Category: Uncategorized (Page 3 of 34)

There’s a kid from Vermont at the P&G Championships! (Plus more men’s gymnastics notes.)

17 August, 2017 / Kat

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In traditional media coverage of gymnastics, men’s gymnastics doesn’t get a ton of love. So I figured I would offer some notes on stories I’m watching on the men’s side of this weekend’s P&G National Gymnastics Championships taking place in Anaheim, California.

From the “Kingdom” to Championships

St. Johnsbury, VT. A town of a little less than 8,000 people a few miles from the New Hampshire border. A town best known for building the Fairbanks scale and maple syrup packing. This is not a town a hop, skip and jump away from bustling Burlington. No. This is the county seat and economic center of the region of Vermont known as the “Northeast Kingdom.”

In this small Vermont town trains a two-time Junior Olympic National all-around men’s gymnastics champion.

Nikita Bolotsky of the appropriately named Kingdom Gymnastics will make his first trip to the P&G National Gymnastics Championships this week. He will compete on the Junior 15-16 competition Thursday and Saturday. The two-time Level 9 all-around national champion qualified for his first elite Nationals by finishing sixth in the Junior Elite Level 10 category at this year’s Junior Olympic Nationals.* (See primer below this section for a quick explanation on what that sentance means.)

Sadly, despite him being a two-time national champion on Level 9, there aren’t too many videos of Bolotsky on YouTube. However, recent scores from J.O. Nationals are solid enough to make him someone to watch.

His floor exercise is well-executed. One video that caught my eye was his high bar set, which is not only fun to watch, but showcases solid form (and what can I say, I’m a sucker for release moves.)

Bolotsky also trains at Vitaly Scherbo School of Gymnastics in Las Vegas, which pretty much the exact opposite of St. Johnsbury, Vermont. I’m eager to see how he does this weekend during his first foray on the elite level.

*A quick primer: The Junior Olympics Nationals for men are for Levels 8, 9 and 10. If you wish to compete at the next level – elite – you compete in the Junior Elite division there. You have two days of competition: one where you compete your full-fledged skill filled routines, and another where you compete “technical sequences.” You do well at both and finish in the top 20? Hi P&Gs Championships. If you don’t, you have one last shot: the Elite Qualifier in July.

The New England contingent

New England might not have anyone on the women’s side of the P&G Championships, but as always, the region can be counted on bringing the men.

From Massachusetts, we have Liam Doherty-Herwitz from Bedford competing at the Junior level in the 17-18 age group, and Yan Inhaber-Courchesne of Westborough on the Junior level in the 15-16 age group. Doherty-Herwitz, who trains at Brestyan’s Gymnastics (home of Aly Raisman) was one of the very last gymnasts to earn their spot at Championships, earning sixth place at last month’s National Qualifier. He did finish first after the first day of competition there, which bodes well for what he may be capable of. Doherty-Herwitz is a standout on floor exercise, with some very powerful tumbling.

Inaber-Courchesne has flown under my radar, so, unfortunately, I don’t know much about him. The New England Academy of Gymnastics product has competed at Junior Olympic Nationals twice, finishing ninth in the all-around this past May.

In seniors, Penn State’s Stephen Nedoroscik, originally from Worcester will compete. He captured the NCAA championship on pommel horse this past spring as just a freshman, making him only the third rookie to win a NCAA event title in the last five years. Pommel horse is not exactly every gymnast’s favorite event, so if you can find success in it, there’s opportunity for you on the national level. Nedoroscik is a graduate of Worcester Tech, and during his club career, he trained at Sterling Academy of Gymnastics.

(Sadly, there is no video of Nedoroscik’s NCAA win, so here’s some of his pommels from 2015.)

New Hampshire has a competitor in juniors, Nashua’s Michael Fletcher, also of New England Academy of Gymnastics. And as mentioned previously, Vermont has their first competitor in a while in Bolotsky.

It’s the first P&G Championships in three years without Addison Chung (Medfield, Mass.), who is just back up to full training this summer after a series of injuries. As he told me for his hometown newspaper, he and his University of Iowa coaches hope that he can make a return to the elite level in 2018. His new Hawkeyes teammate is the Junior All-Around favorite, Bennet Huang.

Is This the Year for Eddie?

I was on the bus ride home Monday and read a popular gymnastics website’s men’s P&G Championships preview, and nearly threw my iPhone across the seat.

How do you preview this year’s senior men’s event by not mentioning a gymnast who won a World Cup gold medal on floor exercise this season? Yes, the frustrating preview skipped over Eddie Penev, who may be the U.S.’s best medal hope for this year’s World Championships. (This year’s World Championships are an individual championships, meaning team medals are not at stake, but individual all-around and event medals are.)

It is Penev’s best chance to finally make a Worlds team for the U.S. (he previously represented Bulgaria twice at Worlds, making the floor finals both times.) Penev is not an all-arounder, and still rings, pommel horse and high bar aren’t exactly his cup of tea. But he will even show the occasional high bar update on social media. And in a rebuilding year – where a good portion of last year’s Olympic team has now retired and the National Team is under new leadership – Penev may be exactly what the U.S. needs to have a solid medal showing at Worlds.

“Looking at the results from the (Olympic) Games I can see that I had great medal chances on floor in particular – even gold medal chances by the looks of it – by the scores I’ve gotten over the years in international competitions,” said Penev in an interview last fall.

To me, after an epic Yul Moldauer – Akash Modi duel, fan-favorite Penev doing well could be one of the main men’s stories of these championships.

A Shout-Out to Kiwan

One of my favorites from my years attending P&G Champs, Kiwan Watts, is back after finishing 30th last year in his senior debut. Watts, who is headed to compete for Arizona State (a high level college club team) in the fall, finished first all-around at on the junior level in 2015.

I can’t put my exact finger why he became one of my favorites – I think it might have been because he sometimes has a female coach, somewhat a rarity in men’s gymnastics. But his long lines and great effort kept me paying attention. The years I covered Championships, I always made sure to catch him on high bar, but he is fun to watch on every event.

A Different Vibe at Championships

It will be interesting to hear and read reports about this year’s championships because of the grave issue hanging over USA Gymnastics like a dense fog. With news breaking on the eve of the championships that a California-based victim may have received a settlement from the organization, which may be against California law, it won’t be business as usual in Anaheim.

The actual competition will march forward, and USA Gymnastics will encourage media to focus on the gymnasts competing as much as possible. Where I think this fog might be most felt is at the National Congress and Trade Show held adjacent to the competition. (Side note: Besides watching hours and hours of gymnastics, the Trade Show was always my favorite part of the three Nationals I got to cover.) Coaches come from all over the country to attend Congress, where you can take seminars and classes from some of gymnastics’ best and brightest. There will be discussion there of course of USA Gymnastics’ new SafeSport initiatives and policies, as well as how to prevent dangerous situations from occurring at gyms across the country. I am sure there will be a much different vibe and a few hard discussions taking place in sessions at the Congress, and they are definitely conversations that need to be had if the sport wants to continue forward.

The Cloffice Makeover: The Before

6 March, 2017 / Kat

Contrary to some people’s belief, I am not a full-time sportswriter. I have a master’s degree in educational administration and spend my days (and some nights, and the occasional weekend) working in a Dean of Students’ office.

When I moved into my office nearly 11 years ago, one of my colleagues told me that I couldn’t complain about its size until I had been in it a decade. Last June, I met that milestone.

Not that I’d ever complain about it. I’m blessed just to have four walls. I’m the daughter of a toolmaker and a lunch lady, two positions where you never have an office, so just to have a walls is an accomplishment.

But these four walls have an unusual nickname: the Cloffice. My office doubles as a storage closet for all of the AV and computer equipment my department needs on a regular basis. I have microphones, cameras, video cameras, tripods, batteries, wires…it’s like a mini Radio Shack.

It also doubles as the Yearbook office, since I advise the Yearbook and we lost our office space last summer. Add that I’m a pack-rat who has been at the university 12 years. All of that means that the Cloffice is so packed that I can’t comfortably have meetings in it. This led to a generation of students naming themselves, “Kat’s Doorway Society” a few years back. They had to stand or sit in my doorway to have meetings with me. (It’s a little better now, but still not ideal.)

I kind of feel like if the Magic School Bus’ Ms. Frizzle was actually a sports-writing university administrator, this would be her office.

I need to make a change for so many reasons, but I have zero design and organizational skills and no actual budget. So…we’re going to wing it. I mean, I’m 35 years old and I still pretty much wing everything I do in life, so why stop now? (I realize this is not a good thing, but I also realize if I’ve been this way for three and a half decades, I’m probably not going to change.)

Here’s the before. Please don’t call the Hoarders producers. I swear it’s under control. (That blue Solo cup is a an “I’m sorry” collection cup, not a prop about the horrors of underage drinking.)

My favorite part of the Cloffice: my giant bulletin board. I’ve made a handy guide to it for you!

A: Photos of my son.

B: A very nice note from an athlete I wrote about twice.

C: My dear oldest cat Annie and I

D. My best friend Laurel on the 2008-09 BU winter sports schedule card

E. A meme of Kristy from the Baby Sitters’ Club books that reads, “Oh we’re putting on a parade and you’re all going to like it.” (I have planned several parades and my childhood friends always compared me to the character, so it’s really the perfect meme.)

F. Every office needs a motivational photo of Marv Levy.

G. A photo of Rhett, BU’s mascot, and a fake name and University ID number so I can make “fake” IDs to use in social media posts.

H. One of my handmade campaign posters from when I ran for National Honor Society President back in 1999. (I didn’t have a computer, so I created fake endorsements from celebrities I cut out from People magazine.)

I. I, as in, I don’t know why I still have this depressing thing up. It’s a Deseret News comic from 1999 about Steve Young’s pending retirement.

J. An image of the first time I ever had a story teased on the back cover of the Boston Herald. It was about Aly Raisman’s comeback.

K. A University brand guidelines cheat sheet.

My plan is to try to get at least two projects done a week, and I’ll share what I can here. Tips? Ideas? Comment below or tweet me (@KatCornetta.)

Hi Kim Pegula. Let’s talk. You can fix this.

3 January, 2017 / Kat

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Dear Kim –

Sometimes you need a girlfriend to pull you aside and say, “Psst, you have something in your teeth,” or, “Your shirt is inside out.” (Trust me, I’ve been there.)

Well, as a fellow Rochester-bred gal, I need to pull you aside and let you know there’s something wrong with that football team you bought.

You let go of your head coach, Rex Ryan, before the final week of the season, over an alleged disagreement over the status of quarterback Tyrod Taylor for the last week of the season. You, your husband, Terry, nor your general manager, Doug Whaley, wouldn’t talk after the act, sending the media-naive interim coach, Anthony Lynn, out to hold a press conference instead. Sending the newbie out to address decisions he had no hand in making feels like sending the interim out on the coffee run on his very first morning: you’re just hoping not too many venti lattes get spilled on the poor kid’s brand new dress shirt. What were your thoughts afterward? Oh, good, the newbie survived the only press availability anyone of power in this organization is going to have the week we fired our head coach. Whew. Close one.

Then, after your team loses to the New York Jets (a rivalry loss should bug any upstate-raised gal immensely – they aren’t even in New York!) you and Terry, allowed the reason you might be in this hot mess to begin with, general manager Doug Whaley, hold as embarrassing of a press conference that there ever has been in the NFL. He isn’t involved in firing the head coach? He hasn’t even thought about it? He may have spoken to Lynn about the odd QB situation against the Jets? He may not have? To quote one meme I saw, “What is it that you say you do here, Doug Whaley?”

You spoke to WGR 550 Monday, and your husband spoke to the Associated Press, and that was it. You won’t talk further, and Whaley says that it will be his job in the off-season to represent the Bills to the media. But if he doesn’t make key decisions, and doesn’t seem to know the moving parts behind them, then why throw him to the media? You might be better off having a PR person step to the podium. They are at least trained to spin things positively.

The whole thing seems rather…um…how can I say this nicely…dysfunctional.

This is where you come in. Kim, you have come so far, and I don’t know if you understand how much of a role model you are to some women. Left as a child on a street corner in South Korea and adopted by a family in Rochester, you worked hard, had grand ideas, raised a family and helped your husband build an empire. You now are one of the only female owners in professional sports.

This is where you need to thrive. Despite great strides over the past few decades, women in business often have to work harder to prove themselves. That’s exactly what the organization you bought needs right now. Though Ralph Wilson was a legend, the last few years of his ownership of the Bills were largely absentee. Your ownership needs to make up for that lost time. You need to work harder than any other owner in the NFL right now to make Buffalo right again. Part of that will be fixing football operations, and that may mean cutting Whaley loose. Another part of it is using your background in communications and explaining what exactly is going on to the media, and in turn, the fans.

And that should be your motivation: the fans. You grew up amongst them, and you know that they are the most loyal fanbase for the least reasons in the NFL. They pack your stadium in the worst of weather, they line up to get a spot to tailgate in your parking lots 36 hours before kickoff, they wear their gear despite the team’s record and they stood by four straight years of horrible heartbreak. They do this all even though their region’s economy is crackling under their feet and their state government has abandoned them. The Bills are their outlet, their chance to escape all that has gone sour in every other place in their lives.

Kim, take the wheel. Take the wheel and speed the Bills out of that laughing stock spot. You have come so far personally, and now it’s time to take that tenaciousness and claw the Bills out of the bottom. You’re a survivor, a mother and a successful businesswomen. If anyone has the guts and grit to do this, it’s you.

You can do this.

Your friend in pop and lake effect,

Kat

Kat’s Coffee Blog: Blue State’s Espresso Fizz

18 August, 2016 / Kat

Welcome to Kat’s Coffee Blog, a new initiative to put my triumphant return to caffeinated coffee drinking to good use.

If you have worked as someone’s assistant for over a decade, you get to know each other’s likes and dislikes. Coffee. TV shows. iPhone apps. Odds are that ten years in, your suggestions to each other are going to be some of the most well-founded you will get in your life.

When I returned to my full-time job recently after my maternity leave, one of the very first things the Dean said to me was, “Kat, you have to go try the espresso fizz at Blue State.”

“What is that?” I asked.

“It’s shots of espresso in seltzer water,” the Dean explained while we sat next to our office’s two coffee makers. (We don’t play around. We used to have a swanky espresso maker too, but it disappeared during my maternity leave and I am scared to ask what happened to it.)

He saw me somewhat scrunch my nose at the description. “Trust me. I’ve been drinking them all summer. It’s good.”

So I made my way to Boston University’s West Campus before a meeting and stopped by Blue State Coffee. Blue State is a small New England chain of coffee shops that makes strong coffee and supports many community organizations. They pride themselves on the craft of creating their drinks. Your espresso drink is going to take a few seconds more than most shops, but it is worth the wait. (Just know that when you plan on going before a meeting.)

I ordered a small espresso fizz with a shot of their house made vanilla syrup, and drank it straight up (no milk or cream.) The barista poured a shot of vanilla syrup and seltzer into a cup filled with ice, and floated what looked to be about one and a half shots of espresso on top.

Not going to lie – I was a tad scared to take my first sip. But I then remembered who sent me this way.

All of the Dean’s buzz was correct. It was light and refreshing, especially as every sip pulled the drink’s layers of seltzer, vanilla and espresso. The homemade vanilla shot really elevates the drink to “all time great” status. There is a sophisticated sweetness to it that makes it a drink to savor.

I was sad that I only ordered a small. I’ve already looked at my schedule to see when I have another meeting up near Blue State so I can enjoy another.

The Dean was right, per usual. Why wouldn’t it be? You never want your assistant to be under-caffeinated.

Review: Five cups out of five. ☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️

How To Watch the Olympics When Your Time Is Limited

15 August, 2016 / Kat

When I watched the Olympics as a kid, I dreamed of being able to see every event I wanted, when I wanted. I learned to use my parents’ VCR just so I could tape the 1992 Winter Games and watch them over and over again. In the 1990s, that was the closest I could get to having the Olympics on demand.

Well, 10 year old me, guess what? We have Olympics on demand now, and it is spectacular.

For the last week, I’ve been taking advantage of all of the on-demand and replay options that these Olympics have had to offer. Between returning to my full-time job and having a 10 week old, I don’t get to see much live or even during NBC’s prime-time coverage. Comcast, my cable provider, boasts of offering 6,800 hours of coverage on the docket from Rio, and I’ve been playing catch-up and making the most of my limited Olympic-watching moments with a few of their key features.

Comcast’s Marc Goodman reached out to me before the games and pointed out a few of the features that I’ve been making the most of. On Saturday, I finally got to check out the Gold Zone, a NFL Red Zone-style option. You get to watch four sports at one time. It’s Olympic multitasking. It’s not just focused on U.S. teams and athletes, which means you get a good mix of all of the obscure events any Olympics have to offer.

Also, it took me until Day 10 of the Games, but I finally found the hidden secret of the Olympics: the live track and field call room feed. I speak “Olympics” into the remote, and I get a list of every Olympic event currently on live on a network. Then I scroll down one level of the menu, and I can watch any event that’s streaming on NBCOlympics.com, including the track and field call room feed. It’s people walking on a small strip of track and getting psyched up for their races. It’s silent, but strangely captivating. It’s Olympic watching meditation.

And in what could possibly be the most important Comcast Olympics feature: all the Olympics and Olympic Trials coverage is available on demand until October 1st. That still may not be long enough to get through everything I want to watch, but I’ll be able to come close. The only bummer: I wish the men’s gymnastics Olympic Trials replays were the entire broadcast, instead of individual routines of just guys who made the team. If the USOC can’t allow the Trials to be livestreamed on YouTube like most USA Gymnastics events, I would love to see them give a similar level of coverage on the platforms they do have agreements with. But it is still better than what we used to have when I was a kid.

Though NBC has lagged in some of its coverage (especially in gymnastics,) being able to watch on demand both on the computer and TV has been a game-changer for me. For an Olympics-junkie like myself, it has been super helpful.