The future is Now

I truly believe the future of sports communication is exactly what we are doing now. Blogs are going to become everyones number one source for all their news. Sports blogs hit people on so many levels and that is why they are enjoyed so much. People love disecting other peoples opinions and arguing them in a format where nobody sees each other face to face. Blogging allows a person to change what they want to about anything. I mean one story could be right one minute and changed in the next. Certain sports are going to take off and communication is going to be the key to all of this. I think there will be a legitamate fantasy sports website that will allow gambling in the USA in the next 5 years because the market is so huge and the government could make so much money off of the taxes. I am glad we all learned how and when to blog because knowing these techniques will allow us to be better prepared to learn, teach, and blog for the next generation

Skate Park

The city I am recommending  for a skate park is the city of Vermillion, South Dakota. The mayor and youth recreation coordinator and myself will fill out the application. I believe this city needs a skate park because the city as a whole needs more youth projects. There are many people who skate that live in the community or nearby that would use this. Most businesses and parks do not allow skateboarding and giving these people there own space would not only be recreational but will also free up some of the local law enforcement. The nearest skate park is over an hour away. This does not allow younger people to skate. Offering a new alternative will keep the childrens intrest and hopefully keep them out of trouble.

With a grant and a few donations from people in the community we will be able to charge only enough money to keep up with maitenance fees and weather repairs. We plan on putting in in a designated park that is already in the makings. A pond has already been dug out and can very simply be made into a skatepark. This skatepark will not be state of the art but it will be basic enough to offer kids a recreational option. Hopefully we can hold a few tournaments and offer prizes and upgrade it along the way.

Happy Halloween

These are some pumpkins I found on the internet.

                                        

Reporters

Personally I did not have any trouble getting my story in and that was mostly because I could walk to the field where it was happening. My apartment is literally three blocks from the field where the game takes place. The information that I wanted to get were stats, score, any personal info, weather, etc. The information for me was readily availiable from the parents in the stands and they were willing to give any info that i asked. For other reporters I would assume there are many reasons why stories can be late. I think driving to a location would hinder your ability to get back especailly with storms and so forth also it takes awhile to come up with a good storyline that keeps everyone involvesd weith the story. Having to wait for people to gove you actual quotes would hurt your ability to get the story in as well.

Quarterback, Defense, or just the Weather

Saturday....9am......60 degrees

Sounds like the perfect time to watch a Pee-Wee football game. WRONG!!! 60 mile an hour winds brought this game to a complete standstill. Through four quarters of play the final score was 6-2. Remember this was a football game not a baseball game. The Vermillion Tanagers hosted the Dell Rapid Quarriers in tournament play today. One loss your done format so it should have been excitng. These 8-10 year olds really gave it their all for four quarters. Vermillion was lead by Quarterback Chase Ffel who ran for sixty yards on seventeen carries. The only downside to that was he was 0 for 13 passing. This was a major surprise because the Tanagers were a very strong passing team according to the parents in the stands. Vermillions lone score came on a safety that was really a string of bad luck for the Quarriers. The Quarriers quarterback tried to pitch the ball to his runningback and a gust of wind blew the ball into the endzone and was recovered by Quarriers giving the Tanagers 2 points at the beginning of the fourth quarter. The Quarriers received the ball late in the fourth quarter after the Tanagers had punted. Maybe it was the football God's making up for the weather, but the wind died down around this time as well. THe Quarriers then went 43 yards for the go ahead touchdown. The touchdown was run in by fullback Taylor Kratz from the three yard line. I felt bad for my fiances brrother who played for the Tanagers. This was not a good game by any means, but all the kids played their hearts out and the best moment came after the game. Both teams huddled around an ice chest dring Capri Sun and having a granola bar.....Now thats football.

There was talk of moving the game to a later time slot in the day, but was overruled by the referees. The tournament is only a one day tournament and extra time slots were not available. THere were other great games offered by the tournament which included a shootout that ended 21 to 28. I have no idea who will win this tournament but the favorite from this reporters eyes is the team out of Yankton. The plays I saw this young quarterback were amazing. He ran for two long touchdown runs and even caught  one as Yankton used a rough version of a "wildcat" offense.

All of the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. One of things I enjoyed the most were all the cheerleaders and all the coaches were wearing pink shirts that showed their support for breast cancer awareness. Ther proceeds from this tournament were going to be given to the South Dakota chapter of breast cancer awareness.

Even on TV this was AMAZING

PHILADELPHIA – Deep inside the tunnel next to the Philadelphia Phillies dugout is a chair. It is tucked away behind a short stairwell, hidden from the dugout, with a small television as the only connection to everything happening outside. This is where Roy Halladay(notes) often goes between innings of the games he pitches and where he sat each inning Wednesday evening as he became the second pitcher to throw a no-hitter in a postseason game.

The Phillies' Roy Halladay became the second pitcher with a no-hitter in postseason history, joining Don Larsen (1956).
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

And as afternoon light gave way to an evening gloom in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, none of the other Phillies dared to approach him. Not Roy Oswalt(notes), the pitcher who usually uses the same chair when he pitches. Not Carlos Ruiz(notes), the catcher with whom Halladay was in such perfect symmetry he only shook off Ruiz’s pitch call once. Not even Rich Dubee, the pitching coach who assessed Halladay’s brilliance early and let his only correspondence be a slap on his pitcher’s behind at the end of each inning followed by the words: “Nice job.”

More From Les Carpenter

So it was a solitary pursuit, this game that was close to perfection without actually being perfection. Halladay would later say he was aware he was pitching a no-hitter, “knew it in the fifth or sixth inning,” he said. But he has always been a pitcher who demanded isolation and routine. Even as he threw the most exciting game of the year, he worked to stay calm, to think of anything other than the string of zeros on the scoreboard high above left field at Citizens Bank Park.
“I think as soon as you try and (focus on a no-hitter) it kind of takes you out of your plan a little bit,” he said.
For much of the last decade he has been baseball’s most dominant pitcher, a superstar without the postseason to accentuate his standing, three times a 20-game winner, holder of the Cy Young but no meaningful October starts. Then, Wednesday, in his first postseason game, he threw a no-hitter. As if there is any doubt now about how great Roy Halladay has become.
He was dominant. Everyone on the Phillies knew it. As Halladay warmed up before the game, bullpen coach Mick Billmeyer was struck by the extra movement on the pitcher’s fastball, the way it seemed to jump at the last second. This is the way Halladay had been throwing for the last couple of weeks as the playoffs were assured and Halladay was allowed more rest.
“I didn’t know if he could throw a no-hitter,” Billmeyer said, “but he was real, real crisp.”
The Reds were overmatched from the beginning. Halladay stood long and lanky, throwing almost effortlessly as the Cincinnati hitters lunged with awkward swings. For much of the first part of the year Dubee had been stressing throwing with ease to Halladay, worried that the pitcher sometimes tried “to be too special,” he said.
When Halladay attempts to merely be good, he becomes great. And as the game progressed, Halladay was great. Not long before darkness fell, a small storm cell came over the park, dousing the players for more than an inning in a cold October rain. Halladay hardly seemed to notice.
The Reds could do nothing. Cincinnati’s second pitcher of the night, Travis Wood(notes), hit a sinking line drive to right field in the third inning that right fielder Jayson Werth(notes) had to slide to catch. In the sixth, pinch hitter Juan Francisco(notes) smacked a ground ball that appeared to have a chance to go into center field but it struck the mound and bounced right to shortstop Jimmy Rollins(notes).

Mostly the Reds took feeble swings or let strikes zip past them without even trying to swing, as if looking for something else.
“I don’t know what happened,” Cincinnati second baseman Brandon Phillips(notes) said. “He pitched the ball and we didn’t hit the ball.”

Roy Halladay celebrates with catcher Carlos Ruiz after pitching a no-hitter in his first playoff appearance.
(AP Photo/Rob Carr)

Not that it mattered, all of Halladay’s pitches – his fastball, curve and changeup – were outstanding. On May 29 in Florida he had thrown a perfect game, yet fellow Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels(notes) watched from the dugout and marveled at how this time Halladay was even better, more precise. Look at the swings the Reds took, Hamels said. They were baffled by everything Halladay threw.

“The Marlins actually hit some balls hard that we made good plays on,” Hamels said.

The only blemish was a fifth-inning walk by Reds right fielder Jay Bruce(notes) who took a cut fastball on a 3-2 count. Otherwise, Halladay would have become the only player to throw two perfect games in a single year.

As the ninth inning started, the stadium grew strangely quiet. The 46,411 seemed more anxious than euphoric. A man and a woman left to go home and were booed by the fans around them. A feeble chant of “Let’s go Roy! Let’s go Roy,” rose into the night. But the final explosion didn’t come until Phillips hit a tiny dribbler in front of home plate. Phillips threw down his bat to run to first and for a moment Ruiz had to wait for the ball to stop moving before picking it up and throwing to first. He would say it was the most nervous he was throwing a ball, so much so that an hour after the game ended his right hand was still shaking.

Then after the Phillies mauled Halladay and the pitcher had done all the obligatory on-field interviews, he walked into the tunnel where he spent half the game, up the staircase that runs above the chair and down a hallway to the clubhouse. Billmeyer embraced him. Several other men slapped him on his back.

“Let’s give him some room!” shouted a team executive as Halladay turned left and toward the clubhouse where all the Phillies players stood, most still in their uniforms.

“Here he is,” one shouted. And together they all jumped on him once more, shaking his arm, slapping his back all the way to his locker.

It was a joyous night, a magical night. One almost too surreal to believe. And yet Halladay acted as if this was a routine victory over the Cubs or Nationals in the middle of August. He changed out of his uniform and led his two sons back into the same tunnel to go to the interview room. None of this seemed to overwhelm him.

After he was gone, Hamels smiled.

“You know, this is what he expects to do, and so when he does it he’s just like, ‘yeah that’s me,’ ”he said.

What Is This???

 

Wed Oct 06 08:09am PDT

Rhode Island school pulls out of game citing size of foe's players

By Cameron Smith

Football matchups between private schools can create mismatches based on a variety of factors, but it's rare that a school uses fear of injury to cancel a game.

That's exactly what happened Monday, when St. George's (R.I.) School canceled a game on Friday against fellow Independent School League member Lawrence Academy (Mass.), citing a concern over the disparity in the size of the two schools' players. St. George's is the first team to officially pull out of a game against Lawrence Academy (Mass.), one of two programs that has been completely dominant against ISL foes in recent years.
"This is strictly a safety issue,'' St. George's headmaster Eric Peterson told the Boston Globe. "We are trying to keep our kids reasonably safe in a game that can be terribly exciting but has risks."
Meanwhile, the risk of losing via forfeit -- the game may or may not be recorded as a forfeit, depending on the decision of a committee of three ISL headmasters -- is not something that concerns St. George's athletic director and football coach John MacKay. He said, "People don't understand what schools like St. George's are all about. Our students are into much more than athletics. Athletic success is so secondary in a place like this.''
[Rewind: High school coach suspended for taking in homeless player]
As laid out by both Mike Carraggi of the Boston Globe and Danny Ventura of the Boston Herald, the numbers behind St. George's decision are pretty stark. Three Lawrence Academy offensive lineman weigh in at 300, 335 and 350 pounds, where St. George's players come nowhere near those marks. Still, the withdrawal is a stark statement of competitive inequity in the entire league. St. George's stands at 2-0 after going winless last year, but still decided it was better off withdrawing than playing a team that won all but two of its games by 40 or more points in 2009.
"The issue first came up last spring, then we talked about it off and on in the summer,'' Peterson told the Globe. "By the time the roster was in place, it became pretty clear.''
While St. George's withdrawal is a clear black eye on the ISL, the other possible solutions presented to coach MacKay were equally unpalatable. Among other options, Lawrence Academy reportedly offered to play the game at "half speed" to ensure no players got hurt. That hardly seems like a positive message to send to a program that claims it is trying to build gradual success among a young core of players.
[Rewind: Female cornerback plays for top-ranked high school team]
Nonetheless, St. George's decision shines a spotlight on a significant problem that has been building within the ISL for years, according to Danny Ventura of the Herald.

Other coaches in the game have privately voiced their displeasure with Lawrence Academy. Judging by the volume of hits this story (which the Herald first broke yesterday morning) has received, it's certainly a newsworthy issue. What remains to be seen is whether any other team in the league follows suit and refuses to play LA.
League administrators were scheduled to meet this morning and we're sure one of the hot topics will be how to handle this situation. Is it a forfeit against SG or a no contest. You also have to believe that they will be feeling out the rest of Lawrence Academy opponents to see if they have plans on playing the game.
As one coach who asked his name not be used said: "The situation stinks. It's a black eye for our league."

Sports Fundraiser

The fundraiser is to raise money for the special olympics. We are going to host a 3-3 outdoor basketball tournament in South Dakota. We are going to work closely with the intramural programs from the nearbye colleges to promote a rivalry. Rivalry deepens the competition. The cost is 100.00 dollars per team and the team that wins will receive a brand new 52 inch television that has been donated by a local merchant. 2nd place will a gift basket worth 500 dollars of local products. Third, will get their money back. We are also going to use this event to promote another fundraiser which is a Madden video game tournament. This way we can have a event for athletic people and an event for people who play a lot of video games.

In the media kit we would have all the flyers, names of all participants, sponsors, prize list, place where you can donate money, etc.