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Helping To Build A Team

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By SCOTT PURKS, Tribune correspondent

Published: November 22, 2007

TAMPA - Tampa Catholic coach Bob Henriquez says, "Can we build it?"

Ron Funk says, "Yes we can."

The next day, Trevor Funk, Ron's son, tells his teammates, "My dad was doodling again on a napkin this morning."

Which means, Tampa Catholic center Alex Espinosa said, "We'll soon see Mr. Funk working on something out there for us."

How about that locker room?

Pre-finished birch wood. Nameplates with logos. TC logo drilled in lockers for ventilation. Black TC logo cut in green carpet. Lockers placed in groups so position coaches can easily meet with players.

"It makes you want to play harder for all the people who worked on making it nice," Espinosa said. "People like Mr. Funk."

Without Funk, a 60-year-old general contractor, Espinosa said, "This place would look a whole lot different."

Fans still might be using portable toilets - Funk was key in getting a big discount for a stadium sewage system. The immaculate equipment room may still be called "the stinky dungeon." The sign over the scoreboard may have blown away - "I had a way of specially securing it," Funk said. The TC logo on the field might not be as precise - Funk spent seven hours last week, designing, stenciling and painting the logo last week. And the locker room, well, there might not even be a locker room.

Fact is, Funk built and helped raise the money for the locker room with dozens of parents in a month during last summer, or right after NFL Europa pulled out of training at TC - and pulled out its lockers as well.

"I went straight to Ron Funk and said, 'What can we do?'" Henriquez said. "It seems if you ask Ron Funk, you shall receive."

Sometimes you don't even have to ask. Next season, Funk, whose handiwork started three years ago when his son started at TC, said he hopes to build a covered deck around the locker room and a tunnel for the players to run through before games, and ...

"I want to keep helping this program," Funk said. "Because I see how much this program has helped kids."

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