On Friday afternoon, as World Cup sprinters snap into their skis in Trondheim and the SuperTour fields gather in Fairbanks, one of the United States’ most electrifying young Nordic athletes will step onto an entirely different stage. Stanford University, the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament, is marching toward the College Cup—and at the center of it all is a player who, in just a matter of days, will also begin her bid for the U.S. Olympic Cross-Country Ski Team.
The athlete is Sammy Smith: 20 years old, a national-team skier, an Environmental Systems Engineering major, and a starter for one of the most dominant college soccer programs in the country. The U.S. Ski Team views her as one of the most promising sprinters of her generation. And yet this weekend, instead of warming up on hard-packed snow in Norway or chasing early-season points in Alaska, she’ll be preparing to face Michigan State with advancing to the NCAA Championship Game on the line.
“Get ready to cheer for one of the U.S. Ski Team’s top skiers this weekend,” you might tell Nordic fans. “Just… not on skis.”
From the outside, the collision of seasons looks impossible to manage. For Smith, it is simply the life she has known since childhood.
Idaho in Two Parts
Smith grew up in a pattern that almost feels mythic now: winters in Sun Valley, summers and the rest of the year in Boise. Her family built the rhythm—her mom moving the kids north each winter so they could ski full-time and homeschool them in those snowy months.
“I kind of grew up splitting time between Boise and Sun Valley,” Smith says. “My mom would move up to Sun Valley during the winter with my siblings and me so we could ski, and she would homeschool us up there… I did that all through high school.”
In Boise, she was a typical public school student. In Sun Valley, she became a multi-sport anomaly. Her childhood was not just active—it was encyclopedic.
“Growing up, I played about every sport one can imagine,” she says. “I ran track and cross country all through high school… I played hockey for a long time. Played football. Yeah, like, you name it, I pretty much did it.”
Soccer was the constant. She started as soon as a child could sign up—though the Smiths occasionally bent age rules to make sure she could play with older kids. When her older sister started soccer, she was right behind her.
“It’s probably like three years old when I started,” Smith says.
And then there was freestyle skiing—a considerable part of her identity, something she expected to pursue more seriously than Nordic. Until one day, she couldn’t.
“I ended up fracturing my tibia in my sophomore year,” she says. “And so I focused on Nordic that winter… I ended up having a great season, and then haven’t really looked back since.”
The transition was abrupt, but the groundwork had already been laid: years of downhill confidence, years of skiing, years of learning to read terrain and push limits.
“I’ve been on skis my entire life,” she says. “Very comfortable on downhills… I love to ski aggressively.”
The athlete emerging in those years was already something unusual. The athlete she would become—balancing multiple sports at world-class levels—was still unimaginable.
Against the Specialization Tide
From the outside, Smith’s career appears to defy the common wisdom of modern youth sports. Increasingly, top athletes specialize early; by high school, many are all-in on one discipline.
Smith resisted that. Not because she lacked ambition, but because multiple sports gave her joy—and made her better.
“I think that’s something I’ve really thought a lot about,” she says. “There’s been more and more pressure to specialize… but growing up and doing so many different sports just kind of added to different components of skiing that I think are really important.”
Soccer, for example, translates directly into sprint racing.
“It’s a very high-paced game,” she says. “There’s a lot of change of direction, a lot of accelerating and decelerating. Particularly when you’re looking at heats, a lot of it is reacting to other people’s moves, trying to find little gaps and squeeze through.”
The skill set becomes a competitive edge: quickness, agility, and decision-making under pressure.
“That ability to shift gears really quickly and take openings when you can really emulates in soccer,” she says.
Freestyle skiing contributed something else entirely: creativity and courage on skis, especially in chaotic or technical downhill sections.
“At World Juniors last year,” she recalls, “everyone was in the track. I hopped out of the track, went far on the inside, and just double poled… It was a risky move, but it was something I saw.”
She paused for only a moment before going all-in. It worked.
The blend—soccer fuel, freestyle instinct, Nordic engine—gives her a uniqueness rarely seen in American skiing.
U.S. Ski Team head coach Matt Whitcomb sees it clearly.
“She’s a world-class athlete,” Whitcomb says. “She’s already exhibited the early signs of being a World Cup star.”
That she is doing this while starting for Stanford’s soccer team? To him, it’s not a contradiction. It’s part of the magic.
Why Stanford — and Why Now
Choosing Stanford was not simple. Smith had options—many of them. But a few factors stood out.
“I really value my education,” she says. “Stanford’s a great school. It’s where my mom went. And my sister is also on the soccer team, so the opportunity to get to play college soccer with her is pretty hard to pass up.”
Her academic path—Environmental Systems Engineering with an energy concentration—fits a pattern among elite U.S. skiers. Many of the top men (Gus Schumacher, Ben Ogden, et al.) have gravitated toward engineering. Smith sees the overlap, too.
“You look at a skier and the training that they do,” she says. “They’re very self-motivated, very committed. So I’m sure certain aspects translate pretty well.”
The challenge, of course, is that Stanford is far from snow. It is not close to ski culture. It is not close to the European World Cup circuit. It is very near, however, to one vital piece of equipment:
“Fortunately, I have a classic roller-ski treadmill… in a little office space,” she says. “That’s been an irreplaceable part of my training.”
She uses it for high-quality sessions, often squeezed between classes, labs, or soccer obligations. Running remains a central component, helped by the demands of soccer conditioning.
But she knows her preparation is different—less volume, more precision. Not ideal. Not textbook. Not expected. And yet:
“I think I’ve tried to accept that,” she says. “I know that I am not at my best, but skiing is a sport you can do for a very long time. I don’t necessarily need to be the best skier I can be at 20 years old.”
Again, Whitcomb backs the long view.
“We’re willing to postpone that timeline,” he says. “We’re just happy for Sammy being happy in her current environment. We’ll take what we can get at this moment, but we want more down the road, and we’re excited for it.”
This, in many ways, is the crux of the story: the U.S. Ski Team is betting on Sammy Smith not despite her dual identity, but because of it.
Samantha Smith (USA) racing the World Cup individual sprint in Goms (SUI). (Photo: Modica/NordicFocus)
The Final Four — and Then the Sprint Start Line
The most astonishing part of Smith’s season is its timing.
If Stanford beats Michigan State on Friday in Kansas City, they move directly to the College Cup championship game. The semifinal is December 5th; the final is December 8th, Monday. Smith has already mapped out the days that follow.
“We’ll get back Tuesday night from Missouri… I have a final at 8 a.m. Wednesday morning,” she says. “I’m going to fly out right after my final, and then I’ll have one day of snow on Thursday in Alaska, and then I’ll be hitting that sprint on Friday.”
She says this calmly, matter-of-factly, like someone describing a standard weekend trip.
The Anchorage SuperTour sprint is not just any race—it is her re-entry into skiing, her first day on snow of the season, and a crucial tune-up before U.S. Nationals in Lake Placid, where she hopes to qualify for the Olympic team.
The Anchorage races, she says, are not performance indicators—they are simply a way to “bust the rust off.”
“Obviously, a lot of other skiers will have been on snow for well over a month, and I won’t,“ she says. “It’ll just be an opportunity to get on skis, do something fast.”
Her real focus is the 10-day window between Anchorage and Lake Placid.
“For me, as more of a sprinter, and the way the criteria is set up, I’ve got to target the qualifiers,“ she says. “So being really deliberate… knowing exactly what I’m going for.”
The stakes are simple: she must race well at U.S. Nationals to have a shot at Milano-Cortina.
The stakes are also massive.
Julia Kern and Sammy Smith paired up for the Team Sprint in Lahti (FIN). (Photo: Nordic Focus)
The Domestic Gamble
If Smith had a regular ski season—if she weren’t in the NCAA Tournament—she might have chased World Cup points, fought to crack the top 45, and used international racing to establish selection priority.
But that route is closed.
“If you’re only racing a few of the international races, it’s incredibly challenging to get into that top 45,“ she says. “Whereas if you were able to do all of them, it’s a lot more feasible.”
She knows she has “had some really good World Cup sprints,“ and she wonders—without bitterness—what might be possible in a different academic or athletic setup.
But this year, it is the domestic route or nothing.
“That’s what I’m planning on,“ she says. “I need to have some killer races at U.S. Nationals.”
What sounds like a gamble is, for her, simply the version of the sport she can access this season. And she is okay with that.
“Just being consistent… being intentional,“ she says. “Doing what I can.”
Who She Wants to Be
Ask Smith what success looks like decades from now, and she doesn’t list medals or championships.
“You look at Jessie’s legacy,“ she says, referencing Jessie Diggins. “The amount of skiers she’s inspired and how much she’s done for the sport… I want people to look back on my career and feel like I’ve done a lot for the sport, inspired the younger generation of skiers, and brought a lot back to my community.“
It is the kind of answer that feels too mature for her age, but entirely in character.
She is not racing to avoid mistakes—she is racing toward something: possibility, growth, a long future. Maybe a future on the World Cup. Maybe a future in engineering. Maybe a future doing both.
But first, she has Michigan State.
Samantha Smith (USA) racing the World Cup individual sprint in Minneapolis (USA). (Photo: Modica/NordicFocus)
The Athlete You’ll Watch Twice This Month
When you tune in this Friday—whether you are a Nordic diehard refreshing live timing from Trondheim, or an American fan checking SuperTour results—remember that one of the most important U.S. prospects in cross-country skiing will be competing too. She just happens to be wearing soccer cleats instead of ski boots.
And next week, she’ll be back on snow, sprinting against the country’s best, staking her claim for a place on the Olympic team.
The duality is not a distraction for Sammy Smith.
It is her identity.
It is what built her.
And it might be what carries her into the future of American skiing.
“She’s been playing a ton this year,“ Whitcomb says. “Of course, we want her all to ourselves… but we want more down the road, and we’re excited for it.”
This weekend, she wants one thing: a berth in the College Cup Final.
Next weekend, another: a ticket to the Olympics.
Two worlds.
Two uniforms.
One athlete.
A lot of people will be cheering for Sammy Smith this month. Nordic fans just get to do it twice.
*You can watch #1-ranked Stanford vs. #2-ranked Duke in the women’s College Cup semifinal tomorrow, Friday, December 5, at 8:45 p.m. EST on ESPNU. The game can also be streamed on the ESPN app, Fubo, or Hulu.
Love Stories Like This? Help Keep Them Coming.
Feature interviews like this one take time, access, and care to produce. If you value thoughtful storytelling and independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a Voluntary Subscriber. Your support directly fuels the work we do to cover the people, places, and moments that make our sport special.
Join the FasterSkier community!
Sammy Smith (USA) in the World Cup individual sprint in Tallinn (EST). (Photo: Modica/NordicFocus)
Major cities in Tennessee are reimagining their public riverfronts as vibrant community spaces.
By Cary Estes on December 23, 2025
Agency Landscape and Design
River City Company launches a visionary plan for the Chattanooga riverfront, showcased in the rendering.
When Tennessee native Anna Mae Bullock – better known as Tina Turner – famously sang about “rollin’ on the river,” she was referring to the Mississippi River, which runs along the western edge of the state.
But the Mighty Mississippi makes up only a small portion of the more than 60,000 miles of waterways flowing throughout Tennessee. And increasingly, this natural resource is being further enhanced through public-private partnerships designed to make many of the Tennessee riverfronts even more attractive and accessible. This, in turn, is expanding recreational opportunities and boosting local economies.
“It really speaks to a statewide commitment to investing in the quality of life in Tennessee,” says Patrick Osborne, planning and design director of the Tennessee RiverLine project. “The state is embracing the value of outdoor recreation. Projects like these reflect a broader movement, where Tennesseans see their waterways as assets to be celebrated and protected.”
Memphis River Parks Partnership
The City of Memphis has a front-row view to the watery wonder that is the Mississippi River. But easy access from downtown Memphis to the river has long been limited.
That began to change in 2017 with the formation of the Memphis River Parks Partnership. The goal was to convert 5 miles of mostly underused river parks into a connected network of public spaces, with multiple access points to Beale Street and other popular downtown destinations.
“It is meant to draw people together in one place that is beautiful and peaceful,” says Paul Chandler, CEO of the Memphis River Parks Partnership. “The intent is to unify our city and enhance relationships that might have never been developed without this park system.”
The centerpiece is the renovation of 31-acre Tom Lee Park, which opened in 2023 and receives approximately 2 million visitors annually. Chandler expects the park to become even more popular in 2026 with the scheduled opening of the Memphis Flyway, a 40-foot-high observation deck that will extend 218 feet over the Mississippi River.
“When the sun sets across that huge body of water, the view from the Flyway is going to be really spectacular,” Chandler says.
Evolving Chattanooga’s Riverfront
The City of Chattanooga made major enhancements to its Tennessee River frontage in the early 2000s with the 21st Century Waterfront plan. Now, Chattanooga’s economic development engine – the River City Co. – is bringing additional improvements to the area through the Evolving Our Riverfront Parks plan, with work scheduled to begin in 2026.
“Our goal is to add strategic features and amenities to allow for year-round daily use and enjoyment of the waterfront,” says River City Co. President and CEO Emily Mack. “We’re focusing on people-centered design and providing places of enjoyment for our community.”
Proposed changes include improvements to the riverfront pier, the creation of additional river access points, landscaping with more shade trees, two new restaurants, two new recreational spaces with playgrounds and more public restrooms.
“This is an opportunity to provide a destination for people to gather and connect with the community and with nature,” Mack says. “It will help support our existing riverfront events, which are huge to the local economy. It will also serve as an economic catalyst for our downtown businesses. This is going to have an incredible ripple effect throughout our city.”
Tennessee RiverLine
The long-term goal for Tennessee RiverLine is to be a 652-mile, 1.2 million-acre river park.
Knoxville Is Part of Tennessee RiverLine
The most expansive project of them all, the Tennessee RiverLine, began as an idea by a student in the University of Tennessee School of Landscape Architecture to create a connected system of recreational opportunities along the Tennessee River.
Now, work is underway to make this vision a reality; the long-term goal is to form a 652-mile, 1.2 million-acre river park, stretching from Knoxville to Paducah, Kentucky.
“It’s a regional vision for how our communities connect with the Tennessee River and adjacent public lands,” Osborne says. “Our focus is on planning and designing river access sites, parks, recreation opportunities and the supporting infrastructure.”
The key to the project’s success, Osborne says, is through the RiverTowns Program, in which RiverLine officials work directly with local community leaders. There are currently 12 communities in Tennessee that have signed up to be part of the program.
“This is a generational project that is moving forward in phases, primarily through our RiverTowns Program,” Osborne says. “We’re helping each of these towns identify and prioritize projects that help improve river access and highlight restorative recreation practices. We want to ensure that the river is accessible, healthy and celebrated for generations to come.”
Tennessee Focuses on Outstanding Parks, Too
The most popular outdoor attraction in Tennessee is easily Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which received more than 12 million visitors in 2024. But if you want to be a little more low-key than Smoky, there are also 60-plus state parks across the state.
The offerings range from the nearly 30,000-acre Fall Creek Falls State Park near Spencer to the 11-acre Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park in Nashville. Scott’s Gulf Wilderness State Park in Sparta features the 110-foot-tall Virgin Falls, which requires a 4-mile hike to reach. It is one of more than 80 waterfalls that can be found within Tennessee’s state parks.
Tennessee added several state parks in 2025. Though it was a division of an existing outdoor attraction, the Hiwassee/ Ocoee Scenic River State Park was split into two separate parks to provide more dedicated resources to each area. The Ocoee River was the site of the 1996 Olympic whitewater slalom events, and the 2.5-mile course remains popular with paddlers.
Head of the Crow State Park and Fiery Gizzard State Park near Monteagle were both carved out of the already existing South Cumberland State Park.
Even more state parks are on the way. The current 950-acre Devil’s Backbone State Natural Area, which is just off Natchez Trace Parkway near Gordonsburg, is set to receive official state park status soon too.
Tennessee bird watching is also exceptional, with over 400 documented species, including residents and migrants. The Cumberland Mountains are vital, hosting the highest global concentration of the near-threatened cerulean warbler’s breeding pairs. Additionally, successful reintroduction efforts mean the majestic bald eagle is now observable statewide.
LAFAYETTE — LaFayette Parks and Recreation now has early-bird registration open for spring baseball and softball, ending on Dec. 31. The early-bird registration fee is $60, and regular registration is $75 — regular registration ends on Jan. 31. Upon registering $40 is due, and the remaining fee must be paid by Jan. 31.
“A lot of our kids actually trended toward going to Valley to play, and I think Roanoke as well — so we’re trying to bring those kids and families back to our program so we can actually grow our own program inside of LaFayette,” said LaFayette Diamond Youth Baseball Coordinator Jamarcus Walton. “This is the first year where we’re actually trying to incorporate the softball aspect into our program as well… We’re looking for volunteer coaches to coach any level, and we’re also looking for players to fill out all those rosters — hopefully, this year, we can have more than one team in each age group.”
Walton said there are many ways the community can get involved in helping the LaFayette Parks and Rec baseball and softball programs grow and serve local children, including sponsoring an athlete, a business sponsorships and donating funds for new bats.
“Currently, we’re in need of sponsorships, because I was just informed at the district meeting that we have to change over to USA bats — so that’s gonna be a big difference this year for the entire Diamond Youth Program in the state of Alabama,” Walton said. “So we’re going to definitely need some sponsorships in order to help the city purchase [those] — that’s for the entire 6U up to the 12U level as well. So hopefully we can get all that done. I have a lot of faith in this program, it’s grown tremendously since we first brought it back.”
With a desire to provide a space for activity, Walton said he hopes access to youth sports will support community growth and provide a space for children to have fun.
“I feel like youth sports are the one thing that drives the community,” he said. “And as you can see, without youth sports, your community sort of dwindles away. You have different families leaving the area, transition to other places that have these programs in place — but if we can bring all these extracurricular activities to our own city — I feel like that help us retain, of course, our citizens, but also help us grow and expand. LaFayette lately has been trending down the population, but we’re trying to bring the youth sports in order to bring those families back to our communities, so we actually drive success.”
Walton said for young children, co-ed T-ball is offered for ages three and four, and for ages five and six they can enjoy modified coach pitch style. Baseball and softball teams are offered for ages seven and eight which will have coach pitch double, and nine and 10 which will start kid pitch, as well as kid pitch for ages 11 and 12. The age cut off to participate is on May 1, as long as children do not turn 13 they can still play in the 12U age group.
“At the end of the day, everything revolves around the kids,” he said. “Youth sports, it’s all about the kids. So we’re trying to find ways to get more revenue and money [in the program] to do more for the kids, so we can have different cookouts and stuff like that for the kids as well. [We want] to give them something different to do [other] than just staying at home and going to school every day.”
For more information, visit Parks & Recreation of LaFayette on Facebook.
HURLOCK, Md – The town of Hurlock now has a Salvation Army red kettle to help raise funds for families in need this holiday season. The kettle is set up at Hurlock Gas and Deli on South Main Street, thanks to the efforts of an employee at the store.
T.J. Higgins, who works at Hurlock Gas and Deli, says the idea started when he approached Hurlock’s mayor, Earl Murphy, about bringing a kettle to the town.
“I reached out to our newly elected mayor,” Higgins said. “He said that he was open to any and all ideas. I knew the holiday season was coming up, and I just said to him, you know, what about the Salvation Army? They don’t have a presence here. You see them in Cambridge. We see them in other areas. What about here in Hurlock?”
From there, coordination with the Salvation Army helped bring the iconic red kettle to town just in time for the holidays. Higgins added that the kettle is meant to encourage everyone to chip in, no matter the size of the donation.
“Everybody sees the red kettle,” Higgins said. “They know what it looks like. They hear that bell. Sometimes it goes to the wayside in the background. But basically, it’s just about giving. It gives the community and strangers, citizens the opportunity to chip in whatever they can to help those that really need it the most.”
Troy Paul of the Salvation Army says the kettle gives the community a chance to directly support local families.
“Every dollar that’s donated here stays local,” Paul said. “So if you donate to a red kettle or donate to the Salvation Army, everything stays right here in Hurlock.”
Darrell Hurston of Elite Youth Sports, whose group volunteered at the kettle, says it’s also a chance to teach kids about giving back.
“One thing we try to teach our kids is, integrity and discipline and, and community service,” Hurston told WBOC. “Right? So this is part of that. You can’t get any more community service than the Salvation Army.”
The Salvation Army red kettle in Hurlock will remain in place through Christmas Eve. Volunteers are still needed to help ring the bell and collect donations, offering neighbors one more opportunity to support their community during the holiday season.
Evva Starr has heard thousands of pitches from student journalists over the years as the faculty adviser to Common Sense, Thomas S. Wootton High School’s newspaper.
“I get excited whenever there’s something new,” Starr, the Rockville school’s English department resource teacher, says with a laugh. She remembers how her ears perked up last school year when Nathan Zweig, a junior in her newspaper class, proposed an article about Fliff, an app that bills itself as a free play-for-fun sportsbook. Underage use of sports betting apps in the halls of local high schools is widespread, students and school faculty say. Recent legalization, word-of-mouth, promotions on social media, and ease of access have contributed.
“That was the first time I’d ever heard of Fliff. I thought, ‘Cool. Great. Something different,’ ” recalls Starr, 52, of Potomac. “Then Nathan explained Fliff to me. Now that I understand it, I think it’s terrible.”
Fliff is one of many sports betting apps and is considered among the most popular for underage betting. This app uses virtual currency and follows a sweepstakes model, which means no purchase is needed to play. That distinction separates Fliff from more traditional online gambling sites. Signing up is easy on the colorful, flashy app. Tiny print says players must be 18, but no age verification is required. In other states, the minimum age may be older. Players can quickly earn badges and loyalty rewards, and climb leaderboards betting on an array of daily sporting events across the country and around the globe from college football to professional tennis, English Premier League soccer, NBA games and mixed martial arts.
Unlike underage drinking or substance misuse, online gambling can be almost invisible without the telltale red flags, such as garbage cans filled with beer bottles and hard seltzer cans or the acrid smell of marijuana.
“Fliff is all around me. Every day, kids at lunch are on their phones, talking about what bets are going to hit,” says Zweig, 17, of Potomac. “I have friends who don’t follow sports, but they still bet. They say it’s not real gambling, but eventually some kids will go to apps like BetMGM or DraftKings. It’s hooking people.”
Some Wootton students, however, including senior Justin Heller, 17, of Rockville, disagree.
“Well, people see it different ways. I think it’s helpful because it shows you in the end that everyone ends up losing money. It gives you free money to learn with, play with,” Heller says. “It’s taught me something definitely—to be smart with my own money and not bet it away.”
Starr green-lighted Zweig’s pitch, and soon after he published an opinion column highlighting the many risks and few rewards of underage sports betting.
In 2022, about one in seven Montgomery County high school students had gambled on something in the previous 12 months, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted every other year. The actual numbers may be higher now, based on comments from more than 25 students, educators and parents interviewed by Bethesda Magazine.
“Most parents have no idea how widespread it is,” says Joe Cassidy, head baseball coach at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda since 2003. “Parents think their kids are just sports crazy or athletes or psyched about a game. But are they really excited about the Braves playing the Pirates when they can’t name a single player on either team?”
Gambling is prohibited in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). It is banned at school-sponsored events and on school property. MCPS did not respond to multiple requests for comments for this story.
“There don’t seem to be any real protections to prevent children from using the platform. Self-reporting age is a nonfactor,” says Starr, an MCPS teacher for 25 years. “My perspective is this could be onboarding them to a lifetime of addictive behaviors, not just gambling.”
In simple terms, according to the National Institutes of Health, addiction sets in when a substance, such as alcohol, “ … hijack[s] the pleasure/reward circuits in your brain and hook[s] you into wanting more and more.”
As with substance-use disorders, people with gambling disorder may also exhibit withdrawal, depression and anxiety, according to the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic. The Cleveland Clinic reports that “gambling at a young age is … a risk factor for developing gambling disorder” later in life.
“There is a lot of crossover with video games. The easy access and fast pace keep triggering the brain. Kids don’t think about video games and loot boxes as gambling, but they are by definition,” says Heather Eshleman, prevention manager at The Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling within the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. “I’ve seen a definite increase in the number of high schools reaching out to us since sports betting was legalized.”
Boys are far more likely than girls to engage in sports betting, says Stanley Tamale, a licensed professional counselor who practices in Montgomery County. Many of Tamale’s clients are young adult males between the ages of 19 and 24 who started gambling when they were in high school.
“Online sports betting is like a fishing rod. People have figured out the psychology of how to reach teens. Teens, especially boys, are risk-takers. They seek peer approval and acceptance,” says Tamale, 46. “But their brains are not fully developed until they are 25. The 16-, 17-, 18-year-old brain is so vulnerable.”
Tamale and other counselors encourage their clients to resist peer pressure and to be savvy consumers, skeptical of any free stuff, such as virtual currencies. “I tell my clients to think of those pop-ups as scam calls. Don’t be duped. You’re smarter than that. Don’t fall for the advertising. If it’s too good to be true, then it is.”
However, a confluence of factors—including illegal offshore betting sites, payment apps and slick mobile betting platforms—make that a lot easier said than done for adolescents eager to get some fast cash.
“Social media is a big factor in it: who will win, by how many points, how many total bases? Every day, TikTok videos promote the best parlays,” Zweig says. “If you get lucky and combine a bunch of games, then you can win. I have a friend who bet a dollar and picked seven games for a parlay [on Fliff]. He won 130 bucks.”
A parlay links together bets on a sequence of athletic events across teams and athletes, potentially earning a much larger payout than an individual wager. Picture this: the Ravens win, then the Commanders win by a touchdown and, finally, Nikola Jokić scores 25 points for a Nuggets victory.
Some students believe apps such as Fliff could offer valuable lessons to teenagers who gamble.
“I think for some people it’s teaching kids to gamble. Like any other video game, you can spend a lot of time on it. It depends on the person for sure,” says Vikram Mishra, 17, of Rockville, who’s also a senior at Wootton. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but you have to make sure you have control over yourself when you’re using it.”
Coach Cassidy, 54, of Clarksburg, chats regularly with his players about the downfalls of gambling.
“I tell my players their system won’t work. I say they may give you a free dollar, but it’s Monopoly money. They’ve got your real money. Now, with AI and all these algorithms, they run millions of simulations. The odds against you are even higher,” he says with a sigh. “ ‘Guys,’ I tell them, ‘It’s stacked against you. You’re going to lose.’ ”
Sports betting exploded after the U.S. Supreme Courtallowed states to legalize it in 2018. Last year, according to the American Gaming Association, sports gambling raked in $13.71 billion in revenue, an increase of more than 25% over 2023. It marked the fourth consecutive year of eye-popping growth. The association estimates $3 billion was wagered on March Madness games alone.
Maryland legalized sports betting in 2021. Players must be 21, have a Social Security number, and be physically present in the state when betting online. The apps track the user’s location in real time.
In D.C., players only need to be 18 to bet on Daily Fantasy Sports sites such as PrizePicks and Underdog. These sites allow individuals to use real money to place bets on specific athletes, not teams, and how they will perform in a game. These platforms offer set payouts and promotions in dollars. Given the lower age requirement, they are especially popular with young men in high school. But unlike Fliff, these sites deal in dollars, not virtual currencies.
“It’s an unfair playing field, especially for boys,” says state Sen. Bryan Simonaire (R-Dist. 31) of Anne Arundel County. “Most people can gamble responsibly, but you might be part of the small percentage who get addicted. We just don’t know who they are. I want to target them and help them.”
For Simonaire, it’s personal. His father, he says, became addicted to gambling after casinos were built near his house in Arizona. He lost $1 million, says Simonaire. “The casino was 10 minutes away. He got into the habit of going. It became an addiction as opposed to entertainment,” he says. “Now we have internet gambling with instantaneous access and nonstop advertising. The ads draw kids into it.”
In 2020, Simonaire introduced a bill related to schools teaching about the risks of gambling, but it stalled during the pandemic. Earlier this year, Simonaire worked with a coalition of individuals and organizations, including The Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling, to introduce a bill in the Maryland General Assembly to revise the state’s Youth Suicide Prevention School Program and make students aware of the link between gambling and suicide. It passed unanimously.
Simonaire says it’s up to local school districts to determine how to implement the bill. He hopes students will see gambling included in the list of risk factors, along with substances such as alcohol, opioids and marijuana, by the spring. “We have a responsibility to fund education, and we’re doing it a lot through gambling,” he says. “We also have a responsibility to help students not get addicted to gambling.”
Fifteen percent of the state’s gambling revenue goes toward the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which promises to increase the education budget by $3.8 billion annually for 10 years, starting in 2021. Between July 2024 and January 2025, nearly $59 million from sports betting was directed to public education.
“I am not an alarmist,” says Steve Goodman, 50, a professor in Georgetown University’s Sports Industry Management graduate program and a sports industry veteran. “For parents, I think the first step is to be aware it’s out there. Then, understand the potential mental health piece and the money piece. Are kids betting money they don’t have?”
Goodman, who lives in Bethesda and has two sons who graduated from Whitman, adds, “Sports betting is so fast and so easily done. It’s easy to hide. Even if parents do check phones, kids can bury their apps.”
The Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling highlights two main characteristics of problem gambling. The first is the inability to control the amount of time or money spent on betting. The second is the resulting negative consequences, including emotional, financial, personal and legal problems.
“To parents, I would say, ‘Keep an eye on your teens.’ There is often a difference between someone spending more time on their phone versus hiding their phone,” Tamale says. “People hide their behavior when they have a problem. It will be the same with teens and gambling. They will hide it, and parents might not find out until a young man is in trouble financially.”
Talking is often a first step toward treating potential gambling problems.
“Teenagers are good at hiding stuff, but they’re also good at telling you stuff, if you pay attention,” Cassidy says. “Online betting is the same as a drug. It’s the rush of winning, chasing the loss, chasing the high. I equate this to smoking in the ’60s. They sort of knew it was bad, but they kept that to themselves. I don’t know how you put this genie back in the bottle. It’s just going to get worse.”
Meg Drennan is a freelance journalist who has written for Education Week, The Chronicle of Higher Education and NPR. She focuses on health and wellness stories and has a Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins. She lives in Bethesda with her family.
The Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling offers an online self-evaluation tool to help individuals determine if they have an issue. The center also offers resources for counseling and peer groups, and a help line. The Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services does not have any programs designed specifically to address gambling disorder.
If you or someone you know needs help with gambling, call 800-GAMBLER (800-426-2537) or visit 1800gamblerchat.org for free, confidential support 24/7.
This appears in the November/December 2025 issue of Bethesda Magazine.
Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin doesn’t condone the actions that led to wide receiver DK Metcalf’s two-game suspension by the NFL following an in-game altercation with a fan, but added Metcalf has his full support during the appeals process.
The league punished the two-time Pro Bowler by forcing him to sit out the first-place Steelers’ final two games and fining him for taking a swipe at Detroit Lions fan Ryan Kennedy in the second quarter of what became Pittsburgh’s 29-24 victory.
Tomlin said Metcalf shared his side of the story with him, but declined to get into specifics. “He did explain to me why he did what he did, and I certainly don’t condone the behavior, but I support DK,” Tomlin said.
“I won’t discuss what he and I discussed,” Tomlin added. “I think I’ve been pretty clear there.”
Former NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson said on a podcast late Sunday night that Metcalf told him Kennedy used a racial slur and verbally disparaged Metcalf’s mother, an allegation that Kennedy denied through his attorneys on Monday.
Tomlin cited Metcalf’s appeal hearing and what he described as “legal ramifications,” though he did not define what those might be. An email to the attorneys representing Kennedy by The Associated Press was not immediately returned.
Metcalf remained in the game and finished with four receptions for 42 yards. Kennedy left his seat to meet with stadium security at Ford Field but was allowed to return.
Asked if the Steelers have any in-game protocols in place to try and mitigate interactions such as the one between Metcalf and Kennedy, Tomlin said, “We certainly may, but I might not be privy to it because my eyes and attention is (on) what’s going on on the field” and made it a point to credit the team’s “top notch security group.”
Tomlin would not elaborate on what his reaction was to seeing the video of the confrontation, though he acknowledged what he called the rise in “volatile rhetoric” in sports at all levels.
“Not only (in) our business, (but) college, youth sport parents,” he said. “I think it’s just a component of sport that’s developed and developed in a big way in recent years, and it’s unfortunate.”
There were reports that when Metcalf played for Seattle, he reported Kennedy to team personnel when the Seahawks visited Detroit. Tomlin did not speculate when asked if there’s anything more teams can do to protect players in those situations.
“Me speaking on it and speaking on it in detail and particularly expressing my opinion regarding things doesn’t help the circumstance in any way,” he said.
Metcalf’s suspension means Pittsburgh (9-6) will be without its top pass catcher as it tries to lock up the AFC North title on Sunday in Cleveland. His absence means Roman Wilson, who has been a healthy scratch the past two weeks as the Steelers have opted to go with experienced veterans Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Adam Thielen, will likely get an opportunity to return to the lineup.
Tomlin did not rule out the return of star outside linebacker T.J. Watt, who has missed each of the past two games while recovering from surgery to repair a partially collapsed lung sustained during a dry needling treatment. Tomlin said Watt has been in the team facility lately and is “hopeful” Watt will be cleared to practice.
The Steelers need to win one of their final two games or have Baltimore lose one of its final two games to win a division title for the first time since 2020. The longtime rivals are scheduled to meet in Pittsburgh in Week 18.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!
FOLLOWFollow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience
Eagle Valley senior Lily Brueck is one of two returners who logged significant minutes on last year’s league championship squad. Juan Pena/Courtesy photo
After saying goodbye to the eight seniors who led Eagle Valley to one of its best seasons ever, head girls basketball coach Vinny Cisneros said one of the main storylines this winter will be how quickly the new bunch builds chemistry and capitalizes on meaningful experience.
“Our group is young and has very little varsity experience,” Cisneros stated in contrasting the 2025-26 squad to last year’s group, which captured the program’s first 5A Western Slope League title and won a game in the first round of the state tournament. “Last year’s championship team spent three years playing together at the varsity level. This team needs to build on-floor chemistry and learn how to compete at the varsity level.”
Eagle Valley graduated Western Slope player of the year Addison Mandeville from a squad that captured the school’s first league title and advanced to the state tournament. The Devils are currently off to a 4-4 start to the 2025-26 season.Rex Keep/Courtesy photo
Eagle Valley closed last year’s regular season on a five-game win streak, ultimately finishing 13-12 overall and 5-1 in conference play; the lone blemish being a one-point loss to Summit. The team graduated its top-3 leading scorers and rebounders. Addison Mandeville — who now plays soccer for Metro State University in Denver — averaged nearly 10 points and 3.4 steals a game en route to earning league player of the year honors. They also lost center Abby Talbot’s 9.6 points and 7.3 boards a contest and Zakia Shreeve’s length and speed on both ends of the court. Current seniors Ella Webster and Lily Brueck were the only returners who logged significant minutes last winter. Over the off-season, Cisneros said the squad ran its usual gamut of summer team camps, including one at Western University and the Gold Crown Foundation camp in Lakewood.
After starting the year 1-4, Eagle Valley has found its groove in the final weeks before Christmas. The Devils won three in a row, including 20-point victories over Steamboat Springs and Grand Junction Central and a 49-16 win over Moffat County before falling to Grand Junction 56-44 on Saturday. Freshman Hannah Miano and senior Ella Webster have led the way offensively, with both players averaging double digit points through the first eight contests. Miano has also been pulling down 6.6 rebounds per game as well.
Against the Tigers, Miano drilled three triples for a 15-point outing. Cisneros said Terra Hasley and Brueck have anchored the defense all year. Hasley had nine points and nine boards to go along with two blocks and two steals on Saturday and Brueck dished out five assists and a pair of blocks as well.
Support Local Journalism
“Despite the loss, we finished December playing our best basketball of the young season,” Cisneros remarked. “We’re a young team trying as quickly as we can to develop chemistry and varsity experience. Our defense is the cornerstone of our identity and we are starting to find our offensive rhythm.”
Eagle Valley opens up league play on Jan. 26 against Summit before traveling to Edwards to face Battle Mountain on Jan. 29.
“Every league game is huge. Our league is only four teams, and every game means a lot towards winning a league title,” said Cisneros, whose expectations remain high going into 2026. “Despite our sub-500 start, I expect us to continue to improve (through) the early parts of January leading up to league play, where we intend to defend our league championship.”
