Sports

Sports February 19, 2016

NASCAR Season Kicks Off At Renovated Daytona Speedway

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It’s time to go racing! The NASCAR season kicks off this weekend at the Daytona International Speedway. And the place is all new after undergoing a major renovation in a bid to stay relevant in a competitive sports landscape.

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

The NASCAR season kicks off this weekend at one of the most famous racetracks in the country. And this year, there’s something very different about the Daytona International Speedway. It has undergone a complete renovation. Catherine Welch of member station WMFE begins her report with a look back.

CATHERINE WELCH, BYLINE: It’s the 1971 Daytona 500. As the Motor Racing Network delivered the action to radio listeners across the country…

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Richard Petty, the rebel from North Carolina rockets, showing the way down the back straightaway. Richard’s within a car-length of A. J. Foyt.

WELCH: Fans at the speedway watched legend Richard Petty take the checkered flag. They cheered from pretty much the same grandstands that stood until a few years ago, when the speedway started getting dismantled down to the beams. The $400 million renovation includes a multi-level concourse, concession stands, more than a thousand TV screens, luxury suites and Wi-Fi. The speedway’s been open since 1959. This is its first major renovation, which also opens it up for rock concerts and sporting events like soccer and football. Lesa France Kennedy sits at the helm of the family business that runs Daytona and 12 other speedways. Her grandfather started NASCAR, but her dad built it into a sporting empire. So what part of this massive redesign would impress a dad like that? Well, the escalators.

LESA FRANCE KENNEDY: He would love the escalators. I can tell you that much. He would love the escalators.

JOIE CHITWOOD: These weren’t thought of to be at a racetrack ever. I mean, nobody even thought they’d put them in. Just – racetracks were different.

WELCH: The stands have never been easy to navigate, much less while lugging around a cooler full of beer or soda. Last-minute construction grinds away as speedway president Joie Chitwood rides one of the 40 new escalators. He thinks fans will love them, too.

CHITWOOD: You bet. Instead of hauling that cooler up the stairs, you can jump on that escalator and we’ll get you there a lot quicker, a lot easier. And you’ll be sitting in your seat, feeling pretty good.

WELCH: All 101,000 seats are new. The original ones from 1959 have been replaced with brightly colored plastic seats that were widened from 15 inches to 20. Fans have been asking for wider seats for years. Chitwood tries one out.

CHITWOOD: Probably the thing that I’m most impressed with is the sightline now. You can literally see every inch of the track.

WELCH: This is a great seat.

CHITWOOD: It is a good seat, and we’re only halfway up the stadium.

WELCH: Father up is where the Daytona Speedway gets swanky. Luxury suites are nothing new at sports arenas, but a first for the speedway. These have panoramic views. The suites, the escalators, the free Wi-Fi – they will all be new to race fans for now. Some of the changes at Daytona are expected to migrate to other racetracks, all part of an effort to make attending NASCAR races more enjoyable. For NPR News, I’m Catherine Welch in Daytona Beach, Fla.

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Sports February 18, 2016

'World's Fastest Stoner' Finishes Last In Olympic Marathon Trials

Chris Barnicle (right) races at the Olympic Marathon Trials in Los Angeles on Feb. 13. Courtesy of Diana Hernandez hide caption

toggle caption Courtesy of Diana Hernandez

The self-proclaimed “world’s fastest stoner” finished in last place at the trials for the 2016 Rio Olympics in Los Angeles on Saturday, with a time of 3:45:34.

For casual runners, any time under four hours is considered respectable, but for the Olympic Trials — where the winning time was 2:11:12 — clocking a time over 3 hours is a massive failure.

But Chris Barnicle, a former collegiate and professional runner who is now outspoken about how eating marijuana edibles has benefited his distance running, was mellow about his last place finish. He told the running website FloTrack that it was a tough race, but a “really, really special day.”

Finishing 105th out of 105 runners wasn’t a disappointment for Barnicle, mostly because he wasn’t even expecting to participate until a few weeks before the race. That’s when he realized the trials would be held in Los Angeles, where he lives and works as a distributor for medical marijuana dispensaries.

“It was around Christmas time this year, and I thought: I got the trials qualifier, I live in L.A., so I just got to sign up and renew my USATF membership and do it—it’ll be so much fun,” he told Runner’s World.

Though he qualified for the trials in 2013 with a half marathon time of 1:04:29, Barnicle’s running and training dropped off steeply in the following years.

Barnicle told FloTrack that he “of course” wished he had been able to prepare more fully for the race, but a lingering injury and short training window prevented him from doing so:

“I had one little tempo run where I ran ten miles in sixty-five minutes and felt pretty comfortable, that was a few weeks out. I did a three hour long run, no distance on that, just three hours, and I did a twenty miler that was pretty easy.

“So my thought going into the race was that I was going to run comfortably off the back and I’ll slowly pick people off.”

But, he says, just three or four miles into the race, he realized that wasn’t going to happen.

“I kept thinking there’d be people that were dying. But it was me that was dying. I was just trying to finish,” he said.

Finish he did — though his time was the slowest men’s or women’s time since at least 2000, according to FloTrack.

So just how slow was his time?

Barnicle finished more than 30 minutes after the last-place finisher for the women, Joanna Zeiger, who has had multiple rib surgeries and was still suffering from rib pain, abdominal spasms, and nausea. She clocked 3:23:28.

But Barnicle, who collapsed due to cramps around the 22-mile mark, was determined to finish.

“There were medics coming by and asking me if I needed to drop off—I feel like they were almost suggesting that I do it—but for me, I had to do it. I’ve dropped out of some races before, and I know there’s no worse feeling in the world,” he said.

Did he eat any edible marijuana the morning of the trials?

“No comment,” he answered. “I worked really hard to make it to the finish line and to get my name in the results. I would hate for USATF to be able to change that to a DQ.”

The world’s fastest stoner says he’s considering getting back into professional running, but that right now he’s focused on his medical marijuana business. Along with two of his running teammates from the University of Arkansas, he started an edible marijuana company called Organic Zip. But that folded he said, due to a supply problem.

“When I finished running, I moved straight to Humboldt County and had a really good plug. Then we had one guy up there, but he was kind of a flake; then we had a guy down in Oakland for a little bit, but he flaked on us. So then I moved down here to LA where I started supplying for these Koreans, who kind of have an endless supply of flower, and I worked for them for a little bit. Now I’m working for an official distribution company that follows all the 2018 regulations.

“It’s all medical. Everything that I do out here is within compliance with the law.”

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In this 2014 interview, Chris Barnicle talks about his now-shuttered edible marijuana business Organic Zip.

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h/t Deadspin

Sports February 16, 2016

Misty Copeland Achieves #SquadGoals In The Documentary 'A Ballerina's Tale'

Misty Copeland (center) performed in the Washington Ballet production of Swan Lake in April 2015.

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A Ballerina’s Tale tells the story of Misty Copeland’s rise to become American Ballet Theatre’s first black principal dancer.

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Onstage, Misty Copeland’s career revolves — chaînés? — around making hard work look easy. She breezes through Under Armour commercials and brisés through book signings, but she’s most famous for defying gravity onstage with American Ballet Theatre. ABT’s first black principal dancer, Copeland has been lighting up the ballet world for years. Now, the documentary A Ballerina’s Tale is lifting the curtain on just how excruciating her journey has been.

A Ballerina’s Tale aired on PBS this Monday after premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival last April. Copeland has been called a prodigy countless times, but the film unearths hardships that often go unmentioned when detailing her rise to star status. She experienced the usual setbacks any dancer can expect — ruthless competition, career-changing injuries, constant scrutiny. But unlike most of her her peers, Copeland also had to succeed as a black, self-described “curvy” woman in an industry where, historically, “balletomanes, choreographers and directors generally concurred that black bodies were unsuited to the lines of classical technique.”

While Copeland’s dancing has received overwhelming critical acclaim, her offstage persona has been subject to some negative reviews. “I think that people think that I sometimes focus too much on the fact that I’m a black dancer,” says Copeland in the opening lines of A Ballerina’s Tale. “But there’s never been a black principal woman at the Royal Ballet. At the Paris Opera Ballet. At the Kirov Ballet, in the top companies in the world. In New York City Ballet, in New York City. I don’t think that people realize what a feat it is being a black woman. But that’s so much of who I am, and I think it’s so much a part of my story.”

Copeland is of course remarkable, but A Ballerina’s Tale also shines in spotlighting the community it took to get her where she is today. Copeland was just 17 when she moved by herself from Southern California to New York City to perform as a junior dancer with ABT. At first, she struggled with depression, binge-eating and isolation. But when the company’s executive director noticed Copeland’s listlessness, she reached out to Susan Fales-Hill, then-vice chair of the American Ballet Theatre Board, a strong advocate for diversifying ballet (and formally the lead writer and producer for A Different World). Hill used her connections to arrange for a squad of black female “firsts” to mentor Copeland.

The women included singer and actress Diahann Carroll and cosmetics mogul Veronica Webb. Later, Gilda Squire, Copeland’s manager and publicist, added former Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo dancer Raven Wilkinson, the first black woman to tour with a major American ballet company, to the crew. Wilkinson soon became a close friend and mentor to Copeland.

Misty Copeland (center) performed in the Washington Ballet production of Swan Lake in April 2015. Emily Jan/NPR hide caption

toggle caption Emily Jan/NPR

“So many films about artists seem to focus on the white, male artist achieving alone,” writes film critic Ren Jender. “But this documentary shows what many of us know from real life, that artists need support systems in place — and women and people of color often have to build their own.”

With the help of her mentors, Copeland was able to regain her focus. Within three years, she was chosen to star in The Firebird, a role that had never been performed by a black woman at a major theater in the history of ballet. For Copeland’s debut performance, Hill arranged for a whole host of famous black women, including the head of BET, to be in attendance. “To sit in that theater that night, surrounded by African-American women of accomplishment watching a ballerina take center stage in one of the most important works, just felt like her life had come full circle,” said Hill in the film.

The significance of that support system is not lost on Copeland. For years she has made a special point of encouraging young people of color to pursue ballet through speaking engagements and activism. Her autobiography, Life in Motion, was an instant best-seller, but less known is her children’s book, Firebird, in which she tells a young African-American girl who dreams of being a dancer that she can — and will — succeed.

“There’s generations of white girls who can see themselves as ballerinas,” says Copeland in A Ballerina’s Tale. “It’s not even a question because they can see themselves on the stage. And it’s like this psychological thing where [women of color] don’t see ourselves up there, so it’s not something we think we can even dream.”

You can watch A Ballerina’s Tale on PBS’s website, but that’s not the only place to find Copeland right now. She stars in a stunning photo shoot for Harper’s Bazaar, in which she re-creates poses from some of Edgar Degas’ most famous paintings. And later this spring, she’ll perform with the American Ballet Theater in The Sleeping Beauty, Firebird, La Fille Mal Gardee, Le Corsaire, The Golden Cockerel, Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet.

Sports February 15, 2016

'Indentured' Explores Efforts To Fight Mistreatment Of College Athletes

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College sports rake in billions, but the athletes’ pay just covers college costs. NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks with author Joe Nocera about Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA.

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

College sports generates about $13 billion a year. Very little of that goes to the athletes who play the games that make that much money – mostly Division I football and basketball players. That imbalance and the effort to fight it is a subject of Joe Nocera’s new book called “Indentured: The Inside Story Of The Rebellion Against The NCAA.” Nocera and his co-author, Ben Strauss, follow the history the NCAA and the fights over athlete pay from the 1950s through a recent class-action lawsuit led by a former UCLA player named Ed O’Bannon. Sprinkled throughout this history are little anecdotes about players who’ve been mistreated by the NCAA, like a basketball player from Nigeria named Muhammed Lasege. He dreamed of playing in the U.S.

JOE NOCERA: Somebody tells him, well, the way you do this is, you go to Russia, and it’s a way station for the United States. So he goes to Russia, and basically, he’s told that he has to sign a professional contract which, by the way, he can’t read because it’s in Russian. And he has to play basketball in Russia, and he’s going to be paid a certain amount of money. In fact, he doesn’t get any money, and he’s basically stuck in Russia…

SHAPIRO: This is a total scam.

NOCERA: …Playing basketball. Yeah, it’s a 100 percent scam.

SHAPIRO: And then what does the NCAA do when he gets to the U.S.?

NOCERA: Well, immediately (laughter) when he gets to the University of Louisville where he’s accepted to play basketball, the NCAA rules him ineligible because he’s been a professional in Russia. And he sues. And in court, the head investigator is on the stand, and Lasege’s lawyer asks her if somebody put a gun to a kid’s head and said, you have to sign this, or I’ll shoot you, would he be ineligible to play college ball? And she said yes.

SHAPIRO: The principles that underlay the NCAA’s philosophy seem like reasonable principles. Students should be amateurs. They should be college students. They should not be paid millions of dollars. But so many of the stories you tell seem like distortions of those reasonable principles, like people are just divorced from reality or out to get a student for no good reason. Did you get a sense of what is actually going on (laughter) in people’s heads in all of these stories that you retell?

NOCERA: I think I do have a pretty good sense of it. Amateurism, which is the core principle of the NCAA, may have started out as a good idea, but with so much money now flowing into college sports, it’s become a sham. And it’s become kind of an excuse not to pay the labor force who are brining in the billions of dollars that are enriching everybody else. The NCAA itself is a kind of bureaucratic, rules-oriented organization, and it’s very suspicious, particularly of disadvantaged black youth who are coming out of high school who may have a benefactor of some sort. And they’re always kind of looking for those kinds of players that they can then investigate and, in many cases, rule ineligible.

SHAPIRO: Do we miss the larger story when we’re talking about poor, black college athletes whose lifeline out of poverty to an education comes with all of these terrible catches when, in fact, they are the tiniest sliver of people with the athletic ability to get the lifeline (laughter) out of poverty, strings attached or no?

NOCERA: There’s a fair amount of truth to what you just said. On the other hands, the exploitation that is taking place in terms of enrolling them in a university – and then they’re expected to put their sport first and their education second. Their sport is a full-time job – 40 to 50 hours a week. And then the coach is making $5 million. The athletic director’s making $2 million. The conference is bringing in, you know, $200 million in television revenue. And by the way, very few of them do, in fact, become pros. Very few of them do, in fact, make money.

SHAPIRO: Something like 5 percent, you said…

NOCERA: Yeah, it’s a very small…

SHAPIRO: …of the male football and…

NOCERA: Right.

SHAPIRO: …Basketball players.

NOCERA: So you’ve got these kids who are between the ages of 18 and 21. This is the time when they are marketable, when they actually have the ability to make some money, and you’re basically saying to them, except for the 5 percent, we’re going to exploit you; good luck once you’re done.

SHAPIRO: Your book tells the story of a rebellion that nearly crushed the NCAA but ultimately didn’t quite.

NOCERA: That’s right. And I find that very disheartening, I might add.

SHAPIRO: Well, what do you think happens next? Do you think the chapters of the story yet to written are going to be more dramatic? Are things going to calm down? Where does it go?

NOCERA: We’re going to find out in the next few years. I feel like I’ve written this book while we’re still in the middle of something that hasn’t completely paid out. What has been surprising is that in the lawsuits, particularly the famous Ed O’Bannon antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA, the courts, including the appeals court, has ruled that the NCAA’s amateurism rules are in violation of the antitrust laws. But the judges are afraid of blowing up the system. So they won’t take the next obvious step, which is to say, if the rules are in violation of antitrust, the rules should go away.

SHAPIRO: Well, just in practical terms, what is breaking up a monopoly like this mean?

NOCERA: You would just say that the NCAA no longer has the right to regulate compensation – very simple.

SHAPIRO: So it’s just a market system.

NOCERA: Yeah. But there are other lawsuits coming down the pike, and I do think that the best hope, although it’s difficult, is the players themselves. And the example that I point to is the Missouri football team essentially going on strike because of racism issues on that campus. And they showed in a weekend how much power athletes can have because the president of the university resigned within 36 hours.

SHAPIRO: But it doesn’t sound like you’re very confident that this is going to happen.

NOCERA: I think it’s really, really hard for 18- and 19-year-old kids who think they’re going to be professional athletes to stand up to the system and say this is not right.

SHAPIRO: Joe Nocera’s new book with co-author Ben Strauss is called “Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against The NCAA.” Thanks for talking with us.

NOCERA: Thanks for having me, Ari. It was a real pleasure.

SHAPIRO: And we asked the NCAA to respond. A spokesperson replied, more than 90 percent of the NCAA’s revenue goes to support student athletes, and resources from the NCAA help schools fun $2.7 billion in athletic scholarships every year.

Sports February 14, 2016

Hats Off To A Tale Of Good Sportsmanship

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Rachel Martin pauses to note a story from a New Jersey swim meet. It’s about good sportsmanship and losing gracefully.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Last month in New Jersey, the Monroe High School swimming team broke a record that had stood for 14 years, 51.3 seconds in the 100-meter backstroke. An individual record, which makes sense because there’s only one person on Monroe’s team. His name is Rich Fortels. And since Monroe doesn’t really have a team for him, Fortels didn’t have a team swimming cap to wear in the Greater Middlesex Conference championships, so he wore one from the club team he swims on with the club’s logo on it. But that’s against the rules of the National Federation of State High School Associations. Someone pointed it out, and the medal went to runner-up Michael Spark, who finished three seconds behind Fortels. Well, Sparks didn’t agree so Monday, he went to Monroe High. Here’s what he said to the website mycentraljersey.com.

MICHAEL SPARK: The cap wasn’t enhancing his performance in any way. He beat me because he trained harder than me. He just out-swam me.

MARTIN: And with that, Michael Spark passed the first place medal to Rich Fortels, a win for sportsmanship.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALL-STAR”)

SMASH MOUTH: (Singing) Hey now, you’re an all-star. Get your game on, go play. Hey now, you’re a rock star. Get the show on, get paid. All that glitters is gold. Only shooting stars break the mold.

MARTIN: Our theme music was written by B.J. Leiderman, and you are listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.

Sports February 13, 2016

This Week In Sports: NBA All-Star Game; What About NHL Concussions?

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The NBA’s All Star Game starts this weekend. NPR’s Linda Wertheimer and Howard Bryant of ESPN talk about the upcoming basketball exhibition, the Golden State Warriors and concussions in the NHL.

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

And now it’s time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

WERTHEIMER: It’s the NBA All-Star Weekend, that wonderful break in the basketball season when we put aside our team loyalties and watch the Eastern and Western Conference dream teams face off. The big game is tomorrow, and here to throw the jump ball for us is Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine.

Thank you for being with us, Howard.

HOWARD BRYANT: Hi, Linda. It’s been a while.

WERTHEIMER: Yeah. Howard, the Western Conference has won the All-Star Game 10 out of the last 16 years. Is that going to keep going?

BRYANT: Oh, who knows? It doesn’t really matter anyway. It’s meaningless. The All-Star Game is all about fun. It’s all about watching your favorite players play, you know, with players that they usually play against. It’s going to be nice to see Steph Curry and Kobe Bryant in the backcourt. Let’s not forget it’s Kobe Bryant who is retiring at the end of this season, his final All-Star Game. So there’s going be a lot of pomp and circumstance around him. It’s going to be great to see Klay Thompson and all of these great players out there, playing in a game where it really doesn’t count. And what you’re going to see is a lot of dunks, not a lot of defense, a lot of great showboating and passing.

WERTHEIMER: (Laughter).

BRYANT: And they’re the best athletes in the world. It’s the best All-Star game. And I love what hockey has done with their All-Star game, but the basketball All-Star game is the best because you really get to see how good these guys are.

WERTHEIMER: Now, the Golden State Warriors have had an incredible season so far. They’ve won 48 games, lost only four. When the season resumes, what happens to them?

BRYANT: Well, the Golden State Warriors (laughter) are doing something that we’ve never seen before. And that includes the Larry Bird Celtics and the Wilt Chamberlain 76ers and the Moses Malone 76ers and, of course, the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls. They’re 48-4. And they are going for the all-time record of 73 wins, passing Michael Jordan’s 72 wins in 1995-96.

This team is incredible. They’re playing basketball at a level that we haven’t seen in this modern era with their ability to shoot 3-pointers and their ability to just absolutely run through (laughter) the opposition. And I think that their playing with so much motivation because so many people have doubted them, thinking that their style of basketball is – wouldn’t stand up to the greats of all time. And they are proving, every single time, that they have got a challenge that they don’t just win, that they’re blowing teams out. They’re blowing the teams out that they might be playing, whether it’s Cleveland or San Antonio. They beat Cleveland. They were up by 40 in Cleveland. They beat San Antonio by 30. So if you’re watching this team, and you don’t think they’re very good – well, they’re proving – and they’re using that motivation to really do something special.

WERTHEIMER: Now, normally at this point, we might be talking about pitchers and catchers report. But instead, we’ve got Mets pitcher Jerry Mejia (ph) make – Jenrry Mejia making baseball history for being the first player permanently suspended by Major League Baseball. What brought this on?

BRYANT: Well (laughter), he won’t stop using steroids. This is – once again, this goes back to, you know, baseball’s worst nightmare. What is the price of the steroid era? And the price is, once again, you have pitchers and catchers who are reporting. This is supposed be the time when the trucks go down to Florida and to Arizona and we’re celebrating the start of baseball season. And what are talking about? We’re talking about drugs. You’re talking about Jenrry Mejia, who’s a player whose team, the Mets, go to the World Series in one of the great Cinderella stories of last year. He wasn’t on the team last year because he had been suspended for steroids.

And now – this year, same thing. This team, the Mets, are going out to defend their National League Championships. And he’s being welcomed back with open arms? Well, not so fast. He’s suspended for steroids again, and now it’s a lifetime ban. He can reapply for reinstatement in two years, but for the most part, it looks like his career is over.

WERTHEIMER: Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine, thank you so much for being with us, and happy Presidents’ Day, Howard.

BRYANT: Oh, yes. My pleasure. Thank you.

Sports February 12, 2016

MLB Bans New York Mets Pitcher Jenrry Mejia For Life For Doping

New York Mets relief pitcher Jenrry Mejia during a game against the Cincinnati Reds on Sept. 7, 2014. Al Behrman/AP hide caption

toggle caption Al Behrman/AP

New York Mets reliever Jenrry Mejia received a permanent ban from Major League Baseball on Friday after he tested positive for the anabolic steroid Boldenone. The right-handed pitcher is the first player to be banned from the MLB for life for failing three performance-enhancing drug tests.

The league’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program states that a third violation for performance-enhancing drugs results in a permanent suspension. But it also says:

“…a Player so suspended may apply, no earlier than one year following the imposition of the suspension, to the Commissioner for discretionary reinstatement after a minimum period of two (2) years.”

According to The Associated Press, a spokesman for Mejia’s agents said the pitcher had no comment, and it is unclear whether the 26-year-old intends to apply for reinstatement in the future.

In April 2015, the Mejia was banned for 50 games after testing positive for the anabolic steroid Stanozolol.

At the time, Mejia said: “I know the rules are the rules and I will accept my punishment, but I can honestly say I have no idea how a banned substance ended up in my system.”

After serving the suspension, he returned in July 2015 but played in only seven games before testing positive for both Stanozolol and Boldenone. Mejia was banned for 162 games, which would have carried over into the 2016 season.

From the Dominican Republic, Mejia was signed by the Mets in 2007 and reached the major leagues in 2010. He has a 3.68 career ERA in 18 starts and 95 relief appearances.

NPR’s Tom Goldman reports, “Many say baseball is in a post-steroids era, but Mejia, from the Dominican Republic, is one of a number of Latin American players, mostly minor leaguers, who’ve tested positive for banned drugs in recent years.”

Sports February 10, 2016

Famous Big-Wave Surf Contest Thwarted By Undersized Waves

A surfer catches a wave at Waimea Bay after the In Memory of Eddie Aikau surfing contest was canceled on Wednesday. Marco Garcia/AP hide caption

toggle caption Marco Garcia/AP

There’s really only one thing you absolutely need to hold a big-wave surf competition, and it’s big waves.

Unfortunately for a famous surf contest in Hawaii scheduled for Wednesday, the waves failed to measure up.

“The Bay calls the day. The Eddie is No Go,” read the website of the Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau contest, called “The Eddie” for short.

The beach of Oahu’s North Shore, where the competition was slated to take place, was packed with spectators before the sun had even risen, The Associated Press reports, but the requisite swells never materialized.

Around dawn, organizers called it off hours before it was supposed to begin.

Clyde Aikau, Eddie Aikau’s brother, thanked the surfers and spectators for their support in a video posted to the site. He said, “We are sorry it didn’t run but that’s how nature is. Hopefully we’ll have it again and see you next time.”

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The AP adds that El Niño conditions had helped stir up big waves, but the expected 40-foot swells never showed up on Wednesday. The event organizers will keep an eye on the ocean to see whether conditions allow the competition to go ahead in the coming weeks.

Wednesday’s “Eddie” was to be the first since 2010. In fact, since its inception in 1985, it has been held only eight times, according to the World Surf League website. The site has this about the origins of the competition:

“The big-wave event honors the legendary Eddie Aikau, Waimea Bay’s first lifeguard. A North Shore local and respected waterman, Aikau spent his free time rescuing swimmers and surfing big swells. After competing as a professional surfer, he was selected to join an expedition on a Polynesian voyaging canoe — the Hokule’a — headed for Tahiti. But mission was quickly abandoned when the Hokule’a encountered a storm and capsized. After surviving the night with his crew mates, Aikau decided to paddle to land for help.

“Despite his unparalleled skills in the water, he would never reach land. A massive manhunt began, including the deployment of the largest air and sea search in Hawaiian history, but Aikau was never seen again.”

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Sports February 9, 2016

Reality Star And Ex-Rapper Team Up To Coach Miami High School Football Team

With the announcement of new coaching hires, the Miami Jackson High School football team is making news months before the season even starts.

On Monday, the school named Lakatriona “Bernice” Brunson, 38, head coach of the football program. According to the Miami Herald, Brunson, who was working as a physical education teacher at the high school, is the first female high school football head coach in the state.

But she’s not just any female coach — she’s the trash-talking, tough-as-nails, tow-truck-driving character on the truTV show South Beach Tow, which follows the confrontations and mishaps that arise between tow truck drivers from Tremont Towing and drivers of offending vehicles.

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Brunson’s TV character is grumpily matter-of-fact and not hesitant to give orders; it seems she’ll bring this same no-nonsense approach to the football field.

“I’m ready for whatever comes my way. I’m ready to fight, ready to get these guys prepared and ready to win,” she said at the news conference to announce her hiring, according to ESPNW.

At the presser, Brunson — who played football for the Miami Fury in the Independent Women’s Football League and was also a standout high school and college athlete — was joined by two of the Miami Jackson team’s players: offensive lineman Donte Morris and senior defensive tackle Javon Hunt.

Lakatriona “Bernice” Brunson from truTV’s South Beach Tow. Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Wire/Corbis hide caption

toggle caption Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Wire/Corbis

“[Brunson] shows tough love, wants you to work hard, not doubt yourself, give 100 percent effort,” Hunt said, according to the Herald.

The school also hired former 2 Live Crew rapper Luther Campbell as defensive coordinator. Despite the new hires’ high profiles, Brunson made it clear what came first:

“We’re not here to talk about music or reality TV,” said Brunson, who will also coach the Miami Jackson girls’ flag football team this spring. “We’re here to talk about football only.”

Campbell, who gained music fame in the 1980s and in recent years has found success on the coaching staffs of other Florida high school football teams, concurred.

“At first I thought ‘this [expletive] might be crazy because I take football real serious,’ ” Campbell said, according to the Herald. “But after a conversation with [Brunson], I said, ‘Naw, she knows her football. She’s on point.’ I don’t take this as a joke. I didn’t want to be a part of no circus.”

Although Miami Jackson last made it to the state championship semifinal in 2012, the program has yet to capture the title. The Herald says that’s partly because it has had to compete with South Florida football powerhouses such as Central, Booker T. Washington, Northwestern, Plantation American Heritage and Hallandale.

Brunson replaces former University of Miami and NFL player Earl Little, and she’s confident in her abilities.

“We’re just here to change the atmosphere at Miami Jackson and get some W’s on the board,” Brunson said at the press conference. “I know I can do it. … Watch what we’re going to do. It’s some big things coming up.”

Sports February 8, 2016

Small Batch: The Super Bowl, From Peyton vs. Cam To Twitter vs. Coldplay

Beyoncé, Coldplay singer Chris Martin and Bruno Mars perform during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 50 football game Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, in Santa Clara, Calif.

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Beyoncé, Coldplay singer Chris Martin and Bruno Mars perform during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 50 football game Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, in Santa Clara, Calif. Julio Cortez/AP hide caption

toggle caption Julio Cortez/AP

Sunday night’s Super Bowl landed a huge TV audience for its battle between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers, which the Broncos took 24-10. While a football game is a football game, the Super Bowl is also a huge pop culture event, from the halftime show to the buildup and the barrage of advertising. We sat down the Monday morning after to take apart the highs, the lows, and the Beyonce of it all.

As we talk about a little, the halftime show was partially upstaged and made irrelevant by the release of Beyonce’s fascinating, gorgeous video “Formation,” and there’s already lots of interesting writing about it: NPR rounded some of it up here, plus there’s this and this and undoubtedly more by the hour. Dig in.

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