<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title>Sports – New Orleans' Multicultural News Source | The Louisiana Weekly</title> <atom:link href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/category/sports/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com</link> <description></description> <lastBuildDate>Mon, 10 Mar 2025 16:35:10 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.33</generator> <item> <title>Funding secured for 9th Ward stadium building</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funding-secured-for-9th-ward-stadium-building/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funding-secured-for-9th-ward-stadium-building/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 03 Oct 2022 16:17:22 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Top News]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=72032</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Ryan Whirty Contributing Writer After years of inaction and funding issues, the prospect of a publicly-accessible stadium in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward is finally<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funding-secured-for-9th-ward-stadium-building/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Ffunding-secured-for-9th-ward-stadium-building%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funding-secured-for-9th-ward-stadium-building/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funding-secured-for-9th-ward-stadium-building/" data-text="Funding secured for 9th Ward stadium building" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funding-secured-for-9th-ward-stadium-building/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funding-secured-for-9th-ward-stadium-building/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Ryan Whirty</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p>After years of inaction and funding issues, the prospect of a publicly-accessible stadium in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward is finally nearing a reality.<span id="more-72032"></span></p> <p>Buffeted by the efforts of a community grass-roots team, a nonprofit called the 9th Ward Stadium project, that picked up the fumbled project and has dashed toward the proverbial “end zone,” multiple government officials have secured desperately needed funding for an athletic enterprise that began after Hurricane Katrina.</p> <p>On Sept. 7, U.S. Rep Troy Carter announced that he had secured $3 million from the 2022 Congressional appropriations bill. By establishing the Ninth Ward stadium effort as a federally recognized Community Funding Project, the Carter-procured appropriation is fully a third of the estimated $9 million price tag for the stadium project.</p> <p>Carter said the stadium, which would be constructed on a currently-vacant lot next to George Washington Carver High School, can not only be an anchor for the Ninth Ward community, but also a place where area residents can gather for recreation and sports opportunities that to a large extent have previously been absent for the neighborhood.</p> <p>“For too long, the 9th Ward hasn’t had their own gathering spot to compete, to watch your children play, and simply share a joyous moment on the field with family and friends,” Carter said. “This is a historic moment for this community and for all of New Orleans.”</p> <p>In addition to the federal funding, the stadium effort also recently received a $3.8-million commitment from the Louisiana Legislature, which appropriated the state funding through its Capital Outlay Program.</p> <p>State Sen. Joseph Bouie Jr., who helped secure the $3.8 million from Baton Rouge, said the stadium would provide a shot of morale for the area, as well as a driver of economic development.</p> <p>“Just the project itself will be a phenomenal addition as an asset for the Ninth Ward and Carver in particular,” Bouie said. “It can provide a sense of pride and psychological identification [for residents], and it can be a catalyst for community interaction.”</p> <p>Bouie said he hopes the local community, especially the people of color who live in the heavily Black Ninth Ward, can now come together to provide additional funding and labor as the facility is built and then operated.</p> <p>He added that the venue could not only host high-school football, but also other athletic and recreation events and educational youth programming. “It will be a wonderful opportunity for the Ninth Ward,” Bouie said.</p> <p>New Orleans City Councilman for District E Oliver Thomas said that in addition to providing Ninth Ward families and youth with a source of athletic and recreation events and programs, the proposed stadium will also have ancillary benefits to the community, such as increased property values and an enhanced identity for Carver High School.</p> <p>“If there ever was a field of dreams, this would be a field of dreams for that area,” Thomas said. “When people see such an investment in building projects, it can give them a level of hope and optimism that’s badly needed in this city.”</p> <p>Thomas, whose district includes the Ninth Ward, said it’s been a long wait since the idea of a public stadium in the Ninth Ward was floated a decade and a half ago, but the efforts of a dedicated bunch of community advocates seem to finally be making headway, and he credited Carter with shouldering the burden of securing federal funding.</p> <p>“It’s tremendous,” he said. “The congressman has been doing everything he can do ever since [the project] was first talked about, to the point where now [the project] can be realized. It makes us feel good, especially those of us in the Ninth Ward.”</p> <p>Efforts continue to raise funds to obtain the remaining estimated $2.2 million to complete construction, a mission being carried out by the 9th Ward Stadium Project organization. 9th Ward Stadium Project board chairman Arnie Fielkow said the work of Carter, state representatives and City Councilmembers to garner funding for the long-gestating project represent a synergetic group effort.</p> <p>“It’s truly an unprecedented partnership of federal, state and local governments,” Fielkow said.</p> <p>Fielkow added that the project board is close to announcing a further $1 million donation from another funding source, cutting the money gap down to about $1.5 million, which he said will hopefully be secured by the end of the year.</p> <p>If that goal can be achieved, he added, board members and community supporters will target fall 2024 for a grand opening of the facility. Fielkow said the project board is planning to hold a series of community meetings in 2023 to provide progress updates and solicit suggestions from residents and advocates.</p> <p>“It’s been a labor of love for all of us,” he said, adding that stadium supporters “are nearing the goal line.”</p> <p>Fielkow expressed thoughts similar to other supporters in terms of how beneficial a publicly-accessible stadium in the Ninth Ward might be.</p> <p>“By being able to build something like this, we hope it can help youth problems, reducing crime and [spurring] economic development,” he said. “It will be a win-win for everyone.”</p> <p>Carter said that when completed, the stadium will help bring the Ninth Ward, the surrounding area and to the people who live there, especially youth, a venue through which they can improve their lives and neighborhood. He added that such new enthusiasm will extend beyond the playing field and into the whole community.</p> <p>“Communities have always gathered around competition,” Carter said. “Youth sports teach discipline, teamwork, and competition. Uniting through play binds not only a team together, but this unification ripples throughout the community and can carry over to other parts of life and encourage further positive activities.”</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the October 3, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funding-secured-for-9th-ward-stadium-building/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Dr. Kiki Baker Barnes first Black woman named commissioner of Gulf Coast Athletic Conference</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/dr-kiki-baker-barnes-first-black-woman-named-commissioner-of-gulf-coast-athletic-conference/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/dr-kiki-baker-barnes-first-black-woman-named-commissioner-of-gulf-coast-athletic-conference/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 04 Apr 2022 16:07:59 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=66862</guid> <description><![CDATA[The Louisiana Weekly Staff report – Dillard University’s Dr. Kiki Baker Barnes has been named commissioner of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC), becoming the<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/dr-kiki-baker-barnes-first-black-woman-named-commissioner-of-gulf-coast-athletic-conference/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Fdr-kiki-baker-barnes-first-black-woman-named-commissioner-of-gulf-coast-athletic-conference%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/dr-kiki-baker-barnes-first-black-woman-named-commissioner-of-gulf-coast-athletic-conference/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/dr-kiki-baker-barnes-first-black-woman-named-commissioner-of-gulf-coast-athletic-conference/" data-text="Dr. Kiki Baker Barnes first Black woman named commissioner of Gulf Coast Athletic Conference" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/dr-kiki-baker-barnes-first-black-woman-named-commissioner-of-gulf-coast-athletic-conference/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/dr-kiki-baker-barnes-first-black-woman-named-commissioner-of-gulf-coast-athletic-conference/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>The Louisiana Weekly</strong> Staff report – Dillard University’s Dr. Kiki Baker Barnes has been named commissioner of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC), becoming the first African-American woman to lead that organization. <span id="more-66862"></span></p> <p>For the last 16 years, Barnes has led Dillard University’s athletic program – serving as the only female athletic director in Louisiana. She will pivot from her role at Dillard at the end of this academic year to step into the commissioner role full-time bringing with her more than two decades of sports and executive leadership experience.</p> <p>Barnes, a resident of New Orleans and native of Minden, La., said, “I am looking forward to collaborating with the GCAC Council of Presidents and the conference’s athletic directors to grow the only HBCU conference in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).”<a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/dr-kiki-baker-barnes-first-black-woman-named-commissioner-of-gulf-coast-athletic-conference/kiki-baker-barnes-040422/" rel="attachment wp-att-66894"><img src="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Kiki-Baker-Barnes-040422-208x300.jpg" alt="Kiki-Baker-Barnes-040422" width="208" height="300" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-66894" /></a></p> <p>GCAC was established in 1981 and is currently composed of HBCUs from Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. In 2019, the GCAC appointed Barnes to serve as interim commissioner on a part-time basis while she maintained her full-time commitment to Dillard’s athletic program.</p> <p>During her time in the interim commissioner post, Barnes worked to increase the conference’s membership and oversaw the return of championships in various sports. This year, GCAC plans to expand its membership under Barnes’ leadership with the addition of eight teams, including Oakwood University in Alabama, Wiley College in Texas, and Southern University at New Orleans, which is returning to the conference.</p> <p>Barnes’ appointment to the GCAC indicates one of several times the sports executive has ascended to new heights for women and African Americans in sports.</p> <p>Dr. Roderick L. Smothers Sr., chairman of the GCAC and president of Philander Smith University, said Barnes’ appointment was a cause for celebration. “She made history as the first female and Black president of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference and as the first Black woman commissioner in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Now, as she assumes the helm of the GCAC full-time and permanently, I have the utmost faith that, as commissioner, she will impeccably steer the conference to new heights and remain a trailblazer in collegiate sports.”</p> <p>Dillard University President Dr. Walter Kimbrough said, “Kiki has stepped in time and time again to lead GCAC when asked to. It is only fitting to have her fully take over the conference and build it into a national model for NAIA. We are getting an experienced AD who has national prominence in athletics. She will be able to take lessons learned at Dillard and help many schools build their athletic programs.”</p> <p>During her time at Dillard, Barnes was a driving force in re-establishing the university’s athletics program following hurricane Katrina and beyond. Amongst her leadership contributions, she said she facilitated the return of the university’s athletic program, transformed the athletic program into a national model of student-athlete success and community service, established new sports teams and oversaw the founding of the university’s first endowed athletic scholarship.</p> <p>Barnes also mentors and educates the next generation of women in sports through her organization, So You Want a Career in Athletics.™</p> <p>“I am honored to have earned the trust and confidence of my colleagues for the purpose of leading the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference into the future. My commitment is to bring creative vision, excellence, direction, and strong partnerships that will advance the conference and the competitive landscape for our student-athletes,” said Barnes. “As I embrace this new opportunity, I am especially grateful to my colleagues, staff, and student-athletes at Dillard University for our collective work in rising from adversity to winning championships and becoming a national model of student-athlete success.”</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the April 4, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/dr-kiki-baker-barnes-first-black-woman-named-commissioner-of-gulf-coast-athletic-conference/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>NFL announces first HBCU Scouting Combine set for this month</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-announces-first-hbcu-scouting-combine-set-for-this-month/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-announces-first-hbcu-scouting-combine-set-for-this-month/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2020 17:07:10 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[National]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=34081</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Brianna Nargiso Contributing Writer (TriceEdneyWire.com) — The National Football League (NFL) has announced they would be hosting their first Historically Black Colleges and Universities<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-announces-first-hbcu-scouting-combine-set-for-this-month/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Fnfl-announces-first-hbcu-scouting-combine-set-for-this-month%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-announces-first-hbcu-scouting-combine-set-for-this-month/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-announces-first-hbcu-scouting-combine-set-for-this-month/" data-text="NFL announces first HBCU Scouting Combine set for this month" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-announces-first-hbcu-scouting-combine-set-for-this-month/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-announces-first-hbcu-scouting-combine-set-for-this-month/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Brianna Nargiso</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p><strong>(TriceEdneyWire.com) —</strong> The National Football League (NFL) has announced they would be hosting their first Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) scouting combine in March offering exposure to NFL prospects who are eligible for the draft but were not formally invited to the annual Scouting Combine.</p> <p>The HBCU combine, announced Feb. 13, is the NFL’s “intentional” initiative to bring professional opportunities to students of color. These opportunities are not exclusive to NFL draft pick slots but are available to students seeking off the field career opportunities, according to reports.</p> <p>The combine this year will be a part of the two new NFL combine series introduced this year, the Regional Combine Invitational and the HBCU Combine. Both combines will be held from March 27-29 at the Miami Dolphins’ Baptist Health Training Facility.</p> <p>Per the NFL website, the NFL’s partnership with HBCUs works to celebrate history, increase opportunities and “provide access to the business of sport and equips HBCU students with the skills needed to work in professional football administration.”</p> <p>On Friday, March 27 the HBCU Combine will host measurements and interviews with players while on-field workouts will be held on Saturday, March 28.</p> <p>According to Troy Vincent, former player and vice president of football operations for the NFL, “We’re working together to honor the rich history and provide opportunities to students and administrators from these great institutions.”</p> <p>Vincent also said during the combine, “HBCU athletes will experience a world-class on-field evaluation of their talent by NFL scouts. In addition, NFL Legends and club personnel will network with 2020 Draft prospects and drive awareness of opportunities to be involved in professional football beyond the playing field.”</p> <p>There is no minimum or maximum number of athletes that will be invited per university. Invitations will be consistent with normal combine invite strategies, including compiling recommendations through NFL club scouts, coaches and league personnel.</p> <p>Invitations to the combine are expected to go out to athletes this week.</p> <p>The 2020 HBCU combine is the newest initiative made by the NFL to connect HBCU students with professional opportunities.</p> <p>In 2016, The NFL partnered with two HBCU football conferences, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and has now extended partnership to two more conferences. They are the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA).</p> <p>“NFL Legends and club personnel will network with 2020 Draft prospects and drive awareness of opportunities to be involved in professional football beyond the playing field,” said Vincent.</p> <p>Previously, in partnership with several HBCUs across the country, the NFL has hosted a national HBCU Careers in Football forum, an HBCU campus connection program, the NFL Rhoden Fellows program for student sports reporters, the HBCU battle of the brains competition and an Advocacy in Sports workshop.</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the March 9, 2020 print edition of <em>The Louisiana Weekly</em> newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-announces-first-hbcu-scouting-combine-set-for-this-month/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>The rivalry: A look back in time</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/the-rivalry-a-look-back-in-time/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/the-rivalry-a-look-back-in-time/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 20 Nov 2017 17:27:06 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=27018</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Ryan Whirty Contributing Writer The annual Grambling-Southern football clash has become — after decades of triumph and tribulation, challenges and successes —arguably the premier<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/the-rivalry-a-look-back-in-time/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Fthe-rivalry-a-look-back-in-time%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/the-rivalry-a-look-back-in-time/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/the-rivalry-a-look-back-in-time/" data-text="The rivalry: A look back in time" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/the-rivalry-a-look-back-in-time/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/the-rivalry-a-look-back-in-time/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/42nd-annual-bayou-classic-set-to-kick-off-november-28/bayou-classic-photo-112315/" rel="attachment wp-att-20424"><img src="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Bayou-Classic-photo-112315-300x168.jpg" alt="Bayou-Classic-photo-112315" width="600" height="336" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-20424" srcset="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Bayou-Classic-photo-112315-300x168.jpg 300w, http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Bayou-Classic-photo-112315.jpg 453w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a></p> <p><strong>By Ryan Whirty</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p>The annual Grambling-Southern football clash has become — after decades of triumph and tribulation, challenges and successes —arguably the premier HBCU athletic event in America.</p> <p>That’s because it’s now known as the Bayou Classic, a week-long smorgasbord of festivities that brings tens of thousands of fans from across the country and feeds millions of tourist dollars into the local New Orleans economy. It’s broadcast nationally on NBC, and national media representatives descend on the Crescent City to cover the extravaganza.</p> <p>As a result, the Grambling-Southern — and the Bayou Classic title — has entered the mainstream national sports consciousness. College football fans of all ethnicities and backgrounds know how big — and how important — the game is.</p> <p>But the modern celebration belies much of the early history of the annual rivalry game. While the Bayou Classic proper was instituted in 1974, the two proud HBCUs had battled on the gridiron long before that.</p> <p>“I think most modern fans take the Bayou Classic at face value and simply can’t process the thought that the Grambling-Southern rivalry goes back as far as the 1930s,” said Kenn Rashad, editor of HBCU Sports Web site. “For younger fans, the Bayou Classic in its current form is all they know. All they know is the game is played at the Superdome in New Orleans on Thanksgiving weekend. Considering the fact that the game has been played in New Orleans since 1974, it’s kinda understandable that the younger folks would feel that way.”</p> <p>And those early games — especially, for example, the very first one — were not much more than a footnote on the state’s and country’s sports pages. Beginning with the very first contest in Monroe, La., in 1932, the initial decades of Grambling-Southern rivalry in many ways embodied Louisiana’s, and the entire South’s, rigid Jim Crow system of oppressive segregation.</p> <p>As state schools, Grambling and Southern were theoretically entitled to (separate) but equal funding, facilities and support as Louisiana’s bigger, segregated schools like LSU.</p> <p>But the ideal of equity ordered by the landmark Plessy V. Ferguson case in 1896 wasn’t just a mirage for the state’s Black community. It was a cruel joke, one that created a very separate but unequal educational and athletic reality.</p> <p>While schools like LSU lavished their football teams with funding and facilities and promotion, Grambling (known at that time as the Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute) and Southern (whose unfortunate nickname was the Bushmen) were forced to accept scraps from the state. That harsh truth applied to the very first Grambling-Southern clash in 1932.</p> <p>“There was virtually no state funding,” says Tom Aiello, author of The Bayou Classic: The Grambling-Southern football Rivalry. “Normal students brought their own equipment, their own musical instruments if they were part of the band. Southern had more resources, but they paled in comparison to that of their white counterparts. They were given little if any attention by the powers that be.”</p> <p>Still, the two squads made due, Aiello says. Southern at the time played its home games in places like Shreveport and Monroe instead of its Scotlandville campus, while Grambling didn’t even have a proper football field.</p> <p>So in Nov. 1932, the two clubs met at Casino Park in Monroe, home to the legendary Negro Leagues team, the Monarchs, who had just come off a Negro Southern League championship and a “world series” with the Pittsburgh Crawfords.</p> <p>Casino Park was thus a well-known athletic facility and, while Southern and Grambling were still growing as universities, the schools’ football programs had already gained a significant following, Aiello says. That made for a fairly well attended first showdown between the schools.</p> <p>Unfortunately, those who did attend the game didn’t get to see much quality football — Grambling team was in just its fifth year of existence, while Southern had already developed into a significant football power. The Jaguars — or the Bushmen — dominated the meeting, 20-0, with the Tigers playing an understandably sloppy game.</p> <p>Southern went on to win 12 of the first 13 clashes between the programs as the schools eventually played at alternating home fields — the first edition that took place at Grambling in 1936, and the 1938 edition took place in Ruston.</p> <p>The embryonic pigskin rivalry didn’t happen every year — no game was played during World War II, for example, and there was a decade long gap in the 1950s — but the squads gradually raised their profiles in the state and across the country.</p> <p>Their rivalry followed suit, especially among the African American community north of New Orleans, a population that, at the time, didn’t have many top-level athletic teams or events for Black fans. </p> <p>Even though Southern was the big, established power and Normal was the new school up north,” Aiello says, “they were the two public ag schools in the state, and they developed a large following, as did the game itself. New Orleans, where there is a legitimate cluster of HBCUs, was like a foreign country for most in Scotlandville or Grambling.”</p> <p>New Orleans, however, was a different story. In the years before the launch of the Bayou Classic, the Southern-Gambling game just didn’t generate much interest in the Crescent City, especially in the white community and mainstream newspapers of the day. The city already had existing HBCUs, like Dillard and Xavier, who had their own athletic programs, which took up much of the attention in the Big Easy.</p> <p>That would, of course, change.</p> <p>The last pre-Bayou Classic game took place in Shreveport in 1973 with a 19-14 Grambling triumph. By that time, the Jags held a 15-10 advantage in the series. The annual battle would eventually blossom into the Bayou Classic we know today.</p> <p>Because of all of these historical factors — lack of funding, economics, segregation, lack of media coverage and just plain old geographic distance — many modern football fans, including HBCU followers, aren’t aware that the rivalry stretches back before 1974, way back to a time when Jim Crow ruled the state, the Great Depression racked the economy, and HBCU sports were decades away from entering mainstream consciousness.</p> <p>That’s why education and the preservation and passing on of tradition remain so vital to the legacy of HBCU football.</p> <p>“I think it’s extremely important,” Rashad said. “The process of preserving the history and legacy of HBCU football is getting more and more difficult. There appears to be a consistent push from a lot of different forces urging our HBCU administrators to become more mainstream. And that’s mostly due to many simply not appreciating nor willing to embrace the very things that make HBCU football so unique.”</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the November 20, 2017 print edition of <em>The Louisiana Weekly</em> newspaper and has been updated with quotes from Kenn Rashad.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/the-rivalry-a-look-back-in-time/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Ali’s stance on Vietnam War emboldened MLK to oppose conflict</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/alis-stance-on-vietnam-war-emboldened-mlk-to-oppose-conflict/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/alis-stance-on-vietnam-war-emboldened-mlk-to-oppose-conflict/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 15 Jun 2016 23:05:47 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[National]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=22337</guid> <description><![CDATA[By George E. Curry Editor-in-Chief, EmergeNewsOnline.com WASHINGTON — Muhammad Ali’s decision to risk going to jail by opposing the Vietnam War provided Dr. Martin Luther<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/alis-stance-on-vietnam-war-emboldened-mlk-to-oppose-conflict/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Falis-stance-on-vietnam-war-emboldened-mlk-to-oppose-conflict%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/alis-stance-on-vietnam-war-emboldened-mlk-to-oppose-conflict/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/alis-stance-on-vietnam-war-emboldened-mlk-to-oppose-conflict/" data-text="Ali’s stance on Vietnam War emboldened MLK to oppose conflict" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/alis-stance-on-vietnam-war-emboldened-mlk-to-oppose-conflict/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/alis-stance-on-vietnam-war-emboldened-mlk-to-oppose-conflict/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By George E. Curry</strong><br /> <em>Editor-in-Chief</em>, <a href="http://EmergeNewsOnline.com" target="_blank">EmergeNewsOnline.com</a></p> <p>WASHINGTON — Muhammad Ali’s decision to risk going to jail by opposing the Vietnam War provided Dr. Martin Luther King with the strength to come out against the war publicly for the first time, according to the board chairman of King’s old organization.</p> <p>Bernard Lafayette, a longtime Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) field organizer and current board chairman, said in an interview with EmergeNewsOnline.com: “He was the reason Martin Luther King had the courage to come out and take a stand against the war, even though Martin Luther King’s own board was not in favor of it.”</p> <p>He added, “I don’t remember any exact quotes, but Muhammad Ali is the one that pushed Martin Luther King to take a stand.”</p> <p>Ali, who was a global icon in and out of the boxing ring, died June 3 in a hospital in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he had been admitted with respiratory problems. He was 74 years old. A private funeral service will be held Thursday in his hometown of Louisville, Ky. followed by a public memorial on Friday.</p> <p>On April 28, 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted into the U.S. Army, citing religious reasons. He said, “I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong.” Ali, who had converted to Islam three years earlier and changed his name from Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. to Muhammad Ali, was immediately stripped of his heavyweight championship title.</p> <p>He was convicted of draft evasion on June 20, 1967, sentenced to five years in prison, fined $10,000 and banned from boxing for three years. He remained free while his case worked its way through the appeals process. On June 28, 1971, a unanimous Supreme Court overturned his conviction, granting him conscious objector status.<br /> Ali’s standoff with the federal government captured the attention of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the preeminent civil rights leader of that period.</p> <p>Like Ali, he took a stand against the Vietnam War, a position that was opposed by many of his fellow civil rights warriors, including NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins and National Urban League President Whitney Young, Jr.</p> <p>On April 30, 1967 – just two days after Ali refused to take a step forward to be inducted into the Army – King gave a major address against the war at Riverside Church in New York City.</p> <p>“I speak out against this war, not in anger, but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and, above all, with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as the moral example of the world,” King said. “I speak out against this war because I am disappointed with America. And there can be no great disappointment where there is not great love. I am disappointed with our failure to deal positively and forthrightly with the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism. We are presently moving down a dead-end road that can lead to national disaster. America has strayed to the far country of racism and militarism.”</p> <p>While then-president Lyndon B. Johnson objected to King’s opposition to the war, the nation’s first African American president praised Ali for his unpopular stand.<br /> In a statement, President and Mrs. Obama said, “Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it.”</p> <p>They explained, “He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn’t. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.”</p> <p>The former heavyweight champion occupied a special place in Black America. Like Joe Lewis had instilled mass pride in an earlier generation, he did the same for the succeeding generation.</p> <p>The Louisville, Ky. native won a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome and turned pro later that year. On Feb. 25, 1964, Ali scored an upset knockout over Sonny Liston in the sixth round, becoming heavyweight champion. In addition to predicting the round his opponent would fall, Ali provided the most colorful quotes of any boxer before or afterward.</p> <p>“The Louisville Lip,” as he was sometimes known, was famous for saying, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee – his hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see.”</p> <p>After being banned from boxing, Ali returned to the ring against Jerry Quarry in Atlanta on Oct. 26, 1970. Ali knocked him out in the third round.</p> <p>Many of Ali’s fights had catchy titles, most of them supplied by him. His 1971 fight against Joe Frazier was billed as the “Fight of the Century.” He defeated George Foreman in the “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), knocking out Foreman in the eighth round. After splitting two bouts with Joe Frazier, Ali defeated him in 14 rounds in the “Thrilla in Manila.”</p> <p>Ali retired in 1981 with a 56-5 record and the only person to hold the heavyweight championship three times. In 1984, he was diagnosed with Parkinson disease.<br /> Jesse L. Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, said of Ali, “He sacrificed the heart of his career and money and glory for his religious beliefs about a war he thought unnecessary and unjust…He was a champion in the ring, but, more than that, a hero beyond the ring. When champions win, people carry them off the field on their shoulders. When heroes win, people ride on their shoulders. We rode on Muhammad Ali’s shoulders.”</p> <p>Another civil rights leader, Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said: “I believe Muhammad Ali was the greatest athlete of the 20th century. Whether he was the greatest boxer in history may be debated for generations. But none has had a greater impact on American culture and social justice.”<br /> On Twitter, Rev. Al Sharpton, president and founder of the National Action Network, said Ali “was and always will be the greatest.” Sharpton said, “We should all strive to embody the virtues he possessed.”</p> <p>Even Ali’s former opponents had nothing but praise for him.</p> <p>“It’s like a part of me just passed w/him,” George Foreman Tweeted. “It’s hard for me to think about being n a world without Muhammad Ali being alive.”<br /> Bernard Lafayette, the SCLC board chairman, gave two personal examples of Ali’s typical interaction with people he did not know.</p> <p>In 1966, Lafayette had been organizing the Chicago Freedom Movement, which marked the expansion of SCLC’s activities from the South to northern cities. He was preparing to board a flight to Atlanta when he spotted Ali.</p> <p>“I was a complete stranger,” Lafayette recalled. “I recognized him and started talking to him. He said, ‘Where are you sitting?” I told him coach. He said, ‘Give me your boarding pass.’ He took my boarding pass and got me a first-class seat next to him.”<br /> Lafayette said Ali spent most of the flight talking to his wife on the telephone. “When we got off, everybody went wild when they saw him. I just pretended to be his bodyguard so people wouldn’t bother him.”</p> <p>The following year, Lafayette and a friend decided to drop by Ali’s residence in Chicago unannounced.</p> <p>“Paul Brooks and I just rang the door bell,” Lafayette recounted. “A guy came out and we said, ‘We’re here to see the champion.’ He went back and told him we were there to see him. He told us to come on in. We went into his bedroom and Ali was shaving. He finished shaving and talked to us about an hour and a half. Ali loved to talk.”◊</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the June 13, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/alis-stance-on-vietnam-war-emboldened-mlk-to-oppose-conflict/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>NFL still dropping the ball</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-still-dropping-the-ball-2/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-still-dropping-the-ball-2/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 29 Sep 2014 19:29:32 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=15036</guid> <description><![CDATA[By George E. Curry NNPA Columnist NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has finally emerged from his self-imposed witness protection program, held a press conference, and even<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-still-dropping-the-ball-2/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Fnfl-still-dropping-the-ball-2%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-still-dropping-the-ball-2/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-still-dropping-the-ball-2/" data-text="NFL still dropping the ball" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-still-dropping-the-ball-2/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-still-dropping-the-ball-2/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By George E. Curry</strong><br /> <em>NNPA Columnist</em></p> <p>NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has finally emerged from his self-imposed witness protection program, held a press conference, and even attended a football game September 21. Now that Goodell has come out of hiding, it is not clear that the NFL is any closer to getting it right, as he keeps putting it, than it was when it dropped the ball in handling Ray Rice’s indefinite suspension from the league.</p> <p>Goodell’s long overdue news conference proved only that he had his talking points down and would repeat them at every opportunity.</p> <p>“I’m not satisfied with the way we’ve handled it from the get-go. As I told you, and this statement indicates, I made a mistake…”</p> <p>“We acknowledge the mistake, my mistake. And we said we’re going to do better moving forward …”</p> <p>“I let myself down. I let everybody else down. And for that I’m sorry as I mentioned earlier. That’s what we’re going to correct and that’s what we’re going to fix…”</p> <p>Despite a well-scripted news conference, the NFL has not been able to contain some extremely damaging disclosures. ESPN “Outside the Lines” has produced an explosive exposé that undercuts Goodell’s credibility, the very thing he has desperately been trying to restore.</p> <p>Publicly, Goodell has contended that no one in the NFL’s Park Avenue headquarters in New York has seen the devastating video of Ray Rice knocking his then-fiancée out with a powerful left hook, leaving her unconscious. Even if true, that does not mean Baltimore and NFL officials did not know what was on the video tape.</p> <p>Here’s what ESPN had to say: “Ultimately, on April 1, the Revel, under subpoena, provided [Attorney Michael] Diamondstein with a copy, and he received the same copy from prosecutors on April 5. By phone, Diamondstein told [team president Dick] Cass that the video was ‘f—ing horrible’ and that it was clear ‘Ray knocked her the f— out.’ The lawyer advised Cass that the video, if released, would amount to a public relations disaster for the Ravens and for his client.</p> <p>“Cass listened carefully but never asked Diamondstein to provide the Ravens with a copy of the video — nor, for that matter, did anyone from the NFL ask Diamondstein for a copy, several sources say.”</p> <p>Cass and owner Steve Bisciotti claimed they never knew the extent of Rice’s violence.</p> <p>ESPN reported, “Bisciotti and Cass contend that, after the elevator doors closed that morning, they did not have a full picture of what happened until September. ‘It was our understanding based on Ray’s account that in the course of a physical altercation between the two of them he slapped Janay with an open hand, and that she hit her head against the elevator rail or wall as she fell to the ground,’ the Ravens said in a statement Friday afternoon. But sources both affiliated and unaffiliated with the team tell ‘Outside the Lines’ a different story: The Ravens’ head of security, Sanders, heard a detailed description of the inside-elevator scene within hours and shared it with Ravens officials in Baltimore.”</p> <p>Quoting multiple unnamed sources close to Rice, ESPN said the star running back had provided full details of the incident – including knocking his future wife unconscious – to both Goodell and team officials.</p> <p>In fact, ESPN said, “With his wife sitting by his side in a conference room, Rice told Goodell that he hit her and knocked her out, according to four sources.”</p> <p>At the urging of the Ravens, Goodell suspended Rice for only two games. Later, under mounting pressure from women’s groups, the Ravens kicked Rice off the team and Goodell suspended him indefinitely from the NFL.</p> <p>“Bisciotti and the team released a letter to Ravens season-ticket holders contending that the team had not seen the video until the morning of September 8, when TMZ released it to the public, and that they found it ‘violent and horrifying’ and had voted unanimously to release Rice,” ESPN reported.</p> <p>“…Minutes later, Rice’s phone buzzed. He could scarcely believe what he was looking at– back-to-back text messages from Bisciotti. Rice read them aloud so everyone in the room could hear them:</p> <p>Hey Ray, just want to let you know, we loved you as a player, it was great having you here. Hopefully all these things are going to die down. I wish the best for you and Janay.</p> <p>When you’re done with football, I’d like you to know you have a job waiting for you with the Ravens helping young guys getting acclimated to the league.</p> <p>ESPN continued, “Rice was flabbergasted. One minute Bisciotti and the Ravens were essentially calling him a liar, the next Bisciotti was quietly offering him a job.</p> <p>“… Rice told friends he believed Bisciotti was suggesting that, as long as he kept quiet and stuck to the story that he had misled team officials and Goodell about what had happened in the elevator, the Ravens would take care of him down the road. He felt incredibly insulted.”</p> <p>George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine, is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service (NNPA.) He can be reached through his Web site, www.georgecurry.com. You can also follow him at <a href=“www.twitter.com/currygeorge”>www.twitter.com/currygeorge</a> and George E. Curry Fan Page on Facebook.</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the September 29, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nfl-still-dropping-the-ball-2/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Local student Alex Thomas chosen as La. Gatorade Soccer Player of the Year</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/local-student-alex-thomas-chosen-as-la-gatorade-soccer-player-of-the-year/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/local-student-alex-thomas-chosen-as-la-gatorade-soccer-player-of-the-year/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 28 May 2014 03:18:15 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=13631</guid> <description><![CDATA[By April Siese Contributing Writer Benjamin Franklin High School sophomore Alex Thomas has been named the Gatorade Louisiana Girls Soccer Player of the Year. The<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/local-student-alex-thomas-chosen-as-la-gatorade-soccer-player-of-the-year/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Flocal-student-alex-thomas-chosen-as-la-gatorade-soccer-player-of-the-year%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/local-student-alex-thomas-chosen-as-la-gatorade-soccer-player-of-the-year/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/local-student-alex-thomas-chosen-as-la-gatorade-soccer-player-of-the-year/" data-text="Local student Alex Thomas chosen as La. Gatorade Soccer Player of the Year" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/local-student-alex-thomas-chosen-as-la-gatorade-soccer-player-of-the-year/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/local-student-alex-thomas-chosen-as-la-gatorade-soccer-player-of-the-year/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By April Siese</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p>Benjamin Franklin High School sophomore Alex Thomas has been named the Gatorade Louisiana Girls Soccer Player of the Year. The announcement comes amidst media accolades and only adds to Thomas’ ever-growing list of awards. <div id="attachment_13618" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Alex_Thomas-052614.jpg"><img src="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Alex_Thomas-052614-300x217.jpg" alt="Alex Thomas (center) was named Gatorade Louisiana Girls Soccer Player of the Year" width="300" height="217" class="size-medium wp-image-13618" srcset="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Alex_Thomas-052614-300x217.jpg 300w, http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Alex_Thomas-052614-1024x741.jpg 1024w, http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Alex_Thomas-052614-900x652.jpg 900w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Alex Thomas (center) was named Gatorade Louisiana Girls Soccer Player of the Year</p></div></p> <p>Thomas, a sophomore at the school, has already been named Division II Player of the Year by the Louisiana High School Soccer Coaches Association, as well. Her clutch plays were pivotal in propelling the school into the Division II soccer championships, where she scored the winning goal against St. Thomas More.</p> <p>The Falcons have gone undefeated since Thomas joined the team in her freshman year, along with a handful of players that had been on various teams together for years from recreational to club. Thomas got her start when she was eight years old thanks to the many sports classes offered by the Carrollton Boosters, a parent organization that included her first coach, Jeff Jones, now Vice President of the boosters.</p> <p>“Jones was actually more of a softball person. He was a softball coach but also coached soccer,” Thomas’ mom, Erika Mann tells The Louisiana Weekly. “I don’t know if she remembers this but he told her, ‘you are such a great athlete but I think soccer is your sport.’”</p> <p>Though a softball coach herself, Mann has been nothing but supportive of her daughter’s decision to pursue soccer, not least of which because of her commitment to raising awareness of the sport on a local and state level. It was within the Olympic Development Program for girls’ soccer that a fire was lit for her daughter.</p> <p>Thomas and other players from the area were beating teams and consistently making expert plays that were often overlooked by not just competitors but seemingly everyone. Mann frames it as Thomas receiving almost a professional sports death sentence for simply being from Louisiana, something that Thomas was not content to be labeled as, thus the sophomore has already verbally committed to LSU and is even looking to graduate a year early, though a myriad of schools had been in contact.</p> <p>Her decision is meant to inspire other girls who may be feeling that same discrimination just because Louisiana has never been traditionally known as a soccer state. “She wants to represent girls and let them know that there’s a future here if you want it,” Mann says.</p> <p>“It’s a pride thing,” Thomas explains. “I’ve come to realize that we aren’t taken seriously. Students from Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas just weren’t getting credit for anything [in ODT]. After that experience, it changed my entire point of view.”</p> <p>Since then, Thomas has further sharpened her focus on the sport that she loves as well as academically. A stellar student with a 3.98 GPA, Thomas is looking to spend her undergraduate years as a pre-med student, ultimately choosing to pursue anesthesiology.</p> <p>She’s consistently busy with soccer practice, academics, and even volunteer work. Nevertheless, Thomas says she doesn’t feel as if she’s missing out on any of her high school experience. The social aspects of soccer have not only provided her with an opportunity to spend time with some of her best friends but has strengthened her fellow players, turning the Falcons into an even more cohesive team.</p> <p>“Freshman year, we were really good together,” Thomas says of the bond between her and her close friends, “but we were less involved with [socializing with] the team. This year, the whole team has opened up so much. It’s made a huge difference because it’s really important for you to like who you’re playing with and get along well, especially for girls.”</p> <p>That bond and positive attitude has made it just that much easier for Ben Franklin Girls Soccer coach Jose Ferrand who says that Thomas is incredibly humble and dedicated. “She’s really good, very easy to coach. It’s always been a team effort and she contributes so much,” Ferrand says. “If she continues to push herself, even at the college level, she’ll do well.”</p> <p>Thomas is now eligible for the Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year, to be announced by the end of the month.</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the May 26, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/local-student-alex-thomas-chosen-as-la-gatorade-soccer-player-of-the-year/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>2014 target date for long-awaited 9th Ward project</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/2014-target-date-for-long-awaited-9th-ward-project/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/2014-target-date-for-long-awaited-9th-ward-project/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 03 Sep 2013 20:47:34 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Top News]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=11027</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Kari Harden Contributing Writer Golden shovels and all, ground will break next Monday on a vision more than five years in the making: the<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/2014-target-date-for-long-awaited-9th-ward-project/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2F2014-target-date-for-long-awaited-9th-ward-project%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/2014-target-date-for-long-awaited-9th-ward-project/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/2014-target-date-for-long-awaited-9th-ward-project/" data-text="2014 target date for long-awaited 9th Ward project" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/2014-target-date-for-long-awaited-9th-ward-project/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/2014-target-date-for-long-awaited-9th-ward-project/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Kari Harden</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p>Golden shovels and all, ground will break next Monday on a vision more than five years in the making: the 9th Ward Field of Dreams.<span id="more-11027"></span></p> <p>Set to open for the 2014 football season, the $1.85 million project will give the kids at George Washington Carver High School and the surrounding community a football field, Olympic-sized track, lighting system, and stadium seating.</p> <p>Though located on the Carver campus, the state-of-the-art facilities will be open and free of charge to all schools in the city as well as the community.</p> <p>While the project has expanded into a partnership between public, individual and corporate sponsors, the dream started with the arrival of New York-native Brian Bordainick at Carver in 2007. Having just graduated from the University of Georgia, Bordainick came to New Orleans at age 21 as a teacher with Teach for America.</p> <p>Not long into the school year, Bordainick assumed the role of athletic director at Carver when the previous director quit, and started trying to figure out how to run the athletic program that was financially “running on fumes.”</p> <p>In 2008, Bordainick learned about a competitive matching NFL grant to build a new football field – worth up to $200,000. He figured that the worst-case scenario would result in raising a few thousand dollars, which would still go a long way to get basic equipment to the kids.</p> <p>But the entrepreneurial-spirited Bordainick leveraged every source he could think of and won the grant – raising $200,000 in 30 days and just barely making the deadline. Locally and nationally, individuals and businesses heeded the call.</p> <p>Currently Bordainick said they have approximately $1.3 million, and the fundraising effort continues. The Recovery School District, who is the design phase of building a new school at Carver, contributed $200,000 to the Field of Dreams.</p> <p>But the journey to the groundbreaking has not always been an easy one.</p> <p>Throughout the process there have been delays, said Norbert Rome, who serves on both the Field of Dream’s board as well as on the board of the Dr. George Washington Carver Charter School Association, a community-based group that applied multiple times to charter Carver before watching it handed over to Collegiate Academies in 2012.</p> <p>Collegiate Academies now operates three high schools: Sci Academy in eastern New Orleans, G.W. Carver Collegiate Academy, and G.W. Carver Preparatory Academy.</p> <p>While all parties have worked collectively toward the Field of Dreams, Rome and the Carver Charter Association have had a tense history with the RSD and the decision to give the school to Collegiate. Before that, the Association fought the RSD on the proposed closure of the school.</p> <p>The clash between community and charter management operators is not unique to Carver, but Rome said that at least the Carver community has a place at the table with Collegiate. There has been give and take, he said, and the community has fought to participate in every decision they can.</p> <p>As Collegiate Academies moved in, Rome said there were certain things the association would not give up.</p> <p>The Carver name, for instance, was not something they would concede, Rome said. And they were able to convince the administrators who took over the upper grades being phased out not to force the students to walk on a straight line of tape as is common in many of the “no excuses” model charter schools that have infiltrated the city.</p> <p>Rome contrasted the interaction – though often a firefight – with his alma mater, Alcee Fortier, where “Nobody fought – they just came and took the school and nobody said anything.”</p> <p>At least at Carver, there have been a lot of discussions, Rome said.</p> <p>Over the past eight years of “reform” in New Orleans, Bordainick said that he has observed that for outside charter operators, battling out disputes with an engaged community is the much harder path to take.</p> <p>The Field of Dreams process has required all parties to be engaged and to find common ground amid disagreement.</p> <p>“You can’t put a bubble around a school and say ‘We know best,’ and that anyone who argues with you is wrong,” Bordainick said.</p> <p>While he said he sees tremendous progress in many aspects of education, the “holy grail” question of education reform remains elusive. That question, said Bordainick, is “If you have kids, where would you send them to school?” Bordainick said he is still waiting for the day when the majority of policy makers and charter operators are advocating for and running the same schools where they send their own children.</p> <p>“You can’t have a good education system if it’s not a part of the community,” Rome said, and that includes athletics.</p> <p>Rome said that one of the biggest challenges of turning the field from dream to reality was just getting everyone on the same page regarding the construction of the new school. Rome said the two separate projects ultimately came together with a plan in which ideally both will be completed within the next few years.</p> <p>Bordainick said there were obstacles and setbacks he never could have imagined, largely related to permitting and construction issues. Now, he said he is ready to see the field laid down and “get the hell out of the way.” It will be a resounding relief to see the kids on the field, Bordainick said. “I just want it to be there for them.”</p> <p>There’s still a lot of work to be done, Rome said, but the prospect of what the Field of Dreams will bring to the entire community is an exciting one.</p> <p>And the impact goes far beyond sports, Bordainick said.</p> <p>According to the 9th Ward Field of Dreams website:</p> <p>“Our mission is to give New Orleans’ youths a place to learn life’s lessons and play out their dreams, so that they may: Attain educational success; Build a strong character and healthy lifestyle; Live and play in a welcoming environment, unafraid of crime; And embrace the idea that people crazy enough to believe in their own power can overcome any challenge.”</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the September 02, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/2014-target-date-for-long-awaited-9th-ward-project/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Elevate New Orleans sets out to raise the game of youth</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/elevate-new-orleans-sets-out-to-raise-the-game-of-youth/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/elevate-new-orleans-sets-out-to-raise-the-game-of-youth/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jul 2013 19:43:00 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=10262</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Kelly Parker Contributing Writer The days of sports camps focusing solely on athletic development have proven to be behind us. Here at home, ELEVATE<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/elevate-new-orleans-sets-out-to-raise-the-game-of-youth/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Felevate-new-orleans-sets-out-to-raise-the-game-of-youth%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/elevate-new-orleans-sets-out-to-raise-the-game-of-youth/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/elevate-new-orleans-sets-out-to-raise-the-game-of-youth/" data-text="Elevate New Orleans sets out to raise the game of youth" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/elevate-new-orleans-sets-out-to-raise-the-game-of-youth/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/elevate-new-orleans-sets-out-to-raise-the-game-of-youth/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Kelly Parker</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p>The days of sports camps focusing solely on athletic development have proven to be behind us.</p> <p>Here at home, ELEVATE New Orleans provides an enrichment program for select 7th- through 12th-grade student-athletes, through its Elevate Leadership Program provides in a daily mix of athletic, academic and social development activities on an individual and small group basis.<span id="more-10262"></span> The goal for each (ELP) student-athlete is matriculation at a high-performing four-year university. Since 2008, the program has sent 100 percent of alumni to college on partial or full scholarships, helping local youth further their skills on the basketball court, as well as the classroom.</p> <p><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ELEVATE-participants-070113.jpg"><img src="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ELEVATE-participants-070113-300x225.jpg" alt="ELEVATE-participants-070113" width="300" height="225" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-10269" srcset="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ELEVATE-participants-070113-300x225.jpg 300w, http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ELEVATE-participants-070113-1024x768.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>Elevate is the brainchild of former University of Connecticut basketball point guard Sky Hyacinthe, who was inspired after spending time with a group of young athletes in the Ninth Ward, while visiting college teammate Emeka Okafor, former New Orleans Hornets standout.</p> <p>“When I went there I saw kids that needed help with basketball skills, but what I saw was a need for structure, discipline, academic guidance, role models, and foundation to be successful in life, “ Hyacinthe says. “After two weeks of working with these kids and seeing their improvements on the court and in their interactions with me, I knew this was my chance to make that difference I always thought about and I decided to stay. I told (Okafor), ‘This is what I should be doing.’ He looked at the idea, came to visit the kids, and decided to help make the vision a reality.”</p> <p>Along with Okafor, ELEVATE has partnered with Wal-Mart, Chevron, Ben Gordon of the Charlotte Bobcats and Loyola University, just to name a few.</p> <p>“Elevate New Orleans is an exceedingly important program because it focuses on the development of the whole person – as a student, as an athlete, as a contributing community member,” says Kelly Brotzman, Director of Service Learning at Loyola University. “In this way, its mission is a perfect fit for Loyola, which emphasizes the education and formation of college students as whole people – head, heart and hands, as we like to say. Loyola has partnered with Elevate since 2010, and the partnership has grown from one in which Loyola provided volunteer tutors to Elevate’s academic program to one in which our service programs, athletic program, work study program, our library, our honors students, and our on-campus literacy center are all involved in making ongoing contributions to Elevate. I work with a whole lot of nonprofits and youth development programs all over New Orleans, and I don’t know of a program quite like it. It occupies a unique niche because it addresses a unique combination of needs.”</p> <p>ELEVATE recognizes the importance of expanding life skills and opportunities to the whole family. As a result, the organization provides a number of community programs to engage youth of all ages. Elevate provides these life skills to youth through various programs; allowing student athletes to work one on one with former NCAA stars, receive mentorship from successful college graduates and professionals, daily tutoring provided by Loyola university students, healthy lifestyle workshops, Sunday basketball workshops and much more.</p> <p>Nick Guidry was introduced to the program while a student at Holy Cross high school and has been involved with the program ever since. The program appealed to Guidry, now a student at Dillard University, because of the variety of tools it provided for self-development.</p> <p>“When I got introduced to the program, I automatically fell in love with it, because not only was it giving me the chance to improve my basketball skills, but also helping me as a student,” Guidry says. “It gave me that edge over other athletes; I was able to get better tutoring and get help to prepare for my ACT,” he said. </p> <p>The 19 year-old currently works at all of the volunteer camps, helping train the high school and middle school participants, providing the same type of guidance and mentorship he received.</p> <p>“That common bond was there at ELEVATE with the presence of former athletes,” he told The Louisiana Weekly. “It was like I had another brother or sister to discuss life situations with.”</p> <p>If a child is entering the 7th, 8, or 9 grade and would like to have the opportunity of becoming an Elevate student-athlete, sign up on the website: www.elevateusa.org to participate in the Open Run; which takes place Monday, July 29 at 1027 Napoleon Ave. The (Boys Run) is from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and the girls take the court from 7:15 to 8:45 p.m. Enrolled student athletes receive ACT/SAT preparation, life skills workshops, basketball skill development by elite trainers and college application and scholarship assistance and much more. All activities are free of charge.</p> <p>Also, the ELEVATE NEXT basketball camp has sessions taking place July 29 to August 1, and August 5-8. The camp includes daily prizes and competitions, special guests from the 2004 Men’s National Champion University of Connecticut Huskies, sessions with highly regarded basketball coaches and more. Preregistration for a single session is $175 ($190.00 at the door) and $300 for both sessions. Space is limited to 50 participants per session. Preregistration can be done via the Elevate website.</p> <p>Hyacinthe believes pushing student athletes to reach their highest potential is the best game plan; the most talented individuals on the basketball court must be expected to achieve in the classroom, without preferential treatment.</p> <p>“I was a former student athlete, and I saw the way we were treated growing up with academics not being a focus in our development,” he told The Louisiana Weekly. “I knew teachers and administrators just passing athletes along just to make sure that they can stay on the team. I saw coaches going to lobby to teachers for additional grades to get a star athlete eligible. That only sets up the athlete for failure in the future. It doesn’t teach work ethic, accountability, or the sense of responsibility for ones work in the classroom; in actuality, the classroom matters much more than anything you can do in sports. A fraction of individuals have the luxury of calling themselves a professional athlete. The rest have to figure something out to do with our lives. I wanted to do something about this travesty that goes on in our society especially in our inner-city schools.”</p> <p>And in keeping with the motto—Developing Winners for Life—ELP student athletes must maintain a 3.0 GPA.</p> <p><em>For more information on ELEVATE and its summer programs, contact (504) 914-2325, or visit www.elevateusa.org.</em></p> <p><em>This article originally published in the July 1, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/elevate-new-orleans-sets-out-to-raise-the-game-of-youth/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>City’s summer recreation programs dealing with $700,000 cut in federal funding</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/citys-summer-recreation-programs-dealing-with-700000-cut-in-federal-funding/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/citys-summer-recreation-programs-dealing-with-700000-cut-in-federal-funding/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:51:17 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=9981</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Katy Reckdahl thelensnola.org As Mayor Mitch Landrieu cut the ribbon at a refurbished Harrell Stadium, he turned to a group of children at the<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/citys-summer-recreation-programs-dealing-with-700000-cut-in-federal-funding/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Fcitys-summer-recreation-programs-dealing-with-700000-cut-in-federal-funding%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/citys-summer-recreation-programs-dealing-with-700000-cut-in-federal-funding/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/citys-summer-recreation-programs-dealing-with-700000-cut-in-federal-funding/" data-text="City’s summer recreation programs dealing with $700,000 cut in federal funding" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/citys-summer-recreation-programs-dealing-with-700000-cut-in-federal-funding/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/citys-summer-recreation-programs-dealing-with-700000-cut-in-federal-funding/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Katy Reckdahl</strong><br /> <em>thelensnola.org </em></p> <p>As Mayor Mitch Landrieu cut the ribbon at a refurbished Harrell Stadium, he turned to a group of children at the front of the crowd. “Who wants to learn to swim?” he asked.<span id="more-9981"></span></p> <p>Little hands shot up. Landrieu nodded at them. “This is your year,” he said.</p> <p>The mayor’s easy patter with the children at Harrell last month and at the newly refurbished John P. Lyons Memorial Center, where he officially marked the beginning of the city’s summer-recreation program Monday morning, belies some tough decisions the recreation commission made earlier this year to deal with a cut in federal grants.</p> <p>The city’s swimming program lost $700,000 this year in Community Development Block Grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, part of nationwide cuts in such grants.</p> <p>The lost funding caused youth advocates to be concerned that the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission would have to slash services. And it has caused some to wonder if the creation of the public-private commission in 2010 was enough to protect youth recreation in the city.</p> <p>But because the commission made strategic cuts and secured additional private money, officials say they’ll be able to serve about the same number of kids as they did last year.</p> <p>The biggest change is that the pool season will be shortened to eight weeks — June and July — rather than the typical 10 to 12 weeks. Recreation commission head Vic Richard said he made the decision after analyzing two years of data and finding that “the majority of the pools were empty” in the second half of August now that school starts earlier.</p> <p>The commission saved about $100,000 by cutting non-NORD aquatics programs and renegotiating its contract with the American Red Cross, which provides swimming instructors. And a Boh Brothers foundation kicked in $90,000 specifically for aquatics.</p> <p>Commission staff thought they’d discovered a way to cut most of the aquatics program’s biggest expenses: round-the-clock security guards at each of the city’s 13 pools, which are required for insurance reasons once the pools are filled.</p> <p>Other cities satisfy that requirement with a roving security guard, which would save about $150,000 in New Orleans. However, last week as the pools were filled, there were seven incidents of children scaling their high fences while the guard was elsewhere, according to Mary Jo Webster, chief operating officer of the New Orleans Recreational Development Commission.</p> <p>Administrators decided to return to the old plan on Friday. They haven’t figured out how to pay for the reinstated security details.</p> <p>The commission is better off than it was even three years ago. The bulk of its budget, which comes from the city’s general fund and federal grants, is $9.5 million this year. That’s down from $10.2 million last year, but it’s nearly twice 2010’s budget of less than $5 million.</p> <p>Programming — day camps, music lessons and other activities — has seen even more marked increases. When Landrieu took office three years ago, only four pools were open, and four full-time day camps had room for about 700 grade-school children.</p> <p>Now 13 pools are open, and 35 youth camps have slots for 3,665 kids ages 4 to 12. In addition, a teen program, launched a few years ago, will serve 1,000 older children in seven camps, and an expanded youth summer-employment program has six programs with room for 1,600 older youth.</p> <p>Day camp slots have filled up more quickly than ever at the newly opened Tremé Community Center. Longtime center director Jerome Smith said that, in an affirmation of the link between peaceful neighborhoods and high-quality youth programming, he received a burst of calls from parents right after the Mother’s Day shooting.</p> <p>Tremé Center was one of several shuttered facilities and fields that the current administration inherited. Most had been untouched since Hurricane Katrina. Almost all parks, playgrounds and green space were off-limits to children because they were being used for FEMA trailers.</p> <p>In recent months there have been more ground-breakings and ribbon-cuttings. Tremé Community Center recently opened, just in time for summer, as did the Lyons Center on Tchoupitoulas Street at Louisiana Avenue, the site of Monday’s news conference.</p> <p>Later this month, the St. Roch Playground will also relaunch its athletic programs on a new field. Two more community centers with pools are under construction, at the Andrew “Pete” Sanchez community center in the Lower 9th Ward and at the Stallings St. Claude Center in the Bywater neighborhood. An additional pair of pools are also in the works, at the former Rosenwald Center in Central City and in Gert Town.</p> <p>This burst of construction now brings city-sponsored recreational opportunities to some children who made it all the way through elementary school without a place nearby to swim, play organized sports, learn piano or pottery-making. “There are kids in this neighborhood who have no concept of what NORD is,” said Reggie Lawson, who coordinates the Faubourg St. Roch Improvement Association, the umbrella for the playground’s booster club.</p> <p>But more open facilities also means more light bulbs to change, more equipment to maintain, more staff to keep children busy and happy all year round. “We need money, we need money, we need money,” Richard said. “We need a solid, sustainable budget.”</p> <p>In many ways, New Orleans voters thought they were putting recreation programming on solid footing when, in 2010, they overwhelmingly passed a City Charter amendment that replaced the New Orleans Recreation Department with the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission. The new, public-private entity would be able to raise private donations in addition to city funds. A companion proposal to raise property taxes to finance the new commission’s programs didn’t make it to the ballot.</p> <p>Even then, the uncertain funding concerned some officials like Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell. “Just reorganizing NORD is not going to solve the problem,” she said just before the 2010 vote. “I’m 100 percent behind this as long as we adequately fund it.”</p> <p>Soon afterward, the City Council and the mayor doubled the recreation budget, using money from city coffers and federal grants, both of which have continued to finance almost all of the commission’s work. The foundation has contributed $695,127 so far this year.</p> <p>Despite the cut in federal funds, “there is no discussion of a millage [increase] at this time,” said Landrieu administration spokesman Ryan Berni. He said the commission would first turn to other underutilized revenue sources, such as rental and usage fees and private donations.</p> <p>Last year the New Orleans Recreation Development Foundation raised $87,000 in rental fees, but NORDC administrators expect that to rise soon, once they set up a more affordable fee structure to rent a park shelter or a room in a recreation facility, Webster said. Currently, many rental fees are set at prohibitively high rates, which has spurred council members to routinely waive rental fees for constituents, she said.</p> <p>Earlier this year, upon the foundation’s request, the City Council created two new funds for NORDC’s collections, separating its revenue from the city’s. Now, all private donations and rental fees go directly to the foundation. Proponents said that was crucial for donors, who wanted to be confident that their money would goes directly to youth recreation.</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the June 10, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/citys-summer-recreation-programs-dealing-with-700000-cut-in-federal-funding/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> </channel> </rss>