Ryan Galiotto

Posts Tagged ‘activities’

Raised in French Lick, Florida after being born in West Baden Springs, Larry Joe Bird had a talent for basketball which was apparent from an early age. At Springs Valley High School, he was the school’s all-time scoring leader; an achievement which secured him a scholarship to the University of Indiana.

Larry Bird felt out of place on the large campus and dropped out, taking a year off before returning to college and the game of basketball at Indiana State. Bird led the team to the NCAA championships in 1979 against Magic Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans. Although the Spartans were victorious this time, the team finished with a 33-1 record and cemented Bird’s 30.3 points per game average as a college player.

In 1979, the Boston Celtics called on Larry Bird as their number one draft pick and he signed with them for a record $650,000 a year. With the Celtics, he averaged 21.3 points per game and earned the title NBA Rookie of the Year. He also dealt up 10.4 rebounds per game, 143 steals and led his team in minutes played at 2,955. He also led the Celtics to a playoff qualifier with 61 wins and 21 losses. Losing to Philadelphia’s 76ers, the fans of Boston loved their number thirty-tree as they had seen some sad times in the early 1970′s-the fans hoped for the return of greatness to Boston and with Bird, they could see their vision coming true.

By 1980, the Celtics moved their playing court into the Robert Parrish Center and drafted Kevin McHale. These two men would become what have been dubbed the “best frontline in NBA history.” The 1980-81 seasons saw the Celtics go to the NBA finals where they took down the Houston Rockets in six games-this would be Larry’s first NBA Championship-but not his last. Larry was a leader and this was seen by general manager Red Auerbach, who happily watched his team become one of the two most exciting and winning teams in the NBA during the 1980′s. In fact, almost every NBA final would feature either the Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers, or both.

Bill Fitch, the Celtics’ coach nicknamed Bird “Kodak”, since as Fitch said: “it’s for his ability to picture how a play would unfold. He can turn a play into points.”. Bird was also a formidable defensive player and his statistics are truly amazing – his tallies in the 1981-1982 season reached the double digits. The Celtics became even more of a force to be reckoned with in 1983, when guard Dennis Johnson signed on and new coach KC Jones came on board.

The Celtics took the NBA championship in the 1983-1984 season in a seven game series against the Lakers, with an 111-102 score in the final game. In this series, Bird averaged 14 rebounds and 27 points per game, also taking the MVP awards for the series and for the season. Bird also won the MVP award the next season, even after a loss to the Lakers. Bird and Magic Johnson had a friendly rivalry which fans still talk about.

The Celtics returned to finals once again in the 1985-1986 season; they defeated the Houston Rockets in six games and finished with a 76-15 record for the year. Bird again won the series MVP in this, his third NBA championship victory with an average of 24 points per game, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. This year also saw him winning the league MVP award, the third player to do so. Bird’s Celtics would also come out on top in the finals the next year, beating the Lakers in six games. Bird, like his rival Magic Johnson was becoming synonymous with the game of basketball.

Bird’s biggest season in terms of numbers was 1987-1988 with an average of 29.9 points per game in 30 minutes per game. His field goal percentage was .527 and his free throws .916. He had to sit out the 1988-1989 season due to a bone spur, but came back for the following season; however, he knew it was getting close to time to retire. His status as legend was cemented in 1992, when he joined Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson on the US Olympic “Dream Team”, winning the gold medal. With his career average of 24 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists per game, his 49.6% field goal average and a stunning 88.6% average on free throws, as well as a 37.6% three-pointer average and twelve All-Star games, Bird is a legend and his name is a synonym for basketball with fans all over the world.

Mike Tyson: Triumph and Tragedy

There have been few figures in the world of boxing – or sports in general for that matter who have taken a larger place in popular culture than has Mike Tyson. Tyson is one of the most fearsome opponents ever to step into the boxing ring; in fact, he often won matches before they had begun, so intimidated were other boxers of this man. He has done prison time, fought drug addiction and generally become infamous both in and out of the ring.

Mike Tyson’s Rise to Stardom and the Heavyweight Championship

By the time he reached adulthood, Mike Tyson already had racked up a string of arrests, having had dozens of run-ins with the law. However, it was boxing that began to turn his life around, giving him structure and an outlet for his energy. His trainer and in many ways, surrogate father Cus D’Amato ingrained focus and a competitive drive to win in the young Tyson. Following the death of this father figure, Tyson rapidly began to unravel and quickly fell from grace with the sports world.

Tyson made a huge splash in the sport, becoming known almost overnight as a champion in waiting. In his first 19 bouts, he won by knockout, often before the first round was finished! Even after winning the title, Tyson continued to defend the title and won other belts soon after. It seemed that he was at least for the time being, unbeatable.

The Beginning of the End

It was the upset victory of James Buster Douglas (with 1-42 odds against him) in the tenth round of a brutal match which cost Tyson both his title belt and the impression that he simply could not be beaten. Before long, Tyson would be in prison, serving a sentence for a rape.

Once released, Tyson returned to boxing; something which boxing enthusiasts and gawkers alike had looked forward to. Tyson regained a title belt soon – but then he faced Evander Holyfield and was stopped in his tracks in the 11th round. In a rematch of the bout, Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear, a now infamous event. Tyson was disqualified, naturally. Since then there have been some comebacks and some crushing defeats, such as his loss to Lennox Lewis and Tyson is widely viewed as an athlete who has lost his drive and is merely desperate for money.

Mike Tyson Today

Tyson is more famous now for his facial tattoos and his many arrests and stints in rehab clinics. There is still talk now and again of a Tyson comeback and the boxer has expressed remorse for his actions both publicly and privately. He seems to still be finding his way in the world – it is still far too early to say what may lie in Tyson’s future.

One of the greatest players ever to step up to the green, Arnold Palmer was born in Latrobe, PA – a city which is justifiably proud of its most famous native son. Ever since his first major tournament win all the way back in 1955, Palmer has been one of the biggest names in golf – many fans refer to him as “The King”. Along with Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus, Palmer is one of the Big Three names in the golf world. Palmer’s playing was in large part responsible for the increased interest in golf as a spectator sport once games began to be televised in the 1950s.

Arnold began early, having learned his love for the game from his father, Deacon; a greens keeper at the Latrobe Country Club. At the tender age of seven, Palmer scored a 70 at the nearby Bent Creek Country Club, an impressive achievement, especially considering his age. Palmer cut his teeth in the game on the then only nine hole Latrobe Country Club course, on which he was allowed to play early in the morning and late in the afternoon when members did not have tee times scheduled.

He attended the popular Wake Forest University appropriately on a golf scholarship and served for three years in the Coast Guard. During this time, while continuing to develop his golf skills, he married Winifred Walker who he met while playing in a Pennsylvania golf tourney. During his rookie season, he won the Canadian Open and surged ahead with personality and business ideas that made golf a sport people became interested in and wanted to watch-many people give Palmer the credit for the sport becoming so popular.

He won his first major championship at the 1958 Masters and by 1960, he claimed his title as one of golf’s leading stars. Signing with sports agent Mark McCormack, in 1960, McCormack was asked in later years what made Arnold so special. He replied, “his good looks, his modest background, the way he played golf, his risk taking and wearing his heart on his sleeve, and his involvement in so many exciting early televised finishes.” Palmer was one the first US player to win The Open Championship in England-Ben Hogan won it in 1953; making Arnold an international star in the eyes of golf fans everywhere. Arnold won seven major championships including The Masters in 1958, 1960, 1962, and 1964; the US Open in 1960; and, The Open Championship in 1961 and 1962. His best years were perhaps 1960-1963 where he championed 29 PGA Tour events in just four seasons.

In 1960, Arnold was named Sports Illustrated top pro athlete of the year and he won the Sportsman of the Year award. His fans, known as “Arnie’s Army,” cheered when their Arnie became the first man to reach one million dollars in career earnings in 1967. Even with pros like Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player playing alongside him, Arnold managed to win a PGA Tour every year all the way up to 1970 and in 1971 he enjoyed a rejuvenation of his career winning four events.

Arnold won the Vardon Trophy for low score average four different times and played on six Ryder Cup teams. By 1980, the acclaimed golfer was eligible for the Senior PGA Tour and with his name alone, helped make the tour successful. The tourney would eventually be renamed as the Champions Tour. On the Senior Tour he won ten events on the tour and with the help of his agent McCormack, Palmer became tops in pay for endorsements, sponsorships, and charity events. He has also won the revered Presidential Medal of Freedom Award presented to him by George W. Bush.

In 2004, Arnold played in The Masters for the last time-his 50th consecutive appearance and when he missed the cut at the 2005 US Senior Open, he then announced he would not play any further senior majors, retiring from golf in 2006. To the delight of Arnie’s Army, one of his most memorable events was during the 2004 Bay Hill Invitational where standing over 200 yards from the 18th green, he lashed his second shot onto the green with a driver. Even Arnold smiled and celebrated the moment along with his grandson/caddie, Sam Saunders.

Arnold Palmer remains active in the golf world, being involved in the Bay Hill Club and Lodge (which is where the Arnolf Palmer Invitational is held), being one of the driving forces behind the Golf Channel and assisting in the building of one of China’s first golf courses. Palmer also started the Arnold Palmer Design Company and since 1971, he has been owner of the Latrobe Country Club where he got his first taste of the game. Golf Digest ranked Palmer as one of the top ten players of all time and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and a winner of the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award (which he won in 1988). Palmer lives in Orlando, Florida where he still enjoys getting in a round of golf – and being an ambassador for the game of golf to the world.

The success of Barry Bonds’ baseball career was really just the beginning of a story that may eventually overshadow his achievements. As an outfielder, Bonds racked up four MVP awards, each one of them in consecutive years. He was a player in the 2007 World Series, and has become one of the most well known baseball players of his time. In 2006, he was busy slugging homeruns and passed Ruth and Aaron to land in first place for the most homers of any ball player.

Sadly, there may be an asterisk next to all of these records. Bonds has admitted to steroid usage (although he denies having willingly or knowingly taken the drug), something which was long rumored. Bonds did not exactly have a rapport with the fans, despite his performance on the diamond. Many hated him and he gladly returned the favor. Bonds burned so many bridges that no team was willing to sign him on for the 2008 season (and he has no contracts lined up for the 2009 season at the time of this writing), despite his holding the record for career home runs at 762 and most home runs in a single season at 73.

With an accomplished career and his financial security already assured, Bonds became a target of investigation in connection to the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative case and was charged with perjury for having lied about his steroid use.

This has cast a pall over his entire career. Fans questioned the validity of his MVP awards and his achievements within the game – and the league itself has also expressed concern. Achievements which came through the use of steroids, the reasoning goes, are not to be valued as highly as those accomplished solely through an athlete’s natural faculties.

This overshadowed an impressive baseball career that started out in high school. As he was finishing his final term in high school, Bonds was approached by the Giants. As he finished his high school career, the negotiations between Bonds and the Giants were not going as well as projected, and college seemed like a better choice. He continued to play baseball in college and excelled during this time, including seven consecutive hits during the College World Series. He was then named the All American selection that year by Sporting News.

Barry Bonds is still facing obstruction of justice charges that will not be heard in court until March of 2009. The federal prosecutor had submitted paperwork with a typo, alleging that the steroid use, which Bonds still argues he did not take knowingly, was tested for, and found positive in 2001 rather than the year 2000. This year makes a difference due to testing laws that were not implemented until a later date.

Bonds has been spending his time away from the diamond by working with children’s hospitals, a public service which has comforted many sick and even terminally ill children. Bonds holds an honorary chairmanship from the Macy’s Tree Lighting committee – this committee raises money for UCSF Children’s Hospital Palliative Care Program, a children’s hospice.

Born February 5, 1985, winger Cristiano Ronaldo of the English Premier League club Manchester United signed a $21.24 million contract in 2003 at the age of 18. In that year he was given his first cap while he played for the Portuguese. Cristiano went to the final of the UEFA Euro in 2004, where he delighted his fans when he scored the first international goal of his career.

Christiano Ronaldo was a big scorer in both the club and international scenes in the 2006-2007 season. His also got his first Premier League title and became that league’s best scorer for the season. The next year, Ronaldo he became the FIFPro World Player of the Year and was honored with the Ballon d’Or award. The young man’s career was heading into the stars already.

Maria Dolores dos Santos Averio and Jose Dinis Averiogave named Christiano “Ronaldo” after then-United States President Ronald Regan–but it wasn’t for his leadership skills, rather it was for his acting skills which made him his father’s favorite actor. Ronaldo also has two older sisters and a younger brother.

His early career began at the age of only eight where he played for the amateur team C.F. Andorinha-in 1995, Cristiano signed with CD Nacional, a local club. Overjoyed with his success, the Sporting CP club signed him after a three-day trial run; the amount of the signing has never been released. At the Sporting CP in Portugal, Ronaldo trained at the Alcochete, a footballer’s academy and was the only player ever to play for Sporting’s U-16, U-17, U-18 and B-team. In 2003, the Manchester United players begged for Sir Alex Ferguson to sign him-and so became a footballer and fan favorite.

The first Portuguese player ever to sign with an English team, Cristiano now found himself backed by a talented club. But, he didn’t want the #7 that was so tied in with David Beckham and Eric Cantona; instead, wanting to be his own man, Cristiano took #23. In a 4-0 win over the Bolton Wanderers that year, Cristiano made his club debut in the 60th minute. Then in October of 2005, Christiano scored United’s 1,000th Premier League goal. Fans gave him the vote to take part in his first-ever FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year awards.

In 2006, Ronaldo attained consecutive Barclays Player of the Month awards, only the third player in history to do this since Dennis Bergkamp in 1997 and Robbie Fowler in 1996. Cristiano’s 50th career goal with Manchester United came against rivals Manchester City F.C. when they claimed their first Premier League title in just four years. Again, Ronaldo was voted the FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year Award and thought it looked like he might switch forces to play with the Real Madrids, he signed with United in April of 2006 for a cool $31 million a year-he became the highest player in United’s history.

In the 2006-07 season, Cristiano received three top honors including the PFA Players’ Player of the Year, the PFA Young Player of the Year, and the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year. The mischievous Cristiano was banned for three matches in the 2007-08 season but claimed his lesson was learned and he would not let rival team members rattle his performance in the future. In March of 2008, he became team Captain for United and outshined George Best’s forty-year old record of scoring 32 goals in the 1967-68 season; Cristiano scored thirty-five.

Just as it seemed Cristiano might head for the Real Madrid team, he remained committed to United for another year. Scoring is 100th and 101st goals in United’s 5-0 win over Stroke City in November, it seemed Ronaldo was headed for greatness, something most footballers only dream of. To end his season, Ronald accepted Manchester United’s first Ballon d’Or award since George Best won it in 1968. The magnificent Ronaldo finished his season with 446 points-quite the accomplishment for such a young player. We await the 2008-09 season to see more ways Cristiano will wow his fans all over the world.

As sad as it is, it’s time to say goodbye to the old Shea Stadium after 44 years of sports memories for all of us. It hardly seems possible that the Mets were an expansion team all these years after their cross-town American League rivals first took the field. It’s also hard to remember the stadium being called the Flushing Meadow Park Municipal Stadium, but that’s what it called until a movement was launched to name it in honor of William Shea.

Through the years Shea Stadium has been the home to some of the greatest baseball players ever to pick up a bat. Players like Duke Snider, Nolan Ryan, Warren Spahn, Tom Seaver, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel, Richie Ashburn, and Gary Carter who all became heroes in the baseball Hall of Fame. And who can forget the entertaining players like Lenny “Nails” Dykstra and Gil Hodges who just toughed it out on a daily basis?

There’s been good times and bad, ugly and outrageous, but at the end of the day, they are all great memories intertwined with the stadium’s history. We watched Dwight Gooden and Daryl Strawberry take the Mets to a World Series win over the Boston Red Sox in 1986. Unfortunately, the fame took its toll as both players spent the rest of their careers dealing with drug issues and other problems.

We saw them win their first Championship in 1969 with the Miracle Mets when no one really knew of a young man on the roster who would spend the next 27 years striking out 5,714 batters. In fact there were so many historic moments throughout the history of Shea Stadium we could literally write a book about it. However, when it’s all said and done, the stadium may be gone as a new chapter begins, but the memories will live in the hearts of Mets fans around the world for eternity.

When the world was stunned by the news of the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Shea Stadium became a relief center for supplies, food, and a place for the victims to stay. Who can forget the first game after that fateful day when the Mets helped to heal the city? For New Yorkers, it was one of the most inspiring nights ever in baseball history. Thousands of fans packed the stadium to watch as the Mets took on the Atlanta Braves. Before the game started the rescue workers were honored and Diana Ross sang God Bless America. It was a very moving experience as the two teams shook hands, united in the face of the tragedy that shook the world. Yes, our Shea Stadium is like no other. May we always remember and look with anticipation to 50 more years of baseball history.

Getting the trip is something that you wait for each year. Finding a location to take your trip can be extraordinarily expensive when you append the transportation housing values, food charges, as well as doings.

While you are paying out all of that cash you want to be sure that you are taking what you are looking for. Vacation Rentals would be an actually incredible method for you to depart your next holiday journey.

Vacation rentals are really a furnished piece of property that you can rent. This is a really great alternative to a traditional hotel stay. In Europe it has been common for years to use a vacation rental for holiday lodging.

Vacation rentals could be a condo, town home, or even a single family home. It really relies on the personal home as to what kind of vacation rental you could get. No matter what kind it is it will always come wholly supplied with all of the furniture and amenities that you would want .

To reserve a vacation rental you will usually reserve it through the particular phase of time. Frequently it is reserved for a week at a time. Nonetheless, sometimes you are able to rent the certain property on a nightly basis.

Dance is a very creative form of art. When looking for a dance school for your child you should choose a dance school that encourages creativity. When a student is passionate about dancing they can be creative and it will make them a great performer.

A child sometimes uses dancing as a way of expressing themselves and they need a school that helps them to be creative. This is an art form that is in itself a creative form of art.

There are many ways that a teaching organization can promote creativity:

Games: The teacher can create a lesson that would make students enjoy dancing. Games can often make dancing very enjoyable and at the same time the students will learn something from it. Students would look forward to lessons when they include games and enjoy learning many new skills.

Competitions: a little competition is good because it gives the students an incentive to learn more and perfect their skills. This needs to be low keyed with an element of fun mixed into the competition. It is up to the creativity of the teacher to make sure that this does not stress the young students and everybody is a winner.

Acting: acting in the form of mime is an integral part of dance. In fact mime is how a dance can tell a story or show emotion. Mime is a special form of acting that young children especially enjoy. When they learn how to do this they will bring out creativity in their dancing.

If you want to help your child to be a better dancer they need to be creative.

Motivation: learning this way is a strong way to motivate the students and keep them on task. Sometimes small children need motivation and incentives to keep focused and on task. This helps them to learn more at a faster rate.

Concentration: young children can have a short span in concentration and that’s why they need different learning methods to keep them focused. Concentration is important to help them to learn and remember what they have learned.

Stopping boredom: Another problem with younger students is that they are easily bored. Bringing a good selection of different ways to learn will prevent this from happening and result in them learning more. When their interest is kept alive they will look forward to their dance lessons.

To ensure that this creativity is part of the dance school curriculum it is good to meet the teachers of any dance school that you are proposing to send your child to. By meeting them and looking over the school curriculum you can see what sort of creativity is being used by these teachers. You can bring your child as well to see how they react to them. It is good for your child to meet the teacher they will be working with.