Thursday, March 31, 2011
AP: Testing for PEDs Inconsistent at College Level
The Associated Press has reviewed the policies for performance-enhancing drug testing at 51 American colleges and universities, as well as those of the NCAA and individual conferences, and found little consistency tying them together. School policies vary widely, and while some conferences augment the NCAA’s umbrella drug-testing program, others offer nothing in addition to the association’s efforts to test athletes on campus and at its own sanctioned events.
The AP requested policy information from 76 schools, including all of those competing in the six BCS conferences, as well as three mid-major programs appearing in the Feb. 28 AP men’s basketball poll. Responses were received from 51 institutions. No two policies looked exactly the same.
The University of Florida was found to have one of the most stringent PED policies, forcing athletes who test positive for steroids to miss at least 50 percent of their season. The University of Miami requires a minimum of three urine tests per year and automatic suspension for the first positive result. Last year, a player was dismissed from Miami’s baseball team after he was found to be in possession of marijuana and human growth hormone, though none of his teammates tested positive for either.
None of the institutional testing programs reviewed by the AP included the drawing and testing of blood, mainly due to cost (as much as $800 per test). The NCAA doesn’t test blood, either, and its lack of no-advance-notice testing and a penalty structure that calls for a mere one-year suspension for a first offense are perceived by some as weak. The NCAA program calls for at least one drug-testing visit to every Division I and Division II campus each school year, during which a number of athletes from various sports can be tested. About 11,000 tests were administered among the 400,000 students-athletes in all divisions under the NCAA’s purview in 2008-09, the most recent period for which statistics are available. According to AP national writer Eddie Pells, a new NCAA rule that takes effect in August will require all Division I schools to designate a staff member who can answer questions about dietary supplements and banned drugs.
A recent NCAA survey on drug testing in sports received only tepid response, with 45 percent of roughly 1,000 surveys returned. Among schools that responded, 54 percent reported having their own drug-testing program in place. Fifty-five of the 56 BCS schools that responded said they had testing programs, but only 18 percent of those programs addressed anabolic steroids. The vast majority (99 percent) test only for recreational drugs such as marijuana and cocaine. Street drug testing, too, varies widely among BSC schools, as the sports website Fanhouse reported in December.
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10:18 AM
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First of KU Ticket Scammers Sentenced Gets 37 Months
Kassie Liebsch, the former University of Kansas ticket office manager who got caught up in a five-year plot to scam the school’s athletic department out of millions of dollars in basketball and football tickets, was sentenced Wednesday to 37 months in prison after pleading guilty in January to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In addition, Liebsch must pay all or part of nearly $1.3 million in restitution to Kansas Athletics Inc. and nearly $80,000 in unpaid taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.
Liebsch, 28, and four former colleagues — Rodney Jones, Ben Kirtland and Charlette and Thomas Blubaugh — also are subject to a joint $2 million monetary judgment, which allows the federal government to purse their finances and other assets to pay restitution, according to the Lawrence Journal-World. Liebsch is the first of the five to be sentenced. Jones, a former assistant athletics director, is scheduled to be sentenced today.
Jones began giving cash to Liebsch, a systems analyst who later ascended to ticket manager, in 2005, and Liebsch considered it merely the act of a generous boss. “I kept taking the money,” she said in a tearful statement before U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown. “I am embarrassed and disappointed in myself that I gave in so easily.”
Brown concluded that Liebsch had received $229,271 from the scheme, which sold more than 17,000 basketball and more than 2,000 football tickets to ticket brokers and others, with the proceeds pocketed by the coconspirators.
Kansas Athletics officials have declined comment, pending the sentencing of the remaining four, all of whom have pleaded guilty.
UPDATE: Jones today received a sentence of 46 months in prison.
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8:36 AM
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Wednesday, March 30, 2011
PEP Grant Applications Now Being Accepted
The application process for the U.S. Department of Education’s 2011 Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) grant opened Tuesday. All applications must be submitted by May 13, with a review of all applications expected to be completed by July 12. PEP grant money is used by schools and other organizations to purchase fitness and sports equipment, as well as to train and encourage innovation among physical education teachers.
“It is great news that the Department of Education plans to continue funding PEP, however the final 2011 budget has yet to be approved by Congress, which creates uncertainty on the future of the program,” says Bill Sells, vice president of government relations for the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, which along with the nonprofit P.E.4Life organization, was instrumental in the inception of the PEP grant.
Should Congress eliminate or drastically reduce PEP funding in the final 2011 budget, the Department of Education would suspend the application process until additional funds are allocated to the program, Sells says. Last year, recipients received $80 million in PEP grant money.
Congress is expected to complete work on the budget for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011 in April, at which time the funding level for PEP will be determined. The Congressional budget process for 2012 has been delayed due to the absence of a 2011 budget, but SGMA officials call it a positive sign that the Department of Education has begun the PEP grant application process, anyway — almost three months earlier than last year.
In the past, PEP grants have ranged from $100,000 to $750,000, with the average grant being $427,000.
SPARK, a research-based, public-health organization of the San Diego State University Research Foundation, has dedicated a section of its website to the PEP grant, including tips for preparing and submitting the application.
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9:16 AM
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Tuesday, March 29, 2011
School District Closes 'Loophole' in Athletes' Code of Conduct
The Nazareth (Pa.) Area School Board put in place Monday stricter rules for student-athletes charged with drug offenses. The issue was addressed after two Nazareth High School wrestlers attempted to circumvent serving a suspension during the wrestling season by joining the cross country team in the fall.
Last September, standout seniors Ryan Krecker and Franco Ferraina were charged as juveniles with felony possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, plus related charges stemming from an incident in July. Under the district's code of conduct policy at the time, each boy was required to serve a five-week suspension from all extracurricular activities. They joined Nazareth's cross country team and served their suspensions during the season, which in turn, allowed them to return to wrestling practice in the winter.
The school board unanimously approved a policy revision that effectively eliminates the ability of any student charged with a drug or alcohol offense to sign up for an extracurricular activity in an attempt to serve a suspension ahead of a later activity. Had such a policy been in place earlier, Krecker and Ferraina would not have been permitted to join the cross country team. "It closed the loophole we were looking for," board member Jerry Treon told lehighvalleylive.com.
The updated policy, which applies to drug offenses off school property and for non-school events, goes even further and mandates the suspension from all extracurricular activities (including athletics) for an entire year. To be eligible to participate following the one-year suspension, the student and his or her parents will be required to meet with a counselor, and the student must complete 20 hours of community service.
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1:36 PM
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Blog: Typical Morning at the Club — Can We Go Home Now?
We make a point of being available to our members and staff. After all, you can’t get the pulse of your facility if you are locked in your office. On the other hand, it’s not safe out there. Take last Friday, for example:
9:00 a.m.
We touched base with staff regarding a woman who had twice verbally attacked employees over our decision to open late during last week’s big spring snowstorm. She wanted us to contact a “real gym” that was open 24 hours to learn how to run ours, and wanted proof of our bond with the state.
9:45
We actually got to spend 30 minutes discussing business issues until…
10:15
A trainer came into the office regarding an incident that had just occurred in the weight room. One of the guys had all but launched a couple of dumbbells across the floor after completing an exercise. Our staff person, reacting emotionally when the dumbbells flew past her and her client, raised her voice and said “Hey! Don’t do that.” The member then stomped around the weight room expressing his outrage at having been disrespected, and said he “wanted to talk” to our trainer after his workout. We told her not to talk to him — and to direct him to Rob, instead.
10:30
A local detective was waiting for us regarding two thefts we had reported, the first we’ve ever had at our clubs. Two female members had credit cards stolen from their purses, and the police had a lead.
10:45
A member pulled Rob away from the detective in order to say thank you for the repairs we had done on the pool building’s dehumidification system. This member felt that he had been the sole person to realize that a belt was loose on the system, so its repair was a point of great pride for him.
11:00
As Barry’s conversation with the detective was coming to a close and Rob was chatting with our dehumidification expert, another member felt the need to interrupt to ask about the status of the aquatic dumbbells he was eagerly awaiting. Yes, they will be in next week.
That’s also when Dumbbell Guy (as we will forever call him) came up from the weight room to speak with Rob, allowing Rob to step away from Dehumidification Guy. Dumbbell Guy was incredulous at having been spoken to like that. Um…but he had launched the dumbbells across the room, correct? Well, yeah, but...
Rob assured Dumbbell Guy that we would speak with our trainer to review the incident and how it might have been handled more elegantly. But, Dumbbell Guy needed to be more concerned with his behavior and not repeating it rather than being so concerned about how our trainer had reacted.
11:15
Review of Dumbbell Guy incident with our trainer.
11:30
As we flowed into what we hoped would be a productive conversation about how to encourage more memberships from one of our biggest corporate accounts, we had to break it up because we suddenly heard some rather loud, angry words coming from the front desk: “I haven’t used the club in two years but you’ve been withdrawing money every month.” Rob dealt with that one, which went fine (“Here’s how to cancel…”) while Barry picked up the phone to address this question from our other facility: Did we have any extra cash we couldn’t account for? There was a fellow there claiming he had already paid for his enrollment fee and first month’s dues and now he just wanted to arrange his EFT payments. (No, two days earlier we gave him the cash back and ripped up his contract when he was unsure about how to pay for his monthly EFT charges.)
11:45
We wanted to sneak out for lunch, but the client who was being trained during the dumbbell incident wanted us to know that our trainer hadn’t done anything wrong and hadn’t raised her voice at all. It was all Dumbbell Guy’s fault.
Thank you. Can we go now? We’re stopping at the hardware store for a new office lock.
(P.S. The next day, Dumbbell Guy’s friend wanted Rob to know that Dumbbell Guy hadn’t done anything wrong and our trainer had overreacted and disrespected Dumbbell Guy. By this point, what we were really most interested in was when and how “disrespect” became such a popular verb.)
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9:45 AM
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Will Big Ten Become College Hockey's Premier League?
With the 2011 NCAA Frozen Four solidified, and the puck not set to drop in the semifinals until April 7, it’s worth pausing to recognize that the two college hockey conferences that will be represented in St. Paul, Minn., are going to look dramatically different in the coming years.
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association, which sends the University of North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth to this year’s Frozen Four, and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, represented by Michigan and Notre Dame, each stand to lose marquee programs when the Big Ten Conference assembles a six-team league in time for the 2013-14 season. The new league will feature Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State from the CCHA and longtime WCHA rivals Minnesota and Wisconsin, plus a start-up program from Penn State.
Though small, the league could be considered the new premier college hockey conference in the country — at least on paper. Right now, the teams that will compete in the Big Ten have won a combined 23 men’s national championships, led by Michigan’s nine. Michigan State will take its three titles, leaving remaining CCHA teams with a combined five national championships (pending this year’s outcome). The cupboard won’t be nearly as bare in the WCHA, which despite losing 11 titles total with the departures of Wisconsin and Minnesota, still boasts 19 men’s national championships (with a 20th possible in less than two weeks), including seven each for Denver and North Dakota.
But the WCHA, which has grown to 12 teams, still stands to lose plenty of luster. Its 30 NCAA men’s championships are nearly three times the number of Hockey East and six times the number of the Eastern College Athletic Conference. (Hockey East was shut out of the Frozen Four this year for the first time since 2005, when all four teams came from the WCHA.) Moreover, WCHA teams have won all 11 NCAA women’s tournaments held to date.
It’s no wonder that WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod began preparing for the shakeup well before the Big Ten announcement last week. He met with Minnesota men’s coach Don Lucia and Wisconsin men’s coach Mike Eaves last September about preserving each team’s WCHA rivalries during future non-conference schedules — schedules that should be accommodating given the fact that Big Ten teams will play only 20 conference games. “We’ve been proactive about it for quite a while now,” McLeod told insidecollegehockey.com.
Such arrangements may offer the best of both worlds, but it will be interesting to see beginning two years from now which league emerges as the best of the West, and thus becomes the premier college hockey conference in the entire country — not just on paper, but on the ice.
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9:26 AM
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Monday, March 28, 2011
Blog: Your Facilities Need a Paper Trail
Whether or not a club, gym or wellness center charges for facility usage (court time, time spent with punching bags, etc.) is an individual policy. Of those facilities that let members use various amenities freely, most do ask members to sign up in advance to reserve their time on the court, time with the bag, and so on.
The problem is, members often don't. If a facility doesn't have an associated cost for using that amenity, users assume it's not important to reserve in advance, and often bypass the sign-in sheet (or electronic sign-in program, if applicable). And of course, if there's no cost associated and no person waiting, it's not like they're doing anything wrong. Right?
Actually, that's wrong, and the fault is yours for not enforcing the policy. By not providing proper accounting for facilities in use, you're setting yourself up for trouble. If users come to you and want a place set aside for special programming (a new cycling studio, a place to do yoga), it's all too easy to just look at your sign-up sheets, see that the squash court or aerobics room isn't getting a lot of use, and put the wheels in motion to do away with it.
One of the gyms in my area recently moved to eliminate several racquetball courts, saying the space could be better used for something else, and that the courts weren't getting much traffic. Every time I'd seen them, they'd been busy with players, but the problem was that nobody bothered using the reservation sheets.
The racquetball players eventually won that argument, and the courts will stay as they are — for now. It took a petition, a lot of arguing and a public meeting in which one of the players described himself as "a polar bear on a shrinking iceberg," as poorly envisioned a metaphor as I’ve seen since the ice caps started melting. But it reiterated the importance of enforcing the reservation rule.
Putting the policy on the books isn't enough. Try asking people as they come in the door whether they're planning to use facilities, or have signed up in advance, either in-person, on the phone or online.
Put up signs near the courts or punching bags, reminding people of the policy. Patrol the halls periodically and if necessary, interrupt people to let them know of the policy.
The paper trail needs to be alive and well. Start one now.
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Posted At
9:39 AM
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Friday, March 25, 2011
Blog: When Will Bally Start Doing the Right Thing?
One year ago, we wrote in Athletic Business, “Dear Bally Total Fitness: Please go away.”
It’s a shame they didn’t listen. A year later, Bally is more embarrassing than ever. At least the old Bally didn’t care about its members and made no bones about it. But the “new” Bally is supposed to be all about the customer. We know this because Michael Sheehan (CEO of Bally since 2008) told us so in his November 2010 interview in Club Business International. “We’ve stopped the practices that put us at odds with our members,” he said. “The central difference, now, is our commitment to being a customer-centric brand — one that’s less concerned with self-promotion and more intent on doing the right thing.” He also emphasized that Bally had shifted from “being a collections-based organization to being a member-focused organization.”
The CBI interview was published just months after Bally was charged by the Texas Attorney General with unlawfully attempting to mislead former customers into paying “past due” membership fees they did not owe. Between 2009 and 2010, Bally sent 11,000 such notices to former members. A settlement was reached in the summer of 2010 in which Bally admitted no wrongdoing, but agreed to refund money to more than 1,000 former members. (For fun, take a look at the statement from the AG’s office, which includes a sample notice.)
Our favorite detail of the settlement is that it included an injunction that prohibits Bally from telling members and former members that they owe a balance unless that balance is actually owed. Like Seinfeld’s George Costanza reacting to being fired for having sex with the cleaning woman in his office, we imagine Bally personnel being shocked that they shouldn’t have invoiced customers for money that they didn’t owe. “Was that wrong?”
Now, Bally is back in the news for the abrupt closing of one of their clubs in Massachusetts. Bally seems to be managing this closing as amateurishly and disreputably as the worst closings we hear about in our industry. These are the closings that make consumers believe that all clubs are out to rip them off and that cause state legislators to implement consumer protection laws.
According to press reports, the closing of this club features all of the checklist items you’d want to include if your goal was to offend and anger consumers. Short notice — just 48 hours — before the doors were locked. Specials to drive prepaid renewals and memberships just weeks before the closing. Passing the buck on how to request a refund, leaving members to wonder if they will even receive refunds and leading them to contact their state Attorney General.
Thank goodness Bally is now a customer-centric brand that is intent on doing the right thing. Can you imagine what would have happened in Texas and Massachusetts if they weren’t so concerned about customers?
We shudder at the thought, and are again embarrassed for our industry.
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7:08 AM
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Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Blog: It's More Than Just the $28,097,736.20
He no longer can speak or move his arms and legs. A medical device pumps life into his lungs. But he still smiles and writes to you on his computer using his foot on a roller ball. If you ask, Augie Nieto will tell you the happiest days of his life have been since he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Some moments have been mournful. Overwhelmed with pity, he attempted to take his life with a pill overdose. When I visited my dear friend of 30 years in the hospital, he told me he was starting to discover a whole new reason to live.
At IHRSA, Chris Clawson, CEO of Life Fitness, shows Augie the commemorative Lifecycle that will go on sale this year.
He picked himself up and started a new chapter in the great story that is his life. Augie’s typical day is a whirlwind of visitors, planning for fundraisers and offering advice to those of us in the fitness industry. This co-founder of Life Fitness serves on the board of two public companies, as well as the board of Octane Fitness. More important, he founded Augie’s Quest to raise funds for a cure for ALS. Last week at IHRSA’s 30th Annual Convention and Trade Show, an industry gathering of more than 700 people raised $1,323,721.
Working for Augie is a pleasure — even a celebration. At IHRSA, Zumba Fitness organized a “Zumbathon,” where an exhilarated 1,300 people danced together in a ballroom, capping off a year in which they raised $211,000. A man who no longer speaks has managed to unite friends and competitors to fight this fatal disease. To date, Augie’s Quest has raised a total of $28,097,736.20.
But what was even more important is that I think everyone who attended felt blessed to spend the evening with him.
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3:26 PM
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Blog: The NHL Needs to Wake Up and Stop the Violence
I’ve been sitting here in front of my computer trying to think of a softer, more writerly way into the subject of violence in professional hockey. But now that drops of blood are beginning to appear on my forehead, I might as well just come out and ask the direct question: What the hell is wrong with those idiots at the NHL?
There’s something about the culture of this league — not the sport, the league — that is simply out of touch. Question a player, coach or league official about the prevalence of violent hits away from the puck, and you’re likely to hear a dismissal of no-check, European-style hockey — even though your question wasn’t about checking at all. Decry the fistfights, the roster spots taken up with “enforcers,” and they’ll call you a wuss and tell you that fights are an essential aspect of the sport. Lately, they’ve told their more-concerned fans to kiss off. Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau had this to say to protesters outside Montreal's Bell Centre: “If you don’t like it, don’t come to the games.”
As a story from Reuters that has started spiraling around the Web points out, it looks like they could stop coming. A recent poll of 1,021 Canadians found that a quarter said they will watch less hockey because of the NHL’s failure to impose stiff penalties on dangerous plays. And the sponsors, too, are talking about fleeing. Air Canada last week threatened a pullout if the league doesn’t curb the violence, after which commissioner Gary Bettman astonishingly suggested that his league’s teams “make other arrangements if they don’t think Air Canada is giving them the appropriate level of service.”
It’s ironic that it took Boston Bruins defenceman Zdeno Chara’s hit on Max Pacioretty — a late but legal check behind the puck that unfortunately threw Pacioretty into an unpadded glass stanchion — to get fans to see the light. That one might not even have been intentional. What’s amazing is that the league’s goombahs are actually defending players smashing each other in the head, with or without their helmets. Can you believe the amount of debate over the past year that was necessary to get the NHL to outlaw hits to just part of the head, and not the entire head?
Fans made nauseous by hits like Chara’s don’t want games played at slow speed. They don’t want checking barred. Players don’t, either. But when you see a player skate up to another away from the puck and level him with a 20-km/h elbow to the head, plus the ensuing fistfight on the ice with the referees standing around watching, you have to wonder why these guys are defending this particular battleground.
The New York Times’ recent story about the death of longtime NHL enforcer Bob Probert was eye-opening for a number of reasons, beginning with the photo by Fred Jewell (Associated Press). Probert, bleeding from a cut on his forehead, continues pounding away at his opponent while a delighted young fan applauds. As a parent of an 11-year-old and an 8-year-old, I can tell you that sometimes kids need to be told about what’s appropriate and what isn’t. Who’s sitting Gary Bettman down and explaining to him what all adults by this time ought to know?
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11:06 AM
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Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Good News: AB Survey Suggests Economic Turnaround
In the face of continued economic uncertainty, things might not be as bad as they sometimes seem in the athletic, fitness and recreation industry. Almost 30 percent of the 1,622 North American respondents to a recent Athletic Business survey indicated that they expect their 2011-12 budgets to increase, and nearly half anticipate they'll be working within a budget framework similar to the one they are now.
That's good news for an industry rattled by facility closings, program reductions and employee furloughs. Respondents from each of seven key market segments addressed in the survey — college athletics and recreation, parks and recreation, high school sports, health club, YMCA, the military and hospital wellness — shared encouraging information that could help generate momentum heading into the summer. Of particular note: Almost one-quarter of all health club respondents expect their budgets to increase by a double-digit percentage.
The numbers are even more promising for Canadian facility operators and program administrators. More than half of all parks and recreation, high school and health club professionals in that country expect their budgets to at least remain the same next year, and those numbers jump to 72.4 percent among the college ranks.
On the other hand, some segments will likely continue to suffer more than others; 36 percent of respondents from high school athletics, which have been bearing the brunt of severe state and local budget cuts, expect to see budget decreases — some of them severe.
Here is a breakdown by category of responses to the question: “I anticipate next year my budget will be:”
| Total |
|
| Up more than 10% |
9.1% |
| Up less than 10% |
17.5% |
| The same |
49.0% |
| Down less than 10% |
15.7% |
| Down more than 10% |
8.6% |
| College |
|
| Up more than 10% |
4.3% |
| Up less than 10% |
15.4% |
| The same |
53.0% |
| Down less than 10% |
18.3% |
| Down more than 10% |
9.0% |
| Parks and Recreation |
|
| Up more than 10% |
4.8% |
| Up less than 10% |
15.6% |
| The same |
48.5% |
| Down less than 10% |
23.7% |
| Down more than 10% |
7.4% |
| High School |
|
| Up more than 10% |
5.2% |
| Up less than 10% |
11.8% |
| The same |
47.4% |
| Down less than 10% |
18.5% |
| Down more than 10% |
17.1% |
| Health Club |
|
| Up more than 10% |
21.9% |
| Up less than 10% |
22.9% |
| The same |
43.8% |
| Down less than 10% |
6.3% |
| Down more than 10% |
5.2% |
| YMCA |
|
| Up more than 10% |
6.3% |
| Up less than 10% |
35.4% |
| The same |
39.6% |
| Down less than 10% |
10.4% |
| Down more than 10% |
0.0% |
| Military |
|
| Up more than 10% |
10.3% |
| Up less than 10% |
12.8% |
| The same |
46.2% |
| Down less than 10% |
15.4% |
| Down more than 10% |
15.4% |
| Hospital |
|
| Up more than 10% |
10.5% |
| Up less than 10% |
22.4% |
| The same |
51.3% |
| Down less than 10% |
9.2% |
| Down more than 10% |
6.6% |
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Posted At
10:14 AM
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Blog: Marketing to the Spring Break Crowd
Our local community association recently began running advertisements for its fitness facilities. In big letters, the ads read: "Because you don't hear them singing about a gigantic yellow polka-dot bikini."
When I finished chuckling, I had to admire the fact that they're hitting exactly the right nerve at exactly the right time. People are starting to think about summer vacations and the all-important swimwear. If fitting into that bathing suit on Memorial Day means putting in some time at the gym, they're more likely to do it.
College kids have a more immediate fitness goal: Spring Break. I remember reading an article in my local newspaper that quoted a college AD on the fact that the campus fitness and wellness center tended to fill up after the holidays and before the break season starts. The article was more of a comment on what the reporter considered a quirky trend, but it got me thinking that this is one great campus-wide marketing opportunity in the making. Why not offer programs targeted to those students who are getting jittery about the idea of putting on a swimsuit?
By promoting offerings with names like "Spring Break Beach Body Boot Camp," you get the attention of students who might otherwise be doing sit-ups in their dorm room. Throw in a discussion of nutrition for optimum health, and you also catch up with those who might be embarking on less-than-healthy eating plans. They might even like the results enough to keep up those good habits after break is over and throughout the year.
So what are you doing to catch the attention of spring breakers? Post some comments below so we can all get some ideas.
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Posted At
8:23 AM
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Sunday, March 20, 2011
Blog: Even ‘Parasitic’ Manufacturers Help Industry Growth
As the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association trade show was winding down on Friday afternoon, a prominent fitness equipment manufacturer laid out his plans for legal action against several new competitors whose wares were displayed elsewhere in the hall. He had expected the heightened competition; his business is thriving, and as the clear leader in a popular equipment category, he knew that other companies would pop up in an attempt to grab pieces of the pie that, he said pointedly, his company had baked.
Struck by his determination to knock off these purveyors of knock-offs, I recounted the conversation to an architect friend whose booth was nearby. When I mentioned that the manufacturer had called his newest competitors “parasites,” my friend snorted. “If it wasn’t for parasites,” he said, “there wouldn’t even be a fitness industry.”
I have a lot of sympathy for the manufacturer in question, because there is no doubt that the true leaders in the fitness industry are those who commit huge amounts of R&D money to produce equipment that is ergonomically appropriate and safe, and easy to use and understand. The ones who come later may add a twist or two, but they haven’t made the same up-front investment; they’re “capitalizing” (the perfect word in this case) on other companies’ hard work.
Still, my friend’s remark stayed with me. Those added twists may be an attempt to deftly differentiate a product from someone else’s patented design, but they may also improve the product type and the experience of end users. Product innovations can be extraordinarily subtle, and the law should both protect owners of patents and not discourage the kind of innovation that is allowing me to type this while sitting in an airplane over the Rockies.
Fortunately for the manufacturer, the courts may well side with his view — and even if they don’t, if he markets himself well (and this one surely has so far) he’ll always be the recognized originator of the concept. Great marketing and further innovation — more added twists — will let him keep most of the pie his company baked.
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9:10 PM
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Friday, March 18, 2011
Lucas Oil Stadium to Close for Pipe Replacement
Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis will be closed later this month, as 8,400 linear feet of galvanized pipe is replaced. As reported by local ABC affiliate WRTV, the three-year old pipes carry water to drinking fountains, sinks, showers and restrooms throughout the facility.
Despite the discovery of advanced rust and corrosion, John Klipsch, the executive director of the Indiana Stadium and Convention Building Authority, stressed that water in the stadium still safe to drink. An installation or design flaw is believed to be the cause of the corrosion problem, which will cost between $2 million and $3 million to rectify using new pipes made of copper and stainless steel.
“We can't get our experts to agree 100 percent on a cause,” Klipsch told WRTV’s Tanya Spencer. “They do agree that we do need to replace all the galvanized pipe.”
The stadium, which has endured a string of public setbacks in its relatively brief history, is expected to reopen in mid-May. Several scheduled events will be relocated in the meantime.
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10:05 AM
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Thursday, March 17, 2011
High School's Tourney Run Ends Due to Band Trip
No one expected the South Shore High School girls’ basketball team to be playing this late in the season when arrangements were being made last year to send the school’s band to Seattle.
Located on Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin, South Shore’s entire enrollment numbers 42 students. Of the 11 girls on the basketball team, nine also play in the 14-piece band. Because the Cardinals won’t be able to put five players on the court to start a sectional semifinal game today in accordance with Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association rules, the team was forced to forfeit. Mellen High School, the team South Shore defeated in the regional finals, will advance instead.
South Shore’s tournament run included a fourth-quarter rally from 12 points down to eliminate Winter, the number-one seed in the regional. When the Cardinals faced Mellen last Saturday night, all but two of the band members on the team had already boarded a train for the West Coast. Playing with only one reserve on the bench, South Shore won the championship handily, 65-53.
Wearing many hats is common at South Shore. The school’s superintendant/principal/director of education Clendon Gustafson, whose sophomore daughter Emily plays basketball and the flute, said in the wake of Saturday’s game, “We have the regional championship plaque, and we’re hoping we don’t have to give it back.”
WIAA director of communications Todd Clark told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he couldn’t recall another basketball team forfeiting a trip to sectionals for lack of enough players.
“It was really hard to find out that we didn’t have the opportunity to play at sectionals after all our hard work,” team member Andrea Tuura told Journal Sentinel reporter Meg Jones. “It was just really hard and upsetting, but we’re glad we made it that far, because that was a big deal for us.”
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Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Blog: How to Get Sued During March Madness®
If you happen on a tavern or restaurant this week offering special deals on food or drinks in connection with the NCAA men’s or women’s basketball tournaments, you’re likely to find some hilariously twisted language on menus and banners, as local entrepreneurs attempt not to step on any of the NCAA’s 35 trademarks associated with, um, March Madness®. If they do let a “Sweet 16®” or two slip, they’ll be hearing from the association’s attorneys, but quick.
March Madness® is actually one of the few to which the NCAA doesn’t hold full rights — the Illinois High School Association famously went one on one with the bullies from the NCAA in court, trying to protect its rights to the phrase, which it had been using since the 1930s but hadn’t attempted to trademark until the 1990s. (The IHSA in 1996 won in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit against an NCAA licensee that actually legally owned the trademark — long story — leading to a dual-use trademark that IHSA and NCAA use for three shared phrases.)
The NCAA’s list of marks now runs far afield, with both the official mascot of the tournaments (JJ Jumper®) and a youth event that takes place during the Women’s Final Four® (the Circle City Dribble™) carrying their own registered marks. Some are so esoteric they defy classification. This writer’s favorite? It's More Than Three Games™.
Well, duh.
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NCAA basketball trademarks (both genders):
And Then There Were Four®
Elite Eight®
Elite 8®
F4®
Final 4®
Final Four Friday®
Final Four®
JJ Jumper®
NCAA Basketball®
NCAA Sweet 16®
NCAA Sweet Sixteen®
Road to the Final Four®
Selection Sunday™
The Final Four®
The Road Ends Here®
The Road to the Final Four®
Division I men’s basketball only:
68 Teams, One Dream™
First Four®
Men’s Elite Eight®
Men’s Final 4™
Men’s Final Four™
The Road to Houston™
Division I women’s basketball only:
All day. Every day. Our game.®
Circle City Dribble™
It's More Than Three Games™
Pinnacle of Fitness®
Ring of Champions™
The Pinnacle Awaits™
The Road to Indianapolis™
Women’s Elite Eight®
Women’s Final 4®
Women’s Final Four®
Trademarks held jointly by IHSA and NCAA through March Madness Athletic Association LLC, an NCAA limited liability company:
March Madness®
Middle School Madness®
Midnight Madness®
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Inventors: We've Developed Safer Hockey Helmets
A Toronto-based forensic engineer has developed what he claims is a better hockey helmet — one that uses "air bag" technology to dissipate sudden jolts of force and reduce the G-force on brains floating inside skulls.
In light of last week's controversial check by Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara that sent the head of Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty into the glass partition between the benches and left him with a severe concussion and cracked vertebra, The Toronto Star reports that Jeff Archbold thinks the answer to curtailing hockey concussions lies in the laws of physics. “From the beginning, I knew you had to have an air-filled sack inside the helmet,” Archbold, the 42-year-old president of ForceCap Technologies, told the paper. “Just like an air bag in a car, if you bump someone in front of you, it doesn’t go off, but if you have real impact, it does.”
If a hockey player gets knocked hard enough to deploy the bladder, player and coach both know there is scientifically calibrated evidence worthy of attention from a trainer or doctor, Archbold says, adding that he recently obtained a U.S. patent pending on his helmet's design.
Another Toronto company, Impact Machine Design, also has a U.S. patent pending for a redesigned hockey helmet called the Vault — inspired at least in part by a 14th century Italian armet, which completely enclosed the head. “It’s a concept for a better fit and a face guard that doesn’t come into contact with the jaw,” product designer and senior partner Morgan Matthews told The Star. “Every helmet with a face guard relies on the chin to diffuse energy. No matter where you get hit, it goes to the chin or jaw and that’s one of the most vulnerable places. You’re never going to get a better fit with the current [hockey helmet] design. Helmet standards haven’t kept up with current medical research on the brain and with the capabilities of design and processes available today with molding, foam and materials.”
Pat Bishop, a retired professor of kinesiology at the University of Waterloo and an expert on helmet safety, doesn't think a helmet alone is enough to prevent concussions in the NHL. (At least 19 players in the league are suffering from confirmed concussions or other severe head injuries.) “The helmet’s job is to prevent serious, catastrophic brain injuries, not prevent concussions," he said. "The notion that you can keep beating people around the head and stop concussions is silly. Until the NHL gets that through their head, everything else is [a] Band-Aid.”
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Blog: Growing Non-Varsity Athletes on Campus
I recently spent a weekend at the U.S. Tennis Association's Community Tennis Development Workshop. It's a three-day session devoted to growing the sport at the grassroots level. And while much of the focus was on the USTA's 10-and-under tennis initiative, another program, Tennis On Campus, deserves some of the spotlight. TOC offers students who aren't on their school's varsity team the opportunity to play competitive tennis.
The program is coed and team-based. It takes its lead from other student-run organizations, such as campus newspapers. Students set up their own practices, schedules and matches, keep track of their own scores, and so on. It's run through the school's recreation department, and does its own fundraising and public relations. (Information on how the program works is available here.)
It works, too: More than 500 schools now have TOC teams, and more than 30,000 students are participating. USTA helps students set up their programs and start playing. League, series, sectional and national tournaments are offered for TOC teams.
We already know that upon making the transition from high school to college, too many student-athletes stop being athletes and start being just plain students — and sedentary ones at that. This is one way to combat that and to encourage continued activity. And while intramurals are great, many only run in spring and fall. This type of program goes on year-round, encouraging a full-time healthy lifestyle.
If all goes according to the USTA's plans, TOC participants will continue playing after graduation, and become regular recreational players in their local club and park programs. It's a program where the goal isn't so much to produce champions as it is to produce players.
TOC is great, but it's not the only opportunity to get non-varsity players involved in sports on a continuing basis. The model can be applied to volleyball, water polo, anything. Want to find players? Reach out to students who tried out for a sport but didn't make it, or played in high school but didn't participate once they arrived at college. Your participants are out there waiting for you, and the opportunity to develop lifelong healthy habits is waiting for them.
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Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Blog: David Barton Gym’s Demise Is Simple Economics
The news that David Barton Gym has filed for bankruptcy protection was another kick in the teeth for our industry. It also should serve as a reminder to every health club owner that the next new thing is not necessarily the right thing.
Certainly, David Barton facilities have a unique market position. They are gorgeous, appealing to high-end customers in urban markets. How exclusive are they? When we tried to work out at one during a trade show in New York last year, we were turned away. They wouldn’t even show us around when we made it clear that we were out-of-town club owners hoping to see the facility. Nope. We’d have to fill in lead forms and meet with a salesperson. (The fact that this was a waste of time for both of us seemed not to matter.)
Our first reaction wasn’t so much about the failure, but the success that preceded the failure. David Barton Gym carried a staggering debt load of more than $65 million for six locations. The company evidently was able to find individuals, institutions and vendors to lend it more than $10 million per club. Clearly, we are terrible at painting a vision for our business, because we’ve been lucky to obtain a fraction of that from banks and investors. We must be wasting our time presenting financial statements and reasonable expectations for growth and performance. Gotta go big, baby! Marble! Art! Design!
Now, we're thinking, maybe we should hire a spokesperson. When our lender calls, or we are out shopping for loans, we do the work ourselves. Obviously, that’s a flawed strategy. We need a representative to say things like, "The cash flow is fine; it's just a large debt load to carry.” Oh — is that all?
While we contemplate adding a little razzle-dazzle to our business plan, what can we learn from David Barton Gym’s bankruptcy filing?
1. Our industry is terrible at seeing beyond the headlines. Is it really such a shock that David Barton Gym’s business isn’t sustainable? Let’s assume their construction costs were, say, three times industry averages. Could they reasonably charge three times as much as their competitors, or gain three times as many members? What if their construction costs were four times higher? Five times? It wouldn’t take much figuring to see whether they were on the right track, but nobody even asks.
We can also assume that their operating costs were nowhere near those of typical, successful health clubs. High-end fixtures, flooring, equipment and lighting simply cost more to operate and maintain than lower-end items, and we’d guess the staff was well compensated. There’s nothing wrong with that, if you can afford it, which it seems they couldn’t.
2. A partnership won’t magically fix the business plan. David Barton Gym is entering into an alliance with Meridian Sports Club California, which is a mid-priced operator with facilities in California and Hawaii. We don’t know why the folks at David Barton and Meridian think this is a logical alliance, but what the heck do high-end, fabulously designed upper-crust clubs have to do with mid-range clubs? It didn’t make sense to us when Bally picked up Crunch, or Planet Fitness purchased World Gym, and this marriage of David Barton with Meridian seems equally odd.
3. History may well repeat itself. We’d like to think that David Barton Gym will be the last major bankruptcy or big-club failure that we’ll see for a while, but we doubt it. There are too many big, would-be visionary concept clubs rolling out all over the country and the world, and some are surely doomed, for many of the same balance-sheet reasons.
In the interim, we’ll keep trying to exceed our members’ expectations of what a health club should offer, while doing so at a reasonable price. We’ll save the razzle-dazzle for those with the foresight to hire spokespeople.
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Monday, March 14, 2011
Jury Tosses Fan's Hot Dog Lawsuit
Last Wednesday’s jury verdict against John Coomer, the Kansas City Royals fan struck in the eye with a hot dog thrown by the team’s mascot, Sluggerrr, is a kick in the teeth to spectators everywhere. Coomer, who suffered a detached retina that required three surgeries to fix, was seeking more than $25,000 in damages, but jurors deliberated only a little more than an hour before siding with the team. The Royals had argued that Coomer, who on that September 2009 night was sitting six rows behind the third-base dugout, should have taken more responsibility for his personal protection.
Coomer’s lawsuit sought damages from the team for failing to adequately train its mascot on the proper method of throwing hot dogs, but Byron Shores, who played the role of Sluggerrr from February 1996 to October 2009, testified that he spent two years traveling across the country teaching mascot classes that included safety training, according to Tribune News Services. Shores testified that whether throwing hot dogs or firing them out of an air cannon, he always tried to do so safely. The jury also saw video of Shores tossing hot dogs during a different 2009 game.
Coomer’s injury occurred when Shores, as Sluggerrr, turned toward the field and then threw the hot dog behind his back.
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Football, Wrestling Casualties in UNO's D-I Plan
University of Nebraska at Omaha officials announced Saturday a plan for athletics to join the NCAA’s Division I while eliminating the Mavericks’ football and wrestling programs.
The plan, which awaits approval from the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, would involve UNO accepting a bid to join the Summit League. It was met Sunday with campus rallies supporting the stunned football and wrestling student-athletes. According to the Omaha World-Herald, the decision was spurred by the ever-growing gap between athletic revenues and expenses, requiring ever-greater infusions of tax, tuition and student-fee dollars into the department.
On its current path, the athletic department would have been out of business within five years, according to UNO chancellor John Christensen, a former collegiate wrestler who called it by far the most difficult decision he’s ever had to make. “But I believe unless we make substantive change, the future of the athletic department is in significant jeopardy,” he said at a press conference Sunday.
Specifically, football will be dropped because the university can’t afford the 27 additional scholarships necessary to bring the program up to speed in Division I. The wrestling program, which won its third consecutive Division II national championships Saturday, will be eliminated to better align UNO with the offerings of other schools currently competing in the Summit League, which extended its membership invitation Friday. Moreover, UNO will add men’s soccer and golf teams. Ultimately, the hope is to make men’s basketball a revenue sport along with men’s ice hockey, which has been competing at the Division I level since 1997.
UNO officials have pledged to honor the scholarships of all 150 student-athletes affected by the cuts, should they choose to remain at the school.
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Friday, March 11, 2011
Blog: A Hit Can Be Vicious and Not Criminal
When can the conduct of one player toward another player be considered criminal? That’s the question as Montreal police conduct their investigation into Tuesday's controversial check by Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara that sent the head of Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty into the glass partition between the benches. (The hit left Pacioretty with a severe concussion and cracked vertebra, although from this observer’s perspective, it certainly did not seem criminal.)
While each state and country has its own criminal statutes, in order for conduct to be criminal, the state would usually be required to show two things: “actus reus” and “mens rea.” To show actus reus, the Montreal police, who are acting on a request by Quebec's director of criminal and penal prosecutions, Louis Dionne, would need to establish that Chara’s hit was a criminal act. With countless players being checked into the glass during a hockey game, it seems impossible that you could call Chara’s hit criminal, regardless of the serious injury suffered by Pacioretty. (It must be the act that is criminal — you cannot impose criminal laws because of the seriousness of the injury.) This may be even more difficult to show after the NHL, upon reviewing the play, failed to suspend or fine Chara.
Mens rea represents an even tougher hurdle for the Montreal police — it means that the act was accompanied by a guilty mind. In other words, Chara must have known at the time of the hit that he was committing a criminal act. Once again, without direct evidence showing that Chara knew that the glass partition was there and that he intentionally sent Pacioretty crashing into it with conscious disregard of known serious risks, it would be almost impossible to establish that Chara believed that he was committing a criminal act when he checked Pacioretty.
If you look at both elements, it is clear that it will be difficult if not impossible to establish that Chara committed a crime.
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Older Football Helmets Will Be Phased Out
With concussion concerns consistently in the public eye, the National Athletic Equipment Reconditioners Association (NAERA) has announced it will no longer accept helmets for reconditioning or recertification that are more than 10 years old. The new policy will take effect September 1 for the 2012 football season — mainly because many schools already have paid for their helmets to be reconditioned for use this fall.
The 10-year limit will be determined by the manufacturer's date, as required by document 001 of the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE). For example, at the end of the 2011 football season, any helmet dated 2002 or older will not be reconditioned or recertified. The stiffening of foam and the degrading of a helmet's polycarbonate shell over time can leave a player more susceptible to concussions.
“There has been a growing concern that we make some sort of a policy to make coaches and parents do what we think is correct,” Ed Fisher, NAERA’s executive director, told The New York Times, which reports that football helmets more than 10 years old are worn by about 100,000 young players every fall. “As a current coach and former administrator, I would want my son, and anybody’s son, to be in a helmet less than 10 years old. We need to get the older ones off the field."
The decision by NAERA, which is composed of 21 athletic equipment reconditioners and four helmet manufacturers, follows the January announcement by NOCSAE that it will pursue several new safety-related measures — including the development of a test standard that considers the complex forces that cause concussions. NOCSAE, a volunteer consortium of mostly doctors and sporting goods officials, also is pursuing a separate test standard for youth and high school helmets.
The price for a reconditioned helmet typically runs $30, while a new one can cost between $150 and $200. That shouldn't be an issue for high schools, according to one helmet reconditioner. “School budgets are being whacked, but schools haven’t bought new helmets because they haven’t had to,” Bob Fawley, owner of Capitol Varsity Sports in Oxford, Ohio, told The Times. “Now they have to. I don’t think it will hit that hard at the high school level. Youth football is where you see the numbers — there are a lot of older helmets there.”
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2:13 PM
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District to Close Second-Largest High School Gym in U.S.
"The Wigwam" — hailed as the second largest high school gymnasium in the United States, with a seating capacity of 8,996 — will close soon. Owned and operated by the Anderson (Ind.) Community School Corp. and used by Anderson High School, the free-standing facility opened in 1961 and has become too expensive to operate. This week, the school board voted, 6-1, to close the facility by the end of the academic year and put it on the auction block, a move that is expected to save the district $700,000 a year.
"It's a sign of Anderson's times," board member Keith Millikan, told The Indianapolis Star. "The school system is in dire straits. We have no assessed valuation."
Long-time Anderson coach Ron Hecklinski told an Indianapolis radio station Wednesday he’s ready to fight to save “The Wigwam,” which got its name from an Indian tribe that settled in the area. “I’m chaining myself to the front doors,” he said, perhaps only half-jokingly.
When highlighting "great places to watch high school hoops" in 2004, USA Today wrote of The Wigwam that "the Indian theme may be offensive to some, but the presentation is heartfelt and done with respect."
The largest high school gym in the country, incidentally, also is located in Indiana: The Fieldhouse in nearby New Castle.
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Thursday, March 10, 2011
Eight Indiana High School Basketball Teams on Probation
At least eight high school basketball programs in Indiana are on probation for the 2011-12 school year after recent brawls prompted fans and coaches to leave their seats. One more bad move, reports Indianapolis' WXIN-TV, and the teams could get yanked from state tournament play — or even dropped from the Indiana State High School Athletic Association.
"There are rules at the NCAA and NBA level[s] that are pretty concrete that say when you leave the bench it's an automatic ejection," ISHAA commissioner Bobby Cox told the station. The NBA actually goes one step further and automatically suspends any player who leaves the bench.
The latest incident occurred Friday night when Tim Bass from Indy's North Central High School and Michael Chandler from Lawrence North High School began fighting. The benches cleared, as security stepped in to separate the players. Bass and Chandler were both ejected, and video footage of the altercation also shows North Central's star player D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera slugging a Lawrence North player — a move that got him suspended from this weekend's regional semifinal game against Indy's Pike High. "You can never throw a punch," Cox said. "And the video clearly shows there was an assault." North Central ultimately won the game, 62-59. (Smith-Rivera was allowed to play in last Saturday's game, an 83-61 win
over Lawrence Central in the sectional championship, while ISHAA
administrators sorted out the previous night's incident.)
Other schools on ISHAA probation next year include Morocco's North Newton, Whiting, East Chicago Central, Gary Wallace, Anderson and Marion.
Additionally, the ISHAA may consider enacting a rule to eject a player who leaves the bench without a coach's approval. In all of the brawls leading to the suspensions, the incidents reportedly were prompted when players stormed the court.
For now, though, probation seems to have satisfied state association administrators. "It's an indication to the schools that this type of behavior will not be tolerated further, and if there are further incidents, then more severe penalties will be issued," Cox told WRTV in Indianapolis. "When you have incidents like this, it's never a good thing."
But North Central's Smith-Rivera doesn't seem fazed. "We're moving forward," he said after the Lawrence North game. "We're not paying attention to that. It's unfortunate that it happened, but stuff like that happens."
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Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Blog: Instead of Giving Up, He Pushed Up
Early one morning several years ago, I stood in an asphalt parking lot with about 30 guys all over 40 years old, attempting to respond to the commands of a very fit-looking chap who was in charge of warming us up. We were in Riverside, Calif., for team-building exercises designed through a series of paintball games. While many had been out late the night before, the luxury bus ride provided ample space to sleep, along with hearty food and drink to comfort the troops. This group was clearly not prepared, nor particularly fit enough, for what the drill sergeant was doling out.
As the day and paintball stings wore on, I came to learn that the guy, Alden Mills, was an ex-Navy Seal who had high hopes for launching a fitness product. Given my background, several folks recommended that we be introduced.
Perhaps it is indicative of the type of individual who becomes a Navy Seal, but this was somebody determined to bring his product to the market no matter what obstacles stood in his way. In my own fitness business, I was forced to learn the hard way that I was not the customer, which led me to have reservations about the viability of “The Body Rev.” However, if it is true that people buy people, I did buy in to this guy.
As such, I assembled a group of potential investors to hear Alden’s story. He presented the product, defined how much money he was looking for, and what the payoff could be if his plan was properly executed. Suffice it to say that Mount Rushmore shows more expression than these fellows did at the end of his pitch. Sensing this, Alden went for what might have seemed like a Hail Mary pass — he pulled two paddles from his gym bag for a product demonstration. As he did his “push ups” and talked up the opportunity, he was looking to change the energy in the room and perhaps the likely outcome. Alden had no such luck.
As we broke that day, I heard him say that he had studied customers, and he knew his products and solutions could impact our sedentary and unhealthy population segments. He said it was his life’s calling.
Like all successful entrepreneurs, he did not retreat in the face of defeat. He cobbled together all the money he had left and created an infomercial for the “Perfect Pushup.” It worked, and the company took off like a rocket ship. While I had lost track of Alden over the years, his television spots were a friendly reminder of the man and his dream.
Recently reconnecting with Alden has been inspiring, as he has shared the trials of how the economic crisis has tested his business and strength like no other time in his career. And, no doubt his “Seal” training has served him well, as he may now have a stronger company than at any time since inception.
These guys at “Perfect” bring simple movements into the lives of people who need physical activity and exercise. And while he, his company and his team have won many great accolades, this proud father of four boys will tell you that life is about living your purpose. He says that one day he may look back and think about things he might have done differently, but he refuses to look back with regret for what he did not do with his life.
For all of us who have struggled with building a business, looking after family and maintaining our own health needs, I single out Alden as a person who has come close to finding the formula. And, I think we all benefit from the journey taken by many of our peers and colleagues. It is good to know that in our quest to help make the world a healthier place, we can draw strength from others when ours may be in short supply.
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North Dakota Nickname-Saving Bill Suffers Setback
The North Dakota Senate Education Committee voted 5-2 Tuesday to recommend that the full Senate not pass legislation intended to preserve the University of North Dakota’s embattled Fighting Sioux nickname.
House Bill 1263 states that UND athletic teams shall be known as the Fighting Sioux, and that neither the university nor the state Board of Higher Education can take action to discontinue use of the nickname and logo, according to Inforum.com. In addition, it requires the state attorney general to consider filing an antitrust claim against the NCAA if the association penalizes the university for said use.
It was unknown when the bill would reach the Senate floor for a final vote, but Senate majority leader Bob Stenehjem indicated that it wouldn’t be today. UND president Robert Kelley said recently that pro-nickname legislation threatens to damage the university.
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Player's Prison History Doesn't Deter Recruiters
Less than a week after a Sports Illustrated/CBS News study shed light on the criminal histories of college football players, student-athlete background checks are back in the news. According to HawkeyeInsider.com, University of Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery has offered a scholarship to junior-college basketball recruit Anthony Hubbard, despite the 25-year-old’s criminal record.
Hubbard served 37 months in prison after pleading guilty to a December 2003 robbery that also involved felony charges of malicious wounding and use of a firearm. He was 18 at the time.
Playing his sophomore season for Frederick (Md.) Community College, Hubbard averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds. His coach, Dave Miller, told Pat Harty of the Iowa City Press-Citizen this week that Iowa did its due diligence when inquiring about Hubbard. “They did their background work, absolutely,” Miller said. “We had paperwork here, and we sent the paperwork out to them.”
Miller dismissed as “nothing” Hubbard’s arrest in January on a misdemeanor assault charge that was later dropped. Of the 2003 incident, Miller said, “This is what I say to all the coaches; he made a mistake when he was 18 years old. He’s now 25. Enough. He’s a great kid and let’s move on.”
“When we make a final decision to offer a scholarship to a young person in any sport, we’ve spent months and in some cases years trying to evaluate if it’s going to be a good fit,” Iowa athletic director Gary Barta told Harty, adding, “We don’t do official criminal background checks, but we do an extensive background search.”
Barta said he would be open to a national discussion on criminal background. Iowa’s football team ranked second only to Arkansas in the number of players with criminal records, according to the SI/CBS study.
Miller said that he wouldn’t begrudge coaches who pass on Hubbard, but added they would regret it. “He’s a heck of a player and even a better person.”
In his own defense, Hubbard told HawkeyeInsider.com, “I’m being straight up with everybody about what I’ve been through. I’m not hiding from anybody. It made me who I am today.”
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10:16 AM
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Notre Dame Announces Hydraulic Lift Ban
The University of Notre Dame announced Tuesday that it will no longer use hydraulic lifts when filming football practices.
The announcement came more than four months after the college sports video community was shaken by the death of Notre Dame student videographer Declan Sullivan, whose scissor lift toppled over in 50 mile per hour winds last October. Investigations by the university and the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration are ongoing.
According to the South Bend Tribune, construction began Tuesday on a system that will employ cameras mounted on four 50-foot poles, one serving each of four practice fields at Notre Dame’s LaBar Practice Complex. The cameras will be operated remotely from two permanent structures on the practice fields.
“I said in the days after Declan’s death that we would do everything in our power to make changes to ensure that such an accident does not happen again — here or elsewhere,” Notre Dame’s president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, stated in a press release. “This system puts safety at the forefront in a completely new and innovative way.”
That said, shooting video with unmanned cameras as apposed to elevated individuals was a concept already several years old when AB described the technology in 2002.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the Sullivan family is pleased with Notre Dame’s decision and urges other schools to follow suit. Mike Miley, Declan’s uncle, said, “The family, specifically [Declan’s father] Barry, said he hopes other universities and sporting organizations take a look at their safety environments and follow Notre Dame’s lead to see if there are other ways to make life safer for workers in other areas, as well.”
In another gesture appreciated by the Sullivan family, the weatherproof boxes holding the video cameras will feature shamrock decals with the initials DS in the middle, similar to those appearing on Fighting Irish football helmets last fall. Rev. Jenkins said a permanent campus memorial to Sullivan also is in the works.
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Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Blog: In Search of a New St. Patrick’s Day Tradition
St. Patrick’s Day is on the horizon, meaning that soon, a huge number of people will feel compelled to immerse themselves in what they fervently believe is a great example of the Irish culture.
Unfortunately, this usually involves green beer, green beads and consuming a sufficient amount of the first in order to be willing to do stupid things to get the second. Hey, I was in college once, too.
But now that we’re grown-up professionals working in fitness and/or athletics and recreation, it’s time we counteract this phenomenon. Specifically, it’s time we try to raise awareness in the college-age demographic (and dare I say, a younger one as well) that true Irish traditions don’t mean pub crawls.
Here in Baltimore, the Gaelic Athletic Association, or GAA, greets March with its “Irish Sports 101” clinic. It’s a free public event that promotes two traditional Irish sports: Gaelic football and hurling/camogie. (Check the GAA’s website for rules, photos and descriptions of each).
The GAA is devoted to raising the awareness of traditional Gaelic games, and (something that should be particularly important to ersatz St. Patrick’s Day partygoers) providing a healthy social outlet at the same time. It oversees travel teams that compete against others around the country, but perhaps more important, it offers local coed league play every week.
A free clinic like those held by the GAA is a great way to bring people out of hibernation and get them active at the start of the spring sports season. It’s also a nice social gathering. Because neither Gaelic football nor hurling/camogie (pictured) has the physical contact of American football, trying them isn’t intimidating.
And let’s face it: Irish sports have a serious wow factor. People can brag that they spent their afternoon working out by playing something their friends have never heard of.
The North American GAA is responsible for Gaelic games in most of the United States — a good place to start if you’re checking to see whether or not there’s a GAA in your area. If not, see what else you can find through a local heritage society.
If you can get some people away from the party scene and into sports, Irish eyes certainly will be smiling.
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Monday, March 07, 2011
New Helmet Prototype Introduced to Protect Pitchers
Easton-Bell Sports CEO Paul Harrington joined representatives from Little League International and the California Interscholastic Federation on Monday to unveil a new helmet prototype designed to help protect pitchers on the mound. "With our pitching helmet prototype, we have redefined what is possible and launched a new era of protection for baseball pitchers," Harrington said from the manufacturer's new Helmet Technology Center in Scotts Valley, Calif.
The prototype was developed, Harrington said, to protect players like Gunnar Sandberg, the 17-year old Marin (Calif.) Catholic High School pitcher who suffered life-threatening injuries last March when he was on the mound and hit in the head by a batted ball. Sandberg, who attended the product introduction and will be testing the prototype for comfort and performance, was placed in a medically induced coma to save his life after his skull was fractured and his brain swelled.
Now recovered and back on the field, Sandberg is striving — along with his family — to improve safety for baseball players and help prevent other families from suffering similar tragedies. “The time is right to introduce headgear that is well designed, comfortable and, more than anything, protective for the pitchers and fielders," says Bjorn Sandberg, Gunnar's father. "We are on board to help minimize the risk.”
The pitching helmet prototype uses lightweight energy-managing materials to provide protection to the most vulnerable areas of the head, without compromising comfort or performance, Easton-Bell officials say. The helmet is made of expanded polystyrene polycarbonate, which is attached to a liner and elastic strap.
Defensive players and umpires not behind home plate remain the last individuals on the field without stronger head protection. First- and third-base
coaches for Major League Baseball teams began wearing head protection following the death of Mike Coolbaugh, a first-base coach for the Colorado Rockies' Double-A team in Tulsa, Okla., who was struck by a line drive in July 2007. College and high school rules mandate that baseball and softball players also wear helmets in coach's boxes.
In related news, the National Federation of State High School Associations has outlawed composite baseball bats for the 2010-11 school year. The ban will remain in effect until composite bats — constructed with the same aluminum exterior as standard aluminum bats, but with a woven graphite wall on the interior — can meet the Batted Ball Coefficient of Restitution (BBCOR) performance standard, which measures the "bounciness" of the ball and bat. Before the composite bat is reinstated at the prep level, the committee also wants it to produce consistent results throughout its life, be labeled as a composite product and be made tamper-evident.
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Blog: Our E-Suggestion Box Is Prompting Better Communication
We often remind our staff that how something is said is just as important, if not more important, than what is said. Tone, body language and other factors play a huge part in what a health club member hears and recalls, so our staff training and day-to-day staff feedback frequently involve this subtle topic.
It’s a shame that we can’t really do such training and post similar reminders for our members.
Members will deliver feedback in every way imaginable. A favorite among our members, and our least, is cornering one of us or our staff on the fitness floor and saying, “You know what you guys should do is…” That can be offensive on so many levels, not the least of which can be member’s state of perspiration and freshness of breath.
Other feedback is often delivered with smiles and passive-aggressive humor. That happened last week while we were bringing in a carload of janitorial supplies. As our members saw us engaged in the obviously glamorous task of delivering boxes of paper towels and toilet paper, several of them, who have been eagerly awaiting much needed replacement exercise implements for our pool — noodles, floats and so on — took the opportunity to laughingly ask, “Oh, are those the new things for the pool?” We just as happily responded, “No, but that’ll all be arriving next week!” We decided not to say, “We get your point. Thanks for being so subtle.”
Facebook isn’t the realm of subtlety, either. A prospect recently used our Facebook page to ask why she had not received a response to her e-mail inquiry and added, “Why would you have e-mail if you’re not going to respond?” We refrained from questioning what was happening in her life that would cause such snottiness and just let her know that we had, in fact, responded immediately to her e-mail the prior week. We apologized for her not having received it and said we’d send it again, which we did immediately, making sure to forward the previously sent message.
We’re trying to help our members communicate better, just as we do with our staff. Since being friendly, adult, thorough and professional carries a lot of weight with us, and since we can’t see or speak with all of our members directly, we now ask members to submit their suggestions and ideas through a new page on our website. The web allows us to ask key questions. Who are you? Do you want a response? If so, of what sort? With these and a few other questions, we do a much better job of capturing and acting on suggestions, and for whatever reason this works better online than asking the same questions on a paper form within the clubs, which we have tried in the past. We’ve even gotten rid of our old-fashioned suggestion boxes in favor of using the web. Our suggestion boxes were too prone to collecting poorly thought-out, anonymous observations (“More Step classes!”, “Stay open later!”).
Using the web has made a tremendous difference that has allowed us to capture useful suggestions. One recently submitted idea was that we temporarily offer Saturday morning child-care service while we rolled out a new class. The class was very popular but, due to a limited number of instructors who could teach it, we couldn’t offer it very much during weekday mornings. This suggestion didn’t simply say “Saturday-morning babysitting!” but suggested a reasonable solution to a short-term problem. We appreciated it and accommodated the request.
We know we’re still going to get cornered, that members will still shout out whatever is on their minds, and Facebook is a perfect place for someone to have an audience if they want one. But we really want to know the good stuff, so hopefully this small step will help us do so.
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Friday, March 04, 2011
Akron Aeros Introduce Meaty Concessions Lineup
Earlier this week, the minor-league Akron Aeros unveiled two new concessions items: the half-pound “Wonderdog” and its even heftier cousin “The Eighth Wonder of the World,” which weighs in at a full pound. Akron’s first-year director of food and beverage Jason Kerton arranged for a sausage company in Cleveland to custom-make the foot-long-and-then-some franks.
But size is only the first choice. Both dogs come with a menu of 40 specialty toppings — ranging from macaroni and cheese to chocolate chips. Want wasabi? You got it. Coleslaw? Coming right up. There’s no limit to the number of toppings a customer can combine. “It’s a la carte,” Kerton says. “You come up and say, ‘I want toppings 6, 9, 14 and 22.’ We put them on for you, and then you can take your order over to the ketchup and mustard stand.” In what the team's assistant general manager Dan Foust calls “a good twist,” numbers 36 through 40 will be an ever-changing rotation of mystery toppings. “If you want to test your luck and say, ‘I want secret ingredient number 37,’ it will be a nice surprise.”
Photo courtesy of Akron Aeros
And these are merely two of Kerton’s more traditional takes on ballpark fare. He’s already launched the “Three Dog Night” — a hot dog inside a bratwurst inside a kielbasa inside a bun (an estimated 3,350 calories, in all). Next came the “Nice 2 Meat You” burger, which packs a half-pound of hot dog, a quarter pound of bacon, cheddar cheese and onions inside 1.75 pounds of ground beef. Kerton conservatively estimates the caloric content at 5,400. Western Michigan Whitecaps’ “Fifth-Third Burger,” eat your heart out.
Photo courtesy of Akron Aeros
“I spent most of my winter here in my apartment coming up with these creations — some that worked, some that didn’t, some that I tweaked,” says Kerton, who helped revamp the menu for the Charleston (S.C.) River Dogs, but not nearly to these extremes. “I bring them in, present them to the staff here and see what they think.”
The “Nice 2 Meat You” burger got some funny looks at first, particularly among women in the Aeros front office. And it has gotten big laughs from “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” viewers who saw comedian Louis Black offer the menu item as an alternative to Taco Bell, the recent legal target of a customer who claimed that what the fast food chain serves isn’t really meat at all. Local reaction has been positive, according to Kerton. “Overall, the city of Akron and the people have been wonderful, really receptive to the new ideas and the freshness.”
“The food at a ballpark, or really any sporting event, is a huge aspect of a fan’s ballpark experience,” adds Foust, who handles the Aeros’ media and marketing. “It’s a marketer’s dream that we’re offering items people can’t find anywhere else. There’s a bunch of snow on the ground here in the Akron area, and people are talking baseball, and that’s a tribute to Jason and his creations.”
All it took for word to spread like mayonnaise was a press release on each item sent to local media outlets, but Foust will continue to make food an integral part of Aeros advertising campaigns. “Word of mouth — no pun intended — is going to be a huge asset for us, as well,” he says. “I can see people wanting to come to our ballpark, maybe traveling from two hours way, to sample these items.”
To fulfill his goal of introducing five new extreme menu items before the Aeros open their home season April 7, Kerton is currently tinkering with a dessert creation. It’s all a journey. “I personally try these things,” he says. “I’ve thrown more stuff out than I’ve ever actually created. I tried the Three Dog Night 15 different ways before I came up with what finally became the Three Dog Night.”
Kerton counts among his biggest Charleston swings and misses a hot dog made of shrimp and crabmeat. “It was terrible,” he admits. “That one will probably never resurface.”
The former executive chef knows that his culinary credentials mean nothing if the end product doesn’t taste good. “Anyone can put anything together and give it a goofy name,” Kerton says, “but if it doesn’t taste good, then there’s no point.”
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Thursday, March 03, 2011
UConn Counts Up Its Fiesta Bowl Losses
The prestige of playing in its first-ever Bowl Championship Series game came at a price for the University of Connecticut, which lost $1,663,560 on its trip to Phoenix to play Oklahoma in the Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl.
As expected, the biggest hit came from unsold tickets. According to the financial report UConn submitted to the NCAA by its March 1 deadline, the school spent $3,349,835 on tickets it was required by the Fiesta Bowl to purchase — be they for the marching band, corporate sponsors, coaches, players’ families or the general public. Only $676,248 in ticket sales was realized, resulting in a net loss of $2,673,587 on ticket sales alone.
Of the roughly 4,600 tickets UConn sold, only 2,771 went to the general public. Judging by the substantial Husky fan representation at the game, it was clear others opted to buy tickets through the secondary market at prices representing a fraction of what the university charged. Again, no big surprise.
“[Athletic director] Jeff Hathaway and the university were up front and honest in December when we talked about finances, and nothing is different now than we thought it would be or that we said it would be,” associate AD for communications Mike Enright told The Hartford Courant this week. “We said the bowls are not going to make money, but we feel the residual effects of the bowl game are well worth it.”
As an example, Enright pointed to tickets paid for by the university to fulfill corporate sponsorship packages, which generate $7.5 million for the athletic department.
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Blog: Equity In Scheduling Means Just That
Folks in western Michigan are stewing. High school athletes, coaches and spectators are expressing their displeasure with the scheduling of boys’ and girls’ basketball games — the boys first, the girls second. Everyone’s blaming the Michigan Women’s Commission, which operates under the state Department of Civil Rights, for ruining the sports experience of the girls that the group purported to be supporting with its complaint against the Lansing-based Michigan High School Athletic Association and Lansing-area schools.
At issue in that complaint was the longtime tradition of boys’ games occurring in the “marquee” Friday-evening time slot, with the lesser squad (the boys’ junior varsity) contesting the early matchup. With girls’ teams replacing the boys’ JV as the opening act, they typically played before sparse crowds until after halftime, when fans arriving early for the boys’ varsity games began filling the stands. The MWC’s complaint was settled in 2009 before it could be adjudicated, so various athletic conferences have, in fairness and with an eye toward possible litigation, reversed the order of games. The result? Boys’ early games continue to pack the house, while the mass exodus of fans during the girls’ game is a “fiasco,” “a slap in the face” and “humiliating” to the female athletes, according to various observers quoted in a January Grand Rapids Press article that has since been picked up by every news outlet and blogger with an ax to grind against gender-equity activists in particular and so-called “politically correct liberals” in general.
Other states have run afoul of “gender-equity activists” — typically, they’re simply aggrieved parents — by scheduling girls’ games on Wednesday or Thursday nights, while reserving weekend nights for the boys. Administrators in these jurisdictions felt vindicated by last October’s Parker v. Indiana High School Athletic Association, in which a federal district court determined that disproportionate scheduling of boys’ games on Fridays and Saturdays did not “deny athletic opportunities” to female athletes, and was therefore not a violation of Title IX or the 14th Amendment. However, it is worth mentioning that the decision goes against legal precedents and is under appeal by the plaintiffs, who note that such a schedule places undue burdens on female athletes, such as limited time to study on weeknights and fewer opportunities to be seen by college recruiters.
Michigan’s situation is particularly fraught, given how the state arrived at this juncture. For decades, a number of girls’ sports took place in nontraditional seasons — it took a 1998 complaint that was first heard in 2001 and adjudicated, finally, in 2007 (!) to force the MHSAA to place girls’ basketball alongside boys’ basketball in the winter. (The girls never got the marquee time slots then, either, because boys’ football owned Friday nights in the fall.) Now that girls’ sports seasons are aligned with those of other states (so they can pursue college scholarships in basketball, volleyball and other sports when colleges are actually recruiting), the question is how to ensure girls get the opportunity to play at times when more people are off work and can possibly watch them.
Whether people actually come out to watch them is another issue altogether. Are female athletes “humiliated” by people heading for the exits while they play? Maybe. Is the answer relegating them exclusively to earlier time slots, when families are still eating dinner and recruiters are still on the road? Title IX — and common sense — clearly forbids this. The solution, surely unpalatable to communities with longstanding traditions favoring boys’ teams, is to alternate the scheduling of (admittedly convenient) doubleheaders just as these Michigan conferences have done, or to schedule boys’ games exclusively on half the Friday and Saturday evenings and girls’ games on the other half. That’s what equity means.
And if any athletes or coaches or athletic directors find the mass exodus humiliating, all I can say is, suck it up. Play good ball and market your program better, and people will stick around to watch.
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Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Study Probes Criminal Records of College Football Players
A study released today by Sports Illustrated and CBS News has found that criminal records among major college football players are more common than many people might think — including the coaches recruiting those players.
Of the 2,837 players represented on the rosters of SI’s 2010 preseason Top 25 teams, seven percent had been in trouble with the law. More than 200 players had either been arrested or formally cited by police. Thirty-nine percent of those who’d been arrested had been charged with serious crimes such as assault and battery, domestic violence, burglary, cocaine possession or DUI.
Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida, told CBS News, “I think, as a general population, these are going to be stunning statistics to try to absorb, and policy changes will hopefully come about as a result.”
Six reporters compiled the statistics after six months of exhaustive player background checks. They found that only two schools on the list of 25 — Texas Christian University and the University of Oklahoma — conduct their own background checks on new recruits. However, even those schools don’t check juvenile records, despite the fact most recruits are juveniles at the time they sign letters of intent. “The simplest way for a coach to learn a recruit’s juvenile history is to ask him for it,” wrote Jeff Benedict in a background essay to the SI cover story he co-authored with Armen Keteyian of CBS News. “That doesn’t seem unreasonable before handing over a four-year scholarship worth well over $100,000.”
Banning players with an arrest history is not the answer, added Benedict, former research director for Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society and author of four books on athletes and crime. He then suggested the following measures:
• Require all recruits to sign a waiver authorizing schools to have access to their juvenile criminal history. Many colleges already require applicants to sign a form that states they have never been convicted of a felony. Certainly it’s not too much to ask those being awarded a scholarship to disclose any juvenile arrests, particularly those involving violence, weapons or drugs.
• The NCAA should push for an across-the-board adoption of such a policy, averting the possibility that those schools who take this approach aren’t disadvantaged by those who avoid it.
• The screening process for recruits should be expanded beyond coaches. When a criminal history is discovered on a recruit, that information should be shared with at least one other individual — preferably someone outside the athletic department — for review. Schools make a big investment in football recruits and should be part of the decision-making process when a player’s prior history poses a risk.
Appearing this morning on CBS’s “The Early Show,” Keteyian stated, “Mark Emmert, the new president of the NCAA, has already been alerted to this and has called it ‘completely unacceptable.’ I would venture to guess there’s going to be some changes coming very soon.”
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Tuesday, March 01, 2011
More High School Kids Suffer Concussions Today Than Decade Ago
An 11-year retrospective study — involving almost 160,000 high school student-athletes — shows a more than four-fold increase in concussion rates in boys’ and girls’ sports at 25 high schools in suburban Washington, D.C. Overseen by Andrew Lincoln, director of the Sports Medicine Research Center at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, the study suggests that concussions are an increasing problem at the high school level, and that girls are at least as susceptible as boys in sports played by both genders (soccer, basketball and baseball/softball).
During the period between the academic years 1997-98 and 2007-08, 2,651 concussions were electronically recorded on a daily basis by certified athletic trainers who were on-site for games and practices. The rate of annual increase during this period was 15.5 percent. Boys’ football accounted for more than half of all concussions and saw the highest incidence rate (.60 per 1,000 athlete exposures). Among girls’ sports, soccer had the most concussions, as well as the second-highest overall incidence rate of the 12 sports representing either gender (.35 per 1,000 athlete exposures).
The 12 sports were football, boys' and girls' lacrosse, boys' and girls' soccer, wrestling, boys' and girls' basketball, baseball, softball, girls' field hockey and cheerleading.
Lincoln and his colleagues concluded that, although collision sports
had the highest number of concussions, rising rates of concussion
occurred in all 12 sports observed. Concussion was observed in girls’
sports at rates similar to or higher than boys’ sports.
The study "lets the conversation move forward
from professional football and hockey to sports that both girls and
boys play," Douglas Weibe, who studies concussions at the
University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and who was not part of the
study, told Reuters Health. "It helps us realize that
concussion is a problem with both boys and girls, and in sports that are
traditionally thought of as both high impact and low impact."
Lincoln says he and his team of researchers are not surprised by the results. "Anecdotally, we heard from our team physicians and athletic trainers that concussions were becoming more prevalent in recent years," he told AB. "We suspect that this is partly from student-athletes doing a better job of recognizing symptoms of concussion and reporting them to our medical providers. We've also seen more aggressive play across all sports that may contribute to the increase, as well as athletes that are better conditioned and perform at a higher level. Greater speed and energy involved in player collisions could also contribute to higher rates of concussion that we identified."
If student-athletes are getting better at reporting their own symptoms, that's a major step in the right direction. Late last year, ESPN The Magazine reported on a survey it conducted with 300 high school football players, 100 high school football coaches, 100 certified athletic trainers and 100 parents about their attitudes toward concussions. "Everyone is doing their part, except the player," a certified athletic trainer in Illinois told the magazine. "If you are concussed, you don't play. But players won't accept that."
Lincoln notes that greater focus on concussions and their health ramifications should be made at the high school level nationwide. And to that end, at least nine states have enacted concussion laws that typically require concussion education for players, coaches and parents; immediate removal from play of a student-athlete who appears to have suffered a concussion; and clearance by a health-care professional before a concussed player returns to action. And other states — including Pennsylvania, Wyoming and Utah — have legislation pending.
"Greater efforts must be made to detect, treat and prevent concussion in all sports at the high school level," Lincoln says.
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Capitol Hill To Host P.E. Class In Effort to Save PEP Funding
Members of the athletic, fitness and sporting goods industries plan to practice what they preach during a visit to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Almost 150 leaders from various organizations will meet with more than 120 members of U.S. Congress and their staff members to lobby support for the Physical Education Program (PEP) bill and the Personal Health Investment Today (PHIT) Act. Meanwhile, other supporters will stage a simulated physical education class inside the U.S. Capitol building to showcase how diverse and dynamic today’s P.E. classes have become.
It's all part of the 12th National Health Through Fitness Day — sponsored by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. The goal: to explain and demonstrate why endangered federal funding of P.E. programs is vital and must continue.
Executives from HOPSports (provider of interactive P.E. training systems) and Chicago Bulls mascot Benny the Bull will work with local children from public schools in Washington, D.C., to showcase new types of fitness routines. “It helps our lobby day effort to have a group of children actually demonstrating how a modern P.E. class is conducted,” says Bill Sells, SGMA’s vice president of government relations. “For a congressman to have the chance to get a first-hand look at what the federal funds are being used to support, it helps our lobby day effort. It’s one thing to describe how a program will work; it’s entirely different to get a first-hand look at it.”
The Carol M. White PEP bill funds a competitive grant program to give school districts and community-based organizations resources to provide students with quality, innovative physical education. National Health Through Fitness Day participants will ask Congress to continue funding that program — the only federal funding mechanism dedicated to P.E. programming, equipment and training — for fiscal year 2012. To date, more than $600 million in PEP grants have been distributed across the country by the U.S. Department of Education, but SGMA reports that the U.S. House of Representatives did not include any PEP grant money in its version of the 2012 fiscal year budget.
The PHIT Act, meanwhile, would promote improved health through increased physical activity by making it more affordable to engage in sports, fitness and recreation activities through the use of tax incentives. Americans could invest up to $2,000 annually to reimburse physical activity costs using PHIT-designated contributions to existing pre-tax Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), Medical Savings Accounts (MSA), and other medical reimbursement arrangements. PHIT would only expand the eligible expenses; it would not increase contribution limits to these accounts, SGMA officials say. Once an individual or family reaches the 7.5 percent threshold on income spent for qualified medical expenses, they could deduct physical activity expenses directly.
Sports celebrities that are expected to participate in Wednesday's lobbying efforts include former NFL running back and 1982 Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker, Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith, LPGA Hall of Famer Annika Sörenstam and U.S. Olympic softball gold medalists Michele Smith and Natasha Watley.
For more details on National Health Through Fitness Day, including a schedule of events and lists of sponsors and participants, click here.
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Blog: Seeking Prospects? Remember to Invite Them
After the 2010 Winter Olympics, my husband found he had contracted curling fever. I mean, he had it bad. But we never looked into playing, figuring that opportunities to try curling were thin where we live. Then one day, an ad appeared in the local paper. The Potomac Curling Club (I didn't even know there was one) was holding an open house, and everyone was invited. “No experience necessary,” the ad noted, but “dress warmly.”
I thought the “dress warmly” part was all about being on the ice, but it was actually because when we got there, we had to stand in line to get in the door. No kidding. A long line of people were waiting outside in the freezing cold so they could try curling. While we were out there, PCC members circulated, answering questions, making jokes, handing out hot cocoa and talking up their sport.
Curling turned out to be a great spectator sport for me (there was no limit to my lack of on-ice talent), and tremendous fun for my husband (who inquired about league play). Without the ad, though, neither of us — and probably 99 percent of the people in line that morning — would not have known the facility existed, despite the fact that it was practically in our backyard.
Holding an open house is a great way to bring people into your sports facility, and even better when you tie it in with a high-profile event: World Cup Soccer, the Fed Cup, the Olympics, "The Biggest Loser," roller derby, anything.
The prospects are out there. All they need is an invitation.
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