General News from the Summer of '19
Stories worth checking out: Epidemics in Vaping and Sports Specialization alike, much more
I’ve got a few ‘update’ posts to kick off the month. I’m starting with my overflow post, which is to say, news items that don’t get neatly categorized into either Prospect Currents or Big Ten hockey news. As you’ll see, when I let a whole summer’s worth of news pile up, there’s a lot to get through. If you have any news items you think are relevant for the new pile when I do the next update please reach out to me (jasper @ tealhockey.net or @overtheboards on Twitter/Instagram).
The underlined words are links to the articles mentioned.
First off, some news I’ve been paying attention to about the trend that is now a staple of life seemingly everywhere across the country: vaping.
NYT reports on ‘The Mysterious Vaping Illness That’s ‘Becoming an Epidemic’
Dr. Harris said that the four patients she had been directly involved with “have been doing e-cigarettes with nicotine constantly, like round the clock. Maybe there’s some sort of accelerant effect causing inflammation in the lung caused by the THC oil.” She added that her interviews with patients suggested they were getting the marijuana liquid from friends in states with legal supplies of the drug, like California and Colorado.
Some patients are suffering from another condition known as lipoid pneumonia, doctors said. When vaped oils get into the lungs, the lungs treat them as a foreign object and mount an immune response, resulting in inflammation and the buildup of liquids, which can cause lipoid pneumonia.
Also in the Times: Indiana announced a third death linked to the illness on Friday, Minnesota a fourth and California a fifth.
Earlier this summer, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported “11 confirmed and seven suspected cases of severe pulmonary disease among teens. Some of the teens had to be intubated and reported vaping.”
Vitamin E chemical is 'key focus' in vaping illness investigation, health officials say - CNN
Vaping is hurting teenage athletes, dashing their future in sports - NBCNews.com
Utah teen vaped every day for three years, mysteriously fell ill and ended up in a medically-induced coma.
The sickness escalated when Maddie couldn't keep any food down, and began to run a fever. She said she went to the hospital in Payson.
"My temperature was so high, my brain just completely shut off," Maddie recounted. "I thought I was in the Payson hospital for one night, and I was actually there for four days."
She said doctors there couldn't figure out what was wrong. Maddie was transferred to Timpanogos Regional Hospital, where she said she was put into a medically-induced coma for three days in the ICU.
That's when she said doctors figured out what was wrong.
"I had fat particles growing inside my lungs that were related to the glycerin in vape juice," Maddie explained. "So then my lungs were full of fluid. They said that my chest X-rays were one of the worst they've ever seen."
How doctors explained it to Maddie and her family: "When you inhale the moisture, it's just creating the perfect environment for bacteria to grow inside your lungs and for infection to start. And that is basically what happened," Maddie said.
Somewhat related, Canadian women’s hockey legend Hayley Wickenheiser, currently working in Player Development for the Toronto Maple Leafs, took a stand on the ‘legalize it’ issue:
Now into the more general news, starting with a great remembrance of Greg Johnson by the Grand Forks Herald’s Brad Schlossman:
Remembering Greg Johnson - 'Guys like him don't come around very often'
Johnson was dazzling on the ice. His 272 career points is a UND record that will likely never be broken. Consider that in the last 15 years, the closest any UND player has come to him is Ryan Duncan, who is still 100 points back. Only four other players in the 73-year history of UND hockey have eclipsed 200 careers points. Johnson did it in three years.
Johnson is one of just six players in college hockey history to be named a Hobey Baker Award finalist three times and the only from UND. He's the school's lone three-time All-American since the 1950s.
But Johnson wasn't just magic on the ice…
Meritocracy Is Killing High-School Sports - The Atlantic
What’s telling, he said, is that the children of high-income parents are playing as much as ever. Kids from homes earning more than $100,000 are now twice as likely to play a team sport at least once a day as kids from families earning less than $25,000.
Why High-Level Coaches Love Multisport Athletes - USAHockey.com
A study by the Penn State College of Medicine polled professional, NCAA Division I and Division III hockey players about their athletic upbringing and found only 12 percent of the athletes specialized in the sport before they were 12.
Drive, smarts and athleticism has allowed Zach Giuttari to excel playing two sports - and in the classroom - at an Ivy League university (Brown) - CalgaryFlames.com
NHL Draft Combine: The importance of playing multiple sports - The Hockey News
No more joiners: Why kids are dropping out of sports - CBC
The NHL Should Change the NHL Entry Draft - OilersNation
Spinach chemical should be put on doping ban list, say researchers - CNN
Study finds performance-enhancing bacteria in human microbiome - Harvard Gazette
Don Cherry ripped the Leafs draft on Twitter. Say what you will about him, I think there is something to his take (reproduced exactly below), though I don’t think nationality matters as much to anyone as it does to him:
Minnesota Wild skating coach Andy Ness wrote about the importance of skating habits - StateOfHockey.com
Columnist Jack Blatherwick: GRETZKY & EINSTEIN — Creative geniuses who thought outside the box
USCHO’s Mark Divver indicated that Hockey East may return to NESN, but the conference may also be considering a streaming alternative along the lines of what NCHC.tv offers. I’d be interested to see if they could put that together in time. It’s a short window to execute on that, especially if they don’t already have clarity in early September. I can’t see that being better than what the ECAC had going with ESPN+ last year, either from price-point or quality.
Edina High School (MN) has a free heart screening available this Saturday, September 7th for anyone aged 14-24. Details here - it takes place from 9-4 at the High School’s Activity Center.
The growing trend of sport specialization: Is it worth it? - HeraldNet
“With the way our summer is structured now, it’s really, really difficult for a kid to play three sports — especially team sports,” said Lake Stevens High School boys basketball and boys tennis coach Mark Hein, who pointed to a recent three-sport athlete who juggled high school basketball, high school football and select baseball during the summer.
The deeper story is that the weed of American-style meritocracy is strangling the roots of youth sports. As parents have recognized that athletic success can burnish college applications, sports have come to resemble just another pre-professional program, with rising costs, hyper-specialization, and massive opportunity-hoarding among the privileged.
The first-ever Michigan Amateur Hockey Association Tier 1 showcase will have all four age groups (14/15/16/18) under one roof, this weekend, September 6-8 at the Troy Sports Center. Schedule here - mihockey.com
Top women's hockey players announce series of tournaments - TSN
The tour's first stop will be in Toronto from Sept. 20-22, followed by an event in Hudson, New Hampshire, on Oct. 4-6 and Chicago on Oct. 18-20. The union also announced its members will play exhibition games against Boston College on Sept. 21 and against the Sharks alumni in San Jose on Sept. 22.
Additional tour stops are being considered but not yet finalized, including Southern California and Buffalo, New York…
The stops will feature about 80 players split into four teams playing a three-game round-robin tournament followed by a championship game, and include youth clinics.
Auston Matthews talked Arizona State (+ Marner, more) with The Athletic’s Craig Morgan. Along with the rest of the hockey world, he anticipates recruiting will only improve when they get their own arena. He also revealed their new jerseys on Twitter.
For those looking for more Arizona State hockey coverage, check out Ice Times SW’s podcast.
Speaking of Arizona State, the Sun Devils took a trip to China this summer. Personally prefer the Chinese variant of their threads to the ones Matthews showed off.
Also in the Athletic: Kenny Agostino (Delbarton, Yale) believes he’s the right fit for the Maple Leafs
Also, since The Athletic tends to produce a ton of stories, here are the rest of my favorites from the summer.
Justin Bourne on why today’s NHL stars are different
Corey Pronman got some terrifically candid takes from Sweden’s World Junior coach Tomas Monten.
Podcast (free): NTDP skipper John Wroblewski talks his team
Podcast (free): Greg Powers talks building ASU
‘Second quick’: How the Jets and assistant Todd Woodcroft build, coach and use their centres
‘Singing’ Sammy Walker could be a steal for Lightning
Faux Pelini attempts to explain college conference realignment
The NCAA’s new College Basketball Academy? Let’s just say a lot of work lies ahead
Blackmon’s predicament is just one of the unintended consequences. Another potential hiccup comes from the coaches doing the nominating. “This might be an awful thing to say,” Capel says. “But when I was at VCU, there’s no way I would have nominated guys that I’m watching.” Capel recalls recruiting Eric Maynor, who was playing in a national tournament, but his team hadn’t advanced to play in the main gymnasium. Capel, as many mid-major coaches do, says he was “praying for Maynor’s team to lose” so he wouldn’t play in front of a bigger crowd at the main site where “these high-majors would be swooping in” to sign him.
Inforum’s Jess Myers: Conference nostalgia, fandom part of college hockey
Also, Inforum’s Jess Myers: NMU, UST are candidates for Division I women's hockey
TSN’s Craig Button thinks the race for first overall this year is ‘wide-open’.
Apropos of nothing, on Barstool’s hockey podcast Sidney Crosby indicated he would have played for North Dakota had he gone the NCAA route. (via Grand Forks Herald) That would have made the Shattuck-St. Mary’s to North Dakota pipeline something incredible.
Jack Parker on NCAA Hockey’s New World Order - Flohockey.tv
TheProvince.com’s Patrick Johnston: The NHL-CHL agreement doesn't help development of Canadian juniors one bit
One Big Dream: Yao Ming Wants to Make Chinese Basketball Global — SI
‘The New Normal’ - Why fighting in the NHL has dropped to historic lows - ESPN
The Alaska college teams will be playing hockey this year, at least. In addition, Fairbanks signed a five-year deal with Nike/BSN.
The KHL Goes to Davos and Clubs to Use Three Types of Rinks? - ABNT
Penn Hockey has a new endowment with the intent to transition to Division 1 play. The transition from club to varsity has not been endorsed by UPenn athletics, however. Penn Hockey’s backers say they expect the transition to take about ten years. The University’s endowment was listed at nearly fourteen billion dollars in 2018, so that seems very cautious. Maybe Penn’s administration is worried the program could become just another vehicle for blatant corruption in D1 athletics?
St. Lawrence received an anonymous $1 million gift to finish off a nearly $18.4 million project to renovate Appleton Arena for the men’s and women’s teams. Accordingly, they have announced a new, separate $1 million challenge.
First overall pick Jack Hughes trained with some of the best in the game in Nova Scotia, went on to attract some not-so-hockey-related attention for how he spent his time later on in the summer. The IIHF interviewed him as well.
The New York Times picked up a story on former Niagara player Sam Goodwin, whose globe-trotting adventure brought him to Syria (???), where he was detained, by someone (???) and eventually released.
Nate Wells is writing about every team in college hockey this summer: Minnesota was highlighted this Labor Day.
Could NHL Show Be Next Big Deal For DAZN? - Front Office Sports
Let’s talk about Mitch Marner - faceoffcircle.ca, Jeff Veillette. I liked this look. I’ll probably discuss this as well, as the most talked-about RFA situation in recent history.
Amateur soccer website TopDrawerSoccer has a piece about ‘developing your personal recruiting brand’ with some solid general advice for prospects.
'These kids are ticking time bombs': The threat of youth basketball - ESPN
"I understand I shouldn't use a broad brush to criticize the entire AAU system, because parts of it are excellent. But also parts of it are very broken, especially [as it] relates to injuries in the league. What we're seeing is a rash of injuries among young players."
LSU’s new athletics director announced that LSU athletics will no longer be contributing millions of dollars to the academic institution — LSU ‘proper’. More here, and below.
“It’s something that’s very dangerous, when universities rely on recurring money, especially from an auxiliary like the athletic department,” Woodward said. “So no, I think, while I will always support [LSU] in some form or fashion, we can not sustain what we’re currently doing.”
Woodward confirmed his belief that it’s not the athletics department’s responsibility to bail a state school out.
He also eschewed any responsibility the Tiger Athletic Foundation might have to incentivize donors to donate to the LSU Foundation or the LSU Alumni Association.
“I think that’s the wrong question,” he said when asked about that possibility. “I think the right question is ‘What are our current donors at TAF doing for the university?’ And I have a feeling that… in both places I’ve been (Texas A&M and Washington), on average they give 1.5 times more to the academic side. I’m sure that’s the case here.
“You can’t just bifurcate or trifurcate our donors as TAF donors or LSU Foundation Donors or Alumni Association donors or Ag donors or whatever kind of donors you want to put in. You get a cross in all sorts of ways. We feed off each other, and it’s a very healthy, positive thing.”
ESPN to avoid Trump and 2020 Election - Front Office Sports. Can’t guarantee the same approach here, but there will certainly be a lot of hockey and sports-related discussion.
As the season approaches, and Cornell look to have a strong group once more, I thought this piece from ESPN’s Vault (January 2, 1967!) was a great read: THE POISON IVY IN THE IVY LEAGUE
Kids Eat Free - Why the MLB’s Nationals are focused on young fans - Front Office Sports
Lastly, UMD Hockey got their rings:
