March Is Reading Month

Simone Biles is an American gymnast from Houston, Texas. As a child, Simone and her siblings were placed in foster homes until she was adopted by her grandfather. Simone started practicing gymnastics at the age of six. In 2012, she switched from public school to homeschooling, so she could spend more time on gymnastics. All of the extra practice payed off. At the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Simone won the gold medal for individual all-around, floor, and vault gymnastics. She was part of the US National Team called the “Final Five”. Simone also set the record for winning the most gold medals at a single Olympic games in women’s gymnastics. With her numerous medals and awards, some consider Simone to be the greatest gymnast of all-time.

Jose Miguel Cabrera Torres, commonly known as Miguel Cabrera, was born and raised in Venezuela. He started out his career as a major-league baseball player for the Florida Marlins in 2003 at the age of 20. He was traded to the Detroit Tigers in 2007, and has been playing with them ever since. He has been awarded the American League MVP award twice and is also an eleven-time All Star. In 2012, Miguel was the first player to win the batting Triple Crown since 1967. He had the highest batting average, number of home runs, and number of runs batted in for the 2012 season. In 2012, Miguel created the Miguel Cabrera Foundation, which is dedicated to helping multiple children’s funds and to encouraging children to play baseball and softball. He also starting selling a line of candy called Miggy’s Bitbits. These are chocolate covered rice snacks that come in a variety of flavors.

Boxer and politician, Manny Paquiao (PAK-ee-ow) was born in Kibawe, Bukidnon, Philippines on December 17th, 1978. He is the only eight division world champion in the history of boxing. He also was the first boxer to win major world titles in four of the eight weight classes of boxing. He was named Fighter of the Decade for the 2000s by the Boxing Writer Association of America. Outside of boxing, Paquiao also played professional basketball in the Philippines for the Kia Pianto from 2014-2017 as a point guard. He later coached the same team. He even had a short career in entertainment, which included singing and acting. Paquiao is also a current serving senator of the Philippines and is a top contender for the presidency of the Philippines in 2022.

Carli Lloyd was born in New Jersey to parents Stephen and Pamela Lloyd. She started playing soccer at the age of 5, and she has been playing ever since. She attended Rutgers University and currently plays for the Sky Blue FC and the US Women’s National Team as a midfielder. She is a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and has won the FIFA Player of the Year award twice. During the 2015 World Cup, she was the captain of the US Women’s Team. She was also the first person to score three goals in the Women’s World Cup Final that year, winning her the Silver Boot award. The US Women’s Team won the World Cup in 2015, and the whole team was honored by President Obama at the White House. Carli discusses how hard work and perseverance helped her become such a remarkable player in her memoir When Nobody Was Watching, which was published in 2016. When not playing soccer herself, Carli teaches children how to score goals at her Carli Lloyd Shooting Clinic.

Tom Brady is the current quarterback for the New England Patriots. He was born and raised in San Mateo, California. In high school, Tom played football, basketball, and baseball. Though the Montreal Expos offered Tom a chance to play major league baseball, Tom decided that his true passion was football. He was determined to play professional football, and instead signed to play at the University of Michigan in 1995. After college, the New England Patriots selected Tom Brady in the 2000 NFL Draft. With the Patriots, Tom has won six Super Bowl games, which is the most Super Bowl games won by any NFL player ever. He has also won numerous awards including the NFL Most Valuable Player and the Superbowl Most Valuable Player. In addition to his success as a football star, Tom also sells his own line of performance meals called TB12. In 2017, he published a book based on his health and fitness routine entitled The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance. He divides his time between Massachusetts and New York City where he lives with his family.

Robert Alan Probert (Bob) was born June 5, 1965 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada and died July 5, 2010. He was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward and he played for the National Hockey League‘s Detroit Red Wings (1985-1994) and Chicago Blackhawks. Bob was a successful player, and was voted to the 1987–88 Campbell Conference all-star team, but was best known for his activities as a fighter and enforcer. Robert Probert’s playing career was from the years 1985 to 2002. Prior to playing with the Detroit Red Wings, Probert was with the Brantford Alexanders of the Ontario Hockey League. The 1987–88 season was the pinnacle of Probert’s career. He cemented his reputation as an enforcer with a league-leading 398 penalty minutes, the sixth-highest single-season total in NHL history.  He also tied for third on the team with 62 points, and played in his only NHL All-Star Game. In addition, he contributed the most points during the Red Wings’ playoff run, in which Yzerman missed all but the final three games with a knee injury. He actively supported young hockey players in the community, and often bought tickets for kids who couldn’t afford to go to Red Wings games. Probert’s widow, Dani, decided to honor his wishes to tell his story and continue with completion of the book “Tough Guy: My Life on the Edge”, which was published October 26, 2010, by HarperCollins Canada.

Ronda Jean Rousey was born February 1, 1987 in Riverside, California. She is an American professional wrestler, actress, author, mixed martial artist and judoka. Rousey was a vegan after Beijing 2008, but in 2012 described her current diet as “kind of a mix between a Paleo and a Warrior diet”, trying to eat everything organic. Rousey is a fan of Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon and her favorite Pokémon is Mew. Ronda Rousey is ranked 6th in dan black belt in Judo. For the first six years of her life, Rousey struggled with speech and could not form an intelligible sentence due to apraxia, a neurological childhood speech sound disorder. Rousey dropped out of high school and later earned her GED. Rousey began judo with her mother at the age of 11. At 17, Rousey qualified for the 2004 Olympic games in Athens, becoming the youngest judoka in the entire games. She retired from judo at 21 after the Olympics.  She is currently signed to WWE, performing on the Raw brand, where she is the current Raw Women’s Champion in her first reign. Her longstanding nickname, “Rowdy”, was inherited from late professional wrestler Roddy Piper. Rousey made her mixed martial arts debut as an amateur on August 6, 2010. She defeated Hayden Munoz by submission due to an arm bar in 23 seconds. Rousey began her professional career as a mixed martial artist in 2010, after becoming the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo, by winning bronze at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and she was born on September 26, 1981 in Saginaw, Michigan. When Williams was nine, she and her family moved from Compton to West Palm Beach, Florida, so that she could attend the tennis academy of Rick Macci and where he began to provide additional coaching. She turned pro in 1995 and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranked her world No. 1 in singles on eight separate occasions between 2002 and 2017. She reached the No. 1 ranking for the first time on July 8, 2002. Williams has won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, all with her sister Venus, and the pair are unbeaten in Grand Slam doubles finals. Williams is also a five-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships in the singles division. She has also won four Olympic gold medals, one in women’s singles and three in women’s doubles—an all-time record shared with her sister, Venus. Earning almost $29 million in prize money and endorsements, Williams was the highest paid female athlete in 2016. She has won the ‘Laureus Sportswoman of the Year’ award four times (2003, 2010, 2016, 2018), and in December 2015, she was named Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated magazine.

Russell Carrington Wilson was born November 29, 1988 in Cincinnati, Ohio, but he grew up in Richmond Virginia. Wilson started playing football with his father and brother at the age of four, and played his first organized game for the Tuckahoe Tomahawks youth football team in sixth grade. Wilson’s father played football and baseball at Dartmouth and was a wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers preseason squad in 1980. Wilson attended Collegiate School for high school, in Richmond, Virginia. Wilson graduated from Wisconsin NC State, but he played college football for the University of Wisconsin during the 2011 season. After graduating from high school, Wilson was selected by the Baltimore Orioles with the fifth pick in the 41st round (1,222nd overall) of the 2007 MLB draft. Russell currently plays professional football (NFL) for the Seattle Seahawks and has been playing for them since 2012.

In 2014, Wilson led the Seattle Seahawks to their very first victory in Super Bowl and received the PFWA Good Guy Award. Wilson has won more games (65) than any other NFL quarterback in his first six seasons. On July 31, 2015, Wilson signed a four-year, $87.6 million contract extension with the Seahawks, making him, at the time, the second highest paid player in the NFL. Wilson has many endorsements and has appeared in many advertisements, such as Nike, Microsoft and Pepsi. Wilson is an active volunteer in the Seattle community and he makes weekly visits on his days off to the Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Julio Daniel Martinez was born August 21, 1987 in Miami, Florida and he attended Flanagan High School in Pines, Florida. He started his professional baseball career in 2006 and he is currently an outfielder and designated hitter for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has also played in MLB for the Houston Astros (2011–2013), Detroit Tigers (2014–2017), Arizona Diamondbacks (2017) and Boston Red Sox (2018–present). He attended Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and is a two-time selection for the MLB All-Star Game and a three-time Silver Slugger Award winner, as well as the only player to earn the latter honor twice in the same season. On September 4, 2017, Martinez became the 18th player in MLB history to hit four home runs in a single game, doing so versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. Also, J.D. was a two time all-star player in the years 2015 and 2018.  In 2018, Martinez won the World Series Championship and received the AL Hank Aaron Award.