Search

Talent identification is the process of recognizing participants with the potential to excel in a particular sport. Coaches and scouts are responsible for making an accurate attempt at identifying talent to select athletes for a team roster. The current study used a multi-step approach to assess coaches' perceptions of talent within a local high school. Part 1 consisted of two steps: a) Eight hockey coaches ranked the skills they felt were important when selecting an athlete for a hockey team, b) video clips showcasing the identified skills found in part a) were developed from 13 high school hockey players. In Part 2 seven coaches and two scouts viewed the video clips and generated a list of the top five and bottom five players. Overall, the most frequently identified skills were skating, speed/agility, puck handling, positional play, and shooting. Ranking the players proved challenging with nine of the 13 players being placed in both the top and bottom groups of five. These findings outline the lack of agreement among the coaches/scouts in selecting players which highlights the difficulty in identifying talent. Despite the heterogeneity of the sample of players, even experienced coaches and scouts disagree about what constitutes a skilled hockey player. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most western states allow landowners to withdraw certain amounts of groundwater for specified purposes without obtaining a water right permit. As water demands increase in the West, some developers are using exempt wells to supply water to residential developments without acquiring the permits and water rights needed to build public water supply systems. This has led to concerns that the cumulative impact of these wells could impair senior water rights, create environmental problems, and threaten water quality in some areas. This article explores the considerations associated with mitigating exempt well impacts and argues that surgical approaches focused on specific issues and geographic areas (scalpels) are more politically and administratively feasible than broad efforts to repeal or reduce exemptions on a statewide basis (hammers). The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and do not represent those of the Western States Water Council or its member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the exempt domestic and livestock well issues and identifies their exemptions in various states across the western part of the U.S. It discusses the proportional benefits and costs of monitoring exempt wells. It points out that costs and time to obtain permits and offer incentive for the use of exempt wells increase when the state population is increased. Feasible and infeasible approaches to mitigate the adverse effects related to exempt water use are also presented.