Sam Lynn posing with his team mates on the Mudcats with their trophies after the last game of the season! Way to go boys!
Archive for August, 2011
Go Mudcats!
Thursday, August 25th, 2011 25% off on Women’s Tennis Apparel
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
As summer winds down, we get ready for a new school year and a new sports season!
And with that in mind, we’ve got a great deal for all the tennis ladies out there!
We are currently selling ALL of our women’s tennis apparel for 25% off!
Come on in and check out the selection!
Braves Elite 10U Seeking Members
Friday, August 19th, 2011
The newly formed 10U Braves Elite travel baseball team is looking to add 1-2 more players to finish out the team for this fall season.
For more info call 804-931-2806
College Football: Redux!
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
We spent some time last week looking at some of our favorite Virginia schools and their outlook for this year’s football season and now we are diving into some more!
Let’s start in Williamsburg with The Tribe at William & Mary.
ESPN, Fathead and a lot of college football pundits are ranking the Tribe pretty high. A key to their success this year will be senior running back Jonathan Grimes. Grimes is a New Jersey native who set single season records for yards and touchdowns as a high schooler. Since joining William and Mary he was named Special Teams Player of the Year for 2010 and is on the short list for The Walter Peyton Award. He’ll get some help from tight end Alex Gottlieb and some defensive support from linebacker Dante Cook. All three were selected for The Sports Network’s preseason All-America team. Gottlieb had 34 catches for 350 yards in 2010 and junior Cook blistered 111 tackles and 4 sacks. They kick off 2011-12 with an in-state matchup September 3rd at Virginia.
Closer to home at Hampden Sydney the Tigers are looking for continued performance from returning senior quarterback Travis Lane. Lane, a Mills Godwin grad, passed for 3,338 yards with 28 touchdowns and 3 rushing touchdowns in his junior year. Lane will certainly get some help from 2010 standouts Kyle Vance and Sean Cavanagh. Coach Marty Favret is a little lighter on defensive experience this year as most of his playmakers graduated after last season but he does expect big things from Benedictine alumnus August Berling at linebacker.
Things are generally sleepy in the Shenandoah Valley but last year the Dukes of James Madison left Harrisonburg to deliver a wake-up call to Virginia Darlings Virginia Tech. They beat the Hokies in a stunning 21-16 upset. They are looking for some repeat magic in their opener against the Tar Heels on September 3rd. Some other cool match-ups will be against the Spiders for the JMU Homecoming on October 1st and a cool first time meeting with Old Dominion on October 29th. They’ll be led by senior offensive lineman Roane Babington, senior safety Vidal Nelson, junior punter David Skahn, and last year’s CAA Defensive Rookie-of-the-Year, sophomore linebacker Stephon Robertson.
Three more down and many more to go! With so much football coming up and so little time left tell us: what team do you want to see in our next installment?
A College Football Preview!
Thursday, August 11th, 2011
The University of Richmond has a scrimmage this Saturday at their River Road field at 3 pm. It’s open to the public.
Other schools are gearing for the gridiron so we thought we’d give you a preview.
Let’s start with the Spiders. They have an exciting linebacker in redshirt junior Darius McMillan. With the Spiders down 3 key players from last year they are in need of a good run-stopper like McMillan. He’ll be joined by the big man transfer from Georgia Tech, Cooper Taylor. U of R had a rotating cast of Quarterbacks last year but are hoping to keep Aaron Corp healthy enough to call plays through the season.
Virginia Tech has been a blast to watch for a while now and we’re hoping Logan Thomas at QB makes this year no different. Thomas has been being groomed for a couple of years now and is showing some much improved on the field play calling. The Hokies have a number of freshmen vying for starting jobs on defense this year but there is a good reason many of the talking heads of the sports world refer to the ACC as the VTC; the Virginia Tech Conference.
The boys in C-Ville are still fighting a QB battle going into the middle of August. Never a good sign. Right now they’re looking at Michael Rocco, Ross Metheny, Michael Strauss, and Hampton High’s David Watford. All are athletic, all show a strong arm, and all are working hard for the job. The biggest question for the Cavaliers is which one shows the skill set and learning curve to execute the offense. Cornerbacks Coach Chip West is getting creative in whipping his guys into shape. At the end of every workout he has them play coach. They make calls and adjustments and show West that they understand the position. While Sports Illustrated has the Hokies ranked at #12 the Cavaliers don’t break the top 25. Let’s hope they pick a gunslinger soon.
That takes care of the Big Three for us. Stay tuned and we’ll take a look at William and Mary, the boys of James Madison, and the rest of the Virginia gridiron gang.
Fall Sports in August’s Heat?
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
We’re gearing up for fall sports. Hopefully we’re gearing you up too! Some folks have started their football camps already! You know we’re ready for football!
We beat you over the head a few weeks ago with information about the dangers of concussion. As we see our little folks run around in this oppressive August heat we thought we’d share some information about the dangers of excessive exposure to the heat.
There have already been some reports this year of young players suffering from the heat. In a few tragic cases death has resulted.
There are a few degrees of heat exposure. Heat cramp, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. At first your body begins to cramp, you will lose your ability to regulate your body temperature, your internal temperature could rise as high as 106, and then it begins to get deadly. If an athlete experiences nausea, blurred vision, or confusion then he or she is in serious trouble and needs immediate medical attention.
The first thing that you want to secure is access to water. Clean, fresh water. A responsible organization will provide coolers full of it. It should be readily accessible and frequent breaks should be provided to hydrate. As we sweat we lose valuable sodium and electrolytes and certain sports drinks can help to replace these. Read your label, though, as certain “sports” drinks contain caffeine and other not so healthy things. These troublemakers are in there to provide quick energy but they speed up metabolism and can exaggerate the effects of heat. This is also something to be aware of in any medications that the player is taking. Meds for asthma and allergies often contain bronchodilators, which can speed up the metabolism.
Many foods contain a lot of water. Most fruits, like watermelon, are mostly water. Look also for food and snacks that are mineral-rich and loaded with good salts and some easy carbs for energy.
There is a rare but deadly consequence of too much water: hyponatremia. This is an imbalance in the levels of sodium and fluids in the body. If a player has been sweating heavily and then ingests large amounts of fluid without balancing the amount of sodium the cells of the body will swell. This becomes deadly as the brain cells swell, as the skull doesn’t give the brain a lot of room to move around.
When is the coach holding practice? Be aware that the majority of heat incidents occur during the first couple of days of practice. Players need to get acclimated to the heat. Just because they’ve been at the beach or chasing sprinklers all summer doesn’t mean they’re ready for a full-out with pads practice. You should also become a weather expert! You can create your own heat index to decide how you want your player to participate. A good and easy rule of thumb is to do the “Sum” equation. Look at the weather and add the temperature to the humidity. If it’s 85 degrees and the relative humidity is 70% you have a sum of 155. Good to practice but keep your eyes open. As you get above a Sum of 160 you need to be really vigilant. If it gets up to 180 you should encourage the organization to cancel or reschedule the event. A smart coach will try to get most activities going early in the morning so that most strenuous activity is done before the afternoon heat really kicks in.
Uniform also plays a role. Is the coach going full-pads? Shorts and fishnet jerseys are good. For football or other sports requiring helmets they should be used sparingly and sunscreen is still a must. If a shirt or jersey becomes too wet due to sweat it should be changed as this will trap heat.
Most of all: watch. Learn the warning signs and monitor the practice! Fall sports are fun but they don’t need to be dangerous!
