CALLING ALL COACHES
Calling all coaches and sports parents!
Calling all active coaches and parents to continue encouraging, coaching, and supporting their kids through physical fitness or competition. As we know, not only should we keep the youth engaged and away from alcohol, drugs, and vaping, but now in the US, one out of six children is obese, and one out of three is overweight or obese. Carrying extra pounds puts extra stress on your joints. It increases the risk of several debilitating and deadly diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, asthma, sleep apnea, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and some cancers. Factors for this epidemic include lack of exercise due to screen time; a diet of high-calorie fast food; socioeconomic factors (parents work and kids are unsupervised), psychological factors; family factors, genetics, and specific medication. Of course, COVID-19 provided two years of a confined lifestyle that did not help our kids.
Sure, not all children carrying extra pounds are overweight. Some children have larger than average body frames, and children usually take different amounts of body fat at the various stages of development. One might not know by how your child looks if weight is a health concern, and of course, we are not here to judge; we are just trying to create health awareness.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved four drugs for obesity treatment in adolescents starting at age 12 — Orlistat, Saxenda, Qsymia, and Wegovy — and one, Phentermine, for teens aged 16 and older. If it’s in the realm of possibilities, let’s try to resist medications for the young. As you may know first-hand, losing weight at any age becomes more complicated if you are overweight. Preventing obesity in a child’s earliest years (and even before birth, through healthy habits during pregnancy) confers a lifetime of health benefits. And it isn’t just our children: nationally, about 42% of adults are obese. Thank you in advance to coaches or sports parents, as you are part of the promising path for turning around this global epidemic.
According to CBS, the NFL continues to dominate the US sports industry regarding live television viewership; the recent AFC Championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals drew over 53.1 million people. Roughly that is 16% of the total US population. It was the most-watched television program on any network since last year’s Super Bowl (Super Bowl LVI had 101 million viewers).
Get ready, football fans; the Kanas City Chiefs face the Philadelphia Eagles in this year’s Super Bowl LVII in Arizona next weekend. On Monday Night Football, January 2nd, 2023, a highly improbable hit sent Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin into cardiac arrest. Hamlin sustained a typical NFL hit, got up, collapsed, and went into cardiac arrest in front of approximately 23 million viewers. The cardiologists said it was a rare phenomenon called “commotion cardis.” Today, Hamlin is raising awareness with American Heart Association on CPR and challenging Tom Brady, Lebron James, and Michelle Obama to do the same. Sports parents of little leaguers, hockey, and lacrosse players sometimes strap a chest wall protector on their children to help reduce this risk from the hard ball or puck. The ribs harden for people over age 20 and can better protect against blunt trauma. In any case, the NFL suspended play, as the league and players felt it was the ethically right thing to do. Critics who argue that tackle football is an extremely violent game have a strong argument. Still, the NFL has done quite a bit to eliminate unnecessary violence in the game, penalizing heavily unsportsmanlike type hits and following a higher degree of concussion protocol when a player suffers a head injury on the field. In other NFL news, the preferred 45-year-old GOAT of football fanatics, Tom Brady, has retired – again. And, this time, Brady swears, it is FOR REAL. Tom Brady still plans to be involved in the NFL by signing a contract with FOX Sports to do play-by-play.
Turning to tennis, Novak Djokovic captured his 10th Australian Open title and tied Rafael Nadel for the all-time Grand Slam Single record of 22 wins. On the women’s side, 5th-ranked Aryna Sabalenka won her first grand slam. Geopolitical dynamics still affect professional sports, as Aryna, a Belarusian native, competed as a “neutral” athlete due to Belarus’ involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
NBA just closed out their All-Star voting, and LeBron James is still the most popular player among the fans, with over 6.5 million votes. Giannis Anteokounmpo received over 5.9 million votes, and Kevin Durant received over 5.8 million. Rounding out the top four is Stephen Curry, with over 5.1 million votes.
Argentina beat France in a shootout to capture the FIFA World Cup 2022 tournament. It is Argentina’s 3rd World Cup win out of 18 tournaments, and has been runner-up three times. Legendary FIFA GOAT Lionel Messi and his fellow Argentinian teammates finally succeeded in World Cup play. Messi has entertained football fans for more than 18 years with a brilliant brand of football, picking up 10 La Liga titles and four Champion Leagues along the way. Soccer youth leagues across America are quite popular, but as a significant market sport here in the USA, it still lags behind the NFL, NBA, and MBL. Soccer has about 5 billion fans worldwide; therefore, we predict growing numbers of soccer players in the USA over the next four years when World Cup 2026 comes to North America: the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Eleven NFL stadiums will host the FIFA matches, including the AT&T Stadium (the home of the Dallas Cowboys) and Sofi Stadium (the home of the Los Angeles Rams). The two current Super Bowl contenders will host games at Lincoln Financial Field (home of the Philadelphia Eagles) and Arrowhead Stadium (home of the Kanas City Chiefs). Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones plans to spend close to $ 300 million to upgrade AT&T Stadium in Arlington ahead of the FIFA World Cup. Many of these stadium upgrades will be the conversion of the turf field to a grass field or adjustments of the stands to accommodate the FIFA standards. Move over to two-time Emmy Award for Comedy, “Ted Lasso” the soccer hype will be here before you know it.
