Category Archives: Tech of Sports

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.

Dustin Coffey, 2024 Orvis-Endorsed Fly-Fishing Guide of the Year at Chetola Resort

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Chetola Resort’s manager of fly fishing and head guide Dustin Coffey has landed a prestigious award. Coffey was named the 2024 Orvis-Endorsed Fly-Fishing Guide of the Year on April 5, 2024 during the organization’s annual owners and partners meeting in Manchester, Vermont.

He talks with Rick, this week.

Coffey calls the award the “heavyweight championship of the world for fly fishing guides.” It goes annually to the Orvis-endorsed guide who earns the highest customer satisfaction rating, while also excelling in the areas of conservation and recruitment of new people to the sport.

Pete Kutzer, head fly fishing instructor and endorsed operations manager at Orvis International, presented the honor to Coffey. Kutzer noted that Coffey received the best customers ratings, and he received the most customers ratings.

“Dustin blew us out of the water,” Kutzer said. “He created a new standard for getting guest reviews.”

Coffey, 44, began fishing with his grandfather at age five. He has 25 years of experience as a professional guide. He’s known for his friendliness, attention to detail, and ability to explain complicated fly-fishing techniques to everyday anglers while making the experience fun and rewarding.

Chetola is one of only two Orvis-endorsed fly-fishing lodges in North Carolina, and Coffey says the award is definitely a team effort. He gives credit to each of the resort’s guides and to his wife, Morgan Tarbutton, with whom he co-manages the fly-fishing program.

A native of Western North Carolina, Coffey grew up just outside Blowing Rock in the small community of Globe, N.C. In addition to his work at Chetola Resort, Coffey is a member of Trout Unlimited and owner of Native Innovation Consulting, which provides consulting for land owners who are interested in fly fishing programs.

About Chetola Resort, Blowing Rock NC

Chetola Resort is a 78-acre mountain resort tucked between downtown Blowing Rock and the Blue Ridge Parkway. For information about fly-fishing guide service, the Chetola Sporting Reserve and lodging, visit www.Chetola.com or call 800-243-8652 to book reservations.

Haley Shapley, Author, STRONG LIKE HER: A Celebration of Rule Breakers, History Makers, and Unstoppable Athletes

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Great to talk with Haley Shapely this week!

A stirring and vibrant account of women’s athleticism throughout history, journalist Haley Shapley’s STRONG LIKE HER: A Celebration of Rule Breakers, History Makers, and Unstoppable Athletes (2024; Gallery Books) “will leave readers feeling inspired and powerful” (Ms. Magazine).

Part group biography, part cultural history, Strong Like Her delves into the fascinating stories of our muscular foremothers. From the first female Olympian (who entered the chariot race through a loophole) to the circus stars who could lift their husbands above their heads and make it look like “a little light housework with a feather duster,” these brave and brawny women paved the way for the generations to follow.

Filled with Sophy Holland’s beautiful por­traits of some of today’s most awe-inspiring ath­letes, including Peloton instructor Robin Arzón, bodybuilder Dana Linn Bailey, powerlifter Meg Gallagher, celebrity fitness trainer Jen Widerstrom, CrossFit enthusiast Lindy Barber, WNBA vet Holly Rilinger, climber Margo Hayes, and many more, Strong Like Her is “a love letter to muscles and the women who rock them so gloriously” (Shape).

Haley Shapley is an award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in SELF, Teen Vogue, American Way, Shape, Sierra, and the Telegraph. An Olympics superfan and exercise enthusiast, Shapley has cycled 206 miles from Seattle to Portland, summited the highest glaciated peak in the continental U.S., competed in a bodybuilding show, and run a marathon. She lives in Seattle.

Link: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Strong-Like-Her/Haley-Shapley/9781982120856

 

Ashley Brown, Author of ‘Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson’

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Rick talks with University of Wisconsin professor and author, Ashley Brown this week.

She’s the author of Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson.

The most comprehensive biography of Althea Gibson, set against the major historical developments of the twentieth century
Based on previously unpublished archival sources, news media accounts, and oral histories
A nuanced examination of a woman’s experience as an elite athlete
Places a woman at the center of sports integration

From her start playing paddle tennis on the streets of Harlem as a young teenager to her eleven Grand Slam tennis wins to her professional golf career, Althea Gibson became the most famous black sportswoman of the mid-twentieth century. In her unprecedented athletic career, she was the first African American to win titles at the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.

In this comprehensive biography, Ashley Brown narrates the public career and private struggles of Althea Gibson (1927-2003). Based on extensive archival work and oral histories, Serving Herself sets Gibson’s life and choices against the backdrop of the Great Migration, Jim Crow racism, the integration of American sports, the civil rights movement, the Cold War, and second wave feminism. Throughout her life Gibson continuously negotiated the expectations of her supporters and adversaries, including her patrons in the black-led American Tennis Association, the white-led United States Lawn Tennis Association, and the media, particularly the Black press and community’s expectations that she selflessly serve as a representative of her race. An incredibly talented, ultra-competitive, and not always likeable athlete, Gibson wanted to be treated as an individual first and foremost, not as a member of a specific race or gender. She was reluctant to speak openly about the indignities and prejudices she navigated as an African American woman, though she faced numerous institutional and societal barriers in achieving her goals. She frequently bucked conventional norms of femininity and put her career ahead of romantic relationships, making her personal life the subject of constant scrutiny and rumors. Despite her major wins and international recognition, including a ticker tape parade in New York City and the covers of Sports Illustrated and Time, Gibson endeavored to find commercial sponsorship and permanent economic stability. Committed to self-sufficiency, she pivoted from the elite amateur tennis circuit to State Department-sponsored goodwill tours, attempts to find success as a singer and Hollywood actress, the professional golf circuit, a tour with the Harlem Globetrotters and her own professional tennis tour, coaching, teaching children at tennis clinics, and a stint as New Jersey Athletics Commissioner. As she struggled to support herself in old age, she was left with disappointment, recounting her past achievements decades before female tennis players were able to garner substantial earnings.

A compelling life and times portrait, Serving Herself offers a revealing look at the rise and fall of a fiercely independent trailblazer who satisfied her own needs and simultaneously set a pathbreaking course for Black athletes.

 

Richard Kaufman, ‘PLAYED: The Games of the 1936 Berlin Olympics’

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As anticipation builds for the 2024 Olympics, a new book from Glenn Allen and Richard Kaufman takes readers back to the contentious atmosphere surrounding the Summer Games hosted by the Nazi regime, when the nations of the world had a chance to turn their backs on Hitler’s propaganda-laden spectacle — but didn’t. Their book, PLAYED: The Games of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, brings to life pivotal characters, both good and bad, to depict a cautionary story that serves to warn the modern era that history must not repeat itself.

Kaufman joins Rick this week.

Based on real stories and real people involved in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, PLAYED plunges readers into a compelling, fictionalized account of the insanity and hysteria that unfolded across Germany, the United States and in much of the world from 1931 through 1936.

At the center of the controversy in the U.S. is American Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage. Unmoved by the new Nazi regime’s anti-Jewish doctrines, Brundage leads the fight to participate in the 1936 Berlin Games after much debate of a U.S. boycott. Brundage desperately wants to be on the International Olympic Committee. If he doesn’t get the Americans to Berlin, he can kiss that dream goodbye.

When the vote is decided in Brundage’s favor, AP Sports Editor Alan J. Gould, friend and champion of the athletes, travels to Berlin to cover all of the “games” being played. Through his eyes readers see the machinations of Brundage’s complicity with the Nazis, the tenacity of the proud American athletes and the extreme pressure from the Nazis on their German athletes. Their stories, heartbreaking and tragic, give rise to feats of heroism that go beyond the playing field.

Along the way readers meet some of the most famous people of the time: Mae West, Charlie Chaplin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Joseph Goebbels, Leni Riefenstahl, Eva Braun and the madman himself, who vowed to “make Germany great again,” Adolf Hitler.

“Of course, we can’t go back in time and change history insomuch as we can change the outcome of a sporting event,” the authors added. “But we’re obligated to study history because it teaches us how to move forward. At least we hope it does.”

About the Authors

Richard Kaufman and Glenn Allen have been writing together for over 25 years. They have numerous projects in development, including scripted feature films, docuseries, television series, and have co-written and produced two award-winning independent films, all under the banner Green Bandana, a TV/film development company the two co-created in 2015.

Book: PLAYED: The Games of the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Website(s): www.greenbandana.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richard.a.kaufman

Davyeon Ross, Co-Founder, CEO and President of ShotTracker

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It’s Final Four week.. what helps make a successful shooter?

ShotTracker.

Rick is joined again by Davyeon Ross, Co-Founder, CEO and President of ShotTracker, this week.

There is a lot going on at ShotTracker.

ShotTracker is a revolutionary sensor-based system that delivers statistics and analytics to teams, fans and broadcast networks instantly, enhancing the experience of the game — both on and off the court.

ShotTracker tracks more than 70 stats for your team. Real-time stats at your fingertips.

Ross played basketball at Benedictine College and founded Digital Sports VENTURES, an interactive technology company, which was sold to Digital Broadcasting
Group in 2011.