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Miami Herald
14-07-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Ken Herrmann and The Fort training the pickleball stars of tomorrow
Over the past 11 months, Monica Centonze has put more than 55,000 miles on her Volkswagen Atlas. Much of that mileage has been spent driving her 19-year-old son Jae Centonze five hours -- from Ocala to The Fort in Fort Lauderdale -- so he can hone his pickleball skills under the tutelage of Ken Herrmann. 'We go down there at least two or three times a month,' Monica said. 'We wake up at 3 a.m. Jae sleeps in the backseat while I make the drive. We get there by 8:30, and he's ready to play for several hours. Usually by 5 p.m., we make the drive back.' Monica, a single mom, works two jobs -- mostly remotely -- running a home-inspection business and also serving as a wellness supervisor for her local YMCA. 'When you want something so badly, you will do whatever it takes,' Monica said, 'and I've never seen Jae so motivated. 'He was a really good tennis player until he got burned out at age 13. In tennis, he did just enough to get by. But in pickleball, he's doing all the extra stuff. He watches pickleball videos; he gets professionally stretched; he goes to a chiropractor; he has a trainer …' Jae Centonze, who turned pro a year ago, is obviously all in on pickleball – and he's not alone. Herrmann is training dozens of aspiring pickleball pros at The Fort's APP High Performance Academy, which is designed for players ages 12-to-18. On average, Herrmann said, he has been tutoring 24-to-28 players per week. But there's more. On August 18, Herrmann plans to start a pickleball boarding program. Young student-athletes will take on-line classes, and they will train for several hours per day at The Fort. 'My vision is to rent a home for the initial six players and have an adult supervisor on staff be in there with them,' Herrmann said. 'This will be the first Nick Bollettiere-type boarding program … but for pickleball instead of tennis. This is a pilot program for us. 'It's exciting. It's a big first step.' Herrmann said about 15 students have expressed interest, some from as far away as Australia, England and Costa Rica. However, Herrmann wants to restrict the number of students in this first year to no more than six. 'We want to make sure we are successful,' Herrmann said. The odds are in Herrmann's favor. After all, Herrmann -- a 60-year-old Chicago native who grew up playing tennis -- has had a long and successful track record as a coach. In fact, in 1994 he started working as a staff member for the USTA High Performance National Development program, helping to train and coach future tennis stars such as Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish and the Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, when they were all about 12-to-14 years old. In 1999, Herrmann – seeking a better work/life balance -- left that organization. He then bought and created one of the largest tennis clubs in Chicago, building 10 indoor courts on the city's North Shore. As it turns out, the 'Herrmann Tennis Academy' helped more than 50 kids earn college scholarships for tennis. Herrmann sold that business in 2011. By late 2015, he had investors lined up to open a new academy. 'I took my plans to the executives from Wilson,' Herrmann explained. 'They said: 'Where are the pickleball courts?' 'They said the sport was booming in Arizona, California and Florida, and they highly recommended I made space for pickleball.' Herrmann quickly did his homework. He starting playing pickleball, and he got certified to teach the sport. 'The people at Wilson were right,' Herrmann said. 'The growth of pickleball, the profits, the sheer joy we were seeing … ,' Herrmann said. By 2018, Herrmann ran his first pickleball tournament, the Chicago Open, with a $25,000 purse, which was quite good for those early days. More than 500 players competed. After that, Herrmann noticed that there wasn't a pickleball tour. So … In June of 2019, Herrmann founded and launched the first USAP-sanctioned professional pickleball tour. The APP (Association of Pickleball Professionals) made its debut that fall in Chicago. The APP Tour has since grown into a multi-million-dollar business, both domestically and internationally, with corporate offices located in Chicago. For Herrmann, the missing piece at that time was finding a spot to open a high-performance player development headquarters. But after a friend told him about The Fort, Herrmann got a meeting with co-founders Brad Tuckman and Rich Campillo. The rest is history as the Fort and Herrmann teamed up in January and immediately started attracting top players, including juniors. One such example is Bella Houghton, a 14-year-old from Minneapolis. Houghton and her mother almost immediately moved to Fort Lauderdale. Since January, Houghton – who has is home-schooled – has been training six hours a day at The Fort. 'I love the community here, and the coaching is amazing,' Houghton said of The Fort. '(Herrmann) has a bunch of different perspectives that help me get better. Most of the things he has taught me have clicked quickly.' Those words surely thrill Herrmann, who has been coaching tennis or pickleball for 40-plus years. 'I've always had a passion for developing players,' Herrmann said. 'I remember sitting with (tennis Hall of Famer) Billie Jean King, and she said: 'Each generation inspires the next one.' 'That's what we hope to do here at The Fort.'
Time of India
11-07-2025
- Time of India
Seattle car thief sparks citywide AMBER alert: 3-year-old found safe, suspect still at large
— WSPMissingPers1 (@WSPMissingPers1) Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel It was a heart-stopping hour in Seattle on Thursday evening after a car thief sped off with a 3-year-old girl still strapped inside, triggering a citywide AMBER Alert and a frantic search that gripped the community and law enforcement incident unfolded around 5:30 p.m. in the White Center neighborhood, when the child's mother stepped inside her house for just a moment, leaving her gray 2021 Volkswagen Atlas running on 9th Avenue SW. In that brief window, a suspect—described by deputies as a Black man wearing a rainbow scarf—jumped behind the wheel and drove off with the little girl, Tavaea Dixon , still in the back minutes, police issued an AMBER Alert, broadcasting the child's description and the vehicle's license plate across the region. The alert galvanized the community, with residents and officers scouring the area for any sign of the missing car or child. Tavaea, described as 3 feet tall and weighing around 50 pounds, was last seen in orange shorts and an orange zip-up break came less than an hour later. Deputies located the stolen Volkswagen abandoned near 6th Avenue Southwest and Southwest 102nd Street. Inside, they found Tavaea Dixon asleep and unharmed in her car seat. The Washington State Patrol promptly canceled the AMBER Alert at 6:50 p.m., and the relieved family was reunited with their the child's safe recovery brought relief, the suspect remains at large as of Friday morning. The King County Sheriff's Office is urging anyone with information about the man or the incident to come forward. Authorities also used the opportunity to remind the public of a crucial safety tip: always turn off and lock your car, even for the briefest errands, to prevent opportunistic crimes.
New York Post
03-07-2025
- New York Post
NYPD cop who shot unarmed ex-con Allan Feliz will keep job: commissioner
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has determined that Lt. Jonathan Rivera was justified in shooting unarmed ex-con Allan Feliz during a traffic stop nearly six years ago because he was protecting the life of his brother in blue, The Post has learned. The top cop made the 'unprecedented' decision on the October 2019 ordeal – captured on heart-pounding body-worn camera footage – after reviewing the exhaustive analysis of the case conducted by the State Attorney General's office, as required by state law. 'The commissioner looked at this case very closely,' a law enforcement source said. 'She leaned heavily on the AG's report. Advertisement 'In the AG's report, the AG said the shooting was justified because [Rivera] had a reasonable belief that another police officer was in grave danger and his life was at risk,' she added, referring to Rivera's colleague, Officer Edward Barrett. 3 Allan Feliz, 31, a father to a 6-month-old son, was shot and killed by then-Sergeant Jonathan Rivera during a 2019 car stop. Brigitte Stelzer/copyphoto 'The PC agreed with the AG's analysis and found that Rivera is not guilty. The decision is unprecedented. A police commissioner has never written a long decision like this.' Advertisement 'She went through this very closely and it shows how much thought and time she put into it.' Feliz, 31, was pulled over by then-Sgt. Rivera, Officer Barrett and Officer Michelle Almanzar in his 2018 Volkswagen Atlas on Bainbridge Avenue near East 211th Street around 3 p.m. because they believed the men inside weren't wearing seatbelts – though they were. 3 In an 'unprecedented decision,' Commissioner Jessica Tisch determined that Rivera's shooting of Feliz was justified. Robert Miller What began as a routine traffic stop turned violent when Barrett realized Feliz — who once served five years on a burglary conviction — had an open warrant and asked him to step out of the vehicle. Advertisement The struggle began when Feliz got back into the car and it moved, prompting the cops — who believed he was trying to drive away — to taser him and try to pull him out of the car. 'Yo bro I'm going to fucking shoot you,' Rivera could be heard saying in the video, while Barrett yelled for Feliz to 'put it in park, put it in park.' Rivera eventually fired a single shot killing Feliz — the father of a then-6-month-old whom he had with Aquino. 3 Feliz's death sparked his family file a $350 million potential class action lawsuit against the city and the NYPD. Brigitte Stelzer/copyphoto Advertisement The Attorney General's report concluded that 'there is no obvious reason to doubt' that Rivera opened fire because he believed the act would save his fellow officer's life and that 'the totality of the circumstances strongly suggest that [his] belief was reasonable.' Lou Turco, the president of the Lieutenant's Benevolent Association, commended Tisch's decision. 'Today's decision by Commissioner Tisch sends a clear and decisive message to the members of the NYPD who risk their lives every day that our Commissioner will back officers acting in good faith performance of their duties, no matter the political risks,' the union head said. 'I commend her for standing her ground for what she believes is right when it comes to our officer's.' Before the car stop turned deadly, Allan had handed police the Ohio ID of his 29-year-old brother, Samy Feliz, police sources said at the time. But Allan had used Samy's name before, the sources said. As a result, Allan's open warrants for disorderly conduct, littering and unlicensed driving still came up when Samy's ID was run, sources said. Feliz additionally had four felonies on his record, for burglary, robbery and marijuana possession. Feliz's death at the hands of police sparked his family to file a $350 million potential class action lawsuit against the city and the NYPD for an alleged pattern of racial profiling and excessive use of force. Advertisement The lawsuit also claims that Feliz wasn't trying to drive away but rather when he got back in the car it 'was caused to shift forward.' 'It's just constant abuse after the other, one after the other he just gets punched, brutalized,' Ashley Verdeja, Allan's sister, said back in November following one of Rivera's departmental trail appearances. 'And it's really painful to have to relive those images and those videos once again and once again. It is beyond traumatizing to say the least.' 'But the biggest slap in the face for all of us here, as the family of Allan and mostly for my mother, is having to see Lieutenant Rivera walk in with his gun,' she added. 'You know, it's a slap in the face to have to see him still carrying a weapon after what he did to my brother and what he did to her son.'
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Yahoo
Man accused of road rage incident that led to helicopter chase ‘just wanted to scare' driver
A road rage shooting Friday evening escalated to gunfire and a dramatic helicopter chase that ended with an arrest at the suspect's home in Gwinnett County. The incident began near Buford Drive and South Lee Street near Buford, according to police reports, when two drivers got into a confrontation that quickly turned violent. 'One of the drivers honked at the other driver. Some gestures were given. Verbal threats might have been spoken, and one of the drivers produced a handgun and shot at the other,' said Cpl. Juan Madiedo, with Gwinnett County police, told Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson. The victim called 911 to report being shot at by another driver at around 4:45 p.m. Officers responded to the area near Interstate 985 and Buford Drive. Police had an advantage in tracking down the suspect thanks to their Air 1 helicopter. TRENDING STORIES: Man tries to carjack 2 victims, police say. Then a good Samaritan jumped in to help GA ringleader of fraud scheme sentenced for creating fake recruiting websites to steal identities Police investigate double shooting that left men injured in Greenbrian Mall parking lot 'Our aviation unit happened to be up in the air at that time. They were quickly dispatched to that call and were able to find the suspect vehicle and not only guide officers to it, but assist in the apprehension of the suspect,' Madiedo said. Video from the helicopter shows the suspect's blue Volkswagen Atlas being followed through a residential neighborhood before the chase ended at Arthur Brodeur's home on Newbridge Circle. Police arrested Brodeur, 62, and found a loaded handgun. They said they also found spent shell casings in his vehicle. The victim told police that he thought the suspect hit his vehicle during the incident, and he tried to get him to pull over. Brodeur told officers that the other driver was getting too close and he 'just wanted to scare him to get [the victim] to leave him alone,' according to the police report. Madiedo warned drivers about the dangers of road rage escalation. 'We know people are armed out here, and that's fine, but please avoid confrontation, if at all possible, and always call 911 if you feel threatened,' he said. Brodeur faces a felony aggravated assault charge and remains in the Gwinnett County Jail without bond.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Volkswagen recalls over 170,000 vehicles. See impacted models
Volkswagen Group of America has recalled over 170,000 vehicles due to a software error that may affect certain models' rearview cameras, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The Reston, Virginia-headquartered carmaker, which is a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group of automobile companies of Germany, said the recall issued on May 22 impacts certain 2024-2025 Atlas Cross Sport and Atlas vehicles. The software error could cause the review camera image to become distorted when the car is in reverse, the NHTSA says. Due to this, the vehicles fail to comply with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety requirements, the government agency said. "A distorted rearview camera image can reduce the driver's view of what is behind the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash," according to the NHTSA. The Volkswagen models impacted by the recall include: Volkswagen Atlas 2024-25 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport 2024-25 The NHTSA said dealers will update the camera control unit software, free of charge. Owner notification letters should be mailed by July 18, according to the government agency. Owners can also contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 91SB. Jonathan Limehouse covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at JLimehouse@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Volkswagen recalls more than 170k Atlas vehicles over software error
