The “Wildest, Richest Rodeo in the West” is set to return to Reno June 17–26, 2021 pending COVID-19 restrictions and tickets are now on sale. “After an incredibly difficult year we are optimistic that we will be able to bring ‘the toughest sport on dirt’ back to the Biggest Little City and are grateful for the support from our rodeo family and community,” said George Combs, general manager of the Reno Rodeo. “While this year’s rodeo may look a little different, we know it will still deliver the exhilarating experience the Reno Rodeo is known for.”
The Nevada High School Rodeo Association started up its spring portion of the schedule on Feb. 20-21 in Pahrump. A pair of Humboldt County Rodeo Club members claimed average wins over the weekend. Emma Garijo was first in the pole bending average with a combined time of 41.996 seconds. She was second in the first go-around at 20.891 and she won the second go-around with a time of 21.105.
The calendar says March, but fall high school sports are in full swing in Northern Nevada. Last summer the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association moved the calendar around and placed fall sports in March and April due to Covid-19 and the restrictions that were in place.
The Reno Aces are beginning the first field renovation in franchise history, replacing the original field from when the stadium was built in 2009. The new field will bring Major League quality and standards to the biggest little city.
There’s no need to worry about geography in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Get ready for plenty of talk about the so-called “S curve” instead. And don’t worry — it’s not that complicated. With the entire tournament taking place in or near Indianapolis, there is no reason for the four geographic regions that have been a part of past NCAA brackets. The NCAA doesn’t have to ensure the best teams play closer to home.
The Reno Aces have a schedule for the 2021 season. The season will consist of a six-game series each week, with every Wednesday off as a travel day. The 142-game slate begins at Greater Nevada Field on April 8 against the Sugar Land Skeeters, and ends on September 21 at home against the Salt Lake Bees.
The major league season is scheduled to start April 1 with the New York Yankees hosting Toronto and Detroit hosting Cleveland, part of an opening-day schedule of 15 games.
Professional baseball will stay in the Biggest Little City for at least 10 more years, as the Reno Aces have accepted an affiliate invitation from the Arizona Diamondbacks. The 10-year agreement comes after the team signed Major League Baseball’s Professional Development License (PDL). “We are overjoyed to continue our longstanding partnership with the Arizona Diamondbacks,” said Aces president Eric Edelstein. “Northern Nevada is fortunate to have such incredible Major League partners, and our entire community has earned this opportunity to represent Triple-A Baseball in the new Major League Player Development system.”
Former Reno Aces catcher Blake Lalli, who managed the Arizona Diamondbacks’ AA minor league team in Jackson in 2019, has been named the new manager of their AAA affiliate in Reno.
So much of it looked familiar — from the heartfelt rendering of the national anthem, to the silvery, star-studded halftime show, to Tom Brady standing there at the end with a mile-wide smile, awash in confetti.
Last Sunday, Nevada embarked on a pivotal four-games-in-eight-days stretch. This Sunday, the Pack walked off the Lawlor Events Center court with four-straight wins, and key sweeps of UNLV and Boise State after a 73-62 victory over the Broncos.
The stadium was full of cardboard cutouts and people in masks. A poet — yes, a poet — introduced us to some real heroes, and one of them handled the opening coin flip like she had done it 100 times before. On the field a woman joined the crew in stripes for the first time in a Super Bowl. Even the commercials reminded us — at times somberly — that this was a season like no other in a time unlike any other.
Leah Withrow has been promoted to head groundskeeper for the Reno Aces, making her the only female currently leading a grounds crew in all of Triple-A baseball, and the first female head groundskeeper in team history. Withrow has been with the team full-time since 2018, working under each of the team’s two previous head groundskeepers.
Major League Baseball has proposed a one-month delay in starting spring training due to the coronavirus pandemic and pushing back opening day to April 28, two people familiar with the plan told The Associated Press. Under the plan presented to the players’ union on Friday, the regular season would be cut from 162 games to 154.
There have been four previous Super Bowls in Tampa, some amid war and economic distress, but none have faced the challenges this year’s event encounters because of the coronavirus pandemic and its fallout.