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Florida A&M grad aims to win more gold at Flag Football World Cup

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3 months ago

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During the day, she is a graduate of Florida A&M University. Deliah Autry is a pediatric physical therapist. After hours, the 29-year-old is a member of the U.S. women’s flag football team. national team She could be found coaching young girls who want to pursue the game, or figuring out as a part of her own training program.

In March Autry created it fourth national team. In previous international competitions she won two gold medals and one silver, and she’s going to fight for an additional medal this 12 months at the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Flag Football World Championshipwhich can start on Tuesday in Finland.

The Tampa, Florida, native fell in love with flag football as a school student Robinson High School in her hometown. Florida became first state approve girls flag football as a varsity highschool sport in 2003. But because no colleges within the state offered flag football as a varsity sport when Autry was in college just a few years ago, she continued playing on clubs and intramural teams.

While Autry attended Florida A&M from 2017 to 2020 for physical therapy, she played on the Rattlers flag football team. During the faculty admissions process, historically black colleges and universities weren’t discussed at her highschool, she said, but attending Florida A&M was a welcome experience for her.

“I just felt like I belonged there and I felt super empowered being there,” Autry said. “I was like, ‘Wow, they really don’t show you the glory of going to an HBCU.’ … I just felt so much more connected to myself and my family, my roots, going there. That’s why I always say it was the best thing that could have happened to me.”

Autry said her experience growing up helping her brother battle diabetes, in addition to being surrounded by other black future doctors at Florida A&M, helped her learn the way to take care of the young patients she now treats.

“It helps me advocate more for people, knowing that there are already stereotypes about minorities in our health care system that doctors may not see or vice versa, or they just aren’t understood,” Autry said. “So I definitely feel like I can empathize and understand and connect with people who are going through these things. The pride of being able to represent minorities and come from a minority program and come from a minority program, I carry that with me every day.”

As a member of her club soccer team, Autry learned to play multiple positions, which prepared her for a profession in international women’s flag soccer.

Even though flag football just isn’t a Division I collegiate sport, the trail to making the U.S. Women’s National Flag Football Team included playing in tournaments across the country and catching the eye of national team members and scouts.

The international model for girls’s flag football is five-on-five, with players often switching between offensive and defensive roles. Autry has experience as a quarterback, wide receiver, defensive back and center.

“That’s how she got on the team, because she could do a lot of things,” said Christopher Lankford, former U.S. women’s flag football team coach. “Her greatest strength is that she can play a lot of positions, but Deliah is also someone who is going to learn. She wants to be the best at all of those positions.”

Deliah Autry, a member of the U.S. women’s national flag football team, runs with the ball during training camp at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in July.

Soccer within the USA

Autry’s younger brother, Darius, remembers watching her study for physical therapy school and practice flag football, and her family still supports most of her national team commitments after more than a decade of playing the game.

“She’s an intelligent player and a student of the game. It’s like watching her play chess. She knows what to do, when to be there and how to do it,” Darius Autry said. “She’s one of the fastest, most cunning and smartest, and she uses all of her attributes in a way that makes her shine and be a presence and a force to be reckoned with when she’s on the court.”

He remains to be delighted Autry’s touchdown caught behind the top zone at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama. He also remembers how the support of his family all the time motivated his sister to play harder and set higher goals.

“There aren’t a lot of brown girls out there doing what she does at this level. She’s one of the smaller girls on the team, and she’s also a doctor, she owns her own business, she owns her own camp for kids,” Darius Autry said. “She does a lot of things to give back, and I think she just leads by example. There’s something about Deliah that they can relate to, an inspiration, especially if you’re a young brown girl in this sport.”

Autry feels the sport has given her quite a bit and loves passing on the knowledge she has gained over time to younger players.

“AND I feel like the sport is just so inclusive. Most of the time, in my experience, you look at a team and it’s diverse because the thing about flag football is that it’s a sport for everyone,” she said. “There’s a job, a responsibility, a position for everybody, no matter color. Flag football has grow to be, like, a secure space for everybody

Autry describes herself as a perfectionist who’s all the time focused on improving. After making the national team for the primary time in 2021, she was able to play without fear, but as her flag football profession progressed, she hit a roadblock. It became increasingly difficult for her to compete mentally, so she consciously tried to put as much work into her mental health as she did her physical health to prepare for competition.

Autry sees a mental health skilled once per week. She said she actively works to eliminate negative self-talk and focuses on positive affirmations.

Deliah Autry is pictured during a training camp for the U.S. women’s national team at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in July. Autry said she made a conscious effort to put as much work into her mental health as she did her physical health.

“At the end of the day, it’s about enjoying the experience. There are very few people selected from across the country who get to play and represent your country,” Autry said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment. You have to be able to enjoy the moment and literally play and react to what’s happening in the moment.”

Even though Lankford isn’t any longer the national team coach, he still follows this system and has seen the outcomes of Autry’s change in attitude.

“Her biggest growth right now is that she’s 100 percent confident in her abilities and understanding that she’s now the captain of the U.S. national team defense,” Lankford said. “She really understands how everyone should be positioned on the teams they’re playing against. She knows exactly what those teams like to do.”

Watching the Olympics earlier this month fueled Autry’s enthusiasm for the long run of flag football. Olympic debut in 2028 in Los Angeles.

Autry said the inclusion of flag football within the Olympic program demonstrates the expansion of the game and provides additional opportunities for young girls.

“It all has a direct link to how far (flag football) has come and how much excitement, emotion, hope and inspiration the sport generates,” she said.

In the meantime, Autry is targeted on the upcoming international world championships. The U.S. team accomplished a training camp in early August and is now in Finland, where the U.S. team won gold medals at the last two IFAF Flag Football World Championship.

“We all feel very, very confident in our work, in each other, in our coaches and in our system,” Autry said. “We’re super excited and we understand it’s different than last 12 months. We’re going to have quite a bit more competitive teams and we’re going to see quite a bit more competition on a much bigger stage, which is stressful. But I feel our trust in one another and our relationships with one another goes to be what gets us through this whole thing.

Cover notes

IFAF Flag Football World Championship
When: August 27-30
Where: Lahti, Finland
To watch: ABC and ESPN
Information: www.americanfootball.sport

Mia Berry is a senior HBCU author at Andscape who covers the whole lot from sports to student protests. She’s a Detroit native (What up Doe!), a long-suffering Detroit sports fan, and a Notre Dame grad who occasionally shouts, “Go Irish.”

This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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Sports

In 2025, the Basketball Africa League play-offs will move to South Africa

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5 hours ago

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November 22, 2024

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The 2025 Basketball Africa League season will feature a brand new venue for the finals and playoffs and will also start at a brand new location.

The BAL 2025 Playoffs and Finals, scheduled for June 14, 2025, will happen at the recent home in Pretoria, South Africa. This will be the first time the BAL playoffs and finals haven’t been held in Kigali, Rwanda. The BAL 2025 season will also debut in a brand new location in Rabat, Morocco on April 5, 2025. During the BAL 2025 season, 12 of the best club teams from 12 African countries will play 48 matches in Rabat, Kigali and Dakar, Senegal, before traveling to Pretoria for play- offs.

“Over the first four seasons of BAL, we have seen tremendous growth in on-court competition, attendance and engagement from fans and partners in Africa and around the world,” BAL president Amadou Gallo Fall said in a press release. “Our groundbreaking fifth season will build on this momentum and continue to showcase the level of talent and passion for basketball in Africa, including through the first BAL games in Morocco and the first BAL Finals in South Africa.”

The 12 teams will be divided again into three conferences of 4 teams each. The group stage of the Kalahari Conference will happen from April 5 to 13, 2025 in Rabat. The group stage of the Sahara Conference will be held in Dakar from April 26 to May 4, 2025. The group stage of the Nile Conference will be held in Kigali from May 17 to 25, 2025. Eight teams from the three conferences will qualify for the play-offs in Pretoria, which will start on June 6 and end with the BAL 2025 finals.

“The Kalahari conference marks another expansion of BAL into a new country on our continent and we are more than satisfied,” FIBA ​​Africa president Anibal Manave said in a press release. “The competition continues to grow each year, providing greater exposure for our sport and helping to raise the level of basketball in Africa, making the league increasingly competitive.”

National champions from Angola, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia routinely qualify for the BAL. The remaining five teams are from FIBA ​​Africa’s Road to the BAL qualifying tournaments.

In the 2024 BAL season, Petro de Luanda of Angola became the first team from Sub-Saharan Africa to win the championship. According to BAL, the 2024 BAL season reached fans in 214 countries and territories in 17 languages, set an attendance record of greater than 120,000 fans in the 4 host countries and generated greater than 1.2 billion views across the NBA and BAL social media channels.

Marc J. Spears is Andscape’s senior NBA author. He used to have the option to dunk on you, but he hasn’t been able to do it for years and his knees still hurt.

This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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NFL star Terrell Owens signs a contract with Michael Strahan’s talent agency

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18 hours ago

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November 21, 2024

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Terrell Owens, NFL, Football

NFL Hall of Fame receiver and podcast host Terrell Owens has signed with a talent agency to further strengthen his claims within the entertainment game.

According to , Owens was signed by SMAC Entertainment, headed by host and NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and his business partner Constance Schwartz-Morini.

NFL insider Jordan Schultz has also joined SMAC Entertainment.

“We are excited to add TO and Jordan to the SMAC family. They are both at the top of their game and set the standard in their industry,” Schwartz-Morini said in a written statement. “TO and Jordan have already brought an infectious energy to our team, and we are excited to help them realize their vision for careers in media, business and branding.”

A five-time first-team All-Pro and six-time Pro Bowler, Owens played for the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals. In 2018, he was finally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

A member of the 2000 NFL All-Decade Team, Owens finished his profession with 1,078 catches for 15,934 yards, 14.8 yards per catch and 153 touchdowns, rating third all-time in receiving yards and touchdowns.

Since retiring from skilled soccer in 2012, Owens has already made several moves. He has appeared in several movies and tv shows, including “,” and in addition had his own reality show, “, on VH1.

He currently co-hosts the podcast with former NFL player and sports analyst Shannon Sharpe.

SMAC Entertainment is home to stars similar to rapper and actor Common, Wiz Khalifa, Strahan, Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders and current NFL players similar to Stefon Diggs and DK Metcalf.


This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker brings an NBA championship desire with his Olympic experience

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1 day ago

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November 21, 2024

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The gold medal went to the USA Basketball team. Mission completed on the 2024 Paris Games. U.S. men’s basketball coach Steve Kerr just answered his final query during his final news conference on Aug. 10 after his team defeated France within the gold medal game.

However, before leaving the stage of the press conference in Paris, Kerr stopped to deliver an unsolicited message to media around the globe.

“Devin Booker is an amazing basketball player. Nobody asked about him. He was our unsung MVP. I just desired to say that,” Kerr said.

The “underrated MVP” compliment meant so much to the Phoenix Suns guard.

“It meant everything. No one really asked him,” Booker recently told Andscape. “That was probably something that was weighing on his mind throughout the entire process. A 12 months ago I said what I desired to do for this team and what we desired to do for the country.

“It was a lot larger than all of us. Survival was something we’d discuss for the remainder of our lives.

The USA Basketball team was centered around NBA star icons LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. There has also been some discussion amongst media and fans in regards to the lack of playing time for Jayson Tatum and, to a lesser extent, Tyrese Haliburton. Lost within the shuffle was the all-around, unselfish play of sharpshooter Booker wearing the armband.

Guard Devin Booker throughout the final men’s basketball game between France and the United States on the Olympic Games on Aug. 10 at Bercy Arena in Paris.

Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images

Booker was fourth in scoring for the U.S., averaging 11.7 points, 3.3 assists and a couple of.2 three-pointers made early in all six Olympics, and likewise had the perfect plus/minus (plus-130) for an American. Kerr was impressed with Booker’s deal with a difficult defense, regardless that he is thought for his offense, ball movement and the way he has adjusted to not being one in every of the highest options on offense.

“I just understood what was at stake,” Booker said. “I’m proud to be from this country. I’m happy with playing basketball. Even though it wasn’t invented in America, we dominated for a very long time. Obviously the world is incredibly talented and the sport is growing, however it was just one other message to allow them to know who we’re.

Booker said he also learned in regards to the preparations from his all-star team, watching the preparations on and off the court. The 28-year-old added that he gained lifelong friendships.

“It’s cool to see that everyone has their own issues,” Booker said. “In my 10 years in the NBA, I’ve learned that you have to choose what you can use for yourself. But the level of detail, the attention to detail, the intensity – it’s all consistent across the board.”

As for Durant, Booker said the bond between the 2 Sun stars “is close and grows stronger every day.” They live about five minutes from one another within the Phoenix area and commonly spend time at home and on the road. Most recently, Booker had to steer the Suns without Durant, who was sidelined with an injury.

The amazing Durant averaged 27.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and three.4 assists, which were tops for the Suns. However, the 14-time NBA All-Star has been sidelined since November 8 with a left calf strain. Suns players Bradley Beal (calf) and Jusuf Nurkic (ankle) were also sidelined. The Suns are 1-5 without Durant, which incorporates 4 straight losses.

Booker and Suns sans Durant’s next rivals shall be the New York Knicks on Wednesday evening (ESPN, 10 p.m. ET). Over the last six games, Booker is averaging 24.1 points, shooting 43.2% from the sphere and making 16 of 43 three-pointers. Suns guard Tyus Jones said there was numerous pressure on Booker offensively due to the injury.

“We’re asking a lot of Book,” Jones said after Monday’s 109-99 loss to the visiting Orlando Magic. “It’s numerous pressure for him. We are very focused on it. They are physical with him, holding him and grabbing him, throwing two or three bodies at him all night long. So he’s got so much on his plate and we just need to proceed to seek out ways to get him open within the moments we will and proceed to assist him when other players are taking shots and making plays.

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (left) with Suns forward Kevin Durant (right) during a game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Oct. 31 on the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images

Booker currently has two Olympic gold medals, 4 NBA All-Star appearances and one NBA Finals appearance. The only thing missing from the Suns’ second-leading all-time scorer is an NBA championship. Since the Suns joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1968, they’ve yet to win a title.

After experiencing the joys of winning a gold medal, Booker as an NBA champion wants the gold Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy much more.

“Most of the guys that were there did it,” Booker said of his Olympic teammates who were NBA champions. “They were champions. This is standard for them. Anything lower than that, they need nothing to do with it. It’s contagious…

“That’s all I want. That’s all I want.”

Marc J. Spears is Andscape’s senior NBA author. He used to have the ability to dunk on you, but he hasn’t been capable of do it for years and his knees still hurt.

This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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