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Another year, another list of compelling sports stories. Here is a quick review of some of the events from 2006 that make us love sports...

The Winter Olympics in Turin featured highs and lows for the U.S., which placed second to Germany in the medal count.  Among the highlights was Shaun White, deemed the Flying Tomato by dominating the X Games over the years, delivering the same results on an international stage during the Winter Olympics. He twisted, turned, and flipped his way to a gold medal in the Men's Halfpipe competition, an event in which the U.S. had three of the top four highest scores.

The Final Four has been dominated by college basketball's big boys for more than a quarter of a century, with powerful teams and tournament-tested conferences gathering at the end of the season to sort out the champion. This year was a little different thanks to George Mason, a commuter school in suburban Virginia that never had won a single game in the NCAA tournament until two weeks prior to March Madness. What an inspirational run they had!

The world watched as the beautiful game took center stage this summer for the World Cup. We have video clips of the most beautiful goals in effort to forget the ugly image of Zidane's head butt heard 'round the world.

An autistic hoopster made headlines. During his first and only appearance for his high-school basketball team in Greece, N.Y., Jason McElwain, who is autistic, drains six three-pointers, adds another field goal and is carried off the court by his jubilant teammates.

An autistic hoopster made headlines

It was a very exciting and entertaining year for Little League Baseball as well. What a series! The Southeast team became the new world champs winning the 60th Little League World Series in a 2-1 upset over Japan. Also, the USA softball team took gold in the World Softball Championships in Beijing with a little help from Jessica Mendoza.

And in Ottawtook golda, Kansas there is a running back who rushed for 1,000 yards on the football field this season despite being legally blind and having a debilitating disease known as sickle cell anemia.

Thanks for an exciting and memorable 2006 - we're looking forward to 2007!

(Photo provided by Getty Images, taken by Jim McIsaac)

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Last week in the Chicago Tribune's Redeye, I read that Tennessee basketball star Candace Parker dunked again--but this time she was whistled for a technical foul for showboating.

Parker had her fifth career dunk, and third this season, with 12:56 left in the first half of the Lady Vols game against West Virginia. She stole the ball at one end and jammed it with one hand at the end of a fast break. This time Parker's dunk was more emphatic with the rim making a louder thud, and she finished by popping her jersey. That led officials to confer with each other, and a technical was called.

I can't help but thinking how many male college basketball players dunk the ball and then showboat afterwards, playing to the cameras--not only not getting called for technicals, but being admired as superior athletes. I will admit, I appreciate athletes who put their head down and get their work done, hustling in a unflashy manner. Nonetheless, for those who dunk the ball and pop their jersey to represent their team or even themselves, shouldn't men and women get equal treatment?

(Photo provided by AFP, taken by Mauricio Lima)

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I am home for the holidays and just watched a replay of the women's soccer Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. There is an extraordinary athlete from Florida State University who just completed her collegiate soccer career and who's story should be shared.

Sixth-year senior goalkeeper, Ali Mims, endured 20 surgical procedures on her leg during her college career. In the beginning of the 2002 she fractured her left leg in a scrimmage against Georgia and was forced to miss the entire season. Mims had a surgical procedure to correct the initial fracture, another because of acute compartment syndrome caused by an abnormal amount of swelling in the lower leg, 12 procedures to rid infection that had enveloped the area and even more surgeries to correct tendon problems caused by nerve damage and scar tissue suffered when her leg was broken. Just as she was set to return in 2003, the chronic infection in her leg became active once again forcing her to the sidelines for another year. More rehabilitation was needed to repair her body of the subsequent tendon problems and nerve damage.

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The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics released a position statement last week calling for a ban on the use of male practice players in women's intercollegiate athletics. The statement concludes months of debate about whether the practice should continue.

According to the CWA statement, the use of male practice players "violates the spirit of gender equity and Title IX." The committee believes that "any inclusion of male practice players results in diminished participation opportunities for female student-athletes, contrary to the association's principles of gender equity, nondiscrimination, competitive equity and student-athlete well-being."

The most common argument in favor of using male practice players is that it improves female players' skills. The CWA determined that this argument implied "an archaic notion of male preeminence that continues to impede progress toward gender equity and inclusion" and believe that using male practice players is a threat to the growth of female participation.

(Photo provided by Getty Images, taken by Jim McIsaac)

http://active.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/57141246.jpgAmerican baseball fans are preparing to finally get a closer look at the "gyroball," a pitch that may or may not really exist, but one that has been steadily gaining notoriety over the past year.

Five years ago, computer scientist Ryutaro Himeno was testing super-computers by modeling the fluid dynamics of airflow around baseballs. As detailed in the books he has helped write, a gyroball calls for a complex flip of the fingers during release, ending with the thumb pointed down. At its most effective, the pitch breaks horizontally as it nears the batter, as though shrugging off gravity.

It's one thing to hypothesize a new pitch. It's another to throw one. Japanese pitching phenomenon Daisuke, who led Japan to the World Baseball Classic championship in March, says he's thrown gyroballs. "I have done it in a game," Matsuzaka told Yahoo Sports. "But not too much. Sometimes accidentally." Fans may get a chance to decide for themselves, as Matsuzaka will finally join the major leagues next season.

Could this be the the first new pitch to be introduced to the sport of baseball in nearly four decades or is it just wishful thinking?

(Photo provided by Getty Images, taken by Jed Jacobsohn)

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Alright... it's all I've heard debated on ESPN for the last 24 hours. Some Dolphins players suggested that the team allegedly purchased tapes of the New England offense that provided audio of quarterback Tom Brady making audible and line-blocking calls.

Those players insinuated that the tapes were critical in preparing for the game and provided the Dolphins inside information about New England's offensive audible system. However, the NFL has ruled that the Miami Dolphins violated no league rules.

This is definitely approaching the line of what is moral and what is not in sports, if it doesn't cross it. I'm interested in what you think about this ordeal... Do you think this is cheating or just scouting? Are examples such as these leading children in athletics to play unfairly??

Check out the discussion on this and other topics in football at our [message boards|http://eteamz.active.com/football/boards/football/].

(Photo provided by Getty Images, taken by Gregory Shamus)

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Beyond Basketball
Part-motivational tome/part- memoir, this book from Duke Men's Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski is, as the title suggests, a blending of sport and life lessons learned during Krzyzewski's twenty-year coaching career. "I am a believer in the power of words," says the author and the book reflects this in its organization of the book through words--such as passion, excellence, and integrity-- that Krzyzewski often employs his players to visualize during a game.

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Katie Hnida, the first woman to score in a Division I-A college football game, recently released her autobiography, "Still Kicking: My Journey as the First Woman to Play Division One College Football."

She shares her saga that began as a kicker at Chatfield High in Littleton, Colorado, where she was named one of the 20 Most Influential Teens in America by Teen People. She then walked-on as a kicker for Colorado where she says she was sexually abused by teammates, and among other childish pranks, had footballs thrown at her head. Not typical team-building behavior or college memories, for sure. However, what is most disconcerning, is that this behavior was perhaps deemed as acceptable and even celebrated among the rest of the team.

Despite all she endured, Hnida was able to continue playing college football. She found acceptance at New Mexico and on Aug. 30, 2003, she made history when she converted two PATs for the Lobos in a victory over Texas State.

Is there any hope for females who tryout and legitimately make a team comprised of all males to receive equal treatment? It seems as if the trend is to take it easy on the females or punish them and show them they do not belong on the same playing field.

Conversely, I recently read about a high school male in Wisconsin who was not allowed to train and compete on his school's girls' gymnastic team. His attorney, Jared Redfield, told the Chicago Tribune, "Why not treat the genders equally?...If women can go on our football team and they can wrestle in tournaments, why in the world if there's no access for a male to participate in gymnastics should they not be on the girls' team?" I think he has a good case. What do you think - how could this affect your sport?

(Photo provided by Getty Images, taken by Brian Bahr)