Sports
Newport News has been the home to sports franchises, including the semi-pro football Mason Dixon League's Peninsula Pirates and Peninsula Poseidons and now the Virginia Crusaders. The Christopher Newport University Captains field fourteen sports and compete in the USA South Athletic Conference in Division III of the NCAA.
High school sports play a large role in the City's culture. Sporting stars such as Allen Iverson, Michael Vick, Mike Tomlin, Scorpio Brown, Aaron Brooks and Antoine Bethea are from Newport News. The City's stadium, John B. Todd Stadium, houses five high schools' worth of football games usually spread over Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. The stadium also holds the schools' track and field meets.
Additional sports options can be found just outside Newport News. On the collegiate level, the College of William and Mary, Hampton University, Norfolk State University and Old Dominion University offer NCAA Division I athletics. Virginia Wesleyan College also provides sports at the NCAA Division III level. The Peninsula Pilots play just outside the city limits at War Memorial Stadium in Hampton. The Pilots play in the Coastal Plain League, a summer baseball league. In Norfolk, the Norfolk Tides of the International League and the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League. In Virginia Beach, the Hampton Roads Piranhas field men's and women's professional soccer teams. The Atlantic 10 Conference has been headquartered in Newport News since the Fall of 2009.
Read more about this topic: Newport News, Virginia
Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“The whole idea of image is so confused. On the one hand, Madison Avenue is worried about the image of the players in a tennis tour. On the other hand, sports events are often sponsored by the makers of junk food, beer, and cigarettes. What’s the message when an athlete who works at keeping her body fit is sponsored by a sugar-filled snack that does more harm than good?”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“...I didn’t come to this with any particular cachet. I was just a person who grew up in the United States. And when I looked around at the people who were sportscasters, I thought they were just people who grew up in the United States, too. So I thought, Why can’t a woman do it? I just assumed everyone else would think it was a swell idea.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 85 (June 17, 1991)