(ARA) – Warmer weather brings more outdoor sports – and with them, the increased risk of eye injury. Every year in the United States more than 40,000 sports-related eye injures require emergency room attention, with almost half happening to people younger than 15. The majority of these injuries could be prevented simply by using appropriate protective eyewear when playing sports.

“Even if they’re just playing a quick pickup game in the park, eye protection should be a major concern for kids,” says Florida optometrist and former University of Miami football player Dr. Pat Del Vecchio. “This is very important when playing certain sports – like baseball, basketball or football – where there is a higher risk of eye injury.”

When choosing eye protection for children, first make sure the eyewear is specifically designed for sports, Del Vecchio advises. Conventional frames and lenses can shatter and turn a small impact into a sight-threatening injury. “The eye protection should also be comfortable and not obscure vision during the game” he adds. “If it doesn’t meet these two criteria, then kids just aren’t going to wear it.”

While on-field collisions remain the most frequent cause of sports-related eye injuries, sometimes the playing field itself can be the culprit. Playing outdoors kicks up dust and dirt that can adhere to the eye and cause scratches or even more severe problems. This is a particular concern for young contact lens wearers. For these situations, Del Vecchio recommends taking along a multi-purpose solution in case you need to remove your lenses. “A good multi-purpose disinfecting solution, like OPTI-FREE RepleniSH MPDS, removes the irritants, and is an effective way to kill the germs that can cause eye infections,” he says.

Ultimately, the most important tip of all is to see your eye doctor at least once each year, Del Vecchio says. “Your eyes need to be taken care of just like any other piece of athletic equipment. As a former athlete, I can tell you they are the most important part of any sport, so a yearly visit to the eye doctor can identify any problems early, help maintain healthy vision and ensure you’re able to keep your eye on the ball.”

Quick Tips for Protecting Your Eyes

* Wear protective eyewear. Do not substitute ordinary glasses for appropriate protection. Sports-protective eyewear is specifically tested to meet rigid impact standards.
* Know your eye safety options. If you are not sure what protection works best, visit your eye doctor to see what is available.
* Add eye protection to other protective gear. If you are playing a sport that requires a helmet, consider wearing a helmet with full face protection.
* Take out contacts before getting in the water. Don’t wear your contact lenses while swimming. Certain organisms present in the water can attach to contact lenses and can cause eye infections. Remember to always care for your contact lenses with a Multi-Purpose Disinfecting Solution, like OPTI-FREE RepleniSH.
* Protect your eyes from the sun. To prevent eyes from being over exposed to UV rays, give your eyes a break by wearing sunglasses when not playing on the field.

It was a trying year for N.C. State basketball coach Sidney Lowe. The Pack finished 15-16 in his second season, closing with nine straight losses. There also were serious issues he had to deal with away from basketball. On Thursday, Lowe talked with staff writer Chip Alexander.Q: What do you think N.C. State fans want from you and the basketball program?

A: I think they want a winner. Bottom line, they want a winner. With the tradition and history we’ve had, the national championships, we’ve had runs where we’ve really been good consistently, year in and year out, and I think they want to get back to that point. So that every year they know we’re going to be in the hunt. Whether it’s in the hunt for the ACC championship or in the hunt for the NCAA.

Q: Every year is a big year for a coach, but in your mind how big is next year for you given this past season?

A: It’s a very important year. They’re all important, but any time you’re coming off of a tough year that next year is important. But I think you still have to keep things in perspective, in terms of where you are and what you’re trying to do.

It’s like injury situations. If Farnold [Degand] doesn’t get hurt last year, who knows what we would have done this past year and we wouldn’t be discussing having a tough year. So we have to be healthy. But it’s an important year. It’s important because, you know what, we don’t want to come back and duplicate what we did this year.

I know a lot of people were disappointed this year. I know my AD [athletic director Lee Fowler] was disappointed. But I’ll tell you that no one hurt more than I did.

Q: You had so much happen in the last year away from basketball [Lowe’s father died and his mother suffered a heart attack. Lowe’s oldest son, Sidney II, still must face felony charges of kidnapping, possessing drugs and armed robbery stemming from a shooting incident last March in Greensboro]. Did that affect any basketball duties, practice time, game preparation, recruiting, your concentration, anything like that last season?

A: Not really. Because I’ve always been this way, and I try to tell my players the same thing, that when I have something to do, that’s what I’m focused on. This is my job and this is going to take precedence right now.

I never, ever, bring a personal situation to work. Anyone who has been around me will tell you, inside I’m going to be dying but you’re going to get the same smile, get the same hello, the same greeting. I don’t do that. I don’t think it’s right to bring your personal life to work with you and have other people have to adjust to your mood that day. I don’t think that’s right.

So, no, it didn’t. When I got away from the office, I dealt with that. But I still watched the same amount of film, had the same meetings, the same everything. I kept it the same.

Q: How rough has the year been? Has it almost been too much for you to stand at times?

A: It’s been a very rough year. My dad passing, certainly that was very tough on me. But I thought about the good times. My dad lived a long life and was a great father. In the background, not saying too much, but proud and wore his N.C. State hat everywhere he went.

Q: A lot of people were concerned about you because of your dad’s death, but also because of your son. …

A: And that means a lot. So many people have come to me and expressed themselves to me and it means a lot. You worry, but that’s when I get away from it. I can’t say [the job] is therapy for me but this is my focus. I have one son there and I have 13 or 14 here. I just came to work and never let it interfere with my work

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Raleigh, NC – March 12, 2008 – McClatchey Broadcastings’ Sports Radio 850 The Buzz (WRBZ), and 620 The Bull – ESPN (WDNC) the leading sports-talk radio stations in the Raleigh-Durham area, announced today they have secured the exclusive radio broadcasting rights to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

For the most part, the tournament will be carried on 620 The Bull – ESPN Radio (WDNC) – exact station and broadcast times will be released on a weekly basis throughout the tournament. In addition to play-by-play coverage of the tournament, 850 The Buzz and 620 The Bull on-air talent will be covering the local teams throughout the tournament with exclusive interviews and on-site broadcasts. 850 The Buzz/620 The Bull NCAA Men’s Tournament Schedule (subject to change):
Sunday, March 16th
Selection Sunday Special
6:00pm
WRBZ – 850 The Buzz

Tuesday, March 18th
Opening Round – Single Game 7:15pm
WDNC – 620 The Bull

Thurs-Sun March 20th- 23rd
Rounds One & Two
Times Vary
WDNC – 620 The Bull

Thurs-Sun March 27th – 30th
Sweet Sixteen/Elite Eight
Times Vary
WDNC – 620 The Bull

Saturday, April 5th
Final Four Show
3:30pm
WDNC – 620 The Bull

Saturday, April 5th
Final Four Games 1 & 2 5:00pm
WRBZ – 850 The Buzz

Monday, April 7th
Championship Preview
7:00pm
WDNC – 620 The Bull

Championship Game
8:00pm
WRBZ – 850 The Buzz & WDNC – 620 The Bull

Read More:CarolinaNewsWire

RALEIGH – There is no city in America better suited to host the excitement, spirit and fun of March Madness than Raleigh, N.C., the nation’s hotbed for college basketball. That’s the message Raleigh’s NCAA tournament Local Organizing Committee (LOC) intends to make loud and clear when the teams, fans, media and VIPs roll into town for the men’s first and second rounds at the RBC Center beginning March 21.

Visitor information locations will include the RBC Center, each of the official hotels, all three airport terminals and the new downtown Visitors Center on Fayetteville St. The News & Observer, represented on the LOC, plans to produce a special tournament wrap for the newspaper each day of competition, which will be delivered to every guest room in all 10 host hotels.

Read More:CarolinaNewsWire

RALEIGH, N.C. – The Wake Tech Board of Trustees approved a proposal to add competitive athletics to the community college’s programs, starting this fall. The Board’s approval allows Wake Tech to join the National Junior College Athletics Association (NJCAA) as a Division I member of Region 10.

Initially, Wake Tech will rent facilities for practice and games. The Wake Tech Foundation will look for private donors to help pay for future athletic facilities, including new fields at the college’s Northern Wake Campus. Wake Tech has never had a formal athletics department, although the college did sponsor competitive teams in the late 1960s and 1970s, including baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball, golf, and bowling.

Read More:CarolinaNewsWire

Deacons freshman Jeff Teague scores 26 points

WINSTON-SALEM – The Duke Blue Devils, the No. 2 team in the nation, got to that point because they haven’t let games end the way Sunday’s game against Wake Forest did.

Trailing the deepest into a game since a loss to Pittsburgh on Dec. 20, the Blue Devils couldn’t make up an eight-point deficit in the final 1:54 of the game and the Deacons beat the ACC’s first-place team 86-73.

The fans didn’t need prompting; they stormed the court to celebrate Wake Forest’s biggest win of the season and its biggest under first-year head coach Dino Gaudio, who replaced Skip Prosser after Prosser’s death last summer.

The last time Wake Forest put down a top five-ranked team, Prosser paced one sideline against the then-No. 4 Blue Devils at Joel Coliseum back in 2005.

This time, Wake Forest freshman guard Jeff Teague ran the Devils from baseline to baseline while scoring 26 points in the upset victory.

Duke freshman guard Nolan Smith, with a career-high 21 points, bravely stepped in when the Devils were feeling the pain of 8-for-28 shooting night from 3-point range and the discomfort of seeing so many starters deal with foul trouble.

“I don’t think we just laid down and died,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said, praising the way the Deacons played defense. “I think Wake had something to do with it. … We haven’t always played like we needed to win. … That’s part of learning.”

Duke falls to 22-2 but still holds a one-game lead in the ACC standings at 10-1. Wake Forest improved to 16-8 and 6-5 in the conference, with one very pretty win to hold onto in case the NCAA Tournament committee comes knocking next month.

All five Duke starters played with four fouls at some point during the final 10 minutes of the game, and all left with five — the fifth time in school history five players have fouled out.

But Teague and forward James Johnson, who had 24 points and 16 rebounds, owned a stretch in the second half that pushed the Devils further than they’d been pushed in nearly two months.

Wake Forest came out of the locker room after halftime running hard. When Ishmael Smith hooked up with L.D. Williams for an alley-oop jam, the coliseum crowd went appropriately insane.

Williams, after forcing Duke senior captain DeMarcus Nelson to step out of bounds while guarding him along the baseline, dropped a 3 a few seconds later, giving the Deacons a healthy 52-44 lead.

But Kyle Singler isn’t getting praise as one of the nation’s best for nothing. He calmly knocked down an important 3 — for three of his 17 — to answer Williams.

That’s how the second half went, back and forth with the teams trading leads several times.

Nelson added 18 points, but the way he, Gerald Henderson and Jon Scheyer kept driving the baseline and the lane and the way Johnson or Jamie Skeen kept turning them away or forcing the Devils to take off-balance shots was the story of the game.

That’s how Duke wins games. Wake beat Duke by taking that away.

Though Duke scored 42 first-half points, the Devils found the middle of the court closed to dribble penetration.

The Devils didn’t deal well with the pressure either. They committed 13 turnovers in a win over Maryland on Wednesday and had 13 in the first half against the Deacons while trailing 47-42 at halftime.

Read On:News & Observer

While Wake Forest’s upset of Duke on Sunday changed the complexion of the ACC basketball race, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see the Blue Devils get as much positive mileage out of that game as the Deacons.If there is a master of motivation in the backwash of defeat, it is Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. The 2007 season, when the Blue Devils went 8-9 against the league and were a quick out in the NCAA Tournament, was an exception. But as a rule, Krzyzewski’s teams recycle losses into periods of recommitment.

Most coaches don’t buy the theory that there can be “good losses.” But there can be timely losses, and the timing of this one should provide Krzyzewski with a perfect opportunity to adjust the players’ focus for a difficult remaining schedule.

This is not meant to detract from Wake’s achievement. In handing Duke its first ACC loss of the season, the Deacons positioned themselves to contend for an NCAA Tournament bid while thrusting Dino Gaudio squarely into the conference coach-of-the-year race.

At 6-5 in the league and 16-8 overall, Wake already has overachieved in Gaudio’s first season. The team was picked to finish 11th in the preseason poll.

Even before the trip to Wake, Krzyzewski said he had some concern about the way his team responded to emotionally charged wins at Maryland and North Carolina. “But we were at home for the following games, and I think our crowd helped us fight through it,” he said.

At Wake, there was no Cameron factor to help offset the letdown that followed a second victory over Maryland last Wednesday in Durham. Krzyzewski said it was important that his team find a way to create its own energy — home or away, ahead or behind on the scoreboard.

The schedule just ahead will provide the Devils a reading on that front. Duke must play on the road against ACC opponents Miami, N.C. State and Virginia. Between the Miami and State road games are home dates against St. John’s and Georgia Tech.

There is no strong reason to think Duke will lose any of those road games. But no one expected a loss at Wake, and opposing teams are more likely to see Duke as at least somewhat vulnerable.

Read More:News & Observer

CHAPEL HILL – The big battle in Chapel Hill between Duke and Carolina ended up with Duke as the victor by a score of 89-78.

Although Ray-Com announcer Billy Packer had already written off the Tar Heels earlier in the second half, the UNC-Duke game went down to the wire with only a five point lead by Duke with one minute left in the game. In the end though the Blue Devils were too much for the Heels.

The much touted game pitted the two rivals who are only separated by eight miles against each other in a game that drew wide attention in NC and beyond.

UNC players seemed to have problems scoring throughout the game, as Tyler Hansbrough was the only hot player on offense for Carolina. Although he ended up with 28 points, Hansbrough was often double or even triple-teamed down in the paint and drew few foul calls when he was going up with the ball. As a result, other UNC players tried to sink shots from the field but didn’t seem to find their rythm.

UNC’s Marcus Ginyard scored 16 points but was 3-10 from the field, while Deon Thompson was 4-5 with 14 points.

Duke, on the other hand, saw its points spread widely among its starters and had multiple offensive weapons. Greg Paulus scored 18 points, Jon Scheyer scored 17, Kyle Singler had 14, DeMarcus Nelson came away with 13, and Gerald Henderson scored 12 points.

The Tarheels also seemed to have problems rebounding the ball, even on their own offensive boards.

The Heels did well on free-throws, but the big difference in the game was three point shots as Duke rained down three pointers at precisely the right moments in the game to keep its momentum going.

Duke scored well, sinking 13 out of 28 three point attempts, while Carolina sank only 3 out of 15 attempts.

Duke led for most of the game, but the Tarheels often came to within a few points of their lead. However, both teams experienced dry spells on offense. Duke saw a dry spell at the end of the first half, when they saw a Carolina run while UNC had problems scoring late in the game.

Read More:Raleigh Chronicle

CHAPEL HILL – Moments after the final buzzer at Florida State on Sunday, North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough’s thoughts immediately turned to tonight’s game against Duke.Not because of Blue Devil swingman Gerald Henderson’s foul last March. Not because of Hansbrough’s resulting broken nose. Not because of the face mask he had to don for 4 1/2 games as a result.

But because, well, it’s Duke. For him, that’s enough.

“There is some added hype this year by you guys because of the incident,” Hansbrough told a flock of reporters Tuesday. “But to me, it’s still the expected Duke-North Carolina game, and the big-time rivalry.”

He admits he still thinks about the flying forearm that left blood gushing out of his nose with 14.5 seconds left.

“But it’s over,” he said, “and we have more things we’re trying to concentrate on than that one incident.”

Like how to get up to speed without point guard Ty Lawson, who may not play in tonight’s game. He participated only in solo light shooting during Tuesday’s practice, an air cast on his left sprained ankle.

Like how to protect the ball from the No. 2 Blue Devils, who force the most turnovers in the ACC.

And perhaps most important, how to get the ball to Hansbrough, who is averaging a league-leading 21.8 points and 10.4 rebounds and whom perimeter-oriented Duke will have trouble defending if he has his way in the lane.

“It’s going to be real important to get good spacing, run our offense, get the ball inside — by pass or dribble,” said shooting guard Wayne Ellington. “It’s going to be important to emphasize that they don’t have a low-post presence as good as we do.”

That in itself could be a challenge, though. After Lawson was sidelined roughly four minutes into UNC’s overtime win at FSU, Hansbrough didn’t score a field goal until midway through the second half — partially because his teammates had a hard time getting him the ball.

Hansbrough took some of the blame.

“Sometimes my movement was poor and some of my positions were bad,” he said.

But senior Quentin Thomas, who played a career-high 36 minutes against FSU and will make only his second career start if Lawson doesn’t play, said it took a while for him and Hansbrough to get used to each other’s positioning.

Eventually, Hansbrough finished with 22 points and 21 rebounds.

“Hopefully, it doesn’t take as long this next game,” Thomas said. “It’s all about adjustment and communication, so me and Tyler, we’re working on it.”

One of the Blue Devils trying to disrupt that communication, though, will be Henderson, who called Hansbrough to apologize after the bloody incident last March.

Read More:News & Observer

A 17-0 run to end the first half is pivotal for N.C. State in its second ACC victory

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. – After the game, after N.C. State had beaten Florida State 69-66, there was much talk of Courtney Fells’ banked 3-pointer, of J.J. Hickson’s big block and winning free throws, and the Pack’s startling 17-0 run to end the first half.

To be sure, all of that figured prominently Saturday in the Wolfpack’s first ACC road win of the season. Fells’ 3 tied the score with 41.7 seconds to play, Hickson’s two foul shots pushed the Wolfpack ahead with 9.6 seconds left, and his reject of a Toney Douglas shot then sealed it.

But Hickson said the difference in the game at the Tucker Center was more elementary than any of the X’s and O’s designed by Pack coach Sidney Lowe or FSU coach Leonard Hamilton.

“It was just wanting to win,” Hickson said. “That’s the biggest thing.

“You can draw up all the plays you want, but if you don’t have the will to win you’re not going to win. That’s something we had.”

And that coming from a freshman.

“J.J. was right on the money,” Lowe said. “It wasn’t so much just about execution. It was about being tough and playing hard.”

The Pack (13-6, 2-3 ACC) wasn’t tough enough in its last game, against Georgia Tech, losing 77-74 Wednesday night.

“That was a big loss at home,” Hickson said. “Not to take anything away from Georgia Tech, but we should have won that game. This kind of makes up for that loss.”

Fells’ excuse-me banker — his fourth 3-pointer of the game — came on a designed play. The junior guard, who had a team-high 16 points, slipped around a screen and took the shot from the top of the key, the ball banging in off the glass.

“It felt good,” a smiling Fells said, “but I didn’t expect it to bank.”

The Seminoles (13-8, 2-4) ran the clock down after Fells’ basket and their strategy was simple: isolate Douglas, a junior, on State freshman Javi Gonzalez. Douglas had drained a 3 with 2:52 to play to give FSU a 62-59 lead and later zipped past Gonzalez on a drive to push the Noles ahead 66-63 with 58.7 seconds left.

But during a timeout before Fells’ 3, Lowe told Hickson he had wandered too far out defensively, allowing Douglas a clear path through the lane.

“Coach said to stay in there and protect the basket,” Hickson said.

Douglas again made a move on Gonzalez but missed the shot with 12 seconds to play as Hickson rose high for the rebound. He was slung to floor by FSU’s Ryan Reid, who was whistled for a foul.

“I got [Gonzazlez] in the air, and I thought he fouled me,” said Douglas, who had a game-high 17 points.

Hamilton called a timeout, looking to ice Hickson. But with FSU students madly waving their arms, stomping their feet, Hickson stepped to the line and swished both free throws for a 68-66 lead

Read More:News & Observer