Category Archives: Sports

Josh Howard Get Front Page Smack Down by Greensboro Newspaper

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Josh Howard, a native of Winston-Salem and former player for Winston-Salem's very own Wake Forest University, got a front page going-over in the Greensboro News & Record because his foundation is the name sponsor of a scholastic basketball tournament being held in the Greensboro Coliseum.  Essentially the article points out that Howard's been in some trouble of late and points out that due to his recent behavior it may not be the best idea to have his name attached to the tournament for high school players.  

The article also quotes the tournament organizer as saying that Howard's foundation came to them about sponsoring the event, not vice versa as is normal.  Clearly the implication is that Howard is trying to repair his tainted image.  Well, duh.  What's he supposed to do, go out and smoke a joint while driving 120 MPH down I-40 and blasting a recording of Jeremiah Wright's infamous "God damn America" speech?  Of course he's going to try and repair his image, and if it means sponsoring a tournament then I guess that's what he's going to do.  Should the tournament have taken the money?  Maybe not, but I also don't think it's the end of the world.  Howard's behavior has clearly been stupid, but he hasn't hurt anyone other than himself that I know of.  

On his blog the News & Record's editor discusses the decision to carry the story on the front page.  Personally I think it's a story for the front page of the sports section at most.

 

Job: Intern for the Winston-Salem Dash

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Want a career in sports?  Want to make next to nothing but get class credit while working with Winston-Salem's Carolina League team recently renamed the Dash?  Available as of January 19, 2009?  Then I have the job listing for you.  Here's what you'll have to do:

• Contact participating schools to schedule assemblies. Coordinate
dates based off availability of the team mascot, Director of Media
Relations and Director of Entertainment. Handle all preparation for
assemblies and attend all assemblies. When the team mascot is not
available, candidate must be willing to perform mascot duties.
• Assist sponsor services team with any obligations to sponsors and coordination of MVP Program Day at the Park.
• Email a weekly recap to executive staff outlining the number of
schools participating in the program, number of assemblies booked,
number of tickets sold and a narrative detailing that week’s events and
events scheduled for the upcoming week.
• Handle all preparation for school outing game dates including organization of pre-game activities.
• Handle 100% Access Tours on school outing game dates.
• Assist ticket department with 100% Access Tours on some non-school game dates.
• Assist sponsor services team with organization of the ballpark for the day.
• Assist sponsor services team with the necessary proof of performance materials for sponsors.
• Full written recap of the program upon completion. Outline positives,
area for improvement and overall sales numbers. Provide feedback from
participating schools and group leaders.

Winston-Salem Fitness

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Gold's Gym of Winston-Salem has a nice blog going called Winston-Salem-Fitness.com.  They do a great job of covering fitness issues without necessarily shilling their own service. If you're looking for tips and clues for your fitness routines then I'd definitely recommend bookmarking the blog or subscribing to the RSS feed.

Recent posts include:

  • Getting Over Your Fear Of The Gym!
  • How Exercise Can Improve The Quality Of Your Sleep
  • Winston Salem Fitness:Physical Activity and Exercise for a Healthier Spine
  • Winston Salem Fitness:The Truth About Training the Abdominal Muscles
  • Winston Salem Fitness:Strengthen Your Swing

    • This is a great example of how to use a blog to promote your business.  Concentrate on showing your expertise, help inform people and allow your reputation to speak for itself.  It's really the same idea of doing a presentation at a conference: don't do a sales pitch because you'll immediately lose your audience.  Simply concentrate on delivering value, clearly identify who you are, and in the end you'll end up with plenty of customers.

    Update on the Dash

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    Since I posted earlier about the new name for the Winston-Salem Class-A baseball team I've found out a little bit more.  First of all here's the team's website.  There you'll find the new logo, which I think is fine but over at the Journal they have lots of reader comments (126 as I write this) on their article about the announcement and one of the commenters thinks it looks like an elongated p—s.  I'll let you fill in the Dashes.  You gotta love the high level of discourse we're getting on the local sites, eh?

    BTW, the team is having a name the mascot contest.  I could have sworn it was "Dash" but I guess it's going to be "—- Dash" kind of like it was "Wally the Warthog."  I am officially announcing here that my nomination is "Balder".  You'll get it eventually.

    Update:  My oldest just got home from school (sophomore in HS) and without any prompting he said the logo looks like a "weener" and that kids at school draw a remarkably similar image on desks all the time.  It's not lost on me that I'm wallowing in the gutter here, but honestly these folks can't be the only ones who correlate the logo with an anatomical part.  I'm thinking the team may want to make some subtle adjustments to the logo so that they don't continue getting this kind of feedback.

    Update #2: The Journal's managing editor noticed the comment too, and talks about an internal debate they had about the choice of leaving the comment up.  He points out that they probably would have taken it down if the writer had used any number of synonyms for p—s, but since he used the correct anatomical term they let the comment be.  I think they made the right choice.  FYI, I'm using dashes in my spelling to be both coy about the team's name and because I really don't feel like turning up high in searches that feature that particular anatomical name.

    Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!

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    Winston-Salem's Class-A Carolina League baseball team is moving to a new stadium next season (hopefully) and in the process they are being re-branded.  Today the team's owner announced that the team formerly known as the Warthogs will now be known as the Dash.  The dash refers to the dash between Winston and Salem in the city's name, which often causes confusion in computer systems and with anyone who's not from the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina.

    If you visit the article in the Winston-Salem Journal that I linked above you'll see in the comments that many people find the name less than desirable.  Personally I don't think it's as bad as the Miami Heat, which I consider one of the all-time bad team names.  What's a "heat"?  How weird is it to a call a player a "heat"?  I'm assuming that Dash players will be called "Dashers" but maybe I'm wrong. 

    Reindeer
    I'm also wondering what the mascot will look like.  They were supposed to unveil it today, but there wasn't a picture accompanying the story in the Journal so I'm not sure if they did.  Perhaps they'll go with a reindeer like, you know, Dasher.  Or maybe they'll go with some variation of the punctuation mark, which leaves the question, "Will it be an em dash or an en dash?"  Or even better maybe they'll go with some variation on The Flash (I'd vote for this one). 

    Whatever.  I'm with the commenters on the Journal page: the name is lame, especially when you consider that it was chosen over the Rhinos, Aviators, Wallbangers and Racers.  People probably would have squawked at the Rhinos name because the team's owner, Billy Prim, made his fortune as the founder of Blue Rhino and they would have seen it as too self-promotional, but I would have been fine with it because as the owner it's his prerogative and because I happen to think that you could do some really cool stuff with a Rhino mascot.  The Aviators would have local meaning since Winston-Salem has a rich aviation history, and the Wallbangers and Racers would have been a nice tie to the areas rich car racing tradition.  As I said, though, it's Prim's team and he can name it what he wants. It's just my opinion that he picked the weakest of the five candidates.

    Exception That Proves the Rule?

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    P8030311
    Last year I got to go see Wake Forest play Florida State in football and I remember two things clearly: seeing coaching legend Bobby Bowden up close (my uncle, cousins and I were sitting in the stands behind the FSU bench) and that the FSU football team was experiencing some embarrassing PR over some of their players' behavior and grades which led to some very funny comments from the jokers in the stands. This wasn't too surprising because, let's be honest, FSU has not had a reputation for stressing the "student" part of "student athlete."

    So it was surprising to see this story about starting FSU safety Myron Rolle missing the first half of Saturday's crucial Maryland game because he was busy interviewing for, and winning, a Rhodes Scholarship.  Even more surprising is that Rolle became the third FSU student in three years to win a Rhodes Scholarship, and the second student athlete after FSU's national shot put champion Garrett Johnson won a scholarship three years ago.

    But, I'm not going to cut the school too much slack.  One good story doesn't balance out stories like this one concerning 25 players not traveling to a bowl game last year (many due to academic ineligibility) or this one about this year's crop of receivers having all kinds of problems (the word "brawl" is not good for a program).  Unfortunately it's these kind of stories that regularly come out of Tallahassee.

    Beaten, Battered, Bruised and Triumphant – Another Soccer Season Ends

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    Well, another soccer season has come to a close.  This weekend my daughter Erin's team, the Twin City Youth Soccer Association Lady Reds (U-15) of which I'm the assistant coach, played in the 2008 adida's Challenge Clash at Bryan Park in Greensboro.  The girls won both games yesterday, one against a team that had beaten us twice earlier this season, and were guaranteed a spot in the tournament final this afternoon regardless of the result of this morning's game.  As it happened the team we faced this morning was the other undefeated team in our bracket so essentially we were guaranteed to play them twice today.  The team was from Triangle and they were tough, well coached and very skilled.  Our girls managed to squeak out a tie in the morning game and then two hours later lined up for another go at 'em.

    Before I tell you the result let me tell you that our girls showed more gumption than most teams I've been around either as a player or a coach.  In between today's games the medical tent had at least five of our girls in there getting treatment for sprains, strains and contusions. The girls also knew how big and tough this team they were going to play was because those were the same girls that sent them to the tent in the first place. I should emphasize that the Triangle team did that with hard, clean play and not dirty soccer.  Still, our girls eagerly laced em up and went out to try and win a championship.

    For the most part the game was played in our defensive end.  Those Triangle girls really were very good, very athletic and very well coached.  Unfortunately one of our girls had a blatant hand violation in the penalty box that resulted in a penalty kick (and goal) for them.  A few minutes later one of our defenders got tangled up with one of their players in the box, and although it clearly wasn't a foul another penalty kick was awarded that resulted in a goal.  I'm going to be generous and say the ref had a bad day and leave it at that.  Anyway, we entered half time down 2-0.

    In the first 25 minutes of the second half we again survived a bunch of action in our own defensive end and honestly I thought the girls were going to just try and make it through the game without breaking something or giving up another goal.  I should have known better.  For the last 10 minutes they fought and scrapped and managed to finally get a goal with three minutes left.  They kept pouring it on and had another couple of chances before the whistle blew and it was all over.

    At the end of the day our girls played the best tournament they've had in the three seasons Erin and I have been involved.  They made the finals and gave a very strong team all they could handle.  It was a sight to behold.

    As for me, well I managed to get a ref to yell at me for the first time since I've been the assistant coach.  I thought she'd done a terrible job the whole game and with about ten minutes left one of our girls got steamrolled and when I didn't hear the whistle I pulled a John McEnroe and yelled "You've GOT to be kidding me."  Then she blew the whistle and yelled at me to hush up and if I'd given her the chance she was getting ready to blow the whistle.  In my head I said, "This year would've been nice" but out of my mouth came "Sorry."  It cracked the girls on the bench up, but it was a little embarrassing.

    My hat's off to our head coach Mac, who dealt with all the crap with the club, the league and the tournaments and never once lost his cool.  It ain't easy being the go-between for 16 fifteen-year old girls, their families and a youth sports bureaucracy but somehow he did it.  Now he'll be able to do his day job uninterrupted for a few months and we'll all get our weekends back for a while.

    And of course there was our team manager Rick.  He must have sent out 10,000 email this season and made just as many phone calls in an effort to get us where we needed to be on time and ready to play.  I'm not sure what we would of done without him.

    We also had a great bunch of parents on this team.  They were all very positive, never getting down on the girls and never yelling objectionable things at the opponents or the refs. Heck, if anything they were too nice, but I'll take that over the prima donna parents any day.  Not to be overlooked is their time commitment in getting their girls to the practices and games and I hope we were able to communicate our appreciation to them adequately.

    Finally, I have to say that these girls were a true joy to coach.  I'm not sure how much good we did them, but they did a world of good for us.  They made us laugh, a lot, and roll our eyes at all the stories about boys and school, and boys and boys and in the process only drove us a little bit crazy.  What more can you ask from a bunch of teenage girls?  Thanks Lady Reds.

    John Daly Passed Out Drunk at the Hooters in Winston-Salem

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    JohnDalyMugshot
    Pro Golfer John Daly, Mr. Grip It and Rip It, got sloshed at the Hooters on Hanes Square Circle and passed out in the restaurant.  The EMTs and police were called and after Daly refused to go to the hospital and the police realized he didn't have a ride they took him to the drunk tank for a 24-hour sober up session.  I have to ask: what was Daly doing in Winston-Salem? It's a great town, but it's not exactly a tourist mecca.  Also, how did he end up at Hooters without transportation?  I'm guessing whoever drove him there ditched him, but who knows.

    Really sad.  I remember watching him fight a case of horrible DTs during one tournament and then watching the profile of him on 60 Minutes when he said that he was under control because he'd cut out hard liquor and was a beer-only guy now.  I guess that isn't working so well. 

    You Think Your Kid Can Hoop It Up?

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    Not a lot I can add to this video because you really have to see it to believe it.  In case you don’t watch the whole thing I will tell you that at the end they reveal that this kid, who’s 11 and in the fifth grade, can run the mile in 4 minutes and 50 seconds and is expected to break the world record for his age when he’s officially timed.  BTW, the majority of the video is about his mad hoop skills.

    Mets! Mets! Mets!

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    This post is for two of my closest friends in particular, and they know who they are.  They’re Mets fans.  I’m a Cubs fan.  They’ve abused me (with ample reason) over this for years.  Now it’s time for a little retribution.  Below is a 10 minute video of a drunk fan at Shea Stadium who passes out and has fellow fans stack cups on his head while taking pics and video of the whole thing.  But what makes this a unique Mets thing is that some of the fans get their 10 year old kids involved. They start training their reprobates early up there at Shea don’t they?