Tag: Wharton

Prep Notes: Wharton New Field, Spring Football Update

Wharton High will be playing its football games this fall on a brand new artificial turf field, with construction expected to be completed by the end of July.

The Wildcats will debut the field for their regular season football home opener against rival Freedom High on August 27.

“Oh yeah, they are excited about it,” says Wharton’s athletic director Eddie Henderson.

According to Henderson, Hillsborough County Public Schools is doing a rotation of 3-5 fields each summer, with the final goal being to install artificial turf at every public high school.

Last year, the first schools in the rotation — Sumner, Sickles and Hillsborough — had new fields put in. This summer, Steinbrenner, Lennard and Blake are getting new fields, along with Wharton. Each field costs roughly $2 million, but Henderson says the District will make up a lot of those costs with what it saves in maintenance and re-sodding.

“I think that there will be a lot of money saved over the long run,” Henderson says.

Plant High was the first county public school to put in an artificial turf field in 2010, after raising $600,000 for the project.

SPEAKING OF WILDCATS: Wharton recently wrapped up its spring season with a 14-0 loss in one half of play against Tampa Bay Tech, but second-year coach Mike Williams wasn’t concerned about the score.

“The spring is about evaluating our kids and seeing who is ready to move up to varsity,” Williams says. “And we liked what we saw.”

Although the Wildcats graduated all of their varsity quarterbacks, Williams was pleased with last year’s junior varsity starter, Tyree Works, who handled all of the spring snaps. But, Works will have more competition in the fall from some promising freshmen and transfers. Williams is hoping to transition from a power-based offense to one featuring more perimeter passes to spread out the game.

With leading rusher Keith Morris and some key wide receiver transfers ready to beef up the offense, Williams expects to score more than the 19 points per game the team averaged last year.

Almost every defensive player is back, including a linebacking crew that could make an argument for being the best in Tampa Bay and includes All-Staters Daveon Crouch, who recently committed to Boston College, and Henry Griffith and second-team MaxPreps Freshman All-American Booker Pickett Jr.

The Wildcats went 7-2 in 2020 because the defense was top-flight, allowing only nine points per game and posting three shutouts.

“This is going to be a big summer for a lot of the guys,” Williams says.

NUMBERS GAME AT FREEDOM: Freedom High, coming off a winless season, picked up an 8-7 jamboree win over King last month to wrap up spring football.

Quarterback Alex de la Cruz threw a touchdown pass to Greg Underwood Jr., and then found RJ Broadnax for the two-point conversion and the win.

De la Cruz will enter the fall as the starter, after promising freshman and last year’s leading passer Taquawn Anthony said he would not be returning to Freedom.

The Patriots suffered a more serious blow when their best player, Robby Washington, transferred to Eagle’s Landing High in McDonough, GA. Washington led Freedom in rushing, receiving and touchdowns last year, and averaged more than 12 yards every time he touched the ball. He has offers from Alabama, Miami and Boston College.

Third-year coach Chris Short will continue trying to rebuild the Patriots, though only 22 players dressed out for the spring game and very few of them had any previous game experience.

He says a lot of players are waiting on paperwork, but admits that adequately filling a football roster for the upcoming fall season will be a tough chore.

“The hardest thing I’m dealing with right now is the same as when I was an assistant, and that’s getting kids to come out,” Short says. “I’m hoping it’s a cyclical thing with us, but if we can get these kids signed up we’ll be okay.”

Wharton Valedictorian Manages To Make It Look Easy

*Siya Patel, foreground, worked hard to graduate with the highest GPA for a female in Wharton history, utilizing advice from brother Yash (background), last year’s salutatorian.* ***(Photo: Charmaine George).***

Siya Patel knew when she entered Wharton High that she could become her class valedictorian, but she didn’t really give it much thought.

Instead, Siya decided to focus on her grade-point-average. While the two things — a high GPA and becoming a valedictorian — go hand in hand, she decided she wanted to post the highest GPA ever, so instead of chasing another student for valedictorian, she decided to chase a number: 9.0.

When Siya officially graduates, it will be with a 9.09 weighted GPA, the highest ever for a Wharton High female. Tori Bell had a 9.01 in 2019.

“I wanted my GPA to be well over 9, because that’s the highest in Wharton’s history,” Siya says. “Due to Covid, I thought I wouldn’t make it because some of the classes I wanted to take were only being taught in school. But, I was able to work around it and accomplish my goal.”

Siya achieved her goal with a busy schedule of classes, taking as many as she was allowed. In her time at Wharton, she took 15 dual enrollment course online — three classes each semester her last two years — through Hillsborough Community College, as well as 13 AP classes for Wharton.

While that may sound like a grind, for Siya, it wasn’t. She managed to fit in time playing the violin in the school orchestra, she was in a number of Honors clubs and volunteered 200 hours.

Like almost every valedictorian at every school, she was masterful in not taking too much and using enhanced time management skills to get it all done.

“I didn’t ever think it was too hard,” she says. “I always just did what I could do.”

The key was not letting the schedule get the best of her. She was attending school during normal hours, and would do her homework before starting on her HCC assignments. She says she split up everything evenly during the week so her weekends wouldn’t be filled with stressful deadlines.

She did not try for an AA degree, saying that it would have involved too many unnecessary classes that she wouldn’t normally be taking. So instead, she took extra math classes. Her favorite was AP Statistics.

She’ll attend USF in the fall and major in finance. Sometimes, she sits with her father, Dr. Prakashkumar Patel, a neurologist, and her mother, Aarti Patel, and helps do the billing for her father’s practice.

Siya will join brother Yash, a biomedical science major, at USF. Last year, Yash was the salutatorian at Wharton, and used his experience to help guide his sister to the top of the academic standings this year.

“He always helped me whenever I needed help, and was one of the biggest reasons I was able to become valedictorian at Wharton,” she says.

Yash says he is proud of his sister. He advised her about what classes to take, and which ones to avoid, and was happy to see her finish No. 1.

Yash says the best piece of advice he gave his sister was to not rest on her laurels. No one ever asks if he was salutatorian in high school, and next year, no one will probably ask Siya if she was valedictorian. It is one of those nice but fleeting distinctions, and something he says she will discover quickly fades into the past.

“This is just one step in the journey,” he says. “When you go to college you still have to show that same rigor and effort and still be motivated, even if you’re not first every time.”

That won’t be a problem for Siya. When she reunited with the senior class of 2021, which has been scattered due to Covid— some learning in school, others learning at home — due to Covid, she shared that same advice with her classmates at graduation.

“Take everything they’ve learned the last 13 years,” she says, “and put it to good use.”

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Brooke Reif Laying The Groundwork For More School Records

*Brooke Reif has already set one Wharton High record this track season, but two others are within her reach.*

Brooke Reif is in her third year as a member of Wharton’s track & field team. During her first two seasons, she established herself as a formidable runner in the 800-meter (metric half-mile) and 1600m (metric mile) races.

Then she decided to step out of her comfort zone.

Reif, who also runs cross country in the fall, added the 3200m (two-mile) race in a preseason meet prior to the 2021 season. She ran it in 11 minutes, 19 seconds, which was just tenths of a second better than the school record. It wasn’t official but, just a few weeks later, that changed.

At the Ram Invitational in Sarasota on Feb. 27, Reif ran the 3200m race in 11:09.82. That broke the previous Wharton record, set by Katrina Skinner in 2008, by 10 seconds. It was Reif’s first official 3200m race at Wharton, and it put her in the school’s record book. Then, on Mar. 19, she lowered that mark to 11:01.

“I thought I could maybe do it next year,’’ Reif said. “I knew I was getting closer but I didn’t think I was going to be getting that soon.’’

That’s because Reif doesn’t run the 3200m very often. In fact, she will likely run it only once or twice during the regular season and not at all in the postseason. She will focus on the 800 and 1600m races as well as the school’s 4x800m relay team.

Adding the two-mile race this season has made Reif a better overall runner, according to Wharton track & field coach Kyle LoJacono.

“She’s not just trying to run as fast as she can and outrun people,’’ LoJacono said. “She’s racing people now. She’s following the race plan. She’s being smart. She’s using her mind as much as she’s using her physical gifts. Take the (3200m) race at the Ram Invitational. She was literally only in first place for about the last 10 meters. She was probably about 50 meters behind. But, she has a kick because she is a middle distance runner.’’

Reif had a sort of epiphany prior to her junior year. She said she found out that running is about 80% mental. She knows she has the physical talent, but that crossing the finish line ahead of everybody else takes brains as well.

“I mostly liked the 800 when I was a freshman and a sophomore because they were two-lap races,’’ Reif said. “But, we’ve been doing a lot more miles lately and I just figured out that the 3200 is actually an easier race. You can strategize while you’re still running. It’s not something that you have to go all out in. You can plan it out as you are running and fix any mistakes you make.’’

The state record in the 3200m is 10:10.39, set earlier this month by Winter Springs junior Carolina Wells, so Reif will have to improve her personal best by more than 50 seconds to break that mark.

For Reif, running is in the family. Both of her parents were runners in college. Her mother Dena also was an assistant track coach and cross country head coach at the University of South Florida.

Reif said her parents never forced her into any sport, including running. But, by the time she got to middle school and tried out for cross country, she knew that’s where her talent was.

“It wasn’t something I was forced into,’’ Reif said. “By sixth grade, I joined the cross country team and went out on a time trial and finished in second behind an eighth grader. So, I knew it was something I was interested in. The reason I came to Wharton was so that I could join this team.’’

She has certainly made an impact in her time with the ‘Cats. Her sophomore track season was cut short due to Covid-19. However, she continued to train during the quarantine and stayed in shape for the cross country season. She finished 31st in the Class 4A State meet in Tallahassee with a time of 20:04.2 in the 5-kilometer (3.1 mile) race.

With no seniors on the cross country team, it is Reif’s hope that the whole Wharton squad qualifies for the cross country state meet next season. But, for now, her focus is on qualifying in what will likely be her three events — the 800m, 1600m and 4x800m relay — for the State track & field championship meet, which will be held May 14-15.

She also has her sights set on yet another school record, as she is just three seconds off of Skinner’s mile/1600m record of 5:00.63.

“I’m hoping I can get that one pretty soon,’’ Reif said. “If not this year then I’ll definitely try for it next year.’’

The 800m record — which is 2:10.51, set by Bryanna Rivers in 2017 — could also be within Reif’s reach. Her best time is seven seconds off that pace, so she is shooting for it next season.

While Reif will almost certainly qualify for the State track meet as an individual, she said it would be more special if her 4×800 relay team — which also includes sophomores Serenity Brazell and Olivia Hammill and junior Alex Frye — could join her.

While the relay team hasn’t run together this season, based on their individual times, it could be the Wildcats’ best shot at a Class 4A State championship.

That would be especially satisfying for Reif. One of her favorite things about cross country is the team atmosphere. She said that track can be a bit lonely sometimes, focusing mainly on individual races. The relay team allows her to feel like a team player.

“I like it because you get to work with your team, it’s not just you on your own,’’ she said. “You’re able to cheer on everyone else. I like when you’re running for your team.’’

Brooke reif Wharton

Williams Ready For Latest Football Challenge

Mike Williams didn’t leave a job coaching football at Van Nuys High School in California just to win a few games in Tampa, his hometown.

He left to make a difference.

This fall, he will try to do so at New Tampa’s Wharton High. A former All-American wide receiver at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, and first-round NFL draft pick, Williams is Wharton’s choice to replace longtime head coach David Mitchell, who resigned after 15 seasons last fall but remains the school’s head wrestling coach and assistant track & field coach.

Williams, who is building a home close to the Wharton campus, said he wanted to be a Wildcat because of the challenge of coaching in the state’s highest classification, 8A, and because he wants to be able to mentor and mold his players to become disciplined, model young men.

Moved by the death last summer of Middleton High freshman Hezekiah Walters, who collapsed during summer workouts, Williams returned from Los Angeles to Tampa to train local youth players.

He applied at Middleton, and was quickly tabbed to replace the former Tigers head coach, Fred Reid, who was reassigned.

He was hired at Middleton at the end of July 2019, just a few weeks before the start of the season. He didn’t rush his mourning players to the field, instead taking his time to help repair the program’s damaged collective psyche. Williams’ wife, Giavonna, had passed away in her sleep two years prior, so the new coach understood all too well the pain of losing someone close to you.

The Tigers didn’t hold their first practice until July 23 and two weeks later, they opened their season with a 12-7 win over Alonso.

The team finished with a 5-5 record and went from a team involved in a well-publicized bench clearing brawl in 2017 to being the least penalized team in the county in 2019.

Rewarding Job

The job he did at Middelton under trying circumstances, both on and off the field, made him an attractive candidate when Wharton went looking for a new coach.

“He was by far our best choice,” said Wharton athletic director Eddie Henderson, who convened a committee that included principal Michael Rowan, along with student and parent representatives, to find Mitchell’s replacement. “We liked the fact that he took Middleton and turned them around in two weeks. That’s what we were very impressed about — the relationship he had with those kids.”

Williams was able to meet his new team briefly for some workouts in the weight room shortly before Covid-19 closed down schools in March.

Workouts were finally okayed for June 15, which is when Williams would get to work trying to rebuild the Wildcats program into the district and state power it has been in years past.

When Williams and the Wildcats finally convened for workouts, they did so under new training and safety protocols named after Walters: the Hezekiah Walters Sports Medicine Educational Plan on Hydration and Heat Illness.

As a coach and mentor, Williams will have an office on campus but will not have to teach any classes at Wharton, so he can focus on imparting his can-do attitude into his players.

From The NFL To New Tampa

Tampa Bay-area football fans might recall the path that Williams took from Plant High standout to All-American wide receiver at USC and ultimately to the NFL, when the Detroit Lions made him the 10th overall pick in the 2005 draft.

His journey to being named head football coach at Wharton this past January, however, is likely a road that is a lot less known.

Williams actually first began his coaching career way back in 2004, because the bigger story that year was that he declared himself eligible for the NFL draft – after amassing 2,579 receiving yards and 30 touchdowns in just two collegiate seasons — following the case of former Ohio State University running back Maurice Clarett that opened the door for underclassmen to leave school early to start their NFL careers.

When that door abruptly shut, and the NCAA didn’t restore Williams’ collegiate eligibility, he instead returned to his South Tampa roots while he waited for the NFL Draft.

“Coach” Williams helped the Interbay YMCA, where he spent countless hours as a youth, launch an 8-man tackle football team. That year, the Hammerheads went 7-0 and many of his youth players surrounded him at his 2005 draft party, appearing on ESPN when Detroit selected him.

Williams went on to play five NFL seasons with four different teams over a seven-year period.

“Going to the pros was extra,” says Williams, the second youngest of seven siblings, including a sister he lost a couple years ago. “I always, always wanted to be a coach. Everybody wants to make it to the pros. I’ve really been living my dream the last eight years coaching.”

Williams said he is ready for his latest challenges, including preparing for tough Class 8A competition without being able to gather his team on the field or in the weight room due to Covid-19. The new guidelines have been a challenge, and while Wharton has a 2020 schedule — it hosts a preseason game against Blake High on August 14 — the season itself still remains up in the air.

Mike Williams Wharton

Wharton Career Fair Opens Students’ Eyes To More Options

A different kind of fair made its way to Wharton High earlier this month.

Although there were no rides or fried foods, the school’s gymnasium hosted the first Wharton Technical School & Career Fair on Feb. 11.

Advertised as the first of its kind, the fair provided more than 250 students a chance to meet with various companies, businesses, technical and vocational schools and even recruiters from various branches of the military.

The message? There is a wide range of opportunities that don’t require a traditional college education.

“A lot of times, when I have kids sitting in front of me, they’re saying they don’t what they’re going to do after they graduate,” said Wharton’s Success Coach Roslyn Brown, who organized the event. “They guess they’ll go get a minimum-wage job.”

However, Brown says that doesn’t have to be the case. That’s why she came up with the idea for the Technical School & Career Fair.

“I try to tell them there are a lot of things they can do that don’t require a four-year (college) degree that will make them a really good income and (allow them to be) happy and successful,” she said. “They’re just not aware of those opportunities, so that’s why I thought it would be great to provide these kids with one forum to learn about multiple opportunities or options.”

Roughly 25 vendors were on hand in Wharton’s gymnasium, from Publix to the military branches, as well as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Border Patrol and Busch Gardens.

Paul Mitchell the School, which offers cosmetology and hair styling/barbering programs, as well as technical schools such as Keiser University and Erwin Technical School on E. Hillsborough Ave. were on hand, too, all there to show that a motivated junior or a graduating senior’s only option isn’t enrolling (or trying to enroll) in a traditional four-year university.

Leaving An Impression…

“I thought it was really good to see different outlooks on what you can do after high school,” said senior Jahniah Eaton. “It lets you keep your mind open and it also gives you something to fall back on. Say you don’t want to go to college, then you can just fall back on this or have a way to make money, so you’re not just walking around with empty pockets in a couple of years.”

For fellow senior Jarell Miranda, the career fair was enlightening and productive.

“Personally, I was going to go to a trade school, not a four-year college, so I got to speak to Erwin Tech and saw more things that I would really like to do,” Miranda said. “It was awesome that the school did this for us.”

Brown said part of putting the fair together was pinpointing who would benefit most from attending and then preparing them to impress potential employers.

Three different sessions were held to determine the best students to attend the fair.

The first session gauged the interest of students who were mostly unsure of what they wanted to do after graduation, or were not specifically interested in attending a university or college.

Once those students were chosen, they were prepped on how to make an impression on potential employers and post-high-school technical programs.

A second session was dedicated to resumé building and during the third session, Brown had a representative from Men’s Wearhouse come to the school to teach the students how to “dress for success,” right down to how to properly knot a necktie.

“I’m not personally aware of another school that (hosts a career fair like this),” Brown said. “But now, a lot of feedback we’ve gotten from (the businesses, schools and recruiters) was how impressed they were by the size of it and how many opportunities were available, all at one location.”

Brown said she was wasn’t sure why more schools don’t also offer career fairs like the one Wharton hosted but did say the Hillsborough County School District does a good job of promoting other events that businesses, companies, organizations and even recruiters might host for students.

In the end, the students were not only appreciative of the fair being held by the school, but impressed, as well.

“You got to see a lot of different opportunities outside of just going to college,” junior Jayla Bembow said, “and it was cool that the school made this available to us. And, it wasn’t just about what’s available, they were also telling us other things to prepare for, like interviews and resumé building.”

For those who want to learn an applicable skill and begin working sooner, the career fair definitely was an eye opener.

“I thought it was pretty cool to see about different jobs there are without having to go to college,” junior Heather Johnson said. “But also like the trade and tech schools — it’s cool that you can go there for just a year or two and already start working.”

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