Thursday, January 28, 2010

Passport Check: One Torey, One Thomas

In places like New York, sometimes the biggest and best apples do fall far from the tree. All the way from a snowy outdoor court in White Plains to the often times blue plastic flooring and widened lane lines of overseas-style basketball gyms. It is here we stumble upon a bolt of talent in the modest, under-the-radar 24 year old Torey Thomas.
"I am a gym rat, park rat. Anywhere there’s a court, I am there!" said Thomas, a two-time 1st Team All-State and All-FCIAC selection hailing from Trinity Catholic High School in Stamford, CT. Accepting a scholarship to Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA, Torey continued to prove that he’d excelled in figuring out every known method of accumulating stats on the court, particularly steals for which he is the 2nd All-Time leader in Holy Cross history.
After a few NBA pre-draft workouts and summer pro-leagues in 2007, Thomas signed his first contract to play in Turkey. In the Yellow Brick Road transit-lifestyle of an overseas ball player, Torey then played in Sweden, France, and now Holland, where he was the Defensive Player of the Year his first season in 2008.
"The biggest difference is the style of play," said Thomas, in comparing basketball in the States to the way the game is executed in Europe. "The pick and roll and set plays…The tempo of the game…And how the game is called," he added, referring to one of the biggest adjustments which is learning to adapt to international referees who have infinitely little patience in blowing their whistles for what could be highly arguable calls in an American player’s frame of reference.
Having had workouts with several NBA teams such as the NY Knicks, the NJ Nets, the Boston Celtics, and the Utah Jazz, the European leagues may actually prove to be a solid springboard from where the young Thomas could land himself a spot on a roster in the League.
"I believe these differences enabled me to become a more intelligent player and more fundamentally sound, which definitely gives me an advantage when coming back to compete in the U.S." said Thomas, who made the decision to return overseas this season instead of playing in the NBA’s Dleague.
Although not an easy choice to make, Thomas recalled that, "I was off from playing since May, and the Dleague didn’t start until December 1st and I just couldn’t wait any longer to play, so I decided to go back out to Europe in October."
For a guy who could wear his body weight in accolades and accomplishments, Thomas said that, as a professional, "Winning Player of the Year in Sweden feels the best because I was crowned the top player in the top division of the Swedish Basketball League. I am a part of history when it comes to that."
Even while Torey is making history on the basketball courts across the globe, he is making futures better for so many kids back in his hometown. Distinguishing himself off the court as well, Thomas is the co-founder and operator of his own life-skills basketball program, the New York Blaze Athletic Club.
As the kid who developed an "unbelievable passion for basketball at an early age" continues to echo his name throughout the European leagues, he still has that goal of making it to the NBA, having had another free-agent workout with the Knicks this past summer. And if Thomas would be able to add "NBA" to his basketball resume, a career timeline that is already the blueprint of a winner, that would just be an extra sexy punctuation mark.
As game times approach this season in Holland and Torey slips his solid, able-bodied arms into the jersey of Nijmegen’s Matrixx Magix uniform, he looks as relaxed and at ease as a casual-Fridays professional in the U.S.A. Only, this is what Thomas does every day of the week—he goes to work.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Basketball more than just a game to Mahoney



For those close to sports and deeply involved in them, the lessons the games teach and effect it has on the rest of their lives is what makes them worthwhile.
For 28-year-old Nikki Mahoney, basketball is helping get her involved with the United Nations and help her find a bigger relationship with a game she has had a bit of an up and down history with.
After breaking her ankle while playing professional basketball in Geneva, Switzerland, finding the silver lining in the situation has made it all worthwhile for her.
“Basketball isn’t my whole life by any means, but it’s been a huge factor throughout my life,” said Mahoney who has started using basketball as a vehicle for peace by starting a sports-based non-governmental organization. “As with any sport, if you allow it to teach you values that filter into all aspects of your life, then it’s going to mean a whole lot more to you. And depending on your situation, that can end up being a heck of a lot.”
In fact, her being in Europe stems from missing a flight to New York City, bringing good with what could have been a bad situation.
There was some bad at the start of this season when Mahoney, who studied in Japan while completing her bachelor’s degree in Japanese, fractured her ankle and was ruled out for the rest of the season. That forced her to move into a coaching role.
“I always look for the good in things, especially in ‘bad’ situations,” said Mahoney. “And had I not been injured, none of this other stuff would have come up. I wouldn’t have tried to find other avenues to be involved in sports internationally.
“As much as I hate being injured a lot of opportunities have developed out of it.”
Aside from the work worth the UN, Mahoney, who at nine was part of a team that won a national competition that got her name into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, found her way into coaching.
“It was never something that I’d had intentions of doing, it just sort of happened and it’s still happening,” said Mahoney, who has gone to the Peace and Sports International Forum in Monacco. “I’m not complaining though. I’m glad it ‘fell upon me’ as it has or else I’d probably be doing something – who knows what.
“But I love what I do. I’ll definitely always want to be coaching in some capacity.”
That hasn’t changed her mind on coming back to playing, though. And this experience may help her when she comes back to the court.
“The game looks completely different from a coach’s perspective, but it actually helps a lot when you go back on the court because you think and read the court differently,” said Mahoney said, who has coached at Generations for Peace in Amman, Jordan. “And I love helping kids and players develop their game. Especially the ones who have so much heart and want to get better.”
Things continue to build for Mahoney, who will also be a contributor with us On The Line Sports. And she will look to give her the international take on sports.




-Photos courtesy Nikki Mahoney

Note: This is the first in what we hope becomes a regular feature profiling athletes and those involved in sports of any kind. Want to be featured? Contact us by E-mailing Vaughan at vaughan.gartrelle@gmail.com.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Welcome

Welcome to the official On The Line Sports Blog. In case you aren’t familiar with On The Line Sports, we are a sports consulting firm that caters to everyone in the world of athletics, by helping plan events, staff sporting functions, and much more. Our company was founded in 2006 and we have been going strong ever since. In 2010 On The Line Sports plans to implement a few new programs (including this blog). Some of our new ventures outlined will be outlined here today and others will come along throughout the blogs growth.

This blog is going to familiarize everyone a lot with the inner workings of On The Line Sports. There will be features done on individuals who have inspired not only us but many others. Our hope is that they will in turn inspire you. Our blog will have two main feature writers. The first of which will be Aaron Wilberding. Aaron is a sportswriter originally from Cuba City, Wisconsin. After graduating in 2005 from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Aaron took a job as a sportswriter at the west Bend Daily News in West Bend Wisconsin. After 2 years Aaron moved on to Prepsonthenet.com, a high school feature website , and has been there since mid 2007. While at “Preps” Aaron has started his own blog “Wilber’s Way”. In 2009 Aaron received an award from the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association as their writer of the year. On The Line Sports is honored that he has offered to help us with our newest endeavor.

Our second feature writer is another good friend of On The Line Sports, her name is Nicole Mahoney. Nicole is a California native but has stamped her mark across the entire globe. Nicole graduated from the University of California – Santa Barbara in the summer of 2004. After graduating, Nicole left the United States of America for Yamanashi Japan, where she continued her education. After returning home for a few months Nicole then once again transplanted herself to Geneva Switzerland. While in Switzerland Nicole not only played professional basketball but served as an ambassador for multiple conferences throughout Europe one of which was the Peace and Sport International Conference in Monte Carlo Monaco. She is an awesome addition to our team as she will not only be writing features she will be profiled as well.

A few other divisions of this blog will be weekly updates from myself including: new programs, question and answer forums and overseas journals from a few of our friends playing and living around the globe.

A couple other new programs at On The Line Sports will be debuting here in 2010. One of our new programs is our individual workout plans. Any player from any sport in any city can contact OTLS to receive an individual workout plan fitting their sport of choice. Even if an athlete has a specific goal then OTLS can help lead the way. Another new program we have is our Route 66 camp trail. This program is for sports camp coaches who are interested in in seeing historic Route 66 while on the road for their summer work. Last but definitely not least is the On The Line Sports free agent camp. This camp will help student athletes from lesser known schools to gain the exposure and confidence necessary to succeed in athletics, some of the features in this camp will be basketball, life skills, exchange of understandings and even some foreign language development.

In closing 2010 will be a big year for OTLS. Stay with us to learn more about our programs. Thank you for your time and I look forward to working with you all very soon.

Vaughan Gartrelle
President
On The Line Sports