NYC Spring I 2011

EditoEditoEditoEditoEditoEditoEditoEditoEditoPUBLISHER/CEO Paul CoraceEXECUTIVE EDITOR N.J. Comanzo

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Darlene DowlingDr. Tom Ferraro MIKE MEIJASean ReillyGary SimeoneJerry Delpriore

renee kellerLuis Vazquezjoe Pietaro

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

daniel s. burnsteinAndrew AdlerMorgan Harrison

How To Contact UsPhone: 1-800-680-3213 Fax: 631-261-7968

ultimateathletemagazine.comUltimate Athlete Magazine (ISSN 1931-5295) is published 12 times a year by Ultimate Athlete, Inc., 40 Woodbine Avenue, Northport, New York 11768. All contents copyright 2009 by Ultimate Athlete, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use in whole or part of the content without the prior written consent of Ultimate Athlete, Inc. is strictly prohibited. All logos and trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. Although the writers and the publisher have exhaustively researched all sources to ensure the accuracy and the completeness of the information contained in this publication, we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any inconsistency herein. The opinions expressed in all materials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Ultimate Athlete, Inc or Long Island’s Ultimate Athlete Magazine.

PUBLISHER/CEO

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Darlene DowlingDr. Tom Ferraro MIKE MEIJASean ReillyGary SimeoneJerry Delpriore

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

daniel s. burnsteinAndrew AdlerMorgan Harrison

How To Contact UsPhone: 1-800-680-3213 Fax: 631-261-7968

ultimateUltimate Athlete Magazine (ISSN 1931-5295) is published 12 times a year by Ultimate Athlete, Inc., 40 Woodbine Avenue, Northport, New York 11768. All contents copyright 2009 by Ultimate Athlete, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use in whole or part of the content without the prior written consent of Ultimate Athlete, Inc. is strictly prohibited. All logos and trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. Although the writers and the publisher have exhaustively researched all sources to ensure the accuracy and the completeness of the information contained in this publication, we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any inconsistency herein. The opinions expressed in all materials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Ultimate Athlete, Inc or Long Island’s Ultimate Athlete Magazine.

Ultimate Athlete Magazine

Letter From The Editor

Dear Fans,

Welcome to the New York City Spring Vol. I 2011 edition of Ultimate Athlete Magazine! Personally, I could not be more excited to venture away from the fl uorescent gymnasium lights and head outside instead onto the pavement for handball games, the green grass of cricket and lacrosse fi elds, and the dusty baseball and softball fi elds. It’s that refreshing time of year to enjoy the beauty of the sun, the temperatures getting warmer, and the blossoming of this new season… and of course, the sports that come with it!

It looks like this year is sure to provide us with some exciting matchups all season long. You’ll fi nd features in this edition where we celebrate some of last year’s championship teams such as Christopher

Columbus Lacrosse, James Madison softball, and William C. Bryant Cricket (will these teams be able to capture the championship crowns again?). Also, we’ll see how rugby is gaining popularity in the Bronx, and give double dutch, tennis, handball and track their time to shine as well. Plus, since Ultimate Athlete Magazine has its roots on Long Island, we were excited to feature the Frederick Douglass Academy lacrosse team, whose coach is a Long Island Lizards (MLL) star, helping to spread his love of the game to others.

As always, we hope you know that all of the articles featured in Ultimate Athlete Magazine are available for you to own as posters or even keepsake plaques, and don’t forget that the photos featured in the articles are just the beginning, so be sure to check out our photo store to see all of the moments our talented UA photographers captured!

Enjoy!Jessica Peters

www.ultimateathletemagazine.com

SENIOR PRODUCER/EDITOR Jessica PetersSPORTS EDITOR JoSE Luis CovarrubiasSENIOR ART DIRECTOR jeyathas ponnuthuraiGRAPHIC DESIGNERS Adriana Kijko Kaitie Monda MARKETING Dion Tulloch Heather Adornato Jessica Arrien DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Richard Brooks

www.ultimatewww.ultimateathletemagazine.commagazine.commagazine.commagazine.com

GO ONLINE AND CLICK TO READ MORE!

Letter from the Editor

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY Andrew AdlerCOVER ARTWORT Jeyathas Ponnuthurai

CONTENTS

NYC

SPRI

NG 2

011

Volum

e IContents

CONTENTS

FeaturesContents Features

28 Frederick Douglass Academy Boys Lacrosse - Coach Peter Vlahakis

22 Leon M. Goldstein Girls Tennis

40 Empire Challenge Sports Expo Announcement

42 William C. Bryant Cricket

52 Columbus High School Boys Lacrosse

32 Hunter College High School Girls Fencing

18 Canarsie Track and Field

36 James Madison Softball

56 Midwood High School Girls Handball

62 Sports Psychology Tournament Parenting 66 UA Training Changing the Status Quo

76 South Bronx Rugby

80 Pro Corner NFL Draft

72 HS for Law Enforcement and Public Safety Double Dutch

12 Bronx High School of Science Boys Handball

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Photo by Daniel S. Burnstein

The High School for Law Enforcement and Public Safety double dutch team impresses the judges with skillful and athletic moves.

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rnstein

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ood

girls

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ball

team

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ULTIMATE ATHLETE MAGAZINE

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TThe boys varsity handball team of the Bronx High School of Sci-ence won the City Championship in the Bronx A PSAL division last year, beating Forest Hills High School 3 games to 2, and ending the season with an undefeated record of 12-0. Senior Co-Captain George Xue tied the match at two with a 21-10 win. This win was their fi rst championship since 2008 when they placed second in the fi nals. Sophomore Matt Chu sealed the 2010 championship with a 21-6 victory. Also last May, doubles team Terry Li and Brian Tam took 1st place at the PSAL Individuals Cham-pionship.

The defending champs are start-ing this season undefeated once again with a 3-0 record, under the guidance of their fourth-year coach Daniel Na-tion. He explained the strategy for the team this season. “We have to keep focused during the game, and not allow ourselves to get easily dis-tracted,” he said.

There are 19 active players on the team. They lost two starters last year due to graduation. Matthew Chu is a junior who he will compete in fi rst singles this year. He also plays 4-wall and 3-wall in tournaments all across the country. Chu will compete in the High School Spring Handball Meet in Central Park on April 16 and April 17. So far this season he has had 5 aces, 20 kills and 2 wins in singles matches.

Danny Kim is a senior who plays second doubles. “He is a steady, vet-eran player,” said Coach Nation. In two matches he had 10 aces and 11 kills and he has won two doubles matches. This is Min Woo Nahm’s fi rst year as a starter. He is a fi rst doubles player and he has 4 aces, 4 kills and won 2 doubles matches this season.

WWW.ULTIMATEATHLETEMAGAZINE.COM

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Alan Wong is a fi rst-year senior starter who often leads the warm-ups and speaks up when something is on his mind. “He is not shy,” said Na-tion. Wong is playing fi rst doubles. He left the tennis team to join the handball squad. “He’ll be good for the team because of his tennis experi-ence,” said the coach. “He can antici-pate where his opponent will hit the ball and get to the spot. He also has good body movement.” Wong has 5 kills and won 2 doubles matches.

Second doubles player Lawrence Vitiello has 3 aces, 12 kills and 2 doubles match wins. He is a senior.

Alvin Chang and Danny Kim, Mathew Chu, Lawrence Vitiello and Min Woo Nahm are named in the Top Ten on the PSAL list of Top Varsity Handball players in the Bronx for to-taling the most aces.


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The team prepares for games by focusing on skill work which in-cludes placement of the ball, strat-egy, and they go over different shots. In addition, they players practice at the playground as well as compete in games held by the Inner City Hand-ball Association and United States Handball Association. It’s during the playground practices that most of the kids from competing teams end up playing against together, “The kids often share tips and help each,’ said the coach. Some of the Wolver-ines top rivals are Lehman, Stuyves-ant and Midwood. Sometimes they have even been able to practice with

world champion one-wall handball player Satish Jagnandan, who is also a Bronx Science alum. “If they get a shot past him, it makes their whole day,” said Coach Nation.

But all of the friendly rivalry ends when the Wolverines compete. “They all work very hard,” said Coach Na-tion, “All I ask is that they go out and I’ve it their best. Then, I’m happy no matter what the scores may be.”matter what the scores may be.”


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It’s not often that colleges award athletic scholarships to student-athletes for not only their athletic ability, but for doing

the right thing away from the playing fi eld.

For Canarsie High School senior Rudy Longchamp, that’s exactly the case. His partial scholarship to Monroe College in New Rochelle, N.Y., is much as a testament for staying on the straight and narrow as it is for his skills on the track.

“He’s one of the kids that was rough around the edges,” the boys varsity track and fi eld coach Kyle Allen said. “He strug-gled academically sometimes, but used track to motivate him to do the right thing in class, and work toward graduation.”

But it was the Monroe track coaches’ pledge to Longchamp that helped propel him toward graduation.

“The coaches from Monroe were real helpful in motivating him,” Allen said. “They promised him he could get some money if he did the right thing in school. He made the commitment to do the right [thing] in class, so because of that, they re-warded him.”

A wrestler at fi rst, Longchamp tried his hand at track at the urging of a friend on the squad. Now, he credits the sports for giving him the positive direction he so desperately needed.

“When I fi rst started out freshmen year I was bad,” Longchamp said of his behavior. “It [track] really has helped me with my fo-cus because there are a lot of things going in my life out of school. Sometimes I get off track, but it’s mostly on track [now].”

To help Longchamp stay the course and ease the transition into college life, fellow teammate Jonathan Louis--who made the City Champs in the indoor 300-meter dash--will be joining him at Monroe next fall on scholarship.

“I feel like I’m not going to be alone,” Longchamp said. “I feel like if I ever need help in staying focused in track and school, I have somebody that knows me.”


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Allen, who is also the receiver coach for the Chiefs’ football team, said of Louis: “He’s a real nice kid, and I’m real happy for him, because he worked hard.” Longchamp and Louis aren’t the only Chiefs who’ve been thriving on the track. Shenkia King has been blazing a fi erce path of success ever since her freshman season.

In her fi rst week at Canarsie, Shenkia King took the advice of her mother, and joined a sports team. She decided on track because she was in a class taught by Allen, he said, even though she never did any type of competitive running before.

“My mother didn’t want me to be lazy, so she said, ‘Join a sport in school,’” King remembered. “So, I just fi gured, I didn’t want to do none of the other sports basically with balls. So, I just wanted to join track.”

Allen noticed King’s potential after a short while, but also realized

the fact that she needed to work on her uneven form. He even affec-tionately nicknamed her “Granny” because she couldn’t execute the hurdle drill he had setup because of her infl exible hip muscles.

People close to the Canarsie’s track squad had their doubts be-cause of her unorthodox form. But after King ran her fi rst indoor race, they knew they had a star in the making, not a granny headed for retirement. By the end of the year, King had put the entire NYC track community on notice.

Since then, King has been turn-ing heads at breakneck speeds. This season, the junior has meddled in city and state indoor champion-ships, and has garnered letters from schools such as Boston College, among others.

In addition to King’s athletic ability, she holds an 87 average--pretty remarkable considering she

migrated from Guyana as freshman.

“She’s a real nice kid, and she works real hard,” Allen said of her work eth-ic on and off the track. “Good things should happen for her; good things hap-pen to good people.”

Moreover, the true beauty of it all is watching King take in and enjoy what most New Yorkers take for granted, her coach noted.

“It was funny to watch the whole pro-gression,” he recollected. “I got to see her see snow for the time in her life, and things like [that]. It’s pretty cool; every-thing is a new experience [for her].”

Allen, although he is coach of the boy’s team, has become King’s per-sonal coach, along with one of her relay teams. He believes she will get even better once she balances out the weak muscles in her powerful stride.

“Her inner parts of her legs are a lot stronger than her outer parts. I got try to balance her out,” Allen said. “She runs with her feet kind of pointed to the outside. So if I can get her toes pointed straight, getting her running in a straight line, drive her knees forward a little bit more, she’ll pick up even more speed.”

King competes in the 500-, 400-, 300-, and 200-meter indoor events, and 100-, 200-, 400-meter outdoor races, in addition to various relays. Already she has posted solid times in the indoor 200-meter (25.21 last year), and she truly believes she can break 24 seconds this outdoor season, helping her qualify for Nationals.

“I know I can,” King said of drop-ping at least a full second from her 200-meter personal best. “It’s a lot to knock off, but I know I can do it.”

That’s the type of confi dence Allen has installed in every member of his team, top to bottom. team, top to bottom.


after a short while, but also realized 20

The girls varsity tennis team at Leon M. Gold-stein High School for the Sciences in Brook-lyn, N.Y., is an up and coming squad in the

A2 division of the PSAL league. Last year, the team fi nished the regular season with an undefeated 12-0 record, even though they lost the city championship to the Lady Judges of Benjamin N. Cardozo High School. One of the players, Jackie Varnyan, suf-fered an injury during the match. There was a high-light for Goldstein’s Lady Dolphins, however, when Monica Gokhberg replaced her injured teammate in third singles and beat her Cardozo opponent.

“We haven’t beaten Benjamin Cardozo yet,” said Victoria D’Orazio, who has been the Dolphins’ head coach for four years. She is, however, very confi dent about her team’s chances to win this sea-son because she has four ranked freshmen who’ve joined the squad. “Our biggest goal is to reach the championship,” said the coach. So far, the Dolphins are 6-0 after beating Midwood High School, Brook-lyn Tech, EBC/Bushwick Leaders (forfeited late), Benjamin Banneker, Boys and Girls, and Franklin K. Lane.


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“Benjamin Cardozo is one of our top rivals along with Francis, Curtis, Stuyvesant, Midwood and Brooklyn Tech,” added the coach. “Fortunately, due to the strength of our returning players and skilled freshmen, we’re looking focused.”

When the tennis season started on March 1, the coach held tryouts to observe levels of play, and then worked with the girls on conditioning, “I rank the players in order of abilities,” Coach D’Orazio ex-plained. Since most of the girls are used to playing indoors, the cold weather of the season has affected

their game a little bit. “They had to practice in hood-ies and sweats, to keep warm,” she noted.

There are 13 active players on the team this year. A few standouts include Jacqueline Varnyan, Mon-ica Gokhberg, Olena Krasnytska, Becky Shtilkind, Destina Grunin, Kimberly Salkin and Elizabeth Ts-vetkov.

Jacqueline “Jackie” Varnyan is a senior. She has been the co-captain of the team for three years. Mon-ica Gokhberg, a junior, is ranked in the 18-year-old division. Olena Krasnytska, a junior, was 1-0 and


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8-0 in doubles. ”She did a fabulous job for us last year,” said the coach.

Becky Shtilkind is juggling a full schedule with academics and sports, like most of her teammates. Becky won the Individuals competition in the PSAL and competed in the fi nals for the Mayor’s Cup. While she is competing in tournaments, she is also playing for the PSAL league and tak-ing Advanced Placement classes.

“A lot of the juniors are taking Ad-vanced Placement classes in addition to SAT and college PREP courses, two to three times a week,” said Coach D’Orazio. “All of the students must do one term of community service as well. “We have after-school tutors available. Most of the girls have a 90 grade-point-average. All three of my seniors will go to college, they just haven’t decided which one yet,” she added.

Destina Grunin, a sophomore, has also competed in several Eastern tournaments in the 14- and 16-year-old categories. She is ranked in both.

Among the incoming talent add-ing depth to the team are freshmen Kimberly Salkin, Elizabeth Tsvetkov and Nicole Druzhinsky. Both girls are ranked in the 14- and 16-year-old cat-egory, and Elizabeth has competed in the Eastern Tournaments.


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Girls Tennis


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LLacrosse has been around since the fi fth century when it was played by vari-ous Native American tribes across the United States. It’s played with a small rubber ball and a lacrosse stick equipped with a small net, with the objective of shooting the ball into the opponent’s goal or defl ecting the shot. Lacrosse players are well known for their offensive and defensive moves. In fact, once you see this game played you realize that it re-quires lots of skill, fi nesse and stamina to play, putting it on par with sports like baseball and football.

While Lacrosse is one of the oldest sports in the U.S., its also one of the least known, so it’s easy to assume that it’s “just” played in the suburbs and small towns across the US, but these days it’s also being played in many major cities. In New York City, it is part of the Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) family of sports, being played in almost every borough. At the Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem, you can fi nd the FDA lions practicing any given day in a nearby parking lot with their coach Pe-ter Vlahakis, who just so happens to be a midfi elder and faceoff specialist with the Long Island Lizards, a Major League Lacrosse (MLL) team.

For Vlahakis, lacrosse has been a life-long love. When he was growing up, his role models were lacrosse players, like Jon Brothers of Maryland and Den-nis Goldstein of UNC. In fact, he and his brother were trained by Goldstein, and Vlahakis made a conscious effort to make Brothers’ gritty faceoff style his own. Peter Vlahakis played high school lacrosse at Shoreham Wading River on Long Island before joining the Fairfi eld University Stags, where he was ranked seventh in the nation, having a face-off win percentage of .633 in 2003, and be-ing one of the top ten face-off men in the NCAA.

So what led Vlahakis, one of the MLL’s top defensive players to become the coach of the FDA Lions? While he’s


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not giving up playing professionally, slated to play with the Lizards this summer, according to Vlahakis, “Coaching was always something I wanted to do to keep that competitive fi re and pass on what I’ve been fortunate to learn from the many great coaches I’ve had, including my father.”

Lacrosse is defi nitely a family affair in the Vlahakis fam-ily. His dad, Bob, has been the Senior Editor of “Inside Lacrosse” since 2000, is the founder of Face-off Lacrosse Yearbook, and received the Doyle Smith Media Award for College Lacrosse in 1996. Both of the younger Vlahakis’ parents have been supportive of his coaching at FDA, pitch-ing in by marking the crease and the box in the parking lot where they train to make it easier on the team and their coach. But that’s not all; they also tutor the students at FDA too.

An interesting side benefi t of coaching, according to Vla-hakis, is that it’s actually helped him in his own playing ca-reer. “I have seen the game from a different point of view…plus it doesn’t hurt to run sprints with my team,” he said.

In fact, he has put the team through their paces accord-ing to Nicholas Velez, one of the team’s co–team captains. “Training with Coach Vlahakis was brutal - everyday we were outside on concrete in the schools parking lot rain or shine. We weaved our way through parked cars and tried our best to simulate plays to use for our season.”

While the team has certainly put their personal athletic talents to the test this season, Vlahakis’ other focus is to bring the players together so that they’re “playing together as a team, playing as one unit, as opposed to individuals.” He considers lacrosse the ultimate team sport, and this part of training is just as important as doing drills and teaching the players to look up, cut backdoor, slide on defense, and keep spacing on the fi eld in the parking lot. This dual focus on building team spirit is alive and well in Nicholas Velez too. While his main goal is for FDA to take home a PSAL cham-pionship, when asked he says, “other than that I just want to help lead my team’s youngest members into a positive sea-son and build a strong friendship.”

While Vlahakis may be new to coaching having started mid season in 2010, he has high hopes for the team even though they have several new players this season. The fi rst game they played against Midwood didn’t go as well as they expected, but according to Vlahakis they were fi nding their game legs and by the second game they shot twelve goals – nine of them in the second half.

So look out, Vlahakis has his sights set on bringing the love of the game to the concrete streets of Harlem, and to the Frederick Douglas Academy.Frederick Douglas Academy.


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Yu jin Jung, captain of the Hunter girls fencing team feels good about the Lady Hawks chances of making another champi-onship run this season.

“Last year we were the city champions,” said Jung. “Our main goal this season is to maintain that title.”

It should be an attainable feat as the team loses only one senior from its talented ros-ter.

Katherine Miller, Nicole Dwyer, Flora Lang and Jung return along with new re-cruits, Sho Lin Chen for foil and Olivia Briffault for epee.

Miller is the leader of epee, a recently added event which allows for the entire body area to be targeted. She is currently ranked A, the highest category, in the Unit-ed States Fencing Association.

Also in epee is Lang, who won the PSAL (Public School Athletic League) season openers, Briffault, Jin Ai Yap, Fiona Chen, Priscilla Guo and Ming Lee.

On the foil side is Jung, Dwyer, Chen, April Wen, Jasmine Yeh and Grace Wong.

“Nicole is an amazing fencer,” said Jung.

“She is the co-captain and leads practices with me in footwork and workouts.”

“Sho Lin is a freshman,” continued Jung. “But she is also amazing and should defi -nitely be a huge factor to us winning.”

Neil Potter, Hunter Athletic Director, be-lieves the addition of epee will make for an even better season.

“With the PSAL including epee as anoth-er weapon for 2011, this season is going to be both different and exciting,” said Potter. “We bring back the majority of our roster and still have some real talent on this team.”

In addition to epee the format will also be changed to three-man teams, one for epee and one for foil.


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“This works slightly against our team,” said Jung. “But I think that our team is strong enough so that we can still make it to the championship bout.”

Jung credits her coach Nadia Nazarov as being the backbone to the team.

“She is both knowledgeable about the sport and strong willed at the same time. We learn a lot from her and she is always the strongest supporter of our team,” said Jung.

She says the team’s biggest weakness might be the pressure it feels to win anoth-er championship. “The pressure might lead to a stressed mentality but I don’t really think it’s that big of a deal. Our strengths defi nitely outweigh our weaknesses.”

The Lady Hawks are 5-0 having al-ready participated in the PSAL girls fencing opener on March 20th at Harris High School where Jung and Sholin Chen placed second and third in the foil event. In epee, Flora Lang went undefeated all day to win the event. The team continued to capture two wins against Beacon High School, and wins against Bronx High School of Science, Frederick Douglass Academy, and Stuyvesant High School, their biggest rival.

“Stuyvesant is our biggest competitor in the division,” said Potter. “The match on May 4th on our home fl oor will be a must see event.” May 4th on our home fl oor will be a must


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After fi ve years as head coach of James Madi-son’s girls varsity softball team, Jeffrey Melt-zer resigned in order to spend more time with

his family. After 18 years, with his children all grown up, he returned to the fold last season, replacing long-time coach Bill Dumont, who won over 600 games during his 17-year tenure at the school.

Dumont, who is now coaching Brooklyn College women’s softball team, had a very successful run with the Lady Knights, but he didn’t win a title.

Last year, with Meltzer at the helm, Madison beat six-time defending champs Tottenville, 5-2, in the PSAL fi nals at St. John’s University, fi nally capturing that elusive championship.

Meltzer couldn’t have been more excited for the Lady Knights, who have suffered their fair share of heartbreak in recent years, including a semifi nal de-feat to Bayside in 2008 and a lose in the fi nals to Tot-tenville in ‘09.

“I was really ecstatic for the girls,” Meltzer said, “because they have been so close, so often all during those years.”

For his efforts, the Daily News recognized Melt-zer as the PSAL Coach of the Year. But he said a combination of good fortune and a group of gifted, dedicated girls that he inherited from Dumont were largely responsible for the team’s success. All he had to do is pick up where his predecessor left off, and get his club to feel comfortable with him and his relaxed coaching style.

“To win, you have to be good, you have to be lucky,” he explained. “It just a matter of making the girls comfortable. I knew the ability was there.

“Just to be able to take a team (to a championship), to be part of the process, because they took me along for a long time, it was my job not to screw it up,” Meltzer added.

Though losing fi ve All-City and/or All-Brooklyn starters from last year’s team, including star pitcher/right fi elder Marie Oneto, Meltzer said this season’s


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squad still has the makings of a champion-ship contender.

“I think we have the potential to be right there at the end,” the Forest Hills, Queens, native said. “These girls are tough girls. They want to get better.”

This year, Madison has six returning players, including standout hurler/second baseman and Player of the Year Kayla Hill, who posted a 7-0 record, without allowing a single run in 2010. She also batted .543, with a home run and 18 RBI during the PSAL regular season. For the postseason, Hill fi red a 3-0 record, with a dazzling 0.37 ERA, picking up the victory in the champi-onship tilt against Tottenville.

In addition to Hill, All-City and/or All-Brooklyn players such as shortstop Gina Gerone, centerfi elder Becky Ganley and catcher Samantha Rodriquez, with super subs second baseman Breanna DePasquale and fi rst baseman Jennie Hosty rounding out the attack—the Lady Knights are fully-loaded and back to chase another PSAL crown.

One of Meltzer’s objectives, in addition to diligent practices and playing all-out against its PSAL opponents, is to compete in as many non-league games as possi-ble—the tougher the adversary, the better. He said it will help prepare his girls for the PSAL playoffs, and they’ll iron out any wrinkles they encounter along the way.

“Every day is about getting better,” the Bayside, Queens, resident said. “Wins will take care of the wins, and whatever loses (we have), we’ll fi nd out why we lost.”

With only three seniors on the team, Meltzer believes that Madison could quite possibly face a few pitfalls during the sea-son. If it does, he said they’ll just have to learn from it. Making the post-season is his main priority; once the playoffs arrive and they’ve secured a spot, then they can focus on beating the team before them.


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“I told these girls that we’re going to lose games this year because we’re inexpe-rienced,” Meltzer said. “But you got to live with it. We’ll worry about it later. We just have to make it into the playoffs, and then we have to win our games one at a time.”

Whether the Lady Knights play their nem-esis, Tottenville, who is ranked amongst the top teams in the city and looking to exact re-venge on the Lady Knights, in the semifi nals or fi nals (provided both clubs make it that far), Meltzer said they’re going to have to beat the best somewhere along the line.

“My motto is, if Tottenville is number one, you got to beat them somewhere,” Melt-zer said. “In my eyes, I think it makes people more nervous in the fi nals, to beat supposedly the number one team. Obviously we love to get the championship game, and they’d love to play us.”get the championship game, and they’d love


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2011 outback steakhouse empire challenge2011 outback steakhouse empire challenge

The 16th annual Outback Steakhouse Empire Chal-lenge is once again fast approaching, relieving high school football fans of the lull in action they are forced to endure during the winter and spring months. New York’s most anticipated high school football event, which features the finest coaches and players from Long Island and New York City, is poised to be the biggest Empire Challenge yet, with a record turnout of fans, sponsors and volunteers. The lineups that will take the field at James M. Shuart Stadium at Hofstra University have been selected and the coaching staffs havehave been assembled. The teams will soon be meeting for practice to become acquainted and prepare for the final game of their high schools careers. Freeport legend Russ Cellan will once again take the helm for Long Island while Coach of the Year nom-inee Daniel Perez of Fort Hamilton will lead a powerful New York City team. Cellan, the architect of Freeport’s powerhouse foot-ball program and perennial coach of the year candidate, heads a coaching staff comprised of Long Island’s best coaches. He will lead the team for the second-consecu-tive year after adding another Long Island Champion-ship to Freeport’s ever-expanding trophy case in 2010. Perez, who capped off a perfect 13-0 season by winning the PSAL championship with Fort Hamilton

High School in his first year as head coach, has been honored with the position of Head Coach for the New York City all-stars. On The field, the teams will feature the best talent New York high school football has to offer. Long Island will be led by Mike Pellegrino, who was one of the most productive players in New York, dismantling defenses for 1,363 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns while racking up 111 tackles and nine sacks on defense for his Connetquot Thunderbirds. Pellegrino’s prolific season earned him the Hanson award as Suffolk County’s best player. His athleticism earnedearned him a lacrosse scholarship to Johns Hopkins next year. New York City features Syracuse-bound Brandon Reddish of Fort Hamilton high school, who caught the game-winning touchdown in the PSAL championship game for head coach Daniel Perez. The explosive wide receiver’s 18 touchdowns and continuous highlight reel plays earned him Player of the Year honors and high expectations for his career with the Orange. The highly competitive game will not only win bragging rights for one of the regions, but will also benefit the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which fights cystic fibrosis, an inherited chronic disease that affects thousands of Americans.


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2011 outback steakhouse empire challenge2011 outback steakhouse empire challenge

The 16th annual Outback Steakhouse Empire Chal-lenge is once again fast approaching, relieving high school football fans of the lull in action they are forced to endure during the winter and spring months. New York’s most anticipated high school football event, which features the finest coaches and players from Long Island and New York City, is poised to be the biggest Empire Challenge yet, with a record turnout of fans, sponsors and volunteers. The lineups that will take the field at James M. Shuart Stadium at Hofstra University have been selected and the coaching staffs havehave been assembled. The teams will soon be meeting for practice to become acquainted and prepare for the final game of their high schools careers. Freeport legend Russ Cellan will once again take the helm for Long Island while Coach of the Year nom-inee Daniel Perez of Fort Hamilton will lead a powerful New York City team. Cellan, the architect of Freeport’s powerhouse foot-ball program and perennial coach of the year candidate, heads a coaching staff comprised of Long Island’s best coaches. He will lead the team for the second-consecu-tive year after adding another Long Island Champion-ship to Freeport’s ever-expanding trophy case in 2010. Perez, who capped off a perfect 13-0 season by winning the PSAL championship with Fort Hamilton

High School in his first year as head coach, has been honored with the position of Head Coach for the New York City all-stars. On The field, the teams will feature the best talent New York high school football has to offer. Long Island will be led by Mike Pellegrino, who was one of the most productive players in New York, dismantling defenses for 1,363 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns while racking up 111 tackles and nine sacks on defense for his Connetquot Thunderbirds. Pellegrino’s prolific season earned him the Hanson award as Suffolk County’s best player. His athleticism earnedearned him a lacrosse scholarship to Johns Hopkins next year. New York City features Syracuse-bound Brandon Reddish of Fort Hamilton high school, who caught the game-winning touchdown in the PSAL championship game for head coach Daniel Perez. The explosive wide receiver’s 18 touchdowns and continuous highlight reel plays earned him Player of the Year honors and high expectations for his career with the Orange. The highly competitive game will not only win bragging rights for one of the regions, but will also benefit the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which fights cystic fibrosis, an inherited chronic disease that affects thousands of Americans.


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Baseball, football and basketball are often at the forefront of high school sports in the

U.S., and there’s a good chance that when it comes to cricket, you may think it’s purely a European sport. While it started out that way, it’s as American as apple pie these days. Cricket hit the shores of the U.S. in the 18th century, and captured Amer-ican’s imaginations and interest right away. Bats, balls, runs, fi elding and innings are all part of this sport, so what’s not to like? After World War I its popularity waned a bit, but these days we’re having a cricket revival in the U.S., sparked by new immi-grants from South Asia and the West Indies.

Nowhere is this clearer than in NYC, where cricket is part of the PSAL’s spring high school line up. In Queens, the William C. Bry-ant Owls are last year’s defending champions, and this season they’re off to a good start, winning their

fi rst match against Newcomers High School. This game just so happened to be their coach, Paul Hornstein’s fi rst cricket match – ever, having taken over coaching the team from Dr. Ralph Montalvo, the school’s athletic director, just a month ago. But Hornstein is not new to sports, having been the boys bowling coach since 2007, as well as coaching soft-ball, tennis and ice hockey during his career.

While this opening game was old business for some of the team mem-bers, for Hornstein it was clearly a new adventure. In fact, he admits that he didn’t really know much about cricket a month a go, hav-ing seen only a clip or two over the years. But, with lots of years of coaching under his belt he felt that in terms of the mechanics he had the bases covered, although he also says that he had to “learn the specifi cs on the fl y.”

Open and honest communication is part of Hornstein’s coaching style,

so he was upfront with the kids from the get go. “There will be growing pains for both the kids and I, but we will get through it,” said Hornstein. “The kids are really passionate for the game.” When one speaks to the players it is easy to see how true that really is. Syed Hussain, a senior, has been playing cricket in one form or another since he was four years old, spending his early years in Bangla-desh, where cricket is “king.”

Syed started playing Cricket at Bryant last year, and his enthusiasm for the sport is obvious. While it’s tempting to think cricket is a laid back sport, once you see a match you quickly realized it takes the same kind of athletic prowess as baseball, football, or any other sport. Syed also states that along with athletic ability, cricket has also helped him hone his ability to deal with pressure, build his concentration and patience, and make him a better leader. Syed plans on playing cricket in college if he can, as well as continuing playing for


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the Vikings, a BCANA youth team comprised of current and former cricketers from Bryant, Newcomers, and Aviation High Schools.

Like most coaches, Coach Horn-stein envisions a winnable season ahead but it’s going to take hard work and focus. “We are the defending champions,” said the coach. “� at automatically puts a bull’s-eye on your back. It means every game, they give you their best e� ort, and we will need to match that intensity.” � is is a sentiment shared by the team’s cap-tain, Tahseenullah Khan, who, like the coach, came to the sport later in life but in a short time has become an asset to the team due to his stel-lar batting and � elding skills. He got his start through a friend who was

already on the team, and a� er his � rst practice session, in which he bat-ted, there was no looking back � is season, Khan, along with his team-mates, are working on endurance and stamina. His strategy as team captain for the season is to, “take each match seriously, win one [game] at a time, and slowly build momentum”. Kahn also added that personally, cricket has taught him to, “� ght till the end and never think of giving up”.

While Hornstein didn’t know what to expect at the � rst game, he came back with a better idea of what the team needs to work on and that’s - defense. “� e kids are always talking about hitting, and that is not unusual, but bowling and defense are just as important… I told them on one of

the � rst days of practice, that I saw a picture in my college newspaper of one of the women’s basketball players that said, and I � rmly believe this, of-fense sells tickets, defense wins cham-pionships.”

� e William C. Bryant Owls may have a new coach, and lots of new players this year, but according to Hornstein and the more seasoned players like Tahseenullah Khan and Syed Hussain, who are working with the newbie cricketers , they will be giving their all this season, and that may well mean taking another cham-pionship.


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CChristopher Columbus High School saw its fledgling lacrosse team rise from its origins as an outlet to give new opportunities to students, to PSAL Class A champions in just 5 short years, due in large part to the leadership of Head Coach Victor Arroyo.

Like most of the Sharks’ inaugural players, Arroyo was somewhat unfamiliar with the subtleties of the sport from the get go, but luckily they weren’t alone in uncharted waters.

“The success of the team comes from a combination of different people,” Arroyo said. “CityLax foundation, headed by Matt Levine, not only provided the equipment but has committed to helping us develop the lacrosse program by providing us with volunteer coaches, free CityLax lacrosse clinics and introducing the players and myself to other coaches, who have shared their thoughts and experiences with us,”

The program Arroyo heaped praise on is a non-profit dedicated to introducing and promoting lacrosse in city schools, particularly those that otherwise might not have the means or know how to cultivate teams. But even with dedicated backing, getting to where they are now was anything but easy.


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“Recruiting players and getting them to believe in themselves in playing the game of lacrosse was a great challenge. Through the first four years of the program, we struggled and learned to rely on one another,” Arroyo said. “From training together, to the players watching lacrosse on MSG Varsity so that they could get a better understanding of the

game, we all stayed committed to one goal, which was winning the championship.”

Last year saw the Sharks tear through the PSAL to a 13-2 record, and take the city title from powerhouse Midwood High School. A feat all the more impressive when considering it was just their second year in the top competitive class in the city.

As a coach, it’s a proud moment when your

players have reached the top.“

”- Coach Arroyo


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“The experience of that ‘wonder’ year for us, 2010, cannot be put into words. As a coach, it’s a proud moment when your players have reached the top, and after all the long hours of sweat, aches and blood, the bond that was created on that magical night will never be forgotten,” Arroyo said.

Besides a title, Columbus’ quick ascension drew the attention of the local lacrosse scene, and put a well-deserved spotlight on some of their key players, including Ronald Barrera, Admir Sabovic, and Billy Nguyen, the midfielder regarded as one of New York City’s best; now playing for St. John’s University.

“Every team always has a stand out player. [Nguyen] was our MVP player and awarded the PSAL Wingate award for boys lacrosse in New York City. However, even Billy will agree that one player does not make a team. That group of ten players that always started and finished the game, played as one and believed in each other.

That moment they shared on the field during the championship will always be their moment in history,” Arroyo said.

With Nguyen and the rest of the original players gone though; the Sharks, 4-6 thus far this season, face having to regroup under the leadership of seniors Prince Jackson and Paul Piquero, and junior Emin Sabovic, among the last links to the team’s meteoric rise.

“Their leadership on and off the field will be crucial for our development,” Arroyo said. “I always stated to my players the basics is what gets you to progress enough to be competitive. We will train hard, stay focused and most of all have fun. Once the players learn to appreciate the game and enjoy it they will produce.”

Through it all though they will have the steady guidance of Arroyo,

who started the program in an attempt to provide new chances for students to get involved in athletics, but also fulfilled a vow made at the team’s inception that they would achieve success within the first few seasons. His determination and focus on his players have netted him his own share of accolades, including being named Coach of the Year by the New York Post last year.

“Having been named Coach of the Year was a total surprise for me. Considering the more accomplished coaches in the city it was a great honor for me,” he said, acknowledging the award with the same combination of pride and grace he displays for the rest of the team’s achievements.

“I cannot take the total credit for the success of the program. The support provided by all those who believed in us really went a long way in our success.”believed in us really went a long way in our success.”


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Lady Hornets Handball Team Prove Queens of the Court in Popular Big Apple Sport

By Jerry Del Priore Photos By Daniel S. Burnstein

There aren’t many regions outside the New York Metro area where the sport of handball is

played by the masses. And when it comes to talent and popularity, Brooklyn is arguably the king of the court.


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On a beautiful sun-kissed day (and in not so favorable weather conditions, too), you can find several handball courts all over the borough populated by the sport’s diehards, slapping around a little blue ball for count-less hours.

It’s no wonder that handball has found its way into the PSAL sports scene, with many outstanding teams coming out of Brooklyn. One of the city’s best programs is the Mid-wood High School Hornets girls’ squad.

Last season, Midwood posted an impres-sive 12-1 record and beat Fort Hamilton, 3-2, in the finals, capping a memorable year for the team and proving they’re among an elite group of handballers in NYC.

“When you’re the city champs in Brook-lyn, you’re really the best,” head coach Jeff Williams explained. “New York City is the capital of handball. It’s very well-respected respected (here).”

Over Williams’ handball coaching career at Midwood, he has enjoyed tremendous success, brining his team to the semifinals against Fort Hamilton in 2009 (3-2 defeat), and then redeeming itself in the champion-ship tilt versus the Lady Tigers last year.

But Williams said it’s his girls’ tireless work ethic that is largely responsible for their winning ways.

“The girls play on their down-time, on their off-season,” he said. “They’re always practicing. They come prepared; they work hard.”

It looks like their relentless preparation efforts are paying dividends once again, as the Lady Hornets are flattening the compe-tition this year, evident by their 8-0 record, including huge victories over Fort Hamilton and Manhattan’s Stuyvesant High School in April.

Making up the fierce starting seven for Midwood are seniors Veronica Gavryush-enko (1st singles), Helen Yiu (3rd singles), Fiona Ho (1st doubles) and Serena Wu (2nd singles), and juniors Ardana Kwong (1st dou-bles), Stephanie Chen (2nd doubles) and An-nie Tam (2nd doubles).

at Midwood, he has enjoyed tremendous success, brining his team to the semifinals against Fort Hamilton in 2009 (3-2 defeat), and then redeeming itself in the champion-ship tilt versus the Lady Tigers last year.

But Williams said it’s his girls’ tireless work ethic that is largely responsible for their

“The girls play on their down-time, on their off-season,” he said. “They’re always practicing. They come prepared; they work hard.”

It looks like their relentless preparation efforts are paying dividends once again, as the Lady Hornets are flattening the compe-tition this year, evident by their 8-0 record, including huge victories over Fort Hamilton and Manhattan’s Stuyvesant High School in

Making up the fierce starting seven for Midwood are seniors Veronica Gavryush-enko (1st singles), Helen Yiu (3rd singles), Fiona Ho (1st doubles) and Serena Wu (2nd singles), and juniors Ardana Kwong (1st dou-bles), Stephanie Chen (2nd doubles) and An-

Lady Hornets Handball Team Prove Queens of the Court in Popular Big Apple Sport

By Jerry Del Priore Photos By Daniel S. Burnstein

There aren’t many regions outside the New York Metro area where the sport of handball is

played by the masses. And when it comes to talent and popularity, Brooklyn is arguably the king of the court.


57

While there aren’t any scholarship offers for handball players because of lack of viable college programs at the present time, Williams said it doesn’t matter to the Lady Hornets.

“This is from the heart; they do it for the love of the sport,” he said of the rea-son why his girls play handball.

Coming from a football coaching and playing background, Williams, in his third year at the helm, said girls handball is a refreshing change of pace for him that still satisfies his competi-tive spirit while not compromising the rest of his life.

“This (handball) is nice because I still get to be competitive, but it doesn’t require all the time constraints that foot-ball does,” explained Williams, who played football at Lincoln and Brook-lyn College, and pulled the reigns at Midwood and Nazareth. “Football is really all year around, and you have to be hundred percent committed to football all year around. This keeps the competitive juices flowing, and it’s a little easier (to coach). This runs itself.”

One of the reasons that make Wil-liams’ job less demanding than foot-ball, and so enjoyable, is that all of his players perform exceptionally well in the classroom, permitting him to focus his efforts between the lines.

“I never have to worry about eligi-bility,” the Rockaway, Queens, resident stated. “This allows you to be relaxed and come on the court and practice and not worry about the other stuff that football coaches really have a hard time with—keeping kids eligible, fundrais-ing; it’s a lot.”


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Asked for other clear-cut differenc-es between coaching girls and boys in sports, Williams replied with a chuckle, “The boys don’t make me cupcakes, and they all sweet girls. At first, I thought it would be difficult, but I found to be much easier.”

But, he said, it’s as rewarding as any-thing he ever has accomplished on the gridiron, perhaps even more gratifying if the Lady Hornets repeat as PSAL Champs in 2011. if the Lady Hornets repeat as PSAL Champs in 2011. Champs in 2011.


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AA critical and o� en unrecog-nized part of any athlete’s success is in the support they receive. Ti-ger Woods is a dramatic example of this. When his parents were alive and together he thrived and was a remarkable success. But when his dad passed away and he lost this pa-rental structure and guidance he self destructed. � e role of the parent is crucial to the athlete’s performance. If they know what to do they can be an invaluable support before, dur-ing and a� er tournament play. � is article will discuss these three areas and point out what to do for your child and what not to do.

� e role of the sports parent starts long before the bus arrives at the � eld. Here are just a few areas that must be managed:

Money: Competitive sports may be very costly. It is not unusual for the family of an elite � gure skater or gymnast to spend as much at $75,000 per year in travel expenses, hotel bills, training, ice time, � tness, chiropractic, sport psychology, nutrition and equipment. Country club dues can cost a family $40,000 per year alone if you have a young golfer. One of the secrets in the world of elite sports is that the family must be fairly wealthy. A parent’s job is to � nance but not to over extend the family budget and do all this with a smile.


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Travel: � e parent’s job is to provide transportation both

locally and nationally. Cars, trains, buses and jets are usually needed. � e parent must be the one who or-ganizes all this and it is never easy.Pep talks:

� e pep talk is important to any athlete and the parent can be the one who gives it. � e way to do this is to � rst ask the athlete what they need to focus on during play. Remind them of this before they go on to the � eld.

� e parent ought to be aware of the right balance between training and rest. Many young athletes be-come obsessed with training and do not know when to rest and the parent can help them strike the right balance between work and rest.

When the tournament day arrives, the role of the parent continues to be critical. All children yearn for parents to show care and support throughout their lives. Athletes are no di� erent. How does a parent show unconditional support during competition and at the same time insure their presence does not nega-tively impact athletic performance? Parents who are successful in this role are those that maintain their verbal and nonverbal demeanor in the stands or side-lines. � ey allow for the coaches and referees to do their jobs and give their child the ability to compete without parental interference. For example, in tennis, golf and equestrian sports there is minimal audience participation with reserved clapping and cheering at appropriate times. When parents at these venues get over involved in coaching or cheering, their child be-comes very aware of their presence which can be dis-tracting. While team sports like baseball and football allow for more fan participation, children are o� en aware of their parent in the stands especially if they become over involved in the game, cheer inappropri-ately or call out to umpires or coaches. Parents who choose to leave the venue because they are too ner-vous, or can’t bear to watch their child compete, send a nonverbal message that my feelings (the parent) are

more important and that I can not cope with the emo-tions that you are facing. � is leaves the child abandoned and on their own. Some parents do not attend competi-tions for these same reasons. � ese parents might � nd the skills of a Sports Psychologist helpful to assist them with the many demands of parenting an elite athlete. It is not always the athlete on the � eld who needs help.


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A� er the tournament ends there will be one of two outcomes. � e athlete will have won or lost. Both out-comes require skill in handling.

Following the Win:

A� er the athlete wins a big one, your role is to 3 things. First celebrate with them. � ey need to be taken out to a nice dinner and during the dinner make a small speech about what they did and how proud you are of them. Secondly make sure they are given time o� from training. � irdly make sure you hang the trophy in a public space at home. � is serves to remind them of good things and to motivate them onward

Following the Loss:

However, what happens when your child has been de-feated? All parties involved are feeling down and upset. Parents, at times, can react inappropriately. � ese nega-tive behaviors can include criticism, anger, resentment and guilt. Parent can also react with pity, blame or hope-lessness. Common statements include:

You did this/that wrong

You didn’t do anything right

A� er all the time and money , you didn’t even try to win

You poor thing, you lost again

Maybe you should quit. � is may be too much for you

A more positive approach might be to o� er a smile, a hug and some solace. Some comforting statements are realistic yet recognizing e� ort: So sorry you lost

You gave it a good try

Tough match but you hung in there

� at was a tough opponent

� is brought out the best in you

Initially, one of the best reactions might be to allow quiet time for the athlete to process the loss.I am here to listen if you want to talk

SportsI am here to listen if you want to talk

SportsI am here to listen if you want to talk

PsychologySports

PsychologySports

ULTIMATE ATHLETE MAGAZINEPsychology64

Let’s talk to your coach and see what he/she can do to help

Analysis of the outcome of competition, whether a win or a loss, can always o� er insight into performance.

Encourage the athlete to � rst make a list of the things he/she did right, etc

Let feelings be aired and give them perspective on the loss by telling them there will be more tournaments to play

It is important to give them some forward looking strategies:


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TTTT Changing the Status QuoReassessing the implementation of performance testing for young athletes to avoid injury and improve skills..

Story By Mike Meija / / Photos By Morgan Harrison

This might sound a little weird coming from a strength and conditioning coach, but I’m really not a big fan of perfor-mance testing. Or, I should say, the current way said testing is typically administered at both the middle and high school lev-el. Not that I fail to appreciate the desire to somehow quantify an athlete’s physical capabilities. It’s just that I think most of the “tried and true” tests young athletes are subjected to not only do a pretty poor job of predicting athletic potential, but often place kids at risk of unnecessary injury. Does it really matter, for instance, how explosive a vertical jump a kid has if their landing mechanics make them a prime candidate for blowing out a knee? Or, how many sit-ups they can do inside of a minute if they’re using momentum and jerking their tor-sos up so forcefully you can almost hear their discs herniat-ing? Call me crazy, but I’m having trouble seeing the value of this little game of “how much can your body withstand?”, all in the name of having some hard and fast numbers to convey to coaches, parents and possible college destinations.

Don’t get me wrong; I realize that knowing an athlete’s time in the forty-yard dash, or having at least some idea of their explosive power potential is important information for

a coach to have. The problem I have with it is twofold: the tests that are administered often fail to accurately measure the actual demands of the sport (i.e. hockey players being tested in a one mile run- last time I checked, that sport was almost completely anaerobic) and even when they do, are often trained for solely to replicate success in a testing situ-ation. How many kids for example that go to these “speed schools” for 6-8 weeks at a time actually hold on to what they’ve been taught six months down the road? After all, anyone can clean up someone’s 40 yard dash, or pro agility with a few form cues, but the lasting impact that an athlete carries with him or her onto the fi eld comes from things like strengthening the muscles responsible for both accelera-tion and deceleration, correcting postural and/or fl exibility imbalances that might be impairing muscular function and imparting a need to continually work on these areas to keep the gains coming.

I think that a lot of the problem stems from the fact that many of these tests are still being administered for no other reason than sheer tradition. I mean, hey, if this is how it’s always been done, why change, right? Because too many kids are getting hurt, that’s why! And, the ones who aren’t often wind up picking up bad training habits that increase their chances of becoming injured down the road. That’s why I’ve decided to take a critical look at some of the more popular performance tests that young athletes are routinely subjected to. Besides just pointing out their obvious short-comings, I’ll offer up what I feel to be some more effective alternatives that carry with them much less risk of injury. They’ll also hopefully help instill better training habits go-ing forward.

The Bench Press:Designed to measure upper body strength, the bench

press has long been considered one of the staple lifts when testing athletes of all levels. Many coaches however, my-self included, have come to question its application to ac-tual sports performance. After all; as an athlete there aren’t many times when you’ll be lying on your back attempting to push hundreds of pounds off of you. That is, unless of course you’re an offensive lineman who just isn’t very good and continually gets buried by opposing defensive tackles.

This might sound a little weird coming from a strength and conditioning coach, but I’m really not a big fan of perfor-mance testing. Or, I should say, the current way said testing is

U A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GUA Tr a in ing


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U A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GU A T R A I N I N GAt which point, you might want to exam-ine other aspects of your training. All kid-ding aside though, the lift really doesn’t correlate very well to any viable form of athletic strength expression- making it’s continued appearance in both testing and training protocols all the more confusing. Rather than detail the numerous factors that make this so (i.e. disruption of nor-mal scapulothoracic rhythm, limited core activation due to the position of lying on the bench etc), my issue here is more with the form- or more accurately, lack thereof- with which the test is typically adminis-tered. I’ve seen everything from kids using their chests as trampolines to “bounce” the weight back up, to lower backs arching so high off of the bench that you could drive a small automobile beneath them. And of course, my favorite, where the athlete squirms under the bar while contorting

his body in various ways as a couple of spotters bellow out “It’s All You!” Typically, upon fi nally getting the bar back to the rack, the athlete jumps up, stoked about his effort and brags to everyone within earshot about “how much he can bench”. Are you kidding me? What are we even measuring here- the kid’s ability to withstand seri-ous injury?

The sad part is not only the fact that this goes on, but that it instills poor lift-ing habits in these impressionable young athletes. Before you know it, using more weight than they can handle to measure up against their peers becomes the norm, rather than the exception. Needless to say

this sets the stage for a whole host of potential injures down the road. So, rather than subject kids to an outdated lift for no other reason than sheer tradition, why not test their push-ing strength in a much more functional man-ner? A push-up test for example, would give a much more accurate gauge of an athlete’s pushing mechanics,

while also more accurately mimicking a functional movement they might actu-ally use on the fi eld of play (i.e. a runner who’s fallen to the ground needing to get back up and into the play). I’m not talk-ing about just any push-up mind you, but one in which the athlete holds a neutral spine position to better engage their core musculature and uses a strict cadence of two-seconds to lower, a one-second pause at the bottom of the movement and a one-second ascent. Performing the push-ups this way accomplishes a number of objec-tives: 1. It almost completely eliminates the use of momentum, making it an excel-lent way to assess upper body strength. 2. It makes athletes appreciate the need to have a strong core, and 3. it dramatically reduces injury potential by keeping kids who have absolutely no business bench pressing away from the bench press!

Alternative: The Push-up Test Graded on a pass/ fail basis. � e athlete needs to be

able to do 10 reps while holding a neutral spine posi-tion, at the cadence described above to earn a passing grade. If they alter their spinal position in any way (ex-cessive arching of the lower back, or poking the butt up into the air), or fail to execute the drill at the proper cadence they fail the test.


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UA TrainingThe Squat

Alternative: The Pistol Squat

Before I begin my diatribe against the squat, allow me to genu� ect for a moment and acknowledge it as “the king of all exercises”, “the greatest strength exercise ever created” and yada, yada, yada. Sarcasm aside for a moment, I should point out that I really do love and respect the squat and completely agree with its placement at the top of the exercise hierarchy. I just hate seeing kids rush into them before they’re ready. I wish I had a dime for every time I’ve assessed a new athlete and he, or she told me that they squat X number of pounds. As you might imagine, they get pretty demoralized when my assess-ment reveals that they can’t even squat their own body weight properly and as a result, shouldn’t be using any form of external resistance until any existing strength and � exibility imbalances have been addressed. � ink about it for a minute; if you can’t squat your own body weight without rounding your back, your knees caving in towards each other, or noticeably shi� ing your weight to one side as you perform the li� , what sense does it makes to put a loaded bar-bell on your back? Right, absolutely none! Yet, this is exactly what continues to go on in high school weight rooms all across the country!

A much better gauge of lower body strength potential would be a one legged, a.k.a. pistol squat. With these, there’s no throwing unnecessary stress onto the lower back, or knees, or shi� ing the brunt of the exercise onto your stronger leg. You can either do these, or you can’t. And,

since during most sports ac-tivities most of your weight is on one leg at a time, pistol squats carry with them the bene� t of lots of functional carryover. To begin, stand on one leg with your other leg held straight out in front of you, about a foot or so o� the � oor. Next, reach your arms out in front of you as you sit your hips back and begin to squat. Continue descending until you reach your lowest point possible without excessively round-ing your back. How far down you actually get will be determined by several factors- including the mobility around your hip and ankle joints, as well as your current level of strength. Most young athletes should at least be able to execute a pistol squat to the parallel position (where their work-ing thigh is parallel to the � oor). Ad-vanced trainees may be able to get all the way down to the point where their butt almost touches their Achilles ten-don. � e thing I like best about these

is that they’re an incredibly humbling exercise. Even athletes who currently squat considerable amounts of weight have trouble doing a single pistol squat properly. � is signals a de� nite need to work on joint mobility and unilateral strength. I usually consider about 5 reps done to at least parallel as a passing grade. Look out for huge strength imbalances on the non-dominant leg though.


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What do you get when you combine growing young bodies that are typically, shall we say, “� exibility challenged” for lack of a better term, with the explosive movement of free weights? Can you say, an injury waiting to happen? Again, I have nothing against the Olympic li� s per se and think that they’re one of the best ways imaginable to improve explosive power development. It’s just that in order to for them to pay o� from a risk/reward standpoint, the athlete in ques-tion has to have su� cient joint mobility and be absolutely meticu-lous with their form. Not to burst anyone’s bubble here, but believe me when I tellyou that this is seldom the case. � e bottom line is, unless an athlete has been properly instructed as to how to perform these li� s and/or there’s a quali� ed strength coach supervising them during testing, I just have a hard time advocating their presence in a testing protocol.

Alternative: Med BallOverhead ThrowI’d much rather see

kids tested in the over-head medicine ball throw. It gives you all the explosion of an Olympic lift, without any of the associated danger. You get the vaunted “triple exten-sion” that Olympic lifts are predicated on (extension at the hip, knee and ankle), but you don’t have to worry about the catch posi-

tion of a clean, or the over-head stability required for the snatch- which is where most adolescents falter by the way, due to their subpar fl exibility/mobility of the shoulder girdle. With these, you simply hold a medicine ball at its side while stand-ing in a squat position, with your arms extended down towards the fl oor. Begin with a rapid descent of the hips as you sit back into a squat position. Immediately upon hitting

the parallel position of the squat, quickly explode upwards as you swing your arms above your head and throw the ball up and slightly back behind you. Shoot for maximal height of the ball and really try to jump off the ground as you throw. Take the best height of three throws as your score.

About the only issue you’ll run into with these is selecting the appropriate weight ball. You want to make sure you’re using a ball heavy enough to require you to explode, but not so heavy that you have diffi culty moving it rapidly. Your best bet is ex-perimenting with several different weight balls and then ensuring that you retest with the same weight ball so you can monitor your progress. Then, when you feel you’re ready, move up to the next level ball.

Sit-ups / pull-ups:To be perfectly honest, I probably could have written the entire

article on my disdain for these two tests alone. I dislike the sit-up test because the form with which it’s performed is usually so poor, I fail to see how it measures the endurance capacity of the torso musculature in any viable way. For instance, if you have extremely tight hip � exors- as many young athletes do-you unknowingly have a built in advantage on this test. You’ll be able to � re yourself up and down without using your abdominal muscles very much at all. And yet, this is somehow supposed to demonstrate that you have good “core endurance”? And as far as pull-ups are con-cerned, I’ve seen so many di� erent variations of this exercise over the years, I’m not even sure what this test is measuring anymore. I mean, which do you think means more-an athlete who does 3 to 4 reps with perfect form, engaging the right muscles throughout the entire duration of the set, or the kid who cranks out 10-12, look-ing more like a trapeze artist than someone performing a strength test? I know which one I’d pick, but given our societal fascination with young athletes’ “numbers,” I fear that I might be in the minor-ity on this one.

Hang Clean, or other Olympic style lift


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UA Training

If you really want to measure muscu-lar strength and endurance, at least do it with tests that have more functional ap-plication and are harder to cheat. � at’s exactly why I’d prefer to see these two tests swapped out for planks and reverse push-ups (a.k.a. inverted rows). � e great thing about the plank is that it en-gages the core musculature in a manner similar to the way you’ll use it during sports participation. � ink about it; how many times during practice, or competi-tion do you need to curl your spine up the way you do during crunches and sit-ups? Not many, right? But you o� en need to brace your core to provide the foundation your limbs need to propel you across the � eld, court, or pool. To get into a plank position, get down on the � oor as if your about to do a push-up, only instead of bracing up on your arms rest your weight on your forearms.

Once there, you’ll want to maintain a good neutral spine position (no exces-sive arch in your lower back, but don’t allow your lower back to round either). Now, you simply hold for time. � e baseline you’re looking for is at least 15-20 seconds, although I usually like to see a minimum of 30 seconds to start. At higher level, it’s not uncommon to see athletes holding planks for 2-3 minutes- o� en while slowly moving limbs to fur-ther increase the di� culty level.

As far as reverse push-ups go, they o� er two major bene� ts: 1. � ey de-empha-size the o� en over-used lats and target the scapular retractors of the shoulder girdle (the muscles that pull the shoul-der blades together). � is not only helps balance out the strength and stability of the shoulder joint, but it’s a huge help with posture as well, and 2. � ey’re a lot harder to cheat then pull-ups. Because

Alternative: Plank / Reverse Push-ups

your feet are in contact with either the ground, or a bench (depending on how strong you are) it’s virtually impossible to swing your legs upward and create mo-mentum. � is means that you’re forced to rely on nothing but upper body and core strength to get you up to the bar. To do these, lie on the ground beneath a bar that’s set at about waist height in a squat rack, or Smith machine. Next, reach up and grab the bar with your arms a little wider than shoulder’s width apart, using a pronated (palms facing your feet) grip. Begin by li� ing your hips o� the ground so that only the backs of your heels are in contact with the � oor and your body forms a straight line. Once there, pull yourself up towards the bar by pinch-ing your shoulder blades together until your chest nearly touches it. Hold for a second, and then slowly lower until your arms are straight and repeat. Record the maximal number of reps you can do.


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Mile Run:

Okay, I’m just going to come right out and say it: how many competi-tive sports do you know of where the athletes run anywhere near a mile at a time? Baseball? Nope, even legging out a triple only requires running approxi-mately 300 feet. Football? If you’re lucky enough to break away from the pack, the best you can hope for is about 100 yards? Tennis? Come on, what’s a really long rally last-maybe 30-40 seconds? � at’s a whole lot di� erent than several minutes! � e point being, there’s just no basis for using the mile to test an ath-lete’s “endurance” when more o� en than not, the type of endurance they’re going to have to exhibit in their sport is of a completely di� erent type. Take hockey players for instance, who are typically out on the ice for anywhere between 45 seconds and two minutes at a time- of-ten pushing the limits of their anaero-bic endurance. Do you really think that

testing their time in the mile is going to give you an accurate prediction of their ability to withstand multiple shi� s?

A much better test would be the 300 yard shuttle run. � is is a grueling test, where the athlete has to complete six complete trips between two agility cones spaced 25 yards apart. � is test is typi-cally administered at least twice with a 90 second to 2 minute rest interval be-tween the two attempts. You then look to see what kind of drop o� , if any there is between the two tests. It’s a tremen-dous measure of anaerobic endurance and is far more applicable to a number of sports including tennis, lacrosse, bas-ketball and of course, ice hockey.

Hopefully, I’ve raised a few questions in your mind as to the validity of some of these “time-honored” measures of athletic potential- at least as they per-tain to younger participants. � e truth

is, for kids whose bodies are not yet fully matured, the administration of certain types of testing presents far more prob-lems than it does solutions. Exposing kids to the risk of serious injury, while promoting a “numbers � rst” mentality that instills poor training habits going forward just doesn’t make any sense. Which is precisely why we as parents, coaches and trainers need to band to-gether and try to change the status quo. Let’s face it, given the hyper-competitive atmosphere that currently permeates youth sports, the call for assessing the physical abilities of young athletes only � gures to increase. � e least we can do is try and help ensure that in assessing those abilities, we’re not putting these kids in harm’s way.


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HigH ScHool for law EnforcEmEnt and Public SafEty

Double DutchDouble Dutch

There are currently six active players on the team. The coach said she is trying to recruit more because most of the students are seniors and will be graduating in June. Last year, the defending champs also had two boys on the squad. One of them, Peter Amaker, graduated. He is the World Champion for 420 speed steps in two minutes flat with just the left foot.

Anthony Forbez is still on the team. He is a highly competitive jumper who is acrobatic and very dedicated. “He’s the one to watch,” said Malcolm. “He’s come a long way in just one year, from recre-ational jumping on the sidewalk to regimented jumping.” Forbez is also on the cheerleading squad. “I am starting to see more boys on the other team and that’s good,” added the coach. Forbez would like to at-tend either St. John’s University or John Jay to study law.

The remaining jumpers are Na-jee Bishop, Jessica Foster, Ashley Richardson, Brittany Hull, Zakiya Morris, and Alaina Reynolds. Na-jee Bishop says double dutch is so much fun, but it’s a competitive sport. “Also, it teaches me the value of teamwork, determination, and having fun with your teammates,” she said. Najee is also on the track team. She plans to study Entertain-ment Management in college. She would like to attend Coppen State University.

Jessica Foster is a member of the National Honors Society. She has been on the team for all four years. “I love Double Dutch. It’s very com-petitive but you learn to have fun at the same time.” Jessica is interested in attending St. John’s University or John Jay College. Her career goals are Forensic Psychology or Crimi-nal Justice.



By Renee KellerPhotos By Daniel S. Burnstein

Anyone who has ever jumped rope knows how much fun it can be. What you may not know

is that it is one of the best exercises around for cardio fitness. Ask any boxer. Jumping rope provides a key benefit for the cardiovascular system with all the speed, coordination and stamina it entails. Now imagine the kind of workout you’d get by adding another rope and combining all previously mentioned skills.

For the Leopards, a double dutch team at The H.S. of Law Enforcement and Public Safety High School, they don’t have to imagine, because they do it competitively, and they do it well. The Leopards are the defending city

champions of the PSAL league. Last year they beat out 16 competitors, in compulsory tests, speed tests ad free-style performances. This season, they’re ready to do it again under the direction of their head coach and school principal, Diahann Malcolm. They are current-ly in first place in singles and second place in doubles.

Ms. Malcolm is not only a coach, but the school principal as well. She has been the principal for seven years and the head coach for three years. The team started in 2007. Last year she was named 2010 Coach of the Year. “The kids see me out of the classroom and it keeps me in touch with them,” said Malcolm.


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There are currently six active players on the team. The coach said she is trying to recruit more because most of the students are seniors and will be graduating in June. Last year, the defending champs also had two boys on the squad. One of them, Peter Amaker, graduated. He is the World Champion for 420 speed steps in two minutes flat with just the left foot.

Anthony Forbez is still on the team. He is a highly competitive jumper who is acrobatic and very dedicated. “He’s the one to watch,” said Malcolm. “He’s come a long way in just one year, from recre-ational jumping on the sidewalk to regimented jumping.” Forbez is also on the cheerleading squad. “I am starting to see more boys on the other team and that’s good,” added the coach. Forbez would like to at-tend either St. John’s University or John Jay to study law.

The remaining jumpers are Na-jee Bishop, Jessica Foster, Ashley Richardson, Brittany Hull, Zakiya Morris, and Alaina Reynolds. Na-jee Bishop says double dutch is so much fun, but it’s a competitive sport. “Also, it teaches me the value of teamwork, determination, and having fun with your teammates,” she said. Najee is also on the track team. She plans to study Entertain-ment Management in college. She would like to attend Coppen State University.

Jessica Foster is a member of the National Honors Society. She has been on the team for all four years. “I love Double Dutch. It’s very com-petitive but you learn to have fun at the same time.” Jessica is interested in attending St. John’s University or John Jay College. Her career goals are Forensic Psychology or Crimi-nal Justice.



By Renee KellerPhotos By Daniel S. Burnstein

Anyone who has ever jumped rope knows how much fun it can be. What you may not know

is that it is one of the best exercises around for cardio fitness. Ask any boxer. Jumping rope provides a key benefit for the cardiovascular system with all the speed, coordination and stamina it entails. Now imagine the kind of workout you’d get by adding another rope and combining all previously mentioned skills.

For the Leopards, a double dutch team at The H.S. of Law Enforcement and Public Safety High School, they don’t have to imagine, because they do it competitively, and they do it well. The Leopards are the defending city

champions of the PSAL league. Last year they beat out 16 competitors, in compulsory tests, speed tests ad free-style performances. This season, they’re ready to do it again under the direction of their head coach and school principal, Diahann Malcolm. They are current-ly in first place in singles and second place in doubles.

Ms. Malcolm is not only a coach, but the school principal as well. She has been the principal for seven years and the head coach for three years. The team started in 2007. Last year she was named 2010 Coach of the Year. “The kids see me out of the classroom and it keeps me in touch with them,” said Malcolm.


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Ashley Richardson is also a member of the soft-ball team. Ashley would like to study radiology or criminal justice at Fulton Montgomery University. Brittany Hull also plays for the girls varsity basket-ball team. She plans to attend City College to study Education. Zakiya Morris is a member of the cheerleading team and the Art Club. She will study nursing at the Penn College of Technology. Alaina Reynolds is the only junior on the team. She is also a member of a double–dutch team called Stan’s Ju-nior Pepper Steppers. Although she has one more year to go before she graduates she is already look-ing ahead to attend, either the University of Mary-land or NC Central University.

Watching a double–dutch competition is as ex-citing as any other varsity sport you can imagine. A Singles Competition consists of three people and requires a 25-second compulsory test that consists of two turns to the right, two turns to the left, two sets of crisscrosses, and ten high steps, where the knee has to go past the waist and clear the rope.

Then, there is the two-minute speed test which counts the number of steps a jumper takes in that time, and then there is freestyle. The freestyle

ball team. Ashley would like to study radiology or criminal justice at Fulton Montgomery University. Brittany Hull also plays for the girls varsity basketball team. She plans to attend City College to study Education. Zakiya Morris is a member of the cheerleading team and the Art Club. She will study nursing at the Penn College of Technology. Alaina Reynolds is the only junior on the team. She is also a member of a double–dutch team called Stan’s Junior Pepper Steppers. Although she has one more year to go before she graduates she is already looking ahead to attend, either the University of Maryland or NC Central University.

citing as any other varsity sport you can imagine. A Singles Competition consists of three people and requires a 25-second compulsory test that consists of two turns to the right, two turns to the left, two sets of crisscrosses, and ten high steps, where the knee has to go past the waist and clear the rope.

counts the number of steps a jumper takes in that time, and then there is freestyle. The freestyle


74

competition’s acronym is T.A.D.E., which stands for a turning trick, an acrobatic trick, a dance and an exit.

A doubles competition consists of four people, in-cluding two jumpers in the rope for 35 seconds. Dou-ble speed jumping is where the first person jumps for 55 seconds and the second person jumps for 1 minute and 5 seconds. Then all four jumpers change positions. Scores are tallied after all of the events.

At present, Thomas Edison High School and Teach-ers Preparatory High School are toughest competitors for the Leopards. “They have some good jumpers on their teams,” said Coach Malcolm.

But, the Leopards have something extra that the other teams don’t--a coach who is also a member of a profes-sional jump rope group, called the Double-Dutch Di-vas. The Divas are a group of career women in their 40’s and 50’s who jump single rope as well as double dutch. They dance within the rope, twirling, turning, twisting and doing fancy footwork to popular music as well as original songs written by the team. The group has per-formed in Italy, Canada and across the United States.

When Ms. Malcolm is at school, however, watching over the students as the principal and working with the players as a head coach are among her top priorities. “On the double dutch team, we get to relate to each other in another way besides student and principal,” she said.the double dutch team, we get to relate to each other in another way besides student and principal,” she said.


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Steve Levy has always had a love for rugby. He played it extensively in

college and is now helping to spread the love of the game to youth in New York City. Last year, he volunteered his ser-vices for the South Bronx High School’s entry as one of four high schools to ex-periment with the sport of rugby. Since then, Levy, along with assistance from the Play Rugby USA organization, has helped this far from new sport make quite a renaissance in New York City.

The organization, according to Mark Griffi n, the founder of the Play Rugby USA, is “focused on bringing the rugby opportunity to all areas of New York City.” He says that this year, there are over 80 teams competing between all fi ve boroughs, with the Bronx and Brooklyn seemingly being the most popular.

In the inaugural season at South Bronx, Levy began by introducing the sport. “[Last year,] I volunteered to work out with the South Bronx girls team a couple of times,” said Levy, describing how the athletic director came to him with the expressed inter-est in getting involved in the program. He worked with the team once a week, about fi ve times during the season. “They had a successful season. The girls won the city championship. The boys came in second place.” Now, in

the sport’s second year at South Bronx, Levy has become the coach of the team, and both Levy and the school have both benefi tted from the relationship with Play Rugby USA.

The partnership provides more assistance than just the teaching of the sport itself, but in addition, they help empha-size the positive points of the ancient game whose ideals are still relevant. “Our programs focus, fi rst and foremost, on delivering the benefi ts of rug-by to urban youth, rather than on promoting rugby per se,”

said Griffi n, “However, due to the improve-ments in youth character and conditioning combined with improved academics and a strengthened sense of community in many instances, the students want to continue playing and thus participation in the game continues to grow.”

There has been a great spirit between PlayRugbyUSA and the South Bronx, and it has contributed to making kids aware of Rugby’s benefi ts and helped locate potential talent as a result of the upcoming Olympics, which will include rugby in 2016, although it may seem that the Bronx is unusual place to start a program.

“I wanted to teach them the fundamentals of the game for those who were brand new to the game, as well as to see if the players who played previously could master the funda-mentals and learn the fi ner skills of the game in terms of passing and receiving, what’s called rucking, and to have the knowledge to play the game at as high a level as possible,” said Levy. “At the end of the day, athletics should be something student-athletes should enjoy.”

In addition, there were a couple of key contributors from Play Rugby USA who were prominent in assisting in that area. “Yes, it provides a teacher training workshop


78

and suggested curriculum at the beginning of the season and also an ongoing co-coaching program for our instructor to work alongside the teacher during their fi rst season,” explained Levy. “Last year, Christian Mayo, our program director, Abe Cohen, a Bronx-based teacher, and rugby player with Old Blue Rugby Club, provided this support. Abe has continued to be involved as a volunteer this year to support the South Bronx girls program.”

According to Griffi n, the qualities that the sport of rugby brings with it are positive for the youth in the Bronx, and the sudden in-crease in teams is a refl ection of this interest. “They re-introduce tenets that are a solid base for any young man,” he explained. “The base is large already for growth, and it’s on the rise big time at the youth level. More generally, there are already over 96 teams in and around the New York City area including men’s, women’s, college and youth. At the youth level there were no kids playing rugby in NYC prior to 2006 and now we have over 3000 per year competing from the ages of 8 - 18 with Play Rugby USA and another 100 or so between other youth rugby clubs and programs such as NY Rugby Clubs U19 program, for instance. This summer we will be estab-lishing 3 borough-based community clubs for these kids to continue to play out of school time over the summer.”

It will be a great day for the organization as they look to the playoffs coming up. “It’s not just something you can play in high school and college. It’s actually growing here in the U.S., especial-ly in New York, where there are both men’s and women’s clubs. There are thirty-fi ve teams in the league. The community support has helped the effort in expanding the game and increasing partici-pation, Steve Levy explains.

The organization is available to interested participants starting at the elementary and middle school level for fl ag/rookie rugby, and tackle rugby at the high school level. There are also programs such as an internship for qualifying high school students to earn commu-nity service credits or coaching and refereeing certifi cations.

In closing, Griffi n explains where Play Rugby USA fi ts into the future.

“At the local level we want to continue to build upon our exist-ing development pathway to enable players to continue playing the game through high school, college and into the men’s and women’s level for those that are interested. At the national level we strive to replicate the program in ten cities in the next four years (from their current four cities) and then create a “better world through rugby” by uniting with other rugby-for-good projects from around the world.”


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Pro CornerPro CornerPro CornerPro CornerPro CornerPro Corner: NFL Draft

hurry up ...and waithurry up ...and wait

Pro CornerPro Corner: NFL Draft

Giants, Jets Draft Picks on HolD DurinG nfl lockout

By Joe Pietaro

NFL Draft war rooms prepare long and hard for the opportunity to make the best of their team’s selections. Front office personnel, scouts and coaches bang heads hoping to formulate a plan and execute it properly. But there are circumstances when all of that goes out the window.

Take the New York Giants, for instance. They went into the 2011 NFL Draft looking to make a serious upgrade in their offensive line and had their sights set on Mike Pouncey. But the Miami Dolphins picked him four spots ahead of them and Big Blue found themselves at number 19 with a few different options.

Draft for need or take the best player available? That’s an easy choice when someone like Prince Amukamara is still available. “We were really surprised that he was there when we picked,” general manager Jerry Reese said. “We thought he would get picked a lot higher than that. But it happens like that sometimes in the draft. Guys can fall right into your lap.”

Amukamara may have felt excited to find himself in the Big Apple, but even a rookie knows the importance of the labor issues that are threatening the way we spend our Sundays come the fall. “I have great confidence that both sides are


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Pro CornerPro CornerPro Corner

going to get a deal done and when they do, I’ll be ready to come in and work.”

Elation and frustration were both present when Tom Coughlin spoke of the latest high-profile addition to his roster. “He (Amukamara) was extremely happy to be a New York Giant and looking forward to the great challenge,” the head coach said. “He impressed me an awful lot by the quality of the young man.” But Coughlin also added, “We did not give him a playbook. We gave him some instructions and some technical things that we wanted, but not a book.”

What is already a tense time for draftees is magnified with the uncertainty surrounding the game. There can be no team meetings or even contract negotiations, let alone rookie mini camps. Jets first round pick Muhammad Wilkerson (30th overall) is looking forward to his first professional offseason training program, even though he has no idea when it will actually begin.

“It would mean a lot to me,” the Temple product said. “I want to get things rolling. I don’t want everything to be fast. The sooner the better to get to learning the playbook and adapting to everything around the organization.”

Coughlin had only a brief window of opportunity to speak to the draftees and gave them some sound advice. “What I told them was exactly what I would tell you in that you had better be in great shape because when this

whole thing is completed, it will be very, very quickly back on the field and you had better be in shape to be able to come in here and have a camp.”

The usual flurry of activity following seven rounds of drafting players did not occur this time around. The pool of undrafted free agents remains untouched because of the labor issues, something that comes as a surprising period of inactivity to Marc Ross.

“As of right now, I think we can’t do it,” the Giants Director of College Scouting said regarding signing

“I have great confIdence that both sIdes are goIng to get a deal done and when they do, I’ll be ready to come In and work.”


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someone from this group. “Just like the weather – (we will) see if it changes. Who knows what is going to happen tomorrow? Hopefully they will tell us we can do it, but as of right now, we can’t. We really hope we can do it.”

Reese had a similar take on the situation. “It is a little strange,” he said. “We’ll re-stack the board to see who the free agents are that we want to target when it’s time, when we are permitted to do that. We’ll just ride it out and see what happens.

“When they say go, we’ll be ready to go.”

Pro CPro CPro CPro Corner: NFL Draft Pro CPro Corner: NFL Draft

be ready to go.”


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LOOKING FORB A C K

I S S U E S ?

O R D E R N O W !O N L I N E A T . . .

W W W . U l t i m a t e a t h l e t e m a g a z i n e . c o m / s t o r e

Documents

NYC Spring I 2011