California Sports & Athletes Making Big Moves

California Sports are on their A Game this Summer!

Unless you've been living under a rock you know the Summer Games in London have been going strong and starting to wind down with the closing ceremony scheduled for Sunday evening.

As I watch Team USA win medal after medal I can't help but be so proud of all the athletes from my home state that keep showing up and taking home the GOLD!

Maggie Steffens

It was an epic day in Women's Sports yesterday!

Our US Women's Water Polo Team defeated Spain and  brought home GOLD for the 1st time in the sport. Of the 18 players, 15 of them are from California! Leading the team was Maggie Steffens (San Ramon, CA), a 19 year old rookie, who scored 5 goals in an 8-5 victory. She leads all scorers at the Summer Games with 21 goals in six games. 

Alex Morgan

Yesterday also saw the US Women's Soccer Team win the GOLD against Japan for the third consecutive time. Since Women's Soccer was added as a sport in 1996, Team USA has played in every Gold Medal Final match. Of the 18 players, six are from California! They showed what they are made of and got redemption, as they lost to Japan in the World Cup in 2011

Megan Rapinoe (Redding, CA) made an exciting corner kick in the game against Canada and was a main force on the field. Sydney Leroux (Los Angeles, CA) came in off the bench and scored against New Zealand in the Quarter Final for us. Shannon Box was injured in the game against France but was cleared to play for the final and helped her team win. Amy Rodriguez (Lake Forest, CA) was a force as well as Rachel Buehler (Del Mar, CA). Last but never least, is Alex Morgan (Diamond Bar, CA) who can be considered the X-Factor for this team. They call her 'Baby Horse' for the way she gallops and takes long strides around the pitch. They may need to change her name to 'Stallion' from the way she played in London.

D. Howard 2008

On this side of the Pond, we have some major moves as well, but this involves our home town NBA team the Los Angeles Lakers.

What got me the most excited this morning was finding out that the Lakers have acquired Dwight Howard (Olympian, 2008) in a four team blockbuster trade. Their starting line up will now be Kobe Bryant (Olympian), Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol (Olympian, Spain), and Metta World Peace (I still call him Ron Artest). 

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California Tennis Players Achieve Career Golden Grand Slams

Woohhhooooo! Our California Tennis Players are showing up and showing out in London today. We're so excited here at Datavo!

Serena Williams

It started out with Serena Williams playing No.1 ranked player Maria Sharapova of Russia in the Women's Tennis Singles Final. Boy, was Serena a dominant force. This game is going down in history as one of the most dominating performances ever played. She did not lose a set, almost having a perfect game. In a best two of three, she won 6-0, 6-1 in just three minutes over an hour.

“I honestly don’t think I have ever played better from start to finish,” she said in an interview after the game.

With this GOLD, she is the first American woman (only second in history after Steffi Graf of Germany) to have a Career Golden Grand Slam. She has won the French Open once (2002), the US Open three times (1999, 2000, 2008), the Australian Open a record five times during the open era, men or women (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010), and Wimbledon another five win (2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012).

After Serena's win, with her GOLD medal on her neck; she she saw the Bryan Brothers (who are twins) and urged them. "She said, 'Guys, come on,'" Bob said. "She gave me a fist and this really tough face, and I thought we kind of adopted that persona."

Bob and Mike Bryan

They went out and did not disappoint. Going into this tournament they were ranked No.1 in Men's Doubles Tennis and did not want to go home like the did in 2008 with a Bronze. They played Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Michael Llodra of France. They showed everything they had and it payed off with a 6-4, 7-6 win.

With this GOLD Medal they also became the first American Men Tennis Doubles Team to have a Career Golden Grand Slam. They have 11 Grand Slam titles together. They have won the French Open once (2003), the US Open three times (2005, 2008, 2010), the Australian Open five times (2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011), and Wimbledon twice (2006, 2011) - which is where they won their GOLD!

Go Team USA! 

Kobe Bryant is Shooting for His Second Gold!

While a majority of the NBA players are resting and enjoying the off season, Kobe Bryant is with Team USA for the Summer Games in London. Lets take a minute to see how he got where he is today. 

Born in Philadelphia, he was the youngest of three and the only son of Pamela and Joe "Jellybean" Bryant, a professional basketball player that played for the Philadelphia 76er and coached the Los Angeles Sparks. At the age of 6 his father left the NBA to play professional basketball in Italy and moved the family with him. Kobe enjoyed his new lifestyle and learned to speak Italian and Spanish fluently. 

Kobe started playing basketball at the age of three. Even once, his family moved to Italy he would always return to the US to hone his skills and play in basketball summer leagues. His other favorite sport is soccer and he has stated that if he wasn't a basketball player he would of been a soccer player. 

When he was 13, his father retired and moved their family back to the US. Kobe excelled at basketball so much that as a freshman at Lower Merion High School he made the varsity team. He was very versatile as well, playing all five positions. But his breakout year was his junior year in high school which he was named Pennsylvania Player of the Year and resulted in numerous college scouts trying to recruit him. He had a couple different colleges on his list he was thinking of going to, but when Kevin Garnett got drafted into the pros in the first round right out of high school he started to consider going directly into the NBA.

His senior year in high school he led his team to their first state championship in over 50 years. His averaged stats for that season were 30.8 points, 12 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 4.0 steals, and 3.8 blocked shots per game. Kobe was honored with the following accolades; Naismith Player of the Year, McDonalds All-American, Gatorade Men's Player of the Year, and USA Today's All-USA First Team. 

At age 17, Kobe decided that he was going to go straight into the NBA, making him only the sixth player in NBA history to do this, as prep-to-pro players were not that common during this time. He was 13th pick in the first round of the 1996 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets who already had agreed to trade their pick to the Lakers. At the time he signed his contract he was only 17 and his parents had to co-sign until he turned 18 at the beginning of the season.

His first two seasons as a Laker, he mostly came off of the bench, but this third season 1998-99 marked his emergence as a premiere shooting guard in the league. He started every game of the shortened lockout 50 game season and resulted in him signing a 6-year extension on his contract valued at $70 million. But the Lakers were swept in the Western Conference Finals.

The next season 1999-2000 proved to be the year that Kobe became one of the premier shooting guards in the NBA. The Lakers, hired Phil Jackson to coach and signed free agent Shaquille O'Neal, who with Kobe formed one of the greatest center-guard combos in NBA History. Together they went on to win the NBA Championship in 2000, 2001, and 2002, catapulting him into elite status.

The Lakers did not renew Phil Jackson's contract after the 2003-2004 season and traded Shaquille O'Neal to the Miami Heat, and the Lakers went into decline with rumors that Kobe had something to do with both men leaving. The next few years he continued to play well, but had ups and downs in his personal & professional life. 

The 2005-2006 season saw Phil Jackson back as head coach of the Lakers despite the past differences he and Kobe had. In the 2007-2008 season, he was unhappy with the way the Lakers were being managed and requested to be traded if things did not change. After working out his issues with management, the Lakers were able to acquire Pau Gasol at the trade deadline. The Lakers made it to the Finals again for the first time without Shaquille O'Neal but lost to the Boston Celtics. This year was also his first time going to the Olympics, where as past of Team USA he help secure the GOLD. 

This proved to be the start of another great Laker run. Kobe led the team to two consecutive NBA Championships for seasons 2008-2009 and 2009-2010.

As he gets older, he continues to prove how great of a player he is in a league of elite players 10 years his junior. During the 2011-2012 season he could of been the leading scorer in the NBA but choose to sit the last game of the season out so that he could be ready for the playoffs giving the title to Kevin Durant.

He is a 5x NBA Champion, 2x Finals MVP, 2008 NBA MVP, 14x All-Star, 2x NBA Scoring Champion, and Olympic Gold medalist.

We at Datavo have our eye on him as he helps lead Team USA to another GOLD medal!

Kerri Walsh & Misty May-Treanor Trying to Volley Themselves into a Third Gold Medal

Kerri Walsh 2007

Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor have been called "the greatest beach volleyball team of all time." Together, they have dominated the game of beach volleyball for the last ten years. 

Kerri grew up in Saratoga, California, while Misty grew up in Los Angeles. The two became partners in 2001 and have since gone on to be the best at what they do and great friends.

They went to Athens together in 2004 on a 90-game winning streak and swept the competion, not losing a single game bringing home their first GOLD medals.

Misty May-Treanor 2007

Going into Beijing in 2008, they were riding a 18 tournament, 101-game winning streak, where they went in again and swept the competition; beating the Chinese team on its own court and becoming the only beach volleyball team to win GOLD medals back to back.

Now Kerri and Misty are going for a third GOLD medal in London this summer. They are true competitors and GOLD Medal winning Olympians. They have shown in the past that they have the drive, commitment and stamina needed to complete their tasks.

We're watching and rooting for them here are Datavo!

Go TEAM USA!

London Summer Games 2012

It's 2012 and the Summer Games are almost here. With the torch lit and already on its way to London, excitement is brewing and Team USA is training.

Are you as excited as my coworkers and I are? It's all we're talking about around the water cooler here at Datavo. Everyone is chatting about which sports are their favorites; swimming, track and field, soccer, shooting, tennis, gymnastics, and of course my favorite, Basketball!

While July 27th is still two weeks away, the world is eagerly waiting to see the surprises that are in store. In the 16 days that the games will cover we will see people  running faster, throwing farther, jumping higher and pushing themselves past the point they thought possible all for that coveted GOLD medal. 

With the announcement of the 504-athlete roster, Team USA is ready.

I want to highlight some of these athletes exceptional talents over the next few weeks that made the cut onto Team USA. Specifically, the ones that have a connection to my home state of California, which include Kobe Bryant (basketball), Kerry Walsh (volleyball), sisters Serena and Venus Williams (tennis), Allyson Felix (track and field), the twins Bob and Mike Bryan (tennis), Tyson Chandler (basketball), Kyla Ross (gymnastics), Kim Rhode (shooting), sisters Haley and Alyssa Anderson (swimming), and Russell Westbrook (basketball), just to name a few. 

So get ready, set GO USA!