Due to the continued persistence of COVID-19 cases in the United States and around the world, the Board of Trustees of the United States Sports Academy has decided to postpone its annual Academy’s Awards of Sport (AAOS) program and Graduation Ceremony scheduled for November, 2020 until a date to be determined in 2021. This is the first time in the AAOS program’s rich, 36-year history that the program will not be held in any given calendar year. A new date for the rescheduled program will be announced once burdensome travel restrictions have been eased for honorees and guests traveling from abroad and COVID-19 infection rates have been reduced to safe levels. This year’s AAOS event was set to be a special one. The Academy planned to welcome a host of [...]

The United States Sports Academy is pleased to announce online voting is open for its Athlete of the Month ballot for the month of August, featuring 12 candidates from eight countries who made an impact in their sport during the month. Everyone is encouraged to cast a vote on the Academy’s website at www.ussa.edu. Voting will continue until 5 p.m. Central time on Thursday, 10 September 2020. Male nominees are Joshua Cheptegei, athletics, Uganda; Lucas Giolito, baseball, United States; Donovan Mitchell, basketball, United States; Collin Moriwaka, golf, United States; Mike Schloesser, archery, the Netherlands; and Karsten Warholm, athletics, Norway. Female nominees are Faith Kipyegon, athletics, Kenya; Yuliya Levchenko, athletics, Ukraine; Cat Osterman, softball, United States; Sophia Popov, golf, Germany; Nozomi Tanaka, athletics, Japan; and A’Ja Wilson, basketball, United States. Each [...]

2015 Sport Artist of the Year Joseph Sheppard Award winning painter and sculptor and United States Sports Academy honoree Joseph Sheppard recently donated to the institution a promotional DVD from his 2001 traveling exhibition titled “50 Years of Art.” Sheppard, known as one of the great contemporary masters of figurative art in the realist tradition, was honored as the Academy’s 2015 Sport Artist of the Year. His 2001 book, 50 Years of Art, is a major contribution to the appreciation of the outstanding American artist, surveying his achievements of 50 years as a professional artist. Opposing trends in modern art, Sheppard has created a highly individual style both in his paintings and sculpture. Though people are familiar with his portraits, landscapes and still life, his reputation has come [...]

The United States Sports Academy is partnering with the Colombian School of Rehabilitation (ECR) to offer its brand new online maternity wellness course to nursing students in the South American country. The Maternity Wellness program for ECR students is the first Academy course ever to be offered in the Spanish language. The five-part course covers the benefits of exercise during pregnancy, guidelines for safe physical activity during pregnancy, fitness for birth, types of maternity fitness training, and post-partum recovery. The course was developed in collaboration with ECR faculty, who provided supplemental content so that it can be offered to nursing students there. The English language version of the course is specially designed with pregnant students in mind and can be found through the Academy’s website here. Studies show that exercise [...]

As the United States Sports Academy marks the beginning of a new academic year in September, it does so by introducing an exciting new course to its sports education degree programs. The Academy will soon offer a sports analytics course to Master of Sports Science degree students and advanced level bachelor’s degree seekers. Sports analytics, a concept made popular by the 2003 Michael Lewis book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game and the subsequent 2011 film Moneyball starring Brad Pitt, is the use of evidence-based data when making sports management decisions. Moneyball tells the story of the 2002 Oakland Athletics baseball team and their manager Billy Beane’s attempts to use statistical analysis to assemble a winning team on a slim budget. The course, SAM 520 Sports Analytics, is [...]