| Reebok Boston Indoor Games
Reggie Lewis Center, Boston
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Donna on the Side
by Donna Dye
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High school runners visit Reebok world headquarters
BOSTON 2/6/09 -- The 14th Reebok Boston Indoor Games will be held tomorrow in the Reggie Lewis Center on the Campus of Roxbury Community College in Boston MA. Still held at the same facility as the first meet, the Reebok Boston Indoor Games has become one of the most important meets of the Indoor season. It is part of the Visa Championship Series, which provides competition opportunities and prizes for elite athletes. Since RBIG began in 1996, more than 100 Olympic and World Championship medalists have competed in the event. There have also been 6 world records and 29 national records set here.
In the middle of all of these elite athletes, records and medals is an invitational high school mile for boys and girls. Participation in the meet gives high school athletes an opportunity to observe elite athletes while competing in a prestigious meet. With an eye toward encouraging these high schoolers to think about careers in atheletics whether on the track, field or designing shoes, Reebok hosted a day at the Reebok facility for the high school athletes. It was a day to relax, have some fun and enjoy the surroundings.
Donna on the Side had the priviledge of going along for the day.
We all piled on to a bus and headed out to Reebok.
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Along the way we did some waving.
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We arrived at the campus.
The campus is in Canton MA, about 15 miles southwest of Boston
|  | | | The Reebok facility is a very modern structure with lots of glass and open spaces. But it is very energy efficient as Reebok likes to boast.
"The 500,000 square foot facility incorporates many energy efficient systems. This facility was completed in 1999 and takes advantage of
energy consumption reduction technologies in the lighting, heating and cooling systems. Additional energy reduction steps have been
taken since its completion. Efficient use of energy resources reduces our costs and respects the needs of future generations. In 2003-2004
at Reebok’s World Headquarters and its Distribution Centers energy efficient equipment upgrades to the heating and cooling systems and
lighting fixtures saved nearly 2M kWh and $200,000 annually. Reebok has also installed environmentally friendly carpeting, which was
manufactured at sites using solar power."
| | | | Patrick Joyce welcomed the group
| | | | The Reebok hosts, Patrick Joyce (L), Sports Marketing Manager, and
Todd Klein, Senior Director of Global Running and Federation |  |
The inside is awesome--all modern architecture, glass and open space.
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| | | Healthy bodies please....lots of help here to keep slim and healthy: basketball court, treadmills, weights etc. etc.
| | | | And, for runners, there is a quarter mile track that starts at the door and runs under the building.
Unfortunatetely, it was under snow for our visit. But if you look closely, and follow the green shrubbery
in the picture below, you can envision where it is.
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Once settled in the conference room, we met the athletes.
| | | Patrick Joyce gets the intros started with Brett Johnson's help.
Brett Johnson Ocean City HS/Ocean City NJ senior
|  | | | | | Cory McGee
Pass Christian HS, Pass Christian MS junior | Chris “CJ” Brown
Carroll Senior HS/Southlake TX senior
| Amanda Winslow
Collins Hill HS/Lawrenceville, GA senior
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| | | | | Emily Lipari
Roslyn HS/ Roslyn Heights NY junior | Trevor Dunbar
Kodiak HS/Kodiak AK senior | Jessica Parry
Catholic Central HS/London, Ontario CA senior |  |
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 | | | | | Brittany Koziara
Boone HS/Orlando, FL senior
| Reed Connor
The Woodlands HS/The Woodlands TX senior
| Stephanie Brown
Tri-Valley HS/Downs, IL senior
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 |  | | | | | Drew Butler
The Woodlands HS/The Woodlands TX senior
| Brianna Welch
North Shore HS/Glen Head, NY junior
| Mac Fleet
University City HS/San Diego CA senior
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 | | | | | Shelby Greany
Suffern HS/Suffern, NY senior
| Zachary Ornelas
Vista Ridge HS/Cedar Park TX senior
| Bridget Dahlberg
Newton South HS/Newton Centre, MA senior
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 | | | | | Andrew Springer
Westerly HS/Westerly RI senior | Omar Abdi
Charlestown HS/Charlestown MA senior
| Patrick McGregor
Hoover HS/Hoover AL senior |
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| | | | | Jeremy Rae
Lakeshore Catholic HS/Fort Erie, Ontario CA
| Emily Jones
Bromfield HS/Harvard MA senior
| Collin Jarvis
Rancho Buena Vista HS/Vista CA senior |
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|  | | | | | Alyssa Allison
Festus Senior HS/ Herculaneum, MO senior
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To make the trip to Reebok productive as well as fun, the athletes were given the major task of designing a new shoe. Six teams were set up to compete with each other. To stimulate more interest, Reebok promised a pair of the winning shoe for each person on the winning team. The teams worked on computers with guidance from Reebok shoe designers.
| | | | |  | | |  | | | Judging was done by Reebok's elite athletes.
Winning criteria: best design and best presentation.
| | | FlyKick's team present the Fly Kicks GI shoe.
| | | | | Reed Connor of The Extra Mile Group presents: Reebok's Midas Touch
|  | | | Shelby Greany and Trevor Dunbar explain how they picked the shoe name "The Hooker" to Patrick Joyce
| | | | The finished products
|  | | | The judges deliberate.
|  | | | And the winner is: Team Panda and the Ninja Runner shoe.
|  . | | | Congrats to Team Panda! ( Amanda Winslow, Stephanie Brown, Zachary Ornelas, Jeremy Rae)
In the end, instead of only the winning team, each of the 22 athletes will be getting a pair of the Ninja Runner.
|  | | | A session with the Reebok elite athletes:
(from left) Lindsey Gallo, Nick Willis, Kevin Sullivan, Chris Lukezic, Katie Waite, Sarah Jamieson
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And yes, parents and coaches came along.
Brittany Koziara with dad, Kevin
| Omar Abdi with coach Kristyn Hughes
|  | | | | | Alyssa Allison with mom Tracy
| Emily Lipari with dad Joe
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| | Amanda Winslow with dad Dave (r) and coach Andrew Hudson
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| | | Jessica Parry with dad Jay (L) and
coaches Dave Mills and Janet Taeahashi
| | | | | | (from left) Kathy Johnson (Brett Johnson's Mom), Kathleen Walsh and Neil Dahlberg (Bridget Dahlberg's parents) and Kristyn Hughes (Omar Abdi's coach) | |
Darren Kerschieter, Stephanie Brown's Coach
| Kevin Koziara, Brittany's dad |
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The girls stopped to show off their stuff!
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And then they posed for a class picture!
(top from left) Amanda Winslow, Cory McGee, Alyssa Allison, Jessica Parry, Emily Jones, Bridget Dahlberg, Shelby Greany,
(bottom from left) Brianna Welch, Stephanie Brown, Brittany Koziara, Emily Lipari | | | | | (from top left) Drew Butler, Reed Connor, Omar Abdi, Jeremy Rae, Mac Fleet, Patrick McGregor
(from bottom left) Andrew Springer, Trevor Dunbar, Zachary Ornela, Brett Johnson, Collin Jarvis, Chris “CJ” Brown |  |
Finally, after a fun day, we headed back to Boston.
Bye Bye Reebok! Thanks for the fun day!
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Reebok Boston Indoor Games home page |
