WEST BRANCH – Two hundred fifty-eight students received free sports physicals during a two-day July event organized by MyMichigan Medical Center West Branch and hosted by Ogemaw Hills Free Methodist Church.

Local medical professionals, ophthalmologists, chiropractors and support volunteers ensured every student was ready for the upcoming school sports season, offering physicals, vision screenings and musculoskeletal evaluations at no cost to families.

“This is what it looks like when a community steps up,” said Rick Bowen, clinical director of operations, MyMichigan Medical Center West Branch. “Thanks to the dedication of our volunteers and the generosity of Ogemaw Hills Free Methodist Church, 258 students were able to receive the care they need to safely participate in school sports. That’s something we’re incredibly proud of.”

A local momwho has brought her children to the event for the past five years was appreciative of the event.

“Seeing all of the partners who participate, we know this exam is even more thorough than your standard physical,” she said. “And, on top of the quality of these exams and the financial relief it is, with three kids in sports, our schedules to have them seen would be a logistical nightmare without this event. We live at the field, the court, the gym, year-round and often have to use both days. A huge thank you to everyone who makes this happen.”

The event provided essential services to students who may not otherwise have access to pre-participation physicals, breaking down barriers to care and easing financial strain for many families.

“Our volunteers gave their time, their energy and their expertise because they believe every child deserves this kind of support,” Bowen said. “Having a trusted community space like Ogemaw Hills Free Methodist Church to host the event made it all possible.”

The two-day event not only prepared hundreds of student-athletes for the school year but also underscored the strength of community partnerships in promoting youth health and wellness.

MyMichigan Medical Center West Branch thanks Ogemaw Hills Free Methodist Church, Mindy Hawley, West Branch Chiropractic Center, West Branch Eye Care, Ogemaw Eye Institute and every volunteer who made the effort a success.

Those interested in attending or helping with future events may contact Cathy Cleland at [email protected].

Now that the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment has data to support the difference in head and neck injury risks for youth versus adult tackle football players, one athletic equipment safety standard nonprofit has released a first-ever youth football helmet standard.

“An awful lot went into the standard,” Dr. Robert Cantu, NOCSAE vice president and chair of the organization’s scientific advisory committee, said. “It is something that’s evolved over the last 10 years. … Youth are not small adults. They have particular needs. They have disproportionately large heads at an early age, and they have very weak necks.”

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That was the starting point for NOCSAE to invest half a million dollars into research “to actually go out and test on the field during practices and during games, exactly what these kids were experiencing,” Executive Director Emeritus Michael Oliver said. “… Out of that came some data that was actually fairly surprising. One of which is the younger age group actually has higher head accelerations than the older age group, but it’s because they hit the ground more often out of control.”

Armed with that information, NOCSAE developed a new standard for tackle football players who’ve yet to reach high school that will require manufacturers, including Riddell and Schutt, to design a helmet that weighs less. It also reduces the allowable rotational acceleration, the force most closely associated with concussion risks in tackle football.

“Forty, 50 years ago, the big problem was mostly skull fractures and intracranial bleeds, more serious injuries,” Cantu said. “Those have been eliminated virtually by the current helmet standards. What hasn’t been as well addressed — and can never be perfectly addressed, but it can be made better — are helmets that better attenuate the forces for concussion. That’s where we think this lighter helmet with adequate energy attenuating equipment in it will do a much better job than the current adult standard.”

New helmets will weigh no more than 3.5 pounds. There is no weight limit in the current performance specifications for helmet manufacturers.

“We have 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds, and they tend to, it’s like bobblehead football, a little bit,” said Keith Fogliani, who serves as president of the Independence, Missouri, Hawks Pop Warner football and cheer squad and as commissioner for the Heart of America Pop Warner Association.

“That bobble-head doll effect means that a youngster taking a blow, it can be a much lesser blow, but it produces great accelerations to the head,” Cantu said. “Youngsters with that weak neck can’t support the weight of an adult helmet, so this helmet will be a lighter one.”

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The hope is that it will better mitigate the risks unique to youth football players.

“Knowing that you have a helmet that’s kind of tailored, or a standard that’s tailored, to that age, to me, is comforting,” Oliver said. “If I’m a parent, I know my kid’s not trying to figure out how to use an adult helmet to play a game for kids, and I think that’s probably the most important part of it. It’s tailored for the risks and exposures for kids at that age.”

Youth football helmets are considered usable for 10 years, but NOCSAE standards require them to be inspected and reconditioned every two years.

“They’re (a new helmet) about $140, then you’re paying about $40 to $50 every two years (for reconditioning),” Fogliani said. “You end up with about a $400 helmet when it’s all said and done.”

NOCSAE’s new youth football helmet standard goes into effect March 1, 2027, which gives manufacturers time to develop equipment to meet the standard, but current helmets can still be used under the existing guideline, according to Oliver.

National organizations, like Pop Warner or USA Football, could create their own rule requiring the adoption of the new helmets sooner.

However, NOCSAE’s new standard only sets a deadline for future manufacturing as helmet technology continues to evolve — from leather helmets, to foam-lined plastic helmets, to new models with air bladders.

“The technology of the helmets is just going to keep getting better and better,” Fogliani said. “I’m just kind of curious to see what a three-and-a-half-pound helmet’s going to be looking like.”

This story was originally published by Tod Palmer with the Scripps News Group in Kansas City.

Among the nearly 100 golfers who took the greens for the first day of the 2025 Alaska State Amateur Championship at the Anchorage Golf Course on Friday morning were many of the top youngsters the 49th state has to offer.

The number of high school and college-aged golfers nearly reached double figures, which is an uptick from the small handful that have taken part in the past. That’s a sign that interest from the next generation is growing.

“We have some unbelievable young golfers,” President of Alaska Golf Association Jeff Ranf said. “We’ve had more interest on the youth side than we’ve had in years and I don’t know why.”

He feels like it might be a combination of some of the top golfers coming up, combined with the Alaska Golf Association being recognized as the organization many of them want to play through as potential reasons the sport is becoming more popular among the younger generation.

Another contributing factor is the proliferation of pathways golf is creating for kids to earn scholarships to get their college educations paid for.

“All the young really good golfers have been saying how much they are looking forward to continuing playing after high school and into college and perhaps going pro,” Ranf said. “That’s huge.”

Since golf isn’t one of the sanctioned sports offered through any school districts in the state, many of the top youth golfers either try to get in as much time on the golf courses Alaska has to offer when they can or travel out of state to compete and further develop their skills.

Anchorage’s Briggs Winfree is one of the latter. The 16-year-old spends his winters down in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and plays at Junior Players Golf Academy but he loves the chance to come back home and compete.

“It’s a ton of fun,” he said. “The golf up here is second to none. It’s so much fun and a great community.”

Without scholastic programs, many kids in the past were never introduced to golf at a young age.

“It definitely starts at a lower level then works its way up,” Ranf said. “We’re wanting to get more involved with youth golf so we’re working with clubs like Anchorage Golf, Palmer, Fox Hollow and Moose (Run).”

The Moose Run golf course, in particular, approached the AGA about getting help promoting their youth program.

“The more we get involved in those programs, the more the youth are going to take interest in events such as this,” Ranf said.

Just before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, their membership and interest in the golf scene in general was starting to wane. After the pandemic hit, it dropped even more precipitously. Tournaments were sparsely attended even when quarantine ended but now they feel like they’re finally back on the rise again thanks to an injection of new blood at the executive leadership level.

“We have some younger board members than we’ve had in the past,” Ranf said. “We had a lot of guys and women that had been on the board for 10 to 15 years that want to get off and now we have really good young players that are on the board and they want to see the game of golf grow in Alaska.”

He believes the younger generation is the driving force behind the uptick in interest in golf around the state and is excited for the direction the sport in the Last Frontier is heading.

“I love to see it,” Palmer’s Keira DeLand said. “There’s definitely a handful of us which is so cool to see.”

There was a junior golfer as young as 13 on the greens Friday competing in her first ever state championship event.

“Hopefully, we can see more kids following us,” DeLand said.

She believes that getting more camps and tournaments as well as just “publicizing golf more” will continue to drum up interest in sport among younger generations.

“The junior golf is great, especially with the youth on-course program out here,” Winfree said. “You can get a $5 round for 18 (holes) or $3 for 9 (holes). Every course has a junior rate so they really support junior golf which is awesome.”

He started playing competitively two summers ago and won his first junior tournament in town at Fox Hollow Golf Course but fell in love with the sport the first time he played it with his dad on a whim one day.

“Honestly, I just think it’s about making it more fun for the kids with a lot of games and camps,” Winfree said. “There’s definitely more kids coming with their parents too.”

Developing women’s golf is a priority

DeLand is one of Alaska’s most recent success stories as she earned a scholarship to play golf at Lee University, a private Christian university in Cleveland, Tennessee.

She is coming off her freshman year and last summer, swept both the women’s Alaska State Amateur Championship and State Match Play.

“It was awesome,” DeLand said. “It was a great learning experience and super fun to play with girls my age and just be around golf all the time year round.”

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Growing up in Alaska, there weren’t many girls her age to compete against. As a result, she was accustomed to playing with older women and males of all ages so going to play collegiately with and against her contemporaries was a welcomed culture shock.

“It was fun being around people my age who love the game as much as I do,” DeLand said.

The school year went by fast and she was so busy having fun that she didn’t start getting home sick until it was almost time to head back to Alaska for the summer.

“It was awesome to go to a structured practice everyday and be around a great group of girls,” DeLand said. “The whole year was really a highlight.”

She and Abigail Ante, who attends and competes for the University of Missouri-St. Louis, are two of the strongest young female players in the state. Unfortunately, there aren’t many others for them to contend with.

“That’s the one thing I think we lack,” Ranf said. “Other than working directly with the junior program, we haven’t been promoting women’s golf enough.”

That is starting to change as AGA is becoming more involved with the women’s programs such as Anchorage Women’s Golf Association and Wacky Women’s Golf Association.

“I think that will hopefully encourage more young women to play in these events, because we don’t get a lot of women,” Ranf said. “It’s unfortunate, because there are so many good players that we’d love to join us but we haven’t been able to get them yet.”

Takeaways from Day 1’s action

Back in late June, Winfree won 2025 Alaska State Golf Association’s Match Play Championship at Moose Run Golf Course where he bested heavy favorite, Erik Thompson in an 18-hole title tilt and won on the third extra match-play hole.

He didn’t let that recent success go to his head or bloat his confidence heading into this weekend’s action.

“The last tournament doesn’t matter because this is a whole different tournament,” Winfree said. “I came into it with no expectations and just tried to play my best.”

He felt good about his performance on the first day, shooting a 76. He was 1-under through 15 and 5-over through his last three holes.

Even though her home course that she is the most familiar with is out in Palmer, DeLand still managed to shoot a 78 on Day 1 of the state championship tournament.

“It was pretty solid, definitely room for improvement,” DeLand said. “I’m still trying to figure out these greens a little bit but I’m excited for the rest of the weekend.”

Thousands of people filled downtown Watsonville Saturday on day two of the three-day Strawberry Festival. 

As the fog broke apart and blue sky took over, people were treated to live music, scads of strawberry-theme food and drinks, carnival rides, arts and crafts, an open-air beer garden and a wealth of stands offering jewelry, clothing, artworks, household goods, Mexican artifacts, textiles and more.

“It’s so nice to see people out enjoying themselves,” said Marty Strickland, owner of FRuit FRTiz Smoothies. 

Strickland’s business opened 40 years ago and operated a permanent location in Watsonville Square 25 years ago. 

“I love doing the festivals,” he said. “We used to do Reno and LA — all over the place. People love us and we are here for them.”

Kim Vestal drove from the Santa Cruz Mountains with her daughter, Hannah Bowers and friend Katie Cole to her hometown to get a taste of the Strawberry Festival. 

“It feels good to be back home,” the Watsonville native said. “The festival looks absolutely amazing.” Vestal’s father, Sam Vestal, was the photographer for the Register-Pajaronian from the 1950s into the ‘80s.

Former Watsonville HIgh principal Murry Schekman said he walked to the event from his home.

“It looks great and well laid out,” he said as he made his way across the crowded plaza with the live music of Los Gallos de Cali filling the air. “I’ve been coming to this for many years. Everybody is having a good time.”