Summer leagues heat up

This week marks the beginning of the summer sports schedule of games for the Anna Maria Island Community Center. Four different leagues will begin the summer trip towards the glory of the championship trophies.

The kids this summer will escape the summer heat and play indoor soccer in the Center’s air conditioned gymnasium. A total of nine teams will be spread out into three age divisions ranging from 5 to 13 years old. Indoor soccer is a fast paced sport that gives each child plenty of touches on the ball and emphasizes ball control and passing.

Adults can also escape the heat into the air conditioned gym during the co-ed volleyball league. A total of five teams will take to the court this season, which is one more than last year. Teams will spike, dig and block their way towards the season ending championship tournament.

Outside, the much anticipated adult co-ed flag football league will heat things up. Eight teams will grace the newly renovated Center’s gridiron field, which is the same amount of teams as last summer.

This year’s schedule will also include a rivalry week during the last week of the regular season featuring brother versus brother games and friend versus friend games. These games should be fun and interesting to watch especially with the implications of playoffs beginning the following week.

Also outside, if the summer rains hold off, will be the start of the first annual co-ed adult softball league. The formation of teams and tryouts has been postponed for two weeks due to rainy conditions at Holmes Beach city field. The Center is hopeful that teams will be formed this week and the season will start next Friday night.

Youth Baseball Camp

Summer baseball camp is back at the Community Center this week. Coach and instructor Jessie Brisson will be holding a four-day baseball camp and sharing his passion and understanding of the game. His goals are to teach the kids the fundamentals, bring children together as a team, show them the strength of camaraderie and teamwork and unlock the power of working as a team. Most of all he wants the children to have fun and love the game of baseball.

The camp will conclude with a field trip to the Rays vs. the Twins game on Thursday. This trip is in conjunction with the Center’s Summer-My-Way camp as they travel as a group to the parks and recreation day at Tropicana Field. A great way to show these little sluggers the great game of baseball at the highest level.

Adult co-ed Flag Football

July 11, Thursday, 6 p.m., Jessie’s Island Store Jaguars vs. The Feast restaurant Falcons
July 11, Thursday, 7 p.m., Waterfront restaurant Raiders vs. Agnelli Pools & Spas Giants
July 11, Thursday, 8 p.m., Discount Signs & Wraps Seahawks vs. Sato Real Estate Browns
July 11, Thursday, 9 p.m., Slim’s Place Broncos vs. Beach to Bay Construction Dolphins

Adult co-ed Volleyball

July 9, Tuesday, 6:30 p.m., Island Real Estate vs. Bowes Imaging Center
July 9, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., Beach Bums vs. Salon Salon
July 9, Tuesday, 8:30 p.m., Southern Greens vs. Beach Bums
July 16, Tuesday, 6:30 p.m., Beach Bums vs. Bowes Imaging Center
July 16, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., Bowes Imaging Center vs. Southern Greens
July 16, Tuesday, 8:30 p.m., Salon Salon vs. Island Real Estate

Youth Indoor Soccer

5-7-year-olds

July 10, Wednesday, 6 p.m., Miller Electric vs. Bowes Imaging Center
July 12, Friday, 6 p.m., Bowes Imaging Center vs. Miller Electric

8-10-year-olds

July 10, Wednesday, 7 p.m., LPAC vs. Air & Energy
July 12, Friday, 7 p.m., Beach Bistro vs. LPAC
July 15, Monday, 6 p.m., Air & Energy vs. Beach Bistro

11-13-year-olds

July 10, Wednesday, 8 p.m., LPAC vs. Island Dental Spa
July 15, Monday, 7 p.m., Island Dental Spa vs. Eat Here
July 15, Monday, 8 p.m., LPAC vs. Bark & Company Realty, Inc.

 

Sprinting to the finish line

“Tell your publicist to send me your bio,” and a long list of requests follows. As my new book, “Kitchen Divided-Vegan Dishes for Semi-Vegan Households” just came out, I love incoming requests like this. But I can’t tell you how many times someone assumes I have a publicist.

My publisher told me once, “Welcome to the world of being a book author where so many authors find out that whole money-making idea is a huge myth. It takes decades to be an overnight success.”

I have been very grateful to have a publisher and others who invite me to speak all over the past two years. And as a result, I’ve met some of the most respected and popular authors and doctors in the veg community. I only know two non-doctor authors who have any kind of staff, usually a staff of one who may be a part-time assistant.

When “Eat Vegan on $4 a Day” first came out, I was approached by all kinds of hucksters promising me a chance on “Ellen” or “Dr. Oz,” if I gladly forked over $30,000. One of my doctor/author colleagues told me that such an appearance spiked his Amazon rankings for a few days, but generally, it is the hard day-to-day work of speaking and appearances on social media that sustains book sales. My journalism degree was from a well-respected journalism school. It still enjoys a great reputation, but Twitter was something we did when a rare boring professor was in progress.

Another myth I’ve encountered is that endurance running is more difficult than sprint running. You may recall that I am in the final days of training for the National Senior Games in Cleveland. I qualified in every event I placed in at the state meet.

There are some amazing endurance runners who look like they were chiseled from Greek mythology. Since I trained for 18 months before I did my first marathon in 2010, I too, am blown away by how much better I think my body looked then than it does now.

No, I’m not body-image fixated. It’s just fact. You can really see it photos. Yes, yes, yes, muscle weighs more than fat. There’s no question that the muscles that have bulked up from the sprinting I’ve been doing, contribute to my 10-pound weight-gain since the marathon.

My coach tells me sprinters typically have tighter fitting pants. And the lean body-fat, no muffin-top marathoners have has given way to that inner-tube middle my aging body wants to create for the next famine.

The publisher of the Running Journal, for which I also write, says it is rare for anyone with my sprint times, vegan or not, to have ever finished a marathon. Humans have both fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscles. We usually have more of one or the other, which is why you don’t often see athletes excelling in both events.

This publisher has encouraged me to get my muscles tested to see which muscles predominate, which I will surely do after I spend $5,000 to see if I have the breast cancer genes that run in my family. We were part of the original gene studies, but they never tell you the results, even though my mom, aunt and both sisters had breast cancer. I would love know, but wouldn’t do anything differently.

Several vegan endurance authors have had popular books such as Ruth Heidrich, Rich Roll and Scott Jurek. But no sprint runners. The challenge of not having a publicist is that you are your own. So when I tell others in the vegan universe that I’m third in state in three events and my 100 meters time is :06 slower than personal records listed by NCAA college girls, I’m lucky to get a, “That’s nice.”

Having trained for both endurance and sprint events, I believe that sprint training is harder and has a much greater risk of injury. Yet, to be a good sprinter, you have to have the aerobic capacity of an endurance runner.

My coach says I’m the only person she’s ever trained who smiles after running a sprint. I love it. It’s like flying. Need for speed. That said, my back and knees are complaining about the non-rubber Manatee High track. I can’t wait to get back to endurance training. It’s so much easier!

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.