HARRISBURG — Even when the red carpet was rolled out for Micah Parsons in the form of a high school jersey retirement, the former Harrisburg cougar, Nittany Lion and Dallas Cowboys superstar made Tuesday all about the kids.

Returning to his alma mater for the third annual Lions Den Football Camp and Charity Carnival at Harrisburg High School’s Severance Field, the NFL edge rusher who starred for the Cougars in 2016 and 2017, threw together another day filled with quality coaching, group photos, swag, food trucks and more.

The event was once again free to the public, and with 300 registrations for his youth football camp — and another 50 for sister Shatara’s girls basketball camp, a new addition this year — it was a day well spent for the community Parsons still calls home.

“It means a lot because we’re having success, we’re doing it the right way. We’re just hoping to have continued success and continuous impact with the kids, and that means more,” Parsons said. “You see a lot of these kids who were here last year and it’s like, ‘Oy yeah’ and they just keep getting better and better.”

Parsons picked up his fourth Pro Bowl nod this season since his explosive NFL debut as the 2021 Defensive Rookie of the Year. The 6-foot-3, 245-pound defensive end is coming off a 43-tackle (30 solo), 12-sack campaign in which he also forced two fumbles and had a pass defense.

He was also in the company of Donte Kent, a fellow Harrisburg alum who was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2025 NFL Draft, at Tuesday’s camp.

“This is where I’m from. I’ll say it later during my little speech I have to give, it takes a village. It takes me, it takes their parents, it takes these coaches, the high school kids, they look up to all of us,” Parsons said. “I remember when I was in sixth grade and I used to watch Zayd Issah, Drew Scales, Zack Kuntz, those guys and I was at those Friday night lights camps and I was like, ‘Bruh, I can’t wait to be just like them.

“Just to be in this position, I know (the kids) are thinking the same thing and giving them something to look at and reason to be out here and be active and showing them resilience.”

With kids of various age groups donning No. 11 Cowboys jerseys, navy blue Penn State gear matching the man of the hour himself, and even a splash of No. 23 for Parsons’ varsity kit, the ripple effect he’s left since graduation — Big Ten Linebacker of the Year, two First-team All-Pro selections and poised to potentially be the highest paid defender in the NFL — has never been stronger.

That was apparent as early as 7 a.m. when Parsons worked out with dozens of Harrisburg-area high school, college and NFL players at Reservoir Park alongside Susquehanna Township Athletic Director Lance Deane, Parsons’ personal trainer.

Harrisburg athletic director and head football coach Calvin Everett, who’s been coaching the Cougars since 2011, oversaw Parsons when he was the PennLive Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons after transferring in from Central Dauphin. To see one of his former players achieve national stardom and make the effort each summer to give back to his own, is an invaluable tradition from Everett’s lens.

“It’s great for Micah to come back and show love back to the community. It’s just good for our community and our program, we all love and appreciate Micah,” Everett said. “It’s inspiration, that’s the biggest thing. I hope that they’re all inspired by everything that’s going on right here. This whole atmosphere is awesome. It’s positive, everyone’s excited, so that’s the biggest thing.”

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.

— Follow Evan Wheaton on X/Twitter @EvanWheaton

©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit pennlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Copyright 2025 Tribune Content Agency.

Former Ohio State running back Quinshon Judkins, who was arrested on domestic violence charges in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on July 12, canceled his youth football camp at a suburban Cleveland high school “due to unforeseen circumstances.”

15 July 2025 – With three years to go until the Opening Ceremony of the LA28 Olympic Games, the Organising Committee has offered a first look at the competition schedule. In parallel, a major legacy milestone was celebrated as the PlayLA youth sports programme surpassed one million enrolments, delivering long-term benefits to local communities well ahead of the Games.

To celebrate the milestone, LA28 Chief Executive Officer Reynold Hoover yesterday joined Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles’ Recreation and Parks in an event at the LA Memorial Coliseum, which brought together 700 children and young people taking part in the PlayLA programme for a day of free sports activities workshops and community engagement. Some of LA’s professional sports teams and local organisations, national sports federations, LA28 partners and a host of Olympians and Paralympians were also involved.

The IOC and LA28 have invested up to USD 160 million in PlayLA, a programme that provides access to quality, inclusive and affordable Olympic and Paralympic sports to children aged 3 to 17. Offerings span over 40 sports, including athletics, aquatics, boxing, flag football, judo, para surfing and adaptive swimming. With one million registrations, PlayLA is already serving as a lasting Olympic legacy by promoting healthy lifestyles, expanding access to sport, and inspiring future generations of athletes and citizens.

We couldn’t be more excited to mark this moment at exactly three years out from Los Angeles’ third Olympic Games in 2028. There is so much to celebrate today with one million programme enrolments in LA28’s pre-Games legacy through the PlayLA programme, plus the first look at the Olympic competition schedule that has been meticulously developed to ensure the world’s best athletes can compete in LA. We are energised by today’s milestones and remain focused on the work ahead as the Road to 2028 continues.

Reynold Hoover, LA28 Chief Executive Officer

“We are now three years away from the LA Memorial Coliseum hosting the opening of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and I’m proud that the first medal will be awarded at the iconic Venice Beach,” said Mayor Bass. “When the world comes here for these Games, we will highlight every neighbourhood as we host Games for all and work to ensure they leave a monumental legacy. We are already delivering that legacy as we announce there have been more than one million enrolments in PlayLA. I want to thank LA28 and the International Olympic Committee for making these programmes possible, and for their continued work to host the greatest Games yet.”

Competition schedule

The LA28 competition schedule, developed in close coordination with Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and the International Federations (IFs) of each sport, and with the approval of the IOC Executive Board, features 18 days of competition and 844 ticketed events, carefully planned to enhance the experience for athletes, fans and global audiences alike.

The LA28 Olympic Games will open on 14 July 2028, with an Opening Ceremony held across two iconic venues: the LA Memorial Coliseum, which hosted events at the two previous Games editions in Los Angeles, in 1932 and 1984, and the state-of-the-art 2028 Stadium in Inglewood. The Closing Ceremony will take place on 30 July at the Coliseum, honouring Los Angeles’ rich Olympic heritage while looking firmly to the future.

Among several innovations, LA28 will reverse the traditional order of swimming and athletics, with athletics taking place in the first week and swimming concluding the programme in the second week. This is to allow time for the 2028 Stadium to be converted into the largest swimming venue in Olympic history, with a planned capacity of 38,000 seats.

The first Olympic medals of the Games will be awarded in triathlon, set against the backdrop of Venice Beach. Day 15 will deliver the single most action-packed day of the Games, including 16 team sport medal matches and 19 individual sport finals. More details on the competition schedule are available here. A more detailed schedule with medal events and gender order will be released later this year.

In addition to being the third time Los Angeles hosts the Olympic Games, 2028 will be the city’s first time hosting the Paralympic Games.

The United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) is pleased to announce that packages for the new USPHL+ streaming platform on Black Bear TV are now on sale. Back on May 15, Black Bear TV was named as the new and exclusive broadcast and streaming provider for the USPHL beginning with the 2025-26 season.

Black Bear TV will stream all NCDC, USPHL Premier, and USPHL Elite games and other exclusive content, which includes all pre-season, regular season, playoff, Showcase, All-Star, and special event games in all three leagues.

The USPHL+ streaming channel on Black Bear TV offers fans three different types of plans, each of which includes pricing for single game viewing, monthly plans, or yearly plans. To sign up and purchase a plan, fans first will register and create a free account at www.blackbearsports.tv. In the main navigation menu (top right), select ‘Register’ and complete the form. *Note: Single game purchases will become available once the 2025-26 USPHL schedule is released.

Some of the USPHL+ plans feature such benefits as live pause and rewind, 30-day on-demand access, clipping/sharing highlights, downloading games, and multiple-user logins. Users have one of five options to navigate to from the home page, which includes separate pages for login, schedule, packages/pricing, account information, and customer support. Fans will first have to purchase a Black Bear TV plan, followed by a prompt to add a USPHL+ package for an additional fee.

USPHL+ is designed and supported for viewing on PC, MAC, and tablet browsers through the Black Bear TV website, in addition to a Black Bear TV app for use with Android phones through the Google Play app and iPhones through the Apple App Store.

“We believe Black Bear TV will be the best viewing product in the market and we are excited to add the USPHL to the platform. In a very short period of time, Black Bear TV has raised the bar of streaming sports content and will provide unparalleled service and experience to our USPHL teams and customers. As with all our innovations, we believe we are introducing something that simply does not exist in the market anywhere and will become the market standard in the near term,” said Murry N. Gunty, CEO and Founder of Black Bear Sports Group and Black Bear TV.

Black Bear TV is the official streaming network of Black Bear Sports Group, Inc., the world’s largest owner and operator of youth hockey teams, facilities and events. Black Bear TV launched in the Fall of 2024 and is currently servicing 60+ venues across the United States with 100+ sheets of ice in both Black Bear and non-Black Bear facilities. To date, Black Bear TV has streamed over 28,000 youth and scholastic hockey games and events.

About Black Bear TV

Black Bear TV is the official streaming network of Black Bear Sports Group, Inc., a privately held company formed by Murry Gunty and Blackstreet Capital Holdings, LLC in 2015 that seeks investments in sports and entertainment facilities, teams, and youth sports events. For more information, please visit www.blackbearsports.tv

From three years old, Dylan Davis had started his mountain biking passion by going on trails in his home of Ojai, California. His best friend, Alex Musco, spent every summer in his Montana hometown with his friends riding their bikes up the mountains. 

The pair of rising senior Cal Poly business students ended up bonding over their shared childhood passions for mountain biking. During their time at Cal Poly, they noticed there was no established program for the children in San Luis Obispo to safely learn how to mountain bike. So, together, the two created the SLO Riders Club. 

“Getting these kids to fall in love with the trails in their backyards is really rewarding,” Musco said. 

The initiative features a fall and spring weekly ride program split up by age group. Each group has a set day per week where they are able to train with the coaches and mountain bike within various areas in San Luis Obispo — from the youngest program, the Tiny Sprockets, who age between 4 and 6 years old, to the older kids in the Juniors Program 12 years or older. 

“My goal with the program is basically to provide riders with a safe and fun environment for them to develop their skills, but I feel like it also helps them create a sense of community, build friendships and then also build skills off the bike, like resiliency and courage,” Davis said. 

Davis and Musco aimed to replicate it based off of the clubs they grew up biking in within their hometowns. Musco, who grew up in Missoula, Montana, grew up riding with the Zootown Derailleurs and eventually becoming a coach. Similarly, Davis has been biking from a very young age, and he went into competitive mountain biking before coaching for  his local riding club, the Ojai riders from his junior year of high school. 

READ MORE: Riders Club of SLO weighs in on city’s next budget

With their passion and technical skills from being business students, as well as the help from their Program Director, Everest Mueller the club’s first season was able to take off in spring 2024. 

TRAINING BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN

Both Davis and Musco said group training for mountain biking helps kids get in touch with nature, socialize, stay active and find ways to have fun in a healthy way without the presence of electronics. 

“Getting a group of kids together fosters this ‘Hey, let’s work together and go conquer this trail or this feature that we’ve never done before,’” Musco said. “It kind of makes it into more of a team sport and all these kids make lifelong friends.” 

The students have witnessed the impact of the program on the kids and have been able to see a lot of growth in the children individually and within the program. 

“​​It was awesome seeing him really conquer his fears,” Musco said. 

Morgen Marshall, a mom and Cal Poly employee, is able to see the impact with her own son, 7-year-old Jayce. From starting during the spring 2025 session, she has been able to track growth noticeably within her son, and all thanks to joining SLO Riders.

“I just think the club is really helpful, especially for me,” Marshall said. “I’m a single mom, and I don’t really know how to mountain bike… so I just love that they’re making this easier for kids to be a part of that don’t already have access to that with their family.” 

“Since he’s been doing this, he’s gained more confidence, and gets his friends to go with him,” she said. “Isn’t that we want? We want these kids outside and not just playing Roblox.”

SLO RIDER’S SUPPORTS A LARGER MISSION

With Marshalls highlighting the interaction with nature that the program offers, it ties in with not just the origins of SLO Riders, but with the overall mission of the Central Coast Youth Cycling Association — which houses the Ojai Riders Club, SLO Riders Club and a new Ventura Riders Club.

Mueller, who founded the Ojai Riders club, helped out Davis and Musco when it came to starting up their club. SLO Riders had just begun with two riders within their first season but with marketing and the help of Mueller the club now contains 20 or more kids per season. 

While Mueller was brought in to help with the back-end protocol, liability waivers and overall club administration, he also worked to guide the true mission of the initiative. 

“A lot of that is the attitude that you embrace the whole mountain, because life is the whole mountain,” Mueller said. “No matter what, you know there’s going to be ups and downs, and there’s going to be challenges, and there’s going to be really exciting, fun times, and you got to be able to embrace all of it.”

With the involvement of hands-on coaching paired with a typically individual sport being taught in a group setting, both coaches and Mueller promote mountain biking as a program not solely for the SLO community but within towns that contain suitable terrain and children to participate.

“Outdoor recreation is great for people’s well being, and kind of creates environmental responsibility for the youth and a more connected, sustainable society,” Davis said.  

SLO Riders’ upcoming fall season will be one of the last ones that Davis and Musco are able to coach as they are graduating, and overall are excited to inspire SLO youth into developing their next passion. 

Partnership includes $100,000 in donations to support local park and recreation agencies through the MLS GO PLAY FUND, impacting thousands of kids nationwide