Jacklyn Murphy’s “big sisters”: Northwestern women’s lacrosse team

Jacklyn Murphy is no ordinary 14-year-old junior varsity lacrosse player. She’s got a great story, one which I’m thrilled to say the New York Times told the world this past weekend.

In short, Jacklyn, four years ago, was a frail 10 year old being treated for a malignant brain tumor. Through a mutual friend, she developed a unique relationship with the Northwestern University Women’s Lacrosse coach, and then the team, who have since become her “big sisters.”

At the time, the lacrosse players developed a relationship with Jacklyn through cards, text messages and a signed media guide.  Taken back by her story, the Northwestern players “began playing for Jacklyn,” New York Times reporter Pete Thamel wrote. “Soon after it started winning national championships, four in a row.”

The team is now 21-0 this season, and two games away from its title. They beat Princeton on their home turf in an N.C.A.A. quarterfinal game Saturday afternoon, and will compete against Penn on Sunday in Towson, MD at 6pm ET.

The bond helped Jacklyn, too. Thamel writes, “the bond the Northwestern team formed with Jaclyn helped save her life. She is now a healthy 14-year-old freshman at Arlington High School in LaGrangeville, N.Y., where she plays junior varsity lacrosse.”

Denis Murphy, Jacklyn’s father, has since set up Friends of Jacklyn, a non-profit organization which “matches a child with a college or high school sports team based on geographic location.”

“There’s magic in what they’ve done for her,” Denis Murphy said. “I can’t tell you or put into words what they’ve done for her health.”

I highly recommend you read the full story titled Four-Time Champions, and All Jacklyn’s Big Sisters. In addition, below is a great Big Ten Network video where Jacklyn tells her story..

Stringer vs. Summitt: A rivalry of success and media attention

Vivian Stringer (Rutgers) and Pat Summitt (Tennessee) are without a doubt two of the biggest names in women’s basketball.

On January 3, the coaches’ teams battled it out for the 27th time. The Lady Vols’ 20-point comeback in the second half made school history.

Together, Stringer and Summitt have compiled 1,805 victories over 73 seasons, and they’re both over the age of 50. This past year, Vivian Stringer reached her 800th win, and Pat Summit has 983 wins, along with an incredible .844 average.

As a result of their success, they’ve built up quite a rivalry. Summitt has won 13 of 14 games against Stringer, and the most notable match up occurred in 2007, as Summit’s team defeated Stringer’s for the NCAA Championship.

On January 3, the Lady Vols made history, with the largest comeback in the history of their program.

Down to Rutgers by 20 points at halftime, the Lady Vols came back to defeat the Scarlet Knights, 55-51.

According to ESPN, Shekinna Stricklen’s 16 points and 11 rebounds led this run, and Summitt’s half-time rip speech inspired the comeback to occur.

Trailing 33-13 at the half, Summitt ripped into her inexperienced team telling them it would be a long plane ride home for the Lady Vols if they didn’t start playing with some “Tennessee pride,” reported ESPN.

“Never in my 35 years of coaching have I seen a game like that,” said Summitt, who earned the 994th win of her career. “I’ve been in a lot of games, I’ve been behind a lot in my career, this one stands out as one of the most special.”

It likely will be remebered by Stringer as well.

The impact of the match up extends far beyond the result of last week’s game in New Jersey. In addition to their winning records, the two coaches have successfully demanded media attention, both online and off.

Perfect example of this demand is illustrated New York Times January 2 article, Rutgers Women’s Basketball Resumes Rivalry with Tennessee. Excellently written, author Dave Caldwell rightfully payed tribute to the pioneers of the sport.

Summitt’s success has influenced the University of Tennessee’s Athletic Department to create a specific site for the school’s women’s sports. To my knowledge, no other institution does this, and it’s a huge step forward in terms of exclusivity in a male-dominated industry online.

Summitt’s name has also become a known brand for the school itself, with her face appearing on almost all of its publications.

In addition, Summitt has written two books (with the help of Sally Jenkins), Reach for the Summitt (part motivational book, part biography) and Raise the Roof (about the Lady Vols’ undefeated season in 1997–1998, in which they won the NCAA championship).

Stringer has also generated significant media attention.

In 2001, her success spurred the creation of a GREAT PBS documentary, This is a game ladies. Also, her face almost always appears immediately on the Rutgers athletics Web page.

Stringer has also made strides for minority women in sports. In 2003, she was recognized by Sports Illustrated as one of the “101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports,” and during the summer of 2004 she received the Black Coaches Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Stringer reflects on these achievements (and others) in her best-selling book, Standing Tall.

Reflective of fan popularity, bloggers are rising out of the woodwork, as well.

The Lady Vols fans have a few noteworthy blogs, including Pat Summitt/Lady Vols News, Govolsxtra, and Tennessee Lady Vols blog, to name a few.

Women’s Hoops Guru, Women’s Hoops Blog and Shes Got Game also frequently writes about Summit and Stringer (as well as other noteworthy teams) in the world of women’s basketball.

Also, of course, ESPN’s HoopGurlz is the best (by far) coverage of women’s hoops available, particularly for high school competition.

As for NCAA basketball, I said early in this article, both Summitt and Stringer are over the age of 50.

The competition for the “winningest coach” in female sports history will continue, I can only hope that some more hopefuls will rise to the top.

As for the media, my hope is that successful coaches like Stringer and Summitt continue to demand attention, and athletic departments realize the value in exclusivity for female sports.

Diversifying the content online (using video, podcasts, etc.) will help drive traffic. Continued wins by great coaches and outstanding performances such as the game on January 3 will hopefully earn a well-deserved spot in the headlines. The increase in the use of blogs will help us all feel like we’re part of the team.

Serena Tops Venus in Quarterfinal of Open

Tennis is one of the women’s sports (along with women’s golf) which has been able to attract a large amount of journalistic attention. Part of that, in my opinion, is due to the Williams’ sisters ability to perform, and perform well against each other. Wednesday night’s match between Serena and Venus did just that.

According to The New York Times, last night’s quarterfinal match at the U.S. Open went to Serena, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (7), giving her a 9-8 lead in this series. However, Venus’s 125-mile-an-hour serve is definately something to watch. Can you imagine trying to hit that?

Do the sisters like playing against each other? The NY Times says,

Serena, a few weeks shy of 27, was on record as saying that it stinks to have to play Venus, just turned 28, so early, but the competition itself seems to have become business as usual, as the sisters play for themselves.

Because the Williams sisters played on the court named for Billie Jean-King, they discussed her opinion of the sisters, as well as her new book, Pressure Is a Privilege: Lessons I’ve Learned From Life and the Battle of Sexes (LifeTime Media, Inc).

In the book, says the NY Times, King describes the thrill of watching Venus accept the champion’s check of $1.4 million at Wimbledon in 2007, and how Venus said live on the BBC, “No one loves tennis more than Billie Jean King.” And then Venus addressed King: “I love you. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”

Whether the sports ability to draw attention is due to icons of the past like Billie Jean King or phenoms of the present like Serena and Venus, or the Open’s decision to hold a subsequent match between Nadal and Fish immediately after the Williams’ show, we’ll never know.

It should also be noted that another possible reason W.T.A. (Women’s Tennis Association) is able to draw so much attention is due to their innovative marketing skills and strategy. For instance, WTA just announced a new revenue sharing plan for players and a revamped ranking system to emphasize the important tournaments. Plus, the W.T.A. officially approved on-court coaching for next year – they’ll be wearing microphones to bring fans “closer to the game”.

But having bloggers from The New York Times following every serve, volley and replay of the U.S. Open, discussing women’s competition regularly and fairly, is truly an accomplishment for us in general. I hope other sports can soon follow in their footsteps.

To follow the action of the tournament, check out the U.S. Open site.

“Speak English!” says LPGA

A recent article in the New York Times explained that members of the LPGA must speak English in order to play. Interesting move, considering most of its athletes are foreign-born. Apparently, the concern is over appeal to sponsors.

“Being a U.S.-based tour, and with the majority of our fan base, pro-am contestants, sponsors and participants being English speaking, we think it is important for our players to effectively communicate in English,” says Libba Galloway, the deputy commissioner of the tour, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).

On the surface, I think this move is similar to that of Geno’s steaks in South Philadelphia, which sports a sign that says, “This is America. We speak English!” (Genos was later unsuccessfully sued for that sign).

This is not exactly the type of PR the LPGA needs right now internationally. But hey, anything to keep those sponsors happy, right? There has to be a line somewhere…

Opening Ceremonies

… are taking place right now. Here’s a picture from the New York Times

Wow, I wish I was there… It looks incredible.

Don’t forget to watch tonight at 7:30pm on NBC!!

The Food We Don’t Eat

There has been a lot in the news lately about obesity, health and basically how American’s can’t seem to close their mouths when it comes to food. However, there is also a lot in the news lately about rising oil prices, and –even worse — a global food crisis. But, in the face of a global food shortage, one must look at what’s right in front of their faces: wasted food.

I recently read a very interesting article in the NY Times Well Blog about food that we DON’T eat. The article features a slideshow (which is awesome) and a podcast interview between Tara Parker-Hope (one of my favorite writers) and Jason Bloom, the author of WastedFood.com, a blog which will serve as the basis of his future book about wasted food.

So I took a look at Jason’s blog. Incredibly interesting and I highly recommend you read it regularly. In one of his most recent posts entitled “Envisible Elephants,” Jason tells us that 27 percent of food, or, 96 billion pounds, is wasted each year. Now, what’s crazy about this is that this is OLD DATA.  It’s from 1997.

Jason went to far as to predict that we now waste about 150 billion pounds of food annually, which equals the weight of about 15 million elephants.

Now, how is this happening? How about “all-you-can eat” facilities? Capitalism at its best.

In a post on 5/22, Jason gives us the example of food trays. Apparently, they make us pile on more than we can actually take in (people pile multiple plates per meal onto one tray). He refers to a  Virginia Tech student-led campaign which determined food wasted in a week. Apparently, the students averaged about a half-pound of edible waste per student per meal — 1,400 pounds of waste per day. Take a look at the slideshow. (disgusting)

I don’t know about you, but this makes me think twice before piling on the food in a cafeteria. With the oil industry taking over the world horrible global food crisis, we should be paying more attention to what we DON’T eat.

Women, Where Are We: After West Virginia

It seems only fitting that I post following today’s results in West Virginia. I have a few thoughts on the current Presidential race, a few of which were spurred by today’s headline.

New York Times headline: Clinton Wins West Virginia, With Race a Factor.  Interesting headline choice. Right below that headline is another article entitled ‘Almost Nominee’ Status Keeps Obama in Limbo. Shocker. As a paper that is very democratic and whose editors are pro-Hillary (because NY is her home state), it seems they, too are jumping on the Obama bandwaggon when it comes to reporting the “real” news.  And this is nothing new.

Why couldn’t the headline simply be, “Clinton Wins West Virginia”?

INSTEAD, the article reads, “Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s lopsided victory over Senator Barack Obama was fueled by strong support from white, working-class voters. ”

So, this couldn’t possibly be becuase SHE IS A QUALIFIED CANDIDATE. No, it must mean that the voters in West Viriginia are racist.

This is such crap.

HOWEVER, I must say, even though the reporting is AWFUL, there is some good that comes of this. It highlights the fact that if race is, in fact, a factor, then it means that Senator Obama will have quite a hard time defeating Senator McCain for the white vote.

However, I think we should give the citizens of the U.S. a little more credit. I doubt they’d vote for a candidate based upon race any more than they’d vote for a candidate based upon gender.

Or would they? (see my previous post)

Where is our country headed? If we let race and gender influence the way we elect or political leaders, then we have bigger problems than the war in Iraq or a dwindling healthcare system.

Sports taught me that it didn’t matter if you were black or white, boy or girl, good hair or bad hair, rich or poor. If you could play and you worked hard, you’d earn a spot on the court. The same should be true in our political system. Unfortunately, it’s becoming more and more clear that this is simply not the case.

Sportsmanship and Moral Judgment

Sportsmanship extends far beyond the “man” part of the word. Women across the globe now participate in sports in alarming numbers. In America alone, more than 40,000 student-athletes participate in NCAA championship competition each year, and that’s just at the collegiate level. I don’t even know if the numbers exist for high school athletic participation, but I’m sure the number is incredible.

Participating in sports taught me about why it’s important to believe in dreams and other people. I’ve been playing sports since I was about six years old, and I’ve developed some amazing friends over the course of the past 16 years. Athleticism taught me how to be strong, and it taught me the true meaning and power of moral judgment – what many link to refer to as sportsmanship.

I saw a true example of sportsmanship in the New York Times Well blog, one of my favorites to read. Tara Parker-Hope writes, “If there already weren’t enough reasons to get your child involved in sports, the story of Sara Tucholsky will give you another one.”

This story is truly incredible. It’s a YouTube video that features a girl who played for Western Oregon University. She always dreamed of hitting a home run. In April, her dream came true as she slammed one over the fense. As she was rounding the bases, she drastically tore something in her knee and fell to the ground.

The umpire would not let anyone run the bases for her, and her teammates were not allowed to help her. So  a girl on the OPPOSITE TEAM asked the umpire if it was ok to carry her around the diamond. The umpire agreed. The girls said they did it because “she deserved it.”

When she got to home plate, everyone was crying with emotion. At her last at-bat of her career, she achieved her goal… only with the help of some true athletes.

This YouTube video has been influencing many people. At least 150,000 people have watched the video, featured by ESPN.

This is a true example of the power of “sportsmanship,” an athlete’s term for moral judgment. Check it out.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jocw-oD2pgo&hl=en]