Friday, September 03, 2010
The Greenasium Seeks to Offset Own Carbon Footprint
A new aptly named fitness center in Encinitas, Calif., is using cardio equipment that pushes electricity back into the grid, powering the 2,600-square-foot Greenasium gym and other electricity customers. According to Byron Spratt, co-owner of the San Diego area's first human-powered fitness studio, a Seattle-based company called Resource Fitness retrofit the wheels on three specialty stationary bicycles at the facility. “The wheel creates DC power, converts it to AC power, which is plugged back into the wall, which puts energy back into the grid,” he told NBC San Diego.
Spratt also said additional equipment will arrive in October to help offset the facility’s carbon footprint even more. The goal, he added, is to produce enough energy to offset what the facility consumes. Every three months, management will look at The Greenasium's power-consumption totals and then sponsor activities (such as a beach cleanup) to offset any additional carbon footprint.
Other environmentally friendly elements of The Greenasium include refurbished equipment, low-flow showers, dual-flush toilets and filtered tap water.
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Prevent Running Injuries? That's a Stretch
A new study conducted by USA Track & Field has found that stretching before a run causes no obvious harm, but offers no clear benefit, either.
The study, published on USATF’s website last month and summarized this week in a New York Times blog, recruited nearly 1,400 runners ranging in age from 13 to 60-plus and randomly assigned them to two groups — one that engaged in static stretching before a run, and one that didn’t. (Static stretching involved holding specific poses for 20 seconds each, for a total warm-up of three to five minutes). After three months of adhering to their assigned regimens (including identical running components), roughly 16 percent of the participants who stretched suffered injuries significant enough to keep them from running for three or more days, while a virtually identical percentage of non-stretchers were likewise laid up.
The USATF study did find that runners who were used to stretching before being assigned to the non-stretching group were injured at a disproportionally high rate: 23 percent over the three months. However, experts agree this didn’t prove that stretching had protected these runners from injury in the past. Rather, their study-induced injuries likely resulted from the fact that any change in their training regimen had taken place.
The bulk of available science suggests that static stretching not only does nothing to prevent overuse injuries, but can actually hinder performance; the body’s own reflex prevents muscles from stretching too much and thus they become tighter in a mode of self-protection. “The findings of this present study are totally in line with the existing literature,” Malachy McHugh, the director of research at the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma in New York, told the Times.
A better alternative to static stretching, experts say, is dynamic stretching, in which an easy warm-up builds in intensity until the joints’ range of motion is enhanced through constant movement. Marching in place, as opposed to reaching down and touching one’s toes, for example, engages the brain in proprioception and control, and results in increased flexibility.
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Marathon Organizers Ban Runner for … Running
A 56-year-old Wisconsin woman who ran in May's Madison Marathon without registering or paying a fee has been “permanently banned” from the event by race organizers. In the parlance of the sport, Ramona Villarreal was a “bandit,” according to Isthmus, Madison’s weekly newspaper. And as a result, marathon officials intend to take a tougher stance against freeloading runners in the future, using volunteers to identify bandits so they can be ejected. “We have to keep this secure for registered participants,” said Rita Kelliher, president of Madison Festivals Inc., which sponsored the marathon.
Villarreal — who has competed in Ironman competitions and an estimated 10 Madison Marathons — apparently tried to register onsite but was told that the 5,100 slots for the half-marathon filled up earlier that day. So Villarreal told Isthmus news editor Bill Lueders that she offered to register for the full 26.2-mile event and only run half, but she was refused. (The fee at that time was $105 for the full race and $85 for half.) That’s when the runner took it upon herself to enter the race anyway, not interfering with other participants and drinking water or refreshments supplied only by family members — not marathon organizers.
Villarreal claimed she saw several other runners that day without numbered bibs and assumed they also didn't register, although Kelliher told Lueders that some registered runners lacked bibs. Villarreal was caught only because Kelliher recognized her two months later while looking at photos from the marathon. She claimed that Villarreal’s presence posed liability concerns, saying that Villarreal “could have keeled over, and we wouldn’t have any identifying information.”
As AB’s Paul Steinbach reported last fall, marathon organizers have enough to worry about regarding life-saving precautions in extreme heat and participants bent on taking performance-enhancing drugs. But they’ve also been cracking down on allegedly renegade runners lately. The top two female finishers in last October's Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee, for example, were disqualified for listening to an iPod and taking a water bottle from a friend outside an official aid station. More understandable was the disqualification in June of 69-year-old Anthony Gaskell from April's London Marathon after event organizers learned her took a 10-mile shortcut while walking to the finish line.
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Thursday, September 02, 2010
Sensors in Uniforms Measure Impact of Blocks, Tackles
When the NFL season kicks off next week, the San Francisco 49ers will be playing for more than a win against opening opponent Seattle. This season, the 49ers are helping physicians and scientists at Stanford University Medical Center learn more about the biomechanics of football injuries. Daniel Garza, the team’s medical director and an emergency and sports-medicine physician at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, is working with two research assistants to measure the impact of blocks and tackles using pressure sensors worn inside the uniforms of some 49ers players. “It’s unprecedented for an NFL team to support research at this level,” Garza says.
The project reflects what coaches and physicians with the 49ers describe as a mutually beneficial relationship. Stanford Hospital & Clinics, the only academic research hospital providing comprehensive medical care for an NFL team, knows plenty about treating athletes, while the players are helping advance the field of sports medicine. “The benefit is that we can translate the care of high-level athletes to everyday athletes,” says William Maloney, chair of Stanford’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and also a 49ers physician.
“We’re trying to understand the biomechanics of the trauma players receive, so we can both assess how well their body armor is working and what physicians should be looking out for,” Garza says, citing the example of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Chris Simms, who ruptured his spleen during a 2006 game. Unaware of the gravity of the injury, Simms kept playing — a decision he later admitted could have killed him. “It’s difficult to assess these athletes on the sidelines when they’ve potentially sustained some kind of internal injury, especially when they’re reluctant to leave the game,” Garza says.
So he launched the sensor project, funded by Stanford’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Sensors are worn on the chest and abdomen of some offensive players and in the shoulder pads of some defensive players. The players also wear wireless transmitters, which send information about the force and location of hits to laptop computers on the sidelines. The researchers hope the data they collect will teach them more about the incidence of chest, abdominal and shoulder injuries in the sport. Eventually, Garza hopes, their work could lead to advancements in protective gear and earlier diagnoses.
Garza and his team of researchers also are using infrared cameras to capture and measure heat emanating from players as they rest on the sidelines during breaks in the action or after changes of ball possession. The goal is to identify and help players who may be predisposed to heat illness. After intense exercise, blood flow normally increases to arteries, veins and capillaries just below the skin to help the body cool down. This mechanism is particularly active in the cheek region, one of the body’s natural radiators. Given the amount of padding worn by football players, the cheeks become a particularly important outlet for heat dissipation, researchers say.
Preliminary findings suggest that, after heavy exertion, players with a history of heat illness have less vascular flow to their cheeks. This research could help pave the way toward detecting heat stress in players before they suffer any ill effects, as well as serve as the basis for new tools or equipment to prevent overheating.
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Minor College Sports Getting Major Attention
Stanford University remains the envy of college athletic programs around the country, winning the prized Directors’ Cup 16 years in a row for accomplishing the most success across all sports. But as The New York Times reports today, other institutions — even in the face of dire budget cuts — are investing in once-obscure sports that do not come close to paying for themselves. “Winning in all sports is what matters now," write Joe Drape and Katie Thomas, "and the message is driven home from the highest levels of the university.”
“If we are going to compete in something, we want to win at it — whether it is in pediatrics or women’s gymnastics,” said J. Bernard Machen, president of the University of Florida, which built a $15 million complex for its women’s lacrosse program before the team had even played a single game. “It is important to our supporters, both financial and among our community. It is part of our culture. We want people to know that Florida is a place for winners.”
In addition to the Directors’ Cup, universities now have an additional incentive: Beginning this fall, the Capital One Cup will reward NCAA Division I athletic programs for their cumulative on-field performance across multiple men’s and women’s sports with $200,000 to fund graduate-level scholarships for student-athletes. The award will be presented live during next year’s ESPY Awards on ESPN.
The sports network is one reason The Times says the emphasis on athletics pays off for universities. Sports serve as the “front porch” of the institution — a powerful marketing tool that generates free advertising on ESPN and in other media outlets. Economists, on the other hand, argue that the effect of a high-profile athletic program on increased alumni donations and higher application rates “doesn’t persist.”
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Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Innovation Earns ‘Playful City USA’ Designation
Despite decades-low funding levels for parks and recreation departments, 118 American cities and towns have managed to earn recognition as 2010 "Playful City USA" communities for their efforts to provide time and spaces for play. Created by KaBOOM!, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit dedicated to creating places to play within walking distance of every child in America, the Playful City USA program is now in its fourth year.
Hailing from 36 states, communities from San Francisco and Atlanta to Ottawa, Kan., and Shirley, Mass., are developing local action plans and creating innovative, cost-effective programs, KaBOOM! officials say.
For example, Atlanta — one of 18 cities to earn the Playful City USA designation all four years — is in the process of reopening all of its recreation centers. The city also is partnering with the Atlanta Taskforce at Play (ATOP) to organize the third annual Play Day 2010 on Sept. 25. That day, residents will be encouraged to turn off their TVs and computers, attend an arts festival, play in parks or walk along a scenic 22-mile rail corridor around the city’s urban core. Additionally, Georgia Tech's College of Architecture and ATOP are organizing the Playable10 International Design Competition to help make Atlanta a leader in innovative play design.
Other Playful City USA initiatives include:
• Positive Lunch Activities for Youth (P.L.A.Y.), a program in Casa Grande, Ariz., that serves students in sixth through eighth grades who no longer have access to play equipment.
• A community-build approach for all playground construction in Dothan, Ala., which cuts costs by up to 25 percent while fostering community spirit.
• The “Get Fit Indy” challenge in Indianapolis this summer, designed to encourage children to eat nutritiously and be active for at least 60 minutes every day.
• Joint-use agreements in Orlando, Fla., in which local school districts open school recreation facilities to the public during non-school hours.
• Traveling playgroups in Takoma Park, Md., which provide residents with recreational information at different facilities throughout the city while collecting citizen feedback on improvement needs.
“An extreme misconception exists in our country that play among children is a luxury when, in fact, it’s an absolute necessity,” says Darell Hammond, co-founder and chief executive officer of KaBOOM! “For decades, this notion dominated our actions, and we continue to see the damaging results: a monumental lack of playspaces for children and sky-rocketing childhood obesity rates. These 118 communities refused to adhere to the status quo and realized all children deserve a municipal commitment to the cause of play.”
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New Program to Honor Top-Performing College Programs
A new partnership announced Wednesday between the NCAA and corporate sponsor Capital One will reward Division I athletic programs for their cumulative on-field performance across multiple men’s and women’s sports. Beginning with the 2010-11 academic year, programs will compete for the Capital One Cup and $200,000 to fund graduate-level scholarships for student-athletes.
In the annual race for the Cup, schools will earn points based on their teams’ top 10 finishes in NCAA Division I championships and in final official coaches’ polls in 13 men’s and 13 women’s sports throughout the year. As Capital One chief marketing officer Bill McDonald says, it’s a “year-long quest to claim the ultimate bragging rights in collegiate sports.”
The official Capital One Cup standings will be released at the end of
the fall, winter and spring sports seasons. In July, the two athletic
programs with the highest aggregated point totals across the
represented men’s and women’s sports will be announced as the Capital
One Cup winners and receive their trophies and scholarship donations live at the
ESPY Awards.
“I'd love to see it become the elite award in college athletics, where it becomes synonymous with hard work and everything that's good," former Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie and a member of the Capital One Cup Advisory Board, told USA Today. "Along with that, I'd like to see some respect for the non-revenue generating sports."
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Bad News Launches Childhood Obesity Awareness Month
As the first-ever National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month kicks off today, scientists say the problem may be even more widespread than previously thought. Researchers have found that parents tend to under-report their children’s weight — so much so that estimates of obesity and body mass index based on parent-supplied data may miss one in five obese children.
This sobering news underscores the need for National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, organizers say. Coinciding with First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, Congress established the observance in an unanimously passed resolution that seeks to “raise public awareness and mobilize the country to address childhood obesity.” More than 70 national organizations — including YMCA of the USA, the American College of Sports Medicine and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education — have joined together as the National Council on Childhood Obesity Awareness Month to educate parents, policymakers and others about the problem and encourage preventive action.
During the past four decades, obesity rates have soared among all age groups, increasing more than fourfold among children ages six to 11, according to the council. More than 23 million children and teenagers (31.8 percent) between the ages of 2 and 19 are overweight or obese, a statistic that health and medical experts say constitutes an epidemic.
But Chuck Runyon, chief executive officer of the Anytime Fitness chain, disagrees. In fact, Anytime Fitness is launching a nationwide campaign featuring TV commercials and full-page ads in USA Today and People magazine declaring, “There is no childhood obesity epidemic.” “Too much blame is being placed on the kids,” says Runyon, who also founded the Coalition of Angry Kids to encourage adults to become better role models in health and fitness. “Somebody needs the courage to stand up and say, ‘The primary reason we have so many overweight kids is because they have poor role models: overweight adults.’ ” He cites a report by the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry stating that if one parent is obese, there is a 50 percent chance that his or her children will be obese; those odds jump to 80 percent if both parents are obese. To back up Runyon's claims, beginning this month, more than 1,300 participating Anytime Fitness clubs will offer adults free 30-day memberships, free 30-minute personal training sessions and free 30-day access to online support.
Though other related activities planned for this month may still be in development at the local level, the U.S. Soccer Foundation will host “Kick-Off Day” Soccer for Success programs in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., on September 22. The afternoon clinics are intended for children and their parents, and Soccer for Success programs will continue to run throughout the school year to provide kids in kindergarten through eighth-grade with free after-school soccer programming. “Organized youth sports programs, that provide guidance on healthy eating and nutrition, should be at the center of any strategic national effort to fight childhood obesity,” says Ed Foster-Simeon, president of the U.S. Soccer Foundation. “By offering soccer programs that provide participants with mentoring, tutoring and nutritional guidance, we can ensure that our children develop not only as athletes, but as people.”
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
A Twist on Student-Athlete Twitter Privileges
University of North Carolina administrators may not have banned the use of Twitter and Facebook by student-athletes — as some of their peers at other schools have — but a new social-networking policy indicates they are serious about maintaining a low profile in the wake of recent highly publicized incidents.
The Raleigh News & Observer reports that UNC has updated its 2010-11 student-athlete handbook to stipulate that “each team must identify at least one coach or administrator who is responsible for having access to and regularly monitor the content of team members’ social-networking sites and postings.” The athletics department also reserves the right to have other staff members monitor student-athletes’ posts, and if any online content violates the law or NCAA, university or athletics department policies, punishment could range from removal of the post to dismissal from the team.
Although associate athletic director Steve Kirschner said the updated social-networking policy “is not in response to any one thing,” news of this major policy tweak comes shortly after UNC announced a probe into academic improprieties by the school's football team, and several basketball players were told to tone down their tweets.
No reaction from players yet, but writer Rhiannon Bowman had plenty to say about the university’s crackdown Tuesday in a blog posting for the local weekly newspaper Charlotte Creative Loafing. “Is this healthy?” Bowman asked. “I mean, in a country that values free speech so much that we made that right part of the very first amendment to our constitution, is paying university staff (i.e. state employees) to police the social media ramblings of our youth a healthy and wise thing to do?”
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Employees Hurt in Cowboys Facility Collapse Get $10M
The two employees seriously injured in the 2009 collapse of the Dallas Cowboys indoor practice facility have been awarded about $5 million each. Attorney Frank Branson told the Associated Press that the payments in cash and other benefits to team scout Rich Behm and special teams coach Joe DeCamillis settle lawsuits the two brought against Cowboys Center Ltd. (which owned the steel-and-fabric facility, plus the land on which it stood) and Blue Star Development Co. Both companies are controlled by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
Behm was paralyzed from the waist down and DeCamillis suffered a broken vertebrae when the building collapsed in a windstorm on May 2, 2009. Both men still work for the team, which wasn't sued. Branson also disclosed that a previous settlement with the facility’s builder paid Behm $19.5 million and DeCamillis $4.5 million.
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Goodbye, Sit-Ups; Hello, Fit Soldier
Nearly a decade in the making, the U.S. Army’s new physical-training program is being rolled out at five basic-training posts this year. The goal? To reduce injuries and better prepare soldiers for the rigors of combat.
As The New York Times recently reported, the program was created to help address one of the military’s most pressing issues: overweight and out-of-shape recruits. "Too Fat to Fight," a report issued recently by a group of retired generals, admirals and civilian military leaders, reveals that between 1995 and 2008, the proportion of potential recruits who failed their annual physicals because they were overweight climbed almost 70 percent. As a result, it is harder for recruits to reach Army fitness standards, and more are getting injured along the way.
That's why the Army’s new fitness regime eschews traditional sit-ups and long runs in favor of different kinds of push-ups and more stretching, more exercises for the abdomen and lower back, and more agility and balance work. Difficulty levels increase gradually. In some cases, these exercises incorporate side twists, back bridges and rowing-like movements similar to yoga and Pilates — activities that have been among military workout trends in recent years. “It’s more whole body,” First Lt. Tameeka Hayes, a platoon leader for a class of new privates at Fort Jackson, told The Times. “No one who has done this routine says we’ve made it easier.”
Other recent alterations to various physical fitness tests have been made across the armed services, and the Navy recently introduced a new fitness and nutrition system.
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Turf Spray-Painters Face Felony Charges
Two teenagers who allegedly spray-painted a Mississippi high school's football field last week have been charged with felonies because of the cleanup cost, according to The Clarion-Ledger statewide newspaper. Adam Cook and Tyler Dearman, both 17, were arrested by police in Brandon, Miss., and charged as adults with felony malicious mischief for allegedly spray-painting “BHS” and paw prints (referring to the Brandon High School Bulldogs) on the new synthetic turf at Pearl High School.
Damage is estimated at $1,200; the threshold for a felony is $500. Each boy posted $5,000 bond and declined a preliminary hearing, so their cases are headed to a Rankin County grand jury, probably in October.
Meanwhile, a chemical was applied to the turf at Ray Rogers Stadium to remove the red paint prior to Pearl’s Friday-night game against Brandon — which the Bulldogs lost by three points in overtime.
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Monday, August 30, 2010
Minnesota School Still Reeling from Hazing
Last week’s hazing allegation at Elk River (Minn.) High School has resulted in disciplinary action against nine players, while five of 12 coaches remain on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation this week. The decisions came at a special Sunday night school board meeting.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that four players will be kicked off the varsity squad for their roles in at least one incident involving players striking or poking other players on or near the buttocks in the school’s wrestling room. Three other players are suspended for four games, and another two will sit out one game. The board also voted to reinstate seven coaches from paid administrative leave, and the entire football team must undergo sensitivity training in an effort to prevent future incidents.
"These are good kids, and they made a mistake," district superintendent Mark Bezek, who suspended the entire football program last week, told the paper. "But it's a serious mistake."
Some players told the Star News community newspaper that the board’s actions will “devastate” the team, which has not had a winning season since 2003. They also said that the punishment is “ridiculous” and that the whole ordeal was blown out of proportion. Additionally, Elk River police have noticed that
players and parents have begun clamming up about the incidents out of fear of more negative
consequences.
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High School Football Returns After Tax-Issue Hiatus
Football and other fall sports are back at all four high schools in a suburban Columbus, Ohio, school district. A failed school levy last year resulted in an $8 million budget cut for South-Western City Schools — killing all sports and extracurricular activities. But when voters approved a 7.4-mill operating levy in November 2009, winter and spring sports, as well as other activities, were restored.
Because of the timing, schools went without football for a year — and the sport’s return to the field Friday night was described as “deliriously joyful” by Columbus Dispatch reporter Michael Arace. Grove City opened its season by hosting defending Division I champion Hilliard Davidson in front of 12,000 fans, falling 28-21. But that didn't seem to put a damper on the celebration. "Friday night has always been very special here," George Edge, director of Grove City's marching band, told the paper. "People have always come out in droves, as if this were some mass exercise in civic pride for Grove City. Last year was like letting all the air out of a balloon."
That balloon is no longer deflated, but it isn’t floating as high as it used to, either. District administrators, as part of the levy agreement, have been forced to charge $150 pay-to-play fees for all sports ($75 per sport in the middle schools) — among the highest in Franklin County. This, despite the fact that more than half of South-Western's students are considered economically disadvantaged. Students in marching band pay $100 each, and clubs such as National Honor Society or the student council charge $20 per activity.
While The Dispatch reports that roster numbers for most fall sports are up after a year’s absence, Franklin Heights high school will not field a freshman football team, junior varsity soccer squad or cross country program because of low participation numbers. Meanwhile, football programs at Central Crossing and Westland high schools saw dramatic drops, with 38 fewer players at Central Crossing and 31 at Westland. (Band participation, on the other hand, is up at all four schools.) "I wish we didn't have to have pay-to-play fees, but it's what it took to pass a levy," school board member Cathy Johnson said. "It breaks my heart to know that at least one of our high schools isn't going to have a freshmen football team."
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California High Schools Not Impressed by ESPN
Coaches of the two California high school football teams featured Friday night on ESPN2 are riled up about the way the network treated them and their schools. In a “Hometown Report,” The Sacramento Bee reveals that the “overall sense of the ESPN superiority” flustered officials at Folsom High School and Del Paso Height’s Grant High School. Network crews took control of practically every detail of the sold-out event, school officials say, which aired live from Folsom’s Prairie City Stadium.
"I've covered eight Super Bowls and never had as many difficulties as I have with this game," Fox 40 sports director Jim Crandell told reporter Joe Davidson. Before the game, ESPN insisted that local television outlets have no access to the field — meaning no highlights on their newscasts — but that edict was adjusted to limited access from the end zones. The network also reportedly asked the student bodies of both schools to host on-campus rallies and pulled players out of class to conduct interviews.
Nationally ranked Grant crushed Folsom, 49-14, but Folsom coach Kris Richardson said that playing the game “was the easy part.” During the game — for which Folsom received $2,000 from ESPN and Grant received $1,000 — both teams’ coaches were told what they could have on their sidelines and where those items should be located, according to The Bee, including branded water bottles and jugs. "The national exposure is great for the kids and the fans, but being told exactly what you could have on your sideline … is new to me," Grant coach Mike Alberghini said.
ESPN has played a pivotal role in the evolution of televised high
school football, particularly since 2006. Schedules for the network and its sister stations, ESPN2
and ESPNU, that year included no fewer than
13 national broadcasts of regular-season football games. By comparison,
The ESPN RISE High School Football Kickoff this past weekend alone featured eight games played in seven states.
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Friday, August 27, 2010
NHL to Launch Women’s League?
After being warned that women’s hockey must become more competitive in order to remain part of the Winter Olympics, representatives of the sport have been in talks with the National Hockey League to form an NHL-supported women’s league. “I think we have the ear of the NHL,” Hayley Wickenheiser, a Canadian forward who is considered one of the sport’s greatest female players, told The New York Times. “They’re looking at it right now from a sponsorship level to get it off the ground. We’re not talking about big salaries, just sensible steps to get it on the ice to entertain people and see where it can go, and then down the road having an elite, WNBA-type league, which I think we could do.” (It's worth noting that the WNBA's longevity has been the exception for
women's professional team sports, not the rule. Consider the ill-fated Women's United Soccer Association.)
Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, confirmed Wickenheiser’s remarks to The Times, stating that discussions have taken place over a number of months and were very preliminary. But they are aimed at setting up a “women’s league or women’s competition,” he said.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said during the 2010 Winter Games that women’s hockey “cannot continue without improvement” — raising concerns that the sport could go the way of softball, which was dropped from the 2012 Olympics because of the dominance of Team USA. The United States has 60,000 registered female hockey players, and Canada has 80,000, according to The Times. But of the next 12 countries that support women’s hockey, none have more than 5,000 players, and most have only a few hundred.
Wickenheiser said she favors a women’s league featuring post-college players from North America and Europe, which she says could result in more internationally balanced competition every four years at the Winter Games.
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Thursday, August 26, 2010
Hazing Allegation Suspends Football at Minnesota School
The Elk River (Minn.) High School football program has been suspended — one week before its season opener — following what appears to be a series of hazing incidents. Superintendent Mark Bezek announced his decision to shelve the program "until further notice" in a meeting with about 200 parents and students Wednesday night, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
The move came on the same day a player’s parent notified school officials that her son had been a hazing victim, prompting all 54 players on the team to be interviewed. More than a dozen students who might know more were expected to be interviewed today, according to Elk River activities director John Barth — who nevertheless doesn’t expect the Elks to miss any games on the gridiron.
District spokesperson Casey Mahon would not reveal to reporters the nature of the hazing. But he did state that the allegations appear to involve more than one isolated incident and “could've gone back the past couple of years." He added that no players required medical attention as the result of any hazing. Meanwhile, the district has hired an attorney to conduct a third-party investigation.
Last month — in light of hazing reports emerging from NFL training camps — hazing expert Hank Nuwer called for a hazing ban, imploring pro leagues to put an end to "the idea of humiliation" once and for all.
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Report: Full-Time Job of Football Cutting Into Grad Rates
The College Sport Research Institute at the University of North Carolina today released its 2010 Division I Football Adjusted Graduation Gap report, and the numbers indicate a sizeable gap exists.
The first-of-its-kind report utilizes the published four-class average graduation rates for the 1999-2002 cohort (the most recent available) and removes from general student body graduation rates 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 54.5 percent, 13.9 percentage points behind the male student population at large (68.4 percent).
Only one conference among the 23 competing at the Division I level posted a positive AGG. Players in the Southwestern Athletic Conference graduated at a rate 6 percentage points better than the full-time male population who attended SWAC institutions. Moreover, the top seven spots in the report are occupied by Football Championship Subdivision conferences: SWAC, Mid-Eastern Athletic, Big South, Southern, Southland, Northeast and Patriot.
Conversely, the bottom five positions in the rankings are occupied by Football Bowl Subdivision conferences: Western Athletic, Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Mountain West and Pac-10, with the latter league posting an AGG of negative 30.
Combined, FBS players lagged behind their male counterparts by 18.5 percentage points, while FCS players trailed theirs by 9.7. Since football players at both FBS and FCS schools graduate at approximately the same rate, the greater FBS gap is a result of full-time male students graduating at a higher rate (73 percent) than full-time male students attending FCS schools (63.2 percent).
The study’s authors attribute at least some of the graduation rate disparities to time constraints placed on football players, particularly during the fall term. “Football at the FBS level is akin to a full-time job. So is being a student,” CSRI director Richard Southall states in the report. “Something inevitably has to give, and the AGG reveals what is giving is football players’ graduation rates.”
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Concussions Causing Headaches for Baseball, Too
The National Football League isn’t the only professional sports organization suffering headaches from concussions. For some Major League Baseball teams, head injuries to key players could impact the pennant races.
Most notable on that disabled list is Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau, who's been benched since July 7, when he slid into the knee of Toronto Blue Jays infielder John McDonald. The Twins have a three-and-a-half-game lead in the American League Central, but the 2006 American League MVP was expected to be a crucial factor in the Twins’ playoff chase. "I still haven't had a symptom-free day," Morneau told USA Today.
Morneau, who suffered concussions playing youth hockey, still takes batting practice, but dizziness and other symptoms persist. Thus, he hasn’t been cleared to play. Neither has New York Mets outfielder Jason Bay, who banged his head against an outfield wall in July, but returned for two games before a doctor diagnosed his concussion — leading the team to consider revising its head-trauma policy, according to The New York Times. "We're paying more attention to it," Mets general manager Omar Minaya told USA Today reporter Paul White. "It's good for the industry that we're learning more about it."
Baseball’s stakes in the current concussion discussion became even bigger last week when Boston University researchers found evidence indicating that Lou Gehrig, one of the sport's all-time greats, might not have actually had the disease that bears his name. Rather, at least five documented concussions — including a pitch to his helmet-less head that knocked Gehrig out cold for five minutes in 1934 — may have contributed to his death.
As Yahoo! Sports columnist Jeff Passan recently reminded readers, concussions can end the careers of baseball players just as tragically as they can those of football players: “On July 5, 2006, nearly four years on the dot before Morneau’s concussion, [Milwaukee Brewers third baseman] Corey Koskie gave chase for a harmless pop-up. He twisted and turned, the ball’s loop-de-loop spinning him to the ground. It looked so benign. It felt that way, too, until nine days later, when Koskie took batting practice for the first time, felt dizzy, went to his hotel and never returned to a major-league field.”
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Canada Might Ban Mixed Martial Arts
The Canadian Medical Association is calling for a government ban on mixed martial arts in Canada, where seven provinces sanction MMA prize fighting. The vote came Wednesday, after often-contentious debate among 250 doctors at the organization’s annual meeting in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
According to an Associated Press report, those in favor of banning the sport say it puts fighters at risk of severe head trauma and other injuries that could have lifelong effects. They argue that unlike sports such as hockey and skiing, the intent of mixed martial arts is to incapacitate one's opponent.
MMA — which borrows from techniques found in Greco-Roman wrestling, kickboxing, karate, judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and which once was derided as "human cockfighting" by U.S. Sen. John McCain — began its American emergence in the 1990s, gradually becoming a legal, albeit violent, activity in a majority of states. In recent years, it has been the focus of popular video games, enjoyed sellout crowds at arenas and attracted pay-per-view audiences rivaling those for boxing's biggest events. Most recently, MMA has begun appealing to younger people as a way to keep them fit and build self-defense skills.
"There's nothing wrong with teaching kids to defend themselves, not in today's world," Terry Richardson, principal of Miller (Mo.) High School, told Athletic Business last fall. Miller High offered MMA as a physical-education class during a month-long summer school session in 2009, and Winchester (Mass.) High School sponsors an MMA club program. "Everyone's going to have their opinion," Winchester athletic director Brian Carroll told AB last year, steadfast in his belief that the school has set proper boundaries for the sport. "There's a woman in Michigan who thinks I'm the devil for offering this."
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