The following originally aired on KCBS.
By: Tierra Walls
Does your job affect what you eat? Because mine has.
In high school, I played three sports for five months straight every year. I made sure that I packed a sandwich, fruit, and water for after school.
As senior year arrived, I started to change. I wasn’t into sports as I was before. I needed to save money for college – so I got a job at Kentucky Fried Chicken, joining the 21 percent of all food beverage workers were between the ages of 16 and 19.
At KFC we got one free meal, every 5 hours that we worked. -- I worked 45 hours a week. My plan was to make money, not consume more calories. Yet I still ended up eating two crispy wings dipped in BBQ sauce and potato wedges every shift.
I recently got a job at a healthy foods organization instead. Now, I prepare healthy meals for others, which gives me an opportunity to make healthier choices for myself. I’ve been cooking more and trying to watch what I eat.
Now that my work environment has changed, I always prefer eating a home cooked meal instead of to eating fast food.
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This story was originally published on L.A. Youth.
By Karina Arias
I’ve always been a tomboy. As a kid, I liked getting scrapes and bruises playing kickball and tetherball with the boys a lot more than playing with makeup with the girls. I was one of the best tetherball players and I scored the most during kickball. But in sixth grade all I saw were boys’ sports teams at school.
Whenever I passed by the girls’ gym after school I saw the boys inside shooting hoops and it was the boys’ soccer team kicking and passing on the field. I was jealous. So instead of playing sports after school, I went home and watched TV. I also started hanging around with girls who didn’t take school seriously. I stopped caring as much about my homework and I got my first Ds on my report cards. My mother would ask me, “Why are your grades so low?” I would tell her that my teachers had made mistakes with the grading.
Since she spoke very little English, she wasn’t able to confirm this with my teachers. By the end of sixth grade, I wasn’t motivated about school at all. It was so unfair that boys had all these opportunities. I felt like everything—sports, politics, some households—was dominated by men and I wanted to prove that girls are just as good as guys, even better sometimes. But to do that girls need opportunities to play sports in school, otherwise some of them will give in to the stereotype that men are better.
One day in November of seventh grade, I saw three sweaty girls walking after school. I asked them why they were so tired. “Drill team,” one of the girls replied. I asked if I could try out and they said yes. I was excited that I had found something to keep me active. I was doing fine when practice started, but then I turned to my left and saw three girls on the ground doing splits. I didn’t think I could do splits. When practice ended the coach told us about the uniforms. They were small, sparkly, royal-blue dresses. The length was about 5 inches above the knee and when a girl twirled, the skirt would rise up higher and show the bottom part of the uniform that was stitched to the skirt, which looked like underwear.
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When the words “professional athletes” comes to mind, we tend to think of toned bodies, rigid workout schedules, and large appetites. The average fan would naturally assume that the diets of athletes like Jet’s hero Joe Namath and slugger Hank Aaron included a lot of meat as a source of protein and bulk for their strong-bodied machines. The reality is that more former and current athletes have given up meat as the source of their protein in exchange for vegetable based diets.
So who exactly are these vegetarians? How about Carl Lewis, famous Olympian track start from the 1980’s. And Mike Tyson, legendary boxer, now turned TV host and pigeon-owner. Mike has taken on a warm and fuzzy persona that includes a shift to veganism for a healthier lifestyle.
By Ross Andrews
There are few things in life as satisfying as ‘laying the boom’ on an opponent and feeling his body crumple in return.
To be a great at football, you kind of have to be built to play the game. I’m not. I weigh 130 pounds, I speak in monotone, and I’m as fast as LA traffic. I got manhandled during the two years I played high school football. And when a tight end literally threw me on a run play, I thought maybe football isn’t right for me.
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As you may know, skateboards have been around in the U.S. since the 1950’s, and are ingrained in pop culture. Skateboarding in the U.S. even has its own fashion and lingo.
But this sport is gradually traveling around the world, and has made a difference in two places in particular: Afghanistan and Uganda.
In the U.S. skateboarders search for sidewalk bumps or stone ledges to grind on and jump off of. Just imagine skateboarding around piles of rubble, blown up cars, and collapsing buildings. This is the reality for kids in Afghanistan, where the sport is catching on. A man named Oliver Percovitch, from Canada, started a Skateboarding school in Kabul in 2009, called Skateistan, according to the New York Times. The school is for boys and girls, ages 5 - 17, is open six days a week, and sits on top of an ex-Taliban public execution site.
International donations of skate gear and money helped start this project, with the goal of distracting youth from the destruction and violence around them. From the looks of things, these kids are having fun! For every hour of skateboarding that they do, they have one hour of instruction - in things like English, the Quran, and health. Girls are separated from boys in these classes because of Islamic tradition.
Not only is the introduction of skateboarding serving to improve the life of young people in Afghanistan, but it’s actually causing some social change. Islamic girls in Afghanistan must be veiled when they reach puberty, according to custom. This means they can’t skate alongside boys after that, but according to the USA Today article, young girls who skateboard are gaining social confidence and a voice.
Now, travel Southwest a ways... and meet the Uganda Skateboard Union, where instead of skateboarding around building rubble, you’re dodging chickens and dogs! Skateboarding was introduced to this country by another young Canadian, Brian Lye. Brian and his friend Jackson Mubiru, raised enough money to build the country’s first skate park, and received massive amounts of donations from all over the world. The goal of the Union is to keep Ugandan youth from getting bored and to educate them. Brian Lye is somewhat of a hero in Uganda, and returned to the Uganda skate park on July 6, 2010, only to find youth ready to take him on with new tricks!
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By: Rod Aminzadeh
There are several major reasons why Soccer is not a popular sport in the United States. First of all, there are just too many national sports in America such as football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. Most people have grown up with these sports and soccer is kind of a new game, so people haven't adapted to it. Secondly, there are not enough international games for the soccer clubs playing in the U.S. The only important soccer tournament in America is Major League Soccer (MLS). There are also some college tournaments but not many people even know about it.
Soccer clubs in other continents like Europe, Asia, and South America, are really active and have several international games and tournaments such as "Champions League" and "UEFA Europa League" in Europe, "Copa Libatadores" in South America, and "AFC Champion Leagues" in Asia.
Sports in America are seasonal. On other continents, the soccer season lasts about nine months plus playing a couple of international tournaments during their regular season.
"Soccer has very few chances for commercials and so very few opportunities for television companies to make money from showing soccer, especially as it is not a massively popular sport in the U.S. Perhaps if it had the coverage, it would generate fans and in time make the money, as the rest of the world knows, the potential is there for some serious profits."
via Helium.
Another reason why people aren’t as interested is the lack of scoring in soccer. Americans enjoy watching sports that have a high scores, making it more exciting for them. For example, in football, the players score several touchdowns. Basketball scores can get as high as 100 points per game. Then you have soccer, where teams score about one or two goals on average and it's not exciting enough to grab people's attention—at least in the U.S
"Soccer has become more popular in the US in the last years and many young people, either male and females, regularly play it in the colleges, but it hasn't still reached the popularity and passion levels of Europe, Latin America and also Africa, so that it's difficult to find in the US stadiums build just for soccer."
via Helium.
Hopefully, we'll see more soccer being played and watched in the United States in the upcoming years and gain the respect that it deserves in America.
A younger generation of superstars is about to be born. The first ever YouthOlympic Gamestakes place this August in Singapore... and the torch has already been lit!
Over 3,600 young athletes, ages 14 - 18, from 100 different countries will be competing in 26 sports from August 14th to August 26th. Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee, was the mastermind behind this idea saying the games are a, “gateway for youth to improve their performance on the field and in life.”
The26 eventsinclude sports like basketball, archery, canoe-kayak, handball, taekwondo, and the modern pentathlon. In the regular Summer Olympic Games, the pentathlon consists of five sports: fencing, swimming, running, shooting, and riding. The Youth Olympic Games will exclude riding from this event.
The torch for the Youth Olympic Games was lit in Olympia, the birth place of the Olympic Games. It travelled to Berlin and Dakar, and is currently making its way towards Mexico City, then Auckland, then Seoul, eventually ending up in Singapore on August 14th. It will burn for 12 days until the games are finished.
TheOpening Ceremonywill definitely be worth watching. Over 7,000 youth performers will be singing, dancing, and showcasing amazing costumes. Stay with us for updates on the U.S.A. contenders, and the highlights from the first Youth Olympic Games.
The following originally aired on KCBS.
By: Elena Hernandez
My high school badminton team doesn’t get a lot of support, and no one really cares, or comes to watch our games. But despite that, we’re the fastest growing team.
Last year I played basketball, and after running suicides 6 days a week, I thought badminton would be a piece of cake. But this sport offers different challenges.
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Youth Radio’s Shaw Killip discusses athletes and guns on an episode of his show “Necessary Roughness.”
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By Dishan Lowe
Derrick Rose was the number one pick in the 2009 NBA draft. The point guard out of the University of Memphis was selected by the Chicago Bulls. He is my pick for Rookie of The Year. The Chicago native is playing in his hometown but he seems to be dealing with the pressure well. He was the nation’s top high school point guard in 2007. He was Illinois Mr. Basketball in 2007. He was the skills challenge champion at the 2009 NBA all-star weekend beating Devin Harris, Mo Williams, and Tony Parker.
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