Island Pest Control - soccer champions

The Anna Maria Island Community Center’s 2013 adult co-ed soccer ended its season Thursday night with a premier performance by the number one seeded Island Pest Control team and the number three seeded Wash Family Construction team.

The first half of the game was dominated by great defensive play. The goal keepers were not very busy as the defensive wall in front of them held strong. For the Island Pest Control team it was an impressive defensive performance by Oliver Petereit, Sean Sanders and Max Gazzo with Frank Agnelli in goal. For the Wash Family Construction team it was a rock solid defensive performance by Kelsea Bachman and Erin Vogal with Aaron Parkin in goal.

The first half ended in a 0-0 tie. Due mainly to three free kicks, Island Pest Control had more chances on offense then Wash Family Construction but none that found the back of the net.

The first 12 minutes of the second half was exactly the same type of game, and viewers wondered when and if any team would be able to break the other’s defense and score.

The Island Pest Control team struck first with 10 minutes left to play. Danny Anderson took advantage of a free kick from about 20 yards out and scored to make it 1-0 Island Pest control.

One minute later, Lindsey Weaver intercepted a Wash Family Construction pass. She then passed to a wide open Emily Argeros, who finished the shot to the right corner for the goal and a 2-0 lead.

With five minutes left in regulation play, Danny Anderson scored his second goal of the game. Oliver Petereit sent a beautiful pass up to Anderson, who ripped a clear shot on goal. Within a five minute time period, Island Pest Control had taken a commanding 3-0 lead.

Wash Family Construction did not give up though. With approximately two minutes to play in regulation, Aaron Parkin took a corner kick and sent a great pass to teammate BJ Grant in the box. Grant got there just in time and finished for the Wash Family Construction goal. Score 3-1.

Very soon after, Kris Yavalar threw a perfect ball into the box area to teammate Darrin Wash. Darrin headed the ball into the net for the second goal, score 3-2.

The momentum had shifted to the Wash Family Construction team, but it was a little too late. Time expired by the referee, and the number one seeded first place Island Pest Control team is the 2013 AMICC Adult Co-Ed Soccer Champions.

Tyler’s Ice Cream Kickball Champions

The Cinderella playoff teams struck one last time during the Anna Maria Island Community Center’s spring sports season. Except for the adult soccer tournament, the championships have all been won by the underdogs this year, but none more unexpected then in adult co-ed kickball.

The last place Tyler’s Ice Cream team fought its way from the bottom to the top last week and defeated the undefeated number one seeded Beach to Bay Construction team by a score of 9-6.

All year long Tyler’s Ice Cream Player, Jeff Laade, said, “We got you right where we want you.” Even though he would say this when they were losing all of their regular season games, it looks like in the end he was absolutely right.

It is said in sports that the team that gets hot at the right time of year is usually the one to win it all. The kickball playoffs and championship game took place all in one night and Tyler’s Ice cream played incredible when it counted. It first came back from a 14-0 deficit to defeat Lobstah’s 15-14 in the playoffs before winning the championship game.

Congratulations to the Cinderella story team of the year and players Laura Alderson, Rob Alderson, Mark Davis, Diego Felipe, Erin Heckler, Jeff Laade, Chrissy McCracken, Chuck McCracken, Aris Thompson and Erin Vogal

Adult Co-Ed Kickball Results

Tyler’s Ice Cream  15
Lobstahs  Playoffs 14

Beach to Bay Construction  13
Agnelli Pools & Spa  Playoffs 9

Tyler’s Ice Cream  9
Beach to Bay Construction  6
Championship

 

Will they replace Paula Deen with a vegan?

I posted that question on my “Eat Vegan on $4 a Day” Facebook page of 23,000 fans this week. The most popular response was, “Keep dreaming!” And so I do.

For those of you who don’t follow the Food Network, Paula Deen was a good ol’ Southern-cooking gal with a popular show who eventually disclosed that her constant reminders to cook everything deep fried with tons of butter gave her diabetes. Worse, she didn’t disclose this for a year and then began promoting an anti-diabetes drug that made her even more money. When all of that became public, many demanded she be taken off the air, to no avail.

But her recent disclosure that she had used the “n” word in the past was her undoing, and within days, The Food Network announced it was cancelling her show. Ah…the things that bring people down.

About a year ago, I sat next to a man who as it turned out, owned several network-affiliate broadcast stations. He had a wife who was vegan and claimed to know decisions makers at the Food Network. He asked what big city TV market I was closest to. He asked, and I submitted, a proposal for a half-hour show. He eventually got back and said his investor pushed back, fearing objections from meat and dairy advertisers. And so the story has always gone, as I say in my book, “No money in broccoli. No lobby, association, board or corporation that makes it.”

What I hope that some TV network will get is that the popularity of shows like Paula Deen are what is killing us as a country. All of us pay for the uninsured who check into hospitals by the minute with preventable diseases of affluence – diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, high blood pressure and recently categorized for insurance purposes this week as a disease, obesity. We all pay for these diseases, whether is you, me, the government or insurance corporations.

Ironically, this same week, popular, gifted actor James Gandolfini dropped dead of a heart attack, reportedly just after eating two servings of fried shrimp, faux gras and a pina colada. There has been much discussion about that too on social media, whether that’s what caused his death and whether it’s too soon after his death to talk about a suspected cause without an autopsy. One only has to look at current photos and read accounts of “how he did love his food,” (as if the rest of us don’t) to imagine that he probably wasn’t in the best of health, for whatever reasons.

Whether or not an autopsy confirms suspicions, it’s time that people say enough is enough. I suspect that even though as I prepare for the National Senior Games in a month, clocking a :08 50 meter dash, and briefly clocking a 5 minute-mile, at 60, even with two Emmys and 18 years TV news under my belt, I am not the next Paula Deen candidate.

After all, at the end of my TV career, I was told by the station’s makeup consultant, “40 is never too young to have a facelift, and the more often you have them, the more effective they are long term. You just don’t get to be Barbara Walter’s age and look like that.” Since I knew someone who almost died from a facelift complication, I was never going to do that.

And so, I gladly concede TV entertainment to the young, unless some angel out there thinks that a reasonably well-preserved, accomplished sprinter and endurance runner (very rare to do both), trained vegan cooking class instructor (two times a day, five days week at the peak when the classes were free at the community center) has something to offer that was as important as Paula Deen.

If so, well by golly, you know where to find me. Otherwise, I’m more than content running most days on our pristine beaches, fielding the barrage of great questions I get on my social media pages, doing YouTube videos and traveling on book tour at the request of my publisher and others. You can lead a horse to water, but you sure can’t make it drink. Gotta run!

You can follow Island resident Ellen Jaffe Jones on her Facebook page and keep up with her just released book:,"Eat Vegan on $4 a Day," or her website: www.vegcoach.com. She is also a nationally certified personal trainer and running coach. For training in a gym or private hire, contact Ellen at ejones@vegcoach.com or 941-704-1025.