Connect with us
https://yoursportsnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/call-to-1.png

Sports

Preview and how to watch VNL action live

The road to Ningbo starts now for the best men’s volleyball teams in the world at the 2025 FIVB men’s Volleyball Nations League (11 June – 3 August). After the women’s competition got underway on 4 June, the men follow suit the following week among the 18 national teams competing to reach the final round […]

Published

on


The road to Ningbo starts now for the best men’s volleyball teams in the world at the 2025 FIVB men’s Volleyball Nations League (11 June – 3 August).

After the women’s competition got underway on 4 June, the men follow suit the following week among the 18 national teams competing to reach the final round in the People’s Republic of China.

Of those qualified nations, there are three former VNL winners. Defending champions France arrive as the double Olympic champions following their momentous gold at Paris 2024, a few weeks after they had claimed their second Nations League title.

Olympic silver medallists Poland last lifted the VNL trophy in 2023, and with one of the final round pools being played in Gdansk, will hope the home advantage can help them over the line and into the finals.

The only present champion not from the European continent are Brazil, one of only two South American nations to have qualified. Can they hit their stride ahead of the Volleyball World Championships later this year in the Philippines?

Here is what you need to know about the 2025 men’s VNL.



Link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sports

UTSA announces signing of Steele’s John Williams III – UTSA Athletics

SAN ANTONIO – UTSA Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Aaron Fox announced on Monday that the Roadrunners will add local jumper John Williams III to the 2025-26 Roadrunners roster, coming to UTSA from across town at Byron P. Steele High II School. “It’s exciting to be able to add top-notch local talent to our […]

Published

on


SAN ANTONIO – UTSA Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Aaron Fox announced on Monday that the Roadrunners will add local jumper John Williams III to the 2025-26 Roadrunners roster, coming to UTSA from across town at Byron P. Steele High II School.

“It’s exciting to be able to add top-notch local talent to our always-strong jump squad,” Fox said. “John is a talented jumper who has a strong growth progression and has performed well on the state and national stages.”

Williams competed in his senior season of horizontal jumps at Cibolo’s Steele High, capturing the District 29-6A, Area and Region IV-6A titles in the triple jump, hitting a career-best 15.47m (50-9.25) measurement during the regional meet at San Antonio’s Heroes Stadium in April – breaking the city, area and regional records in the event on his path to a bronze-medal performance at the UIL 6A State Track and Field Championships in Austin. Registering the third-longest jump in Texas and 10th in the nation, his performances this spring earned an invitation to The Jump Games in Ocean Springs, Mississippi in late May, where he garnered third in the field. After winning the Comets Hill Country Championships in June, Williams qualified to compete nationally at the Nike U20 Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, Oregon, registering a 12th-place finish at the national meet. Williams also earned the silver medal in March at the 97th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays. In long jump, Williams was also the District 29-6A runner-up, hitting a personal-best 6.91m (22-8) during the Hill Country Championships.

Before Steele, he attended North Dakota’s Minot North High School, where he also competed in sprints and earned the triple jump silver medal at the NDHSAA 1A State Outdoor Track and Field Championships as a junior, after winning the West Region championship in the event. That season during indoors, Williams was third in triple at the 1A State Championships. He won the 1A State title in the triple jump as a sophomore in 2023 with a measurement of 14.15m (46-5).

 

– UTSA –



Link

Continue Reading

Sports

Pope and Walton to face off in outdoor volleyball game

Volleyball is one of the fastest rising sports in the entire country. Specifically, the NCAA has made it a big deal to promote the sport. Nebraska has become the biggest name in the game and set a record crowd of 92,000 in attendance for one of its games in 2023. In Georgia, the sport is […]

Published

on


Volleyball is one of the fastest rising sports in the entire country. Specifically, the NCAA has made it a big deal to promote the sport. Nebraska has become the biggest name in the game and set a record crowd of 92,000 in attendance for one of its games in 2023. In Georgia, the sport is growing into a spectacle that many fans are excited to watch.

Heated East Cobb rivals Pope and Walton are two of the best teams in the state. Pope is the defending 5A champion and has won state in two out of the last three years and is the definition of a modern dynasty. The Greyhounds return star players Lyden Harvey (who recorded 208 kills last season), Isabelle Andre (who had a .250 hitting percentage last season), and rising sophomore Lyla Skapinetz.

As for Walton, the Raiders went to the state championship two years ago before falling to North Cobb and are coming off a state semifinals appearance, again falling to North Cobb. This year, Walton has a new head coach in Ashley Jones and returns a lot of key players including Simone Searles (Duquesne commit), Janie Myers (listed as a top-50 sophomore according to Volleyball Adrenaline), and Scarlett Holden (led team in 2024 with 59 blocks).

The two teams recently announced (first reported by the Marietta Daily Journal) that they will play in an outdoor game, hosted at Pope’s football stadium.  The game will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 9th.

The pair faced off last season with the Raiders pulling out a 2-0 win (29-27, 19-25). The 2025 addition of this matchup is sure to draw a crowd that will be one of the largest in Georgia volleyball history.

Pope has two games scheduled before its match against Walton, playing Roswell and Kell. The Raiders have not reported a full schedule as off now.

If you are still not sold on this game, let’s sum it up. Two rivals, separated by a 10-minute drive, featuring a defending state champion, with both as title favorites this season, who played a tight game last season, all on a Saturday night in a football stadium after the first week that school is back. This game will be a must-see affair for any fan looking for something to do on a Saturday night.

 



Link

Continue Reading

Sports

Big Ten Announces 2024-25 Distinguished Scholars

Big Ten Announces 2024-25 Distinguished Scholars July 14, 2025 | Football, USC Athletics, Men’s Basketball, Men’s Swimming & Diving, Men’s Tennis, Men’s Water Polo, Track & Field, Women’s Basketball, Women’s Lacrosse, Women’s Rowing, Women’s Soccer, Women’s Swimming & Diving, Women’s Tennis, Women’s Volleyball, Women’s Water Polo, Women’s Beach Volleyball, Swim & Dive Link 0

Published

on


Big Ten Announces 2024-25 Distinguished Scholars

July 14, 2025 | Football, USC Athletics, Men’s Basketball, Men’s Swimming & Diving, Men’s Tennis, Men’s Water Polo, Track & Field, Women’s Basketball, Women’s Lacrosse, Women’s Rowing, Women’s Soccer, Women’s Swimming & Diving, Women’s Tennis, Women’s Volleyball, Women’s Water Polo, Women’s Beach Volleyball, Swim & Dive



Link

Continue Reading

Sports

LA 2028 Olympic organizers release first look at competition schedule 3 years out from games

CBS News Live CBS News Los Angeles Live Organizers of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles released the first look of the competition schedule three years out from the Opening Ceremony on Monday morning. At an event outside of the LA Memorial Coliseum marking three years until the start of the games, LA28 Chief Executive Officer […]

Published

on


CBS News Live



CBS News Los Angeles

Live

Organizers of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles released the first look of the competition schedule three years out from the Opening Ceremony on Monday morning.

At an event outside of the LA Memorial Coliseum marking three years until the start of the games, LA28 Chief Executive Officer Reynold Hoover announced the first look of the competition schedule, including dates for medal ceremonies.

Hoover highlighted that the upcoming games will be the return of the Games to the U.S. for the first time since 1996. It will be LA’s third time hosting the Olympics, having previously hosted the 1932 and 1984 games.

Sporting events will kick off two days before the Opening Ceremony on July 14, 2028. Hockey, archery, basketball, water polo, handball and cricket will begin on July 12, 2028. Hoover said the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games will feature more sports than any other games before. Sporting events will be held at venues around the city, including Dodger Stadium, the Convention Center, the Galen Center and Long Beach. 

The first medal will be awarded for the triathlon on July 15 in Venice Beach. Swimming will close out the last medal ceremony on July 30 at Sofi Stadium.

“We are now three years away from the LA Memorial Coliseum hosting the opening of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and I’m proud that the first medal will be awarded at the iconic Venice Beach,” said LA Mayor Karen Bass. “When the world comes here for these Games, we will highlight every neighborhood as we host a Games for all and work to ensure it leaves a monumental legacy.

Use this link to access the first look at the competition schedule. 



Link

Continue Reading

Sports

Chris Bitz | UW-Whitewater

July 14, 2025 Written by Chris Lindeke | Photos by Craig Schreiner, Fionnbharr Hartnett , UW-Whitewater Athletics University of Wisconsin-Whitewater alum Chris Bitz has always enjoyed numbers, whether it was calculating them in a classroom, punching them into an Excel spreadsheet, or seeing them displayed after his latest pole vault attempt. Bitz, who earned a […]

Published

on


July 14, 2025

Written by Chris Lindeke | Photos by Craig Schreiner, Fionnbharr Hartnett , UW-Whitewater Athletics

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater alum Chris Bitz has always enjoyed numbers, whether it was calculating them in a classroom, punching them into an Excel spreadsheet, or seeing them displayed after his latest pole vault attempt.

Bitz, who earned a B.S. in mathematics in 2023, was a four-year member of the Warhawk men’s track and field team. Now he is thriving as an actuarial analyst for Nationwide in downtown Milwaukee.

He’s been with the company since starting there as an intern in November of 2021, just under halfway through his junior year. He remained an intern through his senior year, focusing on manual group processes, before earning an offer to stay on full time.

“The internship helped with using Excel on a day-to-day basis,” Bitz said. “Once I got further into the internship, then it was about how I can make the right decisions based on the data, which is something UW-Whitewater helps to get at through a couple classes.”

The experience has come full circle for Bitz, who has been managing one intern for each of the last two years. (Nationwide currently employs an intern from UW-Whitewater who doesn’t report to Bitz.) Day to day, he is concentrated strategically on where the best areas of business exist and what areas the company should be targeting.

The textbook definition of what an actuary does is assess financial risk for businesses, including insurance companies, but Bitz believes it’s much more than that.

“I think there are a lot of areas within actuarial science,” he said. “For example, I work on our first-year pricing team, so groups coming to us for the first time looking for health insurance, we’ll price them as a group to see where they should be at. There’s a bunch of different fields within actuarial sciences.”

Chris has hands crossed while smiling at camera.

Chris Bitz is a UW-Whitewater alumnus and former Warhawk pole vaulter who is applying his mathematics education and athlete’s discipline to work at Nationwide in Milwaukee. Bitz, who earned a B.S. in mathematics in 2023, graduated cum laude. Photo taken on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (UW-Whitewater photo/Craig Schreiner)



 

A fulfilling Warhawk experience

Bitz took an accounting course as a freshman at Brookfield East High School and said he didn’t love it. His mother, Maria, who attended UW-Whitewater, asked him if he had heard of actuarial math and science and suggested that as a career path.

By his junior year of high school, he knew he wanted to become an actuary.

“I knew very early on that math was my thing,” Bitz said. “From a young age, I was always very good at math — I like the numbers part of it.”

Bitz’s desire to continue his athletic career as a pole vaulter in track and field — along with the university’s reputation for the actuarial science emphasis — led him to UW-Whitewater. He connected to pole vault coach Nathan Wells and head track and field coach Mike Johnson before making his decision to join the Warhawk family.

After a period of adjustment and learning, UW-Whitewater felt like home to Bitz.

“It takes a lot of time to settle in — being on your own for the first time, living in a dorm, having a roommate, all those kinds of things,” he said. “I think I finally got to a point where I was comfortable, and the campus felt like where I should be, and the team felt like family.”

Bitz found a high level of comfort — and success — as a student-athlete. He placed among the top seven in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference four times, including a sixth-place finish at the 2022 outdoor conference championship meet, and recorded his personal best mark at his second-to-last collegiate competition.

 

Student is performing athletics at an event at the fieldhouse

Chris Bitz clears a height in the men’s pole vault at the Midwest Elite Invitational on Feb. 15, 2020, at Kachel Fieldhouse in Whitewater. (UW-Whitewater athletics photo/Michael McLoone)



 

He served as a captain during his senior year in 2023 and was honored numerous times for academics and sportsmanship during his career. He was also recognized as a UW-Whitewater Chancellor’s Scholar-Athlete and earned his third straight All-Academic award from the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association as a senior.

“(NCAA) Division III was a perfect mix for me,” Bitz said. “I love my sport and wanted to put a lot of time into it, and I had the ability to do that while also focusing on academics.

“UW-Whitewater did a good job of balancing the two and making it clear, saying ‘yes, you are an athlete for this track team, but you’re also a student, and that matters more.’”

Bitz said many of his current best friends — including his roommate, CJ Pfeil — were part of the track and field program. He regularly attends the program’s Alumni Meet and currently coaches track and field at Brookfield East High School, his alma mater.

While on campus, Bitz was also part of the university’s Actuarial Club, which helps future actuaries learn, network, and develop skills necessary in the profession. As part of the group, he virtually attended the Wisconsin Actuarial Collegiate Conference, where he landed his internship that led to his full-time job with Nationwide.

“It made it very easy to learn a lot more about the career and connect with people who know more,” he said. “By the time I got to my junior and senior years, I felt much more prepared having been in that club.”

 

Chris walks through the audience during commencement.

Chris Bitz, a mathematics major from Brookfield, marches in the spring commencement on Saturday, May 13, 2023. (UW-Whitewater photo/Fionnbharr Hartnett)



 

Bitz, who was a recipient of the Chancellor’s Scholarship, also shouted out mathematics faculty members Geethamali Samaranayake and Wesley Hough for positively influencing his time at the university. He served as a supplemental instructor for one of Hough’s classes and was a math tutor in Campus Tutorial Services.

 

A promising path to career success

Bitz hopes to secure his certification from the Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and continue building his career at Nationwide to a managerial level.

He continues to put what he learned at UW-Whitewater into practice. He cited his preparation for exams — a critical part of an actuary’s career — as something the university helped him with.

There are 10 exams to pass to become fully certified as an actuary — Bitz has passed four and is waiting on results from a fifth.

“UW-Whitewater offers a couple classes that get you in the door for those exams and teach you the basics for the first two,” he said. “It gives you a grounding of where to start, and you can build on that for the next eight exams — or however many you decide to do.”



Link

Continue Reading

Sports

Ciro Gentile Named Head Softball Coach

Story Links Ciro Gentile has been named Head Coach of the Baruch Softball Team. The announcement was made by Baruch College Director of Athletics and Recreation, Heather Mac Culloch on Monday. Ciro Gentile is a seasoned coaching professional with over 18 years as Head Varsity Baseball Coach at Uniondale High School on […]

Published

on


Ciro Gentile has been named Head Coach of the Baruch Softball Team.

The announcement was made by Baruch College Director of Athletics and Recreation, Heather Mac Culloch on Monday.

Ciro Gentile is a seasoned coaching professional with over 18 years as Head Varsity Baseball Coach at Uniondale High School on Long Island, where he has led his team to three county-wide League Championships, five League runner-up finishes, and earned three county-wide Coach of the Year honors. His reputation for developing athletes both on and off the field is matched by his results—having guided numerous student-athletes to successful collegiate careers. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Coach Gentile to the Bearcat family,” said Heather Mac Culloch. “His experience as a teacher and baseball coach translates exceptionally well to the softball field, and his energy, commitment to fundamentals, and ability to connect with student-athletes will help elevate our program. We also know his years of coaching travel softball will add just the right amount of multifaceted coaching we need here at Baruch. We’re excited for what’s ahead under his leadership.”

In addition to his high school leadership, Gentile has served as the Head Coach of the Long Island Gators Softball Program for over a decade (2010 to 2021), coaching championship teams from under 12 through under 18 and capturing multiple United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) Tournament Titles. A dedicated mentor and educator, he also serves as a lead hitting and fielding instructor at baseball and softball summer camps, where he shares his deep knowledge of the game with the next generation of athletes. 

Gentile holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from SUNY Old Westbury (’85), a Master’s in Continuing Education from Stony Brook University (’99), and an Administrative Degree (’02) from the College of New Rochelle. With 35 years of experience as a Special Education teacher, he brings unmatched patience, communication, and insight into player development. 

“I’m incredibly honored to accept the position of Head Softball Coach at Baruch College.” Coach Gentile comments. “I want to sincerely thank Heather Mac Culloch and Carrie Thomas for entrusting me with this opportunity. I’m excited to lead this program, build a strong team culture, and help our student-athletes grow both on and off the field. Let’s get to work — Go Bearcats!”

A former national-level fast pitch softball player himself—earning All-Tournament honors in the Northeast Region—Ciro’s passion for the game extends to his family. He coached and trained his daughter, Kellie, to an All-State and All-Northeast Region honors in high school, before she went on to become Academic All-American in both soccer and softball at SUNY Brockport. He and his wife Penny are proud parents to Kellie and Cody.

A lifelong Yankees fan, Ciro enjoys golfing and cherishes his time spent with family and friends. His coaching is driven by a belief in hard work, discipline, and fostering a love for the game that lasts a lifetime.

 





Link

Continue Reading

Most Viewed Posts

Trending