surgery and will cause him to miss the rest of the 2016 season.

At the introductory meeting for the local kids rec-league basketball season, we coaches of fifth-graders received a four-word message that would make Gregg Popovich cringe, let alone a bunch of volunteer moms and dads:Three-point shot: YES.For the past five seasons, we had avoided this most awkward of youth-sports topics -- Can I shoot a 3? The answer was always a reasonable No. The league doesnt have them.Now, all that work wed done over the past half-decade to encourage high-efficiency shots -- unguarded, balanced feet and above all in your range ... the quintessential Good Shot -- was threatened to be undermined by the gravitational pull of long-range mind-bogglers from the likes of Steph Curry, along with the kids confidence that the 3-point line was closer to derring-do than the universal plaintive wail of the youth coach: Dont!As coaches of 10-year-olds, how could we mitigate the siren song of the silly-long 3? The solution came in the form of what might be the only real competition with Curry-esque 3-jacking in a kids imagination:Chuck E. Cheese.Parents know the birthday party haven that ensures your kid will come out wired on pizza, attention-revving punch and fistfuls of tickets theyll flash your way when you come to pick them up, steering you toward a wall of prizes that probably cost 1/100th of the spending that went into earning those tickets.Its brilliant, really. The kids are obsessed with the acquisition of tickets and then trading them in for stuff that likely wont make it through the rest of the day without being broken or lost.And so taking a page from the restaurant, I designed a youth-sports motivational system that can only be known as ... wait for it ...Chuck E. Threes.Heres how it works:For every play a kid makes that is actually one we as coaches want them to make -- a good shot, a solid screen, hustling after a loose ball, making a deflection, picking a teammate up off the floor -- they earn a point. Its just like a Chuck E. Cheese ticket, I told them.Amass enough points and you get the green light to take a 3.It is simple and it is something the kids innately understand because they all have Ph.D.s in Chuck E. Cheese Economics: Ive seen them master supply, demand, arbitrage, hedging -- all in the context of Skee Ball, Whack-a-Mole and the claw game.And so Im using the cacophony of Chuck E. Cheese to manage -- OK, thwart -- their compulsion to jack up 3-pointers in a game just because they now can, and replacing it with a familiar reward system that at least ensures that the team will see 20 smart hustle plays first.Hopefully by that point, the hustle plays translate into just enough winning basketball to offset the 3-point shots that no 10-year-old should be taking.But this is 3s?were talking about. There is no greater currency for a grade-school basketball player. Except maybe Chuck E. Cheese tickets.Dan Shanoff writes about parenting for espnW. Joe Corona USA Jersey . Carey Price didnt, but he still came out on top against one of his rivals for the No. 1 job at the Sochi Games. The Anahim Lake, B.C., native was stellar in making 39 saves in his home province and Lars Eller got credit for a bizarre short-handed winner as the Canadiens defeated the Canucks 4-1. John Brooks USA Jersey . -- Edmontons Val Sweeting is two wins away from a trip to Winnipeg to play in Canadas Road of the Rings in December. http://www.soccerusateamonline.com/Bobby-Wood-Copa-America-Jersey/ . -- Vincent Lecavalier got everything but the desired result in his return to Tampa Bay. Alejandro Bedoya Jersey . -- Bobby Ryan helped the U. Chris Wondolowski Jersey . Pirlo limped out of Sundays 1-0 win over Udinese after just 13 minutes. Juventus says Pirlo underwent tests on Monday which revealed he has "a second-degree lesion to the collateral medial ligament in his right knee. In addition to a torn meniscus, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson also has a torn lateral collateral ligament, a source told ESPNs Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington.The Vikings denied that Petersons LCL is torn and Peterson texted ESPNs Josina Anderson back saying, no torn LCL.Peterson will have surgery Thursday morning to repair the torn meniscus, the team announced Wednesday.?Peterson, who was injured Sunday, told ESPNs Josina Anderson that he has a bucket handle tear of the meniscus, which typically has a minimum recovery time of three to four months.However, the additional damage to Petersons knee, will likely change that recovery timetable.?[Im] doing it with faith and optimism, Peterson told ESPN of the procedure.Vikings coach Mike Zimmer, however, conceded Wednesday that Peterson could miss the rest of the season, but an official determination wouldnt be made until a doctor could assess the extent of the damage Thursday.Everything is possible, Zimmer said. Could be season-ending. Could be three weeks, four weeks. Who knows?Peterson had been provided with multiple options about how to treat the injury, and he had been waiting to hear back from Dr. James Andrews, who performed extensive surgery on Petersons knee in 2011, before making his decision.Peterson slightly twisted his knee at the end of a 5-yard run Sunday against the Packers. His right foot was briefly stuck under the upper leg of Kyler Fackrell as the Packers linebacker brought him to the ground. Peterson left with 3:32 to play in the third quarter.The 2015 NFL rushing leader hobbled off the field with the assistance of athletic trainers. After being examined on the sideline, Peterson hopped through a field-level club at the teams new stadium toward the Vikings locker room and was later seen using crutches with a large black brace around the knee.He had a devastating left knee injury in 2011 -- tearing both his ACL and MCL -- only to bounce back and rush for 2,097 yards in the 2012 regular season to win league MVP honors.Jerick McKinnnon?will be the starting running back and Matt Asiata will serve as the backup against the?Carolina Panthers?on Sunday.dddddddddddd The running backs?combined for 1,108 rushing yards in 2014 while Peterson missed 15 games because of NFL discipline.In addition, the Vikings signed free-agent rusher Ronnie Hillman and placed starting left tackle Matt Kalil on injured reserve with a lingering hip injury that needs surgery and will cause him to miss the rest of the 2016 season.Hillman, who worked out for the San Diego Chargers on Wednesday, started 10 games for the Denver Broncos last season and rushed for a career-high 863 yards and seven touchdowns. He spent four seasons with the Broncos, totaling 1,845 rushing yards.The injury to Peterson is the latest blow to the Vikings. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater?tore multiple knee ligaments on Aug. 30, and the team started the season with two different quarterbacks after trading for Bradford on Sept. 3. The Vikings, though, are 2-0 and in sole possession of first place in the NFC North.Theyre resilient. Theyre tough. Theyre competitive, Zimmer said. Obviously weve had a few setbacks, but I think we can go back to last year and think about some of the things that happened. Were not the type of team thats going to sit back and cry about whats happened. Were going to go forward. Try, like Ive said before, to find a way.Peterson, who has rushed for 50 yards on 31 carries this season, would carry a cap hit of $18 million for the Vikings into the 2017 season. If Peterson and the Vikings dont renegotiate the contract, a big decision would need to be made before the third day of the league year, when Peterson is due a $6 million bonus. If the Vikings choose to cut him before then, they would owe him nothing further and take no cap hit in 2017 as theres no guaranteed money in his $11.75 million base salary.ESPNs Ben Goessling contributed to this report. ' ' '