- By Zushan Ahmad Hashmi
Featured News
10 Reasons Why Kids Should Wrestle
Wrestling is one of the most unique sports on the planet. It is definitely not the most popular sport, but that is quickly changing as more and more people become aware of the incredible benefits that a career in wrestling can provide.
1. Wrestling Develops Athleticism
Balance, strength, coordination, and overall body awareness is fundamental in having success in the sport. Year after year kids will start practice with gymnastics, calisthenics, and activities that develop these skills. It provides a foundation of athleticism.
2. Wrestling Promotes Personal Responsibility
As an individual sport the only person responsible for success or failure is the individual themselves. Wrestling teaches self-awareness and how to be responsible for your actions. What you put in is what you get out.
3. Wrestling Develops Mental and Emotional Resilience
Like no other sport, wrestling triggers the emotions of athletes. When you suffer losses and setbacks they are often painful and uncomfortable. However, through the process individuals can develop resilience that will last a lifetime.
4. Wrestling Teaches About Nutrition and Weight Management
Through competition athletes become aware of weight-classes. If done correctly, this can encourage athletes to learn about food and how proper nutrition can impact their performance.
5. Wrestling Develops Leadership Skills
Leadership is both verbal and nonverbal. A wrestling room has the ability to create an environment where leaders emerge. You will quickly see young athletes push each other, teach each other, and support one another.
6. Wrestling Teaches Discipline and Accountability
Discipline and accountability are requirements for achieving success in the sport of wrestling. There is literally no way to achieve ultimate success in the sport without choosing to do hard things even when you don’t want to and athletes must hold themselves accountable for their own actions if they want to succeed.
7. Wrestling Brings People Together From All Backgrounds and Cultures
Wrestling is an international sport and doesn’t require anything to participate. People from all corners of the planet and from all different economic and social backgrounds can compete in the sport.
8. Wrestling Promotes Self-Mastery and Focus
Wrestling has been described as the most difficult martial art to master. It takes years of practice and experience to understand the positions of wrestling. The sport teaches individuals to have a long-term perspective and requires a high level of passion to pursue the elite levels of the sport.
9. Wrestling Teaches Self-Defense
The best way to ensure that you’re not a victim of physical violence is by learning self-defense. Wrestling is the most important skill-set required in combat sports today because it has the ability to control where the battle goes. Knowing how to wrestle could very easily help anyone in a situation of self-defense.
10. Wrestling Can Provide Opportunities to Travel and Further Education
There are so many opportunities to travel the country and see the world while competing in youth and high school wrestling. In addition to traveling, there are endless opportunities to wrestle in college. Individuals can use the sport to create educational opportunities that might not otherwise have existed.
Catch Team USA Softball at The World Games 2022
| THE WORLD GAMES 2022 SEE TEAM USA & ALABAMA’S HALEY McCLENEY GO FOR THE GOLD MEDAL In July 2022, The World Games will be held in Alabama and the softball competition will take place at the Hoover Met. The silver medalists from this week’s Tokyo Olympics, Team USA, will compete next year for both a Gold Medal and a Softball World Championship. Tickets are selling fast! You don’t want to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity. |
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ICC to Push for Cricket’s Inclusion in Olympics
The ICC has confirmed its intention to push for cricket’s inclusion in the Olympic Games going forward, starting preparations for a bid on behalf of the sport with the primary target being its addition to the Los Angeles 2028 itinerary.
A Working Group to lead the bid has been assembled by the ICC.
Thirty-million cricket fans live in the USA, making LA 2028 the ideal Games for cricket to make its return to Olympic competition. Cricket, till now, has made just one appearance in the Olympics, way back in 1900 in Paris when only two teams competed at the event – Great Britain and hosts France – meaning the sport’s inclusion in 2028 would mark the end of a 128-year absence.
The sport will feature in the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games next year, which shapes as a perfect showcase for what the sport can bring to the Olympics, as well as being a momentous occasion on its own.
[Read more…] about ICC to Push for Cricket’s Inclusion in OlympicsAwards Ceremony at Proctors Recognizes Standout Female Athletes
By Jim Schiltz | The Daily Gazette
Recent Taconic Hills graduate Clare Howard couldn’t help but notice just how proud the parents, siblings, coaches and friends were of the individuals who were honored Monday evening at the second annual Capital District Sports Women of the Year Awards Gala at Proctors.l
Howard’s rooting section included her mom, dad, brother and sister.
“You could see how each family supported their athlete,” said Howard, who, after each individual was honored, earned the prestigious Grand Scholastic Sports Woman of the Year prize. “To be able to invite people shows how far we’ve come in this pandemic.”
The first awards ceremony held last August saw only two guests allowed for each of the young women who were honored for their outstanding athletic and academic achievement, service to their school and community involvement.
The 2020 Capital District Sports Women of the Year gala was originally scheduled to take place in May of that year at Proctors, but that was postponed due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic and was instead held at The Desmond Hotel in Colonie in a low-key affair where the grand winners were sprinter and soccer player Lydia Ware of Averill Park in the high school category and soccer player Morgan Burchhardt of Saint Rose in the collegiate category.
“This was the dream I had,” Capital District Sports Women of the Year president and founder Eric McDowell said as pictures were taken in a room adjacent to the GE Theatre, where the event was held. “Women’s sports deserve coverage and recognition outside the arena. This is what I wanted to do, and I wanted to do it here.”
Soccer player Hallie Klosterman of Russell Sage College was the Grand Sports Woman of the Year winner in the collegiate category.
Also honored Monday were recent high school graduates Phoebe Fox (Glens Falls), Riley Gibbons (Germantown), Jenna Hoffman (Maple Hill), Anna Jankovic (Averill Park), Sara Langworthy (Warrensburg), Izzy Mancini (Galway), Madison Relyea (Mayfield) and Kate Sherman (Mohonasen), rising high school senior Beth Irwin (Guilderland), and Naseyah Dix (Bryant & Stratton College).
“What an all-star team,” McDowell said before each of the honorees received a trophy and gave a speech. “What accomplishments.”
Howard, Taconic Hills’ five-sports participant and senior class president, said she was both surprised and excited when the grand awards were announced.
“I was expecting a lot when I got here, but when I heard the resumes, it was mind boggling,” Howard said. “I was blown away by what the girls had done. Each girl has so much to offer. We all could have won it for different reasons.”
“We read about them. Put out the releases,” McDowell said of the honorees. “To see them come to life was very, very special. What they did is amazing.”
McDowell said there were more nominations for the 2021 awards than in 2020, and he expects an even larger number next year.
“It’s growing,” McDowell said. “Word will come out and they will say, ‘We have someone, too.’ ”
Howard began competing in sports at Taconic Hills as a seventh-grader, and as the years passed she kept adding teams to her athletic resume. She capped off her record and award-filled scholastic career this school year by participating in soccer and cross country in the fall, swimming and skiing in the winter and track in the spring. She would have done the five as a junior, too, had that spring season not been taken away by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Clare is a remarkable young lady that manages her time well in order to be successfully involved in as much as she is,” Taconic Hills math teacher Angela Webster said in a pre-event testimonial. “She is one of the most all-around talented individuals I have met in my career. I admire her for her positive, calm demeanor in the classroom while being an aggressive, sportsmanlike competitor on the field.”
Howard will focus on the 400 hurdles at William and Mary, and while she has yet to declare a major, she has great interest in the math and science fields where the National Honor Society member has received several prestigious awards.
“How many hours are in her day?” McDowell asked.
The multi-talented teen also has an ear for music, and can play the piano, flute and cello. She has been involved with several different groups, and was invited to perform with the Empire State String Youth Orchestra.
“I was always active growing up, and that carried over to my teenage years,” Howard, who served as her class treasurer for three years and was on the school’s COVID-19 reopening committee, said prior to the awards gala. “I am just really thankful that with everything I’ve done, I’ve had my family and friends and everyone in school backing me up and supporting me.”
Howard graduated third in her class.
“I really want to be the best version of myself as I can,” the 18-year-old academic and athletic star said when informed earlier this year that she was among the 10 high schoolers to be recognized. “It’s rewarding to see it all pay off.”
Klosterman anchored Russell Sage’s run to its first Empire 8 women’s soccer championship last spring as a junior, while academically, she was named to Russell Sage’s President’s List, Dean’s List and Athletic Honor Society for the third time. This past academic year she was also named to the college’s Athenian Honors Society. The Wallkill High School graduate has maintained a perfect 4.0 grade point average throughout her college career.
“The key to my success is challenging myself to be the best I can as a student, athlete and person,” Klosterman said.
Klosterman was named the Empire 8 tournament MVP after the team captain assisted on the winning goal in the semifinals, and scored both the tying goal late in the second half and the game-winner on a penalty kick in extra time against Utica College in the title match.
“Oh my gosh,” Klosterman had said, “it was incredible. Everybody on the team, that was their goal. That’s what we were striving for. Did we have a perfect season? No. But, in my opinion, winning a championship doesn’t have to be a perfect season. If you have some upsets here and there, that’s where you learn. That’s where your growth comes from. That’s what can make or break a championship.”
Klosterman has already completed her undergraduate work at Russell Sage and is now embarking on a three-year graduate program in physical therapy.
News Channel 13 sports personality Ashley Miller served as the master of ceremonies and Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer, who lived in Schenectady as a youth, was the virtual guest speaker. Indie-pop artist Annie Scherer of Voorheesville performed on piano at the beginning of the event and on guitar after a brief intermission.
Papp Pulls Out First Professional Victory
Beaumont, TX) – The final round of the Babe Zaharias Open has concluded and it was a shootout. Several players were able to take advantage of the favorable conditions round four had to offer and two Texas Longhorns and a Texas Tech Red Raider battled it out for 18 holes.
Kaitlyn Papp (Austin, TX) held a three-shot lead heading into the final round of the Babe Zaharias Open. Papp found herself in familiar territory as last week, as she was once again in the final group in the final round. This time however, Papp came into the final round with the lead and she was determined to keep that lead. Starting her day with a birdie, Papp wanted to send a message early that last week would not be a normal final round. The other two players in her group were Greta Voelker (Germany) and Sofia Garcia (Paraguay) who both put on the pressure all day, but Papp answered the call. Even when Garcia tied the heading into 18, Papp never seemed phased. Garcia would hit it right off the tee and into the trees, while Papp would put it right down the middle. Garcia shortsided herself in the greenside bunker and could not get up and down. Papp found the middle of the green on 18 and was able to two-putt to become the 2021 Babe Zaharias Open Champion!
The top-5 for the Race to Stage II also concluded in Beaumont. The top-5 to end the season were Jessica Porvasnik, Sofia del Rosario, Gabby Then, Ginger Howard, and Sofia Garcia. Congratulations ladies and good luck in Florida at Stage II!
The Women’s All Pro Tour would like to thank Beaumont Country Club and the city of Beaumont for their hospitality and help all week. A very special thank you to Head Professional Jeff Cooper, Tournament Director Roni Stephenson, Volunteer Chair Cindy Lindsay, Housing Coordinator Jodi Meaux, and Course Superintendent Brandon Johnson.
Who is Jade Carey? Get to know U.S. gymnastics’ automatic individual Olympic qualifier
Emily AdamsUSA TODAY
- Jade Carey, 21, was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona.
- The Tokyo Games are Carey’s first trip to compete at the Olympics.
- Carey has a chance to compete in the individual event finals on vault and floor exercise.
While the other gymnasts at the U.S. Olympic Trials pulled out all of their best skills and anxiously fought for the chance to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, Jade Carey was completely calm. That’s because Carey’s spot on the team was already guaranteed
Carey is one of the athletes taking advantage of the FIG’s new team structure when she competes as an individual in Tokyo. A vault and floor exercise specialist, Carey should give the U.S. extra opportunities to bring home medals in the individual event finals.
Jade Carey, an American Gymnast Competing as an Individual, Qualifies for Olympic Floor Exercise, Vault Finals
Jeff MetcalfeArizona Republic
TOKYO — Jade Carey’s untraditional path to the Olympics paid off.
The 19-year-old, competing as an individual instead of as part of the U.S. team, qualified for floor exercise and vaulting finals Sunday with her best performances of the year.
Carey and U.S. superstar Simone Biles, who had one of the roughest performances of her career in the third qualifying session at Ariake Gymnastics Centre, will compete in the vault final on Aug. 1 and floor final the following day.
MyKayla Skinner finished fourth overall in vault qualifying but is not eligible for the final because a maximum of two per country are allowed in the eight-woman event finals.
So it came down to one American knocking another out of contention for an individual medal for the U.S. spot open alongside Biles on vault and floor. Skinner tied with Jordan Chiles for the third-best U.S. score on floor.
“They did a good job,” said Tom Forster, USA Gymnastics women’s high-performance coordinator, of Carey and Skinner. “I’m fairly certain MyKayla is super happy to finally be an Olympian. She’s proud of herself as she should be.
“The people that made floor finals are the best athletes on floor, same on vault. It is what it is.”
U.S. gymnasts did not talk to the media after their session.
[Read more…] about Jade Carey, an American Gymnast Competing as an Individual, Qualifies for Olympic Floor Exercise, Vault FinalsBest of the Best: Future Gamecock, Local Standout Wins Third SC Gatorade Award
Jayla Jamison added another top award to cap her high school career.
The Airport High School junior was named South Carolina’s 2021 Gatorade Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year on Friday — it’s the third straight year she’s won the honor
Jamison is the first three-time winner in South Carolina since J.L. Mann’s Brianna Nelson did it in 2008-10. She is the first Midlands athlete to win three in a row since Spring Valley’s Monique Hennagan in 1992-94.
Jamison won in the long jump and the 100, 200 and 400 meters in the 2021 S.C. track and field championships in May. She was the lone Airport runner who placed in the meet and helped the Eagles to a third-place finish in Class 4A. Jamison’s four state championships give her 12 for her career. She won four events in 2018 and 2019. Had last year’s championships not been canceled because of COVID-19, she would have likely added to her total.
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