Sports

More than just a number – The Hawk Eye

What if I’m not good enough for college? Everyone says junior year is the hardest — they aren’t wrong. From balancing multiple AP classes, dual credit courses and preparing for the SAT and PSAT, this year felt like a constant battle, and no one talks about how overwhelming and lonely it can feel when things […]

Published

1 month ago

May 14, 2025

Your Sports Nation

What if I’m not good enough for college?

Everyone says junior year is the hardest — they aren’t wrong. From balancing multiple AP classes, dual credit courses and preparing for the SAT and PSAT, this year felt like a constant battle, and no one talks about how overwhelming and lonely it can feel when things don’t go as hoped.

Junior year is considered to matter the most — it’s the year colleges care about. The one where your GPA, test scores and extracurriculars either set you up for success, or shatter your dreams. I walked into this school year confident, thinking that this was going to be my best academic year. I began chasing a version of myself I thought colleges wanted. However, when I tapped on the SAT’s “reveal your score” and saw a number that didn’t reflect my efforts, I broke – not all at once, but quietly and slowly — a pain that would linger within me.

I felt constant humiliation from my friends and family who teased me about my score. It hurt because I was the student who’d always earn A’s on assignments, studying day and night. Slowly, I began disappearing into my classes, not caring about anything because I felt like my dream of getting into a good college was crushed. After months of SAT prep, I couldn’t understand how it all fell apart. Now, I’m left wondering how I can improve as I’m running out of time.

With my own sport, track and field, I felt the pressure of having to succeed and make big achievements to impress colleges. I thought I would do well and that I’d work hard to earn a varsity spot. Despite my dreams, I ran my worst meet crushing any remaining faith I had for my future. Everything was falling apart. No matter how hard I tried to hold on, I constantly felt like I was losing grip of the future I wanted.

But here’s one thing no one really says: it’s OK not to be OK.

Our plans fall apart, and failure happens to all of us. The truth is, sometimes a person can do everything right, but still fall short. It’s normal. It’s not the end of the world. Failing a test and not being the “perfect student” doesn’t mean an individual failed at life. It’s how one responds to the obstacles that they’ll face that matters.

Rather than figuring out my major, the college I’m going to or what my future looks like, I learned to get back up — even if I didn’t feel like it. Growth doesn’t always come easily; sometimes it shows up in big losses that can’t be redeemed, yet you choose to keep going anyway.

It’s OK to lean on people, because without them, we might forget how to live. I distanced myself from the people I cared about. I missed out on my homecoming game, the dance, Thanksgiving parties, hangouts and late-night food drives with my friends — moments I’ll never get back all because I thought nobody would understand the pressure that consumed me.

I realized the most meaningful parts of my junior year were the exact opposite of what I imagined at the start. It was the late-night FaceTime calls, the immaturity, laughter and the people who stuck around when I couldn’t be myself.

Junior year was tough, but it showed me that being myself is enough. That meant more to me than any number could.

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Sports

Georgia women’s track and field earns multiple post season honors after national championship season | Georgia Sports

Georgia women’s track and field added another round of recognition to its record-setting season with multiple honors from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association and The Collegiate Women Sports Awards. The news was announced on Thursday and Friday. Aaliyah Butler, a junior sprinter for the Bulldogs, was named the winner of […]

Published

8 minutes ago

June 24, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Aaliyah Butler, a junior sprinter for the Bulldogs, was named the winner of the Honda Sport Award for Track & Field. Buter becomes just the second Bulldog ever to win this award and was selected by administrators from over 1,000 NCAA member schools.

“I am so honored to receive this award and have my name mentioned with winners of the past, including the great Bulldog Kendell Williams,” Butler said. “This helps show me the hard work and dedication that I’ve put in is paying off”

The CWSA has been awarding the Honda Sports Award to the top female athlete in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports for 49 years, and the winners of each sport become finalists for the prestigious Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the 2025 Honda Cup, which will be presented during the live broadcast of the Collegiate Women Sports Awards on June 30, at 7 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.

After winning the program’s first NCAA outdoor team title and its first SEC championship since 2006, the Bulldogs had senior high jumper Elena Kulichenko named South Region Women’s Field Athlete of the Year, Caryl Smith Gilbert selected as Women’s National Coach of the Year, and Karim Abdel Wahab honored as Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year.

Kulichenko played a key role in Georgia’s national title run, winning her third career NCAA high jump championship and her first outright. At the national meet in Eugene, Oregon, she cleared 1.96 meters on a perfect series of five attempts, separating herself from the field in one of her most efficient performances to date. The senior from Odintsovo, Russia, also finished second at the SEC Championships and posted one of the nation’s top marks earlier in the season at the Tiger Track Classic in Auburn, Alabama.

While Kulichenko was racking up points on the field, Smith Gilbert was steering the entire operation. In just her fourth year in Athens, she led Georgia to 73 points at nationals, a 26-point margin over the next closest team. She also oversaw four individual NCAA champions and 10 total scorers at the national championship meet. Smith Gilbert added the 2025 championship to her trophy case, which included two prior national titles at the University of Southern California in 2018 and 2021.

Abdel Wahab’s sprint and hurdle group scored nearly half of Georgia’s points at nationals, demonstrating the exceptional performance of his athletes across multiple events. He joined the Bulldogs’ staff in 2023 after five years coaching at South Carolina, where he built one of the nation’s top sprint programs. His extensive experience developing sprinters and hurdlers has been a key part of Georgia’s rise to its championship level this season. For his efforts, he was named Women’s Assistant of the Year by the USTFCCCA.

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Sports

Volleyball Season Tickets on Sale for 2025 Campaign

Story Links New Season Tickets | Season Ticket Central CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – New season tickets for Fighting Illini volleyball’s 2025 campaign are available as head coach Chris Tamas enters his ninth season at the helm at Illinois. Season tickets start at $60 for all home matches. General Admission, Sideline Reserved, and a limited number of Prime Reserved Season Tickets are […]

Published

9 minutes ago

June 24, 2025

Your Sports Nation

New Season Tickets | Season Ticket Central

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – New season tickets for Fighting Illini volleyball’s 2025 campaign are available as head coach Chris Tamas enters his ninth season at the helm at Illinois.

Season tickets start at $60 for all home matches. General Admission, Sideline Reserved, and a limited number of Prime Reserved Season Tickets are also available.

Ticket Type	Price
Prime Reserved – Public	$145
Prime Reserved – Faculty	$116
Sideline Reserved – Public	$135
Sideline Reserved – Faculty	$108
General Admission	$60

SINGLE MATCH TICKETS | Single Match tickets for Illinois volleyball will go on sale in August. Fans will be able to purchase Single Match tickets to all home matches via FightingIllini.com or by calling 866-ILLINI-1 (866-455-4641), or in person at the Illinois Ticket Office located in the west lobby of State Farm Center.

Ticket Type	Price
Prime Reserved	$20
Premium Match Prime Reserved	$25
Sideline Reserved	$15
Premium Match Sideline Reserved	$20
General Admission	$12
Premium Match General Admission	$15
General Admission – Youth	$7
Premium Match General Admission – Youth	$8
Group Rate (15 or more – general admission only)	$7
Premium Match Group Rate (15 or more – general admission only)	$8
Illinois Students (with I Card)	FREE

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Sports

Why We Didn’t Have a DIY Beach Wedding

Welcome to Beach Week, our annual celebration of the best place on Earth. Before my fiancé became my husband—in fact, even before he became my fiancé—we spent a lot of time on and around an 18,600-acre Missouri reservoir known as Mark Twain Lake. We invited friends to join us on the pontoon boat for charcuterie […]

Published

14 minutes ago

June 24, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Welcome to Beach Week, our annual celebration of the best place on Earth.

Before my fiancé became my husband—in fact, even before he became my fiancé—we spent a lot of time on and around an 18,600-acre Missouri reservoir known as Mark Twain Lake. We invited friends to join us on the pontoon boat for charcuterie and cocktails, we took the kayak and the stand-up paddleboard into coves, and we spent many hours enjoying both the sand and the not-quite-surf at John F. Spalding Beach.

Which is why, as soon as we knew we were planning a wedding, we asked ourselves what it would take to host it there.

“Imagine the two of us,” Larry said, “saying our vows on the beach at sunset.”

The iconic cliché of the sunset ceremony—and you’ll have to forgive us, we were newly engaged—quickly expanded into what we hoped would become an extended beach party. Having the event at Mark Twain Lake would make it a destination wedding, in the sense that the lake is far enough away from everything else that even our local guests would have to set aside the entire day to attend, and so we began thinking of activities that would make the trip worthwhile.

“We could rent a few extra kayaks,” I said, “or play beach volleyball.”

“And we can get a bunch of stuff going on the grill!” Larry was very enthusiastic about the possibilities. “Our beach wedding would be about bringing the people we love to this place that we love, so they can love it too.”

My mother, who probably loves us more than anybody, was less enthusiastic about the possibility of spending her oldest daughter’s wedding day playing beach volleyball. She suggested that, since we were still very early in the planning process, we might want to consider having a more traditional kind of beach wedding with a ceremony and dinner and dancing because that’s what has been proved to be the most enjoyable for everyone involved. In fact, we might even want to go back to our original plan, which was to have our wedding in our backyard garden. Hadn’t we been talking about that ever since we bought the house?

The truth is that my mother is right about most things—and we did in fact have our wedding in the backyard, but not before we figured out all of the reasons why a beach wedding was wrong for us.

Here’s what we learned.

Not everybody loves the beach

Some of the people we loved thought that a day full of swimming and kayaking and grilling was a great idea, but those were the people who had been coming to the lake with us for years.

The rest of the people we loved were perfectly willing to come to this place that we loved, if that was where we wanted to have our wedding, but they very quickly let us know that they probably wouldn’t love the beach as much as we did—especially if they were required to participate in sports and activities.

“Can we just come for the sunset ceremony?” they asked.

“Sure,” I said, reassuringly. “Come whenever you like.”

Some people may want formal wedding photos

Once we agreed that none of our guests would have to get into a kayak unless they really wanted to, and that anybody who wanted to come just for the sunset ceremony was welcome to do so, my mother asked the next important question: “Are you going to be wearing a swimsuit in your wedding photos?”

I told her that I probably would end up wearing my swimsuit during the ceremony if it came at the end of a daylong beach party, since it wasn’t like Larry and I were going to be able to shower and change and style our hair. Then my mother asked me if there weren’t any showers at the beach and I said of course there were, but they were beach showers.

It quickly became clear that many members of my family wanted to use the wedding as an opportunity to take the kinds of photos that could only be taken when everyone is gathered together. The various family groupings, all of the siblings together, the big picture with everyone in it and so on. From there it made sense that Larry and I should think about how we might look presentable, in the sense that whatever photos we took would live on various mantels for decades, and that we should make sure that everyone else had the opportunity to look their best as well.

“I have this white eyelet lace sundress that I wore when Larry and I bought our house,” I said, “and I told him I wouldn’t wear it again until we got married in the backyard, but I could wear it on the beach instead and we could do the more traditional kind of wedding with a dinner and a ceremony and dancing.”

Beach wedding logistics are difficult

As Larry and I put our minds toward having a traditional wedding on a Midwestern beach, the logistics of how everyone would enjoy the day became more and more complicated. “We still need to confirm whether we need a permit,” I said, “and if we’re having a formal dinner we’ll probably want to rent a shelter house, and we may want to do the thing where you rent a bunch of chairs and tie ribbons around them and arrange them in rows on the sand.”

“Can we get by without renting chairs if we keep the ceremony short and get everybody back to the shelter house for dinner as quickly as possible?” Larry asked.

“Probably,” I said, optimistically. “We’ll also want to rent the shelter house for at least one day before the wedding, because I want to power wash the entire thing beforehand. Those places are full of spiders. Does that mean we’ll need to rent a power washer?”

And suddenly we were talking about budgets and bunting and staple guns and Pinterest boards and whether we’d need to give each guest a pocket-size thing of bug spray with a ribbon tied around it; how we would keep the food at a safe temperature and whether we’d need to assign one of our guests the job of remaining at the shelter house during the ceremony to keep the squirrels off the crudités.

Then we started thinking seriously about the logistics involved in getting people from the shelter house to the beach, including the difficulties that might come up for guests who have specific mobility needs, and then I said the sentence that ended the entire project:

“Larry, when they come back from the ceremony, they’re going to have sand in their shoes.”

“What do you mean?”

“If we want to do a formal beach wedding at sunset and then dinner and dancing afterward, people are either going to have to wear their dress shoes onto the beach and then back up to the shelter house, or they’re going to have to leave their shoes at the shelter house and make their way across the parking lot barefoot, or maybe they’ll carry their shoes, who knows, but either way they’re going to get sand on their feet, and that means they’ll be uncomfortable during the dinner and dancing.”

So we had our backyard wedding instead—which was exactly the kind of wedding Larry and I had been talking about ever since we first bought our house. We had been so enamored of the beach-wedding-at-sunset image that we forgot what should have been obvious. We kept the parts of the beach wedding that we liked, including the part where my sister brought over a bunch of lawn games for the kids to play, and added the parts that my mother knew would be best for everyone, such as formal photos with the extended family.

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Sports

Congratulations to the USA Men’s Junior National Team from USA water polo!!

133 For silver medal on Zagreb. USA water polo. HUGE congratulations to the USA Men’s Junior National Team on winning silver at the World Aquatics U20 World Championship this weekend in Croatia. It’s the best finish ever for a USA Men’s program at any level in World Championship play. Ryder Dodd was named MVP as […]

Published

19 minutes ago

June 24, 2025

Your Sports Nation

133

For silver medal on Zagreb.

USA water polo.

HUGE congratulations to the USA Men’s Junior National Team on winning silver at the World Aquatics U20 World Championship this weekend in Croatia. It’s the best finish ever for a USA Men’s program at any level in World Championship play. Ryder Dodd was named MVP as Team USA rallied from a slow start to reach the gold medal match, falling to Spain 14-11.

AQFD24 USA media

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Sports

Lottery.com Names New CEO to Drive Global Gaming and Sports Media Expansion

Published

23 minutes ago

June 24, 2025

Your Sports Nation

FORT WORTH, Texas, June 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Lottery.com Inc. (NASDAQ: LTRY, LTRYW) (“Lottery.com” or “the Company”), a leading technology company transforming the intersection of gaming, sports and entertainment, today announced the appointment of Tim Scoffham as Chief Executive Officer of Sports.com Media Group Limited (“Sports.com Media”) and Lottery.com International Limited (“Lottery.com International”), effective immediately. The appointment follows a successful consultancy period beginning in May 2024, during which Tim helped shape the Company’s global growth strategy across iGaming and digital sports media.

With more than 20 years of leadership in gaming, media, and entertainment, Tim is widely recognized as a veteran operator in media, sports entertainment and gaming sectors. His international experience and ability to execute high-growth, regulated strategies across emerging markets make him an ideal fit to lead these businesses into their next chapter.

Tim will oversee the strategic integration and international expansion of Sports.com Media, a premium digital sports content and engagement platform, and Lottery.com International, the Company’s iGaming and international lottery division focused on delivering secure, compliant, and entertaining lottery experiences across key global markets. His leadership will focus on aligning commercial, media, and technology platforms, bolstering regulatory partnerships, and unlocking scalable, revenue-generating opportunities in high-growth jurisdictions.

“Our Company is delighted with this appointment,” said Matthew McGahan, CEO and Chairman of Lottery.com. “Tim brings energy, credibility, and international expertise. His bold, entrepreneurial leadership style and deep experience in both gaming and media are precisely what we need at this inflection point. We are seeing strong forward momentum in the business and the markets, and Tim’s appointment gives us further confidence in our global roadmap. He is fully aligned with our vision to build Lottery.com and Sports.com into powerhouse global brands.”

Tim Scoffham added: “It’s an incredibly exciting time to join Lottery.com in a full-time leadership capacity at Sports.com Media and Lottery.com International, both of which represent unique global opportunities. The Sports.com and Lottery.com brands sit at the intersection of sports, gaming, and immersive content, and I believe we’re only scratching the surface of what they can become. With outstanding teams already in place and a unified international strategy underway, I’m looking forward to accelerating growth, strengthening partnership, and delivering long-term value to Lottery.com shareholders.”

About Sports.com Media
Sports.com Media Group Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lottery.com Inc., is a next-generation digital platform delivering premium sports content, immersive fan experiences, and real-time engagement to a global audience. Focused on innovation, original formats, and media-rights partnerships, Sports.com is shaping the future of sports storytelling and digital fan engagement.

About Lottery.com International
Lottery.com International Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lottery.com Inc., provides a secure and compliant iGaming and global lottery platform that enables users to participate in international lottery games through digital channels. The platform is focused on regulated market expansion, localized offerings, and sustainable, high-margin growth.

Under Tim Scoffham’s leadership, both businesses will continue the expansion of Sports.com and Lottery.com into globally recognized brands—driven by innovation, strategic execution, and an unwavering commitment to compliance and user experience.

About Lottery.com
The Lottery.com Inc. (NASDAQ: LTRY, LTRYW) family of brands — including Sports.com, Tinbu and WinTogether, comprise a unified ecosystem that integrates gaming, entertainment, and sports. Follow the Company on X, Instagram and Facebook.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, regarding the Company’s strategy, future operations, prospects, plans and objectives of management, are forward-looking statements. When used in this Form 8-K, the words “could,” “should,” “will,” “may,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “estimate,” “expect,” “project,” “initiatives,” “continue,” the negative of such terms and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions about future events and are based on currently available information as to the outcome and timing of future events. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release or as of the date they are made. The Company cautions you that these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the control of the Company. In addition, the Company cautions you that the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are subject to risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to, expectations related to the investigation of short selling or potential naked short selling, including the Company’s analysis, its ability to take appropriate corrective action, or any potential investigations by regulators; any future findings from ongoing review of the Company’s internal accounting controls; additional examination of the preliminary conclusions of such review; the Company’s ability to secure additional capital resources; the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern; the Company’s ability to respond in a timely and satisfactory matter to the inquiries by Nasdaq; the Company’s ability to regain compliance with the Bid Price Requirement; the Company’s ability to regain compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rules; the Company’s ability to become current with its SEC reports; and those additional risks and uncertainties discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Form 10-K/A filed by the Company with the SEC on April 22, 2025, and the other documents filed, or to be filed, by the Company with the SEC. Additional information concerning these and other factors that may impact the operations and projections discussed herein can be found in the reports that the Company has filed and will file from time to time with the SEC. These SEC filings are available publicly on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Should one or more of the risks or uncertainties described in this press release materialize or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results and plans could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, the Company disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements, all of which are expressly qualified by the statements in this section, to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ddd041d2-dfd1-40b2-ae96-d48dad3d080e

This press release was published by a CLEAR® Verified individual.

For more information, please visit www.lottery.com or contact our media relations team at press@lottery.com.

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Sports

Fey Shines as Multiple Jayhawks Compete at USATF U20 Nationals

EUGENE, ORE. – The Kansas Track & Field team had athletes compete at the USATF U20 Nationals. “We had a talented group of freshmen led by Maddie Fey to represent KU in a great way at the US Under-20 Championship (U20). As they mature, they should be major contributors for KU in the years to […]

Published

37 minutes ago

June 24, 2025

Your Sports Nation

EUGENE, ORE. – The Kansas Track & Field team had athletes compete at the USATF U20 Nationals.

“We had a talented group of freshmen led by Maddie Fey to represent KU in a great way at the US Under-20 Championship (U20). As they mature, they should be major contributors for KU in the years to come. Maddie would have been selected to represent the USA in the discus and shot at the World U20 Championship if the competition was contested. The competition was a great experience for them to end the freshman year and leading into their sophomore year,” Said Kansas Head Coach Stanley Redwine.

The week started with Madeleine Fey winning the Women’s Discus with a throw of 53.22m(174’7″). The Kansas Freshman took Runner-Up in the Women’s Shot Put when she threw a mark of 15.67m(51’5″).

Mia Murray placed 4th in the 3000m Steeplechase, running a new Personal Best time of 10:51.45. The Lincoln, Nebraska, native also runs with the cross country team in the fall.

Blake Wohler ran in the Men’s 5000m, where he placed 7th in the event, running a time of 15:17.32. The Lawrence native won the Rock Chalk Classic this past season in that event.

Oliver Duffy took 5th place in the Men’s Decathlon with a point total of 6286. The Freshman, who is a New Hampshire native, won 3 events inside the decathlon: 100m, Discus & Long Jump.

Topeka, Kansas native, Aaron Merritt competed in two events during the week, placing 13th in the Men’s 100m, and taking 16th in the Men’s 100m Hurdles.

Freshman Ryan Whittlesey ran in the Men’s 3000m Steeplechase, where he placed 14th overall. Whittlesey, who is coached by his father, ran a new PR with a time of 9:46.42 in the event.

Madi Snody also competed this week in the Women’s Pole Vault.

UP NEXT:

The Kansas Track & Field Team will have athletes compete at USATF Outdoor Nationals July 31st-August 3rd, in Eugene, Oregon.

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