Sports Then and Now

The national championship of college basketball is here. After an exciting March of dramatic finishes that separated the pretenders from the contenders, the cream of the crop surfaced at The Final Four in Indianapolis, IN this past weekend. Three of the four number one seeds reached the Final Four with Duke, Kentucky, and Wisconsin all winning their regions to advance to college basketball’s biggest stage. Meanwhile, Michigan State was no slouch as a seventh seed. The Spartans reached The Final Four for a nation-leading seventh time since 1999, all under one of the elite coaches in the country in Tom Izzo.

Bo Ryan has taken the Badgers to new heights with back-to-back trips to The Final Four.

With the Blue Devils defeating Michigan State 81-61 and the Badgers upsetting undefeated Kentucky 71-64 in the national semifinals on Saturday, Duke and Wisconsin advanced to tonight’s championship game. This is virtually an even game. Both teams have been ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll the whole season and have a combined record of 70-7 entering tonight’s title game. The Badgers are 36-3 and won the regular season Big Ten Championship as well as the conference tournament title. The Blue Devils finished second to Virginia in the ACC regular season standings at 15-3 and reached the ACC Tournament Semifinals

before losing to Notre Dame who went on to win the tournament title.

Wisconsin’s victory on Saturday avenged their loss to the Wildcats a year ago in the national semifinals, a 74-73 thriller that was decided on a 3-point basket by then-freshman guard Aaron Harrison. With the Badgers returning to The Final Four this year, Wisconsin has become a national program. Badgers’ head coach Bo Ryan has emerged as a great coach and has brought national prominence to the Wisconsin program in this his 14th year at the helm of the Badgers. This followed his highly successful career in the Division III ranks as head coach at The University of Wisconsin-Platteville where he won four national championships in the 1990’s.

Ryan will be matched up against Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski who is no stranger to the national championship game. This is the ninth national championship game that Krzyzewski has lead the Blue Devils to. He is 4-4 in the title game. The two schools met earlier this season back on Dec. 3 in Wisconsin where Duke prevailed 80-70 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Blue Devil freshman center Jahlil Okafor had 13 points and six rebounds while senior center Frank Kaminsky scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Badgers. Read the rest of this entry →

ESPN is the “sports leader”, but there are many job opportunities in the sports world.

For many, a career in the sports world is the next best thing to being a professional athlete. The competition for jobs is intense because of this. If you are interested in working in the sports industry, you’ll need to go the extra mile to stand out in an industry with fierce competition. Take a look at the following tips for pursing a job in the sports industry and beating out your competitors for a spot at the top.

Resume
Start building your resume early. One way to do this is by volunteering with sports organizations in your community including high school and college sports teams, local sports leagues, and sports venues. Most of these organizations welcome volunteer support in areas like marketing, sales, public relations, and event organization. A college education is also critical in a competitive market, so don’t rely merely on your love for sports. Having a degree in mass communication, journalism, business, or a sports management degree will put you above other candidates who merely know a lot about sports. Allow your experience and education to stand out on a resume by participating in a wide variety of jobs, and earning a college degree.

Internships
Internships are an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge, skills, and work ethic to a prospective employer. Along with a solid education, start researching internship opportunities. Research includes identifying desired internships and learning about those organizations. The more you know about the organization and how they operate, the better chance you have to impress the interview team. Keep in mind that companies often hire interns on full time at the end of an internship, so these opportunities are extremely important if you want a job in the sports industry. Read the rest of this entry →

Hiking is a good way to kick start an exercise regiment.

For many of us, a healthy lifestyle includes a fair amount of physical activity. And for those of us who include exercise in our daily lives, the advantages are definitely worth the effort. From disease prevention to a more positive outlook on life, regular exercise is important and rewarding. However, for some people, the thought of exercise doesn’t exactly conjure up images of fun and excitement. Thankfully, though, exercise can be enjoyable.

Keep reading for tips on beginning a workout regimen, as well as information on staying safe, and finding an activity you love.

Safety First
Before beginning a fitness regimen of any kind, it’s important to take safety into consideration. First of all, it’s important to have a basic idea of your fitness level and your unique health needs.  For example, do you have any illnesses or health conditions that might limit your strength, endurance or cardiovascular capacity? Are you able to enjoy moderate exercise without experiencing pain or becoming winded? These and other questions will help you in creating your fitness regimen and setting various goals regarding health and fitness.

Another essential aspect of safety is the proper fitness gear. Supportive undergarments, the proper footwear, support socks and other types of athletic wear will help ensure stability, protecting the muscles, joints and other areas of the body. Also, if you have any joint issues, compression sleeves and wraps can reduce impact to the knees and ankles, and prevent injury and other complications. Read the rest of this entry →

Back injuries can be common in amateur sports.

Injuries to the back are a common complaint for those participating in amateur sports. They are also often ignored until they start to cause severe pain and discomfort. If treated early, more serious and long-lasting injuries and conditions can be avoided, or their severity drastically reduced. Here are some of the most common injuries and how to prevent them and treat them before they have a bigger impact on your life.

Lower back issues
The lower back is most affected by activities such as weightlifting or jogging that put a consistent amount of strain on this area. This area of the back is the most common to experience injury. Any repetitive motion that uses the lower back muscles can cause trouble. You might not even realize how much you are exerting yourself until it is too late. While sports such as golf may seem low impact, the sport actually requires a lot of twisting and turning, which can lead to strains.

Upper back and spine
Although injuries to the upper back and spine are rarer than those to the lower back, they can be severe when they do occur. A slipped disc occurs when a vertebrae in the spine slips out of place, causing pinched nerves and soreness. Physical activity should be avoided and a physician consulted immediately if this is suspected. A chiropractic clinic is the most readily used resource for treatment of back injuries. Your chiropractor may prescribe such treatments as rest, strengthening exercises, and wearing a brace during the healing process.

Strained muscles and ligaments
Although strained muscles and ligaments can occur when you least expect it, they are most often caused by too much exertion, lack of proper technique, hits and bumps, and not warming up properly. Prevention is easier than dealing with the pain caused by such injuries. Read the rest of this entry →

Many sports fans decorate with their favorite team in mind.

If you love something, then it should have a place in your home. If you love sports, then why not keep this in mind when deciding how to best furnish and decorate? Here are some design considerations to create the ultimate home for a sports fan.

Comfort and durability
When you want to relax and enjoy the big game, comfort is key. You need a nice seating arrangement that makes it easy to get comfortable and relax. A classic sofa, settee, and large chair arrangement can be great, but if you plan on having friends over, you might consider a sectional sofa that can accommodate a larger group. Of course, more people can mean more use and spills from snacking and socializing, so durability and ease of cleaning are also important things to consider.

Don’t forget your favorite teams
Using team colors and logos can add to the atmosphere of your room. It is easy to find fabrics in any color. Logos can be a bit dramatic for some tastes, so using the same color scheme can be a good compromise, especially if the room is to be used for other purposes.

Consider your space carefully
While you can incorporate elements of your sports passion into your living space no matter what size it is, those with an extra room or even a basement might consider dedicating a room to sports. Even an unfinished basement can often be renovated at a low cost to make a comfortable space for you, friends, and family. Read the rest of this entry →

When you first think of professional water sports, many activities come to mind, such as surfing, water skiing, swimming, diving or even things like kayaking and jet skiing. Of course, there are a ton of other sports too, some of them more obscure. One such sport that’s not necessarily obscure but small is skimboarding.

It’s similar to surfing, but the boards used are much smaller and devoid of fins. Skimboards are designed to glide across the water’s surface, as boarders usually try to catch incoming or breaking waves to ride back to the shore.

A skimboarding run generally starts on the beach, where the board is dropped into the thin veil of shoreline waves. Most skimboarders then use their momentum to skim the water out to breaking waves they then “catch,” or ride, back to shore.

Yet another form of skimboarding, referred to as “flatland,” involves staying close to the shore in order to perform tricks like ollies or shove-its, without ever catching a breaking wave. If you’d like to try out the sport or learn how to skimboard, naturally there are plenty of resources available today.

Where It All Began

Believe it or not, skimboarding has actually been around since the late 1920s. Laguna Beach lifeguards would used planks, or pieces of wood, to skim across the surface of the water close to shore in an attempt to surf the local shorebreak that was much too fast and powerful to navigate on foot. Since then, Laguna Beach has always been kind of a hotspot for skimboarding. This is because the waves break closer to the beach, making it an ideal spot for the sport. Read the rest of this entry →