Swimmer Andressa Cholodovskis, softball player, Julia Jensen and women’s golfer Katy Rutherford attended the NCAA’s National Career in Sports Forum. “It is a great honor to have three of our student-athletes selected to attend the prestigious NCAA Career in Sports Forum,” said Rhonda Bennett, senior associate AD / senior woman administrator. “Andressa, Julia and Katy will have the chance to grow professionally and learn about careers in sports from some of our industry leaders. These three student-athletes personify the mission and values of Nevada Athletics, and I am very excited that they will have this opportunity to participate in what will likely be a transformational experience that will set them up for future career success.” The three-day forum prepares junior and senior student-athletes for a career after graduation.
The jersey-wearing camaraderie. The scent of sizzling sausages. The buzz before a big game. The distinctive atmosphere of live sports, that feeling in the air, will return in time as pandemic restrictions are eased. But will that very air be safe in a closed arena with other fans in attendance? The billions of dollars spent on state-of-the-art sports facilities over the last quarter-century have made high-efficiency air filtration systems more common, thanks in part to the pursuit of green and healthy building certifications. Upgrades will likely increase in the post-coronavirus era, too. The problem is that even the cleanest of air can’t keep this particular virus from spreading; if someone coughs or sneezes, those droplets are in the air. That means outdoor ballparks have high contaminant potential, too.
Nevada women’s basketball head coach Amanda Levens has announced her 2020 signing class by adding seven newcomers to the program. “We are excited about the new additions to our Wolf Pack family,” said Levens. “They are all talented athletes, motivated students and young women of high character.” The signing class includes four transfers and three high school student-athletes. The seven-member class will join Kenna Holt, who signed with Nevada in November, as the newest members of the Wolf Pack this fall. In total the eight newcomers brings the 2020-21 roster to 13 student-athletes with the return of senior Nia Alexander, juniors Da’Ja Hamilton and Amaya West and sophomores Dom Phillips and Alyssa Jimenez.
The American Basketball Association (ABA) announced that the Reno Rogues have been added to its expansion for the upcoming season that will begin in November. “Reno is a great sports and entertainment city,” stated ABA CEO Joe Newman, “and we were very surprised when the G-League abandoned Reno and headed to California. It left a great opening and two excellent owners have jumped in to fill the void.” The team will be owned and operated by Grind Athletics, LLC who also own and operate the Idaho Outlaws (www.idahooutlaws.com and IdahoOutlawsABA on Twitter) of the ABA.
Something is finally clear in the uncertain NBA: Players believe they’re going to play games again this season. The obvious questions — How? Where? When? — remain unanswered. Testing, part of the new normal of this coronavirus era, will be a major component to any return-to-play plan that the NBA comes up with.
The NFL is taking baby steps toward full reopenings for its teams. It has no other choice. No long throws downfield. Mostly halfback dives into the line. There are so many issues that must be addressed with the opening of team facilities across the nation. Just because a handful of clubs returned executives and other staff — no coaches or players — to their complexes on Tuesday does not foreshadow a quick return to business as usual. Or close to it.
Add boxing to the list of sports on the comeback trail. Promoter Bob Arum said Thursday he plans to stage a card of five fights on June 9 at the MGM Grand, the first of a series of fights over the next two months at the Las Vegas hotel. A second fight card will be held two nights later, with ESPN televising both cards, kicking off twice weekly shows at the hotel in June and July. No fans will be allowed, and Arum said fighters and everyone else will be tested at least twice during fight week for the new coronavirus. The fights are pending approval of the Nevada Athletic Commission, which meets next week to consider the events, along with two cards that the UFC plans to stage at its facility in Las Vegas.
The NCAA Division I Council voted to lift a moratorium on voluntary workouts by football and basketball players effective June 1 as a growing number of college leaders expressed confidence that fall sports will be possible in some form despite concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. This decision clears the way for individual workouts by athletes, mostly on their own, subject to safety and health protocols decided by their schools or local health officials.. NCAA officials noted that the workouts could go on as long as all local, state and federal regulations are followed. The status of voluntary workouts for other sports will be determined later.
Pahranagat Valley (Class 1A), The Meadows (2A), Boulder City (3A) and Bishop Manogue (4A) are the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association/One Nevada Credit Union’s ONE NEVADA CUP champions for the 2019-2020 school year. The NIAA, the non-profit governing body of high school athletics in the Silver State, began this awards program in 2001. One Nevada Credit Union, the title sponsor of the NIAA, became the presenting partner in 2019. The Award of Excellence in Academic, Athletics and Citizenship changed its name to the ONE NEVADA CUP in 2019. The One Nevada Cup’s scoring system awards points to member schools based on their varsity teams’ performances in the classrooms, at the sporting venues and with the Citizenship Through Sports initiative.
Bob Watson, an All-Star slugger who became the first black general manager to win a World Series with the New York Yankees in 1996, has died. He was 74.
While no one is actually playing football right now, analytics and data collecting are contributing to safety in the sport like at no other time. Riddell, which topped the recent NFL/NFLPA helmet ratings with three of its models, has dived so deep into the data that it’s discovering previously unexplored information. Teaming with Catapult, an Australia-based technology company, Riddell is providing coaches, players and medical staff detailed information regarding anything from practice regimens to helmet contacts to overall preparation for athletes.
I’m not really sure what Twitch is, but I do know this — Blake Snell will wish he was never on it. He said on the social gaming site what a lot of Major League Baseball players are probably thinking. Like him, they’re anxious about risking their health by returning to play and not happy they have to take a pay cut to do so. But after a rant as ill-advised as it was tone-deaf, Snell is now the poster child for spoiled millionaire ballplayers everywhere. And, really, let’s face it. He deserves all the vitriol coming his way.
In 2018, with his school facing the possibility of cutting staff to make up a huge shortfall in state funding, Northern Illinois athletic director Sean Frazier added a football game at Florida State to the Huskies’ schedule. The road trip came with a $1.6 million payout to NIU. “Florida State, essentially, saved people’s jobs,” Frazier said. Guarantee games, or buy games, are essential to many athletic departments that field Division I football teams but have far smaller budgets than those at Power Five schools. Even before the pandemic spawned a financial crisis, most Group of Five schools were using university funds and student fees to help pay for athletics.
Konrad Ott and some of the parents with his Northern California girls volleyball club skipped a popular Florida tournament that is now postponed. They could soon face a similar decision about a national event in Dallas. A boys baseball tournament organizer in the St. Louis area generated debate by staging an event less than a week after the Missouri governor cleared such gatherings.
For all the focus on the big names that left San Francisco this offseason like longtime left tackle Joe Staley and defensive anchor DeForest Buckner, the reality is the 49ers will look much the same in 2020. The defending NFC champion Niners are returning 18 of 22 starters from a team that fell one quarter short of winning it all, the type of continuity that could be especially crucial during this virtual offseason. While many teams are trying to install new systems or get several new players up to speed while teams are spread out around the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, the 49ers are mostly intact.