This year at Brown a class that hadn't been offered to high school students since the 2020 school year was added: weightlifting. This class has lots of benefits, not for just the students but for the athletic department, the staff, and the school itself. This class helps the student body by improving health, reducing stress, and by providing a different niche for Brown. This was big for Brown, having renovated the weightroom and buying new equipment. We not only have the weightlifting class, but the weightroom gives sports teams a place to work out with new equipment; additionally, the staff can use it after school hours.

Lifting weights is a crucial part of being healthy. Not only can you build muscle lifting weights and exercising, but you can also improve your bones and joints too. When lifting over time, your bone density increases, which makes your bones stronger and less likely to fracture. Weight lifting also helps with your joint’s flexibility and reduces the risk of developing arthritis. The CDC recommends that children 6-17 get an hour of exercise daily. For high schoolers especially it may be hard to find time to get adequate physical activity. This class is a perfect fit for them and their schedule. This class provides 3-4.5 hours a week of training depending on whether it is a blue or gold week.

Strength training reduces stress. It may be hard to believe since you're putting your muscle through stress and you may be sore after an intense workout, but this is good. Strength training boosts the production of your brain's endorphins. According to Harvard University, “Endorphins are released in response to pain or stress; these peptide hormones relieve pain and create a general feeling of well being.” Personally, I find it hard to relax in general, so when I go and workout it's usually followed by eating then a 1-3 hour nap. This is some of the best rest I get during the week. I feel very energized afterwards compared to when I wake up in the morning.

The niches of the Brown School are being recognized as having some of the highest academic performance in Kentucky. Having this class adds diversity to our curriculum. Brown also not being known for its sports teams, having new equipment will give athletics a place to improve.

Matthew Davis- Study Skills teacher, bus driver, field trip planner, GOAT- does many things and also teaches this class. At the beginning of the year we were split into groups based on what we could lift. After everyone was split up we were then taught proper form by Matt. Then we followed a set of workouts provided by Matt. A few misconceptions of “the gym” are that it's only for people who already lift and that it's intimidating/unwelcoming. That is far from it here at Brown. Everyone comes into the weightroom ready to lift because we have taken a liking to it. Everyone pushes each other to do their best. In the beginning, when the class didn't know a whole lot, 

we were less motivated and didn't take it as seriously. But as the year has progressed, I've seen everyone improve.

The NBA playoffs are in full swing and there have already been some shockers. First of all the No. 8 seed Miami Heat lead by Jimmy Butler came through in the play-in tournament and beat the No. 1 seeded Milwaukee Bucks in a 4-1 series which led to the firing of championship winning coach Mike Budenholzer. The No. 7 seed L.A Lakers who also came in via the play-ins beat the No. 2 seed Memphis Grizzlies. No. 4 The Phoenix Suns also came out of their series beating the No. 5 L.A Clippers 4-1. Other winners in the first round were the No. 2 Boston Celtics, the No. 5 NY Knicks, the No.6  Golden State Warriors, No. 3 Philadelphia 76ers, and the No. 1 Denver Nuggets.

The Second round was much more tame with the Lakers beating the Warriors 4-2. The Nuggets beat the Suns 4-2. The Celtics won against the 76ers 4-3. The Cinderella story continued though for the Miami Heat as they beat the Knicks in their series 4-2. 

With the Conference Final still going on the Heat and the Celtics are still battling it out for the second spot in the finals and Miami is currently leading the series 3-1. Miami is heavily favored to win the series and could close out at any time. But the news in the West was that the Denver Nuggets swept LeBron James and the L.A Lakers which was the third time In LeBron’s 20 year career he has been swept. Now LeBron is considering retirement and is second guessing his decision on trying to play with his son. The NBA Finals begin on ABC on June 1st and my pick to win is the Denver Nuggets in 5 games.

In a conversation with high school math teacher Andrew Gray he expressed his thoughts on the Finals saying that “The Denver Nuggets were going to win” When asked about the MVP of the playoffs so far he responded “Jamal Murray has been playing at a very high level and is the MVP so far.” On the topic of the 76ers failing to make it anywhere in the finals he said “ He thought the 6ers had a chance to win it all but James Harden has just become tiresome to watch.”   The most surprising stat to him was “ That LeBron was 0-19 on threes in the 4th quarter through the whole playoffs.

I also had a conversation with sophomore Eric Thorton, a Miami Heat fan. When asked who he thought would win the Finals he said “The Heat in 6.” Also when asked who the playoff MVP was he responded “Jimmy Butler but I haven’t really been watching the Nuggets. 

NIL (abbreviation for Name, Image, Likeness) is shared across the United States through student-athletes. Essentially these athletes are getting paid for their social media image/following, how they do on the court, and their fan base. NIL was introduced on June 30th, 2021 by the Division 1 Board of Directors. “This new policy allows all NCAA D1, D2, and D3 student-athletes to be compensated for their NIL as of July 1st, 2021” stated in a blog on ncsasports.org. Now there are more than 450,000 student-athletes earning NIL.

Student-athletes are paid in a number of different ways by accepting direct payments from sponsors or celebrities, receiving free or sponsored services/products in exchange for promotion, earning affiliate money from social media promotion, being an ambassador for a brand or business. They also get payments for appearing in commercials/ads. 

WNBA (the abbreviation for Women's National Basketball Association) was first introduced April 22, 1996. It is composed of 12 different teams with 151 athletes in the league. These athletes are getting paid based on revenue of the WNBA as a whole, not based on individual players. An article by Just Women’s Sports states, “Each team can have up to 12 players on its roster at a time, meaning the total salary (up to $1,420,500) must be divided among those 12 players. Contracts can vary, with the highest possible salary in 2023 sitting at $234,936. Rookie contracts are valued between $69,770 and $86,701 depending on where the player was selected in the draft. Those numbers, like the salary cap and salary minimum, increase every season.” which in this case is a lot more difficult than how NIL student-athletes are paid, now of course these WNBA players can get sponsorships just like NIL student-athletes but they don't get many.

Another amount of their money comes from the revenue sharing which is newly used in the WNBA. Revenue sharing introduced in 2020, the league and players signed a collective bargaining agreement that allows players to make money on top of their salaries by stacking their shared portion of the league revenue on top of their salaries. According to an article by NBC sports, the annual average salary for a WNBA player in 2022 was $102,751. While on the other hand the average salary for an NIL ranges from $1,000-$10,000 per deal and student-athletes have an average of around 10 NIL deals. As of now the top WNBA earners are Jewell Loyd, Breanna Stewart and Diana Taurasi at $228,094; Elena Delle Donne, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Brittney Griner, and DeWanna Bonner at $227,900; Natasha Howard at $221,450; Tiffany Hayes at $215,000 and Chelsea Gray at $206,287. 

The top NIL female basketball earners include Angel Reese at $1.4M, Flau’jae Johnson at $824k, Catlin Clark at $810k, Paige Bueckers at $756k, Hailey Van Lith at $520k, Mia Mastrov at $338k, Deja Kelly at $227k, and Cameron Brink & Zia Cooke at $190k. These college athletes are getting thousands of dollars more than WNBA players just off their fan base and social media impact, rather than just their deals they sign at the beginning of a season like WNBA players. 

Because of this huge pay decrease and cut there are several senior college athletes that have decided to play an extra year of college basketball rather than entering the WNBA draft so they can continue earning NIL. LSU’s top player Angle Reece isn't eligible for draft until next year but she's in no rush to get there considering she is making more right now than the top earners in the league make. Lots of top players like Naismith Player of the year Elizabeth Kitley chose to stay an extra year at Virginia Tech, as did Charisma Osborne withdrew her name from consideration and decided to stay at UCLA. 

You also have players transferring to new schools to increase their NIL. For example, Hailey Van Lith, former player for the Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team, thought in her best interest it was better for her to transfer. Van Lith announced she was transferring to LSU, which for her is a really good look to increase her NIL value. Considering Angel Reese is the most paid NIL player will definitely put her on the map right along with Angel Reese and Flau’jae Johnson.

As this season has already ended, what will the NIL and WNBA look like next season?. NIL will continue to increase as it has the past few years since it was introduced, most likely still being way bigger than WNBA as it is now. The WNBA’s salary cap will probably stay the same because they don't get much funding, which plays into the league being so little and the fan base being so small. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and team owners are hoping that when some of the most hyped college athletes do decide to declare for the draft, their fan base will carry over to the league with them.