WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — A Pasco County school is making a bold new play for the future of its athletics.
North Tampa Christian Academy is making moves under some nationally recognized leadership. The Wesley Chapel school has brought in a new athletic director, Kevin Squarzon, and varsity boys’ basketball coach with Division 1 experience, Desmond Oliver. The school has a vision to invest in the future of Tampa Bay education and sports.
Inside the gymnasium at North Tampa Christian Academy, the future of its athletics program can be seen dribbling up and down the court.
“Building a good culture through sports and the community as well,” said Squarzon. “To not only win, because it’s not only about that, but to develop character and build a culture and environment that we want to start here in this new adventure with NTCA.”
Squarzon is in charge of leading the school’s sports teams and everything that comes with them, including — as he says — building a “culture” for the seven-year-old program. It’s already taken a major step forward with the hiring of Oliver as the varsity boys’ basketball coach.
“My main goal is going to be to try to get every sport to get to that level,” said Squarzon.
Oliver joins NTCA from USF, where he recently was an assistant coach with the men’s basketball program, bringing some Division 1 experience to Wesley Chapel.
“There’s a really, really good group of young players here that can be Division 1 players,” said Oliver. “With the idea of not moving my family — it just made sense. The timing was right, it made sense to do it and I wanted to get back to being a head coach, again, to be honest. I wanted to be a head coach again.”
Oliver’s appointment is a statement from the academy, showing an ambition to build a culture that goes along with the school’s mission.
“It’s not only to get good coaches but also kids to attend NTCA and feel like they’re getting something more than just being a student athlete and that’s growing in their spiritual development as well,” says Squarzon.
It’s a mission to see that this young athletic department can grow into something special.
“What it takes to build a program and build a culture and have a lot of fun doing it,” says Oliver. “The premise here is to play great defense, rebound, and run and play fast, score and having an exciting brand of basketball for our fanbase to watch.”
It’s all with the hopes of becoming a premier destination for future students.
Calvin Lewis
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