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Garden Spot grad Jordan Wissinger going to Japan for weightlifting championships Garden Spot graduate Jordan Wissinger will represent th...

Garden Spot grad Jordan Wissinger going to Japan for weightlifting championships

Garden Spot graduate Jordan Wissinger will represent the United States on the international stage for a second time this summer.

Wissinger, who attends Alvernia University, qualified to compete at the International Weightlifting Federation Junior World Championships in Tokyo from June 16-23.

Because of his standout performance at the National Junior Championship in Kansas City, Missouri, in February, Wissinger was able to secure his invitation to the event in Japan.

In Missouri, Wissinger placed second only to the reigning youth world champion Clarence Cummings, which secured him a spot for both Junior Worlds and the Junior Pan-American championships in Ecuador.

Competing at 69 kilograms, Wissinger took home third overall in Ecuador with a 127-kilogram snatch.

He looks forward to being able to represent the U.S. again this summer.

"In less than a month I'll be flying out to Tokyo, Japan, for Junior World,” he said. “Representing the USA internationally, has been a life goal of mine.”

It is of little surprise that Wissinger found a liking for weightlifting, given his athletic background.

At a young age, he participated in gymnastics at a recreational level while dabbling in a variety of sports like soccer, baseball, and football. In high school, he became a competitive wrestler while also becoming heavily involved with CrossFit, a high-intensity fitness program.

"I really started to like the weightlifting side of CrossFit and became very competitive with them," Wissinger said. "I feel my experience with gymnastics and wrestling gave me a great foundation for CrossFit, which then gave me a great foundation to start solely weightlifting."

Wissinger made the decision to devote his time to weightlifting roughly a year and a half ago under the coaching of Dane Miller at Garage Strength Sports Performance in Fleetwood.

Looking ahead, he will keep training to maintain his status on the Senior Pan-American team as well as to represent the U.S. in more international events in hopes of qualifying for the Olympics some day.

Garden City Wind expect more as they open 2017 season

There will be plenty of new faces when the Garden City Wind open their third season in the Pecos League at 7 p.m. Thursday at Clint Lightner Stadium.

The most obvious new face is also a youthful face, that of first-year manager David Peterson, who graduated high school in 2009, played for the Wind in 2015 and offers a striking contrast to the Wind’s 2016 manager and long-time baseball coach Bill Moore, who is now the manager of the Pecos League’s Bakersfield Train Robbers.

Still, Peterson understands the progress the Wind made in 2016, winning the league’s North Division a year after finishing last with just 21 wins in the inaugural 2015 campaign.

Now, it’s trying to advance past the first round of the postseason, in which the Wind lost in three games in the 2016 postseason to Trinidad, which opens its season at Garden City Thursday.

“The goal is to win a championship,” Peterson said. “That’s it. If we don’t win a championship, we don’t see the season as a success.”

That lofty goal was one of the reasons Wind general manager Marcus Sabata settled on Peterson to replace Moore.

“David’s been here before, which is one of the big cards in bringing him back. He understands we’re trying to build a tradition here, that going backwards isn’t going to be acceptable,” Sabata said. “He’s going to make his mistakes — he’s young — but I think he’s going ot be really good for Garden City.”

Peterson will be joined by a couple of familiar faces, however, in shortstop Joey Cecere and outfielder Eli Roundtree, the only returners from the 2016 Wind.

In 2016, Cecere hit .348 with 16 doubles and stole 20 bases in 51 games. He was the starter for the North Division in the 2016 All-Star Game, as well, and was picked up by a Frontier League — a more prestigious independent league across the midwest — in the offseason. He eventually was released, however, and Cecere said he wanted to return to Garden City.

Now, he’ll be one of the leaders as the Wind attempt to defend their division crown.

“We finished pretty good (in 2016), won the division. We obviously didn’t win everything we wanted to, but I thought we played pretty well and put ourselves in a spot to go to that last series, which is all you can do,” Cecere said. “We’ll just build off that.”

Cecere is likely to start for the Wind in 2017, though Peterson said he was not quite finished with the starting lineup.

Roundtree is another likely starter, after hitting 12 home runs and driving in 43 RBIs in 56 games in 2016. He hit .287, had a .410 on-base percentage and a .537 slugging (total bases per at bat).

Peterson also brought over players who he coached as an assistant at Salina last season, including outfielder Taylor Zuetenhorst, second baseman and outfielder Morgan Blatnik and catcher Nick Wagner.

Zuetenhorst hit .373 with four home runs and four doubles in 71 plate appearances for the Stockade, while Blatnik hit .289 with a .392 on-base percentage. Wagner was a rookie in 2016, but hit .264 with a .369 OBP in 277 plate appearances.

Other former Stockade players were third baseman Ray Hernandez, first baseman Mike Rachun, shortstop Jean Carlos Peralta, left-handed pitcher Troy Mannebach and right-hander Dalton Bernardi.

The rest of the lineup is comprised of seven rookies, and a couple of Pecos League veterans from other teams.

On the mound for the Wind in their season opener against Trinidad will be Trent Carrier, who was recently released from the Mexican League’s Rojos de Caborca. Carrier did not allow a run in any of his four innings of spring ball with the Wind.

“David did a great job of putting this thing together,” Sabata said. “I’m really, really pleased with the quality of guys that he got into camp. It was a tough camp. We had 30 guys and quite frankly all of them could have made this team, which is something that is nice from years past. We had to let some really good ball players go.”

Notes: The Pecos League re-shuffled the divisions this season, moving from two, five-team North and South divisions in 2016, to two, six-team Mountain and Pacific Divisions this season. The Wind are in the Mountain Division, alongside Trinidad, Colo.; White Sands, N.M.; Roswell, N.M.; Santa Fe, N.M.; and Alpine, Texas. In the Pacific Division are Tucson, Ariz.; California City; Hollywood, Calif.; Bakersfield, Calif.; Monterey, Calif.; and High Desert, Calif.

All five of the California teams are first-year franchises in the Pecos League, while Tucson is a holdover. Gone from the league are Great Bend, Topeka and Salina.

Contact J. Levi Burnfin at lburnfin@gctelegram.com

Buffalo Sports Garden is a Southtowns sports haven for all ages

Over the past two decades, the characteristics of the neighborhood sports bar have changed.

Gone are the solitary tube TV, overflowing ashtrays and a dependency on barstool-straddling old-timers, sipping Genny pounders from a juice glass and lamenting the American League’s addition of the designated hitter.

Now, locales are regularly inundated with iPhone-scrolling draft denizens who expect locally brewed beers, gargantuan appetizers and access to league-sponsored cable packages on no less than a dozen overhead screens.

Since opening in 2003, Buffalo Sports Garden on Route 20 in Orchard Park has followed that playbook. The neighborhood hot spot boasts all the necessary accentuates of a modern-era sports stop.

But along with offering Buffalo-focused craft drafts, renowned wings and endless televised action inside a barroom lined with Bills, Braves and Sabres memorabilia, the roadside outpost has also deftly navigated another shift inside the modern sports bar: the need to accommodate families alongside freewheeling fans.

Among the memorabilia that fills Buffalo Sports Garden are seats from The Aud hanging on the wall. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)

Whether because of its popular lunch and dinner menus, hybrid restaurant/bar space or, most importantly, its rear game room with Super Chex, NASCAR racing and a variety of crane-claw arcade machines, the place is as popular with parents and children as it is for Yankees fans chugging rounds of Rusty Chain.

Matt Telecky plays a game of darts. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)

BSG provides welcoming environs for families looking to follow youth hockey skates or Little League tilts with an afternoon or early night meal. And with the bar’s Shorty’s Menu - with items like grilled cheese, spaghetti and burgers for kids 12 and younger - there’s something for everyone, all while Dad, Mom or the whole gaggle gets to watch the games of the day.

But let’s be clear: Despite its adaptability to the familial element, Buffalo Sports Garden is not the modern incarnation of a liquor-licensed Showbiz Pizza Place. The locale is necessarily multifaceted, just as any suburban neighborhood’s cherished dining and social hub should be.

On a recent Saturday visit, I enjoyed a pint of Big Ditch Hayburner ($4.50) while this dynamic filled every corner of the friendly space. Couples, singles and older men enjoyed drinks at the bar, while kids ran between tables of chicken fingers and took turns on NASCAR racing games.

Patrons gabbed as surrounding televisions showed everything from The Golf Channel to the NFL Network footage of former Kansas City Chiefs running back, Christian Okoye. Fathers joined sons to man the toy rifles of Big Buck Hunter.

This inclusive atmosphere is the hallmark of the successful modern-day sports bar. Buffalo Sports Garden knows this, which is on reason the OP locale endures as a Southtowns favorite — for all ages.

Buffalo Sports Garden

2945 Southwestern Blvd., Orchard Park (674-4113)

When: Open for lunch and dinner, 11 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday; and noon to midnight Saturday and Sunday. Bar open later.

Why: To enjoy sports action inside a suburban favorite equally suited for family fun and late-night rounds.  

Parking: Large lot off Southwestern.

Credit/debit accepted: Yes

ATM: Yes

Beers on tap: 14

Safe choice: Big Ditch Hayburner

Seasonal choice: 12 Gates Apricot Wheat

Roll the dice with a: Resurgence Cucumber Saison—because the prescription for delicious beer is always more cucumber.

Game-day gift grab: Patrons (and their children) can watch their favorite teams while taking turns on the motorized claws of arcade favorites like Hot Stuff and Plucky Ducky in BSG’s game room.

Take it outside: Once the weather turns, guests can catch games on BSG’s front patio, equipped with enough flat screens to accommodate any night’s action.

Late-night bites: For those without conventional dietary restrictions, bar features a late-night menu of greasy favorites on Fridays and Saturdays, midnight to 2 a.m.

Drink specials: Available seven nights a week, with such highlights as Tuesday’s $1 off craft drafts and its nightly happy hour, with $2.50 well drinks and a free mini buffet.

And if you hate sports: Go for the opportunity to see friends, neighbors and families inside one of the Southtowns’ favorite social centers.

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