The Shopping Duck » Sports

Equip Them Well

The Shopping Duck — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:21:17 +0000

All of my kids play soccer. This year has been an especially wet year and equipment cleanliness is even more important. MRSA, a potentially life threatening antibiotic resistant Staph infection, is an disease that occurs in competitive sports environments in the United States.

As parents, we need to do our part to make sure that our kids are protected from this disease. Please watch this short video to see what you can do.

I am a member of One2One Network who asked me to post this video for a chance to win a gift card. The opinions expressed are my own.

Basketball Apparel

The Shopping Duck — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:13:07 +0000

This year I am in charge of the Basketball Apparel for the high school girls basketball team. I have been on an internet search for wholesale apparel in order to save money. Since I have a business license, I would be able to buy the apparel at wholesale prices. Unfortunately, the minimums are often too high for what I need.

Since our school budget was cut this year, we are not sure if we are going to have a freshman basketball team. The total number of girls that will probably be on the JV and Varsity teams is about 36. We need to purchase warm up suits and shirts, plus we offer t-shirts and sweats to the girls for purchase.

Hopefully, I will be able to find something that will fit our budget and look good!

Beat The Heat with Gatorade

The Shopping Duck — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:21:09 +0000

My daughter had her first day of soccer tryouts today. Fortunately, the weather is cool and it even rained a little. The rest of the week, though, will be hot and muggy. I make sure that my daughter has enough water and Gatorade to keep her hydrated at tryouts and practices.

Gatorade is promoting its “Beat the Heat” campaign to educate parents, coaches and athletes about heat related illnesses. They are also stressing the importance of hydration and proper nutrition before, during and after practices and workouts. Gatorade has partnered with the NFL to help raise funds for two organizations dedicated to preventing heat-related illnesses – the Korey Stringer Institute (KSI) and the Kendrick Fincher Memorial Foundation (KFMF).

You can download the Gatorade Heat Safety Kit at www.nfl.com/trainingcamp. The kit will help parents, coaches and athletes about heat related illnesses and how to prevent them. For each download of the kit, Gatorade will donate $1 to Beat the Heat charities.

The Kit gives helpful tips that are very useful. For example, sports drinks help replace electrolytes, especially sodium lost in sweat. It is very important to hydrate during practice AND also before and after.

If you have a child involved in sports or any other outdoor activities, take a moment to download the useful information and read through the tips. This information could save your child’s life.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Gatorade’s “Beat the Heat” campaign and received Gatorade samples to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Are You Into The World Cup?

The Shopping Duck — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:07:30 +0000

Now that we have HDTV, I was excited to be able to watch some of the World Cup Soccer action. Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to see what time the games are! I missed the last game where the United States won at the last moments. The goal was made by Landon Donovan in the 91st minute of the game which qualified them for the second round. A 0-0 tie would have eliminated the US team from the competition.

Former US President Bill Clinton visited the team in the locker room after their win. If you want to watch the World Cup, you can find the schedule at ESPN. Just click on scores and schedules.

Top 5 Things That Would Make Volunteering Easier

The Shopping Duck — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:10:06 +0000

I volunteer for a number of organizations. This past year I was involved in my older daughter’s soccer and basketball parent organizations and I also volunteer for PTO events at the elementary school. Next year, I will be the President of the high school girl’s basketball parents association, so I am looking for ways that will make it easier for parents to volunteer. Here are five things that I think would make volunteering easier.

Assign Specific Tasks. I found that I get more volunteers when they now exactly what they are volunteering for! Asking for volunteers without letting them know the tasks involved seems to garner a lower volunteer rate.
Be Organized! Not only be organized, but make it look nice. When you pass around sign up sheets, type them up neatly and include all relevant information. Jooners.com has some great online signup sheets.
Reminders. Everyone forgets occasionally. Send email reminders frequently.
Have a Back Up Plan. There will always be times when someone has to cancel. Ask for volunteers for an emergency committee. Don’t make any one feel bad if they have to cancel.
Be nice. I hate volunteering and then finding out that the organizers treat you like bad employees. I am giving up my time to help, please treat me with respect.

If you are lucky enough to have volunteers that all have email addresses and are willing to use an online tool, I would highly recommend Jooners.com. It is a great site to keep track of volunteers and tasks.

This post is part of a blogging contest from the TwitterMoms community. There is a chance this post could be randomly selected to win a $50 Amazon gift card, so wish me luck! For more details, you can view the contest page here.

Opening Day

The Shopping Duck — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:51:04 +0000

Last Saturday was opening day for my son’s baseball team. This is the first year that he is playing and he is really excited. I was almost late, since I was doing a little shopping (I need to replace some outdoor cushions). My son is on the Pirates and here they are with their banner getting ready to head out:

On the parade route. They have to walk about two miles. The neighbors who lived on the streets came out and waved. We stopped traffic for a little while!

Family Fun at the WNBA

The Shopping Duck — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:07:05 +0000

[photopress:wnba_1.jpg,full,pp_image] Both of my daughters play basketball and I have always wanted to take them to a professional basketball game. Now, One2One Network and the WNBA have teamed up to offer great discounts to WNBA games until the end of the season (September 13th).

[photopress:wnba_2.jpg,full,pp_image]We live close enough to New York, that we can go and see the New York Liberty play just by hoping one train. The train takes us straight into Madison Square Gardens. Just by entering the code WNBABLOG at Ticketmaster. I can get Get 33% off tickets and $10 parking for Liberty Games! Every team has a separate discount offer, you can find the different offers here.

Take advantage of this great savings and fun for the whole family before the season ends!

Responsible Sport Parenting

The Shopping Duck — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:12:49 +0000

My kids have been involved in sports since they could walk. My oldest daughter is now in high school and plays on the teams there. As a parent, I wanted to make sure that I encouraged and reinforced the positive aspects of youth sports. Unfortunately, my children have seen parents, and coaches, acting in ways that are not appropriate.

In order to encourage my kids to remain interested in sports, I emphasize the personal aspects of the each game. They have personal goals to improve their skills and do better. Even if their team loses, they can feel good about how well they tried.

Last week, my middle daughter participated in a soccer tournament. She went out their and did her best and improved her game. One of the games was against a much bigger and older team, but my daughter did not give up, she just tried her best. Even though they ended up losing that game, she felt good about giving her all.

[photopress:responsible_sports.png,full,pp_image] I was thrilled to find that Liberty Mutual has a website, ResponsibleSports.com with advice for parents and coaches on how to help children succeed on and off the field. After browsing the site, I find a lot of useful information for me as a parent and for me as a coach too!

Trophies

The Shopping Duck — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:05:01 +0000

We have so many trophies at our house!! We have ones for dance, soccer and even baseball trophies! Since my daughters always get trophies for participating, I thought it might be fun to give the coach a trophy.

QuickTrophy.com has tons of trophies to choose from. Not only do they have most sports, they also have a variety of styles and prices. You can also find ribbons and medals as well. I found some great golf medals that I might use for our family reunion golf tournament this summer.

[photopress:golf_mp.small.jpg,full,centered]

NCAA Tickets

The Shopping Duck — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:13:29 +0000

Speaking of sports, last year I wanted to take my daughter to one of the NCAA Tournament games, since they were being held close to us. I didn’t do it. So I decided to check out what will be happening in 2008. Wouldn’t you know it, there are not any games close! Ugh! I guess I should have acted when I had the chance. I guess there is always 2009!