Research phase 1

After the journalist came in, our sports in society class has shifted into researching our personal sport... finally. We started by thinking of bold, meaningful questions that are not answered with a simple google search. Questions dealing with the popularity, safety and ethics of our sport. The questions below are a short list of topics I plan on discussing and covering. A lot dealing with comparisons of rugby to football and questions dealing with how the game works. If you personally have any questions or topics about rugby you find interesting or questionable, drop a comment below.

HOW AND WHEN WAS RUGBY INVENTED?

WHY CAN YOU ONLY PASS THE BALL BACKWARDS IN RUGBY?

HOW MUCH DOES A PROFESSIONAL RUGBY PLAYER MAKE YEARLY?

IS A PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL OR A PROFESSIONAL RUGBY PLAYER MORE ATHLETIC?

WHAT IS CONSIDERED AN ILLEGAL TACKLE IN RUGBY?

HOW MANY REFS ARE NEEDED DURING A SINGLE RUGBY GAME?

IS RUGBY SIMILAR TO FOOTBALL?

HOW DO THE JERSEY NUMBERS IN RUGBY WORK?

WHY IS RUGBY'S POPULARITY SOLELY IN COUNTRIES OTHER THEN AMERICA?

WHY DOES RUGBY INVOLVE NO PAD PROTECTION?

Billion Dollar Ball - 2/3

   On May 5, Gill Gaul, a two time Pulitzer prize winning author, came to visit Cinnaminson High school. He came in to talk to us about his novel Billion Dollar Ball. The novel is focused on college football and its exponential growth in the past couple decades. The amount of people watching bowl games has doubled, and then doubled again to become a multi billion dollar enterprise. Gill Gaul did journalist work traveling interviewing and data collecting all over the country at college campuses. He had detailed experiences dealing with Oregon University, Texas football culture and the process at which the money flows through college athletic departments. Gaul traveled the campus of Oregon visiting many of the learning centers and sport facilities. He visited the athletic learning center which was a 40 million dollar investment to build. It included tutors who could assist athletes 1700 hours in a single week, studying and tutoring in hopes for them to pass their classes. There are other things though like imported Brazilian Foosball tables, Ferrari leather couches and open heated-controlled fire pits. It is questionable to say that is it a study center or a lounge? Only athletes who participate in varsity sports are allowed to use the facility at there leisure. He even went on to visit the campus's "honor student" facility. The hard working valedictorian's, perfect GPA students who are the best and brightest of students get a dusty, old building to use. It was said to be at least 70 years old and didn't even have a staircase that went to the second floor on the inside of the building; the students had to use a staircase placed outside of the building that led to the second floor. It is a clear comparison that an athletic scholarship compared to a academic contrasts greatly and is unfair. Athletes on their first day even get a mac book, and the honor students just get the opportunity to go to Oregon. These very scenarios Gaul saw all over the country with the football programs just using all of their proceeds to gaunt who has the best football program and to attract boosters. In Texas, Gaul said the rivalry and competition between schools is relentless. With rivalries starting decades in the past and teams just doing anything in their ability to beat the life out of the other teams; losing the fundamentals of football at points. This type of tension between schools is what actually attracts the attention to the programs and what makes people buy seats in the stadiums for entire seasons. The cut throat competition is what people gamble, cry, and wait for all year long. Gaul witnessed this during the 4 years he researched when writing the novel. The college football industry has exploded in a way where college coaches like Nick Saben making 650,000 in 1999 to making 7.1 million to this day. The television, social media and the history behind football is what ignites the flame in every fan to watch and cheer during every game, give seat donations up to 50,000 dollars and to let college football tumble into piles and piles of money. If Gill Gaul did not expose the wealth within college sports everyone could of continued obliviously unknowing of the billions of dollars flowing all around them. Does this arise any questions for you? What are these colleges doing with the millions and million of dollars unaccounted for? The reality is they barely do any interviews and if you to get a chance to ask the president of a college, they do not even know either.

The Oregon Athletic Learning Center.

Billion Dollar Ball - 1/3

   Gill Gaul is coming to Cinnaminson High School May 5th. He wrote the controversial novel Billion Dollar Ball, which tackles the topic of college sports and fame. Targeting football departments and coaches on college campuses making millions of dollars more then the President of the college and even the salaries of all the professors combined.
   Do you have experience playing college sports?
   What college has made the most money from the sports program?
   Are there colleges that compete at making the most money yearly from sales of tickets and so forth?
   Do certain college athletes who excel have more luxuries then other athletes?
   Does having a big stadium on campus affect how they are seen by other colleges?
   Do college coaches have the highest salaries compared to other occupations?
   If a team wins a National Championship what do they receive?
   What inspired you to reveal the scene behind college football?
   How much did you personally make from the publishing of the book?
   How long did it take to accumulate the information needed for the book?
   Did you have any trouble with colleges not wanting you to reveal their salaries?
   Can donations from boosters go directly to the athletic department of a college?

Sole Man Review

   Sole man was a ESPN 30 for 30 episode focusing on the billion dollar industry in America, which is shoes. The star, Sonny Vaccaro, was a man who saw a vision that no one else at the time understood. He took over the basketball industry with in months, making millions of dollars in the mean time. Sonny at first was paired up with Nike and had plans on just making shoes for basketball players. The only problem they ran into in the beginning was that their brand was unknown and no one would buy them. So to have a popularity explosion Sonny devised a plan that was seen as illegal and controversial, but since there were no set regulation or rules; it was completely legal. Sonny traveled the country coast to coast paying college coaches and giving bundles of shoes to teams and street players. He called this tactic, self marketing. His plan was just to pay off the coaches so that they would make the kids wear the shoes, and in return they brand name would get out there. When Nike started to become known with their different variation of Nike airs and many more to come, they had the idea to start signing athletes with their company in hopes to attract mass attention. Sonny was a mastermind for his time and his plan was perfect. He looked through all the top players in the upcoming draft and this one athlete can be seen as the start of the multi-million dollar company that Nike is today. That athlete was Michael Jordan with his signature show line, Air Jordans. This slam dunk master signed with Nike to start up his shoe contract to take his game to the professional level. The Air Jordans quickly became the hottest shoe on the market, simultaneously as Michael became the hottest player in the country. Sonny was from then on known as a king maker. He signed contracts with many athletes giving them the same deals to make them all stars, with signature lines and wealth beyond belief just for playing basketball. This sounds all great, but under the surface many people believe this was true corruption, especially when Sonny Vaccaro started his Nike summer training programs. Many to this day frown upon basketball summer programs because there is no regulation with the NCAA, deals can be struck and players can be snatched right out of others schools hands. When the atmosphere became intensely competitive, with Nike and Adidas being toe to toe, high-school students and even down to youth programs where starting to get paid. Coaches of 8th grade basketball teams making hundreds of thousands of dollars just for the coach to persuade the kids to wear this brand, and to go to this school. All of this money, billions of dollars, being moved around the basketball world all started by one man, and that is why Sonny Vaccaro is known as Soleman. He single-handedly made college basketball into the competitive atmosphere today, and made the NCAA its first millions of dollars. He is seen as a legend to the sport and for that the people who know him love him, or absolutely hate him from his success. He has worked with Nike and Adidas and has signed other super stars like Kobe. No one really knew how Sonny had so many connections, but the answer was all the money that was flowing through his hands to others. Sonny had a huge impact on many lives, forming players to champions of the game. Sonny will be remembered as the man who made shoes worth to die for.

Sonny Vaccaro with Michael Jordan in the beginning of his career.

Lauren Gardner, Female Reporter

   Gardner, a graduate of the University of Colorado, landed her first job in her hometown serving as the “In-Game Host” for the Colorado Avalanche, Denver Broncos and Colorado Rockies. For a sports reporter under 30 years old, male or female, Lauren Gardner has amassed an impressive resume. She was a former Denver Broncos cheerleader in 2008, and has covered the Lingerie Football League for MTV2; which was her first report that was a recognized event. After being picked up by CBS sports, the red-haired beauty has covered college football, tennis and most recently baseball. When she first started reporting for CBS she attracted lots of attention purely though her looks. Many people see beauty as useless tool because people would rather completely focus on the game being reported on rather then the reporter them self. Either way people started to realize she was not just reading scripts, she was educated on sports and knew what her responsibility was when reporting on a game. She enjoys reporting on college football the most just because she was a football cheerleader and she enjoyed her college years very much. She also believes that college sports are more intense of a game because they are not playing for a paycheck, but for the reputation of being the best. This being said, she respects the NFL and the athletes who participate, just believes that on a college level team winning the game has a lot more meaning for the players and not just all revolved around fame and fortune. In all, Gardner has been an excellent insight to college level sports for CBS and reports quite frequently since the duration of her time with CBS sports. To top it all off the lovely lady also has a pilots license.

Rugby w/BUCC Mission Statement

   This program is dedicated to training to be the best. We hope to groom champions from the highschool level to world class champions. We have history in our program, being already 4 time state champions with a handful of of semi final success and failure. We hope to make this rigorous experience also an environment for learning, safety, and genuine fun. Here we take winning and losing very seriously from the start since this is a U9-U19 program. There are no participation trophies gentlemen, its eat or be eaten in rugby; and by all means we train hungry men. Since we take training to maximum levels and try to push the younger children to limits they never reached before, we are considered to be one of the most intense programs in South Jersey and we show that reputation during our performance.
   Rugby is not soccer where you can mindlessly run the field, there are rules and strict fundamentals dealing with the flow of the game. Do to rugby being a complex sport we support our players to attend our cookouts, tailgates, and many other festivities before attending tournaments and games in hopes to form a full understanding and chemistry needed in the game on a professional, and what we expect on our highschool level as well. We recruit coaches with strict experience or knowledge on the game. Our staff is hand selected from many colleges like Rowan and Kutztown University, and the head coach was a world cup champion while playing with South Africa. We have the experience, and most definitely the knowledge, and that's why me attempt to drill and embed rugby into our younger players in hopes to rise them to fame and success. Since we spend so much time training our athletes, we spend great time and effort into making sure our athletes are happy and healthy. One can not be a champion at such a great sport if it is not taken serious or the will for victory is absent, so the demeanor at which we try to treat our athletes is in hopes to build self-esteem and break egos to form our boys into men.
   To have such a close relationship with our athletes it is important to communicate not just to the player, but to the family as well. We have had our athletes family's be huge help during our seasons. We need parents to be involved as well to get players and set up many thing for away games, get-togethers, and so forth. This being said, rugby has and forever will be a gentlemen sport so sportsmanship is not just supported on the sidelines, but required. How we handle ourselves on and off the field comes into play with how we are viewed, not just as oneself, but as a club. It is a key factor for our players to handle winning as well as the handle losing, by learning from their mistakes and by taking immense victory humbly. We also require dedication from our player, do not expect to show up to a few practices and be a part of the starting 15, it takes effort and determination to be this team's MVP.  With all this being said, we hope for many people interested and past players to come out and enjoy themselves. Happy rucking to all and good luck on the upcoming spring season boys!!!

Director and Head Coach

           -Ayden Bucci

Pick my 30 for 30 Campbell

   Why you have been in the sun and surrounded by crying children, I have been watching numerous documentaries that you have assigned. I've watched about a dozen of the 30 for 30 shortfilms by ESPN. Out of all of them we should watch The Billion Dollar Game, Unhittable: Sidd Finch and the Tibetan Fastball, and Ali: the Mission. I chose these selective documentaries because each one showed how certain athletes or teams dramatically effected the game. Ali: The mission is about perhaps one of the most important, but least known, feats of Muhammad Ali's remarkable life. It goes into detail about all the things he did outside the ring that helped his accomplishments within the sport, Muhammad is a true legend to this day. The Billion dollar game was focused around the the Princeton Tigers in 1989 when they gave Georgetown Hoyas everything they could, in a game that would forever change March Madness. March Madness is one of the biggest events in the NBA and draws out millions of fans, very interesting to see how these two teams demonstrated the seriousness and intensity that March Madness brings to the court. Finally but not least, Unhittable: Sidd Finch and the Tibetan Fastball, this shortfilm followed a pitcher that was drafted to the Mets with a 168 mph fastball. With this addition to the Mets at the time they were almost unbeatable with no one capable of standing up to the Tibetan fastball. All of these documentaries had in common that they made great accomplishments and changes to the sport they were involved in. Showing these select documentaries would be a fun and educational way to introduce topics on changes or athletes affects on our sports. Hope Disney was a blast, see you soon!