Saturday, July 17, 2010

“Sports briefs” plus 3 more

“Sports briefs” plus 3 more

Sports briefs

Posted: 17 Jul 2010 05:29 PM PDT

July 17, 2010

Sports briefs

LOCAL

Cheer It Up! to celebrate NGD  

National Gymnastics Days is Aug. 7 and Cheer It Up! is celebrating by having a "Cartwheel-a-thon" on the courthouse square from 10 a.m. to noon.

Cheer It Up! will hold tumbling demonstrations and students will be performing as many cartwheels in a row for fundraising efforts for the upcoming competition season.

TCGC to hold junior golf clinics

Tahlequah City Golf Course will begin holding junior golf clinics on Tuesday.

During the clinic, golf lessons will be free of charge if players buy a bucket of range balls.

The clinic will be broken into two groups: Tuesday's will be for six- to 13-year olds while Thursday's will be for 14 years and up.

Tahlequah City Golf Course plans on running the clinics until school starts on Aug. 11. If the clinic has early success, it could be continued after school starts with different starting times to be determined.

Tigers hosting BigTime hoops tournament

Tahlequah High School will be hosting a "BigTime Tournament", sponsored by Greg Swaim.

The tournament, labeled "Summer Cruise," will be July 24-25. The entry fee for each team is $175 and the tournament is open to third through 12th graders.

Each player also receives a free float trip, in addition to two days of basketball.

For more information, contact THS coaches Wes Hayes (577-7038) or Chad Walker (469-245-7016).

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Celebrating gymnastics

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 11:17 PM PDT


A DANISH gymnastics extravaganza is in store for local enthusiasts as a team of gymnasts from Denmark is in Malaysia for three performances.

The team of 15 men and 23 women, accompanied by three coaches, will hold their first performance at Dewan Tunku in Komtar, Penang, at 8pm today.

Tickets, priced at RM20 for adults and RM10 for children, are available at the venue.

They will conduct a coaching clinic earlier in the day at the Penang State Sports Council's gymnasium in Batu Uban from 9am to noon.

Entry is free but participation is limited to 80 gymnastics enthusiasts on a first-come first-served basis.

The team will also be performing at the Tenby International School in Ipoh on Monday before wrapping up their tour of Malaysia with a show at the Beacon International School in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

The Danes, who have just completed a tour of Thailand, aim to display a broad range of different disciplines within the Danish gymnastics tradition.

The elements of their hour-long performance will include synchronised tumbling, trampoline, acrobatic pairs, funk, traditional Danish gymnastics, and modern dancing.

"Our aim here is to spread passion and enthusiasm for the sport and to give local children the opportunity to try out Danish gymnastics and our equipment," said the team's travel leader Regin Joensen.

He said the clinic was open to those as young as three years old.

Joensen said the majority of his team members have experience in teaching as most of them are instructors during their free time.

Penang Amateur Gymnastics Council president Datuk Tan Gin Soon said the Danish coaching clinic would surely benefit local children.

The team, consisting mostly of civilians, is from the gymnastics division of PI, an athletic association of the Danish police.

The division offers gymnastics for both police officers and civilians at several levels.

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Gymnastics: Sassa's hard work produces big results

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 11:55 PM PDT


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By Gretchen Andersen
Student Intern

Katie Sassa has more than 200 medals, 50 trophies and 40 leotards — she knows what hard work entails and gets the results she deserves.

As opposed to other sports when there might be an offseason, gymnastics is familiar to no such trend.

Sassa, 16, of Harleysville, is a second-year Level 10 gymnast at Silvia's Gymnastics in Zieglerville. Since age 6, there has been no other sport Sassa loves more than gymnastics.

Sassa recently competed in the Junior Olympic National Invitational Tournament in Dallas, Texas. Also known as the JO-NIT, the tournament is very exclusive.

According to its website, only "448 athletes out of the almost 1,500 Level 10s competing at the State Championships level have the opportunity to qualify to the Jr. Olympic National Championships."

Just how difficult is it to qualify?

"If you have a bad day at Regionals, the next three after get to compete," Sassa said.

The JO-NIT, though, is not the only notable competition in which Sassa has competed. She has traveled to South Carolina, Texas, Maryland, Virginia and more for competitions.

In order to prepare for these events, there is extensive training. During the school year she practices Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., Friday from 3:30 to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 1 to 5:30 p.m.

The summer is even more grueling with four hours of practice a day, Monday through Saturday.

Sassa says practice often begins with stretching, followed by warm-up and then 45 minute rotations and practice of routines.

On those special off-days, Sassa said she enjoys hanging out with her friends, shopping or swimming.

From May to October, she doesn't compete. Instead, she and other gymnasts learn new skills by practicing vehemently. Yet, when November rolls around and fall colors become more apparent, so too does Sassa's unwavering drive to win. At that time, she competes in meets almost every other weekend.

Sassa's mom, dad, sisters, aunt and uncle often come to her meets. For all the traveling, helping and cheering, Sassa has her family to thank for their undying support, whether at practice or competitions.

"They're always here for me and have given up a lot of stuff to travel. I like to see them there for me," she said.

Sassa's favorite event is beam, of which she describes as "most challenging, and requires a lot of skill." Last year, Sassa was the 2009 Level 10 State Champion for balance beam.

"I was really surprised, it was unexpected," she said of winning the event.

However, coach Maia Mitova would probably disagree about the "surprise," due to Sassa's never-wavering effort.

"Katie is an amazing kid," Mitova said. "Katie is a very, very respectful kid, very disciplined, she works very hard. Whatever she gets, it's based on hard work — very, very hard work. (Qualifying for the JO-NIT) was amazing for her. We were hoping she was going to make it. At her age, it's very hard. She's at the age where everyone is so, so good, it's very hard to qualify. We were very proud of Katie going down there."

When she is not performing a tumbling run, powering off the vault or trying to stick a landing, Sassa is finishing homework for her high school classes at Souderton Area High School. Sassa is persevering in gymnastics and school for a college scholarship.

Where does she wish to go?

"Penn State," Sassa said, smiling. She has visited the school to watch a gymnastics meet and enjoyed the college.

"Sometimes it's hard with homework," said Sassa. "When I have a big test the next day I have to go home early and study."

But the next day she'll be right back on the mat.

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Severna Park girl among best divers in nation • Sports (www.HometownAnnapolis.com - The ...

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 11:55 PM PDT

But Ronni, now 9, is already making a splash on the competitive diving scene. She recently qualified for the 2010 Speedo Junior National Diving Championships, which will be held in Tucson, Ariz., from July 23-27. The event will feature the nation's top 30 divers.

The rising fourth-grader at Severna Park Elementary started diving when she was 6 and began diving competitively just last September.

Gymnastics still takes up a plurality of her time. She competes as a level-eight gymnast with Docksiders Gymnastics, which won the level-six state championship with Ronni on the team last year.

While most divers practice at least once a day, Ronni can only squeeze in two to three workouts a week.

"She's probably one of the best - if not the best - 9-year-old divers in the country, and we're looking at her for big things," Severn River Dive Team coach Kelly Murray said. "It's not even like she's doing it full time like these other kids are. It's insane. I can only imagine how good she would be if she was only diving."

Ronni started diving with the Severn River Dive Team three summers ago, but after a couple seasons of dominating the local competition, Murray suggested she join a more serious club because Severn River focuses primarily on recreational diving.

Murray directed Ronni to the Montgomery Dive Club, which is coached by Jon Wolsh and has been ranked in the top-10 nationally since 1989.

"That's a U.S. Diving program," Murray said. "It's more serious and all year around. (Severn River) was more of a catalyst for her to discover her talent."

Wolsh, the former Vice President of U.S. Diving, saw Ronni's potential and entered her in a regional competition.

"It's remarkable what she's done in the amount of time that she's been able to train as a diver," Wolsh said. "It's just absolutely remarkable."

Ronni participated with the Montgomery Dive Team in the USA Diving Spring Junior Region Three Championships in March, placing second. In April, she went on to the USA Diving Spring Junior East National Championships, which were held in Oxford, Ohio.

Ronni placed third in the 1-meter competition - she was only beaten by two 11-year-olds - and qualified for the national competition.

Wolsh is hoping Ronni will perform well, but acknowledged the Junior National Championship is a big step up from regional qualifiers because the competition spans from coast-to-coast.

"She's a full-time gymnast that dives very part-time. She's diving against kids who do six to 10 workouts a week," Wolsh said. "I hope that she makes the top-12 in both events. Does she have the ability? Yes. Will she? I don't know. I don't know what the other competition is like from California, Texas, Minnesota and places like that."

Even though Ronni is just starting her competitive diving career, Wolsh and Murray already say she has the talent to make the Olympic Trials one day.

"If she dedicated all of her time to it - I've talked to other coaches about this - she could go to the Olympics, and at least definitely the Olympic Trials," Murray said. "She's doing dives that kids in college do, and she's 9. If she dedicated herself full-time to this, nothing could stop her from achieving anything she wanted."

Ronni's most recent display of talent came during Severn River's meet July 8. Ronni set a Central Maryland Diving League record for 9/10-year-old girls with a score of 126.75, which beat the previous record by more than 20 points.

But, as her mother can attest, Ronni doesn't care about those kinds of things. She just wants to improve in a sport that she started competing in just for fun.

"If you ask her which one she likes better and which one she wants to stick with, she can't really say at this point," Rebecca Binstock said. "She just wants to do better. To her, it's not about winning; it's about doing better than she did the last time, learning new dives and improving herself."

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