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Sports EXTRA
Local Sports
Central Bulldogs
set to host youth
football camp
The Forsyth Central Bulldogs
will host their annual Bulldog
Youth Football Camp for players
ages 9-13 on June 27-30. The
camp will run from 9:30 a.m, to
1:30 p.m. daily.
The cost is $85 per camper and
will include daily snacks and a
camp T-shirt. The Forsyth Central
Bulldog coaching staff will be
hosting this camp. For more infor¬
mation, call Mike Coley (770)
886-0213 or coach Frank Gordy
(770) 887-8151, ext. 1415.
The Atlanta Pro
Basketball Camp
set for Waleska
The Atlanta Pro Basketball
Camp will be hosted July 10-15 at
Reinhardt College in Waleska.
The camp is open for boys ages 8
to seniors in high school.
Call (404) 876-3471 for more
information.
War Eagles to host
baseball camp
The South Forsyth High
School baseball program will host
a camp intended for the advanced
13-18 age group at War Eagle
Field on July 11-14 at a cost of
$125 per player.
The War Eagles’ coaching staff
is responsible for the team’s six
state playoff appearances and
three region titles since 1996.
Team discounts are available.
Visit www.SouthForsythBase
ball.com for more information or
to register online.
Coast Guard to
host boating safety
course this July
Flotilla 24 of the U.S. Coast
Guard Auxiliary, Lake Lanier, has
announced a 13-lesson, three-day
“Boating skills and seamanship”
’ course scheduled for July 23, 30,
and Aug. 6, at the Corps of
Engineers Office on Buford Dam
Road in Buford.
The classes will run from 8:30
a.m. until 4:15 p.m.
The cost is $35 and the instruc¬
tors are certified Coast Guard
Auxiliary instructors.
Course contents include boat¬
ing terminology, having the right
equipment for your boat, trailer
ing, boat handling, aids to naviga¬
tion, navigation rules, inland boat¬
ing, introduction to navigation/
powering your boat, lines and
knots, weather and boating, and
knowing your boat’s radio.
Successful completion of this
course may result in a reduction in
a boater’s insurance premium.
Call Roy Crittenden at (770) 393-
4382.
Baseball league
looks for players
Hie Cumming Reds, an adult
baseball team in the Stan Musial
Baseball League, still need play¬
ers for the 2005 season and will
host tryouts soon for all posi¬
tions. The team seeks current
college players looking for a
summer team as well as any
players with college, profession¬
al, amateur, high school or
American Legion experience.
Call Dennis Holbrook at (770)
887-4036.
All-Star hoops
camp slated
Final applications are now
being evaluated for the Ten-Star
All-Star Basketball Camp. This
camp is invitation only. Boys and
girls ages 10-19 are eligible to
0 apply. For information regarding
this camp, call (704) 373-0873.
MOTORSPORTS
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Photo/File
Looks are now more of a national obsession than ever, even in the world of racing with contests
such as “NASCAR’s sexiest driver contest." Sterling Marlin, above, has 10 career Cup wins, but will
be replaced next season in the Coors Light Dodge because of “marketing” concerns.
Looks business
In announcing that David
Stremme would replace Sterling
Marlin next year in the Coors Light
Dodge, Chip Gannassi Racing co¬
owner Felix Sabates cut to the heart
of the a disturbing new trend in the
business of NASCAR.
It’s not Marlin’s performance
that prompted the two-time Daytona
500 winner’s eminent exit from the
40 car, he told a news conference at
Michigan International Speedway.
In Sabates’ words, “It’s all about
marketing.”
With Coors catering to the 22-to-
35 set, Sabates described the racing
business as “a young man’s sport.”
One need only compare side-by
side photographs of Stremme, 28,
and Marlin, 48, to determine which
would look better as a cardboard
cutout at the local liquor store.
With the FOX television net¬
work openly focusing on the looks
of some drivers through its asinine
“sexiest idriver” poll, it seems the
promotion of NASCAR has sunken
to a skin-deep exercise. In the past
month, two of the top newspapers
covering the sport, the Charlotte
Observer and Orlando Sentinel, not
only presented readers with their
staff picks for the best-looking driv¬
ers, but also the ugliest drivers.
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SI
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Stephen
Gurr
You won’t see that sort of mean
spirited name-calling in this space.
As a wise man once said, “People
can’t help the way they look.”
It should be said, however, that
if the marketing and sponsor sup¬
port of drivers had always been
predicated on their good looks, the
legendary racers of the late 60s and
70s would have been in serious
trouble.
David Pearson was a handsome
driver in his time. Richard Petty,
Cale Yarborough, Bobby Issacs and
Bobby Allison were not, and no one
seemed to care. Sponsorships
weren’t as crucial then, and track
performance always trumped how
many boxes of breakfast cereal a
driver could move.
That’s not to say that there are
some less-than-handsome drivers
racing in Cup that have been shut
out of success on the track. But it’s
fairly obvious why you see more
commercials featuring the chiseled
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS - Thursday, Juns 23,2006
jaw of Bobby Labonte, mired in
26th place in the points, than the
defending Nextel Cup champion or
the current leader in wins this sea
son.
Looks are now more of a nation¬
al obsession than ever, and it’s not
hard to understand how NASCAR’s
cult of personality, with less than 50
drivers making races on a regular
basis, is an ideally suited platform
for such superficial scrutiny.
Madison Avenue certainly has
bought into it. We now see sleek,
stylish print ads of Jeff Gordon,
with a day-old beard and a sweaty
brow, promoting wristwatches. The
rosy cheeks of Kasey Kahne and the
aw-shucks grin of Jeremy Mayfield
represent Evemham Motorsports
during TV commercial breaks in a
way Bill Elliott never could.
Stremme looks well-suited to
star in future Coors Light ads. But,
while Marlin has 10 Cup wins in his
career, Stremme has never won in
Cup or Busch racing. Maybe it
doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s not how
well you drive, but how good you
look doing it.
Stephen Gurr is a reporter for
the Forsyth County News. He can
be reached at Stephengurr@
forsythnews. com.
RAGE 6A
Sharapova
brings new
appeal to
Wimbledon
By Filip Bondy
New York Daily News/KRT
WIMBLEDON, England—
Roger Federer took Centre Court
on Monday, and the defending
champion received a nice ovation
from a half-empty stadium. As
always, it was a joy to watch his
liquid tennis, and a mixed blessing
to observe this gentle soul’s perfect
behavior.
Federer is the best player in the
world, but his Borg-like presence is
more Zen than Zip. He doesn’t own
Wimbledon. And these days, Tim
Henman’s grip on the mortgage is
loosening as well. Everywhere you
turn in Southwest London, there is
another giant poster of that other
defending champ, Maria Shara
pova.
Sharapova smiles. Sharapova
grimaces. Sharapova takes a photo
while somebody takes her photo.
The tabloids are aglow: Here,
finally, is a pinup blonde with the
real stuff. Anna Kournikova didn’t
own the serve. Serena and Venus
intimidated these tennis voyeurs.
Sharapova is a more familiar sym¬
bol. Sex is the pitch that never
stops selling. And slowly, almost
imperceptibly, Sharapova is begin¬
ning to play the role for them.
It is a shame, really, for last
year Sharapova absolutely, posi¬
tively refused to perform in that
way, to lower herself to the level of
her interrogators. When reporters
asked her then about her clothing,
or how difficult it was to be judged
on her looks, she would sternly
look away and say, “I’m not inter¬
ested in that. I just want to win
Wimbledon.”
Then she won Wimbledon.
Sharapova is 18 now and it seems
the green light, or at least a yellow,
has been given. She still says, “It’s
not as important to look good as it
is to feel good.” But with just a bit
of prodding from the local bull¬
dogs, Sharapova will tell you about
her pleated dress or offer a treatise
on her shoes,
My shoes have 18-carat gold
on the sides, that is something
totally different,” she said. “They
shine, unbelievably, and hopefully
that can distract my opponents a
little. There’s nothing too valuable
that I’m going to leave in the lock¬
er room, except my shoes.”
She’s just a kid who bites her
nails and endures enormous family
pressures. But this sort of shoe
news becomes large headlines over
here, along with the inevitably
more serious fodder. A Sharapova
stalker from Britain emerged at a
recent tournament in the U.S. and
has been banished from the All
England Club.
For this development, the media
probably shares some blame. If you
build a goddess, the undesirables
will come. Sharapova insists she
feels “safe and secure,” while
admitting she never walks around
by herself, anywhere.
There is good reason to watch
Sharapova, of course. For starters,
she is a graceful athlete, who
knocks the ball around from the
baseline with great tenacity.
Sharapova feeds on the pace of oth¬
ers, which makes her a nearly
impossible opponent for the Big
Babe generation, for Lindsay
Davenport and Serena Williams.
Sharapova has the grit. We know
that. She already has risen to the
biggest moment of them all, captur¬
ing Wimbledon.
“Sometimes, when I’m sitting at
home, I look back at what I was
doing two years ago, it just feels
amazing; it really does,” Sharapova
“When I go through a magazine
with me in it, and I’m with my
friends and family, people who have
been with me through everything, it’s
like: We’re still doing the same
thing. We’re still together and we are
still doing the things that we were
two years ago. But so much has hap¬
pened.”
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