Friday, August 18, 2023
How does conference realignment impact travel in Big 12 soccer? Tessa Dorrell Staff Reporter
road trips and lengthier stints away from Stillwater for student-athletes. But OSU coach Colin Carmichael said that won’t Lost in the shuffle in impact players in the classroom. conference realignment is “Our kids don’t the impact on athletes in sports other than football. struggle on the road,” Football is the bread- Carmichael said. “They do online classes; they have winner in most college tutoring, and they keep up athletic departments, and with stuff. It’s about time it’s been the driving force in conference realignment. management, so I don’t worry about it.” But football plays just 12 The groundbreaking regular season games -one a week -- and only five 16-team future of the Big to seven games on the road. 12 means there are more What about the other pro- road trips upcoming for grams within a department Cowgirls -- and to quality that play many more games programs, too. This year’s additions to the conferand travel more often? ence include two preseason The Cowgirl soccer nationally ranked teams, team begins their season No. 13 BYU and No. 24 at home Thursday against Stephen F. Austin, kicking UCF, who join current Big 12 foes No. 9 TCU and No. off a 19-game schedule in 15 Texas in the national which the Cowgirls play rankings. two games a week. Some Carmichael said these weeks include back-toconference newcomers are back road games, such as good for Big 12 soccer and a stretch at West Virginia could be obstacles when it and newcomer Cincinnati comes to his squad’s sucwithin four days. cess. Realignment means more road trips, longer See Soccer on 3
Courtesy of OSU Concussions account for roughly 15% of all reported sport-related trauma at the high school level, said Dr. Aric Warren — Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences professor of athletic training.
OSU Athletic Training offers concussion education to prolonged recovery, serious long-term disabilities and even death,” Dr. Aric Warren, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences professor of athletic training, said. “Likewise, many individuals who sustain a Bella Casey concussion often experience subStaff Reporter sequent mental health concerns. Our ECHO team is dedicated to driving awareness and improving Oklahoma State Univercare practices to improve resity’s Human Performance and covery and outcomes in patients Nutrition Research Institute is tackling the topic of concussions. who sustain a concussion.” Concussions account for Athletic Training-Sports roughly 15% of all reported Management ECHO began its sport-related trauma at the high series on concussions Aug. 9 with a session on the assessment school level, Warren said. Warren added that this data is an and diagnosis of concussions. underestimate of the true number The session covered the newof concussions sustained by high est research and publications school athletes because of the on diagnosing concussions and lack of self-reporting by studentthe new standard definition of athletes of their concussion concussions along with a case symptoms or the lack of recogpresentation. nition of the injury by coaches, “Concussions, if underdiagnosed or mismanaged without parents or health care professiona removal from play and a proper als. Symptom presentation is return to activities, can lead
one of the largest components of the assessment process. Some present immediately, others evolve over minutes or hours. Undiagnosed concussions elevate the risk of future concussions and additional brain trauma while early recognition reduces the likelihood of developing persistent symptoms. “If we identify concussion early, it really helps to improve the clinical outcomes, and provides also for a quicker return to activity,” said Lance Walker, HPNRI Rick and Gail Muncrief executive director. “Best practices inthe management of concussions demands a transdisciplinary evidence-based approach. This ECHO series will further empower the frontline providers on the fields, at the gym, on the mats to provide next-generation care for their athletes at risk for and dealing with this multi-dimensional challenge.” See Training on 6
Carson Toulouse OSU soccer coach Colin Carmichael said the longer road trips to the Big 12 expansion schools won’t have a major effect on soccer student-athletes.
From Armenia to Zambia
This TikTok influencer is eating a dish from every country (in alphabetical order) without leaving Chicago Christopher Borrelli Chicago Tribune
from every country on Earth without leaving the greater Chicago area. Since January, he has been posting videos of himself on TikTok eatCHICAGO — When I met Cam ing those meals. He uses the tag @ Brenson the other day, he was deep BoredinChicago, though considering into the E’s — Estonia, Eritrea, Egypt. the work and prickly issues he must We had Ethiopian for lunch. He was navigate to accomplish his goal, he may expecting to continue the next day be the least bored person in the city. with Ecuador. He had already picked His videos, which are posted through Chile, Cuba, Cameroon and alphabetically by nation and only now Croatia, and was making plans to hit moving into the F’s, have drawn an Finland, Fiji, the Federated States of average of 100,000 viewers per post. Micronesia and France. What started as a personal project has I am a fan of people with unbecome decidedly public. necessary goals. Like collecting every “When I did Canada, I went to model of vacuum cleaner, or visiting (Lincoln Square’s) Dear Margaret and, every Taco Bell in existence. Brenson, in the comments section of the videos, who works in marketing at a tech com- some people got very grumpy,” he pany in Chicago, has a more thoughtful says. “Dear Margaret is clearly French goal: He wants to eat at least one dish Canadian, but still, people came in hot
and told me that it wasn’t true Canadian food. There’s even a war going on right now in my comments about whether a salad I ate was Macedonian or Bulgarian. A shopska salad. It’s the national dish of Bulgaria and even has the colors of the Bulgarian flag, but a lot of people from North Macedonia, which shares a border with Bulgaria, consider the shopska just as much their tradition.” He looks at me warily and tears off a piece of injera, the spongy Ethiopian bread that, depending who you talk to, is just as much a part of Eritrean and Sudanese tradition. Consider even the seemingly uncomplicated question of how many nations exist. The United Nations recognizes 193, plus two “observer” states, Palestine and Vatican City. But not
every U.N. nation recognizes every other U.N. nation. Of those 193 U.N.sanctioned countries, you won’t find the countries of Taiwan and Kosovo. Greenland, which mostly controls itself, is a territory of Denmark — not unlike Puerto Rico’s relationship with the United States. Scotland and Wales are a part of the United Kingdom and therefore not really independent. But don’t tell that to a Scotsman. Indeed, if we decided the number of nations by flags, we would have about 250 countries. Brenson is sticking somewhat to a U.N.-affiliated definition of country; he’s going with 197, including Palestine and Taiwan. Sovereignty is a slippery question. But salad is a minefield. See TikTok on 7