“Kids are getting lazier as we speak and I didn’t want my daughter being on the television at all,” Elizabeth Wilson of Onset said. “She needs to be out and about and I want to make a positive impact not just on her life but on more kids’ lives.”

So Wilson decided to take action and started her own chapter of Playball, an international organization dedicated to helping kids develop through sports.

“Our mission is to promote physical, emotional, social and cognitive development in kids,” Wilson said.

Wilson’s chapter of the program is based in Falmouth and serves three age groups, 18 to 24-months-old, 2 to 6-years-old and 7 to 10-years-old. Each program has a 30 session curriculum broken up into beginner, intermediate and advanced sections which have a 10 session curriculum each.

She explained the program is set-up almost like a classroom, where kids can be active and get their energy out.

“We have our spots as if we’re representing desks in a classroom but we’re outside,” she said. “We show them a skill and then the kids do it and then we move on to the next one.”

The skills range from sport specific movements like free-throw shooting in basketball or an overhead soccer throw-in, to refining fine motor skills. Each activity is done in a way that is fun for the kids, Wilson said.

“We do a lot of planks but we turn it into a game,” she said. “We’ll say we’re little alligators and then alligator walk bit by bit. It looks like we’re playing, but we’re playing with structure.”

Wilson participated in the program as a student in South Africa and she credits it for her lifelong love of sports. She came to the U.S. with hopes of travelling the world and after settling down with her husband in Onset, she felt a call to get kids up and moving when her now 3-year-old daughter was born.

Thinking back on her own time in Playball, she decided to bring it to the South Coast for the first time in the program’s history.

Prior to officially establishing her own Playball chapter, Wilson said she tested the program out on her own three-year-old daughter and her friend’s kids over a period of six months.

“I saw growth in my kid and my friend’s kids so I immediately said I’m just going to continue by buying my franchise,” she said.

Wilson officially began her classes five months ago and has already been successful. So much so that she recently signed a five year contract with Playball to help keep her chapter running.

So far, Wilson has seen over 100 kids come through her program with each showing signs of growth in a short period of time.

“One kid started when he was two and he’s three now and Playball took him from being unsure about a whole bunch of skills to talking to the friend next to him saying ‘hey could I help you,’” she said. “When he started he wanted nothing to do with the other kids and wanted to be by himself but now he’s very contained, sits still, listens, waits for instructions and follows through.”

She added the program is still young but continues to grow as word of Playball continues to spread. She said the next step for Playball is to get it into area schools and incorporate her program as a part of the school’s physical education program.

Despite hearing repeated no’s from various school districts, she got her first yes and is beginning classes at the Discovery Pre-School in Buzzards Bay.

“It’s the ultimate program and it makes me giddy on the inside,” she said. “It makes me want to continue this everyday.”

From playing on the field to now standing behind the plate, Gabrielle Potts has always found herself at a Little League^® diamond. At just 13 years old, while most were still dreaming of playing at the next level, Potts took a different route — stepping onto the field with an indicator in her hand instead of a glove. What started as just a way to stay involved in the game quickly turned into a platform to give back to the community.

Now, a seasoned volunteer who umpires about 50 games a year is not only calling balls and strikes — she is shaping the next generation of Little Leaguers^® and building a connection with the community.

“Little League umpires are more than just rule followers; we end up being coaches, cheerleaders, and even shoe tiers,” said Potts. “I think we all step into informative roles naturally, but during the regular season, it’s knowing you play a key role in the foundation and being someone who the players remember. It’s a community where kids have one more person in their lives giving them support.”

Potts is one of the few female umpires in the Danville, Vermont area, empowering young girls to dream bigger. She never would have imagined her adult self to still be involved with sports, but her dreams have been renewed, and her life is bigger than before.

This year, Potts was selected as one of the female umpires to participate in the second Maria Pepe Little League Baseball^® Legacy Series, a weekend dedicated to showcasing girls in baseball.

To learn more about her experience as a female umpire, Little League sat down for a “Full-Count Conversation” with Potts during the 2025 Maria Pepe Little League Baseball Legacy Series.

1-0 Count: As a former player yourself, how, as an umpire, do you like to connect with the players?  

I like to start every game by introducing myself to the catcher. I definitely like to read my catchers, but I normally start off with a joke because I feel like it just lightens everything. They have one of the hardest jobs on the field, so I want to start off by making things light, introducing myself to them, and welcoming them to the plate. I also like to make sure they are okay; we both get hit by wild pitches. So, a lot of the time, if they just got hit with a foul ball, I am going to look at them and say, ‘I am going to go get the ball, you stand up and stretch.’

1-1 Count: What advice would you give to a young umpire who is just getting started?    

Find a mentor. I think the hardest thing in the world is trying to do any of this stuff alone. Just from when I went down to the East Region and started the umpire clinics there, the mentorship that I have received is huge. I had mentors back home, but they were not pushing for this caliber of game and experience. So, find yourself a mentor because you are going to have tough games. Find somebody that you can release all of that to. Find somebody who can help you through, show you the cool equipment versus the chunky equipment. Find somebody to help you and guide you, someone who is there for the good games and supports you. One of my mentors just umpired a state championship game last year, and I went down with him; it is just one of those things that you can support each other through, and that’s important.

2-1 Count: In what ways do you like to prepare for a game?  

There are two different ways I like to prepare, and it depends on whether I am in the field or at the plate. At the plate, I typically like to be alone and do my thing to get in the zone. I am a person who believes that I am a student of the game, and the game is always teaching me something new. I like to go over the hard plays I’ve had, and if this situation happens again, how am I going to handle it? Mentally, I go through a checklist. Do I know these two teams? What did you see the last time they played? I think the more that you can prepare for the normal means that when the abnormal comes, you’re already ready, you’ve discussed the basics. So, now, it’s something different, and you’re not trying to catch up to yourself.

2-2 Count: What inspires you to continue volunteering with Little League and giving back to the community?

I think we all need to step back and look at the experiences we had as kids and think about how we can get back involved with our community. I think as adults, we all have this nostalgia. As an adult who has no children, I have 11 nieces and nephews, so I am always at the ball field. All of them play youth sports, and it was a big part of my life, so it propels me to keep going out there, and it makes a difference. It is one of those things that we all have hard games where we don’t know what our strike zone was, or had a coach going at us the whole game. But, for every game that is like that, there’s a game where the player gets up to the plate and says, ‘you’re my favorite umpire’ or a catcher says, ‘I love when you’re behind me because you’re going to call a fair game.’ So, every time you have a rough game, there are those games that just make up for it, and you know that you’re making a difference. It makes a difference for a lot of people to see women on the field. When you get stopped by a grandma who never had the opportunity to play, and she says, ‘When I see you, it makes me happy because I went through so much, and seeing you out there makes it all worth it.’

3-2 Count: How do you incorporate your full-time job as a graphic designer into your role with Little League? 

I started working for myself a few years ago. Before, I was making a few shirts here and there, but now it is more of a full-time business. I have made a couple of the local Little League uniforms or had sponsorships on their uniforms, which has been really cool. I am working on building up a store with my designs that are based around sports. It is one of those things that I try to design based on the local atmosphere and what people are looking for, and it has been really fun for me. This year, being an umpire at the Maria Pepe Legacy Series, I brought an umpire gift for everyone. Everybody got a t-shirt that I designed that has a female umpire on it, which is something that, as females, we don’t get a lot of swag that has a female on it in general. So, everybody is walking home with a ‘Don’t be a lady, be a legend’ shirt.

Interested in becoming a Little League umpire? Visit LittleLeague.org/Umpires to learn more. 

Grimes County Youth Football Association board members distributed fruit cups and cold water to children at Magnolia Plaza, Allen White and Northwood Apartments (formerly Laredo Heights), June 22, to help children beat the heat and stay fueled up. GCYFA teams also distributed fruit cups and water to Golden Creek Nursing Home. 

 
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Start your morning with Buzzcast with Abe Madkour: Magic succession plan revealed; what’s next for T-Wolves and Lynx? A top WME talent agent set to move on

The Premier Lacrosse League has landed a five-year media-rights renewal with ESPN, and the network will also be taking a small equity stake in the league. The rights deal begins next season and runs through 2030. The pact, which is an increased rights fee for the PLL, also includes games for its nascent Maybelline Women’s Lacrosse League. The PLL has now been in business with ESPN for four years after launching on NBC airwaves.

ESPN’s minority stake in the league adds to a deep roster of investors, which includes Nets owner Joe Tsai, the Kraft Group, the Chernin Group, CAA, Arctos Partners, Raine Group, Brett Jefferson Holdings and David Blitzer’s family office, Bolt Capital.

It could not be determined what the size of ESPN’s equity stake is in the PLL or what the league is valued at. PLL co-founder & CEO Mike Rabil said the league plans to use the new investment for league infrastructure, PLL/WLL schedule expansion, player compensation packages, marketing and production and content development.

“There’s that old adage of fill the room with smarter people than you, and that’s what we try to do with our own [cap] table,” Rabil said. “When we got into this space of building a sports league, sports really wasn’t an arm of Wall Street yet, and now it’s becoming one.”

Read More >>>

WME co-Head of Sports Josh Pyatt is leaving the L.A.-based talent agency by the end of the year. Pyatt’s contract is expiring at the end of 2025 and although he was offered the opportunity to remain with the agency while working across Silver Lake’s sports investments, both sides were unable to reach a deal. Pyatt, a 2018 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree, serves as an agent and partner for the firm and has helped represent names like LeBron James, Michael Strahan, Peyton Manning, Dale Earnhardt Jr., ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and others across high-profile sports projects.

“Josh is a terrific agent who has made significant contributions to WMA and WME for more than two decades, particularly in our non-scripted content and sports businesses,” a WME spokesperson told SBJ. “In the end, we were unable to come to terms on a new deal and chose not to renew, agreeing that the best way forward is for him to pursue opportunities outside of the agency. We know he will be incredibly successful in whatever he does next and wish him all the best.”

Industry sources have said that Pyatt’s been thinking about his next move, speaking with other high-profile agencies such as Excel Sports, Wasserman and Patrick Whitesell’s recently launched Win Sports Group, as well as going independent. Pyatt did not respond to a request for comment.

Pyatt’s exit comes after a transitional period for WME. Private equity firm Silver Lake acquired and took Endeavor private in March, folding up a portion of the company’s portfolio, such as its representation business, under WME Group. WME Sports has divested from its basketball and football representation practices due to a potential conflict of interest because of Silver Lake’s acquisition of Endeavor.

When the NBA Draft tips off tonight from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, some of the top agencies in the sports industry will look to secure the most first-round picks. Last year’s top agency, Excel, is unlikely to repeat given the strong classes boasted by other agencies such as CAA and Wasserman.

Excel and CAA have landed the most first-round picks in NBA Draft classes this decade, with CAA taking the honors in back-to-back years in 2020 and 2021. After Excel led in 2022, WME had its sole victory of the decade in 2023. Other NBA Draft constants such as Klutch and Priority enter tonight with Rich Paul clients Duke C Khaman Maluach and Florida G Walter Clayton Jr. as well as Mark Bartelstein clients Duke G Kon Knueppel and Creighton C Ryan Kalkbrenner.

This year’s projected first overall pick, Duke F Cooper Flagg, is represented by CAA’s Austin Brown. If selected, it would be the first time CAA has represented the first overall selection since Duke’s Zion Williamson went to the Pelicans in 2019. The agency is also representing other players such as UConn F Liam McNeeley and Michigan State G Jase Richardson.

Wasserman enters with one of the strongest draft classes this year with clients like Baylor G VJ Edgecombe, Illinois G Kasparas Jakucionis, Arizona F Carter Bryant, South Carolina F Collin Murray-Boyles, Saint-Quentin G Nolan Traoré and Cedevita Olimpija C Joan Beringer. Wasserman last represented the most first-round NBA Draft picks in 2019 when the agency had four selections, tied with CAA.

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The Magic have elevated CEO Alex Martins to Vice Chair in a front office re-structure that will see Charlie Freeman take over day-to-day business operations and two members of the next generation of the DeVos family gain heightened roles within the organization.

Martins will remain an alternate governor at league meetings and serve as a senior strategic advisor to the franchise’s BOD as a non-member. He will also personally advise Freeman, the team’s President of Business Operations who has spent much of the last three years being groomed for the transition.

Freeman — a 2012 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree who helped Martins with the initial approval, design and construction of the Kia Center in 2008 — will retain his business operations title while now overseeing personnel, ticket sales, global partnerships, arena operations, philanthropy, human resources, communications and broadcasting. He will report to the franchise’s BOD.

“This is not something that happened overnight,” Martins said. “This is a discussion that started with Dan [DeVos], our chairman, and myself almost three years ago. My recommendation to him was at some point we need to be prepared with the succession plan. So we started down that road and stepped up the mentorship and preparation for Charlie to take on the entire business operation. He deserves it, and I think he’s going to do a spectacular job.”

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The WTA has signed a six-year extension of its U.S. rights deal with Tennis Channel, renewing through 2032 an agreement that was set to expire after 2026. Financial terms were not disclosed. IMG advised WTA Ventures, the commercial arm of the WTA, in the process. Tennis Channel negotiated directly.

The deal designates Tennis Channel’s linear network, T2 FAST channel and DTC streaming platform the exclusive homes of live, non-U.S. WTA 1000, 500 and 250 tournaments in the U.S. (the rights to U.S.-based WTA tournaments are sold separately).

It continues a relationship between the WTA and Tennis Channel that began when the network launched in 2003 (although there was a period between 2017-18 during which beIN Sport carried most WTA matches in the U.S./Canada before Tennis Channel signed on as exclusive U.S. rightsholder in 2019).

WTA Ventures CEO Marina Storti declined to disclose the financial particulars of the extension but characterized the new rights fee the WTA will receive from Tennis Channel as a “significant increase” from the sides’ last deal, signed in 2022. Tennis Channel Chairman & CEO Jeff Blackburn confirmed that characterization, saying the “WTA is more valuable than ever” and highlighting the prevalence of top-ranked American stars like Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys and Emma Navarro.

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SeatGeek has rolled out a new product called “Beyond the Seat,” an effort to provide a dynamic shopping experience for sports fans to provide clarity for the other options that are available inside a sports venue besides the general admission seats.

The product has multiple components that will continue to evolve through 2025 and beyond. Currently, SeatGeek is offering the experiential shopping component of the product — which provides photos and videos associated with different sections — via desktop, as well as indicators of the wide-ranging benefits that come with different areas of a venue (an included meal, wait service in seating, etc.). Immersive viewing from individual seats is also available for certain clients, allowing an in-seat 3D vantage point from the seat shoppers are trying to buy. Beyond the Seat also features in-app upsells and upgrades for entry with certain inventory.

Further enhancements will include the listing of suite, club and VIP seat options (now in beta for MLB) along with the general admission choices. The experience will eventually include fan-submitted content, letting fans upload examples of their seat experiences (think the same way people show purchases in use on Amazon reviews and other things of that nature).

Some Boston residents and critics of the city’s effort to renovate White Stadium with a professional women’s soccer team “slammed the project’s transportation plan” Tuesday, “arguing it is missing essential details and would lead to severe traffic and gridlock in the neighborhoods surrounding Franklin Park” on Boston Legacy FC game days. The critics also unveiled “a new report they commissioned” by William Lyons – a traffic operations engineer, transportation planner and CEO of Fort Hill Companies LLC. Lyons’ analysis of the project’s updated transportation plan, and other documents the city and soccer team put out related to traffic and transportation management, “harshly criticized the proposal.” Top Boston City Hall officials “dismissed his concerns Tuesday and argued that the plan is not only still in development, but the result of a long process of soliciting and receiving public feedback” (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/24).

The latest edition of SBJ Live, set for 12:30pm ET today, dives into how AI is transforming the sports industry’s approach to sponsorship, marketing and monetization: enabling hyper-targeted fan engagement, smarter segmentation and more accurate sponsorship valuation. This session explores how teams, leagues and brands are using AI in 2025 to move beyond one-size-fits-all strategies and unlock new revenue potential. To register for the session, please visit here and sign up (SBJ).

The Toledo athletic department on Tuesday hosted the first Team Toledo Partner Summit in Savage Arena, bringing together execs from across the sports, business and community landscapes. The summit included topics such as private equity/capital, real estate partnerships, youth sports and revenue generation initiatives. Rock Entertainment CEO Nic Barlage, an SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree in 2020, was the event’s keynote speaker. He shared how sports can be a platform for growth and community engagement. StatusPRO co-founder & President Andrew Hawkins, an SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree in 2025, and Steelers VP/Sales & Marketing Ryan Huzjak, both former Toledo football players, were featured on the “Manufactured in the Glass City” panel, where Hawkins provided his perspective on the potential of Toledo Athletics. Huzjak added that building strong connections with area youth sports is a potential area for growth for Toledo Athletics (Toledo).

Upcoming Events…

The Business of Sports Summit: Topgolf Edition will be held at Topgolf Atlanta Midtown on Thursday from 3-6pm ET. Speakers will include SBJ Publisher & Executive Editor Abe Madkour; Atlanta Sports Council President Dan Corso; AMBSE President Tim Zulawski; Michigan State VP & AD J Batt and more.

Speed Reads…

Stifel Financial Corp. has added Olympic Gold Medal-winning cyclist Kristen Faulkner as the firm’s newest brand ambassador. Faulkner made history at the 2024 Paris Olympics by winning gold in both the women’s individual road race and the women’s track cycling team pursuit (Stifel).

ESPN has acquired exclusive media rights to the 2025 UEFA European Women’s Championship across Spanish-speaking Latin America (ESPN).

The N.Y. Sirens selected Kristyna Kaltounkova of Vlasim, Czechia, with the first pick in yesterday’s PWHL draft (CP, 6/24).

The owner of Fair Grounds Race Course and Slots “officially confirmed” yesterday that it will “proceed with a normal horse racing season” November after backing down on a threat to pull out of Louisiana if it wasn’t granted a public subsidy (New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE, 6/24).

Athletes First this week will launch “Big & Beautiful presented by BTL,” an exclusive, three-day summit of NFL offensive linemen in Las Vegas spotlighting the strength, personality, and performance of the league’s best players at the position group. Taking place June 25–28, the event will bring together offensive linemen, performance coaches and brand partners for a weekend that blends training, recovery, and hospitality (Athletes First).

Morning Hot Reads: Labor Issues

YAHOO SPORTS went with the header, “NFL collusion ruling casts light on ineffective, rudderless NFLPA just as much as concerns over contracts.” Tuesday brought “some rather surprising news” to the NFL landscape when journalists Pablo Torre and Mike Florio teamed up to drop a new episode of Torre’s podcast that featured the release of a 61-page document “detailing a 2022 arbitration ruling for a grievance the NFLPA filed in regards to potential collusion and suppression of player salaries.” While the grievance filing “didn’t win and the arbitrator ruled against the union, the NFLPA was given a silver lining” by arbitrator Chris Droney, who wrote “There is little question that the NFL Management Council, with the blessing of the Commissioner, encouraged the 32 NFL Clubs to reduce guarantees in veterans’ contracts at the March 2022 annual owners’ meeting.” From there, this “becomes a story featuring a theme that fans of the league are all too familiar with: The NFLPA is not the cleanest and most effective union out there.” There are “a lot of reasons for that, but an important one is the financial and career-length discrepancies from the elite players to the guys who play only 2-3 years before moving on to another job.”

Also:

Social Scoop…

Off the presses…

The Morning Buzz offers today’s back pages and sports covers from some of North America’s major metropolitan newspapers: