Toadvine Blog

The cardiac Cardinals have been a thrill to watch all season and that thrill only intensified on Monday night when the University of Louisville turned on the heat to come back from a first-half, 12-point deficit to defeat the Michigan Wolverines 82 to 76.

As the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament, UL earned those bragging rights with their 35-5 regular season record and a 16-game winning streak coming into the tournament. But character and determination really began to dominate when the 13 players on this tight knit squad suffered the devastating injury of point guard Kevin Ware. 

Although they fell behind in the second half of the semi-final game to Wichita State by 12 points, and in the first half of the finals to Michigan by 12 points, a scoring spurt led by Luke Hancock and four straight successful 3-pointers exhilerated the crowd and surged that fixated drive the Cardinal team has displayed all season. Not only did they come to the Georgia Dome to win, they came to win for Ware. With Hancock's on fire 3-point shot, Siva's 18 point solid contribution, and the dominance of Chane Behanan with 15 points and 12 rebounds, the Cardinals were unstoppable and came away with a hallmark 6 point win, very well one of the most memorable in Coach Pitino's 12 seasons at UL.  

The Lady Cards had a shot to earn the Championship title in New Orleans, as they faced the Uconn Huskies on Tuesday for the NCAA crown. Although the women's team faced an uphill battle to the top rung, they came up short against Uconn 93-60 in a hard fought battle. 

With a 29-9 season record, the Lady Cards were not expected to make it to the final dance as a 5th seed, but after pounding upsets to Baylor, the victory was close at hand. Although they didn't earn the title, the Lady Cards had an incredible season and pushed beyond all expectations to the final round.

Toadvine Enterprises is proud of the University of Louisville Cardinals and congratulates them on their stellar seasons and Championship title this year.

image credit: Louisville Cardinals 

Each year thousands of people, many of whom are young children, are seriously injured or killed in falls from bleachers. These tragic events occur for a variety of reasons ranging from poor maintenance to a change in code that didn't require stringent rules surrounding guardrails or smaller openings around the footboards. Schools and universities should be held to a standard of care to proactively maintain their equipment, reducing accidents and legal risks by improving safety for students and community members. Here are some suggestions that will help reduce risk and improve safety. 

Inspect bleachers before and after they are used

Inspections should be made every time telescoping bleachers are rolled out and put away to ensure proper working order. Any noted damage or repair should be repaired immediately. 

Regularly Perform Thorough Inspections

Thorough inspections should be conducted on a regular basis, at least once a month, or once a week if they are heavily used. Use a checklist to make sure key components are not overlooked. Checklist can serve as a routine for future inspections and a record of issues and repairs.

Conduct Annual Inspection With a Certified Technician

While you and your staff can regularly inspect bleachers and grandstands, it is also important to have annual inspections performed by a certified technician. If you are considering installing new bleachers, ask the company to include a 10-year annual inspection service in the contract. Send an employee to shadow the inspection to give you insight into what can be done to keep bleachers up to code.

Clean Underneath Bleachers Regularly

Outdoor bleachers can accumulate a lot of debris and trash if not cleaned regularly. Keep the surrounding area free of trash to help reduce risk and improve safety. With indoor bleachers, trash and debris can potentially clog parts and cause operating problems. A powerful blower is helpful to make sure areas are clean underneath after indoor bleachers are used.

Post Safety Signage

Although mandatory, signage is often overlooked on bleachers. Post warning and safety signs to help ensure proper treatment and use of bleachers. 

Train School Staff

Maintenance staff and designated school staff should be trained to properly operate indoor bleachers. There should, however, be a limited amount of people authorized to operate the bleacher system. Teach operators and controllers how to spot issues when operating, so problems can be reported immediately.

Institute a Preventative Maintenance Program

Having a preventative maintenance program in place will allow schools to track and schedule items that are not in immediate need of repair, to be scheduled for maintenance. Using an automated, computer-based system is especially useful as projects can be created and work orders can be tracked.

Toadvine Enterprises offers maintenance services that ensure your stadium seating and bleachers are working as they should be. Learn more here and use the contact form to get in touch with us about our maintenance program. 

Before the first buzzer of the game sounds and players begin to hustle on the court, they have been made keenly aware of the risks that go along with playing organized sports. Just as those risks are legitimate, schools and sporting facility managers are becoming even more alert to risk off the court. Great attention has been brought lately to the risk involved to spectators and fans sitting on the sidelines. More focus than ever surrounds the liability that sports facility owners and schools face due to faulty or stray equipment and accidents that can occur while attending a sporting event. 

In order to protect your school or facility against devastating injuries or accidents, strong consideration should be paid to obtaining liability insurance. Liability insurance in sports acts like an umbrella protection for everyone involved in the sporting event, including spectators who may get hit by a wayward ball or fall on your property due to an unstable bleacher issue.  

Besides the benefits of providing medical and legal protection if an incident should occur, liability insurance includes sports equipment insurance which gives support for repairs on equipment and facilities that may have been damaged during a game or practice. Facilities can request reimbursement for repairs or purchase brand new machines or equipment. 

The insured can also take advantage of this insurance to request repairs or renovations done on bleachers, fields, sound systems, lights, and food services. Liability insurance also covers repairs, renovations, and replacements on damaged sports equipment and facilities after a fire, flood, or earthquake. 

Insurance is often referred to as one step in the risk management process. By securing liability insurance for your sports facility, you are managing the probability that risk will come your way and taking steps to protect your employees, players, and owners from further damage.

Within the last couple of years, an influx of stories has flooded the sports world, highlighting the potential dangers that stadium seating and bleachers pose to sports fans and onlookers. Just recently 30 NASCAR fans in Orlando, Florida were injured in the stadium as a result of a massive wreck on the track that spilled over to the stadium. Many people affected by this incident are calling the accident “gross negligance.” Although schools and universities aren't equipped with this identical form of stadium seating, the question fans of any spectator sport are beginning to ask themselves is, “are sporting facilities taking action to properly prevent risk?”  

The parents of a 14-year-old cheerleader in Pennsylvania are asking that same question to the Fayette County school board after their daughter was crushed under the school's bleachers and sustained broken bones, nerve damage, and facial injuries. The high schooler was practicing in the school gym with her squad when coaches asked the cheerleaders to push back the bleachers into their storage poisition to gain more practice area. As the group pushed back the bleachers, they collapsed, pining at least two cheerleaders underneath. The parents contend in their lawsuit that school district officials should have known that these bleachers posed a potential hazard. The school system settled with the family for $235,000. 

A $1 million lawsuit was filed on behalf of a five-year-old Tennessee boy who was attending a basketball game and attempting to climb down the steps from the mezzanine level to the bleachers. The boy slipped, slid under the railing and fell approximately 10 feet onto the floor on his head. 

This lawsuit alleges that the irregular height of the steps connecting the bleachers to the mezzanine and the improper design of the railing contributed to the accident. The plaintiffs contend that the equipment was either poorly manufactured or installed at a later time. School officials admitted that other accidents had occurred as a result of using those same steps and agreed to make improvements to their equipment and pay an undisclosed amount to the family of the injured little boy. 

As evidenced by these events, stadium seating maintenance and inspection is critical. Without it, serious, even fatal injuries can occur costing your school thousands of dollars and creating years of suffering for unsuspecting patrons. 

Toadvine Enterprises is happy to introduce our maintenance and safety inspection program, Vine and Branch, an inspection program for all indoor and outdoor seating equipment.  

Using certified technicians, we can provide the annually-required maintenance inspection on all seating equipment and yearly contracts. Keep your maintenance records up-to-date and prevent the tragedies and liability that can occur when you don't. Fill out our Maintenance and Safety Interest form and we will get back with you quickly to discuss your needs.

“We can meet all of your sporting equipment, installation and equipment inspection, repair and maintenance needs.”

Toadvine Enterprises, Inc. is excited about serving the Tennessee sports market. Toadvine has been serving Kentucky for 32 years and is now able to bring its full line of Porter and Gill sports equipment products to all of Tennessee, Southern Ohio, and Indiana. Toadvine Enterprises will take your requirement for sporting facilities, stand alone equipment purchases, and ongoing support through inspection, repair, and maintenance, and provide you with conceptual design, build, and installation solutions.

Porter and Gill Sports is the largest manufacturer of sporting facilities equipment in the United States. Porter and Gill athletics provides sporting equipment ranging from basketball goals, volleyball systems, soccer goals, field goal posts, everything track and field, wall padding, floor covers, field hockey goals, PE equipment, and much more. Porter has helped revolutionize the sport facilities world with its quality products and competitive prices. 

With its knowledge and expertise in the sports equipment industry, Toadvine Enterprises will assist you in any sports facility project, no matter the size. Whether the job is for a university or elementary school, Toadvine can handle the job and help give recommendations that will best suit your facility.  

Toadvine Enterprises has helped both communities and schools create and maintain their sporting equipment and athletic facilities. The expertise and knowledge of our sales teams regarding gymnasiums and football stadiums, along with product knowledge of track and field equipment, will help deliver the best solutions to meet your needs.

Toadvine can serve you where you are. If you want to ask us a question, get a quote, or discuss a specific piece of equipment, a call to our sales department can address your needs. You can also go to our website and have a conversation with us. Please call us at 1-877-211-6925. 

During the months of March and April, Toadvine will be offering an additional 5-10% discount on products from Porter and Gill Athletics! Feel free to call and speak to a representative about any Porter and Gill product or to receive a free quote! 

A massive crowd of thousands has gathered. Spectators fill the coliseum as a collective roar of excitement fills the air. Athletes from around the world have come together in Athens for the first modern Olympic Games. Only the finest have been chosen, those at the top of their game.

All focus has shifted to the track and field events. Those with lightning speed skill and unprecedented agility will come out on top. The year is 1896. The wooden hurdles are set in place and embedded in the ground. Perfect jumping ability and running skill moves the winner through the first ever 110-meter hurdle event at a record time of 17.6 seconds. 

More than 100 years later, Aries Merritt utilizes his running ability to sprint, hurdle, and sprint again, maintaining steady momentum and keeping a steady center of gravity to clear 10 hurdles in the 110 meter race at a new record time of 12.8 seconds.

Just as progression has been made in the skill of talented athletes, progress has also been made in the design, make up, and functionality of competitive hurdles. Ancient wooden hurdles have since been replaced by L-shaped frames with integrated counter balances which allow hurdles to fall over with pressure and eliminate the risk of injury. More durable materials are used, along with features that allow the hurdle to be adjusted to different heights. If you are searching for track and field equipment options, here are a few hurdles offered by Toadvine Enterprises that will exceed your technological expectations and leap you into competitive excellence. 

• Gill Continuum Automatic Hurdle – This is considered the safest, fastest and most unobtrusive hurdle available for use in any competitive arena. 

• National Aluminum Hurdle – Made of aircraft aluminum, this high-tech hurdle is adjustable to 5 different heights. 

• Elite High School Hurdle – Constructed of aluminum tube construction, this hurdle has welded support for extreme durability 

• Gill Essentials Hurdle – The most economical hurdle made with no pull-over technology, this no frills equipment is perfect for a start up high school track and field team.

Toadvine Enterprises supplies sporting equipment of all kinds to schools and facilites in Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Ohio. Contact us for more information about our Track and Field equipment. 

We provide nearly every product you could possibly need for your sports complex or facility. More than that, we design sports facilities from simple to complex. We provide our clients with more than seating design and basketball and football goal placement. We walk with you through the design-build process to the installation and completion of the project.

Anyone can design a rectangular building, throw bleachers against the wall, and install a few hoops with a scoreboard attached to the wall. It requires a company like Toadvine Enterprises to consider the detail of how every fixture and piece of equipment should complement the function of the whole facility. We have been in sports facilities where 20 percent of the spectators had their view of the scoreboard or the athletes blocked by the scoreboard or some other facility component. Subtle changes in design can make the user experience improve dramatically. Considering how spectators enter and exit a facility, or how they access concessions and restrooms can make a huge impact on the performance of your facility. Most people do not expect their facility to serve them well, beyond  it being a place to a house a sporting event. What if the experience of the event was drastically improved? What would that mean to your program?

Knowing what works and what doesn't is an art and a science. We have every detail in mind when we design a sports facility. We have to consider the spectator experience and at the same time the environment we are creating for the athlete. Everything has to work together to exceed expectations.  That is the main reason we have partnered with the companies we have. They share our commitment to excellence and innovation. Companies like Nevco, Porter, Gill Athletics, Interkal, Dant Clayton, Seating Concepts, and List Industries. We have to be selective because we are only as good as the product and service we can offer our clients. Choose more for your facility design and improvements, choose Toadvine Enterprises.  

Pom-poms and ponytails make up only a portion of what cheerleaders do today. Standing on the sidelines and chanting a catchy phrase used to get the job done in a crazy fanatical crowd, but today flipping and throwing girls in the air is just part of the routine.

Because of the increase in skill and potentially dangerous stunts cheerleaders are performing today, there is a movement by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other concerned groups to designate cheerleading as a sport to improve the safety rules and create better supervision over the sport.

In a statement released this month, the AAP says that there needs to be better awareness about the rigors and risks of high school and college cheerleading so that cheerleaders can be subject to on-line athletic trainers, limits on practice times, and better qualified coaches. 

Although the overall injury rate is lower than in girls participating in soccer, gymnastics, or field hockey, the rate of catastrophic injury which includes skull fractures and paralyzing spine injuries, is much higher.

Some schools have safety recommendations for high school and college cheerleading which includes limiting the height of a pyramid in high school to two and restricting routines including pyramids, tossing, or tumbling to be performed away from hard surfaces. Although these guidelines are helpful, many physicians and team leaders would like to see this mandated to keep cheerleaders safer. 

This movement just recently ran into a major obstacle in August of 2012 when the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that cheerleading can not be considered a sport. For cheerleading to be considered a sport, it must have coaches, practices, competitions during a defined season and a governing organization. The key to this ruling was that cheerleaders don’t usually have competition as their primary goal, so they cannot be considered a sport. 

Health professionals and sports advocates will continue to push for this safety regulation because they see the long-term benefits of it for those involved. For now, cheerleaders will have to develop careful individual standards.

Do you have a multi-use athletic field? If you are planning on combining your soccer and football programs on one field, we have the perfect solution. You should consider the "Revolutionary Goal Post" which can rotate a full 180 degrees. One person can turn the goal in less than a minute. It will lock in the forward or reverse position. It is fully secure and tamper proof, and uses two padlocks per goal. The day after the football game you can turn the goal away from the field and have your soccer match without the interference of the goal. 

We have a wide variety of H-Style football goal posts, standard goal posts, steel and aluminum, and even the combination Football Goal Post/Soccer Goal in a wide variety of sizes and options. Don't let your budget stop you from getting the goals your programs need. Call us today and we can walk you through some great options.

Every program should have their school name prominently displayed throughout their facilities. We can customize football goal post pads for your program. There are 14 colors available and you can add the special flare to the field that has been missing. 

Don't forget the small but important end-zone pylons. These bottom-weighted markers require no additional hardware to install, and will move when an athlete comes in contact. They come in sets of four and help the officials make the crucial close calls. We also carry spring loaded pylons. They work best for natural grass and will stand true for all to see. All our pylons meet NCAA and NFHS rules. 

Call us today with your football accessories needs. 

If you have seen the epic film, Chariots of Fire, you may recall the scenes where the runners are preparing for the start of the race. The runners kneel on the ground with little trowels or spades and prepare the ground. They would dig small holes for their feet to gain traction and would not slip. So much has changed from the early 20th century for track and field equipment, including starting blocks.

The first starting blocks emerged in the late 1920s and became a standard and accepted practice in the 1930s. By 1937, the use of starting blocks became mandatory so runners could not have any unfair advantages and all the runners would have "a fair start." The earlier starting blocks would be large enough that the entire length of the runners' feet could rest on the block, but in the early 1970s, starting blocks were modified so the heel would overlap the top edge of the block. The thought behind this was an increased burst because of the calf muscle was more fully engaged.

The former blocks were referred to as high blocks and the shorter versions are commonly called short blocks. There has been a switch back and forth to which are used in recent years, including in the Olympic games. The science behind the start is getting more sophisticated all the time, and although technology is always improving, the most important thing you hear runners saying is they need to feel comfortable in the starting blocks.

Toadvine Enterprises offers the full line of Gill track and field products. We have many great options for starting blocks in every price range, including Fusion, National, Scholastic, Moye, All Surface, and the all-important transporter starting block carts to protect your investment and make moving and storing them easy and safe.

We are at the front of the science of speed and are helping schools get "faster starts through advanced technology." Call us today with your track and field equipment needs. Toadvine Enterprises (502) 241-6010.