How sacrifice helped Ashley Sanchez make it to the World Cup
Ashley Sanchez missed parties, vacations, and more to train to play in the World Cup. Her dedication to her dream is paying off.
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1. How sacrifice helped Ashley Sanchez make it to the World Cup
Ashley Sanchez missed parties, vacations, and more to train to play in the World Cup. Her dedication to her dream is paying off, The Sporting Tribune’s Kamran Nia.
When Ashley Sanchez’s family, friends, and community describe her, they often mention her loyalty and dedication. And two members of that group, her parents, Julie Sanchez and Ralph Sanchez, saw it constantly as she grew up.
Ralph coached Ashley as she grew up playing soccer at the American Youth Soccer Association (AYSO), club, and school levels. While doing so, she was frequently traveling to play in tournaments, games, and more. But her desire to succeed fueled her journey.
“It was hard work, training. I can’t make her want this,” Ralph said. “And at an early age, at about nine years old, ten years old, is when I started to notice she kind of took that and ran with it.”
2. An overview of the Ducks prospect pool: Defenseman
The Anaheim Ducks' prospect pipeline is deep on the blue line, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Derek Lee.
Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that Mintyukov is just 19 years old with how well he reads the game. While playing for Saginaw in the OHL, his play style was very bombastic, making aggressive pinches and often pulling himself out of position to get back on defense. While the point totals were high, the defensive work wasn’t as strong as Ducks brass wanted it to be.
When Mintyukov was dealt to the Ottawa 67’s midway through last season, an emphasis was placed on playing a strong two-way game. The point total dipped, naturally, but Mintyukov’s overall game improved tenfold. His OHL career was capped off by being named OHL Defenseman of the Year, the first Ducks prospect to win the award in franchise history.
3. Chargers WR Quentin Johnston adjusting to NFL
The rookie receiver is making plays during Chargers training camp so far, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Fernando Ramirez.
Monday was the first day in pads for the Chargers, so there was clarity regarding who is standing out in camp. One of them is first-round receiver Quentin Johnston.
During the one-on-one, he faced cornerback Ja’Sir Taylor when quarterback Justin Herbert threw a jump ball up, and Johnston high-pointed it and came down with it– made it look easy.
“We’ve been building up the past week for this moment,” Johnston said about having pads for the first day. “This is the moment I feel like everyone in football has been waiting for — to put on the pads and get that thump in, it’s been good.”
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Johnston, who dropped about four passes during different drills, but he is learning. That is what is important.
He is still getting things down.
4. Hawai’i sets sights on becoming a contender this year
Hawai'i went 3-10 last season as the program tried to settle on a new identity and the staff evaluated the in-house talent, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Paul Brecht.
Heading into year two at the helm, University of Hawai’i head football coach Timmy Chang and staff have put their desired culture in place, started down the recruiting trail and now have set eyes to being a true competitor in the Mountain West.
The ‘Bows, who went 3-10 last season, saw themselves on the wrong side of multiple one-score losses in 2022 as the program tried to settle on a new identity and the staff evaluated the in-house talent.
They went to quarterback Brayden Schager full-time during the middle of the season and started to introduce bits and pieces of the “Run-N-Shoot” offense after a 1-4 stumble to begin the year, going to the same scheme that Chang dominated in during his time suiting up at QB for the Rainbow Warriors. “It’s Hawai’i’s offense,” Chang said of the scheme back in February. Results immediately followed, increasing points scored each game by four and putting up three 30+ point performances.
Following their final game, Hawai’i made the full switch to the Run-N-Shoot with Schager written in as QB1 heading into the offseason and beyond. Spring practices were held earlier than ever due to the construction of the Clarence T.C. Ching Complex, a project that added seats to the on-campus game day site that UH’s football team will call home until the completion of the new Aloha Stadium.
5. Justin Gaethje’s improvements on display at UFC 291
Justin Gaethje impresses with knockout of Dustin Poirier at UFC 291, writes the Sporting Tribune’s Paul Delos Santos.
Justin Gaethje took a moment of reflection after the first time he lost to Dustin Poirier via technical knockout at UFC on Fox on April 14, 2018 and viewed it as a moment to learn and refine his own skills.
That improvements came in handy at UFC 291 in Salt Lake City when he knocked out Poirier with a head kick one minute into the second round of the BMF title fight.
“If you watch that fight and compared to that fight it’s night and day,” Gaethje said. “I had to understand, it was a tough lesson to learn. That man taught me that lesson and I thank God for him.
“Unlike any other sport on the earth, you rarely get a redemption. We take a loss, and we just have to go home and sit there, and it just eats us away. So to come back and prove myself, I believed in myself the whole time. It’s a crazy sport. It’s unforgiving.”
6. New additions propel Angels to 4-1 victory over Braves
Randal Grichuk, C.J. Cron, and Reynaldo Lopez all stepped up and led the Angels to victory over the MLB's best team on Monday night, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Brandon Deutsch.
Entering this series the Braves were coming off of a dominant 3-game sweep over the Brewers, and the visiting Angels were coming off of arguably their most abysmal hitting performance over a 3-game series all season long against the Blue Jays. It is no secret how dominant the Braves are as they lead the MLB in team home runs, runs scored, and almost every offensive category one can think of.
The Angels have hit the most home runs in the American League (mostly thanks to Shohei Ohtani), but were still the heavy underdogs entering Monday’s contest. Prior to the game, Angels starter Griffin Canning was scratched due to general soreness, meaning it would be a bullpen day for the Angels.
As a result, the already -200 line on most sports books favoring the Braves continued to move in the Braves direction. Baseball doesn’t always make sense as the Angels dominated on the mound on Monday despite their initial starter being scratched. 23 year old Chase Silseth threw 5 innings of 1 run ball, Jose Soriano and Aaron Loup threw well in the middle innings, and newly acquired Reynaldo Lopez looked dominant picking up a 2 inning save flashing triple digit fastballs by the Braves best hitters.
On the offensive end, the new additions of C.J. Cron and Randal Grichuk (who the Halos traded for on Sunday night from the Rockies) proved to be instrumental with Grichuk hitting a 3rd inning home run and Cron getting a late insurance run with an RBI single with runners in scoring position
7. Odds and Ends presented by Circa Sports
Here are some odds at Circa Sports if you’re thinking about placing a wager today:
8. Ticket Time presented by TickPick
Here are the “get in” prices for tickets if you’re thinking about going to a game today.
7:00 p.m. – A’s at Dodgers – $18
7:00 p.m. – Liberty at Sparks – $7
7:00 p.m. – Dream at Aces – $10
9. On the Air presented by The D Las Vegas
Here are the game times and television channels for professional teams in the region today.
4:20 p.m. – Angels at Braves – Bally Sports West
5:40 p.m. – Padres at Rockies – Bally Sports San Diego
7:00 p.m. – A’s at Dodgers – SportsNet LA
7:00 p.m. – Liberty at Sparks – Spectrum SportsNet
7:00 p.m. – Dream at Aces – Amazon Prime Video
10. The Arash Markazi Show presented by The Sporting Tribune
The Sporting Tribune’s Arash Markazi is joined by Adrian Hernandez, Brandon Deutsch and Armani Buckets as they talk to The Sporting Tribune’s Fernando Ramirez about the current state of the slumping San Diego Padres at the trade deadline.
Listen to The Arash Markazi Show presented by The Sporting Tribune on The Mightier 1090 ESPN Radio in Southern California, 98.5 The Bet in Las Vegas and the Hawaii Sports Radio Network 95.1 FM and 760 AM in Hawaii. You can also listen to the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher.
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That’s it for today. Talk to you tomorrow!