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.
Tennis & Racket Industry Pros Launch RKT3 Group To Offer Expert Consulting Strategy, Programming and Leadership Development
Rick talks to Erik Kortland this week on “Tech of Sports.”
Three dynamic leaders in the racket sports space are venturing out and offering their services to organizations and facilities looking to expand and take advantage of the growing landscape and popularity of tennis, paddle, pickleball and other racket sports within the industry.
RKT3 Group, Inc., offers executive coaching, vision strategies with mission statements, communications, marketing, programming, leadership and personal development to clubs and racket sports facilities in the United States and abroad.
RKT3 Group was founded in 2021 by dynamic tennis leaders Ryan Redondo, Erik Kortland and Khuong Tien.
“Our vision is to promote an innovative and universal approach to the tennis and racket sport industry,” said Kortland, a former USTA National coach now the National Sports Marketing Manager for Tecnifibre/Lacoste Sports Group also working in player development. “The growth of racket sports like tennis, padel, and pickleball has skyrocketed over the past three of four years, especially in the United States. And we want to be the leaders in helping the industry’s leading facilities and organizations get the most out of their developmental strategy.”
RKT3’s services include organizational strategy and structuring, club management, on and off court program development, one-on-one coaching and mentoring, tournament planning, fundraising and development strategy and planning, and more.
“We support and create a space for our clients to provide lucrative business models, strengthened community development, and the tools to be on the cutting edge within the industry,” said Redondo, the CEO of Youth Tennis San Diego and General Manager of Barnes Tennis Center, home of a newly announced WTA 500 tournament set for the fall.
Tien is a junior tennis parent who has worked as a corporate lawyer for the past 20 years. Prior to RKT3 Group, he served as general counsel for a national chain restaurant based in Southern California.
For more information on the RKT3 Group, go to the website at: www.rkt3.com.
Rick is joined by former CNN Headline News’ Jane Velez-Mitchell this week to talk about her new venture.
Jane Velez-Mitchell, award-winning TV journalist, New York Times bestselling author and former CNN Headline News anchor, has launched a new streaming network called UnchainedTV. This network is FREE and does not require any emails, subscriptions, or disclosure of personal information to watch. How does she do this, you may ask? It is all done through her non-profit organization, here to expand your mind and transform your lifestyle. This channel offers documentaries, cooking shows, travelogues, talk shows and music videos. It is a portal to a joyous, healthier, more environmentally sustainable, and more compassionate lifestyle. UnchainedTV has just launched the first ever reality show starring a family of pigs called Pig Little Lies.
Rick is joined this week by former D-I student athlete and now author, M.K. Lever.
Imagine a world where coercion, control, surveillance, and manipulation reign. Where imbalance of power makes exploitation easy and where those at the bottom of the heap sacrifice everything to make a profit for those at the top. M.K. Lever’s knockout debut work of fiction, Surviving the Second Tier, weaves these issues and themes throughout a new fictional dystopia to display the real world truths that face athletes in the college athletic system.
This is a great candid interview and I believe this novel should be required reading for athletes.
“I wrote this book to educate readers about the reality of the college sports industry, as someone who has been there before,” shares Lever. “Sometimes, facts and statistics don’t stick with people and since we are intrinsically wired to follow narratives, I wanted to tell people a story in hopes that the message would resonate in a unique and powerful way. I wanted to give college sports the 1984 treatment and create a narrative that would be impactful and a little unsettling.”
Lever, a former Division 1 athlete and PhD candidate at UT Austin, combines her personal experiences as a college athlete and the weight of her academic research in areas concerning NCAA rhetoric, discourse, and policy to create her stunning and emotionally driven literary debut. Surviving the Second Tier depicts a new day in college athletics in which the old multi-sport model has collapsed and the bare bones, but extremely profitable Amateur Fighting Association has risen in its place. Where students once competed in a multitude of sports on a variety of playing fields, now college athletes have only the AFA ring in which to prove themselves in full-contact, no holds barred fights to the finish.
Coach Brian Bohannon, of Kennesaw State joins Rick this week.
Hired on March 24, 2013 and tasked with building a football program from scratch, Bohannon embraced the challenge and quickly turned Kennesaw State into the best five-year start-up program in college football history in 2019 with a 48-15 overall record, two Big South Conference championships, three straight appearances in the FCS Playoffs and four playoff victories.
Bohannon is a four-time finalist for the Eddie Robinson award as the nation’s top FCS head coach, including a runner-up finish in 2018 and a third-place finish in 2017. He was named the AFCA National Coach of the Year in 2017 and is a three-time Big South Conference Coach of the Year.
He is tied for first in Big South Conference history with 63 victories and he became the fastest coach to win 45 games when he reached the benchmark with a 38-35 win over Campbell on Nov. 9, 2019. In the first five years of the program, 100 national polls have been released with the Owls appearing in over 67-percent of the rankings. Of those 100 polls, Kennesaw State has been inside the top-10 41-percent of the time.
The 2019 season was the beginning of a new era in Kennesaw State football, as the original signing class moved on and gave way to a new crop of talented players hungry to continue the championship tradition. Not only did the team deliver, but they recorded the program’s third-straight 11-win season and made a return trip to the FCS Playoffs where they knocked off No. 11 Wofford on the road in the opening round.
After putting the world on notice in 2017 with a 12-2 season, the Owls somehow outdid themselves during the 2018 campaign. Ranked No. 2 in the nation for much of the year, KSU earned the No. 4 overall seed in the playoffs and took an 11-game winning streak to a second consecutive quarterfinal appearance where the Owls held the third-longest home streak in the nation that dated back over two calendar years.
Bohannon, 50, put Kennesaw State on the map in 2017 when he led the Owls to a 12-2 season and an outright Big South Championship after finishing conference play undefeated at 5-0. Holding the country’s top rushing offense, the Owls would make their first postseason berth in stellar fashion, getting revenge from their season-opening loss to Samford by winning 28-17 to advance.
The Owls then upset No. 3 Jacksonville State in the second round by scoring 14 unanswered second-half points to win 17-7. KSU’s historic run would falter in the quarterfinals in a tough 34-27 loss to No. 5 Sam Houston State, but not before solidifying a young Kennesaw State team as one of the nation’s top programs.
Under Bohannon’s tutelage emerged one of the country’s premiere quarterbacks in Chandler Burks who was named the 2018 College Football Performance Awards FCS National Performer of the Year. He also finished runner-up for the Walter Payton Award, given to the nation’s top FCS offensive player. He ended his career with a 31-6 record as the starting quarterback, a league record 56 rushing touchdowns and 3,431 yards on the ground.
The national awards shifted to the defensive side of the ball in 2017, as Bryson Armstrong brought home the prestigious Jerry Rice Award as the FCS National Freshman of the Year. On his way to first-team All-America honors, Armstrong finished the 2017 campaign with 114 total tackles (85 solo), 12.5 tackles for loss, 11.0 sacks, three interceptions, seven pass breakups, one quarterback hurry, four recovered fumbles, three forced fumbles and one blocked kick.
It took Bohannon just two seasons to vie for a Big South Conference title and reach the Top 25 as the Owls finished their debut year 6-5 before posting an 8-3 mark in 2016.
His first two teams at Kennesaw State won 14 times in 22 games while posting eye-popping offensive numbers. The Owls rushed for 293 yards per game in 2015, which led the Big South and ranked sixth nationally. His offense then surpassed that number in 2016, rolling up 320.6 yards per game on the ground to finish third in the FCS. The last three seasons saw KSU record the three best rushing seasons in Big South history behind VMI’s record-breaking 357.5 yards in 2008.
In 2015, the Owls lit up the scoreboard with 41 touchdowns and 429.8 yards of total offense per game. The following year, the Black & Gold was the only team in the FCS to finish ranked in the top 10 in total offense (479.5 ypg), rushing (320.6 ypg), scoring (38.9 ppg), pass efficiency (156.72), third-down (49 percent) and fourth-down conversions (70 percent).
Bohannon’s Owls began their debut season 4-1 in non-conference action and made history again with a 12-7 win over Gardner-Webb on October 17 as Kennesaw State became the first Big South member to win its first conference game in its initial year as a member.
The early-season success gave Bohannon’s team national recognition in the polls for the first time as KSU spent three consecutive weeks among teams receiving votes in the FCS Stats Top 25 beginning October 19.
Another Big South win over Monmouth allowed the Owls to clinch a winning record. The team finished 6-5 to tie Georgia State for the third-best record by an FCS program in its inaugural season.
Great guest this week… Rick is joined by Gary Green.
Prominent businessman Gary Green is living the dream of every sports fan as the owner of four professional sports teams: the United Soccer League’s Union Omaha and MiLB’s Omaha Storm Chasers, Richmond Flying Squirrels and Montgomery Biscuits. Now, the native New Yorker is teaming with Jet Linx Aviation –founded in Omaha, Nebraska and with a brand-new terminal in Teterboro, NJ – to share that dream with sports fans.
The recently-launched “Fly Like An Owner” sweepstakes will send two fans from both Omaha teams to accompany Green on a private Jet Linx plane to road games with the owner.
“As a sports fan, when I became a team owner it was a dream come true,” said Green. “I am excited to share that feeling with a lucky Storm Chasers and Union Omaha fans, and am so appreciative of the partnership with Jet Linx to make that possible.”
The soccer contest began on the first home match on April 23 and continues through the August 31 match against Forward Madison at Werner Park. Every fan that attends a home match will automatically be entered in the contest. The winner will get to select one guest to bring along for the trip which will take place on one of three dates: Sunday, September 11 at FC Tucson; Wednesday, September 21 at Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC; Saturday, October 1 at North Carolina FC
The baseball sweepstakes began with the Storm Chasers’ April 12 homestand against the Louisville Bats and will continue through the August 23 homestand against the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Every fan that attends a home game at Werner Park in Omaha will automatically be entered in the contest. The winner will get to select one guest to bring along for the trip which will take place when the Storm Chasers visit the Columbus Clippers on Saturday, September 17, 2022.
“We are proud to partner Union Omaha and the Omaha Storm Chasers, both beloved and engaging community institutions that offer the kind of entertainment and inspiration that helps attract top talent to our area,” said Jamie Walker, President and CEO of Jet Linx Aviation. “As an Omaha-based company, we are excited to support the fan-base of these teams through the ‘Fly Like An Owner’ contest, and to introduce their supporters to the Five-Star service of Jet Linx and the opportunities in private aviation.”
ABOUT GARY GREEN: Prominent MILB owner and investor Gary Green, under the “Baseball Alliance LLC” banner, has stakes in three baseball franchises, the Richmond Flying Squirrels (Virginia), the Montgomery Biscuits (Alabama) and the Omaha Storm Chasers (Nebraska), which he purchased from business magnate Warren Buffet. Buffet recognized Green’s passion for baseball – “we know he’s a great owner and has a great enthusiasm for the game,” were Buffet’s remarks upon the sale to Green. As president and CEO of Alliance Omaha Soccer Holdings, Green heads the ownership of Union Omaha in the United Soccer League (USL), which hosted its inaugural season in 2020 and is the only professional soccer club currently operating in the state of Nebraska.
Green also owns the highly-regarded baseball publication “Baseball America,” the largest digital platform on MILB, and is CEO of Alliance Building Services which is one of the largest private building service companies in North America, and executed the maintenance manifest for the inaugural seasons at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field.
Rick is joined by comedian, turned skateboard coach, George Wang this week.
May marked the start of AAPI Heritage Month, AAPI which stands for Asian American/Pacific Islander, is an important and impactful month for Pan-Asian individuals everywhere in the face of #StopAsianHate, and as we navigate the changing landscape for AAPI folk in the media at large.
While we have made great strides for progress in terms of representation and equity in entertainment and beyond, there is still much to be done in terms of progressing our narratives and our stories. Enter Comedy InvAsian 2.0, a live taped comedy special which saw its nationwide premiere on May 1st on all streamers including Peacock and Tubi. Comedy is healing, and in the face of such violence and negative attitudes towards AAPI people, such a necessary tool to combat that
George is a great guest and talks comedy and his career as a skateboard coach.
Now streaming…
The series of 8 episodes open with Thai-American Eli Nicolas, followed by Vietnamese-American Rosie Tran by way of Louisiana, queer HIV+ advocate Korean-American comedian Aidan Park, half-Indian/Pakistani-American Nishy XL, Indian-American Vinayak Pal, former Chinese beauty queen Jiaoying Summers, veteran comedian turned skate coach George Wang Jr, and lastly closing with Lin Sun of Cambodian descent juggling comedy and mommy duties. Each episode will feature a half hour set from a breakout comedian.
Produced by Little Nalu Pictures with distribution by Viva Pictures Distribution LLC, Season 1 of Comedy InvAsian had its world premiere on Hulu as an exclusive in 2018. Season 2 sees Quentin Lee and Koji Steven Sakai showrunning through Sakai’s Little Nalu Pictures.
“Global audiences are demanding diversity and Comedy InvAsian is proving to be one of those outlets without compromising quality”, said Victor Elizalde, President of Viva Pictures, as well as producer and distributor of Entre Nos, the leading LatinX standup comedy show on HBO currently in its 5th season.
Comedy InvAsian 2.0 will feature original music created by The Slants, the legendary all Asian-American dance rock band who took on the supreme court and won the right to their name in a landmark case. The Slants’ founder Simon Tam and Quentin Lee are developing a scripted limited series about the band’s battle against the US Government to trademark their name.
George Wang Jr. is a full time sk8 coach & professional stand up comedian living out of Monterey park. He wishes they told him in high school all those times he got in trouble for making the class laugh and getting his skateboard taken away, would actually be the 2 things he has made his career off. Funny how life works, he worked so many different jobs only to realize the things he worked hard at for free was the real investment into his future.
IG: @georgewangjr
