Last night I watched our soccer team at East Lansing high school battle for 90 minutes. I enjoyed watching them play. I actually enjoy watching both our women’s and men’s United States National teams. Here’s one problem I have with soccer at the youth level.
You have to find a way to break a tie at the end of a game.
The fine athletes from both teams left it all on the field except for the outcome. The final score was 0-0.
No OT, no shootout to decide the winner.
That’s a rule that needs to be changed.
It’s not fair to the kids.
Like Herman Edwards, former NFL cornerback once said, ‘You play to win the game’.
Pat Summitt, who has won more games than any college basketball coach in history was diagnosed with early – onset dementia. The Hatford Courant speaks with one of her former players, Kara Lawson.
It was late in 2009 when Lawson, who had won a WNBA title with Sacramento and an Olympic gold medal in Beijing, hit a low point in her career. A quadriceps injury had ruined her WNBA season. The Monarchs had folded under her.
“It was one of those things where you just don’t know where to go,” Lawson said. “My team was gone. My knee was really bad.”
She thought about it. She knew exactly where to go. Back to people she could trust. Back to where she could rehab her knee and her head. Back to Pat. Lawson and her husband, Damien Barling, didn’t only return to Tennessee. They became Summitt’s neighbors for the next four months.
“We were literally 300 yards from her house,” Lawson said. “I spent a lot of time with her, most evenings talking. Four months, you talk about everything, but mostly about life … [her son] Tyler, her family, her mom would visit, my family, things I wanted to accomplish in life.
“Our relationship is different from when I played at Tennessee (1999-2003), but there’s one thing that won’t change. Coach always will be my mentor.”
Danny Wetzel of Yahoo Sports says the players at the Little League World Series should get paid.
The players should be paid.
Not every Little Leaguer, just the ones who play on television, where their innocence is packaged into a commodity. And, no, they shouldn’t make millions or even hundreds of thousands.
They should get something, maybe several hundred per television appearance. If it made people more comfortable that the money went to a college savings fund or maybe into a trust that becomes available when they’re 18 or 21, so be it.
The New York Yankees became the first team in Major League history to smack 3 Grand Slams in one game last night in their 22-9 romp over the Oakland A’s. By the way, Major League Baseball Network is the best. They blow the competition away when it comes to covering games, news, notes and analysis. Other sports should observe and copy.
Steve Jobs is stepping down from Apple. If David Stern decides to break away from his midtown office on 5th avenue, who takes his spot?
SteveFinamore@yahoo.com
Follow me on Twitter: @CoachFinamore
