Freedom’s Megan Clark Determined To Be The Best

Freedom senior Megan Clark scores two of her game-high 26 in the Patriots’ 78-0 win over Leto.

Basketball is always on the mind of Freedom High guard Megan Clark. It occupies her thoughts, her dreams, virtually every hour of her life, awake or asleep. She’s just as intense in a hard-fought, cross-town rivalry game against Wharton as she is in a 78-0 blowout of Leto (see story, next page).

“She never takes a play off, she will not take a play off,” Patriots head coach Laurie Pacholke says. “She goes 32 minutes, all out. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. She’s put herself in shape to go all out for 32 minutes.”

The level of dedication Clark exhibits is uncommon.

“People don’t realize that those are the little things that will help you be successful at the next level,” Pacholke says.

Clark’s level of dedication can be chalked up as obsession.

She wakes up before dawn, most days of the week, to hit the New Tampa YMCA for a 5 a.m. shoot around and practice session. She is almost always the first player to arrive at team practice, and the last to leave.

“She bought the WNBA TV package with her own money, if that doesn’t tell you something,” Pacholke says. “She just has a love for the game. I’ve seen that growth in her (more than in any other player) over the years.”

It wasn’t always that way for Clark.

In sixth grade, while at Liberty Middle School, she decided to try out for every sport she could, just to get an idea of what she liked. She played youth soccer but stepped up to track, volleyball, soccer and basketball that year. “I was bad, awful at basketball in middle school,” Clark said. “I just really liked playing it and thought I’d get better at it.”

And yes, she did.

Clark made the Freedom varsity team her freshman year, a significant feat considering the Patriots the year before made the State semifinals.

Pacholke remembers Clark coming to a game with her father and the post-game discussion revolved around how Clark might see the floor by her junior year.

Clark sped up her coach’s timetable. If she wasn’t at the YMCA in the morning, she was draining buckets at the local outdoor court in Tampa Palms’ Compton Park neighborhood.

When she stayed until the lights went out, she’d come home and shoot at the hoop in her driveway. She not only made the varsity team her freshman year, she scored 18 points in the third game that season.

“She’s a student of the game,” Pacholke says. “She has passion, athletic ability and that really sets her up. I knew then (after the 18-point game) that in her four years at Freedom, her growth was going to be even greater.”

Clark went from averaging 7.3 points per game as a freshman, to 9.7 as a sophomore, 14.7 as a junior and as of the Leto game, she’s averaging 23.6 points per game, third-best in Class 8A, this season.

“I’d say that in a span of four years, Megan has probably improved more than any other kid I’ve coached,” Pacholke says.

Playing At The Next Level

The hard work and dedication have paid off. Clark went to a summer camp at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville. There, she said that she had one of the best camps of her life and that she loved the facility, the players and the coaches.

She came away from that 2016 camp with her heart set on where she wanted to continue her career. The call came a week later. Clarke was taking a walk in her neighborhood when the phone rang. She recognized the number — because she had saved it in her cell phone— it was Tennessee Tech head coach Kim Rosamond.

“I knew it was Coach Rosamond,” Clark says. “She told me pretty quickly in the conversation that they wanted to offer me a scholarship and I (verbally) committed right there.”

Clark signed her letter of intent this past November and entered into a final phase of her prep career, one that few high school athletes get to enjoy.

“Those few months after a player has signed are really the first time in their lives they are playing for fun,” Pacholke says. “When you find the right place (to go to college), you’re going to know, and I don’t think Megan could have found a better fit than Tennessee Tech.”

Rosamond and Clark should develop nicely together. The current season is Rosamond’s first as head coach of the Division I program, which competes in the Ohio Valley Conference and is 6-12 overall. Clark is Rosamond’s first recruit.

With Clark’s team-first mentality and dogged determination, the future is bright for both athlete and program.

“If she (Clark) improved that much over the four years here at Freedom, I can only imagine how much she’ll improve over four years with a collegiate program,” Pacholke says.

78-0? Really?

Pacholke found herself in an unusual position during a game on Jan. 17 against Leto.

She was rooting for the Falcons to score a basket. Any basket.

Alas, it did not happen.

Final score: Freedom 78, Leto 0.

That is not a typo.

“I felt bad,’’ said Pacholke, who has coached in her fair share of routs in her eight years at Freedom, but last week’s shutout was a first.

“We were saying ‘Please shot go in, please shot go in, please shot go in’ in the fourth quarter,’’ Pacholke said. “We wanted them to get on the board. We definitely weren’t playing for a shutout.”

Pacholke said she was able, however, to use the game as a teaching moment for her players, who she felt had given up late in their previous game, a loss to Plant.

Leto may not have scored, but they kept coming.

“They had fight in them,’’ Pacholke said. “I think a lot of times that gets lost, but those kids, they never gave up.”

Leto has had a rough time of it against New Tampa teams. The Falcons previous worst loss was a 50-1 defeat against Wharton on Jan. 4.

“It’s such a tough situation,’’ Pacholke said. “Do you just stop playing? Do you not play? I look at it from my perspective, and I’m a very competitive person, so if I’m in that kind of situation, I’d be insulted if the other team just stopped playing.”

In retrospect, Pacholke says she wishes she had called up some junior varsity players for the game, but didn’t think of it.

But, she says she played her starters as little as she could with her small roster, and the team did not press or run the ball up the floor on every possession.

And, while it was the first time one of  her teams ever shut out an opponent, she says she hopes it is the last.

The Legacy At Highwoods Preserve Provides Quality Care For Your Loved Ones

The Legacy at Highwoods Preserve has been open since the summer of 2015, offering top-quality assisted living and memory care in New Tampa, less than two miles off Bruce B. Downs Blvd. on Highwoods Preserve Pkwy.

It is now both owned and managed by PinPoint Commercial, based in Houston. PinPoint was the community’s original developer, and recently established its own company to manage The Legacy and its other properties, called LifeWell Senior Living.

The Legacy at Highwoods Preserve offers spacious rooms, an extensive array of facilities and amenities, expansive views over a nature preserve outside and even a putting green at the center of one of the facility’s courtyards.

With 82 private suites and a license to house up to 88 residents, The Legacy offers five floor plans, from 330-sq.-ft. studios to 525-sq.-ft. deluxe suites. There are 60 suites for assisted living, as well 22 suites in the secured memory care wing of the building.

As part of The Legacy’s all-inclusive package, residents are served three meals a day at the Palm Pavilion, with menus and fine linens. They also can grab a snack from the Key Lime Bistro any time of the day or night. There’s even a sports bar, a private dining room that can be reserved for visiting family, a full-service salon, game room, theater, library, grand piano and fitness center.

Residents’ medical needs are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), with oversight from Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs).

And, it’s not just the building itself that community relations directors Lilly Gonzalez and Taylor Penvose want you to know about The Legacy, however. They really want to share how The Legacy at Highwoods Preserve helps seniors live a, “connected, active, safe, and purposeful life,” which is the philosophy of LifeWell Senior Living.

“We’re not a nursing home or a cold facility,” says Lilly. “We’re truly a community.”

For example, the residents have frequent outings to locations such as the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa. “They have weekly lunches at Ruby Tuesday or Burger 21, or even Bahama Breeze on the (Courtney Campbell) Causeway,” says Lilly. “Recently, they went to visit Tarpon Springs and the residents couldn’t wait to go put their feet in the sand.”

She says another favorite activity among residents is dominoes with The Legacy’s executive director, Janis Stovall. “Our residents love dominoes with Janis,” says Lilly. She adds that Janis is one of the reasons The Legacy is unlike any other assisted living facility.

“She’s truly a resident advocate who is always looking to connect one-on-one with our residents,” Lilly says.

Making Residents Feel At Home

Lilly and Taylor also explain that the building has been designed to encourage interaction among the residents. “Each suite is private, but the whole building is home,” explains Lilly. “Our common areas are very purpose-driven, because we don’t want residents isolated in their rooms.”

The staff is intentional about extending its community to the residents’ families, too. There’s an air hockey table that kids enjoy, for example, or families can bring a movie to watch together in the theater room.

Marsha Wolf, a Cory Lake Isles resident whose husband Harvey moved into a memory care residence at The Legacy this summer, says the community feels like a family to her. “Everyone here does everything,” says Marsha. “If someone needs help, they all work together. Janis is just the best and goes out of her way to do things to accommodate the residents. I’m thankful I found a place that I feel like he’s safe and I don’t have to worry.”

Hunter’s Green resident Constance Salters moved her great aunt, Ruby Smith, into The Legacy last March. She agrees with Marsha that her aunt has been well cared for at The Legacy.

Constance says Ruby had been at another care facility, where she had a fall, and ended up in the hospital, then rehab. That’s when Constance decided to move her closer to home.

“When she came in, she was using a feeding tube and wheelchair,” explains Constance. “Now she’s up, and thinks she runs the place.”

Constance says The Legacy has given her peace of mind.

“I don’t have to worry about her,” she says. “The staff communicates with me very well, gives me lots of updates, and there are tons of activities so she’s always entertained. They even text me pictures of her dancing, so I feel included in what she’s doing.”

Constance says The Legacy feels like one big family. “She’s home, and I feel totally comfortable that I don’t have to do surprise visits or monitor her. Everyone treats the residents like their own family. I definitely recommend it.”

Using Technology

The Legacy incorporates the latest technological advances to offer its residents the best in health and safety, such as QuietCare technology. “QuietCare allows us to be proactive, instead of reactive,” says Taylor. The technology uses motion and heat sensors, combined with software analytics, to learn the behaviors and patterns of residents. If something is out of character — such as a resident getting up more often at night, or maybe staying in the bathroom an unusually long time — the system alerts the care staff so they can check on them.

Every resident wears a radio-frequency ID wristband that provides access to their private suite. The wristbands also are used in the fitness center, where residents can use state-of-the-art equipment, designed especially for seniors, to alert the machines to the user’s preferences and goals. With no weights or chains to struggle with, this equipment minimizes falls and injuries, and the wristband technology tracks the workout.

“If a doctor is concerned that a patient needs to exercise more, we can actually give the resident a printout of all of their workouts to show the doctor,” Taylor says.

Residents also wear a pendant that can alert caregivers on staff instantly, plus there are pull cords in every bedroom and bathroom. “Our staff is held accountable for how quickly they respond when they receive an alert,” says Lilly.

Anyone entering the building, whether they are family members, third party providers or doctors, is checked out by Accushield, a digital sign-in kiosk that verifies providers’ credentials, time spent in the building, and even criminal and health backgrounds.

Respite Care, Too

For people who are providing care to loved ones at home and may need a break, The Legacy at Highwoods Preserve also offers respite care.

“If you’re taking care of a loved one and need time to go to a wedding or graduation or family vacation, we have one residence available in both assisted living and memory care for this purpose,” Lilly says. There is a minimum stay of seven days, where the person you care for will have access to all of the community’s amenities and activities. “It’s like your loved one gets a vacation, as well,” Lilly adds. “If you think, ‘I want to go away, but I can’t,’ we’ll help you make that happen.”

The Legacy at Highwoods Preserve is located at 18600 Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. For info, call 375-9858, see the ad on pg. 38 or visit LegacyatHighwoodsPreserve.com. Walk-ins are welcome seven days a week, from 9 a.m.–5 p.m., but appointments are preferred for tours.

Nearly 500 New Tampa Students To Lose ‘Courtesy Busing’ Next School Year

Starting next school year, Alex Evison, center, and the other kids in his Cross Creek neighborhood will no longer have a bus to ride to school. His mom, Lisa, says most of these kids’ parents can’t drive their kids to school because the hours fall within the work day and the walk isn’t safe.

In December, the Hillsborough County School Board voted to end what they call “courtesy busing” for middle and high school students who live within two miles of their respective schools.

In New Tampa, this will affect nearly 500 students, mostly at Louis Benito Middle School and Paul R. Wharton High School, where more than 400 students will no longer have bus transportation provided (see chart). At other New Tampa schools combined, including Freedom High, Liberty Middle, and Tuner/Bartels K-8, another 50 students are affected.

According to records made available by the School Board, Benito currently provides bus transportation to 629 of the 1,058 students who attend school there. Of those students, 265 will not have bus transportation starting with the 2017-18 school year, because they live within two miles of the school.

“Courtesy busing was not supposed to be a permanent thing,” explains school district spokesperson Tanya Arja. “It was designed for temporary uses, such as road hazards during construction, and there should have been a process to remove it when those factors were gone.”

She explains that the majority of students throughout Hillsborough County are responsible for their own transportation to and from school, saying that of 214,000 students countywide, only 90,000 are bused.

Arja also says the decision was made in December to give parents plenty of time to plan for next school year, such as by arranging carpools or their work schedules.

For some local parents, the decision is upsetting. Lisa Evison, who lives in Cross Creek, is trying to rally parents to object to the decision, as other communities — such as Lutz and FishHawk Ranch in south Hillsborough County — have done.

Evison says with the never ending traffic, potential child predators and other dangers, she doesn’t feel that it’s safe for her seventh grade son, Alex, to walk to Benito from her neighborhood in Cross Creek, nearly two miles away. “The Tampa Bay area as a whole has a horrendous — and deserved — reputation for pedestrian fatalities,” she says. “How many kids have to die walking to school before we say it’s enough?”

Statistics compiled by the Tampa Bay Times show that in 2016, there were 39 pedestrian fatalities in Hillsborough County, and another 12 bicycle fatalities. This is down from a record year in 2015, where there were a combined 59 fatalities.

In 2012, Evison says she was riding a bike in front of Benito and a car made a right turn on red and hit her.

“I’m an adult, I have a light on my bike, and he drove over me and didn’t see me. People are distracted, in a rush, and not paying attention. I see it all the time! I don’t know why I would expose my children to that — never mind the long walk with his 22-pound backpack.”

The principals at both Benito and Wharton say it remains to be seen exactly what the impact on schools will be.

“We already have families who have busing available to them who don’t take advantage of it because they would rather drop their kid off at 7:00 than have them catch the bus at 6:30,” says Wharton principal Brad Woods. He says he’s in close contact with the county transportation department to closely monitor the construction on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., as the road is being expanded from four to six lanes.

“If Bruce B. Downs meets the state statutes for hazardous road conditions, they would have to put the transportation back,” he says.

Meanwhile, Benito principal John Sanders says the school is preparing for an increase in the number of students walking and biking to school.

“My primary concern is the intersection of Kinnan St. and Cross Creek Blvd.,” says Sanders. “We’ll do everything we can to make that intersection safer for our families. We’ve requested a crossing guard, we will ask our school resource officer to be at that intersection and we will educate our kids to cross the road safely.”

Affected students recently received a letter from the school board explaining the cuts and providing a “Parent/Guardian Hazardous Walking Concern Review Request” for any parent who feels that the walking path for their child is unsafe.

Arja says community meetings will be planned to help connect parents to resources for carpooling and safe walking and biking, including HART, TBARTA, Safe Routes to School, and St. Joseph’s Hospital. Woods says one such meeting is expected to be held at Wharton, but no date had been set at our press time.

Evison also has a child at Hunter’s Green Elementary and is concerned about the future, as the School Board is expected to cut courtesy busing to elementary schools for the following school year, 2018-19.

Evison says parents who want to ask the Board to reconsider their decision should join a Facebook group started by FishHawk-area parents called “Safe Bus For Us.” Evison was part of a group of parents who attended the last school board meeting to express their concerns about ending the program.

Additional information from Hillsborough County Public Schools can be found online at SDHC.k12.fl.us/doc/1787/courtesybusinformation.

Macy’s Store In The Shops At Wiregrass Mall Will Remain Open

Macy’s has announced that it will be closing 68 store sin 2017, but the good news is, one of them won’t be ours.

The department store chain, which announced in August that it would be closing 100 of its 700 stores by next year, announced 68 of its store closings and the Macy’s location at the Shops at Wiregrass mall was not on the list.

That’s good news, says Shops at Wiregrass general manager Greg Lenners.

“Having a Macy’s, it basically rounds out the selection of stores that we have and it’s a great anchor to have,’’ Lenners says.

When Macy’s announced its potential closings last year, Morningstar Credit Ratings identified 28 locations that had sales below the company’s national average for 2014, the most recent year information was available, putting them at higher risk.

The Wiregrass Macy’s was No. 8 on that list, reporting $118 in sales per sq. ft. The average for Macy’s overall in 2014 was $169 per sq. ft.

The other Florida store on the Morningstar Credit Ratings list was the Lakeland Square Mall location. That location did not survive and will close this spring.

Lenners says that despite the report, he never thought the location at his mall would be axed.

“We always anticipated it wouldn’t close,’’ he says. “We are in one of the fastest-growing communities in the state. It didn’t make sense why they would close it.”

Of the 68 stores Macy’s will close, three have already been shuttered, with another 63 closings expected by the spring. The remaining two are set to close later this summer.

Lenners says he is pleased Macy’s, whose storefront faces the center – and, probably, busiest — section of the mall, is staying open. He says the store’s selection, as well as the selection at the other anchors, JC Penney and Dillard’s, fits the local shopping demographic perfectly.

Big-name anchors are generally considered vital to a mall’s success, and the loss of one can sometimes be a hint of a downward spiral.

Lenners, however, points to some recent and planned openings that show the mall is still growing and going strong.

A few months ago, PhoLicious, a Vietnamese noodle soup café, opened, and on Jan. 8, Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt debuted.

By the time this issue arrives in your mailbox, the Chinese stir-fry kitchen Wok Chi, located near the Barnes & Noble, should be open as well.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Irish 31 is still expected to open this spring, and an Avalon Spa is under construction next to Dillard’s. Lenners says the mall also recently completed a lease agreement with Noble Crust, a trendy and popular St. Petersburg restaurant that offers “Seasonal Italian with Southern Soul.”

Lenners also said the so-called “connector site” to the east of the existing Shops at Wiregrass, which will include luxury apartments, a movie theater and a green grocer, is still making it’s way through the environmental permitting process, but hopes to break ground sometime in the fall.

“There’s going to be lots of activity,’’ Lenners says.

Hetzler-Nettles Picked To Head Up New Cypress Creek Middle/High School

Carin Hetzler-Nettles, center, is the choice to head up the new high school in Wesley Chapel.

Carin Hetzler-Nettles, who is credited with helping breathe fresh life into Wesley Chapel High (WCH) since taking over as principal in 2009, is moving on to a new challenge: opening a new school right down the road.

Hetzler-Nettles has been appointed the new principal at Cypress Creek Middle-High School (below), which is scheduled to open in time for the 2017-18 school year.

Cypress Creek is located on Old Pasco Rd. The new school will have close to 2,000 students (see page 10) in grades six through 11 next year, with a large portion of those former students at WCH who will be familiar with their new principal.

Hetzler-Nettles, 42, has been a district employee since 1996. She started as a special education teacher at River Ridge Middle School in New Port Richey, taught at East Bay High in Gibsonton and then returned to Pasco County when she took a teaching job at Mitchell before receiving a promotion to assistant principal in 2004.

While at WCH, Hetzler-Nettles was named the Secondary Principal of the Year in Pasco County for 2012.