Thursday, September 30, 2010
Team Sports Participation Both Up and Down
Overall participation in the top-seven team sports in the United States has declined in the past year, while participation in seven “niche” team sports is on the rise. Those are among the latest findings of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association’s annual participation study of team sports.
Those niche sports that have experienced “respectable gains” are fast-pitch softball (up 13.8 percent), ice hockey (up 12.2 percent), rugby (up 8.7 percent), beach volleyball (up 7.3 percent), lacrosse (up 6.2 percent), indoor soccer (up 3.7 percent) and gymnastics (up 3.6%). The top-seven team sports that dropped in participation levels are basketball, baseball, outdoor soccer, touch football, slow-pitch softball, court volleyball and tackle football.
All major youth sports groups also reported increases in participation in league and sanctioned play. “One of the strongest elements of the entire team sports universe is that young people remain strongly committed to team sports through their schools and local recreation programs,” says Tom Cove, president of the Silver Spring, Md.-based SGMA. “Three of the biggest reasons why people don’t play more team sports is lack of time, scheduling concerns and the issue of specialization where athletes, specifically younger ones, are dedicating their time to just one activity with the goal of getting the attention of a college coach, pro scout, or possibly winning a state, regional or national championship.”
That explains why SGMA’s survey data also suggests that the number of two- and three-sport athletes is dropping — a trend the National Federation of State High School Associations finds disturbing. “More schools and coaches should encourage their student-athletes to play more than one sport,” says Elliot Hopkins, director of educational services for the Indianapolis-based NFHS. “It helps produce more well-rounded individuals. It also helps cut down the physical stress on certain parts of the body, which are subjected to the same repetitive motion with single-sport athletes.” Nevertheless, participation in high school sports rose again during the 2009-10 school year, to a record 7,628,377 students-athletes.
Another significant finding of SGMA’s research is that the previous participation surge in team sports for females seems to have stabilized. “I am noticing that female athletes are getting more specialized in their athletic careers,” says Wayne Ryan, the athletic director/girls’ basketball coach at Summers County High School in Hinton, W.Va. “There are simply more opportunities for female athletes to be competitive in their favorite sport throughout the calendar year.”
Other highlights of the SGMA report:
• With the exception of beach volleyball, slow-pitch softball, rugby, touch football and paintball, team sports participation in the United States is dominated by players under age 24.
• Lacrosse has the highest percentage of participants (48 percent) whose families have annual incomes of $100,000 or more.
• Gymnastics has the highest percentage of overall participants in the 6-12 age group (48 percent), track and field has the highest percentage of overall participants in the 13-17 age group (44 percent) and rugby has the highest percentage of overall participants in the 18-24 age group.
• While casual/pick-up play is on the decline, there are four activities where more than half of all participants are casual/pick-up players: basketball, touch football, beach volleyball and grass volleyball.
For more information, click here.
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3:40 PM
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Phoenix Nonprofits Step Up to Reopen Rec Facilities
In an effort to reopen more than a dozen parks and recreation facilities that have closed in Phoenix due to budget cuts, city officials have spent the past several months reviewing proposals from nonprofit organizations that want to step in to operate and maintain them. The Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department is looking for organizations that share the department's mission of "building healthy communities through parks, programs, and partnerships." Recently, the pairings of three facilities with outside groups were announced, with more partnerships expected later this year, according to The Arizona Republic.
So far, the partnerships appear to make sense. The Arizona Horse Lovers Park, for example, will now be overseen by the Horse Lovers Management Corp., the South Phoenix Youth Center will be run by the Black Men of Phoenix organization and the North Mountain Visitor Center will be supported by the Save Our Mountains Foundation.
All nonprofits chosen to help reopen the shuttered facilities must demonstrate that they have the ability to provide services at a level similar to what the city provided before the budget cuts.
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2:44 PM
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Parks Chief in Buffalo, N.Y., Has Long Wish List for City
Parks in Buffalo, N.Y., need $4 million in new play equipment, basketball and tennis court upgrades, shelters, fences, benches, bleachers, barbecue grills and other improvements, according to the city's parks chief.
Andrew Rabb, deputy parks commissioner, submitted his $4 million wish list for the city's parks and recreation facilities on Wednesday, following a summer-long inspection of most of Buffalo's 190 parks, playgrounds and recreation centers. But, as The Buffalo News reports, Rabb was quick to point out that he doesn't expect the city to make all the improvements in a single year. "There's no way we're going to get it all done at once," Rabb said following a meeting of Buffalo's accountability panel. "This is giving us a way to establish a phased-in plan."
Mayor Byron Brown has reviewed Rabb's long list of prospective improvements and agrees that the equipment purchases and facility improvements would have to be done in phases over a number of years. He also told the paper that he expects to set aside money for the initiative in the coming year.
Rabb and his staff may have done all of the legwork in Buffalo themselves, but a nonprofit organization in San Francisco has introduced an Internet-based application called ParkScan that allows the city to stay on top of maintenance and usage issues by inviting patrons to bring needs to the immediate attention of the city's parks staff. "There has been this idea that regular people can get involved in their city by tracking what improvements need to be made, Sunya Ojure, program manager for the Neighborhood Parks Council, told AB's Nicholas Brown in the magazine's latest issue. "It's all related to helping government by looping in citizens to be the stewards of public spaces."
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11:19 AM
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World Cup Kept Office Workers From Working
Fourteen percent of Americans recently surveyed said they or a friend broke work
rules to watch soccer's World Cup between June 11 and July 15, according
to ESPN and the Associated Press.
The cable sports network cited research this week by Knowledge
Networks' Total Touch that found 77 percent of out-of-home Internet
usage during World Cup matches occurred at offices and 50 percent of
out-of-home ESPN mobile use was at offices.
Eighteen percent of people said they or a friend wore their favorite
team's World Cup jersey to work during the tournament, and 5 percent
said they or a friend broke up with a significant other because of the World Cup.
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9:56 AM
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Study Ranks NCAA Schools by Academics, Athletics
Amherst College leads the 2010 NCSA Athletic Recruiting Collegiate Power Rankings, which assess the academic and athletics standards of NCAA athletic programs. Developed to help prospective student-athletes and their families evaluate the particular strengths of the top colleges and universities at the Division I, II and III levels, the list of rankings from 1 to 100 includes fewer than six percent of all colleges and universities. "Our hope is to educate student-athletes and their parents on the importance of evaluating schools that will provide the education for an enriched, successful career after college, in addition to athletic success," says NCSA Athletic Recruiting CEO and founder Chris Krause.
Most of the colleges and universities rounding out the top 10 do not come from major conferences, nor (with a few exceptions) are they considered athletic powerhouses: Williams College, Middlebury College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Washington University in St. Louis, Princeton University, Duke University, Tufts University and the University of Chicago.
The Collegiate Power Rankings are calculated by averaging the academic rankings by U.S. News & World Report, the strength of the athletic departments by the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup ranking and each school’s student-athlete graduation rate. For a complete list of the rankings, click here.
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Video: Obama Attends High School Football Practice
President Barack Obama made an unscheduled campaign-style stop en route to a mid-term election rally in Madison, Wis., on Tuesday by visiting with the football, volleyball and girls' tennis teams at the city's LaFollette High School. Players greeted him like a rock star, posing for pictures, jockeying to shake his hand and squealing with delight, according to a report from Reuters.
Obama met at midfield with the varsity, sophomore and freshman football teams, who were dressed in full uniforms and pads, holding their helmets and down on one knee with their coaches standing among them. The players greeted Obama with a “1-2-3 Clap,” and the president exchanged hugs with the head coach and chatted with players for an estimated 10 to 15 minutes.
White House spokesman Bill Burton told the Associated Press that Obama urged the football players to work hard in sports and school and to avoid the types of mental errors that caused the Green Bay Packers to lose Monday to his favorite team, the Chicago Bears. Players later told Channel3000.com that the president encouraged them to ask questions and shook their hands before spending a few minutes with the tennis and volleyball teams. Even members of the girls' swim team — shivering and dripping wet in their swimsuits — came outside to greet Obama.
Many of the players told local media outlets that the surprise visit fired them up for the rest of practice. And coaches, who were caught just as off-guard as everyone else, said they hope that energy carries over into their games this week and for the rest of the season.
For video of the visit, click here.
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010
School Has No Money to Fix 80-Yard Football Field
When Herbert H. Lehman High School was built in the Bronx in 1972, New York City's board of education inexplicably approved a football field that was 20 yards too short. As a result, the reigning city champs have never had a home game.
As the New York Daily News reported Tuesday, the New York City Department of Education's School Construction Authority has earmarked $2.8 million for a new field, but no expansion is planned. There simply isn't enough money in the coffers to buy the extra yardage. "We have good kids that work really hard — they use football to stay off the streets," Michael Saunds, Lehman's varsity coach, told the paper. "But we can never practice a full game — we're restricted."
Lehman is the only high school team in the Bronx without a field of its own, and the school reportedly pays $1,800 more a year than other schools to cover the team's transportation costs. And remember, Lehman doesn't generate revenue from ticket sales or concessions.
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3:35 PM
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Post-Summer Heat Wave Sidelines Sports in California
Record-breaking triple-digit temperatures in Southern California on Monday forced high school football coaches to modify practices and sent lots of athletes indoors to escape the heat. Meanwhile, college athletes took the day off, shortened workouts or trained early in the morning or at night.
The Los Angeles Unified School District canceled all outdoor activities because of excessive heat, according to the Los Angeles Times. A photo on the newspaper's web site shows a bank's digital thermometer registering at 120 degrees at 3 p.m. yesterday. North Hollywood's Harvard-Westlake, a private school, was planning to hold football practice on its outdoor synthetic-turf field until the temperature hit 115 degrees — 126 on the turf. Schools that went ahead with outdoor practices provided student-athletes with additional water breaks.
In nearby Palm Springs, the thermometer read only 104 degrees, so Palm Springs High football coach Steve Fabian decided to take his team out on the field. "You have to water the kids like they're brand-new ears of corn," Fabian told the Times. "We're very careful at what we do. The word for practicing in high temperatures is 'caution.' We have fans, coolers, misters, tents."
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2:15 PM
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City Considers Fees For Fitness Businesses in Parks
The parks and recreation department in Austin, Texas, wants fitness-related businesses to pay a $500 permit fee if they hold classes in city parks. The department also hopes to limit when and where those classes can be conducted. “The whole idea is we are starting to see a conflict of use,” Sara Hensley, Austin's parks director, told KVUE News, explaining that she questions whether it's right for commercial businesses to use public park land for private gain. “I think that is where we want to hear from general citizens. It's starting to take up the park user areas, and some people have actually been run off.”
Local fitness trainer Cody Butler, who teaches a boot-camp class at the city's Auditorium Shores, told the ABC-TV affiliate that requiring a fee for trainers and creating fitness zones would conflict with the city's goal of making Austin the fittest city in the nation. “I don't see why the city needs to be involved in helping us run our businesses,” Butler said.
The parks department has proposed two dozen fitness zones (which does not include Butler's preferred Auditorium Shores). A public meeting regarding the issue will be held Oct. 4.
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11:51 AM
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Jersey Schools Suspend Sports, Blame Low Participation
The Jersey City (N.J.) Board of Education athletics committee is looking into a recent decrease in participation that has forced Ferris High School to suspend its girls' soccer program, Lincoln High to suspend girls' tennis and Dickinson High School to drop football. "We want to find out why this is happening," committee chair Sean Connors told The Jersey Journal. "It is a priority. Athletics and participation in sports goes [a] long way in life."
New Jersey ranks eighth in overall high school sports participation, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, with more than 253,000 student-athletes suiting up during the 2009-10 school year — 106,468 of them girls.
The elimination of middle school sports programs around the country could further impact participation at the high school level. Fewer (or no) middle school sports teams means fewer (or at least less-experienced) student-athletes feeding into the local high school programs — compromising a talent pool already diminished by elite athletes who opt to play on club teams instead of for their schools.
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Monday, September 27, 2010
Report: Advertising in Health Clubs Works
According to research conducted by The Nielsen Company for the Health Club Media Network (HCMN), the gym is “in” when it comes to product marketing that supports an active, healthy lifestyle. In fact, 66 percent of consumers who work out in the nearly 4,000 gyms across the U.S. served by HCMN say they feel good about brands that advertise in their club. Sixty-two percent indicated they are more likely to pay attention to ads on digital screens at their health club than on their home TVs, and more than 60 percent said they are more likely to pay attention to advertising posters at their facility than an ad on an outdoor billboard or in a magazine.
While the study was commissioned by HCMN, the largest exclusive provider of advertising and marketing programs in health clubs and fitness centers, its findings are still noteworthy, according to Paul Lindstrom, senior vice president of The Nielsen Company. “The value of digital place-based advertising is clearly demonstrated by our research into the health club segment,” he says. “Advertisers owe it to themselves to consider the volume, diversity and general quality of the audience that this space has to offer.”
Other research findings:
• Consumers enjoy receiving product samples at their health club. Nearly three-quarters of respondents agreed that getting free samples of shampoo, cereal, energy drinks or bars, and other items help them learn about products.
• Almost a quarter of those surveyed said they were likely to purchase or lease a car within the next year.
• Seventy percent said they would likely be making a travel purchase, such as airline tickets, a cruise or a hotel stay within the next year.
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3:07 PM
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New Michigan Program Hopes to Save State Parks
When Michigan motorists renew their vehicle licenses, they will now be asked if they'd like to pay an additional $10 for a "recreation passport" as part of a new fundraising effort for state parks that went into effect Friday. Good for one year, the passport will grant access to all of Michigan's 98 state parks and recreation areas, plus boat launches. "I hope the public stands up and says, 'Our parks are important, and we're going to support them through this program,' " Erin McDonough, executive director of Michigan United Conservation Clubs, told the Associated Press.
Founded nearly a century ago, the Michigan state-park system is among the nation's oldest and largest, according to AP environmental writer John Flesher. But it's been in the poorhouse for years, a situation made worse in 2004 when it was cut from the state's general-fund budget. Since then, parks have relied mainly on entrance and camping fees, which have not been enough to prevent a backlog of repairs and improvements that now total approximately $340 million, parks officials says. As an example, Flesher points to Proud Lake Recreation Area in Oakland County, where the campground toilet and shower buildings are so unsightly that some visitors won't use them, according to interim supervisor Andrew Haapala "We clean them several times a day, but some of the families don't want to take their kids in there for a shower," Haapala said. "They think it's dirty, because it just looks old. The toilets and showers are so outdated, we have to scavenge parts from the other parks when they wear out."
Approved by the Michigan Legislature last year, the state's new park-funding system is based on one in Montana in which motorists automatically pay a parks fee unless they opt out. Under the Michigan plan, people won't be charged unless they check the "yes" box on their renewal form. Officials at the state's Department of Natural Resources and Environment expect up to 50 percent participation in the "recreation passport" program. If that's the case, the effort could generate more than $35 million — almost three times as much as the park system gets now in a typical year from vehicle and boating access fees. Currently, park visitors pay $6 per day or $24 for an annual pass; out-of-state visitors pay $8 per day or $29 per year. The $10 "recreation passport" fee is expected to increase in 2012.
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1:41 PM
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Players in Post-Game Fight Perform Community Service
Members of Capitol Academy's football team in Baton Rouge, La., performed public service Saturday and will undergo counseling sessions for their role in a post-game altercation with McKinley High School after McKinley's 34-30 win Sept. 18 at Louisiana Leadership Institute's Doug Williams Stadium. McKinley officials also say they are planning clean-up and after-school work for their players at nearby elementary schools. Additionally, the Louisiana High School Athletic Association will conduct a sportsmanship hearing for both teams Tuesday at its Baton Rouge headquarters.
Because the altercation happened after the game ended, there was no videotape of what transpired, and principals at both schools told The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge that a lack of video makes it difficult to assign individual punishments.
Both schools' varsity teams and their coaches attended a "conflict resolution" meeting with Leadership Institute founder Cleo Fields and other civic leaders last week, during which image and responsibility were reportedly the key themes. Fields also announced that any school involved in a future altercation at the facility would be banned for three years, adding that individuals deemed as “aggressors” would be banned from competing at Leadership for the remainder of their careers.
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12:36 PM
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Grandmas Rally to Save Outdoor Hockey Rink
Four grandmothers in a Duluth, Minn., neighborhood organized a meeting at Lower Chester Park on Saturday afternoon to warn residents about a community organization that could dismantle the outdoor rink and nearby warming house where U.S. Olympian and NHL star Tommy Williams once skated. Plans are to turn the site into a greenhouse.
“We learned that the whole complex is scheduled to be demolished,” Beverly Berntson, one of the concerned grandmothers, told the gathering of a few dozen people, according to a report in the Duluth News Tribune. “While the four grandmas brought this event about … we’re not the likely leaders in this effort (to save the rink). … The opportunity is here, but the commitment has to come from you.”
Although the park belongs to the city, the facilities have been leased to a community organization called Friends of the Park, which subsequently subleased parts of the park to other groups. Seeds of Success, a Community Action Program, planted a community garden, for example, and an inline skating group uses the rink during the summer. Susie Darley-Hill, a Friends of the Parks member who lives in the neighborhood, said community involvement makes a difference. “Volunteers have really taken ownership of their city parks, which obviously sends signals to the city,” she said.
The four grandmothers and a handful of other concerned citizens are hoping the city will receive the signals they're sending. “Nobody talked to us in the neighborhood about this,” Dianna Storms told reporter John Lundy.
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12:24 PM
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Athlete Suspended for HGH Dead in Apparent Suicide
Former Great Britain rugby league player Terry Newton, who in February became the first athlete in the world suspended for testing positive for human growth hormone, was found dead at his home in England on Sunday afternoon. The British Broadcasting Company reports that Newton, in the midst of a two-year suspension by the United Kingdom Anti-Doping Agency, hung himself.
In June, the thick-chested player spoke to BBC Radio 5 about his hopes of returning to the game after his ban, which he hoped to get reduced. "Initially it didn't bother me that I wasn't playing rugby, but now watching games it is starting to sink in," Newton, 31, said. "I've made one of the biggest mistakes of my life and I know it is something I will regret for the rest of my life."
Earlier this month, Matt Socholotiuk, a rookie running back at Ontario's University of Waterloo, was suspended for three years after testing positive for HGH. He is believed to be the first North American athlete caught with the substance in his system. The Canadian Football League recently became the first professional sports league in North America to test for HGH, and Major League Baseball implemented HGH testing at the minor-league level in July.
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12:13 PM
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Skate Park Will Ban Bikers; Bike-Only Park Possible
A new urban skate park recently approved for Margaret T. Hance Park near downtown Phoenix won't allow bicyclists, as one local group had hoped. But a Phoenix Parks and Recreation official has suggested that the city also might consider a bikes-only park.
Although several bicyclists urged the parks and rec board last week to make room for bikers among the skaters, board members did not discuss that possibility, according to The Arizona Republic. Jason Ryan, president of the Bike, Blade and Board Coalition, noted that other parks in the Phoenix area — unlike the city's four other skate parks — do allow for shared use between bikers and skateboarders.
Meanwhile, the executive director of the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire continues his efforts to encourage more skate park participants to wear helmets.
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12:04 PM
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Rec Department Hopes to Reduce Pedestrian Accidents
The parks and recreation department in Midland, Texas, is distributing free reflector lights to bicyclists and pedestrians in an effort to cut down on local fatalities. "We've had a couple of bicycle fatalities, we've had a couple of motorcycle fatalities and the first one this year was a pedestrian accident," Midland Police Lt. Brian Bogart told NewsWest9.com, the website for KWES-TV. "We've had very few car-on-car crashes so far this year."
Bikers, joggers and walkers can easily attach the reflector lights to their clothing, making it easy for motorists to see them in the dark morning or evening hours — especially as the days get shorter and the nights get longer. "Some streets in Midland are not lit very well, so there's nothing to reflect light off of them, and that makes it difficult for vehicles to see them, and we don't want to have any more incidents than we have already had this year," Midland recreation superintendent Ben Telesca added. "We'll be driving around, trying to catch some of those folks who are less than appropriately lighted and visible, and try to get them to utilize these."
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11:47 AM
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Friday, September 24, 2010
Video: UCI Sets World Record in Dodgeball Participation
A total of 1,745 University of California, Irvine, students gathered in the Bren Events Center on campus Wednesday to participate in the world's largest game of dodgeball. Presided over by Guinness World Records adjudicator Kimberly Patrick (who actually counted every player, although some reports indicate only 1,725 participated), the event crushed the previous world record set in February at the University of Alberta with 1,198 participants. According to OC Metro, the UCI game will officially be posted on the Guinness World records website Monday.
The Orange County Register initially reported that there were not enough participants, so students began texting, calling, Facebooking and tweeting their friends about the game — who then turned out in droves.
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12:08 PM
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Kansas Football Coach Takes Away Players' Cell Phones
It wasn't that long ago that college football coaches were doing nothing more than banning their players from using Twitter or monitoring their posts on Twitter, Facebook and other social-networking sites. Now, University of Kansas football coach Turner Gill has gone a step further and implemented a no-cell-phone policy for his team. According to The Wichita Eagle, Jayhawks players are expected to hand over their phones when they arrive for game day. The devices will be returned to them in the locker room following the game.
"Everybody was kind of in shock," KU wide receiver Daymond Patterson told reporter J. Brady McCollough. "We hadn't had anything like that in the past years. (Gill) just feels like it's a business thing. He wants us to focus and be ready for the game and not be thinking about outside things."
Gill has said that he wants his players to get off their phones and talk to each other.
In August, the University of North Carolina updated its 2010-11 student-athlete handbook to stipulate that “each team must identify at least one coach or administrator who is responsible for having access to and regularly monitor the content of team members’ social-networking sites and postings.” And at the beginning of the season, Boise State and New Mexico State were among the universities that banned their football teams from using Twitter.
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9:30 AM
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At Bat App Allows Phillies Fans to Order Food From Seats
The quest for the ultimate high-tech stadium experience continues. A new partnership between the Philadelphia Phillies, Aramark and Major League Baseball Advanced Media now allows fans at Citizens Bank Park to order food from their iPhone or iPod Touch and have it delivered to their seats.
The short pilot program — right now slated to only run through the end of the regular season — will be integrated into the "At the Ballpark" section of MLB Advanced Media's all-inclusive iPhone application, At Bat. "At the Ballpark" currently offers a variety of interactive tools to allow fans to check in from the ballgame and integrate their experience with technology. This latest innovation carries that a step further, with food-ordering technology never previously employed at a Major League venue. "It's convenient, it's cool and it's quick," Mike Harris, Phillies director of marketing and special projects, told MLB.com. "Our fans are going to have the opportunity to have more at their seats. ... They are primarily specialty items that are not available in all areas."
Here's how the app works: First, it verifies that a fan is in the stadium and then allows that fan to choose from a number of preselected meals. Purchases are made with a credit card, seat information is confirmed and the food is then delivered — typically within 30 minutes. In limited tests, Harris said, the actual delivery time has been closer to half that. Eventually, depending on the food-ordering app's success, all of the ballpark's vendors could get involved, he added.
"The Phillies are always very receptive to new technologies," said Adam Ritter, vice president of wireless at MLBAM, adding that he hopes the technology will be ready and waiting for any Major League team next season.
Several years ago, the Phillies introduced the Power Ticket, which includes a dollar amount credited to the printed ticket's bar code that allows fan to purchase food and novelties at any of Citizen Bank Park's 200 points of sale.
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Thursday, September 23, 2010
Progressive Field Counts Down to 'Snopening Day'
Instead of sitting dormant during the winter months, Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians, will open its gates to the public for the first time in the off-season during what will be called "Indians Snow Days." Beginning on Nov. 26 — "Snopening Day" — and running through Jan. 2, 2011, the stadium will host activities with such cool names as the Batterhorn (snow tubing), the Frozen Mile (ice skating), Slider's Snow Mountain play area, the Winter Haven walking trail and a Home Run Porch, where attendees can congregate to watch activities, stay warm by a fire pit and purchase concessions. Each day, stadium crews will blanket Progressive Field with 150 tons of fresh snow; that's more than 5,000 tons of snow over the course of the event.
Prices range from $5 to $25 depending on the activities desired, and "family packs" are available for $100. "We are uniquely positioned and staffed to put on special events," Bob DiBiasio, the team's vice president of public relations, told MLB.com. "We decided to take advantage of some silent time during the wintertime. ... This whole thing is based on how can we make ultimate use of this facility for 12 months, not just six months."
Similar events have been staged at minor league ballparks, according to Cleveland news radio station WTAM (which also has renderings of what the event might look like). But this is the first time a major league venue has been used like this. The only event that's come close is the NHL's Winter Classic, which has been staged at Fenway Park and Wrigley Field.
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3:20 PM
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Video: Tornado Preempts High School Soccer Game
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland announced Wednesday that he will not seek Federal Emergency Management Agency aid in cleaning up wreckage from nine tornadoes that ripped through eight counties in the southeast corner of the state last Thursday, stating that the scope of the damage won't meet FEMA thresholds. But there's still plenty of cleaning up to do. Among the areas hit hard was Athens High School in The Plains, which was hosting a girls' soccer game against Albany's Alexander High on Sept. 16 when tornado sirens sounded in the middle of a lightning delay.
The public address announcer instructed players and fans to gather in the football locker room and concessions stand as coaches helped facilitate the process, according to Stephen Spiewak, a writer for MaxPreps.com. Athens athletic director Chuck Robinson was in the school gymnasium at the time, watching a volleyball game. Shortly after the sirens sounded, the lights went out, and volleyball players, coaches and fans were herded into inner-building classrooms.
The violent tornado ripped two HVAC units from the top of the school's roof, demolished the field's press box, took half of the concessions stand's roof, flipped over bleachers, leveled the scoreboard, mangled the goal posts and scattered debris everywhere — as depicted in this haunting video:
No major injuries were reported, and Robinson reportedly is discussing playing Athens High's remaining home soccer and football games at neighboring schools or Ohio University. Meanwhile, donation boxes were set up at Chillicothe High's Herrnstein Field on Saturday when the school (untouched by the tornado) hosted the Athens football team. Athens coaches then took the donated supplies back to The Plains to, as Associated Press reporter Rusty Miller put it, "help out those with more immediate demands than where to play a game."
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12:39 PM
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Girls' Field Hockey Team With Five Boys Bothers Coach
Not surprisingly, the presence of five male student-athletes on Greensburg (Pa.)
Central Catholic High School’s field hockey team is generating controversy. “It is not unheard
of to see a boy playing field hockey in the [Western Pennsylvania
Interscholastic Athletic League],” wrote Pittsurgh Post-Gazette reporter Mike White earlier this week.
“It has happened numerous times over the past few decades at different schools.
But five on one team? That is unheard of in the WPIAL, and is not being met
with open arms around girls' field hockey circles.”
Dom Antonucci, Ryan McHugh, Eric Lewis, Tyler Hillman and
Ben Kerestan all wear skirts in public this season because the Centurions did
not have enough female field hockey players. One says he’s playing to stay in shape for the
boys’ lacrosse season in the spring, while another claim’s he’s on the team “just
to do it.”
But not everyone is thrilled they're doing it. "I'll be
honest, I don't think it's fair at all to have that many boys playing at one
time,"Vincentian Academy coach Lauren Dorsch told White. "Aside
from fairness, I don't think it's safe. I have three girls out right now with
concussions. Head injuries are prevalent in field hockey and I just don't think
boys at this age should be playing against the girls. … Our girls didn't think
it was fair, either. These aren't wimpy boys. They're strong boys. I mean,
where do you draw the line? Is this a co-ed sport now? Are you going to be
allowed to have 10 boys and one girl playing?"
Vincentian lost to Central Catholic, 2-0, as the Centurions
got off to a 3-0 start this season. McHugh had seven goals,
and he and Antonucci both weigh more than 165 pounds. Not surprisingly, the
boys are a main reason Central Catholic is an early favorite to win the WPIAL
championship.
In 1975, a Commonwealth Court issued a permanent injunction directing the Pennsylvania
Interscholastic Athletic Association to permit girls to practice and play
interscholastic sports with boys. But it works the opposite way, too: Boys can
play any girls’ sport — even if the school has a boys' team in that sport.
Centurions coach Molly Reese told the Post-Gazette that her female players accept the five
boys on their team, and she even defends their presence. "We've
played against boys before when we've had an all-girls team, and we've
won," she said. "We're playing by the same rules as everyone
else."
"On our hockey team, girls are welcome to play, and our
lacrosse team had a girl a few years ago," McHugh said. "Girls can
play guys' sports, and our school doesn't have a men's field hockey team. ... We're not doing it as a joke. If we were joking, we wouldn't go to practice
five days a week for two hours a day."
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Wednesday, September 22, 2010
New Tools, Studies Further Concussion Discussion
With
the high school and college football seasons well under way, the National
Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) and National Academy of Neuropsychology
Foundation (NAN) have joined forces to educate athletes, coaches, parents, health professionals, administrators
and the general public about concussions in football. The objective is to raise awareness of the
importance of identifying concussions and implementing appropriate management tools
when they occur. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
between 1.6 million and 3.8 million brain injuries occur in sports each
year — and 63,000 occur in high school student-athletes alone. Last month, the
journal Pediatrics reported that emergency room visits for concussions
among young athletes playing team sports more than doubled over a 10-year
period, and 40 percent of those injuries are sustained by children ages 8 to
13.
As
a centerpiece of the NATA and NAN efforts, a free 12-minute educational video
titled “Concussions in Football: Signs, Symptoms and Playing Safe” can
now be viewed here. Funded in part by the National Football League, it is
similar to the concussions in hockey video the organizations produced last year
and joins other recent educational offerings available from the National Federation of State High School Associations and the CDC (one for high school sports and one for youth sports). “Given the recent
advancements in concussion research, education among coaches, parents,
athletes, the media, and other influencers is critical,” says athletic trainer
Kevin Guskiewicz, chair of the department of exercise and sport science at the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “The invisible nature of concussions
makes it imperative that athletes and coaches properly recognize the signs and
symptoms of concussions, in order to foster quicker diagnosis and medical care
when needed.”
Guskiewicz joined other medical professionals, federal legislators and a 15-year-old
concussion victim Thursday for a congressional briefing on proposed legislation to reduce the number of young athletes who suffer the consequences of sports-related traumatic brain injuries — including the proposed Concussion Treatment and Care Tools (ConTACT) Act.
The latest educational campaign from NATA and NAN explicitly urges athletes to
immediately consult with their athletic trainer, team physician or coach if
they think they might have sustained a concussion — even if the symptoms appear
mild. The video emphasizes current practice and return-to-play guidelines: If a
concussion is suspected, the athlete should be removed from play immediately
and not return on the same day. Return to play should only occur when the
athlete has been evaluated and written clearance provided by a health care
professional trained in the evaluation and management of sports concussions.
NATA
has published a position statement on concussions, and NAN has developed a white paper on the topic.
Meanwhile, The
Cleveland Clinic announced Wednesday that it will conduct independent research
on concussions and other sports-related head and neck injuries. Doctors and
scientists from the clinic's Neurological Institute and its Spine Research
Laboratory will use equipment manufactured and donated by Rawlings to research
helmets and other protective accessories used in both baseball and football.
They will measure the equipment's ability to minimize impacts, with the goal of determining the effects of single and multiple impacts to the head and how to reduce such injuries through protective equipment.
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Arco Arena Loses Sponsorship Deal; New Venues Go Without
After almost a quarter-century, the Arco name will be
removed from the arena that is home to the NBA's Sacramento Kings — forcing the
struggling team to scramble in tough times to find a replacement sponsor. The
Sacramento Bee reports that although the Kings' contract with the Arco oil
company (now owned by embattled BP) expires in February, company officials will
keep the Arco Arena name in place through the end of the 2010-11 season.
"We are deeply appreciative of the historic 24-year
run we enjoyed with our friends at Arco," Kings co-owners Joe and Gavin
Maloof said in a statement issued Monday. "This was one of the original,
pioneering naming-rights partnerships in major league sports and
entertainment.” Sources estimate the deal brought the Kings between $700,000
and $750,000 in annual income.
Scott Dean, a spokesman for oil giant BP, declined to say
why the company is ending its naming-rights sponsorship of an arena that has
been criticized in recent years by the NBA for being old and inadequate. The decision
was made several years ago, he said, and is not related to BP's financial woes caused by the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Paul Swangard, managing director of the University of
Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, speculated to Bee reporters Tony
Bizjak and Dale Kasler that Arco’s Sacramento deal was now at the point of
“diminishing returns” for the company. “I'm not sure anyone walks out of Arco
Arena and immediately goes and gets their car filled up with Arco gas,” he said.
Perhaps that's one reason — along with an economy still
recovering from the nation's longest recession since World War II — why other
pro facilities simply must go without naming-rights deals these days. The highest profile examples are Cowboys Stadium in Dallas and New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
"That's an indicator of the market,” said Larry DeGaris, a professor of
sports marketing at the University of Indianapolis. “It's awful, it's a really
tough market for sponsorships."
And for arenas, in general. Increased competition for
consumers' limited discretionary dollars is "crowding some forms of
entertainment out" of multipurpose arenas, Mark Rosentraub, a professor of
sport management at the University of Michigan, told Athletic Business earlier this year, referring to the number of venues that have lost (or could) lose professional sports tenants. "That creates substantial pressure on whoever financed and owns
the facility. People built these arenas at a time when they really thought that
discretionary income was going to grow at a sufficient rate."
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Ireland’s $410M Aviva Stadium to Host Notre Dame-Navy
Aviva Stadium, a $410 million, four-level facility that opened in Dublin, Ireland, in May, will host one of college football’s longest-running rivalries when Notre Dame and Navy meet there on Sept. 1, 2012. "To see this stadium is to believe it has to be one of the finest venues in the world," Naval Academy director of athletics Chet Gladchuk said in a statement regarding the 50,000-seat facility (designed by Populous). "We fully realize just how important this game is in the U.S. sporting calendar,” added Aviva Stadium director Martin Murphy. “It is a terrific boost for Irish tourism, as I have no doubt the teams' fans will travel in great numbers.”
Despite Notre Dame’s ties to the Irish, Navy will be considered the home team in this 86th gridiron meeting of the two institutions.
Photo: Chris Cascoigne, courtesy of Populous
The teams also played each other in Dublin in 1996, when Notre Dame won, 54-27. But that didn’t stop Chicago Now blogger James Fegan from questioning Notre Dame’s recent decision to return to its Irish roots. “One just has to wonder what the university feels it has to gain from this venture, if there are any ethical issues in taking college students across the Atlantic Ocean during the school year, or whether the jet lag alone is going to result in us losing to someone profoundly crappy the next week,” he wrote. “It feels like the decision to play in Ireland was motivated by a common drive in university policy: It's cool, and they can.”
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Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Video: Braves Left Fielder Matt Diaz Trips Up Runaway Fan
Matt Diaz, in what some fans are calling the best play the Atlanta Braves made all night in a 3-1 road loss to the Phillies on Monday, tripped up a fan who had breached security and was eluding his pursuers in the outfield. As Philadelphia Daily News reporter Ed Barkowitz wrote:
It was the bottom of the seventh inning and a fan dressed all in red jumped onto the Citizens Bank Park field right near left field where Diaz patrolled. Diaz, a bull of a guy at 6-1, 215 pounds, once saw such stupidity result in a serious injury and wasn't going to let that happen again. After a brief chase by security guards, Diaz assisted by tripping the fan.”
"I thought he was coming at me, so I was ready," Diaz said. "Then I saw their security guy [fall] and it reminded me when Josh went down and got knocked out. I thought 'This is dangerous.' "
Diaz was referring to a 2007 incident in which Turner Field security guard Josh Garner was injured in a similar incident. Garner lay on the ground for more than 10 minutes before eventually walking off to get treatment for a head injury.
"When [the fan] came back — I didn't want to get hurt and I didn't want to hurt him — I just stuck out my foot," Diaz said. "He got back up, but their security guy crushed him. I was glad no one got hurt."
The incident also evoked memories of earlier this season, when 17-year-old Steven Consalvi’s wild run across the outfield at Citizens Bank Park on May 3 was cut short by a stun gun. The boy fell face-first to the turf and lay motionless for 30 seconds, his muscle function completely incapacitated.
The identity of Monday night’s man in the red bodysuit has not been released.
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Oregon State Paints Turf Blue to Prep for Boise State
When Oregon State University’s football team takes to its practice field in Corvallis on Tuesday, players will notice something very different: The field is now blue.
An anonymous donor provided the money for OSU to paint the field so that it mimics the surface at Boise State’s Bronco Stadium, where the No. 24 Beavers will square off against the No. 3 Broncos in a nationally televised game Saturday. OSU sports information director Steve Fink told The Oregonian that the field first had to be painted white in order for the blue to stick. A total of 440 gallons of paint were used.
The transformation from green to so-called “Smurf turf” began early Monday morning and wrapped up later in the day; no word yet on how long it will take to wash away the blue and the white. Oregonian scribe Lindsay Schnell says the color switch was a “clever” solution to scheduling conflicts that will prevent OSU from holding a walk-through practice at Bronco Stadium on Friday.
Montana followed a similar strategy last week, but on a much smaller scale, practicing in its maroon-colored home-stadium end zones to prepare for its game on Eastern Washington’s new red turf at Roos Field last Saturday. But in the end, the Grizzlies fell to EWU, 36-27.
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Monday, September 20, 2010
Lifeguards Texting on the Job Cause for Major Concern
The director of health and safety at the American Lifeguard Association says text messaging by lifeguards has become a serious concern. Bernard J. Fisher II heard plenty of complaints this year, and he says the problem is the result of reduced lifeguard wages and aquatic facilities being unable to both hire well-qualified guards and supervise those guards as closely as they might have in the past, due to budget constraints. “Because of the lack of pay, you can’t pick and choose the caliber of guard you need,” Fisher told The New York Times. “Plus, the current generation is a generation of texting. Lives are being endangered, if not already lost, because of text messaging.”
Here’s proof:
• In July, a child panicked in the water at the Duncan (Ariz.) Swimming Pool and was rescued by an adult patron. Witnesses said a lifeguard on duty at the time had been texting. He was later fired.
• In July 2009, a 45-year-old Illinois man drowned at a residential community beach where a lifeguard was texting at the time the incident occurred, according to witnesses.
• In March 2008, a 10-year-old Irish boy died at the bottom of a Dublin pool’s deep end; the only lifeguard on duty admitted he was sending text messages shortly before the boy drowned.
“It kind of takes my breath away, but younger people have the capacity and the expectation to be able to communicate all the time,” Paul Atchley, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Kansas, told Times reporter Bob Tedeschi. “When they are excluded from texting networks, their self-esteem declines. I don’t think it’s [a] compulsion to multitask as much as it is a compulsion to belong.”
Even texting in short bursts breaks standard rules for lifeguarding, which is why most facilities ban text messaging by guards on the job.
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Free Seminars Will Preach Pool Compliance This Fall
The National Swimming Pool Foundation and Aquatics International magazine are each hosting safety events — one live and one virtual — for facility managers this fall.
On Oct. 6 at the World Aquatic Health Conference in Colorado Springs, Colo., NSPF (in conjunction with the Consumer Product Safety Commission) will present the first of three planned National Pool and Spa Safety Events to help bring operators of public pools and spas into compliance with the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act. The act required all 300,000 public pools and spas in the United States to ensure that their drain covers and suction systems would adequately prevent a pool user from being entrapped or eviscerated by December 2008. But NSPF officials say that as many as 50 percent still may not be in compliance.
The free three-hour event will consist of training, educational materials, demonstrations and an expert from CPSC to answer questions. Public health inspectors working in the field, state and local health officials, regulators, pool and spa operators, and aquatic facility managers are encouraged to attend. The session also will be videotaped and posted on the NSPF and CPSC websites. Two additional events are planned for 2011, with dates and locations pending. For more information or to register, click here.
Meanwhile, a virtual conference sponsored by Aquatics International beginning Nov. 9 will address the Centers for Disease Control’s Model Aquatic Health Code and its potential impact on the aquatics industry. The MAHC, developed by the CDC through an initial grant from NSPF, was created to assist local and state agencies with updating or implementing standards for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of swimming pools and other treated recreational water venues.
“The Model Aquatic Health Code: Cracking the Code” will feature seven free and exclusive on-demand webinars available through May 9, 2011. “Nearly 80 percent of aquatics professionals are either afraid the MAHC will be another VGB debacle or don’t know enough about it, according to our online poll,” says Aquatics International editor Gary Thill. “We hope this series of seminars will provide the education professionals need so they don’t get blindsided by these important new guidelines.”
Seminars will be provided by aquatic design and architectural experts, researchers and industry veterans, and session topics include liability concerns, code confusion, the MAHC’s relationship to water chemistry and its impact on risk management. For more information or to register, click here.
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Friday, September 17, 2010
Red Is the New Blue (and Green) at Eastern Washington
Eastern Washington University will officially introduce its highly touted red Sprinturf field Saturday when the Eagles host Big Sky Conference rival Montana at renamed Roos Field. The former Woodward Field was named after EWU football alum Michael Roos of the Tennessee Titans, who pledged $500,000 toward the $975,000 turf project.
The new turf, which replaced natural grass and matches EWU’s uniforms as much as possible, has been hyped for months — ever since EWU announced its plans in January to install the world’s first red football field. Boise State University was the first to use a blue field (way back in 1986) as a way to draw nationwide attention to the mid-major school and its sizable investment — a gamble that’s paid off handsomely in recent years for the Broncos, which recently achieved its highest preseason ranking in history when the Associated
Press named BSU the third best team in the country.
Photo: All rights reserved by Eastern Washington University
Already, EWU is experiencing the financial windfall a novelty field can bring. Bloomberg.com reports the university is saving $12,000 in field maintenance and 300,000 gallons of water annually. Season-ticket sales have tripled, the university bookstore is on its fourth order of “Red is the New Green” T-shirts and a webcam showing the construction of the field received more than two million hits. “The red turf is going to make a significant difference at the box office, in marketing and in merchandising,” EWU athletic director Bill Chaves said.
In March, AB senior editor Paul Steinbach reported that Chaves claimed the decision to go red was overwhelmingly popular among the university’s 25-and-under set, while purists — particularly elders who blanch at the thought of football played on anything but grass — were the lone detractors. And, Chaves added, “the recruits we're talking to and our team members can't be any more excited about it."
Outsiders, though, see things differently. Greg Rachac, a scribe for Montana's Billings Gazette, referred to EWU’s field as “that awful red turf” in a blog this week. And Montana head coach Robin Pflugrad — who earlier in his career coached players who competed plenty of times on Boise State’s blue turf — said during a teleconference earlier this week that the color of EWU’s field doesn’t phase him: “Our end zones are maroon, and so we’ve been practicing in the end zone all week. Hopefully, we can get in there every once in awhile.”
Adding to all the excitement is that the game could shape up to be a dandy. This will be the ninth time in the last 15 meetings that both EWU and Montana enter the contest nationally ranked, at 16 and 6, respectively, in the Football Championship Subdivision. The first 3,000 fans through the gates will receive a complimentary chunk of red turf.
Regional television network SWX-TV will air the “Red Turf Special” tonight and Saturday night, detailing the project and revealing the official nickname of the new field, as voted by fans online.
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Michigan Lights Up the Big House
The University of Michigan will spend $1.8 million to add permanent lights at 83-year-old Michigan Stadium. The school's board of regents approved the project Thursday, which comes on the heels of a recently completed three-year, $226 million renovation that boosted seating capacity to 109,901 — allowing the Big House to reclaim the title of the country’s largest football stadium.
"It's going to be better for our fans in the stadium and those watching the broadcast," Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon told the Associated Press about adding lights. "It'll lead to less wear and tear on our newly renovated stadium and, over time, it will be a financially good decision, too."
Previously, the school rented temporary lights for football games that began at 3:30 p.m. and ended after dusk. Brandon said the HD-quality lights will be installed soon and provide ideal illumination for The Big Chill at the Big House on Dec. 11 against Michigan State and for the Wolverines' first nighttime football game against Notre Dame on Sept. 10, 2011. So far, those are the only two prime-time matchups on Michigan’s schedule. "We really wanted to use this as a test game," Brandon said. "We've made no commitments to playing at night beyond playing one next season."
The board’s decision met with mixed reaction among fans. “My husband and I watch a lot of the Saturday night games on TV, and we really like the atmosphere, so I’m thinking adding them here will be a lot of fun,” Mary Lowry, who lives less than a quarter-mile west of the stadium, told AnnArbor.com’s David Jesse. “But I’m torn. Traffic is really bad here during day games. What’s it going to be like at 11 (p.m.)? I don’t really want drunk college students and other people from the game walking past my house that late.”
“It’s going to give the university even more exposure,” countered Wolverines fan Todd Washington, who doesn't live near the stadium. “People like to watch those night games all across the nation. It’s going to be great.”
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Thursday, September 16, 2010
Jeter Reignites Debate Over Instant Replay for Baseball
Jeter the Cheater? That may be a new nickname for New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who admitted that he faked getting hit by a Chad Qualls fastball in Wednesday night’s 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. “Fortunately for us, it paid off at the time,” Jeter told the press after the game, which had pennant-race implications. “But I would have been a bigger story if we would have won that game.”
Oh, Derek, you're already a big story. In fact, the Internet is alive with this story, and The New York Times called Jeter’s acting job an “Emmy-worthy performance.” TV analyst Tim Kurkijian used terms like “genius” and “brilliant,” and even Rays manager Joe Maddon — who was ejected for arguing home-plate umpire Lance Barksdale’s botched call — lauded Jeter. "If our guys had did it, I would have applauded that," he told post-game reporters. “It's a great performance on his part. Several players are very good at that. And again, I'm not denigrating it. If our guy does it, I'm very happy with that if we end up getting the call."
Fans don’t necessarily agree. A USA Today poll — titled “Is Jeter a cheater or a gamer?” — had logged more than 6,400 votes as of 3:30 p.m. (CST) Thursday, a majority of them saying “he cheated the game.”
In addition to the debate about whether Jeter tarnished his reputation with his thespian chops — and what reaction would've been had this situation involved teammate Alex Rodriguez instead — Major League Baseball’s refusal to embrace instant replay is called into question yet again. A recent ESPN survey of 24 of the 30 MLB managers revealed that only two (Cleveland’s Manny Acta and Arizona’s Kirk Gibson) are opposed to expanding the use of instant replay, and many said they would favor a manager-challenge system similar to the one in place during this year’s Little League World Series. (According to ESPN’s report, in 32 LLWS games, 16 calls were reviewed. Half of those calls turned out to be wrong, and the average review took 52 seconds. The average total delay — from the moment the manager requested a review until the decision was announced — was only 1 minute, 50 seconds.) And most, but not all, of the big-league managers ESPN surveyed who were willing to get specific favored using some form of replay to make the correct calls at all four bases.
On Wednesday night, Qualls’ pitch ricocheted off Jeter’s bat into fair territory, and the Rays made the play at first, which would have been the second out of the seventh inning. Replays clearly show — and the audio loudly indicates — that the ball did not touch Jeter. YouTube has removed clips of the incident “due to a copyright claim by MLB Advanced Media,” but the video is posted here.
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Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Prep Running Back Suffers Post-TD Cardiac Arrest
Running back Hayward Demison scored the winning touchdown Friday night for Central Catholic High School in Portland, Ore. But the celebration ended abruptly when Demison informed his coach that he was having trouble breathing and collapsed. "He wasn't breathing, he didn't have a pulse, his pupils weren't reacting to anything," Lisa Lyver, a cardiac nurse who was a spectator in the stands that night, told Portland’s KGW-TV. "At that point, I started doing chest compressions on him."
Demison was in sudden cardiac arrest, the result of a defective left coronary artery — a lifelong ailment that had gone undiagnosed. Lyver estimated that Demison's heart had been stopped for two minutes by the time she reached him. An AED was available during the game, but it was not used, the NBC affiliate reported.
Demison, who also has athlete’s asthma and initially thought he was having an asthma attack, will miss the rest of the football season and undergo heart surgery. If all goes well, doctors expect him to be ready to play again his senior season.
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Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Studies Reveal More Chlorine Risks, Including Cancer
Research linking swimming in chlorinated pools to cancer and other medical conditions continues to make headlines. The latest such studies come from the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, Spain. They indicate, among other things, that swimming in a pool with chlorine may increase the risk of developing cancer and damage lungs. The studies, published this week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, also identified more than 100 chemical byproducts in pools that use chlorine as a disinfectant. But lead scientists in the studies are quick to admit that their research sample was small, and they stress that more research is necessary before drawing sweeping conclusions.
Here is a rundown of findings by the center’s researchers:
• In one study, scientists collected blood, urine and exhaled air samples from 49 non-smoking adults before and after they swam for 40 minutes in an indoor chlorinated pool. Researchers found that, after swimming, concentrations of four biomarkers (used as indicators of specific biological states) suggested toxicity from disinfection byproducts that can lead to cancer.
• A second study measured short-term changes in respiration to explore potential lung damage from swimming in chlorinated pools. Among 48 people who swam for 40 minutes, researchers found a slightly higher level of one particular biomarker that indicates cell damage in the lungs.
• A third study examined the health differences found in people who swam in public swimming pools disinfected with chlorine and those disinfected with bromine. While researchers discovered similar levels of disinfection byproducts in both types of pools, some of those byproducts have not previously been reported in either swimming pool water or drinking water, according to researchers.
Despite the results, CREAL’s co-director Manolis Kogevinas says that nobody should stop swimming. Rather, facility operators and swimmers need “to encourage the reduction of chemicals in swimming pools to ensure disinfection” — thereby further increasing the positive health effects of swimming. He also suggests that facility operators pursue diligent pool-water management and enforce the shower-before-swimming rule, thus allowing swimmers to wash off much of the organic material that reacts with chlorine to produce toxic byproducts.
Alfred Bernard, a toxicologist at Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels, Belgium, told the Discovery News website that he thinks there's already enough reason to swim with caution. His own work suggests that chloramines are a major risk factor for rising rates of asthma, airway irritation and allergic diseases among swimmers — especially in babies and young children.
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Monday, September 13, 2010
More Young Basketball Players Sustain Brain Injuries
The number of traumatic brain injuries among basketball players under the age of 20 skyrocketed between 1997 and 2007, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. Researchers also noted that the total number of basketball-related injuries to participants between 5 and 19 decreased by 21 percent over the same 11-year period, to about 4.1 million.
The proportion of basketball injuries that were traumatic brain injuries was 2.6 percent, but that figure nearly doubled among boys and tripled among girls over time, according to the study's senior author Laura B. McKenzie of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "To address the problem of traumatic brain injuries and manage them effectively, education of coaches, athletes, and parents is vital," McKenzie told MedPage Today. "The prevention of traumatic brain injuries may be challenging, and individualized prevention efforts should probably be targeted toward players with a history of concussion." The use of age-appropriate basketballs may decrease rates of concussion (as well as finger-related injuries) among younger players, she added.
Overall, the most common basketball-related injuries among youth players are strains or sprains to the lower extremities (30.3 percent), particularly the ankle (23.8 percent), according to the study. Boys are more likely to sustain lacerations and fractures or dislocations, while girls are more likely to sustain traumatic brain injuries and knee injuries. Older children (15 to 19) are three times more likely to injure their lower extremities, and younger children (5 to 10) are more likely to injure their upper extremities and sustain traumatic brain injuries and fractures or dislocations.
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Man Claiming to Be Coach Drags 6-Year-Old Player
Police in the Cincinnati suburb of Norwood say a 6-year-old boy was punished for not paying attention during football practice last week by being forced to run more than 1.5 miles and then dragged by his helmet’s face mask. The boy’s mother, 36-year-old Chellie Bowden, and 41-year-old Charles Robinson (who identified himself as the coach of the boy’s team) were arrested on child endangering charges. A neighbor alerted police, who saw Robinson dragging the boy and ordered him to stop. A Hamilton County municipal judge set Robinson’s bond at $5,000 and ordered him to stop coaching and stay away from the players. Bowden is accused of asking Robinson’s help to punish her child and then standing by, police said.
David Ragle, president of the parent-run Norwood Little Indians Football organization, told Cincinnati.com that Robinson — who has been arrested at least 26 times since 1996 on a host of charges including domestic violence and possession of drugs — is not a coach. Robinson may have told the judge he was a coach in an attempt to avoid prosecution, Ragle suggested to reporter Jennifer Baker. He also released the team’s roster, showing that Robinson is not listed as a coach. All coaches in the league undergo background checks.
“This man is not a coach,” Ragle said. “He is not a volunteer. He has nothing to do with our organization. He doesn’t look familiar to me but that doesn’t say he hasn’t been there. The field is open. Parents and people are there all the time. I can’t do background checks on every parent and associate who is listed on an emergency roster for the kids.”
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Friday, September 10, 2010
Tornado-Ravaged School Wins Synthetic Turf Field Award
A tornado-ravaged high school in Greensburg, Kan., and an elementary school in an economically challenged area of Philadelphia are the grand prize winners of the Synthetic Turf Council’s 2010 Search for the Real Field of Dreams contest. The annual awards program recognizes synthetic turf sports fields and community parks that have enhanced their communities.
In May 2007, an EF5 tornado obliterated most of Greensburg, Kansas — including Kiowa County High School — and left 11 residents dead. But members of the small, close-knit community, who consider Friday-night lights a source of pride, rallied to build a new school and football field. In September 2009, the state’s only synthetic turf field configured for eight-man football (pictured) opened on the campus of what would become the new Kiowa County School, a $50 million K-12 LEED Platinum facility that was dedicated last month. The field hosts high school and youth games, and reports indicate that Greensburg’s population is slowly returning to pre-tornado numbers.
Meanwhile, the days of students populating the nurse’s office at John Wister Elementary School in Philadelphia with scrapes and other injuries appear to be over. Built with grant money, the school’s synthetic turf playground field has transformed a barren, concrete schoolyard in a section of the city in which 98 percent of all residents are African-American and 99 percent suffer economic hardship. School officials report that student test scores have increased by 20 percent, and parents have become more involved in school and student life.
Other fields and parks honored by the Synthetic Turf Council include:
• William Dick School, Philadelphia
• Tri-Valley High School, Dresden, Ohio
• City of Lakeland (Fla.) Parks & Recreation Department for Common Ground Park
• City of Wauwatosa (Wis.) for Hart Park
• Geneva (Ohio) Area Recreational, Educational, Athletic Trust (GaREAT) Sports Complex
For full profiles of all winners, click here.
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First North American Athlete Tests Positive for HGH
The four-year suspension of Matt Socholotiuk, the rookie running back at Ontario's University of Waterloo who was revealed this week to have tested positive for human growth hormone, has been reduced to three years. Socholotiuk is believed to be the first North American athlete caught with HGH in his system. “We have suspected HGH has been abused by certain athletes in an effort to cheat,” Paul Melia, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, said in a statement. “We now have the proof. However, it is alarming and of great concern that its presence has been detected with our young athletes.”
Only five athletes in the world have been caught and sanctioned for HGH use, according to the Toronto Sun.
Socholotiuk was tested in March, along with 61 other members of the Waterloo Warriors. After nine players were suspected of doping infractions in what has been billed as the biggest steroids investigation in Canadian university history, Waterloo suspended its football program in June for one
year.
Socholotiuk, who is not registered to attend Waterloo this semester, was quoted as saying at a
hearing decision on his suspension that the blood test
for HGH is “very unreliable.” He also
reportedly told an arbitrator that he didn’t know the testosterone he
took was banned, and that he feels “ashamed and embarrassed.”
The breakthrough findings should prompt professional sports leagues to impose HGH testing, Melia told Toronto Star reporter Robert Cribb. They should “accept their social responsibility and take full advantage of the powerful role they can play in the fight against doping in sports. They need to stop sending a mixed message to our children ... that it is okay to cheat and to risk your health to set records and pursue winning at any cost.”
The Canadian Football League recently became the first professional sports league in North America to test for HGH, and Major League Baseball implemented HGH testing at the minor-league level in July.
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Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Synthetic Turf Study Tests for Bacteria, Hardness, Heat
Unlike most land plots at the University of Missouri’s research farms, one of the newest isn’t growing anything. Instead, the lush, green sections represent five different brands of synthetic turf. “Testing these synthetic turfs will allow us to answer ongoing questions about maintenance, hardness, heat syringing and bacterial growth,” says Brad Fresenburg, an MU Extension turf scientist.
One of the most looming questions is whether bacteria exists in the type of surface material that has become increasingly popular at the municipal and high school levels. “At this point, we simply don’t know,” Fresenburg says. While summer heat may stymie bacterial growth, spring and fall temperatures in Missouri may be ideal for such growth. And sweat, spit and blood from athletes may help infectious bacteria thrive.
The land plot, featuring 15-by-20-foot sections of five popular turf brands, was unveiled recently on a site in Columbia that provides a randomized block design for conducting research trials, as well as an area for grooming, cleaning, painting and paint-removal demonstrations. The turf sections were installed on a six-inch gravel bed over flat drains and top-dressed according to manufacturers’ installation guidelines, and the plot was placed next to a large section of natural grasses for research comparisons. Manufacturers and distributors donated the turf samples and other materials (including crumb rubber), Fresenburg says.
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Long-Gone ‘Phantom Facilities’ Saddle Cities With Debt
The old Giants Stadium is “the gift that keeps on taking.” At least that’s the way New York Times reporter Ken Belson describes it in an eye-opening piece about how municipalities acquire heavy debt on “phantom facilities” that have been torn down, or are underutilized or obsolete. The venue that was demolished this summer to make room for New Meadowlands Stadium still carries a debt of about $110 million — roughly $13 for every New Jersey resident. Seattle residents owe more than $80 million on the Kingdome, which was razed in 2000, and Indianapolis’ RCA Dome, imploded in 2008, has $61 million in debt that will not be paid off until 2021. The stories are similar in other cities with gone or abandoned stadiums and arenas that once were cherished homes to professional sports franchises.
Belson’s research reveals the excesses of publicly financed stadiums and the sway professional sports teams have over politicians, voters and fans. Instead of confronting teams, they buckle when owners — usually threatening to move — demand that the public pay for new venues. “Believe me, I’m not unaware of the debt situation that was left here in my lap by decisions made by previous administrations,” New York Gov. Chris Christie announced in July, speaking from the 50-yard line at New Meadowlands Stadium. “But we’re just going to have to deal with it.”
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Stadium Operators to Fans: Butt Out!
When the University of Louisville unveiled 13,000 new seats at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium on Saturday in a 23-16 loss to in-state rival Kentucky, school officials also sent a strong message to fans who smoke: There are no longer designated smoking areas here — and if you leave the stadium to light up, you won’t be allowed back in.
It’s the same story at the University of Michigan, where all designated smoking areas at Michigan Stadium are gone this season. Stadium policy prohibits readmission to individuals who exit the stadium, so (as in Louisville) smokers who cannot go without a cigarette for three hours and need to step outside the gates also cannot return. Both universities are, or soon will be, smoke-free — although Louisville does have designated smoking areas throughout campus.
"It's a violation of individual rights," Michigan senior Alex Biles, vice president of the school's College Libertarians, told The Detroit News. "Individuals should be allowed to enjoy smoking as long as they are not hurting anyone else."
But they are, argues University of Louisiana spokesperson Mark Hebert. "Our goal and our mission as a university is to provide a healthy environment for everybody here, and we're the campus that goes out and does research on cancer,” Hebert told local ABC affiliate WHAS11.com. “We're trying to fight cancer and get Kentuckians to be more healthy, and we can't very well say we're trying to do things to make Kentucky more healthy, but we're allowing smoking on our campus."
State laws banning smoking in workplace environments or areas where food and alcohol are served have led to similar clampdowns on lighting up at NFL stadiums. Hugh Alexander, a 47-year-old Carolina Panthers season ticket holder, almost sold his seats after he caught wind of the new policy at Bank of America Stadium, which prohibits smoking in all areas. Violators will receive one warning before being ejected. Stadium officials considered creating a "bullpen area" for smokers outside the stadium, according to The Charlotte Observer, but determined that it would not have been feasible for a facility with a capacity of 70,000.
Despite the recent outcry, smoking bans have been implemented at several other major stadiums during the past few years. The University of Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium, in compliance with the state’s “Non-Smoker Protection Act,” went completely smoke-free in 2007, as did PNC Park in Pittsburgh, prompted by Allegheny County’s anti-smoking ordinance. But at FedEx Field, Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder has found a loophole in Maryland’s Clean Air Act of 2007, which shut down a cigar bar on the stadium’s loge level. As Washington City Paper’s Dave McKenna recently reported, Snyder secured an exemption that allowed the Redskins to open a cigar store on the stadium’s pricey Joe Gibbs Level and call it a “tobacco shop” — which the law states is exempt from Maryland’s Clean Indoor Air Act.
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Rogers Centre 'B' Stings Blue Jays Fan
A fan attending a Toronto Blue Jays game Monday suffered only soreness in his shoulder after being hit by a letter “B” dislodged from the Rogers Centre Ring of Honor by a foul ball. The two-foot-tall white letter fell 30 feet from Jackie Robinson’s name affixed to the stadium’s third deck, hit the fan and tumbled down the seating aisle, where it was retrieved by another fan and then stadium security.
Batted balls and even bats entering seating areas in MLB parks is something fans have come to expect. In fact, the same night at Chase Field in Phoenix, a two-year-old girl attending an Arizona Diamondbacks game was hit in the head by a foul ball and a 13-year-old boy was hit in the head by a bat. The incidents happened within 10 minutes of each other.
But rare is the occasion that fans must dodge parts of a ballpark. AB’s e-mail inquiry into how lettering is affixed to the Rogers Center facade or whether the letter in question was somehow defective was not immediately answered by the Blue Jays. “I was very surprised,” said the injured fan, a middle-aged Jays season-ticket holder who was at the game with his son. “I didn’t expect a ‘B’ to fall on me.”
Bruno DeRose, the front-row fan who held the letter aloft momentarily before surrendering the most unique souvenir imaginable to security, added, “They should have at least given me a couple of tickets or a ball."
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Friday, September 03, 2010
The Greenasium Seeks to Offset Own Carbon Footprint
A new aptly named fitness center in Encinitas, Calif., is using cardio equipment that pushes electricity back into the grid, powering the 2,600-square-foot Greenasium gym and other electricity customers. According to Byron Spratt, co-owner of the San Diego area's first human-powered fitness studio, a Seattle-based company called Resource Fitness retrofitted the wheels on three specialty stationary bicycles at the facility. “The wheel creates DC power, converts it to AC power, which is plugged back into the wall, which puts energy back into the grid,” he told NBC San Diego.
Spratt also said additional equipment will arrive in October to help offset the facility’s carbon footprint even more. The goal, he added, is to produce enough energy to offset what the facility consumes. Every three months, management will look at The Greenasium's power-consumption totals and then sponsor activities (such as a beach cleanup) to offset any additional carbon footprint.
Other environmentally friendly elements of The Greenasium include refurbished equipment, low-flow showers, dual-flush toilets and filtered tap water.
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Prevent Running Injuries? That's a Stretch
A new study conducted by USA Track & Field has found that stretching before a run causes no obvious harm, but offers no clear benefit, either.
The study, published on USATF’s website last month and summarized this week in a New York Times blog, recruited nearly 1,400 runners ranging in age from 13 to 60-plus and randomly assigned them to two groups — one that engaged in static stretching before a run, and one that didn’t. (Static stretching involved holding specific poses for 20 seconds each, for a total warm-up of three to five minutes). After three months of adhering to their assigned regimens (including identical running components), roughly 16 percent of the participants who stretched suffered injuries significant enough to keep them from running for three or more days, while a virtually identical percentage of non-stretchers were likewise laid up.
The USATF study did find that runners who were used to stretching before being assigned to the non-stretching group were injured at a disproportionally high rate: 23 percent over the three months. However, experts agree this didn’t prove that stretching had protected these runners from injury in the past. Rather, their study-induced injuries likely resulted from the fact that any change in their training regimen had taken place.
The bulk of available science suggests that static stretching not only does nothing to prevent overuse injuries, but can actually hinder performance; the body’s own reflex prevents muscles from stretching too much and thus they become tighter in a mode of self-protection. “The findings of this present study are totally in line with the existing literature,” Malachy McHugh, the director of research at the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma in New York, told the Times.
A better alternative to static stretching, experts say, is dynamic stretching, in which an easy warm-up builds in intensity until the joints’ range of motion is enhanced through constant movement. Marching in place, as opposed to reaching down and touching one’s toes, for example, engages the brain in proprioception and control, and results in increased flexibility.
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Marathon Organizers Ban Runner for … Running
A 56-year-old Wisconsin woman who ran in May's Madison Marathon without registering or paying a fee has been “permanently banned” from the event by race organizers. In the parlance of the sport, Ramona Villarreal was a “bandit,” according to Isthmus, Madison’s weekly newspaper. And as a result, marathon officials intend to take a tougher stance against freeloading runners in the future, using volunteers to identify bandits so they can be ejected. “We have to keep this secure for registered participants,” said Rita Kelliher, president of Madison Festivals Inc., which sponsored the marathon.
Villarreal — who has competed in Ironman competitions and an estimated 10 Madison Marathons — apparently tried to register onsite but was told that the 5,100 slots for the half-marathon filled up earlier that day. So Villarreal told Isthmus news editor Bill Lueders that she offered to register for the full 26.2-mile event and only run half, but she was refused. (The fee at that time was $105 for the full race and $85 for half.) That’s when the runner took it upon herself to enter the race anyway, not interfering with other participants and drinking water or refreshments supplied only by family members — not marathon organizers.
Villarreal claimed she saw several other runners that day without numbered bibs and assumed they also didn't register, although Kelliher told Lueders that some registered runners lacked bibs. Villarreal was caught only because Kelliher recognized her two months later while looking at photos from the marathon. She claimed that Villarreal’s presence posed liability concerns, saying that Villarreal “could have keeled over, and we wouldn’t have any identifying information.”
As AB’s Paul Steinbach reported last fall, marathon organizers have enough to worry about regarding life-saving precautions in extreme heat and participants bent on taking performance-enhancing drugs. But they’ve also been cracking down on allegedly renegade runners lately. The top two female finishers in last October's Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee, for example, were disqualified for listening to an iPod and taking a water bottle from a friend outside an official aid station. More understandable was the disqualification in June of 69-year-old Anthony Gaskell from April's London Marathon after event organizers learned her took a 10-mile shortcut while walking to the finish line.
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Thursday, September 02, 2010
Sensors in Uniforms Measure Impact of Blocks, Tackles
When the NFL season kicks off next week, the San Francisco 49ers will be playing for more than a win against opening opponent Seattle. This season, the 49ers are helping physicians and scientists at Stanford University Medical Center learn more about the biomechanics of football injuries. Daniel Garza, the team’s medical director and an emergency and sports-medicine physician at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, is working with two research assistants to measure the impact of blocks and tackles using pressure sensors worn inside the uniforms of some 49ers players. “It’s unprecedented for an NFL team to support research at this level,” Garza says.
The project reflects what coaches and physicians with the 49ers describe as a mutually beneficial relationship. Stanford Hospital & Clinics, the only academic research hospital providing comprehensive medical care for an NFL team, knows plenty about treating athletes, while the players are helping advance the field of sports medicine. “The benefit is that we can translate the care of high-level athletes to everyday athletes,” says William Maloney, chair of Stanford’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and also a 49ers physician.
“We’re trying to understand the biomechanics of the trauma players receive, so we can both assess how well their body armor is working and what physicians should be looking out for,” Garza says, citing the example of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Chris Simms, who ruptured his spleen during a 2006 game. Unaware of the gravity of the injury, Simms kept playing — a decision he later admitted could have killed him. “It’s difficult to assess these athletes on the sidelines when they’ve potentially sustained some kind of internal injury, especially when they’re reluctant to leave the game,” Garza says.
So he launched the sensor project, funded by Stanford’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Sensors are worn on the chest and abdomen of some offensive players and in the shoulder pads of some defensive players. The players also wear wireless transmitters, which send information about the force and location of hits to laptop computers on the sidelines. The researchers hope the data they collect will teach them more about the incidence of chest, abdominal and shoulder injuries in the sport. Eventually, Garza hopes, their work could lead to advancements in protective gear and earlier diagnoses.
Garza and his team of researchers also are using infrared cameras to capture and measure heat emanating from players as they rest on the sidelines during breaks in the action or after changes of ball possession. The goal is to identify and help players who may be predisposed to heat illness. After intense exercise, blood flow normally increases to arteries, veins and capillaries just below the skin to help the body cool down. This mechanism is particularly active in the cheek region, one of the body’s natural radiators. Given the amount of padding worn by football players, the cheeks become a particularly important outlet for heat dissipation, researchers say.
Preliminary findings suggest that, after heavy exertion, players with a history of heat illness have less vascular flow to their cheeks. This research could help pave the way toward detecting heat stress in players before they suffer any ill effects, as well as serve as the basis for new tools or equipment to prevent overheating.
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Minor College Sports Getting Major Attention
Stanford University remains the envy of college athletic programs around the country, winning the prized Directors’ Cup 16 years in a row for accomplishing the most success across all sports. But as The New York Times reports today, other institutions — even in the face of dire budget cuts — are investing in once-obscure sports that do not come close to paying for themselves. “Winning in all sports is what matters now," write Joe Drape and Katie Thomas, "and the message is driven home from the highest levels of the university.”
“If we are going to compete in something, we want to win at it — whether it is in pediatrics or women’s gymnastics,” said J. Bernard Machen, president of the University of Florida, which built a $15 million complex for its women’s lacrosse program before the team had even played a single game. “It is important to our supporters, both financial and among our community. It is part of our culture. We want people to know that Florida is a place for winners.”
In addition to the Directors’ Cup, universities now have an additional incentive: Beginning this fall, the Capital One Cup will reward NCAA Division I athletic programs for their cumulative on-field performance across multiple men’s and women’s sports with $200,000 to fund graduate-level scholarships for student-athletes. The award will be presented live during next year’s ESPY Awards on ESPN.
The sports network is one reason The Times says the emphasis on athletics pays off for universities. Sports serve as the “front porch” of the institution — a powerful marketing tool that generates free advertising on ESPN and in other media outlets. Economists, on the other hand, argue that the effect of a high-profile athletic program on increased alumni donations and higher application rates “doesn’t persist.”
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Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Innovation Earns ‘Playful City USA’ Designation
Despite decades-low funding levels for parks and recreation departments, 118 American cities and towns have managed to earn recognition as 2010 "Playful City USA" communities for their efforts to provide time and spaces for play. Created by KaBOOM!, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit dedicated to creating places to play within walking distance of every child in America, the Playful City USA program is now in its fourth year.
Hailing from 36 states, communities from San Francisco and Atlanta to Ottawa, Kan., and Shirley, Mass., are developing local action plans and creating innovative, cost-effective programs, KaBOOM! officials say.
For example, Atlanta — one of 18 cities to earn the Playful City USA designation all four years — is in the process of reopening all of its recreation centers. The city also is partnering with the Atlanta Taskforce at Play (ATOP) to organize the third annual Play Day 2010 on Sept. 25. That day, residents will be encouraged to turn off their TVs and computers, attend an arts festival, play in parks or walk along a scenic 22-mile rail corridor around the city’s urban core. Additionally, Georgia Tech's College of Architecture and ATOP are organizing the Playable10 International Design Competition to help make Atlanta a leader in innovative play design.
Other Playful City USA initiatives include:
• Positive Lunch Activities for Youth (P.L.A.Y.), a program in Casa Grande, Ariz., that serves students in sixth through eighth grades who no longer have access to play equipment.
• A community-build approach for all playground construction in Dothan, Ala., which cuts costs by up to 25 percent while fostering community spirit.
• The “Get Fit Indy” challenge in Indianapolis this summer, designed to encourage children to eat nutritiously and be active for at least 60 minutes every day.
• Joint-use agreements in Orlando, Fla., in which local school districts open school recreation facilities to the public during non-school hours.
• Traveling playgroups in Takoma Park, Md., which provide residents with recreational information at different facilities throughout the city while collecting citizen feedback on improvement needs.
“An extreme misconception exists in our country that play among children is a luxury when, in fact, it’s an absolute necessity,” says Darell Hammond, co-founder and chief executive officer of KaBOOM! “For decades, this notion dominated our actions, and we continue to see the damaging results: a monumental lack of playspaces for children and sky-rocketing childhood obesity rates. These 118 communities refused to adhere to the status quo and realized all children deserve a municipal commitment to the cause of play.”
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New Program to Honor Top-Performing College Programs
A new partnership announced Wednesday between the NCAA and corporate sponsor Capital One will reward Division I athletic programs for their cumulative on-field performance across multiple men’s and women’s sports. Beginning with the 2010-11 academic year, programs will compete for the Capital One Cup and $200,000 to fund graduate-level scholarships for student-athletes.
In the annual race for the Cup, schools will earn points based on their teams’ top 10 finishes in NCAA Division I championships and in final official coaches’ polls in 13 men’s and 13 women’s sports throughout the year. As Capital One chief marketing officer Bill McDonald says, it’s a “year-long quest to claim the ultimate bragging rights in collegiate sports.”
The official Capital One Cup standings will be released at the end of
the fall, winter and spring sports seasons. In July, the two athletic
programs with the highest aggregated point totals across the
represented men’s and women’s sports will be announced as the Capital
One Cup winners and receive their trophies and scholarship donations live at the
ESPY Awards.
“I'd love to see it become the elite award in college athletics, where it becomes synonymous with hard work and everything that's good," former Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie and a member of the Capital One Cup Advisory Board, told USA Today. "Along with that, I'd like to see some respect for the non-revenue generating sports."
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Bad News Launches Childhood Obesity Awareness Month
As the first-ever National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month kicks off today, scientists say the problem may be even more widespread than previously thought. Researchers have found that parents tend to under-report their children’s weight — so much so that estimates of obesity and body mass index based on parent-supplied data may miss one in five obese children.
This sobering news underscores the need for National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, organizers say. Coinciding with First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, Congress established the observance in an unanimously passed resolution that seeks to “raise public awareness and mobilize the country to address childhood obesity.” More than 70 national organizations — including YMCA of the USA, the American College of Sports Medicine and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education — have joined together as the National Council on Childhood Obesity Awareness Month to educate parents, policymakers and others about the problem and encourage preventive action.
During the past four decades, obesity rates have soared among all age groups, increasing more than fourfold among children ages six to 11, according to the council. More than 23 million children and teenagers (31.8 percent) between the ages of 2 and 19 are overweight or obese, a statistic that health and medical experts say constitutes an epidemic.
But Chuck Runyon, chief executive officer of the Anytime Fitness chain, disagrees. In fact, Anytime Fitness is launching a nationwide campaign featuring TV commercials and full-page ads in USA Today and People magazine declaring, “There is no childhood obesity epidemic.” “Too much blame is being placed on the kids,” says Runyon, who also founded the Coalition of Angry Kids to encourage adults to become better role models in health and fitness. “Somebody needs the courage to stand up and say, ‘The primary reason we have so many overweight kids is because they have poor role models: overweight adults.’ ” He cites a report by the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry stating that if one parent is obese, there is a 50 percent chance that his or her children will be obese; those odds jump to 80 percent if both parents are obese. To back up Runyon's claims, beginning this month, more than 1,300 participating Anytime Fitness clubs will offer adults free 30-day memberships, free 30-minute personal training sessions and free 30-day access to online support.
Though other related activities planned for this month may still be in development at the local level, the U.S. Soccer Foundation will host “Kick-Off Day” Soccer for Success programs in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., on September 22. The afternoon clinics are intended for children and their parents, and Soccer for Success programs will continue to run throughout the school year to provide kids in kindergarten through eighth-grade with free after-school soccer programming. “Organized youth sports programs, that provide guidance on healthy eating and nutrition, should be at the center of any strategic national effort to fight childhood obesity,” says Ed Foster-Simeon, president of the U.S. Soccer Foundation. “By offering soccer programs that provide participants with mentoring, tutoring and nutritional guidance, we can ensure that our children develop not only as athletes, but as people.”
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