(Photo Courtesy: USA Today Sports)

Now that we’re officially into the off-season of the two sports which are most near and dear to my heart (college football and college basketball specifically), it has allowed me to not only breathe a sigh of relief, but also to get out into the fresh air and enjoy a little bit of life outside the bomb shelter I call an apartment.

Good times! Well, unless you’re the guy who collects my cable bill every month from September to March.

But beyond the whole “bright blue skies” and “birds chirping” thing, my newfound free time has also allowed me to attend events I might not otherwise be able to. One of them came Thursday, when Jamba Juice sponsored a Fitness Expo, where the guest of honor was none other than Venus Williams.

Ever heard of her? You know, the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, who also happens to be a Jamba Juice franchise owner? Well yeah, Venus was in attendance on Thursday and working hand-in-hand with both her sponsors and the expo, to promote health, wellness and overall fitness in a fun and (to steal Jamba Juice’s term) “fruitful” way.

Anyway, after the event, Venus was nice enough to also chat with the media, where she discussed her diet routine, staying healthy on the road and how she keeps her hair looking so darn good, under such adverse conditions (admittedly, that wasn’t my question).

Enjoy!

A few weeks back I had the great pleasure of interviewing current Tennessee head basketball coach Cuonzo Martin on my podcast.

Well with college basketball approaching and the first games being played this coming Friday, I decided to go ahead and write out the interview as a long-form interview. I know some of you might be interested in the interview but might have missed it, might not download podcasts, whatever, so I decided this might be a nice way to access the interview, and hear what Coach Martin has to say about his 2013 club.

Included, Coach Martin talks about the 2013 season, how Kentucky’s success has helped his own program, and his team’s affinity for the Hard Rock Café when they visited Italy this summer.

Enjoy, and if you want listen to the entire audio of the quick, 15-minute interview, please click here.

(Also, be sure to follow Aaron on Twitter @Aaron_Torres)

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One of the cool things about living in Southern California, is that I really am exposed to all kinds of sports which I never would’ve been able to experience back East. Between the warm weather and dense population, this area is a hub to just about every sport imaginable; not just the NBA and Major League Baseball, but also more obscure ones like beach volleyball, surfing and BMX racing too. For someone who grew up around sports, and played and watched them his whole life, this really has been quite the learning experience.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I learned that another one of those lesser known sports was in town, when I discovered that the Elite Track Cycling National Championships were being held at The Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. For those confused, this wasn’t Lance Armstrong in the mountains of Europe, but instead, indoor cycling on a track called a “velodrome. And when I heard about it, I decided on a whim to go down to the track and check it out.

Well, safe to say it didn’t disappoint. Within a few minutes of watching, I became enthralled. Admittedly, I didn’t totally know what was going on, but the speed, pace and excitement of the sport fascinated me. As someone later told me (the person I interviewed below, actually) it really is “NASCAR on bicycles.”

Either way I needed to know more. Which is why when I was at The Home Depot Center, I tracked down the manager of the Home Depot Velodrome, Adam Duvendeck. Adam is an accomplished cyclist himself, having competed in both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, and also took home two Elite Track Cycling National Championships in his illustrious career.

Adam knows the sport of track cycling, and because of it he sat down with me to discuss the intricacies of the sport he loves, and why many believe it is actually the sport which is most fun to watch in person.

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Say what you want about Major League Baseball’s new Wild Card format (and at this point, just about everything has been said), but at the very least, it’s made the push toward the postseason significantly more exciting than ever have been before. Regardless of which teams get the final two splayoff pots, in 2012 there were more teams, playing more meaningful games later into the season than ever before. They say “there’s no such thing as bad PR” and that has certainly been the case for Major League Baseball in this year.

With that said, it’s also safe to assume that one of the teams which has benefited most from the new format is the Baltimore Orioles. With the confidence of having an extra playoff spot to play for, the Orioles have been white-hot in September, going 19-9 and on Sunday night, clinched their first playoff spot in 15 years.

But as they head into their first postseason since 1997, what do we really know about Baltimore? The answer is “Not nearly enough” which is why on Monday I decided to track down the biggest Orioles fan I know… my stepdad, Matt. Matt has been a partial-season ticket holder with the Orioles, driving into town for 13 games a year despite living nearly six hours away in Connecticut, and despite the fact that, well, the team was terrible. It’s a commitment only the biggest of diehards would’ve made, yet Matt has made it for the last four years.

Either way Matt has seen the O’s through the bad times, and now it’s back to the good. From the influence of manager Buck Showalter, to the comparisons of the Orioles to the movie “Major League” here’s everything you need to know about Baltimore heading into the playoffs.

Over the course of an average week, I get a lot of e-mails, pitching me on a whole bunch of random stuff. Some sound legitimate, others are intriguing, and interestingly, a handful have even come from Saudi Arabian princes, promising me riches beyond my wildest dreams. Sadly, none of those have panned out so far.

But when an e-mail hit my inbox a few weeks ago offering me the opportunity to get a free surf lesson and corresponding Q&A with professional surfer Erica Hosseini, that was one I immediately jumped at. After all, what’s funnier than an out of shape, pale guy from the Northeast trying to tame the Pacific Ocean for the first time? Nothing, I tell you. The answer is nothing.

Well, the opportunity came last week, and I’m glad to report that my surf lesson went off without a hitch. That’s right, no shark attack or unintentional drowning for this guy!

Instead, all I got was one, big-picture takeaway about the sport: Surfing is much, MUCH harder than I expected.

Understand that growing up I played pretty much every organized sport imaginable, from football to basketball, baseball, tennis, golf, whatever. But none combined the physical, mental and emotional aspects that surfing did. Nope, surfing isn’t a repetitive movement like shooting a jump shot in hoops or throwing a spiral in football, but instead much more an ever-evolving thing. It’s about waiting for the right wave, hopping up onto the board at the exact perfect time, and riding every crevice and break. And even then, even when you get it just right, it still almost always ends with you falling flat on your face and taking in a mouth full of salt water. At least it did for me anyway.

Anyway with my session complete, I had originally planned on running an entirely separate article on my first surf lesson from this Q&A, but unfortunately that just isn’t going to happen. The simple truth is that after 14 gallons of ingested saltwater zapped my short-term memory, and an hour in the ocean left me limping around like Greg Oden, I just didn’t have enough material to write a full-on article. Instead, the best I can give you is a little bit of advice, and say that if you ever have an opportunity to try surfing, just do it. Don’t ask questions. Don’t think too hard about it. Just get in the water. You won’t regret it.

Regardless, for now we are going to skip my adventures and instead turn our attention to the interview with Erica. In it we discuss just how tough the sport actually is, what a typical day in the life of a surfer involves, as well as the role her title sponsor Jose Cuervo plays in her career.

Enjoy.

While the Olympics stole all the attention this summer in London, it’s easy to forget that following the games, the Paralympics are also taking place. In the same way that the Olympics provide the world’s biggest stage for able-bodied athletes, the Paralympics do the same for disabled athletes as well.

Regardless, the Paralympic Opening Ceremonies took place last Friday, and just beforehand, one of the most well-respected sprinters in the sport Jerome Singleton stopped by for a quick, but candid interview. The 26-year-old sprinter from South Carolina won both a gold and silver medal in Beijing in 2008 and is looking to do even better this year in London.

Amongst the topics that Jerome and I discussed, included his background competing against able-bodied athletes in football, basketball and track, his rise as one of the top Paralympic sprinters in the world, and a handful of internships he did… with NASA.

He also discussed Procter & Gamble’s “Thank You Mom” campaign, which helped get some of his family members to London, and also donated $50,000 to help build a Paralympic Sports Club.

Here’s what Singleton had to say.

Over the next couple days, you’re simply going to be inundated with all things Olympics. From cheesy TV features on athletes you’ve never heard of, to learning fun facts about London you couldn’t care less about, and seeing entirely too much of Bob Costas in HD, there really is nothing quite like the Olympics Games.

However, what you might not be thinking about is the gear that these athletes will be wearing when they compete in London. Then again, why would you?

Only it is important. After all, these athletes train four long years to compete at the highest level in the world for these three weeks, and the difference between the ultimate prize (an Olympic gold) and everything else can come down to simple tenths of a second. So why wouldn’t they want every competitive advantage they get? And why wouldn’t one of those advantages include the gear they were on their bodies?

Either way earlier this week I had a chance to speak with Caitlin Albaugh of Adidas to discuss a little bit about their products and what the 3,000 athletes they represent will be wearing this coming month in London. She described the history of the company with the Games, what goes into product design and what separates Adidas gear from everyone else’s.

It turned into a fascinating back and forth.

Enjoy!

A few months ago here at Aaron Torres Sports, I decided to start a new interview series called “How It All Started.”

The premise was simple: With so many people in high school and college looking to get into the sports media field, and so few resources out there on how to do so, I thought it might be a good idea to track down some of my favorite writers, radio hosts and TV personalities to see how their careers started, and what advice they’d give to young people trying to reach the same level of success. And it’s safe to say that the series was itself a success early on, as I interviewed New York Times best-selling author Jeff Pearlman and Yahoo Sports Columnist Dan Wetzel within the first few weeks, and they shared lots of great information.

Well after a short hiatus, “How It All Started” is back, as earlier this week I had the opportunity to interview ESPN Radio’s Freddie Coleman. Coleman was incredibly gracious with his time sharing his road from college football player, to Top 40 radio host and the blind luck that brought him to ESPN Radio in 2004.

So how did it all start for Freddie Coleman? Let’s take a look…

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Last week I started a new series here at Aaron Torres Sports called, “How It All Started” where I track down prominent sportswriters, bloggers and television personalities, and do a long-form question and answer, and essentially ask: “So, how did you get started.” As I mentioned last week, as I continue to have my own success in writing, I find more young people asking me how I got started, and since I never have a good answer, I decided instead to put the question to some of the most successful people in their respective fields. In the process, it’s my hope that these interviews become a good resource for anyone looking for quality information, or an inspiring story on how to get started.

Anyway, after the success of last week’s interview with best-selling author Jeff Pearlman, I am back today and this time talking to Yahoo Sports National Columnist Dan Wetzel. Beyond just his work with Yahoo, Wetzel is also known for his book “Death to the BCS” and has been a major part of Yahoo’s increased investigative coverage over the last few years.

Dan was nice enough to answer a bunch of my questions on his background, his time at Yahoo, and some of his hardest hitting interviews… including with the Fake Dan Bebee.

So how did it all start for Dan Wetzel? Let’s ask him.

As I continue to gain traction in the sports writing world, one question that continually gets asked of me is, “Aaron, how did you get started in sports writing?” It seems like everyone wants to be a sports writer, reporter or TV personality, yet no one is entirely sure how to go about getting there

For me personally, it was easy. I wanted to write about sports, thought I had some valuable opinions, and when no one would hire me to do it out of the gate, I decided to start this very website that you’re looking at right now. I know, I know, that’s not a very good or inspiring story. Then again, I haven’t really achieved all that much success yet either.

So with that, instead of trying to answer the question myself, I took a different approach, and decided to start a series of long-form interviews with some of the most successful people in sports media. These won’t be podcasts (since some folks can’t listen at work), but instead, written out interviews, which you can read, digest, and then if you find something valuable, be able to go back and reference them at a later time. The ultimate goal is to teach anyone who wants a start in the sports industry that there are a lot of different paths to success, and you don’t need to go to Syracuse or get hired by ESPN right out of school to get there.  What’s much more important is being smart, creative and resourceful; something that I suspect will be a common theme in these interviews.

No one personifies that last point better than the first person I’m interviewing for this series, former Sports Illustrated staff writer and current best-selling author Jeff Pearlman.

Jeff is interesting, in the sense that not only did he decide at an early age that he wanted to be a sportswriter, but that he actually declared it to his parents, telling them in his early teens “I will write for Sports Illustrated.”

Eventually he did, but not without taking several unique turns along the way, including entering his name into the 1993 NBA Draft after his junior year at the University of Delaware (despite having never played college basketball), and working as a fashion and food writer as his first job out of college. From there he got to Sports Illustrated, and is now a best-selling author, with five books out, including the recently released "Sweetness" about Water Payton. Maybe my favorite sports book of all-time, “The Bad Guys Won,” was also written by Pearlman.

So how did it all start for Jeff Pearlman? Let’s take a look: