The Pittsburgh Steelers traded star wide receiver George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys for a 2026 third-round pick.
Sports Seriously
Even after the Pittsburgh Steelers traded him to the Dallas Cowboys, wide receiver George Pickens was all set to host the George Pickens Youth Football Camp, which was scheduled for Saturday, June 28 in Pittsburgh. Then he pulled out.
In a Tuesday email to families that had registered for the camp, TruEdge Sports — the company that coordinates youth camps for several NFL and college athletes — notified families that Pickens had “walked back on his word.” The former Steelers’ representation notified TruEdge that he was “no longer interested in attending the camp” with his name on it.
In the email, TruEdge Sports told families that they had reached out to confirm Pickens’ participation shortly after his trade to Dallas was announced. At the time, they wrote, they “were promptly assured that George remained committed to the camp and intended to show up for the families who had registered.”
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Instead, a couple of weeks before the day of the camp, Pickens informed TruEdge that he’d no longer be attending.
“Let us be very clear: we are deeply frustrated by this decision and the position it has placed all of us in,” TruEdge wrote in their email.
“Our team at TruEdge was fully prepared to host a camp this Saturday because we were led to believe George would follow through on his commitment. His sudden decision to back out not only reflects a disappointing lack of accountability, but also shows a disregard for the families and children who were excited to meet him.”
TruEdge’s email was not all bad news. The company went on to say that they were committed to holding a youth camp in Pittsburgh over the summer, though it would be postponed to July.
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TruEdge also said they were able to find an NFL player to replace Pickens: Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth. The company added that they were also in talks with multiple other Steelers players to make appearances at the camp in late July, since it now nearly overlaps with the start of Pittsburgh’s preseason training camp. All campers who attend the event during its new date will receive autographs from every player making an appearance.
The Steelers confirmed to USA TODAY Sports that Freiermuth would be replacing Pickens at the camp. Both the Cowboys — Pickens’ new team — and TruEdge Sports declined requests for comment.
USA TODAY Sports also reached out to Pickens’ agent, who did not immediately provide a statement on his behalf.
The greybeards — yes, including Roy Keane — will be nodding after Ruben Amorim explained what he called a problem of entitlement amongst players following a social scene caused by academy players Harry Amass and Chido Obi.
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Amorim made comments last week about the struggles of Amass and Obi of late and the players responded on social media by posting images showing good times away from United’s first team. — Amass posted a Player of the Month award won while on loan to Sheffield Wednesday while Obi used a shot of him scoring for United’s U21s.
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Amorim was asked about the images on Friday and defended his initial comments, saying that players often don’t realize how special the club is until they aren’t involved in it and doubling down on the ‘E’ word.
“I think it is the feeling of entitlement that we have in our club,” he said. “Sometimes strong words is not bad words, sometimes difficult moments is not the bad things for the kids.”
Ruben Amorim on ‘entitlement’ of youth players
To be fair, Amorim was more critical of the players’ responses than their feelings.
The Manchester United boss says the players are welcome to speak with him after hearing his words last week, and implies the problem is with Internet bravery over personal conviction and confidence.
“I think it’s something in our club, and we talk about the players sometimes forget about what it means to play for Manchester United. We as a club sometimes forget who we are and that’s that’s the feeling that I have. I understand everything is the environment, is the moment of the players, the kids they feel entitled.
These are all fair thoughts. Sure they will stick in the craws of Amass and Obi as well as some teammates but they will also send a message to all of the expectations of better attitudes.
Given that Amorim spent most of last season lamenting mentality problems around United and then used the summer to flip his squad, it feels like an okay fight for him.
Amass, 18, has made seven first team appearances for United at his tender age and has gone 90 minutes for struggling Wednesday in all but two Championship matches since arriving on loan in early September.
Obi, who turned 18 last month, has five goals and two assists in 15 matches across all competitions for United’s reserves. The Danish forward made seven appearances for Amorim in the second half of last season but has yet to be selected for a Premier League 18 this season.
Linda Martindale wasn’t brave, at least she didn’t think she was after she had been hired as a varsity boys basketball coach.
“Once the game started, I was fine,” says Martindale, now in her sixth season leading Lincoln-Sudbury (MA), “but walking into the gym and people thinking I’m the scorekeeper or whatever, I had to sort of overcome this feeling of, ‘Do I belong in the gym?’ ”
She made the three words her mantra, and she convinced herself she was brave. You need to be as an athlete, or a coach, in today’s world of youth sports.
“I have fond memories of my athletic career, but I also know there was a lot of heartache and it was very difficult,” says Martindale, who played Division II basketball at Alaska-Anchorage and in the old Pac-10 at Arizona in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “But nowadays, it’s totally different. Your whole career is splashed all over social media.”
Martindale’s father devoted his life to coaching baseball and football, driving her and her three siblings to be punctual and polite. He was hard on them, she says, but led with love.
“If I had a bad game, the people in the stands knew and my parents knew, and that was it,” Martindale tells USA TODAY Sports. “You’d come home and your parents would say, ‘How did the game go?’ You could self-report that. Easy to deal with.
“My oldest son would literally get DMs from strangers that say horrible things if he missed a free throw in the clutch. The landscape is very different. And it obviously trickles down to youth.”
Martindale got certified as a mental fitness coach to help ease the pressure on her three sons and one daughter (all of them have played college sports) but also other young athletes.
She works with sports teams at Division I Holy Cross and D-III Curry College, as well as individual athletes. She says there’s a secret beyond the physical component to playing sports in college.
We offer 10 ways, through consultation with Martindale, for parents to help athletes get there.
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1. Develop the coach in your head: It’s the best one you’ll ever have
When Martindale walked into the gym feeling the male eyes on her, she felt she needed an inner coach.
Your coach on the court or field will tell you what to do but, Martindale says, the one in your head will kick you in the butt to help get you where you need to go.
Jenny Levy, who has won four national titles as North Carolina’s women’s lacrosse coach, believes so strongly in an inner coach she likes when her players form their own mantras.
“Confidence looks good on you,” she heard her players say to each other in 2013, the year they broke through.
“A lot of coaches will say, ‘This is our saying,’ ” Levy told Martindale on Martindale’s ‘Game Changers’ podcast. “And I think that’s fine – to each his own – but I actually let our team organically come up with their own little things. This is the team having a good time together.”
The inner voice tells you it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, only what you do.
Go for it.
This is my time.
This is where I belong.
To come up with your own mantra, Martindale says, ask yourself why you play a sport? Look for performance cues to grind that thought into you.
“It’s not fun to lose, but it’s still really fun to compete and to play,” Martindale says. “OK, good, let’s start with that. So at least you can say it’s not fun to lose, but it’s really fun to prepare for the game. We’ve now established that the majority of the time is fun. Now we can get through the parts that aren’t fun.”
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2. We can learn how to handle the hard
Kids respond to the truth. We don’t need to always sugarcoat it.
Instead of saying, “It’s not so hard,” acknowledge that something is.
Maybe you’re afraid that you might lose or you’re going to make a fool of yourself in front of everybody.
“I’m happy that you can articulate a fear,” Martindale might tell an athlete. “Now, let’s squash it. What are you really afraid of? Is it really embarrassing to lose, or is it embarrassing not to play at all?
“It would be embarrassing if you threw yourself on the floor and screamed and cried in the middle of the game. But nobody thinks it’s embarrassing that you sat on the bench, cheered on your team, and then fought another day to try to get some minutes.”
3. Teach your kid how to build resilience to meet challenges head on
A current role doesn’t mean an ultimate role. Martindale goes back to Tom Brady.
He was once buried deep on Michigan’s depth chart. But he focused on nailing reps he got in practice. He was at game speed when he found himself starting.
“As parents, we say, ‘I don’t think you should have to be the backup quarterback,’ ” Martindale says. “ ‘I think you should be the quarterback.’ This is not helping. What you need to do is crush being the backup. And then your time comes and you’re ready instead of spending so much time worrying that you don’t have the role that you want (and) you’re not ready for it.”
Another of her podcast guests, Luke Avdalovic, a former walk-on basketball player at Northern Arizona University, told her: “I had a teammate named JoJo Anderson and he told me, ‘If you want to find a role into this team, find one thing that you’re really good at. Make sure you’re head and shoulders better than every single other person on the team. Then they can’t take you off the floor.’ ”
Avdalovic became a top sharpshooter who rose to the NBA G-League.
4. ‘You can’t be a shooter if you can’t miss’
Avdalovic has shot so much over the years he feels he’s never really in a slump. Some days he shoots better than others, but that is just the law of averages.
“You can’t be a pitcher if you can’t pitch poorly,” Martindale says. “You can’t be a shooter if you can’t miss. It’s just not possible (to) be perfect. So what do you do when you’re imperfect?”
The next time your son or daughter has a bad game, ask them, “Did you compete hard?”
You don’t want them to lose or fail but they need to know how to do both. As parents, and as coaches, our best support can come out of struggles.
5. We can only get the ‘yips’ if we vocalize them
You know the term if you’re a baseball fan. Suddenly, Steve Sax or Chuck Knoblauch can’t make a routine throw from second to first base, or Rick Ankiel can’t throw a strike.
“Yips is not a real thing,” Martindale says.
Struggles come alive, she says, when we say them out loud. Instead, if you’re a parent or a coach, tell your athlete: “I really believe in you. Just keep throwing, you’ll get it back, you’ll find a rhythm.”
When kids feel deep-rooted support, they have more confidence in themselves.
6. We don’t have to be good at everything
Martindale says today’s world for young athletes is like taking the SATs while your score is being put on a scoreboard.
Sometimes, it seems, we expect our kids to be good at everything. Martindale asks the ones with whom she works, “What class are you good at?”
She doesn’t necessarily mean classes in which they have an “A,” but the ones they enjoy most.
Sometimes it takes looking at things through a less critical lens. We have an “A” in science, but we enjoy the challenge of English Lit, in which we have a B-, which energizes us to try and bring up the grade.
7. ‘It’s not your family’: Parents are the ultimate artery of support
Eugene Glisky, Martindale’s father, had his ashes buried on the field where he coached near Toronto. She suspects he changed the lives of many young men.
But she stops short of calling a team a family.
“When a coach says to a parent, ‘I’m gonna treat your son or daughter like my own,’ I want to say, ‘No, thank you. I don’t need you to treat my son like he’s your own,’ ” Martindale says. “He has a great father. What I really want you to do is treat him like a player and a human being.
“It’s a team, which is amazing and I love my kid being part of a team. But it’s not a family. Why? Because what happens when your family cuts you?”
There are times when we need to be Coach, and times when we need to be Mom or Dad. Martindale had to be Coach when Judson, her oldest who now plays basketball for Manchester Basketball Club in the United Kingdom, came out of a game when he was younger and looked at her like, “Why are you pulling me?
He threw his water bottle, and she turned and said: “You can take your sneakers off. You’re done.”
The same coach, though, drove him home from a different game, criticizing him for what he didn’t do while failing to realize he was sick.
“So many examples of total failure by me,” she says. “What kind of mother would be talking to their kid about some offensive set when clearly they needed a mother?”
8. ‘Your influence is not neutral, parents’; don’t disrupt a happy kid
Levy, North Carolina’s women’s lacrosse coach, does parent Zoom calls. Before the first one, she asked her players what they wanted her to tell them.
“They said, ‘We don’t want to talk about the game at the tailgate after,’ ” Levy told Martindale. “ ‘We don’t want any parent to have this sad conversation after the wins because their kid didn’t play. We want the parents to sit together. We want them to be positive on the sideline.’ ”
Levy says the players gave her a Letterman top 10 of parent no-no’s, which she shared on the Zoom.
“I think they were pretty shocked,” says Levy, who coaches her daughter, Kate, on the team. “Our kids were like, ‘Last year was not OK. This is what we want and this is what we need this year.’
“And then if we saw it, I had permission from our players to call the parent and say, ‘Hey, you’re at the tailgate and your behavior was below the line for our program.’
“What if I acted like that as a parent? What if I did that in the middle of a tailgate?”
Levy’s point: A kid could be completely happy but if the parent is unhappy with their role, then the kid’s unhappy. And if the parent isn’t feeling like their kid is getting a fair shake, or they’re being really negative toward coaches or teammates, the kid internalizes the feeling.
“Your influence is not neutral, parents,” Levy says.
9. We can use even a little bit of winning to fuel us
During a clip Martindale shared of her speaking to athletes, she says, “There has to be wins in there. Otherwise, you can’t go an entire season and be like, ‘If we don’t win a game, this whole season is a waste.’ ”
She is not necessarily talking about checks in the “W” column as much as what we perceive as personal wins. Maybe you tell a teammate you loved the way he blocked a punt or moved into position on defense. If we don’t have wins, even within losses, you don’t learn how to win.
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10. So what’s the secret sauce?
Martindale believes there are five pillars of mental fitness: 1. Staying in the moment; 2. Controlling the controllables; 3. Seeing mistakes as opportunities; 4. Not judging yourself (or others) too harshly and 5. Comparison (positively).
She says she was once a failure at all of them. Has she since learned a special ingredient we need to have to play college sports?
Martindale thinks Angela Duckworth, director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative, said it best.
“It’s grit,” Martindale has said. “I’m obsessed with grit, because we know it’s a single defining characteristic of successful people.
“Can you get up after you get knocked down? The athletes who are successful at every level of college, I think, have this kind of dog mentality that is about grit. And of course, you have to be skilled and you have to be athletic but when we really look at who performs best when it counts, it’s people who have failed. Over and over and over. And then now they succeed.”
We can’t beat our kids up over mistakes. Let them hear the voice in their head that gives them the grace to move forward from them.
Then, as Martindale says: “Watch them fail and then watch what they do after they fail.”
Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for two high schoolers. His Coach Steve column is posted weekly.For his past columns, click here.
Got a question for Coach Steve you want answered in a column? Email him at sborelli@usatoday.com
Coaches at Oceanside, John Bapst, and Brewer high schools have resigned, with some citing pressure from parents as a key factor in their decisions.
MAINE, USA — High school sports are competitive—and the pressure to win often falls on the shoulders of the coaches. But when expectations become too much, some are deciding to walk away.
Oceanside High School in Rockland is the latest school to see its varsity boys’ basketball coach suddenly resign. Larry Reed joins two others—Chris Bryant from John Bapst and Carl Parker from Brewer High School—who have also recently stepped down.
“The first word that comes to my mind is probably shock,” Jim Seavey, Westbrook High School’s boys’ basketball coach, said.
Seavey has been coaching basketball in Maine since the 1990s and says he’s crossed paths with all three coaches many times over the years.
“It’s just too bad because they all have the same passion for the game and the kids,” he said. “It must’ve been tough to make that decision.”
At least two of the coaches pointed to pressure from parents as a major factor.
Chris Bryant posted a statement on social media, writing in part:
“As a coach, I have always prioritized the well-being and development of my players, and I stand by my coaching methods. However, it has become clear that I no longer have the support of parents and administration necessary to continue in this role.”
While many were surprised by his resignation, some say it was necessary. One parent specifically claimed on social media that her son received disparaging text messages from Bryant while playing basketball for him at John Bapst.
“It’s a lose-lose situation for everyone involved,” President of the Maine Association of Basketball Coaches Peter Murray said. “And at the people that’re going to lose the most are going to be the kids.”
Murray and Seavey say the increased competitiveness in youth sports created by a culture of year-round playing—and the rise of social media—are driving a wedge between parents and coaches.
“They can watch highlights of different schools, colleges, [and] professional athletes play, and think they’re recreating the game of basketball,” Seavey said. “That’s tough when you’ve got that competition.”
“A lot of parents want to see a return on their investment,” Murray added, who says many parents are investing much more time and money in their kids’ sports than ever before. “Their expectations are through the roof and that creates a problem.”
Both coaches agree that the path forward lies in better communication between parents and coaching staff.
“There’s going to be questions and concerns,” Murray said. “There has to be an avenue to ask those questions and voice those concerns.”
Conversations that school administrative members, like Westbrook High School Athletic Director Will Campbell, say they need to be helping facilitate.
“If the kid goes in and has a conversation with the coach and they don’t feel like they were heard or seen we can elevate that to a coach, kid, parent conversation and then up to a coach, kid, parent, athletic director conversation,” Campbell explained.
And if things don’t change, the coaches fear there could be fewer opportunities for young Maine athletes in the future.
“People were lining up at the door to coach some of these teams, but if this is the environment, people are a little hesitant to get involved,” Murray said.
Staff from Oceanside, John Bapst, and Brewer have confirmed that new coaches have been appointed to replace those who resigned.
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This is the time of year when people take stock of their lives. Maybe there is a new direction awaiting you in 2026?
If new year’s resolutions are your thing, will you be vowing to feel better, look better?
The Press would like to introduce readers to a local student, who by the ripe old age of 18, (as of October) had established OptiCro, LLC and is charting a course based on realizations that many of us don’t ever comprehend, let alone while still in high school.
Christian Petersen was 250 pounds on a five foot eight frame when he was 14 years old, and was not enjoying himself. He was being bullied and felt like an outcast.
To lose weight, he went down the path of fad diets and unsustainable nutrition without much results. Fast forward two or so years, and he had educated himself through the Nutrition Coaching Institution, after musing on the negatives of what he had been doing. His workouts evolved into building awareness of the preventative and corrective physical aspects of fitness.
He put the pieces together to lose – and keep off – about 60 pounds gruonded in a lifestyle he could maintain.
His first ‘customers’ were developed through Complete Performance, a gym in Blaine, where he has connected with some fellow travellers.
Upon enrolling in Trio Wolf Creek Charter School, in Chisago City, his schedule became flexible enough so he could finish school and also immerse himself in nutrition and conditioning methods tailored to young clients.
Long term he will attend Illinois State for advanced athletic training.
The wise always advise — do what you know — and Petersen knows what a seventh or eighth grader with body issues confronts. He is a walking, talking example of what can come out the other side of dedication, as he exudes confidence and energy and is quick to laugh.
His focus is on young people and connecting with them and their parents. The difficult part has been the initial introductions. In today’s world, a stranger does not just walk up to someone and tell them their kid would benefit from working out, so Peterson started a Facebook page, and you can find it at Christian Petersen.
He has successfully developed a program with some family and their friends and enjoys working as part of a team.
Petersen knows there are few services being provided for youth who are going through what he did. “I understand what they are feeling because I have lived it, “ he said over coffee. Any teen who has dipped their toes into fitness programs but quit because they felt misunderstood, Petersen gets that.
At the age of 16 he earned whatever certifications he could prior to legal adulthood. He has gained confidence in developing plans for physical training and prefers utilizing public spaces and equipment at parks, to the high priced elite facilities.
He is open to sharing “the triangle of awareness,” or performance, agility and longevity routines, with youth and parents.
He has experience with clients ages 11 to 18, as well as his mom. (She shed 70 pounds by the way.) He is open to working with anybody within an hour drive from Chisago.
The business is titled OptiCro as a combination of optimum and macro. He is not selling products in his program, but rather a niche connection, understanding and support. The program needs about eight weeks to get you on track.
So, why not just get into youth athletics and team sports and pursue conditioning that way, you wonder? Petersen shares that not everybody wants a trophy or looks forward to a competitive rivalry. He will, however, make you feel like you are with a winning team.
Funding approved for juvenile correctional facility
FITCHBURG, Wis. (WKOW) — A new youth prison has been approved and will be built near the Fitchburg–Oregon border, close to the Grow Academy site, to replace the aging Lincoln Hills correctional center in Irma.
The new juvenile correctional facility will partially replace Lincoln Hills.
“The kids that are there will be closer to their families and have more regular interaction,” said Fitchburg Alder Gabriella Gerhardt of District 2.
The proposal met city requirements and passed unanimously, with Gerhardt noting the design’s unique aspects.
“The design really looked more like a school than what I would have imagined,” Gerhardt said. “They also did something where they created a really curvy driveway to County Highway… to actually preserve as much of the agricultural land as they could in the area, and also to preserve existing high-quality trees, so they didn’t have to remove the trees. So that was a nice element as well.”
The facility will feature a garden, orchard, chicken coop, and greenhouse. It will employ 100 staff members and accommodate 32 male and eight female juveniles.
Fitchburg District 1 Alder David Herbst expressed uncertainty about the placement of the 122 young people currently at Lincoln Hills but believed the facility’s size would be advantageous.
“I don’t know that. But that was another thing. Thank you for raising that the size of this, you know, is a reasonable size, and I think the smaller size facilitates, you know, the mission,” Herbst said.
Efforts to reach the Wisconsin Department of Corrections for more details on cost and construction timelines were unsuccessful at this time.
If the project continues to progress, the facility is expected to be completed by late 2028.
A collaborative effort between Michigan State University’s Native American Institute, or NAI, and Indigenous Youth Empowerment Program, or IYEP, and the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots is ensuring Native American youth in the Lansing area receive gifts this holiday season.
When Kevin Leonard assumed his role as interim director of NAI in 2022, he participated in listening sessions to strengthen relationships between the university and Tribes throughout the state. This included the United Tribes of Michigan, where he met Rodney Loonsfoot, of the Keweenaw Bay Tribal Community in the Upper Peninsula’s Baraga County. Loonsfoot is a former Marine who currently serves as a Tribal council member and Tribal veteran service officer.
Left to Right: Kevin Leonard, NAI; Estrella Torrez, MSU’s RCAH and IYEP; Ramona Henry, Lansing School District; Emily Sorroche, MSU’s CANR and EAGLE; and graduate student Lexi LaChappa.
During their conversations, Loonsfoot mentioned the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots Native American Program, which could deliver hundreds of toys to urban Indian youth who are either unaffiliated with a reservation or do not live near their traditional communities. Leonard contacted Estrella Torrez, professor in MSU’s Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and co-director of IYEP, and the Lansing School District, who collectively identified local Native families in need of support for their children during the holiday season.
“I’m grateful for the continued collaboration with Kevin and MSU to bring Toys for Tots to the Lansing community and offer the Native American program a special miigwech [thank you in Ojibwe],” council member Loonsfoot said. “Working together allows us to honor our commitment to supporting Native youth and ensuring every child feels the joy and generosity of the season.”
Building on this shared commitment, Leonard, who became NAI’s permanent director in 2024, emphasized how reestablishing relationships laid the foundation for the program’s success. “Renewing our relationship with KBIC led to launching the annual Toys for Tots program in Lansing,” he said. “Rodney’s willingness and commitment to supporting Native youth in our area and across the state has been invaluable.”
Toy collection efforts led to coordination with Mark Rokita, operations supervisor with MSU’s Infrastructure Planning and Facilities team, who accepted, stored and then delivered four 6-foot-tall pallets worth of gifts to the Eva L. Evans Welcome Center in Lansing. In addition to the toys, IPF delivered books donated by the Book Depot in Buffalo, New York.
Toys, books and food donations were distributed to more than 300 children on Dec. 11 and 12 at the Evans Welcome Center. Thousands of gifts were wrapped by volunteers and ready for pickup, along with meals for the families.
“Each year, we are able to come together and share gifts, food and stories with the youth in our community,” Torrez said. “We are so grateful for all the support and care that our community dedicates to uplifting the Indigenous youth in the Greater Lansing area.”
In only its second year, the program has doubled the number of families receiving support, highlighting the power of collaboration. By reestablishing strong relationships with Tribal communities, this effort has created meaningful opportunities to support Native youth and families during this holiday season and in years to come.
This story originally appeared on the University Outreach and Engagement website.
