Friday, May 27, 2011
Drain Cover Recall Could Impact Thousands of Pools
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a voluntary recall of approximately 1 million faulty pool and spa drain covers. The products have inaccurate flow ratings and could pose a possible entrapment hazard. Pool owners and operators with a recalled cover are instructed to contact the manufacturer to receive a replacement or retrofit, depending on the make and model.
USA Today reports that CPSC chairwoman Inez Tenenbaum urged public pools with recalled covers to close immediately until they can be replaced. "I know this is a very difficult message for many communities to hear so close to Memorial Day weekend, but we cannot risk a child becoming entrapped in a recalled drain cover," Tenenbaum said in a speech at a pool safety event Thursday in Chula Vista, Calif.
The manufacturers of the recalled drain covers are: A&A Manufacturing of Phoenix; AquaStar Pool Products of San Diego; Color Match Pool Fittings of Surprise, Ariz.; Custom Molded Products of Tyrone, Ga.; Hayward Pool Products of Elizabeth, N.J.; Pentair Water Pool and Spa of Sanford N.C.; Rising Dragon USA of Sweetwater, Tenn.; and Waterway Plastics of Oxnard, Calif.
According to USA Today, the recall is the result of months of investigation in which the CPSC subpoenaed 17,000 pages of documents from testing laboratories, which the agency says used bad standards in testing the drain covers.
Meanwhile, the CPSC kicked off the 2011 summer swimming season and the second year of its "Pool Safely: Simple Steps Save Lives" campaign to prevent drowning, submersion and entrapment on Thursday by releasing new statistics that indicated there were no entrapment fatalities reported in 2010. But 55 drowning and 63 near-drowning incidents in 29 states and territories have already been reported by the media during the first five months of 2011. "Chairman Tenenbaum's announcement that there have been no entrapment fatalities since 2009 is encouraging," National Swimming Pool Foundation chief executive officer Tom Lachocki said in a statement. "Hundreds of child drowning tragedies reinforce the importance of drowning prevention strategies, including learn-to-swim programs."
Lachocki also stressed that many pool drains are not impacted by this recall. The CPSC indicates that pools with multiple drains per pump, gravity drainage systems and drain covers installed before December 19, 2008, need not be replaced (with the exception of those on kiddie pools, wading pools and in-ground spas).
For more details about the drain cover recall, call 866/478-3521, or click here.
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10:47 AM
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Thursday, May 26, 2011
PEP Grant Funding in Jeopardy Again
Mere weeks after the Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) received $78 million in grant funding for 2011, PEP is under the ax again in Washington, D.C. The U.S. House Education & Workforce Committee on Wednesday approved legislation to eliminate 41 education programs — including PEP — from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for the 2012 fiscal year.
The PEP legislation funds a competitive grant program to give school districts and community-based organizations resources to provide students with quality, innovative physical education. This legislation has been funded every year since 2001, and more than $600 million in PEP grants have been distributed by the U.S. Department of Education during the past ten years and used to purchase equipment and provide additional instructor training.
The proposed eliminations will have no bearing on PEP funding for 2011. The Department of Education is currently processing approximately 450 PEP grant applications and plans to award approximately 70 new multi-year PEP grants later this summer.
“SGMA and its PEP partners have overcome proposed elimination of P.E. funding in the past, and we will work to ensure funding in 2012 and beyond,” 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. “Physical health is too important to the future of America, since the health of American children today will impact the health of adults tomorrow.”
Wednesday's final vote by the House Education & Workforce Committee was along party lines, with 23 Republicans supporting and 16 Democrats opposing. The legislation is expected to pass in the U.S. House of Representatives, but the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate does not support the House bill, according to SGMA.
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LED Mesh to Bring Heat-Bulls to AA Arena Exterior
Call it a mesh pit. As many as 10,000 fans are expected to crowd two city blocks outside AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami tonight to watch Game 5 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on a 3,400-square-foot mesh LED display.
A2aMEDIA’s MiamiMediaMesh measures 80 feet wide by 42 feet high, allowing fans to watch en masse as events unfold inside the United Center in Chicago, where the visiting Heat will try to finish off the Bulls and advance to the NBA Finals. It’s the first sports installation of the technology in the United States and the largest such display in the Southeast. “It’s affixed to the front of the building where there are windows, and because it’s a mesh, you can be inside the building looking out and it does not obstruct your view,” says Heat spokesperson Lorrie-Ann Diaz. “It’s really cool.”
So cool is the technology that it can even dress up a bus station. A 6,000-square-foot installation will wrap the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York beginning next month.
Photo courtesy of the Miami Heat
Miami’s display faces a plaza at the front of AA Arena, and the city has already cordoned off surrounding streets in preparation for the Maimi Heat White Hot Road Rally, which officially begins at 7 p.m. eastern. Fans are encouraged to bring their own seating, but not their own coolers. Nineteen South Florida food trucks will feed the masses, and Heat talent — from the team’s in-arena public address announcer to the Heat dancers — will keep them entertained. Pregame and halftime concerts also are scheduled. The free event is sponsored by T-Mobile SK4G, and T-Mobile Sidekick 4G users who show their phones at participating stores will receive passes to a watch party VIP area.
For years, watch parties have created a communal experience for fans unable to travel with their teams to important (typically postseason) games. The Heat drew more than 7,000 to a 2006 NBA Finals gathering inside AA Arena (MiamiMediaMesh wouldn’t debut until May 2009). That total could easily be eclipsed in the balmy outdoors, according to Diaz. “There’s so much excitement in the air,” she says. “It’s going to be really more like a block party.”
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10:30 AM
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Blog: Welcome to Our World, Whining Ys
A fitness facility in Missouri is protesting the construction of a new community center that will duplicate its services and hurt its business.
A chain of clubs in Virginia was able to successfully squash the construction of a public pool that would have cut into the business at one of its facilities.
To these brothers-in-arms we say, good for you. Fight the good fight. Operating a fitness facility is tough enough and public money can surely be spent more wisely than in the duplication of services that existing health clubs already provide. Whether it’s taxpayer money being used to finance these facilities or not-for-profit fitness centers exploiting their tax-exempt status to expand, commercial health clubs ask simply that the playing field be level.
Hah! Gotcha! Both these whiners about unfair competition are not-for-profit Ys that have enjoyed using their tax-exempt status to expand their health club offerings.
The Ozarks Regional Y, which has seven locations, is protesting the local park board’s plans to build a new community center in close proximity to one of its locations. The Y argues that this is a waste of taxpayer dollars because the community center would duplicate services offered by the Y.
The club in Virginia that successfully challenged the construction of a public pool seems to be the Y’s poster child in the never-ending battle with for-profit health clubs. Its facility in Norfolk is described as having one room for day care and six floors for fitness. We’re sure there are lots of underprivileged kids in that daycare space, given that this Y has a monthly rate that is higher than those of surrounding gyms. (The Y “offers more” so it charges more, they say.) And while, like all Ys, this organization touts its scholarship program for residents who can’t afford the dues, we didn’t come away thinking we had just read about a charitable organization…because we hadn’t. What charitable organization has a chairman who says, "We don't see ourselves as having any competition”? Last we checked, charities typically don’t bash each other. So, if he’s not referring to other charitable organizations, who in the world isn’t his competition? Not (gasp!) commercial health clubs.
In our view, the Y of South Hampton Roads is a for-profit health club chain masquerading as a charitable organization. No, allow us to restate that so that we are clear about our beef with this Y and every Y: The health club operation of the South Hampton Roads Y is a for-profit business. The services that make up the rest of their business — youth services, senior services — may well be outstanding charitable endeavors that are necessary and appreciated in their communities. But the majority of their members join in order to work out, just as they could be doing at any other gym, and the presence of these fitness-seeking consumers has nothing to do with the charitable functions provided by the rest of the operation.
If the Y operated its gyms as a for-profit division while maintaining its charitable operation as a not-for-profit, then this whole conversation would be unnecessary. Health club facilities could compete on an even playing field. But when Y’s get donated land, pay no property taxes, use reduced postage rates for advertising, are often exempt from collecting sales tax on fitness membership dues, and use donated money to fund their gym offerings — forgive us for whining — it just doesn’t seem fair, does it?
So, to these Y’s in Missouri and Virginia, we say, suck it up. Welcome to our world.
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8:36 AM
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Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Blog: Three Cheers for Special Olympics Cheerleaders
The voice on the other end of the phone was happy and peppy and positively saturated with enthusiasm, so it wasn't exactly astonishing that the caller wanted me to write an article promoting her cheerleading squad and encouraging kids to join. And, since we get a lot of calls like that at the newspaper, I have to confess that I didn't quite share her enthusiasm. It was what she said next that made me choke on my coffee: "We just haven't had a lot of success getting kids to try out for Special Olympics cheerleading in the city."
I started taking notes like crazy. "You mean...like huggers?" I asked. "People who volunteer to show up and cheer on the participants?" I had it all wrong — she meant individuals with developmental disabilities who could be part of a squad that cheered on their teammates, and who could compete with other squads of Special Olympians. Baltimore didn't have its own squad, and Special Olympics Maryland wanted to help them get one started.
Like everyone, I'm aware of the Special Olympics. I've seen participants compete in any number of sports — track, aquatics, you name it — but the idea of a cheerleading squad simply had never occurred to me. And as it turns out, it's one of the newest sanctioned sports to be offered by Special Olympics Maryland.
The program, I learned, is coed, and accepts anyone who is interested. The routines and cheers are simple. There are no high-flying gymnastics, and the emphasis is on working as a team and having fun while cheering on fellow Olympians. Most important, it provides kids with an experience comparable to that of their typically developing peers.
The coaches aren't the Vince Lombardi types; they're people like you and me. The cheerleading program organizer who called me had cheered in high school and college. Now that she was out in the working world, she liked the idea of taking her activity to the next generation — but a very different segment of that generation. "I had a great time as a cheerleader growing up, and I feel like other kids should be able to do it if they want to," she told me, "No matter what."
Which, in my book, makes it a program worth cheering for.
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Researchers Say Used Football Faceshields Break on Impact
Game-worn football faceshields — protective gear affixed to a helmet's facemask to guard against eye injuries and glare — are more susceptible to breaking than new ones when subjected to high-velocity impact, according to new research at The Ohio State University. In the study, researchers used an air cannon to hurl baseballs at new and used polycarbonate faceshields. All new shields withstood the strongest impact tested, which was designed to match the force of a kick to the face, but more than a third of the game-worn faceshields fractured during testing.
In a related survey of college football equipment managers, OSU researchers found that 98 percent of football programs allow faceshield use, while only 18 percent of the players wear a shield. Of the programs that responded, 21 percent require the use of a faceshield for players with poor vision in one eye, and half reported that their school had established a replacement policy for faceshields.
This combination of findings led OSU scientists to recommend that intercollegiate football programs develop a policy for routine inspection and replacement of used faceshields, adding that coaches or trainers should strongly recommend football players with poor vision in one eye wear a faceshield during all practices and games. Because amblyopia, a common vision disorder known as lazy eye, originates in the area of the brain that controls vision, loss of vision in the affected eye can become permanent if it is not treated before age 8, according to the National Eye Institute.
"Any football player who has a vision problem should consider wearing a faceshield," says Aaron Zimmerman, assistant professor of optometry at Ohio State and lead author of the study, whose research was published in a recent issue of the journal Optometry. "Something could happen to their good eye. Why take a chance, especially if there's a way to prevent that?"
In the study, researchers sought to determine how the faceshields performed after the rigors of standard football action, as well as exposure to sun or freezing temperatures. The group also sent a survey to equipment managers at 117 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision programs and received a 50 percent response rate.
For the structural-integrity tests, a baseball was used to mimic the hardness and curvature of a fist or the toe end of a cleat. The scientists tested the two most popular collegiate and professional football helmet faceshields by manufacturers Oakley and Nike; the game-worn shields were donated by two football programs. Impact resistance was tested at five velocities ranging from 116 miles per hour to almost 150 miles per hour. At the highest velocity, 10 used faceshields fractured, three shields broke at the middle-range velocities and one shield broke at the lowest velocity.
Zimmerman and his colleagues also subjected 24 new faceshields to sunlight for an average of 3.5 hours per day and five days per week for 10 weeks to mimic exposure to ultraviolet radiation during a football season. Previous research suggested that solar radiation can weaken polycarbonate, but none of these shields broke when impact-tested at velocities of 150 miles per hour. In a small sample of game-worn faceshields exposed to freezing temperatures of 14 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour, four of five used shields broke when tested at velocities of about 130 miles per hour.
Many of the shields that fractured showed the most stress on the sides, where the faceshield attaches to the helmet. But a few shattered into multiple pieces that had potential to tear the retina or even penetrate the eye. "Based on the results, we felt that multiple impacts to shields were probably the likely cause for the lower resistance to impact over time," Zimmerman says, adding that no universal guidelines exist for inspecting and replacing faceshields. "No matter what the cause is, you do not want to have a protective device fail and potentially cause a more severe injury."
Faceshields have been recommended for younger football players for more than a decade. The sports safety committees of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Ophthalmology issued a report in 1996 recommending that football helmets be equipped with a polycarbonate faceshield for face and eye protection. They were responding to a 1993 report by Prevent Blindness America, which indicated that football was the fifth-greatest contributor to sports-related eye injuries in patients younger than 25. "Once a week, the shields should be inspected, particularly where they fasten to the helmet," Zimmerman suggests. "But players should be encouraged to glance a faceshield over before each practice and game. And if there's a deep scratch or crack present, it definitely needs to be replaced."
In related used football equipment news, the National Athletic Equipment Reconditioners Association announced in March that it will no longer accept helmets for reconditioning or
recertification that are more than 10 years old. The new policy will
take effect Sept. 1 for the 2012 football season.
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10:27 AM
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Miami Heat: Slurs Will Earn Fans Immediate Ejection
As the Miami Heat pushed the Chicago Bulls to the brink of elimination Tuesday with a victory in Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals, it became increasingly apparent that several more games (Game 6 of the current series being the lone guarantee) will take place at AmericanAirlines Arena this postseason.
Fans, take note. Prior to Game 4 in Miami, Heat president of business operations Eric Woolworth clarified the team’s fan behavior policy in light of an incident Sunday involving Bulls center Joakim Noah, who shouted an anti-gay slur at a fan during Game 3 at AA Arena. While Noah was fined $50,000 by the league, Woolworth said Tuesday that similar action by a fan would result in ejection.
As reported by NBC Sports, Stu Jackson, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations, has said such fan conduct matters are left to individual teams to decide on a case-by-case basis. As a general rule, the league endorses a warning prior to ejection, but Jackson intimated that immediate ejection is warranted when hate speech is involved.
For his part, Noah appeared genuinely contrite this week. “I think it’s fair,” he said in his first comments since learning of the fine amount. “I made a mistake. I’ll learn from it and move on.”
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9:46 AM
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Monday, May 23, 2011
Cheer Evolving, But Will NCAA Call It an Emerging Sport?
The latest noise on the national competitive cheer front was sounded last Wednesday, when USA Cheer submitted to the NCAA a proposal to add “stunt” to the association’s list of emerging sports. Last year, a group of six universities calling itself the National Collegiate Athletics and Tumbling Association, with support from USA Gymnastics, submitted its own proposal to the NCAA. Katie Thomas chronicles the evolution of cheerleading in today’s New York Times.
Varsity status for cheerleading is a concept first pioneered by the University of Maryland and elevated to new heights by the University of Oregon, among a handful of other schools, but it is unclear when or if the NCAA will ever stage championships in the sport. In fact, it’s still debated whether the activity represents a sport at all.
The two groups seeking the NCAA’s stamp of approval share some similarities, including longer competitions than in the past and team uniforms not unlike those worn by volleyball players. Main differences, according to the Times, center on scoring and the competitive season. Not surprisingly, the acrobatics and tumbling group favors a scoring system similar to gymnastics, with points awarded based on degree of difficulty. The stunt group backed by USA Cheer envisions head-to-head competitions divided into quarters. A third distinction involves teams sizes, with the tumbling group championing squad sizes of 32 to 36 athletes, with a maximum of 12 scholarships. The stunt group calls for 20- to 30-member rosters and twice as many scholarships.
The Times reports that the NCAA committee charged with vetting emerging sports could present both versions to the association membership, it could select one version over the other, or it could request that a single compromise proposal be submitted by the two groups.
A final caveat: Regardless of what form the activity takes, its designation as an emerging sport doesn’t guarantee that schools will be able to use roster numbers to satisfy gender-equity requirements. As the Times’ Thomas points out, the Office for Civil Rights has said it presumes that a sport can be counted if it is recognized by the NCAA. However, schools must still treat the team like other varsity sports in terms of financial support and rigorous competition and practice schedules.
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10:20 AM
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AthleticBusiness.com Opens AB Forum
Responding to readers’ desire for a space to accommodate the sharing of information among peers, AthleticBusiness.com has opened AB Forum 10 days ahead of its planned June 1 launch date. As with most other forums, threads can be viewed by the general public, but site visitors wishing to post questions and answers will be required to complete a short, free registration.
AB Forum was conceived as a place to share information about the purchasing of products and services, but through beta testing and discussions with interested and frequent visitors to the web site, the template has been expanded to include sections devoted to discussions of product and facility maintenance, facility planning and design, and topics of interest to the industry’s different market segments. Relevant posts from the site’s Readers Q&A have been ported over to the new forum, a reorganization of content that should make it simpler to get your questions seen — and answered.
Longtime visitors to AthleticBusiness.com may recall an earlier forum, launched years ago, when AB first had a web presence. Site visitors were much fewer in number then, and that forum attracted a small cadre of readers who did their best to keep discussions going, against all odds. It was, perhaps, ahead of its time, but it did afford AB staffers an opportunity to find out what was really on readers’ minds. And what was on their minds, more often than not, was the products and services written about and advertised in the pages of the magazine. These were questions — What’s the best treadmill you’ve purchased? What flooring company offers the best service? — for which no one had a definitive answer, but about which everyone had an opinion. Make that a strong opinion.
We encourage facility owners and program operators, as well as product manufacturers and other providers of services to the industry, to join in the exchange of information about the goods and services that are vital to the success of all of AB’s readers.
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9:22 AM
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Friday, May 20, 2011
District’s High Schools Remove All Coaches, Begin Anew
While many school districts are trying to figure out which athletic programs to amend or eliminate in order to meet dwindling budgets, suburban Chicago's Proviso Township High School District 209 has decided to remove all of its high school sports coaches for the 2011-12 school year — but not because of a funding shortage.
According to an ESPN Chicago report, the personnel move is part of the district's school improvement plan. The positions are expected to be filled prior to the upcoming school year, says district spokesperson TaQuoya Kennedy, and current coaches will be allowed to re-apply for their positions.
"Our district is undergoing a major transition that includes school improvement and overall reconstruction," Kennedy told ESPN's Scott Powers. "It's not a budget issue. It's a school improvement issue. This is all about school improvement. Some of our athletic heads have done a fantastic job. Some of them will remain the same. At the end of the day, this is about our students and making sure they have the best of the best."
Coaches in the district reportedly were caught off guard by the announcement. "I don't know what direction they're going in," Proviso East varsity boys' basketball coach David Chatman said. "All we got is a notice that every head coach … is going to have to apply for their job again. That's all I know. Everybody is in limbo right now."
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10:03 AM
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Thursday, May 19, 2011
Transgender Student-Athlete Leaves GW Basketball Program
As the issue of how transgender student-athletes fit into the organized sports landscape continues to evolve at both the high school and college levels, the collegiate ranks lost one such athlete this week.
The Associated Press reports that Kye Allums, an openly transgender member of the George Washington University women’s basketball team, will not return to the program for his senior season, though he remains enrolled in classes to be offered this fall.
“I alone came to this conclusion, and I thank the athletic department for respecting my wishes,” Allums said in a statement released by the university.
Allums drew international attention when he announced prior to the 2010-11 season his desire to be referred to as a man. In order to remain eligible to compete in women’s basketball, Allums chose to forego hormone treatments and gender-altering surgery.
An instant role model within the transgender community, Allums played in only eight games last season after suffering a pair of concussions. The 5-11 guard averaged 6.8 points per game. He initially intended to play his senior season, despite doctors’ warnings that had he been a football player, his career would definitely be over.
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11:02 AM
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Armed with an AED, Softball Coaches Save Recruit's Father
Still on the fence about installing an automated external defibrillator in your facilities? Consider the life-or-death scenario that played out late last month at the University of Michigan’s Wilpon Softball Complex.
According to Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon, members of the Wolverine coaching staff were meeting April 27 with a recruit and her father in the team lounge when the father’s head tilted back. Though his eyes were wide open, he failed to respond to his name being called. The coaches immediately dialed 911, performed CPR and retrieved an AED located at the facility’s front door. They opened the man’s shirt, applied the defibrillator pads and stood clear as the AED told them what to do next. “Once the AED analyzed the individual, the AED read ‘Shock Advised,’ ” Brandon wrote in his blog at mgoblue.com. “They are words that our softball coaches will never forget.”
Witnessing the actual shock left a lasting impression, as well. “I don't think any description about the bounce effect does it justice until you see it,” said assistant coach Jennifer Brundage, who like head coach Carol Hutchins and associate head coach Bonnie Tholl had taken training courses on CPR and the proper use of an AED. As freshman players comforted the recruit in an adjacent locker room, the ambulance arrived within minutes to transport her father to the University of Michigan Hospital.
Brandon called it “the biggest save” of his coaches’ careers. “Training, practice and the resolve of this staff to save the recruit’s father made these few minutes more important than any sporting event could ever be,” he wrote. “Our coaching staff of Hutch, Bonnie and Jennifer did not just make our athletic department team proud, they made us realize we have true heroes in our midst.”
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10:14 AM
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Blog: Come July, Your Parks Will Get Rocked
With all the attention paid to glitz in our industry — new multipurpose rec centers, high-end health clubs and even glittering new high school facilities — we occasionally forget that some great opportunities for recreation are right in our own backyard.
The National Recreation and Park Association is looking to capitalize on opportunities for kids to get a taste of the great outdoors in local parks, particularly at a time when people are still being cautious with their money and perhaps not taking a long or expensive vacation. The Rock Your Park initiative will be held this July, which since 1985 has been celebrated as Parks and Recreation Month. This year, July will have five weekends, and NRPA is encouraging families, singles and everyone in between to pledge to “Take the Five,” and spend each weekend exploring various aspects of their local parks: nature trails, ball fields, playgrounds, swimming pools and more.
Just to prove they’re dialed in with the younger generation, NRPA has also instituted the 2011 Rock Your Park Flash Mob Contest. Contestants can use YouTube to capture a flash mob performance that demonstrates the power of parks and rec. One municipal agency and one citizens’ group will be chosen as winners.
With the end of school only a few weeks away, it’s important to build the excitement now for the programs that can help coax kids outside, and away from TVs, computers, game systems and other sedentary pursuits. The good news? Like parks themselves, the tools are free, and readily available. The website for the initiative has information on the contest, pledge and more. A marketing tool kit is also available for download. Bonus points to NRPA for including an official “Rock Your Park” social media poster. The message being sent is clear: Parks are more than places to sit on benches and feed pigeons; they’re outdoor fitness facilities with endless possibilities.
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8:33 AM
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Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Notre Dame Stands Alone Against Made-in-China Merchandise
The University of Notre Dame pledged never to allow merchandise produced in China to bear the school’s trademarks. That was 10 years ago, and to this day Notre Dame remains the only major university in the United States to take such a stand against labor practices in China, the top source of U.S. imports.
“What Notre Dame is doing is very, very important,” U.S. Representative Frank Wolf (R-Virginia), chairman of the Appropriations Committee panel that oversees trade, told Bloomberg’s Mark Drajem. “China is a particularly bad place to do outsourcing, and the American people are totally opposed to it.”
Wolf added that he intends to encourage universities in Virginia to follow Notre Dame’s lead, while prodding his congressional colleagues to make similar pleas in their respective states.
China sent $26.9 billion of toys and sports items, $16.7 billion of footwear and $33.5 billion of apparel to the U.S. in 2010, according to Commerce Department data cited by Bloomberg. Notre Dame, a member of the Fair Labor Association and the Worker Rights Consortium, bars products from other countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Laos, Qatar and Turkmenistan, though none is a major supplier of sporting goods.
Notre Dame ranks 11th nationally in licensed merchandise sales, according to the most recent list compiled by the Collegiate Licensing Company, which monitors the $4.3 billion industry while assisting several schools in the licensing process.
The Catholic university in 1997 adopted a standards code requiring freedom of association and the “right for workers to organize and form independent labor unions of their own choosing.” Its ban on Chinese products, which came four years later, has limited Notre Dame’s ability to partner with certain manufacturers, and often delays delivery of certain goods to the marketplace by as much as a year. Higher product prices dictated by increased shipping costs represent another result of the ban. Still, the university expresses no regrets. Said Michael Low, Notre Dame’s director of licensing, “Our approach has been informed by Catholic social teaching, particularly the principle related to economic justice.”
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10:04 AM
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Monday, May 16, 2011
Drunk Golf Coach Drives Team to Conference Meet
Susie Steinbeck, the girls' golf coach at Fairfield (Iowa) High School, has been placed on administrative leave after being charged with child endangerment and operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Steinbeck, 51, registered a preliminary blood-alcohol level of .212 last week, according to Lee County District Court records — more than two-and-a-half times Iowa’s legal limit to operate a motorized vehicle.
Reports indicate Steinbeck was recklessly driving an SUV with her team aboard to a conference meet in Keokuk last Tuesday morning when Fairfeld City Council member Daryn Hamilton received a text at 7:19 a.m. from his daughter Liz, a member of the high school golf team, a few miles into the 60-mile trip: “Ohh myy goshh susie is going to kill us! She cant stay on the road! So in case this is the last time i talk to you i love you! :)”
Local media interviews with Hamilton and court records indicate that West Des Moines lawyer Steve Lombardi tailed the vehicle for several miles and called 911 before finally nabbing Steinbeck's attention at a traffic stop at the intersection of U.S. Highway 218 and state Highway 16 in southeast Iowa. At Lombardi's urging, she pulled over; a state trooper arrived shortly afterward. “Liz said the girls in the van had been yelling at Susie to pull over,” Hamilton told The Des Moines Register. “They said a person pulled alongside them — a private vehicle — to see if something was physically wrong with Susie."
The Fairfield Community School District announced that Steinbeck, also a computer applications teacher at Fairfield Middle School, had been placed on administrative leave in a statement released Thursday: "The district understands the seriousness of the charges filed ... in Lee County Court against Ms. Steinbeck. Superintendent [Don] Achelpohl has been in contact with Ms. Steinbeck and expects to meet with her and her counsel regarding the incident as soon as possible. The district requests that the media please respect the rights of the girls on the golf team as they finish the remainder of their season."
The district also assured the public that "the safety of the students was verified and the district made arrangements for the team to continue on to Keokuk."
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10:39 AM
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Home-Schooled Football Player Dies Working Out with Team
A 16-year-old North Carolina boy died late last week while exercising with his teammates on a football team for home-schooled children. According to reports, paramedics received a 911 call Thursday night after Luke Killian collapsed, possibly from heat exhaustion. The boy, who was from Collettsville, later died at an area hospital.
Killian played for the Morganton Mountaineers, a football team made up of home-schooled players between the ages 12 and 18. Mountaineers coach Doug Deitz told The News-Herald of Morganton that the Pioneer Football League did not sanction the practice. Instead, Killian and some of his teammates decided to practice on their own. Killian collapsed as they warmed up with sit-ups and lunges. “When he went down to one knee, he made a sound like a cough and just kind of fell over,” Dietz said. One of Killian's teammates administered CPR while his father, a doctor, talked him through the procedure on the phone, the paper reports.
The temperature at the time an ambulance arrived on the scene was in the 80s, with high humidity, according to reports. But Deitz — who said that Killian never failed a physical and always performed well on the field, no matter how long or tough a game was — doesn’t think heat problems caused Killian’s death. He hopes an autopsy helps determine what killed the player.
Incidentally, two bills related to sports and home-schooled students are pending in North Carolina. House Bill 253 allows home-schooled students to play for the school they would otherwise attend, based on residency. Senate Bill 361 reaches further, allowing public, private, charter and home-school students to play for a nearby public high school if their current school does not offer their sport of choice.
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10:28 AM
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Discus Accident Knocks High School Athlete Out of Meet
The latest reminder of potential dangers inherent in the staging of track meets (and field events, in particular) comes to us from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill., where on Friday a 14-year-old student-athlete was struck in the face and rendered unconscious by an errant discus.
Having already competed in a relay during the Central Suburban League Invitational, Evanston Township High School’s Linval Rose was warming up for his final race — the 400 meters. He was hit by the discus while talking to a teammate to the side of the throwing area. Reportedly in shock and bleeding from a cut near his nose, Rose slipped in and out of consciousness until paramedics arrived. Coaches at the scene determined that he knew his name and age, but not where he was or what day it was.
According to Chicago’s WLS, Rose remained hospitalized but in good condition as of late Friday. Evanston Township wound up winning the meet and dedicating the victory to Rose.
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Friday, May 13, 2011
USC Hitches Licensing Wagon to Cowboys' Silver Star
As Ohio State ponders its licensing options, the University of Southern California has hitched its wagon to Silver Star Merchandising, a recently launched offshoot of Cowboys Merchandising Ltd.
Created by Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones, Silver Star is seeking partnerships with a select number of schools (including Ohio State) that consistently rank among the national leaders in logoed merchandise sales. Talks began with the University of Texas after the Longhorns hosted a men’s basketball game against North Carolina at Cowboys Stadium in December 2009. According to SportsBusiness Journal, the 10-year partnership with USC consolidates all licensing deals for its apparel under one agreement with Silver Star, with the exception of uniforms and apparel worn by USC athletes and coaches on the field of play. Nike continues to hold those rights.
Silver Star will develop a private label brand for merchandise lines produced by multiple manufacturers, allowing USC to capitalize on market trends. Said Jones, “To do this the right way, we need to treat it as a brand and not just a piece of apparel, and have the university involved in the process so they have complete ownership and are not just contracting out somebody.”
While the deal will pay the school a larger percentage of sales than did USC’s previous licensing agreements, financial specifics were not made available.
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Did Stem Cells Play a Role in Pitcher's Comeback?
Bartolo Colon goes for his third victory of the season tonight as the New York Yankees host archrival Boston. That would be three wins more than he notched all of last season. In fact, Colon didn’t even pitch last season.
The right-hander’s remarkable comeback from elbow and shoulder injuries that have plagued him since 2005 has been attributed, at least in part, to stem cell injections administered during a 45-minute procedure in April 2010. The New York Times reported this week that Colon’s agent had informed the Yankees of the procedure, and that the Yankees in turn informed Major League Baseball. An MLB spokesperson told the Times that the league is “looking into it.”
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman says the team was unaware of Colon’s treatment when it signed the pitcher to a $900,000 contract after his productive off-season pitching in the Dominican Republic, where the controversial procedure took place.
Joseph Purita, an orthopedic surgeon from Boca Raton, Fla., led a team of Dominican doctors in using stem sells harvested from Colon’s own fat and bone marrow to repair ligament damage and a torn rotator cuff. Purita says no human growth hormone, which is banned by MLB, was used in the treatment of Colon. “This is not hocus-pocus,” Purita told the Times. “This is the future of sports medicine, in particular. Here it is that I got a guy back playing baseball and throwing pitches at 95 miles an hour.”
Others remain less convinced of the role stem cells played. Before the procedure can be proven effective, it must be subjected to scientific study, according to Freddie Fu, chairman of the department of orthopedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “In this case, we don’t know how the body’s natural healing abilities, along with the player’s own training, influenced the outcome,” Fu told the Times. “We know how stem cells work in cancer and AIDS patients. But in sports, we just don’t know. There is a lot of hype.”
Even Purita admitted this much: Without hard work by Colon, the comeback would not have been possible. “We gave him the means, but he has the focus and desire, the killer instinct,” Purita said. “He worked his tail off to get back in the game. That is something stem cells cannot fix.”
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Thursday, May 12, 2011
Time Running Out to Host World's Largest Swimming Lesson
Aquatic facility operators still have a few days left to register to become a host site for the second annual World's Largest Swimming Lesson™. The free event, scheduled for 11 a.m. (EST) on Tuesday, June 14, encourages children and adults to learn a lifelong skill and help prevent drowning while setting a new Guinness World Record.
Last year, 3,971 participants from 34 states, five countries and three continents took part, setting a world record. But organizers of the World's Largest Swimming Lesson hope to make bigger waves in 2011, with anticipated increases in the number of host facilities and lesson participants. The deadline to register facilities is Friday, May 20, and local host sites will manage their own schedules for individual participant registration and on-site sign-in.
“It is so important to draw attention to this issue — particularly at the beginning of the summer season,” says Olympic swimming gold medalist and WLSL spokesperson Janet Evans.
Nationally, drowning remains the second-leading cause of accidental death among children, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. An estimated 300 children under the age of five drown in swimming pools and spas every year, and more than 4,200 kids 15 and younger visit hospital emergency rooms because of non-fatal submersion injuries, including those that result in permanent brain damage. Additionally, WLSL officials report that studies show if a child doesn't learn to swim before the third grade, he or she likely never will.
Registered WLSL host locations will have access to an extensive set of tools to implement the program, including the full lesson plan, event checklists, time lines and a wide array of marketing tools. There must be a minimum of 25 participants per location in order for the site to qualify for the Guinness World Record.
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Revised Policy Forces Vice Principal to Drop Coaching Duties
Times are tough for high school coaches these days. Among the latest stories to surface is one that focuses on a school board policy revision in Clifton, N.J., which has resulted in the removal of Clifton High boys' soccer coach Joe Vespignani. Earlier this week, Vespignani — also the vice principal at Christopher Columbus Middle School — was told he is not allowed to both coach and hold an administrative position.
The revised policy of Clifton Public Schools states that administrators cannot receive pay for duties performed outside of their jobs, and it requires them to remain at their positions until 4 p.m., making it difficult or even impossible to coach athletic teams. (Teachers who coach are apparently not impacted.) As NorthJersey.com reported, "The Board of Education's policy change caught Vespignani like the innocent victim of a red-card-wielding referee."
When contacted by the Clifton Journal, Vespignani — who coached the 2010 soccer team to county and league championships while generating national respect during his nine-year tenure — referred "all matters of this nature to the Superintendent's Office."
The policy change, for which no reason was given in local media reports, also affected high school girls' track coach and guidance director Florence Calise. During 21 years at Clifton High, her teams sent several athletes to Division I and Ivy League schools. "I am disappointed in the change of policy, but the board of education has to do what it thinks is right," she said.
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UCLA Students Secure Premium Seats at Pauley Pavilion
UCLA students have spoken, and they will again be seated courtside when renovated Pauley Pavilion reopens for the 2012-13 basketball season.
Students weighed in on the seating issue last week during a vote conducted as part of undergraduate student elections, and UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero made the official announcement Tuesday. Approximately 900 seats will be available to students along the sidelines and immediately behind one basket, with 800 to 900 additional seats reserved for students in the upper deck behind that same basket.
In earlier meetings with the athletic department, student groups had indicated a desire to form a unified student cheering section behind one basket, and that became the plan. However, last week’s vote overwhelmingly rejected that approach.
Placing students in the best seats in the house has long been the tradition at some schools, but it often represents a tradeoff between creating a home-court advantage and securing premium ticket prices. According to the Los Angeles Times, the sideline seats occupied by students could have commanded as much as $1,198 per seat plus a $3,200 donation to the athletic department.
Still, athletics officials expressed no regrets. Said Guerrero in a statement, “This process reconfirms the tremendous passion that exists on campus surrounding our intercollegiate athletic events.”
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Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Blog: Hook Rec Program Participants with Fishing
We’re perched on the edge of another summer, and while that surely means Little League games and days at the pool, it also brings an opportunity to get kids outside and involved in another activity: fishing.
Fishing is, to use a well-oiled and perhaps inappropriate phrase, an odd duck. Kids are either aware of it as a sport — having caught the Bassmasters on TV — or they think it’s something Tom Sawyer did in a book. If they didn’t grow up around water, they may not know much about it at all. Urban fishing initiatives, however, are helping introduce kids to fishing, and are growing in popularity. Here in Baltimore, Patterson Park's rec staff holds catch-and-release Family Fun Fishing Nights every Thursday. They use loaner poles to teach local city kids the fine arts of baiting a hook, casting a line — and practicing patience. And ultimately, they teach kids to reel 'em in.
No words can adequately transcribe the expression on the face of a kid who for the first time, feels the erratic, jerking tug and realizes there's a fish on the other end of the line. It’s a moment that stamps itself in memory forever. If the next generation is really lucky, that kid will want to pass the moment on.
Take Me Fishing is a national campaign started by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation that encourages youngsters to learn their way around the sport. Just as important, it raises awareness of the importance of protecting and conserving America's waterways. The site includes information on types of fish and what bait to use, tips for successful fishing, maps of where the fish are biting, how to get a fishing license and more.
As we move into the warm months and start exploring ideas for keeping kids occupied in rec day camps, an afternoon of fishing could be a winner. If the fish don’t cooperate by biting right away, it's a good opportunity to talk about things like the local ecosystem and the importance of keeping it clean. If and when the fish do get down to business, there are plenty of teachable moments about legal size and weight limits, and how to unhook a fish and throw it back into the water safely. Best of all, landing that first fish is something a Wii can never replicate.
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Tuesday, May 10, 2011
LAX Players Suspended for Carrying 'Weapons,' 'Explosives'
Two lacrosse players from Easton (Md.) High School recently were suspended for carrying what they consider tools of the trade.
Under Talbot County Public Schools's zero-tolerance weapons policy, Graham Dennis was hauled off in handcuffs by local police and charged with possession of a deadly weapon when Easton High officials found a pocket knife and a multi-tool device used to repair lacrosse stick strings in his bag during a search on April 13. He was suspended for 10 days. Searches of the players' bags were conducted after administrators received a tip that some of them might contain alcohol, The Baltimore Sun reports.
Dennis's teammate Casey Edsall, who had a lighter also used to repair equipment in his bag, was suspended for one day because the lighter is classified by the district as an "explosive device." Edsall's family appealed the suspension but was denied by superintendent Karen Salmon. They now plan to take their case to the Talbot County school board in an attempt to reverse Salmon's decision.
As for Dennis, school officials originally told his mother, Laura, that she would not be allowed to appeal her son's 10-day suspension. But Salmon indicated Monday that she would consider a written appeal to expunge the suspension from Graham's record, meaning the soon-to-be-senior would not have to report the suspension to every college to which he applies. In a letter to the Dennis family obtained by The Sun, Salmon wrote that having a weapon on school property is a criminal offense that could be punished with three years in jail. "Given the severity of this violation, expulsion is warranted," she wrote.
Laura Dennis added that her son and other players have regularly used such items as the knife and lighter to repair sticks on the sidelines during games — a practice other area lacrosse coaches claim is not unusual. "Honestly, they are typical items for kids that tinker with their sticks all the time. Every team has a kid who is a stick doctor," Bob Shriver, coach at Boys' Latin School in Baltimore, told the paper. "I can see that being part of somebody's bag."
This incident comes not long after members of the Maryland board of education raised concerns about whether some school system policies are too harsh and deny students the right to an education. "Incidents like this are cause for tremendous concern," Kate Walsh, a member of the state school board, told The Sun. Walsh initiated a discussion about suspensions last winter after a Fairfax County, Va., student committed suicide following a long suspension on a relatively minor infraction. "This represents overreactions in school systems that are troubling."
In another incident some observers are calling an administrative overreaction, a boys' track coach in Westwood, Mass., was fired and
ordered off school property on April 29 for letting his runners train
without wearing shirts.
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Charges Pending for Coach Who Pulled Swimmer by the Hair
The Placer County (Calif.) District Attorney's office is determining whether Geoff Capell, an assistant swimming coach at Roseville High School, should be charged with misdemeanor battery after grabbing a female swimmer's hair. The incident happened late last month, when Capell attempted to pull team captain Jennifer McCarroll out of the pool following a race during the Sierra Foothill League Swimming Championships, in which Roseville placed fifth out of six teams. Witnesses told local media that they thought Capell was furious at McCarroll and another swimmer for an "intentional disqualification" because the team was not in a position to win the meet.
A video of the incident is making its rounds on the Internet, and Capell — the father of Roseville's varsity swimming coach, Kelly Capell — has resigned from his volunteer position.
"We're very sorry that this unfortunate incident occurred," Steve Williams, Roseville Joint Unified School District's director of pupil services, said in a statement. "A physical response like this by any coach for any reason cannot and will not be supported."
McCarroll's parents called the incident an assault, and filed a police report citing misdemeanor battery. But according to Rivals.com, other swim parents have defended Capell's actions in light of the swimmers' alleged intentional DQ.
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Monday, May 09, 2011
FAU Expects Stadium to Make Big Economic Impact
A new 30,000-seat football stadium at Florida Atlantic University should generate $1.8 million in economic impact for the school and its surrounding community every game day, according to the Palm Beach County Sports Commission, a private nonprofit organization contracted by Palm Beach County to promote and market the county as a sports and sports tourism destination.
The Owls will play five home games in the stadium this fall, beginning with an Oct. 15 matchup against Western Kentucky.
While the $70 million stadium represents a major step for FAU, which has played its home games in a rented 20,000-seat off-campus facility shared with local high school teams, it’s not immediately clear who’s going to generate all that game-day commerce. Compare the $1.8 million projection with figures recently released by the University of Wisconsin, which drew near-capacity crowds averaging 79,862 fans last season. A research firm determined that the average Badger fan spent $232.53 (excluding tickets) while visiting Madison, which comes to a total game-day impact of roughly $1.86 million. Can FAU, which travels to Florida, Michigan State and Auburn this season, truly be expected to compete with much larger schools (with much larger stadiums) in terms of home-game economic impact?
An FAU media release issued today also reports a number that would seem fairly concrete. The stadium project created 2,000 jobs, including all work done onsite and offsite since official planning stages began in 2008. Last month, FAU players showed their appreciation by offering a free lunch to construction workers.
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Friday, May 06, 2011
AD Fired for Faking Classes, Fixing Grades
A Seattle Public Schools investigation has determined that Jim Valiere, former athletic director at Garfield High School, had manufactured grades for a Spanish class that didn’t exist in order to keep a heavily recruited basketball player on course to attend his college of choice. Valiere was fired April 11.
As the University of Washington’s top recruit, Tony Wroten Jr. needed two years of credit in a foreign language to meet UW admission criteria. Wroten, who some believe could jump to the NBA by the 2012-13 season, had received a D in first-year Spanish, a grade that would have prevented him from advancing to second-year Spanish during this, his senior year.
According to The Seattle Times, Valiere, who is certified to teach Spanish, says he received approval from Garfield principal Ted Howard for Wroten to repeat first-year Spanish under Valiere’s tutelage during the spring 2010 semester — a claim Howard denies. Wroten and another struggling student told an SPS investigator that, despite Valiere’s account of weekly independent study sessions, they in fact completed no course work, did not use a textbook and didn’t attend classes. Both students received C grades.
Likewise, a summer-school class for Wroten that Howard had authorized Valiere to teach never took place. Records indicate that two tests were administered in June, when Wroten was out of town preparing to compete in the Under-17 World Championships for Team USA. Still, Valiere submitted a grade-change form for Wroten in September that was approved by Howard and a counselor.
According to the school district’s termination letter, Valiere was attempting to add a grade for a summer course that didn’t exist. The district also made note of Valiere allowing six ineligible football players to compete in a game, giving “secret waivers” for athletic fees to 19 students and misleading league and state sports administrators.
Despite all of this, Wroten’s admission to Washington will clear if he receives a passing grade in a remedial Spanish class during his final semester. Garfield students have done without an athletic director since October, when Valiere was first placed on administrative leave. He has requested a hearing to dispute his firing.
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Blog: Fitness’ Secret Ingredient Is No Secret
People are obsessed with secrets: The secret to long life, the secret to popularity and always, always, always, the secret to staying thin.
A friend who is a personal trainer told me she is approached frequently by women who say, “You’re so thin. What’s your secret?” My friend said, "I think they're really waiting for me to say, ‘I drink eight cups of scalding hot green tea in the morning and eat a Brazil nut without chewing, and that way nothing I eat for the rest of the day gets absorbed.’ ”
I know exactly what she means — like there’s some secret ingredient. We all know, as members of the fitness industry, that the way to weight loss is to eat less and move more. We know that maintaining a healthy weight and fitness level is to continue making those good choices, and balancing smart food choices with regular exercise.
So many people say they’re willing to do those things – but what they really want is something that works like a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card, only for their health regimen. You know, so that when they want to skip the gym because they aren’t in the mood, or when they’re faced with the bacon cheeseburger or the banana split, they can pull out the card and swipe it, canceling the calories and the need to work out.
Wow — where do I get one of those? Sign me up.
The secret to staying fit is no secret. It’s a commitment. It’s not making excuses. It’s not following fad diets that cut out basic food groups, and it’s not expecting overnight results. Most important, it's not giving up on the regimen.
Now the big question: How do we disseminate that answer to a world that is still looking for a secret?
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Thursday, May 05, 2011
Track Coach Fired After Boys Run Shirtless
A celebrated boys' track coach in Westwood, Mass., was fired and ordered off school property last week for letting his runners train without wearing shirts. Tom Davis led Westwood High's 4x800-meter relay team to the New Balance Indoor Nationals less than two months ago and had his outdoor team off to a 5-0 start this season when he started hearing about complaints regarding boys going shirtless.
According to The Westwood Press, athletic director Karl Fogel told Davis, who is in the middle of his second year at the school, that although there was no rule against runners showing some skin during practices, local residents did not want to see any.
From there, things got ugly. As the paper reports:
According to Davis, about a week after being first informed of the potential issue, some of his runners were running shirtless, and Fogel spoke to them about wearing a shirt. Davis said he used the opportunity to e-mail Fogel and Westwood High assistant principal Sean Bevan in an attempt to resolve the issue. Fogel replied saying the issue had been discussed and that shirts were mandatory, Davis said.
Davis said on Friday [April 29], Bevan once again did not respond to a request for a meeting, and Davis said he warned the team before practice “the administration is adamant against you guys being shirtless.” He said they risked being kicked off the team if they ran shirtless.
During the course of the workout on the 75-degree day, a member of the team took off his shirt and tucked it into his shorts. Davis said that Fogel came over in his golf cart and confronted the student.
“In an attempt to get him away from this kid, I said, ‘Karl, his workout is almost over, he’s not technically running shirtless,' ” Davis said.
Davis said Fogel then began to argue heatedly with him and, after asking Fogel to back off, he was suspended. After asking him to back off once again, Davis said that Fogel fired him and ordered him off the property.
“I’m obviously in disbelief, I’ve never witnessed anything this ridiculous,” said Davis.
Westwood Public Schools superintendent John Antonucci says the local media's portrayal of the incident has been based on "no factual information" and issued the following statement: “While I cannot discuss the specifics of a confidential personnel
matter, I can assure you that Friday’s decision to relieve Mr. Davis of
his duties was not the result of a single incident, but rather the
regrettable outcome of an on-going discussion. It is my responsibility
to ensure that our employees implement programs in a way that is
consistent with the overall mission of the Westwood Public Schools.”
Westwood's track team, without Davis at the helm, lost its meet on Monday, and several parents of track team members have reportedly requested meetings with the school's administration.
Meanwhile, runners have defended their desire to train without shirts. “Even when it’s above 60 degrees, it’s very noticeable about how much cooler you are and how much easier it is to run,” a member of Davis's team told the Press. “After a point, when your shirt is covered with sweat and just sticking to you, it’s just a bad situation. I don’t think people understand how hard we’re running out there; it’s not like we’re playing a baseball game and we’re sweating. It’s much different, and if you don’t have the experience of trying to do it yourself, you probably couldn’t understand.”
Last week, a three-judge panel ruled, 2-1, that former Iowa high school football coach Bruce Wall was wrongly fired two years ago after a 1-8 season. Jesup School District officials claimed Wall did not respond enthusiastically enough
to administrators' recommendations for improvements.
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High School Umps Will Donate Game Fees to Pediatric ER
More than 100 umpires working baseball and softball games in Mid Michigan on Thursday will donate their game fees (as much as $85 each) to Officials For Kids, a charitable initiative of the Michigan High School Athletic Association in conjunction with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Approximately $10,000 is expected to be collected, according MSHSAA spokesperson John Johnson, and the money will be used at the local Children’s Miracle Network facility (Sparrow Hospital in Lansing) for the maintenance of its Pediatric Emergency Room and Waiting Room. This is the fifth consecutive year that officials organizations have been involved in the cause.
The Give-A-Game program, as it is known, has been used by different officials associations in the state to solicit donations and increase awareness of the Officials for Kids cause while generating public support for the Children’s Miracle Network. Ken Sudall, who is leading a group of Give-A-Game umpires in the Lansing area today, also is encouraging motorists passing games to honk their horns. “It’s a nice way for folks to show their appreciation for what officials do for kids, and to help support our efforts if they can’t stop by the game,” Sudall says.
Today's actions by Michigan officials stand in stark contrast to those of Louisiana officials, who three months ago forced the cancellation of some 80 high school sporting events around the state after principals voted down a pay hike requested by officials. A few days later, most returned to work after a promise from the Louisiana High Athletic Association to revisit the request.
Michigan's Officials For Kids program takes on a local focus at each Children’s Miracle Network Hospital in the state. In addition to the efforts to benefit Sparrow Hospital, Officials For Kids has a program at Beaumont Hospital in Detroit called Referees For Reading, in which money raised helps fund a pediatric ward book cart and officials give of their time to read to children. At DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, members of the West Michigan Officials Association have conducted Give-A-Game donations the past three years to assist programs for visually impaired pediatric patients and the hospital’s Children’s Burn Camp. And at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Officials For Kids donations will go towards Camp REACH, which fights childhood obesity. "I'm not aware of a similar effort in any other state," Johnson says.
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Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Study Quantifies Economic Impact of UW Athletics
Fans attending a University of Wisconsin men’s basketball game spend an
average of $98.25 while in Madison, and that doesn’t include the
purchase price of the tickets. The typical Badger football fan drops
$232.53 (excluding tickets) during his or her stay (nearly 76 percent
of fans eat in local restaurants, and 11 percent book lodging). Even
when not attending games, fans on average purchase $156.27 worth of UW
merchandise annually. All told, UW athletics contributes $970 million
to the state’s economy, according to a study conducted by NorthStar
Economics Inc.
Wisconsin has led the Big Ten Conference in men’s
basketball attendance eight of the past nine seasons, and its football
program ranked 16th in attendance among Football Bowl Subdivision schools last fall, according to the NCAA. “When you think
about it, it’s a powerful economic force when you have that many people
spending money for meals and hotels and transportation and
merchandise,” UW athletic director Barry Alvarez told local sports
journalist and broadcaster Mike Lucas at uwbadgers.com.
Of
the $970 million, $843 million (or 87 percent) comes in the form of fan
spending and support, according to the report. In addition, fan spending and support
accounted for 7,377 of the 8,853 jobs created through UW athletics, as
well as $46.6 million of the $52.8 million in tax revenue generated by the department, which accepts no tax support from the state. “It’s
important that our patrons know that their money is not just feeding
us,” Alvarez said, “but it’s being spread throughout the economy and a
lot of people are benefiting from it.”
Facility construction is
another major economic driver. A $76.8 million Athletic Performance
Center, which received project approval last April, and La Bahn Arena,
a $27.9 million tri-level hockey and swimming venue approved in
November, stand to generate a combined $152 million in economic impact,
$6.9 million in tax revenue and 1,621 jobs.
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Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Sports Venues Brace for Potential Bin Laden Backlash
Though a terrorist attack in the immediate aftermath of Osama Bin Laden’s death is unlikely, both Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association are stepping up security measures at their teams’ venues just in case. Neither league is long on details, and for good reason.
“They don’t want to alarm fans who are entering an environment where they are supposed to have a good time and have fun,” sports venue expert Ben Goss, professor of business management at Missouri State University, told the New York Daily News. “And they don’t want to tip their hand to someone intent on coming in to cause trouble.”
Venue security may not reach the levels seen in the wake of 9/11, but one measure taken for the NBA’s Eastern Conference semifinals this week at the United Center in Chicago will subject fans to handheld metal detection. The Atlanta Hawks beat the Bulls in the series opener Monday, the day many people first became aware of the news that U.S. armed forces had killed Bin Laden during a targeted raid in Pakistan. Game two of the best-of-seven series takes place tomorrow night.
The NBA’s metal-detector mandate applies to all of the league’s remaining post-season games.
Brian Jackson, terrorism analyst for the Rand Corp., told Daily News sports writer Michael O’Keeffe that Al Qaeda targeting a stadium or arena with an attack this close to the death of the terrorist organization’s leader is improbable. “If a plot was already planned, we could see something, but otherwise this could take months to happen,” Jackson said, adding that diligence is still required now, given the fact that small-scale Al Qaeda sympathizers could try to infiltrate sports crowds with the intent to maim or kill as many people as possible. “We need to implement security in case something is attempted. And we need to implement security to make people feel safe. Public reassurance is important.”
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Sunday, May 01, 2011
Blog: Serving Up Tennis that Everyone Can Play
I refuse to be hypocritical and start out by saying that you know an exercise program has hit the big time when it appears on "The Biggest Loser." I hate reality TV — nothing and nobody can change that. So the fact that Cardio Tennis was featured on the show (and demonstrated by Anna Kournikova, no less) isn’t the reason I’d give you to offer it. Really — it shouldn't take a TV appearance to convince anyone. You need only an interest in increasing the use of your courts and the knowledge that sports-specific fitness programs have been consistently popular for years.
For the uninitiated, Cardio Tennis is a high-intensity workout that combines tennis drills and skills (hitting forehand, backhand, volleys) with cardio training (running through cones, across fitness ladders) with upbeat music playing in the background. Basically, the program addresses all levels of athletes, from frequent players who want to stay in top playing condition all the way down to beginners who don't often venture out on the court. Because the program can utilize the lower-compression tennis balls currently being used to teach tennis to kids, there's less chance of a beginner getting all sweaty-palmed and self-conscious over his or her tendency to hit it out of the park. Plus the pro giving the class can tailor it to his or her attendees' level of skill and/or fitness.
The goal of the program? The same as everyone in the fitness industry: to keep participants having fun, seeing results and coming back. There's also a new companion youth program, Cardio Tennis for Kids, which could be a great addition to summer children's day camps.
Maybe the program brings people back to the sport after a layoff. Maybe they're beginners and they move up to taking tennis lessons, or maybe they just wind up trying other exercise programs in the company of the friends they met in class. No matter what, your club wins because the member has a good experience and stays active and involved. And hey, your courts get more use. Sounds like an ace.
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