VALDOSTA For Simone Martinez, leading a healthy life involves so much more that just diets and doctors. She knows because she is submerged in both worlds as a nurse and a student studying towards her health coach certification.

I will graduate by the end of August, said Martinez.

Martinez is currently going to school online through a one year program to receive her health coach certification with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Upon graduation in August, Martinez will enter an immersion program through the institute to further her education in the field.

Martinez was born and raised in East Germany. In 2002, she began working as a nurse in Germany after graduating with her general nurse license.

Ive been a Registered Nurse (RN) for ten years, said Martinez.

In 2005, she moved to Kaiserslautern, Germany where she met her husband who is in the Air Force in 2006. In 2008, Martinez and her husband moved to the United States. Initially, her husband was stationed at Moody Air Force base. However, her husband was leaving the military and changing careers. As a result, they moved to San Antonio, Texas in 2009.

While there, Martinez worked as a nurse at a university hospital. Switching from becoming a nurse in Germany to one in the United States was no easy task.

I had to retake nursing boards in America, said Martinez.

She obtained a Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN) certification.

I wanted to show that I got education in America, said Martinez.

See the original post:
Coaching people to a healthier life

Ever since he can remember, baseball has been a very important part of the life of Mike Bennett.

The former Lompoc High School athlete, who played under legendary Braves coach Dan Bodary, could not remember when he wasnt playing baseball.

I started when I could walk and put a glove on, Bennett said recently during a visit at Elks Field in Santa Maria last week, where he was assisting in the coaching of the Lompoc 13-year-old Babe Ruth team in the District 6 tournament. I was playing in the living room and in the yard with my dad very early.

I was five years old when I saw the Detroit Tigers win the World Series in 1984 after that it was nothing but baseball year-round.

Bennett didnt even let shoulder problems keep him away from the game. He simply went from playing to umpiring, something he has done for more than 15 years.

In addition, his shoulder injury cleared up, allowing him to play in a Lompoc mens baseball league on Sundays, while he also plays two nights a week in a mens softball league.

Oh yeah, he also has found time to add coaching to his resume.

When I started umpiring high school varsity, I stopped umpiring youth leagues, Bennett said. Then one day, I went by the Babe Ruth field and ran into Bill Rule and George Meyer who asked if I was going to umpire their games.

When I told them no, they asked if I wanted to coach, so then I coached for about 10 years then took a couple years off.

But the lure pulled him back this season.

Here is the original post:
Baseball’s in his blood

They sprinted back and forth, lugging 100-pound sand bags, heaving them in a pile, one after another.

The blue shirts roared for their own. The white shirts roared back. The drill finished and the dozen or so Nittany Lions erupted and grabbed one another in equal parts celebration and good-natured mocking, smiles and cheers all around.

They wouldn't really say it before or even after the 10th annual Lift For Life event Friday evening on the new lacrosse field on campus. No, they mostly talked about how this was just to raise money to fight kidney cancer, as always.

How they were circling together as a team and blocking out all of the negativity that has nothing to do with them and yet shadows every one.

Most wouldn't talk directly about it, but this sure seemed like it also was an opportunity to let off some steam and to bond even tighter -- and even remind the world that Penn State football is about good things, too.

Fans gathered and ringed the field in support, despite off-and-again rain showers. For a day, the scars of the scandal past and the unseen worries to come lifted away.

"There's no way to run from it or look away from it because it's out there," said senior defensive tackle Jordan Hill. "But we're not going to talk about it as a team. You can't really focus on it as a player because you'll get too emotional and that really affects your play."

And yet, "You do feel like you got to do more now," Hill

And so they did Friday. It was a new Lift For Life format under a new coaching staff, including on-field leader Craig Fitzgerald, Penn State's strength and conditioning coach.

There was no more daylong, drawn-out event pairing teams of four or five against each other. This was moved outside, and it was offense against defense, everything accomplished in less than two hours.

Read the original:
Lift for Life event lends Penn State athletes chance to make positive impact

Manchester United midfielder Ryan Giggs has revealed that he hopes to go into management when he calls time on his playing career.

The 38-year-old made his 900th appearance for the Red Devils last term but has just one year remaining on his current deal and is widely expected to retire at the end of the season.

The Welshman admits that the possibility of coaching has become increasingly tempting in recent times and is preparing himself for life in the dugout already.

Coaching is something Im looking at more and more," he told the Daily Mirror.

In the middle of last season, I completed my UEFA A Licence, which was good. Its a different side of things, completely different to being a player.

"I want to gather as much knowledge as I can and prepare myself as best as I can, if I do want to go into management or coaching.

The Cardiff-born midfielder also explained that he is looking to take as much as possible from the experience of captaining the Team GB football squad at the Olympics this summer.

The Olympics is a great platform, its different being involved in tournament football to league football," he added. "I ask as many questions as I can at United and Ive been the same here with Great Britain.

Ive always been a keen watcher of other sports. I love other sports to football; I think, as a coach, that you have to look at other sports that are leading the way in different areas.

Our club [Manchester United] has always done that and its something Im very keen to do. I watch all sports and Im keen to gather as much information to help me in my career.

View original post here:
Manchester United midfielder Giggs reveals management ambition

By Sherry Mangan

Editor's note:Every Sunday, Fortune publishes a favorite storyfrom our magazine archives. Bastille Day, France's national holiday, took place this weekend. We bring you this piece from 1948 on how workers were living in post-WWII France as seen through the eyes of motorcycle factory worker Roger Buquet.

FORTUNE -- Roger Buquet, thirty, mtallurgiste, works for the Socit des Ateliers Motobcane in Pantin, a northern industrial suburb of Paris, as a final assembler of motorcycles. He puts in a forty-eight-hour, five-day week for an average income of 8,200 francs or approximately $27 -- on which he supports a wife and three children (a fourth child is coming any minute). With the cost of living as it now is in France, this constitutes a minor miracle.

Buquet's blue eyes bug at the living standards of his U.S. counterpart ("Detroit Auto Worker," FORTUNE, August, 1946), above all, at his automobile. The very idea of a workingman's being able to afford a car practically stands his red hair on end. Buquet thinks he's doing pretty well to have a bike for himself and a tandem on which to take his wife.

Not that it's a car he's mostly worrying about: his troubles are much more elementary. Before the war, whatever international statistics may have indicated, French workers lived not too badly. Leaving all ego-tickling display to the middle classes, they concentrated on such fundamental things as a formidably comfortable bed and a commodious dining-room table, and ate the world's best food blended with good gros rouge-and champagne, too, for birthdays and baptisms. The war has put a smashing end to all this: the French workers' standard of living today is marginal in the statistics and all but insupportable in the reality. All of which explains a lot about French politics today.

Whistle while you work

Roger Buquet's day begins at 6: 15 A.M., when he gets breakfastfor himself and his family, and prepares a midmorningsnack to eat at the plant. From a closet workshop in his apartmenthe unhooks his light, semi-racing-type bicycle, andcarries it down the three flights to the rue de Chartres. Ittakes him under twelve minutes to cover the three miles tohis division of the scattered Motobecane plants in Pantin.There, with another heave of the bike to a wall bracket, aquick change to overalls, and a whack at the time clock, heis ready for a working day that from Monday through Thursdayruns from 7:00 A.M. till noon and from 1:00 to 6:00 P.M.,on Friday stops at 4:00 P.M.

Buquet is on the dividing line between semi-skilled andskilled. He works in a twelve-man team on the company'slightest model, most complicated to assemble. Picking uptwelve mudguards, he walks down the line placing one oneach motorcycle frame, then more slowly retraces his stepsbolting them on. Other workers come one machine behindhim with head lamps, tail lamps, gas tanks, etc. On his secondtrip his turn falls on, say, the rear wheel or the main drivechain, which is similarly handled. Each trip finds him distributingand attaching a different part. This system, makingfor variety, causes the machine-minded Buquet much lesspsychological fatigue than a repetition of a single process.

Motobcane is, comparatively, a pretty nice place to work.The management has the sense to impose, not hourly rhythms,but only an over-all daily output. The pace, determined bythe team itself, is therefore easy and flexible. The foreman isno straw boss, but works with the others. Smoking is permitted,though the favorite proletarian "smoke" is usually acigarette that went out half an hour ago pasted to the lowerlip. Space is tight: workers must squeeze past one another,but long experience and a good team spirit avert all frictions.Half a dozen of the team will be whistling a tune in unison,and it is a tossup whether it is the popular Pigalle or L'lnternationalein march time.

"Look at them from here," said a top management officialon a balcony overlooking the assembly line, "and you'd saythey weren't doing a damn thing; yet they turn out as manymachines as twice the number of men in a competitor's 'rationalized'plant." The production norms were determinedscientifically twenty-two years ago. "The operation hasn'tchanged; human beings haven't changed; so naturally thenorms haven't changed," he adds. The flexibility of the systemallows Buquet to knock off at ten o'clock for a midmorningsnack, and permits the team members free choicebetween eleven and twelve-o'clock lunch hours. And unlessthere has been some quite exceptional holdup in parts, theteam is usually finished with its daily stint at least a quarterof an hour before closing time.

Read more:
The life of the Parisian motorcycle worker

MANHATTAN As John Currie exited a late-night flight on the first day of his search for a new basketball coach last March, he turned on his cell phone and heard a voicemail he will never forget.

His 9-year-old daughter was none-too-pleased the Kansas State athletic director left Manhattan without saying goodbye.

Not being able to tell her goodbye was probably the hardest part of that whole week, Currie said.

Out of the hundreds of calls Currie made between the time Frank Martin told him he was leaving for South Carolina and Bruce Weber told him he was coming to K-State, that moment sticks out.

But it was unavoidable. These were hectic times, after all. Currie had just watched Martin take another job, and he didnt want to waste time finding a replacement.

Thats life for a modern-day athletic director. High-profile coaching searches are not only part of the job, they are arguably the most important part. Coaches are leaving for new teams on a regular basis 26 Football Bowl Subdivision teams and 47 Division I basketball teams changed coaches in this offseason and finding the perfect replacement has never been more crucial.

Life and death its not, but its pressure-packed. Currie faced a week of travel, phone calls and negotiations, all in the face of round-the-clock speculation. He felt like he was preparing for battle.

Anytime you go into a process like that, you have to have a plan of attack, Currie said. Any General will tell you that having a battle plan is essential, because once the battle starts the environment changes and the battle plan changes with it. I had one and I was ready.

Currie began examining his list of potential candidates, arranging flights and making calls. Before he knew it, he was on his way to the Manhattan airport.

With so much at stake, athletic directors have their own approaches. And everyone is keeping score.

Read this article:
Coaching searches — the hot seat for athletic directors

At least for one day, Penn State football players weren't letting recent negative attention affect them.

STATE COLLEGE -- They sprinted back and forth, lugging 100-pound sand bags, heaving them in a pile, one after another.

The blue shirts roared for their own.

The white shirts roared back.

The drill finished and the dozen or so Nittany Lions erupted and grabbed one another in equal parts celebration and good-natured mocking, smiles and cheers all around.

They wouldn't really say it before or even after the 10th annual Lift For Life event Friday evening on the new lacrosse field on campus. No, they mostly talked about how this was just to raise money to fight kidney cancer, as always.

How they were circling together as a team and blocking out all of the negativity that has nothing to do with them and yet shadows every one.

Most wouldn't talk directly about it, but this sure seemed like it also was an opportunity to let off some steam and to bond even tighter -- and even remind the world that Penn State football is about good things, too.

Fans gathered and ringed the field in support, despite off-and-again rain showers. For a day, the scars of the scandal past and the unseen worries to come lifted away.

"There's no way to run from it or look away from it because it's out there," said senior defensive tackle Jordan Hill. "But we're not going to talk about it as a team. You can't really focus on it as a player because you'll get too emotional and that really affects your play."

Read the original here:
Lift for Life event lends Lions chance to make positive impact

A few years ago I saw a former client (lets call her Christine) in a social setting. She had just gotten married, was about to have a baby, left her job, and moved from an urban area to a suburban one. As she updated me on things in her life, she expressed confidence in her decisions but also confessed it was rough at times. She then apologized for the latter pretty quickly, lest she sound ungrateful.

Why wouldnt it be hard? I said. Youve made a number of major changes in your life.

Her face instantly brightened and I thought she might cry with happiness.

Yes! she said. Yes. Thats true. No one wants to hear me say that because they say I have all these things I always said I wanted.

To be clear, these were still things she wanted. A life partner she loved and all that comes with building that life together.

This was really about the whole grass is greener issue. A little bit on Christines part, but more so on the part of the female friends who were pooh-poohing her for being the least bit freaked out by all the change.

Lets review. Completely different way of life in suburbia. A grinding halt to an active career (a temporary one, but a halt nonetheless). Independence vs. partnership. And on the brink of being a parent for the first time.

Hello, adjustment period.

Does anyone honestly think they can wrap their head around all that and just keep going? Yes, if youre emotionally healthy you count your blessings. But you also ask yourself over and over again if you knew what you were getting into. Because boy are you going to be experiencing some radical change.

Meanwhile, Christines friends were wondering why she wasnt hanging off a chandelier doing twirls in a blissful state. And it had her wondering, too.

Read more here:
Greener Grass Requires Adjustment Periods

The Scotland midfielder has already begun his coaching badges, preparing for a career he had hoped was a long time off.

But now the spectre of retirement is looming after Ferguson painted a bleak picture of the 28-year-old's fight to combat a chronic bowel complaint that has been bothering Fletcher since March 2011 and forced him to take a full break from the game last November. He said: "Darren has not started training with us."

He added: "Obviously he has got challenges and we are happy to be patient with him.

"But he won't be starting the season.

"It is unfortunate because he is such a magnificent professional and such a nice lad.

"If it doesn't work for him he knows he has a position at the club."

Fletcher was restricted to just 10 appearances last term, his last coming against Benfica at Old Trafford in November.

He turned out just twice in the final weeks of the previous campaign, when the 'virus' first took hold, costing him a chance of finally appearing in a Champions League final, after he was overlooked for the 2008 triumph over Chelsea in Moscow and then suspended the following year, when United lost to Barcelona.

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Fletcher preparing for life after football

SAN FRANCISCO -- The head coach of the defending national champs doesn't have one of those offices bigger than the local Kinko's. His office doesn't have a wide picture window that looks out over his 100,000-seat stadium or a handy remote control for the double doors to enter the place. Heck, there aren't double doors.

The place is the size of most college head coach's office bathrooms. Aside from its cramped dimensions, the thing you immediately notice are all of the photos of his former players framed on the walls. George Rush is proud of his guys, not just what they did for him at City College of San Francisco (CCSF), but what they became.

In less than a month, Rush's team will begin fall training camp. It's his 37th season as the Rams' head coach. They are a powerhouse in the junior college ranks as much as any program is at the Division I level. Rush annually sends more than a dozen of his starters into major college football, meaning he has to reload every season, yet he almost always does.

Over the past 13 seasons, Rush has led the Rams to seven national titles. This fall, the Rams are looking to repeat as national champs for the first time since they wrapped up a three-peat in 2001.

Rush arrived at CCSF 46 seasons ago. Like many of his players, Rush was a "bounce-back." His college career began someplace else. Rush admits he had a little too much fun in his freshman year at Santa Clara University, so he ended up enrolling at CCSF where he played at the school in the mid 1960s and was a teammate of O.J. Simpson.

The 64-year-old has seen more than his share of heart-breaking stories. He's also seen a lot of change, not just in the lives of the guys he coaches and hopes to develop, but also in the world in which they live.

What frustrates and angers Rush more than anything these days is the changes in the system that he says is squeezing his players in a way he says is appalling and unfair.

"Whenever I see those NCAA commercials when I watch March Madness, where they say 'these are our athletes, these are the leaders of America,' I wanna throw up," Rush says. He calls the NCAA "a monstrous monopoly," run by a bunch of "hypocrites."

In April, 2011, seven of Rush's CCSF players sued the NCAA and all of California's Division I public universities for unconstitutional discrimination regarding NCAA rules controlling junior college transfers. The case was prompted by the NCAA adding a requirement for junior college non-qualifiers to have passed two college English courses and one math course, something that didn't apply to any other student-athletes.

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For juco coaching legend Rush, fight against NCAA is all about playing fair