Seattle Included in World Cup Bid

The game is in US, the tag line for the US World Cup bid aptly cites the prevalence of soccer to the USA. As the world's melting pot country, soccer certainly has an important place in our history and our future, and Seattle is among the 18 cities to potentially win the 2018 or 2022 World Cup bid.

Other cities being considered include big hitters such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Washington DC. And while those cities may be tough to beat, argument for Seattle notes the presence of the notably successful Sounders, new to the MLS but with a deep rooted following.

As a soccer organization, we of course would be thrilled to see the World Cup take place in our city with our kids to bear witness. With the soccer games we host so often including representation from countless countries, the world cup would bring an adult version of what our students experience every Friday.

The US first (and most recently) hosted the World Cup in 1994, was received with record breaking success, and just two years later launched Major League Soccer. The invigorating power of the event could only further strengthen our teams and fans.

Bringing the World Cup to this city would only be a positive. Seattle celebrates its cultural differences, while still struggling with them. SCORES uses soccer to teach our kids about teamwork, respect, and vigor. We might hope that the World Cup would do the same for our community. To sign the petition to make Seattle the hosting city and learn more about this endeavor, follow this link to the official USA Bid page.

GMA Dives into Childhood Obesity

Photo from whitehouse.gov

This morning on Good Morning America they had a segment that highlighted the current crisis of obesity in America's youth. The story had young children asking federal officials questions about what the government is going to do to make sure school lunches are healthy, making sure there is more physical education during and after school, and ensuring the academic rigor demanded by the No Child Left Behind is matched by some rigorous physical activity as well.

The news segment was inspired by First Lady Obama's "Let's Move" campaign, link, to end childhood obesity within a generation. President Obama signed, link, an executive order yesterday for a collaboration between government, business and nonprofit entities to work together. This was the First Lady's first policy issue she chose to delve into.

Here are some facts that stood out:

-The obesity rate has tripled over the last 30 years.

-Nearly one in three children is overweight or obese in America.

-Obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service.

SCORES has been attempting to fight this all-too-common condition since 1994, 2002 in Seattle, with after school programming incorporating athletics and academics. We have been getting kids to play soccer three days a week in the Spring and Fall. This gets our poet-athletes out running on the soccer field, increases their heart rates and bringing the joy and excitement of team sports to all participants.

In addition to physical activity SCORES provides a healthy snack to the poet-athletes including whole grain oat granola bars and we work with the Seattle Public School system's after school snack program. SCORES also uses healthy eating as part of the program curriculum. In addition to soccer games, we incorporate games to teach students the benefits of the Food Pyramid, what it means to be physically fit and how to attain it.

We are doing everything with our current funding to encourage many aspects of the First Lady's program. SCORES Seattle hopes that with this added emphasis on healthy young people that there will be a future of healthy kids.

NYTimes article.

Graham looking Healthy for Next Season

SCORES board member Taylor Graham is looking healthy for this upcoming Sounders FC season. Here is an article about him, his recovery from foot injuries and his time spent with charitable organizations, like SCORES, with his time off. He represents the best characteristics of a professional athlete and demonstrates these with his behavior on and off the field. We at SCORES were excited to have him join our board and are even more excited for him to get back out on the pitch where he can play the game he loves. Congrats and good luck!

Here is a link to the article.

Be in the Know

Here is a roundup of some news we gathered about issues facing Seattle's schools, soccer and other articles piquing our interest.

“Bill Promotes Green School Make,” The Seattle Times, Jan. 20, 2010, by Curt Woodward (Associated Press)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010846537_greenjobs21m.html

“Seattle School Board won’t Guarantee Siblings can Attend Same School,” Jan. 21, 2010 The Seattle Times, by Linda Shaw

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010847494_schoolboard21m.html

“If your Kids are Awake, They’re Probably Online,” The New York Times, Jan. 20, 2010, by Tamar Lewin

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html

“Hanauer-We’re Cautiously Optimistic about CBA,” Prost Amerika Soccer, Jan. 20, 2010

http://www.prostamerika.com/2010/01/20/hanauer-were-cautiously-optimistic-about-cba-18611/

“Obama pushes $1.35-billion Expansion of Education Plan,” Los Angeles Times, Jan 20, 2010, by Mark Silva

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-obama-education20-2010jan20,0,2002983.story

“City Completes deal to bring MLS to Portland,” Jan. 21, 2010, by Mayor Sam Adams

http://www.portlandonline.com/mayor/index.cfm?&c=49519&a=282513

Be in the Know

Here are a few interesting news stories we found while perusing the news over the course of today. Some of it from sports, some of it Seattle schools and a study about the advantages enjoyed by the whole community when less students drop out of high school. These are just a few articles we thought might interest some of our readers.

“As School Exit Tests Prove Tough, States Ease Standards” by Ian Urbina, New York Times, Jan. 11, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/education/12exit.html?ref=us

“Rainier Beach will get Second Principal” by Linda Shaw, Seattle Times, Jan. 11, 2010 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010768758_principals12m.html

“What is Generation adidas?“ by Matt Gaschk, The Rave Green Blog, Jan. 11, 2010 http://www.soundersfc.com/News/Blogs/Rave-Green.aspx

“Four Teacher Tricks You Can Try at Home” by Julie Williams, Education.com, Jan. 12, 2010 http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Four_Teacher_Tricks/?cid=90.710

“The Economic Benefits from Halving the Dropout Rate: A Boom to Businesses in the Nation’s Largest Metropolitan Areas” The Alliance for Education http://www.all4ed.org/publication_material/EconMSA

Be in the Know

Here are some interesting articles we found while perusing through the news today and the past week. We are striving to become a resource for our readers.We want to inform everyone of the issues SCORES cares about. Here are some articles dealing with Seattle schools, books, education, athletes and where they intersect. We'll try to hit these issues on regular basis and also try to expand to include nutrition, healthy lifestyles and maybe throw in some recipes too. We'll see where the news of the day can take us.

Seattle School Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson Donating her Bonus -Seattle Times- Dec. 10, 2009

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010472506_webbonus10m.html

“Elliot Bay Books Store Moving to Capitol Hill” -Seattle Times- Dec.9, 2009

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010467342_elliottbay10.html

Colt McCoy, Tim Tebow and others doing well on and off the field-New York Times -Dec. 8^th, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/sports/ncaafootball/09vecsey.html?_r=1&ref=education

"Ianni's life is changed, but not his hometown" -Lodi News Sentinel- December 10, 2009

http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2009/12/10/sports/1_ianni_camp_091210.txt