Noview News Sport

By:  Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor Alan Joinville is originally from Haiti, but has lived in the Philadelphia area since the 1980’s.  He stands on the sidelines of Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia watching the third place game between Puerto Rico, and Jamaica.  Forty Eight nations make up the Unity Cup Championship.  It is a process that started out in September in the city parks.  From Mt. Airy to Richmond, Byberry to Elmwood, Overbrook to Holmesburg, and all points in between. Philadelphia’s ethnic communities have been battling out in open spaces, and afterwards enjoying each other’s company. Alan is pleased.  The league has been a success for the second year running.  Last year Sierra Leone took the Cup home.  This year, Liberia.  The two-month long tournament is the product of a joint effort between the City of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department, and Goya.  Nations from Israel to Ireland, Cambodia to Nigeri...

By: Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor It is 12:30pm on a Sunday at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino.  Business is good on the casino floor with poker tables full with gamblers who have, and will, be there for hours.  It is dreary out, and the brightly lit interior, the hotel lobby, stand in contrast to the foggy Potomac River just outside.  The MGM sits on a bluff overlooking the river, and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge linking Maryland and Virginia.  It is in Prince Georges County, a county ravaged by crime, and economically challenged.  The county council, and the state of Maryland pushed hard for the resort property adjacent to the upscale National Harbor area.  The bald eagles nesting atop channel marker two just offshore seem unaware. As busy as the casino is with locals, and a few busloads of gamers, it may be busier.  That’s if the sports gaming case going to the U.S. Supreme Court early next year rules in favor of breaking the monopoly of the Las...

By: Kevin Trainor/ Managing Editor The marina on Daingerfield Island sits just to the right of the southbound runway of Reagan National Airport.  Across from the last airport beacon lies a shallow, weed filled body of water with one clear channel leading from the boat basin of the yachting class to the open waters of the remarkably cleaned up Potomac River.  The same river John Smith, and crew, he of Jamestown Settlement fame circa 1609, sailed up.  They marveled at the oysters.  Oh, the oysters.  So visible from the decks through the clear waters then mostly fresh, or salty, depending on the tides.  Later, oceangoing cuttys, and other maritime pliers, could still tie up at Georgetown.  That harbor locale named for King George II, and not his problematic descendant King George III of the American Revolutionary era.  The arrival of civilization redirected the navigable river channel.  Later, the most upriver port was Alexandria, just downs...

By: Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor A clear, warm, early autumn day at Cardinal Stadium, on the campus of The Catholic University of America, in northeast Washington, D.C., witnessed a gridiron clinic.  The football Engineers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology did everything correct.  They blocked, wrapped, executed, and out-played a lacking Catholic University squad 38-21.  Most recently they embarrassed the Coast Guard Academy, oddly nicknamed the Bears, at the service school’s Homecoming game, 30-21. Yes, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a football team.  Don’t laugh.  They are a NCAA Division III powerhouse with a 6-1 record at this writing. Getting out ahead of what you’re thinking, no, they do not issue scholarships.  Varsity sports are only open to undergraduates.  What can get you on the team is a relatively safe SAT score, under the new standard, of 2300.  A rough high school GPA of 4.10 should accompan...