To tweet: http://es.pn/1cNI6a0

HEAT STROKE
Outside the Lines (Sunday, 9 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Shelley Smith with Doug Casa, Director of the Korey Stringer Institute in Connecticut
Credit: ESPN/ Greg Shapiro

Twelve years ago, Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Korey Stringer died of heat stroke while training in the hot August sun. Today, heat stroke remains one of the three leading causes of death among young athletes. Experts say heat stroke is eminently preventable. Shelley Smith examines the dangers football players face this time of year. Sunday’s scheduled guests: Beth Mallon, co-founder Advocates for Injured Athletes; Douglas Casa, director of the Korey Stringer Institute; Jim Thornton, President, National Athletic Trainers’ Association

“I think in our profession, whether you’re in high school, college, junior high, NFL  — it doesn’t matter — you need to have a really high level of awareness of the heat.” — Kevin Kelly, football coach, Pulaski Academy, (Little Rock, Ark.), where a player died during an August practice three years ago

“Right when I’m having memories or get worried that I’ve not done enough, to maybe, remember Korey, I think about the institute. I’m so thankful, and it gives this tragedy a sense of purpose.” – Kelci Stringer, Korey’s wife, on having the Korey Stringer Institute

 

Redefining Strength
(Sunday, 10 a.m., ESPN)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v-9Y1IRuxE

There are plenty of programs designed to keep “at risk” kids away from the trappings of drugs and gangs, but in Dorchester, a neighborhood of Boston,is an organization for those who were never reached. Innercity Weightlifting takes men who society gave up on long ago and teaches them about strength. Tom Rinaldi writes of one man’s impact on many and Michael Kenneth Williams (of HBO’s The Wire) voices the piece.

“The streets are like chess because you never know what your next move is going to be. Whether it’s going to be a good move, whether it’s going to be a bad move, or whether it’s going to be your last move.” — Billie Singletary, Innercity Weightlifting participant

“The more they start to see that we’re invested in them, that we’re not going away, that if you don’t want us around, that’s fine – but make sure that you know that this door is still open. And when the time is right, we’re going to be here for you.” – Jon Feinman, founder, Innercity Weightlifting

 

Mexico’s “Barefoot Champions”: Win-Win Project
ESPN Deportes SportsCenter (Sunday, 11 p.m.)
Reportajes Especiales piece on ESPNDeportes.com

http://youtu.be/jfVFN0mGu_w

“The barefoot champions of the mountains,” is a group of children from the indigenous Triqui region of Oaxaca who have clinched two Mexican national basketball titles. They are part of a successful project that uses sports to elevate school attendance and open new opportunities in one of Mexico’s poorest areas.

 

Investigative, TV & Radio Awards from NABJ

ESPN has received three Salute to Excellence National Media Awards from the National Association of Black Journalists:

Television — Investigative: “Outside the Lines: FAMU Band Hazing”
Mike Sciallo, Mike Fish, T.J. Quinn, Tim Hays

Radio — Sports: “Outside the Lines and The Sporting Life with Jeremy Schaap: Donnovan Hill”
Tom Farrey, Simon Baumgart, Tim Hays, Dwayne Bray

Television – Sports: “Latipha Cross: Outrunning the Odds”
Scott Harves, Victor Vitarelli, Valerie Gordon, Jeremy Schaap

 

Sometimes You Find the News; Other Times it Finds You

Producer Trevor Gavin mounting a camera in Kyle Larson’s car Wednesday at Knoxville Raceway in Iowa.
Credit: Cameraman Brandon Hewitt

What do you do when you’re shooting a pre-production feature, and news breaks out?

“I did my Adam Schefter impression — I was on a lot of phones,” said ESPN NASCAR Associate Producer Trevor Gavin, who instinctively ramped up into car-crash coverage in Iowa on Monday night.

Gavin was at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, shooting a piece on rising NASCAR star Kyle Larson. But with five laps left in the 30-lap Front Row Challenge, three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, on a busman’s holiday competing at the half-mile dirt track, flipped his 360 winged sprint car.

“We heard it, turned around, and started shooting,” Gavin said of getting the video which led Tuesday’s first live SportsCenter at 9 a.m. ET and ran onNASCAR Now and throughout the day.

After the crash Gavin called the assignment desk to tell them what he had.

“I was unfamiliar with the desk, but I had received an email from my friend (News Editor) Mark Ashenfelter an hour earlier, so I knew he was awake,” Gavin said. “So I called him, and he got me to the right people.”

Gavin turned from producer to reporter, first learning that Stewart had injured his leg (later diagnosed as broken) from track officials. He knew it was serious from the “somber looks around Stewart’s hauler,” then confirmed it when a member of Stewart’s team told him he was air-lifted to Des Moines Hospital.

“It was better to go with ‘Sources tell ESPN’ about Stewart’s injury, than go off Twitter reports,” Gavin said of contributing to SportsCenter’s earliest reports.

After filing his footage to Bristol several hours after, Gavin looked back as his long day and said, “I’d gladly be a reporter — but it would be a lot more stressful.”