The Lycoming County 4-H program is expanding its animal science educational opportunities to help youth build stronger agricultural knowledge and gain valuable hands-on experience essential for the future of the industry.

According to a news release, this expansion is made possible by the $25,000 through the Williamsport Lycoming Competitive Grant Program at First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania (FCFP).

“With this grant funding, Lycoming County 4-H will enhance its programming through traditional club settings, school-based activities, and a series of educational day camps and clinics,” the news release said. “The funding allows the program to acquire new educational materials, models, and simulators designed to increase understanding of the agriculture industry. These tools will give youth interactive and realistic learning experiences in areas such as animal husbandry, equipment use, and agricultural science.”

4-H volunteers will also benefit from having access to these materials, which they can borrow for club meetings to enrich their members’ experiences. The expanded resources will provide youth across the county with opportunities they may not otherwise have, helping bridge gaps in hands-on agricultural education.

According to the news release, a “key component of Lycoming County 4-H’s school programming–embryology–will also grow through this funding. In the embryology project, students observe the full 21-day process of hatching chicks, care for the incubators, and learn about animal life cycles. The purchase of additional equipment will enable the program to reach more classrooms and inspire greater agricultural literacy among students.”

Lycoming County 4-H promotes its programs and events through the county 4-H Facebook page, the monthly volunteer newsletter, the Penn State Extension website, and the 4-H enrollment platform, ZSuites.

Following the purchase of the new educational equipment, volunteer training sessions will be offered so that club leaders can explore the materials and learn how to integrate them effectively into their programming.

For more information about Lycoming County 4-H or upcoming educational opportunities, please visit the Penn State Extension website or follow Lycoming County 4-H on Facebook.

First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania works to improve the quality of life in north central Pennsylvania through community leadership, the promotion of philanthropy, the strengthening of nonprofit impact and the perpetual stewardship of charitable assets. For more information visit www.FCFPartnership.org.

Kiley Holds Hearing on the Crisis in American Youth Sports

The Hoover Highlanders defeated the Stanford Hawks 82–58 on Saturday morning to win the Long Beach Division I Middle School Boys Basketball Championship, capping an emotional title run inside a packed gym.

Both teams entered the matchup eager to seize the championship, with Hoover carrying the weight of recent disappointment. The Highlanders had reached the title game in each of the previous two seasons, only to come up short.

“I’m not going to say we expected to be here,” Hoover coach Crabtree said, “but we’ve been in the championship the last two years and lost.”

Stanford opened the game with crisp execution, using strong ball movement and communication to build an early 7–2 lead. Easy baskets at the rim set the tone for the Hawks’ fast start, but the momentum quickly shifted as Hoover found its rhythm behind guards King Harris and Major Gaines.

Harris and Gaines sparked the Highlanders on both ends of the floor, settling the game and swinging control back to Hoover. Stanford answered behind the playmaking of Jamin Harper and the perimeter shooting of Yoni Waxman, but the second quarter belonged almost entirely to Harris.

Harris erupted offensively, scoring at all three levels and overwhelming Stanford’s defense. He finished with 41 points, accounting for half of Hoover’s scoring, with a large portion coming during the second quarter.

“He’s one of the best players, not just in Long Beach, but in the country,” Crabtree said.

Hoover carried a 42–30 lead into halftime and continued to assert its dominance in the second half. Harper led Stanford with 29 points and attacked relentlessly out of the break, but the Hawks struggled to contain Hoover’s backcourt tandem as the lead continued to grow.

Gaines complemented Harris’ scoring, while Troy Seals provided a strong interior presence. Seals controlled the glass, protected the rim with key blocks and facilitated the offense by finding open teammates.

Hoover pushed its advantage to 20 points by the end of the third quarter, effectively putting the game out of reach. Both teams began turning to their benches midway through the fourth, and the Highlanders led by as many as 24 points before the final horn.

Despite the lopsided score, the game ended with mutual respect between the two programs.

“Stanford is a great team,” Crabtree said. “They play great team basketball.”

With the victory, Hoover secured its first Division I middle school championship after two consecutive runner-up finishes, while both teams further cemented their reputations as premier programs in Long Beach basketball

Whether points of origin, transit, destination or return — cities are where most displaced people and migrants live, with nearly 80 per cent of displaced people residing in urban areas. Cities can offer opportunities for inclusion to newly arrived people, but too often migrants and refugees experience isolation and discrimination, hindering their development as well as their physical and mental health. 

When used appropriately, sport can provide an opportunity for cities to strengthen the inclusion of displaced people, while advancing broader city priorities around health, climate, youth engagement and economic opportunity. 

The ORF’s contribution is part of an innovative partnership with the Mayors Migration Council (MMC), which will support between three and five cities with two-year grants of up to USD 500,000 each to launch city-led sport initiatives aimed at improving health, inclusion and opportunities for migrants, refugees and their host communities.  

The announcement coincides with the Global Refugee Forum (GRF) Progress Review taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, furthering the implementation of two global commitments made at the GRF in 2023: the Multi-Stakeholder Pledge on Sport for Inclusion and Protection, and the MMC’s pledge to grow its Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees (GCF) to USD 50 million by 2030. Cities will be selected in 2026 through an invitation-only process. 

ORF Head Jeroen Carrin said: “Cities are where displaced young people build their futures, and sport is one of the most effective ways we can support them with dignity, confidence and hope. The Olympic Refuge Foundation is proud to partner with the Mayors Migration Council to invest directly in city leaders who are using sport to break down barriers, strengthen communities and open doors to opportunity. We invite donors around the world to join us in scaling this movement and ensuring that every young person forced to flee has the opportunity to play, belong and thrive.” 

The ORF’s contribution to the GCF will support city projects that may include: 

• Integrating sport into refugee resettlement and services 

• Expanding access to sport for crisis-affected women, children and LGBTQIA+ communities 

• Creating safe, inclusive, climate-resilient sport and play spaces in cities 

• Creating labour pathways through local leagues, coaching jobs or event management 

• Leveraging major sports events to foster visibility, pride and belonging.

Cities: a strategic priority 

This latest commitment from the ORF builds on the Foundation’s strategic priority to focus on cities and municipalities.  

A recently developed policy plan by the ORF Think Tank outlines practical guidance for how cities can leverage sport to improve existing settlement and inclusion practices. Recommendations included in the document are structured across three levels depending on available resources and capacities, and each helps cities move from ideas to action. The Policy Plan, which has been drafted following a consultation with people with lived experience of displacement, city officials and stakeholders, draws attention to five key areas. 

The Policy Plan highlights how cities like Paris, Bogotá and Amman are creating welcoming spaces and developing policies that make sport a powerful tool for belonging. 

Explore the full Policy Plan to learn how your city can take action and use sport for inclusion.

MOORHEAD — ETS Performance is an athletic training brand that has more than 50 locations around the country that work with youth, high school, collegiate, professional and Olympic athletes.

ETS gyms have a particularly strong presence in the Twin Cities, but Moorhead has one, too, and a big part of the facility’s clientele is comprised of young athletes from around the area.

“We’re almost more underground,” said Tim Osterbauer, director of operations and lead trainer at ETS, which is located in Moorhead’s industrial park at 2732 22nd Ave. S., not far from the former Anheuser Busch plant.

Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum

On a recent afternoon, a number of area high school standouts were at ETS performing individualized workouts prepared by Osterbauer and other trainers.

The athletes moved between various types of equipment ranging from stationary “assault” bikes to an Olympic weightlifting platform.

All ETS facilities are part of the national brand, but each location has its own owners, according to Osterbauer, who noted that one of the owners of the Moorhead location is Chase Morlock, a former North Dakota State University Bison player

who also owns Rise Fitness in Moorhead.

Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum

Osterbauer, who has been a trainer in the area since about 2016, worked at Rise Fitness for a time before joining ETS when the Moorhead facility opened in December 2022.

A number of athletes who train at ETS have been with Osterbauer for years, including

Zak Walker and Taye Reich,

Moorhead High School football players who were among the athletes working out at ETS on a recent afternoon.

Reich said he started training with Osterbauer around sixth or seventh grade.

Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum

“This is a great place to be,” Reich said, adding: “He (Osterbauer) is a great person and a great trainer. It’s a community. It’s a family.”

Osterbauer said when athletes arrive for the first time they undergo a full assessment when it comes to things like injuries, power and speed.

Then, ETS designs individual workouts tailored to an athlete’s specific needs.

Osterbauer said ETS keeps a record of every athlete’s history and to underscore the point he pulled Reich’s folder from a large collection of folders that are kept on a wall of the facility.

Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum

“This is a record of all the work Tye has done since middle school,” Osterbauer said.

In addition to youth, Osterbauer also trains with professional athletes, among them

Fargo Davies High School graduate Tyler Kleven

and

Moorhead High School graduate Will Borgen,

both of whom play in the National Hockey League.

Another pro athlete associated with the ETS brand is Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, native and former Minnesota Viking Adam Thielen, who is

part owner of a number of ETS locations,

mostly in the Midwest.

When it comes to young athletes, Osterbauer said ETS is currently working with about 240 during the current school year, though he noted the number peaked just shy of 300 this past summer.

In addition to schools in the immediate Fargo-Moorhead area, Osterbauer said ETS also trains athletes from nearby school districts, ranging from Northern Cass in North Dakota to Hawley in Minnesota.

Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum

Athletes come from a variety of sports, including: boys and girls track and field, boys and girls basketball, as well as boys football and girls volleyball, according to Osterbauer, who said when he talks with parents they often ask about the training regimen and potential impacts on bodies that are still developing.

For his answer, he turns to a kitchen metaphor:

“We don’t want to flash fry our athletes, we want to slow cook them,” Osterbauer said.

“We’re teaching them meaningful, foundational-type movements and skills versus, ‘Let’s push these kids as hard as we can.’ They’re still growing,” Osterbauer added.

The latest ratings from the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab aim to help young people select the best headgear for hat tricks. 

On Dec. 16, the lab released its first-ever ratings for youth hockey helmets. Using the lab’s Summation of Tests for the Analysis of Risk (STAR) framework, 33 helmets were given a star rating from 0 to 5, with the latter being the top performing products. 

“It includes every helmet we could get our hands on, including some that are no longer being manufactured but that players might still be wearing,” said Steve Rowson, the lab’s director. “The goal is simply to provide moms and dads and other stakeholders in the youth hockey community an independent resource so they can make an informed decision and purchase a helmet in the context of impact protection.”

Ten helmets earned a five-star rating and six earned four stars. A complete list of helmets rated, including available advertised retail prices, is available at the Helmet Lab’s webpage.

In 2015, the lab released its first ratings for varsity, or adult-size, hockey helmets and soon after hockey helmet performance reached new heights. Rowson said the response to those ratings helped motivate this new research. 

“Turns out the people most interested in the varsity ratings were the parents of youth players,” said Rowson, who is also a professor of biomedical engineering. “So the lab initiated this work to make sure the people who really want that data can have it.”

Rowson said the ratings are especially important because there is more than double the number of youth hockey players compared to adults. There are about 800,000 youth players combined in the United States and Canada, according to each country’s national ice hockey organizations, USA Hockey and Hockey Canada. There are also about 275,000 players throughout Europe, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation. 

Currently, the Hockey Equipment Certification Council is the only widely used benchmark for hockey helmets, both youth and adult. The council doesn’t produce performance-based ratings, but rather certifies hockey helmets meet certain American Society for Testing and Materials safety standards.

To complete the new ratings system, Virginia Tech researchers leveraged existing literature on impact exposures in youth hockey and utilized some of the equipment they had previously used for youth football helmet ratings. This included a youth-sized test dummy and testing at lower impact energies associated with the youth game compared to the adult version. 

Youth hockey helmets are the 13th sport or industry-specific safety headgear for which the Helmet Lab has generated comprehensive, publicly available ratings since it debuted ratings 15 years ago. During that time, the lab has developed a reputation as both an independent consumer guide and a road map for industry to develop safer products. This summer, the lab even had to update its ratings for bicycle, varsity football, and youth football helmets as a result of those helmets’ growth in safety performance. 

Rowson said that while the primary goal of the research is to empower individuals to make the best choice in headgear, they also always hope to empower the helmet industry and collective sports culture to move toward safer products.