Sports https://www.thesunmagazine.org/rss en-us Practicing Taking piano lessons, learning to speak Russian, seeking enlightenment

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28975 Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/605-practicing 605-30-anzorena-preview.jpg 605 - Anzorena - Practicing My Bowstring Heart On the field I was all animal instinct and brute force—a bruiser, a bone breaker. Every tackle was a rebuke against a life where fathers die. When I played rugby, I wasn’t a broke, lost little girl. I wasn’t a struggling amateur writer. I had goals. I was a winner. I was MVP. I was someone.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28969 Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/605-my-bowstring-heart 605-38-yeomans-preview.jpg 605 - Yeomans - Whitmore A Thousand Words A Thousand Words features photography so rich with narrative that it tells a story all on its own.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28932 Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/603-a-thousand-words 603-23-matson-preview.jpg 603 - Matson - A Thousand Words The Wall of Death The Wall of Death is a rare piece of Americana, a vintage live-action show featuring a silo-shaped wooden cylinder thirty feet in diameter. Inside this motordrome, daredevils on motorcycles ride a fourteen-foot wall.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28831 Sun, 31 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/the-wall-of-death-lauren-stewart-counterculture-photo-essay-597 597-19-stewart-preview.jpg 597 - Stewart - Stewart - 01 Keening for the Cailleach swan2347@gmail.com The best nights are when moonlight comes through the trees, casting indigo shadows across the ice. My partner swoops around, his arms swinging in front of his crouched body. “It’s the closest we get to flying,” he said once as he sailed past me. Another time: “Maybe this is how a dolphin feels carving through the water.” He loves the tension of the blade slicing across the surface, the whoosh of his skates drawing elaborate patterns on the ice, the crunch of a hockey stop. I listen for the occasional owl.


]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28694 Fri, 31 Jan 2025 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/590-keening-for-the-cailleach 590-16-barkdoll-preview.jpg 590-Barkdoll-Swan Shaving A teenage rite of passage, a prison barber, a husband’s unfamiliar face

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28508 Mon, 01 Jul 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/583-shaving 583 - Seelig - Shaving - Preview 583 -Seelig - Shaving Uniforms For a job at Burger King, a prison in North Carolina, a girls’ school in Iran

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28441 Thu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28441-uniforms 582-33-hearne-preview.jpg 582 - Hearne - Uniforms Loving a Sport That Doesn’t Always Love Me Back marisacrane12@gmail.com I’ve always enjoyed pickup: the sudden poetry of it, the immediate bond and intimacy among strangers. . . . It’s all guts and very little glory—yet there is some glory, even if only a handful of spectators are watching. One OHHHHHHH, after you cross someone so hard they fall on their ass, can make you hold your head high for the rest of the week.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24405 Thu, 29 Feb 2024 05:05:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24405-loving-a-sport-that-doesn-t-always-love-me-back 579 - Harris - Crane A Thousand Words A Thousand Words features photography so rich with narrative that it tells a story all on its own.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/21299 Sun, 31 Dec 2023 05:05:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/21299-a-thousand-words A Thousand Words A Thousand Words features photography so rich with narrative that it tells a story all on its own.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/26822 Tue, 31 Oct 2023 04:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/26822-a-thousand-words Off Camera scotto.writing@gmail.com When I was a senior in high school, I became obsessed with the home movies Dad kept in his armoire, behind bottles of cologne. Every day I’d reach through a cloud of Brut and vanilla musk, remove a tape from the stack, and watch the footage alone in our basement, captivated by images of the kid I used to be.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24446 Sat, 30 Sep 2023 04:10:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24446-off-camera Run Home Long-distance running is the dogged refusal to bend to the way you feel. It is the accommodation of pain. If you run long enough, far enough, fast enough, you will carve out a place in yourself where pain can live.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24243 Mon, 31 Jul 2023 04:05:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24243-run-home Coach’s Kid scotto.writing@gmail.com Coach Walls started calling me “Tank.” Coach O’Brien said, “J.P. is out to kill.” Dad said nothing, but every time I looked at him — shin-high socks, gray shorts, V-neck tee with chest hair spilling out, whistle dangling around his neck — he was unable to hide his grin.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24381 Mon, 31 Jul 2023 04:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24381-coach-s-kid All-American My perceived faults would be erased the day I donned the letter jacket that bore my last name across the back, all my inconvenient vowels blazing, with Cheerleader in a semicircle underneath.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/21612 Sun, 30 Apr 2023 04:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/21612-all-american White Lines We divided ourselves up until the teams were formed correctly, evenly. In other words, until the white kids were satisfied. No one had declared them the leaders, but, like most enduring traditions, the rule had become quietly understood, rooted in our fledgling muscles and minds.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28188 Sun, 31 Jul 2022 04:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28188-white-lines My Mother Returns, This Time For Good Six weeks ago my wife walked into our living room to find me curled up on the couch, sobbing. In our twenty-one years of marriage we had experienced a lot of griefs, big and little, but she’d never seen me cry like this.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24662 Fri, 31 Dec 2021 05:10:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24662-my-mother-returns-this-time-for-good Better My eyes filled again. Filippo came by and murmured, “Think of the little light in your chest,” and somehow I understood him. I don’t know how. I let the light shine.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25012 Thu, 23 Sep 2021 04:15:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25012-better Under The Influence I snuggled closer to him to show my loyalty. See, I am your grandson. I belong to you. Placing my head lightly against his shoulder, I could smell the oil, the sweat, the Old Milwaukee.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/21665 Thu, 23 Sep 2021 04:10:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/21665-under-the-influence Deep Eddy They fished three tournaments together without breaking the top fifty before I told him to sign me up as his partner instead. At least I knew the difference between monofilament and fluorocarbon. I mean, damn.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24370 Thu, 26 Aug 2021 04:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24370-deep-eddy Fighting Back When I was nine, / my father began / telling me how to hurt / other boys. He said to / squeeze their upper lips / until their eyes watered / or twist their ears and / hold them low so you can / walk them like a dog.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/23375 Thu, 25 Feb 2021 05:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/23375-fighting-back How I Got To First Base Earlier that same afternoon All-Star slugger Dave “The Cobra” Parker had revealed to me the secret of hitting: “Hit the fucker hard, and hope it goes far.” I keep this revelation enshrined in the same chamber of my heart where my rabbinical ancestors kept their favorite Scriptures.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/26397 Wed, 21 Oct 2020 16:10:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/26397-how-i-got-to-first-base Firebirds After barre, Mme. Francesca follows me to the locker room and tells me I’m officially going to the Cupids dance program this summer and I just can’t stand it.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25056 Wed, 01 Jul 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25056-firebirds The Ramshackle Garden Of Affection Dear Ross: How can you miss on purpose? If I’m late getting back on defense, you’ll bounce the ball off the bottom of the rim and catch the “rebound” for a point. Alone under the basket. Missing.

Dear Noah: Bouncing the ball off the bottom of the rim is, as you say, a poorly missed shot, but also a perfectly missed one, because it results in a point in our game, which means it’s a way for me to stay on the court. If there were a way I could stay on the court without cheating — without those perfectly, beautifully missed shots — believe me, I would do it.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/27208 Mon, 01 Jun 2020 00:10:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/27208-the-ramshackle-garden-of-affection 534 - Voss - Gay and Davis Parade Day Today is the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. I am watching it on television in Brooklyn while the Puerto Ricans are parading up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24162 Sat, 01 Feb 2020 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24162-parade-day 530 - Graham - Lopez 530 - Graham - Lopez Stupid Zebra The father looked to the refs, the zebras in their black-and-white-striped shirts, but there was no hand in the air, no signal at all that a penalty would be called.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24009 Sun, 01 Dec 2019 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24009-stupid-zebra Gritty All Day Long I thought tryouts went great. I played catcher, just catcher. You may ask, How solid was my receiving with that lingering double vision? Well, I’m happy to report that squatting behind the plate was a miracle cure.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/26289 Fri, 01 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/26289-gritty-all-day-long Old School Boxing In 2014, during the tense aftermath of the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Harrison decided the young fighters at the gym needed to get to know police officers, and vice versa. So he began offering free memberships to police in D.C. and Prince George’s County. Now officers often train with ex-cons and troubled youths at Old School.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/22113 Sun, 01 Sep 2019 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/22113-old-school-boxing First Place Three months before his third birthday, his Italian grandfather (on his mother’s side) set him on a proper bicycle, pushed him forward, and shouted, “Spingi, spingi, spingi!” Just like that, he rode down the driveway.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/22715 Thu, 01 Aug 2019 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/22715-first-place When I Was Invincible So many times I would take risks that should have scared me but didn’t. When you grow up in a big city with hands-off parents, you become accustomed to harrowing situations. You may even come to feel that the wet plum of fear living permanently in your gut is essential to your being.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/27185 Thu, 01 Jun 2017 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/27185-when-i-was-invincible The Diver The Olympic moment I remember most / Does not involve gold medals / Or bright, enthusiastic faces in the Parade of Nations.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25502 Sat, 01 Apr 2017 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25502-the-diver