Category: Sports

Wharton’s Terrific Trio Eyeing A State Girls Track Championship

By Andy Warrener

Following an offseason fueled by disappointment, Wharton junior hurdler Aria Tate is ready to shine.

The budding star, already off to a great start in the track and field season, is looking ahead to a breakout season. She came close last year, almost capturing a state title in the 200 meters as a sophomore. But, in the time it practically takes Tate to blink her eyes, her shot at gold slipped away, as she finished second by .08 seconds.

This year, Tate will focus on her specialty — the 100- and 300-meter hurdles, an event she routinely wins in Hillsborough County and one in which her father, Heanon, thinks she can be a star when she gets to college.

Heanon, after all, would know. A pastor at Force of Life International in Tampa Palms, Heanon was a star running back at Gaffney High School in South Carolina before running the sprints and hurdles at South Carolina State.

Heanon’s son, Auden, was a star wide receiver for Wharton, and is now at Florida State.

He sees his daughter as having the same athletic potential.

“I think she could excel at the next level in the 400m hurdles,” Heanon said.

Tate will be one to watch today at the third annual Wharton Wildcat Invitational. Field events begin at 8:20 a.m., and the running finals start at 4:30 p.m. (or 45 minutes after the completion of prelims).

Heanon, who has volunteered with the track team since his family moved here from South Carolina four years ago, is a first-year full-time assistant coach under Wharton track coach Anthony Triana. The former college star helps out with all of the sprinters and hurdlers — his specialty — but he will keep a close eye on Aria.

Tate is fast becoming a top-flight hurdler. She was sixth at the state meet in the 100m hurdles last season as a sophomore, and just ran the 55-meter hurdles in 8.37 seconds at the Jimmy Carnes Invitational indoor meet in Gainesville in March. That was good enough for third-place in the 17-19 age group, behind Dunedin’s Olivia Welsh, who was third last year at the Class 2A State Championship, and Royal Palm Beach’s Faith Lee.

For Tate, who usually starts slow and relies on her strong finishes to win races, her 8.37 was an encouraging number for a shorter event, evidence she improved last offseason on her initial burst out of the blocks. Her best time in the 100 hurdles is 14.49, but that won’t be enough to win states.

What will help, however, will be Triana’s plan to give her some more rest in between events. Highly versatile and able to run 5-6 different races, last year’s meet schedule during the postseason could be grueling. Last season, Tate focused on the 100 hurdles and the 100 dash. Those events are practically back-to-back at a track meet, with only a brief respite, thanks to the boys 110-meter hurdles in between.

“I think my times would have been better if I would have had more time to rest (in between events),” Tate said. “You try to rest (in between the 100m hurdles and the 100m dash) but there’s just not that much time, you have to get back to the line for the race.”

The 100 and 330 hurdles, however, are separated by enough events that Tate will be fresh for both.

Tate’s excellence in the hurdles will make the Wharton girls track & field team even more dangerous this season. Along with fellow juniors Avonti Holt and Searra Woods, the trio have many of the sprinting events covered, and they also run on a 4×400 relay (seventh at state last year) together that should challenge the school record. Holt and Woods were both also on the 4x800m relay that took third at the state meet.

“Those three have been leaders on this team for the last three years and they each excel in their own way,” Triana says. “If we didn’t have any one of the three of them, it’d be a different team.”

The Wildcats opened their track season at the Wharton Quad Meet, running against Freedom, Wiregrass Ranch and Bloomingdale. Tate only competed in the 400-meter dash (which is expected to help her build endurance for the hurdles races in the bigger, more important meets) and finished a few seconds behind her teammate Woods. Wharton won 10 of the 16 events.

“The biggest key with our team is the versatility of those three,” Triana said. “These three can go up and cover eight events between them.”

Boys Not Too Shabby, Either

The Wharton boys may not have the star power the girls do, but they had a solid quad meet as well.

Sophomore Noah Damjanovic won the 1600- and 3200-meter runs (in 4:51.33 and 10:19.97, respectively), sophomores Sahil Deschenes and Dennarius Murphy finished 1-2 in the 800, and junior Desmond Williams ran a 45.71 to win the 300m hurdles.

The Freedom track and field program is re-building in 2016, with head coach Lyn Gross taking over both the boys and girls squads. Gross has been the boys coach for the last five years and takes over the full team with assistant Miranda Calloway. Gross, a two-time state champion as a member of the 4×100 relay team for Suwannee High School, says he has between 50 and 60 athletes out for the start of track season.

Returners Isiah Smith, Christian Simmons, Trent Burnett and Richard Lush will be looked to help try and keep pace with their New Tampa rivals at Wharton.

Smith captured the 200 at the Wharton Quad Meet, winning in 23.21 seconds, and Xaiver Hardy (with a jump of 5 feet, 10 inches) and Demetrius Jones (5’-6”) finished 1-2 in the high jump for the top individual Patriot finishes, while the 4×100 and 4×400 relays teams also posted wins.

The Patriot boys could see some reinforcements now that the basketball team’s season ended with a loss to Bartow in the regional semifinals on Feb. 16. Gross said that he will most likely get Freedom hoops star Nasir Core out for the track team, particularly in the jumps, to help bolster the lineup.

On the girls side, Rachel Chapper will handle the jumps, and she specializes in the high jump. The junior was the only Patriot girl to win an event at the quad meet, jumping 4’-10” to win the high jump.

Sophomore middle distance runner Dana Elkalazani, who was part of Freedom’s state-qualifying 4×400 relay last season, was second in the 1600 (in a time of 5:43.58) and third in the 800 (2:32.46) at the Wharton quad meet.

Hunter’s Green Country Club’s Tennis & Athletic Center Is Getting A Makeover

In the first six weeks of 2016, none of the 300 or so clubs under the Club Corp. of America (CCA) umbrella has grown as fast or added as many new members as Hunter’s Green Country Club, says general manager Dave Taylor.

That could just be the beginning of a great story. Taylor has revealed that HGCC’s Tennis & Athletic Center (TAC), tucked just inside the main gates of the Hunter’s Green community off Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., and a few hundred yards southwest of the main clubhouse and Tom Fazio-designed golf course, is about to begin a “seven-figure renovation” that is going to do more than just put a fresh coat of paint on a facility that is starting to show its age a little bit.

“Before we’ve even done the renovations and before even any of this got out, we’ve had momentum with the club,’’ Taylor said. “We lead the entire company in member growth for the first six weeks of the year…it’s the first time Hunter’s Green has ever seen anything like that. So, that’s very good for us.”

Taylor says the TAC facelift, which follows the substantial renovations at the main clubhouse’s restaurant and bar area, known as Fazio’s Grille, will add amenities on par with some of the new housing developments (he used Estancia at Wiregrass Ranch as an example) going up in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel that offer lavish clubhouses and pools geared towards the family experience.

In addition to the 17 clay tennis courts, which aren’t included in the renovation plans, the TAC will soon boast things like a re-invented café with expanded hours and an emphasis on a quality menu, a new weight room, a new-look pool plus miniature golf and a water slide.

While you don’t have to live in Hunter’s Green to be a member of HGCC, the area within a five-mile radius continues to see growth — in much of Wesley Chapel and K-Bar Ranch in particular — thus making the market on comfort and family-friendly experiences competitive.

Taylor says the TAC’s Center Court Cafe will be completely rebuilt, with a more rustic scheme, bigger TVs, more events and better food. An outside area will be remodeled and will include a new fire pit. The pool will lose the long green awning that covers half of the deck area. They will be replaced by four individual cabanas with electricity, fans and poolside food and beverage service.

With the goal of having plenty to do for new families who can spend their weekends at the club , the kiddie pool is being replaced by a splash pad, all new furniture will line the deck and one of the highlights of the renovations — a 10-foot-high water slide with a 45-foot-long flume — will be added.

Taylor says the pool renovations should be completed by Memorial Day, where it will be unveiled for the TAC’s annual Memorial Day Bash, which he says draws the biggest crowd each year to the pool.

Next to the 25-meter junior Olympic heated pool (which is big enough that it hosts a multitude of junior and even high school swim meets), a small 6-hole miniature golf course will be built, and next to that will be an activity area with field turf for after-school campers and other on-site sports programs.

“Our membership is getting younger, and this is what they want,’’ Taylor says. “They want the splash pads and they want the water slides and they want the miniature golf. They want the ability to be able to have a café restaurant that is open with pool service so they can bring the kids and still hang out themselves.”

A former professional golfer on the PGA’s Nationwide Tour, Taylor joined Hunter’s Green in 2014 after stints as director of operations at East Lake Woodlands in Tarpon Springs and general manager at The Club at Hidden Creek in Navarre, FL. At Hidden Creek, he spearheaded the rebuilding and redesign of all 18 greens on the golf course, and at East Lake Woodlands, he helped improve service. At Hunter’s Green, he already has done similar work on the golf course and the club house.

“If you get the right employee partners, and get them happy, that carries over to the members, they start using the club more and the club is better off financially,’’ Taylor said. “If you don’t have the first two legs of the stool, the third won’t happen.”

The third leg, in this case, is the TAC.

The current café is expected to draw bigger crowds upon its completion sometime this summer. The exercise room will have all of its current equipment replaced by new more modern machines and weights. The spinning (indoor cycling) room, one of the TAC’s more popular destinations, will be re-done with all new cycles. The men’s and women’s locker rooms will get a fresh look as well, and the all-purpose room where exercise and yoga classes are held daily — the classes are included in the membership cost — also will be refinished.

Aesthetically, Taylor says the TAC will be a more welcoming facility, with a newly designed entrance, a larger pro shop and an open design with plenty to offer the family, inside and out.

“We’re providing a lifestyle,’’ says head tennis pro Allegra Campos. “It’s going to be a family-style, safe environment where everyone can get into the act.”

Taylor says he is currently going through the permitting process for the work to be done, and that he expects it all to be completed by the end of this summer.

“There’s a lot of excitement about it,’’ Taylor says. “(Some) people are still like, ‘Yeah yeah, we’ve heard it all before,’ but I tell them, ‘Look, it’s done, and it’s happening.’ We’re moving pretty quickly.”

The HGCC Tennis & Athletic Center is located at 18050 Hunters Oak Ct. For more information, visit ClubCorp.com/Clubs/Hunter-s-Green-Country-Club/Amenities/Tennis or call 973-4220. For membership information, call Ann Pereira at 973-1000, ext. 237.

Wiregrass Ranch Tennis Team Looking For 3rd Straight State Title

The spring sports season — which includes baseball, softball, track & field and tennis — is upon us, and with it comes one burning question:

Can the Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) boys tennis team, which had just one senior while winning the State Class 4A Championship last season, do it again?

The answer is not as easy as you might think.

Coach Dave Wilson’s best player and No. 1 singles player, Agie Moreno, has transferred to a tennis academy, and has taken junior brother Daniel with him. The team’s No. 2 singles player, Foresight Okungbowa, has graduated and now plays for Florida Tech in Melbourne. And Wilson’s No. 3 player, Alejandro Feliciano, moved back to California for his senior season.

So, instead of returning his entire state championship squad, as he had hoped after capturing the State title last April, Wilson returns hardly any of it.

That doesn’t mean, however, that he thinks his two-time defending state champs can’t make it three in a row this season.

The only Tampa Bay schools to ever win three straight boys tennis state championships are St. Petersburg Lakewood (1973-75) and New Tampa’s Paul R. Wharton High (2008-10).

WRH also won a “National Championship”last year — the DecoTurf High School Tennis Championships in Chattanooga, TN — beating the two-time defending champions from Illinois in the semifinals, and a team from Memphis in the final.

“To be honest with you, we have a shot at going back to the state tournament,’’ says Wilson, who is also the school’s athletic director and boys soccer coach. “Whether or not we can win state again depends on whether or not we can get the right people in the right spots.”

One of those right people would be junior Noah Makarome, one of the state’s top-rated players. A busy tournament schedule has kept Makarome, who is considered a blue chip, 5-Star college recruit, from competing for the Bulls in the past, but Wilson said the door is always open if Makarome thinks he can fit high school tennis into his schedule.

Makarome’s addition alone would make WRH one of the favorites to win the Class 4A title.

“I think it has sort of been left up to Noah,’’ Wilson says. “If he wants to, he can play, but he has a busy (junior) tournament schedule and I understand that completely. The door’s been open for him. If he has the interest or the time, we’d love to have him.”

Without him, Wilson says the team still has enough talent to keep it’s current run — which includes an 89-1 record in Pasco County matches the past 10 years — going for another year.

The Bulls will rely on senior and 3-star recruit Sebastian Castillo-Sanchez, who is undefeated the past two seasons and won the No. 4 singles State championship last year, and will move up to No. 1 for the Bulls this season.

At No. 2, promising freshman Destiny Okungbowa takes over.

Okungbowa’s brothers, Courage (now playing at Florida A&M in Tallahassee) and Foresight (Florida Tech) have been WRH standouts in the past, and sister Precious is the No. 1 player for the WRH girls team this season.

“At this stage, he is so much bigger and stronger than his brothers were,’’ Wilson says of Destiny Okungbowa.

While Wilson’s team lost a lot, it did gain Jared Abrams, a junior transfer from the Naples Tennis Academy, who will play at No. 3 singles.

Senior Lorcan Cavanaugh, who was the No. 6 player for the Bulls last season, will move up to No. 4, and junior Miles Caesar will fit in at No. 5.

Wilson, who led the WRH boys soccer team to a 21-3-3 record this season, said four players from that team have also come out to play tennis. In all, 16 players tried out, which Wilson attributes to the program’s heady success in recent years.

“It definitely helps,’’ Wilson said. “All of our kids at school know how good the tennis program has been. There’s actually interest in tennis, I guess, after you win two straight state titles, and last year we won a national title, so they want to know, how do I become part of that? I don’t know if we are even close to being at the capability of last year’s team, but I know everyone wants to be part of it if we could.”

The spring sports season is in full swing. Some upcoming games to check out involving local teams:

Feb. 12: Wharton at WRH baseball & softball, 7 p.m.

Feb. 22: WRH softball at Wesley Chapel High (WCH), 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 26: Wiregrass Ranch Track & Field Invitational, 3:30 p.m.

March 1: WRH tennis at WCH, 3:15 p.m.

Freedom Boys Basketball Faces Tough Road To Defend District Title

By Andy Warrener

Riding the wave of back-to-back District championships, the Freedom High Patriots boys basketball team finds themselves facing an uphill battle starting tonight in what is arguably the toughest district in Tampa if they hope to win another crown.

“When I got here (to Freedom) five years ago, Sickles, Chamberlain and Wiregrass Ranch were all pretty good,” Pats head coach Cedric Smith says. “But then, Wharton went up to (Class) 8A.”

This season, the Wildcats (20-4, 12-2) moved back down to Class 7A, and they have locked up the second seed in the Class 7A, District 8 tournament, where they will host the semifinals and finals.

Freedom is (19-5, 11-3) is seeded third, and will host Gaither tonight at 7 p.m.

Because the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) won’t be altering districts again until 2019, the Patriots need to get used to the stiffer opposition and tougher-to-win league titles.

“We’re excited for the competition,” Smith says. “We want to play the best teams, we want to beat the best teams.”

Freedom split the two-game regular season series with the ‘Cats and it’s almost an inevitability that the two New Tampa schools will face off in the District 7A-8 semifinals at Wharton, making for a potentially incredible evening. The previous two meetings between the schools have not disappointed, as both were close contests settled in the final quarter and with large crowds in the stands.

The No. 1-seed is Sickles, 23-2 and winners of eight straight games.

“Sickles has a good crowd and they’re playing so well right now,” Smith says. “This is the year they think they are going to get through Regionals to Lakeland.”

Smith is well aware of the task in front of him and his team.

“It’s nerve-wracking but I’m a competitive guy,” Smith says. “I want to have to play two of the best teams in the county (to advance in the District playoffs).”

Smith, being the newest of the three coaches, says he has gleaned a great deal from both coach Renaldo Garcia of Sickles and Wharton’s Tommy Tonelli.

“We try to model our success on what those guys have done,” Smith says. “I have the greatest respect for those guys as coaches and I try to model my program after them.”

Smith might be the new kid on the block compared to his district rivals but the Patriots have been red-hot, winning 11 straight until a 57-56 loss to Riverview in last week’s season finale. A Dec. 18 win against Wharton kicked off the big run.

The Pats trailed 22-9 at the half before rallying to a 54-49 victory in their own gym. Since that near loss, the Patriots added 10 more wins, all by double-digits and with an average victory margin of 21 points, including a 60-41 victory over State championship contender St. Petersburg Gibbs (20-2 at the time).

A big part of both that comeback against Wharton and the current streak has been the play of senior point guard Nasir Core.

“He (Core) has always been a big factor,” Smith says, “but this year, he’s got higher numbers and we’re asking him to do more. He brings leadership to the point guard position, and is like another coach on the floor; he’s been a big impact for us.”

Core, one of Freedom’s three co-captains, had a team-high 16 points in the game against Wharton, and he averages just under 10 points a game this season. Core also is pulling down 3.2 rebounds per game and leads the team in assists-per-game with 2.7.

“We’ve gotten to the point where Nasir is a big part of what we do,” Smith said.

Core certainly doesn’t do it alone. Forward and co-captain Sheldon Odunna is the team’s leading scorer (15.7 per game). Guards Chase Creasy and Alexander Oguinn make key contributions for the Patriots, too.

“We usually know what we’re going to get from Nasir and Sheldon,” Smith said. “When those others come on and the light bulb goes on, we’re a tough team to beat.”

The Pats will need all hands on deck as they wrap up the regular season this week and get set for a minefield of a District tournament beginning tonight.

Crawford’s Turnaround Sparking Wharton’s Boys Hoops Success

Josiah Crawford, a 6-foot-3 senior forward at Paul R. Wharton High in New Tampa, has improved his scoring average this season, and improved his rebounding totals as well.

Crawford’s numbers, however, while impressive, don’t tell the most important part of his story.

Coach Tommy Tonelli does.

Tonelli describes Crawford in glowing terms like “respectful, committed and determined” to describe a player he says has grown into “a great teammate.”

The long-time Wharton boys basketball coach has not only been impressed with Crawford’s turnaround as a basketball player, but moved by his turnaround as a person.

“In all my years of coaching, I have never seen a greater transformation,’’ says Tonelli, now in his 17th year of running Wharton’s successful hoops program, of his talented swingman.

Crawford, who can basically play every position on the floor, is a big part of the reason why the Wildcats ave notched their seventh straight 20-win season and head into tonight’s Class 7A, District 8 tournament at Wharton as the No. 2 seed and winners of seven straight. He is averaging team-highs in points (16.8) and rebounds (8.7) and has been a leader on the court.

Crawford says his journey to arrive at that court, however, required overcoming some self-inflicted obstacles.

As a freshman, Crawford decided he didn’t want to play basketball for the Wildcats, despite being a talented hoopster in AAU and at pick-up games at the nearby L.A. Fitness on County Line Rd.

“I was just messing around, I didn’t want to go to practices,” Crawford says. “I was just lazy. I would just go home and hang out.”

For some of the Wildcats, many of them his friends, that was unacceptable. They told him he needed to be on the court, that he was wasting his talent.

They told Tonelli, too. The coach, however, told his players that if Crawford wanted to come out for the team, he needed to stop by his office and ask.

When Crawford finally stopped by towards the end of his freshman year, Tonelli says, he still had a hint of an attitude problem. “I remember he walked in, and he was Mr. Cool,’’ Tonelli says. “He said, ‘You wanted to see me?’ I told him no.”

The message from Tonelli was simple — if you want to play, come earn your way onto the team.

That summer, Crawford did just that, competing in summer leagues with Wharton. “He was like a wild colt,’’ Tonelli says.

Crawford was a standout during the junior varsity summer league at Berkeley Prep in the Westshore area of Tampa, opening Tonelli’s eyes. While the coach had never seen him play prior to him coming out for the basketball team, his players told him that Crawford needed to be on the Wharton roster.

“He showed some real talent, and that carried right over into fall workouts,’’ Tonelli says.

However, during his freshman year, Crawford was not only not playing basketball, he wasn’t performing well in the classroom either. Tonelli described him as a “knucklehead.” As a result, he was ineligible for most of the basketball season his sophomore year, despite his super summer.

“I was disappointed in myself,’’ Crawford recalls. “If I would have played basketball my freshman year, coach would not have let my grades be the way they were.”

It was during this time, Tonelli surmises, that Crawford began changing, accepting responsibility, working hard and growing into the young man he is now. Even knowing he wasn’t going to be able to play, Crawford showed up every day to practice with the ‘Cats. He came to every game. He helped with water and the towels, and became a better student in the classroom.

In other words, Tonelli says, “He worked his butt off.”

Crawford regained his eligibility in time to play the final two games for Wharton’s JV team, and has never looked back since.

That summer, Crawford, who also stars in the 400- and 800-meter runs for the Wharton track team, took off. Playing on an AAU team with players from Wharton and Jesuit, his game improved every day. Last year, as a junior, he started every game for the ‘Cats and, for the first time, he actually made the honor roll in school.

This year, he has been one of the best players not only on the Wildcats but in District 7A-8, where he ranks third in scoring and second in rebounding.

“My jump shooting has gotten better, my rebounding is better,” Crawford says. “I’d just say that all around I think I’ve gotten better.’’

Two Saturdays ago, Crawford was named the game MVP in a 63-46 win against Clearwater at a tournament in Seminole. It’s been like that all year, Tonelli says. The player he describes as a one-time knucklehead continues to make every hustle play, shining both on the court and in the classroom.

“What really moves me is the way he has given appreciation and thanks for all the people who brought him along this far,’’ Tonelli says. “It’s really a nice thing to see.”

Boys Class 7A-8 District

Basketball Tourney Schedule
Feb. 2: Leto at Wharton, 7 p.m.; Gaither at Freedom, 7 p.m. (Note: Higher seed teams host first round games; the rest are played at one site.)

Feb. 3: at Wharton; District Semifinals at 6 and 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 5: at Wharton; District Championship at 7 p.m.