The latest addition to the Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd. in Wesley Chapel is a street hockey rink, which New Tampa resident Joe Rao drove up to try out one day recently. The rink, part of a partnership between the Tampa Bay Lighting and Pasco County, will host leagues this spring, whenever Covid-19 allows. (Photos: Charmaine George)
The Wesley Chapel District Park (WCDP) on Boyette Rd. may not be as large as the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus a few miles to its south (see pgs. 8-10), but its own little mini-sports campus is rounding into shape nicely.
The latest addition is a new Tampa Bay Lightning-sponsored street, or ball, hockey rink, which officially opened a few days before Christmas. It was constructed just a few steps away from WCDP’s new 17,800-sq.-ft. indoor basketball facility, which broke ground in July and is expected to open by late summer 2021.
“It’s nice to see the park growing and offering more and more opportunities for kids to play different sports,” said District 2 commissioner Mike Moore, who has coached a variety of youth teams at WCDP, but the only basketball and volleyball offered at the park has previously been only outdoors.
In a public-private partnership between the Stanley Cup champion Lighting and Pasco County, two street hockey rinks were built in Pasco — one in Holiday, at the J. Ben Harrill Recreation Center, and the other at WCDP.
The virtually-held ribbon-cutting ceremony for the rinks were held in Holiday and were attended by Tampa Bay Lightning CEO Steve Griggs, former Lightning general manager and 2004 Stanley Cup Champion Jay Feaster, former Lightning defenseman Jassen Cullimore and Stanley Cup captain Dave Andreychuk.
“We are very proud to open these two rinks today as part of our pledge to build 10 ball hockey rinks across the Tampa Bay area,” said Griggs. “These two rinks that we opened will give local youth the opportunity to get outside and play the great game of hockey. The Lightning would like to thank Pasco County for their enthusiasm and support in helping us make this a reality for everyone in Pasco County.”
The other rinks the Lightning have opened in the Tampa Bay area are in Hillsborough, Manatee, Pinellas and Polk counties. They are of the Lightning’s Build The Thunder 2.0 and Connect the Thunder outreach programs. In 2015, through the National Hockey League (NHL) and National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) Industry Growth Fund, the Lightning announced a $6 million grass roots hockey development initiative to be delivered to young people throughout the Bay area.
The NHL club finalized its agreement to build the two rinks in Pasco County last January.
Wesley Chapel already has the popular AdventHealth Center Ice — the largest indoor ice skating/hockey facility south of New York in the United States — so Pasco County was an ideal location, says Josh Dreith, the Lightning’s community manager.
“I love Pasco County,” he said. “There is a ton of Lightning fans in Pasco, and a ton of engaged kids as well.”
The county supplied the land and built the pads the rink is built on, and the Lightning built the actual rink, which is 120 feet long by 60 feet wide, has a full dasher-board system and a scoreboard. The Lightning also is providing the equipment, and will host a series of clinics to get the program going.
The county and Lightning will then coordinate actual league play, which could begin as early as March 2021, but will be dictated by Covid-19 conditions. The rink also will offer plenty of free play time to the public.
For more information, visit LightningMadeHockey.com.
Tampa Bay Lightning head trainer Tom Mulligan & chiropractor Tim Bain may not have laced ‘em up, but they did contribute to the second Stanley Cup in team history!
Tampa Bay Lightning head trainer Tom Mulligan (holding the Stanley Cup) and his family (l.-r., Tyler, Abby, Zachary & Kellie) finally got to celebrate Tom’s second Cup win with the Bolts on Sept. 30. (Photo provided by Tom Mulligan)
The first Tampa Bay Lightning game of the NHL postseason went to one overtime, then two, three, four and five.
In between periods, Arbor Greene resident Tom Mulligan, the team’s head trainer, scrambled to tend to cramps and injuries, keep the players hydrated and their energy levels up with grilled chicken, slices of pizza and bananas.
“It was controlled chaos in between periods,” Mulligan says.
And, unbridled joy afterwards. When Brayden Point scored the game-winning goal to give the Lightning the 3-2, five-overtime win over Columbus, it set off a raucous celebration and catapulted Tampa Bay on a run that would eventually lead to the team’s second Stanley Cup championship.
“That night, I felt this could be something special,” Mulligan says. “It was six hours, and just to see the controlled chaos in between periods was something. It really was all hands on deck. We still needed 15 more wins after that, but if that would have turned out differently, who knows what happens?”
The Lightning ended up getting those 15 wins. After dropping the first game of the Stanley Cup finals to Dallas, the Lightning won the next four, including a 2-0 shutout pitched by goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy to clinch the title.
For many, including Mulligan — one of the few staffers remaining from the 2004 crew that took home the team’s first Cup — it was a long time coming. There have been a series of close calls in recent years, including a conference finals loss in 2018 and mostly noticeably, a devastating sweep by Columbus in the first round last year after the team tied an NHL record with 62 wins.
“We won it in my second year in the NHL, and I thought, ‘This isn’t so bad,’” Mulligan says, chuckling. “We had most of the team back, we’re going to have more chances. Then the years start ticking by, players come and go, and you realize: it’s not that easy.”
Mulligan is still coming down off the high of his second cup. There are few things like hockey celebrations, and Mulligan says Tampa outdid itself with the homecoming boat parade along the Hillsborough River and subsequent party held at Raymond James Stadium.
The most recognizable trophy in sports, Mulligan says he is hoping to be able to bring the Stanley Cup to New Tampa. It is a tradition that each member of the organization gets to spend at least a day with the trophy. In 2004, he took the Cup to Massachusetts to share with his parents.
While he is not sure of the parameters this year, due to Covid-19, he and wife Kelly have some ideas for a New Tampa celebration.
“That’s the plan,” he says.
But first, some family time is in order. Mulligan spent 65 days in the NHL bubble, first in Toronto and then in Edmonton.
Counting a few days of quarantining before he left Tampa, he was away from wife Kellie and their three children for a total of more than 70 days.
In 2004, only son Tyler had been born; he was 14 months old when the Lightning won the cup. Tyler is now 17-years old and a senior at Wharton, and since, brother Zachary, 15, and sister Abby, 13 have joined the family.
“It was really special coming home with the Cup and seeing them,” Tom says. He laments the sports and school events he has had to miss because of his job, and the bubble isolation made that even more difficult.
“They have had to make a lot of sacrifices over the course of their lives,” he says, but adds that they are all old enough now to truly appreciate what dad does and the significance of winning the Stanley Cup.
And, he was able to return home in time for Abby’s 13th birthday on Oct. 5. He told her before he left Edmonton he was bringing her a special present.
“She probably won’t ever get another gift like it,” he says. — JCC
Dr. Tim Bain hoists the Stanley Cup. (Photo provided by Dr. Tim Bain)
Bain Helps Victorious Bolts Deal With Aches & Pains
Wesley Chapel resident Tim Bain, D.C. (Doctor of Chiropractic), who has been the Lightning’s official team chiropractic physician since 2009, says he actually has been treating Lightning players since a year or two before the Bolts won their first Stanley Cup in 2004.
“I had just moved to the area and was living in West Meadows, along with a number of Lightning players, including Marty St. Louis, Nikolai Khabibulin and Fredrik Modin,” Bain says, “and Tom Mulligan, who was already the team’s trainer, started sending some of the players my way.”
Fast forward to the unique season of 2019-20, and both Mulligan and Bain were among the 52 players, coaches and staff sent by the Bolts to live in the NHL’s “bubble” in Toronto for this year’s no-fans, two-bubble (the other was in Edmonton) playoff format. And, when the Lightning emerged victorious 65 days after first entering the Toronto bubble, Dr. Bain was among those celebrating with the new Cup champs.
“There’s no doubt that hockey players are among the toughest of all professional athletes,” says Bain, whose office is in the Cory Lake Professional Center on Cross Creek Blvd. “They don’t like to come off the ice or complain about their aches and pains. But, once the team started to embrace the idea of chiropractic care, they could see that they could recover from injuries faster and get back on the ice even faster.”
Bain adds that with the even-quicker-than-usual turnaround times between games (because of not having to travel) in this year’s playoff format, he was even busier caring for the players than usual. He also was the person responsible for conducting concussion protocols for the players who sustained head injuries.
One of the Bolts’ players who attracted the most attention for his ongoing injury woes was, of course, team captain Steven Stamkos. Although the nature of his injury was never revealed, Bain says no one worked harder to get himself back into playing shape than Stammer.
“Even though he only played 2:47 in one game (Game 3 of the Cup final series against Dallas) of the entire playoffs,” Bain says, “I think the goal he scored while he was in there got the entire team as excited as the moment we won the Cup. Even though he ended up not seeing the ice again, he gave the whole team such a huge lift.”
Bain agrees with Mulligan that the hardest thing about their time in the bubble for all of the Lightning players and staff was being separated from their families for so long.
“I have a tendency to get homesick anyway, even just on road trips,” Bain says. “But, having to spend 70 days away from my wife and children was even harder. Especially when we shifted to the Edmonton bubble (for the last two playoff series), there was literally nothing for us to do. Being able to come home and celebrate winning the Cup with our families and the fans was so amazing.”
And, Bain adds, the goal now is to “bring the Cup home again next year. It can’t be more challenging than this year has been.”
He says that he plans to be on hand when next year’s team has to recover from injuries and everyday aches and pains. “I definitely hope to be part of another celebration!” — GN
The transformation of the Wesley Chapel District Park (WCDP) on Boyette Rd. continues.
Not only is the park getting an indoor basketball gymnasium — hopefully later this year — and not only is it now home to local cricket players, and not only does it have the only inclusive playground for children with disabilities in the area, it also will soon be home to a street hockey rink.
On Jan. 7, Pasco County finalized an agreement with the Tampa Bay Lightning to build two outdoor street hockey rinks in the county, one at the J. Ben Harrill Recreation Complex in Holiday, and the other at WCDP.
“When they first came up here (with the idea), they were going to do one, but our county is so wide and we have such an interest that they were nice to agree to do two,” said District 3 Pasco Commissioner Kathryn Starkey, who was originally pitched the idea.
The rinks will measure 60’ by 120’ feet, and will come with pins for dasher board systems, player benches, a penalty box area and a scoreboard.
Pasco County has budgeted $240,000 from the Capital Improvement Plan Projects Fund for the rinks, most of which will go towards the underlying concrete pads. The Lightning Foundation will take care of the rest.
“It’s obviously exciting anytime you can introduce kids to a new sport,” said District 2 Pasco Commissioner Mike Moore, who has spearheaded the indoor facility, cricket field and inclusive playground at the park. “It’s a positive, nice entry point for kids who can go to a public facility and not have to pay to get on there to learn.”
Jay Feaster, the Lightning’s vice president of community hockey development, told Pasco’s commissioners that the NHL team has donated 106,000 Lightning logo street hockey sticks and balls to children at 503 middle schools as part of their Build The Thunder program. This is the fifth year of the program.
“As Bruce Springsteen once said, I realized after I put all them people in all them cars, I had to figure out someplace for all them to go,” Feaster said.
So, after three years of distributing equipment as part of the Build The Thunder program, the Lightning now have the Connect The Thunder Initiative, with the team committed to building 10 outdoor street hockey rinks in nearby counties.
“We realized we had to have someplace for the youngsters to play,” Feaster said.
In addition to building the street hockey rink at WCDP, Feaster said the Lightning also will provide former players to help assist in the Grand Opening as well as programming throughout the year.
“We’re pretty excited about it,” he said.
Wesley Chapel already is home to AdventHealth Center Ice (AHCI), the largest skating facility south of New York in the United States. AHCI is being rightfully credited with increasing the popularity of ice skating in the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel areas, and has been drawing more than a million visitors each year of its existence.
The outdoor street hockey rink will open the door for more people who might not be able to afford hockey equipment to be introduced to playing the sport.
“I think we have more kids that play hockey around here than anywhere in Florida,” Moore says. “The Bruce B. Downs corridor (down through New Tampa) has a lot of kids who play, and this will only help give (more) opportunities to others.”
Ice hockey is a big deal in our area right now. Maybe it has something to do with our own Tampa Bay Lightning making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals last month for the first time since 2004. It could also have to do with the fact that Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI), which will be the largest recreational skating facility in the state, is about to open in a few months in nearby Wesley Chapel, off S.R. 56 near the I-75 interchange. Either way, if your Freedom or Wharton high school student is interested in hitting the ice this next school year, registration officially has begun for the new Lightning High School Hockey League (LHSHL).Continue reading
Unlike most people I know here in the Tampa Bay area, I’ve been an ice hockey fan for almost 50 years. The first hockey playoff game I ever went to was the deciding Game 3 between the New York Islanders and New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden in 1975, which was the first playoff series the Islanders ever won before they won four Stanley Cups in a row in the 1980s.Continue reading
