‘DON’T LOSE HOPE’

Haley Scott still has Olympic aspirations, but the Wesley Chapel figure skater is taking it one leap…er, step…at a time as she recovers from a two-year-long battle with Covid-19. (Photos: Charmaine George)

Haley Scott breathes in the cool, crisp air of the rink as she glides on the ice at AdventHealth Center Ice in her white skates. Gearing up, she makes three rotations in the air — a perfect triple loop. Her excitement to be back at the rink outweighs the muscle and lung aches, reminders of her two years off the ice due to complications of long Covid-19. 

The 16-year-old Wesley Chapel resident has been skating since she was five years old; however in November 2020, she was forced to stop when Covid prevented her from walking, talking and skating. The virus, which usually leaves the body in two weeks, persisted for Haley for over two years.

Doctors told Haley she may never be able to skate again. However, six specialists later, she is back on the ice and ready to perfect her form.

“It was definitely a hard journey coming back,” Haley says. “Trying to get used to jumping again, spinning again
 just even being on the ice.”

Scott is a 2015-19 Sunshine State Games gold medal-winning ice skater. She was awarded the 2016 Betty Stark Award for the highest combined score in the Juvenile Girls Free Skate and Short Program and the 2017 Dorothy Dodson Award winner as the top skater in the two programs for the Intermediate Ladies divisions.

Midway through the pandemic, Haley began suffering from the usual dizzy spells and headaches associated with Covid-19. 

She felt fine two weeks later. 

But, the third week, her speech slurred and she could barely stand.

“I was definitely a whole different person than I used to be,” she says. 

Her mother, Julie Scott, took her to the emergency room but got turned away due to her daughter’s Covid-19 test coming back negative. Julie took Haley to cardiology, neurology, immunology and hematology appointments before scouring the internet for some cures. After ten months in pain, Haley was recommended to IncellDx, a research group in California. 

“They were just a godsend to us,” Julie says. “They listened. Many doctors will turn you away with no answers and that’s it. They listened and at least tried things.”

In December 2021, Haley started to see results. She could walk again, talk again, and in January, she actually began to skate again. 

The 16-year-old also is completing her high school credits through Florida Virtual School, while also taking college-level classes at Pasco-Hernando State College.

“I feel thankful,” Julie says. “I’m very proud of her and I just want her to enjoy the journey, wherever it may take her.”

Before her battle with long Covid, Haley was practicing at the rink 4-5 hours a day. In January, her mission to get back on the ice started slowly, with just 30 minutes of free skating. But now, she has worked her way back to practicing with her coach, Silvia Fontana, five days a week.

Haley has trained under her coach for four years. When Silvia learned of the news of Haley having long Covid, she was devastated. Everything needed to become a professional ice skater was taken away by the illness, she says.

“At one point I just wanted her to have a regular life and just to be happy again,” Silvia says. “For us as coaches, the skating and athleticism are important. But, we care about them as people first. So, that was the main concern.”

Silvia says Haley is one in a million. Even through the hardships, her coach has seen Haley fight back and excel. And, she still believes that Haley can represent the U.S. in the Winter Olympics in four or eight years. 

“I want her to always remember where she came from,” Silvia says. “When you get to the higher level, it gets more stressful and she needs to know the strength and resilience she had during that really difficult time.”

Haley is training for the qualifying season in July. For athletes struggling with long Covid, Haley says, “it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.”

“Don’t lose hope,” she says. “You just have to stay positive and remind yourself who you are.”

Women’s Professional Hockey Champion To Be Crowned At Center Ice

In another notable event landed by AdventHealth Center Ice, the Boston Pride will defend their Premier Hockey Federation Isobel Cup trophy in Wesley Chapel in March. The PHF playoffs will be free to attend and the final will be televised live on ESPN2. (Photo: Michelle Jay/NWHL)

You probably have already heard that last July, the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated Montreal in Tampa, earning the Bolts a second straight Lord Arthur Frederick Stanley Cup.

But, did you know that Lord Stanley had a daughter named Isobel, and a trophy bearing her name is handed out to the best professional women’s hockey team?

It’s true, and next month in Wesley Chapel, the winner of the 2022 Isobel Cup will be decided at AdventHealth Center Ice.

The six teams in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) will square off March 25-28, with preliminary round games tipping things off on Friday, the semifinals on Sunday and the final to be contested live on Monday at 9 p.m., on ESPN2.

The PHF championship game will mark ESPN’s first linear broadcast of professional women’s hockey. And, although NBCSports.com reports that no current members of the powerhouse U.S. and Canadian women’s national teams have played in the PHF since 2019, a recent influx of new capital — a reported $25 million — will more than double each PHF team’s salary cap (from $300,000 to $750,000) and provide health care and maternity leave benefits for all PHF players.

“We’re pumped about it. This is a pretty big deal,” said AdventHealth Center Ice CEO Gordie Zimmermann. “The women are trying to develop and move into the pro ranks and the gain the respectability that they have always been looking for. So I think this is a great platform. The hockey development here is like no other in the nation and they recognize it as great place to present their format. Girls hockey is growing in Florida as well, so this is a great thing for all the developmental programs in the area to come and watch.”

Zimmermann says all the girls hockey programs will be invited to watch the playoffs. The general public also is invited to the event. AdventHealth Center Ice seats roughly 1,000 spectators.

It’s surreal and somewhat ironic that both the Stanley and Isobel cups, awarded to best teams playing the national sport of Canada, would be decided in
.Florida. But, the opening of Center Ice in 2017 opened up a lot of previously unimaginable possibilities.

The PHF playoffs is another coup for Zimmermann. Other than the many men’s hockey events Center Ice has hosted, some of its most noteworthy events have involved women’s hockey. It was the training site for the 2018 Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s Hockey team and hosted Team USA, Canada, Finland and Sweden for the 2017 Four Nations Cup. In 2019, a virtual women’s hockey museum opened inside Center Ice.

Each spring, the rink complex also plays host to USA Hockey’s Women’s Nationals.

“We have been a catalyst for the growing interest in hockey in Florida since our opening, and in women’s hockey in particular,” Zimmermann says. 

Seven of the 25 players in Center Ice’s elite Global Prospects Academy are girls, and the facility also is home to the Crunch travel program, which has 14-under and 16-under teams.

The PHF was established in 2015 as the National Women’s Hockey League before re-branding itself. The league is made up of the defending champion Boston Pride, Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whale, Metropolitan (New Jersey) Riveters, Minnesota Whitecaps and the Toronto Six. 

The pairings aren’t set yet because the regular season is still ongoing, although Connecticut and Toronto are currently in first and second place, respectively.

For more information, visit PremierHockeyFederation.com or AHCenterIce.com.

Wesley Chapel Leads The Way To A Tourism Slam Dunk

In 2019, Pasco County hit new records for tourism, but Covid delivered a hit in 2020 that Florida’s Sports Coast director Adam Thomas figured might be tough to overcome.

Turns out that it wasn’t. Not only did the county bounce back from its Covid-plagued 2020 by exceeding last year’s tourism numbers, but it even passed its pre-Covid 2019 numbers as well. 

“It was definitely a revival year for tourism for Pasco County,” says Thomas. “We beat our record-breaking historic year of 2019 by 10.6%. It was amazing,”

In Fiscal Year 2021 (which ran from Sept. 2020 to Oct. 2021), visitor spending in Pasco County generated $721.7 million in economic impact to the county, according to Downs & St. Germain Research. That is an increase of 30.7% above FY 2020, and 10.6% above the 2019 numbers. Direct spending in the county was $511.8 million of that total.

Thomas said an increase in marketing, as well as the state’s openness, allowed tourism to flourish here this year.

“Many other states were still not fully operational,” Thomas says of FY 2021. “That allowed our destinations to attract events throughout the year.”

Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore (left) and Tourism Director Adam Thomas pose with the Florida Sports Foundation trophy won by the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus for Florida’s Best Small Market Venue. 

 With the doors to Pasco County wide open this year, people didn’t hesitate to rush through. The numbers don’t lie:

‱ Florida’s Sports Coast attracted 1,358,200 visitors (41.5% higher than last year, and 30.8% higher than FY 2019)

‱ Visitors generated 1,419,000 room nights in paid accommodations (32.6% higher than last year, and 16.6% higher than FY 2019)

‱ Spending by visitors supported 9,254 local jobs (36.3% higher than last year, and 17.6% higher than FY 2019)  

‱ Tourism generated $231.6 million in wages and salaries for local jobs (55% higher than FY 2020, and 37.8% higher than FY 2019).

‱ Every 147 visitors to the county created an additional job.

‱ Visitors staying locally generated $3.6 million in Tourist Development Tax collections (36.3% higher than last year, and 18.4% higher than FY 2019).

‱ Visitors in FY 2021 saved every household in Pasco County $385 in state and federal taxes.

And, Thomas says that amateur sports drove those record-setting numbers; primarily, amateur sports played in Wesley Chapel at its trifecta of sports tourism — AdventHealth Center Ice, the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County and Saddlebrook Resort. As far as the county goes, the nearby Sarah Vande Berg (SVB) Tennis Center in Zephyrhills also contributed to Pasco’s big numbers.

“All these record-breaking numbers that we had are basically from our sporting events,” Thomas says.

Following the heightened 2020 Covid concerns, 2021 may have started with a whimper, but is ending with a bang — for example, the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus will host 128 of the best high school girls basketball teams in the state and beyond, as well as 32 boys high school teams, at the Tampa Bay Christmas Invitational beginning tomorrow and running through Jan. 1. 

The tournament expects to bring 1,500 coaches and players and 3,000 total spectators for the event, meaning the Sports Campus will be capping its first full year of operation with the equivalent of a slam dunk. “It’s been an awesome year,” says Richard Blalock, the CEO of RADDSports, which operates the Sports Campus in a public-private partnership with the county. “Considering all of the (Covid-related) social issues we encountered, I think it was very successful.”

Crowds at many of the tournaments at Center Ice were the norm in 2021.

Blalock says 2021 has been a challenging year, but one that came with great exposure. In fact, the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus was named Small Market Venue of the Year by the Florida Sports Foundation in November.

“We were fortunate that we’re in a quasi-conservative area where we got support from the local government to be able to operate,” he says. “We just had to figure out what the rules were, come up with protocols and then follow those protocols to be able to operate.”

The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus hosted a number of large events in 2021. Whether it was current Philadelphia Eagle and Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith preparing for the NFL Draft by working out at the campus, or USA volleyball and USA Gymnastics events, or a myriad of AAU and youth basketball, cheerleading and volleyball tournaments taking place monthly, the new facility was always bustling.

The same goes for Center Ice, which saw more than a million people pass through its doors in FY 2021.

General manager Gordie Zimmermann said his business was up more than 30 percent from 2019. Center Ice hosted an NHL Prospects tournament, burgeoning local adult and youth recreational leagues and a series of hotel-filling tournaments in ice, sled and roller hockey, as well as figure skating.

“It was pretty amazing,” Zimmermann says. “I think Florida handled (Covid) better than anybody, and we have had a lot of people coming here. Plus, hockey is on a growth spurt, and the (back-to-back Stanley Cup champion) Tampa Bay Lightning have certainly helped with that.”

The five-rink facility is one of a kind in the Southeast, and you won’t find many like it in the U.S., Zimmermann says, making it a popular destination for big tournaments.

The biggest sporting event held in Pasco County this year was at Center Ice, according to Thomas — the TORHS (Tournament of Roller Hockey Series) Nationals in June. The tournament runs 8-10 days, had more than 150 teams and generated 2,300 room nights. Thomas says the economic impact to the county of the event was roughly $3 million.

As we head into 2022, could another record-breaking year be in store? Thomas doesn’t see why not.

With the impact created by sports as great as it has been, Thomas and others see only growth.

Wesley Chapel has facilities, like the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus (above), that can host more than 1,000 people over the course of a weekend, providing a boost to the tourism dollars generated in Pasco County. (Photos courtesy of Florida’s Sports Coast)

A recent study commissioned by Florida’s Sports Coast, which was intended to find the gaps in the amateur sports arena, showed that adaptive sports, or sports that are accessible to those who are disabled, is a possible growth area. An aquatics facility is on the radar as well, and private developers have inquired about things like BMX and surf parks, as well as a track & field facility.

Adaptive basketball could be headed to the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, says Blalock. Thomas says the county also is working on the bringing the U.S. Fencing championships to the Sports Campus, in addition to a large Can-Am competition between first responders from Canada and the U.S.

Saddlebrook Resort may host the 2022 American FootGolf League national championships in 2022. The relatively new sport is like golf but is played with feet and a soccer ball instead of clubs and a golf ball. 

“We are thinking outside the norm,” Thomas says.

Center Ice will launch the Sunshine Cup this summer, a week-long tournament that will feature teams from the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Europe. The mid-July event is expecting more than 3,000 visitors and would eclipse the TORHS event as the largest tournament hosted by the facility.

“We’ve always considered ourselves to be a player in the sports tourism industry,” says Thomas. “People are starting to notice our success, and they want to be a part of it. We’re excited. We’re an amateur sports hot spot, and we have some great opportunities for growth.” 

Helping Pasco Sports Tourism Rebound in 2021

Club volleyball has been keeping the January calendar full at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County.

If tourism is going to bounce back from the Covid-19-ravaged 2020, a series of spikes, dunks, cheers and racquet sports will have a lot to do with it.

At least that’s how it looks to Pasco County tourism director Adam Thomas, who says that after a tough year for tourism around the world, events are returning to Pasco’s “sports tourism” sites, including the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, Advent Health Center Ice and the Sarah Vande Berg (SVB) Tennis Center — all part of the county’s “Florida’s Sports Coast” branding.

Thomas says the three facilities have 14 events scheduled for the first two months of the year, with many more to come, as national governing bodies like USA Volleyball, USA Wrestling, USA Powerlifting and others look to take advantage of Florida’s open-for-business status and have eyed the Wesley Chapel-area to hold events.

“We are just now getting back to normalcy,” Thomas says, despite rising Covid numbers in Pasco, in Florida and around the nation. “We are looking at sports tourism in 2021 to really get us back to where we need to be.”

One event that won’t provide as much help as originally expected is Super Bowl LV, which is being played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on February 7. Generally, a huge event like the Super Bowl would have a major economic impact on nearby Wesley Chapel, with visitors staying in local hotels and eating and shopping at local restaurants and stores.

But, Covid-19 protocols will limit the crowd at Raymond James Stadium, which can hold 65,890 fans, to roughly 20,000 for the Big Game.

Thomas thinks Wesley Chapel will still enjoy some benefit from the Super Bowl, but in October, Pasco backed out of plans to spend $250,000 on a Super Bowl sponsorship and instead use that money for something more likely to bring a bigger return to the county.

So, while the Big Game won’t make as much of an impact, hundreds of little ones will — and that’s fine with Richard Blalock, the CEO of RADDSports, which runs the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, thanks to a public-private partnership between Pasco and RADD Sports.

The 98,000-sq.ft. AdventHealth Sports Arena will host a variety of club sporting events in 2021, bringing hundreds of teams and players and their parents’ wallets to Wesley Chapel.

The January calendar was filled with volleyball tournaments and gymnastics meets. Volleyball and gymnastics club seasons will roll into a basketball club season in the spring, and then the camp season over the summer. The Sports Campus is already proving to be responsible for a lot of hotel room nights and money spent at Wesley Chapel restaurants, malls and shopping centers, as nearly every weekend is booked through August and even Covid-plagued 2020 proved to be a success.

“We are not one-sport-specific, and that helps us,” Blalock says. “We made that decision by design. We can run a multitude of events here. As one season ends, another is starting.”

Blalock says in August and September of 2020, the first six weeks the Sports Campus was open, its events were responsible for 1,800 hotel room nights and just over $150,000 in sales, resulting in a $1.2-million indirect impact on the local economy. 

He doesn’t have numbers yet for the rest of 2020, but Blalock says he expects to exceed those numbers in 2021. He says this while staring out his office window at construction workers laying masonry blocks on the fourth floor of the Residence Inn by Marriott hotel, which is being built adjacent to the arena on the Spots Campus site and is expected to open around the first week in August.

But, 2021 also is planned to include  an NFL-style combine for pro football hopefuls, organized by former Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Yo Murphy, as well as the possibility of European soccer teams camping here prior to their fall 2021 seasons.

Hockey Tourism, Too

Thomas says the Sports Campus isn’t the only local venue to have a slew of events booked to meet pent up demand. AHCI currently is hosting a six-week United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) camp — a college and pro showcase with hundreds of players staying at Saddlebrook Resort and playing games at AHCI — as well as in Ellenton and Brandon. 

The USPHL’s Hub City concept is designed in part to make up for the loss of games and exposure events for players last year, especially from hockey areas hit particularly hard by Covid-19, like the northeastern U.S.

Because so many events were cancelled last year and so many seasons went unfinished,  Thomas anticipates eager event organizers to be heading our way.

“Our event calendar looks pretty promising,” he says.

The SVB Tennis Center in Zephyrhills is attracting sports tourism with growing sports like padel (photo) and pickleball. 

The county won’t recover in one year, Thomas adds. He believes the Covid-19 vaccine will help make people more comfortable when it comes to travel and attending larger events, but that change will take a while. While 2021 is expected to put the Florida Sports Coast back on track, Thomas says the tourism industry is looking at 2023 before a full recovery can probably be expected.

“It’s going to take some time,” he says. “We’re still licking our wounds.”

When the pandemic hit last year, the county was coming off a record-setting February. March began the nosedive, and when the state was shut down for much of April, the county saw its tourist tax revenue drop to below $100,000 for the month, down from $430,000 in tourist tax collected in April 2019.

There is some good news, even if it is anecdotal — Thomas says the last weekend of 2020 saw 6.2 -percent growth, with almost 40 percent hotel occupancy. “We had a really good week,” he says. “Hopefully we’ll continue to see that.” 

In fact, Lisa Moore, the market director of sales for the Hilton Garden Inn Tampa-Wesley Chapel on S.R. 56 says, “We’ve been at or near 100% occupancy every weekend since the Sports Campus opened. It (2020) was a tough year, but things are looking better now.”