Wharton’s Flag Football Team Faces A Tough Road To Make It To States

Top left: Flag football is not exactly no-contact, as Wharton’s Lauryn Thompson gets face-palmed after coming down with a catch. (Photos by Andy Warrener)

When Tina and Mike Roberts took over the Wharton High flag football team six years ago, they had just 22 girls try out, and very few fans attended their games.

“In years past, no one came to the games, not even the home games,” Mike Roberts says.

Fast forward to the 2018 preseason, and the Wildcats had 50 girls try out for this year’s team. Wharton maintains a 16-girl varsity squad and a 19-player JV team, and while currently unranked has spent most of the season ranked in the Class 2A Top 20 poll, according to FloridaHighSchoolFootball.com.

At last week’s game at Leto, the Wildcats showed off their firepower by throttling the Falcons 46-0. They also brought about two dozen fans along to stock the visitor stands, outnumbering those on the home side.

The victory improved Wharton’s record to 7-3 at the time, with the Class 2A District 7 playoffs looming. But getting out of districts is no easy task, as Plant showed Wharton two days after the Leto win.

Top Right: Wharton’s Parker Onderko leaps and makes the catch in the victory over Leto.

The Panthers, the defending Class 2A State champions, beat Wharton 26-0.

Currently ranked No. 3 in the state, Plant isn’t even ranked as the best team in the district — Alonso is ranked No. 1 in the state.

“If you can get through this district, you have a good chance to go far,” Mike Roberts said.

The Wildcats will need some upsets to get out of districts and into the State playoffs. Last year, they shocked Alonso in the District quarterfinals, before falling the following game to Plant in quadruple overtime.

The Roberts family has grown into coaching the sport of flag football. Tina says she came by it by pure accident. She was assigned the sport from the school administration seven years ago when it began. A year later, her husband Mike came on board. A year after that, their son Travis (23) also joined the coaching staff.

“Tina asked me to come on and help after an assistant left that first year and I fell in love with it,” Mike says.

Flag football runs the same way regular football’s 7-on-7 exercises do. Seven players line up in a passing formation. One defensive player is allowed to rush the quarterback and offenses can either pass or run with the ball. The offensive team must gain 20 yards to earn a first down.

There is no kicking in the game, so after each touchdown, the team has the option of running or passing for a one- or two-point conversion.

Girls flag football has grown from niche sport to one of the most popular offerings for female athletes. It only became an official Florida High School Athletic Association sport in 2003, but has more than doubled its participation numbers to more than 250 teams and 6,000 players competing since then.

“I loved just being a part of the team and having the opportunity to play and have fun,” says quarterback Marinique Reddin, one of the team’s top players.

Starting this school year, middle schools in Hillsborough County — including Benito, Turner-Bartels and Liberty — offer girls flag football. This is expected to help the high school game, which until now has basically had to rely on players competing in flag football for the first time. Tina says for years, most of her players had to be taught the game from scratch, which was a major disadvantage compared to other high school sports.

The Wharton High girls flag football team is 7-4 this season, and hopes to pull off a few upsets at the District tournament in a bid for the state playoffs.

“It’s going to make the sport that much better,” Mike Roberts says. “Next year, we’ll have eighth graders coming in that know the sport and you’ll see the payoffs.”

The Roberts’ dedication to the sport has helped build Wharton into one of the area’s better programs.

Reddin is tall and athletic and has the skill set to either pass the ball or tuck it and run, and scored four touchdowns in the win over Leto. Lauryn Thompson is another tall player with enough speed to score a touchdown any time she touches the football, which she did twice against Leto while adding an interception.

Both players are just juniors who have found their calling in the still relatively new sport.

“I love how competitive the game is and how the team has become so close, like one big family,” says Thompson. “If one of us needs help, we help each other out without downing each other. I look forward to practice every day.”

On defense, Ja’Nessa Ellis, Sade Seraaj and Mecca Bythewood had interceptions against Leto. Bythewood and Seraaj ran theirs back for touchdowns. Junior   Williams rushes the quarterback.

“It’s great to see what these girls can do with the football,” Mike Roberts said. “We put in plays and they execute them.” Look for updates at NTNeighborhoodNews.com.

Experience Reigns For First-Year Program Thanks To Influx Of Talent

First-year school, first-year program, low expectations, just want to get playing time in. Right?

Wrong.

The Cypress Creek Coyotes are not the team you want to schedule for Senior Night. That’s primarily because, thanks to last year’s rezoning of area high schools, Cypress Creek inherited a wealth of talented players that last year attended school at nearby Wesley Chapel High (WCH), gutting a program that was 19-8 last year and advanced to the Class 6A Regional semifinals before losing to eventual State champion Land O’Lakes.

The Coyotes’ entire infield and their new head coach are all former Wildcats, and they have a familiarity uncommon with new schools and new sports programs. Even Cypress Creek’s head coach Mike Peterson was an assistant at WCH the last two years, while also coaching the Tampa Lady Phantoms travel team for several years prior.

He’s coached many of the girls on his current team of Coyotes since they were seven and eight years old. Blending together a host of new players who have never shared a dugout, often one of the more difficult aspects of coaching, is not one of Peterson’s problems.

Cypress Creek C Neely Peterson has started the season on fire.

The Coyotes are off to an impressive  9-5 start as of our press time, with the losses coming against upper-echelon teams with a combined 51-10 record.

“There’s a level of trust when you have familiarity with your teammates,” junior Ashley Nickisher said. “You know that if you strike out or make an error that the other girls have your back. I have been really amazed at the way some of the new girls that came on have connected right away.”

Junior catcher Neely Peterson, already a verbal commitment to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, is leading the way.

You could say that Peterson is off to a blazing start — her .583 batting average, 10 doubles, four home runs and 29 RBI lead the team, and her homer and RBI totals lead all of Class 5A, District 7.

She’s a terrifying hitter out of the number three spot. Peterson remains the only hitter to park one off of Hernando ace Ali Shenefield, the top pitcher in the District.

“Last year, I got to learn from then-Chapel captain Dana Mumaw (now at Pasco-Hernando State College),” Peterson said. “I learned what it takes to be a good team captain.”

Nickisher is the other team captain. According to Peterson, she is a “smart infielder that makes the difficult plays look easy.” She has cooled off a little after a hot start, but is still second on the team with six doubles and two homers.

Jasmine Jackson, a junior second baseman, backs up Peterson at catcher and also can play shortstop. Coach Peterson says Jackson started the year on fire and she hasn’t let up – she has hits in 12 of the 13 games in which she has played and boasts a .444 average with 19 RBI, second to Peterson.

Junior Payton Hudson (.432) is a rangy shortstop with a strong arm and is a dangerous base runner as well, while sophomore first baseman Anna Margetis played for the Wildcats as a freshman and is currently tied with Jackson for second on the team with a .444 average.

“We’re very balanced offensively,” Peterson says. “We can hit for average or we can hit for power. It makes us a dangerous team.”

The Coyotes have very little depth in the pitching rotation – last year’s freshman phenom, Jordan Almasy, remained at WCH.

Instead, the Coyotes are riding the arm of right-handed junior Avery Lee. Lee came over from Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) in the school re-districting, but pitched only sparingly there. She has thrown 75 of the team’s 76 innings this year, compiling a 9-4 record with a 2.52 ERA.

“She (Lee) has a good ball-to-strike ratio and she keep us in games,” Peterson says. “She’s not going to overpower batters, but she’ll allow our defense to do their job.”

Like most new schools, especially those without a senior class, Cypress Creek had a small roster of 10 players on varsity. Emma Coons (.381), Page Mulford (.273) and Alexis Aponte (.250) round out the lineup. Peterson elected to have a JV team, where there are 10 more girls who will play, instead of riding the bench on varsity.

There have been other new school troubles that are often typical. While they are off 9-4 start as of our press time, the Coyotes had to play all of their early games on the road until their home field was finished.

They also had to forfeit a game against Land O’ Lakes in February because they had a fund raiser scheduled for the same night.

However, the Coyotes are a team to keep an eye on. They are going to be relevant even in this first year. When they field a senior-heavy lineup with a year of experience next season, watch out.

“It’s really been a joy coaching these kids since they were seven or eight and seeing the fruits of their labors,” Peterson said. “They put the hard work in and I hope to get a chance to watch many of them play at the next level.”

U.S. Hockey Women Stop By FHCI To Bid A Golden Farewell To Wesley Chapel

Wesley Chapel’s version of the Golden Girls — the gold-medal-winning U.S. Women’s Olympic Hockey team, returned to the place they have called home since September for an impromptu visit on Feb. 28, greeting a small crowd of well wishers at Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI) and thanking them for months of support, before heading to Amalie Arena in downtown Tampa, where they were honored before the Tampa Bay Lightning game against the Buffalo Sabres.

The fans at FHCI thanked the U.S. team for memories that will last a lifetime. A few dozen hockey loyalists, many who watched Team USA practices and exhibitions at the rink over the past six months, applauded the U.S. women as they walked through the doors, roughly a week after beating Canada in a memorable shootout in PyeongChang, South Korea, to capture the team’s first Olympic gold since 1998.

“This was a major priority for us,” said team captain and forward Meghan Duggan, a Massachusetts native and former University of Wisconsin All-American. “We talked a lot about wanting to give back to everyone that has supported us along the way, from family to fans, and Wesley Chapel played a huge role in our development, in getting us ready. We’ve been back in the U.S. for 36 hours, and were already here, so this was certainly was a priority for us.”

Team USA hockey forward Kendall Coyne celebrated the Olympic gold medal at FHCI on Feb. 28. (Photos: John C. Cotey)

The team’s performance in South Korea has been universally hailed as one of the greatest in U.S. Olympic hockey history, as Monique Lamoureux-Morando tied the game at 2-2 with less than seven minutes remaining to force a scoreless overtime period that led to a nail-biting shootout. Still tied after five shots each in the shootout, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, Monique’s twin, used three dekes before memorably slipping the puck past the Canadian goaltender Shannon Szabados.

Szabados’ American counterpart, Maddie Rooney, saved Canada’s next shot attempt (by Meghan Acosta, who had scored during the first five shootout rounds, but was stopped by Rooney in Round 6) to clinch the gold for the U.S..

“It was amazing,’’ said Wesley Chapel’s Kristin Folch. “It was so cool that they were in Wesley Chapel, where we got to see them, and then on TV. It felt like we were connected in some way.”

Folch took her two young children, Annabella — who is already playing hockey at age 5 — and Anthony to get a picture with the team.

Annabella is one of many young girls to be inspired by the U.S. Olympians, according to FHCI general manager Gordie Zimmerman. While the Olympic gold medal winners have put FHCI on the map — a plethora of stories begin with the mention of their journey starting in Wesley Chapel at the rink — he says the impact stretches far wider. The girls hockey program at FHCI already has more than 60 players, with Under-14 and Under-16 travel teams, and a rec program that caters to younger players. Many of the young skaters were able to interact with the gold medalists at camps and practices since September, and Zimmerman says a girls youth league is not too far down the road.

“They always seemed to make themselves available,” Zimmerman said. “They inspired a lot of girls in the area and across the nation to play hockey, and they are wonderful people and great ambassadors for the game. It’s good to see we still have that in America.”

While the team will now scatter back north to their frostier hometowns in places like Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Massachusetts, Duggan says the won’t forget the hospitality and great weather —and even enduring Hurricane Irma — of Wesley Chapel.

“I think what we’ll miss about it is the community,” Duggan said. “We’ve been welcomed with open arms since we’ve been here, from the people at the rink, Gordie, his whole staff, Saddlebrook Resort (where the team stayed while training at FHCI) was awesome, everyone was really great. That’ll be the biggest thing we’ll miss. Hopefully, we’ll be able to come back down here at some point and say hey to everyone. They were a huge reason why we were able to be successful.”

Freedom’s Gibson Cruising Through High School Competition

Freedom sophomore tennis standout Julianna Gibson has been playing the sport since she was five years old, and so far has been unbeatable during her high school career as the No. 1 player at Freedom High in Tampa Palms. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

Freedom High tennis player Julianna Gibson doesn’t race across the tennis court, she glides.

Her forehand and backhand aren’t harried, they are harmonious.

Her demeanor isn’t delirious, it is docile.

It all works together to make Gibson one of the top high school tennis players around.

Last year, as a freshman, she played line 1 (where typically the best players at each school line up) and went 14-0 in singles, winning District and Regional titles on her way to the State tournament.

She kicked off her sophomore season on Valentine’s Day by winning 8-0 against Gaither in singles, and teaming up with Zoe Rosen for another 8-0 win at doubles. She is 4-0 so far this season.

“I think it’s gone pretty smoothly,” Julianna says of her brief high school career. “A few of the matches were pretty competitive, but I have gotten through most of them pretty easily.”

Gibson has been playing tennis since she was 5. Her parents, Mike and Carri-Ann, say Julianna tried a number of sports, like soccer and volleyball and even earned a black belt in Tae Kwan Do.

“I coached her Little League softball team, and she was a really good hitter and threw really well,” Carri-Ann says. “I thought, “We might have a softball player here.’

But, Julianna gravitated to tennis. Carri-Ann and Mike remember Julianna running around and chasing balls to hit as a toddler while her parents played.

Despite having physical gifts — Julianna is 5-feet, 9-inches tall with a long reach — that lend themselves to almost any sport, none had the amount of action to keep his daughter’s attention like tennis, according to Mike.

“She took to tennis like a fish to water,” he says. “It was a sport she seemed she could really get into. I remember she said in tennis, the ball comes right back to you and you get another chance. It’s a constant engagement. You have to be constantly engaged when you’re playing tennis.”

As an only child, Julianna said she enjoys the individual aspect of playing singles. She started out in playing in the USTA’s Junior Team Tennis leagues, but most USTA junior tournaments focus on singles.

The competition can range from friendly to fierce. Many of the opponents Julianna has faced in her junior career are training 5-6 hours a day at expensive and prestigious academies away from their families.

The Gibsons prefer a more balanced approach. Julianna has hopes for playing in college, and does train with personal coaches, but she says her obsession for being a professional tennis star takes a back seat to enjoying her high school years.

And so far, she says she has been enjoying them.

“It’s nice playing on a team with other girls, and cheering them on,” Julianna says. “I like that part of it.”

Her height and long frame give Julianna an advantage over most opponents when it comes to serving and her forehand, her two strengths.

Still More To Accomplish

That helped catapult her to her unbeaten season last year, and the Patriots advanced to the Class 3A Regionals as the District runner-up.

Gibson won her singles match at Regionals against Largo, with her opponent remarking that she couldn’t believe Julianna was only a freshman.

At States, Julianna lost her first match 7-5, 6-2 to Fort Myers’ sophomore lefty Shani Idlette, still the only blemish on Julianna’s high school record.

“It was a lot more competitive there,” says Julianna, who says she was sick the week of the match. “I lost, but it was pretty competitive.”

Her main goal for this season is to make it back to States, but she doesn’t plan on going alone.

“I want the whole team to go,” says Julianna. “The one thing I thought when I was there last year was that this would be more fun as a team.”

FLY EAGLE FLY

Former Liberty Middle School standout Nelson Agholor celebrates a catch against the Washington Redskins last year. Photo by Keith Allison, Hanover, MD.

Liberty Middle School’s Joe Merritt remembers the best flag football player he ever coached scoring four touchdowns on four straight plays — and none of them counted.

It was overtime, against Benito he thinks, and his Liberty Eagles were on the 2-yard-line. His best player rushes for what Merritt says was a sure touchdown, before the refs ruled he was down at the 1.

On the next play, the same kid throws for a touchdown, but the refs said the receiver was out of bounds. And, the play after that, the very same kid lines up at wide receiver and catches a touchdown pass, although the ref said he didn’t land with his feet inbounds.

Twice. Seriously.

Years later, Merritt couldn’t help but remember that game as he sat and watched that same player, Nelson Agholor, catch nine passes for the other Eagles, of Philadelphia, in a thrilling Super Bowl win over favored New England.

Merritt has taught and coached the boys flag football team since Liberty opened, and his list of former players include Matt Patchan and Jordan Sherit (both of whom went on to the University of Florida in Gainesville out of high school), Matt’s brother Scott Patchan (currently at the University of Miami, FL) and Chaz Neal (who signed with Florida State University in Tallahassee on Feb. 7).

The night of the Super Bowl, however, was the first time Merritt says he had chills watching a former player, sitting on the couch at his parents’ house, jumping up and yelling every time Agholor grabbed a pass on his way to 84 yards receiving.

“It’s like you knew he was going to be a good athlete, but with each passing year, there was a new accolade that made you just feel happy for him,” said Merritt, who had Agholor in his sixth grade reading class. “He reached the pinnacle in high school, he reached the pinnacle in college, he was a first-round draft pick out of college, and he wins the Super Bowl? I mean, come on. That’s what every kid dreams of, holding up that Lombardi Trophy.”

A Humble Beginning…

Agholor, who was born in Nigeria, grew up in northeast Tampa, in the Suitcase City area near the University of South Florida. He attended Liberty from 2005-08, where he starred on both the football field and the basketball court. In fact, his overtime performance aside, some remember Agholor as a better basketball player initially than football.

“I didn’t see the talent as much in football as in basketball,” says Phil Lana, who taught Agholor in his sixth grade science class. “He was an incredible basketball player in middle school. I thought that would be what he ended up going to college for.”

Merritt agrees. “I thought his older brother Franklin was the better football player,” he says, laughing.

In previous stories written about him, Agholor has talked about avoiding the trouble that dogged many of the friends he grew up with in northeast Tampa. The temptation to take the wrong path when that fork in the road presented itself was hard for many to resist.

It was at Liberty, some teachers who remember him say, that Agholor had help in fighting those urges.

“Nelson was a bit of a knucklehead coming in here,” Merritt recalled. “There were some teachers that took him under their wing, to get him right. He was smart…great personality…athletic. And, we started preaching to him how far those things can take you in life.”

“He was a genuinely nice kid, very charismatic,” says Brendan Paul, who had Agholor in his seventh grade math class. “He definitely grew quite a bit throughout the time he was here. If you listen to his interviews, he talks a lot about being given opportunities and making the most of those opportunities, and he definitely made the most of his time here. Liberty got him on right track. He had a lot of teachers looking out for him.”

Agholor responded to the mentoring. As an eighth grader, he was one of the most popular kids in school, and was named one of Liberty’s Turnaround Achievement Award winners. “By the end of his eighth grade year, I remember seeing him as more of a leader than anything else,” Lana says. “He was already helping the younger kids then.”

After graduating from middle school, Agholor  went to Berkeley Prep, where he became one of Florida’s top football recruits as both a running back and a defensive back. He rushed for 4,732 yards in four seasons, and added 921 receiving yards, 12 interceptions and eight kickoff returns for touchdowns.

As a senior, Agholor  led the Bucs to the Class 3A State semifinals, rushing for 1,983 yards and 28 touchdowns, and won the Guy Toph award as Hillsborough County’s top high school football player. He chose the University of Southern California at Los Angeles from dozens of college suitors, where he blossomed as a wide receiver and caught 104 passes for 1,313 yards and 12 touchdowns as a junior.

That was enough to make Agholor the 20th overall pick of Philadelphia in the 2015 NFL draft.

“He was one of those kids that stayed in touch,” Paul says. “Before the draft, he visited and spent time with students in a mentoring group here. I had the opportunity to go to his very first game in Atlanta (with Lana), and we met up with him afterwards.”

Agholor disappointed during his first two pro seasons in Philly, before a breakout 2017 campaign that saw him catch 62 passes for 768 yards (more than his first two seasons combined) and 12 touchdowns. In the postseason, he was brilliant, including a 42-yard TD catch in the NFC Championship game. His nine catches in the Super Bowl were a career high.

Few were happier to see Agholor bounce back than his former Liberty mentors.

“It’s definitely surreal,” Paul says. “I think his career thus far just speaks volumes about who he is. He had two really rough years, and just turned it around. It’s just that attitude and effort he has.”

Lana, who is now the Director of Operations and logistics for the Atlanta Football Host Committee bringing the Super Bowl to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium next year, watched Agholor’s performance in person.

“It really added to the whole experience, knowing I was actually watching someone I knew playing in the game,” says Lana, who wasn’t shy about letting everyone know about Agholor’s days at Liberty.

“Pretty much everybody around me knew I had taught him in sixth grade,” Lana says. “I sat in a section heavy with Patriots’ fans, but they knew when I stood and cheered every time he caught a pass.”

Agholor comes back to Liberty a few times a year to preach to kids, many from the same rough-around-the-edges neighborhood he grew up in, the same message he was taught — make good choices, listen to your teachers and school administrators, and they will help you reach the goals that you strive for. His words will carry added weight, as a newly-minted Super Bowl champion. 

“The fact that he does come back, and does impact other kids and that’s something that’s important to him, that just tells you the kind of dude that he is, the kind of character he has,” Merritt says.

Agholor has purchased shoes, helmets and other equipment for kids who can’t afford them. He has given them his cell phone number and told them to text him if they need something, even just a little advice. Merritt says Agholor reaches out to kids that he sees a little of himself in, to do what he can.

It is that connection, more than a decade later, that makes it easy to cheer for Agholor, to tune in on Sundays and root for the former Liberty Eagle.

“The whole school is super proud of him,” Merritt says. “There’s a lot of pride that Nelson used to go here. The fact that he turned out to be great kid, and did great things, it’s just icing on the cake that he won a Super Bowl. When I watch, I still see that 12-year-old kid.”