New CEO Rob Higgins Fumbles First Major USF Decision

Photo below by Gary Nager. Above photo source: Facebook/USF Athletics

When former USF football coach Jim Leavitt was arrested for assaulting his former girlfriend, stealing her belongings and putting his hands on another man back in August, USF alumni Kathy and her daughter Jamie Miller were hopeful that their alma mater’s Athletic Hall of Fame committee would change its collective mind about inducting Leavitt into the USF Hall. 

After all, Leavitt had previously assaulted Kathy’s son, Jamie’s brother and former USF football player Joel Miller at halftime of a game the Bulls were winning back in 2009, lied about it, convinced Joel to go along with his lie because he was, “the most powerful man in the building,” but got fired for it anyway, had the remainder of his contract bought out by the school to the tune of $2.75 million, was told to never come back but went on to receive multiple subsequent coaching jobs despite this less-than-impressive resume. 

But, things didn’t go nearly as well for Joel or his family after that. Joel was blamed for being the “kid” who got Leavitt fired, couldn’t show his face on campus, got hit in the head with a thrown brick and saw his once promising future go down the drain before passing away at age 29 in 2017. 

How Leavitt’s name was even on USF’s Hall of Fame ballot this year is beyond the imagining of this editor. Yes, he started the school’s football program but it never won anything of consequence under his leadership. Yet, there he was — one of five inductees in the Class of 2025. Just using Leavitt’s name and “Class” in the same sentence makes me throw up in my mouth a little. 

On Sept. 10, the eighth anniversary of Joel’s passing, it was announced that the new charges against Leavitt had been dropped — interesting timing considering the fact he had only recently been announced as a USF Hall inductee. 

Then, on Sept. 17, I brought Kathy and Jamie into the Emorys Rock Realty Podcast Studio at the North Tampa Bay Chamber office in The Shops at Wiregrass to try to help sway USF into changing its collective mind about inducting this lowlife. Kathy and Jamie started a Change.org petition that has now been signed by 641 people and they did everything they could —made phone calls, sent emails and even stopped in at the USF Athletics office to try to get someone to talk to them and update them about this sad situation. Instead, they were told that if they didn’t leave the premises, they would be escorted out by the campus police. That podcast episode was viewed more than 2,300 times on Facebook. 

“We remained calm, didn’t raise our voices, didn’t threaten anyone,” Kathy said, “we just wanted someone to talk to us.” “Sad,” Jamie added. 

Into this unenviable situation stepped Rob Higgins, another USF grad who has spent the last two decades as the super-successful Tampa Bay Sports Commission executive director. Higgins was officially named the first-ever chief executive officer of a major college athletic department on Sept. 18 (although he didn’t officially assume the job until Oct. 1) and, on Sept. 19, committed his first fumble in his new position. 

Higgins announced on X (formerly Twitter) that, “Jim Leavitt and I have had candid and productive conversations…We have mutually agreed that he will not attend and/or be recognized at [the Oct. 2] USF Athletics Hall of Fame induction ceremony.” 

Did that mean Leavitt was no longer being inducted? No, it did not. On Oct. 2, Higgins (right) oversaw the Class of 2025 induction, which didn’t mention Leavitt, nor was his photo shown with those of the other inductees — former USF men’s basketball coach Amir Abdur-Rahim, who passed away on Oct. 24, 2024, baseball legend Scott Hemond, women’s basketball star Kitija Laksa and football great Kawika Mitchell. There were several comments on Facebook that Leavitt should have been included, which begs the question: If a “Hall of Fame” is an honor bestowed only on the best of the best, why would someone elected to a Hall not be invited to or included in their induction ceremony? 

Higgins said in his post on X that, “Coach Leavitt understands the importance of USF Athletics being able to honor this year’s inductees without distraction.” Really? 

Will Leavitt’s mug shot be added to the Hall anyway? Shouldn’t the school be so proud of every inductee to not care what some people think? 

I attended the news conference on Sept. 22 when Higgins was introduced to the public and I was impressed with everything he had to say. I believe he will be a great leader of USF Athletics. 

But, I also say this was one he muffed and that he should have at least talked to the Miller family before finalizing this truly bad decision.

Our Return To St. Pete Beach — Still Recovering As The 2025 Hurricane Season Begins 

St. Pete Beach has been an important part of mine and Jannah’s relationship since we first started dating ten years ago. It’s where we were married six years ago and where have spent some of the most magical times of our lives — with the most beautiful sunsets, the greatest live music and some of the most delicious meals we’ve ever enjoyed together. 

But, as pretty much everyone knows, all of the Gulf beaches from Clearwater south to St. Pete were devastated by last year’s trio of major hurricanes, especially Hurricane Helene, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in the Big Bend region of Florida on Sept. 26 of last year. That was only six weeks after Hurricane Debby brought record flooding, also to the Big Bend area, despite “only” hitting as a Cat 1, because the storm stalled along the Gulf coast of our state. Helene was followed less than two weeks later by Cat 3 Hurricane Milton, which did as much damage to inland areas as it did to the coast. 

But, Helene — which hit roughly 35 weeks before the 2025 Memorial Day weekend, when Jannah and I finally returned to St. Pete Beach — did the most damage of the three storms to Pinellas County’s beloved beaches. 

That means its been eight eight+ long, difficult months for the hotels, restaurants and merchants in those Gulf Coast communities, so even though we’d seen and read news reports about how difficult it’s been for those areas to fully recover, we (wrongfully) assumed things had to have gotten back almost to normal by now. Um, no. A thousand times no. 

During our visit, we drove from Pass-A-Grille Beach, at the southern tip of the strip, almost to the Sand Key Bridge just south of Clearwater and, even though the weather was beautiful and there were still plenty of great places open for business, what we found saddened us to our cores. 

Don Cesar construction
A favorite breakfast place, The Frog Pond, closed.

Pass-A-Grille seemed mostly intact, but the fabled Don Cesar Hotel had only recently reopened and still was not fully restored to its former glory. 

Still closed were many of our local favorite St. Pete Beach haunts like the Bellwether Beach (formerly the Plaza Grand) Hotel, home to the popular rotating Level 11 rooftop bar and Spinners restaurant. Even the Beachcomber Resort, home to our favorite live music spot Jimmy B’s, was still shuttered. Popular restaurants like The Frog Pond and further south to Caddys on the Beach (photos) also were still shut down, although the owners of Caddys at least had a tented bar, food trucks and picnic tables on-site so those enjoying the live music at Ka’Tiki across the street could come out to take in the still-breathtaking sunsets. 

Sunset at Caddy’s
The Spazmatics were great at Ka’Tiki, across from Caddy’s.

We continued north through Treasure Island, where the fabled Thunderbird Beach Resort, which opened in 1957 and had survived many hurricanes and tropical storms, had never reopened since Helene and was getting ready to be demolished. 

We then headed to John’s Pass, which was mostly reopened, although our bartender at the Pirates Pub & Grub told us that all of the first-floor businesses on the boardwalk had 5-7 ft. of water inside them and had to be completely renovated for weeks and even months, while the second floor restaurants and shops were pretty much still OK. 

California Roll from the 82 Degrees restaurant at Tge Saint hotel
Pasta with Grilled Chicken from the 82 Degrees restaurant at Tge Saint hotel
This grouper bites appetizer at Chill Restaurant & Bar on Corey Ave. was the highlight of our stay.

Continuing north of John’s Pass, through Madeira Beach, the Redingtons, Indian Shores, Indian Rocks and Bellaire, where it has always been less crowded, also was chilling. Those areas seemed even emptier than usual. And yes, I realize that Sand Key, Clearwater Beach and Dunedin, forming the more northern, but equally touristy, part of the Pinellas strip, are all also still suffering, even though we didn’t drive that far during this visit. 

And again, our stay was the better part of a year after all of this devastation, so it was hard not to have a queasy feeling about what might be in store for our favorite beach communities this year, as the 2025 Hurricane Season began the day (June 1) that I wrote this story. 

All I can say is that until we get word that our amazing beaches are again in the projected track of a storm, Jannah and I plan to return to — and pray for — St. Pete Beach as often as we can. 

Why Do We Offer Contests? Check Out These Happy Neighborhood News Readers! 

When I first bought the Neighborhood News back in Feb. 1994, I knew I wanted to get people not only reading what we put into print, but also engaging with our content. 

One of the ways I decided to make that happen was to put contests in these pages. We started with things like labor-intensive, Gary-created crossword puzzles and Fantasy Baseball and Football contests, trivia contests (which have now been rendered obsolete with the advent of Google) and our most popular annual contest, our Reader Dining Survey & Contest, which is still going strong some 30 years since I started it. 

Over the years, I’ve added other contests, such as our “Big Game Squares,” “March Madness” and “Oscars” contests, but the timing from when either the Academy Awards nominations are announced or the teams are set for the sports contests hasn’t always worked with our every-four-week deadlines. 

This year, however, we were able to make both the “Squares” and “Oscars” (the latter with the delay in the announcement of the nominees and the televised broadcast both delayed by the California wildfires) contests work with online-only entries. 

While only about 100 people total entered this year’s “Big Game” and “Oscars” contests, that doesn’t mean that folks like (l.-r. above) Eddie Mancuso of Highwoods Preserve, who won the Grand Prize of $200 (he chose Stonewood Grill & Tavern); Lianne Kowiak of Arbor Green (with me), who won $100 (and picked Ulele); and Wharton High alum and West Meadows resident MaeLee Rich — who has been entering our contests since her teens and who won one of the two $50 prizes (to Hungry Crab Juicy Seafood) in the Squares contest — weren’t thrilled to win those Squares prizes. The fourth Squares winner, Allison Smith of Pebble Creek, hasn’t yet received her $50 gift card to Grillsmith. 

We also have three winners in our “Oscars” contests. Our Grand Prize winner — one of only two contestants to correctly pick the winners in six of the seven major Academy Awards categories, chosen at random, was Meadow Pointe resident Dawn Kidle, who wins a $200 gift card to B&B Theatres at The Grove. The other tied contestant was John Bailey of Palatine, IL, who not only doesn’t live here — he says he searched “Oscars Contests” online and entered all of them! — Illinois doesn’t even have a B&B Theatre, so I mailed him a $60 gift card to AMC Theaters. There were four contestants who correctly picked five of the seven categories and that winner, drawn at random to receive the $60 B&B gift card I bought for John, is Gail Bialk of Watergrass. I just gave Dawn her prize (4th photo above) and I plan to give Gail hers soon! 

We also now also have 25 local residents who have told us they want to be judges in our contest to pick the Wesley Chapel area’s favorite chicken restaurant. I’m still working out the details of how that contest will work, but I think we now have enough potential judges to make it happen! Look for details in our next issue (hopefully)! 

So, why do we still have contests, with prizes we almost always pay for ourselves (we occasionally have had a restaurant agree to donate prizes, but that’s pretty rare)? Since most of us will never win the Lottery or hit it big in Vegas, it’s nice to have much better odds of winning one of our contest prizes — and my pleasure to provide them. Congrats, winners! 

Enter Our FREE, Online-Only ‘Oscars’ Contest; Plus, Just How ‘Chicken’ Are You?! 

Oscar nominees Monica Barbaro & TimothĂ©e Chalamet in “A Complete Unknown” (Photo: IMDB)

We’ve only been able to even have an Academy Awards/ “Oscars” contest a few times in the past because of the timing of when the nominees are announced to when the annual Academy Awards are held vs. our deadlines for our print issues of the Neighborhood News.. 

As devastating as the uncontrolled wild fires in California have been, the fires caused both the announcement of this year’s nominees and the televised red carpet gala itself to be delayed — so much so that we actually have time to finally include this FREE contest again this year — and you could win some great prizes. 

If you’re a movie buff, you probably have seen many of the films included in this year’s list of finalists/nominees. 

But, even if you’re more like me — the only nominated films I’ve seen are “Wicked,” the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” and Best Animated Film nominee “Inside Out 2” (the latter thanks to mine and Jannah’s granddaughter Rosie) — you have a chance to win some great prizes by simply telling us which films and actors YOU think will win the coveted gold statuettes. 

Here’s How The Contest Works: 

CLICK HERE and provide us with your REAL (you’d be surprised how many entries with fake names we receive in our contests every year — I know I’m always surprised) first AND last name, the community you live in, email address and daytime phone number. In addition, we ask each entrant in this contest to please pick the winner in each of the following major Oscars categories: 

1. Best Picture 

2. Best Actress 

3. Best Actor 

4. Best Supporting Actress 

5. Best Supporting Actor 

6. Best Director 

7. Best Animated Feature Film 

If only one entrant picks the most winners in those seven categories, that person will win a prize package to the B&B Theatres at The Grove, which could include movie tickets, popcorn, dinner and drinks, valued at about $200. 

However, if more than one entry has the same number of correct picks, the winner will be drawn at random from all tied entries. Each of the other tied entries will receive two top-level B&B movie passes. 

That’s all you need to do/know. Please note that we already have posted a link to the contest page on our “Neighborhood News” Facebook page and will do so again at least once each of the two weeks between when you receive this issue in your mailbox and the ABC-TV telecast of the Academy Awards on Sunday, March 2. 

At our press time, we only received a little more than 20 entries, so the contest would appear to be wide open. But please, get your entry in no later than Saturday, March 1, at 11:59:59 p.m., to be eligible! 

Please note that B&B Theatres at The Grove is not affiliated with this contest. 

So, Just How ‘Chicken’ Are You? 

Despite all of the nasty online comments about the sheer number of chicken places now located in or adjacent to Wesley Chapel, the fact is that we probably wouldn’t have so many chicken-only (or predominantly chicken) places if there wasn’t a demand for them and, it seems, that most locals have both their favorites and least favorites among the following (in alphabetical order): 

Chicken Guy! 

Chick-fil-A 

Chick’n Fun 

Dave’s Hot Chicken 

Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken 

PDQ 

Popeye’s 

Raising Cane’s 

Slim Chickens 

Sweet Krunch Korean Fried Chicken 

Zaxby’s 

Since I am not the biggest “fast food” chicken enthusiast myself, I decided to give those of you who claim to be true lovers of fried chicken an opportunity to be judges in a Neighborhood News-sponsored contest to find Wesley Chapel’s favorite fast-casual chicken place! 

I haven’t figured out all of the details yet of how it will work or when it will be (or if any of the places listed will agree to be part of it), but if you’re interested in being one of the judges, please email me at ads@ntneighborhoodnews.com with your contact info (name, daytime phone number & community you live in) and “I want to be a chicken contest judge” in the subject line! 

‘We Didn’t Lose Our Father. He Was Taken From Us.’ 

Steven Alan Glantz 
August 23, 1957-December 18, 2024 

On Dec. 18, Gabriel Glantz, who had been living in his mom Marcia’s homeland of Brazil, was staying at his childhood home in Kingshyre at Cross Creek, awaiting the impending birth of his sister Isabel’s baby. 

Gabe says there was a knock at the door, and since he was making dinner, his father, Steve, went to see who was there. 

Seconds later, Gabe heard multiple gunshots fired and minutes later, ambulance and law enforcement vehicles arrived on the scene and sped Steve away to a hospital. But tragically, Steve passed away shortly after reaching the hospital. 

Not long after his father had been shot, Gabe, 37, heard one additional shot fired, which was apparently the gunman — the Glantzes’ Kingshyre neighbor Timothy Lobianco, 66 — taking his own life. Gabe says that Lobianco apparently walked back to his own house, told his wife “I did something…and don’t follow me,” before walking back outside and shooting himself. 

Although the Glantz family doesn’t fully know why Lobianco killed this beloved husband, father and grandfather, Gabe’s brother Kyle, 34, said that Steve, Lobianco and another long-time Kingshyre neighbor had done quite a bit of motorcycle riding together. But, several years ago, Lobianco suffered a head injury in a serious accident on his bike and his demeanor definitely grew angrier in the years that followed. 

“We don’t know why our dad became the focal point of [Lobianco’s] anger,” Kyle told me a week or so after Steve was laid to rest on Dec. 22 at the Gan Shalom Cemetery on County Line Rd. in Lutz. “All we know is that we didn’t lose our father. He was taken from us.” And, as if the shooting wasn’t tragic enough, Steve was killed the same night Isabel, 28, gave birth to a baby girl. Marcia, Steve’s wife of 40 years, was already at the hospital with their daughter when Steve was shot. 

Although Steve and I never really “hung out” together much, we became close friends during his several-year stint as the volunteer president of what was then called the New Tampa Little League (NTLL), when we both had sons playing ball at what is now called Eber Field on Kinnan St., just north of Cross Creek Blvd. Steve was completely dedicated to not only running the league, but also expertly handling the inevitable squabbles between parents, as well as always making sure the fields were kept perfectly manicured. He loved the field maintenance so much, he kept handling it long after he was no longer running the league. 

Seemingly always smiling, always personable, the one-time All-American high school springboard diver and barefoot waterskier was, “an amazing husband, father and friend,” according to Hazzan Jodi Sered-Lever of Congregation Mekhor Shalom, who presided over Steve’s burial, which was attended by more than 200 people (including yours truly), the vast majority being New Tampa neighbors who came to support and pay their respects to the Glantz family, who buried Steve only four days after he was killed. 

Kyle was the first to speak at the funeral. “From our family to everybody here,” he said, “the amount of support, the outpouring of love and prayers and thoughts …you don’t understand how much it has helped us trying to traverse through these last few days. This crowd is a testament to who our father was and the impact that he left on not only our family but on this entire community, from Little League to running into him at Publix, I just want to say a most sincere ‘thank you.’ It truly means a lot and it’s just fulfilling to know how much my father meant to so many people.” 

To that sentiment, Gabe then added, “I think everyone here will take how [our dad] viewed life with them into the future. He was a wonderful father, but I don’t think we realized just how blessed we really were. He was always there for us, and myself in particular, to where I knew that I could take much larger risks than I should because I knew he was always there, no matter what.” 

He added, “Everyone knows he was a community guy…friends with and always keeping up with everyone. He was involved in the Little League for a long time. Even after Kyle and I stopped playing, he stuck around for 5 or 6 more years just because he liked riding around on that lawn mower. He put our grandfather Arnold up in that hot dog truck, selling burgers and hot dogs at the fields on the weekends, just so they could be closer together. I don’t know which he loved more — meeting up with people at Publix or sitting in Section 116 at the Lightning games.” 

Gabe also noted, “The last time we went to Publix together was after he picked me up at the airport and he took me to a specific line just to show me off to one of my high school friends’ mothers.” 

He then closed by saying, “In light of recent events, just be nice…love thy neighbor…and if you come across anything you find unusual in the community that you think someone needs to know about, don’t hesitate because…you just never know.” 

After Steve’s sons were finished speaking, Hazzan Sered-Lever named all of Steve’s relatives and then turned her attention to his passing. 

“Tragically, we are all here today because of evil. Evil has touched Steven’s family, his friends and this community and all who knew and loved him.” 

She continued, “Why did this destruction and devastation take place? Where was God? Why didn’t God protect Steven? As painful and as heartbreaking as it is to take in, I submit that God can not stop human acts of evil from happening. The prayers in my prayer book describe God as ‘gracious and compassionate.’ If God could have stopped this, God would have, but God couldn’t. So, where is God in this unmitigated tragedy? God is the source of comfort who is with us as we take the necessary steps to continue living in the face of our heartbreak. And, through this heartbreak, we remember, we honor, and we pay tribute to Steven.” 

And finally, Hazzan Shered-Lever said, “Steven was compassionate, dedicated, committed, a hard worker and a planner. He was a people person, which also made him so successful in sales. But, it was never transactional [with him]. It was always [about] relationships. He loved to talk to people and was an extraordinary listener. People would open up to him like magic. He knew everyone’s life story, taking after his dad. He always wanted to help anybody and everybody. His friendship was legendary and he sought to solve any problem someone was experiencing.” (Note-As one of those friends Steve helped back when he was the president of the Little League, I can attest first-hand to the truth of this statement). “He experienced such joy in interacting with people that he was the mayor of wherever he went, including the Little League, and one of the fields was named in his honor.” 

Steven was a consummate family man. His family was more important to him than anything else in the world. 

“To the entire Glantz family, we can not take away your pain, but we are holding each one of you in our hearts. The love you have for Steven and his love for each one of you endures forever.” 

Rest in peace, Steve. You are sorely missed.