“Yellow Jackets Gymnastics brings sport to the North Shore with its Danvers, Middleton, facilities” plus 3 more

Yellow Jackets Gymnastics brings sport to the North Shore with its Danvers, Middleton, facilities
Gymnastics center escrow done hours before Butte Community Bank closed down
Sports briefs, 8/20/10
Good Sports: How Tech Is Raising Our Game

Yellow Jackets Gymnastics brings sport to the North Shore with its Danvers, Middleton, facilities

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 01:25 PM PDT

Yellow Jackets Gymnastics has been synonymous for excellence on the North Shore over the years in the development of high school and college champion athletes in this most difficult of sports.

From its beginnings as the Danvers Y Yellow Jackets in 1975, Don and Joan Lothrop moved their club to a building now occupied by the Holten-Richmond Middle School on Conant Street in Danvers in 1985, where they stayed until 1998, when the business grew in popularity, and settled into its current location in Middleton off Route 114 on North Main Street, a 20,000 square foot facility that also plays host to many high school gymnastic competitions.

Today, Don and Joan also continue to operate the club's sister facility in their hometown of Danvers to accommodate the ever-burgeoning clientele. Yellow Jackets Gymnastics Too on Holten Street has been around the last eight years.

It offers pretty much the same programs as its Middleton counterpart. There are classes in tumbling, not to mention programs in competitive cheerleading, and for Levels 2, 3 and 4 gymnastics teams. For those who wish, there are also private lessons available. Each class lasts between 45 to 75 minutes, and they cater to parents with toddlers, as well.

The Lothrops wanted to return to their Danvers roots in order to bring the business back to their neighbors.

"It's a way for us to better accommodate the people of Danvers, and it's convenient for those who want to drop their kids off for classes, because they can then walk across the street to McKinnon's to do their shopping," Don said.

But it's also a place, where others might come from afar to enjoy its coziness. "We think it's more comfortable, especially for the little kids to learn the sport," added Don.

Bailey Denisco, a former Yellow Jackets participant, is the head coach at the Holten Street business, where she has worked since high school.

"I have been involved with the Yellow Jackets program since I was a youngster, and so I also knew about the Yellow Jackets Too facility," Denisco said. "When I was in high school, my friend, Samantha Murphy, worked there, and told me that I should apply. I did, and I have been working there ever since. I am now the head coach, and I accepted this position, because I absolutely love working with kids, and teaching them the wonderful sport of gymnastics."

Now 20, the Bishop Fenwick High School graduate is also a student at Merrimack College in North Andover, majoring in Business Management.

Getting hands-on experience coordinating the classes at Yellow Jackets Too, Denisco wants her students to have fun first and foremost.

"If a kid isn't having fun in gymnastics, or in another sport, then that sport isn't for them. They should find something that they love and stick to it," she said.

Denisco tries to limit the class size to eight students with one coach, and a typical session lasts 10 weeks on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. There are certain themes every week, one of which is "Bring A Friend Week," where each student is allowed to bring a friend to their respective class.

In June, there is also a "gym show," where the participants put on a gymnastics show for their family and friends.

Cheerleading classes are held Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Rita Mirandi, who has guided different age groups to national titles over the years, coaches them.

Gymnastics as a sport has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, and the Lothrops are doing their part to fulfill the dreams of young athletes around the North Shore right here in Danvers, as well as in nearby Middleton.

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Gymnastics center escrow done hours before Butte Community Bank closed down

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 01:00 AM PDT

OROVILLE — Escrow closed on Feather River Recreation and Park District's purchase of Oroville Gymnastics and Sports Academy, just hours before Butte Community Bank was shut down Friday.

Regulators took over the Chico-based bank Friday after a strategy to reorganize the bank failed, a Mercury-Register article reported.

Mike Donnelly, a commercial real estate agent with The Group Real Estate, said the gymnastic center purchase was probably the last loan made at the Oroville branch and exemplary of what small community banks did.

"This is a remarkable opportunity and investment into the future," Donnelly wrote in a press release.

Donnelly, along with Don Miller of Miller Realty, represented the seller.

The federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized the local bank, and it is being purchased by Rabobank for $425.4 million.

It's reportedly business as usual.

But Donnelly is saddened to see the local bank close.

"Butte Community Bank was very involved in our community," Donnelly said Wednesday.

In the past, bank presidents had donated to community causes and invested in projects to improve the community, he said.

"That's what community banks did," he said.

The bank's last loan is a textbook example of a public-private partnership that would benefit the community, as well as how the community bank invested in the community, Donnelly said.

The total sale price of the facility was $3.5 million with $100,000 of that being for the business.

But

the city of Oroville kicked in a $350,000 loan to pay for the building.

In turn, the city received about $800,000 back in loans made to the previous owners.

Donnelly said the purchase price was modest compared to what the 41,706-square-foot "state of the art" facility would cost to build today.

Donnelly attributes owners Marcia Carter and her family with building the sports and educational facility for the benefit of Oroville youth.

Many of her former students have gone on to become Olympic-caliber athletes or to develop professional careers, he said.

The acquisition was facilitated by the city of Oroville and the local U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development office.

Former district manger Bob Sharkey began the conversation on buying the center through the Butte County Private Industry Council with federal recovery act dollars before he retired last year.

The district would then have signed a lease-purchase agreement with PIC for the facility.

However, PIC only offered about $2 million.

The bank deal was put together over the course of more than a year with FRRPD chairwoman Jan Hill and directors Tamara Dorfman, Vene Thompson and Loren Gill, and Manager John Buck III, according to Donnelly's press release.

The 10-year bank loan would be repaid on a sliding scale with payments of 23,261 over the first three years and $42,500 over the last five years.

However, the district is looking into a reorganization that would allow the loan to be refinanced for a longer term.

Sports briefs, 8/20/10

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 10:44 PM PDT

Staff Reports

Published: Friday, August 20, 2010 6:11 AM MST

Submit your sports briefs to maricopa_monitor@yahoo.com today!

Golfers, sponsors needed for MHS football golf tourney

The Maricopa Rams Football Booster Club invites you to participate in the First Annual Maricopa Rams Football Golf Tournament on Aug. 28 at The Duke at Rancho El Dorado. Tee times begin at 7:30 a.m., with check-in beginning at 6:30 a.m. Deadline to register is Aug. 21.

Money raised will go directly to the program to provide proper training and equipment.

Individual participants can take part for $65 each, with $260 covering a full foursome. Hole sponsorship packages are available for $500, which includes one full foursome, a company green sign, and one two-by-three banner that will be displayed at the MHS football field every game throughout the Rams' 2010 season.

Driving range, putting green, and food sponsorships are available for $250 each, which also includes a company sign at the event and a two-by-three banner at home football games. Local organizations and businesses are also encouraged to donate items for the raffle and silent auction.

To set up sponsorship opportunities or reserve your spot in the playing field, contact Mary Wilson at (602) 525-2494 or Marty Diehl at (520) 431-2485.

City offers fall football, soccer, basketball programs

The City of Maricopa is offering the following sports programs during the Fall and Winter seasons.

NFL Pepsi Punt, Pass, Kick – Ages 8-15; Wedneseday, Sept. 8; Register for free on site; Youth Soccer – Ages 4-15; registration Aug. 16 through Sept. 17; season Oct. 30 through Dec. 18; $45 per child; Youth basketball – Ages 4-15; registration Oct. 18 through Nov. 19; season Jan. 15 through Feb. 26; $45 per child.

For more information, contact community services at (520) 316-6964.

Stagecoach Days 'Maricopa Mile & 5K'

Chances for Children AZ presents the Stagecoach Days "Maricopa Mile and 5K," scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 10. The race begins at 8 a.m. at Legacy Traditional School, with the 5k run/walk event running $20 per racer, and the 1 mile kids run at $5 per participant.The event will also house a Family Fitness Fair, with all proceeds from the race benefiting Team Fit Kids Maricopa.

For more information, visit www.maricopamile.com.

Registration currently open for City fall, winter activities

The City of Maricopa's Fall and Winter 2010-11 activity guide is now available online at www.maricopa-az.gov (under "Government," select "community services").

Activities available this fall/winter fall under the following categories: sports, health and fitness, dance and gymnastics, art and music, general interest and training and certification. In all, more than 65 activities are available for city residents to enjoy.

Download an activity guide and learn which activities are age appropriate, costs, and signup dates. For more information, community services at (520) 316-6964.

'Relay for Life' coming to Maricopa

The American Cancer Society's signature event – "Relay for Life" – is coming to Maricopa for the first time on March 25-26, 2011.

As the world's largest grassroots fundraising movement, "Relay for Life" mobilizes communities throughout the country to celebrate people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost and provide participants with an opportunity to fight back against the disease.

Maricopa will host the community's inaugural "Relay for Life" on March 25-26, 2011, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., at the Maricopa High School Football Stadium. For more information about the local event, contact co-chair Grace Gomez at (520) 568-9407 or Gwen Traylor at (313) 316-6761. For more general information about "Relay for Life," visit www.relayforlife.org/relay.

Local team seeks sponsors, riders, for 'Tour de Cure'

The WalMart/Sam's Club team, led by Maricopa resident and team captain Keith Monk, is looking for sponsors and riders for next year's American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure, presented by Charles Schwab.

The eighth annual race is scheduled for Saturday, March 12, 2011 at the Reach 11 Sports Complex in North Phoenix.

For more information on the race itself, call 1-888-DIABETES (ext. 7093) or go online to www.diabetes.org/tour, and for information on supporting or joining the WalMart/Sam's Club team, contact Keith Monk at (480) 980-3015.

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Good Sports: How Tech Is Raising Our Game

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 06:55 PM PDT

How desperate are you to catch your favorite sport's team's latest score or trade?

If you're willing to give up sneaking off to a bar during lunch to see a game or anxiously flipping through channels to keep tabs on simultaneously broadcast games, read on. New technologies--including mobile apps, streaming Web video and social networks--can help make satisfying your sports fanaticism a lot easier.

Web Apps

If you're not ready to splurge on an HDTV (or if you're fed up with your cable service provider), you can still get a pretty good sports-watching experience from your Web browser. For instance, MLB.TV lets you watch every regular baseball season game online live or on demand in HD quality.

For $30 a year ($35 a year for the premium service), MLB.TV delivers features such as in-game highlights and stats, full game archives, a fantasy player tracker, condensed games, and the ability to stream on multiple devices. And with the premium service, you can watch multiple games at once (in split-screen or quad view).

NFL Team Highlights from Hulu.For fans who just want game highlights, Hulu has a number of free sports channels.The NFL Team Highlights channel archives classic games, plays, and bloopers from your favorite teams. Sports history nerds will especially dig the older NFL films from the 1960s and '70s. Hulu's sports channels are pretty diverse, ranging from the World Wrestling Entertainment's Friday Night Smackdown replays to Camp Woodward's channel for skateboarding and BMX (bicycle motocross) to the Inside Golf Magazine channel.

Google's Team HTC-Columbia app in action.Web services aren't limited to video, either. During this year's Tour de France, cycling fans working at Google (and apparently there are quite a few, including an ex-pro) created a nifty Web app to let fans track Team HTC-Columbia during the race. The developers created an app for the riders (each of whom carried an HTC Legend smartphone) that tracked their location, power, heart rate, cadence, and speed during the race. Users could then go to Google Maps and see where they were during the race and to view the other data.

Fantasy Sports

Once an extreme niche activity for sports stats enthusiasts, fantasy sports are now a mainstream activity across the United States. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, there are 27 million U.S.-based fantasy sports players. And fantasy sports is estimated to have a $3 billion to $4 billion impact across the sports industry.

In fantasy games, players draft their own teams based on athletes' projected performance, and then compete against friends, family members, coworkers, or complete strangers in leagues where the winning team is determined by the athletes' actual statistics in real games. Though football, basketball, and baseball remain the most popular fantasy sports, leagues for other, more obscure sports are popping up as well. There's even fantasy U.S. figure skating league! Yahoo, ESPN, and CBSSports are the most popular destinations for joining such leagues, but a slew of other sites offer their services, too.

Mobile Apps

Smartphones and the thousands of mobile apps that have emerged to work with them have changed the way we do many tasks--from discovering new music to gaming to making to-do lists. Mobile apps for sports let you keep track of multiple games' scores while on the go, and several also provide live video. In fact, some of the very best mobile apps are sports-related.

MLB's mobile app for baseball is available in versions for iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and Android.Many sports-related apps are available, and some of the best come from the sporting organizations themselves. The official MLB app, for example, is a must-have for baseball fans. Macworld editorial director Jason Snell says that the iPhone and iPad versions of the app have "changed baseball for me." He uses the app on the iPad to call up stats and box scores during games and to play back highlights of any plays he may have missed.

The MLB app is available for Android and BlackBerry, too. And you don't need a smartphone to keep track of your favorite team: As long as you have mobile Web access, you can check out scores, schedules, team rosters, league news, and photos, simply by going to http://wap.mlb.com in your phone's browser.

The official Tour de France app for 2010 from the Versus channel was expensive at $15 but totally worth the price for cycling fanatics. Fans could track their favorite cyclists, check on the weather in France, and receive alerts whenever something exciting was happening during the race. And by purchasing the "official" app, you could get live video of the race delivered to your phone.

Most broadcast networks have their own apps too--for example, NBC's UniSports Mobile app for the iPhone and mobile Web, and the U.K. network Sky Sports' Live Cricket Score Centre app for the iPhone. For Olympics aficionados who miss the games during the off-years, the UniSports app tracks track and field, cycling, swimming, beach volleyball, gymnastics, figure skating, and many other Olympic sports.

Developers have created a multitude of excellent unofficial apps as well, and many of them are free. SportsTap for iPhone and SportsTap for Android for example, is an incredibly comprehensive app that provides scores, stats, and highlights across many different sports and leagues.

Social Networks

These days, it seems as though every professional athlete has his or her very own Twitter account. Sure, they can be a bit silly or mundane at times. For example, Shaquille O'Neal, one of the pioneers of celebrity Twitter accounts (The_Real_Shaq), is fond of tweeting inspirational quotes--penned by himself. But diehard fans should keep an eye on the microblogging site for breaking news and real-time updates from their favorite athletes.

Cyclist Lance Armstrong Cyclist Lance Armstrong announced his retirement (again) via Twitter exclusively. And many Tour de France riders tweeted updates and photos during the ride, giving fans a first-hand perspective on the race. Some athletic organizations and athletes even hold contests through Twitter accounts. The Women's Rugby World Cup, which ends on September 5, is offering the chance for fans to win two tickets to the final in England and an official match ball if you tweet your semifinalist predictions @rwcwomens.

"Liking" team fan pages on Facebook is an easy way to score exclusive ticket offers and merchandise. These pages are also a good place to connect with other fans and comment on the latest games, trades, or controversies.

On the Couch: HDTVs and 3D Technology

Indisputably, the next best thing to being at the Super Bowl is watching it on an high-definition TV. Every year, PCWorld rounds up the best HDTVs for watching the game on, based on how the sets perform in our fast-motion tests. (Read "10 Things You Need to Know Before Buying an HDTV.")

A solid sports-friendly HDTV should have a refresh rate of up to 120Hz so it can display fast-moving action without any fuzziness or blurring. It should be able to handle horizontal and diagonal pans smoothly. Other bonus features to look for are the ability to pause live TV (if you need to go out on a beer run and don't want to miss a play) and a strong set of speakers.

What about 3D technology? 3D mania may have overtaken the tech world, but mainstream consumers haven't embraced the technology beyond seeing a 3D movie in a theater. Bringing 3D to your home is a big investment: You have to buy a 3D-capable TV, one or more pairs of 3D glasses, and a special Blu-ray player.

If you're a dedicated sports fan, the price might be worth it. In June, ESPN launched an all-3D channel, available on DirecTV, Comcast, and AT&T U-Verse. Unfortunately, 3D is available only for special events, and the channel's 3D schedule is pretty limited. But then again, wouldn't it be cool to see next year's X Games in 3D?

How do you watch your favorite sport when you're not near a TV? Have any good sport apps, services, or Websites to recommend? Viewing tips for fellow fans? Sound off in the comments below.

Gymnastics Sports

Thursday, August 26, 2010