2016: Predictions of hope for the sports world – Asbury Park Press

Let’s see. Sports predictions for 2016.

The Mets will win the World Series for the first time in 30 years after coming so close in 2015. The Jets make an incredible playoff run under first-year head coach Todd Bowles, reaching their first Super Bowl in 47 years. Rutgers returns to a bowl game in coach Chris Ash’s first season.

That’s what you want to hear, right?

Actually, if I predicted those things it would ensure they won’t happen.

You’re welcome.

No, I’d rather look ahead and hope. Because maybe over the next 12 months things will happen that make a difference, both on athletic fields and within communities.

For instance, there’s the transfer epidemic in New Jersey high school sports that has everyone worried about everything from competitive imbalance to player safety.

What if adults just took a step back?

I know, imagine the chaos in the youth sports world if travel teams involved kids getting on their bikes and riding to local parks to play pickup games against neighboring towns, shirts against skins, calling their own fouls, no coaches to choreograph their every move.

Some pretty darn good athletes were actually produced before the advent of showcase tournaments and sports-specific training and GoFundMe pages.

Just let them have fun. If a kid can play three sports, why wouldn’t he?

And if the adults, coaches and administrators at all levels would just take a deep breath and start following the rules already in place, then the madness of high school athletes jumping from school-to-school would stop.

Speaking of madness, does a play go by in the NFL where two players don’t end up standing face mask-to-face mask?

There’s nothing wrong with a little trash talking, but the games are almost unwatchable now. The Odell Beckham Jr.-Josh Norman fiasco a few weekends back was merely the most outrageous example.

Here’s a start, taken straight from the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association playbook, with zero tolerance:

“There will be no tolerance for negative statements or actions between opposing players or coaches. This includes taunting, baiting, berating opponents, or ‘trash-talking’ or actions which ridicule or cause embarrassment to them. It also includes harassing conduct related to race, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or religion.

“If such comments are heard, a penalty will be assessed immediately.”

Throw that in the NFL rulebook next season, which the league would do if the antics were impacting television ratings or the bottom line. But they won’t, with ratings and profits soaring.

But there’s a lot at stake here, as young athletes everywhere look on and think unsportsmanlike behavior and outright bullying are acceptable, both on and off the field.

What I’d love to see continue is the trend toward professional athletes using their voice. Not saying “look at me” with their actions, but rather using their words and deeds as a conduit for social change.

You’ve seen some great examples in recent years, but none was more dramatic than the powerful statement made by the University of Missouri football team in November.

Lending a high-profile hand to student and faculty protests, the team threatened to boycott all activities, including games, to help highlight the lack of action by school officials regarding acts of racial intolerance on campus.

It eventually led to sweeping changes, including the resignation of the university’s president and chancellor.

The incident made clear how influential the platform of athletics can be, and the impact athletes can have on the world around them if they remain engaged within the community.

Locally, Monmouth University senior guard Sarah Olson was nominated for the prestigious AllState Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Good Works team, which recognizes outstanding achievements within the community. Olson, a Howell resident,has been an activist on campus, rallying her fellow students to action for causes she’s passionate about.

Moving on, I don’t know if there will be another Triple Crown winner in 2016. Probably not.

But I hope the lasting legacy of American Pharoah’s record-setting triumph in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park is that it opened the eyes of legislators in Trenton to the fact that Monmouth Park, and the state’s horse racing industry, are worth partnering with, as neighboring states have done, instead of treating horsemen like pariahs.

As that path is being cleared in 2016 for casino gaming outside Atlantic City, the horse racing industry deserves a fair share of the gambling dollars that will be generated. Particularly since the state has allowed alternative forms of gaming to push the billion-dollar industry to the brink of elimination over the past 40 years, with jobs and open spaces now at risk of vanishing forever.

Thinking back to the U.S. Women’s National Team’s gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, as well as the unprecedented level of excitement locally during and after last summer’s World Cup triumph, it’s hard to imagine how big a deal a gold medal in Brazil would be.

If it does happen, players like Manasquan resident Christie Rampone and Rutgers product Carli Lloyd  are amazing role models for young athletes.

Selfishly, more than anything next year I hope I come across the kind of people I encountered in 2015.

People like Bob Heugle and his Red Bank-based Frances Foundation deliver dreams, many of which are sports related, to cancer-stricken children.

Or Asbury Park eighth grader Nalah Tinsley, who, with the support of her mother, Sabrina, won her fight with the school administration to play baseball rather than softball, inspired by Mo’ne Davis’ heroics at the Little League World Series in 2014.

And while there are too many others to name here, I thank each and every one of you for your inspiration and efforts.

As for predicting 2016, all I’ll say is that Mets fans can thank me later.

Staff writer Stephen Edelson is an Asbury Park Press columnist. Email: [email protected]

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