We are pleased to announce the commencement of our first ever recipe contest! We are asking you to submit Healthy Sports Snack Recipes. 

The challenge: Share your favourite Healthy Sports Snack Recipe. This can be anything, from granola, to sports drinks, to energy packed sandwiches.

How: Post it on our Facebook wall, as a comment on our blog, or send a link to us via Twitter.

Who: Everyone can enter. If you make snacks for your team, send us your recipe! If you make snacks for your child’s team, you can enter too! If you were given a snack during half time from the other team, and it was yummy, you can submit that idea too!

When: Now, until the end of September.

Prize: (drum roll…) Bragging rights! And knowing that your recipe is being enjoyed by others! And learning about new recipe ideas!

Isn’t that enough? If not…the top 5 recipes will get T-Shirt customized with your sport.

The Grand Prize: is a Custom TeamPages setup packaged, valued at $450. This includes: 

• 1 Free domain name
• Up to 5 free email addresses
• 1 Free custom designed banner
• 1 Free custom designed background
• Free premium setup
• Free data migration from an old website
• And a dedicated account manager

Here’s 1 Healthy Snack Idea…. if you try it out, please let me know what you think!

Popcorn Trail Mix

• 2 cups popped popcorn (unsalted)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened dried banana chips
• 3/4 cup fruit-juice sweetened dried cranberries
• 3/4 roasted almonds, roasted peanuts, or roasted pecans (unsalted)

Directions: Combine all ingredients. Divide into 8 small storage containers (tupperware or dixie cups work well). This trail mix will keep for about 8 days. Serves 8.

Nutrition information per serving: 160 calories, 9g fat, 19g carbohydrate, 2g dietary fiber, 12g sugar, 3g protein. (If you don’t have the nutritional information for your recipe, don’t worry!)

Happy Baking!

“Greatness comes to people who are willing to pay the price for a long period of time”, says Angus Reid, offensive lineman for the BC Lions.

For our second interview in the series ‘TeamPages Chat with the Pros’ , I spoke with Angus Reid, an offensive lineman for the BC Lions. When I contacted Angus, he suggested that I drive out to the BC Lions training facility in Surrey to watch their practice before we did the interview.

My journey to the BC Lions training facility began with a bit of a rocky start, as it became apparent that I had mistakenly printed out very good directions to the City Hall in Surrey. Fortunately, I have an iphone, and 21 minutes later I was parked at the correct location. My friend Emily along with me as my camerawomen. As I spoke with Angus, it became very apparent that he has a ot of inspirational advice to share.

“Focus on the things you can control, and the things you can’t, don’t worry about it because there’s nothing you can do about it anyways”, is some of the great advice Angus shared with me. During the interview, he talked about the challenges his smaller (for a football player) body type has given him “I couldn’t get any taller, my arms couldn’t get longer, but I could get smarter, quicker and stronger. Get so good at the things that you can control, that the things you can’t won’t matter”.

Here’s an interesting article I came across. If you are interested in purchasing the world’s largest soccer ball for $1.2 million Canadian, than search no further! This two- person, soccer ball shaped airship, is for sale on e-bay!

This airship only has 20 hours of logged flight time, as it requires a Special Certificate of Airworthiness to operate. It was designed and manufactured by a Newmarket firm, owned by Hokan Colting. The soccer ball has a diameter of nearly 20 metres, and is the height of a six-storey building. It flies by an inner bladder filled with helium, which is very different than how a hot-air balloon flies.

Fredy Montero, Seattle Sounders

I was looking at the MLS website and watching their “Goal of the Week“, where you can watch and vote on your favourite goal. Check out the site, if you haven’t already, and you can re-watch the best goals of the season! Fredy Montero from the Seattle Sounders won the “Goal of the Week“  last week (Week 19).

Here at TeamPages, we want to make our community feel like stars. So, we were thinking it would be fun to do a “Shot of the Week” at TeamPages.

I’m sure many of you have great action shots of your team, so how about you send them in to us at TeamPages, so we can feature a photo of the week? Please send them to: cynthia.barker@teampages.com.

In our first interview, I had the great pleasure of interviewing Sean Johnson, the goalie for the MLS team Chicago Fire. This is his first season playing for an MLS team, so we at TeamPages, thought he would be a great person to interview for the new interview series “TeamPages Chat with the Pros”!

“Stay focused in school, because school will take you that much closer to being a professional athlete” is the advice Sean Johnson gives to aspiring professional athletes.

We are proud to share that the Las Vegas Sports Academy, is ranked #1 in the United States for their Under-13-year-old boy soccer team!

The President of the Academy, Jim Rasmussen, spoke about some of the benefits of the club as “help[ing] Las Vegas kids realize their potential and worth not only on the soccer field, but as individuals…and it does this in a way that ensures any child who wants to participate is able to do so, with low monthly dues and scholarship opportunities.” We at TeamPages, also believe that playing sports helps children realize their potential off the field, as well as increases their self esteem!

In addition to being superstars on the field, this team has done a great job enhancing their TeamPages website! On their homepage, they features video clips of news stories about their team. Check them out at: www.lv-sa.com

If you would also like to features videos on your TeamPages website, and need some technical support in order to do this, please call Derek Story at 1 (800) 500-7203 ext. 103 or email derek.story@teampages.com.

Please post comments about interesting features your team’s website has, in the comment section under this post.

Keep playing hard,

Cynthia

Here is a delicious and healthy recipe that I have been enjoying! It is great in the mornings, or to grab as a handful for a snack at any time. This recipe is from the Rebar cookbook (for anyone who isn’t familiar with Victoria, BC, Rebar is an amazing vegetarian restaurant located in the heart of downtown.

“Wool Socks and Birkenstocks may be a West Coast trademark, but make no mistake, this is no hippie-dippy granola recipe! This is what you get when granola heads uptown. Wear your best silk pajamas, grab a Sunday New York Times, and dip in with your silver spoon!”

• 3 cups large flake oats
• 1 1/2 cups barley flakes
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 2/3 cup maple syrup (or honey, or a combination)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup dried blueberries

By Andrew Beinbrink – CEO of SportsForce - www.sportsforceonline.com

The college recruiting process is often misunderstood by many parents, student-athletes, coaches and fans.  The fact is, the college recruiting process has changed dramatically over the last 10 years and understanding how to play the game is important.

Are you a sports parent or a high school student-athlete who is asking yourself “How do I maximize my recruiting exposure to college coaches?” If so, you are not alone. This is a very common issue across the country that we often help student-athletes and families proactively address at SportsForce.

In this article you will begin to learn the basics of maximizing your college recruiting exposure and some key facts to understand about the recruiting process.

Checkout our complimentary SportsForce College Recruiting Guide and get access to recruiting tips, advices and insight to learn more keys to college recruiting success.

First, a few key facts to keep in mind before we talk about maximizing exposure:

-       College coaches are recruiting earlier and earlier (often evaluating freshmen & sophomores)

-       Colleges often don’t have the budget to recruit many players in person and are relying more and more on video to help make better recruiting decisions

-       80% of college sports opportunities exist outside of DI level teams

-       Over $1 Billion dollars in athletic scholarship money is awarded to student-athletes each year

-       A recruited student-athlete has a significantly better chance of getting accepted to a college over a non student-athlete with similar grades

-       College coaches are using all sorts of technology including: email, smart phones (Blackberrys, iPhones, etc.), online recruiting databases, social media (YouTube, Facebook) and more to find and evaluate players.

If your son or daughter is seriously looking to play college sports, your goal as a parent should be to support them and provide them an opportunity to best position themselves to reach their goal and find the right college fit.

You might be asking yourself “what is the RIGHT FIT?”

The right college fit means understanding what type of college experience your child is looking for and what’s best for the family. When creating a list of potential colleges focus on the most critical decision factors and criteria including: academics, athletics, location, cost, level of competition, coaching staff, social environment, potential playing time and scholarship opportunity.

Now that we have some more information on the table lets discuss “How to Maximize College Exposure.”

Step 1: Determine what College Programs are right for the Student-Athlete

-       Conduct a realistic student-athlete assessment (stats, skills and grades)

-       Ask for a coach’s evaluation (HS & Club team)

-       Research & create a target list of schools based on critical decision factors and college criteria (10 – 30+ colleges)

Step 2: Express Interest / Build Support

-       Meet with high school / club team coach regarding your college goals and commitment and make sure everyone is on the same page

-       Network with other trainers, coaches and parents to seek potential qualified college coach introductions

Step 3: Introduce and Market Yourself

-       Start early (Ideally Freshman and Sophomore years)

-       Introduce yourself to college coaches and express your interest (use email, phone or an in person meeting to make an introduction)

-       Remember you can call a college coach even though they might not be able to call you based on NCAA regulations

-       Provide complete resume / profile and highlight video for a college coaches evaluation

Some example SportsForce profiles below:

• Girls Soccer: http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/kdick
• Boys Soccer: http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/scallahan

-       Follow up is KEY (email, phone and unofficial trips)

We will include more in part II on “How to Maximize Your College Recruiting Exposure” Click Here to read Part II now.

To get more advanced recruiting tips, strategies and advice visit our website and sign up for our complimentary SportsForce College Recruiting Guide and updates below.

FREE sign up for SportsForce College Recruiting Guide:

http://www.sportsforceonline.com/resources/resources_recruiting_recruiting_guide.html

Article courtesy of SportsForce, Home for professional College Sports Recruiting Profiles, Highlight Videos, Tips and Tools – www.sportsforceonline.com

I’d like to introduce myself, Cynthia Barker, as the new Community Manager at TeamPages. As the newest edition to the company, I am working hard to learn as much as I can, so that I can keep up with all the great work this company is doing!

I have created a short video, so please watch it to learn more about myself. I’m looking forward to working with you all, and I am hoping for a lot of interaction, so please send me your feedback. I’m going to be keeping you up to date about all the contests, cool things people are doing on their TeamPages website, and new programs on our Twitter, Facebook and Blog, so be sure to check those out regularly!

Keep playing hard,

Cynthia

Win a $100 gift certificate AND a framed personalized magazine cover, starring your team, from YourCover.com.

Do you always have your camera out at the game?  Do you love posting your photos online and sharing them with friends and family? To celebrate the release of our newest TeamPages feature that lets you easily share your favorite photos to facebook, we wanted to throw our very first photo contest.

The best part of all, entering couldn’t be easier! Simply:

1. Upload your favorite photos to TeamPages
2. Click the “like” button now found to the bottom right corner of the page
3. Share your photo with your friends on facebook and encourage them to also “like” the photo

The photo with the most “likes” will be our contest winner with results displayed at facebook.com/teampages and updated in real time.

Contest Rules:

1. The top prize will be awarded to the photographer judged by TeamPages staff to have the most “likes” by 12:00pm PST on July 15, 2010.
2. All photos that qualify with over 50 “likes” will be awarded a bonus year of TeamPages Pro.
3. The winning photographer will have 7 days to claim their prize after being contacted by TeamPages staff via email.  Otherwise the prize will be awarded to the runner up.
4. In order to qualify, photo privacy settings must be selected as “viewable by everyone”.
5. Photo submissions must abide by the TeamPages privacy policy.

Good luck! We can’t wait to see all the awesome photos people are posting.