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Wayne Rooney and the Rising Tide of Sports 'Content'

Publicly, Argyle have always denied that Rooney was hired to raise the club’s profile. But it undoubtedly had that effect—and the effect might be outlasting Rooney. Yesterday, my girlfriend noticed that a man on a train in London (far away from Plymouth) was watching the Muslic video on his phone, and struck up a conversation. […]

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Wayne Rooney and the Rising Tide of Sports 'Content'

Publicly, Argyle have always denied that Rooney was hired to raise the club’s profile. But it undoubtedly had that effect—and the effect might be outlasting Rooney. Yesterday, my girlfriend noticed that a man on a train in London (far away from Plymouth) was watching the Muslic video on his phone, and struck up a conversation. He told her that he hadn’t really known anything about Argyle—until the club made Rooney its head coach.

Then, in November, supporters learned that the media circus around Rooney would be taken up a notch: it was announced that filming had begun on a behind-the-scenes documentary about his time at the club. The film would be made by Lorton Entertainment, a production company that had made two previous documentaries about Rooney and his family; the question of distribution remained up in the air, but Rooney said there were “big brands looking to take it” and The Guardian later reported that the club hoped to sell the rights to a major streaming platform, like Netflix or Amazon, in a bid to “raise their global profile and secure a windfall.” Supporters were once again divided on the prospect: some feared it would be a distraction from on-field matters; others welcomed the exposure. (Some saw both sides: “It’ll be cringe,” one fan wrote on a popular Argyle forum, “but if it can generate money for the club I’m not opposed.”) Rooney insisted that the project would only have access to Argyle’s players to the extent that they were comfortable with it. “I think for the football club financially, it will help, which is really important,” he said. “But also from a fan’s point of view—if I’m a fan of the football club I’d be really intrigued to watch.”

Lorton Entertainment’s first major project involving Rooney was a feature-length documentary—titled simply Rooney—that appeared on Amazon Prime in 2022 and traces the arc of his playing career through interviews with Rooney and those close to him, nodding both to its highs (his remarkable ascent to stardom at just sixteen; his move to the soccer giant Manchester United) and its lows (his controversial and occasionally troubling behavior off the field; his petulant, sometimes even violent conduct on it). In 2023, a second project followed, on Disney+. The central subject matter this time didn’t concern Rooney so much as his wife, Coleen, and her centrality to one of the more compelling and curious media stories to come out of the UK in recent times: a much-discussed saga in which she accused another player’s wife of leaking stories about her to Britain’s tabloids (following an elaborate social media sting operation aimed at finding the culprit); got sued for libel; then won the case. The Argyle documentary was to be Lorton’s third Rooney project. Per The Guardian, one of the company’s owners is a shareholder in an agency that has long managed Rooney.

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If access-driven content can still raise a sports franchise’s profile, the saturated market for such content makes the extent of the profile-raising hard to predict; the collapse of the Rooney project, meanwhile, proved that access is no guarantee of content in the first place. And Argyle’s Rooney experiment—and its aftermath—also pointed to the importance of other forms of sports content in the modern media age. Rooney’s mere presence at Argyle arguably lifted these other boats already—regardless of the documentary falling through.

The commissioning of the documentary was big for Plymouth but not a novel development in general terms: in recent years, a range of English soccer teams have been the subject of fly-on-the-wall programs, from the all-conquering top-tier side Manchester City down to Wrexham, a club that has climbed from the fifth tier to the third since it was improbably acquired by the Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in 2020. (Wrexham is in Wales, but its soccer club plays in the English league.) Indeed, the Rooney documentary mirrored trends in sports media far beyond English soccer, in an era when athlete-centered narratives are ubiquitous and have a material impact on the success not only of different sports teams but whole sports. (My colleague Josh Hersh wrote about this trend last year; around the same time, I wrote about how the Formula 1 documentary Drive to Survive had hugely juiced interest in motor racing, not least in the US.) Not that the boom in this sort of content has been limited to sports: writing for CJR in 2020, Danny Funt noted that whereas “filmmakers used to avoid the label ‘documentary,’” since “audiences considered them about as exciting as homework,” streamers are now stuffed with them, racking up millions of views.

The Argyle project sounded like it would be less similar to its Lorton predecessors than to the litany of other documentaries promising inside access to soccer clubs, a burgeoning genre that often trades in the same visual clichés—footage from the training pitch; footage from the locker room; footage from games, often in dizzying close-up—interspersed with interviews. Some of these shows have achieved iconic, or at least meme-worthy, status. A season of All or Nothing—an Amazon franchise whose other subjects have included the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals and NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs—about the top-tier English soccer club Arsenal helped make a star of its manager, Mikel Arteta, and his unorthodox motivational routines. (In one pre-match speech, he invoked Thomas Edison’s light bulb to stress the importance of connectivity, adding that “it would be fucking dark if this guy wouldn’t have the idea to do that.”) My and many other viewers’ favorite of the genre is Sunderland ’Til I Die, a Netflix show that follows the fortunes of a soccer club fallen on hard times and centers its long-suffering supporters. One memorable montage shows a local vicar praying for the club.

When I tell Americans that I come from Plymouth, I sometimes have to add, No, not the one with the Rock; yes, the one in England that the Rock is named after. Some reply that they know it, only to have actually been thinking of Portsmouth, a city that is similarly named but not especially nearby. Over the summer, though, Plymouth was put on the map worldwide, at least in a sporting sense, after the local soccer club, Plymouth Argyle, named Wayne Rooney, an icon of the global game and one of the finest players in English history, as its new head coach. The appointment immediately put the club at the center of a media storm. I contribute to Argyle Life, an independent fan-led platform with a podcast and YouTube show. Our livestream dissecting Rooney’s arrival was viewed by well over ten thousand people. (For context, the capacity of Argyle’s stadium is only around seventeen thousand.)

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Often, “content” is the operative word here—rather than, say, “journalism.” I wrote last year that while Drive to Survive has reportorial moments, it is more a work of entertainment; Hersh noted how, if athlete-centered narratives are now ubiquitous, they are mostly being crafted by athletes themselves, via documentaries and podcasts that cut out the traditional journalistic middleman. Funt wrote in 2020 that filmmakers desperate for access to celebrities—who, in the modern attention economy, hardly need to cooperate—commonly offer them “incentives that would be scandalous in any other news medium: paying for access, clearing quotes and clips, giving a subject’s business partners a producing credit.”

Muslic was an obscure figure in England—but he has quickly become recognizable, thanks to social media. Yesterday, Argyle posted a video of Muslic introducing himself to the squad; normally, this would have been unremarkable—one more piece of content forced into the internet’s maw—but it soon went viral due to Muslic’s charismatic delivery and motivational message. Even rival supporters joked that they would “run through a brick wall” for Muslic; soon, news sites picked up the video and reaction to it. On X, the account “argyletweets” quipped that Argyle had hired Rooney for PR reasons “only to realise a random Bosnian fella would instantly give the club more interaction on socials because he speaks like Churchill.”

Argyle play in the second tier of English soccer, but are one of its smaller sides, at least based on budget and recent history; we were promoted to the level in 2023 after thirteen years away, and had only narrowly avoided relegation back to the third tier when Rooney arrived. (For the uninitiated: think of relegation as being like if a baseball team could be bumped to triple-A due to sheer haplessness, then to double-A if they couldn’t hack it there either, and so on; my editor for this newsletter has bewailed the likely state of the Baltimore Orioles were this the setup stateside.) For all his immense talent as a player, Rooney’s nascent managerial career had not so far been a resounding success: after spells at Derby County and then at DC United in the US (where he had also been a player), he was coming off a brief tenure at Birmingham City in the English second tier that was such a disaster the club was unexpectedly relegated at the end of the season (sparing Argyle that fate, as it happened). Some Argyle supporters were aghast when he was hired but others were excited, by Rooney’s profile if not his record. When the new season kicked off, in August, the team made an undistinguished start—but then things improved, with dramatic wins in three consecutive home matches firing up the fan base and generating further headlines.

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And the process of replacing Rooney also shined a light on one of the true, persistent joys of the modern soccer information bubble: not the polished documentary, but the chaotic spread of raw gossip on social media, a form downstream of access—or, at least, the illusion thereof—but far from dependent on it. After days of discussing rumors (and evaluating the historical reliability of whatever anonymous X account had shared them), many fans (myself included) convinced themselves on Friday that a beloved former manager was poised to return. But then journalism intervened again: Fabrizio Romano—a leading source of soccer-deals news who is a social media native but essentially an old-school reporter at heart (and who may even be the most famous journalist in the world, as Jem Bartholomew wrote in an illuminating profile for CJR in 2023)—broke the news that Rooney’s replacement would be Miron Muslic, a Bosnian-born Austrian coach who formerly led Cercle Brugge, in Belgium. 

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The main reason that that show is so watchable, however, is that it is candid, car-crash television, showing disaster after disaster befalling the club, interspersed with toe-curling footage of top executives testing out stadium hype music (it needs to be “a bit Ibiza”) and panic-buying a player who would subsequently flop. (Even the stirring prayer scene is cut together with footage of an angry supporter screaming at a player to “fuck off.”) The project was not exactly independent: the producers are both fans of Sunderland; one later joined the club’s board. But club executives reportedly had no say over the final cut. And if the show isn’t quite a work of journalism, it is at least bursting with authenticity. It certainly made an unusually wide impression. Prince William reportedly watched it. So, too, did McElhenney, who has said that the show helped inspire him to purchase Wrexham with Reynolds

As Timms noted, the Rooney Argyle documentary could have broken the mold by itself becoming car-crash TV as the team lapsed into a disgraceful run of heavy defeats. As an Argyle fan, I wouldn’t have enjoyed reliving those myself, but can see the appeal for others; I also view Rooney as a quietly compelling character, one who is far from traditionally charismatic (his voice is often a mumbling monotone) but nonetheless has a certain enigmatic aura around him. Now, of course, we’ll never know. Whispers that the project might never see the light of day circulated in early December, when a “TV insider” suggested to the Sun tabloid that “the whole point of the documentary was to celebrate his move from player to becoming a manager” and that Rooney would not want it to become a “horror show”; later, The Guardian reported that Lorton had been granted access to only two matches before being “told to take a break.” By year’s end, Rooney was gone. Simon Hallett, Argyle’s chairman, confirmed last week that while he had seen the documentary as “consistent with our desire to raise the club’s profile,” Rooney’s exit meant that it, too, would be terminated. 

The Rooney Argyle documentary, to be fair, was never touted as a work of journalism. And it will now be impossible to evaluate it on those or any other terms: two weeks ago, after a disastrous downturn in form, Argyle parted ways with Rooney, and the documentary was scrapped. Trailing in its wake are broader lessons about the limits of such access-driven projects—and reminders that, despite their ubiquity, they are still only one part of a diverse sports-media ecosystem, one that is increasingly dominated by content, but also rises and falls on the age-old appeal of celebrity, the unpredictable currents of social media, and, at least sometimes, the persistent ability of old-school journalism to set the agenda. 

Sunderland ’Til I Die is not the norm: indeed, The Athletic has noted that the show pitched itself as “the antithesis” of the largely “polished” All or Nothing franchise. Many fly-on-the-wall soccer documentaries have a samey vibe, trading access for blandness. Writing in The Guardian last week, Aaron Timms excoriated the genre as “viciously uninteresting” and an exercise in “corporate PR.” Timms suggested that players—who must watch what they say at all times as the cameras roll—and fans are growing tired of such projects, but that they keep getting made because the participants want money and streamers want content. The latter’s “sole goal is to stuff their platforms with as much content as possible,” he wrote, “turning them into the technological-cultural equivalent of ducks fattened by gavage.”

  • CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan spoke with third-party fact-checking partners of Meta, who learned last week that the company intends to sever ties with them, then quickly had to get to work trying to slow misinformation about the Los Angeles fires as it went viral on Meta’s platforms. Meanwhile, former Meta staffers told The Guardian that the company’s simultaneous pledge to move its content-moderation operations to Texas—in a bid to alleviate “bias” concerns—is “nothing more than a blatant appeal to Donald Trump” since the company already conducts such work in Texas. And CJR’s Meghnad Bose checked in with his former colleagues at The Quint, a news site in India that is a Meta fact-checking partner; Meta’s recent announcements have centered on the US, but Bose found anxiety about it beyond national borders. 
  • For the New York Times, David Enrich and Katie Robertson report on steps that US newsrooms are taking to prepare for a feared onslaught once Trump takes office. Reporters and editors “are increasing their reliance on encrypted communications to help shield themselves and their sources from potential federal leak investigations and subpoenas,” they write. Multiple newsrooms “are evaluating whether they have enough insurance coverage to absorb a potential wave of libel and other litigation from officials who have already shown an inclination to file such suits. And a nonprofit investigative journalism outlet is preparing for the possibility that the government will investigate issues like whether its use of freelancers complies with labor regulations.”
  • The New Yorker’s Ruth Margalit profiled Yinon Magal, a talk-show host on Israel’s Channel 14 who has aggressively defended Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s right-wing prime minister, while attacking his critics, including judges, journalists, academics, and political opponents. “Magal was once a prime-time newscaster,” but these days, “he is an unapologetic combatant, delivering his version of the news in a hunched-over-the-deck posture that has been described as ‘gorilla pose,’” Margalit writes. “If Channel 14 is Netanyahu’s Fox News, Magal is its Tucker Carlson.”   

Traditional publications remain an important part of this sports-media ecosystem, even if the industry is in palpable decline. The national tabloids that have always had a field day with the Rooneys continued to do so in relation to his time at Argyle; more positively, as his tenure descended into crisis, Chris Errington, an excellent Argyle beat reporter at the local Plymouth Herald and its associated news site, proved his worth, asking dogged questions and giving a voice to angry fans. Smaller content creators also got a Rooney bump—including Argyle Life, the fan-led platform where I’m a contributor. Last year, more than two hundred and fifty thousand people watched us on YouTube—hardly Joe Rogan numbers, but a mind-boggling figure for a project that essentially grew out of a few friends shit-talking at the pub. Thanks to Rooney, our contributors have been asked to appear across the British media.

Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, among other outlets. He writes CJR’s newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.

College Sports

Ball State University – Official Athletics Site

KOHLER, Wisc. — Ball State senior Ali Khan represents the Cardinals in his final college competition this week while participating in the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship, at Whistling Straits Golf Course. Participating in the Men’s Division I Individual Division, Khan tees off at 11:45 a.m. CT (12:45 p.m. ET) on Monday, in the first of […]

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KOHLER, Wisc. — Ball State senior Ali Khan represents the Cardinals in his final college competition this week while participating in the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship, at Whistling Straits Golf Course. Participating in the Men’s Division I Individual Division, Khan tees off at 11:45 a.m. CT (12:45 p.m. ET) on Monday, in the first of three rounds in a 54-hole event regarded as the “most culturally significant championship in collegiate golf.”

Live coverage is provided on Golf Channel each evening from 4-7 p.m. ET.

The PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship (PWCC) highlights competitive golf programs within the scope of the most under-served and/or underrepresented Minority-Serving Institutions in the country. Khan is one of 24 Division I minority student-athletes whose college teams did not reach the NCAA Tournament, invited to play in this week’s event. 

Ironically, Khan tied for second in this event three years ago, firing 73-73-73 (219) as a freshman in 2022, when the event was conducted at The Union League Golf Club in Philadelphia. He has not participated the last two seasons while the Cardinals took part in the National Golf Invitational in 2023, and reached the NCAA Regionals in 2024.



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Zanesville’s Wahl Speaks On All-American Honor at Georgia – WHIZ

ZANESVILLE, OH – After achieving the greatest accomplishment of her young career, Georgia Bulldogs sophomore star and Zanesville high school alum Ady Wahl sat down to discuss her recent All-American honor in NCAA gymnastics:   Steven: “So Ady, first of all, congratulations on all your success as of late. Have you really gotten the chance […]

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ZANESVILLE, OH – After achieving the greatest accomplishment of her young career, Georgia Bulldogs sophomore star and Zanesville high school alum Ady Wahl sat down to discuss her recent All-American honor in NCAA gymnastics:

 

Steven: “So Ady, first of all, congratulations on all your success as of late. Have you really gotten the chance to sit back and relax yet, or do you not really get that opportunity?”

Ady: “I’ve gotten to relax this past week. Just, you know, after nationals, they give us a week off. So, I’ve just been able to kind of rest, and you know, take some downtime, which has been very nice.”

Steven: “Let’s kind of focus on what you’ve been doing and what you’ve been kind of going through as of late. So to reach All-American status obviously didn’t happen overnight. Can you kind of walk me through the build up and schedule of your season?”

Ady: “Well, you have to have the highest all around, the highest individual score going into nationals. So for me, I had the highest vault score at our regional. And it was just, you know, just a lot of hard work, a lot of mental and physical training. You know, just put a lot of prayer into it. And, you know, just really been focusing on my mental aspect of gymnastics because gymnastics is a lot more mental sometimes than it is physical.”

Steven: “As you’re standing there about to start your run up, what’s really going through your head in that moment?”

Ady: “I just remember being so excited and, you know, sometimes, you can get, kind of this anxious-like feeling, nervousness, which is normal. But I just remember when I was standing at the end of the runway at nationals, just being so excited. So it was just, I don’t know, it was like an out-of-body experience where I just felt like I was so calm and natural.”

Steven: “If it was an out-of-body experience, you should have done a couple more flips in the air, just to see if it really was, right?”

Ady: “Yeah, I know, right!”

Steven: “What was going through your mind when you finally landed it?

Ady: “I just remember feeling so much joy and, like, excitement, and I did it, like, all this hard work that I’ve been doing in the previous weeks had paid off. And I just remember, you know, being so excited and thrilled.”

Steven: “You knew you did well?”

Ady: “Yes, I knew and I was confident that I did what I needed to do, and just, like, watching the video back, it was like one of the best vaults I had all season.”

Steven: “Over-under ten times you’ve watched it back?”

Ady: “Over, probably, yeah”

Steven: “Obviously, you know, as I’m sure it’s in the back of your head, you’re representing everybody here from Zanesville and Muskingum County too. What does it mean to you to come from such a small area like this and then be on the national stage?” 

Ady: “Yeah, it just, it means a lot just because of how small our community is. But, you know, through this college experience, I’ve really seen how much the community has backed me and backed what I’m doing, and it’s just so cool to see all the support. When I see posts and stuff about it, it’s just really cool. Especially from my high school and like all that stuff. It’s just a reminder that they always have my back and that they’re proud. You know, I’m just trying to make our small town proud and I’m really honored that I get to do that and represent that.

Steven: “Ady, congratulations and thank you so much for taking the time.”

Ady: “Thank you so much!”





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Local Hockey Legend Steps into Leadership Position

BY BROOKE MCKENNA The Board of Directors for Sun Valley Youth Hockey has hired former adult Suns player, Frank Salvoni as the organization’s new Executive Director. Salvoni, whose family has deep roots in the local hockey scene, starts his new position this week. Salvoni began his hockey career playing prep school hockey at Avon Old […]

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BY BROOKE MCKENNA

The Board of Directors for Sun Valley Youth Hockey has hired former adult Suns player, Frank Salvoni as the organization’s new Executive Director.

Salvoni, whose family has deep roots in the local hockey scene, starts his new position this week.

Salvoni began his hockey career playing prep school hockey at Avon Old Farms School in Connecticut. He went on to serve as captain of his college hockey team at Lake Forest College, where he won the prestigious Nicholas J. Wasylik Senior Athletic Award for his positive, outgoing attitude as well as drive and determination.

Salvoni played for the adult Sun Valley Suns team from 2002-2007, serving as captain for a time. He has been a volunteer coach for Sun Valley Youth Hockey for the past 12 years, coaching at every level.

“We are so honored that Frank is stepping into this important role for our organization,” said Board President Brooke McKenna. “He brings a rich history of expertise to Sun Valley Youth Hockey and an unmatched commitment to hockey in the valley. He is well-respected in our community, in the State of Idaho and beyond.”

As one of the oldest and biggest hockey clubs in the state, Sun Valley Youth Hockey has introduced the game to thousands of kids since 1994.

Salvoni says he will approach his new position from a philosophy he has built over time: “The sport of hockey teaches about life–how to be a good person, teammate and community member, more than anything else. It is my belief that all of us are better as a team.”

Sun Valley Youth Hockey is planning a meet-and-greet tailgate party at the Hailey Ice parking lot on Friday, May 9, to introduce Salvoni in his new role. For more information, contact sunvalleyyouthhockey@gmail.com.





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Quinn Ewers’ agent blasts ‘chickens–t’ explanation for NFL draft fall

An NFL draft slide sometimes doesn’t come with clarity or a pinpointed explanation. Agent Ron Slavin feels that was the case with his client and former Texas quarterback, Quinn Ewers. Prior to the three-day draft spectacle, Ewers didn’t expect to be among the first 32 selections with the second round being more of possibility. However, […]

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An NFL draft slide sometimes doesn’t come with clarity or a pinpointed explanation.

Agent Ron Slavin feels that was the case with his client and former Texas quarterback, Quinn Ewers.

Prior to the three-day draft spectacle, Ewers didn’t expect to be among the first 32 selections with the second round being more of possibility. However, he was the 13th and final quarterback taken in the 2025 draft, getting selected with the No. 231 in the seventh round by the Miami Dolphins.

Slavin told ESPN that he reached out to “half the league” the day after the draft to find out why Ewers had such a big slide.

The answer, he said, was “chickens–t.”

Quinn Ewers throws during the school’s NFL football pro day in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. AP

“They thought he was a third- or fourth-round pick, but too big of a name to be a clipboard holder,” Slavin told Archer. “Which I think is chickens–t.”

In other words, NFL teams thought that Ewers, who was the No. 2 recruit out of high school and was ranked No. 7 of the quarterback prospects by ESPN for the draft, was too big of a name to have as the development quarterback.

It’s one of the consequences discovered in the NIL era of college football.

Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) celebrates the team’s win over Alabama in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. AP

After Texas lost in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff to Ohio State, Ewers had four days to pick a new program or take the next step in his career. By opting into the draft, Ewers left behind NIL deals reportedly up to $8 million if he transferred to another powerhouse school for another year in college as Texas moves on to Arch Manning.

Ewers had partnerships with several high-profile brands such as Wrangler, EA Sports, Hulu, Beats by Dre and Dr. Pepper.

His NFL rookie salary is estimated to be worth $4.33 million — nearly half of the opportunities he left behind.

Quinn Ewers #3 hands the ball off to Quintrevion Wisner #26 of the Texas Longhorns during a game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Texas Longhorns at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium on January 10, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. Getty Images

Ewers at one point was considered a potentially high pick for the 2024 draft but he returned for his junior season, during which he threw for 3,472 yards, 31 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

In Miami, he will be behind Tua Tagovailoa and backup Zach Wilson, the ex-Jets bust who spent last season with the Broncos.

Tagovailoa’s contract has two more years of fully guaranteed money.



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University of Michigan Athletics

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan women’s gymnastics team held its annual banquet Sunday (May 4) to celebrate its 2025 season. The team reflected on the season and celebrated awards and honors during the 2025 campaign. Graduate student Carly Bauman and freshman Jahzara Ranger were named the team’s most valuable performers in the […]

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan women’s gymnastics team held its annual banquet Sunday (May 4) to celebrate its 2025 season.

The team reflected on the season and celebrated awards and honors during the 2025 campaign.

Graduate student Carly Bauman and freshman Jahzara Ranger were named the team’s most valuable performers in the 2025 season, the first for both.

Bauman ended the 2025 season as the NCAA Regional Co-Champion on uneven bars with a score of 9.950 after being named the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association Northeast Regional Gymnast of the Year. The West Des Moines, Iowa, native was a first team All-Big Ten honoree for the second straight season and was a three-time Big Ten Specialist of the Week. Bauman won 14 individual event titles across three events and posted 19 scores of 9.900 or better in her fifth season.

In her first season as a Wolverine, Ranger notched second team All-Big Ten honors and was named to the All-Freshman Team. Ranger was a two-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week, winning five individual event titles and scoring 9.900 or higher on nine routines.

Freshman Sophie Parenti was named the Unsung Hero along with Jenna Mulligan, and earned the Specialist Award. Parenti led off three events in her first season as a Wolverine, competing on uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. The Los Altos, Calif., native scored a career-best 9.850 on uneven bars and beam and a career-high 9.875 on floor, winning her first career title.

Mulligan returned for her fifth season and competed in two events, earning a career-best 9.950 on the vault and a 9.900 on the beam. The Fruit Cove, Fla., native won the vault title in three straight meets and captured one beam title in her final season.

Sophomores Kayli Boozer and Ava Jordan shared the Most Improved Award as Boozer competed on three different events in her second season while Jordan competed on vault and uneven bars.

Boozer won three beam titles and scored a career-best 9.950 while she had two 9.900s on floor and stuck her vault at Oklahoma for a 9.900 in just her second career appearance.

Jordan notched a career-high 9.875 on the vault twice in her sophomore season and also scored a career-high 9.900 on the uneven bars at the Big Ten Championships.

Freshman Peyton Davis was awarded the Coaches Award after competing on the vault all season and earning a spot in the floor lineup for the second half of the 2025 campaign. Davis earned a career-best 9.900 on floor at the Big Ten Championships and posted a career-high 9.850 on the vault at NCAA Regionals.

Freshman Sophia Diaz was named the Newcomer of the Year as she competed on three events and vaulted at the NCAA Individual Event Finals. The Clarksville, Md., native was named second team All-Big Ten and an All-Freshman Team honoree after winning six individual titles in her first season donning the maize and blue. Diaz scored a career-best 9.950 on the vault at NCAA Regionals to send her to the NCAA Championships, while she posted a career-high 9.900 on both the uneven bars and floor in the 2025 season.

Graduate student Reyna Guggino was given the Leadership Award after she sat out her fifth year due to injury. Guggino found a new way to lead the group while not competing and was named Michigan’s Big Ten Sportsmanship Award honoree.

For the second straight season, Lily Clapper and Jacey Vore were awarded the Scholar-Athlete Award for their work in the classroom and the gym, while Vore was also the Chip Hills Spirit Award winner for the third straight year. Vore competed on the uneven bars and beam, winning three event titles in her final season.

2025 Award Recipients

Most Valuable Performer: Carly Bauman, Jahzara Ranger

Unsung Hero: Sophie Parenti, Jenna Mulligan

Coaches Award: Peyton Davis

Most Improved: Kayli Boozer, Ava Jordan

Specialist Award: Sophie Parenti

Newcomer of the Year: Sophia Diaz

Leadership Award: Reyna Guggino

Scholar-Athlete Award: Lily Clapper, Jacey Vore

Chip Hills Spirit Award: Jacey Vore



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MSU College of Engineering unveils new technology engineering degree program

Michigan State University’s College of Engineering unveiled a new undergraduate technology engineering program, serving as the college’s latest response to industry demand for practice-ready engineers. “Technology engineering is a new engineering discipline and MSU is leading the way with this,” Janet Brelin-Fornari, director of Technology Engineering, said in an interview with The State News. Technology […]

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Michigan State University’s College of Engineering unveiled a new undergraduate technology engineering program, serving as the college’s latest response to industry demand for practice-ready engineers.

“Technology engineering is a new engineering discipline and MSU is leading the way with this,” Janet Brelin-Fornari, director of Technology Engineering, said in an interview with The State News.

Technology Engineering, or TechE, which was launched in fall 2024, blends mechanical, electrical and computer engineering with computer science to prepare students for modern engineering challenges while working in state-of-the-art labs. The program aims to bridge the gap between engineers and computer scientists across product development teams, according to a press release. 

“While students have the core of choosing a concentration, they can mix it with the new Smart Agricultural Systems minor, and they can take the courses in that track as well to fulfill that,” Brelin-Fornari said. “The industry has been so excited to get their hands on these engineers.”

The new program will include courses in hardware cybersecurity, electronics and embedded systems, sensors and signal processing, robotics and automation and controls with the goal to “leverage hands-on, real-world projects that integrate cutting-edge technologies with a strong foundational engineering mindset,” the release says.

Brelin-Fornari said that with the engineering field rapidly changing due to advanced technology, MSU has created the curriculum addressing the changes to make students “career-ready engineers.”

“The students have a set of foundational courses that they have to take,” Brelin-Fornari said. “They have courses in electronics, sensors and signal processing, digital logic to understand what’s going on inside of a chip and the computer side.”

With the skills and knowledge students can learn, Brelin-Fornari said the program is designed to be hands-on.

“You need to know and understand the theory, and as engineers, a big part of what we do is to apply that theory—but the theory needs to come to life,” Brelin-Fornari said. “With that, we have hands-on opportunities in most of the courses within Technology Engineering.”

The TechE degree program’s first graduating class is expected in fall 2026, with incoming students learning more about the program during New Student Orientation. Students can find more information on the Technology Engineering program through the College of Engineering’s website.

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