“The girls wanted someone to stick around and be there for them,” Jackson said. “For me, being probably the youngest coach in the valley at 26 (years old), I don’t have a wife and kids to go home to. I have a roommate and dogs.”

Jackson graduated from CMU in 2023 with a sports management degree. He played basketball growing up in Hawaii and was a 3-year starter on his high school varsity basketball team. While attending CMU, he started coaching youth basketball. He coached the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams at Bookcliff Middle School in 2024. He coached the Central freshmen boys’ team in the summer. He was offered the Central varsity girls basketball job last summer.

Jackson is the Warriors’ third coach in four years.

The Warriors (0-5) lost 68-20 to Rocky Mountain on Saturday in the Wildcat Classic at Fruita Monument High School. Central has five returning players from last year’s team that finished 7-17.

Seniors Raygan Ball, Bianca Berens and Giavaysis Lane return. Another senior, Meadow Homer, came back to basketball after wrestling for two years.

Juniors Miranda Adan and Sonya Johnson also return.

Berens led the Warriors with eight points. Homer and Adan each scored four. Ball and Lane each had two points.

“I’m excited about what we can build the rest of the year,” Berens said. “We are focused on having fun and building a team. Hopefully coach can stick around a while.”

Berens is in her third year on the varsity and second year as a starter. She is excited to have Homer on the team this year.

“This is our senior year,” Berens said of she and Homer. “We both want to play together and have fun together. Of course we want to win, but my first goal is to build chemistry on the team. You can’t win without it. We already have good bonds on the team outside of basketball. We are having fun.”

Berens and Homer are both capable of handling the ball and running the offense.

“We have the splash sisters, Bianca and Meadow,” Jackson said. “They are both leaders, but different. Bianca is more of an enforcer. Meadow is the soft-spoken one, but together they are our leaders.”

Adan provides a physical, tough presence in the paint.

“Miranda is tough,” Jackson said. “She’s the tallest player we have (at roughly 5-foot-9). She is scrappy. A lot of our girls are scrappy. They play with a chip on their shoulder. We have great players. They just need someone to believe in them.”

Jackson said he wants the girls to build their confidence and enjoy playing the game again after a disappointing season last year.

“We have so much hope and hunger,” Jackson said. “That is what the girls need. They need someone that is not going to hound on for all the little stuff. We see and know what they are going through. Realizing this is a kids’ game, it is not the WNBA or college. This is supposed to be for fun. Our main goal is to take it one day at a time and get the joy back into them, so they are out there playing for fun. It seemed like when we took over, they were walking on eggshells. They were scared to mess up. They were afraid of getting yelled at. We know they are going to mess up. We accept that and try to move on and keep playing and have fun.”

Jackson isn’t concerned about wins and loses as much as creating a culture in the program where the girls are building confidence and enjoy playing the game. He wants his team to be able to look back fondly on playing basketball in his program regardless of the team’s record.

“At the end of the day, I’m not coaching basketball players,” Jackson said. “I’m coaching daughters, students and better human beings. That’s my goal to create a culture where the girls remember having a great time playing their senior year.”

Abby Carlberg

Abby Carlberg, a 10-year member of Chautauqua County 4-H, was one of only ten statewide candidates to be accepted into the New York State 4-H Youth Livestock Ambassador Program.

This program is designed to introduce participants to the many career paths available in livestock, from animal genetics and nutrition to meat processing, marketing, and more. The program consists of four two-day retreats to visit farms, feed mills, fiber mills, and processing facilities across New York State.

Youth Livestock Ambassadors will be exposed to many careers in livestock, including animal production, veterinary science, animal nutrition, meat and fiber processing and retail and marketing skills.

Along the way, Youth Livestock Ambassadors also develop skills in communication, leadership, critical thinking, public speaking and teamwork. Most of the cost of the program is paid for by the NYS 4-H Foundation and Northeast Agricultural Education Foundation.

The 4-H Program is one of many programs offered by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County (CCE-Chautauqua). 4-H connects youth to hands-on learning opportunities that help them grow into competent, caring, contributing members of society. This may be through a club, where they meet to explore new projects each month, or through an animal project where they learn about and/or raise an animal, or through classroom programs in their school.

CCE-Chautauqua is a subordinate governmental agency with an educational mission that operates under a form of organization and administration approved by Cornell University as agent for the State of New York. It is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The association is part of the national cooperative extension system, an educational partnership between County, State, and Federal governments. As New York’s land grant university Cornell administers the system in this state. Each Cornell Cooperative Extension association is an independent employer that is governed by an elected Board of Directors with general oversight from Cornell. All associations work to meet the needs of the counties in which they are located as well as state and national goals. For more information, call 716-664-9502 or visit our website at www.cce.cornell.edu/chautauqua.

Kendall Chavez concentrates while in the middle of reps at Cortez’s Youth Athletic Performance program at Mountain Range Fitness. (Jarrod Wyatt/Courtesy photo)

Cortez’s branch of the program is located at Mountain Range Fitness

Young athletes in Montezuma County looking to boost strength and advance in their sport train at the Youth Athletic Performance program at Mountain Range Fitness in Cortez.

Known as YAP Training, the program has grown from a Mountain Range Fitness side project into a multisite operation with a custom mobile app serving athletes locally and nationwide.

The program launched two years ago by Jarrod Wyatt and his former Colorado Mesa University football teammate, Jeremy Harrison. Wyatt said some of the inspiration for YAP came during COVID-19, when school sports were limited and athletes needed other options to stay in shape.

“I had a lot of kids that started coming in during that time frame, and I really enjoyed it,” Wyatt said.

Wyatt coached football for 13 years, stopping this year. He noted that strength training was a big part of the team’s success.

“I was the defense coordinator and strength coach at Mancos, and we went to four semifinals in a row,” Wyatt said. “We won a state championship, and a lot of that success came from the work and everything that we put in the weight room.”

Hawk Overton lifts with the help of a friend as a spotter as part of Cortez’s YAP Training program. (Jarrod Wyatt/Courtesy photo)

YAP now operates in Cortez and Grand Junction, and a third location will open in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, where Harrison lives, in spring 2026. At Mountain Range Fitness, about 45 athletes participate regularly.

The Grand Junction location opened Oct. 13 and serves about 30 athletes.

An additional 15 athletes nationwide use the program’s app, YAPtraining, available on Apple and Google platforms. The app lets athletes follow YAP programming and log performance metrics anywhere.

Wyatt explained that while endurance athletes and football players have different performance demands, all athletes benefit from improved strength, explosiveness, mobility and resilience.

“Eighty to 90% of the training is going to look the same,” he said. “That other 10 to 20% is to meet the specific demands of the sport.”

In Cortez, group sessions run Monday through Thursday at 6 a.m. or 4:30 p.m. during the school year. Athletes with flexible schedules may train at other times.

Former participants who have gone on to play collegiate sports include Teya Yeomans, now on Montana State University’s Division I volleyball team, and Wyatt’s son Kaiden Wyatt, a freshman football player at Colorado Mesa University.

Eli Kop smiles while being coached through some weightlifting exercises at Cortez’s YAP Training Program. (Jarrod Wyatt/Courtesy photo)

“When she (Yeomans) first went up there, her strength coach was impressed that her background in strength training was more advanced than a lot of incoming freshmen. She was prepared,” Wyatt said. “My oldest son, who’s playing football at Colorado Mesa, prides himself on being one of the stronger freshmen.”

Wyatt said he wants Cortez athletes to have access to training common in bigger cities.

“What can we bring back to Cortez, Colorado that helps our athletes? My goal is to expose these athletes to something that I was never exposed to. You hear that of a lot of former athletes, just going, ‘Man, I wish I had this when I was young,’ and that’s what I’m trying to accomplish,” Wyatt said.

Wyatt said athletes aiming for college competition should prepare early by building strength and conditioning skills, since programs often require it before arrival.

“Let’s get ahead of the curve. Let’s be ready,” he said. “Our good athletes … tend to be a big fish in a little pond in our area, but when you go to college … they’re a dime a dozen. Everybody’s good.”

The program serves athletes starting at age 10 with exercises scaled by age and experience. Younger athletes focus on body-weight movements; older athletes use weight equipment.

Families can register at www.yaptraining.com or visit Mountain Range Fitness. Prospective athletes may attend one or two sessions to see if the program is a good fit.

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Block Samiti – Nagar Zone

A day ahead of the panchayat polls on December 14, it is the youth of the four villages he represents, whose issues weigh heavy on his mind.

The scourge of drugs, taking youth back to sports, freeing villages of long-standing issues like waterlogged roads — are the key issues around his election campaign has been centred.

Thirty-eight-year-old Parshotam Singh — activist, panch and a highly qualified candidate (MSc in IT and MA in Punjabi) — has had his entire campaign centred around the village populace and their issues, especially the youth. Contesting the Block Samiti elections from the Nagar Zone in Phillaur, Parshotam represents the villages Katpalon (where he is also the panch), Nagar, Ashahoor and Fatehgarh Lakkha.

Ask him about the pivot around which his campaign revolves, and pat comes the reply, “Youth”.

Parshotam Singh says, “Naujawani nu bachaya jave (youth must be saved). The prime concern with any well-meaning citizen in Punjab today must be that our youth is heading in the wrong direction and they must be brought back from drugs or other ills afflicting their culture and moorings. Very few people know about the power of these elections. An elected representative of the Block Samiti can be instrumental in getting sportsgrounds, gyms and culture-related means of recreation in villages which could ensure the transformation of youth — instead of falling prey to drugs. This is immense power.”

Having been a youth leader and a member of the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Naujawan Sabha, vice-president of the Punjab Students Federation and currently a member of the Lok Insaaf Manch, Parshotam is well-versed with Punjab’s issues. He has fought for the rights of youths falling prey to unemployment despite degrees, fellow students’ bus pass and right to reservation, ridding a local activist of false cases against him and also the struggle for Panjab University, Chandigarh.

He has also been among the activists holding month-long dharnas to free villages of contaminated water and sanitation woes besides approach roads.

Speaking on the issue, he says, “So many villages don’t have proper drainage these days. This is an ever increasing problem. In some villages, even the entry gates are waterlogged. Villages do not have plants to clean water, they don’t even have ROs. Villagers have the right to clean water and dry spaces. This has been a major fight of our region and an important element of my campaign.”

Planning of village ponds according to new technology to counter spillovers is also among his plans, he says.

Speaking specifically on his plans, if he’s elected, he says, “It’s a misconception that an MLA or MP is empowered but a Block Samiti member isn’t. Anyone who is aware and knows what he wants for his area is actually more empowered. For a member of the Block Samiti, Zila Panchayat funds could be spent on villages. They can also use their part of the district budget to build villages. Sportsgrounds, stadiums, spaces and gyms could be facilitated by Block Samiti members. So people must choose and vote wisely.”

Zila Parishad – Patara Zone

Lakhvir Singh Hazara, a farmer who is an avid sports promoter of his area, is set to take his message of sports promotion to the ZIla Parishad polls as well.

Contesting from the AAP, Hazara, a candidate for Zila Parishad election from the Patara zone, is known best in the region for the sports activities he has been undertaking. While he contested elections from the same zone last time, he had lost to the Congress candidate Mehtaab Singh Lali. The years-long delay in the panchayat coupled with simmering issues of people, make him confident that people are fed up with false promises and need real change on the ground.

His spirit to promote sports and wean children away from drugs, keeps him upbeat.

At Patara and in neighouring villages, Lakhvir Singh has been holding various sports tournaments. An annual soccer tourney is slated for December 16 and he also hosts a Kabaddi Cup.

On why the elections are important this time, Lakhvir says, “The Block Samiti and Zila Parishad elections are happening after a gap of seven years during which various works have piled up.”

The holiday season is here and kids across the county are excited for their presents. With that it’s important to make sure the toys they receive are age appropriate and safe. 

Every year hundreds of San Diego children end up in an emergency department from mishaps with toys. That’s why choking, swallowing or interacting with toys or jewelry made with lead, or those that have button or coin batteries are high on the list of doctors’ holiday concerns. Fortunately, San Diego parents can take steps to keep their family holiday safe from dangerous gifts.   

First, make sure the toy is age appropriate: toy packaging will have a recommended age range. That label should also say “nontoxic” to ensure it is safe especially for infants and toddlers. Keep toys for older children out of reach especially because their small parts can be a choking risk. If a toy has a part that will fit through a cardboard toilet paper roll, it is small enough to pose a choking risk.   

If possible, avoid using or buying button or coin batteries or toys that require them. Button batteries and batteries in general should be kept away from children in a drawer or cabinet out of reach. Button batteries are particularly concerning as they are a common choking hazard with serious consequences. A battery can get stuck in the child’s throat and burn a hole. This burn can quickly turn into infection, permanent damage, or even death if it’s not treated fast enough. Immediately seek emergency care if you think your child swallowed a battery. 

Among other gifts to watch out for are antique toys or hand-me-downs which were already flagged as dangerous. Knowing what toys have been recalled, which toys may have lead and where to go to with concerns are essential.   

Watch out for toys made in other countries or made in the United States before 1978, as they may have lead paint. Toys can only be tested for lead by a certified laboratory. At-home tests do not identify how much lead is present. It is best to check for recalls on old toys.   

Lead exposure can harm a child’s brain and nervous system, slow their growth and cause learning difficulties. If you suspect your child has been exposed, remove the toy immediately. Anyone who is concerned about lead poisoning should ask their doctor for a blood test. 

Washing your hands and wiping down surfaces and toys are also great ways to ensure any lead dust in the environment is removed.  

Eating foods high in calcium, vitamin C and iron protect the body from absorbing lead. Fun recipes in English and Spanish are featured near the bottom of the Family Lead Safety website. 

To avoid choking, swallowing and other hazards, anyone giving a gift to a child should consider the following questions: 

• Are there parts that are too pointy or dangerous for the child’s age? 
• Can any small parts come off the toy, even by design? 
• Does an older child’s toy have parts that pose a choking hazard for another child or siblings?  
• Can the toy be crushed or broken apart if stepped on, sat on or from falling? 

Those gifting sports equipment or anything with wheels should also include appropriate protective gear, like helmets and pads. 

The U.S. Consumer Product and Safety Commission reports that toys for children 12 and under are inspected by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). All toys that have passed inspection will have a label showing it meets those standards. 

By following safe gift giving you can keep your loved ones safe too!  

Source: County of San Diego Communications Office

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