From the shoes we wear on our feet to the high definition televisions in our living room, wearable devices, the sports universe is a breeding ground for technology. Writer and Photographer Rick Limpert will examine this each week on The Tech of Sports – With guests which include athletes, inventors and journalists that cover the intersection of sports and technology.
With one week until their the first game of the season, Rick talks to first-year Kennesaw State Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Antoine Pettway.
He takes over the Owls and the cupboard is not bare in Kennesaw,
Pettway was named as the eighth head coach in Kennesaw State men’s basketball history this summer.
Pettway comes to the Black and Gold after a stellar 15 years on the Alabama coaching staff, which culminated in the Crimson Tide spending several weeks as the nation’s No. 1 ranked team this past season. Known as one of the top recruiters in the nation, he brought in the third-ranked class in the nation in 2022 that included two five-star and two four-star recruits, highlighted by potential NBA Draft Top 3 pick and 2022-23 National Freshman of the Year Brandon Miller.
The Owls are defending ASUN champs.
Pettway is taking over a KSU program coming off its most successful season in school history, as the Owls set numerous school records on the way to the first-ever ASUN regular season and tournament championship as well as the first-ever trip to the NCAA Division I Tournament. The Owls also have a Division II National Championship Title, won in the 2003-04 season before moving up to Division I for the 2005-06 season.
Rick talks with Atlanta author and author of the new book: What’s With Atlanta?
Paige Watts
Why is every street in Atlanta named “Peachtree”? What do Atlantans mean when they say “Inside the Perimeter” or “Outside the Perimeter”? Why can’t Atlanta handle a little snow? Why do locals hate it when you call it “Hotlanta”? These and many of your other burning questions about life in Atlanta make up What’s With Atlanta?, a guide to some of the most unique aspects of Georgia’s capital city.
Author Paige Watts dives deep into the history and culture of Atlanta, from its beginnings as a railroad hub to its status as “Hollywood of the South.” Atlanta is full of one-of-a-kind attractions, unique festivals and traditions, architectural marvels, and a mix of Southern comfort food and international cuisines that make it a city unlike any other.
Want to know how Atlanta became the home of the Braves or what part fried chicken played in the Civil Rights Movement? This book will satisfy your curiosity about all the little things that make Atlanta tick and all the big events that shaped the city’s history. Whether you’re a local or are just passing through, a tourist or a life-long resident, this entertaining guide will answer all these questions and more.
Seasoned travel writer and Atlanta local Paige Watts has spent a decade writing about all things travel. She chronicles her journeys on her blog, PaigeMindsTheGap.com, where she highlights the joys of visiting Southern destinations. In addition to her blog, Paige has written for a number of online and print publications, including the Culture Trip, Matador Network, Epicure & Culture, MSN, and Travel the South. She received a double Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Evansville in Creative Writing and Literature, with a minor in International Studies.
Here’s some talking points from the book:
Atlanta has over 70 streets with “Peachtree” in the name.
Atlanta was founded as the end of a train line, which is where it got its original name Terminus.
Atlanta is a haven of street art with over 200 murals.
Atlanta Pride started as a 100-person rally and has grown to a massive month-long celebration in October.
The Fox Theatre was originally built in the 1920s as the headquarters for Atlanta’s Shriners organization.
Atlanta is at the center of Georgia’s film industry, earning it the nickname “Hollywood of the South” – In 2016, there were more major films made in Georgia than in California.
Buford Highway has more than 1,000 immigrant-owned businesses, more than 100 of which are restaurants.
The Big Chicken, Marietta’s beloved landmark, is so distinct that pilots use the building as a reference point when landing.
The Braves are the oldest continuously operating professional sports franchise in the country.
Atlanta has the largest concentration of colleges and universities in the South.
The leader in golf simulation technologies has just unveiled an exclusive limited-time promotion aimed at making golf more accessible and enjoyable for enthusiasts of all levels with their MORE GOLF campaign. Uneekor is offering discounts on their full lineup of launch monitors with savings up to $3000!
“EVN More Golf!” along with the release of the groundbreaking Balance Optix® hitting mat and some incredible promotional offers.
As part of this campaign, from today until November 8, 2023, customers can elevate their golf experience with the EYE XO2 + NEW Performance Optix Bundle. With the purchase of an EYE XO2 or EYE XO2 SimKit, receive the Performance Optix bundle worth $2,700. This package includes two Swing Optix cameras and the revolutionary Balance Optix mat, which measures weight distribution and shift throughout your swing. Also part of this campaign, take advantage of an exclusive $500 promotional code for use at Evnroll Putters with the purchase of select launch monitors.
Greg Sabella started on May 22, 2023 as the new Vice President of Marketing. Greg started his career with Callaway Golf where he spent 17 years in sales and marketing, including roles as Director of Marketing for Metal Woods and Odyssey Putters. Before joining Uneekor, he led Sales & Marketing for Blast Motion (Golf) in Carlsbad, California. Greg will lead Uneekor’s strategic efforts in Marketing, continue to build out the marketing team and work closely with the Sales team and other departments. Greg lives in Carlsbad, CA with his family.
Social media is offering average pro-athletes a financial way to survive when their playing days are over. Right now, roughly 60% of NBA players go bankrupt within the first five years of retirement, and 78% of NFL players financially struggle just two years after hanging up their jerseys.
Viral Nation is a global digital and social innovation group that powers the social ecosystem through integrated solutions that align strategy, talent, media and more!
Viral Nation President Jonathan Chanti is here as the leader of a social media marketing agency working with pro-athletes at all levels, including stars like Miami Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill.
Topics:
The importance of athletes becoming influencers/creators while they’re playing
How this translates to lucrative brand deals even after retirement
The strategy needed to succeed
Jeehae Lee is a former professional golfer on the LPGA Tour and an executive in the sports media entertainment industry. As the Founder & CEO of Sportsbox.ai, Jeehae is building products using 3D motion analysis technology that will transform the way people learn and improve skills in sports, starting with golf.
Prior to founding Sportsbox, she led strategy and new business development for various divisions at Topgolf, including Toptracer. Jeehae has a BA in Economics from Yale and an MBA from The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.
She won two Ivy League championships at Yale, earned her LPGA Tour card on her first try, served as Michelle Wie West’s business manager, earned an MBA from Wharton and led business development and growth for Topgolf’s Toptracer brand.
In late 2020, Lee left Topgolf to become CEO and co-founder of Sportsbox AI, a company that uses a single smartphone video to provide golfers with 3D motion capture data. The startup recently raised a $5.5 million seed round and attracted a host of world-renowned coaches as advisers and investors, including David Leadbetter, Sean Foley, Mike Adams and Terry Rowles. “Jeehae is incredibly impressive,” said Foley, an instructor who coaches Justin Rose.
Sports and technology are fields historically dominated by men. Though Lee acknowledged that she has benefited from the credibility of having been a pro athlete, she still recalled attending “so many meetings” at which she was the only woman and the only person under the age of 50. At Sportsbox, however, women make up half of the cap table, including Wie West, fellow LPGA Tour players Marina Alex and Mel Reid, and media entrepreneur Randi Zuckerberg.
Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, and Gary Williams played no small role in the making of modern college basketball. Collectively, they’ve won more than 2,300 games and six national championships and reached thirteen Final Fours. All three have been enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Pitino, Calhoun, and Williams each spent more than two decades on the national stage, becoming celebrities in their own right as college basketball and March Madness became a multi-billion-dollar industry.
Before Pitino became the face of the Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville programs, before Calhoun turned UConn into a national power, and before Williams brought Maryland to its first national championship, all three of these coaches cut their teeth in front of modest-sized crowds in the crumbling college gymnasiums of Boston during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Boston Ball charts how this trio of coaches, seemingly out of nowhere, started a basketball revolution: Pitino at Boston University, Calhoun at Northeastern University, and Williams at Boston College. Toiling in relative obscurity, they ignited a renaissance of the “city game,” a style of play built on fast-breaking up-tempo offense, pressure defense, and board crashing. Part of a fraternity of great coaches—including Mike Jarvis, Kevin Mackey, and Tom Davis—they unknowingly invented Boston Ball, a simultaneously old and new path to the top of college basketball. Pitino, Calhoun, and Williams took advantage of the ample coaching opportunities in “America’s College Town” to craft their respective blueprints for building a winning program and turn their schools into regional powers, and these early coaching years served as their respective springboards to big-time college basketball.
Boston Ball is the story of how three ambitious young coaches learned their trade in the shadow of the dynastic Celtics, as well as the story of how the young players—in their recruitment, relationships, and basketball lives—made these teams into winners.
Clayton Trutor holds a PhD in U.S. history from Boston College and teaches at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont. He writes about college football and basketball for SB Nation and is the author of Loserville: How Professional Sports Remade Atlanta—and How Atlanta Remade Professional Sports (Nebraska, 2022). Trutor is a regular contributor to the SABR Biography Project.
