Archive for Youth Sports
Many argue that the world of youth sports has been ruined by hyper-competitiveness, overzealous coaching and nutso parents. And in many respects, it is difficult to dispute that assessment. But if you did care to argue the finer points of demise of the joy that should be inherent to youth sports, you’d be best advised not to call upon this youth hockey coach and ask him to jump to your defense.
Because he’s comically fall while attempting to get up, at least that probably would be the case if this hilarious video is any indication.
Meet Brian Pope. He is 9 years old. He plays linebacker for the Norfolk Saints in the Pop Warner league in Norfolk, Va. And if some young kid on an opposing team happens to be foolish enought to carry the ball into his house, Brian Pope is going jack him up.
And not just with brutal ferocity, either. Pope brings the pain with textbook precision and technique that would cause Ray Lewis to take notice.
A video of Brian Pope’s greatest hits follows.
At 6-feet-tall and tipping the scales at a whopping 206 pounds, Japanese Little League baseball player Kotaro Kiyomiya is turning heads in Williamsport, Pa., the site of the Little League World Series, simply due to how he towers over his fellow competitors.
But his play between the lines has further impressed and enthralled viewers as well. The kid can throw an 80 mph fastball — something a poor kid from Curacao learned all too well when he was plunked with a Kiyomiya offering – and his towering home run on Wednesday against Panama provides further evidence that Kiyomiya is the real deal.
[H/T Business Insider]
Scary stuff from the Little League World Series. Curacao’s Ceddanne Rafaela was frighteningly drilled in the head by Japanese pitcher Kotaro Kiyomiya, who, at 13 years old is 6-feet-tall, tips the scales at 206 pounds and reportedly has an 80-mile-per-hour heater in his arsenal of pitches.
Unfortunately, for young Rafaela, he had no chance to avoid it and was on the receiving end of one of Kiyomiya’s errant pitches, as the ball got away from the Japanese hurler and plunked Rafaela right in the head.
But apparently, this Rafaela kid is one tough son of a gun, as he nearly immediately popped right back up, despite the umpire’s efforts to keep him on the ground in case the Little Leaguer was seriously injured.
When the Jet Strip Gentlemen’s Club announced that it would donate $1,200 to the Lennox Little League baseball organization, it appeared that the season would be saved and the kids would be playing baseball after all. The league was in dire financial straits due to the Lennox K-8 School District’s decision to double the fees to rent baseball fields. The little league’s money woes were compounded by the fact that the school district decided to prohibit the sale of hot dogs at games, another mechanism by which the league raised much-needed funds.
But in stepped Jet Strip Gentlemen’s Club, a local strip joint, to save the day. The unidentified owner of the club, who describes it as community and family-oriented, insists that this is business as usual for an operation that holds an annual family festival to raise money for school supplies for area children in need.
Unfortunately, the donation by the strip club brought with it undesired attention due to the nature of the services offered at the business, something that prompted the little league’s president, Roberto Aguirre, to decline the generous offer (via Off the Bench).
“This morning we found out exactly where the check came from,” Aguirre told KTLA Monday night. “It was a shocker to us.”
According to Aguirre, the Lennox School District will return the check to the strip club, keeping baseball’s image clean.
“We do not want the money from the strip club. I think, for us, we do need the money, but we will go some other avenue,” Aguirre said.
Aguirre said that instead of accepting the strip club’s money — which should be as good as any other organization’s (unless it came in piles of wadded-up dollar bills) — he hopes that the school district will renegotiate the fees associated with ball field rental and plans to reach out to other, less seed, local business. But as the old strip club saying goes, when stuck between a pole and a hard place, sometimes you just have to grab onto that pole and scoop up anything that’s tossed in your direction. Okay, maybe that’s not a real saying, but it works.
As the folks at Sports Grid mention, this video has been around a few years and since it’s new to me, it might very well be new to you. In the video of a game between the Shamokin Indians and Pottsville’s A-Team — wherever those locales may be, but given the city’s names, perhaps Pennsylvania? — a gargantuan running back takes a hand-off and proceeds to rumble his way around the right side on a sweep. Unfortunately for some poor kid on defense who looks like he gives up about 100 pounds on his opponent, the huge back’s momentum and running path are bearing down directly at him. The next thing you know — BLAM-O! — pee wee player is absolutely obliterated while trying to make the play.
Now, I’ll give him credit for the effort, but even so, I haven’t seen a rundown that brutally lopsided since the closing scene of the original version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Ha. Caught you off-guard with that old school reference, eh? Sure, I could have instead went with when Gage was run down by that semi in Pet Sematary, but I couldn’t find as compelling of footage of that scene on YouTube.
Holy cow, that is one tough young lady right there. And that was one vicious slide tackle to which she was on the receiving end. So much so, she almost did a complete flip, which isn’t surprising considering the opponent who took her out was about twice her size, not to mention quite aggressive. Where was the referee on that one?
But if you think that’s going to prevent this young warrior from competing, think again. She picks herself up, doesn’t even bother to take the time to brush herself off or compose herself and promptly gets back into the play…until she’s involved in additional episode of heavy pitch contact, crashing to the ground in a heap of humanity including herself, her slide-tackling rival and another teammate. What heart.
Clearly, there is not one thing that can happen on the pitch that will stop this little firecracker. She keeps her compete level needle up in the red until the whistle is blown. I just hope my baby daughter has half the competitive spirit this little whippersnapper possesses. Well done.
[H/T Sports Pickle]
Given the many ways Mother Nature is capable of interfering, delaying or in this case, postponing sporting events, a game called because the playing field has become infested with fire ants is certainly a new one. Fearing for the safety of players, officials, coaches and any other individual who might have to be on the field during play, a football game between Calhoun County and Hunter-Kinard-Tyler in South Carolina had to be postponed last Friday after a referee discovered 15-20 large, active fire ant piles on the field prior to kickoff.
Via USA Today:
Bruce Hulion with the South Carolina High School League says officials properly handled the safety issue.
The home team tried digging up the piles, as well as pouring salt on them before the game was postponed. One hometown fan offered to bring fire-ant poison.
I have to agree with this Hulion fellow. If you have ever been bitten by a fire ant, you know just how painful it can be if one of those little critters chomps down on your skin, let alone an entire hive of them. As if the uncomfortableness which occurs at the bottom of a hogpile after a fumble wasn’t bad enough, imagine it occurring smack dab on top of hundreds of frightened and angry fire ants. Yikes.
All I know is that there is one sinister creature who took great joy and delight when he heard about this story:
Fifth grade. 5’0″ tall. 90 pounds. Hits like a freight train. Color me impressed.
On Sept. 17, New Jersey rivals Shore and Red Bank squared off in Pee Wee League football action. Shore’s Stephen Lubischer, intuitively sensing how this particular running play is developing, fills the hole and absolutely plants the Red Bank running back into the turf with textbook tackling techniques sadly rarely seen even in the NFL. A fine play to be sure.
One last thing: this kid was born in July-of-freaking-2000. Man, I feel old. Well, I seem to always feel old, so let’s just say I feel way older than I usually do which means I feel super old now. But it’s nothing some Doan’s back pills and a nice cup of Sanka won’t cure, though.
[H/T Off the Bench]
Ha. Hilarious. Check out this guy’s killer dance moves during a youth football league game. Maybe no music is playing out loud, but the rhythm is in his soul and cannot be silenced. Good for this guy, making the best of it and having a good time while officiating a game between a bunch of little rugrats.
Granted, he’s nowhere near as flamboyant as Dancing Soccer Referee Prancing Guy, but perhaps that’s what makes him and his gridiron get-down so endearing: its subtlety.
[H/T Guyism]
