Friday, November 30, 2012
ABC: 'Let's Talk Sports' Aims to Reach Youngest Athletes
Youth sports aren’t what they were 30 years ago, when kids organized their own games and played wherever space allowed. Today, youth sports is highly organized and structured, and children often are under immense pressure to perform their best. Those who don’t spend their time on the benches, where they’re missing out not just on the opportunity to hone their physical skills, but the essential life skills that naturally develop. On Thursday at the Athletic Business Conference, after a session on how to set up successful relationships and field management arrangements with the volunteer sports organizations overseeing a greater percentage of youth sports, the National Alliance for Youth Sports unveiled its newest online program, Let’s Talk Sports.
Developed and presented by Dr. Michael Gray, an exercise physiologist from Northern Kentucky University, the program is a way to reach out to early-elementary-school-aged athletes and help develop life skills gained from sports participation, such as leadership, self-discipline, sportsmanship, and teamwork. The online program features a lesson related to each skill, asking children to identify which of a set of sports-related examples represents a certain skill. Parents are asked to discuss the possibilities with their children, and a narrator explains why each example is correct or incorrect, ultimately aiming to provide a better understanding of what a certain skill is and how to demonstrate that skill.
The new program was tested among 200 participants, and the response from both parents and children was excellent. This is only the beginning, Gray said, as NAYS looks at other ways to expand the program, bringing it into schools or reformatting it for older age groups.
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Thursday, November 29, 2012
ABC: How to Keep Your Pool From Becoming Obsolete
The number of pool starts in the United States dropped by more than 70 percent between 2008 and 2011, according to market research firm PK Data. And even though the industry appears to have hit bottom and is on its way back up this year, aquatic facility operators still face plenty of challenges.
During a well-attended and information-packed Athletic Business Conference session Thursday morning, Scot Hunsaker, president of St. Louis-based aquatic engineering company Counsilman-Hunsaker, asked for input from attendees, who shared their struggles. The operator of one recently opened facility is now worried about finding the funds to keep it afloat, while another wasn't even sure her organization would make it past a current feasibility study. A third expressed concerns about needing to retrofit a 50-meter, six-lane competition pool in order to make it more accessible and inviting to more users.
In one way or another, each of those concerns is related to obsolescence of either the physical or functional kind, and it's a reality faced by an increasing number of facility operators. "You need to create a model that is fiscally responsible and encourages repeat business," Hunsaker told the full room. "The decisions you make now will last 50 years, so give yourself the elbow room to do a lot of different things with that pool."
Indeed, within the past decade, the demand for a higher-quality and unique pool experience has soared. That means facilities must better serve increasingly diverse user groups, including competitive and recreational swimmers, water fitness enthusiasts and learn-to-swim participants. Retrofits must take into consideration each of those groups and their distinct water depth and temperature requirements.
A feasibility study is the best way to begin, Hunsaker said, but make sure it includes concrete strategies to set your facility apart from the competition. He mentioned one facility that opened decades ago and is still in business today, despite now having more than 20 competitors, because it offers a unique experience. Additionally, he stressed the importance of implementing new elements of the Model Aquatic Health Code, which will – from mechanical equipment to risk management practices – alter the way future pools are built and retrofit.
It also doesn't hurt to downplay some of the negative perceptions about swimming, such as drowning and entrapment, stressing instead the activity's physical, psychological and social benefits. "We have so many good things about our industry, and we can't ignore them," Hunsaker said. "The more we can do to increase ease of access and make pools a safer environment, the better. We have a gift: There is no better experience than designing an aquatics facility."
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012
ABC: Breathtaking Superdome Tour
My stepmother swears this really happened: A friend of hers moved years ago to New York City from Kansas, and when he emerged from the escalator at Penn Station onto 34th Street, his sweeping gaze up the majestic canyon of surrounding buildings was interrupted by a cabbie standing at the curb, who said to him, "Hold a lot of hay, wouldn't it?"
That possibly apocryphal story occurred to me as we walked onto the field at the Superdome a couple of hours ago. Attendees really seemed awestruck, as was I, although I was thinking mostly about Brett Favre racing down this field with his helmet in his hand.
Later, we went to the new press level along the roofline, and "vertiginous" doesn't do it justice. It's a long way down the steps to the upper spectator seats and the field below.
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ABC: An Entertaining Look Inside UNO's Lakefront Arena
Prince, the diminutive pop icon, requires his dressing room to be completely black, so as to allow for the black-lighting of the neon-colored art that accompanies him on the road.
This tiny bit of insider perspective comes courtesy of Marco Perez, general manager of the University of New Orleans’ Lakefront Arena, who kept Athletic Business Conference & Expo attendees informed and entertained during a tour of his facility Wednesday.
“The room was insane. The man is crazy,” Perez told the dozens of tour-goers as they strolled the arena’s inner corridors, adding, “Diana Ross is even crazier.”
That’s because Ross, the Motown legend, requires five dressing rooms, each serving its own designated purpose. Moreover, bouquets of flowers in her rooms must be in her preferred stage of bloom or else they get rejected. “We once threw out seven flower arrangements,” Perez says.
The tour guide then took the candor further by describing a visit from Kid Rock, who “got busy” with then significant other Pamela Anderson to the point a bathroom in one of the arena’s “star suites,” as Perez calls them, sustained damage. “He came out, put some money down and said, ‘It was worth it.’ ”
Perez and Lakefront Arena — which was designed in the 1960s, stalled due to funding issues and finally opened in 1983 — are no strangers to damage. After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Perez says, “We were totally destroyed.” With its roof ripped off, the arena festered in floodwaters. Mold growth was rampant. After a full three years of renovation, Lakefront reopened with a stronger roof and a new exterior skin applied over the old one, as well as new seating, sound, lights, carpeting and paint.
But while the arena has
come back, fans of UNO basketball have not — at least not in great numbers. A typical home crowd might hit 500 in a facility that can seat more than 9,000. For that reason, the booking of acts ranging from Disney's Mickey's Music Festival to Louis Farrakhan becomes the arena’s “bread and butter,” according to Perez, who credited head men’s basketball coach Mark Slessinger with his flexibility while the ABC tour paused in the arena’s auxiliary gym. “Your relationship with your coaches is so important,” Perez says. “Mark will move practice in here every time we need the main floor for a show.” (Slessinger paused to greet ABC attendees, calling Lakeshore Arena “our best recruiting piece beyond our city.”)
Want more star-powered name-dropping? Perez mentioned that the arena — rare for its inclusion of a natatorium (though UNO has dropped competitive swimming as a varsity sport more than once) — has been the site of several movie shoots, including the forthcoming “Grudge Match" with Sylvester Stallone and Robert DeNiro, and the 1996 bomb “Heaven’s Prisoners,” starring Alec Baldwin. For Perez and aquatics center manager Janice Roth, who also addressed the tour group, it’s just further evidence of New Orleans' emerging status as “Hollywood South.”
Lakefront Arena, meanwhile, continues to evolve post-Katrina. The antiquated center-hung scoreboard that was lost to the storm will not be replaced. Instead, two large and six smaller LED boards will adorn the arena interior. FEMA would only replace a center-hung board of equal value to the old one, for starters, and not having one at all allows for better rigging of shows, Perez says.
A courtside LED board already in place — and displaying “Welcome Athletic Business” for the benefit of ABC tour-goers — is the first step toward adding “a more modern feel to the arena,” Perez says, sounding a bit like a kid on Christmas morning. “We’re playing with new toys.”
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Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Kentucky Seeks Stronger Oversight of Middle School Sports
Because middle school athletics do not serve the same purpose as youth sports programs and are not as high-profile as high school sports programs, they often abide somewhere in, well, the middle. In fact, many communities have opted to get rid of them altogether.
On Monday, in an effort to quell concerns from medical professionals about the safety and health of middle school student-athletes in Kentucky, a committee created by the state legislature issued its preliminary recommendations for change — beginning with the possible creation of an organization similar to the Kentucky High School Athletics Association.
According to a report in the Lexington Herald-Leader, the 2012 Task Force on Middle School Interscholastic Athletics urges the Kentucky Board of Education, which has the sole authority to set regulations for school sports programs, to take a fresh look at how middle school athletics are governed and determine whether the current system needs an overhaul.
As reporter Beth Musgrave wrote, the preliminary recommendations to the board include:
• Requiring all middle school athletics teams to follow existing high school rules related to physical exams, medical coverage, concussions and practicing during extreme heat.
• Developing limits on the number of allowable contests during the school year.
• Exploring options to ensure student-athletes, coaches, schools and school boards have adequate insurance for athletic events.
• Requiring the tracking of injury and incident reports for all interscholastic sports activities.
• Adopting statewide eligibility rules to include age restrictions for athletes and restrictions for participation on high school teams by athletes enrolled below grade nine.
• Requiring all middle school coaches, paraprofessionals and volunteers to meet existing certification requirements, pass a criminal background check and complete all training required by the KHSAA for high school coaches.
Some of the proposals — which are based on studies of other states that have middle school athletic associations, conducted by the 17-member panel of Kentucky legislators, citizens, educators and coaches — could be addressed as early as February, sources say.
According to Musgrave, the issue of regulating and overseeing middle school sports has been discussed for decades in Kentucky and includes a failed plan to expand the KHSAA's scope in 1993 to include middle school athletics. But now, KHSAA commissioner and task force member Julian Tackett says the association has the resources to handle such oversight.
How are middle school sports overseen in your state or community?
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Monday, November 26, 2012
School Removes P.E. Swim Curriculum After Drowning
Manchester (Conn.) High School's pool has been shut down and its physical education swimming unit removed indefinitely, following the Nov. 21 drowning of a freshman boy.
New information revealed Monday indicates that Malvrick Donkor, a Ghana native who recently moved to the Manchester area, was underwater in the deep end of the pool for approximately 17 minutes. According to the Hartford Courant, a surveillance camera at the pool showed the 14-year-old student climbing down a ladder into the pool's deep end. "There's no splashing, no flailing like you would typically think of," an unnamed source who viewed the surveillance footage told the newspaper. "He just slipped underwater. Other kids were swimming over the top of him, not knowing he was down below."
It wasn't until after class ended that students noticed Donkor's body. P.E. teacher Thayer Redman jumped in and pulled the boy out of the pool; he later died at a local hospital. Redman has been placed on administrative leave, and school officials aren't talking.
Manchester High's principal Matthew Geary did, however, post a letter to students' parents and guardians on the school's home page, inviting them to a vigil Monday night and assuring them that an investigation has begun. "While many questions remain about this terrible tragedy, we have very little information to share at this time. An investigation is under way and will be done thoroughly by trained professionals. The Manchester High School pool is closed until further notice and the swimming unit has been removed from the Physical Education curriculum indefinitely."
According to local media reports, Donkor is the second area high school student to drown in a swimming pool during a supervised P.E. class in 2012. Marcum Asiamah, 15, died Jan. 11 after being found in the East Hartford High School pool.
In October, the family of 14-year-old Antonio Reyes, who was found at the bottom of the deep end of the Wenatchee (Wash.) High School swimming pool after a P.E. class in late 2011, reached a $2 million settlement in a negligence lawsuit filed against the Wenatchee School District. The settlement also called for reforms, including that the district have a certified lifeguard on duty when people are in the pool and that greater efforts be made to evaluate the ability of students to swim, the Associated Press reports.
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Blog: Self-Directed Workouts: A Fad, or the Future?
Recently, two things popped up on my radar, and at first glance, they didn't appear to have anything in common. Now that I've thought about it, though, I'm thinking this might be a trend. See if you agree.
This year, Nov. 11 was designated as World Run Day — a day to explore the benefits of running. You can go to the website to find whether anyone near you has organized a group running event. If they have, you can join it. If nobody has, you can start one, or you can just run by yourself. And if you really want to be detail-oriented, you can print out an e-bib for it. Pay a registration fee, get set up in advance, and according to the website, you can receive a commemorative T-shirt by mail after the event is over.
Each year, the World Run Day organization sets up a calendar of "virtual runs" people can use. For example, 2012 had dates preset for a Virtual Turkey Trot (donations were suggested to a local food bank of the organizer's choosing), Virtual Super Bowl Race, Virtual Halloween Run (in costume, no less) and so on. In other words, here's your calendar; go out and do your thing.
Maybe by itself, WRD doesn't tell us anything. But the same week I learned about that program, the American College of Sports Medicine announced its predictions for the top 20 fitness trends in 2013. Of course, the survey includes a lot of the usual suspects — strength training, programs to prevent childhood obesity, exercise and weight loss, and programs to help keep older adults fit and healthy.
But vaulting into the number-three spot on the survey this year — and it hadn’t appeared at all in previous years — was "Body Weight Training." Body weight training is defined as back-to-basics workouts that include push-ups, planks, pull-ups, squats and more — anything that uses the body as resistance.
WRD and body weight training aren’t the same thing. But maybe there is a common denominator. People who want to exercise may not be able to find a class that fits their increasingly hectic schedule. Maybe they're working weekends and/or weeknights, and can't do organized club runs or benefit 5Ks. Or maybe they've lost their job and can't afford a lot of extra expenses (race registration fees, health club dues) at the moment. They want to stay fit, and they're trying to develop programs that work within their limits.
The question is whether you think independent workouts will impact the fitness industry moving forward, or whether you think they're a symptom of a temporary glitch in the economy or the workforce that is influencing people's ways of working out. Or maybe it's just another fitness fad that comes and goes?
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
UT Athletics Suspends Support of Campus Academics
Perhaps the clearest anecdotal evidence of the impact escalating coaching salaries is having on higher education at large comes to us from the University of Tennessee, which announced Tuesday that its athletic department will not subsidize academic initiatives on the Knoxville campus for at least the next three years. The reason? The athletic department needs to stabilize its own budget in the midst of a football coaching change.
UT Athletics had contributed nearly $6 million annually to academic scholarships, fellowships and programs — making it a leader in such giving among Division I athletic departments. In a written statement, UT chancellor Jimmy Cheek said that money “was committed under different circumstances.”
The UT athletic department finished the fiscal year in June $4 million in the red. On Sunday, head football coach Derek Dooley was fired after posting a 15-21 overall record in three seasons with the Volunteers. UT will pay Dooley $5 million for the remainder of his contract, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. It will pay a new coach plenty, as well. According to a USA Today report this week, as many college football coaches— 42, in fact — make $2 million today as made $1 million six years ago.
“Different circumstances” also includes a change in athletic directors — from Mike Hamilton, who resigned in June of 2011 as a lightning rod for criticism over NCAA sanctions, to Dave Hart, who took over that fall. But even Hamilton cautioned three years ago that the academic support provided by UT athletics wasn’t without limits. “We can’t give to the extent that we’re affecting our ability to be successful,” he told AB in the spring of 2009, “but as long as we have the resources to be able to do things for the institution, we should try to find a way to do them.”
For now, anyway, UT Athletics appears to be circling its resources wagons.
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Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Deadline Looms for ADA Compliance on Pool Lifts
Fewer than 75 days remain for aquatic facility operators to become compliant with provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act regarding access to public pools and spas. Last May, the U.S. Department of Justice extended the deadline from March 15, 2012, to Jan. 31, 2013.
For pools less than 300 linear feet in size, the ADA Standard for Accessible Design calls for one means of access, which must be either an ADA-compliant lift or a sloped entry. Pools with greater than 300 linear feet of pool wall must also have a second means of access — either another lift or ramp, or a transfer wall, a transfer system or pool stairs. Estimates have placed the number of pools that need to be brought into compliance at approximately 100,000, thereby helping earn the provision the nickname "poolmageddon." A backlog of orders at lift-manufacturing facilities was said to have been a primary reason for multiple deadline extensions.
Local governing bodies have been busy approving the purchase of lifts in recent months, but not all pool operators appear to have made up their minds yet about whether to comply with the regulations. "Is it worth spending thousands of dollars to put Band-Aids on the pool in hopes that we’ll get another few months or another few years?” Merrill (Wis.) parks and recreation director Dan Wendorf asked the Wausau Daily Herald last month, referring to a the city's aging outdoor pool. “We’re using taxpayer dollars, and we have to use them wisely.” He added that the money required to make the old pool compliant might be better off put toward developing a new facility.
Last year, the DOJ issued a sheet of questions and answers that addresses some of the common areas of confusion regarding the regulation, and a five-page Technical Assistance Document outlining the reasons for the ADA regulations also explains which pools need to be made accessible and defines “readily achievable barrier removal.”
For even more information on complying, click here and here.
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Monday, November 19, 2012
2012 Excellence in Youth Sports Award Winner: MCCS Camp Lejeune (N.C.) Youth Sports
At MCCS Camp Lejeune Youth Sports in North Carolina, ongoing efforts toward excellence wouldn’t be possible without the tireless efforts of volunteers and staff. Their program philosophy centers on community — appropriate, since their community is so unique.
In addition to serving the families on base, Camp Lejeune works with the nearby Marine Corps Air Station New River, as well as the Onslow County (N.C.) Parks and Recreation Department and the City of Jacksonville (N.C.) Recreation and Parks Department to serve the 2,500 children who sign up for their youth sports offerings each year.
Maintaining community relationships and partnering with neighboring recreational agencies helps provide physical activities and wellness opportunities to Camp Lejeune’s young athletes that might otherwise be lost in a military base setting.
MCCS Camp Lejeune Youth Sports is one of five youth sports programs to be named the 2012 Excellence in Youths Sports Award winners. Developed by the National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS) and Athletic Business magazine, the award recognizes programs that are doing superior jobs of conducting diverse activities with a focus on providing safe and positive experiences for all participants, including children, parents and coaches.
The camp’s youth sports program keeps the fun in fundamentals, and this message is made clear to everyone. Upon walking into the youth sports building, visitors are met with a sign that reads: “Welcome to Camp Lejeune Youth Sports, where kids come first, where everyone sets a good example, where everyone has fun, where everyone is supportive.”
The key to ensuring this message is put into practice is the education of parents and coaches who volunteer at MCCS Camp Lejeune Youth Sports. Each year, approximately 300 coaches complete training through the National Youth Sports Coaches Association. This program enforces Camp Lejeune’s philosophies by teaching coaches how to create a fun and safe youth sports environment by addressing such topics as keeping players active at practice, building confidence, the role of winning in youth sports and working with parents.
At the end of the NYSCA training, coaches sign a code of ethics agreeing to uphold the basic tenants of being an ideal coach, including treating each player as an individual and being a role model of fair play and sportsmanship. Moreover, coach handbooks have been updated to further stress the importance coaches play in the youth sports program.
“Our goal is to ensure that all parties are on the same page, from the first day of practice to the final game,” says Chris Alger, base athletic director at MCCS Camp Lejeune, adding that the new handbooks consist of a volunteer job description, a touch policy, inclement weather procedures, and a volunteer agreement, on top of the existing material for NYSCA training. “Redoing these policies helps us to ensure the same message is being conveyed to all parties. Proper communication is essential to the success of any organization, and providing our volunteers with this information is the first step in the process.”
Story written by Linda Alberts, public relations coordinator for the National Alliance for Youth Sports.
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The five winners of the 2012 Excellence in Youth Sports Awards, sponsored by the National Alliance for Youth Sports and Athletic Business magazine, are being announced in this space over the next five days. The awards will be presented to program administrators at the Athletic Business Conference & Expo in New Orleans on Friday, Nov. 30.
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Friday, November 16, 2012
2012 Excellence in Youth Sports Award Winner: Joint-Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst (N.J.) Youth Sports & Fitness Program
As part of the only tri-service joint base in the United States serving families from the Air Force, Navy and Army, the Joint-Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst Youth Sports & Fitness Program in New Jersey is in a unique situation to take the best aspects of each branch’s offerings to create one outstanding youth sports program.
While this presents many challenges, it also offers the program rewarding opportunities to meet the needs of their patrons — the men and women that serve in the U.S. military and their families.
For their ongoing efforts to provide a safe, fun-filled and nurturing environment for all youths, Joint-Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst Youth Sports & Fitness Program was selected as a winner of the 2012 Excellence in Youth Sports Award. The award was developed by the National Alliance for Youth Sports and Athletic Business magazine to recognize programs conducting diverse activities with a focus on providing positive experiences for all participants, including children, parents and coaches.
According to Donald Russoniello, director of the Joint-Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst Youth Sports & Fitness Program, one benefit of being a tri-service joint base is the ability to expand the number of programs offered to reach every child. In addition to team sports, the program offers individual sports such as golf and track, as well as instructional classes such as karate, to encourage everyone to be active. It even offers a gym class for home-schooled children ages six to 18 that runs for nine months during the school year. Last year, more than 30 children participated.
“Most of the home-schooled children don’t get the benefit of physical education programs that are offered in the schools,” says Russoniello. “Giving them this class helps them stay fit and play the same sports.”
Joint-Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst Youth Sports & Fitness Program also benefited from an increase in the number of volunteers after the bases merged. Accountability is a constant theme volunteers hear during the classes held to prepare them for the important role they play in the program and in each youngster’s experience. Coaches are trained through the National Youth Sports Coaches Association on such topics as teaching and communication, working with parents, and preventing abuse and injuries.
NYSCA coach training is supplemented with a Character Counts programs to help coaches teach their young athletes how to play with respect and fairness, while coaches learn how to be better role models along the way. Says Russoniello, “If coaches emulate these values, their players will follow their lead and understand a good athlete is a combination of skills and good character.”
Story written by Linda Alberts, public relations coordinator for the National Alliance for Youth Sports.
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The five winners of the 2012 Excellence in Youth Sports Awards, sponsored by the National Alliance for Youth Sports and Athletic Business magazine, are being announced in this space over the next five days. The awards will be presented to program administrators at the Athletic Business Conference & Expo in New Orleans on Friday, Nov. 30.
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Thursday, November 15, 2012
Commish at Center of Anthem Flap: I Made Mistake
Ed Sam, the commissioner of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League who set off a national firestorm when he suggested skipping "The Star-Spangled Banner" to save ice time, admitted Wednesday that he was wrong.
"Whenever you make a decision and you have found out that you made a mistake, you have to face up to the fact that you made a mistake," Sam said during a PIHL Board of Governors meeting, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "We need to fix the mistake and move forward."
Fixing it apparently included posting a statement on the PIHL website that read: "The PIHL has not banned the National Anthem. A badly worded statement went out to teams about the subject and it has since been clarified and corrected. We apologize for the misunderstanding, but the National Anthem has not and will not be banned.” (The statement could not be found on the PIHL website Thursday morning.)
Additionally, the league is distributing a one-minute-and-15-second instrumental version of the National Anthem to rinks that host PIHL games and requiring all operators to play it before every game.
Sam's suggestion to ice the song came in the form of an email sent to the PIHL's 183 high school team members in central and western Pennsylvania and reportedly was prompted by a few recent anthem performances that ran longer than officials would have liked. The league also added two minutes to periods this season, making them each 17 minutes and causing games to be stopped before the clock ran out, because ice time had expired. “The National Anthem should not be played only because of time constrains [sic],” Sam told Pittsburgh's CBS affiliate, KDKA, earlier this week. “It’s not that we’re not patriotic, that’s the furthest from the truth. Ice is very, very hard to get and it’s not cheap. We’re talking $300 an hour sometimes or even higher than that.”
KDKA reports that PIHL's headquarters received 4,000 emails and phone calls about the decision. AB readers also spoke out, sometimes vehemently. "How dare you?" one asked Sam, who also was called "un-American" and a "Communist." But a high school soccer referee in Washington tried to be constructive with his suggestion of allowing the host school to choose between the playing of the National Anthem and the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. "I can tell you from my experience you can save almost 10 minutes if you just do the Pledge of Allegiance vs. the National Anthem," he wrote.
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2012 Excellence in Youth Sports Award Winner: Gwinnett County (Ga.) Parks and Recreation
Between the teamwork that takes place out on the fields by young athletes and the teamwork of staff and volunteers needed to serve 48,000 youngsters, Gwinnett (Ga.) County Parks and Recreation is a go-to player in a true sports town.
The department is also a winner of the 2012 Excellence in Youth Sports Award, developed by the National Alliance for Youth Sports and Athletic Business magazine. The award recognizes programs that are doing superior jobs of conducting diverse activities with a focus on providing safe and positive experiences for all participants, including children, parents and coaches.
Gwinnett County Parks and Recreation works in tandem with 28 nonprofit youth athletic associations to provide a variety of quality youth sports offerings, including football, cheerleading, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, hockey, softball, tennis and special needs recreation. “Our long-term relationships with these organizations demonstrate our efforts of maximizing community resources, teamwork, collaboration, cost efficiency, responsiveness, proper conduct and service excellence to the citizens of Gwinnett County,” says Tina Fleming, division director of Gwinnett County Parks and Recreation and a Certified Youth Sports Administrator, adding that in 2011 parents, volunteers, board members and coaches of these associations devoted a total of 811,625 hours to youth sports.
For most, this volunteered time is in addition to normal day-to-day activities, like working, family responsibilities and going to school. Gwinnett County Parks and Recreation recognizes that educational opportunities are crucial to making sure volunteers of the youth athletic associations are on the same page. It has hosted a Youth Sports Expo not only for volunteers of local associations, but for any youth sports provider throughout Georgia. The expo covers important topics pertaining to youth sports, such as safety- and health-related topics, risk management, background checks and soil maintenance.
Additionally, many of Gwinnett County’s youth athletic associations complete training through the National Youth Sports Administrators Association, a program of NAYS. “As volunteers coming from an array of backgrounds, it’s important for those volunteers to receive training and education in order to help protect not only themselves, but the youths they serve,” Fleming says.
NYSAA is an online clinic covering the most important aspects of youth sports administration, including how to manage volunteer coaches; work with parents, officials and other participants; develop a volunteer board; protect the program from embezzlement; navigate the insurance landscape; and use fundraising and marketing to support the league. Says Fleming, “Having trained, qualified volunteers ensures that the sports programs being operated on Gwinnett County property are the best that they can possibly be for all youth participating.”
Gwinnett County prides itself on its rich sports history. Premiere athletes who hail from the area include Maya Moore, the first overall pick in the 2011 WNBA draft; Jason Elam, a retired NFL kicker for the Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons; and running back George Rogers, the 1980 Heisman Trophy winner. But a driven, sports-town mentality is balanced with an emphasis on sportsmanship. “By learning that trying your best is the definition of success, coaches and athletes come to value, expect and demand good sportsmanship from their players,” Fleming says.
Story written by Linda Alberts, public relations coordinator for the National Alliance for Youth Sports.
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The five winners of the 2012 Excellence in Youth Sports Awards, sponsored by the National Alliance for Youth Sports and Athletic Business magazine, are being announced in this space over the next five days. The awards will be presented to program administrators at the Athletic Business Conference & Expo in New Orleans on Friday, Nov. 30.
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Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Illinois High School Association Wins Webcasting Hearing
An Illinois county circuit court judge on Tuesday ruled that the Illinois High School Association did not breach the terms of a 2008 settlement agreement with the Illinois Press Association when it charged an IPA member a broadcast-rights fee to live stream an IHSA football playoff games last week. (IHSA broadcast-rights fees are only applicable during postseason IHSA events.)
Patrick W. Kelley of the 7th Judicial Circuit Court of Sangamon County determined during a hearing requested by the IHSA that the IHSA has the right to claim "exclusive rights" to postseason games — despite contrary claims from the IPA. As the Northwest Herald of McHenry County reported, "the 'exclusive rights' claim prevented the Northwest Herald’s high school sports website, McHenryCountySports.com, from providing a webcast of Saturday’s Montini at Marian Central Class 5A quarterfinal game."
“This is the ruling we expected,” IHSA executive director Marty Hickman said in a statement. “Broadcast-rights fees have existed as a part of the association’s policies across all mediums for nearly 30 years and as new broadcast technology has evolved, such as streaming, it has naturally fallen under that umbrella. Further, the IPA settlement centered around photographs and had no carryover into broadcasting of any kind.”
In August of 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the favorable decision of the district court in the case of Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) and American-Hi Fi, Inc. v. Gannett Co., Inc. This judgement confirmed the rights of the WIAA to enter into exclusive agreements and administer fees for the Internet broadcasting of its tournament events.
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Study: Kids Need 7 Minutes of Vigorous Activity a Day
Forget the one-hour-a-day recommendation. A study by University of Alberta medical researchers suggests that seven minutes of exercise is the key to keeping kids healthy, as long as it’s the right kind of exercise.
"Our research showed children don't need a lot of intense physical activity to get the health benefits of exercise — seven minutes or more of vigorous physical activity was all that was required,” says co-principal investigator Richard Lewanczuk, a researcher with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta. “But the seven minutes had to be intense to prevent weight gain, obesity and its adverse health consequences. And most kids weren't getting that."
As part of the study, Lewanczuk and his team collected data from more than 600 children between the ages of nine and 17 wearing monitors for seven days, as well as reviewed data from the Black Gold Regional Schools’ Healthy Hearts program. The research team calculated that participants were sedentary nearly 70 percent of the time, engaged in light physical activity 23 percent, moderate physical activity less than seven percent, and spent less than one percent of their time engaged in vigorous activity.
The data showed that the amount of light or moderate activity had little effect on health, even when time spent engaged in such activities increased. Children who engaged in seven minutes or more of intense activity were found to have significantly better health, regardless of the quantity of light or moderate activity.
"This research tells us that a brisk walk isn't good enough," says Lewanczuk. "Kids have to get out and do a high-intensity activity in addition to maintaining a background of mild to moderate activity. There's a strong correlation between obesity, fitness and activity. Activity and fitness is linked to a reduction in obesity and good health outcomes."
Previous research by the same group has found that activity levels in children are significantly higher on weekdays than weekends, highlighting the importance of physical activity in schools. Lewanczuk hopes the latest findings can provide guidance for planning physical activities.
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2012 Excellence In Youth Sports Award Winner: Hillsborough County (Fla.) Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department’s Youth Athletic Services
More than 32,000 youth athletes play on the fields, rinks and courts of the Hillsborough County (Fla.) Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department. That is a lot of young lives that are influenced by the coaches and parents that volunteer in these local youth sports programs.
Program organizers point to one key tactic the department employs to ensure accountability among the more than 72 youth sports organizations that use its facilities each year: education.
In order for youth sports organizations to hold practices and games on county property, their volunteers must be trained. “All volunteers that interact with children in any capacity must receive the mandatory coach training,” says Aileen Henderson, youth sports coordinator for Hillsborough County.
Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department’s Youth Athletics is one of five youth sports programs to be named a 2012 Excellence in Youth Sports Award winner. Developed by the National Alliance for Youth Sports and Athletic Business magazine, the award recognizes programs that are doing superior jobs of conducting diverse activities with a focus on providing safe and positive experiences for all participants, including children, parents and coaches.
In conjunction with NAYS programming and the University of South Florida’s SMART Institute, Hillsborough County trains approximately 5,500 volunteers and parents each year in their roles and responsibilities in coaching.
One of two approved coach education programs is offered by the National Youth Sports Coaches Association. Over the past year, almost 2,000 coaches from youth sports organizations that use county facilities have been trained through NYSCA, which provides coaches a thorough education on topics such as the psychology of coaching youth sports, communication, child abuse, injury prevention, nutrition and hydration. Coaches also sign the NYSCA Coaches’ Code of Ethics, pledging to demonstrate sportsmanship and fair play, provide safe playing situations and use appropriate coaching techniques. “All our youth sports organizations have bylaws requiring higher standards of expectations for all the volunteers,” says Henderson. “Each league individually promotes positive coaching techniques.”
Additionally, Hillsborough County offers an in-house coach education program that focuses on positive coaching and sportsmanship, as well as awareness topics like bullying, abuse and sports-related injuries, such as concussions. Hillsborough County has worked with Dr. Barbara Morris, director of USF’s SMART Institute, to develop concussion education as part of its education requirements following the adoption of Florida’s youth athlete concussion bill, which went into effect in July 2012. Says Henderson, “Dr. Morris brings a level of professionalism and information we needed to provide that next level of service and education to those that attend our classes.”
In the near future, Hillsborough County plans to revise its current park license agreements that allow youth sports organizations to use its facilities, as well as develop a standard operating procedure manual to accompany the agreement. After these documents are approved by the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners, the City of Tampa is expected to follow suit, leading to a consistent standard for youth sports organizations in both municipalities, Henderson says.
Story written by Linda Alberts, public relations coordinator for the National Alliance for Youth Sports.
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The five winners of the 2012 Excellence in Youth Sports Awards, sponsored by the National Alliance for Youth Sports and Athletic Business magazine, are being announced in this space over the next five days. The awards will be presented to program administrators at the Athletic Business Conference & Expo in New Orleans on Friday, Nov. 30.
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Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Pennsylvania Prep Hockey League Ices National Anthem
Citing the need to not waste precious ice time, the commissioner of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League has discouraged the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before games. Late last week, Ed Sam sent an email to the PIHL's 183 high school team members in central and western Pennsylvania conveying that message.
“The National Anthem should not be played only because of time constrains [sic],” Sam told Pittsburgh's CBS affiliate, KDKA-TV. “It’s not that we’re not patriotic, that’s the furthest from the truth. Ice is very, very hard to get and it’s not cheap. We’re talking $300 an hour sometimes or even higher than that.”
Reaction was fast and furious, with fans suggesting alternatives. “[T]hey should just extend the time period they have to play the game,” Melanie Chakrabarti told the television station. “I don’t agree with it," added Beth Spena. "There should be some other time that can be cut.”
“I go back to the 1960s with high school hockey, and it’s always been a part of it,” said Bob Mock, the skating director at Center Ice & Blades of Western Pennsylvania in Delmont, where PIHL games are played. “[It's a] part of our history, and it should be a part of the game.”
According to a Fox News Radio report, Sam later tried to soften his admitted "poor choice of words," telling reporter Todd Starnes that "a lot of our teams never really played the National Anthem. But some of them did."
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2012 Excellence in Youth Sports Award Winner: Churchville (Md.) Recreation Council
The Churchville (Md.) Recreation Council has been a leader on the local youth sports landscape for more than 40 years. The council was founded under the auspices of the Harford County Recreation Department to provide the community with quality recreation and leisure activities, and has been organized entirely by volunteers since its inception.
“I have seen volunteers come and go,” admits Harford County recreation specialist Jeff Berthney, who has worked with the council for the past 21 years, adding, “The council has always strived to do what is right for the youth sports programs.”
For that reason, and others, the Churchville Recreation Council has been recognized as a 2012 winner of the Excellence in Youth Sports Award, sponsored by the National Alliance for Youth Sports and Athletic Business magazine. The annual award recognizes five youth sports programs across the country that are doing superior jobs of conducting diverse activities with a focus on providing safe and positive experiences for all participants, including children, parents and coaches.
Described by Berthney as a “stronghold in the community,” the council offers a variety of youth sports, from baseball and softball to lacrosse and field hockey. There are even options, such as jump rope and archery, that are a bit off the beaten path. In all, more than 4,300 children participated this year.
One example of Churchville Recreation Council’s exemplary progress over the years is the fact it was the first youth sports organization in Harford County to mandate background checks for coaches, both paid and volunteer.
According to council president Don Eller, the process of implementing background checks started about four years ago. Berthney had introduced the idea after attending the Youth Sports Congress, an annual NAYS event to educate and keep youth sports administrators up to date on crucial topics.
The mandate was voted into practice two years ago, and the council uses revenue from its vending machines to pay for each background check so that volunteers don’t incur this cost.
“It was done for the safety of the program and its participants,” says Eller. “It was the right thing to do. When you are striving to do the right things, you never pause to think that you will be recognized for doing what your head and heart are telling you to do. Some of our volunteers were greatly influenced as children by a parent or coach who made certain that they had options and opportunities to succeed. For some of us who didn’t have that positive experience, but wish we had, we want to fill that gap in a child’s life.”
Story written by Linda Alberts, public relations coordinator for the National Alliance for Youth Sports.
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The five winners of the 2012 Excellence in Youth Sports Awards, sponsored by the National Alliance for Youth Sports and Athletic Business magazine, are being announced in this space over the next five days. The awards will be presented to program administrators at the Athletic Business Conference & Expo in New Orleans on Friday, Nov. 30.
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U. of Iowa Climbing Wall Closed After Student Falls
The rock climbing wall at the University of Iowa is closed indefinitely after a fall landed one student in the hospital on Nov. 9. Business student Spencer Bean, an experienced climber who is also an employee of the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, fell 30 feet, landing upright on his feet. He remained conscious and coherent for a few moments before passing out.
Photo By Kun Zhang, Dimension Images
The university is not disclosing any information about the severity of the injuries, but a blog set up by his brother, Josh, and mother, reported that he suffered two crushed vertebrae and underwent an eight-hour surgery on Nov. 10 to extract the broken bone fragments.
“He’s in a lot of pain, but he feels fortunate that he’s able to move his arms and legs,” Josh Bean told The Daily Iowan. “If a bone from his crushed vertebrae had pushed one millimeter farther into his spinal cord, he would’ve been in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.”
The recreation center requires climbers to pass a safety check before climbing and has a belay system in place to help prevent serious falls, but something malfunctioned the night of the fall, reported one observer.
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Wednesday, November 07, 2012
NFL to Players: Pot Now Legal for Some, But Don’t Smoke It
Just because recreational marijuana is now legal in Colorado and Washington — thanks to voters approving constitutional amendments in those states Tuesday — doesn't mean NFL players can smoke it.
The drug is still illegal under the NFL's substance abuse policy, a message the league took steps to reinforce on Wednesday morning. "The NFL's policy is collectively bargained and will continue to apply in the same manner it has for decades," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told USA Today. "Marijuana remains prohibited under the NFL substance abuse program. The Colorado and Washington laws will have no impact on the operation of the policy." Players could be suspended for up to four games for failed drug tests.
Washington's new amendment will allow individuals 21 years or older to buy as much as one ounce of marijuana from a licensed retailer. Colorado’s measure also allows for possession of one ounce, plus permits people to grow as many as six plants in private, secure areas.
Additionally, the votes in those states will force the NCAA to revisit its stance on marijuana use by student-athletes. Evan Williams, writing on the college basketball website Busting Brackets this morning, offered his own prediction:
The current rules in place specifically ban the use of marijuana by athletes under its jurisdiction. Those busted for failed drug tests administered by the NCAA are subject to a one-year suspension and subsequent loss of eligibility for that year.
The NCAA crafted those policies, however, at a time when the recreational use of marijuana was illegal in all 50 states. Now that two of those states have flipped on the issue, a universal rule no longer seems applicable.
Can the NCAA still discipline a player for something that’s now legal in the state wherein he plays? That question sits atop the NCAA’s agenda as the governing body returns to the drawing board to discuss possible new, legislative measures. … Whether the NCAA modifies its rules governing drug use to account for the changes in state law remains unclear.
Don’t count on it, though.
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Monday, November 05, 2012
Women's College Drops Sports to Focus on Wellness
Citing the rising cost of sponsoring an intercollegiate athletics program, as well as concern over general students’ health, Atlanta’s Spelman College has decided to replace sports with a wellness program that serves the entire campus population.
“When we studied this early this year, I was startled to see that we really had only 80 student-athletes out of 2,100 students, and our program was costing almost $1 million,” Beverly Daniel Tatum, president of the historically black women’s college, told The New York Times. “I was also surprised to learn of studies showing that African-American women are the least physically active demographic in the U.S.”
The Times reports that black people in the United States are more likely than whites to suffer the ill effects of poor diet and inactivity, including obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.
But the timing of Spelman’s decision was right for other reasons. Last year, several members of its Division III Great South Athletic Conference announced they were planning to leave the league, and doing likewise would have raised expenses for Spelman at a time of financial pressure. The college also has plans to renovate its outdated athletics building in 2013-14, an investment that makes it difficult to sponsor intercollegiate athletics well into the future. Instead, some of the savings will be diverted to a fitness and nutrition program for all students, including expansion of Spelman’s popular voluntary wellness program and related classes.
On Thursday, Spelman officially notified the NCAA of its decision, which it made last April. The college will cease competition in May. According to the NCAA, Spelman is only the second member school in 10 years (with New York City College of Technology) to discontinue its athletics program.
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Friday, November 02, 2012
NFL, NBA Donate to Post-Sandy Efforts; NHL, MLB Do Not
The National Football League and the National Basketball Association, along with their respective players' unions, will each contribute $1 million to the American Red Cross and other relief organizations to assist in the Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts. Additionally, both leagues and their network broadcasters are airing pregame and in-game messages soliciting donations from viewers. At least one NBA team, the Orlando Magic, also has pledged $25,000 to the Red Cross and, according to the team's website, "will recognize those impacted by the storm through in-game player messages, as well as raise awareness through player PSAs, social media and the team's website."
The National Hockey League, entrenched in a collective-bargaining dispute with its players, hasn't made an official donation. But a statement on its website is "encouraging fans to donate to the Red Cross disaster relief fund to help victims" — a move that prompted one commenter to write, "They encourage support, meanwhile they fight over millions of dollars." Another wrote, "I'm going to take the money I would have spent on hockey this year and donate it."
Meanwhile, Major League Baseball is blaming the storm for a leak of the Houston Astros' new throwback logo for 2013. According to Yahoo! Sports, "a visit to the team's website on Tuesday morning revealed that every player page contained the team's new logo, as well as a picture of the player wearing a hat that was poorly photoshopped onto his head." MLB's official Twitter page explained that "MLB Advanced Media, in advance of super-storm Sandy, inadvertently posted photos of players in their new uniforms on @Astros.com bio pages."
At least individual MLB teams, from the Oakland A's to the New York Yankees, are pitching in to help Sandy's victims.
UPDATE: Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association announced Friday night that they are jointly contributing $1M to relief efforts.
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Warning Labels at Center of Products Liability Case
Randall Duchesneau, a 21-year-old student at Cornell University, was using a Tumbl Trak™ gymnastics tumbling training apparatus when he attempted to perform a standing back flip. Landing squarely in the center of the apparatus, Duchesneau suffered catastrophic, permanent spinal injuries, rendering him a quadriplegic. As a result of his accident, Duchesneau sued Tumbl Trak, claiming products liability — specifically, that the company failed to warn of the dangers associated with the product — and Cornell, claiming negligent supervision of this allegedly dangerous product.
In seeking to have the case, Randall Duchesneau v. Cornell University et al. [2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106412], dismissed, Tumbl Trak argued that Duchesneau could not establish a case of failure to warn where 1) the risk of injury was open and obvious, and 2) the plaintiff did not actually read the warnings that were on the apparatus. In rejecting Tumbl Trak’s argument, the court conceded that failure-to-warn claims can be decided against an injured party where the injured party was fully aware of the hazard through general knowledge, observation or common sense, or where the hazard was patently dangerous. However, there were significant questions as to which, if any, hazards associated with the apparatus were open and obvious (that is, could be objectively ascertained) by a similarly situated novice gymnast. In addition, the court found numerous deficiencies in the warning labels on the apparatus: the labels were blurred and could not be read even at a close distance; the labels were located on either end of the apparatus, but not in the middle where a user would mount it; and the labels were located adjacent to a cartoon depicting teddy bears conducting unspotted, unsupervised backflips.
The court also noted that assumption of risk is frequently decisive (against the plaintiff) in cases arising out of participation in sporting events, with these cases having a unifying theme — clear risks that were known yet disregarded by the plaintiff, with no negligence by the defendant that enhanced the risk. However, in Duchesneau’s case, there was a question of whether Duchesneau actually was unaware of the risk, or whether the defendant’s negligence amplified the risk. For this reason, the court ruled that the case must go to trial.
Tumbl Trak may still be able to win at trial. It’s clear, though, that the company could have saved itself a lot of trouble if it had only provided better warning labels on the apparatus. Warning labels should be easy to read, should be located where users can see them and should tell of the dangers of using the product — and not temper the seriousness of the warning with cartoons.
As for Cornell, or any other operator of recreation facilities, the case demonstrates that you cannot simply purchase recreational equipment and leave it out for anyone to use. As a facility operator, you have a duty to provide a safe environment and to ensure that all equipment is safe and in working order. If an apparatus appears to be potentially dangerous, even if used properly, the facility has a duty to make sure that the equipment is only used under supervision. Failing to provide the proper supervision, as Cornell is discovering, can open the facility up to a costly lawsuit.
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