Our Work

Robyn Norwood on USC football and its post-season playoff ban

Our Robyn Norwood has this look-ahead piece on the University of Southern California's chances for a national championship as it comes out of a two-year post-seaon ban imposed by the NCAA. From her story:

LOS ANGELES – Two years after getting hammered by NCAA probation, Southern California is one of the preseason favorites to nail down a national championship.

And USC— voted No. 3 in the preseason USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll — grew even stronger this week with Penn State running back Silas Redd's announcement he would transfer to USC, taking advantage of the same opportunity to leave and play immediately that prompted some players to leave the Trojans when probation hit in 2010.

Redd's arrival eases concerns about running back depth, giving the Trojans two 1,000-yard rushers with Redd and Curtis McNeal behind quarterback Matt Barkley, a Heisman Trophy contender who has 1,000-yard receivers Robert Woods and Marqise Lee as targets. It is a move that makes USC's rebuilding project appear complete much sooner than some expected. The Trojans' major concerns? The defensive line and a lack of experienced backups if injuries hit at critical positions, including quarterback.

The two-year bowl ban is over, but the impact of 30 fewer scholarships over three years remains a factor for USC.

Robyn Norwood on the youngest Angel, Mike Trout

Our Robyn Norwood has a nice piece in USA Today about Mike Trout, the second-youngest player in Major League Baseball right now, and the spark plug for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. From her story:

In 33 games since being called up from Class AAA Salt Lake (Salt Lake City) on April 28, Trout is batting .318 with five home runs, 20 RBI, nine stolen bases and 23 runs.

Equally impressive: The Angels — who started 6-14 despite the signings of slugger Albert Pujols and pitcher C.J. Wilson — have gone 22-13 since Trout joined the team, winning 10 of their last 12 and pulling to 4½ games behind the Rangers after beating them twice in a weekend series. Trout had six hits in 13 at-bats, keying go-ahead rallies in wins Friday and Saturday.

Pujols, without a home run before Trout's arrival, ripped eight long balls in May. Mark Trumbo leads the team with a .331 average, and reliever Ernesto Frieri didn't give up a hit in his first 14 appearances as an Angel.

But speedy Trout is setting the tone.

"I mean, he's been the difference, the way this team's turned around. There's a lot more energy," outfielder Peter Bourjos said. "He's like a kid out there playing. That's really the way it looks.

 

Robyn Norwood and the Los Angeles Kings - hockey in L.A. in May?

Our Robyn Norwood has this piece in USA Today about the Los Angeles Kings, the hottest team on ice, and its playoff run reminding local hockey fans of the Wayne Gretzky glory days. From her story:

Still, it is nothing like 1993, when Wayne Gretzky was the glamorous focal point of the only Kings team to reach the Stanley Cup Finals. What was more, the Lakers and Clippers were eliminated in the first round of the NBA playoffs that year by May 9 — and the Kings and their drama-filled run had the city to themselves for a full month before the Montreal Canadiens won the Finals in five games.

"We still have a ways to go, but what is happening in the L.A. marketplace reminds me of our amazing run back in 1993, but in an even bigger way," says Luc Robitaille, the Kings' president of business operations and a star on the 1993 team.

Barry Melrose, who coached that team, believes the Kings are the best team remaining in these playoffs, which can't often be said of an eighth seed.

"I love the way they're playing," Melrose says. "They're playing fast, playing aggressive, playing with tons of passion. And very entertaining. It doesn't have to be an un-entertaining game to win. And L.A. is a very fun team to watch now."

Robyn Norwood on energy drinks and the health of young athletes

Our Robyn Norwood made the cover of USAToday the other day with this revelatory piece about energy drinks and their impact on the health of children and adolescents, partocularly those engaged in sports. From her story:

From youth playing fields to major league clubhouses, caffeinated energy drinks such as Red Bull and its scores of cousins have become a familiar presence in sports.

"The bottom line is, it's a long season. You're going to do what you have to do, whether you feel like you have to jump into a cryogenic freezing tank or a hyperbaric chamber or drink a Red Bull," said Texas Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson, a World Series starter who says he has never used alcohol or drugs but consumes energy drinks socially and to prepare himself to pitch. "I see nothing wrong with drinking Red Bull."

Some athletes and industry officials compare the beverages to a cup of coffee.

But doctors and other experts increasingly warn of misunderstandings about energy drinks' contents, lax labeling requirements and the risks of high doses of caffeine — particularly to young athletes.In June, a clinical report in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, warned that "stimulant-containing energy drinks have no place in the diets of children or adolescents."

Robyn Norwood on female jockey Chantal Sutherland and the Breeder's Cup

Our Robyn Norwood, a veteran sports writer, spent some time at the Santa Anita Park horse racing track in Southern California for this story on Chantal Sutherland, who hopes to be the first female jockey to win the Breeders' Cup Classic coming up n Louisville, Ky., this weekend. From Robyn's story:

In a small annex to the jockeys' room at Santa Anita Park near Los Angeles last week, Chantal Sutherland sat in front of her stall on a stool that once belonged to Julie Krone.

Around her were not-so-subtle signs that the four jockeys in the room were different from the ones next door. Makeup bags surrounded the sink, and above the stalls were the neatly stacked towels Sutherland chooses because she knows they won't end up in the men's stalls: They're pink.

On Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., Sutherland will attempt to become the first woman to win the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic. Not even Krone -- the first female jockey to win a Triple Crown race, the Belmont Stakes in 1993 -- could accomplish that feat, although she did win the 2003 Juvenile Fillies on Halfbridled.

"The longer I've been a rider, the more experience I have, I realize how amazing she was to do what she did," Sutherland said.

 

Jamie Reno weighs in on the Aubrey Sacco story

This is unusual for us. Two of our members have now written about the same topic - the sad story of Aubrey Sacco, who has gone missing in Nepal, and the efforts of her family - including brother Morgan Sacco, a San Diego State University soccer player - to find her. Robyn Norwood wrote about it a couple of weeks ago for USA Today. Now we have Jamie Reno's take on it for ESPNW:

SAN DIEGO -- Aubrey Sacco, an accomplished athlete, scholar, musician and artist, is the brightest star in her family's universe.

"Aubrey lights up a room when she enters it," said her younger brother, Morgan Sacco. "She's an effervescent person, full of life, and she totally loves glitter -- it reflects her personality."

But a year and a half ago, the "Glitter Girl," as her family and friends call her, mysteriously disappeared.

Aubrey, then 23, was nearing the end of a five-month journey of self-discovery through India, Sri Lanka and Nepal. She graduated from the University of Colorado in 2009, with a double major in art and psychology. She taught yoga, studied meditation and volunteered to teach children in one of the region's poorest schools on this trip.

Aubrey, who'd been everywhere from Costa Rica to Greece to Thailand, took a 45-hour train trip to Katmandu, Nepal, followed by a 10-hour bus trip to Syabrubesi to get to the western tip of Nepal's Langtang National Park. But she may have made a big, perhaps even fatal, mistake when she left her laptop and other items at a hotel and headed out on the popular Langtang Trek trail alone. It was the end of the trekking season and very few other backpackers were in the area.

That was in April 2010.

 

Robyn Norwood with a story of sadness, and hope

Our Robyn Norwood has this compelling piece in USA Today about a San Diego college soccer player and his family's quest to find his sister missing in Nepal. From her story:

SAN DIEGO – In the days before the San Diego State men's soccer team started readying for the season with drills and corner kicks, midfielder Morgan Sacco was 8,000 miles away in Nepal, hiking through terrain marked by landslides, leeches and snakes.

He was searching for his sister Aubrey, a 2009 University of Colorado graduate, world traveler and yoga instructor who disappeared in April 2010, while trekking alone in the Himalayas.

The family still has no answers, despite an earlier trip by Sacco's father and older brother to search for her, as well as the involvement of the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, the FBI and the Nepali army and police.

"It was really emotional for all of us, but it was really good to see the terrain she had walked, the lodges she had stayed at," Sacco said. "But it was, again, really frustrating. We didn't find as many answers as we had hoped."

Robyn Norwood on a baseball Hall of Famer's fight with cancer

Robyn Norwood has a nice update in USA Today on Tony Gwynn, the ever-smiling baseball Hall of Famer, and the cancer that, for time, robbed him of that famous grin. From her piece:

LONG BEACH — Tony Gwynn couldn't smile. The idea that the Hall of Fame outfielder who spent 20 years in a San Diego Padres uniform needed smile therapy was like saying the eight-time batting champion couldn't slap a single between short and third.

But for a time, the effects of treatment for cancer of a salivary gland discovered last August robbed Gwynn of what he called "a big part of who I am."

"I can smile again. I can laugh again," said Gwynn, coach of the San Diego State Aztecs the last nine seasons, as he sat in the dugout before a game against Long Beach State this month on a field where he played many games during his Long Beach youth.

"People who know me love to hear you laugh, see you smile," he said. "For a while, I couldn't do either. That was really concerning."

Robyn Norwood on the ramifications of a despicable act

Our Robyn Norwood, a veteran sports writer, has a piece in USA Today looking at the repercussions from the savage beating of a San Francisco Giants fan after a recent game at Dodger Statium in Los Angeles. From her story:

Dodgers fans and supporters of other teams who have ventured to Dodger Stadium wearing a rival's cap or shirt have traded stories of incivility for years. A woman tells of her 7-year-old being hassled by an inebriated fan because the child was wearing Giants gear. (The mother was wearing a Dodgers cap.) Another says she was cursed out while 81/2 months pregnant for wearing a Chicago Cubs jersey.

But the attack on Stow has roused public and political sentiment in a way that neither a shooting death in the Dodger Stadium parking lot in 2003 nor a death after a fight in the stands at Angel Stadium in neighboring Anaheim in 2009 did.

Despite a downward trend in crime across the city, roughly half of all serious crimes in the neighborhood occur on stadium grounds. According to the LAPD, there were 21 serious crimes — which includes rape, homicide, aggravated assault, robbery and burglary — at Dodger Stadium in 2010, down from 32 in 2009.

"I think the fact that it was unprovoked, that it was so senseless, that it was so brutal," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says. "That they hit him from behind, kicked him on the ground. It just hit the heartstrings of everybody.

"This really isn't just about one game. This is about a culture that thinks it's OK to attack this way."

Robyn Norwood on the sublime beauty of snowshoeing

Our Robyn Norwood has this nice travel piece for SignonSanDiego on snowshoeing at Mammoth Lakes, in the Sierra Nevada. From her story:

The moon, two nights shy of full, rose overhead. The snow beneath our feet was packed firm. But the woods were not silent that night, filled instead with the crunching of our snowshoes and the occasional low growl of a tractor grooming a ski run, its lonely light creeping along a distant hill.

The voices of my 20 companions — 18 other snowshoers and our two leaders — were a comfort in the woods, along with repeated assurances that bears were in hibernation.

[...]

We paused to regroup and catch our breath, and an astronomer who happened to be in our midst told us about the formation of the moon, then pointed out Jupiter, and later the bright star Sirius. A shooting star streaked across the sky, the sort of did-I-just-see-that moment you might dismiss as your imagination if you were alone. But we saw it, a blink-of-an-eye confirmed by the quick gasps of others.