The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 11 No. 44 - August 17, 2011

sports

Saints go marching into Super Bowl against Dolphins

Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

PHOTO/SCOTT DELL
Alan Conley, of the Tyler's Ice Cream Steelers,
zigzags past Jonathan Moss for a 25 yard gain.

AMICC Adult Co-Ed Flag Football

The MartiniVille Saints go marching into the Super Bowl after defeating the Tyler's Ice Cream Steelers 30 to 15. There they will face the red hot offense of the Agnelli Pools & Spa Dolphins, who defeated the Island Sun Panthers 48 to 22.

The Saints combined a well balanced attack on offense with a solid defense. The Saint's defense had five interceptions against the Steelers and two where returned for touchdowns. One was returned by Ryan Moss and one by Jonathan Moss. On offense, Ryan Moss threw for three TDs. Two TD passes were to his brother Jonathan and one TD to Nate Talucci. The entire team gets involved on offense as Ed Moss, Emily Moss, Rich Bell and Amy Talucci all touch the ball.

The Dolphins use a high powered offense that seems to score at will. They have scored more than 40 points in almost every game this year. Mike Shaughnessy threw for five TDs and his son Tim Shaughnessy threw one TD against the Panthers. Tim caught three TDs, Frank Agnelli caught two TDs and Brianna Shaughnessy caught one TD. They use a deadly combination of run and pass to paralyze their opponent's defense.

The cohesiveness of the family unit shines bright on both teams. Like the Hatfields and the McCoys, the Mosses and the Shaughnessys will battle it out on the gridiron to see who will be this year's summer Super Bowl champion.

Super Bowl schedule:

Aug. 18, Thursday, 7:30 p.m. first place MartiniVille Saints vs. second place Agnelli Pool & Spa Dolphins – for Super Bowl Championship.

Adult Co-Ed League playoff game summaries:

Agnelli Pools & Spa Dolphins - 48
Island Sun Panthers – 22

MartiniVille Saints – 30
Tyler's Ice Cream Steelers – 15

The importance of injury prevention

If you happened to brave the heat this week and were at Manatee County Public Beach, you may have seen the Manatee High School Girls Cross Country Team doing their boot camp. Boot camp is the new fitness phrase often used to mean some kind of program that challenges participants to ramp it up.

The head girls' coach at Manatee High, Rae Ann Darling Reed, led the girls as she always does in the weeks before school. As her volunteer assistant coach, I'm sometimes more participant than coach. This is my third year in that role, trying to help out whatever way I can.

Reed is just back from a Brooks (as in the running apparel company) coaching camp and had all kinds of new exercises to teach us. The big fad in running now is barefoot running. But even for kids, who haven't spent their lives in shoes as long as us older folks, any kind of barefoot running must be done slowly and gradually. Since I suffered a stress fracture years ago doing what I thought was slow and gradual, I take this seriously.

As a personal trainer, watching form is my comfort zone. When it comes to helping a girl who says, "I can't feel that calf stretch," I can jump right in and give immediate tips that help isolate and make the stretch happen. You wouldn't think that's a big deal, but tight calves are often a source of many sports injuries.

Although I have a Road Runners Association of America coaching certification, Reed has more running certifications than me. She ran on Brown University's Cross Country team in an age where women were encouraged and supported to do that. Most of the women in my age group only had extracurricular choices of home economics and field hockey. So I defer to Reed's running expertise and her record of winning many races. She doesn't have a personal training certification, nor does she need one for what she does. But I've found over the years our combined knowledge and experience has been a wonderful partnership.

My focus with the anyone I train is injury prevention. You can take classes on injury prevention, but there's nothing quite a like a life experience to learn prevention.

Mostly, I enjoy showing the kids that they too can be almost 60 and still run, without injury. I won the plank contest (again) this year. When Reed announces that it is time for the contest, one of the kids usually pleads, "Does Ellen have to count?" I did give my prize to the second-place plank holder. A plank, by the way, is a static hold of the starting push-up position. You just don't lower your arms to the ground.

I am willing to admit that I might have strong shoulders, even though when we moved to Florida, I was facing certain surgery like my mom had. Due to a lack of exercise and sitting at a computer too long, I was diagnosed with an incredibly painful frozen shoulder. It took a great physical therapist and getting back into running to completely cure it. The painful agony I suffered just trying to open a car door is a blurry memory.

My real joy with working with the girls is bringing healthy snacks every day. Some of you may remember the free cooking classes I used to teach for The Cancer Project. Since we had to start charging for them, there hasn't been much interest in offering them here (though I'm happy to do them).

I usually bring in lots of healthy things like veggies and whole-grain bread to spread with hummus over peanut butter. I include lots of fruit because I know that fruit tastes so much better after a two-hour run in the Florida heat, even at 7 a.m.

This year the kids generously took up a collection to pay for part of the food. In years past, I just donated it. I wish I could have kept doing that. Many of these kids will be our community leaders, and their gratitude for healthy food after a huge effort is appreciated in the words of thanks I hear. This is my favorite time of year.

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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