Tampa’s Nick Ryan lunges to try and stop a shot at the Goalies Inc. Performance Camp at AdventHealth Center Ice on Aug. 6. (Photos: Mike Camunas)
Nothing was going to stop these goalies from stopping pucks.
Despite the fact it had to be pushed back due to Covid-19, more than 40 youth ice hockey goalies recently were able to get in a training camp’s worth of goaltending work in two days (Aug. 5-6) at the Goalies, Inc., Performance Camp at AdventHealth Center Ice (AHCI) in Wesley Chapel.
Originally scheduled for March, Bernie Desrosiers, the executive director of Sunbelt Hockey Scouting and a long-time New Tampa-area hockey coach, says the camp was sold out well before the coronavirus shut down youth sports programs.
“We’ll have it again next year,” Desrosiers said. “This has been a great turnout and, so far, all the feedback we’ve gotten has been that everyone was happy to finally be able to come to this camp. “It’s been a great two days.”
Desrosiers added that of the 42 young goalies who participated, only one had to be sent home sick — not Covid-19 related — and that there were no injuries sustained. “Pretty remarkable, I’d say,” Desrosiers said.
Head instructor Jim Stanaway provides instruction to some of the 42 goalies in attendance.
Led by Goalies, Inc. head instructor Jim Stanaway, boys and girls, teenagers and “tweens” went through various drills to hone their goaltending skills in the hopes of being the next Andrei Vasilevskiy (the Tampa Bay Lightning goalie) or Madeline Rooney (the starting goalie for the Olympic gold medal-winning 2018 USA women’s hockey team). The young goalies worked on glove and stick saves, rebound shots, skating backwards, diving for pucks and even how to hug the pipes to block shots.
Stanaway also preached a lot, not only about teamwork, sportsmanship and respect for the game, but also for the goalies’ fans (their families).
As he watched netminders of all sizes and ages scramble to grab pucks, the goalie instructor of nearly two decades was impressed by his first trip to the Tampa Bay area and its local talent.
“With an NHL team, and them doing very well, it’s nice to see (the high interest in hockey in a southern city or state),” he said. “A lot of these southern NHL teams invest in their communities a lot, but the enthusiasm (here) is quite amazing.”
For more info about Goalies, Inc., camps, visit GoaliesInc.com.
At the SVB Tennis Center VIP preview on June 27, (l.-r) Bo Sun, Mark Shepherd, Gary Blissett and CEO Pascal Collard were among those who greeted dozens of well-wishers.
Pascal Collard has been pitching an exciting vision for the Sarah Vande Berg (SVB) Tennis Center just outside of Wesley Chapel in Zephyrhills for some time, but on June 27, he was able to show some people how that vision is shaping up.
Collard and his staff hosted a VIP event, complete with beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres, to announce that Advent Health has come aboard as a major sponsor and to show off the new center, which he says should open in August.
While none of the rooms are filled just yet and the tennis, pickleball and padel courts haven’t yet been surfaced, Collard filled in the empty spots with his excitement.
And, with Covid-19 cases in Florida rising sharply in recent weeks, Collard promised one thing — it will be safe.
“I hate to say ‘most sanitized place in America,’ but that’s what we’re shooting for,” Collard said, adding that the center bought 1,000 face masks and put the staff through hours of classes and presentations to keep the facility virus-free.
The indoor portion of the facility will have plenty of space and feature an indoor restaurant focusing in healthy foods — think air-fried fries and bento boxes with edible flowers — with popular local Chef Mark Vesh of Vesh Catering designing the menu.
There also will be yoga, cryotherapy, a salt room, an exercise room and licensed massage tables. The all-around focus of the facility is on health, from exercise and playing tennis to recovery to refueling the body.
Collard also helped create a school — United Global Academy — offering an accredited curriculum for athletes training in tennis, golf, soccer and one of Collard’s own personal passions — skydiving.
And of course, there will be plenty of racquet sports. The SVB Tennis Center will have four padel courts, eight pickleball courts, two hard tennis courts with U.S. Open surfaces, and eight Har-Tru tennis courts with underground irrigation. Collard says there also will be a grass court: “It’s like a little garden.”
A drone shot of the progress on the center, which has a planned Aug. 15 opening date. Photos by Charmaine George.
There will be a viewing court with seating up to 1,000, and able to expand for bigger tournaments to more than 3,500.
The 30,000-sq.-ft. indoor facility with have four tennis courts but can be converted to accommodate soccer, weddings and even concerts.
If everything goes as Collard hopes, the facility will open Aug. 15.
“It’s really starting to come to together, you can just see it,” Collard says. “We’re pretty excited about it.”
For more info SVB Tennis Center (6585 Simons Rd., Zephyrhills) memberships and how to join, please visit svbtenniscenter.com or call (813) 361-6660.
New Wharton High head football coach Mike Williams (back) met with some of the Wildcats before Covid-19 forced the cancellation of his first spring practices with his new team.
Mike Williams didn’t leave a job coaching football at Van Nuys High School in California just to win a few games in Tampa, his hometown.
He left to make a difference.
This fall, he will try to do so at New Tampa’s Wharton High. A former All-American wide receiver at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, and first-round NFL draft pick, Williams is Wharton’s choice to replace longtime head coach David Mitchell, who resigned after 15 seasons last fall but remains the school’s head wrestling coach and assistant track & field coach.
Williams, who is building a home close to the Wharton campus, said he wanted to be a Wildcat because of the challenge of coaching in the state’s highest classification, 8A, and because he wants to be able to mentor and mold his players to become disciplined, model young men.
Moved by the death last summer of Middleton High freshman Hezekiah Walters, who collapsed during summer workouts, Williams returned from Los Angeles to Tampa to train local youth players.
He applied at Middleton, and was quickly tabbed to replace the former Tigers head coach, Fred Reid, who was reassigned.
He was hired at Middleton at the end of July 2019, just a few weeks before the start of the season. He didn’t rush his mourning players to the field, instead taking his time to help repair the program’s damaged collective psyche. Williams’ wife, Giavonna, had passed away in her sleep two years prior, so the new coach understood all too well the pain of losing someone close to you.
The Tigers didn’t hold their first practice until July 23 and two weeks later, they opened their season with a 12-7 win over Alonso.
The team finished with a 5-5 record and went from a team involved in a well-publicized bench clearing brawl in 2017 to being the least penalized team in the county in 2019.
Rewarding Job
The job he did at Middelton under trying circumstances, both on and off the field, made him an attractive candidate when Wharton went looking for a new coach.
“He was by far our best choice,” said Wharton athletic director Eddie Henderson, who convened a committee that included principal Michael Rowan, along with student and parent representatives, to find Mitchell’s replacement. “We liked the fact that he took Middleton and turned them around in two weeks. That’s what we were very impressed about — the relationship he had with those kids.”
Williams was able to meet his new team briefly for some workouts in the weight room shortly before Covid-19 closed down schools in March.
Workouts were finally okayed for June 15, which is when Williams would get to work trying to rebuild the Wildcats program into the district and state power it has been in years past.
When Williams and the Wildcats finally convened for workouts, they did so under new training and safety protocols named after Walters: the Hezekiah Walters Sports Medicine Educational Plan on Hydration and Heat Illness.
As a coach and mentor, Williams will have an office on campus but will not have to teach any classes at Wharton, so he can focus on imparting his can-do attitude into his players.
From The NFL To New Tampa
Tampa Bay-area football fans might recall the path that Williams took from Plant High standout to All-American wide receiver at USC and ultimately to the NFL, when the Detroit Lions made him the 10th overall pick in the 2005 draft.
His journey to being named head football coach at Wharton this past January, however, is likely a road that is a lot less known.
Williams actually first began his coaching career way back in 2004, because the bigger story that year was that he declared himself eligible for the NFL draft – after amassing 2,579 receiving yards and 30 touchdowns in just two collegiate seasons — following the case of former Ohio State University running back Maurice Clarett that opened the door for underclassmen to leave school early to start their NFL careers.
When that door abruptly shut, and the NCAA didn’t restore Williams’ collegiate eligibility, he instead returned to his South Tampa roots while he waited for the NFL Draft.
“Coach” Williams helped the Interbay YMCA, where he spent countless hours as a youth, launch an 8-man tackle football team. That year, the Hammerheads went 7-0 and many of his youth players surrounded him at his 2005 draft party, appearing on ESPN when Detroit selected him.
Williams went on to play five NFL seasons with four different teams over a seven-year period.
“Going to the pros was extra,” says Williams, the second youngest of seven siblings, including a sister he lost a couple years ago. “I always, always wanted to be a coach. Everybody wants to make it to the pros. I’ve really been living my dream the last eight years coaching.”
Williams said he is ready for his latest challenges, including preparing for tough Class 8A competition without being able to gather his team on the field or in the weight room due to Covid-19. The new guidelines have been a challenge, and while Wharton has a 2020 schedule — it hosts a preseason game against Blake High on August 14 — the season itself still remains up in the air.
Gio Carillo shoots hoops at the Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd., which re-opened its courts recently and will be back to hosting its youth basketball leagues soon. (Photo: Charmaine George)
On June 1, roughly 20 kids showed up at a camp at Heritage Isles in New Tampa.
Two weeks later, a similarly-sized group was scheduled to begin camp at the Seven Oaks Community Club in Wesley Chapel.
PROtential Sports owner Nyree Bland could finally breathe again.
“I am grateful to be opened again. It’s good to be back,” says Bland who, along with her husband (and former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver) Tony, has been running sports camps locally for 17 years.
For a while, Bland was unsure if she would be able to host camps again in 2020. PROtential after-school camps were canceled when school was (back in March), and summer activities were in doubt right up until Gov. Ron DeSantis ended all restrictions on youth activities for the state on May 22.
“The data is pretty clear that, for whatever reason, kids don’t seem to get infected at the same rates that some other adults get infected,” DeSantis said when making the announcement.
Summer camps and sports leagues are ready to go. There will be strict new CDC guidelines to follow, such as cleaning and social distancing protocols.
How that works out, however, remains to be seen, as anyone who has ever coached a large group of 9-year-olds can attest.
Keith Wiley, the Pasco County director of Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources, says his department is working closely with the 30 or so co-sponsored groups they partner with to determine the best and safest way forward.
Although DeSantis specifically said the state would not “be instituting a lot of rules” and would “trust parents to be able to make decisions in conjunction with physicians,” Wiley says that all groups hosting youth sports leagues in Pasco County will be required to supply a safe play plan to the county that strictly adheres to CDC guidelines.
Although parks and fields are open for walk-up play by the general public, co-sponsored leagues can only return once those plans have been approved by the county.
According to the CDC, the “lowest risk” of Covid-19 spreading is during skill-building drills and conditioning, with team-based practices considered a “higher risk.”
Full competition between teams from the same local geographic area is considered “even more risk,” while full competition between teams from different geographic areas is considered the “highest risk.”
Equipment like bats, balls, pads and helmets will also require disinfecting they had probably not received in previous years. Counselors and coaches should wear masks, according to the CDC.
Requiring groups to ponder the new normal and submit a plan was a no-brainer.
“Until you start to think it through and visualize what practices or games will look like, it’s difficult,” Wiley says. “We didn’t want groups running out there and figuring it out on the fly.”
Considering that the public’s feelings on masks isn’t unanimous, Wiley is hoping the community can come together to follow the rules for the sake of the 5,000 or so children that typically participate in youth sports across Pasco County. Keeping parents from hovering at practices and games will be a challenge as well.
“It’s going to be extremely difficult to police and enforce,” Wiley says. “So far, however, we’ve had a few conversations with our 30 co-sponsored groups, and they have all been positive. We haven’t had to twist any arms.”
As for the popular county-sponsored summer camps at 11 locations, Wiley said they will be limited to 25 percent of typical capacity.
He says the county did a survey and 60 percent of the parents of previous participants said they had every intention of returning. The remaining 40 percent were a “mixed bag.”
Wiley notes that the Pasco camps usually fill up within three minutes of registration opening.
“My guess is there are going to be a lot of folks waiting to rush right in,” Wiley says, “and a percentage of families that plan on taking it slow.”
The Wesley Chapel Athletic Association (WCAA), which says it serves more than 3,500 area families, has made no official announcement yet about upcoming registrations.
The WCAA’s Board of Directors met on May 28 to discuss how to best implement its summer athletic programs, and what has to be done to make soccer, basketball and baseball safe for everyone.
Baseball, for example, had just begun its spring Babe Ruth League (which also includes Cal Ripken baseball) when Covid-19 hit. Spring ball would have ended in mid-May, with All-Star Districts and State play running during the summer.
All-stars, however, has been canceled for 2020, so Chad Erker, the director of WCAA Baseball, says the organization may resume the spring league to fill the calendar and get kids back on the fields.
“We’re working on it,” he says. “I think, first and foremost, we’d have to see who is willing to return, who can return, who wants to return. And, who feels safe in returning.”
That will be the same predicament facing every camp and every sports league trying to return to action over the next few months. Erker says entire rosters of teams may need to be shuffled so games can be scheduled. Many camps will have to run at a smaller capacity, due to the CDC guidelines, so the demand may still be there, but the numbers won’t.
Meanwhile, Bland says PROtential’s camps usually have 100-plus participants at each location, but will be limited to 25 percent of their usual capacity.
She has canceled the field trips that are usually a part of the PROtential Sports summer camp experience. Counselors will be taking temperatures daily. The groups will be kept smaller than usual, since some of the activities are held indoors.
“The parents we have talked to that are coming are super excited,” Bland says. “Some aren’t ready. I think it is about 50-50. So, we’ll be a lot smaller. But, it’s the new normal, and I’m embracing it.”
Wharton High’s Zach Godbold, the top-ranked javelin thrower in the state, is headed to the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Godbold announced his commitment on May 9. He had narrowed his decision down to Florida and Florida State (in Tallahassee).
It was during a visit to Gainesville in December that Godbold says he began to lean towards becoming a Gator. He said seeing where he would be living, as well as the training facilities and new weight rooms, was impressive.
“It was as you would imagine for a Division 1 school, but it was really top-notch,” Godbold says.
Godbold has been one of the country’s top javelin throwers for his age since finishing second at the AAU Junior Olympics in 2014.
Two years later, as a 14-year-old and prior to his freshman year at Wharton, he took home the gold at the Junior Olympics.
Although the state didn’t have javelin as an official event his first two years of high school, the Florida High School Athletic Association added it as an experimental event at the state championships for Godbold’s junior season. Competing against the seven best throwers in the state across all classifications last spring, he won with a throw of 52.40 meters (171.75 feet).
Javelin was made an official event for the 2020 season, and Godbold was cutting a clear path towards winning the first state championship in the event.
He establish personal bests in back-to-back meets with throws of 54.62 meters (179 feet) on Feb. 20, and 55.15 meters (181 feet) a week later at the Wharton Invitational, the best throw in the state and third best in the U.S.
With the postseason just around the corner, Godbold was a big favorite to win gold at the state meet, but school was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It was definitely upsetting,” Godbold says. “I was ranked No. 1 in the state for high school since my sophomore year, and last year was kind of not really an event. This year would be my only chance to win an actual state championship. But, I look at (the cancellation) now as motivation for the future.”
A scholarship from one of the country’s best track and field programs isn’t a bad consolation prize for Godbold, who also was a starting kicker on the Wildcats football team and starting defender on the school’s soccer team.
The U-F men’s track and field program has won nine national titles. Steve Lemke, the Gators’ associate head coach in charge of throwers, was an All-American himself in the javelin and has mentored seven Olympians, including javelin throwers Oliver Dziubak (2014) and Pal Arne Fagernes (1996, 2000).
Godbold would like to be the next one to be in that company.
“I’ve been playing soccer and football, but all my focus will be on the javelin now,” Godbold says. “The Olympics is definitely a goal.”
