Down the Line: Former Norfolk State basketball player competing for U.S. Women’s Tackle Football National Team
Quineshia Leonard of Suffolk, who plays on the defensive line, is on the U.S. Women’s Tackle Football National Team.
That squad recently held a training camp at Walsh University in Canton, Ohio, before going to Vantaa, Finland, to play other national teams in the world championships. That tournament got underway Friday and will run through Aug. 8, and the Americans have won the last three such events.
Leonard, a single mom of a 6- and 4-year-old, said she first put on pads in January 2021 and now plays defensive tackle for the Washington Prodigy. Her team has a fund-raising page (https://www.gofundme.com/f/ifaf-womens-world-championship).
Leonard played basketball for Wilson High (now Manor) and Hampton High before competing early last decade in basketball for Norfolk State.
Smithfield teams PONY up: Smithfield 10-and-under and 12-and-under baseball teams are taking part in PONY League World Series.
The 10U squad is in Youngsville, Louisiana, while the 12U group is in Laredo, Texas. Both teams have started fundraising pages at gofundme.com.
PONY stands for “Protect Our Nation’s Youth.”
Down the stretch: Red Knight won Colonial Downs’ most notable race of the week, the inaugural $150,000 Colonial Cup Stakes.
Red Knight, ridden by Horacio Karamanos, trained by Michael J. Maker and owned by Trinity Farm, emerged best among an 11-horse field. He made his first start since last August at Saratoga, finishing 1½ miles on turf in 2 minutes, 29.67 seconds.
The Colonial Cup was pushed back two days beecause of anticipated heat indexes.
Premier leaders: Former Menchville High baseball standout Philip Forbes V of the Suffolk Voyagers is leading the wooden-bat Premier Collegiate League with a .472 batting average, according to the league website.
Forbes, the grandson of Menchville’s longtime head baseball coach of the same name, was joined in the .400 club by the Greenbrier Knights’ Max Lucas, who was hitting .409.
The Knights’ Henry Suira (2.21) and Andrew Ramos (2.31) and the Norfolk Redbirds’ Jacob Raugini (2.76) have posted the best earned-run averages.
Now on ice: Jason Bryant, a broadcast journalist, Poquoson High and Old Dominion graduate who is known around the world for his knowledge of amateur wrestling, is expanding to a sport that’s quite popular in his current home state, Minnesota.
He was named the ice hockey play-by-play voice of St. Cloud State.
Division II in most sports, including wrestling, the Huskies are in the Division I National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Last season, they were 18-15-4 and qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
The Huskies’ home games are in the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, named after the coach of the gold-medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic team that all but achieved immortality with its shocking victory over the Soviet Union.
What’s coming up
Monday: The $100,000 Housebuster Overnight Handicap will highlight a Colonial Downs card in New Kent County.
Tuesday: The Premier Collegiate League wooden-bat playoffs will begin at Lakewood Park in Norfolk with games at 1 and 4 p.m.
Thursday: The two Hampton Roads teams that survive Tuesday’s Premier doubleheader will head to the semifinals, both at 7 p.m. in North Carolina. The second-place Edenton Steamers will host one game, and the first-place Tarboro River Bandits will host the other.
Friday: The Peninsula Tennis Patrons Association circuit holds the multi-division Briarfield Memorial Tournament on Hampton Tennis Center’s clay courts, near the Woodlands golf course and Hampton University.
Saturday: The popular Golfweek Tidewater Amateur Tour swings back into action with the AmpCaddy Classic’s 9 a.m. shotgun start at Beechwood Country Club in Ahoskie, North Carolina.
