Wednesday, August 11, 2010

“Games on for hoopsters” plus 3 more

“Games on for hoopsters” plus 3 more

Games on for hoopsters

Posted: 11 Aug 2010 06:49 AM PDT

Posted By IAN MCINROY, BARRIE EXAMINER

Updated 39 minutes ago

Area hoopsters will be shooting for gold during the 2010 Ontario Summer Games this week in Sudbury.

The games, which began in 1970, is a showcase for amateur sport and is now the province's largest multi-sport event -- including both team and individual sports -- with more than 3,600 athletes, coaches and officials taking part from Wednesday to Friday.

The South Simcoe region boys and girls teams begin competition on Wednesday and Todd Smith, coach of the girls team, said many on the squad are from Barrie.

While the 14-and 15-year-old players who tried out for the team came from an area stretching from Caledon and Bramalea up to Collingwood, over to Midland and to Orillia and south, all but one of the 12 players are from Barrie.

Basketball teams from the province's 12 regions wishing to take part in the Summer Games had regional tryouts in May after the club season ended, with a team chosen by the end of that month.

They were allowed 30 hours of practice time as a team to prepare for this week's event in Sudbury.

Smith said the emphasis at the games is on skill development, so all teams must follow certain rules when competing.

"Basketball has a specific offence that all teams must run, there is no zone defence -- it's all man-to-man principles -- and it's a five-out offence, meaning everybody gets equal time on the court," he said, after checking his team into student accommodations at Laurentian University in Sudbury on Tuesday afternoon.

The team's first game is against Central East at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, and then Thursday at 9 a.m., they'll take on the Belleville/ Kingston area squad.

"We played Central East in exhibition and beat them by 20 points. If it goes our way, we should win," Smith said. "And we're hoping to watch the Belleville team on Wednesday."

With a lot of the kids playing club basketball in the winter, they've come up against many of the players they'll be running into at the Summer Games before.

"Most of them are from the Barrie Royals and they've always been successful against those teams," he said. "But we're not taking anything for granted. We'll take it one game at a time."

Smith said the girls are excited about taking part in the games.

"They're in the married student residences and they feel like full-on university students. Being on a university campus and being together, they're fired up to be here," he said, adding they have their eyes on the big prize.

"The gold medal game is at 1 p.m. on Friday and we're aiming to be there."

Mark Durdin coaches the boys South Simcoe region under- 15 team and said the squad has a bit more regional representation on it, although many are from Barrie.

About a third of the team is made up of talent from the Barrie Royals, one player is from Waterloo, there are a couple from Midland and the remainder are from Collingwood, Stayner and Caledon.

His boys will also be squaring off against Central East at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

"They'll be a very athletic and very quick team. We'll try to grind out the game and get it to half court," said.

Then the boys take on Kawartha at 2 p.m. on Wednesday when they find out if they move on.

This is Durdin's fourth trip to the Summer Games, the last time being in 2008.

"We surprised teams and eventually lost the gold medal in the last minutes of the game," he said, adding the 2010 team has a chance. "I believe we're a talented team. If they are playing together as a team, we have an opportunity."

Athletes, coaches and parents will be taking part in a memorable event, he said.

"It never gets boring. It keeps you invigorated. The whole feel of the thing is very olympic," Durdin said. "You take in the ambience of the opening ceremonies and then focus on what you're here for, and hopefully be successful."

imcinroy@thebarrieexaminer.com

- - -

Summer Games Facts

* 3,650 athletes, coaches and officials

* 32 official sports

* 31 venues in and around the city

* athletes' villages at Laurentian University and Cambrian College hosting more than 3,000 participants

* 21 provincial sports organizations

* the Ontario Games are a program of the Ministry of Health Promotion and delivered by the Sport Alliance of Ontario

* provincial-level athletes from the ages 11 to 22 qualify through a regional selection process conducted by the Provincial Sport Organizations (PSOs)

* the Ontario Summer Games take place every two years and are awarded through a bidding process

Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Kids play 'I Spy' through the 'Universe'

Posted: 10 Aug 2010 05:22 PM PDT

The ever-popular "I Spy" franchise, based on books by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick, appears for a second time on the Nintendo DS platform with the release of "I Spy Universe" from Scholastic Media.

The game doesn't stray far from what makes this brand so popular - it is full of crowded photorealistic scenes containing objects that are mentioned in a series of rhymes. In this version, kids will search for over 400 objects listed in 36 "I Spy" riddles.

These hidden objects puzzles are framed by a story about saving the universe. In order to repower the sun, players must search for and find 12 planets and then solve the hidden objects puzzles at each location.

In addition to the standard "I Spy" puzzles, the game also introduces six brain-teasing games that help you earn extra fuel so you can travel to the planets. These brainy games include geometric, tangram-like puzzles, sorting games, complete-the-pattern challenges, mazes and a game about finding an object's shadow.

While the classic visual puzzles presented in the "I Spy" books usually span a two-page spread, here the puzzles show up on the two screens of the Nintendo DS. The top screen can display an overview of the puzzle or the rhyming riddle. The bottom screen is used for close-up searching - the area is larger than the DS screen, but you use your stylus (or the multi-directional control pad) to move the area around.

When you find things that are mentioned in the riddle, like a die that meets the riddle's enigmatic clue of "a one on a block," you tap the object with the stylus. If you are right, the found object will be encircled and the words in the riddle will be highlighted.

While the crowded scenes aren't really related to the space theme, they are nonetheless interesting to peruse. In one, you look within a pile of marbles. In another, objects will be hidden in sand.

The riddles are clever, and they provide kids with an opportunity to stretch their thinking as well as their vocabulary. For example, one riddle asks you to find six horses. The kind you ride is obvious; but kids will also need to look for a chess piece and a sea creature. Likewise, "nuts in a ring" aren't the kind of nuts that you eat, but rather, the kind that go with bolts.

For young children who aren't yet reading, the game can speak the rhyming riddles out loud. It also provides a hint system that shows players the quadrant where a missing object is located.

While the "I Spy" puzzles are varied and fun, their disconnect to the space theme seems a little weird. More outer space settings might have made more sense. But for kids who like "I Spy" puzzles, the ones presented here will be greatly enjoyed.

The surprising gems of this game are the added-on brain-teasing puzzles. They are really well designed and interesting to explore. Space Sliders, for instance, combines sorting with the traditional sliding-puzzles format, which translates into having you move objects in a grid to rearrange them into columns of matching objects.

Smartly, "I Spy Universe" lets you play these brainy puzzles separately once you have unlocked them.

For kids who like puzzles, "I Spy Universe" would make a great addition to their library of DS games.

Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Red Wave kids head to TAAF games

Posted: 11 Aug 2010 12:26 AM PDT

El Campo will be well represented this weekend in Waco during the Texas Amateur Athletic Federation Games of Texas Summer Swimming Championships.

Olympics-type opening ceremonies will be held Friday at 7 p.m., but swimming and other sports competitions begin as early as Thursday.

Eighteen Red Wave youth will compete sometime between Thursday and Sunday.

1. Krystan Espinoza, age 10: Girls 9-10 100 medley relay; 100 individual medley; 100 freestyle relay.

 2. Julia Foegelle, age 7: Girls 8 & U 100 freestyle relay.

3. Casey Green, age 11: Boys 11-12 50 backstroke; 50 butterfly; 100 individual medley.

4. Michaela Holt, age 8: Girls 8 & U 100 freestyle relay.

5. Camryn Jansky, age 8: Girls 8 & U 50 freestyle; 25 butterfly; 100 freestyle relay.

6. Macy Marek, age 9: Girls 9-10 100 medley relay; 100 freestyle relay.

7. Mathew Marek, age 7: Boys 8 & U 50 freestyle.

8. Colton Martin, age 14: Boys 13-14 100 freestyle; 50 butterfly; 50 freestyle.

9. Cailyn McComb, age 8: Girls 8 & U 50 freestyle; 25 breaststroke; 100 freestyle relay.

10. Micah McComb, age 11: Boys 11-12 100 freestyle; 50 backstroke; 50 freestyle.

11. Blythe Nava, age 17: Women 15-17 50 freestyle; 50 backstroke; 50 butterfly; 100 freestyle.

12. Jill Nava, age 11: Girls 11-12 50 freestyle.

13. Kiara Romo, age 8: Girls 8 & U 25 freestyle; 100 freestyle relay.

14. Sydney Slattery, age 9: Girls 9-10 100 medley relay; 100 freestyle relay.

15. Davis Stockton, age 10: Boys 9-10 25 backstroke; 100 individual medley.

16. Camille Thrash, age 9: Girls 9-10 100 medley relay; 25 butterfly; 100 freestyle relay.

17. Kari Wilkins, age 14: Girls 13-14 50 backstroke; 50 breaststroke; 100 individual medley.

18. Matthew Wilkins, age 12: Boys 11-12 50 breaststroke; 50 butterfly; 100 individual medley.

The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of leader-news.com .

Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Corvettes for Kids of Sassamansville raises $1 million in 25 years

Posted: 11 Aug 2010 06:33 AM PDT

By Diane VanDyke
Times Writer
dvandyke2@comcast.net

BARTO –– In honor of its 25th year, Corvettes for Kids Inc. President Chip Conrad and board member Bob Skinner presented a thank you banner at the annual fundraising event on Aug. 8, at the Washington Elementary School in Barto.

The thank you was directed to all the visitors for their support, the volunteers, the Corvette owners and all the businesses and people who donated items, services and food to enable the non-profit organization to raise more than $1 million dollars for 25 families and a total of 27 children.

"The Corvettes for Kids family keeps getting bigger and bigger," Conrad said, acknowledging this year's members, Tiffany and Josiah Kuenzi and their son Dillon Kuenzi, the event's spokeschild.

Four-year-old Dillon has a long list of medical issues due to an anoxic brain injury at birth. The lack of oxygen resulted in blindness, hearing loss and seizures. He needs a feeding tube, oxygen and continual suctioning of his saliva. He also has high muscle tone, which causes chronically dislocated hips, and he needs daily physical therapy.

In 2009, the Kuenzis took Dillon to China for stem cell treatment, which they believe helped his condition and made him more aware of his surroundings. He is scheduled for orthopedic surgery on Sept. 3 to improve his hips.

The funds raised by Corvettes for Kids will help the Kuenzi family with Dillon's medical-related expenses that are not covered by insurance or Medicaid.

By 12 p.m. on Sunday, more than 200 Corvettes filled the grassy area in front of the school. Each participant paid a $25 registration fee. Dillon and the spokeschildren from prior years select their favorite Corvettes and present trophies to the owners.

"The good weather has definitely helped, and we have more people than last year," Conrad said.

In addition to the auctions and Corvette show, the event included a coffee and bake sale, kids' games, used book sale, free musical entertainment and lots of food. Special anniversary t-shirts were also sold to raise money.

"This is a nice show for a worthy cause," said Faye Shelly of Quakertown, who has attended the event for the last several years. "I always stay for the entire auction, and there are many things I would like to bid on."

There were more than 235 items available for the live auction, including some large ticket items, such as gas grill, butcher block, artwork and sports tickets.

State Rep. Douglas Reichley (R-134) presented a citation commending the non-profit organization's efforts in raising more than a million dollars to help children. U.S. Congressman Charles Dent (Pa.-15) also sent a similar citation.

Manager DeeDee Komarak and several employees of Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Trexlertown gave the Kuenzi family a gift certificate valued at $500 for a year's worth of free meals.

Corvettes for Kids also hosts an annual golf tournament, which will be held Sept. 25 at Blackwood Golf Course, Douglassville. You can register to play or sponsor a hole by visiting the website, www.corvettesforkidsinc.org.

Donations, made payable to "Corvettes for Kids, Inc." can be mailed to Corvettes for Kids, Inc., P.O. Box 233, Sassamansville, PA 19472.

The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of BerksMontNews.com.

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