\n

Growing up, they lived miles apart and attended the
\n\tsame college. But after volleying on a court date, it was love all for
\n\tthese newlyweds.<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nBy AMY SCHERZER
\nPublished August 26, 2005\n<\/p>\n

\nDAVIS ISLANDS – South Tampa isn’t as small as you might think. Brad
\nBassler and Ashley Mullis lived a couple of miles apart their entire
\nlives: He on Davis Islands; she in Palma Ceia. Their parallel paths
\nnever crossed until last year when they met at a Gasparilla party.\n<\/p>\n

\nBassler followed the Gorrie-Wilson-Plant route, class of 1993 and third-ranked on the tennis team.\n<\/p>\n

\nMullis started at St. Mary’s Episcopal Day School and graduated
\nfrom Berkeley Prep where she helped the volleyball team win the Class A
\nstate championship four years in a row.\n<\/p>\n

\nBoth went on to the University of Florida where Mullis earned
\nAll-American honors and finished her volleyball career fourth on
\nFlorida’s kills list (1,162). The outside hitter helped UF to the Final
\nFour in 1993 while earning a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications in
\n1996.\n<\/p>\n

\nBassler never missed a UF football game in college – nor has he
\nsince – but he never made it to a volleyball match. One of his best
\nfriends dated one of Mullis’ Berkeley teammates, and still they never
\nconnected.\n<\/p>\n

\nThey didn’t meet at a Bikers’ Bash, either, at Bassler’s fraternity, Sigma Chi. Both attended with other dates.\n<\/p>\n

\nWith a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Bassler, 30,
\nstarted his career with Exactech, an orthopedic implant manufacturer in
\nGainesville.\n<\/p>\n

\nMullis, 31, moved west to Beaver Creek, Colo., with an idea of
\nbecoming a sportscaster. In between waitressing and snowboarding, she
\nbroadcast live snow reports for a local TV station.\n<\/p>\n

\nHer UF volleyball coach recruited her to play exhibition games in
\nEurope in May 1998. The 5-foot-11 hitter caught the eye of a Belgian
\nteam manager who signed her to a 10-month contract near Brussels.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhen she returned to Tampa, Mullis got a real estate license, like
\nher mother Anne, a broker associate with Smith & Associates
\nRealtors. She pursued a master’s degree in elementary education at the
\nUniversity of South Florida.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn fall 2000, deja vu. Mullis began teaching at her alma mater, St.
\nMary’s, and coaching volleyball and other sports. Last year, her girls’
\nteam was undefeated.\n<\/p>\n

\nA year later, Bassler moved back to Tampa to develop medical
\ndevices for Liquidmetal Technologies. He has a patent pending as
\ncoinventor of a cardiac stent. The company did not live up to its
\npotential, he said, and the Tampa operation closed three years later.\n<\/p>\n

\nHe declined an offer to work for them in California and formed his
\nown company, Eternalloy Medical Technologies, with three partners.
\nTheir Safety Harbor plant develops diffusion treatment processes to
\ncoat implants and instruments to increase durability.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe couple didn’t meet at Home Depot, either, after both bought houses near where they grew up.\n<\/p>\n

\nFinally, face time at a Gasparilla party in February 2004. Mullis’
\nfather, Hal, is captain of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla and in line to
\nbe king in 2007.\n<\/p>\n

\n"My friends were all debutantes and ran for queen or the court, but
\nI never had time," she said. "Volleyball always took precedence."\n<\/p>\n

\nBassler wasn’t too enthused about the party until his buddy showed him a picture of Mullis and said she’d be there.\n<\/p>\n

\nHe introduced himself that night. "Where have you been all my life?" would have been a perfect pickup line.\n<\/p>\n

\nMullis asked friends to invite him to her 30th birthday karaoke
\nparty a few weeks later. She was disappointed when she heard he got
\nstuck in Gainesville, where he was studying for a master’s in business
\nadministration on the weekends.\n<\/p>\n

\nAt last, they met up for drinks at Splitsville in Channelside.
\nQuick courting led to court time when Mullis asked him to fill in as a
\nfourth for tennis the next morning.\n<\/p>\n

\n"He was better than all of us put together," she said.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe two jocks found other matchups. She belonged to the Tampa Yacht
\nand Country Club; he has a membership to Palma Ceia Golf and Country
\nClub. Mullis has season tickets to the Tampa Bay Bucs; Bassler has the
\nUF season tickets.\n<\/p>\n

\nThey ran Bayshore Boulevard almost every day to train for the
\nCovered Bridges Half Marathon in Woodstock, Vt., in June 2004. During a
\ntrip to the Bahamas this February, Bassler proposed.\n<\/p>\n

\n"It was a graduation trip because we both finished our master’s," Bassler said.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn his computer bag, he hid a diamond ring and a bottle of Dom Perignon.\n<\/p>\n

\n"I was freaking out that customs would open my bag and she’d see
\nthem," he said. A delay in their departure time added more stress. He
\nwanted to be there in time to propose at sunset.\n<\/p>\n

\nAs soon as they arrived, he suggested they head to the beach.\n<\/p>\n

\nMullis walked and talked, oblivious to what was coming.\n<\/p>\n

\n"We never once talked about marriage," she said.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe pair hustled to plan a summer wedding so they could honeymoon during Mullis’ school vacation.\n<\/p>\n

\nOn July 30, more than 600 guests witnessed their vows at Palma Ceia
\nPresbyterian Church followed by a reception at the Tampa Yacht Club.
\nThe newlyweds departed by boat, cruising to the Marriott Waterside
\nHotel before a week of golf and snorkeling on Kauai.\n<\/p>\n

\nAfter 30 years on divergent routes, they’ve happily returned to their South Tampa roots.\n<\/p>\n

\n \n<\/p>\n

\n© 2007 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg
\nTimes
\n490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111\n<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.sptimes.com\/2005\/08\/26\/news_pf\/Citytimes\/So_close__yet_so_far_.shtml<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up, they lived miles apart and attended the same college. But after volleying on a court date, it was love all for these newlyweds. By AMY SCHERZER Published August 26, 2005 DAVIS ISLANDS – South Tampa isn’t as small as you might think. Brad Bassler and Ashley Mullis lived a couple of miles apart… More \u00bbSo close, yet so far away<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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