Tampa Bay Juniors Hockey Helps Local Talent Prepare for the Next Level

Head coach Garrett Strot addresses the Tampa Bay Juniors during a weekday practice session ahead of the start of the 2018-19 season. (Photo: Andy Warrener)

From hosting a myriad of tournaments to being home to the U.S. Women’s hockey team to holding a variety of top-flight camps, Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI) continues to be a Lightning rod (pun intended) for ice sports.

It also is becoming one of the centers of the youth hockey universe, able to host — and keep home — some of the most promising teenage hockey players in our area, with its highly-regarded Tampa Bay Juniors teams, which are owned by U.S. Women’s National Team coach Brett Strot and coached by his brother Garrett Strot.

“There are a lot of really strong hockey players in the greater Tampa Bay area,” Brett says. “We want to keep them here and push them to higher levels.”

The Tampa Bay Juniors might be the area’s best-kept sports secret (until now). The club’s Premier team went 30-14-0 last year, while the Elite team sported a 32-12-0 record in 2017-18.

The club is for youth hockey players, ages 16-20, and both teams participate in the United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL).

The goal is to get youth hockey players through the transition from high school to college, while offering skills refinement and scouting exposure, before the players make their decision about whether or not to try to move on to the next level.

“It’s typical (even in Canada) for youth hockey players to play one or two years (of junior hockey) after high school before they go to college,” Strot said. “These kids are looking to advance their game.”

Former Wiregrass Ranch teammates Spencer Geer (left) and Zach Parker have both been playing for the Tampa Bay Juniors ice hockey program.  (Photo: Andy Warrener)

There also are bonds to be formed. Take, for example, Wesley Chapel-area athletes and former Wiregrass Ranch High teammates Spencer Geer and Zach Parker. The pair have played in youth leagues together since they were six and seven years old. Geer was born in 1998 and Parker in 1999, so they were only on the same teams every other year, as Geer would age out of different age groups.

When they got to high school, their bond and their chemistry hit a new level.

“We make some plays where sometimes we don’t even how it works,” Parker says. “But, it just works.”

Both Parker and Geer played all four years on the mixed Wiregrass Ranch High team. They made it to the State championship game together in 2017, where Wiregrass lost to Mitchell High, which, at the time, boasted Nathan Smith, who was drafted by the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets earlier this year.

“We played against him (Smith) our whole career,” Geer said. “He is at a skill level that’s just above lots of people.”

Geer, now in his fourth and final year with the Juniors, and Parker, who is in his third, are working hard to get to that skill level.

“Juniors is very good at developing players,” Parker says. “They help you build lots of speed and their off-ice training really helps with stick handling.”

Both also currently work at FHCI, attend Pasco Hernando State College and are considering playing for USF’s club team that competes in American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division III.

A Little History…

Strot started the Tampa Bay Juniors in 2008, when he lived in Jacksonville. That team was called the Jacksonville Ice Dogs. They played two years in Jacksonville, before moving to Ellenton (Bradenton area) and then to Estero (south of Ft. Myers).

On January 21, 2017, six days before the official Grand Opening of FHCI, Strot made official the move to Wesley Chapel, as his Tampa Bay Juniors played against the Palm Beach Hawks.

Athletes in junior hockey programs are encouraged and often do take college classes here and there, but don’t usually enroll in college, so that they can retain their years of eligibility when they finally get to college. The idea is to get an athlete more exposure to college coaches and to increase their chances of getting a scholarship — or a better scholarship — than they might have already had until then.

Strot himself is a great example. While living in Minnesota, he had a few Division III offers coming out of high school. He played one year of junior hockey and wound up with multiple Division I offers, eventually suiting up for the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

“A lot of kids don’t get to that window of a strength and speed surge until they’re 17, sometimes 18,” Strot says. “And, speed is the biggest difference in the game of hockey as you go up in levels.”

A recent testament to the benefits of junior hockey is Luke Perunovich, who moved from hockey-rich Minnesota to play for the Tampa Bay Juniors. After not getting much ice time in high school, he played one year for the Juniors and is now a freshman at Division I Providence College in Providence, R.I.

“(Perunovich) is a perfect example of what juniors hockey is all about,” Strot says. “It gives players more time to develop.”

The Tampa Bay Juniors offer both Elite and Premier teams. Elite players are trying to work up to the Premier division, although there are players who play for both squads. The third division, which is not offered by Tampa Bay Juniors, is the National Collegiate Development Conference, or NCDC.

“The goal is to get there, but kids in Elite or Premier can still get to colleges,” Strot says.

Just last season, the Tampa Bay Juniors sent 12 athletes to college hockey clubs.

The USPHL Florida Showcase is set for the weekend of December 14-16 at FHCI and will pit 22 teams against each other that play a total of 48 games over the course of the weekend. For more information about the Tampa Bay Juniors, visit TampaJr.com.

Irma Who? One Year Later, Willow Is Making Happier Memories!

Willow enjoyed cutting the hair of Rays second baseman Daniel Robertson at a Cut For A Cure event at Tropicana Field during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

On the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Irma, Jennifer Newman wasn’t interested in sharing her memories from the day of the storm.

Instead, she was working on erasing them. “It was a pretty emotional week, knowing it was coming up on Sept. 8 and knowing what it meant,” the Wesley Chapel mom said.

A year ago on that date, her daughter Willow, hoping to be celebrating her third birthday, was diagnosed with leukemia.

That diagnosis created more of a storm in Willow’s life than Hurricane Irma ever could, but the two events have since become interwined. As everyone else shared remembrances on the Irma anniversary about the harrowing moments of the storm and the damage and inconveniences it caused, Jennifer, her husband Shawn Stine and Willow and her older sister Eden were at Tropicana Field celebrating Willow’s birthday while watching a Rays baseball game.

Invited because the club was recognizing September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, some of the Rays players shaved their heads to raise money for the Cut For A Cure program.

Willow giggled her way through doing the honors on Rays second baseman Daniel Robertson.

“I felt like we made some great memories that day,” Jennifer said. “I feel like we took back that day. We were super grateful to rewrite history.”

Last year at the same time, Jennifer was frantically trying to get ready for Irma, buying food and water supplies and cleaning the house. Willow ran errands with her, and the two stopped to buy Paw Patrol birthday decorations for her big day.

But, Jennifer sensed something was wrong with Willow. She was sleeping more than usual, she looked pale and she was asking to be held all the time.

Willow had a routine checkup scheduled for Monday, but with Irma set to come through on Saturday, Jennifer decided not to risk its aftermath and took Willow to the doctor in hopes of getting some antibiotics. Her doctor agreed something might be wrong, and Jennifer and Willow were sent to Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) to do some blood work.

The pathologist there delivered bad news. “I’ll never forget his face or where he was standing in the room,” Jennifer wrote on her Facebook page.

Willow was transferred to John Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg. The FHWC nurses, who gave Willow a stuffed giraffe for the trip, looked sad. With sirens blaring, she was rushed away.

After blood transfusions and more tests, doctors told Jennifer and Shawn that Willow likely had pre-b cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (pre B-ALL).

Doctors started blood transfusions immediately and vital checks every hour, and sadness set in. The All Children’s nurses, though, made sure Willow still celebrated her big day, throwing a “Frozen”-themed birthday party.

Video from the party went viral and was featured on CNN and in People magazine.

That first night, Jennifer and Shawn slept in chairs pushed up against Willow’s hospital crib.

The next morning, Saturday, with Irma bearing down, Shawn had to leave. The Howard Frankland Bridge, which connects Tampa and St. Petersburg, was being closed, and he had to get back to Eden.

That night, with a daughter newly diagnosed with cancer and separated from her husband and other daughter by a threatening hurricane, Jennifer went outside.

“The wind was picking up,” she says. “I found a bench, sat down and just started crying. It was one of the only times I let myself loose. It was a lot to handle.”

Back On Track…

But, handle it Willow has.

This past year, she spent 70 days in the hospital, had more than three dozen blood transfusions, 15 lumbar punctures (which collect samples of cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF, from the spinal column) and three major surgeries.

She has endured countless trips to the clinic for chemotherapy treatments. She takes chemo every night at home, and one night a week, she has to take nine pills. Her body has suffered from neuropathy, but at the same time, Willow has fought back.

Hurricane Irma will become an afterthought one day. But today, Jennifer says Willow is doing much better.

She is like any other child, running and jumping around, swimming and riding a bike. She is happy and engaged, and other than being poked by needles, she actually looks forward to her trips to the clinic.

“I think she’s made a lot of great strides in terms of learning how to deal with the procedures she has to go through, and we love seeing her,” said Jessica Wishnew, M.D., in a story on the John Hopkins All Children’s website. “She definitely brings a lot of energy and happiness when she comes in.”

On the one-year anniversary of the storms that swept in and changed her life, know this: the prognosis for Willow is good. Dr. Wishnew says that the cure rate for pre B-ALL is in the 90-plus percent rate.

“I know in my heart she’s going to beat this,” Jennifer says. “She’s strong, she’s a little fighter. I know she’s going to beat this.”

Willow will do her fighting with a lot of people in her corner. Just last week, someone in the community dropped by Willow’s home to leave a gift and some cookies. Those kind of things happen often. Jennifer says what were once complete strangers have become some of her closest friends.

“I just want to say, we are blessed,” she says. “We are blessed to be in Wesley Chapel, where there has been so much support. Between that and all the prayers, it has been wonderful.”

Business News: New Name For Florida Hospital, New Developments

A potential new development, to be anchored by a pharmacy, could be headed for the corner of S.R. 54 and Curley Rd.

While development proceeds in the busy S.R. 56 corridor, from Culver’s going up east of Bruce B. Downs Blvd. to Blaze Pizza and others breaking ground to the west in the hectic Cypress Creek Town Center area, representatives from Stella Management Group met with Pasco County planning officials about a new proposed retail center on the northeast corner of Curley Rd. and S.R. 54 (see photo).

According to paperwork field with the county prior to a pre-application meeting on Aug. 6, the project is named Pasco C-Center, with approximately 32,500 square feet of leasable commercial/retail space.

The Pasco C-Center, according to a conceptual plan, will have a fast food restaurant with a drive-thru, a 14,698-sq.-ft. pharmacy with 49 parking spaces, a 4,000-sq.-ft. retail building divided for three businesses, and a 5,500-sq.-ft. retail building divided for four occupants, none of which had been announced at our press time.

Another 4,000-sq.-ft. building is labeled for retail/restaurant.

The conceptual plan also proposes two entrances/exits into the Pasco C-Center, one off S.R. 54 and the other off Curley Rd.

Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC), we hardly knew ye.

Adventist Health Systems, the faith-based health care system that is the parent company of all of the Florida Hospitals, has announced that it is changing its corporate name to AdventHealth.

As a result, all of the Florida Hospitals, including FHWC, will get the name change, too, as well as a new logo (above).

On Jan. 2, 2019, Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel will become AdventHealth Wesley Chapel.

“We are transforming to be a more consumer-focused health care system to better meet the needs of those we care for and the communities we serve,” says Terry Shaw, president/CEO for Adventist Health System. “Becoming AdventHealth allows us to be a fully integrated and distinguishable health system across all aspects of the care continuum, while also speaking to our Christian healing ministry, message of wholeness and our rich Seventh-Day Adventist roots.”

The Altamonte Springs-based Adventist Health Systems, which has nearly 50 campuses across the state — including seven in the Tampa Bay area — will kick off a transition campaign in September featuring TV and print ads in various markets across the country.

Changes to signage and visual elements at hospitals and other facilities are expected to take place in January, when the AdventHealth name is fully adopted.

NAILING IT: In the new Pleasant Plaza on the south side of S.R. 54, east of BBD, Starbucks and Pizza Hut are up and running, and according to Pasco County permitting records, a Sweet Nail Spa will be next.

And, right across the street on the north side of S.R. 54, Heartland Dental is nearing completion.

 

Are You Crazy About Keto Pizza? Please Try This At Home!

The pepperoni Keto pizza from 900Âș Woodfired Pizza

From what I see on Facebook, even though I don’t “get” it personally, everyone in Wesley Chapel is completely insane about the crustless pizza being sold in our area for those who are on the Keto diet.
Yes, Keto pizza is all the rage, even though I can’t personally eat more than one small ”slice” of it, but not because it isn’t tasty. All I can tell you is that if I ate more than one slice of Keto pizza at a time, I might not go to the bathroom for the rest of the year. Just saying.

 

On the other hand, someone very near and dear to my heart is on the Keto diet, so we’ve simply had to try it at a couple of local pizza places. And, all I can tell you is that my fiancĂ©e Jannah McDonald definitely has improved on any version of it we’ve tried in our distribution area. And, best of all, this improved keto pizza is something you can make at home yourself, especially if you just happen to have a working toaster oven.

Our story begins (as so many in this publication seem to, John Cotey) at 900Âș Woodfired Pizza in the Shops at Wiregrass mall, where owner Steve Falabella became a local Facebook sensation when our mutual friend Jennifer Ames, the administrator of the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook group, posted a photo of 900Âș Woodfired’s Keto pizza.

And yes, Jannah was among the hundreds (thousands?) of locals saying “I have to try that” following Jennifer’s post.

Jannah’s finished Keto pizza.

Literally the next day, we were at 900Âș trying it out and we both agreed that although it did taste like pizza, the “crust” — a double (or triple?) layer of cheese and nothing else to “hold it together” — was not only ridiculously filling, but should also come with a warning about having to have at least a salad (or some other kind of roughage) with it or risk being bottled up like the S.R. 56 exit off I-75 during rush hour.

 

Before we ever went anywhere else to sample another store-bought Keto pizza, Jannah started working on variations of her own. And, just for the record, I do a lot more cooking in our apartment than she does, so I was so surprised at how charged up she was to cook that I became her sous chef for this adventure.

After a few efforts, Jannah came up with the recipe and procedure and, after the first time it worked to perfection (I preferred it to 900Âș Woodfired’s and Amici’s), I told her I just might have to write about it in these pages.

So, here goes.

 

Although we don’t have a fancy new convection oven or any special cooking utensils, Jannah found that making her smaller version of crustless Keto pizza worked best in our toaster oven.

The pepperoni base for Jannah’s Keto pizza. Slices of mozzarella go on top of the pepperoni. Cover the mozzarella slices with sauce. Cover the sauce layer with shredded mozzarella and pop it into the toaster oven. Bake at 450Âș F, for 7-10 minutes, or until golden brown.

She starts with a layer of the Publix-brand large-size pepperonis and puts them in the broiler for around five minutes, or until the edges get brown and curl up slightly.

One of the keys to the success of this recipe is not to burn the ‘ronis. Then, while preheating the toaster oven (on bake at 450Âș), she covers the pepperoni “crust” with a layer of single slices of Publix-brand low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella.

She then completely covers the top of the sliced cheese layer with either the tomato basil or vodka sauce from the new Cost Plus World Market, which we have found to have the fewest net carbs per serving of any store-bought brand. Although you can use your own homemade sauce, if you prefer, all I can tell you is that you Keto diet folks out there probably can’t make a sauce with fewer net carbs than World Market’s sauces (although we may have cleaned the store out of both types, because there hasn’t been any of either kind the last two times we’ve visited there).

She then covers the sauce layer with a layer of Publix shredded mozzarella and sprinklings of parmesan, and bakes it in the toaster oven for 7-10 minutes, or until all the cheese gets that golden brown hue.

It still goes against everything I loved growing up to have pizza without a New York-style crust, but hey, we still (in my opinion) have plenty of great options for that in Wesley Chapel — including not only 900Âș Woodfired, but also La Prima Pizza, NY NY Pizza, Amici’s Pizza, Best NY Pizza and PizzaMania.

Chick-Fil-A, Wawa, Aldi Update

There is no shortage of anticipation of what is coming next to Wesley Chapel, but rarely is there the level of consternation that there has been for previously reported projects involving Chick-Fil-A, Wawa and Aldi.

We’ve got one word for you: relax.

All three are still coming.

For those of you beginning to lose faith in the long-awaited Chick-Fil-A on S.R. 54, just east of Bruce B. Downs Blvd., the never-open-on-Sunday-but-always-delicious chain received its final approval for its second Wesley Chapel restaurant on July 27. While ground has been broken for a while, the constant sight of a dirt lot the past many months has been making a lot of people nervous, according to Facebook.

In between the Walgreens and Chick-Fil-A, Wawa should soon be going vertical as well. The popular gas and convenience store filed permit requests for store signs last week. With a Dunkin Donuts planned a few hundred feet to the east, and a Starbucks right across the street, we might soon be dubbing that stretch Coffee Corner.

And all you Aldi fans can let out a sigh of relief. After moving planned locations twice, the discount supermarket chain has settled on the southeast corner of S.R. 56 and Wesley Chapel Blvd., and the project is currently under review.