Ryan O'Rourke

Tweets are my own

[UFC on Paramount+ @UFConParamount]

WE GOT A FLYOVER AT #UFCWhiteHouse 🛩️

[ LIVE ON @ParamountPlus ]

[Barstool Sports @barstoolsports]

The Tartan Army 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 is on the march to Fenway Park.

Fenway is going to have the best vibes it’s had all year tonight

[Conor Ryan @ConorRyan_93]

“Loch Lomond” in Foxborough. Quite a sight. #WorldCup

[Barstool Sports @barstoolsports]

A bunch of drunk Scotsmen partying in the same harbor where the founding fathers dumped tea is what the World Cup is all about

[Golf Channel @GolfChannel]

Wyndham Clark repping the @USAHockey Jack Hughes sweater on the rink hole 🇺🇸🥇

The Canadian fans let him hear it 😂

[Bussin' With The Boys @BussinWTB]

The national anthem hits different at the World Cup 🇺🇸

Roll the balls out!

[ESPN @espn]

COUNTRY ROADS HITS DIFFERENT IN OMAHA 🔥

@WVUBaseball gets a W in its MCWS debut!

[Baseball Quotes @BaseballQuotes1]

What a moment in Morgantown

One of the coolest traditions in sports

[Rodney Smith Jr @iamrodneysmith]

Dear @WhiteHouse, my name is Rodney Smith Jr., founder of Raising Men & Women Lawn Care Service in Huntsville, Alabama. Through our 50 Yard Challenge, over 6,000 kids across the country have signed up to mow free lawns for the elderly, disabled, veterans, active-duty military, first responders, and single parents. With America celebrating its 250th birthday this year and me also being born on July 4th, I wanted to humbly ask if a few kids from our program and myself could travel to Washington, D.C. to help mow the White House lawn for this historic celebration.

More than anything, I want these kids to see how a simple act of service something as ordinary as mowing a lawn for someone in need can lead to extraordinary places. What better lesson in community service than showing them that helping others can take them all the way to our nation’s capital? I’d also love to bring my American flag-themed mower in hopes that the President might sign it, so I can later auction it off and donate 100% of the proceeds to a nonprofit supporting veterans. It would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to highlight the importance of service, patriotism, and the impact young people can have when they choose to make a difference. 🇺🇸

[College Baseball News @CollegeBSBNews]

West Virginia’s crowd is insane…

There’s literally more people outside the stadium than inside today.

(via @TheBenBoothShow)

[Baseball Quotes @BaseballQuotes1]

one of the coolest traditions in sports

chills

[Big Cat @BarstoolBigCat]

I believe in Frankie!

[Justin Thomas @JustinThomas34]

The whole world is for @GaryWoodland. LFG!!!!!

[Jomboy Media @JomboyMedia]

109-year-old Word War II veteran Arthur Green threw out the first pitch in Baltimore on Opening Day

[World Baseball Classic @WBCBaseball]

Team USA has arrived to the World Baseball Classic Final in GAME-USED United States Men's National Hockey Team jerseys.

[Kevin Devaney Jr. @KDJmedia1]

Section 1 is sending FIVE girls basketball teams to the state final four in Troy this week - Albertus, Nyack, Tappan Zee, YMA and Tuckahoe.

Four boys teams - Mamaroneck. Rye, Tappan Zee and North Salem - are headed to the final four in Binghamton.

Section 1, due to the new regional rotation system, had to win two regional games in all but Class C (most sections only had to win one) and needed to go through Long Island - the largest population area of the state - to get there.

The fact that 9 of 10 teams are still standing is pretty remarkable.

[Kevin Devaney Jr. @KDJmedia1]

Final: Tappan Zee 49, Beacon 33 in @NYSPHSAA Class A Boys Regional Semi.

TZ held Beacon to 20 points lower than any game this season.

Isaiah Leveille 19p. Jack Piccione 6p 8blocks. Joe Linehan and Tim Alexandre 9p.

We are witnessing a phenomenon in high school sports.

[Kevin Devaney Jr. @KDJmedia1]

In all my years of broadcasting, I'd never gotten emotional on air until tonight. It was impossible to hold back the tears.

Jack Piccione of Tappan Zee lost his father suddenly last Sept. 1. Matthew Piccione died of a heart attack minutes after playing pickleball with friends. He was 51.

Over the last three years, I got to know Matthew Piccione fairly well. One day back in 2023, he asked coach George Gaine for my number so he could call me just to say thank you for calling out Jack's contributions during Tappan Zee's championship run.

Jack was a role player who averaged maybe 5 points a game as a freshman. But he started and never came off the court.

"I know he doesn't score a lot of points," Matthew Piccione said. "But you are one of the only people who appreciates what he does for the team."

Matthew Piccione kept a very low profile at games and reinforced in his son to be the emodiment of all the things that make Tappan Zee basketball different than any other program in the state.

Play unselfish. Defend. Be coachable. Defend. Draw charges. Pass. Sacrifice for your teammates. And, of course, defend some more.

Nobody in the history of Tappan Zee basketball since I have been covering has ever played that role better than Jack Piccione. He's the best best defensive player in the program and is on an elite level of players I've been around in Section 1.

When Matthew died in September, I worried about Jack. I wondered what his senior season might be like. The person most responsible for instilling and reinforcing the values that made Jack great was now tragically gone.

Tonight, Jack Piccione scored 5 points in the Section 1 Championship game. FIVE. Yet not only did his team because of his performance, I had the honor of handing him the MVP Trophy to prove it.

In the final 90 seconds of the game, I shared the story of Matthew Piccione and his passing. You will hear the emotion in my voice. It's genuine, not because of any relationship I had with him. You just can't be a sports parent and not relate to loving your child and always wanting what's best for them.

Because here's what I am going to tell you. And I really want all parents to read this and remember it:

Your kids' youth - not just athletics, but all of it - is short and it's precious. You don't get this time back when it's over. It goes way too quick. And some don't even get to see it to the end.

You have a choice: You can spend this period of their lives stressing about how many points they score, what awards or accolades they receive, begging people to vote in the online poll for Player of the Week, emailing the coach and complaining about playing time or lamenting the number of shots they get in a game. Go ahead. You can make all of that important for yourself and your child. Trust me, you won't be alone in doing so.

Or you can do what Matthew Piccione did. Sit in the stands and enjoy watching your children compete. Teach them that it's team above all else, stress what it means to sacrifice and ensure them that, when you do those things and have success, the feeling of hanging a banner will far exceed any of the personal accolades think are important.

And, sadly, God might choose that you won't be around to see it all anyway.

Matthew didn't get to give his son a hug after he won tonight. And Jack didn't get to see the pride in his father's face. Think about that. If you are a parent, try to put your child in Jack's shoes. If God forbid your child was confronted with the same tragedy, you'd want them looking back on this sacred period of their lives the way Jack will forever recall them with his dad.

Tonight was complete validation for Jack Piccione and all of the things his father always told him.

Jack scored 5 points and won the MVP on his way to becoming the most decorated basketball player in Tappan Zee history.

Nobody has ever won more in a TZ uniform than the most unselfish player they've ever had. He wouldn't trade his career with anyone, either.

Take a moment to listen to myself and Pleasantville coach Nick Bonura from tonight's @SportsEngine broadcast of @TZeeAthletics @TZhoops

[SportsCenter @SportsCenter]

Jack Hughes brought out Tage Thompson and spoke to the New Jersey crowd in his return to the NHL after they brought home the gold medal 👏

[Jordan Schultz @Schultz_Report]

Team USA brought out Johnny Gaudreau’s children for the picture. ❤️🥹