “I can’t even tell you how happy we are to be (almost) open.”

Pasco County Tourism, aka the Florida Sports Coast, was scheduled to hold the actual ribbon cutting for the Sports Campus on Aug. 27, which was after we went to press with this issue. RADDSports is the county’s private partner which is managing the building that was funded by a recent voter-approved 2-cent increase in the county’s tourism (or “bed”) tax. 

“Play Ball,” indeed!

For sponsorship opportunities at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County (3021 Sports Coast Way), email Jannah@RADDSports.com. For program information, email Nicole@RADDSports.com. For sponsorship opportunities at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County (3021 Sports Coast Way), email Jannah@RADDSports.com. For program information, email Nicole@RADDSports.com. Also, you can call (833) TEAM-RADD (832-6723).