Special to The Laker/Lutz News

By Kyle LoJacono

Despite having a year left on his current contract, Zephyrhills native and NASCAR driver David Reutimann finds himself as the odd man out with Michael Waltrip Racing.

Reutimann, 42, was recently informed by team owner Michael Waltrip he would not be brought back to drive the No. 00 Toyota car in 2012.

“I’m just disappointed,” Reutimann said. “Overall, just disappointed, bummed out to put it mildly.”

Waltrip Racing is adding Mark Martin to the team next year, which means Reutimann will have to find himself another ride.

Reutimann had by his own words a “disappointing season,” where he is in 28th place in the Sprint Cup standings prior to the race in Phoenix on Nov. 13.

“It’s been an awful season for us for sure,” Reutimann said. “We haven’t run up to our expectations or our standards, but I thought we would have a chance to make up for it.”

Reutimann is unsure what he will do for next season.

“There was not a lot of advance notice to do anything,” Reutimann said. “You know the thing about it is that there’s not a lot out there, and if there were to be something out there it’s going to involve you doing the same thing that just got done to me. I’m not exactly up for that.

“So I don’t know what’ll happen,” Reutimann continued. “It may come down to something like that, but I’ve got to think on that a little bit. When one person’s gain is another person’s big loss, you’ve got to weigh the plusses there.”

Despite the difficult season, Reutimann did claim one pole start, one runner-up finish and two top-10 performances this year.

“I can still win races and I can still get the job done,” Reutimann said. “Let’s not forget that last year we were able to win and actually had a shot at making it into the chase. That’s only been a year ago. I can still do that if I get in the right situation. It’s just unfortunate that things worked out like they did.”

He rose as high as 16th in the points standings midway through last season, but he faded down the stretch. Drivers must finish in the top-10 or claim one of two wildcard spots to compete in NASCAR’s 10-race playoff system.

Reutimann became a driver for Waltrip Racing in 2007 but has yet to make the postseason. He said he has the fire to compete at the highest level and a desire to bring home a championship.

“I still want it as bad as anybody in the garage,” Reutimann said. “Just because I don’t get out of the car after we’ve had a bad race and yell at my crew and throw my helmet and stuff like that, just because you guys can’t visibly see how bad I want it, doesn’t mean I don’t. I want it worse than anybody who’s ever set foot in this garage area.”

Reutimann, a graduate of Zephyrhills High, joined the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2004, where he was named the rookie of the year. His first appearance in the Cup Series race was in 2005 at Lowes’s Motor Speedway.

Reutimann’s first Cup Series win came at the 2009 Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte. He had to wait until 2010 for his second victory, which came at the Chicagoland Speedway. He has 169 career Cup Series starts going into the race in Phoenix on Nov. 13, with four poles, 12 top-five and 25 top-10 finishes in his career.

Reutimann said he will finish the season’s final two races despite the difficulty of knowing he won’t be back.

“It’s tough,” Reutimann said. “There’s no sugarcoating this deal. Right now Aaron’s is still my sponsor and these are still my guys. A lot of these (crew members) came over here with me from my Truck Series days, so they’re still my guys and this is still my team. I have a couple more races with them, and we’ll try to make the most of it like we’ve been doing every week.

Reutimann said he was told by Waltrip the move is only a business one and nothing personal.

“It’s only business if it doesn’t happen to you,” Reutimann said. “It’s hard for me not to take it personal. It’s hard to accept and hard to stomach a little bit, but I knew coming into this deal this stuff is not forever. People take for granted that you’re going to be here every week, and that’s just not how this works. So we’ll just pick up and go on.”

Reutimann was happy to have gotten a chance with Waltrip Racing, the only team he has driven for in his Cup Series career.

“In the end, Michael Waltrip gave me an opportunity to go Cup racing when no one else would, and I appreciate that,” Reutimann said. “And Aaron’s as well, but that ship has sailed and I’ve got to figure out something to do now.”

By Kyle LoJacono

The Land O’ Lakes Rowing Club’s second annual Row and Paddle for Hospice brought in just more than $2,000 for HPH Hospice.

The same event in 2010 raised $1,550, and club founder Mary Jane Kranendonk said the goal is to keep bringing in more each year.

“It means a lot to our family to help them because they have helped us so much,” Kranendonk said.

HPH offered support to the Kranendonk family to help deal with the loss of Kranendonk’s oldest son, Thomas, four years ago in a tractor-trailer accident.

“They offer a wonderful grief camp each March for children who have lost significant people in their lives,” Kranendonk said. Her son John attended the camp after Thomas died.

Laura Finch, HPH’s manager of bereavement services and children assistance programs, said the grief camp and other services from the organization could not exist without such donations.

“Without the generosity, time and talent of people like the Land O’ Lakes Rowing Club, HPH Hospice would not have the resources to assist the number of children who seek our services every year,” Finch said. “With their help, we’re able to help our community’s youngest members understand and cope with grief and loss.”

The event, which was at Lake Saxon Park in Land O’ Lakes, included rowing and paddling demonstrations, races, food vendors and massages for those who wanted to loosen up their muscles before or after the exercise.

The rowing club was formed earlier last year. Members paddle each Saturday or Sunday mornings at 7:30 a.m. For more information on the club, email .

Challenges require creative response, resort leader says

By B.C. Manion

When Saddlebrook Resorts, Inc. opened in 1980, it was built with a specific purpose in mind.

“We built it basically for corporate meetings,” Thomas L.Dempsey, chairman and CEO of the resort, told those gathered at a business growth conference in Pasco County last week.

Over time, however, the resort’s role expanded to include training facilities for professional golfers, tennis and baseball players.

It also added a school that provides college-preparatory and athletic programs for young athletes who come to the Wesley Chapel facility from all over the world.

Over the years, like any business, Saddlebrook has had its share of challenges. Dempsey told those attending the conference organized by the Pasco Economic Development Council.

Initially, the resort built about 500 suites, some hotel rooms, two golf courses, a tennis facility, a huge swimming pool and some meeting space, Dempsey said. It soon needed more meeting space, which it added.

That was just the first of many challenges, said Dempsey, who has more than 40 years of diversified business experience in publishing, manufacturing, resort development and the hospitality industry.

“Challenges. I have to tell you, they come every day,” he said.

While the resort was booking hundreds of corporate meetings a year, business fell off when there were holidays, such as Christmas, Easter, the Fourth of July and Labor Day.

“Corporations are closed on holidays, so you’ve got zip meetings. You really have nothing to come in the door,” the business leader said.

Eventually, that became a positive because the resort had to find ways to diversity its business, he said.

“Sometimes a problem turns out to be an opportunity,” Dempsey said. “You kind of have to look at life that way or it gets tough because those problems should be opportunities. There’s always a solution to something if you think hard enough or get creative enough.”

Over the years, the resort has seen significant changes in the market, Dempsey said. In the early days, a meeting might have a half dozen women and 300 men, he said.

“Today, sometimes there are 60 percent women and 40 percent men. Some meetings are all women. It’s a totally different market. It’s completely changed over the past 30 years,” he said.

In response, he said, “We’ve put in big spas. When men are golfing, women who don’t golf want the spa or want the pool. A lot of them play tennis.

“The character of the market has changed, and when the character changes that is one of your challenges.”

Over time, the resort branched out and became a training facility for professional athletes in tennis, baseball, football, hockey, golf and other sports.

“Derek Jeter has trained at Saddlebrook now for about four years,” he said.

“Every spring, 32 professional players from the teams come to Saddlebrook and stay with us for five weeks and go through our training and then they leave on a Wednesday and the next week they’re going to spring training.

“They go there absolutely in perfect condition,” he said.

“It’s very serious stuff,” Dempsey said, noting that millions of dollars in contract negotiations can be riding on an athlete’s ability to perform.

The resort also is working with aspiring athletes. One of those is a 12-year-old boy from China whom some believe could one day surpass the accomplishments of Tiger Woods, Dempsey said.

Besides adding profit centers to its business through its athletic training facilities, the resort has adapted in other ways.

At the moment, it is rewiring the entire resort with fiber optics to accommodate new technology and it is installing 43-inch, flat-screen televisions.

Being able to adapt is important, but businesses must be forward thinking, too, Dempsey told the crowd of more than 80 gathered in a conference room at Pasco-Hernando Community College’s West Campus in New Port Richey.

“What if there’s an airplane strike. What if they don’t fly to Florida? They can’t come here. What are you going to do?  Well, you’ve got to a have plan.”

 

By B.C. Manion

It starts with a failed class, or two.

Before long, a struggling student no longer wants to go to school because there’s no way he or she can catch up and catch up with his or her graduating class.

Pasco County Public Schools wants to put an end to that scenario.

That’s why the school system launched a district-wide initiative this year aimed at helping students graduate with their class.

Students who have failed a class can make up that lost ground in the district’s credit recovery program, said Ramon Suarez, supervisor of the district’s Graduation Enhancement Program.

The district tested out the idea at four pilot high schools for two years before making it a countywide initiative this year, Suarez said.

“We’re trying to maximize the opportunities for students to graduate with their class,” Suarez said. “If a student fails a course, he has an opportunity to catch up.”

The district wants to help students before they veer off course so far that they don’t think there’s a way to recover, Suarez said.

Each high school across Pasco County has a computer lab where students who have failed a class can take an online course to catch up, Suarez said. That course can be taken during the school day and there’s also an after-school option, he said.

Students take the courses online, but there’s also a teacher in the lab to ensure that the students are progressing.

“The teacher has to open the quiz,” Suarez said. “Once they (students) take the quiz and they score high enough on it, they move on to the next level.”

The program goes beyond sheer academics, Suarez said. It also addresses the social and emotional aspects of the student.

Often, the students who need to take courses over are smart enough to pass, but have other issues, Suarez said. There may be problems at home, or they may have had to skip school to help the family financially, he said.

The credit recovery program aims to help students be motivated to attend school and be successful.

“It’s about connection with the students,” Suarez said.

Anyone wishing additional information about the program should contact his or her high school’s guidance staff, he said.

By B.C. Manion

Suzanne Denny was walking through Lutz Memorial Park on the Fourth of July and noticed that the memorial in the park was choked with weeds.

“It was so overgrown by poison oak you couldn’t even see what it was,” said Denny, who was in the park that day with her life partner, Randy Coviello.

Denny declared the situation “a disgrace.”

Coviello told her she should do something about it.

So she did.

But she didn’t do it alone. She joined the GFWC Lutz-Pasco Junior Woman’s Club and suggested the group take on a makeover of the memorial as a group project.

The memorial honors not only those who have been in the military, but also firefighters, police officers, emergency responders and others who serve or have served their community or nation.

On Sunday, in honor of this week’s celebration of Veterans Day, there will be a special ceremony to rededicate the lovingly restored memorial.

As many of these things go, the project was a lot more involved than it seemed it would be at first.

“We kicked it off on 9/11,” Denny said. “We must have pulled 15 black contractor bags full of weeds and trash out of the memorial.”

Initially, the volunteers thought they would simply pull out the weeds and fill in the gaps with fresh plants, said Sharon Grace, a member of the GFWC Lutz-Pasco Junior Woman’s Club.

But they consulted two landscapers who told them the garden needed a complete overhaul, Grace said.

The organizers had not envisioned spending much money on the project, but they got help from Denny’s company, Commonwealth Insurance; Coviello’s company, American Outlaw Jeep Parts; Capstone Credit & Collection Agency; SITA, Inc. and W.S.P. Consultants, Inc.

They also got other kinds of contributions.

PlayNation of Tampa donated the mulch and Image Painting of Florida provided the paint and did the pressure washing. And, on the kick-off day, Nancy’s Good N Fast restaurant supplied sandwiches to feed the hungry crew.

Duncheon’s Nursery & Landscaping and ValleyCrest Landscape Companies provided plant consultations and got the organizers very good prices for the replacement plants, Denny said.

Three men from Duncheon’s also helped rip out many of the old plants to make way for new ones, Denny said.

She and Coviello had been out in the rain pulling out the old plants so the new ones could be planted.

Some men from Duncheon’s drove by and took pity on them, Denny said.

The men used special shovels and had the plants out in 20 minutes, a job that Denny said would have taken her and Coviello hours to complete.

She’s still grateful.

“My back was killing me,” she said.

The updated memorial garden now boasts Knockout Roses, dwarf firebush, Indian Hawthorne and dwarf Walter’s viburnum.

In addition to the money and materials donated for the project, many people gave their time and sweat equity.

Besides the woman’s club, their families and friends, there were other volunteers.

Some members of the Exchangettes, a service club from Steinbrenner High pitched in, and so did some scout troops.

Hillsborough County firefighter Artie Taylor helped out several times and he and he drafted another firefighter, Michael Hudkins, to help out, too.

Others who pitched in were Sheila Tramontana, a former candidate for Lutz Guv’na and Lizz Owen, of Standard Pacific Homes, who told Denny about Image Painting of Florida and ValleyCrest Landscape Companies.

Craig Jewesak, the aide in Hillsborough County Commissioner Victor Crist’s office and Rina Rojas, a manager at the Hillsborough parks department were also responsive, Denny said. The sprinklers in the garden needed to be repaired and they were, she said.

Denny also touched base with Phyllis and William Hoedt, who were on the committee that originally installed the memorial and with the Orange Blossom Garden Club, the group that originally maintained it to get their blessing for the project.

Denny is thrilled by the project’s outcome.

“People came out and gave their time and effort,” she said. “I love how the community has come together.”

 

/Rededication of Lutz Service Memorial

What: Rededication of the Lutz Veteran’s Service Memorial hosted by the GFWC Lutz-Pasco Junior Woman’s Club.

When: 11 a.m., Sunday, Nov. 13.

Where: 98 First Ave. S.W., Lutz (at the corner of Lutz-Lake Fern Road and US 41)

Who: Everyone is welcome to attend