Izzy Sullivan, a rising junior on the Nevada women’s basketball team, was named Monday to Ireland’s under-20 national team.

The squad led by coach Karl Kilbride named its final 12-player roster, which includes only two new players who will make their EuroBasket debuts, including Sullivan.

The Irish team will compete at the FIBA Youth EuroBasket in Miskolc, Hungary in Group B in August along with Great Britain and Ukraine. Ireland will play Ukraine on Aug. 3 and Great Britain on Aug. 4. Sullivan is the only Division I college player to make Ireland’s roster.

A 5-foot-10 guard, Sullivan has averaged 9.1 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game in 25.5 minutes per game in two seasons at Nevada. She’s shot 38 percent from the field, including 35.5 percent from three, in 59 games with 38 starts. Sullivan was born in Dublin but moved to the Seattle area in her youth when her father got a job with Microsoft. It’s in the Pacific Northwest where Sullivan found basketball.

“They just put me into it for something to do, like the Parks and Rec foundation we had by me,” Sullivan said during a Q&A with NSN in January 2024. “And then I just fell in love with it, just watching NBA and WNBA and college sports. It just kind of grew from there and they kind of learned the game along with me.”

Sullivan, who played for Eastside Catholic High in Sammamish, Wash., still makes regular trips to Ireland.

“They’re a lot of fun,” Sullivan said. “It’s pretty busy. Everybody wants to see you, so you’re busy every day, but especially in the short break we have. I’ll probably have a week there, so I just try to make the most out of it and see as many people as possible. … They’re really just huge supporters even though they’re not close to America. I love it there. I love all my family there. They’ve just been a big part of my journey knowing that I have that support.”

Ireland’s under-20 roster includes Sullivan, Lucy Hynes, Aisling Moran, Ava Walshe, Caitlin Gloeckner, Emer Dunne, Emma Gribben, Emma Tolan, Grace Prenter, Katie O’Sullivan, Rachel Lynch and Rebecca Sexton.

“We’ve been so impressed by the intensity levels and commitment from the group over the last few months,” Kilbride said in a news release. “Over the course of two open trials and six training weekends, they’ve made our lives as coaches really easy on the court, but that makes these kinds of decisions all the harder. We’re in a really enviable position, where we have to leave players behind who are more than good enough to play for Ireland, but were just unlucky this particular year.

“We have an absolutely hectic summer ahead with six games against Iceland, Croatia and Switzerland before we kick off our EuroBasket campaign proper against Ukraine on August 3. We’re so excited to be working with the group we’ve selected and with the commitment levels and improvements shown so far we have a chance to have a really successful summer ahead.”

KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – It looks likely that Kalamazoo’s new $40 million youth sports tournament facility will be built in the city of Kalamazoo.

Discover Kalamazoo Director Jane Ghosh told the city commission last night that a selection committee will recommend 15-acres on the west edge of town near U.S. 131.

“Specifically in the Westgate area, between Drake Road and 131, North of the Holiday Inn,” says Ghosh.

The Kalamazoo County board will take the final vote, but they are expected to go with the recommendation.

That location was picked over sites in Portage and in Texas Township.

Ghosh says the location will help the facility achieve one of its goals, and that’s to provide a place for many young athletes who may not have a place to play.

“Local use of this facility will be prioritized Monday through Thursday, and that will significantly increase participation opportunities for underserved youth.”

She says its construction will be fully funded by a fee on hotel rooms, and its local operation will be funded by regional basketball and volleyball tournaments on the weekends.

There may be winners and losers in the games, but the facility will generate mostly winners, with tourism and hotel rooms up and the creation of over 600 new jobs.

“It means an annual economic impact of impact of almost $50 million.”

Ghosh say their current goal is to have it operational by 2027, about the same time that the new downtown arena could be ready to open.

Published on June 03, 2025

The Parks and Recreation Department today announced that registration is open for fall team sports, including adult volleyball, kickball, softball, and youth NFL Flag football. Adult leagues are for those age 18 and older. Youth leagues are for children in kindergarten through eighth grade. 

Online registration is available at teamsideline.com/lincolnne for the following leagues: 

• Adult volleyball – Coed leagues play Thursday nights, and women’s leagues play Monday nights. Recreational and competitive leagues include an eight-game season and a double-elimination tournament. Games are played September 4 through late November at the Calvert Recreation Center, 4500 Stockwell St. The fee is $311 for early online registration July 7 through July 13. Regular registration is $322 per team and the registration deadline is August 10. 

• Adult slow-pitch softball – Recreational and competitive coed leagues and men’s leagues include an a six-week regular season and single elimination tournament. Games will be played at Mahoney, Holmes, and Ballard fields beginning August 10. The regular registration fee is $306 per team until July 13, and late registration is $328. The registration deadline is July 20. 

• Adult kickball – Outdoor competitive and recreation leagues are scheduled on Sundays at the Lewis ballfield complex. The six-game season is from mid-August through October and includes a single elimination tournament. The fee is $253 per team and the registration deadline is July 20. Teams require a minimum of 10 players. 

• Youth NFL flag football – Five-on-five coed play is offered for children in kindergarten through eighth grade – as of the 2025-26 school year. Games are played on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays at Densmore ballfields from August 18 through mid-October. Registration fees through July 14 are $98 for the first child and $93 for each additional child in the same family. Late registration fees from July 15 through 21 are $108 for the first child and $103 for each additional child in the same family. Need-based scholarships are available.  

“Team sports are a great opportunity for friends, coworkers, and church groups to play a fun and friendly sport recreationally or competitively having a good time together for a night out,” said Monica Manning, Team Sports Supervisor. 

Official/referee positions are available for team sports games. Positions pay $26 per game. Contact the Team Sports office at 402-441-7892 for more information. 

For more information about adult and youth team sports, call 402-441-7892 or visit teamsideline.com/lincolnne. For more information about Lincoln Parks and Recreation programs, visit parks.lincoln.ne.gov.  

I assume it’s just the acidic mix of sweat and cheap hair gel streaming down my forehead that stings my eyes. But it’s teenage heartbreak playing out at center ice. My anger feels tangible. Rage knots in my throat as I wait in the postgame handshake line. Yet when I finally grip the hand of my hockey opponent, whose elbow popped my jaw, something shifts and my thirst for vengeance ebbs.

In his eyes, I can see a kid like me, with homework to get to.

Those memories of emotional strain, decades ago, stand in contrast to the curated, frictionless experiences that I worry define so much of boys’ lives today. In an era of AI, video games, cheap dopamine, solitude, porn, sports betting and fantasy sports, the frictions of youth sports feel more urgent. On the ice, field, or court, you can’t scroll away from an elbow or a benching; you can’t summon talent with a sharper ChatGPT prompt; you can’t order grit online; you can’t deny the limits of your genetics or preparation.

Striving to win, alongside other boys on a shared mission, remains a dopamine high hard to attain elsewhere. And even though losing a meaningful game, injuries, and toxic competitiveness all hurt, these experiences are processed and spread across a team instead of being stomached alone.

Beyond physical fitness, youth sports – regardless of the competition level – can be a pathway to identity formation, self-efficacy, bodily awareness, and tempering emotional highs and lows that boys need. Sports — with the mandate to move, then move on — should belong to all boys, rich or poor, highly athletic or not. However, youth sports participation has declined among boys over the last decade. Data suggests that while American boys are playing sports at lower rates, girls’ participation remains stable. The downward trend among boys is disheartening, especially as it’s more pronounced among low-income youth, according to a report from the American Institute for Boys and Men (AIBM). Only 25 percent of low-income boys participate in sports, while the overall participation rate for boys is 53 percent.

With boys and young men falling behind in educational achievement and measures of mental health, sports emerge as an valuable domain in which to practice rebounding from setbacks.

Why Are Boys Playing Fewer Sports?

AIBM’s report uses recent data to shed light on why low-income boys may be playing sports less, including:

• Increasing costs
• Academic ineligibility
• Scarcity of coaches
• Less casual play with an increase in sports specialization
• Early sports specialization leading to burnout, injuries, and fewer multisport athletes
• Screen time; 61% of teenage boys play video games daily
• Lingering impact of COVID program closures
• Increase in concussion concerns

Resilience, Learned Relationally

Participation in organized sports is linked to reduced anxiety and depression, and its effect seems to be greater in team sports. For less advantaged youth, research suggests that sports can provide social and emotional benefits.

Resilience is the ability to “weather and recover” from adversity. Organized team sports can be a level playing field where a kid’s effort is rewarded, unlike schools and broken social systems that may be stacked against them. For a fidgety boy on the brink of giving up, bouncing back may best be learned in action, embodied, alongside peers and coaches.

One study found that sports, when combined with supportive relationships, can help kids overcome the harmful effects of abuse, neglect, or growing up around addiction; another demonstrated that teens who play sports tend to have greater self-control, stronger social skills, and higher empathy than those who don’t, especially if they play multiple sports.

The Much-Needed Masculinity of Bouncing Back

An overlooked aspect of masculinity involves the guts to take your shot and then miss (whether it’s getting cut from a team or denied after asking a girl out); to take an “L” like a champ and say, “My bad.”

This is exactly what youth sports can teach at a time when many boys are falling behind. Sports offer an arena in which to calibrate dominance and sensitivity, when to fight or finesse. Today, a boy, shaped by the algorithms he’s fed, may not tune into male leaders who are relatable and emotionally grounded. In their place are wealthy guys or “manfluencers” who don’t own their missteps, accept results, or make concession speeches.

Not backing down, hinting at conspiracy, crying foul, and willful denial are confessions of insecurity made with bravado. But a real team doesn’t pretend you won when the scoreboard says otherwise. That lesson deepens when boys watch grown, professional athletes, after a long run in the playoffs, line up to shake hands, battered but still embracing their opponents. From this, they absorb a masculinity rooted in resilience, accountability, and grace. A boy recognizes: I, too, can strive hard and accept loss.

From the Field to Real Life

Does sports participation lead to resilience, or are resilient kids more likely to participate in sports? Data indicates it runs both ways. Some studies find that resilience gained in playing sports can transfer to resilience in other parts of life, but only with deliberate reflection and meaning-making. Research suggests resilience is a dynamic process rather than a static trait, meaning that it evolves and changes over time, depending on the situation.

Perhaps boys can better learn to bounce back with the help of male teachers and/or coaches who place losing and winning in context, and who model emotional intelligence with skillful communication (rather than barking orders). Communities could invest more in free weekend leagues staffed by volunteer coaches to help organize athletic competition without financial barriers.

The current trend of specialization in youth sports is worrying. It’s important to reduce youth sports costs through lower fees and to expand casual, non-competitive play options as well. Just as income ought not impact access to sports, neither should athleticism.

Let’s create opportunities for boys to fall and get back up, not just on playing fields but relational ones, where humility and community can take root.

The Aldrich basketball courts in Laurel were full of quick passes, pivots and picks-and-rolls in the inaugural Community Kids Basketball Tournament Saturday. In a collab between the Aldrich Sports League of Mattituck and NoFo Kid Connect of Greenport, four teams chock full of local basketball talent with community kids mixed in went head-to-head. Each game was exciting, with rapid lead changes and a few of the decisions coming down to the buzzer.

The concept for the community tournament and fundraiser came from Joe Aiello and Francis Buonaiuto of Aldrich Sports League. They said they wanted to jump start their third season of the 5 vs. 5 soccer league and other tournaments with a fundraiser.

Destiny Salter of NoFo Kid Connect said the two contacted her organization because of their successful Cops Vs. Kids basketball game in January and their Greenport Summer Basketball Tournament — this year’s happening July 26. The proceeds, still being counted at press time, are destined for North Fork community youth sports and scholarships for graduates involved with athletics.

Photos by Daniel Franc

Beyond the captivating action of the basketball tournament, the day included family fun like a dunk tank and half-time show, burgers and dogs cooked to order, raffles and a host of goodies available from Black Sheep Bagels in Jamesport.

Both organizations considered the Community Kids Basketball Tournament a success and plan to build it into an annual event moving forward. They each have lots going on this year with Aldrich Sports League’s King of the Campo and King of the Court soccer and basketball tournaments happening in Laurel and NoFo Kid Connect’s youth basketball clinics happening in Greenport.

Congratulations to the champions, the First Responders. Put it way down here so as not to spoil it. (Credit: Angela Colangelo)

Saturday is Kids Fishing Day at DNR Pocket Park — marking the 32nd anniversary of the annual Kids Fishing Day this year.

The day of fun, fishing and families will be held Saturday, June 7 at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Pocket Park, located on the Upper Peninsula State Fairgrounds in Escanaba.

Registratioan for Kids Fishing Day will be from noon to 1:30 p.m. EDT and the event will run until 3 p.m. All activities are free of charge and open to youth ages 16 years old and younger.

“We are excited to again hold our fishing event at the Pocket Park,” said Brenda Madden, longtime Kids Fishing Day team member and organizer. “It offers plenty of space for most all the traditional fun favorites at Kids Fishing Day events, plus some new activities; and the Pocket Park offers a beautiful natural-like setting right in the middle of Escanaba.”

Familiar activities returning include bluegill fishing, minnow races and face painting, along with free food and raffle prizes.

Greg Karch certified angler instructor and founder of the non-profit organization Learn 2 Fish With Us, will be returning to the event this year to teach kids how to cast a fishing line and tie fishing knots.

Karch’s organization has educated more than 50,000 anglers in Wisconsin since 2006 and has hosted nearly 300 fishing workshops, including Kids Fishing Day at Camp 7 where he offered Backyard Bass for youngsters.

In addition, Smokey Bear will be wandering the grounds and the DNR will have a scavenger hunt and opportunities for kids to learn how to shoot at the Pocket Park’s archery and pellet gun ranges.

This year’s Kids Fishing Day event will be held in conjunction with the DNR’s free fishing weekend. Camping is available on the fairgrounds. Contact the Delta County Chamber of Commerce.

The DNR Pocket Park is located nearest Gate No. 1 at the fairgrounds, which can be accessed from 12th Avenue North.

Partners include the Bay de Noc Great Lakes Sports Fishermen, Inc., Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the USDA Forest Service.

For more information, or if you would like to volunteer to help at the event, please contact Brenda at 906-286-1348.