PHONE 925.566.8500 FAX 925.566.8507 Editorial Editor@SportStarsMag.com Editor Chace Bryson. Ext. 104 • Chace@SportStarsMag.com Contributors Bill Kolb, Erik Stordahl, Mike Wolcott, Dave DeLong, Mitch Stephens Photography Butch Noble, Bob Larson Creative Department Art@SportStarsMag.com Production Manager Mike DeCicco. Ext. 103 • MikeD@SportStarsMag.com Publisher/President Mike Calamusa. Ext. 106 • Mike@SportStarsMag.com Advertising & Calendar/Classified Sales Sales@SportStarsMag.com Account Executives Mike Wolcott Ext. 109 • MikeW@SportStarsMag.com; Patrick McCormick Ext. 102 • Patrick@SportStarsMag.com Reader Resources/Administration Ad Traffic, Subscription, Calendar & Classified Listings info@SportStarsMag.com • Deb Hollinger. Ext. 101 • Distribution/Delivery Mags@SportStarsMag.com Distribution Manager Butch Noble. Ext. 107 • Butch@SportStarsMag.com Information technology John Bonilla CFO Sharon Calamusa • Sharon@SportStarsMag.com Office Manager/Credit Services Deb Hollinger. Ext. 101 • Deb@SportStarsMag.com Board of Directors Dennis Erokan, CEO, Placemaking Group Roland Roos, CPA, Roland Roos & Co Susan Bonilla, Contra Costa County Supervisor Drew Lawler, Managing Director, AJ Lawler Partners community SportStars™ Magazine A division of Caliente! Communications, LLC 5356 Clayton Rd., Ste. 222 • Concord, CA • 94521 info@SportStarsMag.com www.SportStarsMag.com
Caliente!
LLC
PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER IN THE USA
your ticket to bay area sports admit one; rain or shine This Vol. #1, June 2010 Whole No. 2 is published by Caliente! Communications, LLC, 5356 Clayton Rd, Ste. 222, Concord, CA 94521. SportStars™© 2010 by Caliente! Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. Subscription rates: 24 issues, U.S. 3rd class $42 (allow 3 weeks for delivery). 1st class $55. To receive sample issues, please send $3 to cover postage. Back issues are $4 each. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission of Publisher is strictly prohibited. The staff and management, including Board of Directors, of SportStars™© does not advocate or encourage the use of any product or service advertised herein for illegal purposes. Editorial contributions, photos and letters to the editor are welcome and should be addressed to the Editor. All material should be typed, double-spaced on disk or email and will be handled with reasonable care. For materials return, please enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. SportStars™© and STARS!™© Clinics are registered trademarks of Caliente! Communications, LLC.
Read Me. Recycle Me. 6
SportStars™
June 24, 2010
You can tell you’re old if you remember summer vacation
R
eason No. 284 that I’m convinced I’m growing old? Summer isn’t what it used to be. That could be interpreted several ways of course, but I’m talking about the summer for the young athlete. There isn’t one anymore. At least not if you’re remotely good at your sport. Most of the traditional three-sport high school athletes are extinct, and the majority of what remains are the highly-specialized and über-dedicated one-sport stars. (That last phrase had nothing to do with the name of this magazine. Really. That’s just how it came out. Weird.) OK. Back on point. Whether it’s playing in 50-60 baseball or softball games, attending multiple basketball camps, playing in 7-on-7 football passing leagues, or simply adhering to a daily training/conditioning schedule, there’s not a lot of time for sandy beaches or s’mores by the campfire. This is great for me as a sportswriter who is always looking for great stories about teenage athletes. But it still got me wondering when the last time a few of these extremely-dedicated athletes had a normal kid’s summer. Obviously, I thought it’d be fun to go with the most extreme example. “Well, last summer I actually coached a recreational swim team,” said recent Las Lomas High graduate and national record-holder, Kasey Carlson. “It was kind of normal, having a summer job and stuff. Working with the (younger) swimmers was fun, and it made me feel like a kid again.” She did miss two weeks of that job. Apparently she had to go to Rome and earn a bronze medal in the 100 breaststroke at the FINA World Championships. That’s right, she skipped out on her summer job to become a world bronzemedalist. Carlson’s 2010 summer lasted about two weeks. She swam in the Santa Clara International Grand Prix Invitational on June 18-19. She won the 100 breaststroke (see story, page 11). Then one day later, she was in a car headed to Los Angeles to begin training with her new swim coach at USC. “It’s going to be a different type of training,” Carlson said. “I’m still not exactly
FIRST PITCH Chace Bryson Editor
Chace@ SportStarsMag.com (925) 566-8503
sure all of what it will include, but I’m ready for that next step.” What’s she training for? Oh, the U.S. Swimming Championships that begin Aug. 3 in Irvine. So instead of wondering who her first college roommate might be (our bet is it’s another swimmer), Carlson is more concerned about finding out if she can perform well enough in Irvine to make the U.S. national swim team. “That’s basically where they choose the team that will compete internationally for the next two years,” she says in a ho-hum manner. OK, but there still has to be some normalcy about this girl, right? Of course. Ask her about her biggest fear over going away to college and she begins sounding like the average kid. “Well, I definitely hear the horror stories of how regular college students have had to pull all-nighters to get their schoolwork done,” Carlson said. “Add college-level athletics on top of that, and it’s a little scary to think about.” As I mentioned above, Carlson is certainly the extreme example. But a more reasonable case would be Campolindo baseball standout James Marvel, who is featured briefly in this issue. We wanted to arrange a time for young James to meet us so we could take his photo. He helped us out by squeezing it in between his two baseball practices, an infield-only workout at 1:30 in Concord and a full-squad practice at 4:30 in Moraga. His travel team, the Danville Hoots, were getting ready for a weekend tournament in Tuscon, Arizona. I have no shortage of great summer memories. Some of them include the many basketball camps I attended, but most of them involve fishing, swimming, waterskiing, and roller coasters. I’m OK with that, obviously. I may not have become that elite level athlete, but I do get to write about them. And that’s pretty cool, too. Even if it does make me feel old sometimes.
Upload photos and team stats! www.SportStarsMag.com