a leader for the water polo team this season.
MARCH 26, 2020
HIGH
SPORTS
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Dr. Phillips baseball’s Brandon Phillips swings for the fences. Page 14.
A run to remember
Three options to enjoy while stuck in sports purgatory Despite there being no sports due to the spread of the coronavirus, there are options to satiate your thirst for competition.
With officials calling for social distancing to fight the coronavirus, Gymnastics USA in Winter Garden is launching at-home learning with live-online classes. Gymnastics USA will host training sessions led by its coaches for different levels of gymnastics via daily livestreaming videos. Classes will focus on flexibility, strength training and basic gymnastics skills — all sessions can be done in home or in your own backyard. Coaches will track and communicate with athletes by using myskillchart.com.
TROY HERRING SPORTS EDITOR
If you’re a sports fan — and I’m assuming you are, based on this being the sports section of the paper — you’re probably pretty bored right now. Now don’t get me wrong — because I know we are in the middle of a serious pandemic that is wreaking havoc across the world — but while some have their coping mechanisms in place, the sports fans of the world do not. Over the last two weeks, we have seen every professional sporting league in the country shut down and have watched college and high school sports halted, as well. We should be watching March Madness or baseball right now. So, what I’m offering to you — the good folks of West and Southwest Orange County — are three ways I’m keeping myself sane during this Twilight Zone moment that we find ourselves in.
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As Crossfit Winter Garden continues to monitor the coronavirus pandemic, the gym will be now limiting its classes to 10 athletes. To make up for the new changes, the gym will be adding 10 and 11 a.m. classes to give others chances to get in their workouts.
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REPLAYS, REPLAYS, REPLAYS
Eat The Frog Fitness in Winter Garden is offering an “on the go” virtual program for its members to keep up their workouts and track their health and fitness goals. The program will offer cardio, strength and Flex-Core sessions — like what’s done in the gym — throughout the duration of the coronavirus pandemic. Members will be able to use their gymspecific app and heartrate monitor to keep an eye on their health.
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Warrior One (Winter Garden-Windermere) is taking its yoga classes online with its Warrior One Zoom live interactive classes. Those interested can visit bit. ly/2WCbNtb. There you can purchase a variety of yoga classes to participate in at the comfort of your own home.
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Despite temporarily closing its doors Friday, March 20, Planet Fitness — located at 10908 W. Colonial Dr. in Ocoee — will have free at-home workouts broadcasted daily on its Facebook page via Facebook Live.
After the Tokyo Marathon was canceled due to the coronavirus, a special marathon in Winter Garden was put together for Windermere resident Liliana Umpierre. Photo courtesy of Liliana Umpierre
TROY HERRING SPORTS EDITOR
On Sunday, March 1, Windermere resident Liliana Umpierre was supposed to be in Japan to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Marathon — one of the world’s biggest marathons. Instead, she found herself standing at the splash pad in downtown Winter Garden at 5:30 in the morning surrounded by her family, as well as friends from the local and Ocoee chapters of Moms Run This Town. The Tokyo Marathon had been canceled by the recent outbreak of the coronavirus, but her friends in the running group weren’t going to let her training be for naught, said friend and group member Denise Snyder. Umpierre was going to have a marathon of her own. “We tried to make it a lighthearted event and just (wanted to) show support,” said Snyder,
who organized the event. “You train so many months for a race and to have it canceled like that, and not know if you’ll ever be able to do that race again, is just heartbreaking.” When the Tokyo Marathon was canceled Monday, Feb. 17, Umpierre lost out on not just a chance to run the marathon — she and her family lost a chance to enjoy a family vacation. It also cost her financially, as some parts of the trip were non-refundable. After hearing the news, Snyder and the group acted fast. In the span of only a couple weeks, Snyder had planned out a marathon mile for mile and figured out the specifics to make the race happen. Part of the plan included members riding around in a van to get from place to place — handing out water and holding up signs written in both English and Japanese while Umpierre ran, creating the feel that she was in the Tokyo Marathon.
“It was kind of making the most of a tough situation,” friend and Moms Run This Town member Jeanne Harbin said. “She had stuff planned to go to other attractions, as well, with her family of five.” Before the race, Umpierre was worried about running the course alone, but her friends had that figured out. During the run, Umpierre had runners by her side the whole time. “They created a group where they were posting updates, and that’s when I realized I wasn’t running by myself — there were people who were going with me for a few miles,” Umpierre said. “I felt like I wasn’t alone — all the support they were giving me, it was the strength that I needed.”
Channels like ESPN, FOX Sports and the NFL Network need to keep making money, and they can only talk so much about sports being canceled — or about the shampoo that Lebron James is using to keep his hairline from receding to the back of his neck — so of course there is a slew of sports replays running constantly at the moment. Today — Friday, March 20 — I’ve watched Game 5 of the 1995 American League Division Series between the Seattle Mariners/ New York Yankees and Game 7 of the 1988 NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers/Detroit Pistons. And tomorrow? I’ll do the exact same with whatever else I can find to watch. Sure, it doesn’t offer the live and social components that come with sports, but it’s something. And it doesn’t have to stop with TV — there’s also YouTube, which offers a plethora of choices, as well. Shoot, given how many times I’ve watched full Alabama football games on there, YouTube should be paying me for my services. Just about every sports organization in the United States — like the NFL, NBA and NHL — has its own channel where you can watch full games. SPORTS DOCUMENTARIES
That strength came in handy for Umpierre around mile 21 when
I’ll preface this by just saying I love — to an obnoxious level — documentaries as a whole. Seeing as how I’m a journalist, it shouldn’t be shocking, but I digress.
SEE UMPIERRE PAGE 12
SEE SURVIVING PAGE 12
AN UPHILL BATTLE
