The Best Seats
In The House

This winter season has been one for the record books.  The weather forecast has brought one polar vortex after another, sandwiched between bitter cold arctic blasts.  It seems like everywhere - even the southern US - has been buried with wintry precipitation this season.  Luckily, we will be rounding the bend into springtime soon enough!

After the Thaw

As many of us dig ourselves out of this particularly cold and snowy winter, it’ll soon be time to take to the fields again for outdoor sports.  The best way to shake cabin fever is to get outside and get moving.  With spring sports right around the corner, be sure your outdoor fields and nets will be ready to receive the warm-weather rush.

Extreme winter weather like this certainly takes its toll - on our sanity as well as our sports equipment!  Outdoor nets and goal posts are often left out in the cold during the off-season, allowing for a great deal of winter wear-and-tear. 

All of this arctic moisture can sneak into cracked paint, causing extensive rust damage on goal posts.  Not only is rust unsightly, it can compromise the structure and safety of your goal posts as well.  The wet winter weather along with biting winds rips at sports netting, often making them brittle and weak.  Once the damage of winter is done, netting is more susceptible to holes and tears.

Be Prepared!

Before eager athletes reclaim the field from Old Man Winter this spring, invest in quality goal systems that will last.  From goals and nets for soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey to football and rugby uprights, Sport Systems has the long-lasting gear you need. 

Our goal posts and frames are sand blasted and powder coated for a chip-resistant finish, preventing against rust-causing moisture damage.

Knotless nylon netting can absorb the blows of athletic equipment as well as the winter wind.  Our quality sports netting installs in a snap, making it an simple part of spring field maintenance.  

As the countdown to Sochi continues, the next sport in SSCI’s Olympic event spotlight is Speed skating!

World record holder and three-time world champion speed skater Christine Nesbitt is a top contender this year for Canadian gold in Sochi.  After she ascended the podium at the 2010 games in Vancouver, it is hard not to speculate whether Nesbitt will bring home the gold for Canada again in 2014.  

Christine Nesbitt is a long track speed skater from Calgary with two Olympic medals under her belt.  As a youngster, Nesbitt was a natural distance runner who also enjoyed hockey.  It wasn’t long after combining her skills from those two sports that she was nationally ranked as a speed skater.

During soccer season, diehard teams will rarely miss a game, rain or shine.  Weather doesn’t keep players from taking to the field - in fact, playing in the rain and mud add another dynamic to gameplay that some players even prefer.  

While it might be fun to play soccer in the rain, it’s not always as enjoyable to be on the sidelines in a monsoon.  It is certainly easier to be a good sport about the rain from on the field than it is on from the bench. 

Soccer players keep warm and focused by keeping in motion.  But once a player is subbed out, he needs a place to take shelter from the storm and recuperate before returning to the game. Without the chance to dry off and warm up, your players could catch cold and risk missing future games.  

There is nothing better than seeing your sports system serving the community, whether it’s a professional facility or a local recreation center. On a day-to-day basis, all year long, your facility sees a lot of action, and that can take its toll over time. A new year has begun - start your year off on the right foot with a full facility inspection.

You’ve invested in a state of the art sports system, and repeated use means that your investments will face a natural amount of wear and tear. In order to guarantee safety and performance, regular inspection and maintenance are required.

To ensure that the sports equipment at your facility, both indoor and outdoor, are up to working standards, Sport Systems conducts the necessary systems checkups. You can’t put a price on safety and performance. If your facility lacks the in-house expertise or resources, or if there just isn’t the time in your busy schedule to conduct the required equipment maintenance, Request A Quote or give us a call.

Sport Systems provides essential services and products for a wide range of sports venues and athletes. From the moment your order is placed until it is delivered, (even returning for annual inspections and check-ups), Sport Systems is proud to serve the facilities that make people happy by keeping them active. But our mission doesn’t stop there; our goal is to serve the community as a whole, including those in the stands as well as on the field.

While it is readily apparent how our sports equipment systems serve athletes of all sorts, from peewee to pro, it might be easier to forget how much their biggest fans appreciate having Sport Systems behind the scenes of their favorite sporting event.

When spectators roll up to to see their favorite team play, they are relieved to find a secure, galvanized steel rack to secure their bike outside the facility. With a wide variety of design options and an array of customizable features, bike racks from Sport Systems satisfy the need for form and function.

One of the most magical things about basketball is how despite the set of standard rules, no two games are alike, and each player can express him or herself on the court with a sense of style and flare unique to the sport. Streetball, or street basketball, refers to pickup games of hoops on outdoor courts by amateur players. It doesn’t feel quite right calling any of these athletes amateurs exactly - theirs is the kind of raw skill and talent that can’t be taught. The individual nature of streetballers’ spirit and enthusiasm on the court is what gives street basketball its very character.

By its very nature, streetball is light on rule-enforcement and heavy on the expression individual skill. There are no referees on the street basketball court, so the game tends to move at a fast, uninterrupted pace. In order for a player to hold his own in these types of games, he must be quick and nimble, with killer ball-handling skills. It is no wonder so many young NBA stars got their start on the streetball court.

It might be hard to imagine as we brave the cold of winter, but before long it will be spring again. When the snow melts, athletes - amateurs and professionals alike - will be coming out of hibernation ready to play outside again. Among one of the most popular warm-weather activities these days is beach volleyball. But the sport has expanded far beyond its coastal roots, now a staple at just about any outdoor facility!

Inspired by its indoor equivalent, beach volleyball was born as a summer leisure activity in California in the1920s.

With the appeal of its fun and simple nature, the game quickly grew in popularity. It wasn’t long before California club teams formed, staging friendly competitions across town lines. This growing interest in beach volleyball soon stretched across the globe, with the first professional tournament held in France in 1960.

The world-wide love of outdoor volleyball was contagious, and from there it continued to gain immense popularity as a professional sport. By 1976, the first professional beach volleyball tournament was held in California. The winners won the World Championship title, qualifying for the Olympic games to follow.

The 2014 Winter Olympics are fast approaching! Opening day is February 7th, and athletes and sports fans alike are counting down the days to the Sochi games. For hockey fans, the winter games bring fond memories of the the US victory over the Soviet Union during the 1980 games. A true underdog story: the game that will be forever known as the Miracle on Ice led the US national hockey team to win legendary Olympic gold that year.

The Soviet Union national hockey team had a reputation. They were the biggest and the best team of players in the world, winning nearly every Olympic gold and world championship since 1954. Everyone expected the same at the 1980 games.

The ragtag assemblage of amateur and collegiate players that comprised the United States national team supplemented their lack of experience with an abundance of spirit. But still, by the time they reached Lake Placid in 1980, it had been 20 years since team USA had last won hockey gold.

The best part about seeing a live sporting event is feeling like you are a part of the action, in the middle of every play.  While being in the trajectory of a puck or a pop fly can be thrilling, sustaining an injury as a spectator is not.  Millions of people attend live sporting events each year, eager to be close to the action - and the danger.

In the NHL, stray hockey pucks injure spectators at a rate of nearly one per game, with some fans requiring urgent medical attention.  At baseball games, catching a foul ball is an opportunity for a free souvenir and a few glorious seconds on the Jumbotron.  But when uncaught, these projectile baseballs can cause serious injury as well.

While there is a certain assumed risk and responsibility for sports fans sitting by the field, rink, or court, liability to the venue is always a concern.  Watch out for your fans as well as yourself by installing safety netting in your sports facility from Sport Systems.