Sports of All Sorts by LASA Ezine

Fall 2021 1

Sports of all Sorts -

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Letter From The Editors

Hello, if you’re reading this, you’r e likely just as interested in sports as we are. This is great because you will lea rn a lot about multiple aspects of sports including sport medicine, sports training , sports technology, and sports in Austin. Our stories are a variety of aspect s in the sports world. From sport training to sport technology we cover every thing you need to know. We cove red a pretty broad range of things so some of the smaller details or specific thi ngs may have been left out. The first step we took when makin g our Ezine was coming up with what we wanted each of our subtopics to be about. We knew we wanted our overarching theme to be about sports, but there were endless options of what we could pick to focus more specifically on . We are very proud of our infograp hics as it took us quite a while to make and we made sure to have the hig hest quality of information as we ll as how it’s presented. We are also proud of the behind the scene things like how we got our interviews and making sure every thing was top tier. One thing that took us a lot of tim e was coming up with layouts tha t were both consistent and interesting. Go od layouts can be the difference between a good Ezine and a bad one, so we put extra time and effort into the m. The ASFs while not as long took a lot of bra inpower to brainstorm ideas and what would look good as well as information al. We look forward to seeing you in our stories, and once again, welco me and enjoy! Sincerely, Ishan V. Bhavsar Grant K. Salmon Ben E. Parsegian Jack Z. Spencer

Sports of all Sorts Sports of all Sorts- - 1

Table of Contents

Parsegian, Ben - Sports Cast

Top 10 NBA Point Leaders

Bhavsar, Ishan - Sports Technology

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Sports Popularity

22 24 28 Salmon, Grant - Sportistic

History of Q2

Spencer, Jack - Sports Training

Sports Training Info

30 Special Thanks 31 Credits

Cover photo courtesy of Springfield JCC Table of Contents Designer: Ben Parsegian

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A resistance band is a great piece of equipment that can stretch all parts of the body. Using it in different ways stretches different parts of the body. Photos by Ben Parsegian

Physical Therapy

Understanding more about injuries in sports By Ben Parsegian

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It is crucial that athletes’ bodies stay in peak condition to perform at the highest level while avoiding injury. Physical therapy serves both of these needs and is significant to athletes’ success because what happens off the field is often more important than what happens on the field. Because anyone can experience injuries at any time, many people end up visiting a physical therapist at some point in their lives. Becoming a physical therapist doesn’t require the same training as doctors or nurses, however they do need a bachelor’s degree, ideally relating to health sciences. People often confuse physical therapy and orthopedic therapy according to Eric Johnson, a physical therapist in Austin. While they are similar in some ways, they cannot be used interchangeably. “Anything that involves bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, or joints is essentially orthopedics,” Johnson said. Colby Christie, a physical therapist in Austin also helped define the two terms.

“Team sports like football, basketball, and soccer which are all high-impact sports usually cause more injuries.” - Eric Johnson, phyiscal therapist

“Physical therapy is a much broader topic with many specific types depending on the injury or physical problem,” Christie said. “Physical therapy is finding the problem, what is causing it and how to fix it. Skin can be an issue, nerves can be an issue, blood flow can be an issue, cartilage.” Most people are often curious as to what injuries are most commonly seen by physical therapists according to both Johnson and Christie. Being aware of what these are could help you stay safe in the future. “With sports-related injuries, the ankle sprain is common,” Christie said. “Knee injuries are also pretty common. Generally speaking, people that come in have either rolled their ankles, twisted their knees, or sprained their shoulders.” According to Kelly Grosche, a chiropractor in Austin, the most common areas in need of adjustments are the neck and the spine. “Lots of people that sit at a computer all day have back pain because their spine has been slightly altered and is no longer correctly aligned,” Grosche said. Contrary to popular belief, Johnson said, women

Yoga is great because anyone can do it at home, no equipment required.

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Thigh rollers are most commonly used after exercise, but can also be used help recover from an injury.

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experience more injuries in the hip and knees than men do. “Hip and knee injuries are common in women related to the development of their hips and pelvises compared to men,” said Johnson. “For the same reason, there are also more ACL injuries in women as well.” There is also a correlation between being tall and being more prone to injury, according to Christie. “Larger and taller people tend to have more back and neck problems. I am not sure if this is the consensus in the United States or all over the world,” he said. Certain injuries are far more difficult to recover from than others. “Neck and cervical spine fractures are very difficult to recover from,” Christie said. “Dislocations are also really hard to recover from, especially for athletes. This is because it is much easier to dislocate a bone that has been dislocated in the past. Knee injuries are also sometimes very hard to recover from because your knee functions in a three dimensional way. If you damage the supporting ligaments in the knee, it is hard to restabilize and get your knee back to where it was before the injury.” Being less susceptible to injury is important for everyone, especially athletes. According to Christie, the only predictor of injury is priory injury. “You can look into what parts of the body are most used and most

“Larger and taller people tend to have more back and neck problems. I am not sure if this is the consensus in the United States or all over the world.” - Colby Christie, physical therapist

susceptible to an injury in certain sports and the way they are played. The surface the sport is played on can also lead to certain injuries occurring,” Christie said. “Injuries can happen in any sport, but the chances of those certain injuries vary based on the way the sport is played.” Due to rapid innovation in the medical field, most physical therapists’ jobs have been changed by new technology in recent years, said Johnson. He said platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections for stem cell injections have changed his job the most

in the past decade because it made fixing certain injuries much easier and less costly. “We do this by drawing patients’ blood and taking out the platelets and plasma that have the growth factors and stem cell receptors,” Johnson said. “Sometimes we’ll take their bone marrow from their hip or pelvis and use those cells to inject into a knee joint or shoulder joints afor arthritis and sometimes into soft tissue structures like tendons and ligaments.” While understanding what certain injuries can be fixed by certain treatment strategies is important, the overall aspect of medicine in sports is something that is more vital to understand. “The medical aspect of sports can sometimes go unappreciated, but it’s important to know the actual impact it has on players’ performances,” Christie said.

You can also use the back roller as a side roller, which helps with hip or pelvis injuries. Sports of sorts all Sorts Sports of all - 9- 9

The

Best

NBA Players

All Time

Graphics by Ben Parsegian

Fun Fact! Former NBA player Shaquille O’Neal broke 19 basketball rims throughout his career! He decided to make a piece of art out of all those rims naming it the “Broken Rim Tree.”

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Who Do People Think is the Greatest Basketball Player Jabbar - 9% of All Time? Russell - 6%

James - 12% Jordan - 73%

Most

Career Points Scored of

All Time Anthony

Jabbar Malone

Scoring is one of the most important parts of basketball and these are the people who were the best at it throughout the history of the sport! As you can see to the right, the players’ jerseys are lined up on the net in order from most points to least points. Each player’s total amount of points is next to their jersey.

Malone

Bryant

Nowitzki

Total points: 38,387

Total Points: 27,370

O’Neal

Total points: 36, 928

Total Points: 27,409 James

Total points: 35,367

Total points: 33,643

Jordan

Total Points: 32,292

Total Points: 31,560

Chamberlain

Total Points: 28,596

Total Points: 31,419

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SPORTS TECHNOLOGY 12 - Sports of all Sorts

Photo courtesy of: Christopher Johnson Changes made by: Ishan Bhavsar

An intoduction into how technology is being used to help athletes

ports are entering a new world, virtually. Sports are being seen in virtual reality and many other new advancements in technology. Athletes that are introduced to this technology are able to stay ahead of the competition. Technology has always been used throughout the sports world, but as it advances, it becomes something that every athlete needs if they want to stay ahead of the game. Athletes and pro teams using some of the newest sports technology are able to stay ahead of their competitors. Some examples of sports technology companies include Win Reality, Rezzil, Kinexon, and tons more.

Live pitching is much accessible with Win Reality but it might not be the only thing to do for training.

Photos courtesy of: Rezzil Player from france based soccer team; PSG using REZZIL’s virtual reality training product. In the background on the computer, people can see a display of what the player sees.

Win Reality, a sports technology company, is using virtual reality to help train baseball players. The app allows players to receive any level of pitching whenever they want, according to J.T. Rogoszewski, a coach at Win Reality. “With [Win] Reality you’re able to get [training] anytime, anyday, and anywhere; just at home,” Rogeszewski said. “You can go and see as many pitches as you want.” Model of how the Rezzil’s technology looks on screen.

“I think training in VR is not something you want to exclusively do but I think it’s something that you should add to your training, because you’re not able to go outside, go to the field, and see live pitching everyday,” Rogeszewski said. Even though training in virtual reality isn’t the only training to do, it still has lots of benefits compared to only doing traditional training. The batting has almost all the benefits of regular training just that you can do it at any time, and anywhere. The technology gets even more realistic and beneficial when it is used in the big leagues. The company videos pitchers of all levels to suit the level of every client they have. For example if a highschool baseball player decided to train with Win Reality they will have them hit against videos of highschool pitchers and the same goes for each level of player. But with the MLB, players can warm up and be ready for every pitcher they face. “We film and cut every pitcher in Cover for “Player 22” game created by rezzil

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the MLB so that they are able to see the actual pitcher that they are about to face”, said Rogeszewski. The pitching in Win Reality is actual video of players along with the data from the pitching. This makes the training more realistic for each level of play. Rogeszewski says, “It’s their exact pitch shape, it’s the exact speed of their pitches, and it’s the actual video of them pitching.” To track all the data that is used in the training Win Reality uses technology called trackman. “We get that information and those exact shapes that the trackman brings in and put it into [the system] so the ball has the exact shape, exact speed, and everything of the pitch that’s thrown.”

Photos courtesy: Kinexon

This a select iBall which allows for Kinexon to track the anyalytics of the ball throughout a game. The ball is being used in various leagues around the world.

“We will have [users] run through programs and drills [for soccer] that are designed to cognitively make them smarter and also create good habits on

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The purpose of these drills are to build habits, and there are a couple different specific traits that the drills focus on. Barsanti said the traits include “Adaptability which is their ability to use their left foot or their right foot, composure which is how they react under pressure, accuracy which as it sounds is how accurate they are, and reaction time; how quickly are they making decisions on the soccer field.” The technology doesn’t only include drills though, it also advances the ways teams watch film. Now instead of just rewatching a game on T.V, their technology can put a player back into the game virtually. “The match analysis system puts you back in the game, an actual game footage, after the game.” Barasanti said.

With all the benefits and helpfulness of Win Reality, the customers have to love it. “We constantly hear feedback from our users that they are feeling more confident, and more comfortable in the box”, said JT. Another sports virtual reality company named Rezzil is also using innovative technology to help train athletes. The training protects athletes from injury, helps them rehab, and helps build habits for players according to Christian Barsanti, Director of Operations for Rezzil.

the field,” Barsanti said.

The technology helps players replay games, and review where they went wrong, or what they did well. Christain Barasanti says, “We can put you back in the game, as a player, or any player, and you can relive that game or moments in that game to see what the player saw in that particular time, and why they made a decision.”

Kinexon’s tracking technology tracking specific players in game.

Virtual reality also means you can train while not having to make any physical interaction with a ball. Injured players can still train using virtual reality, keeping them ready for the next time they play.

“Let’s say [a player] hurt their leg and they can’t run around as much, well they can hit the ball, the virtual ball, without actually hitting a ball and reinjuring themselves.” said Barsanti The product does more than just train players. It also has an app consisting of fun games to give players a fun and calm experience between training sessions. Barsanti says, “If you go into Oculus, we have a app called Player 22, and it’s a lot of fun it has soccer, it has reactionary training, it has a football game now, quarterback drill, it has a basketball vision drill, and it’s even got games” Sports technology expands outside of just virtual reality, for example Kinexon is using their technology to track the movement of players. “Kinexon is a sports technology company that’s been operating in the US since 2016 and was founded in Germany in 2012,” Matt Bontorin, a director of marketing and communications at Kinexon said. The data collected by their technology helps the athletes tremendously, he explained. “With these next generation analytics there’s an easy way to evaluate athletes performance and athlete load on a day in day out basis,” Bontorin said. With the evolution of technology, the data they collect is more precise than ever before. “It’s so accurate to a point that we know if an athlete is performing close to their maximum load potential, and therefore we are able to really offer our clients something that’s pretty unique in this space.” Bontorin said. Using the data collected from the technology, you’re able to prevent common injuries that are

caused by being overworked. “You start to notice that a lot of the injuries that we were seeing before our technology was so prevalent, was the soft tissue injury, and now because of our ability to monitor, track, and to prevent, we are starting to see a lot less of that.” Bontorin said.

“With these next generation analytics there’s an easy way to evaluate athletes performance and athlete load on a day in day out basis.” - Matt Bontorin The screen in the picture shows how Kinexon can track players on the feild diring training, and games. This is what you’d see if you were to use Kinexons tracking products. Photo courtesy: Kinexon

Kinexon is unique compared to other companies in their field, because they track several different metrics in sports. Matt Bontorin says “[Kinexon’s technology] isn’t just giving you heat rate and that sort of stuff, we’re actually tracking the movement in different directions in a three dimensional way.” That innovative tracking goes a long way in improving athletic performance. Bontorin says “This three dimensional tracking is what is able to give us this new level of understanding of athlete performance.” Kinexon tracks tons of different metrics for players, coaches, and even users to look at. “Depending on the sport there are more than 180 metrics that the system can track. Some of the niche ones for different sports depend on the type of surface that they are playing on or how they are moving around a field.” Bontorin said Since Kinexon already is making tracking technology, the COVID-19 pandemic offered another opportunity to expand their technology. “During the COVID- 19 pandemic we’ve pivoted temporarily to focus our technology on contact tracing where we offer contact tracing solutions to leagues like the NFL the NBA major professional leagues in Asia, Europe, and all around the world.” Bontorin says Ultimately, each of these companies are creating technology that will completely change the way athletes train. There are already examples of these technologies being used throughout professional sports, and athletes that are using this technology are gaining an advantage over their competitors. Sports are entering a new world and the world is just beginning to catch up.

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A variety of sports are enjoyed around the world but there’s one question. What is the best sport? Throughout the next two pages that question will be answered along with give a couple fun facts.

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Graphics by Ishan Bhavsar. Data for best and worst survey collected by Ishan. Data for most viewed U.S. sport collected from sportsshow.net. Data for most viewed sport in the world collected from pledgesports.org.

The most popular sports around the world!

Sports Popularity

The Best ANd worst voted sports 4th

5th

7th 6th

2nd

The Best Sport

3rd

A survey conducted asked high school students what the best sport was in their opinion. The best overall voted sport was soccer and the worst overall was cricket.

3.5 B

ant Gr

c hi

By G

The most viewed sport in the U.S is football with a whopping 37% of the population that watches it

Salmon

illion

37%

The most viewed sport in the world is soccer with a total of 3.5 billion fans around the world.

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n i t s u Soccer in A de

ui g A

rts o p to s

stin u in A

n mo l a tS ran G By

Sports involve many things happening behind the scenes that are often overlooked or ignored by people, Ben Parsegian

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Above: The Q2 stadium opened in Austin during June

2021. Since then, soccer has become a major part of Austin life. graphic by Grant Salmon, photo courtesy of Troy Bryant

Below: When the stadium opened, a celebratory Tifo

was made. Tifos, which are short for the Latin word tifosi, meaning “crazy with typhus“, are large art pieces that represent Ausin. courtesy of Austin FC

said. Managers have to hire players and run stadiums, while fans look online to find out what the next event is. Supporter communities create crazy displays and raise cheers for their teams, all behind

the players games. Austin FC, which was founded in 2018 and played its first game in 2021, has become a major part of the sports scene. As more and more people join the communities surrounding the team, the attention and funds are growing, but so is the pressure for the team to win. Above: The second Tifo was a celebration of 2021 Pride Night and presented

the supporter section holding a colored ATX. Below: The third Tifo was in remembrance of Selena, a Tejano singer. photos courtesy of Austin FC

Los Verdes, a supporter group of Austin FC, are a devoted group of soccer fans who have devoted a lot of time to the team. On gamedays, they hang up banners, lead chants and songs, and even create massive art displays, something made possible thanks to the stadium location, Los Verdes manager Katie Ensign explained. “I was really excited when the team came and they were trying to find some place to play that was more central,” Ensign said. After their first game, the community began to grow extremely quickly. The amount of people wearing merchandise and other products also grew along with the fanbase. “It’s so crazy now that you can see bumper stickers and other merch,” Ensign said. “It’s gone from this thing that nobody knew or cared about, and it just exploded in the past year.”

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Austin reporter Troy Bryant agrees, saying “Jerseys have been selling really well, they’re fairly easy to make and can sell for a lot.” Having a team representing your city feels great, especially when they win. “I’ve just always liked the soccer community, and getting to cheer for my own local team was something that I always looked forward to,” Ensign said. Since Austin FC is the city’s first major league team, it is a big deal for the city as a whole.

Austin FC supporter group pumping up crowd during Pride Night. Photo courtesy of Ralph Arvesen

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“It’s so crazy now that you can see bumper stickers and other merch. It’s gone from this thing that nobody knew or cared about, and it just exploded in the past year.”

-Kaite Ensign, Los Verdes Manager

“This is big for Austin, since it’s our first major league professional team,” Ensign said. One part of having a professional team is creating displays to hype up the team. Setting up banners is one of the many things that Los Verdes does to prepare for a game. “It’s my job and I get a team of other people to help with setting those banners up on game day,” Ensign said. As the 2021 season continues, Los Verdes is growing rapidly. “We grew moderately throughout the year, I think we had around 300 or so at the end of 2020, and then it really really took off once we started having games. Today we have almost 2000 members in Los Verdes,” Ensign

said. The sense of community that Los Verdes brings is very rewarding to the members. “It’s been really cool to be part of something that connects all these great people while promoting causes that we care about,” Ensign said. Local teams bring in groups of people that want to enjoy the game together. Supporter groups make it really easy to connect with other similar people. “I think Los Verdes makes it easy for new fans to get connected with other fans, even if you don’t necessarily have a friend in town that wants to go to the game,” Ensign said. Long-time soccer fans were excited for the team coming to Austin. “I have played soccer my whole life, and when I heard about the potential for major league in Austin, I was on board.” Bryant, who writes about the team for his own website, Capital City Soccer. Ensign agreed, saying, “I have been a soccer fan for my whole life. I started playing when I was five years old and played through high school.”

“Grassroots is bottom level sharing, from person to person, and it works really well in Austin. It’s such a great city for soccer” -Troy Bryant, Austin Reporter

Verde Store in Q2 stadium. T-shirts and jerseys are some of the best-selling items for AustinFC. Photo courtesy of Troy Bryant The community also grows when people from out of town follow the players to the new team. “One thing that grows the community is people following players that used to play on other teams,” Bryant said. All of these people, joining into one community, spread the word around the city very quickly. “Grassroots is bottom level sharing, from person to person, and it works really well in Austin,” said Bryant. “It’s such a great city for soccer.”

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History 2 of

Graphics by: Grant Salmon

Before it was a stadium, the land that Q2 is built on was a chemical plant. The plant had already been shut down due to a series of on-site safety incidents. Once it was decided that the Q2 stadium would be built there, the plant was demolished and replaced with the foundations of the new stadium.

December, 1985: Chemical plant closes due to safety incidents

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December 19, 2018: Construction begins on the stadium

Almost the entire constuction was completed during the coronavirus lockdown. Perfect timing!

The stadium was voted on by the city, and was supported by the majority. The stadium got its name when the city made a deal with Q2, an online banking company, for naming rights. Today, the Q2 stadium hosts Austin FC games frequently and occasionally has other events from the city.

June 16, 2021: Stadium opens and hosts first event

While the team does use the stadium, the city actually owns it and can use it as it sees fit.

Today: The Q2 stadium is fully operational and hosts AustinFC

Information from: Troy Bryant www.kut.org

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Sports Training

Sports training is a key ingredient in many athletes lives By Jack Spencer

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Photo courtesy of Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA

ith the opening of schools after quarantine in 2020, sports have begun to open up again. Whether it be a quick eight second sprint or three hour football practice, there are hundreds of hours not seen training and practicing for athletes to reach their peak performance level.

Sports training is a huge part of high school students’ lives. There are many after-school activities that help these athletes be the best at their sport. “A good rule of thumb is to have at least one rest day,” Rodrick Thompson, a football coach at Anderson Highschool said. “In the PE department, when we talk about weight training, we start out 3

days a week for beginners and then adjust from there.” However, sports training is very broad and covers many different skills and exercises. For instance if you want to get faster you have to constantly be training, explained Allex Effer says, owner of Resilient Training and Rehabilitation. ”The best way to improve speed is to practice sprinting as fast as possible when in as fresh of a state as possible, and do this as frequently as possible,”Effer said. ”Improving agility holds to the same ideal as training speed. You must train as fast as possible, in as similar of a movement pattern to what is encountered

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on the field of play as possible.” As much as the training itself, good nutrition is vital for athletic success. ”We have football practice in the morning so a big breakfast is not good,” Thompson said. “Therefore,

we suggest waking up and eating something that will give our players fuel/energy throughout practice. Bananas, peanut butter sandwiches, granola bars, other fruits, etc. Try to stay away from dairy before a workout; it usually does not go well.”

“Sleep/rest is one of the most overlooked aspects of a healthy lifestyle. 8-10 hours would be great.” -Rodrick Thompson

A High School team in North Caroliona seen practicing and running drills. Photo courtesy of Nick Johnson.

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Another important aspect of the training process is sleep

”Sleep/rest is one of the most overlooked aspects of a healthy lifestyle. 8-10 hours would be great,” he said. To all the athletes out there who are training day

“Make sure you have done the research before you put anything performance based in your body.”

and night to be the best. Try to put in some of these methods into your training as it would highly benefit the efficiency of your daily workouts.

-Rodrick Thompson

Dumbell Shelf with many different weights for exercise in a gym. Photo courtesy of Marco Verch. Sports of all Sorts -

Sports T Graphics by Jack Spencer

40 Liberal Arts and Science Academy high school students in Austin were asked sports training related questions. Their daily activities say a lot about their physical and mental health.

14.3% Don’t 19% say sometimes

66.7% Do

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Do students eat breakfeast or not? Most Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA), a high school in Austin, students do eat breakfeast as it is the most important meal of the day.

Average number of hours students sleep Sleep is an essential function1 that allows your body and mind to recharge, leaving you refreshed and alert when you wake up. Healthy sleep also helps the body remain healthy and stave off diseases.

Source: Sleep Foundation

s Training 1.5

Average number of hours students Exercise

LASA students get an average of one-and-a-half hours of exercise per day which exeeds the atleast an hour reconmednation.

Most played Sports at School From the left Football(15%), Basketball(25%), Track(25%), Soccer(35%) are the most played sports at LASA

15%

25%

35%

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Meet the Team I’m Ben Parsegian, and I’m the features editor for our Ezine, Sports of All Sorts. My job is to go through all my teammates’ stories and make sure there are not any grammatical or spelling errors, as well as to make sure they flow nicely. We hope our magazine will be both informative and interesting, and that you find something you like.

My name is Ishan Bhavsar and I am the graphic editor for our magazine. I created many of the drawings and graphics found in our magazine. In our magazine we explore all the different parts of sports. In the future I hope to visit sports games around the world including the world cup. We hope you’ll enjoy our magazine and learn more about the different parts of sports!

Hi, I’m Grant Salmon. I’m the layout editor for our team Ezine and created many of the smaller designs in our magazine. The folios, end signs, and pull quotes are a few examples. In the future, I would like to spend some more time outdoors and in the world. We hope you enjoy our stories!

Hello, I’m Jack Spencer. I found many of our photos and am the photo editor for our Ezine team. Together we have created something for those interested in sports as well as those who may just like reading it about. Many of the things talked about can be related to all of you and we really hope you enjoy it!

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