The day I found out I was moving to Utah for the summer I immediately though of two things — Brandon Davies and Starbucks.

Rick Majerus’s 1998 Final Four run with the Utes, the Jazz, and the combination of Urban Meyer, Alex Smith and Utah winning in the 2009 Sugar Bowl were pretty much all I knew about the state. So when I got the news that I’d be working this summer at The Salt Lake Tribune intern, I wondered if I’d be without the services of a Venti Strawberries & Cremé Frappuccino all summer as the do’s and don’ts of BYU’s honor code glared at me from my TV screen.

In case you hadn’t heard — though I’m pretty sure most of you have — there are a lot of stereotypes associated with this state. But when I stepped off the plane for the summer, my plan was to come here and work.

That’s exactly what I’ve done. I put in over 70 hours during my first week on the job, and I’ve since been all over in covering racing events at Miller Motorsports Park, the Wasatch Back relay, Bees and RSL games, the grueling run-up to the start of the prep football and volleyball seasons.

Now, as my internship now comes to a close, I leave having learned that Salt Lake City is just like any other large metro area — except for the weekly fireworks celebrations and the discovery that pedestrians really have the right-of-way. It’s the other way around back east. I also learned that Salt Lake City has some of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life; people who even tell the truth when they’re playing pickup basketball. I still haven’t gotten over that one.

My initial Utah culture shock centered on the time change and the landscape. I was born and raised in Michigan, then spent eight years in Atlanta, followed by another year in New York.

All I know is flat land and Eastern Standard Time. So you can imagine my confusion upon being surrounded by mountains at every turn and wondering why none of my favorite TV shows came on at the right time.

The race factor was also an issue, at least at first. I’ve lived in big, predominantly African-American cities for 26 of my 27 years. It was weird living in a place where everybody hiked, rock-climbed and rode their bikes. Black people don’t hike.

And last call came at 12:30 a.m., when I was just walking in the door. But I soon got over that because my focus was on work, not happy hour.

So as I prepare to leave, I have to confess, I’m still not big on mountains. But I can say that I spent the summer with one of the best and most diverse sports desks in the country, and I want to thank them for all of their help. I will never forget my time here, especially my week on the justice desk. I just hope you all won’t forget me and remember to keep the nicknames I gave everyone.

And I’m forever addicted to Café Rio.

Carron J. Phillips just graduated with a masters degree from Syracuse University.

Willie Lyles

Willie Lyles rolls up his sleeve to show burn marks from his job baking bread at a downtown Houston store.
“It pays the bills,” Lyles said.

Not long ago, before he became the key figure in the ongoing NCAA investigation into the University of Oregon football program, Lyles had other career plans. He was the owner of a fledgling scouting service he ran out of his home in southeast Houston.

Then his name was linked to a $25,000 payment by Oregon — he alleges the school did not pay for his scouting services but for his access and influence with top recruits, most notably Lache Seastrunk and LaMichael James.

Because of the national attention, Lyles said he had no choice but to close his business. Since then, he has been turned down for non-football-related jobs as well for “being unethical.”

“I feel in a lot of ways my business is a dead business because of how my personal name and my business name will attract terms like street agent, pimp, slimeball, sleezebag, among other things I’ve been called,” Lyles said. “In a lot of those instances, I think people judge me unfairly because they said things and didn’t even know the full story.”

Lyles’ role as a mentor to prospects, while at the same time being a paid contractor to Oregon, is believed to be paramount to the NCAA’s investigation, according to Yahoo Sports.

The NCAA interviewed Lyles for several hours as part of its investigation into the Oregon football program in early May. Lyles expects the NCAA to speak with him again after the latest disclosures. If found to have violated NCAA rules, Oregon could face sanctions; Seastrunk and James could face risks to their eligibility.

Read the entire story on the Houston Chronicle’s website.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rulon Gardner (right), a Greco-Roman Olympic gold medalist, from Star Valley, Wyo., opened Elite Training Center in Logan earlier this year. He teaches little kids how to wrestle and also some mixed martial arts.

By Kyle Goon
Class of 2010

Rulon Gardner, the hulking former Olympic champion who once shocked the world by toppling a Russian Goliath, is working with two pupils: a 13-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl. It is the girl’s first class, and she is unsure of her motions.

He takes her hands and shows her how to chop her opponent’s arm, how move around them and how to bring them to the ground. A few men look on, shuffling as they wait for their class to start in the mixed martial arts room. Gardner does not notice them — he already has students he’s working with.

The farm boy from Afton, Wyo., became a gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling, a motivational speaker and an Olympic icon. But for today, the 38-year-old Gardner is just a coach, filling in for an instructor who couldn’t make it to class. At other gyms or restaurants named after athletes, their names might be the only trace that they ever were there. But at Gardner’s Elite Training Center, he’s on the staff. His wife, Kamie Gardner, works at the front desk. He prides himself in meeting every one of his members.

“If I’m putting money into this, I want to know it’s being done right,” Gardner says.

Built into an old Macy’s department store space, the fitness club is like many others, with uniform rows of dumbbells, an army of treadmills and other fancy-looking weight machines. There’s a group fitness room where trainers teach yoga and Zoomba. Then there’s Gardner’s favorite: the MMA room which sports a padded floor, a boxing ring, an MMA octagon ring and a dozen punching bags. It’s where he can teach wrestling and give back to the sport that gave him celebrity, money and purpose.

It almost didn’t happen.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the Salt Lake Tribune. For the entire story, visit SLTrib.com.

Former OSU standout Prentiss Elliott, who was kicked off the team after his freshman season in 2004, now plays for the Oklahoma Thunder, a semi-professional team in the World Football League. Photo by Sarah Phipps of the Oklahoman.

SKIATOOK — Prentiss Elliott’s legs belong in the NFL. Wherever his legs are, a defender is usually far behind or below them, cursing at the prospect of giving up another reception.

His hands, strong and reliable, extend from below his forearms, bulging biceps and broad shoulders that should belong to a man who made a fortune playing wide receiver.

His brain wakes each morning from long nights dreaming about Sundays spent playing football in front of thousands, beneath a pirate ship in Tampa Bay or a hole in the ceiling in Dallas, or on fields frozen solid once the calendar flips to December. It tells him another trip to the gym is the only way his dream will ever come about.

But it hasn’t.

And those legs, those hands, those arms, those shoulders, and most importantly, that brain, are the reasons why.

As a receiver at Oklahoma State in Stillwater, he played in a town with one team. Now, he plays in a town with one McDonald’s.

Read the full story on the Oklahoman’s Web site.

Antonio Margarito (right) and Miguel Cotto trade blows in the July 2008 WBA welterweight title fight that Margarito won. Photo by Getty Images.

MONTEBELLO — He won’t forget it.

Tattooed in Antonio Margarito’s mind is the moment he received the devastating news.

It was October 1999, on the eve of his bout against Buck Smith, when Margarito was summoned to take a phone call at the front desk of a Holiday Inn in Fort Worth, Texas. His older brother, Manuel, had been gunned down in his Tijuana home.

Dazed, Margarito walked the streets of Fort Worth that night. He returned to the hotel at 3 a.m. By then, he had decided to fight. He rested enough to stop Smith with a body punch in the fifth round. Margarito, 30, still doesn’t know how he did it. But he’s sure his brother was there in spirit.

“I always think about him,” Margarito said. “He was there with me in every fight. I don’t know why, but every time a fight nears, I begin to think about him. I always dream he’s alive and he’s there with me cheering me on. It’s weird. It always happens. I just wish he was here to enjoy what I’m enjoying.”

Read the full story on the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Web site.

The Yankees' Mike Mussina throws in the early going. Mussina earned his 260th career win, tying him with Hall of Famer Ted Lyons for 39th on the all-time list. Photo by Karen Warren of the Houston Chronicle.

The first inning was an aberration for New York Yankees veteran Mike Mussina.

After allowing a three-run homer to Carlos Lee, Mussina silenced the sixth sellout crowd (43,409) at Minute Maid Park this season by holding the Astros scoreless in his last five innings.

“He was outstanding tonight,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Mussina (10-4). “He gives up three in the first and just really buckles down. The pitch that he gave up just got a little bit over the plate.”

Mussina earned his 260th career win, tying him with Hall of Famer Ted Lyons for 39th on the all-time list. He is fourth among active pitchers, trailing Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Randy Johnson.

Mistake to Lee
The 1-1 offering to Lee would be the only earned runs Mussina gave up on an evening in which he allowed six hits and struck out four batters.

“The big deal is going out there in the second inning and getting a zero after we scored a couple of runs to get back in it,” Mussina said. “From that point on, I got on a little bit of a roll. It was just a good day for us.”

The Astros had a scoring chance against Mussina in the sixth. After Kaz Matsui grounded out, Mussina allowed a double to Miguel Tejada, but the 17-year veteran got out of the jam by striking out Lance Berkman and getting Lee to pop to end the inning.

Read the full story on the Houston Chronicle’s Web site.

Niki Popyer sits in her bedroom, with a picture of herself playing basketball on the wall, when she was healthy. Photo by Mahala Gaylord for the Star-Ledger.

As her former teammates huddle around their coach, Niki Popyer stands several arm’s lengths away, just out of earshot. “No matter how close I am,” she says, “I’m on the outside.”

She shields her pain behind a full grin until a haze sets in. She glances past her teammates to the basketball hoop 60 feet away.

Tears seem imminent but never come. Crying hurts too much — it drives more blood to her damaged, 16-year-old brain.

Popyer can’t play basketball, and may never again. She can’t ride on a train or swim in the ocean. Doing her makeup takes more concentration, and she can’t blow-dry her hair. She can’t practice driving a car for too long, watch TV for more than an hour, walk outside without sunglasses, or go to the movies without getting headaches.

With the renewed nationwide attention on concussions sustained by football players at all levels, Popyer is a reminder of the dangers of head injuries in all sports, especially among young female participants.

Popyer has had 11 concussions in four years, according to her parents, including five in the past 10 months.

Each concussion extends her recovery time and makes her more susceptible to another. Every aspect of her life — social, academic, athletic — has been shaken.

Read the full story on NJ.com.

Hollie Vise went from being a world champion to a disappearing act, but she's back -- as a Sooner. Photo provided by Oklahoma media relations.

Hollie Vise and gymnastics are friends again.

Vise, a junior for the 10th-ranked Oklahoma women’s gymnastics team, is enjoying renewed enthusiasm for a sport that once led to the biggest disappointment in her life.

The 21-year-old Dallas native begins the 2009 season Friday at No. 3 Florida as the Big 12′s defending champion on the uneven bars, an event on which she was once a world champion.

Coach K.J. Kindler expects big contributions from Vise on the bars and balance beam as the Sooners try to build on their program-best eighth-place finish at nationals last year.

“It’s nice to see that she loves gymnastics again,” Vise’s mother, LeeAnn, said, “because for two years, I don’t think she did.”

The Hollie Vise Reclamation Project seems to be working.

It began 2½ years ago — “ground zero,” as Vise calls it — when she arrived at Oklahoma still reeling from the disappointment of not making the 2004 U.S. Olympic squad.

She had no motivation, no confidence and was woefully out of shape.

Read the full story on ESPN.com.

Juniors Jared Grover, left, and Jacob Grover came to Helena from Liberia at 12-years-old in search of new opportunities. The brothers now find themselves facing off on opposite sides of the field. Photo by Lisa Kunkel.

They grew up in war-torn Liberia, spending the majority of their days in hiding for fear of becoming child soldiers.

They witnessed things in childhood most Americans never see in a lifetime. Starvation and death before their eyes. Violence so gruesome it robs one’s innocence and forces kids to grow up before their time.

So the fact that Jacob and Jared Grover, identical twins with such an intense past, are now in Helena is nothing short of remarkable. The fact that they’re living the life of an average American teen, texting their friends after classes and prepping for Friday night football games, is difficult for Jared to even put into words.

“Even up to this day I just think everything has been like a dream for me,” said the junior linebacker at Helena High. “I never thought I would be here … the whole experience has just been unbelievable. I just don’t know what to say about it. I’m just thankful every day.”

Read the full story on the Independent Record’s Web site.