In the present day it’s really easy to get wrapped up in the latest technology and stay indoors. We see with each passing generation how difficult it is to get some children actively moving. But what if children were working towards something? Like possibly sports trophies or medals; would they want to move more? Many people engage in playing sports as a recreational way of staying in shape, or expressing themselves through a pastime that they love. Playing sports helps make sure that children, or anyone for that matter, can stay physically healthy. The medals that can be won along the way are such shiny bonuses that too often people forget just what it is they “hang” for.

Sports medals are a great way to engage children because sports are normally competitive in nature. This competitive nature helps because when one aims to be the last one standing at the end of something, for example a soccer game, they are focused on the sport at hand because winners usually receive awards. Everyone likes receiving an award. In sports they usually come in the form of trophies or medals. Sports medals are excellent choices for awards because they can distinguish the top honors while also having the ability to recognize everyone for participation purposes. Medals or more formally referred to as medallions, traditionally come in three metals: gold, silver, and bronze; they are awarded to the first, second, and third place finishers respectively. Today many companies can create medals for any occasion, some even featuring your own custom design!

Sports medals are mainly round in shape and hang from ribbons so that they may be proudly worn and displayed around the neck of the recipient. They may have a picture or logo related to the event – and some even feature engravings on the back. Bronze has become one of the most common materials used in creating medals due to its fair price, sturdiness, and the ease of sculpting. Several sporting organizations run under a budget, and buying participation trophies for everyone can sometimes get too expensive. Medals can be taken into consideration as a more resourceful option.

Medals are awarded for recognition in many different categories such as for: athletics, corporate, scientific, academics, or military achievements. Whether it is a wounded veteran receiving the highest Medal of Honor or a child learning to hold their head higher because of a sporting game win medals can have an everlasting affect on a person, or especially a child. Hopefully the medals over time will come to represent something more to them then just a successful field day. Hopefully they will hold onto them for the rest of their lives, representing and helping them understand the importance of moving throughout the day and their life.

Around 4,700 medals are planned, although the final design will not be announced until next summer.

A shortlist of UK-based artists who will design the medals is currently being drawn up.

London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton said: “We’re delighted to be working with the Royal Mint, a company established in the UK for 1,100 years, to produce the London 2012 victory medals.

“The Olympic and Paralympic medals are presented to elite athletes at the biggest sporting event in the world on an individual’s pinnacle career moment and we’re pleased to announce that they will be produced in south Wales.”

The Sarasota Scullers won a record 11 gold medals and tied for the overall team championship at the 45th Florida Scholastic Rowing Association championships Sunday.

The Scullers, comprised of boys and girls from local high schools and middle schools, tied Winter Park High School for the 2010 title in the two-day event, said Teresa Rawe, whose daughter, Cara, 17, is a rower on the Sarasota Scullers.

The championships were held at Nathan Benderson Park, a venue rapidly gaining attention from rowing fans in the state.

Some D-TagZ feature a more classic look with just black etching, while the others are funkier and have a soft enamel colorfill. Just like the medals, they call come with an engraving plate for the reverse side so you can still add a name or personal message and logo.

Your recipients will love the look of the Dog-TagZ. Not only will they be cool to wear but they will recognize all players for their hard work!

Remember the days when all you got for winning that intense tournament were dinky basketball medals?

Well, boring now you can say goodbye to boring basketball awards!

Basketball trophies have come a long way! I’m talking about trophies that have bobbleheads, spinning sports balls and movable arms and legs!

Can’t decide which image or design to use for your basketball team? Let them choose! Use a different image insert for each medal! Use a different saying or logo on each trophy! Not one has to be alike!
Want to go with a more formal approach? Get basketball plaques! You can engrave anything you want on them or even insert a photo of your basketball team. Either way, a basketball plaque mounted on a wall is sure to create memories that will last for generations.

Going along with a classy theme, you can get acrylic basketball awards, glass basketball awards and crystal basketball awards. The crystal awards feature a basketball player lasered inside to create an interesting unique 3-D look.

Maybe you don’t want to make a big deal out of a win or even a loss! So you can opt for basketball pins, basketball pins, basketball ribbons, or basketball certificates. This way nobody is forgotten and everyone will have a little souvenir of from the good times or the bad times!

So remember, you shouldn’t have to feel obligated to get basketball trophies & awards for your team, but rather, you should want to! Designing and building a basketball trophy has never been more fun!

trophies

A jubilant Chaffey High team took home the towering Academic Decathlon trophy Thursday night during the 26th annual awards ceremony at the National Orange Show Events Center.

Head coach Steven Mercado, in his 12th year, and fellow coach Patty Gulino also carried off first-place trophies in all categories, including math, economics, social science, language/literature, music, art, essays, speech and interviews.
he team captured first in the Super Quiz at Arroyo Valley High.

Mercado attributed Chaffey’s success to hard work studying before and after school. His team was comprised heavily of seniors, and it beat out second pace Redlands High, with two seniors, five juniors and two sophomores.

Redlands High had won four consecutive championships, but school coach Donna St. George was gracious in defeat.

“I think Chaffey has just an awesome team this year,” said St. George, whose teams have won 12 Academic Decathlons during the 19 years she has coached at Redlands.
“Last year they came so close. They thought they had us. He’s a great coach, and it’s a deserving team.”

Chaffey High will compete in the state Academic Decathlon competition next month in Sacramento.

Rancho Cucamonga High took third place, followed by Kaiser, Arroyo Valley and Redlands East Valley high schools.

The annual scholastic contest pitted students from 30 high schools. Chaffey High’s first team consisted of Andrea McNellis, Andrew Haney, Camille Brown, Jesus Albarran, Joseph Escobar, Josh Escobar, Michael Andreas, Michael Rollins and Will Jacobsen.

Chaffey team members claimed seven of the top nine individual overall medals.

Originally posted by Michael Perrault.

Just what your basketball team needs

basketball trophies

Ever wonder what will give your army of basketball-ers that extra boost to win those lovely basketball trophies & medals? Maybe it is the basketball trophies & basketball medals themselves! By designing and building your very own trophy you can cater to the needs and likings of your squad of basketball players so that every game is a victory and every award is one of their most prized possessions.

Start here: Begin with what type of award you want. You can choose from trophies: gold or silver, basketball sculptures with with hand painted colors or bronze finishes, or
basketball plaques which are offered in wood acrylic or rosewood, among others. Let us also not forget the ever ubiquitous basketball medals & basketball ribbons. You can choose from a selection of styles that include 3D medals, a really unique flip-sided design, or even choose from one of many images to easily insert.

You can also opt for a classier look for your basketball award by choosing crystal or the more affordable, acrylic. These glass basketball awards and acrylic basketball awards can feature a male or basketball female player holding a basketball or if you prefer, an engraved basketball on the award to stand alone.

Finally, don’t want to spend an exuberant amount on your basketball trophies & basketball awards? Look into some cute and simple basketball pins that can easily be uniformly donned by a proud basketball team.

The 2009 Grand Trophy winners include Munich, Germany’s klink, liedig werbeagentur gmbh, winning the Grand Award for “We Love Cinema” in the Business Theater category for Germany’s Tele 5. The winning piece was created to engage viewers and brand the new station as the preferred movie channel. Mexico City, Mexico’s Televisa SA de CV won the Grand for “Imaginantes Serrat, Cortazar” in the Craft: Animation category. The award-winning entry used bold animation to introduce the audience to a different way of looking at television. Wilder of London, England was awarded the Grand Trophy in the Short Film category for their entry “Ripple,” a black comedy about the randomness of fate and the results of one malicious act. Gothenburg, Sweden’s Stark Film & Event took home the Grand in the Industrial Productions: Internal Use category for their film titled “Night at the Elyseum,” a historic piece celebrating 100 years of the electrical network Goteborg Energi AB Nat.

For the second year in a row, England’s The Edge Picture Company swept the awards, taking home the title of Production Company of the Year. The London-based company was awarded 6 Gold Medals, 3 Silver, 5 Bronze and 7 Finalist Certificates. Entries receiving Gold Medals in the category of Industrial Productions: Internal Use, include: “Our Story,” for agri-business client Syngenta, “The Impossible Story,” for professional services firm Deloitte, depicting a 3D pop-up book brought to life, and “Make It Happen,” for the financial organization RBS Group. “Make It Happen” also won a second Gold Medal in the Craft: Cinematography category. The following entries received Gold Medals in the Industrial Productions: Public Relations category: “Dreams,” a piece created for Thompson, the travel company, to help employees change the way they see the world, and “Opening Doors,” a film about domestic abuse for Surrey Domestic Abuse Outreach Service.

The 2009 NYF International Film and Video Awards received entries from 30 countries spanning 5 continents. The competition honors “The World’s Best Work™” in feature-length, short and documentary films, informational, educational, corporate and industrial film productions, home video, and student productions.

All entries were judged by a panel of industry experts, including producers, directors, writers and other media professionals. All winning entries are promoted by our network of representatives in 62 countries around the world.
Originally posted by Gayle Mandel at MarketWire.com.

Trophies are treasured prizes — whether bestowed on professional athletes who have just helped their team win a national championship or presented to a youth soccer player who showed up for every game and played his heart out. Corporate executives and third-grade spelling bee winners alike gratefully receive these awards and proudly display them in their offices or bedrooms at home.

“People like to be recognized for their accomplishments, what they’ve done in the workplace or on the playing field and other avenues,” says Jay Stelmach, the maker of monuments and owner of Colonial Trophy in Lakeville.

The family owned and operated business first opened in Taunton in 1955 and has been at its current location next to Mucky’s Liquors on Route 44 since 1968.

Stelmach offers a huge selection of trophies, plaques, medals and other commemorative items for a vast variety of sports and activities. Trophies for every major sport are available and if it’s not, Stelmach takes special orders.

“I had a guy today pick up 15 cricket trophies for his cricket club, and we’ve done trophies for a chicken show, pigeon racing, stuff like that,” he says.

While youth sports teams and adult leagues make up a large portion of his clientele, jobs for local businesses and corporations keep Stelmach busy as well.

“We do a lot of work for Ocean Spray and Johnson & Johnson,” Stelmach says, while removing a Customer Focus Award plaque made for an Ocean Spray employee from the laser engraver in his shop. The engraver, which Stelmach invested in this year, has cut down on the time it takes to etch the plates for plaques and trophies. Production improvements like that help Stelmach keep up in the face of various online competitors.

Keeping up with the latest trophy trends does, too. For instance, a new soccer trophy featuring a soccer ball that spins around in the mounting, rather than the traditional soccer player figure, has been very popular this season, Stelmach said. Plug-in or battery-operated trophies that glow and flash in pastel colors are another hot item, he said. Stelmach is also doing more work in acrylic and glass engraving, which is now in greater demand with his business clients.

Originally posted by Alice Coyle from the Taunton Daily Gazette.

Trophy News from ESPN

Kobe Bryant recently said he would rather win an Olympic gold medal than the NBA championship. Was he merely saying what was politically correct before the Olympics? Did he say it only because it sounds better than “I would rather win an Olympic gold medal than lose the NBA championship”? Or does an Olympic gold medal really mean more to him than a professional championship?

Only Kobe knows for sure but what about you? What sporting trophy means the most to you? Of all the things you could win in sports, which would you choose? A Super Bowl ring? The Masters green jacket? The Heisman Trophy? The Cy Young Award? A World Series? A Final Four? There are dozens upon dozens of championships and awards to win, but which would you most want to claim?

Here are a few quick caveats on my rankings:

The form of the award matters. Trophies top plaques, and the bigger the better. After all, you want the damn thing to look impressive in your trophy case.

Names count, too. Awards named in honor of a person (such as the Cy Young) just resonate more than those that, while prestigious, are named something boring and generic like the “MVP award.”

Durability counts. Generally, the longer the award has been around, the more it means.

Originally Written by Jim Caple for ESPN