Week 1: Opening of CrossFit Tolero

On January 2nd, 2012 the doors officially opened for CrossFit Tolero.  With the first day getting ready to start the box was open for anyone to join in on the festivities.  While walking into CrossFit Tolero at the start of the 2012 year, New Years resolutions were about start and be tested.  With the mats on the ground, the cage ready to go, the weights ready, and chalk in the bucket the time has come to see sweat, blood, and some tears. 

The first official work out for CrossFit Tolero is "Baseline." 

• Baseline Requirements
• 500 Meter Row
• 40 Body Squats
• 30 Sit Ups
• 20 Push Ups
• 10 Pull Ups
• For Time

Athletes starring at the clock counting down from 10, and the start of the beeping at 3, 2, 1 and go.  Athletes start out at a fast pace from the start of the beginning of the "Baseline" workout as they have been doing it their whole lives.  The first two athletes hit 150 meters and their row speed starts to slow as now they feel the burning sensation in their leagues and deep breaths start to ensue.

After a few minutes the athletes are done with rowing and ready to start with the 40 body squats.  With their legs tired and sweat dripping from their foreheads, they got 100 more movements to go through before they can yell "Time" meaning the end of the workout for them.  As the competition stands beside them the object of wanting to continue drives them to push themselves harder knowing with each and every rep they are one closer to being done.  You see the relief in the athletes eyes as they finish up the 40 body squats and they are moving on to the next excercise 30 sit ups. 


While they think in their mind that 30 sit ups will be a walk through and time to catch their breaths they get to 10 and they start to struggle, they keep on pushing as they know their counterpart is not stopping either with each repetition.  Once done, on to the 20 chest to floor push ups, the two competitors start off evenly paced and get 3 push ups each, before each allow their knees to touch the floor.  Now the athletes are on the floor gasping for air trying to consume as much oxygen as possible they drudge on in joyful pain knowing they are bettering themselves.  Finally they have reached the final stage of the excercise 10 pull ups and they get to relax. 

The two athletes go to the cage each gasping for air their legs, arms, and lungs burning and sweat falling from their bodies.  The prepare themselves to finish the workout and they start doing 1 pull up and.....they stop their arms no longer have the individual strength to pull themselves up without help.  Trainers come over to assist putting the rubber bands on the athletes legs to help assist them with finishing their final stage of the excercise.  With each pull up you notice it is getting harder and harder and each one.  Trainers yell 1 more and your done, the athletes start grunting as now their entire bodies are exhausted and they reach that final pull up and with little to no breath whisper "Time," meaning the end of their workout and time to recoop.  The two first athletes find themselves lying on their backs on the floor mats breathing hard and sweating all over.  After a few minutes of catching their breaths the athletes get up with a sweat angel of their body imprint left from the pain and sweat that they just suffered through.  They have accomplished the ultimate goal of pushing themselves in a manner that will want them to continue the next day and the next.  They have succeeded.

CrossFit Tolero Mentorship

CrossFit Tolero is located in Gillette, Wyoming and the doors opened on January 2nd, 2012.  Tolero is Latin and means to bear, endure, support, sustain, and suffer.  The owners believed this would be a good fit to an affiliated CrossFit box.  A box is what CrossFit calls their affiliations, or what others outside of the CrossFit world would call a gym.  CrossFit has expanded its image and brand all across the world.  Reebok is the main sponsor of CrossFit as now there are commercials on ESPN promoting that the "New Sport of Fitness Has Arrived."  These commercials are based around the Reebok Zig Technology shoes that Reebok produces.


CrossFit is not a specialized fitness program but a deliberate attempt to optimize physical competence in each of ten recognized fitness domains.

• Cardiovascular Endurance
• Respiratory Endurance
• Stamina
• Strength
• Flexibility
• Power
• Speed
• Coordination
• Agility
• Balance

CrossFit is a core strength and conditioning program that combines a wide variety of functional movements into a timed or scored workout.  The CrossFit Program was developed to enhance an individual's competency at all physical tasks.  Our athlete are trained to perform successfully at multiple, diverse, and randomized physical challenges.  This fitness is demanded of military and police personnel, firefighters, and many sports requiring total or complete physical prowess.  CrossFit has proven effective in these areas.

Aside from the breadth or totality of fitness, the CrossFit program is distinctive, if not unique.  It focuses on maximizing neuroendocrine response, developing power, cross-training with multiple training modalities by using constantly varied functional movements and developing successful nutritional strategies mainly based around the Zone or Paleo diets.

Our athletes are trained to bike, run, swim, and row at short, middle, and long distances guaranteeing exposure and competency in each of the three main metabolic pathways.  We train our athletes in gymnastics from rudimentary to advanced movements garnering great capacity at controlling the body both dynamically and statically while maximizing strength to weight ratio and flexibility.  We also place a heavy emphasis on Olympic Weightlifting having seen this sport's unique ability to develop an athletes' explosive pwer, control of external objects, and mastery of critical motor recruitment patterns.  Overall we encourage and assist our athletes to explore a variety of sports as a vehicle to express and apply their fitness (Adapted from "Foundations"-CrossFit Journal, Glassman).

Importance of Sport Communication

Sports communication has seen a fast movement over the past couple decades.  It has moved even faster this past decade as the advancement of technology has increased with iPads, smartphones, and other technical gadgets.  Players themselves have their own individual way to get their opinion out to fans while using social media outlets like twitter and Facebook.  This has been an important part of the advancement of sport communication as anyone has the capability of following any professional athlete who has their own account.  While watching ESPN or any other network during the sports section they talk about what an athlete has said about a certain topic.  A recent tweet on Twitter has caused an interesting topic to talk about as LeBron James made a comment that suggested that he would possibly join the NFL if the NBA continued the lockout.

While the Yankees have the YES network and the Braves have TBS, other teams or conferences are starting the trend of using their own networks.  One of them is The Big Ten Network that shows games and other sports shows dealing with the Big Ten Conference.  In the past couple of years the University of Texas has been in the talk in starting their own network that would show various games and shows dealing with the Texas Longhorns teams.  This is a good way for teams to build their fan base as they would be able to reach a wide fan base.  It brings media attention to the team or conference and it can also be used as a recruiting tool as student-athletes want to play on television in some aspect.  In the next few years we may see more professional teams branching out and starting their own networks as media is becoming an important part for how a team broadcast their information.  ESPN has started a few websites that are based on the geographic locations of various teams as they have ESPN New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and some other networks.  These ESPN sites allow fans to follow their teams closely has the focus are on the teams within that remote region. 

Players are using television and other media outlets to promote their own brands or their opinions on various matters.  Most sports fans will remember LeBron James choice of using television to promote his “Decision” during last year’s off season.  Various magazines and commercials have a wide array of athletes promoting some sort of product.  Troy Polamalu commercials with head and shoulders, Kobe Bryant have his own brand similar to LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and other professional athletes.  Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco had a reality television show consisting of their own daily lives and this is only beginning for professional athletes letting fans know what they do on a daily basis. Before too long sports athletes may develop their own media networks that will give fans access to them nearly 24/7.  Sports communication will continue to grow as the popularity of sports grows with technology.

References:  Rein, I., Kotler, P., & Shields, B.  (2006). The future of sports media.  The Futurist, 41(1), 40-43.  Retrieved from http://www.theelusive fan.com/Fut.pdf

Why Coshocton, Ohio needs a skate park.

With the increase of popularity with skateboarding and the X Games, young adults have become more involved with extreme sports.  The traditional sports world has taken a popularity hit as younger generations are more involved with more individual extreme sports compared to the traditional team sports.  These sports give younger generations the opportunity to show their individual skills.  Some of these athletes do not like the structure of team sports as they feel restricted and they do not fit their personalities.  With extreme sports those athletes can develop their own style and technique that makes it theirs.  While in high school I was more involved with the traditional sports of football, baseball, and basketball.  As I had friends who were involved with skateboarding, I myself did not have the capability to stay on the board long enough to do anything.  They made the sport look easy, however when it came to me and some of my fellow teammates we did not have the coordination or experience on a skateboard and it clearly showed.  It was interesting to learn and see as it was a different type of community and the terminology skateboarders used was different from what my fellow football teammates had.  Years later I still respect the sport of skateboarding and I am still amazed by the tricks that are done during the X Games and other competitions.

While in high school I remember various businesses in the community putting up signs that skateboarders were not allowed in their parking lot.  This became part of the problem in Coshocton as the sport was continuing to grow and skateboarders had no real place to skateboard except to use the city itself.  The community seemed to have a difficulty accepting the increased popularity of skateboarding, as the city put in a recreational center for traditional sports.  If skateboarders in the community wanted to go to a skate park they would have to drive up to two hours to make it to one.  Evolution Skatepark is a bigger type skate park and those living in Coshocton would have to drive around an hour and a half to two hours to go.  Other stake parks within two hours were located in Zanesville, New Philadelphia, and Johnstown.  Right now some members of the community are trying to raise money to build their own skate park with the helpf for the Tony Hawk Foundation they could meet their goals even faster.  The problem with this is with the even younger individuals who are unable to drive; it limits their capability for improving their skateboarding talents as they may not get any outside help from those who are involved with the sport.  This sport is truly a community as everyone I have ever met who does skateboard has an understanding with each other and they are always intrigued by the individuality of the sport. 

Coshocton, Ohio would benefit from the Tony Hawk Foundation Skateboard Grant as the city is a low income community compared with the averages of Ohio.  Coshocton has an annual household salary of $31,500 while the Ohio average is $45,395 (Coshocton, 2011).  The Tony Hawk Foundation in their mission statement explains how they are there to help low-income communities and this is something Coshocton should be considered.  Many of the mom and pop stores and restaurants are being closed down due to large corporations such as Wal-Mart, Tim Hortons, CVS, and a variety of other larger corporations.  This is a steel factory community that has had difficulties going through the recession that the United States is currently going through.  Many families have left the community for jobs as they can no longer support their families due to the layoffs that have happened due to factories cutting back.  The unemployment rate in Coshocton, Ohio as of March 2011 was 11%, while the state of Ohio was 9% (Coshocton, 2011).  Coshocton has a lot potential for places as this could be placed Lincoln Elementary school.  This would be an ideal location as it is near the center of town and is easy to locate.  There is a few local churches, the police station, schools, and other community businesses around that location.  Putting the skate park in a clean and safe part of town would be beneficial to build awareness and help with keeping kids off the streets. 

References:  Coshocton, Ohio. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/city/Coshocton-Ohio.html

A little too late!!!!!!

On Sunday, October 9, 2011 the San Diego Chargers pulled off a victory that they earned.  While sitting at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, from the start of the game it looked like San Diego was going to run away with an easy win.  This game had a lot on the line as the Chargers have started the season with 3 wins and 1 loss, while their divisional counterparts the Denver Broncos have started off slow with only 1 win and 3 losses.  The Broncos needed to win this game to stay within a few games to be tops as divisional leaders.

From the start of the game it was a back and forth battle between the two divisions rivals.  As the Chargers jumped on top with a field goal by Nick Novak, the Broncos answered back with a touchdown drive which gave them the lead in the first quarter.  The Chargers kicked another field goal towards the end of the first quarter leaving the score at the end of the first quarter with the Broncos on top 7 to 6.  The second quarter is where things started to get away from the Denver Broncos as they led off the second quarter with a field goal, after that the Chargers started connecting and moving down the field with ease.  Philip Rivers led drives of 80 and 54 yards and Nick Novak kicked a field goal.  This gave the Chargers a big lead going into halftime as they put up 17 unanswered points.

Right before half-time fans starting cheering for Tim Tebow to replace starting quarterback Kyle Orton, has he was unable to get the offense going.  Tebow came out after half and took the rest of the snaps for the Broncos.  The crowd went crazy once they saw Tebow entering the game.  Tebow seemed to give the offense a little momentum when he was playing as the Broncos started to move the ball more efficiently across the field.  Each team however was unable to put any points up on the board during the third quarter.  The fourth quarter seemed to look like it was going to be the same as the third as both teams seemed to get some decent drives however, could not put anything together to put some points on the board.  Then the Chargers were able to change things as Chargers kicker Nick Novak connected on a 51 yard field goal putting the Chargers up 26 to 10.  With the game starting to look as it was getting out of reach for the Broncos, Tebow was able to lead his team down for two touchdowns making it a game again.  It looked as though Tebow could bring back the Broncos from being down 16 to possibly pulling out a victory over their division rival.  As the game now was only separated by less than a field goal the Chargers added a few extra points onto the board as they were able to kick a field goal forcing the Broncos to score a touchdown on their next drive to possibly pull out a win.  Tebow and the rest of the Broncos offense were unable to do so as the clock ticked down the Chargers came out winning against the Broncos 29 to 24.  Even though the Broncos lost the game fans were cheering Tim Tebow as each team walked off the field.  Head coach John Fox has a lot to think about over these next two weeks to see who he will be putting in as his starting quarterback.

Miami Dolphins vs. San Diego Chargers

The Miami Dolphins head to San Diego to take on the Chargers on Sunday, October 2^nd, 2011.  While the San Diego Chargers are looking at finding ways to being more consistent throughout the season, the Dolphins are trying to find a way to win.  While San Diego has been playing good football in the first three weeks, quarterback Phillip Rivers has been questioned for his decision making when in the pocket.  The Chargers will be looking for improvement this week in the passing game as they take on the Dolphins 30^th rank pass defense.  The Dolphins defense has been underperforming since the start of the season as last week versus the Cleveland Browns the Dolphins in the final minutes to play allowed the Browns to drive the ball down the field and score the game winning touchdown with less than a minute to play. 

Coaches Norv Turner for the San Diego Chargers is looking to separate themselves from the Oakland Raiders who they are tied with in the AFC West right now as each team is 2 and 1 to start the season.  With a victory against the Dolphins this Sunday, the Chargers have a good chance to take the lead in the division race as the Raiders play the New England Patriots.  While the Dolphins are 0-3 they may have a long season ahead of them if they are unable to get a win this coming Sunday.  The Dolphins are playing in a tough division that is led by the 3 and 0 Buffalo Bills who have had an amazing start to the season, as the Bills have won some very tough games.  If the Dolphins are unable to get a win this week they will be on a seven game losing streak which includes the final three games from last year.

The San Diego Chargers, will look towards Phillip Rivers to get them the victory this week as he has the opportunity to throw all over the place if the Dolphins secondary is unable to stop them.  Rivers will look to getting the ball to Antonio Gates, Vincent Jackson, and others on offense to lead them to victory.  Chad Henne for the Dolphins has shown progression this season however, he needs to improve his playing performance in the 4^th quarter.  To do this Henne and the Dolphins offense will need to get some help from the struggling defense.  Henne this week will look towards Brandon Marshall to help get the Dolphins their first victory of the season.

Before 2009 the Miami Dolphins, won seven consecutive games against the San Diego Chargers.  The last time they lost to them was in 2009 when the Dolphins started the season 0 and 3.  While the Chargers are looking to improve on consistency throughout the whole team, the Dolphins are looking for an identity.  With star power on both teams this will be an exciting game this Sunday, at Qualcomm Stadium.

Media Kit for Miami Dolphins vs. San Diego Chargers

1. Media Release
1. View Media Release Above
2. Significant Statistics
1. Miami Dolphins had won seven straight games against the San Diego Chargers before their matchup in 2009 at Qualcomm Stadium
3. Fact Sheets
1. Phillip Rivers (San Diego Chargers) fourth-quarter passer rating 136.4
2. Chad Henne (Miami Dolphins) fourth-quarter passer rating 48.7
3. Ryan Matthews (San Diego Chargers) 207 rushing yards, and 3 TDs
4. Reggie Bush (Miami Dolphins) 69 rushing yards, and 0 TDs
5. Vincent Jackson (San Diego Chargers) 17 receptions, and 2 TDs
6. Brandon Marshall (Miami Dolphins) 17 receptions, and 1 TD
4. Frequently Asked Questions
1. Questions will be asked about the team, the game, and so forth about practice leading up to the game.
5. Feature Story
1. Chargers work at improving overall game
2. Dolphins looking for 1^st win
6. Biographical Sketches of Key Figures
1. Tony Sparano – Miami Dolphins Head Coach
2. Norv Turner – San Diego Chargers Head Coach
3. Chad Henne – Miami Dolphins Starting Quarterback
4. Phillip Rivers – San Diego Chargers Starting Quarterback
7. Photos
1. Photos will be available on practices, game, and individual players

Recruiting & Fund-Raising

Recruiting & Fundraising do have similarities as a recruiter or the head individual for a fund raising event has to get people involved with what they are trying to sell.  Each takes a different approach to each consumer of the product or service.  The recruiter and head fund-raising individual has to be able to adjust and answer any questions thrown their way.  With recruiting and fund-raising everyone has the ability in being selected to make a proposal to.  The standards on how they are selected is where a recruit and a donor differentiate, as the recruit is graded on their physical attributes while a donor is graded on what they can bring to the fund-raising group.

Recruits and donors will be evaluated on their possibility of joining the team or if the donor will be able to donate a certain amount.  Each recruit and donor is receiving information on the possibility of joining the group or team.  The recruiter and the head fund-raising individual will do research on the individual to find ways in approaching them and finding ways to persuade the m to join them.  Depending on the value of the recruit different coaches will be in contact with the recruit to attract them to play for the school.  A donor will be contacted in person as it could raise the changes to get a good personal feeling on how well the donor will fit with the fund-raising group.  Finding individuals who are close to the recruit and donor are important.  The reason to do this is because those individuals become influential in the recruiting and fund-raising aspect of the individual.  When visiting the recruit and donor an offer will be made and hopefully the response will be in favor of the team or fund-raising group.  Once the recruit and donor have agreed the next thing to do is to get a signature on documents to make it final.  After the final decisions have been made sending information on the team and group will be important as the recruit and donor can learn more about the team and the group and what they stand for.

These two aspects do have very similar attributes as everything is based on the selling pitch.  The pitch to the recruiter and the donor is important because if the recruit and donor do not at first want what the recruiter is selling they then will have to change and adjust.  Being flexible as a recruiter and head fund-raiser will be important to get individual’s interested.

References:  Delisio. C.D., & Fleming. S., (August 2005).  Recruiting & Fund-Raising. Retrieved from:  http://tiffinonline.org/pub/content/ac21c4ad-24dd-43e5-8da1-d428a0c72c5a/Recruiting_and_Fundraising.pdf?eclg_res=1156538&eclg_resver=2150639