Former Wiregrass Ranch High girls basketball standout Stephanie Brower, a 2017 walk-on at the University of Florida, reacts with her teammates to being told by the Gators women’s basketball coach Cam Newbauer that she had earned a scholarship for this season. (Photo: Screengrab, UF video)
Former Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) girls basketball player Stephanie Brower was never one of the most recruited players in Pasco County. But, she was always one of the hardest working and, after one season as a walk-on at the University of Florida, it is probably no surprise that, well, she no longer is a walk-on.
On Oct. 8, Brower received the surprise of a lifetime when, surrounded by her teammates, she was told by Gators head coach Cam Newbauer that she had officially earned a scholarship.
Brower could only cover her mouth in shock as her face slowly turned red with tears. Her teammates mobbed her in celebration.
The Gators team had gathered at the Delta Zeta house, which is Brower’s sorority, under the guise of promoting the team and drumming up attendance by inviting the sorority sisters to come to games this season.
After Newbauer made his pitch to support his team, Brower took the floor to loud cheers. Newbauer then interrupted.
“Come on now, how loud do you cheer for a Delta Zeta?,” he asked a gathering of about 50 sisters, which then erupted into even louder cheering.
After they stopped, Newbauer continued: “How loud would you cheer for a Delta Zeta…that earned a scholarship?”
Brower covered her heart with her hands — “Oh my God, are you serious?” — and then covered her face as her teammates jumped into the celebration.
It was the second time this summer that Newbauer surprised one of the Gators with a scholarship. Brower joined Corey Staples, who was surprised with a scholarship after a carefully orchestrated scavenger hunt.
“It’s been really cool for me to see Steph’s growth and development,” Newbauer says. “When I was coaching at Belmont (University) she actually came out to our elite camp and was really interested, but at the time we didn’t have any scholarships available or room on our roster. Then when I got here to Florida, she reached out about a walk-on opportunity. I was really excited to hear from her because I remembered how hard she played. She will do anything to add value to the team.”
Brower, a 2017 WRH grad, averaged 15.1 points and 10.5 rebounds as a 5-foot-11 guard. She led the Bulls to the school’s first district title in 2016, surpassing the 1,000-point career mark with a 15-point, 16-rebound performance in a 59-47 district championship win over Freedom.
Brower finished her Wiregrass Ranch career with 1,493 points. 1,059 rebounds and 514 assists.
She walked on at Florida on Dec. 12, 2017, appearing in six of 30 games during the 2017-18 season, including four Southeastern Conference games. She played 24 of her 45 minutes against No. 15 Tennessee in February, scoring 2 points with three assists, two rebounds and a steal.
Freedom senior Megan Clark scores two of her game-high 26 in the Patriots’ 78-0 win over Leto.
Basketball is always on the mind of Freedom High guard Megan Clark. It occupies her thoughts, her dreams, virtually every hour of her life, awake or asleep. She’s just as intense in a hard-fought, cross-town rivalry game against Wharton as she is in a 78-0 blowout of Leto (see story, next page).
“She never takes a play off, she will not take a play off,” Patriots head coach Laurie Pacholke says. “She goes 32 minutes, all out. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. She’s put herself in shape to go all out for 32 minutes.”
The level of dedication Clark exhibits is uncommon.
“People don’t realize that those are the little things that will help you be successful at the next level,” Pacholke says.
Clark’s level of dedication can be chalked up as obsession.
She wakes up before dawn, most days of the week, to hit the New Tampa YMCA for a 5 a.m. shoot around and practice session. She is almost always the first player to arrive at team practice, and the last to leave.
“She bought the WNBA TV package with her own money, if that doesn’t tell you something,” Pacholke says. “She just has a love for the game. I’ve seen that growth in her (more than in any other player) over the years.”
It wasn’t always that way for Clark.
In sixth grade, while at Liberty Middle School, she decided to try out for every sport she could, just to get an idea of what she liked. She played youth soccer but stepped up to track, volleyball, soccer and basketball that year. “I was bad, awful at basketball in middle school,” Clark said. “I just really liked playing it and thought I’d get better at it.”
And yes, she did.
Clark made the Freedom varsity team her freshman year, a significant feat considering the Patriots the year before made the State semifinals.
Pacholke remembers Clark coming to a game with her father and the post-game discussion revolved around how Clark might see the floor by her junior year.
Clark sped up her coach’s timetable. If she wasn’t at the YMCA in the morning, she was draining buckets at the local outdoor court in Tampa Palms’ Compton Park neighborhood.
When she stayed until the lights went out, she’d come home and shoot at the hoop in her driveway. She not only made the varsity team her freshman year, she scored 18 points in the third game that season.
“She’s a student of the game,” Pacholke says. “She has passion, athletic ability and that really sets her up. I knew then (after the 18-point game) that in her four years at Freedom, her growth was going to be even greater.”
Clark went from averaging 7.3 points per game as a freshman, to 9.7 as a sophomore, 14.7 as a junior and as of the Leto game, she’s averaging 23.6 points per game, third-best in Class 8A, this season.
“I’d say that in a span of four years, Megan has probably improved more than any other kid I’ve coached,” Pacholke says.
Playing At The Next Level
The hard work and dedication have paid off. Clark went to a summer camp at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville. There, she said that she had one of the best camps of her life and that she loved the facility, the players and the coaches.
She came away from that 2016 camp with her heart set on where she wanted to continue her career. The call came a week later. Clarke was taking a walk in her neighborhood when the phone rang. She recognized the number — because she had saved it in her cell phone— it was Tennessee Tech head coach Kim Rosamond.
“I knew it was Coach Rosamond,” Clark says. “She told me pretty quickly in the conversation that they wanted to offer me a scholarship and I (verbally) committed right there.”
Clark signed her letter of intent this past November and entered into a final phase of her prep career, one that few high school athletes get to enjoy.
“Those few months after a player has signed are really the first time in their lives they are playing for fun,” Pacholke says. “When you find the right place (to go to college), you’re going to know, and I don’t think Megan could have found a better fit than Tennessee Tech.”
Rosamond and Clark should develop nicely together. The current season is Rosamond’s first as head coach of the Division I program, which competes in the Ohio Valley Conference and is 6-12 overall. Clark is Rosamond’s first recruit.
With Clark’s team-first mentality and dogged determination, the future is bright for both athlete and program.
“If she (Clark) improved that much over the four years here at Freedom, I can only imagine how much she’ll improve over four years with a collegiate program,” Pacholke says.
78-0? Really?
Pacholke found herself in an unusual position during a game on Jan. 17 against Leto.
She was rooting for the Falcons to score a basket. Any basket.
Alas, it did not happen.
Final score: Freedom 78, Leto 0.
That is not a typo.
“I felt bad,’’ said Pacholke, who has coached in her fair share of routs in her eight years at Freedom, but last week’s shutout was a first.
“We were saying ‘Please shot go in, please shot go in, please shot go in’ in the fourth quarter,’’ Pacholke said. “We wanted them to get on the board. We definitely weren’t playing for a shutout.”
Pacholke said she was able, however, to use the game as a teaching moment for her players, who she felt had given up late in their previous game, a loss to Plant.
Leto may not have scored, but they kept coming.
“They had fight in them,’’ Pacholke said. “I think a lot of times that gets lost, but those kids, they never gave up.”
Leto has had a rough time of it against New Tampa teams. The Falcons previous worst loss was a 50-1 defeat against Wharton on Jan. 4.
“It’s such a tough situation,’’ Pacholke said. “Do you just stop playing? Do you not play? I look at it from my perspective, and I’m a very competitive person, so if I’m in that kind of situation, I’d be insulted if the other team just stopped playing.”
In retrospect, Pacholke says she wishes she had called up some junior varsity players for the game, but didn’t think of it.
But, she says she played her starters as little as she could with her small roster, and the team did not press or run the ball up the floor on every possession.
And, while it was the first time one ofher teams ever shut out an opponent, she says she hopes it is the last.
Freedom High senior standout Megan Clark (center) signed her letter of intent with Tennessee Tech last month.
When you build a winning basketball program, new players can tend to think that the successes of the past will automatically continue. Freedom High girls basketball coach Laurie Pacholke says she sees it all the time.
But, very often, she says, it doesn’t.
And, that kind of lesson is never very easy for a coach to drill into his or her players’ heads.
After a six-year run that included 127 victories, four trips to the playoffs and a state semifinal appearance in 2013, the Patriots suffered through the first losing season since Pacholke became head coach in 2009.
Freedom’s 13-15 record included the Pats’ first loss to New Tampa rival Wharton High since 2010.
Pacholke’s team did still make the playoffs and nearly upset traditional state powerhouse Winter Haven High in the playoffs — losing by one point — but Pacholke says, “Looking at the record…yeah, that’s brutal.”
Freedom, which opened the 2016-17 season with a 33-30 loss to Alonso but has bounced back with consecutive wins over Gaither and Wiregrass Ranch, returns six seniors in its effort to bounce back this season, including Megan Clark, who averaged 14.7 points a game last year after missing the first month and a half with an injury.
Pacholke says that Clark — a 5-foot-9 senior forward who has signed to play college ball for Division I-A Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, TN — has a high basketball IQ, a sterling work ethic and a nose for the ball.
“She’ll lead us in offensive rebounds, that is for sure,’’ Pacholke says, adding that Clark’s pull-up, mid-range jumper and three-point shot are as good as anyone she has ever coached.
Olivia Williams will, “shock a lot of people,” Pacholke says. The 6-1 senior center is a top rebounder with a nice shot from 14 feet in, and has great hands. Taraja Leon, a 5-7 senior, will take over the starting point guard duties after scoring 7.2 points a game in a reserve role last year, and 5-10 senior forward Ashley Bell brings lockdown defense and a strong physical style to the Pats.
Another senior, 5-7 forward Gazal Refaee, will add some strength in the post, and 6-foot sophomore center Ragen Roger has made significant progress after playing in 14 games as a freshman.
“I like the pieces that we have,’’ Pacholke says. “It’s a new year, and I told them you can’t worry about anything that happened in the past.”
(Right) Wharton High’s Ashley “A.J.” Jones (left) & Parker Onderko will be counted on to help carry the team until they can find their footing.
Wildcats Looking For A Spark
Wharton, which was 12-14 last year, will have to overcome offseason injuries to key players to reach double-digit wins again.
Seniors Dawn Norwood and Sabrina Eye, two post players at 5-10 and 6-1, respectively, both suffered torn ACLs. Coach Chad Reed says he hopes to get Eye back before the end of the season.
“Those are significant,” he says. “They will hurt.’’
They have hurt. The Wildcats got off to a slow start, losing their first five games to open the season. They are, however, coming off a 51-49 victory over Gaither on Nov. 30.
Two starters from last year — 5-8 senior point guard Ashley Jones and 5-4 senior guard Parker Onderko — will be asked to carry the load early. Reed says he the Wildcats will have to find success with a rotation of transfers and new and old players, such as 5-10 junior forward Regina Henry, 5-11 sophomore center Semera Wilson and 5-3 sophomore guard Mecca Bythewood, as well as from promising freshmen like 5-10 forward Julian Trice and 5-4 guard Angelica Ayala.
Reed said he has some good shooters, so the Wildcats will rely on quick ball movement to create open shots. He thinks because of all the new pieces, Wharton will take its lumps this year, but he believes the future is bright.
“We have to take it game to game,’’ Reed said. “It can’t be about wins and losses (right now). If we get better each game, the wins will come.”
It was the second time this summer that Newbauer surprised one of the Gators with a scholarship. Brower joined Corey Staples, who was surprised with a scholarship after a carefully orchestrated scavenger hunt.
