New Tampa resident Justin Dargahi recently made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for making 26 NBA-range (23’-9”) three-point shots in one minute.
Justin Dargahi doesn’t have the smoothest shot around. His form isn’t ideal, his finish isn’t textbook. In fact, you could argue he looks a little awkward as he fires the basketball towards the rim, jumping forward a bit, landing on his right foot.
“My shot’s been laughed at all my life,’’ Dargahi says.
Until it starts going in, which it almost always does.
Swish.
Swish.
Swish.
Dargahi, who lives in Hunter’s Green, is one of the newest entries into the Guinness Book of World Records, for that not-ideal, non-textbook, awkward-motion shot, after he made 26 three-pointers from the NBA range in one minute.
Shooting at the top of the key from 23 feet, 9 inches away, Justin broke the old Guinness record of 25 threes in a minute held by Oregon’s Dan Loriaux, who also holds the record for most treys made in one hour (1,077) and in 24 hours (10,381).
“I told some friends that I set the record, but they just told me to come see them when it’s official,’’ Justin said, laughing.
Well, it’s official.
Taking aim at Guinness record
The former Land O’ Lakes girls basketball assistant coach set the record Jan. 4 in the Land O’Lakes High gymnasium. His record-setting morning, for which he had to file an official application, as well as hiring basketball officials and recording the event, was finally certified by the Guinness Book of World Records last month.
Justin says the Guinness record doesn’t sound like much to some, who are convinced that an NBA player could set it if they tried. But, he says some have, most notably former Boston Celtics All-Star forward Paul Pierce and former NBA journeyman and sharpshooter Jason Kapono, who led the NBA in three-point shooting percentage twice and also won the Three-Point Shootout, held during the NBA’s midseason All-Star Weekend, twice.
It takes consistency and resilience, Justin says, and the fortitude to throw up almost a shot a second. After about 10 shots, most shooters’ arms grow weary. After 20, they hurt and after 30 the ball gets heavier, and the shooting form becomes a bit unraveled.
On Justin’s most recent attempt, which was the fifth time he had tried to break the record, he missed his first shot but then made his next six.
Halfway there (at 30 seconds), he had 16 makes and only five misses.
Justin Dargahi sets the record, seen here on YouTube.
And, with 7.8 seconds left, Record No. 26 swished through the net.
Justin, however, thought he had only made 25. After missing his final four shots, he extended his arms in agony, despite the cheering from the girl basketball players on hand.
“We had to make sure and check the video,’’ he said.
In all, Justin shot 38 times in 60 seconds, and made 26, for a remarkable 68.4 percent.
“It’s a little bit of notoriety, that’s nice,’’ said Dargahi, who works for Future Home Realty, which has six Florida offices, including one in Wesley Chapel.
Guinness confirmation arrives
The official Guinness Record certificate now sits over the fireplace in his home, a testament to setting a goal and achieving it. His next shot at fame, he says, may come from the free throw line, where the current record is 52 made in one minute from that 15-foot distance.
For Justin, the road to the record books was a natural one. He grew up a shooter, always drawing crowds and breaking records at the pop-a-shot games you find at arcades and theme parks.
He first played organized basketball at Tampa Baptist and Tampa’s Cambridge Christian, and had college aspirations. But, there were few spots on college basketball rosters for slightly-built 6-footers who weren’t great defenders.
“I was always by far the best shooter on the basketball teams I played on,’’ Justin said. “But, I wasn’t at good playing defense.”
Instead, Dargahi went to USF — where he once won $1,000 in a three-point shooting contest at the school — and graduated with a degree in journalism.
He continues to shoot hoops. On a recent blazing hot afternoon at Hunter’s Green’s Capt. Nathaniel Hunter Park, Justin shows off his gift, moving around the court and firing up shots, or “shot puts,” he jokes, many from a few feet behind the arc.
Swish.
Swish.
Swish.
“I’ve never been better,’’ says Justin, who is 34 years old. “My range keeps getting better.”
Justin still plays on Sunday mornings at Cambridge Christian on N. Habana Ave. with his old high school teammates and friends, and though he lives across the street from the court at Hunter’s Green, he doesn’t get out to shoot as much as he would like.
Still, he recently sent a letter to the University of South Florida basketball program — which has sorely lacked a pure outside shooter in recent years — asking coach Orlando Antigua for a chance to walk on to the team. He figured if he can make the Guinness Book of World Records for his uncommon gift of deadeye, long-range shooting, why not?
“Wouldn’t that be a great story?’’ Justin asks with a smile.
Some team members of the New Tampa YMCA Synchronized Swim Team pose underwater for a photo after a recent practice. The synchronized swimmers will perform June 4 at 10:30 a.m. to raise money for 14 team members to attend the Junior Olympics next month in New York.
Kids and adults stream in and out of the New Tampa Family YMCA in Tampa Palms, some headed for the basketball and volleyball courts, others to the activity rooms and exercise equipment. At the pool, kids learn to swim, while other more advanced swimmers churn out lap after lap under the direction of the YMCA swim team coaches.
It’s about what you might expect at any YMCA.
But, tucked away beyond that in the far end of the same 50-meter pool, there’s something you might not expect.
Amongst the din of splashing swimmers, one of the New Tampa Y’s more successful programs toils in relative peace, a group of tightly-coiffed, nose-clipped synchronized swimmers, young and old, dancing beneath the water and working together in perfect harmony.
The Tampa YMCA Synchro (TYS) team, based at the New Tampa YMCA since starting in 2004 and one of the few programs in the central part of Florida — but a regular on the state and region competition circuit — is coming of age.
“The key to a successful team is when swimmers get a taste of improvement and get a taste of excellence and the winning,’’ said 26-year-old Camille Albrecht, who started as an assistant coach in 2009 and has been head coach of the TYS program since 2013. “A lot of our younger girls saw some of the success the older girls were having, and they want those same things and they’re working harder because they already know what success looks like.”
Success is measured by competitors like 19-year-old Wesley Chapel resident Saloni Mehrah, who participated at the U.S. Nationals in Mesa, AZ, along with 13-year-old Benito Middle School student Julianna Silva.
Success also is sending synchronized swimmers to compete for a spot on the U.S. National Team, which Silva, 12-year-old New Tampa resident Katie Wieckowski and 10-year-old Jennah Hafsi, who are both homeschooled, did in Coral Springs, FL, this spring.
Success also is sending almost half your team — which qualified with top-3 finishes at Regionals — to the Junior Olympics next month, to compete against roughly 1,000 other synchronized swimmers.
Mehra and Meghan Wieckowski will compete in the 18-19 age group, and Abby Eckhardt, Kyra Okin and Zoe Keegan have qualified in the 16-17s.
Silva, Camila Acuna, Maria Pinilla-Baquero and Ariana Alonso are in the 13-15 age group, while Katie Wieckowski, Jennah Hafsi, Jennifer Lynfatt, Lilly Weber and Teghan Theile are all competing in the 12-under division.
The 14 synchronized swimmers heading to the Junior Olympics, held June 24-July 2 at the Nassau County Aquatic Center at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, NY, is the most the program has ever sent, better than the previous best of 10 swimmers last year.
Synchronized Swimmers Ice Cream Fund Raiser
In order to travel to the prestigious event, the TYS is hosting a New York-themed Ice Cream Social on Saturday, June 4, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., at the New Tampa YMCA. The synchronized swimmers will show off their latest routines and custom-made suits (that can cost $150 and more), and even the dads and brothers will get into the act as the “SyncBros” perform a routine.
The show is free to attend and the TYS and the parents will be selling ice cream, root beer floats, pizza, salad and drinks. There also will be baskets filled with prizes, and tickets to enter the drawing are just $2 each or $5 for three.
Albrecht has helped grow her team by holding two summer camps each year, to teach the finer points of her sport to younger kids. Her hope is to make synchronized swimming, which until the turn of the century was known as “water ballet,” a primary sport.
A former synchronized swimmer herself for the Tampa Bay Synch Rays, Albrecht says she started competing when she was 7.
“My mom wanted me to have a sport, and I loved to dance and I loved swimming,’’ she says. “I had already broken both my arms, so we thought that would be safe.”
Abby Eckhardt, 15, who has been on the New Tampa team for five years, started her athletic career as a gymnast, competing for three years until a neck injury sidelined her. She found her athletic outlet in the pool.
“It fell right into place for her,’’ said her mother, Amy. “It’s the perfect sport.”
“I think its challenging and I like all the friendships you make with all the girls,’’ said Abby. “We’re like a giant family.”
Many synchronized swimmers on the team come to the sport after trying swimming, gymnastics, ballet and/or dancing. In fact, synchronized swimming has always been described as a hybrid of those sports.
The daughter of former Tampa Bay Buc offensive tackle Steve Young (not be confused with the former Bucs and San Francisco 49ers quarterback of the same name), Albrecht says her girls are hard workers. While most people’s first question is always, “How do they hold their breath so long?,” Albrecht says the swimmers are as fit and strong a group as you will find.
“People don’t know how much work we do outside the pool,” she said. “The basic skillset we look for is flexibility, and then it’s strength. We do a lot of cross training, a lot of land work. You have to be strong.”
Albrecht says it takes years to perfect synchronized swimming. Mastering the solo aspect of the sport is challenging enough, but then to be able to synchronize your routine with others takes years of practice.
To get her swimmers ready, Albrecht has former SynchRay swimmers Amanda Olson and Brittany McCauley on her staff. And Lily Hu, a USF student, joined the staff after moving here from China, where she competed internationally in the sport.
For more information about the synchronized swimming program at the New Tampa Family YMCA (16221 Compton Dr. in Tampa Palms), visit TampaYMCA.org/locations/new-tampa, or call 866-9622.
West Palm Beach-based commercial developer John Dowd played a pivotal role in the development of the Wesley Chapel and Wiregrass Ranch area near S.R. 56 when, with the stalwart help of JCPenney as the lead anchor, he helped spearhead the birth of The Shops at Wiregrass mall.
Dowd admitted that it wasn’t easy. Right before the mall finished, the economy started to slow. Had it been six months later, Dowd doesn’t think the mall would have ever been built. “We had tenants come to us who had literally just signed leases and wanted out,’’ he said. “Everybody was so afraid of what was going to happen to the world.”
But, thankfully, the world did survive. And, so did the mall.
John Dowd shows a map of the Wiregrass Ranch DRI and where some of the planned construction will take place.
Dowd is back in the area, and is again teaming up with local landowner/developer JD Porter to help give the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) another economic shot in the arm.
At the Wesley Chapel Economic Development meeting at Mulligans (inside New Tampa’s Pebble Creek Golf Club) on April 28, Dowd and Porter regaled a crowd of more than 100 local business leaders with tales from the past, but mostly of a future they see as bright and bustling.
The Wiregrass mall, which Dowd said didn’t have the start everyone had hoped when it opened in 2008, is now enjoying the kind of success that was expected. That is triggering further development in the area, as the Porter family carefully and judiciously parcels out its land to businesses and developers who fit into their long-range plans.
Dowd said he was attracted to working with the Porter family because of the family’s deliberate style. Unlike many landowners, JD Porter said he is no rush to sell to the highest bidder and turn an instant profit. Instead, the Wiregrass Ranch DRI continues to only greenlight projects the Porter feel add value to the entire area.
Wiregrass Ranch Set To Expand
Here’s some of those plans Porter and Dowd shared at the Economic Development meeting:
1. On S.R. 54, just down the road from Walmart, the first project between Dowd and Porter will be a 12,600-sq.-ft. strip center, with two nicely designed buildings. Two restaurants are already signed up, with two more close to coming aboard as well. The project will feature a typical mix, including a cell phone store, nail and hair salons, restaurants and “good neighborhood use” businesses.
“We already have more interested tenants than we have space for,’’ Dowd said.
2. On S.R. 56, east of the Wiregrass Mall expansion (which will include restaurants, a movie theater and a grocery store), Porter and Dowd are doing is having site work done at another shopping center, to be called Wiregrass Commons at 56, which will include a “green” or specialty grocery store.
Nothing has been signed yet, Dowd said, and “we’re not doing any of the small stuff until we get an anchor signed up. Once that happens, that will be a 50,000-60,000-sq.-ft. project in total and a nice addition to the area.
3. Porter also said a hotel would be finalizing a deal within 30 days, and that is expected to also immediately east of the Wiregrass Commons at 56 project. He did not say which hotel, but we have heard rumors it will be a Marriott Fairfield Inn.
4. Even further east on S.R. 56, the long-awaited Raymond James Financial campus is close to officially announcing its arrival.
No, seriously.
JD Porter (left) says big things are coming to Wiregrass Ranch, including Raymond James.
Porter joked that he was sick and tired of talking about the long-rumored project, which some had begun to doubt. But doubt no more.
“We got good news (April 27) and I truly believe within the next 2-3 weeks we’ll have a permit,’’ Porter said. “Having that permit triggers the closing. Having that closing means the other two or three office users, which we are we are talking to right now — anywhere from 600,000 square feet to another 1.2-million-sq.-ft., Fortune 50 companies — they close, and I would suspect we’re going to see movement within the next 4-6 months after that.”
Porter said Raymond James will add between 4,000-6,000 jobs, and that you can double that total to 8,000-12,000 jobs with the other unnamed businesses set to follow.
That will also begin to create some of the day traffic that Dowd says is necessary if the area is going to attract more quality restaurants, as well.
5. Porter said they will be closing on an assisted living facility, “in the next 45-60 days”. Porter didn’t disclose any other information, but the facility will be called Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch Assisted Living & Memory Care, which is owned by the Prevarian Companies.
The facility will be multiple stories when completed next to North Tampa Behavorial Health, which also is expanding and will be adding 48 rooms by the end of the year.
6. As part of trying to force vertical integration into the development plan, Porter said that in 30-45 days construction also should begin on a condo project, called Altis at Wiregrass, which will be located directly north of Wiregrass Commons at 56.
“If I would’ve said condos in Pasco County 3-4 years ago, you probably would have told me to get the hell out of here,’’ Porter said. “Well, it happened.”
Porter hinted at four-story structures, with rooftop pools and verandas. “Something typical of Hyde Park and South Tampa,’’ he said. “But not typical Pasco County.”
The condos, which according to site plans will include 394 multi-family dwellings in 15 separate buildings, are part of Porter’s plan to build new and different projects in the area. “If you wanna play in the sandbox, you have to step it up,’’ he said. “We are very fortunate to be in the right area. If people want to be here, bring something new to the table.”
Just The Beginning Of New Phase For Wiregrass Ranch
Porter promised other major announcements concerning major retailers still to come. But for now, he is pleased with the area’s progress, citing the proximity of an expanding hospital, a state college with room to grow into a full-fledged university and more retail in the area. He also expects an increase in new homes as well, and once the residential areas mature a mixed-use town center can be developed.
Members of the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce Board, including past President Jeff Novotny (holding plaque) were honored to present the plaque that will adorn the boardroom at the WCCC office in The Grove named for the late Don Porter to Don’s son JD and daughter Quinn (center), during the Chamber’s Economic Development briefing at which JD and commercial developer John Dowd spoke about Wiregrass Ranch.
Porter also said his family is rethinking its commitment of donating 120-acres to the county to build a park in the area. A tennis center fell through more than a decade ago, as did a proposed baseball complex on the site last year. In November the county announced it would be seeking partners in a public-private relationship to build an indoor facility on land that also would include outdoor fields.
But Porter, frustrated with the county’s inability to move forward on donated land, says he may take back some of it back by the end of the year and build the park privately, as part of his long-range plan to provide the area with “synergy”.
“We are looking to create something we can be proud of out here not just tomorrow, but 10-50 years down the road,’’ he said.
The land adjacent to the Legacy at Highwoods Preserve has been purchased by Dr. Debra Shelby, who plans to build a state-of-the-art dermatology practice and school at the site shown in red.
On a visit to Singapore’s acclaimed National Skin Centre in 2012, where she was invited to lecture the nursing staff and meet with the medical staff, Dr. Debra Shelby, Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and Ph.D., witnessed a state-of-the-art, comprehensive dermatology facility that treats 1,000 patients a day, while also serving as a home for continuing education for doctors, new technologies and research studies.
Making a place like that became one of her dreams, and soon, it may become a reality right here in New Tampa.
Shelby, a Tampa Palms resident, is the CEO and Clinical Director for Florida Specialty Medical Services (FSMS), LLC, located on Amberly Dr. in Tampa Palms, where she currently sees patients.
She will soon begin building a new facility, to be called the National Institute for Dermatology: Dermatology Education, on the corner of Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. and New Tampa Blvd. in West Meadows.
“I wasn’t even aware the property was for sale,’’ said Shelby. “I had been looking around the New Tampa area and didn’t find anything I really liked, and this was right in front of me the whole time. It’s a beautiful piece of property.”
The 7-acre property, most of it conservation and wetlands, with 2.5 acres of usable land, has been dormant for years, following a failed attempt to build a charter school on the site in 2012. Sold for $300,000, it was originally zoned for three 2,500-sq.-ft. offices or medical buildings. Shelby said an architect is currently “reconfiguring” that plan to instead include just one 8,000-sq.-ft. building, “with a nice flow.”
Dermatology Care From Start To Finish
Board-certified in dermatology (DNC) through the Dermatology Nursing Association, Shelby’s plan is to build and staff with qualified doctors a facility modeled after the one she visited in Singapore, offering a variety of services, including things like a pharmacy, a shop with sun protective clothing, laser-care, skin cancer treatments, aesthetics as well as a training center for doctors.
The project is currently in permitting.
“It will be a unique concept,’’ Shelby said. “We’re very excited about it.”
Dr. Debra Shelby has big plans for dermatology care.
Shelby, who has a number of specialties but says she has a love for geriatric dermatology, developed the country’s first Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) Dermatology Residency at USF and became the first resident to ever complete the program in 2008, and has learned from the best doctors while serving as a Perioperative Clinical Specialist at the Moffitt Cancer Center on the USF Tampa campus.
Shelby spent 15 years at a practice, mostly in Hudson, at the Center for Dermatology, before scaling back to part-time while she founded FSMS, LLC, which provides dermatology care and education.
Shelby visits most of her patients at senior-assisted facilities.
“It was always my vision to do this, but being part of a practice, it wasn’t something I could make come to fruition,” she said.
Shelby, who says she will start law school in January to study elder care health policy, said she has received so many requests from patients for a land-based facility to visit, creating one in New Tampa only made sense. To that end, the National Institute for Dermatology will be located right next to the Legacy at Highwoods Preserve assisted living facility.
Florida Specialty Medical Services, LLC, is located at 15243 Amberly Dr. For more information, visit FSMSLLC.com, or call 765-0688.
Massage Franchise Set To Open In New Tampa Center
Massage Green Spa, a national spa chain, is opening a new location in the Publix-anchored New Tampa Center plaza at the site formerly occupied by Dine or Dash and La Cubanita Café.
Live Oak resident Todd Phillips is one of the owners. He says he hopes to have the new spa open by mid-June or early-July.
Massage Green Spa bills itself as an affordable luxury spa offering massage therapy, skin care, nail care and “internal care with the latest technology of our infrared saunas.” Phillips says infrared saunas are “all the rage in California” because they offer all the health benefits of a sauna without the stifling heat and atmosphere of traditional saunas. “A little bit more modern,’’ Phillips said, “with greater effect.”
(L.-r.) Sam Harris, Lisa Missana, Marla Zick, Shane Mitchell and Maurice Rolle got together at Stonewood Grill & Tavern a week after the quartet of rescuers pulled Marla out of her car as it sank in a retention pond just east of the Gateway Bridge in West Meadows.
Rarely does a day go by that four strangers — Sam Harris, Maurice Rolle, Lisa Missana and Shane Mitchell — don’t think about the harrowing rescue, that one Thursday morning, around 7:45 a.m. on March 31, when they came together at the intersection of New Tampa Blvd. and Meadow Pine Dr. in West Meadows.
Each played a pivotal role. In just a few minutes time, they managed to cobble together the smarts, verve and guts to act selflessly and swiftly, to enter dark waters, to pull someone from a gray Ford Mustang that had sunk to the bottom of a retention pond. On May 4, they will be honored by the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners.
“I don’t know about your religious beliefs or what you believe in,’’ says Sam, “but there was something happening that day.”
Four Strangers, One Goal: Rescue
Maurice was driving his 7-year-old daughter to school, over the Gateway Bridge just past Freedom High, when the gray Mustang heading in the same direction just in front of him swerved to the left and into a white brick retainer wall.
The driver of the car, Marla Zick, 26, had suffered a seizure and was no longer in control of her vehicle.
“I saw her lose control right at the top of the bridge,’’ Maurice says. “She was swerving, and when she didn’t swerve back to correct herself, I knew she was in trouble.”
The car rolled down the bridge, “scraping and grinding” against the wall the whole way, Maurice said.
“I knew it was going wrong,’’ he added. “I was just screaming, ‘No, no, no, no.’”
Sam, a New Tampa Realtor who lives in Heritage Isles, was driving west on New Tampa Blvd., a road he says he had rarely driven on before. But, that morning, he had to pick up a cake at the Publix in the New Tampa Center for a wedding party at his wife’s office at USAA, and decided to take the back way to the insurance office over the bridge.
There was nothing between his car and the one careening down the bridge towards him in the same lane.
He pulled over. The wall finally turned the Mustang loose, and it turned left. It just missed a cement light post, and a tree, before rolling between two bushes and into the retention pond at the corner of Meadow Pine Dr.
Maurice pulled over, told his daughter not to move, and tossed all of his belongings out of his pocket. Sam did the same.
After dropping his daughter off, Maurice had planned on heading into work at the 30/30 Barber Shop & Salon he owns on Busch Blvd. But, his plans changed.
“Dammit, I gotta get wet, I gotta get freaking wet,’’ he said to himself.
After a few steps into the pond, Sam decided they needed something to pull the car out with. It was 7:55 a.m. He picked up his cell phone, called 911 and ran back to his vehicle for a rope.
Deeper Waters Than Expected
Shane was taking his 7-year-old son to school, and as he drove slowly down Meadow Pine Dr. they noticed the car coming through the bushes and rolling gently into the water, where it appeared to float and drift.
A 32-year-old carpenter, Shane pulled his Nissan over and hopped out. He saw Maurice near the water. While Sam was retrieving a rope from the trunk of his car, Shane had a wincher — a motor-driven or hand-powered drum around which rope or a chain is wrapped and used to move heavy loads — on the front of his.
“I just thought we would pull the car out,’’ Shane said. “I didn’t think anyone would be going underwater.”
Maurice grabbed the hook at the end of the wincher chain and walked into the water. He was roughly 20 yards from the car, but the water was getting deeper with every step. After a few steps it was up to chest, and Maurice couldn’t see the car well enough to have an idea where he would be attaching the hook.
All Hands On Deck
Lisa was just a few minutes behind Shane on Meadow Pine Dr., on her way to drop her 14-year-old son A.J. at Family of Christ School in Tampa Palms, when she saw the car in the pond.
At first, she grabbed her phone and started taking pictures. “Oh gosh,’’ she says she told her son, “that person better get out of that car. Then, I realized Shane and Maurice were yelling at somebody in the car.”
Maurice had returned to shore, and he, Sam and Shane were coming up with another plan. But, there wasn’t time — the car began to sink.
“I could see her face, I was screaming to her that someone was coming,’’ Sam recalls. “All of the sudden, the car went to the bottom of the pond.”
“Never in a million years did I think that pond would have drank that car like that,” Maurice says.
The nose of the Mustang went first, thrusting the back end into the air, where it then slowly disappeared from sight. “Three bubbles came up, and it was gone,’’ Lisa says.
“It was total chaos.’’ Maurice says. “The electricity at the point was crazy. Everybody was just in shock. Lisa was saying something, people were screaming, stuff just went by so quick…I looked over at Shane, and he was going into the water.”
Lisa was not far behind. She ran around the pond on the other side, slipped off her flip flops and in her jeans and a black Chicago Blackhawks shirt, jumped into the pond.
For a brief minute before she jumped in, all she could think about was all the photos her friends had sent her by text over the years of the two alligators that lived in the pond.
Once in the water, Lisa swam to the car and tried to get her bearings. She placed her feet on the roof of the car to determine where she was.
The rest, she says, is kind of a blur. She remembers focusing on the driver’s side of the car. Luckily, Marla had been driving with her window down. “I always drive with my window down,’’ she later told Lisa. “Drives my mom crazy.”
This time, it saved her life.
A Few Frantic But Freeing Moments
Shane and Lisa took a few turns unsuccessfully trying to get Marla’s seat belt unclasped. Four, maybe five times each. Neither can remember exactly.
Had Shane not been getting over a cold, he says he may have been able to save Marla in one trip. He had dived for lobster and been spearfishing, free-diving 20 feet and staying under with no problem. On this day, however, maybe from the combination of his cold and adrenaline, he couldn’t seem to get a deep enough breath.
The water was green and murky, Shane says. And the car was not visible. “Shapes and shadows,’’ he says. “I was just feeling around for door handles and everything.”
Lisa came up from the water and screamed to the onlookers to find a knife or scissors, to cut the seat belt. She doesn’t remember who brought her scissors, she just remembers sticking them in her back pocket.
But before she could make another trip below, Shane emerged from the water and told her he had freed Marla from the seat belt. It was time to go pull her out.
“Let’s do this,’’ Shane said.
Marla was frothing at the mouth, but was still alive. Tampa Police Department (TPD officers helped pull them to shore, and medics tended to Marla before taking her to Florida Hospital Tampa.
Together, they sank back into the water, but when they reached for Marla, she wasn’t there. Unhindered by the seat belt, she had floated to the roof of the car and towards the passenger side. Once they figured out what had happened, “Shane grabbed her by the waist, I grabbed something, and we pulled her out through the window,’’ Lisa says.
Shane and Lisa may not remember how many times they dove under, but they knew why — “I saw somebody dying,’’ Shane says.
In real time, the rescue lasted no more than two minutes, Sam says, maybe even only 90 seconds.
But, “It felt like an eternity,’’ Shane says. “I remember when I stopped to catch my breath, I was just thinking, ‘Oh my God, if I don’t get her out she is going to die. I can’t stop.’ It felt like such a long time, and I dove so many times.”
Maurice was in shock, waiting for Shane and Lisa to emerge with a body. He was ready to jump back in if he was needed, but he worried that his failed attempt to hook the wincher to the car was Marla’s best shot.
“The deal was, I was like, ‘God, please don’t let this girl die,’” Maurice says, “because I couldn’t get to her.’’
When they got her to the surface, Lisa and Shane turned Marla on her back. “She looked dead,’’ he says. “She was purple and blue and pale.”
Marla was frothing at the mouth, but was still alive. Tampa Police Department (TPD officers helped pull them to shore, and medics tended to Marla before taking her to Florida Hospital Tampa.
“We have the best police department in the nation,’’ Sam says, a sentiment shared by the others, thanks to TPD’s quick response.
Lisa and Shane slumped to the ground.
“I remember my thighs hurt so bad,’’ Lisa says.
“Absolutely spent and exhausted,’’ Shane says.
Lisa and Shane had the same thought as they looked out to the pond, to where the car had settled. Was there anybody else in there? Was a child strapped into a seat in the back? Had they done enough?
Lisa waited until the car was pulled out, to see with her own eyes. She was overwhelmed with relief when police told her the Mustang was empty.
Afterwards, Lisa would shower until there was no more hot water, drive up to school and give her son a big hug.
The Reunion…And Some Peace
A week later, the entire group — Marla, Shane, Lisa, Maurice and Sam — met for the first time since the incident, for dinner at Stonewood Grill & Tavern, located a mile or two from the scene of the accident.
It was a therapy session, of sorts. Lisa brought booklets for each person, with all the pictures she could find taken at the pond. Together, they pieced the story back together. The rush of adrenaline and the power of impulse and instinct had left many holes for all four of the rescuers.
“Dinner definitely helped everybody,’’ Sam says.
Marla did not remember anything. She told them that one minute she was driving to get a cup of coffee at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Highwoods Preserve Pkwy., and the next minute, she woke up in a hospital.
For Maurice, dinner was closure. He had been troubled since that morning, and meeting Marla and talking with his fellow good samaritans helped clear his mind and his conscience.
“Thinking that somebody could have possibly died and you didn’t get to them that first go around,’’ he says. “That’s tough.”
The attention he received afterwards had overwhelmed Shane, an otherwise private person. But, in the darkened, comfortable confines of Stonewood, he found some peace reliving the moment. It also helped him piece together the story.
“It’s a lot to come to terms with,’’ Maurice admits.
Lisa, who still gets recognized in public, and even thanked by strangers, learns something new every day about the event. She says she is haunted by what could have been. Re-telling her story, she cries at certain parts.
“There’s a lot of ‘what-ifs,’” she says. “What if we didn’t get her out? What if she died? What if something went terribly wrong and my husband was planning a funeral and my kids didn’t have a mother? There’s just so many things.”
Lisa spent many of her summers growing up in Chicago working as a lifeguard, but never imagined she would use those skills years later. “It’s just all surreal,’’ she says. “This is something that is going to stay with me for a lifetime.”
Maurice, Shane and Lisa still drive by the pond daily, taking their kids to school, going to the grocery store, heading to and from work. In the past, Lisa might look over and see if any alligators were sunning themselves, but otherwise, no one paid it much attention.
Now it’s hard not to look and stare…and remember.
Something special happened that day.
“A spear fisherman, a former lifeguard, a barber and a real estate agent, all coming together, (each) with a role and a purpose,’’ Sam says.
The nose of the Mustang went first, thrusting the back end into the air, where it then slowly disappeared from sight. “Three bubbles came up, and it was gone,’’ Lisa says.