Lake Buena Vista, FL… AAU Baseball has announced a new category for its National Championship lineup: 9U Open Base.

Ed Skovron, National AAU Baseball Chair, said, “The quality of the AAU athlete is top-notch. Skills among 9U athletes have increased dramatically over the past several years due to advanced training. Recognizing this trend, the AAU has changed its playing format for the 9U National Championships to allow for leading off and stealing.”

A pre-announcement sampling of AAU clubs indicated they are very excited about the change. A club from the Miami, Florida area said, “We have been hoping for an AAU 9U Open Base Nationals. We’re in!”

The AAU Baseball 9U Open Base National Championship will be held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World® Resort June 21-June 26, 2010. There will be a seven-game minimum guarantee. Teams will be placed in pools of four. After the first three pool-play games teams will be divided into Diamond and Gold divisions. A second round of pool-play games will determine the teams’ seeding in the final single-elimination round. The entry fee for Nationals is $695/team. All players and coaches must be AAU members.

For further information on joining AAU or participating in AAU Nationals at any age level, contact:

Debra Horn
debra@aausports.org
407.828.3459

Originally found at http://indianolarecordherald.desmoinesregister.com
Written By: Adam Wilson

Former Indianola High School wrestling coach Wes Creason was inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame Feb. 20. Creason, a three-sport athlete at North Polk High School and three-time national wrestling qualifier at Coe College, said nothing he did on the mat can compare to his time as a coach.

“It’s more rewarding what I’ve accomplished as a coach,” he said. “The friendships I’ve made in wrestling, especially the relationships I’ve made with the kids who wrestled for me … It’s priceless.” Kaye Don Young was the only other coach inducted into the hall of fame this year. Young is former coach at the State College of Iowa Lab School and Maquoketa High School as well as Wartburg and NIACC. The new class of Hall of Fame wrestlers includes Mark Ironside of Cedar Rapids Jefferson, David Kjeldgaard of Council Bluffs Lewis Central and Drew Kelley of Charles City.

Creason retired as a wrestling coach after the 2005-06 season but remains active in his participation with the Iowa Wrestling Coaches and Officials’ Association. He was 323-52-8 during his career at Central Decatur, Bondurant-Farrar and Indianola. His wins rank him 14th among the 22 coaches with 300 or more, and his 83.2 winning percentage is fourth among that group.

Creason coached 105 state qualifiers and 43 medal winners, and his teams finished among the top 10 in eight traditional state tournaments. He led Indianola on a team championship run in 1994 that saw four Indians reach the finals — including champion Eric Keller — and three others place. “All four (finalists) had all wrestled for Indianola since second grade, they’d been in the mat tribe together, they’d been friends forever,” Creason said.

He preached to his wrestlers the importance of being in good shape. “My philosophy was that we would never get beat on shape. We were always going to have more left at the end of the match than anyone else,” he said. “You can learn the moves and you can learn how to wrestle, but when you’re tired nothing works.”

Brooks Signs Contract with Big Bend Cowboys of Alpine, Texas
Following a successful stint in the Arizona Winter League (Pro Independent Instructional League) in Yuma, Arizona where she was one of two females to ever attend, Tiffany Brooks of Spokane, Washington has agreed to terms with the Big Bend Cowboys of Alpine, Texas of the Continental Baseball League.  With this historic signing, Tiffany becomes the first female professional baseball player in America in the 21st Century.

Brooks, who plays 1B and is a Relief Pitcher, is excited to follow in the steps of American female ballplayers who have come before her, notably Ila Borders who pitched in the Northern League from 1997-1999, and both Mamie “Peanut” Johnson (1950’s)and Jackie Mitchell (1930’s).

Brooks said she is very pleased with the opportunity to play for a team with great local support , who played solidly last year, eventually vying for the Championship, and is very much looking forward to meeting her new manager and all the other players.

Playing professional baseball has been Brooks’ life dream since she began playing tee-ball at age 4.  “Back then,” Brooks said, “I had no idea that people thought girls didn’t play baseball when they got older.  I just played the game that I loved.  It wasn’t until later that I realized what a difficult path it was for women and girls to play baseball rather than softball.  I’m very excited about what playing for the Cowboys will mean to girls and women all over the globe who want to play baseball rather than softball.  The door is now officially open!”  Brooks went on to add, “I can’t thank Mr. Smith, the GM of the Cowboys enough for the opportunity to show what I can do.  And I couldn’t have gotten to this level without Brooks Carey, my manager at the AWL, former Major Leaguers Brent Bowers, Garry Templeton, Tim Johnson, and all of the other instructors who worked so hard with me to get me ready for an opportunity like this one.  Without their assistance, and the unfailing support of my loved ones and sponsors at Akadema, 3n2 Sports,  Birch Bats, 90 MPH Club, Gold’s Gym and Spokane Eye Clinic, I couldn’t have gotten anywhere close to this level.”

Brooks will report to Spring Training with the Cowboys in late April, following a pre-season physical.

Watkins Fessal, Florida AAU Badminton Director and USA Coach has been selected as a Coach of the Year by the USOC Sport Performance in Colorado Springs.

The goals of the USOC Coach Recognition Program are to elevate the status of coaching as a profession and to recognize the best coaches in the United States.  The program is an exciting way to recognize coaches who prepare our athletes for performance at every level of sport.

Dave McCann, Manager Coaching Education for the USOC stated “This award serves as a testament to Watkins dedication to the Olympic ideals of service to his sport, community and athletes.”

Originally found at www.usafootball.com
Written By Michael Kuebler

The USA Football Rules Committee’s goal of formulating standardized rules and regulations has been finalized with the USA Football Youth Football Rulebook, now available for implementation during the 2010 season.

Consistent with its mission of developing youth football, USA Football released the inaugural 2010 copy of its USA Football Youth Football Rulebook today.

The Rulebook, which can be purchased for $5.50 for individual orders or at a group rate of $4.00 each on orders of 15 or more, was the project of USA Football’s Rules Committee. The eight youth football commissioners and two officials on the committee also worked with representatives from the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) to write and publish The Rulebook. Coming from across the United States, the committee members brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table that rendered the important task at hand devoid of major challenges.

“There was a great deal of respect that everybody had for each other’s viewpoints,” USA Football Officiating Consultant and the committee’s Rules Editor Bill LeMonnier said. “I thought it really ended up being a great, great group of people with different backgrounds, different perspectives.” (Off-season Training Important for Officials)

When any challenges or disagreements did arise, committee member Dean Layman believes that it was the members’ unanimous commitment to the main values of The Rulebook that kept them on track. One of these was forming the rules in a way to promote safety.

“I think the concentration on safety being first and foremost was very important to us this season,” said Layman, director of the Columbus (Ind.) Police Athletic Activities League and a USA Football Commissioner Member. “We talked about player safety, not only the big issue of concussions and things like that but also player safety in terms of the free blocking zone and how are we going to handle that and keep kids safe from unnecessarily hurting each other. So safety was key.”

Along with the theme of safety, one other key feature of The Rulebook is that it’s an easy read. The committee focused on making it simple for the sake of correct interpretation when in the hands of not just officials but also volunteer coaches and parents in the stands. (See example)

Another highlight of the rulebook and a driving force behind creating it is the uniformity it constructs. The book introduces a common ground and language for rules and regulations within youth football across the board.

Most youth football in the U.S. is being played in independent leagues that don’t play with a uniform set of rules. The USA Football Youth Football Rulebook now provides a level of consistency. Committee member Leroy Hollins welcomes the new options The Rulebook will afford to teams and leagues.

“It gives every league that’s an independent organization an opportunity to maybe cross over and play different leagues in different states,” said Hollins, commissioner of the Louisiana Youth Football League based in Baton Rouge. “With the fragmented rules that we were using, it might have been kind of tough to do that. This leads to a lot of national events for the independent leagues.”

At the same time, however, the rulebook does leave some room for league-by-league customization.

“This book isn’t written in stone,” Layman said. “There is flexibility within the rules to cater to the local organizations. Some leagues still kick the ball off; others don’t. There’s enough leeway and latitude in there that you can pick it up and adopt it to however you want it, but the meat and potatoes of the game are right there.”

After two and a half years of work, the committee is satisfied with its final product. During the process, drafts were distributed at 2009 State Leadership Forums and to the Fairfax County (Va.) Youth Football League to test its implementation and it received positive feedback. Everyone is looking forward now to putting the final version to use.

“I’m very excited about it,” Layman said. “It’s just awesome.”

The committee cannot completely sit back and relax now, though. A rulebook evolves and requires updates at times. Additionally, it is the job of USA Football and the committee to promote the rulebook now.

“The people who were on the Rules Committee need to make sure that their organizations embrace this thing and take it forward,” LeMonnier said. “It’s really critical that they be able to sell this to their groups, and then it’s got to branch out and grow from there.”

Youth football commissioners, coaches, officials and parents can do their part and bring the USA Football Youth Football Rulebook to their leagues and teams by visiting the USA Football Shop and ordering today.

This past week the United States sent six Junior Taekwondo athletes to Tijuana, Mexico to compete in the Youth Olympic Games Qualification Tournament.  This event, featuring over 300 Junior athletes from 85 countries throughout the world, was held to qualify athletes for this year’s inaugural Youth Olympic Games to be held in Singapore during the month of August.

The US fielded a total of six truly outstanding athletes including three current AAU Taekwondo Junior Team Members;  Ms. Salina Tubbs, of Plano, TX in the 49-55kg division, Ms. Michelle Silva, of Chicago, Illinois in the female over 63kg division, and Mr. Gregory English competing in the male under 48kg division.

When all was said and done, the US qualified three of the six including Mr. English and Ms. Silva!  “The AAU Taekwondo Program is extremely thrilled and proud to have two of the three US Team Members competing at the Youth Olympic Games come from among the ranks of our current Junior National Team.  The other Junior member traveling to Singapore will be Jessie Bates of Redondo Beach, CA in the female 44-49kg division and we want to wish her the very best of luck as well” says National AAU Taekwondo Sport Chair, Mike Friello.

The success of these AAU Junior Team Members is a testament to the quality of competition and programming made available through the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union).    Ms. Tubbs, the 2008 Junior World Champion, first bested fighters from Norway (7-6) Trinidad & Tobago (8-1), and Japan (9-5 before losing to an opponent from Vietnam (5-3).  In a must win match with Ivory Coast, Salina was injured in the second round and finally lost (8-1).

Mr. English earned his spot by beating out fighters from Peru (8-1), Netherlands Antilles (11-3), and Kasakhstan (6-1).  After clinching his place on the YOG team, Gregory went on to fight a semifinal match against Afghanistan dropping a 5-3 decision.
Ms. Silva clinched her spot by advancing over Costa Rica, losing to a formidable player from China, and then a must-win victory over her Croatian opponent (9-5).

All three AAU Taekwondo Team Members will next join the full compliment of 20 Junior Team Members and 16 Senior Team Members when the AAU Taekwondo Team heads to Alicante, Spain, April 21-27, to compete in the World Taekwondo Federation (International Governing Body for the sport) “A” rated Spanish Open Championship.  We want to wish the entire team well and ‘good luck’.

For Salina Tubbs bio Click Here.
For Michelle Silvas bio Click Here.
For Gregory English bio Click Here.

AAU Karate Scholarship

AAU Karate wants to kick up your college experience, by offering two $1,000 scholarships to one young man and one young woman.

The AAU Karate Program offers this contribution to the future of its athletes on a yearly basis.  The applicants must have participated in AAU Karate for a minimum of four years and have plans to attend an accredited undergraduate college or university for the academic year beginning in the Fall or be presently enrolled in an accredited undergraduate college or university.

The deadline to submit your application is May 7th, 2010.

Last year the scholarships were awarded to Aaron Payne of Virginia and Ashley Jones of Florida.  Congratulations to both applicants!

For more information about the AAU Karate scholarship and to apply please visit www.aaukarate.org.

The AAU Aquatics Committee is proud to announce the 2010 AAU Diving National Championship dates and location.  The Coral Springs Aquatic Center in Coral Springs, FL will host the event on August 1-9, 2010.  The first day of the event will be a practice day for the athletes and competition days will be the remaining 8 days. 

Practice:  August 1, 2010
Competition: August 2-9, 2010

For Qualifying Scores: Click Here

Additional event information will be available soon. Visit www.diveaau.org for updates.

It will be an exciting event, in a beautiful location and host city. We hope to see you there!

The AAU Aquatics Program is proud to announce their newly appointed leadership.  Lewis Fellinger has been appointed as the National Aquatics Chair.  Joe Chirico has been put in place to run the Diving Program.  The AAU is excited to see the Aquatics program grow under the direction of Lewis and Joe.

Both have been instrumental in the development of AAU Aquatics both at the National and District levels.  Lewis and Joe have been on the National Aquatics Committee and Joe is the National Coordinator of Events for AAU Diving.  Lewis also serves as the Lake Erie AAU District Sports Director and Joe is the District Sports Director for New England AAU.

“We are very fortunate to have two well-respected and knowledgeable leaders in Lewis and Joe,” said James Parker, AAU Director of Sports.  “They have been a tremendous asset to the AAU program and we look forward to working with them in their new roles.”

Lewis Fellinger has been active in aquatics for over 26 years.  Currently, he is head diving coach at John Carroll University.  With this program, he as earned 9 NCAA qualifiers, coached 13 All Americans and won a National Championship.  As a collegiate athlete, Lewis competed for Babson College where he was team captain earning All-New England Conference honors. Besides the AAU, Lewis is also involved with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the United State Diving, Inc. and North Coast Diving Club in South Euclid, Ohio where he continues to coach on all levels from grassroots local competitions to National Championships. Lewis was a member of the Board of Directors for Forest Hill Swim Club in Cleveland Heights, Ohio from 1984 to 2000.

In addition to his aquatics life, Lewis enjoys Scuba Diving, whitewater rafting, softball, golf and Jimmy Buffet music.  He most importantly enjoys spending time with his family; wife, Stacey, son Steven and daughter Sabrina.

Joe Chirico has been active in the sport of diving for over 40 years.  Joe took up diving at age 10, training and competing for his town’s summer team.  He began training year-round at the local YMCA.  After high school, Joe competed for Boston University where he was team captain and a record holder.  In 1979, Joe, along with his college coach, started Boston Area Diving.  Joe continues to coach on all levels from grassroots local competitions to National Championships.

As a coach, Joe has won numerous All-American coaching honors at the Age Group and Senior Levels.  Joe has international experience, leading US National-level teams in Canada, Mexico and throughout Europe.  He has coached divers at the World Championships in Sydney, Australia, numerous AAU, US Diving and NCAA National Championships, and at international age group competitions in China, Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Canada and Mexico.

In addition to his age group diving experience, Joe is currently the diving coach at Wellesley College.  Joe was head coach at Boston College for six years and at Northeastern University for nine years.  As a college coach, Joe has won a number of coaching awards.

Joe has also served as a judge for FINA and NCAA competitions.  Joe is the Diving Commissioner for the Bay State Games and in 2008 was inducted into the Massachusetts Sports Foundation Hall of Fame for his work in the sport of diving.

Congratulations and welcome aboard to Joe and Lewis!  Sports For All, Forever!

The 2010 Northern Indoor Track & Field National was a huge success! Over 904 athletes showed up to see who would take the gold. Many records were broken this year including the Girls 55 Meter Dash Sub-Bantam. Olympic Gold Medalist Maurice Greene was there to help hand out medals, sign autographs, and promote the AAU.

For Results from the event, Click Here for Boys or Click Here for Girls

To view the Records broken in this event Click Here for Boys or Click Here for Girls

The 2010 Northern Indoor Track & Field National Championship will be held at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington Illinois on February 19-21. Over 800 athletes competed for gold last year in this annual tournament. In attendance this year will be Olympic gold medalist Maurice Greene.

For event information and schedule Click Here.
For Online Registration Click Here.

For 2009 Results Click Here.

Northern Indoor Girls Records
Northern Indoor Boys Records

For more information please go to www.aauathletics.org