The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 12 No. 25 - April 4, 2012

sports

Spring soccer starts strong

Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

SCOTT DELL | Submitted
Football Division I (13-16-year-old) Super Bowl
Champions Walter & Associates Bears

The Anna Maria Island Community Center's new spring adult co-ed soccer league is now fully kickin'. Eight teams, composed of 80 men and woman, played at the Center's pitch to start the first-time spring sport. Center Athletic Director Troy Shunk realized there was a huge interest in soccer on the Island when the public communicated to him on starting the league. Much the same as the popularity of the adult flag football playing summer and winter, soccer will now be played in both spring and fall.

Results from week 1

Agnelli Pools & Spa  4
Best Buy  3
After being down 3-0, Agnelli Pools & Spa rallied back to get their first win. Brent Moss had two goals, Frank Agnelli and Josh Rio each had one goal, Troy Shonk and Frank Agnelli each had a save. For Best Buy, Rico Beissert had two goals, and Josh Petitt had a goal and an assist, Mark Pennell had two saves and Pedro Gonzalez had one save.

Don Meilner & Son Construction  4
Pink & Navy Boutique  2
Tim Tedesco led the way with two goals, David Greene and Stephen Perry each had one goal, Matt Plummer and Lindsey Weaver each had an assist in the Don Meilner & Son Construction victory. For the Pink & Navy Boutique team, Damir Glavan and Jamie Gregorich each had one goal, Scott Pardue had an assist.

Island Pest Control  4
Slim's Place  3
Adam Bujarski had a goal and an assist, Brent Laudicina had two goals and two saves, Emily King had two saves for the Island Pest Control win. For the Slim's Place team, Sean Sanders had two goals and an assist, Chrissy Rice had a goal and Adam Mott had six saves.

Florida Discount Signs  5
Wash Family Construction  2
Danny Anderson and Brad Laudicina each had two goals and an assist, Hampton Harris had one goal, Megan Haller had one assist and Josh Perifoy had five saves in goal for the Florida Discount Signs victory. For the Wash Family Construction team, Joey Ciagullo and Chris Yavalar each had one goal, Austin Wash had an assist and Matt Ray had four saves.

Schedule

April 5, Thursday, 6 p.m.
Agnelli Pools & Spa vs. Slim's Place

April 5, Thursday, 7 p.m.
Island Pest Control vs. Florida Discount Signs

April 5, Thursday, 8 p.m.
Don Meilner & Son Construction vs. Wash Family Construction

April 5, Thursday, 9 p.m.
Best Buy vs. Pink & Navy Boutique

 

The largest convention ever

Yeah, that's what my publisher said I'd be going to last week in Los Angeles I wasn't sure I wanted to believe this whopper. But there it was – Expo West at the Anaheim Convention Center. Legendary for decades, even some of my personal training clients at the gym where I work had heard of it. My publisher was right. He estimated that 20,000 people plus attended the three-day convention each day this year.

My publisher's largest customer, Nutri-books, the largest distributor of books to all health food stores in the US, including Whole Foods, invited me to do a two-hour book signing at their booth on one of the three days. My book still remains both of their #1 sellers. When I wasn't book-signing, I was encouraged to network, visiting as many other booths as I could.

The Expo was much like the one I was invited to recently to at the Gaylord Palms near Orlando. It seemed tiny by comparison. Expo West convention halls were linked together. I only got to several gynormously long aisles.

A cookbook author friend said on Facebook how she wasn't going to Expo West this year because she didn't like the trend using more processed foods. She was so over it.

I, however, was a kid in a healthy candy store. After years of being regarded as the black sheep/health food nut of my family, I finally know that many people want to hear and share my message – that it costs more to eat expensive food at the store and at the hospital.

I may have to run all week long because I will need to burn off the many protein bars and food samples. The weekend was one long snack.

As I say in my book, vegan or not, anything in a box or a package is going to cost more. And the potential for profits is more too. The catered dinner after the book signing was at a home rented by the brother-owners of Tofurkey, one of the early adopter companies of meat analogues or substitutes.

Go down the aisles of Publix and you'll see Tofurkey's many selections of wheat gluten and soy-based foods that taste like meat, chicken, turkey and sausages that you would swear were the real thing. They also have delicious tempeh products with sauces.

The founder of Tofurkey started the White Wave Company in the 70s, which was one of the first companies to introduce the high-protein grain and soybean combination that became known as tempeh. It was eaten in Asian cultures before the product made it to Western cultures.

Soy in its close-to-nature unprocessed form is still widely used in Asia where people's cancer rates are far lower than ours, as long as they don't adopt a Western diet. Fascinating stuff for this reporter whose mom, aunt and both sisters had breast cancer. My life is an experiment to beat the odds that gave them breast cancer, and much more.

The dinner I had at the Tofurkey house was a class act and better than you could find in many restaurants. Many of the Tofurkey products you see at the store are more processed, but the argument for using them is that it is much better than using protein from highly abused chickens at factory farms, or any other farm for that matter.

Many videos taken by organizations document these abuses. Most media outlets don't have the guts and money it takes to do these investigations. And some states, including Florida, are trying to pass laws that even make shooting these undercover videos illegal.

Anything to keep us from seeing the reality of how our food gets on our plate. If we saw it routinely, many more people would look for alternatives. And that is what the lobbyists for the farming industry most fear.

The Expo had hundreds of exhibitors with new and established food products, health gadgets and, in short, anything that a health food store owner might want to stock. Vendors had women hawking products in next to nothing clothing. Raw foodists had an entire section. I did get to taste great juices made from the state of the art juicers on the market. Pure nirvana.

You can follow Island resident Ellen Jaffe Jones on her Facebook page and keep up with her just released book:,"Eat Vegan on $4 a Day," or her website: www.vegcoach.com. She is also a nationally certified personal trainer and running coach. For training in a gym or private hire, contact Ellen at ejones@vegcoach.com or 941-704-1025.


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