STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The snow couldn’t keep young ballers from competing in the 4th Annual Finest AAU Holiday Classic Saturday afternoon.

The annual tournament included 86 teams ages 2nd to 8th grade this year. A whopping 106 games are to be played between Dec. 26-31 at St. Teresas, St. Patrick’s and Moore Catholic High School.

New to the competition this year was the addition of six Brooklyn teams.

“We’re seeing more girls teams register this year, as well as several Brooklyn teams,” said league director James Fleschner. “It’s exciting to diversify the competition and really challenge the players to compete over the holiday break.”

Staten Island’s Finest AAU Travel Basketball Organization holds the competition annually to keep players active during the break.

Participants received a commemorative shirt in honor of the events.

The St. Teresa’s gymnasium was full of energy as players competed Saturday afternoon.

The girls 2nd/3rd St. Teresas team defeated St. Charles by a final score of 16-14 in an electric match. The girls 2nd/3rd Holy Child team fell to St. Joseph Hill Academy, 8-5.

Check out the gallery below for the best photos of the day.

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Scout Troop 267 Celebrates Achievements and Leadership at December Court of Honor Scout Troop 267 gathered on Dec. 15, to celebrate accomplishments, recognize leadership, and look ahead to a busy year during its year-end Court of Honor. The evening brought together Scouts, families, and leaders to honor advancement, merit badge achievements, and the service of outgoing youth officers.

Scoutmaster Mike O’Dell, and incoming Assistant Senior Patrol Leader Ben O’Dell assisted with the presentation of rank advancements, while Senior Patrol Leader Tasha Kemp served as Master of Ceremonies. Advancing Scouts included Rainn Szczerbacki (Tenderfoot), Kam Johnson (Star), Ben O’Dell (Life Scout), and Eli Williams (Life Scout).

A wide range of merit badges highlighted the diverse interests and skills of Troop 267 Scouts. Badges earned included Chemistry, Citizenship in the Community and Society, Health Care Professions, Robotics, Athletics, Crime Prevention, Geology, Music, First Aid, Family Life, Personal Fitness, Traffic Safety, Communication, Indian Lore, American Business, and Animation. Multiple Scouts earned several badges, reflecting dedication both in and beyond weekly meetings.

The troop also recognized special achievements, including participation in the AHC Monster Mash at Camp Merz by Scouts Gabriel Nagle, Sienna Nagle, Jax Ostler, Rainn Szczerbacki, and Eben Wille. Tyler Field was honored with the Scouts BSA National Outdoor Awards Emblem and the Camping Segment Achievement Award.

Leadership transitions were a key focus of the evening. Outgoing officers, led by Senior Patrol Leader Tasha Kemp, were recognized for their service in guiding the troop over the past term. New officers were then introduced, with Max Kropp installed as the incoming Senior Patrol Leader, supported by a full slate of youth leaders across patrol and troop positions.

Scout Troop 267 would like to thank the community for its generous support of the Annual Popcorn Sale Fundraiser, which sold just over $21,000 in four months, and the Applebee’s Pancake Breakfast Troop Fundraiser.Top popcorn sellers were recognized and awarded for their outstanding contributions. Most notably, Jethduan Cordova-Olmo sold $5,860 worth of popcorn. Record sales were also achieved by Tyler Field ($3,760), Kam Johnson ($3,190), Rainn Szczerbacki ($3,055), Ryan Cook ($1,041), and Aaron Cook ($1,021).

Troop 267 also announced several upcoming activities, including a free bowling celebration for Scouts at Lucky Lanes on December 22, rock climbing at Central Rock Gym on Jan. 19, and an Electronics Campout at Camp Gross from Feb. 27 to March 1.The Scouts return to their weekly meeting schedule beginning Monday, Jan. 5, at 7p.m.

Committee Chair Holly Field offered closing remarks, thanking the Scouts and their families for their continued commitment, and encouraging community members to consider supporting the troop as committee members or merit badge counselors. Family and community involvement is essential as the troop begins a new Scouting year in January. The troop is currently seeking volunteers for the following roles: Committee Chair (beginning in January), Assistant Activities Chair, Life to Eagle Coordinator, Training Chair, Scout-to-Cub Scout Liaison, Religious Emblem Coordinator, and Unit Public Relations Chair. Email 267fredonia@gmail.com to express interest and learn more!

Scout Troop 267 meets Mondays at 7 p.m. at American Legion Post 59, 156 East Main Street, in Fredonia, and is open to all boys and girls who have completed the fifth grade and are at least 10, but not yet 18 years old. For more information about the Troop and how to join, visit the Troop’s website at: https://www.fredoniatroop267.com.

AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — City officials are providing more details about a proposed development plan for John Stiff Memorial Park, addressing questions about the possible hotel and how the park would coexist with a youth sports facility currently under construction.

The plan was discussed by the Amarillo City Council earlier this month, outlining long-term options for part of the park and providing that future development could help fund park improvements.

Amarillo Parks and Recreation Director Michael Kashuba said a hotel is one of several potential uses being considered as part of a broader mix of development.

“One of those potential allowable uses is a boutique hotel. With no existing hotels in Southwest Amarillo, a small-scale hotel could fill a market gap while enhancing the destination appeal of the development,” said Kashuba. “A small, boutique hotel would accommodate the many visitors coming to Amarillo to attend recreational sports tournaments or to visit family members. A hotel would also support large community special events and generate additional economic development for the community.”

Kashuba said the hotel would be part of a wider set of amenities intended to support park users and visitors.

“The recommended commercial program features diverse dining and food options scaled to serve different community needs,” he said. “A thoughtfully diverse mix including food and beverage establishments, small-format retail, and experiential concepts creates synergistic benefits through shared foot traffic.”

Questions have also focused on youth sports usage at the park and whether the new Kids Inc. sports complex under construction could affect attendance.

“Youth sports is just one of many activities that occur in John Stiff Park,” Kashuba said. “The park is actively used daily by walkers, disc-golfers, skateboarders, tennis, pickleball, padel players, adult softball leagues and youth sports.”

Kashbua said large youth sports tournaments typically rely on multiple facilities across Amarillo.

“When the large youth sports tournaments come to town, it is common for all the fields in Amarillo to be used for the youth tournaments,” he said.

According to Kashuba, the Kids Inc. sports complex could create additional opportunities at John Stiff Park by shifting some activities elsewhere.

“When Kids Inc. moves its activities to its facility, it will allow the city to expand the adult softball leagues and tournaments and provide the fields to other user groups, which are actively looking for a place to call home,” Kashuba said.

City officials said the development plan is a long-term concept meant to guide future planning. Any proposed project would require additional financial review, public input and approval from the city council before moving forward.

Lorena Llamas’ teenage son is obsessed with football. In Nevada, that means suffering through practices in direct sunlight and on scalding-hot turf.

“The heat is killer,” said Llamas, a mom of two in North Las Vegas. Her son, a high school senior, has seen teammates throw up during some practices. “He’ll always say, ‘Mom, my feet feel like they’re on fire.’”

Parents and experts told The Indy that heat is just one reason that Nevada consistently ranks last nationwide for participation in youth sports. High costs and complicated scheduling issues also play a big part. 

Nevada has had the lowest or second-lowest rate of children on sports teams every year since 2017 except 2019, according to data collected through the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), a project of the Census Bureau, and analyzed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

Although standalone data for 2024 is not yet available, new data shared with The Nevada Independent on the last two years combined again shows Nevada coming last in sports participation, even as its rate ticked up slightly. 

Nationwide, in 2023-2024 nearly 57 percent of children between the ages of 6 and 17 were part of a sports team or club. In Nevada, it was just 46 percent.

“Nevada was always a state that was never thought of for sports,” said Llamas. She attributed the lack of a robust sports culture to Nevada’s heat and smaller number of higher education institutions or major sports teams. Llamas has noticed more young people getting excited about playing football since the Raiders came to Las Vegas in 2020.

“Our players do not get enough attention here,” she said. “There is so much talent in Nevada.” 

Below, we dive into some of the factors that contribute to Nevada’s lagging sports participation and break down the data.

Increasing costs

Most states, including Nevada, have seen sports participation rise since the COVID-19 pandemic, when most schools canceled programming for at least a season. 

But even before the pandemic, Nevada’s participation rate was consistently lower than the nation’s. 

Data from the National Federation of State High School Associations shows the number of student-athletes in Nevada high schools has been relatively stable, going from approximately 45,200 student-athletes in 2015-2016 to approximately 44,800 in 2024-2025. During the same period, Nevada’s high schools added more than 16,000 students. 

Richard Rosenkranz, a UNLV professor who studies interventions to boost nutrition and exercise, attributed Nevada’s low participation rates to high costs.

In 2022, his family moved from Kansas City to Las Vegas, where his son enrolled in a public school and joined the school’s cross-country team.

Rosenkranz said he and his wife were “shocked” by the team’s sticker price. They had to pay almost $500 for their son to run cross-country, a one-season sport. Sports were free at his son’s public school in Kansas.

“Immediately, a lot of Nevada families just cannot afford that,” he told The Nevada Independent. 

Sports costs are rising fast nationwide. Project Play, an initiative of the Aspen Institute think tank, found American families spent an average of $1,000 on their child’s primary sport in 2024, a jump of 46 percent, or about $300, since 2019. 

Llamas estimated her family spends about $500 each football season, mostly on required expenses for the team and for traveling to games. 

She said her family was lucky they could afford these costs. 

Statewide, there are wide income disparities in sports participation. According to the national survey’s data, from 2022 to 2023 nearly three times as many students from high-income families (at or above 400 percent of the federal poverty line) played sports than students from low-income families (at or below the poverty level).

Nevada does not waive sports fees for low-income students, as a handful of states do. California outright bans fees for all students.

Rosenkranz blames rising expenses on cultural shifts, which have transformed youth sports from a more casual form of fun into a high-pressure industry oriented toward college recruitment. 

“We’ve essentially professionalized a lot of sports,” he said. To remain competitive, Rosenkranz said, academic and extracurricular sports programs need to hire full-time coaches, upgrade facilities and equipment, and travel to tournaments. 

Programs pass some of those costs onto families, or families find themselves spending more in private lessons or new gear.

In its 2024 report, Project Play also blamed the post-pandemic shift to kids focusing on single sports, making competition even more intense and expensive. 

Unique “burden” in Nevada

Experts say Nevada’s reliance on shift work and shorter-term labor further complicates access to sports.

“It poses more of a financial burden in a state where … so many parents have multiple jobs in the service industry, where kids have higher shares of parents who can’t afford it,” said Rosenkranz. 

Many parents work in the state’s 24/7 hospitality industry, where work shifts are longer or later than other jobs and where families cycle in and out of the state more often. Census data also shows that Nevada has a higher share of households where every parent works, at 59 percent in 2024. 

That makes it harder for parents to bring kids to practice, Rosenkranz said, especially in a state with limited public transportation.

“Obviously, Vegas is a very transient town where people work all kinds of jobs. It’s a 24 hour city,” said Scott Blackford, director of programs at Nevada Youth Sports (NYS), an organization that runs recreational and club sports in Southern Nevada and manages charter schools’ sports leagues.

To accommodate scheduling issues, “We try to offer different programs, whether recreational leagues or competitive leagues, or camps, clinics, all the different programs you can offer, to fit individual families,” he said. 

Although NYS usually doesn’t work in traditional public schools, he said the group has run some pilot programs so that “a child can stay after for an hourlong practice, in case mom and dad couldn’t take them to practice that night.” 

NYS also offers shorter-term programs where families commit to sports only for eight weeks. Programs such as these expand the group’s demographic reach, Blackford said, even as costs rise. 

“We pride ourselves on trying to not raise prices,” Blackford explained. “But, you know, everything is going up across the world.”

Other factors

Nevada’s intense heat creates further problems.

Synthetic turf fields are increasingly popular for field-based sports due to their lower maintenance costs than grass. But research has shown such fields can be 50 degrees hotter than grass.

“The shade infrastructure is horrible; the weather is hot all summer. There’s an immediate lack of enjoyment,” said Rosenkranz.

But Blackford said Nevada’s temperatures could be a plus by enabling yearlong sports programming. 

“Summer is going to be a little tough, but if you’re born and raised in Arizona or Nevada, you’re kind of used to it. … We’re fortunate to have four seasons of sports a year,” Blackford said, while admitting that finding air-conditioned facilities can be a struggle.

Rosenkranz said Nevada’s low sports participation reflects the state’s generally poor mental and physical health outcomes.

Earlier this year, a bill mandating daily recess in Nevada’s public and charter schools — which is required in only 13 states — failed in the Legislature.

“Are there places where they can play before school? Or in the classroom, at recess, at physical education — all of the activities that happen during the school day?” Rosenkranz asked. “Or are we just asking kids to sit quietly in a lunch room?”

In 2024, only 9.1 percent of Nevada’s 12-through-17-year-olds were physically active for an hour every day. The nationwide rate was 14.9 percent.

Nevada also reports higher rates of depression, suicide and substance use disorder among youth. It ranked last among states in the 2025 and 2024 surveys of youth mental health by the nonprofit Mental Health America. 

Boosting sports participation could help address these issues, Rosenkranz said, adding that sports lower the risk of chronic disease and improve mental health by giving kids a chance to socialize, resolve disagreements and challenge themselves.

“Also, sports are fun,” he said. “And people should be having fun.”

Published: Dec 28, 2025 7:00 am

From repeat championship performances to individual success stories, 2025 had it all in the world of Newtown athletics. The Annual C.H. Booth Library Turkey Trot drew a record 1,700-plus participants. There were awards earned by coaches, an athletic director, and athletes. Here is a look at what unfolded in 2025:

*It was a trifecta for the Newtown High School cheerleading team, which won South-West Conference, State, and New England Championships.

*The NHS boys’ golf team made it a three-peat, winning its third straight SWC Championship in the fall.

*NHS boys’ golf set a new standard with a program-best score of 141 in a match against Stratford at Rock Ridge Country Club.

*Newtown High School’s dance team won a State Championship.

*NHS wrestling won the South-West Conference title with six individual champs, nine finalists, and 13 place-winners.

*Wrestler Marc Maurath became Newtown High School’s winningest grappler when he earned his 161st victory on the mats (he finished with 188). Maurath also reached an impressive milestone with his 100th career pinfall victory.

*NHS wrestler Kenna Gioffre (second all time with 171 wins) won a State Open Championship in his weight class.

*NHS Wrestling Coach Chris Bray earned his 100th dual meet victory. The wrestling milestones continued as Kenna Gioffre and Marc Maurath joined the 150-win club, Gioffre also earned his 100th pin, and Charlie Dunn, Antonio Arguello, and Jake Maddox all earned their 100th career victories on the mats.

*The NHS indoor girls’ track team made it back-to-back SWC Championships in the winter, then made it three consecutive spring outdoor track and field SWC Championships.

*Newtown’s boys’ runners got in on title success as the cross country team raced to the conference crown this fall.

*Grade 6 girls’ and grade 5 boys’ basketball teams claimed New England tourney titles.

*The U10 Hawks baseball team won its second straight state title and reached the Elite Eight at the Cal Ripken World Series.

*Newtown’s 11-year-old baseball team won a New England Regional Championship.

*Newtown Youth Basketball Association President and Coach Tom Martinez was named the Newtown Bee Sportsman of the Year.

*Newtown Youth Wrestling captured several champs and place-winners at the USA Wrestling Connecticut State Championships.

*The NHS Athletics Department received the Michael’s Jewelers Achievement Cup, as well as the Fred Balsamo Award For Sportsmanship.

*NHS Athletic Director Matt Memoli was selected as the Unified Sports Paul Mengold AD of the Year.

*Youth wrestler Camron Veneziano captured a National Wrestling Championship.

*Matthew Dos Santos signed a professional soccer contract with Red Bulls II.

*NHS track and field standouts Aashni Shetty (long jump) and Elias Brady (triple jump) won State titles. Shetty broke multiple school jumping records during her senior year.

*Tristan Rosenschein was named to the 15U National Lacrosse Team.

*Sandy Hook’s Mackie Samoskevich brought the Stanley Cup back to town after his Florida Panthers won the game’s biggest trophy.

*50 in 50: Bruce Goulart accomplished his goal of running a marathon in all 50 states.

*NHS Lacrosse Coach Maura Fletcher earned the SWC’s Outstanding Coach Award.

*Stephen Kopcik won the NAPA Sports Sizzler at Stafford Motor Speedway.

*NHS football player Travis Rekos earned the first Bob Zito Coach’s Award.

*Among the notable passes of the baton this past year was Debi Modzelewski retiring and Stacey Nasser taking over as assistant to the athletic director at NHS.

*On the coaching front, Tricia Harrity took over the NHS gymnastics team, and David Warren is the new head coach with NHS track.

There is sure to be much more excitement in store as we flip the calendar to 2026. See you at the games!

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.

The NHS wrestling team won the SWC Championship. —photo courtesy Daryl Maurath

Aashni Shetty set multiple jumping records at NHS. —Bee file photo

Bruce Goulart completed his quest of running a marathon in every state with a 26.2 mile effort in Illinois on July 15. The road race enthusiast is far from done. He is approaching the finish line of Run 169 Towns Society, a group that completes a race in each of Connecticut’s towns/cities. —photo courtesy Jan Brown-Goulart

Newtown High’s boys golf team won its third straight SWC Championship, scoring 307 at Fairchild Wheeler Golf Course in Fairfield on October 14. Pictured are, from left: Coach Shawn Tierney, Will Lokey, Quinn Kull, Nate Pickard, Jack Wishneski, and Aidan Andreotta. —photo courtesy Shawn Tierney