Congratulations to the Cypress Creek Middle/High girls soccer team, which won the Sunshine Athletic Conference East Championship.
The Cypress Creek girls soccer team played its inaugural season last year, and like you might imagine any first-year program with a first-time coach working with a roster of freshmen and sophomores would, struggled and won only three matches.
While that first season may have created modest expectations for this year, the Coyotes blew those to smithereens this past season, which they put a stamp on with a regular-season ending win over a 16-4 Wiregrass Ranch squad.
That win gave the Coyotes the county’s Sunshine Athletic Conference East championship. It is the first title, and sports trophy, for the second-year school.
“We just kept winning and the stakes kept getting higher,” says Coyotes coach Jennifer Richardson. “We were hoping to have something to put in the trophy case.”
Right now, the trophy case at Cypress Creek has a picture of the team and a ball in it. Thanks to goals from juniors Abby Murphy and Sophia Mitchell, who combined on a corner kick with two minutes left to beat the Bulls 2-1, that is about to change.
“Becoming conference champions wasn’t an expectation for us in the beginning of the season,” said Mitchell, who scored nine goals this season. “I honestly would have been happy with just a winning record. We started out our season with an 8-1 win over Gulf, and both Emily Dominguez and I had hat tricks in the game. There couldn’t have been a better season opener. After that, we just kept on winning.”
Sophia Mitchell battles for a loose ball during a game this season.
The Cypress Creek girls were 7-0 in conference games — including a 3-2 win over Wesley Chapel and the 2-1 title clincher over Wiregrass Ranch — and 13-4 overall.
It was a 3-2 win in December, over county powerhouse Land O’Lakes, which had advanced to the state final four the previous three seasons, that convinced the young Coyotes something special might be in store for this season.
“That was a tough, physical game,” Richardson said. “After that, we realized that we could really accomplish something this season.”
While expectations were low to start the season, they grew quickly, as the wins piled up and Regan Bourne (team-high 13 goals), Mitchell (9) and Dominguez (9) began to rack up goals.
The team’s success in Pasco County, however, couldn’t be duplicated elsewhere, due to the misfortune of being placed in a brutal district, Class 2A District 9, with the likes of Berkeley Prep, Academy of the Holy Names and Clearwater Central Catholic. The Coyotes lost to all three during the season by a combined 15-1 score, but took Berkeley Prep the distance in the district playoffs, falling 1-0.
Of the 17 players on the varsity roster, only three are seniors and only senior Katelyn Leavines was a starter. The Coyotes are hoping to jump out of 2A-9 and into 3A-7 with Wesley Chapel and Pasco, or even 3A-8 with Land O’Lakes and Sunlake.
“I’m hoping they re-do the numbers and move us out of the classification,” Richardson said. “We’re sitting at around 1,100 students now for high school, and we’d like a chance to be more competitive in 3A.”
An FHSAA meeting in March will determine re-alignments for winter sports teams. Currently, the parameters for student population in 2A are 432-1,199 students. Class 3A’s range is 1,200-1,720.
“I can’t wait to see what next season will look like,” Bourne said.
Wiregrass Ranch High senior forward Kat Llanos jumps into the arms of teammate Christie Faddoul after scoring on a header against Wesley Chapel High on Dec. 4. (All photos by Andy Warrener).
When it comes to local high school soccer, the Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) boys have been the Wesley Chapel-area standard bearer, with a sterling 108-17-11 record the past five years, including a Class 4A State semifinal appearance in 2015.
But, in the early going this season, Wesley Chapel’s three girls high school teams are making some of their own headlines. Combined, Cypress Creek (CCH), Wesley Chapel (WCH) and WRH have a combined 26-9-1 record, boasting solid defenses and players who can put the ball in the back of the net.
Although area teams have always had to pass, unsuccessfully, through Mitchell, Pasco or Land O’Lakes when it comes to playoff time, they might just be on their way to finding the right path to do so.
Here’s a look at the local girls teams:
Wiregrass Ranch High
Last season: 12-8-3
This season: 9-3, 3-1 in Class 5A-7.
The Skinny: The Bulls have been the best of the three Chapel-area teams. They got off to the best start in school history, winning their first eight games, and have topped their arch-rival WCH Wildcats twice — once by a 3-1 score in the preseason, and by a 3-0 score on December 4.
Alhrough it looks like the Bulls struggled heading into Christmas break, despite losing three of their last four matches they were closes defeats to some of the best teams around — Palm Harbor University and Land O’Lakes (by 1-0 scores) and Wharton (by 2-0 score). Still, the Bulls have outscored their competition by an eyepopping 46-6, thanks to 20 goals from junior forward Avery Damjanovic, who transferred in from Wharton High in New Tampa after scoring 10 goals last season.
Damjanovic has scored hat tricks against Zephyrhills and Sunlake, and found the back of the net seven times in the win over Pasco. She also scored in the 3-0 wins over Plant and Wesley Chapel. Not seen on the stat sheet is a weather-postponed game against River Ridge where Damjanovic scored three goals in the first 13 minutes. So, she’s really sitting at 23 goals and five assists to start the season.
“Last year, we didn’t really have a striker, it was more midfielders playing up top,” WRH coach Edwin Costa says. “They finished the season with 14 goals. Avery already has more than that. Now, we can attack with five midfielders. It gives us the ability to score goals.”
Merrick Rees has four goals for the Bulls, while Kay Llanos was three.
Costa also is excited about his defense. He’ll ration time in goal between senior Mackenize Spurling and sophomore Lara Esen, but he’s particulary hopeful for his three-girl back line. Senior captain Ysa Novak, senior Marin Yeagle and junior Nisa Cahoon form a trio that is not only a solid rear guard, but a springboard for offensive forays.
“We can attack with seven or eight,” Costa says.
(L.-r.)Cypress Creek Middle High’s Emily Dominguez, Katelyn Leavines, Sophia Mitchell and Abby Murphy.
Cypress Creek Middle High
Last year: 3-13
This year: 7-3, 1-3 in Class 2A-9.
The Skinny: The Coyotes have already won more than twice as many games than they did all of last season, which was their first year as a school. They also already boast a victory over nearby rival WCH, defeating the Wildcats 3-2 last month after trailing 2-0.
Two losses suffered by the Coyotes have been respectable ones — 4-1 to an undefeated Clearwater Central Catholic team, and 3-0 to traditional Hillsborough County power Berkeley Prep.
Coach Jennifer Richardson, who started the CCH program last year, is building some rapport with her young group, which only includes two seniors. The roster has grown significantly in talent since last year.
“We had new players, good players, girls that play soccer, come out this year,” Richardson says. “Our freshman class brought in a lot of talent.”
Of the 16 players on the varsity roster, eight are freshmen. Freshman striker Emily Dominguez has already logged nine goals in as many games, including a pair of hat tracks, and Cypress Creek is 6-0 when she scores or assists on a goal.
Richardson says that freshman midfielder Sofia Ibata has been great and forms a strong tandem up top with junior Raegan Bourne, who led the team with 15 goals last season and leads them again so far with 10, including a hat trick Dec. 11 in a win over Fivay. However, if the Coyotes are going to come out of the 2018-19 season with a winning record, a goal for Richardson, it’s going to have to come from the experience they’ve developed.
Despite the lack of seniors this season, the Coyotes do have some veteran leadership. Bourne, who has scored five goals thus far, is a leader, as well as senior sweeper Katelyn Leavines, who plays a key role in the backfield. Junior keeper Alina Vizza also is a steady hand in goal.
Wesley Chapel midifielder and co-captain Kaylei Koschman
Wesley Chapel High
Last year: 17-5-2
This year: 10-3-1, 8-1 in Class 3A-7.
The skinny: The Wildcats won the first girls soccer district title in school history last season, and started this season with 10 players returning from that roster, including sophomore defender Sydney Bauer, sophomore midfielder Kaylei Koschman and senior defender Emily Esquinaldo. All three serve as co-captains.
While the Wildcats’ only two losses so far this season have been to CCH and WRH (twice), they have defeated Land O’Lakes 1-0 (for the first time); the Gators have been ranked in the state’s Top 30 each of the past three seasons.
No one was hotter heading into winter break as the Wildcats went 5-0-1 in their final six games, outscoring th opposition 20-3.
“We had 18 different goal scorers last season,” says second-year coach Mark Leonard, “and we have 15 players on the team this year, and 10 already have goals.”
Senior attacking midfielder Heather Sefton leads the group with 15 goals in the first 12 games. She played the second half of last season after returning from an injury, when she scored seven goals in eight games. She obviously has picked up right where she left off.
Junior midfielder Gaby Cardenas has 10 goals thus far his season. Cardenas has a great left-footed shot and can move between forward and midfield. Koschman played right midfielder as a freshman for Wesley Chapel and returns to the midfield, albeit in the center, for 2018-19.
“(Koschman) is a smaller kid but she mixes it up with everyone,” Leonard says.
Junior Morgan Herndon is another fast, physical midfielder in Leonard’s talented rotation.
On defense, Leonard is high on Bauer. In fact, the coach is really excited about the whole left side of the formation, from Sefton to Cardenas to Bauer, even all the way back to sophomore keeper Madison Holcombe.
Holcombe won the starting job last season as a freshman but a knee injury shelved her until the district playoffs, where Leonard says she, “was huge for us during that run.”
Holcombe is tall and has a good wingspan. She registered three shutouts in the first seven games of the season (the team has six total) and kept the 3-0 loss to Wiregrass Ranch from being a blowout with some heady play.
Former Wiregrass Ranch High multi-sport standout Chris Faddoul continues to excel on & off the field at Florida A&M University, where he led the nation in punting average.
Seemingly everything Chris Faddoul did while a student at Wiregrass Ranch High led to success. A fantastic student, an on-campus leader and an athlete who excelled at football, soccer, tennis, track & field, and heck, even table tennis (as a member of the school’s ping-pong club).
But in the two years since he’s graduated and moved on to college at Florida A&M University, Faddoul has narrowed his athletic scope to just football, and the results have been spectacular — on Tuesday, Dec. 11, the Rattlers’ starting punter was selected as a first-team All American by the Associated Press.
Faddoul is the first Rattler since Leroy Vann in 2009 to be selected to the NCAA Division I Football Champion Subdivision (FCS) team.
Add it to Faddoul’s growing list of athletic accomplishments. At Wiregrass Ranch, whether it was as a captain, quarterback, kicker and punter on the football team, a district champion long jumper for the track team, a standout scorer for the Bulls soccer team, which he helped to a state semifinal finish as a sophomore, a tennis player, who went 15-0 as a senior and reached the state series tournament after never having played competitive tennis before the season began, Faddoul excelled on the fields, courts and tracks across the area.
But for his coaches, past and present, the best attribute Faddoul may have on his talented resume is his character.
“Chris was genetically given the gift of great athleticism,” WRH athletic director Dave Wilson, the school’s soccer and tennis coach, says. “But, on top of that, you add the strongest work ethic you’re going to find … it’s just the character on top of all of it. He’s just this tremendous person, and you look to find where this kid’s faults lie, but you just aren’t going to find them. He is a coach’s dream.”
As far has his success on the football field is concerned, that has continued, as Faddoul has taken to the college ranks the past two seasons.
Faddoul was outstanding for FAMU in his 2018 season, ending the regular season as the leading punter in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
As a freshman, he averaged 39.6 yards-per-punt, with a long of 55 yards. But in his sophomore campaign, he improved in a big way, finishing the season with a 46.8-yard average on 41 punts, including 16 punts of 50 yards or better. He also pinned opponents inside their own 20-yard-line 17 times, with just seven kicks reaching the end zone for a touchback.
His per-punt average and single game average of 60 yards (against Fort Valley State, 9/1/18) are school records at FAMU.
Faddoul even took on the kickoff duties for the Rattlers’ final three games of the season, recording 12 kicks with a 56.7-yard average.
“Chris worked extremely hard during the offseason to improve his technique, and he has become a critical part of our game plan each week,” FAMU head coach Willie Simmons says. “He has been one of our team leaders (this year), and he’s a young man of high character.”
His successes at the college level were almost put in jeopardy by two leg injuries in his high school career, first breaking his leg as a junior, then tearing his ACL as a senior.
However, Faddoul’s drive for success meant the potentially career-ending injuries were mere bumps in the road.
“Those injuries, especially the ACL (tear), were either going to be the breaking point or the thing that I got past to come back stronger than I ever was,” Faddoul says. “The senior year injury took a toll mentally. An ACL injury can be a career-ender for some players, but I love athletics and for me, there was no question how hard I was going to work to get back.”
Faddoul credits his athletic prowess to genetics from his father, Ghassan, who represented Lebanon at the 1976 Summer Olympic,s competing in the long jump and javelin, as well as playing basketball and college football in Virginia.
It was his father’s competitiveness that the younger Faddoul says drove his love of athletics and desire to keep competing, no matter what.
“My Dad has always pushed me and set the bar a little higher for me,” Faddoul says. “He always expected me to do well and then do a little bit better. I loved that push. He made me want to be better and it gave me a competitive edge that made me drive to be my best.”
Meanwhile, Off The Field….
It wasn’t just the athletic fields, tracks and courts where Faddoul excelled as a leader. He also was a standout student at WRH, something he also has continued at FAMU, where the sophomore is focused on his major in Biology and carries a 4.0 GPA with plans to attend dental school.
He also has served as president of FAMU’s Special Olympics planning club. Faddoul garnered some national acclaim when a video surfaced of him his senior season at WRH, gifting a football-team signed helmet to his classmate Andrew Hayne — a friendship Faddoul has maintained since middle school.
“Andrew has been a friend since middle school,” Faddoul says. “Every time I saw him in school back then he would yell, ‘Fad-doodle,’ at me, run at me and give me a hug. We’ve been great friends since then. He’d look for me each Friday so I could give him my jersey to wear for the (school) day. It was always special for me to see him there supporting me each game.”
The character part of Faddoul’s makeup also includes a maturity that is impressive for a 19-year-old. When he made his choice to attend FAMU, over his other college football scholarship offer to attend Valparaiso University in Indiana, he showed maturity beyond his years.
“Obviously, I’m a Caucasian attending an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities),” Faddoul says. Although that didn’t play a role in my college decision, I was a little worried that I might impede, or interfere with the other students who were coming here to immerse themselves in the cultural experience of attending an HBCU. But, this experience couldn’t be better. Everyone, from the coaches, to the faculty, to my fellow students, have welcomed me with open arms. I’m really at home here.”
Occasionally, a younger tennis player will come along with the natural ability to accurately and correctly hit a regulation yellow tennis ball.
Most often, however, that is not the case. Newer tennis players, especially those that are younger, struggle with the bounciness of the tennis ball, the weight of it, and lack the ability to control it.
They resort to using any means necessary to strike the ball, which usually leads to hurried, out-of-sync and technically-flawed swings of desperation.
Tennis professional Bobby Gillespie, who runs BG Tennis at The Ridge and Estancia communities in Wiregrass Ranch, as well as at Live Oak Preserve in New Tampa and at Lake Jovita in Dade City, says he has seen young, overmatched beginners just trying to survive against the yellow balls too often, which is why he emphatically extols the virtues of using low-compression balls, and shorter courts, to properly teach them the game.
Most parents who get their children into tennis only know one kind of tennis ball, but Gillespie is quick to introduce them to red-, orange- and green-dot low-compression balls, which he calls revolutionary teaching tools.
The red-dot ball has 75 percent less ball speed than a regular yellow tennis ball, while the orange-dot ball is 50 percent slower and the green-dot ball is 25 percent slower.
The allows younger players to focus on technique, footwork and properly addressing each shot, not just hitting a ball back over a net. They can take full swings, as the ball is designed not to bounce as high or travel as far. Gillespie says that a beginner’s full swing at a yellow ball is likely to send it into the nearest fence.
“Whenever I have the opportunity, I try to sell the concept of these low-compression balls. It is something I am very passionate about,” says Gillespie, a former junior champion where he grew up in Shropshire, a county in England, and later a national university champion at Loughborough University in Loughborough, England, where he also earned a degree in sports management.
While Gillespie says he didn’t need low-compression balls as a youngster himself because he was naturally gifted, very few beginners can claim that.
“I’ve been here since 2005, and when I got here, no one was using them,” he says of the low-compression balls. “All the tennis coaches were using just the yellow balls, and you had to just deal with it. I was a bit confused why we were doing that.”
Gillespie was the head tennis pro at Cheval Country Club and later at Lake Jovita Country Club before starting BG Tennis in 2008 and developing what he says is a proven teaching formula to develop the proper tennis strokes in beginners while also making it fun.
Mixing a career of tennis knowledge with likability and a sense of humor, Gillespie teaches roughly 120 kids every week, as well as 80 or so adults. His progressive clinics are once a week, and affordable by tennis standards at just $65 a month – which is the price a one-hour lesson will cost you at most country clubs.
Get Them Started Early
Ideally, Gillespie says, kids in first through fifth grade are at the best ages to begin learning tennis.
Joe Caswell, who is nine years old, and his brother, six-year-old Max, have been with BG Tennis since August. They competed against each other on a recent Tuesday night at The Ridge, as their younger brother Luke, who is five, helped pick up balls.
“I feel like they have made a ton of progress since we’ve been here,” says their mother, Amanda, who lives in Meadow Pointe III and has tried other coaches in the area. “I’ve seen a huge difference in their play. I just think they are so much more consistent, and (coach) stays on them about the little things.”
Amanda says she is a fan of the low- compression balls. They allow her sons to move to the ball, position their feet, set up and deliver the proper stroke. In the past, it was easier to develop bad habits adapting their swings to the harder-to-handle yellow balls.
More important, she says, is that the low-compression balls also stay on the court, which is marked off to a shorter length of 60 feet, and allow her boys an opportunity to rally and play out points.
“It’s more of playing the actual game for them than before,” Amanda says. “They can hit it back and forth to each other and play points (instead of just chasing balls around).”
That’s what Nikki Lang, who is eight, enjoys most. She teamed up with Gillespie during a mini-game at The Ridge, earning a high-five from her coach after they beat the Caswell boys and 11-year-old Sloane Guinn.
“I like being able to hit the balls,” she says. “It is easier, and makes it fun to play tennis.”
Gillespie holds local tournaments with the low-compression balls, and starts each point by feeding the ball to one of the players as opposed to having them serve to one another. Serving is a skill that Gillespie says is generally too advanced for younger players to learn right away and slows play down.
He says that his last tournament in October drew 80 players, and he also produces local rankings for his players to use to measure their improvement.
“The goal is to get them to a rallying situation as soon as possible, because as soon as they start rallying, then the game becomes far more dynamic for them,” Gillespie says.
Gillespie, rated an Elite Professional with the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA), says he is choosy about who he hires to help him coach at BG Tennis.
He recently hired Bill Zeedyk, a former college player who was helping run the youth program at the Sports Club at Hunter’s Green Country Club, and Matt Holsopple, who also has coached at Hunter’s Green, Saddlebrook and at the high school level, and is highly regarded for his work with younger tennis players.
“We have a formula for how to teach kids,” Gillespie says. “No one is doing their own thing. It’s a template, and it’s progressive and fun. If you are not learning and having fun, then you are not going to stay in the game.”
Gillespie thinks that using lower compression balls with beginners also keeps them in the game longer. He thinks out of every 100 kids who start learning with a yellow ball, only five will survive and keep playing the game after awhile.
But, take 100 kids and teach them with low-compression balls, however, and Gillespie guesses that 95 of them will successfully learn the game and stick with it.
“Tennis is a game for life,” Gillespie says. “But you have to teach the kids the right way. My dream is to introduce as many people in the area to these balls. If we can get them on the court to start with, we can keep them.”
BG Tennis has new groups starting all the time, and will often allow first-timers to try it out first before signing up. For more information, visit BGTennis.net, email BGTennis@ymail.com or text Gillespie at (813) 476-5787.
Pasco County tourism director Adam Thomas made the announcement that Pasco County will be rebranded as “Florida’s Sports Coast,” with Wesley Chapel’s sports facilities playing a major role.
Pasco County’s tourism department is rebranding the county & going hard after the sports market; Wesley Chapel will be a major player in that effort.
Pasco County is changing.
Once sleepy, it is now wide awake.
Once quiet and serene, it is now bustling.
Once regarded mostly for nature, it is now being rebranded.
“Let’s Play!”
That will be the new slogan that drives the county’s evolution from Nature Coast to Sports Coast, as Pasco looks to capitalize on a number of sports offerings it feels will, if marketed properly, bring in millions of dollars annually to local businesses and hotels, and much needed tax dollars for the county.
Pasco’s tourism agency, Visit Pasco, is expected to rebrand the county as “Florida’s Sports Coast” after January 1, 2019. It has a $326,000 contract with The Zimmerman Agency to help with the rebranding and marketing.
“This is a destination that is changing and changing,” says Adam Thomas, Pasco’s tourism director. “We are charging ahead to become that premier sports destination: Florida’s Sports Coast.”
Thomas emceed the East Pasco Economic Development Summit on Nov. 2, which brought together government officials like District 2 commissioner Mike Moore and county administrator Dan Biles, as well as heavy hitters in the sports tourism market like Jason Aughey of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, Pat Ciaccio of Saddlebrook Resort, Richard Blalock of RADD Sports and Gordie Zimmermann of Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI).
The summit was held at the Pasco-Hernando State College Porter campus in Wiregrass Ranch, and the message, emphasized by keynote speaker Carolynn Smith, was simple:
“You need to be ready,” Smith said.
Smith, a former college basketball standout at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville who now owns 7 Marketing & PR, stressed to local businesses the importance of preparation for an influx of new customers. She said to look at the schedules at the local sports facilities, be staffed properly when big events are in town, and ready to capitalize.
The panel drove home a similar message. The heart of the engine that will drive much of the transition from nature outpost to sports destination is right here in Wesley Chapel, with the soon-to-be-built $44-million Wiregrass Sports Complex, the booming FHCI facility and popular Saddlebrook Resort expected to attract hundreds of thousands of tourists annually.
Aughey, who has helped bring Super Bowls and NCAA Football National Championships and men’s and women’s NCAA Basketball Final Fours to Tampa, says that sports tourism had a $57.4-billion impact on the national economy last year.
But, it is youth and amateur sports, he says, “that are truly the bread and butter” of sports tourism.
One reason: they are recession proof, according to Aughey. No matter the economy, he says, parents are not likely to cut out their children’s sports because they provide physical and social benefits as well as college scholarship opportunities.
In fact, according to U.S. News & World Report, a 2009 study by the National Association of Sports Commissions and Ohio University showed that participation in youth sports travel still increased from 2008 to 2009 despite the Great Recession.
“Regardless of the economy, sports is going to continue to pull through,” Aughey said.
Ciaccio, the general manager at Saddlebrook Resort, said that is good for everyone in Wesley Chapel. “Everyone benefits from the ancillary benefits,” he said, citing everything from walk-in clinics to local mom-and-pop shops, sign makers, restaurants and retail and grocery stores.
“There’s a little niche for everybody,” Ciaccio says. “You have to see how you can benefit, and find your place.”
FHCI has already made its mark with more than 1 million visitors since opening in 2017. Most recently, the complex hosted a 68-team event, which can translate to 1,300 players and just as many parents needing hotel rooms, places to eat and things to do in their downtime, like shop.
Zimmermann said that events like that at FHCI are commonplace almost every weekend, and often are much larger.
Aughey added that back in May, Tampa hosted a cheerleading competition that filled 22,000 rooms over two days. A volleyball tournament this year brought 900 teams, resulting in 10-20,000 visitors.
The Wiregrass Sports Complex being developed by RADD Sports is expected to handle large indoor events like that, hosting hundreds, even thousands of athletes and their parents every weekend, all looking for ways to spend their money.
It’s no wonder there has been a rush to build new hotels in Wesley Chapel.
The popularity of youth and amateur sports is only going to grow bigger. According to the National Association of Sports Commissions State of the Industry report in 2017, visitor spending associated with sports events was $10.47 billion in 2016, a 10 percent increase from the year before.
But, Pasco County’s rebranding goes beyond just the sports tourism market in Wesley Chapel. It also includes things like the sand volleyball courts at Sunwest Park in Hudson, zip lining at Treehoppers in Dade City, and fishing and boating on the Gulf coast.
“Show me any place (else) around where, on the same weekend, you can have a beach volleyball event going on at the same time as an ice hockey tournament is happening,” said Biles. “You can go scalloping, you can jump out of a plane (in Zephyrhills), you can go biking on trails….how many destinations offer that kind of variety?”
And, there’s still more to come. While the RADD Sports facility broke ground earlier this year, it won’t be ready to host events until late 2019. There is talk of a large aquatics facility being negotiated in Land O’Lakes and a new tennis complex is scheduled to be built in Zephyrhills.
“We have a lot of assets, and more will come because they will follow,” said Moore, comparing it to Orlando, where DisneyWorld was the first amusement park, but not the last to build in that area.
Commissioner Moore even had his own suggestion for anyone interested — equestrian facilities for those who like to ride horses.
“We aren’t going to build it, but you can,” he said, to laughter. “You gotta figure out a way to get in the game!”
