Updating Three Of The Stories That Ran In Our Last Issue

Wharton High grad Gabriel Hassan lost his battle with Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome after receiving his diploma.

Because of the fact we only have an issue every four weeks in each of our markets, sometimes the stories that appear in our issues are or become “old” even before (or shortly after) that issue arrives in your mailbox.

In our Feb. 6 issue, we had two such stories that really needed to be updated in this issue and a third that was an event that took place after that issue hit mailboxes.

The most important, and saddest, of these was the fact that Gabriel Hassan who was on the cover of our last issue for receiving his diploma for graduating from Wharton High on Jan. 22, while he was still at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital — passed away less than two weeks after that event.

Gabe, who was suffering from terminal leukemia, succumbed to his cancer and was buried by his family on or the day before Valentine’s Day. We also learned that his specific form of leukemia is called Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome, or SDS.

When we posted the story that Gabe had passed, his father Mahmoud Hassan commented on our Facebook page:

“He was my beloved boy — a precious soul who loved people and life.

He loved service to others, EDM music, Roblox, Video Games, Going to the movies.

He was our proud Eagle Scout and graduated HS despite all of his challenges.

Gabriel was a sweet angel and he will be missed dearly. We are grieving for our angel in heaven. We miss him so much.”

Although I never met Gabriel or his family, we join the Hassan family in their grief. Rest in Peace.

To help those afflicted with SDS, please search“Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome Alliance” on Facebook.

Suzy Tkacik Falls Short Of Award

We also knew that our story about Pride Elementary media specialist Suzy Tkacik (photo) being a finalist

for the Hillsborough School District-wide Ida S. Baker Diversity Educator of the Year award would be old news by the time the Feb. 6 issue reached your mailbox.

Even so, we still felt it was important to highlight Ms.Tkacik in these pages, as she was the only finalist for any of the District’s “Excellence in Education” awards from a New Tampa school.

Well, at the District’s award gala on Feb. 1, this year’s Ida S. Baker award went to Dr. Ilfault Joseph, the community resource teacher at Jennings Middle School.

Congratulations again, Suzy. You’re still a winner in all of our eyes!

Wharton Tournament Nets $6,400!

The third story we needed to update was the second annual Wharton High Cornhole ithloma. Tournament, which was held on Feb. 10 and ended up raising more than $6,400 to provide teacher grants and classroom needs for the school.

Our congratulations go out to Wharton teacher Matt McKernan (left in photo, left) and his partner (and fellow former Wildcat) Tate Wheeler, who outlasted 28 other teams to take home the top prize, after finishing as the runners-up in last year’s inaugural Cornhole Tourney. The second-place finishers were Benito Middle School teacher Christopher Taylor and his uncle Shawn Quinn. Both winning teams left with prize packages worth more than $700!

Wildcats Headed Back To State!

Karmello Branch drives to the hoop in Wharton’s region championship victory Friday night. (Photo: Mike Bitting)

New coach. Some new players. Same old results.

Wharton is headed back to the Class 6A boys basketball final four for the second straight season after dominating Charlotte 52-35 Friday night.

The Wildcats (24-6) will take on Palm Beach Dwyer (27-1) in their semifinal on Thursday, March 2 at either 6 or 8 p.m. at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland.

“It’s a great feeling,” said first-year coach and former Wharton star Shawn Vanzant, considered the best player in the program’s history. “I never made it as a player (although he did make it to the NCAA Final Four as a player for Butler University). I took over this year and a lot of guys didn’t know me. It took a while to bond, but once we got that camaraderie going, it’s been an amazing ride. I’m real proud of these boys.”

The Wildcats got three-pointers early from Lucean Milligan and Jayson Montgomery to take a 6-0 lead, and it wasn’t until 40 seconds were remaining in the first quarter that Charlotte scored its first basket.

When Milligan had to leave the game with early foul trouble, Christian Ayala came off the bench to sink two more three-pointers, and finished with eight points in the first half as Wharton opened up a 21-11 halftime lead.

“I might not have started, but I brought that will to get in the game and do whatever I could,” Ayala said. “I guarded, I knocked down a couple of threes, that’s what I do. It created some momentum, and the second half we had to just had to keep the foot on the gas pedal.”

“Christian is a big part of the team,” Vanzant said. “He’s a senior, great leadership, next-guy-up mentality. I know when I put Christian in the game, he’s going to make big plays.”

Charlotte shot only 4-for-18 in the first half, and by the time it started shooting better it was too late. The Wildcats opened the second half with a Chandler Davis bucket (off a Montgomery steal), and Mike Warnock made a trey to bump the lead to 26-11.

The Tarpons (16-14) made a run towards the end of the third quarter, but the Wildcats closed the quarter with an 8-0 run (thanks to three-pointers from Davis and Milligan) to make it 39-24 and out of reach as the defense clamped down.

“The game plan was to play defense and rebound because we were outsized a little bit,” Davis said. “They were bigger, but we held out ground..”

Charlotte’s frontline of Kirby Schmitz (6-foot-7), Chris Cornish (6-5) and John Gamble (6-6) combined to average 40 points this year, but were held to a total of 15 points by Wharton’s big men Karmello Branch and Davis, as well as sterling perimeter defense by the guards.

New Coach, Same Old Wildcats

Former Wharton High basketball star Shawn Vanzant is trying to lead the Wildcats back to the State tournament. 
(Photos by Mike Bitting)

If you were wondering if things would be any different for the Wharton High basketball team playing under a new coach for the first time in two decades, you can stop wondering.

In this year’s first game at home under new coach Shawn Vanzant, the Wildcats used an aggressive attacking defense that produced a slew of steals that they turned into a withering onslaught of three-pointers and transition buckets to open up a 28-7 lead en route to a 73-40 win over Steinbrenner High.

“Not much has changed,” says junior point guard Lucean Milligan, who had three steals and 10 points in the first quarter. 

Indeed. The Wildcats were off to a 10-1 start heading into the Christmas break.

Wharton made a winner of Vanzant, who was making his home debut as the Wildcats’ new head basketball coach after taking over for Tommy Tonelli, Hillsborough County’s all-time winningest coach.

In a gym where Vanzant once starred as arguably the program’s greatest player ever, it felt as if he, or even Tonelli, had never left. 

“Easy transition; I think it’s the best option we could have had,” says senior forward Chandler Davis. “He played here, and he played at a high level at Butler (University in Indianapolis, IN).” 

Vanzant is a great story that just keeps on getting better. The Wildcats added the latest chapter by beating the Warriors.

“I’m not gonna lie, it was a special moment,” Vanzant said afterwards. “I played four years here, coach Tonelli was like a father figure (to me). It was like a welcome home party.”

Karmello Branch goes up for two of his 16 points in the home-opening win over Steinbrenner.

The following night reminded Vanzant there is still work to do. The Wildcats laid an egg against a good Newsome team that returns a lot of size and experience, losing 48-39, but are currently on a seven-game winning streak.

There is no question that Vanzant is the man for the job. Tonelli, it seems, had waited for this moment for a few years, the chance to hand his program off to his star pupil. He wanted someone who could coach, sure, but it was more important to find someone who could lead, which life surely has prepared Vanzant to do.

As a kid, Vanzant’s family fell apart due to a myriad of problems, including his mother’s death right before his second birthday. As a teenager, midway through his high school career, he ran out of living options until New Tampa resident Lisa Litton and her family took him in. 

As a high school star, Vanzant led Wharton to a 29-2 record in 2007 and, three years later, he helped Butler get to within two points of the 2010 NCAA Championship, which they were denied 61-59 by Duke University and its legendary coach Mike Kryzewski. 

After a pro career spent mostly overseas, Vanzant turned to coaching and helped turn perennial basketball loser Bloomingdale High into a playoff team.

Now, he’s back home.

Vanzant and the Wildcats, regarded as one of the best teams in the Tampa Bay area, are expected to win many more, as they are coming off a 28-3 season and the program’s second Class 6A State Semifinal appearance.

Although Vanzant has the same distaste for polls as his predecessor — “They don’t mean anything” –—the Wildcats entered this season ranked by various online sites as one of the top-three teams in Tampa Bay.

“We have some things to work on, but if we do that, we’ll be good,” Vanzant said.

Milligan, a slick playmaker who can score in bunches, the 6’-5” Davis, last year’s top postseason scorer, and senior guard Christian Ayala are all key returners from the State Semifinal team. 

Senior forward Karmello Branch is another player who played at States last season, but for Class 3A Tampa Catholic. He transferred back to New Tampa.

Sophomore guard Nick Womack played for Vanzant at Bloomingdale last year, and sophomore guard Jayson Montgomery is making the transition to varsity this season look easy after scoring 16 in the home opener.

Vanzant loves what he sees so far, especially the team camaraderie and togetherness.

“Tonelli laid the groundwork, and we have a lot of guys from last year’s Final Four team,” Vanzant says. “All I have to do is come in here and not mess it up.”

Milligan and Davis both say there is no chance of that happening, because if there’s one thing that isn’t different with the change of coaches, it’s the Wildcats’ mindset.

“State championship,” Davis said. “That’s it.”

Twenty Years Ago, A Team Of Destiny!

Today marks the 20th anniversary of Wharton High’s only appearance in a State Championship football game, when Southern Cal Hall of Famer and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Richard “Batman” Wood led the Wildcats to within a few points of immortality. 

Head coach Richard “Batman” Wood led the Wildcats through an improbable season, ending with a loss in the Class 5A state championship.

Sometimes, when he closes his eyes, Wilbur Joseph says he can still feel the cool air drying the sweat on his forehead, his teammates lined up next to him on the Wharton Stadium goal line, their bodies facing north.

“North,” head coach Richard Wood would say. “That’s where Tallahassee is. That’s where the State Championship game is played. That’s where we’re headed.”

Twenty years later, Joseph still gets chills. “The memory is still fresh,” he says, almost breathless. “Still vivid. Oh…man.”

In 2002, in just its fifth year of existence, the Wharton High football team did what no other Wildcats football team has done since, shocking Tampa Bay with an improbable run, all the way north, to Tallahassee.

In the Class 5A championship game that year at Doak Campbell Stadium, however, the plucky, scrap-iron Wildcats lost to Pompano Beach Ely 22-10, a heart-crushing loss to end a heartwarming season that no one on that team will ever forget.

“I told them, ‘You know, there’s 67 counties in the state of Florida, and here we are, one of the only teams who have made a championship game,” says Wood, a former Tampa Bay Buccaneers star linebacker (1976-84) known as “Batman.” “And we’ve only been around a few years. Schools that have been here, in this state, for maybe 50, 60 years, haven’t been in this game. And, here we are. So, we can be proud. We can be proud that we (can say), ‘Hey, we did it!’”

Wood, now 69 and a defensive coach at Tampa Catholic High for the past decade, says those words probably didn’t mean as much to a team of heartbroken boys fighting back tears as they do today.

“I know it was tough,” Wood says, “because I cried my heart out, too.”

The 2002 Wildcats were, quite simply, special. They didn’t boast a bevy of Division I talent, they weren’t loaded with highly-rated transfers, and not a single player on the roster had even made the honorable mention All-County team the previous season.

But, they were flush with grit and determination, finishing with a 13-2 record.

“That was our first winning season in school history,” says wide receiver Michael Coonce, now an engineer living in Tampa. “Going into the season, we didn’t have any expectations around us. So, we rallied around each other, we took pride in shutting people up. We still talk about it today.”

Up to that point, Wharton’s biggest victories were moral ones for not getting blown out of games. The players were even made fun of in school. 

Quarterback Ross Corcoran shows off his scrapbook from the 2002 season.

Quarterback Ross Corcoran, one of four first-team All-County players from that team, says he remembers a teacher cutting a picture out of the sports section showing a disheveled Corcoran after being sacked for the fifth time in a game, and pasting it all over his desk.

But, in 2002, everything changed.

“Once we beat Armwood and Hillsborough that year, everyone jumped on the train,” says Corcoran, adding that people would walk up to him at the Publix on Cross Creek Blvd. to congratulate him after a win. “It was like ‘Friday Night Lights.’”

Corcoran, who no lives in Oldsmar and works in the mortgage industry, returned to Wharton to try his hand at coaching for a few years, but it wasn’t the same.

“I find myself thinking back to that year a lot,” he says. “I don’t want to be all Al Bundy about it, but you know.”

Bundy, the iconic sitcom father from the hit Fox-TV show “Married With Children,” could never stop bragging about scoring four touchdowns in the city championship game for the Polk High Panthers. But, Corcoran would rather talk about his teammates.

Larry Edwards

Tackles Joseph (1st team All-County) and Will Russell and center Jason Novisk (Honorable Mention) bulldozed defenses, while running backs Larry Edwards and Joe Hall (1st team) ran over them and Coonce (HM) ran around them as a top wideout.

The defensive line, anchored by nose tackle Kendric Morris, cleared the way for Edwards to wreak havoc from his linebacker position, where he had 14 sacks, was named Hillsborough County’s Defensive MVP by The Tampa Tribune, and earned a scholarship to the University of North Carolina, where he was named All-ACC.

Senior defensive backs Chris Wilson and Chris Ellick (both 2nd team) were ballhawks in the secondary. Defensively, the Wildcats were “insane,” Corcoran says.

“That was a true family,” says then-assistant coach David Mitchell, who later served as the Wharton head coach for more than a decade before retiring in 2020. “Coaches all say that, but this really was. There was really just a little something different about them.”

Wood, who was a defensive assistant while working as the Wharton school resource officer in 1997, took over the program after Dan Acosta was fired two games into the 1998 season. If there ever was a missing piece, it was Wood.

“When principal Mitch Muley offered me the job, I said, ‘Are you serious?,’” Wood recalls. “If I do it, it’s gonna be tough. I’m a Vince Lombardi guy. I was coached by John McKay (at USC). I’m old school.”

It turns out that Muley was serious, and Wood took the job and said, “Give me a few years.” The ‘Cats won two games in each of his first two seasons, then four games in 2001 before Wood was able to set his sights north.

Wood had 31 seniors in 2002, and he said it was just one of those magical combinations that come together, sometimes just once in a lifetime.

“You know, here you are, you have kids from the inner city, and then you have kids that live in the suburbs, and they treated each other like they were brothers,” Wood says. “You could see it all the time. They loved each other. And, all I wanted for them was to help them win.”

 And, win they did, opening the season with a 37-6 victory over Robinson. Wharton lost just once, 10-7 to a Chamberlain team that played for the Class 5A State Championship the year before, but won their final six regular season games in dominant fashion.

 “They don’t have any weaknesses,” coach Earl Garcia said at the time, prior to his Hillsborough team losing to the Wildcats 21-0 the night Wharton clinched its playoff spot.

 After that game, Wood flew to Los Angeles to be inducted into the USC Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the L.A. Coliseum. For some of his players, it was the first time they found out their coach was the only three-time All-American in the storied history of the Trojans. “Coach was a real-life superhero,” Corcoran says. “He just didn’t walk around telling everyone.”

 In the Class 5A playoff opener, Wharton had to travel to Melbourne because the ‘Cats were the district runner-up behind Chamberlain. Its season nearly ended 150 miles away, but Corcoran hit wide receiver Jovan Mitchell for a 27-yard touchdown with 8 minutes remaining. A pair of defensive stands secured the 14-13 win.

 The next week, Wharton beat Durant 20-14, as Hall and Edwards both went over 100 yards rushing and Edwards scored with 5 minutes left.

After beating Lakeland 27-7 before 4,300 fans at Wharton Stadium, the Wildcats hosted the State Semifinal against Daytona Beach Mainland.

 The 30-3 win still remains as the greatest game in Wharton football history.

 Corcoran threw for 212 yards — 126 of those and a touchdown to Coonce —Edwards had four sacks and Hall returned a fumble 75 yards for a touchdown. 

 Wood fought back tears afterwards. He had played on television and in a Rose Bowl and NFL playoff games, but this game hit him like no other.

 “This was the greatest game of our lives — the kids’ lives and my life,” he told reporters. “Truly, by far, the greatest.”

 The Class 5A State Championship game was not as great. Wharton came out flat against Ely — losing two fumbles, throwing an interception and dropping a touchdown pass on its first five possessions — and fell behind 15-3 at halftime.

“I definitely don’t want to take anything away from them, they had two All American offensive linemen and an All-American running back, but playing in a stadium that big and kind of being out of routine and all the extra stuff around the game took us out of sync,” Coonce says. “It took us a quarter-plus to start playing right.”

Hall capped an 86-yard drive with a TD run on Wharton’s first possession of the second half, to make it 15-10. The three bus loads full of Wharton fans grew louder. 

But, despite a strong defensive effort, Ely’s star running back, Tyrone Moss, broke free for a 55-yard TD with four minutes remaining for the winning score and with 210 yards rushing.

 Corcoran, Joseph, Coonce and probably every Wildcat on that roster insists to this day that Wharton should have won that game. Take away a few miscues and some bad luck, and Wharton would — and should — have been crowned State champions.

 Mitchell remembers coming home from Tallahassee the next day, grabbing the mail and flinging it across the room once he got inside. To this day, he has not watched a replay of the game.

 Time, however, heals many wounds. 

 “That was the highlight of my life,” Joseph says. “I think about it all the time. I still see some of the guys I played with, and we always end up talking about it — the games, the bus rides. That was an amazing feeling. You felt like it was never going to end. It was like living in a fairy tale. In the moment, you don’t realize how significant it is. But, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Wharton High Drum Line Wins Lion’s Pride Competition

Wharton High’s drum line has brought home the “W” in a local battle for the best, held on Oct. 15 as part of the King High School Lion’s Pride Marching Festival.

While the festival, established in 1997, primarily helps high school bands sharpen their skills on the, ah, march to the height of the season, it allows drum lines the opportunity to choreograph a performance to show off their talents, too, in the Lion’s Pride Battle of the Drum Lines.

When the Wharton students asked director Marques Rudd if they could plan a routine for the competition, he signed them up. They did the rest.

Percussion captain Josh Benalcazar and other percussion leaders — including AJ Coveyou, Clara Riusech and Jeya Williams — came up with music, visuals, and choreography. Then, they planned rehearsals for all 18 members of the school’s drum line.

In addition to playing rhythm and cadences on snares, tenors, bass drums and cymbals, they created choreography to determine their placement on the field, and added visuals such as dancing, swaying, and moving in eye-catching and fun ways.

Wharton won the Lion’s Pride Battle for the first time ever. The Wildcats stunned five-time defending champion Strawberry Crest in the semifinals, and then were chosen as the best drum line in the finale against Spoto.

“It was crazy to me that we were able to put this together entirely student-led,” Benalcazar says proudly. “We had to really think outside the box and be creative.”

Rudd agrees that the students’ creativity is what propelled them to take home the competition’s bragging rights.

“Their interaction with the crowd was awesome,” he says. “They even threw in some cartwheels and something from the Cha Cha Slide.”

Rudd says he’s proud of the students and the fact that they came together to create something they weren’t required to do as a class assignment. He noticed their hard work, and it paid off for them.

“It was surreal when we won and they called our name,” says Josh. “It took a minute for it to process in my brain. It was a dream for me to be able to win such a big competition.”