Colorado Springs Gazette

NIL has taken the sports world to new dimensions. With college football quarterbacks making millions of dollars and the transfer portal bursting at the seams, the line between college and professional sports is increasingly blurry.


However, the ability for student-athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness is not just a term for college athletics anymore. High schoolers are in on the action, too.


Since July 2021 when the NCAA’s NIL policy went into effect, states have created t...

On a quintessential fall October morning, Bear Creek Regional Park was alive with walkers, bikers, and runners enjoying the park’s loop trails under the backdrop of the Front Range. 


Besides the sounds of chirping birds and the chatter of park users, the crunch of shoes on crushed stone could be heard at a rhythmic, fast pace, signaling a group of runners passing by every few minutes.


In the front of this group was a tall Kenyan man who strode with ease at an impossible pace for the averag...

Padraig Harrington is going back to the Republic of Ireland a champion.Harrington, 53, won his second U.S Senior Open title Sunday at The Broadmoor after also taking the title in 2022 at the Saucon Valley Old Course. In his first time in Colorado, Harrington managed to hold off Stewart Cink in the final stretch to win with a score of 11-under after shooting a 3-under round on Sunday.Cink, 52, finished runner-up at 10-under while Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez, 61, made a late push but finished th...

When Tami Wright birthed triplets, two of them identical, she knew she needed a system to tell them apart.Matthew was blue, Gabriel was red and Elijah green. Since they were babies, Tami color-coded the brothers with their outfits, much to their teachers’ and coaches' appreciation. Now as seniors at TCA, the tradition has continued in their football gloves. While it's easier to tell them apart nowadays, the gloves are a nod to the lifelong tradition.The triplets have been at TCA since kindergart...

During the 2012 Colorado Class 5A state volleyball finals, Haleigh Washington was furious.In the then-high school junior’s mind, the referees were making absurd calls and threatening to give her a card for arguing against them. To cool off, she lowered herself to the ground and began to do pushups while the crowd counted as if part of a war chant.“It was a goofy camaraderie moment that reminds you it's just a volleyball game,” said Washington, who is still known for her energy and passion on the...

“Pommel Horse Guy,” as he became known to the country, stole the show at the Paris Olympics.Stephen Nedoroscik, the pale, charming kid who seemingly awoke from a nap, removed his thick-rimmed glasses and helped the Team USA to its first men’s gymnastics team medal in 16 years, became an instant sensation. He was later part of the Season 33 cast on “Dancing with the Stars.”But there was very nearly a different guy representing the U.S. on the pommel horse, as the champion of last summer’s U.S. Ol...