Across the country there are athletes who are over looked and are not heroes to the American public, such as Joe Falco, the MVP of the 2013 super bowl.
The MLL (Major League Lacrosse) is one of these sports that is over looked and unheard of on main stream television and sports broadcasts. The MLL’s first season began in 2001 and has rapidly become a sport to be found in the majority of high schools around the country. 21 states even have state championships for the athletes. Lacrosse’s main goal is similar to hockey or soccer in the fact that they have to score into a net. The main difference is that they have to cradle the ball as there running down the field to score.
Another over looked sport in the United States is rugby. Rugby was founded in 1975 and is responsible for finding 700 senior club teams, 900 college teams, 1,200 High school teams, and 400 youth teams around the country. Rugby sevens teams are being accepted into the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Rugby sevens is almost exactly like normal Rugby but there are only 7 players on each team on the field instead of the normal 15, and the matches are reduced from 80 minutes to two seven minute halfs with a 60 second half time break. Ruby’s main goal is to make a “try” which is essentially a touchdown in football. The only difference is that they must place the ball on the ground to score, and where they ground the ball is where the conversion kick is made.
12 strikes and you’re not out, in fact, you’re a part of a very perfect game of 300. Bowling has become an over looked sport in the eyes of an exciting adrenalized sport but has over 95 million bowlers that are in over 90 countries. These top bowlers compete in the Olympic zone and worldwide competitions. Bowling dates back to as early as 3200 B.C. and was organized in the United States as a competitive organization in 1895.
Crickets are chirping but it’s not the insect it’s the American National Cricket team. Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on a field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the runs scored by the batting team. A run is scored by the striking batsman hitting the ball with his bat, running to the opposite end of the pitch and touching the crease there without being dismissed. The teams switch between batting and fielding at the end of an innings. 14 athletes make up the USA Cricket team.
It’s not quite dancing; it’s much more than that. It’s an organized set of chants and specific moves that cheer on the sports teams while having the most spirit and even can compete for championships around the globe. Cheerleading is a very overlooked sport that requires skill to perform at high levels.
Cheerleading began at Princeton University as an all-male activity and was started in 1877 was the early documentations form the issues in the Daily Princetonian at the university. Today 97 percent of modern cheerleaders overall are female and only 50 percent at collegiate level are male. Cheering is become a must see sport, with over 10 major championships around the world with over 1.5 million athletes in all from a middle school age to professional cheerleaders out of college.
