Wesley Chapel seniors celebrated their graduation on June 1 at The Grove.
As the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, the 2019-20 school year was forced to come to a premature end.
Senior year, which can be the best and sometimes most eventful year of a teenagerโs life, ended with a whimper, instead of a bang.
High school sports, proms and Grad Bashes were canceled. Yearbooks were passed out through open car windows by folks wearing masks. Graduations were postponed until August. Final goodbyes among classmates would have to wait.
As the mother of a Wiregrass Ranch High senior, and the president of the Pasco County Council PTA, Denise Nicholas found it all to be a shame. So, she decided to do something.
With the help of all the PTAs across the county, a host of volunteers and the determination to give all of Pascoโ seniors a sendoff, Nicholas and a team of helpers organized a car parade for the outgoing seniors for every school in the county.
โI brought the idea to my (PTA) board and they were very excited about it,โ Nicholas says. โAnd, we found people to help at each of the schools that do not have PTAs. The schools that do not have PTAs, we found people to help at each of those schools. We really wanted to give the same experience to every senior in the county.โ
Here in Wesley Chapel, The Grove shopping center enthusiastically stepped up and offered a parade route in front of its shopping plaza after a few other sites declined.
Cypress Creek and Wiregrass Ranch high schools had their parades โ which featured decorated cars and large groups of friends and family cheering along the parade route โ on May 19 and 20, respectively, while Wesley Chapel Highโs parade, which was delayed by rain, was held June 1.
โObviously with the pandemic, the (way school ended) was very saddening for our students and their families,โ said Monica Ilse, Ed.D., assistant superintendent for Pasco Schools. โBut, Denise reached out and wanted to do something to provide some community support for the seniors, which we appreciate beyond words.โ
Nicholas had no shortage of volunteers to pull off the project. Pasco County Commissioners Mike Moore and Ron Oakley agreed to introduce the seniors and serve as the parade emcees, local professional photographers Jess Montgomery and Paul Gigante took pictures, Makayla Gulash (aka DJ Night Mixer) provided the music, Troy Stevenson (of Acme On The Go multimedia) also contributed video trucks at each event, and former Tampa Bay Bucs tight end (and father to a Wiregrass Ranch sophomore) Anthony Becht also donated time and services.
Ilse said the county hopes to be able to hold traditional graduations in August at the Yuengling Center on the campus of the University of South Florida, but that will depend upon the CDC and the status of the pandemic. If they canโt be held, she thinks the car parades made a nice send off.
โI took my niece to the Wiregrass Ranch one, and she had a great time,โ Ilse said. โIt was a lot of fun.โ
Nicholas said the smiling senior faces across the county helped end their final years on a happy note, which was her primary goal. โBryce (her son) thought it was a great idea, but he had no idea how much he would enjoy it,โ Nicholas says. โSeeing how his face lit up, to be able to drive in the parade and hear the horns and the cheering and see the signsโฆ.it was worth every second.โ
Kids squealed with delight upon arriving at the brand-new inclusive playground designed for those with virtually any type of disability at the Wesley Chapel District Park. There were swings and tubes and things to sit and spin on, a soft, cushioned floor to walk on and roll over and lots of bright colors.
It was all theirs.
The glee in their faces was contagious, and it was exactly the moment Pasco County Board of County Commissioners chair Mike Moore had envisioned when he first pitched the idea to the countyโs Parks and Recreation department.
The kids werenโt the only ones overwhelmed.
โIโll be honest with you, when the kids first came out here, I was watching and I had to walk away because it was a little overwhelming,โ Comm. Moore said. โI had a couple of tears in my eyes, I really did. This is a miracle.โ
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On December 4, a large gathering of overjoyed kids, dedicated caregivers and teachers, Pasco County government dignitaries and generous donors from the Wesley Chapel Rotary Club, the Lennar Foundation and AdventHealth Wesley Chapel took a few snips at the ribbon cutting, officially opening Pascoโs first-ever inclusive playground.
It was a perfectly sunny day, with a slight chill in the air. But, most everyone there had their hearts warmed by the excitement of the kids, most of whom arrived on a bus from the Exceptional Student Education (ESE) programs from John Long Middle School and Wiregrass Ranch Elementary.
โIโm having a ball,โ shouted Eric Piburn, a terminally ill 13-year-old in glasses, gloves, a knit cap and a face mask. Piburn, who needs a heart and double lung transplant, excitedly described his experience as he swung back and forth from a discย swing (that looked like an over-sized basket), the tube from his oxygen tank swaying along with him.
โIโve loved swings since I was little,โ he exclaimed. โI never ever ever ever ever ever want to leave. Ever.โ
Another Long student walked around giving everyone a hug. Others wide-eyed but trepidatiously wandered from ride to ride, looking to find something they enjoyed.
โThis is really cool,โ said Deborah Collin, assistant principal in charge of ESE services at Long. โI keep saying to myself, where can we get some of this stuff?โ
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For every 1,000 children in Pasco County, there are 85 who have some type of special needs. Countywide, the Pasco County School District says there are about 16,000 children with special needs. Collin says there are 55 children in the ESE program at her school, spread over three different classifications of disability, with five teachers and eight instructional aides.
While they have adaptive physical education for the students, it is confined to a room.
โItโs still not enough movement or variety,โ she said.
Which is why the playground is such a gamechanger for children with disabilities.
โThis is huge,โ said Barbara Hayes, a physical therapist with Pasco County Schools for 22 years. โThere arenโt a lot of areas for those children to access. You can see the smiles on their faces. This gives them an opportunity to play with children more at their developmental level. This is a wonderful thing and very well done.โ
Collin said one of her students, seventh grader Zakyla McKenzie, spends a lot of time playing with a plastic bottle. It fulfills some of her sensory needs, with its texture and the sound it makes when squeezed. But, itโs been the only exercise she usually gets each day.
At the inclusive playground, however, Zakyla was able to find something she liked more.
โShe was having such a good time on the swing, she did not want to get off,โ said Nellie Reilly, a behavioral specialist at Long who seemed as overjoyed as many of the students.
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While many area parks may be compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines, few truly meet the standards of what proponents consider to be inclusivity. To do so requires wider pathways and easier-to-navigate surfaces, activity panels that are at ground height, larger swings with more back support and sensory elements that include touch and music.
There are multiple swing sets on the playground, an inclusive spinner that allows kids in wheelchairs to have a merry-go-round experience with their friends, a tube to crawl through โ โI like to pretend Iโm a cat!โ said Eric โ and four springy chairs. The surface throughout the playground is made of rubber and, combined with the spread-out rides, allows easy access for wheelchair-bound kids to move around and interact with others.
In the spring, a butterfly garden, which will be tended to by the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, should be in full bloom.
โI didnโt see anybody that didnโt find something that worked for them,โ Collin said.
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The inclusive park is the first of its kind in Pasco County and one that Moore said he hopes to replicate in other places. It was not, however, your typical project for the county โ it was introduced, funded, approved, designed and built in less than five months, which is light speed by traditional governmental standards.
As a volunteer coach at the District Park for a variety of sports, Moore had for many years seen kids who could run fast, jump high and were able to revel in what the park had to offer.
However, he also had seen the kids who couldnโt, those relegated to the sidelines because of a disability. The park wasnโt for everyone, he realized, and he said the thought bothered him and prompted him to try and change that situation.
After a few months of research, Moore introduced the idea to Keith Wiley, Pascoโs director of Parks and Recreation, earlier this year. Wiley had been thinking similarly โ he already had been planning some special needs camps for the county.
****
To fund the project, since it wasnโt in the countyโs budget, Moore turned to the 53-member Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel โ of which he is an honorary member โ which just happened to be looking for a big project, and the club agreed to donate $50,000 for the playground.
Chris Casella, the Rotary Clubโs current president, told the ribbon-cutting ceremony crowd of roughly 100 that he was motivated by his own experiences as a kid, and the times spent at the park with friends and family.
โToday,โ he said, โthis can be a reality for so many families from this area that are going to be able to bring children to this park and have memories that will last a lifetime.โ
The Lennar Foundation, the homebuilderโs charitable arm, donated another $50,000, and Advent Health Wesley Chapel chipped in another $25,000.
In August, the county commission voted 5-0 to approve roughly $215,000 in public funding to cover the rest of the project. Ground was broken in September. The ribbon was cut in December.
It was money well spent. As the kids slowly filed back to their school bus, and the adults headed back to work, Eric Piburn continued to rock back and forth on the disc swing, still planning to never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever leave.
Wharton High is home to two of rifleryโs sharpest shooters, and both have Olympic aspirations.
When Matt Sanchez signed his college athletic scholarship papers with West Virginia University on Nov. 14, it didnโt make the nightly sports news, but it was a big deal.
It was as big as a high school football player signing a college scholarship to compete at Alabama or Ohio State. Or a basketball player signing with Kentucky or Duke.
It was history.
Sanchez and his Wharton teammate, Ben Salas, who signed with North Carolina State University in Raleigh, are believed to be the first high school kids in Tampa Bay to sign scholarships for rifle, a varsity college and Olympic sport.
While Salas is going to join a young, growing riflery program, Sanchez will be joining arguably the best shooting school in the country.
The Mountaineers have won 19 NCAA national team championships, producing 25 individual NCAA championships, 65 All-Americans and 13 Olympians.
Sanchez hopes to No. 14.
Sanchez has already made a name for himself in the world of Olympic-style shooting.
At just 17 years old, the Heritage Isles resident has spent the last year traveling the world to compete in World Cups and World Championship competitions as a member of the USA Shooting national team. Because of his age, Sanchez currently is part of the junior national team.
โMost recently, I competed in September in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the World Cup,โ says Sanchez, โand Iโve also been to Germany and Austria four times each, and Switzerland, Korea and China.โ
Sanchez participates in two types of competitions. One is smallbore, which is shooting a .22 caliber rifle in three positions โ standing, kneeling and prone.
The other is shooting an air rifle, which is a type of pellet gun, taking 60 shots while standing.
Jayme Shipley, who represented the U.S. in the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympic games, placing sixth in the 2000 Olympics in the womenโs air rifle competition, is Sanchez’s coach. A resident of Naples, she coaches a handful of high school aged precision shooters throughout the state, and Sanchez is one of her best students.
In the smallbore event, he participated in the first round of Olympic Trials in October, where he finished in 11th place. However, a second round of competition will be held next spring โto make sure they donโt get someone who just has one good day,โ Shipley says.
Only two men will make it onto the Olympic team in each event, but Shipley says Sanchez is currently in contention, and his chances are probably better to make the team in the air rifle event, where he often shoots scores that rank well among not just his teammates on the juniors, but also among the adult men.
Those trials begin December 6 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO, with a second portion of competition happening in February.
Shooting has been an event in the Olympics since the first modern games in 1896. In fact, the first medal given out at every Olympics is in shooting.
โWhen I first started working with Matt almost 5 years ago, we looked at the 2024 Olympics as a goal,โ says Shipley. โBut, heโs excelled so fast that he has a really good chance with this one.โ
* * *
Incredibly, when Sanchez attends the Olympic Trials for air rifle, he wonโt be the only Wharton High senior to compete.
Salas, a 17-year-old Live Oak Preserve resident, will compete as well.
While Salas hasnโt made the national team and didnโt compete in the Olympic trials for smallbore, he also trains with Shipley and also has his eyes on an Olympic prize someday.
Salas has only been shooting precision rifle since last October, but has progressed quickly enough to earn the opportunity to compete in the Olympic trials for air rifle.
Ben Salas (left) and Matt Sanchez
A relative newcomer, Salasโ growth as a shooter has been accelerated in part due to working alongside Sanchez, a veteran of the sport.
Sanchez began shooting with his dad when he was only 10 years old. The family lived in Orlando and went to a rifle club on weekends, just for fun. Sanchez entered a few competitions at the club, noticing that others showed up in some โweirdโ gear. He says he started to realize there were things he could improve on and excel at, so he started getting his own gear and working on his technique.
โI started to win little competitions, which led to state championships,โ he says. โBeing able to win stuff really piqued my interest.โ
At 13, Sanchez began to take the sport seriously. In 2017, his dadโs job change brought him to Wharton for the beginning of his sophomore year.
โWhen I got here, I saw they had a rifle team in NJROTC,โ says Sanchez, referring to the high schoolโs Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program. โIt gave me more time to shoot during school and made things a lot easier, training-wise.โ
His presence has transformed the schoolโs program.
โMatt has been a mentor to our whole team,โ says Chief Wayne Boknevitz, a Naval sciences instructor who also coaches the schoolโs rifle teams. โHe got our whole precision team up and running and has elevated the entire marksmanship team.โ
Boknevitz says the school previously had โsporterโ level rifle teams, but not โprecisionโ level. Sanchez worked with Boknevitz to get a team together, recruiting other students to invest in the expensive gear, while Boknevitz borrowed guns from another school.
โMatt took time from his own practice to help everyone else with form and micro-adjustments to the guns,โ explains Boknevitz. โThe knowledge he shared allowed us to go to Navy nationals last year.โ
* * *
Unlike Sanchez, Salas was first an NJROTC cadet, interested in pursuing a military career. He joined the schoolโs rifle team for fun. On the sporter team, Salas set a school record, and Boknevitz encouraged him to join the schoolโs new precision team.
At first Salas was reluctant โ he says his parents werenโt sure they wanted to spend the money on gear โ but Sanchez encouraged him, explaining that precision shooting is a sport that can actually lead to a scholarship at a university. Salas says at that point, his parents were in.
โI was hoping to get into a Division II school, but my personal records kept going up very fast in a very short period of time,โ says Salas.
He says it was earlier this year when he saw how well he was placing around peers who have been shooting much longer than him and wanted to take it a step further.
โI realized I could probably make the Olympics if I practice hard enough,โ he says. โIโm really shooting for 2024.โ
Salas is happy to give a lot of the credit to Sanchez.
โBefore he came to our school there was no precision team, so if he had gone to another school, I would have stayed on the sporter team and all of this never would have happened,โ Salas says.
For the past year, the pair have trained together before and after school at Wharton using paper targets, and at home using highly sensitive Olympic-style electronic targets.
They travel once or twice a month to a specialized range โ of which there are very few in the state and none locally โ typically going to one in south Hollywood in South Florida, where they spend seven or eight hours a day practicing their sport with Shipley.
โThe two of them together are great friends and they are great training partners,โ says Shipley. โThey push each other. Plus, theyโre both a joy to be around, just the funniest kids ever.โ
* * *
While their eyes may be temporarily set on the Olympic prize as the Trials draw near, both boys say their more immediate goal has been getting a prized college scholarship.
โMost guys who make the (Olympic) team are in their 20s and some top shooters are in their mid-30s, so you can do it for a long time and have a long career,โ explains Shipley. โWhen theyโre so young, my goal as a coach is to get them into school with a scholarship, because school is expensive, and the sport is expensive.โ
Both Wildcats hit the bullseye when it came to receiving scholarships.
Sanchez can play a hand in restoring WVU to the top of the college ranks. The Mountaineers 19 titles is No. 1 all-time, but they havenโt won one since capturing their fifth straight title 2017.
Salas will follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, who played football at NC State. He will be a big part of getting the Wolfpack on the college rifle map.
โAt first, the program was just a club,โ Ben says. โBut, they just got a new coach and sheโs really stepping up and making the program bigger and proving that NC State is a good shooting school. Iโm really happy to go there and help them.โ
There are only 30 universities that give scholarships in shooting, but none in Florida, although Shipley says USF used to have one of the best shooting teams in the country, with three Olympians.
Boknevitz says that to his knowledge, itโs the first time in Hillsborough County that any student has been signed to an NCAA shooting team and participated in signing day, taking pride that Wharton had not one, but two, students sign.
One way or another, both Wildcats have bright futures.
โIโm really excited for the Olympic trials, because Iโve seen what scores I can put up if I shoot my best,โ Salas says. โBut Iโm more excited for college because I know thatโs a guarantee.โ
New principal Tim Light will be in charge of the state-of-the-art Cypress Creek Middle School campus when it opens on Old Pasco Rd. next August. (Photo: @CypressMiddle) ๏ปฟ
Cypress Creek Middle School has its first principal, and he is a familiar face to many of the students who will help him open the school next fall.
Tim Light was most recently an assistant principal at the combined Cypress Creek Middle High School. His office will continue to be on that campus.
Lightโs appointment was approved at the Pasco School Board meeting on Oct. 1 and became official on Oct. 2.
Tim Light
โI was here when the school opened and am really thrilled to have the opportunity to take what we started here and branch into another building,โ says Light.
Light has been an assistant principal with the Pasco County School District since January 2011, serving for many years with principal Carin Hetzler-Nettles at both Cypress Creek and Wesley Chapel High. Prior to that, he taught in both Pasco and Broward counties. He holds an Educational Specialist (Ed.S.) degree in Curriculum Instruction Management and Administration, a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Educational Leadership, and a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Secondary Education Social Studies.
โI think itโs amazing,โ says Hetzler-Nettles of Lightโs new job. โHe helped me open this school. He really took part in the creation and building a foundation of Cypress Creek. In my mind, itโs truly a perfect fit.โ
While sheโs excited for the schoolโs growth, Hetzler-Nettles says sheโll miss the students, faculty and staff who are moving to the middle school adjacent to the high school campus.
โItโs bittersweet,โ she says. โItโs like losing an appendage. I really do feel that way.โ
The combined school currently has nearly 1,000 middle school students and 1,250 high school students. Rezoning to ease crowding at other local schools (see story on pg. 6) is expected to add about 600 students at each school. When the middle school opens in fall 2020, it should have somewhere around 1,600 students.
Light says the combined schoolโs assistant principals who are designated as middle school assistants will make the move with him, along with about 45 or so teachers.
โIโm ecstatic to have this opportunity,โ says Light, โcontinuing what we started here and taking it to another level over there, where we can focus solely on middle school.โ
The middle school campus is being built to host a fine arts program with a black box theatre. Students who enroll in the fine arts program at the middle school are expected to have a seamless transition into the fine arts program at Cypress Creek High, including the opportunity to take dual enrollment performance classes through Pasco Hernando State College, which is building its Instructional Performing Arts Center (IPAC) on a nearby piece of property that is adjacent to both the middle and high school.
Light says another exciting feature of the middle school allows students to take industry certification courses. For example, students in the digital media and multimedia academy will learn Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign and, at the completion of eighth grade, will take the tests that will allow them to be certified in these programs.
โAdults pay hundreds of dollars for these certifications,โ says Light, โbut these kids take them for free as a 14-year-olds.โ
He says the new campus will feel very much like an extension of the high school campus. The colors and mascot of Cypress Creek Middle High will be used at both the middle and high schools next year.
The transition should be seamless for Light as well, despite the fact that the last time he held a middle school job title was back in Broward County in 2007.
โEven though my job (history) has been as a high school assistant principal,โ says Light, โhaving a combined campus, we never looked at our staff and kids as two different levels. They are all our kids.โ
District officials are confident in Lightโs abilities, too.
โHe is a proven leader in the area with his past experiences at Wesley Chapel High School (as assistant principal) and Wiregrass Ranch High School, as teacher, coach and leader,โ says Marcy Hetzler-Nettles, assistant superintendent for middle schools.
โThe vision he laid out for the future of the middle school was crystal clear, with multiple strategies to engage and ensure student success,โ she continues. โMr. Lightโs enthusiasm and actions embody and elevate all aspects of our district vision and mission to prepare students for success in college, career and life.โ
Chris Williams wasnโt quite sure what to expect on Oct. 7 at the public workshop for Pasco Countyโs new school boundaries expected to go into effect for the 2020-21 school year.
The director of planning services for the Pasco County School Board said that in the three weeks prior to the meeting, there had surprisingly been only 35 online inquiries about the new boundaries, so he wondered if parents were waiting to address their concerns in person.
Would the same large crowds from the contentious, lawsuit-laden 2016 rezoning meetings come streaming through the doors of the Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) gymnasium? Would an angry mob be on hand to confront county planners who were there to answer questions? Would they be carrying pitchforks?
The answers? No, no and no.
It was, in fact, a surprisingly muted showing of roughly 50 parents over three hours, the energy muzzled by the emptiness of the high schoolโs large gymnasium.
โBased on some feedback, I expected more,โ Williams said. โBut, I didnโt expect this.โ
There were 12 tables set up, with District staff manning many of them to answer questions about the new school zones, which will have the greatest effect on students living in Seven Oaks.
While current WRH juniors and John Long Middle School seventh graders will be allowed to stay next year to finish at the schools where they started, most everyone else in Seven Oaks is headed to Cypress Creek High and Cypress Creek Middle, if the boundaries are approved, as expected.
When Mica and David Rice decided to relocate from Orange County in New York to Tampa Bay, they say that the right school for their son, an incoming freshman, played the biggest role.
In the summer of 2018, after strongly considering Steinbrenner High in Lutz, the Rices made what they thought was the right decision โ they chose WRH, and bought a home in Seven Oaks.
Two weeks after closing on their new home, Mica found out her sonโs stay at WRH was likely to be a short one, as the Seven Oaks community would in the crosshairs of rezoning in 2019.
โI saw it on Facebook, and I was shocked,โ Mica says. โWe did a yearโs worth of research before deciding to move here, and did not know.โ
The Rices were clearly disappointed that their son will not only have to attend a new school, but one further away from home. Mika says her 7-minute ride to school will now be a 20-minute ride.
โWe donโt want to leave (Wiregrass Ranch),โ she says.
However, there is little choice. Most of the parents who visited the public workshop seemed disappointed but resigned to the fact their children โ whether at WRH or Long โ would be attending Cypress Creek High and/or the new Cypress Creek Middle School, which is currently under construction, next year.
โIโm getting pushback, but not a lot of it,โ Williams said. โThe impression is that certainly people are not happy, but they are kind of resigned to the fact. Most knew this day was coming.โ
To drive that point home, Williams came armed with a newspaper article from 2016, where Pasco School Superintendent Kurt Browning specifically told the Seven Oaks community that while they were spared in the 2016 rezoning, they likely would be moving the next time around.
Cypress Creek High principal Caryn Hetzler-Nettle and new Cypress Creek Middle School principal Timothy Light (see story, pg. 30) had a table at the public forum with the hopes of assuaging any of the concerns of parents whose kids would be attending their schools next year.
Hetzler-Nettles said the process โ which eliminated committees arguing over where to draw the boundaries and let the county planners handle it this time around โ also seemed to do away with most of the tension from the 2016 process.
Also, the fear of the unknown has been eliminated. In 2016, students were rezoned for schools that didnโt yet exist.
โItโs night and day,โ Hetzler-Nettles said. โNow that weโre established and have a brand and a vibe out there, itโs been much easier.โ
According to 2018-19 data, Wiregrass Ranch High was at 136 percent of its capacity.
By shrinking the zone and reassigning students who live in Seven Oaks, roughly 27 percent of the student body (or 600 or so students) will head off to Cypress Creek High, which today is at only 50 percent of its capacity of 2,090 students.
Long was at 116 percent of its capacity in 2018-19, but with nearly 450 students being rezoned for Cypress Creek Middle School, it could be at 90 percent next school year.
Williams said county-wide, Pasco is only at 90-percent capacity in all of its schools, but Wesley Chapelโs schools are continuously over capacity, due to the burgeoning development.
While rezoning Seven Oaks helped Williams meet his directive, he said the county also considered including Northwood in the rezoning, but instead chose to make some minor adjustments elsewhere.
Most of the concerns Williams heard at the public forum revolved around students being able to finish at the same school at which they had started, transportation and what to do about siblings.
Williams explained that siblings of any graduating seniors will have to attend their new school, but any students currently attending Wiregrass Ranch (or Long, since itโs considered the same campus) who are siblings of a junior can likely stay but will have to apply for choice.
However, once those WRH juniors graduate in 2021, their younger siblings will have to attend the school for which they are zoned.
Also, students in any academies only offered at Wiregrass Ranch (medical, hospitality) have to apply for choice but should get to stay. Those in the business academy, however, will have to go to Cypress Creek if zoned for it, because Cypress Creek also has a business academy.
The last opportunity for the public to have its say come son Tuesday, November 5, when the School Board will host a public hearing on the proposed boundaries. The final vote is scheduled for Tuesday, November 19.
