When it comes to professional sports, it might be expected that the country’s top players might have come from some of the country’s top teams and divisions, but that’s not entirely true. Whether you aspire to play pro sports, are a sports fan, or just love a good come up, below, are a list of professional sports players who had their start in recreational or non-professional teams.
Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ Jim Morris
Morris’ story is one of those rare ones that can qualify as tearjerker according to Bleacher Report. The now-renowned baseball player started off as any young man did, but only ended up fairing out in minor league baseball. Once that ended, he decided to leave and become a high school teacher and baseball coach, but was strongly influenced by his students to not give up and tryout of the major leagues. He did, and became a major league superstar for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at the age of 35. Ah yes, a tearjerker indeed. And apparently Disney thought so too, as the movie The Rookie is based off of his life.
Arizona Diamondbacks’ David Peralta
Plagued by two shoulder injuries that delayed his career, there wasn’t much else for Peralta to do than to work at McDonalds while playing at Rio Grande Valley’s Independent North American Baseball League, where he was learning outfield. Fast-forward to 2014 and he gets signed by the Diamondbacks only to get a promotion and enact career-defining plays just a year later. Now that’s determination.
Boston Bruins’ Tim Thomas
Much like Peralta, “good thing come to those who wait” can also be applied to Boston Bruins’ Tim Thomas, who spent a decade clawing through different leagues, only to play a mere four games with the Bruins and leave for Finland. At 31, he came back to the Bruins only to win an MVP award a few years later at 36 and help the Bruins win the Stanley World Cup that same year. A short but impactful career indefinitely.
Some of have a clear path set for our lives and some of us don’t, but this list defiantly proves that sometimes, the road less traveled can turn out to be a good thing.
Today is the last call for registration for central Houston’s 5v5 men’s basketball league, as the cut off is tomorrow, June 12.
While the Lutheran High North Community Center-based league is drawing registration near a close, prospective members can join online at anytime within the next day, as late registration fees are $945 per team and $135 per person.
The league begins playing this upcoming Wednesday, June 14 and can expect teams of no more than eight individuals with five playing at a time.
The league includes 7 games with playoffs and championship prizes, as well as 10 shirts per team with $10 for additional shirts.
Visit https://sportskind.com/houston/sign-up/ to register.
The Summer 2023 5V5 Men’s Basketball league is starting their new season next Wednesday and are looking new local talent to start a new leage. The recreational and corporate level team are readying to play for their upcoming summer season as they officially close registration next Monday, June 12. The team begins playing next mid-week on Wednesday, June 14 and are looking for men in the Houston area aged 21 and up. Interested individuals and register teams or as individual players. For more information on how to join, you can visit https://sportskind.com/houston/programs/upcoming-wednesday-basketball-lhn/.
The basketball league will be playing its games at Lutheran High North Community Center in central Houston while offering a competitive edge for inspired local players.
The Community Center, a central Houston staple for decades, will be the playing house for the competitive recreational-corporate league.
Located on 3425 Alba Rd, the Community Center is home to many recreational events both competitive and non competitive, but will be open to the competitive 5 by 5 league for future games. Interested individuals should make sure that they have transportation and drinks and decide if they want to play as a solo player or sign up with an entire team.
When the first annual Art Car Parade took place in 1987, no one expected the cultural impact it would have, so the same can be said for the museum when it opened its doors a decade later.
Co-founded by husband and wife Ann and James Harithas, the Art Car Museum was a needed piece of art culture when it opened its door to Houstonians in 1997, after the 10th year of the Art Car Parade.
Although the museum and the annual show share names, the Art Car Show itself is produced and sponsored by the Orange Show, a different art museum in Houston. Before the Art Car museum was established, however, the Art Car Show was the only opportunity to see Art Cars in Houston. It was for this reason that the museum was born, according to the museum’s Assistant Director Alicia Duplan.
Assistant Director Alicia Duplan plans a days work at the Art Car Museum, Aug. 21, 2022.A display counter at the inside the waiting hall of the museum.
“For the most part, there [were] really no places to see Art Cars year round, [you could only see Art Cars during] parade week and there would be a lot of incoming [cars] from other states,” Duplan said. “Ann and James decided they wanted to have a place where you could see the cars year round.”
There are a total of three Art Car museums in Texas that are owned by the Harithas’: the Art Car Museum, The Station Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Five Points Museum of Contemporary Art in Victoria, Texas.
The museum aims to display the art of Houston that often gets overlooked and underrepresented. This is done by displaying the art for exhibitions that the museum showcases a few times a year.
The most current one is Glimpses of the Past – Bessie Dean Parr’s Photographs of Turn of the Century, Collierville, Tennessee. This is a collection of photographs taken by photographer Bessie Dean Parr from 1913 that have been retouched, expanded and glassed for display.
Photo of the museum’s current exhibition Glimpses of the Past- Bessie Dean Parr’s Photographs of Turn of the Century, Collierville, Tennessee on opening day Aug 20, 2022.
Accompanying the exhibition are antique cars from the same time period that are stationed around various parts of the museum.
Pictures from the current exhibition, Aug. 20, 2022.A car and a wall full of photos during the opening of the exhibition, Aug. 20, 2022.
Duplan said that while they are an Art Car museum, they run showcases of various art forms.
“We have very different shows all the time, we had the sculpture show before this and [our current show] is photographs and antique cars with no Art Cars,” she said. “Our director likes to keep it fresh.”
Artists who want to be featured at the museum can always bring in photos and a proposal of their art to be considered for a group showing with other artists. One large show they host every year is the Open Call Show, a themed showcase that is open to about 80 artists.
Although this year’s date and theme are not yet determined for the Open Call, it’s these types of open opportunities that the museum is seen as a free space for creative expression from all ages, races, genders and all walks of life.
Seeing the art of this expression is what drove Artist Sam Vanbibber to become involved in the Art Car scene around 20 years ago, after closing one of her vintage shops in the area.
“I closed [my old shop] in 2001, but [when I had it], people were driving [their Art Cars] up to my shop and I was like ‘that looks like fun,’ and everybody that came in was this fun person,” Vanbibber said. “They were usually artists. We’re artists and we’re crazy. We like to have fun and just live life to the fullest because you never know when you’re going to go. I just wanted to be a part of all those people that created [art] because when you’re an artist, you hang out with the creative people. You get ideas from other people you know and it’s not to take their ideas, but it’s a collaboration. It’s always helped me. I could just be walking somewhere else and I’d get an idea.”
With turquoise hair that matched her nails, Vanbibber currently owns another vintage store and an art car called Cat Circus, a multicolored, sparkly vehicle with cats painted around the sides and the back. Art Cars come in many forms and designs, but for Vanbibber, the more outrageous, the better.
“I saw somebody else’s car and I was like ‘what the hell is that’ you know?,” Vanbibber said. “I talked to somebody and they said ‘you can do it too’ and I said ‘I know I can’ so I did.”
Art Cat artist Sam Vanbibber and her Cat Circus car, Aug. 20, 2022.
Shapes and patterns that have seen the likes of the Art Car Museum include multipatterned cars, multicolored bicycles and what Art Car mechanic Gary Hunt calls a “roach car” that gathers nationwide, and even famous, spectators.
“There was this car one year that looked like a roach. I called it a roach car and that was what everyone called it, because it looked just like a roach, the way it was designed and everything,” Hunt said. “Lots of people came out to see that car, but I remember there were two comedians [that came], Dave Chappelle and Larry the Cable Guy. They both really liked that car.”
While Hunt is a mechanic for the Art Cars, he maintains that he does not judge them, but just fixes them so they can be driven in the parade.
A car at the current exhibition Aug. 20, 2022.
As it turns out, the parade is the most anticipated part of the Art Car scene. Actor and comedian Cheech Marin even served as Grand Marshall for the 30th anniversary of the Art Car Parade in 2017. The Grand Marshall usually picks a car to lead the parade, but Hunt said other judges typically judge the Art Cars individually.
From left: Art Car mechanic Gary Hunt, and Art Car artists Charlie and Sam Vanbibber examine one of the vintage cars at the museum’s current exhibition, Aug. 20, 2022.
“I know with each [car] they go through a judge and they have a few judges there,” he said. “There’s like a first place winner of Art Cars and Lowriders. There’s four categories: Lowriders, Art Cars, Contraptions and Bicycles.”
An artist who goes by Charlie currently has a scooter that he crafted into an Art Car. He bought the scooter over 15 years ago and had been decorating it since then. But what really transformed it, he said, was an accident that reshaped his vision for it.
“I bought the scooter in 2006,” Charlie said. “It just kind of grew and every year [I added] a little more and it’s been evolving over time. About four or five years ago, I got sideswiped by a car and it tore the bike up. I got some injuries from it and I survived it, thankfully, but I had to redo the whole scooter. So I had a little plan and this time what you see are the motifs and themes running through it. It’s a labor of love, I do it because I love it.”
Art Car artist Charlie looks at his scooter with fellow artist Sam Vanbibber.
Entering its 25th year, the museum has seen a lot of changes: technology, time, COVID-19 and the recent death of co-owner Ann Harithas who died in December 2021.
While Duplan says that the museum will forever live on in her memory, she also hopes that the museum can continue to thrive adding artistic perspective to its community and guests.
“[We hope] to continue on our mission to be a free museum [that’s] open to the public [so they can] have an experience that they won’t forget,” Duplan said. “[We hope] to continue on the same path and see how we can serve the community.”
More photos from the walls of the current exhibition Aug. 20, 2022.
You can visit the link below for more information on the museum.
Several weeks after the overturn of the abortion-defining case of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, ogranizations gear up all over the country offer their versions of abortion assistance.
This comes after June 24, 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a case that ruled that abortions were a woman’s consitutional right under the 14th amendment’s right to privacy.
This resulted after a young Texas woman under the name of Jane Roe sought an abortion in 1969 due to having a low income, but was blocked by her district attorney from having one. Within three years, the case was brought to the Supreme Court and on Jan. 22, 1973, they nationally legalized abortion as a result of the court’s 7-2 decision.
The somewhat 50 year-old case protected abortion rights for all women in the United States until its 2022 overturn.
The Biden Administration has voiced their disapproval for the Supreme Court’s decision, largely through the implementation of two executive orders. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has also voiced her disapproval in a July press conference.
The first executive order, was one that protected certain specific rights to aid in abortions, such as medical care for abortion-seekers, as well as deeming it illigal for any law officials to incrinnate women seeking an abortion.
The second one, was an order signed August 3, 2022, which required medicare to cover all out-of-state abortions, should a woman seeking an aborting need to travel states to obtain one.
Despite the efforts of the Biden Administration, citizens and grassroot organizations alike have taken the everchanging state of abortion in their own hands by offering monetary and emotional support to women that are directly affected.
While abortion assitance is largely seen as a way to help women obtain abortion, some offer alternatives to abortion as abortion assitance.
One organization that offers this type of support is Maternal Assistance in Houston, Texas, which offers resource and adoption assistance to women who find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy.
Weekend volunteer Diane Sulpizio says that the purpose of the organization is to offer options other than abortion.
“There’s [many] more options than just abortion,” Sulpizio said. “There are other things a woman can do when [she] is in crisis. We offer baby products and food, baby furniture and cribs, free ultrasounds, medical assistance and many other things [for women]. We also give referrals to adoption agencies when a woman is in crisis in case they don’t want to keep or can’t afford to keep the child. We also help connect people with babies of any color. ”
According to Sulpizio, the support they offer is an option that supports the functionality of a woman’s body, as she believes that abortion is an option that does the opposite.
“We help women go with their bodies, not against it,” she said. “The design of a woman is beautiful, aboriton goes against that. As long as we [offer options] that parallel the woman’s body, we feel we are on the right track. A lot of women are confused and think their only alternative is to abort and that’s not true. We’re here to show women that there are other options.”
Women clinics like Planned Parenthood offer the same assistance to women as well, according to 34 year-old PhD student Deadra Willis, who felt that Sulpizio was excluding the well-known clinic becuase they happen to also offer abortions.
“Planned Parenthood offers the same assistance as the organization Sulpizio works for,” Willis said. Her organization is not the only one that offers that support. A lot of people think Planned Parenthood only assists in abortions and that’s not true. There is a floor that assists with abortions, but at the [Gulf Coast location in Houston], they had other floors that assisted people and couples with planning their families, ultrasounds and other resources. Just because someone promotes abortion as an option doesn’t mean they’re against keeping a baby.”
Another group that offers aboriton assistance is Plan C, an online organization that provides in the facilitation of abortion pills and information through the mail. They also give informational resources about abortions, as well as legal and financial support.
A woman who supports the organization and didn’t want to be named, said that Plan C also takes donations and sells merchandise that goes towards proceeds that help with abortion assitance.
“I got the t-shirt that I am wearing right now from [Plan C]. A lot of [the shirts] have political art on them that spread a message and I think the funds go towards abortion assistance,” she said. “They also sell stickers and flyers. They offer information and resources online so that anyone can have access to them no matter where they are in the country.”
Whether a woman is pro-life or pro-choice and needs assitance with an unexpected pregnancy, it appears that organizations nationwide are gearing up to help woman everywhere with assistance that aligns with their plans and personal beliefs.
For more information on Maternal Assistance you can call (713) 263-8400.
For more information on Plan C, as well as other abortion options, you can visit plancpills.org.
With the Supreme Court leaving abortion access up to the states, some states have already restricted access all together. A full list of how each state is affected is on abcnews.com and can be accessed by clicking the hyperlink below.
Citizens continue to reflect on the currently checkered state of abortion rights in the United States after the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade on June 24th, 2022.
This is following a second executive order by President Joe Biden aimed at protecting abortion rights for women all over the county.
The first, was an order that protected certain specific rights to aid in abortions, such as medical care for abortion-seekers, as well as deeming it illigal for any law officials to incrinnate women seeking an abortion.
The second one, was an order signed August 3, 2022, which required medicare to cover all out of state abortions, should a woman seeking an aborting has to travel states to obtain one.
While the theory of a second executive order protecting abortion rights looks good on paper, not everyone is thrilled about it.
One of those people is 34 year-old PhD student Deadra Willis who sees the second executive order as the first one, more of the same.
“When I hear of this second executive order, I just think, ‘yawn,’ Willis said. “It’s very weak.”
Willis lamented that she would like to see more aggressive chage from the Biden administration, such as fighting for abortion acess for all.
“I think abortions should be considered no matter what the conditions are,” she said.
If there’s a person that this issue strikes a personal chord with, it’s definitely Willis, who had undergone a procedure a few years ago after a medical illness compromised her health during an unexpected pregnancy.
One of her resources that got her through that time was Planned Parenthood, a non profit organization that helps women with their reproductive health. They also do consultations with couples and parents, provide STD testing, help individuals with starting gender assignment and help individuals with steps to plan to conceive a family.
While Planned Parenthood offers a variety of reproductive health, the non profit is mostly highlighted for aiding in, and facilitating abortions. This is usually much to the dismay or relief those that are involved in abortion rights, depending on whether they are pro-life or pro-choice.
Some Planned Parenthoods have stopped facilitating abortions all together follwing the Supreme Court overturn, according to a staffer from a greater Houston area clinic who chose not to be named.
“Our paticular office doesn’t do abortions anymore,” she said.
While it’s unclear what the future of abortion rights will be in the United States, women still consider Planned Parenthood a viable source of support for other points of their reproductive health, which Willis wishes people would understand about the non profit.
“Abortion is not a ‘get out of jail free’card like people think it is,” she said. “People think that’s how it’s used and while some women might do that, that’s their prerogative, their right. But for a lot of us it’s a very emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually taxing process. Planned Parenthood understands that and the process was treated that way. I didn’t have to explain myself if I didn’t want to, because it’s a hard thing to talk about and they understood that. The way it was handled was with so much care.”
She also wishes that the experience of an abortion was painted in a more realistic way that highlighted sometimes uncomfortatlble moments.
“People think it’s easy, but there’s also a face of abortion that is not represented,” she said. “A man, a woman, a couple who would like to keep the child is forced not to, and there is a mental, physical and emotional toll that comes with that. God is used to champion people who are against abortion, but not for people who are pro-abortion, I think God is in both [situations]. God steps in and takes care of you and you can see God’s compassion in [pro-abortion access and situations].”
Administrative assistant Yvonne Robinson agreed that God is in those situations as well.
“I don’t think anyone really wants to make that type of decision on their own.” she said. “No one really wants to decide that, but God will always point us to the right direction in hard times. God is everywhere.”
With the Supreme Court leaving abortion access up to the states, some states have already restricted access all together. A full list of how each state is affected is on abcnews.com and can be accessed by clicking the hyperlink below.
The supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade, a landmark court case that resulted in the consitutional right for abortions for over 50 years, and citizens weigh in following an executive order protecting those rights signed by President Joe Biden.
On June 24, 2022, the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade, a case where that ruled that abortions were a woman’s consitutional right under the 14th amendment’s right to privacy. This resulted after a young Texas woman under the name of Jane Roe woman sought an abortion in 1969 due to having a low income, but was blocked by Dallas district attorney Henry Wade.
By June 1970, while a Texas court ruled it illigal to ban abortions due to the previously mentioned constitutional protection under the 14th amendment, Wade still actively threatened to prosecute doctors that performed abortions. Within three years, the case was brought to the supreme court and on Jan. 22, 1973, the supreme court nationally legalized abortion as a result of the supreme court’s 7-2 decision.
The supreme court, however, overturned the results of the somewhat 50 year-old case that protected abortion rights for all women in the United States. From a decision that shocked all that watched, perspectives and opinions alike have poured in from all walks of life.
One of those lives is 34 year-old PhD student Deadra Willis, who shared she was pro choice.
“ I feel like it’s the (litteral) choice of a woman if you’re using her body to do something,” she said.
Willis shared that she felt the overturn was a step backwards for the United States, but also deemed it irrelevant as well.
“It’s like, you can still get abortions but there’s all these [spcifics you have to fufill] and it’s up to each state. I find the way they did it barbaric and meaningless at the same time. The way they did it left a bad taste in my mouth.”
Administrative assistant Yvonne Robinson also shared the same stance as Willis in the fact that she identifies as pro-choice and said that she belives it’s to keep women subordinate.
“A woman has the right to do what they want to do with her body, that’s her choice,” she said. “I think this all happened to keep women subservient. The government orchestrated this to keep us distracted from the future, a better future.”
Standing next to her was boyfriend Tony Guerrero who, while he identified as pro choice, but believed that abortions should only be considered up until six weeks of fetus development. Guerrero believed that like Yvonne, the overturn was done to distract Americans, but for other reasons, like a change in the monastery system known as Cryptocurrency.
“To me, this was done on purpose to distract us from other important issues and the new monetary system coming in place,” he said. “They did this on purpose because cryptocurrency is the new monetary system that [has the possibility] to make everyone successful and they don’t want too many people rich. They want us all to be poor and slaves.”
In the midst of the controversial overturn came a supising turn of events, where president Biden signed an executive order protecting abortion rights. The executive order protects certain specifics rights to aid in abortions, such as medical care among others.While Robinson and Guerrero maintained their own stance about their views behind the overturn, both agreed that the order was a step in the right direction.
“I’m in favor of the executive order,” Robinson said. “It protects their rights, its their right to have abortions.”
“It should protect [women],” Guerrero said. “I think them passing this order should help women secure abortion rights.”
In addition to signing the executive order, Biden also made it mandatory for states to administer abortions in medical emergencies. Wills, however, had a different perspective when discussing this aspect of Biden’s abortion protections. She shared doesn’t protect abortion rights because she feels it protects the rights of some not all.
“I think abortions should be considered no matter what the conditions are,” Willis said. “He’s only fully protecting abortions due to medical issues. When I had my abortion, I had it for medical reasons, but everyone else was either too young or [they were in college]. There were girls there who were studying, young couples who weren’t ready. The vast majority [of patients were there for non-medical reasons, so medical reasoning for abortions are only a small percentage.”
She went on to discuss that she felt the Biden administration’s approach to abortion protections were lacking authority and indecisive.
“I think it’s nonsensical,” she said. “A man that can’t balance on a bike is gonna tell me what to do. Worry about that bike. Abortions should be protecting everyone in need of one. He passed some weak-sounding bill that doesn’t want to come off too aggressively pro choice so he can save face. There’s more that needs to be done.”
Biden signed the executive order on July 8, 2022. States, however, currently hold the overall fate of abortions. A full list of how each state is on abcnews.com affected can be accessed by clicking the hyperlink below.
