Unexpected Crossover: Pro Wrestling Meets After-School Program
A nonprofit has a creative approach to support kids going through a tough time: a faith-based pro-wrestling charity. The program is led by founder Gareth Thompson, who rose above his difficult childhood to devote his time and efforts to helping other struggling young boys.
In this pro-wrestling after-school program, students learn to use wrestling as a healthy outlet, while getting support from positive male role models. The sport may look aggressive, but at this level of wrestling, all of the moves are choreographed. That minimizes danger and puts the emphasis on routine, discipline, kindness, skill, and confidence. It doesn’t hurt that it’s also a whole lot of fun! Students can use their energy here and actually end up being more focused and calmer in class.
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Meet the Trionda ball. It may look like a standard football, until you open it up to reveal a sensor inside the ball. It’s synced to a computer, and tracks the ball’s behavior on a graph that shows when contact is made with the ball — light touches are small peaks, hard hits are big spikes. This will make it easier to see if a player has actually touched the ball, which is sometimes hard to determine with the naked eye.
For those who are always squinting to watch those teeny tiny players on that giant field, FIFA is also introducing a ref cam. The head-mounted technology lets broadcasters record first-person footage, so spectators can see the game from the referee’s point of view. This means they can get an on-field perspective of the action, even if means an up-close look of players getting mad at the refs! Nothing more authentic than that!
When you join your school band, you probably expect to perform in your school auditorium for friends and family. No shade to Gramps, but imagine the excitement when a group of kids learned that they were going to be performing at the massive Anfield Stadium, home of Liverpool Football Club. Multiply that by 10,000,000, and that’s a fraction of what they may have felt when they learned they would be performing a Foo Fighters song there FOR the Foo Fighters!
The Bell Tower Beats is a band from Anfield Road Primary School, who had the pleasure (and pressure) of playing "Times Like These" by the Foo Fighters for the actual members of the Foo Fighters. The performance was organized by a year three teacher, and has gone viral on news and media sources. Not only was the performance fun, but it helped bring attention to the opportunity to join the school band.
Are you watching the 2026 World Cup?! We hope so, because it’s a big one. The biggest one, actually. It’s the first with three countries co-hosting (Canada, the U.S., and Mexico), and it’s been expanded to 48 teams (from 32).
But the size of the tournament isn’t where the differences end, not by a long shot! This year, the World Cup is also introducing new rules, like a possible red card for players covering their mouths! If you gasped and covered your own mouth, don’t worry. First because you’re probably not playing in the World Cup (yet), but also because this penalty is only given to players who are being confrontational.
Other additions include the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) getting the power to check second yellow cards and corners, a 5-second countdown on goal kicks and throw-ins, and a rule that players being subbed will have just 10 seconds to leave the pitch. No time for dilly dallying, we’ve got 16 more teams to watch this year!
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What’s better? The dogs benefit, too! We’re not talking about an end-of-the-week paycheck or big office parties, but something better: overdue love and affection. All the dogs are former street dogs, so they weren’t properly cared for, and these have helped more than 120 people and dogs find healing bonds with each other.
Football is thousands of years old, but who says there's no room for a little new technology? And there's no better place to explore the advancements in football tech than FIFA’s global headquarters in Zurich, where the research team has been paying special attention to the MVP of every match: the football itself.
Meet the Trionda ball. It may look like a standard football, until you open it up to reveal a sensor inside the ball. It’s synced to a computer, and tracks the ball’s behavior on a graph that shows when contact is made with the ball — light touches are small peaks, hard hits are big spikes. This will make it easier to see if a player has actually touched the ball, which is sometimes hard to determine with the naked eye.
For those who are always squinting to watch those teeny tiny players on that giant field, FIFA is also introducing a ref cam. The head-mounted technology lets broadcasters record first-person footage, so spectators can see the game from the referee’s point of view. This means they can get an on-field perspective of the action, even if means an up-close look of players getting mad at the refs! Nothing more authentic than that!
When you join your school band, you probably expect to perform in your school auditorium for friends and family. No shade to Gramps, but imagine the excitement when a group of kids learned that they were going to be performing at the massive Anfield Stadium, home of Liverpool Football Club. Multiply that by 10,000,000, and that’s a fraction of what they may have felt when they learned they would be performing a Foo Fighters song there FOR the Foo Fighters!
The Bell Tower Beats is a band from Anfield Road Primary School, who had the pleasure (and pressure) of playing "Times Like These" by the Foo Fighters for the actual members of the Foo Fighters. The performance was organized by a year three teacher, and has gone viral on news and media sources. Not only was the performance fun, but it helped bring attention to the opportunity to join the school band.
Are you watching the 2026 World Cup?! We hope so, because it’s a big one. The biggest one, actually. It’s the first with three countries co-hosting (Canada, the U.S., and Mexico), and it’s been expanded to 48 teams (from 32).
But the size of the tournament isn’t where the differences end, not by a long shot! This year, the World Cup is also introducing new rules, like a possible red card for players covering their mouths! If you gasped and covered your own mouth, don’t worry. First because you’re probably not playing in the World Cup (yet), but also because this penalty is only given to players who are being confrontational.
Other additions include the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) getting the power to check second yellow cards and corners, a 5-second countdown on goal kicks and throw-ins, and a rule that players being subbed will have just 10 seconds to leave the pitch. No time for dilly dallying, we’ve got 16 more teams to watch this year!
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What’s better? The dogs benefit, too! We’re not talking about an end-of-the-week paycheck or big office parties, but something better: overdue love and affection. All the dogs are former street dogs, so they weren’t properly cared for, and these have helped more than 120 people and dogs find healing bonds with each other.