There’s a shake-up coming in West Coast Conference women’s basketball; and the agent of change is Jennifer Azzi, second-year coach of the bottom-feeding University of San Francisco Dons.
Azzi’s first year as the Dons coach ordinarily would not be cause for undue, or any other kind of, optimism. The team finished with a 4-25 record and managed only one win in the conference. Those results mirrored the final year of her predecessor’s team.
There were good reasons why last season was so similar to the prior season … most of the players were the same. By the time Azzi was hired in the Spring of 2010, most of the blue-chip high school players had made their commitments to colleges. USF had only two commitments. And the players, old and new, had to acclimate to a new system.
Inevitably, the results weren’t promising. But progress was made. By the time the WCC tournament came around, the Dons had progressed to the point where they battled to the final horn in their first round game with Santa Clara before falling four points short.
The UCSD Tritons claimed their first California Collegiate Athletic Association softball title Saturday, behind the pitching of Camille Gaito, who won both ends of a doubleheader against Cal State East Bay.
Gaito started and won the first game 12-2 and followed that up with a relief appearance in the second game, where the Tritons came from behind for a 2-1 victory.
The title accomplishment ensures some favorable postseason action. The Tritons will be the top seed next weekend in the CCAA tournament in Stockton, California. And no matter what the results of that tournament, the Tritons are sure to get an invitation to the NCAA West Regional tournament the following weekend.
Gaito began developing her talent in the Marin Girls Softball organization. (more…)
If you’re a member of the soccer cognoscenti, you’ve probably known about Indi Cowie for a long time.
But for the rest of us, Indi Cowie, a 16-year-old North Carolina high school student, became an overnight internet sensation when the New York Times did a feature story about her. Cowie is a soccer player. But more to the point of her fame, she is one of the world’s best soccer freestylers.
Soccer has a strange existence in the United States. Millions of kids play the game. But Americans do not accord Major League Soccer, the professional embodiment of the sport, with the same respect or interest as other professional leagues. The anomaly here encompasses the fact that the MLS is given more respect overseas than it is on our home shores.
Then consider that freestyle is an orphan offshoot of the basic game. That pretty much explains why most of us never heard of Cowie before now.
Freestyle soccer is all about tricks … manipulating the ball through a series of increasingly difficult and improbable moves without ever touching it with a hand. Americans are accustomed to catching and throwing balls, so the very idea of expending effort to master the art of not handling the ball is a foreign concept. (more…)
Camille Gaito won 8 games in 8 days. -- Photo courtesy UCSD.
Camille Gaito and her University of California at San Diego teammates may wish all their games were played in Turlock, California.
In the Mizuno Tournament of Champions, which was held at the Cal State Stanislaus campus in Turlock in the first week in April, Gaito pitched in, and won, five games in three days as the Tritons went 6-1 while winning the tournament.
The following week, the Tritons were back in Turlock to play Stanislaus. They won three of four games, with Gaito getting credit for all three wins as the Tritons cemented their position at the top of the California Collegiate Athletic Association standings.
Gaito posted the second lowest earned run average in NCAA Division II softball last year, so it was hard to imagine what she could do as an encore. How does this sound? A 21-1 record and an ERA under 0.50 runs per game. (more…)
Anthony Robles won an NCAA wrestling championship on one leg.
There’s something special about Arizona State wrestler Anthony Robles.
You’ll notice it right away … the 2011 NCAA wrestling champion has only one leg.
To those of us who only became aware of Robles this March when he won the title, this seems like an extraordinary, almost superhuman, feat. But for the wrestling cognoscenti, Robles has been a wrestler to watch for a long time.
Robles went undefeated in Arizona high school wrestling in both his junior and senior years. As a junior at Arizona State in 2010, he reached the semifinals of the NCAA tournament, losing to the then-defending champion in the 125-pound weight class. This year, when he reached the finals, he was confronted with Matt McDonough, the current reigning champ.
Robles was a long shot in the match in more ways than one. Arizona State is not exactly a hotbed of collegiate wrestling success. Only one school west of the Rocky Mountains has ever won the NCAA team title. Wrestling champs come out of America’s heartland. Oklahoma State and Iowa have won a combined 57 of the 83 team championships awarded in the sport. Throw in the success of Oklahoma and Iowa State and the four schools have won 72 team championships. Robles’ opponent, McDonough, was representing Iowa, one of those dominant programs and McDonough, a sophomore, had only lost two matches in two years. (more…)
Fran Fleet is the Sandalady, but don't let that title fool you. She'll fix your baseball glove as good as new.
The first thing you need to know about the sandal lady is that she doesn’t make sandals.
The second thing you need to know is that she’s a one-woman salvage crew who can bring back to life and usefulness one of the most precious possessions in a ballplayer’s life … his glove.
Think about it. The millions of kids in youth baseball and softball organizations have two tools that they use to play the game. One of them is an aluminum bat. No matter how dedicated you are, it’s really hard to get up close and personal with an aluminum bat.
But the glove … the glove is a different matter. Players buy and break in their own gloves. They spend hours developing the pocket and the feel of the glove, shagging balls during practice until the glove is like a second skin. Players use a bat a few times a game; they use their glove every time they take the field. The glove becomes that most personal of possessions … mine.
Eventually, players who stay with the sport must confront the inevitable: even the best made gloves will degrade because of the wear and tear of extended use or because of benign neglect. Then comes the decision: is this second skin to be discarded in favor of something new and untested, or is there a way to breathe new life into a tried and trusted friend. (more…)
Jordan McCabe is a 12-year-old who does things with a basketball that may defy the laws of physics and certainly challenges conventional wisdom.
It’s an article of faith that large hands are the most valuable asset a ball handler can have. This theory started with Connie Hawkins, who probably wasn’t the first person able to palm the ball but he was certainly the first one to do it so flamboyantly. Today we have the case of 6-11 Kwame Brown, who is accused of having hands too small to rebound or handle passes effectively.
So how does McCabe do it? The answer is that he practices two hours daily. He clearly applies the concept of deliberate practice that we wrote about here.
If his skills continue to improve, one of his career options might be to break the color barrier … by joining the Harlem Globetrotters. Marquis Haynes, eat you heart out.
SportsDashboards year-end player salutes go to Camille Gaito and Kim Scarsella. Both are outstanding softball pitchers who honed their craft playing for Marin Girls Softball teams. Pitching success is often viewed as an individual achievement, but no pitcher succeeds without the offensive and defensive support of her teammates. Consequently, this recognition is not just for the pitcher but for her team as well.
This is the salute to Camille Gaito and the University of California at San Diego Tritons. The salute to Kim Scarsella and the Tamalpais High School Hawks from Californiais here. (more…)
A strong postseason and all-California honors earn Kim Scarsella a SportsDashboards year-end player salute.
This recognition is shared with Camille Gaito. Both Gaito and Scarsella are outstanding softball pitchers who honed their craft playing for Marin Girls Softball teams. Pitching success is often viewed as an individual achievement, but no pitcher succeeds without the offensive and defensive support of her teammates. Consequently, this recognition is not just for the pitcher but for her team as well.
This is the salute to Kim Scarsella and the Tamalpais, California, High School Hawks. The salute to Camille Gaito and the University of California at San Diego Tritons is here. (more…)
Wake Forest baseball coach Tom Walter donated a kidney to one of his players.
It’s an article of faith that coaches play an important role in the development of their young charges: teaching athletic skills, discipline, teamwork and good sportsmanship.
Wake Forest baseball coach Tom Walter ratcheted the coach-player relationship from important to vital when he donated a kidney to one of his players, Kevin Jordan; thereby writing a new chapter in the manual of coaching.
This is a dramatic example of commitment — Jordan had never actually donned a Wake Forest uniform. He was a recruit who arrived for his freshman year on campus with his kidneys already ailing. Nevertheless Walter still considered him as a member of the team.
Jordan’s kidneys were barely functioning … he needed daily dialysis; and none of his immediate family members were a match as an organ donor. Up stepped Walter, who volunteered to be tested and was found to be a compatible donor. On Monday, Feb. 7, the transplant was performed at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Both patients are doing fine as of this posting.
Every organization that sponsors youth sports activities extends tendrils that reach into the future, providing for their participants some of the building blocks that can lead to a strong personal foundation as they reach adulthood. Marin Girls Softball in California represents the best that youth sports has to offer,
Naysayers of youth sports point to overaggressive coaches who have their teams run up scores against overmatched opponents. They cite out-of-conrol parents who scream at officials, coaches, the opposing team, members of their children’s team and, sometimes, even their own children. Their criticism consists of statements that life is not about who scored the most points, who won by the biggest margin, or whose negativity was heard over the satisfaction and contentment of the majority. (Continued below.)
Catholic Youth Organization programs offer bountiful opportunities for youth to test their skill and interest in a variety of activities. The basketball program at St. Mary’s of Manhasset, on Long Island, New York, epitomizes the best of these programs.
St. Mary’s offers playing opportunities for youth from the third grade through high school. Players can participate in intramural programs or try to qualify for a travel team that will play their counterparts from other CYO organizations. Part of the Nassau and Suffolk Archdiocese, St. Mary’s provides basketball opportunities for more than 900 youths. It’s how they do it that makes St. Mary’s special. (Continued below.)
For the second consecutive year, the Southern Marin Broncos, from Marin County, California, sent a team to the American Youth Football Division 2 national championships. As documented here, the Bronco Jr. Midgets won the national championship in 2009. The 2010 Jr. Peewees earned third place at the Nationals, losing only to the eventual champions from Shabbona, an Illinois powerhouse.
2010 also marked the first year the Broncos competed in the NorCal Conference. As a Division 2 team, they acquitted themselves well; all five teams earned playoff berths and four of the teams made the finals. That’s a spectacular showing in their first year, considering that some of the teams they faced were from Sacramento, Oakland and San Jose, areas with many more kids to draw from. (Continued below.)
Across the country, the Tuscarora Jr. Titans of Maryland were flexing their muscles in the Mountain Valley Youth Football League. The MVYFL offers three levels of play for kids who are not yet in high school. All three Tuscarora teams earned playoff spots and two teams were crowned champions.
The Titans JV entry swept through its division undefeated. The varsity team lost one game during the regular season before dominating the playoffs. (Continued below.)
Some shots come close to being one-in-a-million shots. Austin Groff hit one of those last month and has since become an internet celebrity.
This video is the same one that has garnered nearly a million views on YouTube, was featured on Yahoo and the Huffington Post and was shown on the CBS Early Morning News.
If you haven’t seen it, run it twice. It takes two looks to really grasp what Groff did. There’s been some misinformation about the shot and the circumstances, so we’re here, with the help of Yahoo and CBS, to clarify the circumstances surrounding the shot. (more…)
Not every sport requires a ball and not every sport combines individual achievement with team success.
Chess requires neither and 14-year-old Daniel Naroditsky is a master in that domain. Two years ago, Naroditsky won the world under-12 championship, besting more than 100 other players. Today, he is the youngest player ranked in the top 60, irrespective of age, in the United States. The World Chess Federation (FIDE) ranks him as an FIDE Master (FM) and he’s closing in on International Master (IM) status. In the video, Vern Glenn of KRON4 in San Francisco interviews Daniel after his world triumph.
Let’s put that top 60 ranking in perspective. If he were a major league pitcher, he would rank as the third best starting pitcher on the team … a status, of course, that no 14-year-old can hope to attain. As a tennis player, only his age would prevent him from getting automatic invitations to the four tennis Grand Slam events. (more…)
It’s a fundamental tenet: sports participation can teach us some of life’s important lessons.
But there are some situations that sports can’t address, such as the one coach D’wan Marshall, founder of the Team Marshall Longhorns in Kansas City, MO, faced this year.
Marshall started his team a decade ago, to reach out to young boys. He teaches life lessons as well as baseball. He defines winning, not just in terms of the scoreboard, but in terms of being responsible, respectable and accountable. Off the field, his boys have blossomed.
On the field, his instruction culminated in winning the 2009 Satchell Paige American League pennant.
As he prepared for the 2010 season, his wife was diagnosed with cancer.
Coping with the news that a loved one has been diagnosed with a serious disease or illness is not one of the lessons you usually learn in sports. For many people, the news brings a numbness or paralysis. But Marshall was up to the challenge.
The bond between coach Rick Fullerton of Marin FC and player Teddy Mauze is an unusual one because of its duration.
In youth sports, players get older and move on to other coaches or other clubs. Coaches generally continue coaching an age group with which they’ve had success. So it’s customary for coaches to see a huge turnover in players and for players to train under different coaches.
Defying that pattern, Fullerton and Mauze have been together for seven years. Their last game together was the title match of the Copa Catalunya tournament in Spain.
A Marin County, California, team of 14-year-olds spent a fortnight this Summer overturning much of what we thought we knew about the relative merits of youth soccer programs in Europe and America.
Italy and Spain are the last two World Cup champions, bastions of European soccer supremacy. The Marin FC 15U team entered tournaments in those two countries and marched to the championship game in each while the soccer world was focussed on World Cup 2010.
Sure it was a big goal. But the celebration was worthy of an Emmy nomination. Here’s the scene:
Stjarnan and Fylkir are locked in a 1-1 tie as the match goes into extra time. Stjarnan’s Haldor Orri Bjornsson booted home the winning goal. And then the hijinks commenced. Watch the video. And admire the portrayal by Johann Laxdal as the fish. It’s certainly worth a supporting actor award.
Your parents always told you that practice makes perfect. They weren’t far wrong, but they weren’t exactly right either.
Psychologist Anders Ericsson has expanded on the theme of practice. Over the course of 30 years of research, Ericsson found that hard work alone has limited effect in raising proficiency in any activity, whether it be playing a musical instrument, performing in athletics or doing mental gymnastics.
This is a story that encompasses two magnificent feats.
Primarily, it’s about a group of young — as in under 10 — softball players who achieved a first in Marin softball history. The Nor-Cal Smackers 10U softball team traveled to Sunnyvale, went undefeated in four games over a three-day tournament, and earned the right to participate in the Amateur Softball Association Class A National 10U tournament. The Smackers are the first 10U team representing Marin to earn a berth in the national tournament, paving the way for future young teams to find their way into national competition.
But this story is also about the organization which they represent. The Smackers are only in their second full year of operation. To have brought a team along to the point of qualifying for an ASA national tournament is a real tribute to the coaching and management of the Smackers.
Coaches often count their most memorable moments by the victories they’ve won, the playoff berths they’ve earned, and the star players they’ve had the pleasure to mentor.
But there’s also a great deal of satisfaction to be gained by helping the journeyman players hone their skills. In this excerpt, East Coast coach and author Larry Cicchiello tells how one of his most memorable moments was provided by Nick, a player going 0-20 for the season.
I knew Nick off the baseball field and knew he was a great kid with great parents. . . . Nick had this “long and looping” swing and was overmatched by every pitch. . . . (more…)
This started out as a paean to Marin Girls Softball for the quality of training they give their players, as reflected in those players’ contributions to the Marin County Athletic League when they reach high school.
However, simultaneous with putting this post together, we became aware of the research of Betsey Stevenson, which puts the contributions of MGS, MCAL and similar organizations in a vastly different light. Girls sports programs have a positive effect on the futures of their members.
Camille Gaito delivering a pitch for her UCSD team.
The numbers don’t lie: Camille Gaito is among the elite college softball pitchers in the nation, but that’s not the only reason Sports Dashboards salutes her.
The numbers are a good place to start. Gaito ended her season with a 0.96 earned run average while pitching for the University of California at San Diego. The Tritons play in NCAA Division II as a member of the California Collegiate Athletic Association.
How good is 0.96? It’s third in the nation. Of the 300 pitchers that the NCAA tracked who pitched more than 100 innings this season in Division II, only two pitchers recorded lower numbers. For those of you into that kind of metric, it means that she is in the 100th percentile. She is among the creme de la creme. A pitcher nonpareil.
This season, she finished with an 18-10 win-loss record and her team was ranked 10th among all colleges competing in the Western Region.
The thing is, Camille Gaito is only a sophomore. When you’re already at the top, what more is there to strive for? Well, there are some individual honors that have eluded her and there are plenty of team accomplishments that will have to wait for next season.
The Mill Valley All-Stars nipped the San Anselmo All-Stars 12-11 in extra innings to win the Marin Girls Softball Seniors All-Star Tournament.
The Seniors are seventh and eighth graders and each team is a collection of the best players from several teams competing within their individual leagues.
The championship game was an exciting contest, with twists and turns to delight the fans of both teams. But one of the most interesting things about it was that it didn’t figure to be this compelling.
The Novato All-Stars edged the San Rafael All-Stars 3-2 to earn the Marin Girls Softball Majors All-Stars Tournament championship.
Majors teams consist of girls in the fifth and sixth grades. The all-star teams are formed from the best players within each league.
The level of play in the semifinals and championship game belied the ages of the players involved. These girls definitely got game.
In the championship game, Novato scored single runs in the middle innings to take a 2-0 lead. Starting pitcher Dixie Thompson benefited from her battery mate, catcher Samantha Tong, who threw out two would-be base stealers in the early innings to keep San Rafael in check.
The values of participating in youth sport groups are well known. A non-comprehensive list would include such things as developing cooperative skills through teamwork, dealing with the highs of winning and the lows of losing, learning sportsmanship skills, and experiencing camaraderie with teammates, coaches and family. Oh yeah, having fun comes in there pretty high as well. Some organizations are better at one facet of youth sports than others. But every kid benefits to some degree by participating.
Then there’s that more prominent facet of any sports program: the development of skills in the chosen sport. Some organizations misplace their emphasis, placing it on winning, rather than skills development.
That’s not the case with the teams that comprise the Marin Girls Softball League. Obviously, every team tries to win each time they take the field. But the emphasis is on skills development and the less tangible values of being a part of something special.
Exhibit 1 for this fact was the recent showdown between Marin County Athletic League powerhouses, Redwood and Tamalpais. The two high schools entered the game knowing that the winner would be tied with San Marin atop the MCAL softball standings. That’s enough drama right there.
Jennifer Azzi is an Olympic Gold Medal winner while playing for the 1996 U.S. women’s basketball team. She was also a lynchpin of a Stanford team that won an NCAA championship and she played professional basketball in the WNBA.
She attributes her success to a string of great coaches she trained under from the time she was 6 years old.
Her life speaks to the sincerity of those sentiments. She’s become a member of the Advisory Board for the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA). She offers basketball camps in the San Francisco Bay area. She’ll also apply her experience next year as the new coach of the University of San Francisco women’s basketball team.
In this video, she recounts her experiences to winners of the PCA Double Gold award.
As the honors mount, Kim Scarsella is our nominee to be the poster girl for the value of youth sports programs.
Kim is a mound mainstay for the Tamalpais High School Hawks, who sit atop the softball standings in the Marin County Athletic League.
Last week, Kim was cited by the Marin Independent Journal as the girl prep star of the week. It was an honor well deserved. But calling her the “star of the week” is an understatement of the magnitude of calling Mohammed Ali a fairly tough guy. Or saying Lady Gaga has a strange sense of style.
Kim Scarsella is more than a one-week wonder, she dominates a softball game the way the best pitchers do. Statistics never tell the whole story, but here are some numbers that hint at the exceptional season she is having:
During the week for which she was honored by the Marin newspaper, she defeated Terra Linda 6-0 while striking out 17 and then bested Novato 6-2 while chalking up 11 more K’s.
Remember the old days? Cheerleaders wore skirts that came below the knees, accompanied by long-sleeve wool sweaters with the team initial on the front. Sometimes, they waved pom-poms. And every once in a while, they led a cheer.
Folks, those days are gone. Like everything else, cheerleading has evolved. The outfits today permit the freedom of movement that’s required for cheerleaders to perform acrobatics and dance routines. These routines are so challenging they prove that these girls are not just pretty faces, they’re also talented athletes.
Epitomizing that evolution are the Central Marin Chargers Cheer teams. In 2009, their midget cheer team won the USA Junior Nationals championship in their division. Only to be outdone by their peewee counterparts, who not only won their division, but were crowned Grand Champions for achieving the highest score for their routine. (more…)
The Southern Marin Broncos Jr. Midget team didn’t just win the American Youth Football national championship; they did it the hard way, beating the defending champs from Shabbona Park, IL, 16-0 in the final.
Marin County, California, is no stranger to football greatness. Dan Fouts, the Hall of Fame San Diego quarterback, and Pete Carroll, the fabulously successful college football coach, both hail from Marin. But the 12- and 13-year-old kids on the Jr. Midgets team accomplished something Fouts and Carroll never did: they won a national championship in youth football.
The video shows highlights of their championship game. The clinching touchdown run comes at the 2:50 mark. It’s a great run, but look at the blocking!
Check out the trophy presentation at about 4:30 into the video.
Diligent preparation and flawless execution gave the Broncos their title. SportsDashboards salutes them!
Does Malik Huff look like a Jr. Midget to you? It’s Malik making the grab of a pass from Ryan Hagfeldt. Malik is all of 12 years old. His team, the Southern Marin Broncos, won the National AYF D-2 Junior Midgets championship last year, dethroning the defending champs from Illinois in the championship game in Orlando.
These 4th grade boys from Mt. Carmel CYO have their act together. They are good players for their age and they know what they’re doing. Or do they? Check out the debate that breaks out at about the 1:50 mark when the coach says, “Run play number 1.” One player says, “We already did” and a chorus say “No we didn’t.” They aren’t much as a debating society, but they sure can hoop it up.
The ball girl shows up the Triple-A pro with an unbelievable catch! …
We got fooled on this one along with thousands of other people. We wanted to believe the fiction that an ordinary ball girl could make this extraordinary catch. The real game setting, including a reference to real player Jake Wald, added to our willingness to suspend disbelief.
But this was a commercial, using special effects. The whole story is told by Snopes, including the detail that the ball girl was really a stunt woman who had the help of wire rigging when climbing the wall.
It’s the harness and rigging that is puzzling. Anyone who has ever competed against a team of stunt women knows that there are many in their group who could have made this catch without assistance.
It still wouldn’t have been a ball girl, but if they had used a real ball (see Snopes’ explanation) and an unaided stunt woman, we would still be wowed, even if it wasn’t in a game situation.
Girls softball is one of the most fast-paced and interesting spectator sports as well as being exceedingly satisfying to play. This video, of a college game in the Upper Northwest, captures a moment of true sportsmanship. It’s special when fair really is fair.
A son and two grandfathers are saluted in this video that epitomizes the value of youth sport activities. The pictures are stills, but the song is priceless.
In this video, Matthew Armstrong singles and scores. You don’t see the action, but you do see the circumstances behind why it’s such a big deal. Baseball and family. What more is there to say?
Sometimes, the fun and games don’t involve competition at the Mt. Carmel CYO.
Last year, under the supervision of SportsDashboards’ own Kerry Huffman and former Stanford All-American basketball player Jennifer Azzi, all the players in the Mt. Carmel CYO program banded together to set a record for the world’s longest basketball pass.
For that one afternoon, all the teams stopped competing with one another and banded together to achieve the world record. Everyone had fun and the effort emphasized the value of teamwork.
The NBA runs a promotional series with the tagline “Where Amazing Happens,” with video to prove the point.
It’s no big deal. Whenever kids get together to compete in sports “amazing” happens. In this video, a Minnesota teenager makes a game-winning shot in the state tournament while flat on his back!
