Beep Ball player Tim Manning pitches to visually impaired player Scean Atkinson.

The Athens Timberwolves will host a Georgia Beep Baseball Association round-robin tournament with visiting teams from Atlanta, Augusta and Columbus at Smith Field on Saturday, April 27, reports an April 26 story in the Athens Banner-Herald.

The Athens Timberwolves, who practice every Saturday from 1-4 p.m. at Smith Field, need volunteers to help at practice and during competition.

The Athens Timberwolves will host a Georgia Beep Baseball Association round-robin tournament with visiting teams from Atlanta, Augusta and Columbus at Smith Field on Saturday, April 27.

Beep Baseball is an adapted sports activity for people with disabilities. The Athens team was formed and is led by Athens Inclusive Recreation and Sports (AIRS), a non-profit organization made up of community volunteers, most of who are University of Georgia graduates and students.

The tournament will begin at 9 a.m. and run all day at Smith Field, located at 1570 Epps Bridge Road, near Home Depot.

The event is part of a “home-and-home” rotation of regular season competition from March through July that helps the teams prepare for the World Series of Beep Baseball, this year hosted by Columbus, Ga., from July 29 – August 3.
The Athens Timberwolves, who practice every Saturday from 1-4 p.m. at Smith Field, need volunteers to help at practice and during competition.

“Volunteers fill many important positions including: sighted player positions, such as pitcher, catcher, base operator, field spotter and umpire—though the players are sometimes unsure how much visual acuity the volunteer who fills this one possesses,” said Roger Keeney, executive director of AIRS. “Non-impaired volunteers who want to play other positions wear blindfolds to level the playing field.”

Additional volunteer positions, most crucial for the players who are visually
impaired, is driver as many do not get to practice or games without rides, he said.
AIRS’ on-going collaboration with UGA is resulting in some incentives for students as it has become a site for practicum assignments, according to Keeney.

For more information about AIRS, visit:
www.airs-ga.org/

Additional information and video about beep baseball at the elite
level is available at: www.NBBA.ORG.

The series allows UGA undergraduate, graduate students and faculty to hear professionals in the sport industry and engage them in constructive discussions about key issues. This week’s guest lecturer is:

David Vinturella, Fishbait Marketing Director of Marketing/Media Partnerships
“The Business of March Madness.”

205 Ramsey Student Center

Press Release

Thomas

Toney

Two College of Education students — Jordan Thomas and Collette Toney — were among 14 outstanding senior leaders honored by the University of Georgia’s Pandora Yearbook during a banquet on March 26 at the Tate Student Center.

Students, their hometowns and majors are:

• Danielle Burnette, McRae, political science
• Kasey Darley, Macon, chemistry
• Joseph Wells Ellenberg, Saint Simons Island, political science
• Justin Ernest, Norcross, finance
• Rebeka Geer, Auburn, NY, public relations
• Carlon Howard, Dublin, political science
• Melanie Lucash, Lawrenceville, health promotions and behavior
• Rashaida Melvin, Acworth, human development and family science
• Lauren Tiffany Robinson, Ball Ground, human development and family science
• Anesia Sandifer, Martinez, finance
• Adrienne Schwartzman, Suwanee, interdisciplinary studies in wilderness therapy
• Jordan Thomas, Alpharetta, sports management
• Collette Toney, Snellville, social studies education
• Fatima Youseff, Monroe, international affairs

“These students are some of the brightest and most committed individuals in the senior class,” said Donielle Ojeah Bell, senior coordinator for student activities and staff adviser for Pandora. “They’ve shown themselves to be leaders during their time at Georgia, and we fully expect that each of them will accomplish great things in the future.”

This year’s honorees were selected from among more than 30 nominees.

Nominations were accepted from faculty and staff members or from the students themselves. Students were interviewed by two faculty or staff members, and the scores from the interviews were combined with students’ GPAs to arrive at an overall score.

The 2013 Pandora Yearbook will be unveiled during the annual Pandora Premiere event on April 24 on the Tate Student Center Plaza.

Pandora Yearbook is a registered student organization within UGA’s Division of Student Affairs.

For more information, call 706/542-6396 or see http://pandora.uga.edu.

Grand Halls A, B & C
Tate Student Center

Website
Press release

Thomas Baker (R), assistant professor of sport management receives 2013 Young Professional Award

University of Georgia College of Education faculty member Thomas A. Baker has received the 2013 Young Professional Award from the Sport & Recreation Law Association (SRLA).

Baker, an assistant professor in the sport management and policy program in the department of kinesiology, was a commercial litigator before earning his Ph.D. and joining the UGA faculty in 2007.

He conducts research in sport management that focuses on the application of the law to sport. Within that focus, he specializes in how commercial laws influence and affect sport marketing. Additionally, he conducts risk management research focused on both preventing sexual abuse in youth sports and terrorism management at sports facilities.

Baker received doctorate in sport management from the University of Florida where he was a Dr. Charles W. LaPradd Ph.D. Fellow, earned the Clifford A. Boyd Graduate Scholarship Award and the Norma M. Leavitt Scholarship. He earned his J.D. from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans.

Thomas

University of Georgia sport management and public relations student Jordan Thomas has received national recognition for his work as an intern at a major entertainment corporation with a 2013 T. Howard Foundation Diversity Award.

The mission of the T. Howard Foundation is to diversify the multimedia and entertainment industry by increasing the representation of minority young men and women within it. The T. Howard Foundation partners with media industry leaders such as Time-Warner Cable, ESPN, Showtime and more to provide internships and development opportunities for minority students.

T. Howard  recognizes industry leaders in diversity at its annual Awards Dinner. A highlight of the event is the presentation of the prior internship class and recognition of their host companies. Thomas was recognized for his work as an intern with Comcast Corporation’s public relations department in the summer of 2012.

Thomas, a senior from Trenton, N.J., is pursuing a bachelor of arts in sport management in the College of Education and a bachelor of arts in journalism with a focus on public relations in the Grady College of Journalism.

Thomas works closely with students in UGA residence halls as a Resident Assistant. He creates programming, arranges company visits and workshops for individuals aspiring to work within the sport and entertainment industry. He also keeps students aware of all of the programs and events on UGA’s campus as the Public Relations representative of the student programming board of the University Union. Upon graduation, he plans to work in themarketing/communications field of the sporting industry.

He was presented the award in New York City at the T. Howard Foundation’s Annual Diversity Awards Dinner on March 20, 2013.

Froehlich-Grobe

One of the leading researchers and educators in the field of health promotion and behavioral sciences, Katherine Froehlich-Grobe, an associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Texas-Dallas, will speak on “Promoting Health for Individuals with Disabilities: Time to Act.”

A Meet-and-Greet Reception with her will precede the lecture at 2:30 p.m.

Room S175
Coverdell Center

The reception and lecture are sponsored by the UGA Obesity Initiative and the College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology.

Press release

Armstrong

Ketra L. Armstrong, a nationally recognized scholar on race, gender, and the social psychology of managing, marketing and participating in sports will present the annual Clifford Lewis Scholar Lecture.

Armstrong, associate dean for graduate programs and faculty affairs and a professor of sport management in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan, will present a lecture titled, “Self and Sport: A Journey of Discovery.”

Room S151
Lamar Dodd School of Art

Press release