CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

Was near death, now teaches balance, Tai Chi and shenanigans

I am the only child or Roscoe and Virginia Pauline Warner… HOW DID YOU GET INTO PHYSICAL THERAPY? Football injury in high school. Then I went to Shepherd University played four years as starting center at Shepherd. So if I messed up, everybody knew it and the play was toast.  ARE YOU STILL ACTIVE ATHLETICALLY OR SPORTS-WISE? Keystone Senior Games. I did ten events. Shot-put, discus, hammer throw, foul shooting, badminton, tennis, swimming…. March first I will be seven decades. But I was getting all ready last summer and I just didn’t feel right. And in February my intestines blew. And so I went from playing tennis to emergency surgery. Eight days of induced coma. During the coma (I’m sure it was sometime there) I went, ‘God, are you sure you got the right guy?’ And he didn’t answer. And then he came back in and He says, ‘George, I will take you home some day but I got some things for you to do.’ ‘God, please tell me it’s a long list.’ During that time I felt no fear, anxiety and it’s true. I think they did shift work between God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit- you know, around the clock. And the surgeons told my wife, ‘There’s no way he’s going to survive this’ because I had pneumonia, peritonitis …and it wasn’t to be my time. So since that time I teach a class once a week- balance, flexibility, isometrics, tai chi and shenanigans.  And I do it for free. CAN YOU SHOW US A SHENANIGAN?  Do you want my wife to really do me in? [To his wife] Young lady, do you know what a shenanigan is? George Warner of Hershey, PA spending New Year’s in Carlisle, PA.

Watch video interview here.

 

 

Daughter and dog wait for running Mom

Morgan DeVries of Marlton, New Jersey and her dog, Guiness. Guiness usually runs as a partner in the races, but not this hot July day, where he is waiting patiently for Mom, Shelly, who was competing in the Montgomery County Child Advocacy Project sponsored "Run for the Hill of It" on July 30, 2011 on Forbidden Drive, Wissahickon Valley. Watch video here.

Adventist basketball player seeks gig in Israel

Kelvin Green hopes to play professional basketball in Israel, where the Jewish sabbath coincides with the sabbath he observes as a practicing Seventh-Day Adventist. Watch video interview taken outside House of Produce in Mount Airy, Philadelphia.

Mount Airy Stars are Baseball Champs

After being tied with the talented and determined Panthers one game to one, on Friday evening, July 15, 2011, the Mount Airy Stars under coaches Andy, Kevin, Paul and Jerry, took the third game in their series to clinch the championship in Roxborough's 21st Ward baseball league play. This team is the pony minor team in the seniors division. The Stars overcame disabling injuries to some of its players in reaching the win. Coach Andy credits the win with lucky unwashed socks he's secretly been keeping in a trophy cabinet at home only taking out for championship games. Watch video clip of award ceremony here.

Philly Roller Girls Jam at 23rd Street Armory

Competing in the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, the Philly Roller Girls jammed their way around the track before an enthusiastic multi-generational crowd at the 23rd Street Armory Saturday Night.

Philly's Independence Dolls took on and over the Wilmington, North Carolina Cape Fear Roller Girls. In the second match, two Philly teams faced off: The Heavy Metal Hookers and the Broad Street Butchers, attired, respectively,with tiger striped shorts and blood-red stained butcher aprons.

Vanessa Jackson, a bartender, aka "Euro Thrasher" of the Hookers doubles as co-head of public relations. Five years ago, a girl working at the bar behind hers invited Jackson to a game; it "blew her mind" - she knew she had to do derby and now "Thrasher" cannot imagine life without it.

"Mercedes Bends" of West Philly and Germany, a student teacher of the German language,  was selling roller derby paraphanalia at the event because her teams, the Britches and nationally 4th ranked travel team Bells weren't on the bill. "Bends" progressed into the sport through a combination roller skate dancing, soccer and karate!  Skater "Gingervitis" introduced her to roller derby and in 2009 she earned best team Jammer and MVP awards.  Her profile quote is "German engineering meets American crash standards."

Watch video here.

Flyers hockey monster on the run in Chestnut Hill

Misty was out for a run on Highland Avenue with her owner, Julie Byrne, who was about to rush off to the Flyers - Islanders ice hockey game. An American friend introduced the Britishwoman to ice hockey some time ago and she's now a Flyers "monster." Despite sporting a bright orange Mike Richards jersey, Byrnes is a  Danny Briere fan. The Flyers won in overtime 4 to 3. Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia.

Watch video here

Andy Thorne's Allens Lane snowboard run

Andy Thorne of Chestnut Hill took advantage of the ample snow and a pile of stones at a construction site at the Allens Lane Art Center fields in Mount Airy to set up a snowboard run with a friend who built and supplied the rail.

Here he is snowboarding.

Downhill skiing in Conshohocken

Just outside the city’s northwest boundary, there’s downhill skiing.  Soldiers returning home after World War II joined together as the Wissahickon Ski Club to create their own micro version of the Alps, first renting and now owning  some hilly land off Barren Hill Road in Conshohocken. Longtime member and ski enthusiast Matt Sabia Sr, a brick contractor by trade, introduced his family to the club and his son, Matt Sabia, Jr. is now club president. The club boasts a working T-bar lift and snow blowers if it needs to augment the natural snowfall. On a crisp winter day, members may be making merry at the bar near a roaring fire inside the lodge, out on one of two downhill slopes, skiing or snowboarding, or helping out with the many tasks necessary to keep the club in operation. Watch video here.

Howard wrestles and describes match

Watch video clip here

Mount Chest Hairy wiffle ball at the Water Tower tennis courts

OK this is the wiffle ball league at the Water Tower tennis courts. I HAVEN’T SEEN WIFFLE BALL ON THE TENNIS COURTS BEFORE. FILL ME IN. INTRAMURAL OR YOU PLAY OTHER PLACES? We played Arthur Ashe tennis- we played Wimbledon- this has guilty written all over it – it’s just straight street….fax machine waffle ball- it’s a long story- He told his wife he was going -I told my wife I’m going to the fax machine and I’m playing wiffle ball..It’s Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill so we call it Mount Chest Hairy [Wiffle Ball].From left to right, Eric Fries, Jesse Bradley, Luke Williams, Bryan Brooks, Thomas Hendrie, John Spruance, Michael Longstreth, Daniel Dwyer. Water Tower Tennis Courts, Chestnut Hill. Watch video interview here.