Friday, September 30, 2011
Fall Victim's Son Throws Out First Pitch at ALDS Game
Wearing a cap, jersey and glove with plenty of room for growth, six-year-old Cooper Stone was escorted to the pitcher’s mound by his mom, Jenny, and Texas Rangers president and baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. As the PA echoes and organ music gave way to a roaring crowd, the two elders clapped as left-handed Cooper launched the ceremonial first pitch at Friday’s Game 1 of the American League Division Series between the Rangers and the Tampa Bay Rays.
Cooper, who less than three months earlier had watched as his father fell to his death attempting to catch a souvenir ball tossed in their direction by Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton, now wore Hamilton’s number 32 as he pitched the ball to his hero crouching between the mound and home plate.
According to Associated Press reports, Ryan had been in regular contact with Jenny, hoping to identify an appropriate time for Cooper to make a return visit to Arlington from the Stones’ home two hours away in Brownwood. This was “very appropriate,” Ryan said.
The first pitch represented the team’s latest gesture toward the Stones and Rangers fans in general since the tragedy. The team vowed to raise railing heights throughout the ballpark to avoid future falls, following similar but non-fatal episodes in 1994 and last year. The Rangers also plan to erect a statue of Shannon and Cooper Stone before opening day next season, and a memorial fund started by the team on the family’s behalf recently received $150,000 through an auction sponsored by Fox Sports Southwest, the Rangers’ main television rights holder.
“He represents what we believe we’re about and he is a very dyed-in-the-wool Ranger fan,” Ryan said of Cooper. “We’re just honored that they were willing to come out and do that and share the day with us.”
Ceremonial first pitches often bounce. They sometimes sail. Cooper’s toss was enveloped by Hamilton’s awaiting glove, just as Cooper was enveloped in Hamilton’s arms moments later.
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Coach's Cemetery Ploy Leads to Suspension
The junior varsity high school football coach who tried to motivate players after a loss last weekend by having them lay face-up in a cemetery has been suspended for two weeks without pay.
Jim Marsh had offered his resignation after parents complained of his spur-of-the-moment decision to stop the team bus en route back to Marcellus (N.Y.) High School after a game Saturday in Skaneateles, but Marcellus superintendent Craig Tice refused to accept it, stating, “He took the responsibility.” Marsh, who also teaches English and coaches boys’ varsity basketball at the school, has instead decided to donate his salary for those two weeks — about $1,500 total — to the cemetery for upkeep.
According to The Post-Standard of Syracuse, Tice said Marsh was distraught over the controversy his actions had caused, and the coach read a statement of apology to students and parents at a meeting last night. The motivational ploy, which was to make the players feel grateful for having the opportunity to put out their best effort and resurrect their season, “caused more confusion than understanding among adolescent players,” Tice said during a news conference. “The unintended consequences outweighed the intended outcome.”
Tice also called the end result “an inspired solution that will lead to healing.”
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10:03 AM
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PEP Grant Winners Announced, Will Receive $80M
The U.S. Department of Education has announced 76 school districts and community organizations in 25 states that will be the recipients of more than $35 million in Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) grants. Almost $44 million more in funding will go to supporting the developing programs of PEP recipients from 2009 and 2010. The award money goes toward the purchase of athletic and fitness equipment as well as training for physical education teachers.
Started in 2001, the PEP grant program has provided nearly $700 million in grants to initiate and improve physical education programs across the country. The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has budgeted another $78.8 million in funding for PEP grants for the 2012-13 school year, but those funds still must be approved in the U.S. House of Representatives’ Education budget.
“Being able to drive nearly $80 million into schools and communities to enhance physical education and increase physical activity will make a real difference to our children’s health, while also providing an important economic benefit to our industry,” says Tom Cove, president of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. SGMA, along with the nonprofit P.E.4Life organization, was instrumental in the formation of the PEP grants and continues to be one of the leading lobbyists for its funding.
To see the full list of winners, click here. Information about applying for the grant can be found at the Department of Education’s website.
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Thursday, September 29, 2011
Thieves Prey on High School Football Locker Rooms
Administrators at Seaholm High School in Birmingham, Mich., plan to install security cameras outside the school's locker rooms after nine football players reported that their cellphones — which were not secured in lockers — were stolen during an away game on Sept. 1. "When the installation of the new camera system is complete, we will be able to see who enters or leaves the locker rooms, especially when the team is at an away game and no one should be in there," athletic director Aaron Frank recently told Seaholm's Highlander school newspaper. "It is disappointing and frustrating … that one or two folks can impact so many others."
Plenty of other student-athletes have been impacted by high school locker room thefts this fall.
After getting thumped 68-0, many members of Tampa, Fla.'s Leto High School football team returned to the visiting team's locker room at Armwood High in Seffner last Friday night to find their cellphones and iPods missing. "Talking to the principal, he told me that all the doors to the locker room were locked, as well as in the hallway leading to the locker room," Hillsborough County Public Schools spokesperson Linda Cobbe told Tampa's FOX 13 News. "Armwood is going to do everything they can to make sure that whoever did it is prosecuted." A $200 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. But no word yet on whether video cameras will be installed outside Armwood's locker rooms.
The group of student-athletes hit hardest by burglars in recent weeks has to be the 30 players on the Frederick Douglass College Preparatory Academy for Young Men's football team. Coaches at the Detroit school discovered Monday that the field house had been broken into and looted for the second time in three years. That first time left the facility a vandalized shell, as thieves grabbed electrical wiring, copper plumbing and toilets, according to the Detroit Free Press. This time, they pulled a heavy door almost off its hinges and walked away with players' pads, helmets, shoes and footballs. Because the helmets were reconditioned and the shoulder pads were several years old, administrators didn't know exactly how much they would cost to replace.
But as news of the crime spread, so did the goodwill. Bob Maxey Ford was the first to step up, donating $3,000 to purchase new gear. "I was thinking, 'How are these kids going to keep playing?' I think it's just important that kids keep busy and keep playing sports and keep going to school," said Robert Maxey, president of the dealership. And Detroit's Allen Academy loaned Douglass coach Al Demps several pairs of shoulder pads. "We've had some donations coming in," he told The Detroit News. "We're reaching out to whomever we can."
The Douglass burglary jeopardized the school's Friday homecoming events, but thanks to donations, the game will still be played at Denby High; according to the News, Douglass has not played a home game all season because its field has been deemed unsafe and its scoreboard fell over. "It's leaning on the sidewalk," Demps said. "I haven't heard it's going to be fixed any time soon."
"This is an all-boys school with youth who have determination, goals and aspirations, and are not just out on the streets sagging," Wanda Dixon, president of a school parent group and whose son plays on the varsity football team, told the Free Press. "Why would somebody steal from them?"
The Detroit Public School Foundation is assisting with Douglass donations and can be contacted at info@detroitpsfoundation.org.
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School Investigating Team Bus Cemetery Stop
We’ve heard of coaches stopping a team bus for fear that the driver was impaired, but never to teach the passengers a lesson. Marcellus (N.Y.) High School officials are investigating a bizarre detour junior varsity football players were allegedly forced to take Saturday after a road loss at Skaneateles.
According to at least one complaint, coach Jim Marsh, who also teaches English and coaches boys’ basketball at the school, had the bus park near a cemetery, then had his players exit the bus and lie on graves. The message was that those buried beneath them would gladly trade places with the players, who should continue to play hard and never give up. According to Syracuse Post-Standard sources, players then were told to rise up and bring their season back to life.
Parents are reportedly calling the episode an inappropriate educational technique, and school officials are trying to determine exactly what took place after the bus pulled over at the cemetery. “We’re talking to the kids, the coaches and the parents,” Marcellus superintendent Craig Tice told the paper. “We’re still trying to collect information, definitely.”
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9:29 AM
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Wednesday, September 28, 2011
CPSC Changes Its Mind on Unblockable Pool Drains
Reversing a decision made nearly 18 months ago, the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission on Wednesday voted, 3-2, to change its
guidelines regarding how aquatic facility operators comply with the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act.
Now, in order to comply with the law aimed at preventing suction
entrapment in pool drains, public pools with a single main drain must
have a back-up system capable of shutting the drain's suction.
Previously, an unblockable drain — originally defined by the act as a
"drain of any size and shape that a human body cannot sufficiently block
to create a suction entrapment hazard," such as a dome-shaped cover —
was considered acceptable. On Wednesday, according to the Associated Press,
commissioners expressed concerns that the drain cover could break, come
loose or be improperly installed. Hence, the decision to reverse
course.
The move, which came after two hours of often contentious and emotional
debate, is a blow to public pool facilities with single-drain systems,
which must purchase and install new and costly back-up systems — or
close their doors if they don't comply — by the tentative date of May
28, 2012. Many facility operators have already spent thousands of
dollars retrofitting their pools with new drain covers.
Pools with multiple drains are not affected by the vote.
Wednesday's vote was precipitated by one of the agency's five commissioners wanting to change his earlier vote on how
pool operators should interpret the law, the AP reports. “My previous
interpretation is wrong,” Bob Adler said in the meeting, explaining that
he has spent months talking to lawmakers who helped write the law and
to industry officials, as well as hearing from parents who lost children
in entrapment accidents.
As AP reporter Jennifer Kerr writes, the overall impact on cities and
states is not clear, because neither the CPSC nor industry officials
were able to provide figures on how many of the nation’s estimated
300,000 public pools have single-drain systems.
Although public comment was not welcome prior to Wednesday's meeting,
public input will be sought regarding the May 28 effective date for the
changed policy. “It’s like saying we’re going to guillotine you, now
tell us what day would be convenient,” dissenting commissioner Nancy Nord said.
Prior to the meeting, as Athletic Business sister publication AQUA reported,
"some industry observers have stated that this change is unnecessary,
pointed out that the vacillating rulings of the CPSC create an
atmosphere of uncertainty, and noted that this strong blow to the
finances of public pools diminishes their ability to provide the
swimming instruction that prevents drowning, a much larger threat to
public safety than entrapment."
Between 1999 and 2010, there were 12 fatalities — mostly children — from
pool and hot tub drain entrapments, as well as approximately 80
injuries, according to government figures. "In stark contrast, over
1,500 families have lost a loved one due to drowning this year alone,"
Thomas M. Lachocki, chief executive officer of the National Swimming Pool
Foundation, said in a statement. "The recession has resulted in
hundreds of pool closures, reducing swim lessons
and increasing unemployment. The commission's decision to include
another level of entrapment protection may increase drowning risk as
pools close and fewer children learn to swim."
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4:39 PM
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Team Sports Participation Up Among 13-, 14-Year-Olds
The growth in youth team sports since 2009 is now being fueled by America’s 13- and 14-year-olds. That's just one of the key findings of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association’s annual participation study on team sports, "U.S. Trends in Team Sports." In 2010, sports participation among 13- and 14-year olds increased 22 percent and 14 percent, respectively, versus 2009.
The National Alliance for Youth Sports, which for years reported that 13 was the age most-cited at which kids stopped playing sports, concurs with SGMA's new findings. John Engh, chief operating officer of the West Palm Beach, Fla.-based organization, credits the change to a dynamic shift in the way team sports are presented to kids. “It is encouraging to see that more youngsters are playing team sports these days compared to what we were seeing just a decade ago, where the 13- and 14-year-old age range was when they typically started dropping out," Engh says. "I think this recent upswing can be attributed to the outstanding efforts of recreation professionals around the country who are overseeing youth sports programs and making sure that their volunteer coaches are well prepared for their roles and responsibilities. And the success of these programs has led to the emergence of club or travel teams and leagues that offer this age group many more opportunities that weren’t available just a couple years ago.”
Almost 70 percent of children in the United States between the ages of 6 and 17 play some type of team sport, and three out of four teenagers are now playing at least one team sport. According to the SGMA, five team sports — led by rugby and lacrosse — have had strong gains in participation since 2009: rugby (up 50.7 percent), lacrosse (37.7 percent), field hockey (21.8 percent), gymnastics (19.7 percent) and beach volleyball (12.3 percent). Four more traditional mainstream team sports experienced single-digit growth in overall participation: baseball (up 5.2 percent), basketball (9.6 percent), outdoor soccer (2.8 percent) and tackle football (up 1.6 percent).
“Team sports bring us together as young children, teaching us to socialize, solve problems, resolve disputes, experience the benefits of hard work, understand different personalities and gain self-confidence and direction,” says Neil Schwartz, director of business development for SGMA Research. “And the roots of a positive team sports experience are an impactful P.E. class in school.”
Speaking of physical education programs, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee followed the recommendation of the Labor, Health and Education Subcommittee last week and included $78.8 million in funding for the Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) for the 2012-13 school year. The committee's action comes after the House Education & Workforce Committee proposed elimination of PEP funding, citing duplication of P.E. in other “physical activity” programs. The House Appropriations Committee has yet to take up the funding issue.
“The quality physical education provided with the PEP grant is critical to the physical well-being, academic achievement and social development of young people," Bill Sells, SGMA’s vice president of government relations, says. "Without dedicated P.E. funding, schools will not have the resources necessary to train teachers and purchase equipment needed for quality P.E. The Senate’s inclusion of PEP funding is a huge victory for the physical education community and a crucial step forward in securing 2012-13 P.E. funds."
The next step in the funding process will be inclusion in the U.S. House of Representatives' Education budget. In recent years, the Senate and the House have approved similar funding levels for PEP and compromised on the final funding figure.
PEP 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.
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12:17 PM
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Outbreak of Fire Ants Postpones High School Football Game
South Carolina has long been a breeding ground for fire ants — nasty 1/4-inch-long creatures with reddish-brown heads and blackish-brown ends whose painful stings leave white pustules on skin and cause allergic reactions. So who can blame high school football referee Steve Hook for postponing last Friday's game between Calhoun County High and Hunter-Kinard-Tyler High in Neeses, S.C., after he discovered 15 to 20 large and active fire ant mounds on the field shortly before kickoff?
Hook told the Associated Press that he was worried about the players, coaches, officials and chain crew. Bruce Hulion, commissioner of officials for the South Carolina High School League, supported Hook's call. Staff from the host school, Hunter-Kinard-Tyler, tried digging up the piles and pouring salt on them before Hook made his final decision. One local fan even offered to bring fire-ant poison. (Here are four steps to fighting fire ants.)
The field was deemed safe and ready for play Monday night, as Calhoun County beat Hunter-Kinard-Tyler, 19-8.
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10:22 AM
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Rebranding Exercise: 'Quality of Life' Trumps 'Live Longer'
Adult female exercisers respond better to messages that emphasize immediate quality of life benefits over living longer. So say researchers at the University of Michigan's Institute for Research on Women and Gender. While it has long been presumed that promoting the health and longevity benefits of working out are the primary motivators in getting people to exercise, a new study suggests that is not always the case.
"The study showed that what an individual espouses as important does not necessarily translate into behavior," says Michelle Segar, research investigator for the institute. "While people say they value health and healthy aging, those distant benefits don't make exercise compelling enough to fit into their busy lives. Promoting exercise for health is logical, but people's daily decisions are more often connected to emotion than logic. A more effective 'hook' is to rebrand exercise to emphasize the immediate benefits that enrich daily living, such as stress reduction and increased vitality."
Individuals may also appreciate the subsequent benefits that make exercise more personally meaningful, such as being a patient parent, enhancing creativity and having greater focus at work, Segar adds. "By shifting our model from medicine to marketing, we can improve how we 'sell' exercise to the public by using principles like branding," she says. For example, messages about immediate rewards from exercise that make life more enjoyable, such as "move more, get energy," may better motivate busy individuals than promotions focused on achieving distant and abstract benefits, such as "move more, get healthy."
Segar and her research team studied responses from 226 women between the ages of 40 and 60 who worked full time and completed three surveys during a one-year period. Respondents were asked about their exercise goals and participation, body mass index and social support. The complete findings appear in the current issue of The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
Segar recommends four steps to rebranding exercise and improving engagement and participation:
1) Assess the specific exercise benefits your organization has been promoting.
2) Evaluate the effectiveness of these motives to engage and motivate ongoing participation.
3) Ask your target population what values and experiences they most care about achieving in their daily life via exercising, such as reduced stress and improved mood.
4) Develop new messaging that addresses those values.
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Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Blog: Your Old Clothes Spur Homeless Runners Forward
A fellow volunteer at a charity flea market approached me while we were unpacking donations, and asked me if I’d seen any clothing suitable for running. I waved her over to a box where shirts, sports bras, shorts and all kinds of clothing made of wicking fabric were beginning to accumulate. She bagged it all up and wrote out a check to the charity.
“It’s not for me,” she explained. “It's for Back on My Feet.”
Back on My Feet, I learned, is a nonprofit organization that promotes self-sufficiency among formerly homeless individuals by getting them involved in running. It works with individuals living in transitional housing facilities, and it encourages them to get out and run on a regular basis as part of their continued recovery.
The logic is brilliantly simple: running (I guess any form of exercise, really) builds confidence, strength and self-esteem. It promotes healthy habits and helps keep people from falling back into bad ones. Many of those in the program are already involved in a 12-step program, and this introduces them to the runner’s high instead.
Individuals who become involved in the program are already interested in turning their lives around, and the program seems to strike a chord with them. Through their running and training, they realize that setting goals can result in real accomplishments they can be proud of.
Founded in 2007, Back on My Feet now has chapters in Baltimore, Washington, Boston, Dallas, Chicago, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and Atlanta. The Back on My Feet website includes success stories, a history of the program, donation information and more.
Because Back on My Feet is all about group runs, it’s very team-oriented. The participants encourage one another to keep going. In fact, I learned, it’s not uncommon to see participants running in our local 5Ks, 10Ks and so on. In a few weeks, a large number of participants will take part in the Baltimore Running Festival, which includes a marathon, half-marathon, relay and 5K. Others will be helping set up tables and hand out literature.
According to my friend, who does volunteer work with a transitional housing program where there are Back on My Feet participants, newcomers to the facility often want to take up running, but lack the clothing that makes it comfortable. She told me she had set up a donation box at her gym as well, and was very pleased by the response.
“This is great,” she said, peeking into the bag she had just filled while we were talking. “Some of this stuff still has tags on it.”
It occurred to me that as athletes who participate in tournaments, fun runs and more, we all get more logo merchandise — shirts, hats, sweatbands, socks, you name it — than we know what to do with. My friend had obviously found the right place to ask for donations. Maybe anyone with a Back on My Feet chapter in their area can set up a donation box at their own health club. I've already discovered the benefits of recycling old shoes, but this is a nice option for other types of clothing.
It’s great to hear that regular exercise can help bring people so far in their lives. It’s even better to know that when the horn sounds and the Baltimore Marathon starts, a bunch of people will have already made the greatest strides of their lives just getting to that starting line.
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9:57 AM
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Monday, September 26, 2011
Petition Seeks Solar Panels at Michigan Stadium
In a season that has already seen Michigan Stadium draw a record 114,804 fans to its first night game, 3,053 individuals have signed a petition calling for solar panels to be installed at The Big House.
Created by the Ann Arbor-based Ecology Center, the campaign calls for Michigan to follow the lead of National Football League franchises such as the Philadelphia Eagles that have retrofitted their facilities with green technologies. “The UM stadium has the potential to be the largest athletic venue in North America with solar panels, which is fitting with the university’s claim to be ‘the leaders and the best,’ ” Ecology Center policy specialist Monica Patel states in a press release issued today. “Even though the electricity generated won’t solve the climate crisis, it will go a long way in terms of solar energy education — just think of the awareness raised among the 100,000-plus fans there on game day, and millions of others who tune in. The move would also give real support to Michigan’s growing solar energy industry.”
According to the actual petition letter, 121 solar-power supply company chain businesses exist in the state, providing more than 6,300 jobs. “As an alumnus of UM, I was always taught to think of us as the leaders and best, and not just for sports,” writes Anthony King, UM alum and Ann Arbor resident, on Change.org, where the petition lives. “Here is an opportunity for sports and the social and academic side of the university to work together, and set an example for the nation.”
The petition asks university leadership to announce a commitment to solar energy tomorrow, at UM’s annual EarthFest. One immediate question is how the stadium — one of the last true seating bowls left, with scant skyward-facing infrastructure — would even accommodate solar panels. Rob Rodemacher, Michigan’s associate athletic director for facilities and operations, tells AB that the big hindrance to such a project is financial, not physical, feasibility. Turns out Michigan officials have done their homework.
A recent university sustainability study found that equipping the stadium with solar panels would cost $585,000 up front and $25,000 in annual maintenance. It would save less than $8,000 a year, with an estimated payback period of 77 years. Moreover, the estimated electricity savings of 78,577 kilowatt hours per year would offset the annual consumption of 6.3 average households. “It just doesn’t make sense for that amount of money,” Rodemacher says.
Regardless of what transpires Tuesday, campaign staff will continue to collect petition signatures at Wolverines home games throughout the season. “What these activists have accomplished is really impressive,” says Jess Leber, a senior organizer for Change.org, the world’s fastest-growing platform for social change. “In just a few weeks, the Ecology Center has inspired thousands of University of Michigan community members to make their voices heard on solar energy.”
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10:18 AM
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Friday, September 23, 2011
Football Coaches Ousted After Confrontations With Players
Two Florida high school head football coaches have been fired after both of them — in separate incidents — were allegedly involved in physical confrontations with their own players.
Keith Byars, a former fullback and tight end for the Miami Dolphins, was dismissed from Boca Raton Community High School on Thursday for allegedly shoving quarterback Kevin Anderson in the chest with two hands during an outburst in the second quarter of the Bobcats' 26-19 loss to Jupiter High last week. The incident was caught on videotape. The Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel reports that offensive coordinator Lewis Burnham will take over for Byars, who racked up a 14-11 record in his two-plus seasons at Boca Raton.
According to the paper: "Byars' dismissal had been rumored since his meeting with Boca Raton principal Geoff McKee on Tuesday evening, but the school wanted to handle the situation delicately because of concerns about tensions involving Byars' son and his teammates. Keith Byars II is the Bobcats' leading rusher this season."
Also on Thursday, at Hagerty High School in Oviedo, first-year freshman football coach Dan Widrich was arrested and fired for reportedly grabbing a player by the shoulder pads and pushing him up against a set of lockers following a Wednesday night loss at home to Oviedo High. The player was struck in the face during the altercation, according to the Orlando Sentinel, and several coaches had to break up the confrontation.
"It was not a fight or anything, just inappropriate contact," Hagerty principal Sam Momary told the paper. "That doesn't meet the standard of behavior that we expect from people. Anybody that can't treat kids appropriately can't work here. I have removed that coach from further contact with our players and school." Widrich, who was charged with battery with bond set at $500, was not a teacher at the school and worked in what was considered a supplementary part-time coaching position. A varsity assistant coach is expected to take over the freshman team.
These incidents are not without precedent in Florida, according to The Palm Beach Post: In 2009, Ron Ream, football coach at The Benjamin School in Palm Beach Gardens, was forced to resign after allegedly putting his hands on a player during a 2009 practice. Ream was reinstated days later amid overwhelming community support.
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10:11 AM
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Thursday, September 22, 2011
Texas School Cancels Game, Citing Mexican Cartel Threat
There will be no Friday night lights in Portland, Texas, this week.
Administrators at Gregory-Portland High School, located near Corpus Christi along the east side of the state's southern tip, called off the game earlier this week fearing the potential for violence related to Mexican drug cartels. G-P's scheduled opponent, Mexico's Monterrey Tech, backed out of a game with Stony Point High School in Round Rock, Texas, on Sept. 9, claiming that an anonymous caller (possibly a member of a Mexican cartel, authorities said) demanded $30,000 for the team to cross the American border.
"Due to reports of potential violence in Mexico and in the interest of safety for all parties, Gregory-Portland ISD is cancelling its varsity football game with Monterrey Tech on Friday night, September 23rd," read a short press release issued Tuesday by the school.
G-P administrators decided to be proactive, not wanting to endanger Monterrey players and staff. Recurring media reports about the school's situation and the violence in Monterrey fueled by rival drug-trafficking gangs weighed heavily in the decision, according to the Corpus Christi Caller Times. “We began to see that Monterrey Tech was flying to games instead of busing to games, as they did before," Paul Clore, superintendent of Gregory-Portland Independent School District, told the paper. "That began to suggest to us that maybe they knew more than we did about the threat level. So we just decided to err on the side of safety.”
The district's decision has angered, rather than relieved, Monterrey Tech officials — who have multiple football games scheduled in Texas this season. “We called last week and said we were coming, and then they called us and said no," Alex Botella, a Mexican promoter who arranges Tech’s Texas games, told the paper. "It was surprising it happened three days before the game. ... They called us last week making sure we were coming. We said, ‘Yes, we bought 50 airline tickets.’ It was kind of upsetting. I guess they were afraid something might happen to us. That was the reason they gave us, that he was more concerned about us than he was his own team. We’re flying internationally to San Antonio. I don’t really know why he was so concerned about us.”
Tech was scheduled to fly to San Antonio and then travel to Portland by charter bus. The school also has games in Austin on Oct. 22 and San Antonio on Oct. 29.
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10:13 AM
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Wednesday, September 21, 2011
As Realignment Accelerates, NCAA Urges Caution
Donned in Pac-12 apparel during a Tuesday news conference, University of Oregon football coach Chip Kelly told reporters, “I may be wearing a throwback shirt. I don’t know.”
Based on a Pac-12 statement released last night, we now know that the conference, which just welcomed Colorado and Utah into its ranks last year, has no current plans for expansion. At least we think we know. Not a day goes by (at least since last Friday) without some new chatter about conference realignment.
On Saturday, word got out that the Big East, anticipating defections to the Pac-12 by Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, had reached out to remaining teams in the Big 12. Meanwhile, Big East commissioner John Marinatto indicated he wasn’t aware of plans by Syracuse and Pittsburgh to apply for membership in the ACC.
Sunday brought news that the Syracuse and Pitt desertions had prompted the Big East’s Rutgers to seek relocation in either the Atlantic Coast Conference or the Big Ten. On Monday, we learned that Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel called it “naïve” to think that the Big 12 could survive without the likes of Texas and Oklahoma leaving the conference — a prospect that launched discussions of a possible Big East/Big 12 merger.
By Tuesday, Conference USA’s East Carolina had applied to the Big East, the Big 12’s Missouri reportedly had been offered a spot in the ACC, and membership inquiries by the Big East’s West Virginia had been rejected by both the ACC and the Southeastern Conference. It was reported that Oklahoma would consider staying in the Big 12, provided conference commissioner Dan Beebe is removed. Last night, athletic directors and presidents of the Big East’s football schools (including Texas Christian, which announced it was joining the league as its 17th member last fall) were scheduled to meet over the conference’s future.
Your head isn’t the only one spinning. In the wake of the Syracuse and Pitt defections, NCAA president Mark Emmert told USA Today, “This is not about playing Monopoly and moving pieces around on the board. These are real institutions with real students and real coaches and real programs, and it’s much, much more complex than playing a simple game. There’s a chance to do some things that would be helpful, and there’s a chance to do some things that would be very wrong.”
In particular, Emmert warned of costs in terms of both student-athlete classroom time and athletic department travel budgets associated with far-flung conference membership. Syracuse teams will cover more than 1,200 miles when traveling to Miami of Florida, for example. “Moving young men and women around in the middle of the week or over extended weekends, over those kinds of distances, is pretty hard to square with support for the academic success of students,” Emmert told USA Today’s Steve Wieberg, adding that the NCAA can only advise member schools. It can’t stop them from realigning.
Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim, for one, thinks it was time to move on. “If we were leaving the old Big East, I’d probably be upset,” Boeheim said Tuesday in an interview on Syracuse radio station WSKO, as reported by the Associated Press. “But what we have now in the Big East isn’t what we used to have. It’s completely different.”
UPDATE: The following is a statement posted on the Big East’s website following its Tuesday meeting:
“Our membership met this evening and we are committed as a conference to recruit top level BCS caliber institutions with strong athletic and academic histories and traditions. We have been approached by a number of such institutions and will pursue all of our options to make the BIG EAST Conference stronger than it has ever been in both basketball and football.”
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11:02 AM
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Blog: A Second Life for Athletic Shoes
Everyone out there has heard countless redundant lectures about the importance of recycling and reducing solid waste, so I’ll skip that part of the program and go to this: As an athlete, I have an obscene number of used pairs of shoes scattered around.
It’s sort of like reverse evolution. When I buy a new pair of shoes, they become my good indoor court shoes, and my formerly good indoor court shoes are busted down to the rank of being worn to play on the clay tennis courts near my house. My old clay court shoes then get demoted to being my work-around-the-yard shoes. The next logical step is the trash can, but I always feel guilty putting shoes there. And really, I can’t in good faith donate them to charity because they’re just too gross.
So it was a pleasant surprise last week to walk into my health club and see they had a donation bin for Soles4Souls, which is a Nashville-based charity that collects shoes and distributes them to people in need. Apparently, a lot of other people at the health club feel the same way I do about their shoes, because within a day or two, the bin was full, then emptied, then on its way to being refilled. And Soles4Souls takes all kinds of shoes — athletic, dressy, casual and all the hybrids in between.
Of course, that doesn't really solve my problem of the bottom tier of shoes that now have mud, crud and everything else caked on them, several pairs of which are residing in my tool shed rather than my closet because they're the next best thing to a biohazard. And for that reason, I'm glad I now know about the Reuse-A-Shoe program. Reuse-A-Shoe collects old, worn-out athletic shoes and recycles them into playground surfaces and crumb rubber for use in synthetic surfaces.
These are far from the only opportunities. A quick search on the Internet turned up several others, including those promoted through Run The Planet, Recycled Runners and SimplySoles. There are also a number of listings for local shoe drives offered by schools, churches, homeless shelters, running organizations and athletic clubs.
As the weather changes and seasonal athletic clothing goes on sale, we're likely to see more people buying new workout shoes. Try providing them with a receptacle for the old ones. Whether they wind up on someone's feet, or under them as an athletic surface, they've gone to a better place than the trash can or the floor of the tool shed.
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8:16 AM
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Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Crucial Virginia Graeme Baker Vote Moved to Next Wednesday
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, originally scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss and vote on a proposed change to the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act's current definition of an unblockable drain, has postponed the meeting to next Wednesday, Sept. 28.
Currently, the act defines an unblockable drain as a “drain of any size and shape that a human body cannot sufficiently block to create a suction entrapment hazard.”
On April 27, 2010, the commission issued a final intepretive rule providing that certain drain covers that meet specific requirements could create unblockable drains. The CPSC has since received 156 letters asking for a re-examination of its interpretation of that definition, according to The Association of Pool & Spa Professionals.
Up to this point, the CPSC has supported the concept that certain approved drain covers can convert blockable drains to unblockable drains, therefore satisfying the requirements of VGB.
As Athletic Business sister publication AQUA reports:
The CPSC’s meeting could change that compliance model. If the current definition of an unblockable drain is changed, it is possible that the installation of approved drain covers could no longer be used to comply with VGB, and that other measures would be required, such as the installation of an SVRS, a vent pipe, multiple drain outlets, etc. — some kind of secondary anti-entrapment system as defined by the act. As always, it is impossible to know the precise effect of the CPSC’s ruling until further clarifications are issued. However, in an email sent to media outlets, Carvin DiGiovanni, senior director, Technical and Standards, APSP, said, “The possible revocation of this rule means that a drain cover can no longer be used to convert a blockable drain into an unblockable drain.”
"It is important to note that there is no public comment period with this CPSC activity," DiGiovanni posted on the APSP website. "It is not seeking any public input for this vote."
The meeting will take place in Bethesda, Md., and can be followed live.
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Monday, September 19, 2011
Nebraska Cancels Controversial Ad Contract
The University of Nebraska has cancelled an advertising contract with TransCanada Inc., the developer behind a proposed crude-oil pipeline that would cross Nebraska’s fragile Sand Hills region, citing increased political controversy over the project.
BOLD Nebraska, a group opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline, launched an online petition last week urging Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne to drop the TransCanada ads, which were displayed on Memorial Stadium’s video screens during football games. The group planned to arm hundreds of willing fans with foam “cornfingers” — with slogans reading “No Oil in our Soil” and “Stop the TransCanada Pipeline” — and stage in-game protests as the ads appeared. A TransCanada official told the Omaha World-Herald that the ads were not meant to be political but rather a celebration of Nebraska’s longstanding tradition as a “pipeline” of offensive linemen.
Osborne, who represented the Sand Hills region as a U.S. congressman, cited political controversy as the reason for terminating the contract, but said through a spokesperson Friday that he was not aware of planned protests. Nonetheless, BOLD Nebraska representative Jane Kleeb told the World-Herald, “All I know is we love the decision,” adding that the group has suspended “giving TransCanada the cornfinger” and stopped gathering names for its online petition.
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Administrators to High School Cheerleaders: Cover Up
Cheerleaders in high schools from coast to coast are in danger of losing the privilege of wearing their uniforms to school on game days, as administrators crack down on dress-code violations.
In Lake County, Fla., cheerleaders with uniforms considered too skimpy are being asked to wear long shorts or pants under their miniskirts and a T-shirt under their sleeveless tops, according to the Orlando Sentinel. And principals at two of the county's eight high schools (Leesburg and Lake Minneola) aren't allowing the uniforms in school at all. The Florida High School Athletic Association bans cheerleaders from baring their midriffs, but no state rules address cheerleader miniskirts. Sheila Noone, a spokesperson for cheerleading uniform company Varsity Brands, told Sentinel reporter Erica Rodriguez that outfits haven't become more revealing over the last 10 years, adding that short skirts are necessary to help the girls jump and kick. "Cheerleading is athletic," she said. "There's a lot of jumping, so you won't want a knee-length skirt that might hamper a toe touch."
Most Lake County cheerleaders say they'll comply with school regulations, but not all of their parents are pleased. "They're now banning it like it's a something inappropriate or pornographic," Lisa Milligan, whose daughter cheers at Mount Dora High School, told the Sentinel. "If you're going to allow them to wear them to the game, then why not allow them to wear them to school?"
Meanwhile, in San Jose, Calif., cheerleaders at Piedmont Hills High were being forced last week by principal Traci Williams to cover up shorter new uniform skirts with sweatpants — in 95-degree temperatures. The school is overseeing a stricter dress code this year, one that yanks inappropriately dressed
students out of class and sequesters them until parents can arrive with a change of clothes. "This is really unfair to us," senior cheerleader Antonia Bavilacqua, who is leading the vocal charge to change the principal's mind, told the San Jose Mercury News. She also shared a photo of cheerleading squad members in their uniforms with online media outlets. "We're just sad and hurt. It's our school colors and spirit. And they're making us feel like outcasts."
Williams defended her initial decision by stating that "cheeks are hanging out. We don't want [the cheerleaders] bending over." But the principal, after meeting with cheerleaders, ditched the sweats mandate and decided to allow the girls to wear their uniform tops with jeans. The San Jose Unified School District, notes Mercury News columnist Scott Herhold, allows cheerleaders to wear uniforms in class as long as they wear bike shorts or something similar underneath their skirts.
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Friday, September 16, 2011
NHL Issues Social Media Policy, Finally
The National Hockey League may offer the fastest action of all professional team sports, but it was slowest among the major four in crafting a social media policy. That said, the policy issued Wednesday by the NHL appears to be the strictest.
The NHL policy describes a “blackout period” for player use of Twitter, Facebook and the like that extends from two hours before face-off until players have completed their post-game media availability obligations. For hockey operations staff, the blackout begins at 11 a.m. the day of a game. The policy also points out that social media communication will be treated like any other, with discipline possible for statements that have the intended or unintended effect of dipsaraging the league, a member club, officials or the game of hockey itself.
By comparison, the National Football League has had a policy in place since August 2009. It forbids social media use 90 minutes before kick-off until players have fulfilled their post-game media obligations. The National Basketball Association’s policy came a month later, banning social media use 45 minutes prior to tip-off and until players are through with the media. However, the NBA’s policy allows players to engage in social networking during a pregame media access period that begins 90 minutes before tip-off and lasts 45 minutes.
Major League Baseball’s undated policy, meanwhile, allows social media use in the clubhouse or other player areas up until 30 minutes before first pitch and immediately after the conclusion of the game.
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New Organization Seeks to Protect Young Athletes
A new organization announced Thursday that it wants to become the recognized U.S. leader in protecting young athletes. The research-based National Youth Sports Health & Safety Institute — a partnership between the American College of Sports Medicine and Sanford Health, an integrated health-care system based in Fargo, N.D., and Sioux Falls, S.D. — will initially focus on four key areas:
• Mild traumatic brain injuries and concussions
• Heat illness and injury risk
• Overuse, overload and injury risk
• Unique clinical conditions in youth athletic populations, such as Type-1 diabetes and eating disorders
According to the ACSM, the need for the Institute is underscored by a new poll that shows 91 percent of Americans believe sports participation is important for children and adolescents, and 94 percent agree more needs to be done to ensure the health and safety of youth sports participants. These concerns have been fueled by reports of heat illness, concussion, undiagnosed heart conditions and other issues affecting athletes of all ages. A new website will provide information, links and evidence-based resources for young athletes, medical professionals and others involved in youth sports.
“There has been a disturbing trend in the youth sports industry," Michael Bergeron, executive director of the NYSHSI and director of the National Institute for Athletic Health & Performance at Sanford Health, told Fox News.com's nutrition and health expert Felicia Stoler. "We are seeing an increase in injuries that have never been seen before in children and teens. ... Over the last two months, 14 kids have already died — half from heat-related causes, the other half from cardiac issues. It used to be that two or three kids died each year. Something needs to change.”
The National Youth Sports Health & Safety Institute will be under
the guidance of a leadership board composed of recognized individuals
from across the nation with extensive clinical and scientific expertise, as well as a passion for youth sports and the health and safety challenges
facing young athletes.
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In Summer of Violence, Fans Stay Classy in San Diego
With violence marring professional sporting events in Los Angeles and San Francisco this summer, it was refreshing to read this week of fans staying classy in San Diego.
Diane Bell, a columnist at The San Diego Union-Tribune, relayed the story of a concessions worker who tripped on a stair in the club level of Qualcomm Stadium during a Sept. 1 preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers. In the process, Heather Allison sent about $1,000 fluttering over the railing and into two sections of field level seating below. Allison, who has sold refreshments in club sections 36 and 37 for five years, watched as her customers shouted down an explanation for the sudden cloudburst of cash: “That’s the server’s money!”
Not even 10 minutes later, a stadium security official returned a stack of bills to Allison. “It was all there,” said the full-time student and mother of four, who pocketed $170 in tips. “Chargers fans are amazing. We’re like a family.”
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Lawsuit Targets NCAA's Lack of Response to Concussions
Following the lead of former NFL players, a Chicago attorney has filed a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA alleging failure to protect football players and other student-athletes from suffering concussions. According to the Legal Newsline website, Joseph Siprut filed the lawsuit this week on behalf of plaintiff Adrian Arrington, a 25-year-old former player on Eastern Illinois University's football team who sustained numerous concussions between 2006 and 2009. The lawsuit also claims the NCAA has ignored studies showing the risks and effects of concussions (such as early-onset dementia, depression, and lowered cognitive abilities) and failed to implement policies to address the problem. As California attorney Nikki Wilson Cary notes on the Collegiate and Professional Sports Law Blog, the litigation is the first targeting the association rather than an individual school.
"For over 30 years, the NCAA has failed its student-athletes — choosing instead to sacrifice them on an altar of money and profits," Siprut wrote in the complaint. "The NCAA has engaged in a long-established pattern of negligence and inaction with respect to concussions and concussion-related maladies sustained by its student-athletes, all the while profiting immensely from those same student-athletes."
Among the allegations made against the NCAA in the lawsuit:
• Failure to address or correct coaching of tackling methods that cause head injuries
• Failure to implement system-wide return-to-play guidelines for players who have sustained concussions
• Failure to implement guidelines for screening and detection of head injuries
• Failure to implement legislation addressing treatment and eligibility of players who have sustained multiple concussions
• Failure to implement a support system for players unable to play football or lead a normal life after sustaining concussions
Siprut also claims that the NCAA's April 2010 mandate requiring each school to have a concussion management plan in place by August 2010 is, in Cary's words, "too little, too late."
"The class-action lawsuit serves as a sharp reminder that colleges or universities with athletic programs, whether NCAA or not, should maintain and implement a clear concussion management plan to help ensure the safety of athletes and minimize exposure to the organization," she wrote. "Moreover, even if a concussion management plan is in place, it is important to monitor whether or not the plan is effective and if your organization is following the plan as drafted. When dealing with concussions, you cannot be too careful or too prepared."
Last month, Arizona became the first state to implement a statewide concussion-education program for all high school student-athletes, and the Franklin Lakes (N.J.) Recreation and Parks Department has implemented the country's first cognitive baseline testing program in municipal youth sports.
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9:39 AM
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Blog: ‘Lunkheads’ Judged in ‘Judgement Free Zone’
It was great watching “The Daily Show” skewer Planet Fitness — home of the Judgement Free Zone® — for discriminating against “lunkheads,” deadlifters serious enough to make noise while they work out.
In “The Plight of the Muscled Americans,” comedian-correspondent Jason Jones noted that anyone is welcome at Planet Fitness, as long as they exercise silently. The Planet Fitness representative identified even heavy exhalations as a reason that the dreaded Lunk Alarm might sound, to which Jones responded, “Really, I can’t even breathe?” She called anyone who violates PF’s rules a “jerk” and likened them to animals who belong in a cage. Nope, that’s not judgmental.
We understand Planet Fitness’s goal of creating an environment in which “regular” people feel comfortable. No gym owner wants weights slammed down or thrown, and any gym that tries to attract new exercisers doesn’t want members screaming and yelling. However, it’s quite another thing to stereotype anyone who works hard as a “jerk.” (We’ve got jerks, too, but we handle them individually.) What we most enjoyed about the segment was that someone finally said it — Planet Fitness’s Judgement Free Zone philosophy is complete hypocrisy, and we hope other gym owners are paying attention.
It seems that everything Planet Fitness does is fawned over by our industry. When they bought World Gym in 2006, it was described as a transformative event, but we wondered, “Why would Planet Fitness, which openly expresses disdain and disrespect for serious lifters, buy a chain whose reputation is based on its appeal to serious lifters?” So, big surprise, it didn’t work out and they sold World Gym in 2008.
Earlier this year, Planet Fitness made news by not just eliminating personal training, but by insulting anyone who uses a trainer. It caused quite a stir, but again, it was no surprise that they couldn’t make personal training work with members who are paying only $10 a month. They couldn’t, so they pulled it. Big deal.
The real value in this Comedy Central segment was for anyone competing with Planet Fitness. You cannot beat Planet Fitness at their own game by dropping your prices and trying simply to appeal to the masses. If you want proof of that, be sure to watch this show called “Turnaround King,” about a gym that was trying to match Planet Fitness’s price, despite having a dramatically different facility and cost structure. Planet Fitness is very good at what they do, both in terms of what they offer and how they position themselves. But, there’s a lot they don’t offer, such as childcare, group fitness and personal training, and as shown by “The Daily Show,” there are lots of people to whom they will not appeal — to begin with, anyone who breathes.
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Thursday, September 15, 2011
NCAA Clarifies Transgender Participation Policies
The NCAA has established new guidelines for transgender student-athletes, clarifying on which teams individuals can compete.
The standards, years in the making and effective immediately, read:
A trans male (female to male) student-athlete who has received a medical exception for treatment with testosterone for gender transition may compete on a men’s team but is no longer eligible to compete on a women’s team without changing the team status to a mixed team. A mixed team is eligible only for men’s championships.
A trans female (male to female) student-athlete being treated with testosterone suppression medication for gender transition may continue to compete on a men’s team but may not compete on a women’s team without changing it to a mixed team status until completing one calendar year of documented testosterone-suppression treatment.
“I commend the NCAA’s commitment to creating and supporting an inclusive culture that fosters equitable participation for student athletes,” stated Helen Carroll, sports project director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which joined the Women’s Sports Foundation’s “It Takes A Team!” initiative in October 2009 to develop best inclusion practices and model policies for high school and collegiate athletic programs. “That core value is strengthened as the NCAA unveils this new policy that will not only allow, but encourage transgender student athletes to participate on athletic teams. This is truly historic, and it will give transgender student athletes equal access and opportunities to play college-level sports without any obstacles.”
Moreover, the NCAA will provide resources for its membership, including the Inclusion of Transgender Student-Athletes resource book; a CD that contains the resource book; a slide presentation to educate administrators and student-athletes; and a 30-minute video featuring Betsy Crane, director of graduate programs in human sexuality at Widener University and a subject-matter expert on transgender issues.
“As a core value, the NCAA believes in and is committed to diversity, inclusion and gender equity among its student-athletes, coaches and administrators,” NCAA director of inclusion Karen Morrison wrote in a memo to the NCAA membership. “Since participation in athletics provides student-athletes a unique and positively powerful experience, the goals of these policies are to create opportunity for transgender student-athletes to participate in accordance with their gender identity while maintaining the relative balance of competitive equity within sports teams.”
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Blog: We Don’t Hire the Clueless, But Maybe We Can Help Them
In among the terrific feedback we received about a recent column were several suggestions that maybe we’re not hiring properly. We think we are. However, we know more than anybody that finding new employees from the Millennials generation is fraught with peril. This goes beyond qualified-but-toxic candidates. Many of these candidates are so clueless that we never even find out how qualified they might be.
So many job candidates now present themselves so poorly, in fact, that we have been left wondering what our responsibility is to society when faced with them. We understand that sending job inquiries, cover letters and resumes via e-mail and Web-based forms is now standard operating procedure. But can anyone spell anymore, or use punctuation or capital letters properly? We’re pretty sure that the comma and shift keys still exist on keyboards.
When we do find someone we’d like to meet, interviews have turned into an adventure. We love that we get to dress informally in the fitness industry, but wearing shorts to an interview? With visible underwear? From would-be personal training candidates who think that they will command top dollar from clients? Did these kids have parents? Did they walk into any place of business, of any sort, in their lives? Ever?
Even when some of these kids try their best, they just don’t get it. We got a thoughtful thank-you note from a job applicant recently, and it struck us how rarely we now receive one. It was actually a thank-you email message, which was fine — except that it was littered with misspellings, grammatical errors and what we hope were typos.
It was that e-mail that got us wondering: Should we spend our time to get back to a candidate to point out how poorly he or she is represented by such an e-mail? In our view, we must. So, we are prepared to say the following to our next shorts-wearing, underwear-displaying candidate: “Thanks for coming in today. We’re not going to interview you, and you’re not going to get a job with us, because you obviously don’t have enough common sense or life experience to know that you are dressed inappropriately. Do yourself and the future of this country a favor, and please go learn how to dress and behave at an interview.”
We certainly know what we’re not going to do. We’re not going to apologize for them, as this person, a human resources professional — in a column written for health clubs — did. Sorry, but we are put off by flip-flops, and we don’t much care what our job candidates “like.” Certainly, we have modified and will continue to modify our approach to be appropriate for various candidates, but if creating our 19 rules has proven anything to us, it’s that the inmates shouldn’t run the asylum. We’re barring the door from those who need not apply — although maybe we can help them stay off unemployment.
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Plane Crash Generates ‘Disaster Draft’ Discussion
In the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 7 air disaster that claimed the lives of virtually the entire Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team, more than 30 players from around Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League volunteered to play for the team this season. However, it took just three days for the team to assert that it would not rush back to KHL play; on Sept. 10, Lokomotiv president Yury Yakovlev told Russia Today that competing was not on anyone’s mind, at least for the time being.
“The main priority now is to take care of the relatives and to pay a last tribute to the late players and staff,” Yakovlev said. “The other aim is to rebuild a competitive team. This will take some time as well as requiring human resources. But we are determined to resume participation in the KHL in 2012-13.”
Rumors were already rampant at the time of Yakovlev’s announcement that the team was doing its part to spare the KHL of having to admit what appeared to be the case — that the league had no plan in place to respond to the unthinkable loss of a team to an air crash. The team’s other 23 teams had already pledged, separate from the players, to transfer as many as 40 players to Lokomotiv from all 23 surviving teams, and even to pay the players’ salaries for the season.
Even if the KHL does have a contingency plan in place that includes a so-called “disaster draft,” it is not so strange for the plan to be shrouded in secrecy. Few such plans are openly discussed, and published details typically appear only when a team-sports tragedy occurs — about once a decade. (The last event to prompt a spate of reports was the Jan. 27, 2001, plane crash that killed two Oklahoma State University basketball players and eight others returning home after a loss at the University of Colorado.) Details of the NHL’s disaster plan (suddenly relevant given the number of former NHL players killed in the crash at Yaroslavl) began making the rounds of hockey blogs: It activates if five or more players on a team “are killed or disabled,” and allows the affected team to select players from other NHL teams, using money from a special insurance fund. A subsequent special draft is held after the affected team has a roster that includes one goaltender and 14 other players, and includes only teams that have not given up a player.
Five is also the threshold number for disabled players under plans adopted by Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association — the NBA’s specifies that it comes into play when five players “die or are dismembered” — while the National Football League provides for a “near-disaster,” defined as fewer than 15 players disabled, and a “disaster,” defined as 15 or more. Only a full-fledged “disaster” or the inclusion of a quarterback among the fewer than 15 players disabled, warrants a draft from other NFL teams.
Full-fledged disasters are relatively rare, and have become more rare in an era (at least in the United States) in which airliners fall from the sky infrequently. Rarer still is for a decimated team to fall off the radar after the crash. Universities enduring this type of tragedy have been aided by their biggest resource, the student body. The surviving members of the 1970 Wichita State University football team completed its schedule by filling out its roster with freshman players in what became known as the “Second Season.” The crash of the Marshall University football team’s plane late that same season led to the cancellation of its final game against Ohio, but the team famously put together a squad of junior varsity players, students and athletes from other sports to compete during the 1971 season.
Few professional sports teams have ever faced such a situation. In 1949, 18 of the 21 members of the Torino A.C. soccer team lost their lives when the team’s plane struck the hill of Superga near Torino during a thunderstorm. The team was the reigning champion of Italy’s Serie A for the previous four seasons, and led the league with four games to play when the disaster occurred. The club finished the season using its youth team, and out of respect its opponents fielded their youth players, as well. Torino won all four games and the scudetto.
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Study: Simple 'Talk Test' Improves Endurance Training
A research study conducted by exercise scientists at the University of New Hampshire confirms the effectiveness of the low-tech “talk test” for measuring exercise intensity.
In the study, researchers asked participants to read the Pledge of Allegiance while exercising and then rate their comfort level while doing so. At the same time, they monitored heart rate and maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max). The point at which participants began having difficulty speaking correlated with reaching the upper level of exercise intensity guidelines.
While the study reinforced the general rule to exercise at a level where speaking is not difficult, it also gave new insight into how the test compares to two other measures of exercise intensity. Previous studies have shown that the talk test relates well to the ventilatory threshold, but the New Hampshire study was the first to also gauge its effectiveness in comparison to the lactate threshold. Scientists were surprised to find that the talk test related better to the lactate threshold than the to ventilatory threshold, and that at the point at which participants in the study began to have difficulty speaking, they were nearing their lactate threshold, which has been shown to be a better predictor of performance than the ventilatory threshold.
This new finding can be useful to athletes seeking to improve endurance performance, which is done by exercising at or near the lactate threshold. According to the research, by simply using the talk test athletes can accurately estimate the appropriate intensity for increasing endurance.
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Pieces of Old Gym Floor Make For Fun Fundraiser
A high school in Minnesota may have sold its old gymnasium floor to Justin Vernon, frontman for the indie rock band Bon Iver, for $200 on Craigslist. (Vernon laid it down in a home studio he converted from an indoor pool.) But when the Augusta (Ky.) High School gymnasium floor was replaced in July, administrators salvaged one-foot-long wood pieces and stored them with the intent to sell them for a much greater profit.
During the past few weeks, Augusta Schools has sold more than 250 of those pieces at $5 a pop to students, parents, alumni and anyone else who wanted a piece of school history that dates back to 1973. The souvenir sale so far has generated more than $1,250 for the school's athletic department. Each cut section of board has an authentication mark on the back, and calligraphy or wood burning can be used to put two lines of text on the face of each board.
"One woman, whose mother went to Augusta, had me put 'My mommy played basketball on this board' and her jersey number," Phyllis Reed, the district's program director, told The Ledger Independent of Maysville. "They have been really popular. Usually we have sold five or six at a time, rarely just one."
Other boards from the floor have been pre-marked with phrases that can be completed, such as "Class of _______." Each piece of board has its own character, and "if there was still a nail in it, we pried it out and glued it to the board," Reed said. She told Athletic Business that all proceeds will be used to purchase new uniforms and sports equipment, as well as help defray team transportation costs.
Approximately 300 boards remain (order forms are available on the AIS website), meaning the school's athletic department could net almost $3,000 from the fundraiser.
Meanwhile, Augusta High's floor logo is being restored to go on display on a wall of the school's main lobby. A few years ago, an alcove in the Hall of Fame room of Wartburg College's Waverly Community Wellness Center was designed around a reuse of the center logo from the college's displaced competition gymnasium floor.
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Monday, September 12, 2011
Synthetic Turf Makes Accessible Playground a Winner
An 11-year-old girl’s dream and a Kansas City high school are the winners of the Synthetic Turf Council’s annual Search for the Real Field of Dreams contest. The contest recognizes synthetic turf fields, parks and playgrounds across the United States and Canada that have had a significant impact on their community.
In 2007, 11-year-old Taylor Reuille, a resident of Fort Wayne, Ind., recognized the need for more accessible parks in the city. Along with her family and her community, Taylor worked tirelessly to raise funds for the million-dollar project, and with help from the city and a grant from the Pepsi Refresh Challenge was finally able to make the park a reality. In June, Taylor’s Dream Boundless Playground (pictured), the first such park in Indiana, opened for use by the community — the entire community. A synthetic turf known as Playground Grass allows people with assistive devices access to all areas of the park and the barrier-free playground equipment.
The dilapidated athletic fields at Van Horn High School in Kansas City, Mo., were the least of the school’s worries when it was annexed into the Independence school district in 2007. The first repairs were made to the school’s academic program to remedy high dropout rates, truancy and poor test scores, and then administrators turned their attention to the athletic program. After 37 years of neglect, during which time neither the school’s football nor soccer teams were able to play a single home game, the athletic fields received a much-needed renovation. Synthetic turf was chosen to meet the needs of the school’s athletic, band and physical education programs. Being able to play on their own fields gave athletes a renewed sense of community and pride, something administrators believe is a contributing factor to improved test scores and a 95 percent graduation rate.
Other outstanding synthetic turf fields recognized include:
Notre Dame Academy in Park Hills, Ky.
Ridgeland High School in Rossville, Ga.
Canyon De Chelly Elementary School in Chinle, Ariz.
Read more about these facilities and more here.
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Thursday, September 08, 2011
Blog: 9/11 Anniversary Run A Fitting Tribute
The 10-year anniversary of 9/11 has prompted a lot of memorial services, days of remembrance and other commemorations coming up. The fact that Sept. 11 this year falls on a Sunday means that a lot of people who might otherwise have to work can participate.
In Baltimore, there’s an event that is really close to my heart — the Run to Remember, a 5K that begins at the Baltimore Police Department headquarters at 8:46 a.m., the time American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. In addition to the city’s regular running crowd, the race includes special categories for law enforcement, fire and rescue personnel, and it always draws a huge following, including several firefighters running in full gear (if that’s not dedication, I don’t know what is). The race benefits the Baltimore City Police Foundation (in particular, the Mounted Unit and the Explorers Group) and the Baltimore City Fire Foundation.
Photo by Bill Lear
It’s always an overwhelmingly emotional day, paying tribute to the 68 Maryland residents who died on Sept. 11, 2001. The huge tide of runners flowing through the streets — folks wearing red, white and blue, groups of runners with black armbands or other items that commemorate lost loved ones — is impossible to watch without choking up.
A lot of local health clubs have brochures and posters for the race at their front desk, and I know of at least one boot camp class that signs up en masse and runs every year. It’s a great opportunity to show support, but an equally good way for participants to challenge themselves. The whole emotional aspect is incredibly motivational.
Baltimore isn’t the only city with a commemorative 9/11 5K. A quick Internet search turned up a dozen such races on the first page alone, and I know there are a lot more events of different distances, different types and more. And I’m sure other clubs are tying into them and encouraging their members to participate.
What is your facility doing? Anything? I’d love to hear about some other special events to memorialize a day we wish we didn’t have to.
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Posted At
6:39 AM
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Wednesday, September 07, 2011
Teens' Suggestive Photos Are Protected ‘Speech,’ Court Says
When students voluntarily participate in extracurricular activities, the courts have ruled that school districts and school administrators have a legal right to infringe on the constitutional rights of student-athletes in the areas of drug testing, due process or equal protection. By contrast, in a recent case, T.V. v. Smith-Green Community School Corporation [2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88403], the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana refused to allow school administrators the right to restrict students’ speech in violation of the First Amendment.
The judge in the case was asked to decide whether an Indiana school district violated the rights of two teenage girls, both of whom were members of the school’s volleyball team, when the school punished them for posting sexually suggestive photos of themselves on the Internet. None of the images, which were taken away from school during the summer vacation, identified the girls as students at Churubusco High School. However, the school claimed that the photographs violated the Student Handbook, and that by posting them online, the students had brought discredit upon the school. As punishment, the school suspended the two girls from fall extracurricular activities.
In ruling that the school overstepped its bounds, the court held that the First Amendment is not limited to written or spoken words, but includes other mediums of expression, including music, pictures, films, photographs, paintings, drawings, engravings, prints and sculptures. Therefore, even though the photos were juvenile and silly, the photos and the message they conveyed were protected under the First Amendment.
As for the school’s argument that students have no constitutional right to participate in extracurricular activities, the court held that while that may be true, the constitutional right at issue in the current case was freedom of expression, not the right to participate in extracurricular activities. Therefore, the court concluded that as long as the speech was non-disruptive and was not lewd, vulgar and/or plainly obscene, the students could not be punished by a ban from extracurricular activities.
While the issue of high school students posting suggestive photos of themselves on the Internet may seem silly from a federal standpoint, the case is important because it clearly sets limits on what types of speech school administrators can punish, especially when the speech occurs out of school.
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9:50 AM
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Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Study: Half of Runners May Be Overhydrating
Recreational runners may be getting too much hydration during races, according to a study conducted by Loyola University Health System. A survey of 197 runners found that 36.5 percent of runners drink based on a schedule or to maintain weight, and 8.9 percent of runners drink as much as possible.
Advertisements for sports beverages in past decades may have fed into misconceptions about the amount of fluid needed to prevent dehydration and encouraged athletes to drink as much as possible. Current guidelines from the International Marathon Medical Directors Association recommend that athletes drink only when thirsty.
The study also found that 29.6 percent of runners believed they needed to take in extra salt during a run to replace sodium lost through perspiration, and that nearly half of runners consume sports drinks because they believe they will prevent low sodium.
But drinking too much liquid — water or sports beverages — during a run can actually cause low sodium levels. This can lead to a condition called hyponatremia, which has been linked to at least 12 deaths in recent years. A 2004 study by The New England Journal of Medicine found that 13 percent of participants in the 2002 Boston Marathon suffered from low sodium levels after the race, likely caused by overhydrating.
The study is just one of many in recent years that challenge common beliefs among runners. A 2010 study found that stretching before a run causes no harm but offers no obvious benefit to runners.
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10:24 AM
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Friday, September 02, 2011
Blog: The Latest Trend in Baseball 'Hazing'
Watching rookie players strut across the field wearing Dora the Explorer and Hello Kitty backpacks, fans might wonder whether professional baseball is trying to capture a new audience.
This latest fashion statement is not for the fans but the amusement of the teams’ senior members. According to The New York Times, an MLB tradition holds that rookie relievers are responsible for carrying a bag of snacks from the clubhouse to the bullpen. To make the tradition a little more interesting, senior players scour stores or the Internet to find just the right hue of humiliation for the rookies. Some are more reserved, like the Padres’ collection of "Star Wars"-themed bags, but others push the limits of manliness, as players see just how much pink the rookies can endure.
Unlike the NFL, where teams are cracking down on hazing, the backpacks are quickly finding a place among the more classic traditions of baseball. It also comes on the heels of a similar prank in MLB, where rookies return to the locker room after a game to find their clothes have been swapped with an outlandish costume that they then must sport on the plane ride home.
Compared to the scandals and subsequent lawsuits that usually make headlines when hazing goes too far, these players’ pranks seem laughable. And really, they are. The rookies carry their bags with pride and laugh off the jests, looking forward to the days when they can pass the tradition on to a newcomer, and fans are amused at the sight.
To call this hazing, even, would be a bit harsh. Hazing implies a rite of initiation or acceptance and puts a group of younger players at the mercy of the older. But in baseball, younger players are often the driving force of the team, which diminishes the need to prove themselves off the field. The pranks are more about bonding rather than a means to acceptance; they're a sign that that these rookies have already been accepted by their peers.
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Posted At
9:51 AM
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Youth Football Brawl Could Lead to Felony Charges
A disputed call during a youth football game in Florida led to an eruption of violence involving more than a dozen coaches and 13- and 14-year-old players who attacked a referee; one individual even tackled the official. And it was all captured on video. (Warning: The video contains some foul language).
On Friday, Sarasota County sheriff's officials are expected to file felony charges against the instigators of the incident, which occurred last Saturday at Riverview High School in Ridge Wood Heights during a game between the Sarasota Gators and the North Port Huskies. The investigation has centered on four suspects who took part in the melee, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. In Florida, attacking a sports official is a felony.
The video, which appears to have been filmed by a spectator, shows that the aggressors were mainly coaches and players from the Gators. Huskies coach Mike Cody called the incident a "very disgraceful display of coaching and mentoring to young men and women," adding that it was the worst he has seen in 24 years of coaching. Several Huskies coaches are visible in the video trying to break up the fight, and Cody can be seen calling 911 on his cell phone.
A mother of one of the Huskies players told reporters Carrie Wells and Todd Ruger that the fight started five minutes before halftime over at least one disputed call. The Gators coaches then began throwing water bottles at the officials before things escalated, she said.
Derrick Timmons, a Sarasota Gators coach for a different age group,
told the paper he was advised by the league's attorney not to speak about the
incident. But he still had this to say: "I
don't want nothing to get twisted, so I'm not going to say anything. We all know what happened. Whatever anybody from North Port
tells you ain't true. That's all I have to say about that."
"The video speaks for itself," Sarasota County Sheriff's Col. Steve Burns said. "It was disturbing. I saw adults, entrusted in a mentoring position with the youth of our community, acting and behaving in a manner that is absolutely unacceptable."
The Sarasota County School District has banned the Gators from playing on its fields, and the Middle Florida Football and Cheerleading Conference has suspended the team and expelled four people (including children) identified as having participated in the fight.
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9:42 AM
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Thursday, September 01, 2011
College Football Study: Graduation Gap Increases
The adjusted graduation gap between NCAA Division I football players and the general full-time male student body continues to be sizable, particularly for Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conferences. That's among the numerous findings in the second annual installment of the College Sport Research Institute's NCAA Division-I Football Adjusted Graduation Gap report, released Thursday.
The CSRI, located at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, introduced this first-of-its-kind report last year. The latest installment utilizes the published four-class average graduation rates for the 2000-2003 cohort (the most recent available) and removes data related to part-time students. The result is a comparison of how football players, who are also full-time students, stack up against the general full-time male student population. Overall, NCAA Division I football players graduated at a rate of 54 percent during that four-year period at the beginning of the new millennium — 13 percentage points behind the male student population at large. The gap is even greater when comparing FBS football players to FCS football players.
The problem is not limited to a few “football factory” schools, according to CSRI director and report co-author Richard Southall. Rather, it is pervasive throughout the FBS. Among the evidence cited in the report:
• Only two NCAA Division I football conferences — the Southwestern Athletic Conference and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference — had positive adjusted graduation gaps. Football players from those conferences graduated at rates greater than the full-time male student body.
• For the second year in a row, the Pac-12 (formerly the Pac-10) had the greatest negative AGG, with Pac-12 football players graduating at a rate 26 points lower than full-time male students at Pac-12 universities.
• The top nine spots in the 2011 NCAA Division I Football AGG Report are all Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) conferences: SWAC, MEAC, Big South, Southern, Colonial, Northeast, Missouri Valley, Patriot League and Southland. The Big Sky Conference had the largest negative AGG (-22) of all FCS conferences, replacing last year’s worst FCS conference, the Ohio Valley, which had a 4 point improvement in its AGG (-16).
• Eight of the “Bottom Ten” spots are held by FBS conferences: Sun Belt, Mountain West, Big 12, Southeastern, Western Athletic, Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Pac-12. The Big East and Conference USA had the smallest FBS AGGs (-14).
Click here to see PDF.
The graduation rate disparities reflect two main issues, Southall says. First, FBS football players are more likely to be “special admissions.” It is speculated that a sizable portion of FBS football players enter college with academic preparation, abilities, and/or interests different from other full-time male students at their respective institutions. Second, football players also make significant time commitments to their sport, particularly during the fall term. The NCAA reports FBS football players’ time commitment, including travel, is comparable to that of a 40-hour work week.
“Being a football player at the FBS level is — in everything but name — a full-time job," Southall said in a statement. "Being a full-time student also requires a ‘full-time’ commitment. Regardless of whether these players have access to expensive academic-support services, study halls and an army of tutors, there are only 24 hours in a day. When faced with this situation, the AGG reveals many college football players struggle to graduate at rates comparable to their fellow full-time male students.”
CSRI now plans to use its AGG analyses to examine how such factors as socioeconomic status, educational background and sociocultural demography may contribute to football players’ negative graduation gaps.
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