And the winners are…

Youth Athlete of the Year Joshua Braun, Phoenix Regional Sports Commission President Jon Schmieder, Youth Contributor of the Year Hugh Smith, Youth Contributor of the Year Erik Widmark, Youth Coach of the Year Melissa Belote Ripley.

The Phoenix Regional Sports Commission announced the winners of the Youth Sports of the Year Awards at a Sept. 24 banquet. The awards recognize exceptional youth athletes, coaches and youth sports contributors for their dedication to positive leadership and outstanding character. The 2011 Youth Sports of the Year Award recipients include:

Youth Athlete of the Year, Joshua Braun

Braun is a senior at Boulder Creek High School, where he is a part of the National Honor Society and is academically ranked 12th in his class of 608 students. Braun currently plays on his varsity basketball team and the AAU basketball team for the Arizona Aces. He has been selected for the Duel in the Desert All-Tournament Team.

Braun was awarded Deer Valley School District Male Athlete of the Year in 2009, has been an All-State honorable mention athlete and was also named the All-Region Most Valuable Player. He helped coordinate various youth basketball camps, actively volunteered his time as a referee and has coached volleyball and basketball teams at his local community center. Braun also dedicates his time to numerous Anthem area events including Emma’s Run and a roadside cleanup effort with military veterans.

Youth Coach of the Year, Melissa Belote Ripley

Ripley spent more than 30 years volunteering as a swim coach. She is currently working with the Rio Salado Swim Club and has been the coach at McClintock High School for the last several years.

Her passion and commitment to the sport of swimming began at a young age and carried her through to the Olympics, where she brought home three gold medals. For the better part of three decades, Ripley has been committed to helping individual swimmers reach their full potential.

Youth Sports Contributor of the Year, Erik Widmark

Known as “Wid” by the community, Widmark has been the driving force behind the Grand Canyon State Games, which is the country’s largest amateur sports festival. Going on its 19th year, the Games offer spirited competition and positively impact more than 400,000 youth participants.

Youth Sports Contributor of the Year, Hugh Smith

Smith has been with The First Tee of Phoenix since 2006 and has been an integral part in growing the game of golf for youth athletes throughout Maricopa County. Through his dedication, the First Tee Life Skills Program has grown to five sites throughout Maricopa County, with 14 staff members and 3,500 full-time students enrolled. The program imparts lessons about the importance of maintaining a positive attitude, how to make decisions by thinking about the possible consequences and how to define and set goals — from the golf course to everyday life.

Hugh has introduced golf into physical education programs in more than 130 schools, which now include over 50,000 students participating in golf-related curriculums.

The winners were honored at the Youth Sports Awards Banquet at the Grand Canyon University Arena. Thirty-four honorees in three categories were recognized and acknowledged.

The Phoenix Regional Sports Commission is a a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation created in 1988 to “Enrich Our Community Through Sports” by bringing national and international sporting events to the state, promoting existing events and teams and supporting youth sports programs. phoenixsports.org.

Youth sports leaders to be recognized next week

Thirty-six youth athletes, coaches and youth sports contributors will be recognized for their dedication to positive leadership and outstanding character during the Phoenix Regional Sports Commission’s Youth Sports Awards Banquet next Saturday.

Winners of the Youth Sports of the Year Awards will be announced at the event, which will take place at 8 a.m. at Grand Canyon University’s new arena, 3300 W. Camelback Rd. in Phoenix. Register for the event here.

The nominees represent all levels of play from various youth sports offered around the Valley:

Jerod Aker (left), head baseball coach for Apollo High School.

Coaches

Rob Gorrell – Coach and co-founder of Sandlot All-Stars Baseball.

Pat Murphy – Coach and co-founder of Sandlot All-Stars Baseball, All Nine Baseball Academy.

Patty Egan - Coaches cross country, girls soccer and track at Cactus Shadows High School.

Steve Bomar - Youth girls basketball coach and founder of the Gilbert Genies Basketball Club.

Eric Kibler – Horizon High School baseball coach for more than 28 years and three-time recipient of the Arizona Coach of the Year award. In 2005 he received the ABCA High School National Coach of the Year.

Harry Demos - CCV STARS sports pastor and director of coaching for boys soccer.

James Smith – Head track and field coach at Westwood High School, head coach and president for the AZ Flames Track Club, USATF Masters Chair.

Melissa Belote Ripley - Has been coaching club swimming for more than 30 years and currently coaches at McClintock High School and Rio Salado Swim Club.

Jordan Demos – Youth Soccer Coach for the CCV Stars Soccer Club.

Jake Peterson - Coaches middle school and high school football/basketball for Rancho Solano Private Schools.

Jaime Pagliarulo – Girls soccer coach for Hamilton High School, San Tan Soccer Club and Arizona Youth Soccer Association.

Steve Lewis – Empowerment Through Sports (ETS) Youth Football League coach.

Dameon Blair – Boulder Creek High School junior varsity basketball coach.

Jim Ewan – Football coach for Chandler High School since 2001.

Jerod Aker – Baseball coach for Apollo High School; he has been the head coach of a baseball team for a total of 15 years.

Joshua Braun (left) plays basketball at Boulder Creek High School.

Athletes

Joshua Brown – Plays basketball at Boulder Creek High School, where he is a member of the National Honor Society and ranked 12^th in his class.

Hannah Carson –  Track and field, Chandler High School. She’s ranked #1 in the nation for javelin and has qualified for the 2012 Olympics. She will be attending Texas Tech University on scholarship.

Zach Wright – Golf, Pinnacle High School, committed to Louisiana State University. He is currently ranked #12 Boy in the National Polo Rankings

Brandon Senior - Track and Field, honors student at Notre Dame Preparatory High School and member of the AZ Flames Track Club.

Nathan Ponwith – Tennis, Arizona Virtual Academy, participates in the United States Tennis Association.

Tyler Pugh – Football, basketball and baseball; attends Rancho Solano Private School.

Kyung Kim – Golf, Chandler Hamilton High School, currently plans on attending University of Southern California.

Molly Johnson – Baton twirling, Thunderbird High School, member of Phoenix Superstars Twirl Team, plans to attend Fort Hayes University in Kansas.

Dylan Hambright- Track, Arcadia High School, member of the Arizona Elite Track Club.

Shannon Gurley – Volleyball, attends middle school at Rancho Solano Private Schools, also participates in soccer and drama at school.

Wendy Riddell (S.T.A.R. Pony Club, ASU UC Soccer).

Contributor

Jeffrey Kratzke – Volunteer coach for cross country and track at Cactus Shadows High School.

Hugh Smith-  Executive director of The First Tee of Phoenix, a non-profit organization that provides educational programs, values and healthy choices for Valley youth through the game of golf.

Lisa Sanchez – President of Holiday Park Little League, a volunteer position for an inner city youth baseball league.

Bob Capron – Oversees the Metro Phoenix United States Tennis Association. Inducted into both the USTA Phoenix Hall of Fame and USTA Southwest Hall of Fame in 2005.

John Canter – Started a community weightlifting and training program where 60 local kids are now involved and active.

Wendy Riddell – Youth equestrian coach and S.T.A.R. Pony Club board member, age group coordinator for ASUSC Soccer.

Erik Widmark – Executive director for the Grand Canyon State Games, the largest amateur sports festival of its kind in the country, since 1995.

Chad Robinson – Started the Prime Time Athletics flag football program, the official league of the NFL Flag program.

Peyton Sullivan – Youth Umpire for Deer Valley Little League, certified as a district umpire.

Scott Smith – Volunteer umpire-in-chief for Deer Valley Little League.

The Phoenix Regional Sports Commission was created to “enrich the community through sports.” The 501(c)3 non-profit focuses on three areas: bringing national and international sporting events to the state, assisting in the promotion of existing events and teams and supporting youth sports programs. Learn more.

Former Arizona Cardinal saves child from drowning

When he heard Anne Moore’s screams for help, Leonard Pope didn’t hesitate. Moore’s 6-year-old son, Bryson, fell into the deep end of a swimming pool during a cousin’s birthday party in Americus, Georgia. last weekend. Pope, a backup tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, leapt into action. He ran outside from inside the house and jumped, fully clothed, into the pool.

Now playing for the Kansas City Chiefs, Pope was with the Cardinals from 2006-2008, including their run at a championship in Super Bowl XLIII.

“I couldn’t see Bryson anymore,” Pope said. “All I saw was his fingertips at the top of the water,” he said in an interview with ESPN’s Reischea Canidate.

“My hands reached to his waist, and I kind of brought him up to his mom. He stood up and was delirious for a little while.” After some pats on the back and some coughs, the child recovered. As Pope put it, “He came back to Bryson that day.”

The rescue came when Pope, along with other NFL players, would usually be at a minicamp in preparation for next season. However, due to the current lockout, Pope was at a party with his family at the house and was able to hop in and scoop Bryson up. His presence was a godsend for Bryson’s mother, as she told the Americus Times Recorder that Pope might have been the only person at the party who knew how to swim.

“My heart dropped. It could’ve been any child, not just Bryson. I wasn’t waiting on anyone else… to try to pull him out,” Pope said. Nicknamed “Champ,” the Georgia native certainly earned it in the Moores’ eyes.

Pope spent three seasons with the Arizona Cardinals, making 23 catches for 238 yards and five touchdowns in his best year in the Valley in 2007.

This incredible rescue makes it clear just how important pool safety and swimming lessons are, especially during the hot months of summer. Check out a list of Valley aquatics programs, and read these tips for pool safety. Be prepared — despite the lockout, NFL athletes won’t be available at every poolside gathering. — Robert T. Balint

Is your child swim-team material?

Some kids seem to know what sport suits them; others need a nudge in the right direction. At age 13, I wanted to join the swim team because that’s where my friends were. It turned out to be a good choice. Athletically challenged, I was usually the last kid picked for games and sports during recess.

Swimming improved my coordination and boosted my self-confidence. In addition to racking up swimming medals, I lettered in high school track and volleyball and thought of myself as an athlete rather than a klutz. Now 47, I teach dance, body conditioning, balance and other group exercise classes to clients at Miraval Arizona; something I never imagined on playground days when team captains argued over who “would be stuck with me.”

Children who enjoy swimming as a competitive sport usually have very supportive parents, says Justin Slade, a 12-year swim coach who is now head coach for the Flying Fish Arizona Swim Team (FAST), a youth swimming program in Tucson. He suggests parents attend meets and practices and offer unconditional support.

My parents never “forced” my participation or reprimanded me when I swam poorly. My coach, Skip, made practices more fun than a chore and I have fond memories of traveling to meets with teammates. We’d stay in hotels or campgrounds and when not competing, we’d play cards, brown marshmallows over a fire and have pillow fights.

Our parents made it fun, too, by traveling with us, watching us compete, and tracking our improvement. The only teammate I remember who hated swimming had parents who screamed at him in front of us whenever he swam badly.

The experience a child has, good or bad, will likely become an ingrained, lifelong perception of training or working out. As a certified personal trainer and athlete, I’ve heard people refer to exercise as “suffering,” “torture,” “back breaking” and worse. I feel disconnected from such descriptions. Since most of my youthful swimming experiences were positive, exercise brings to mind laughing, friendship and feeling vividly alive. My participation in swimming as a youth led to a life-long love for fitness.

Parents sometimes ask what physical and mental qualities competitive swimming requires.

“It is like their first mini-job,” says Slade. They learn the relationship between hard work and success. They gain confidence in their abilities and learn “perseverance to overcome failure or tough situations.” The sport doesn’t deliver “instant gratification like a video game.” Weeks or even months of hard training are often required to get results.

Even though Michael Phelps’ long limbs, large feet, and amazing flexibility give him a physical advantage, determination and drive can often compensate for disadvantages in physique. Slade and I agree that any child who loves swimming should be encouraged to participate. For the most part, success “is in the hands of the swimmer,” he says.

I’m often a head shorter than other women on the starting blocks, but that doesn’t decrease the thrill for me. I’m not Dara Torres, but I still climb out of the water a winner every time. I feel healthy and exuberant and my physique remains sleek and athletic. I just hope that kids swimming today will feel the way I do when they grow up. — Susan Dawson-Cook

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Susan Dawson-Cook lives in Tucson with her husband and two high-school-age children. A fitness professional, freelance writer and nationally ranked U.S. Masters swimmer, she holds three state records in breaststroke for the women’s 45 to 49 age group. Read her blog, Fit Women Rock.

Those of us with children in the ocean

If you need more evidence that swimming is a lifetime sport, the La Jolla Rough Water Swim is proof positive.

Our family recently followed the Chaparral High Swim and Dive team for its annual trek to the lovely seaside town just north of San Diego to compete in the 1-mile ocean swim off La Jolla Cove. Son John, a junior, and daughter Emily, a freshman, are longtime club swimmers and teammates.

La Jolla Rough Water Swim

For the high school athletes, it’s an early-season bonding event, a quick two-day turnaround that leaves the team slightly bleary-eyed and sore on Monday morning, but brimming with a sense of accomplishment, wonderful memories and a newfound appreciation for each other and their sport.

For those of us with children in the ocean, the Rough Water conjures up a mix of excitement, fear and extraordinary pride.

For this year’s 2,038 finishers — ranging in age from a 6-year-old to Virginia Flagg, 83, of La Jolla — it is testament to hard work, endurance and the joy of swimming.

The event itself — now in its 93rd year — is so well run that there’s really no need to worry (still, that’s what I do best). Lifeguards on surfboards are placed along the triangular course to keep swimmers from going too far off track and aid those who are struggling. The dry land scene is well organized, too, and includes food booths and plenty of room in grassy Scripps Park above the cove to spread out and relax while awaiting your swim. Teams and families come from up and down the West Coast, Arizona and Colorado to compete in America’s oldest and largest open water swim competition.

The Rough Water is no mean feat, and the Sept. 13 event — John’s fourth, Emily’s second — absolutely lived up to its name, with 10- to 12-foot swells and much slower times to prove it. In all the years we’ve been hanging around La Jolla, I can’t remember seeing waves this big.

Younger swimmers, up to age 12, swim a 250-yard loop within the cove. The amateurs (all but three of the Chaparral crew), ages 13-18, swim the mile in separate boys’ and girls’ heats, following a course that takes them out to sea for 800 yards, above the La Jolla Underwater Ecological Reserve, banks left for 460 yards, then around a second buoy for the 500-yard leg back to shore.

A men’s and women’s masters event follows the same course as the amateurs, in several waves to accommodate nearly 1,000 swimmers, ages 19 to 83-year-old Virginia. The 3-mile Gatorman course is basically a roundtrip from the cove to just short of Scripps pier. Among the 491 finishers were Chaparral swimmers Sam Morgan, Tanner Roe and Cody Vitez. Sam took fourth overall, with a time of 1:01:38.

The camaraderie with fellow parents and former strangers is a comfort and a hoot — all of us lining the boardwalk three and four deep. Peering through binoculars to get a glimpse of our kids as they gather on the beach for the start. Getting out of each other’s way so we can snap a photo. Hollering their names though we know they can’t hear us. Looking out for each other’s children as they come back into view after they round the second buoy and head for shore. Congratulating each other before rushing off to embrace our wet, salty, exhilarated swimmers.

As proud as we are of these teenagers, the Rough Water also has something to offer their parents, and grandparents. Most of the top finishers were in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

In the men’s masters, you have to get to 14th place before you find a 19 year old. The third-place finisher, 42-year-old Patrick Brundage of Scottsdale, a dad with our club team whose daughters swam the 250 and the mile, came in just after 53-year-old Scott Bonney of Burton, Wash. Ben Weston, 28, of La Jolla took first. Tanner’s dad, Peter, 49, one of the Chaparral chaperones, also swam the mile.

The women are equally inspiring. Connie Falcon, 30, of La Jolla, took first; Amy Dantzler, 45, of Los Angeles, came in second; and 50-year-old Robynn Masters of Salt Lake City took third.

I don’t know if most kids took notice of the “old folks,” although my daughter and her friend chatted up Virginia after her swim. But as a runner nearing my sixth decade and wondering how long my knees will hold out, swimming holds the possibility of lifetime fitness. How many other sports can several generations enjoy together? How many are prescribed as rehab for injuries, at the same time offering a cardiovascular workout while building endurance and muscle strength? How many offer a head-clearing mental workout at the same time? Just swimming.

We’ll be back next year to cheer on the Chaparral High team, and our youngest will try his first 250. Interested? Check out the La Jolla Rough Water Swim home page to learn more. — Mary K. Reinhart