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Wiregrass Ranch High Valedictorian Ethan Munden Headed To MIT

As many high school students approach their senior years, they choose classes they think will be fun and interesting. That’s the approach Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) Class of 2016 valedictorian Ethan Munden took, although what’s fun and interesting to him might cause other students to raise an eyebrow. His senior classes included AP calculus B/C, AP computer science, AP physics 1, AP physics 2, AP environmental science, plus honors government and economics.

“Other people might not think these classes are fun,” says Ethan. “But I do.”

By taking the most rigorous courses and earning straight As, Ethan earned his school’s top weighted GPA of 4.67.

Ethan didn’t have English on his schedule because he had taken a college-level dual enrollment English class during his junior year, “to get it out of the way.” He wanted to focus on the math and science courses that really interest him.

“Calculus is a lot of fun,” he says. “It’s interesting because there are some odd math concepts that aren’t explored that much in algebra. It’s teaching a new way of thinking.”

He says he also enjoyed chemistry, “because of its real world applications.”

Munden will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA, in the fall.

He’s not sure yet what he wants to major in, but says he is leaning toward electrical or chemical engineering. He says he’s also interested in computers and coding, and his environmental science class made him consider a professional interest in energy and alternative energy.

“I really haven’t figured it all out yet,” he admits.

Although Ethan was born in Oregon, he started kindergarten at Wesley Chapel Elementary and lived in the same house, going to local schools, his whole life. He says leaving his family and friends to go all the way to MIT is a “big jump.” In true mathematical fashion, he says he’s “50 percent excited and 50 percent nervous.”

His two older sisters are college students – one at Florida State University in Tallahassee and one at University of South Florida in Tampa. His younger sister will start high school next year.

The first three years of high school, Ethan was in band, playing saxophone and bassoon, and spun flags, rifles and sabres in the color guard. He decided to take this year off from those activities and figures when he gets to Massachusetts, he’ll be looking for new activities to pursue. When he visited MIT, he realized there are a lot of clubs and many new activities to pursue, everything from juggling to gymnastics.

This year, Ethan served as president of his school’s National Science Honor Society, and was a member of Key Club.

He says he never really focused on the goal of becoming valedictorian.

“At the beginning of high school, I thought about it, but I decided I wanted to take the classes I thought I would enjoy taking.” But, he says, “I put it a lot of work to keep up my grades and manage all the homework.”

He says he realized he could be valedictorian at the beginning of his senior year, when his friend Neil Sambhu created a computer program to estimate the GPAs of many of the school’s top students. It predicted that Ethan and Neil would be at the very top of the class, based on the classes they were taking, and assuming they earned all As.

As it turns out, Neil’s program was correct, as he is graduating as the WRH Class of 2016 salutatorian.

Ethan generally comes across as very laid back, even when talking about being named valedictorian.

“People say I’m calm and collected,” he says. “But, I’m very excited.”

When asked if he thinks being valedictorian is going to help him in the future, he had these wise words to say:

“I think what’s more important is what I’ve gained from working hard and striving for success. That’s how I got to be valedictorian, and that’s more important than the title.”

Keeping The Buzz Going About Wesley Chapel’s ‘Crystal Lagoon’

The days of housing communities in Florida being built around golf courses designed by PGA professionals could be numbered, judging by the level of excitement created by news that a Crystal Lagoon — first announced nearly two years ago — is finally ready to break ground in Wesley Chapel.

In the planning stages since an official announcement in November of 2014, the construction of the first-ever man-made lagoon in the U.S. is expected to be the knockout amenity offered by the $100-million residential development which will be called Epperson in Wesley Chapel.

Epperson, which is part of the Tampa-based Metro Development Group’s “Connected City” project that will have approximately 2,000 home sites, is located north of the Bridgewater community on Curley Rd. north of S.R. 54. Homes are already being built and Metro expects to have lots available by the fall.

There is no date yet for the completion of the lagoon, but expect it to happen sometime in 2017.

The original Epperson Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) has been dormant for years, after the original developer (Lennar Homes) sold the property to Metro in 2007, just before Pasco County’s housing market collapse.

The 8-acre (nearly 350,000 sq. ft.) lagoon was originally announced for Park Place, which has since been renamed Epperson to honor the legacy of the Epperson family, which previously owned the land.

The original plan to break ground in 2015 was held up by permitting issues, particularly approval from the Army Corps of Engineers, delaying the project.

Renderings of the lagoon show a spectacularly blue body of water large enough for kayaking, paddle boarding and small human-powered boats, with sand beaches and a recreation area. “An idyllic beach paradise,’’ says the Crystal Lagoons website.

“The Lagoon, roughly the length of five football fields, will have crystal-clear turquoise water and will be surrounded by a sandy beachfront,’’ said Kyle Parks of St. Petersburg-based B2 Communications, which does public relations for Metro, in an email.

A huge get for Wesley Chapel, Crystal Lagoons was founded in 2007 by Chilean biochemist-turned real estate developer Fernando Fischmann, who created a system based on pulses and ultra sonic filtration that can take virtually any kind of water and purify and maintain it at a low cost.

He developed the first lagoon at San Alfonso del Mar on the west coast of the South American cone. His patented system uses small sensors and injectors to treat the pool water when needed in specific areas. The system can sense when an area needs an injection of cleaner, like in the case of someone going to the bathroom in the water or spilling something into it.

Crystal Lagoons is the only company in the world with the technology, which is patented in 160 countries, and claims it currently has more than 300 projects in development in 60 countries.

According to Crystal Lagoons, its system is more efficient than a swimming pool, will use 100 times less chemicals and is 50 times more energy efficient, while consuming only 2% of the energy needed by conventional filtration systems. The lagoon uses 30 times less water than a typical 18-hole golf course.

But, where will the water come from? Any water, even salt water, can be used due to the effectiveness of the filtration system. However, for the 18 million gallons required to initially fill the lagoon, Parks said Metro is “leaning toward potable water to fill the lagoons.”

Potable water is fit for human consumption.

“Our plan is to fill the lagoon during non-peak usage times of the day,’’ Parks wrote. “In normal conditions, rainwater keeps the lagoon at its optimal level after that.”

Will I Be Able To Use It?

The lagoon will be a private amenity for the residents of the Epperson community. However, Parks says, some limited access could be provided to guests in the form of day passes or some other means.

Although pristine beaches are just a drive away, the lagoon offers clear salt- and chlorine-free water that won’t leave your eyes stinging. It will feature its own beach and will be just a short ride by golf cart or bike for Epperson residents.

“Much more convenient,’’ Parks says.

Metro expects the lagoon to be a major draw to Epperson, and its other sites. Epperson will be the first community in the U.S. to have a Crystal Lagoon, and there are also plans to build another lagoon in a new Wesley Chapel community called “Mirada” in the Cannon Ranch area just south of S.R. 52, as well as one in Southern Hillsborough County near Wimauma and another in North Ft. Myers.

For additional information about Crystal Lagoons, please visit Crystal-Lagoons.com.

Synchronized Swimmers Getting Ready For NY

Kids and adults stream in and out of the New Tampa Family YMCA in Tampa Palms, some headed for the basketball and volleyball courts, others to the activity rooms and exercise equipment. At the pool, kids learn to swim, while other more advanced swimmers churn out lap after lap under the direction of the YMCA swim team coaches.

It’s about what you might expect at any YMCA.

But, tucked away beyond that in the far end of the same 50-meter pool, there’s something you might not expect.

Amongst the din of splashing swimmers, one of the New Tampa Y’s more successful programs toils in relative peace, a group of tightly-coiffed, nose-clipped synchronized swimmers, young and old, dancing beneath the water and working together in perfect harmony.

The Tampa YMCA Synchro (TYS) team, based at the New Tampa YMCA since starting in 2004 and one of the few programs in the central part of Florida — but a regular on the state and region competition circuit — is coming of age.

“The key to a successful team is when swimmers get a taste of improvement and get a taste of excellence and the winning,’’ said 26-year-old Camille Albrecht, who started as an assistant coach in 2009 and has been head coach of the TYS program since 2013. “A lot of our younger girls saw some of the success the older girls were having, and they want those same things and they’re working harder because they already know what success looks like.”

Success is measured by competitors like 19-year-old Wesley Chapel resident Saloni Mehrah, who participated at the U.S. Nationals in Mesa, AZ, along with 13-year-old Benito Middle School student Julianna Silva.

Success also is sending synchronized swimmers to compete for a spot on the U.S. National Team, which Silva, 12-year-old New Tampa resident Katie Wieckowski and 10-year-old Jennah Hafsi, who are both homeschooled, did in Coral Springs, FL, this spring.

Success also is sending almost half your team — which qualified with top-3 finishes at Regionals — to the Junior Olympics next month, to compete against roughly 1,000 other synchronized swimmers.

Mehra and Meghan Wieckowski will compete in the 18-19 age group, and Abby Eckhardt, Kyra Okin and Zoe Keegan have qualified in the 16-17s.

Silva, Camila Acuna, Maria Pinilla-Baquero and Ariana Alonso are in the 13-15 age group, while Katie Wieckowski, Jennah Hafsi, Jennifer Lynfatt, Lilly Weber and Teghan Theile are all competing in the 12-under division.

The 14 synchronized swimmers heading to the Junior Olympics, held June 24-July 2 at the Nassau County Aquatic Center at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, NY, is the most the program has ever sent, better than the previous best of 10 swimmers last year.

Synchronized Swimmers Ice Cream Fund Raiser

In order to travel to the prestigious event, the TYS is hosting a New York-themed Ice Cream Social on Saturday, June 4, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., at the New Tampa YMCA. The synchronized swimmers will show off their latest routines and custom-made suits (that can cost $150 and more), and even the dads and brothers will get into the act as the “SyncBros” perform a routine.

The show is free to attend and the TYS and the parents will be selling ice cream, root beer floats, pizza, salad and drinks. There also will be baskets filled with prizes, and tickets to enter the drawing are just $2 each or $5 for three.

Albrecht has helped grow her team by holding two summer camps each year, to teach the finer points of her sport to younger kids. Her hope is to make synchronized swimming, which until the turn of the century was known as “water ballet,” a primary sport.

A former synchronized swimmer herself for the Tampa Bay Synch Rays, Albrecht says she started competing when she was 7.

“My mom wanted me to have a sport, and I loved to dance and I loved swimming,’’ she says. “I had already broken both my arms, so we thought that would be safe.”

Abby Eckhardt, 15, who has been on the New Tampa team for five years, started her athletic career as a gymnast, competing for three years until a neck injury sidelined her. She found her athletic outlet in the pool.

“It fell right into place for her,’’ said her mother, Amy. “It’s the perfect sport.”

“I think its challenging and I like all the friendships you make with all the girls,’’ said Abby. “We’re like a giant family.”

Many synchronized swimmers on the team come to the sport after trying swimming, gymnastics, ballet and/or dancing. In fact, synchronized swimming has always been described as a hybrid of those sports.

The daughter of former Tampa Bay Buc offensive tackle Steve Young (not be confused with the former Bucs and San Francisco 49ers quarterback of the same name), Albrecht says her girls are hard workers. While most people’s first question is always, “How do they hold their breath so long?,” Albrecht says the swimmers are as fit and strong a group as you will find.

“People don’t know how much work we do outside the pool,” she said. “The basic skillset we look for is flexibility, and then it’s strength. We do a lot of cross training, a lot of land work. You have to be strong.”

Albrecht says it takes years to perfect synchronized swimming. Mastering the solo aspect of the sport is challenging enough, but then to be able to synchronize your routine with others takes years of practice.

To get her swimmers ready, Albrecht has former SynchRay swimmers Amanda Olson and Brittany McCauley on her staff. And Lily Hu, a USF student, joined the staff after moving here from China, where she competed internationally in the sport.

For more information about the synchronized swimming program at the New Tampa Family YMCA (16221 Compton Dr. in Tampa Palms), visit TampaYMCA.org/locations/new-tampa, or call 866-9622.

Three-Alarm Fire Damages Student Housing at Saddlebrook Resort

Thanks to an alert student and some smart thinking, the only casualty of a fire at Saddlebrook Resort & Spa off S.R. 54 on June 9 was the building where the blaze started.

The fire, which never got out of the control of local firefighters that morning, caused excessive damage to one of the buildings used to house Saddlebrook Preparatory Academy golfers and tennis players, but all 28 students were able to escape unharmed, as well as 12 others that were in the building.

According to Saddlebrook general manager Pat Ciaccio, a student smelled smoke in his dorm room around 2:30 a.m. and called security before going outside of his room to pull the fire alarm. He and another student then went room to room to alert the other students.

“Each month, we do a fire drill in school, and it went just as they practiced it,’’ said Ciaccio. “Security was there within seconds. The fire department was there within minutes. It went about as good as it can go. I hope we never have to deal with one again.”

The fire is believed to have started due to a short circuit in the second-floor bathroom ceiling, Ciaccio said.

Pasco County Fire Rescue’s Shawn Whited said it took 55 firefighters to control the blaze, until all of the hot spots were extinguished around 8 a.m.

The three-alarm fire required eight fire engines and one ladder truck to extinguish, including an “aerial assault” on the fire.

The students were moved to another building. The following day was their graduation ceremony.

Saddlebrook Resort was developed in 1979 by current Chairman and CEO Tom Dempsey, and opened in 1981. Highly regarded for its posh accommodations, golf course and professional tennis players who have trained there, the resort started Saddlebrook Prep in 1992. A boarding school for budding golf and tennis professionals within the resort, Saddlebrook Prep has almost 100 students hailing from 26 different countries.

All have returned home for the summer, Ciaccio said, and those who were in the fire-damaged building will be assigned different housing in September when they return.

Ciaccio says he does not yet have a dollar amount for the damage to the two-story building — which had 16 suites with two rooms in each suite — and won’t know the cost of damages until restoration finishes the clean up and the insurance companies finish their work.

“There is going to be a pretty extensive rebuild,’’ he said, estimating that it will be at least nine months before the building can be used again.

Special Needs Teens And Adults Walk The Red Carpet At St. James’ Annual ‘Prom’

On a Saturday night last month, they got ready like anyone else would for their prom. Tuxedos were buttoned, hair was styled, nails were painted. For some in attendance, it wasn’t their first prom – but it was just as special.

St James United Methodist Church hosted its seventh annual “Red Carpet Affair” under balloons, lights and the sounds of laughter. Nearly 280 special needs adults, ranging from age 16 to 52, attended the Red Carpet Affair with their caregivers for a night of fun, food and dancing. For some, it was also a night of hope.

“Many of us graduate high school and move on to new social structures,” said Carlene Barbeau, who started volunteering with the Red Carpet Affair in 2012 because of the joy it gave her brother Matt. “But, in the special needs community, graduating high school often leads to a lack of a social world.”

Carlene says St. James hosts the Red Carpet Affair to remind our friends that they are special, beautiful in their own unique ways, and can still have a whole lot of fun in life. “Plus, the volunteers have a blast, too,” she says.

Posing for prom pictures are (l-r) Eric Thompson, Lindsay Danner, Tristan Snapp and MacKanzie Conour.

Since January, a team of ten volunteers met multiple times to make the plans to make the Red Carpet Affair a night to remember. Their goal: to make their special needs friends feel like the celebrities they know them to be.

That evening, a “Diva Room” gave women a place to have their hair styled by professional stylists, and makeup done by makeup artists. They were offered shrimp and chocolate-covered strawberries while they were given a manicure. The church’s sanctuary was transformed with light walls, balloon sculptures and floral arrangements. Live Fusion Entertainment blasted some of the most popular songs on the radio and lights spun and flashed.

As the guests arrived, they were greeted by cheers as each walked into the event on the red carpet. Two professional photographers captured smiles in portraits the guests took home as souvenirs of their evening. But, that was all only part of the magic.

Chrissy Hoerner walks down the red carpet on prom night.

Liz McCafferty, director of communications at St. James, says, “The true beauty of the night was in the spirit of community.”

She explains that a community of 120 volunteers, ages 12 to 91, gathered together to cut carrots, dance, hug and create a community for those who are sometimes forgotten. “That community is rooted in love,” Liz says. “Love for our differences and love that we all enjoy a great conga line. And a great conga line it was!”

If you would like to be part of next year’s Red Carpet Affair, or are interested in events tailored for those with special needs, please contact Sally DePalma at specialconnections@stjamestampa.org.

—Submitted to the Neighborhood News by St. James UMC