luding two centuries.The one member of the Australia A batting group

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Titans fired special teams coordinator Bobby April on Monday, a day after they allowed a 67-yard punt return for the winning touchdown in a 27-20 loss to the Houston Texans.Titans coach Mike Mularkey announced the firing a day after special teams were responsible for giving up 10 points to Houston. Special teams assistant Steve Hoffman will take over Aprils duties.Hoffman has been on the Titans coaching staff since 2013 and has 26 years of special teams experience with a number of NFL teams.The Titans and Texans were tied 20-all Sunday before Houstons Will Fuller scored on a punt return in the final minute of the third quarter. Earlier in the game, the Texans got a field goal on a drive that was kept alive when Tennessee was called for 12 men on the field while Houston was in punt formation.Titans punter Brett Kern took the blame for a bad punt with little hang time leading to the touchdown.They had a wall set up to go to the other side of the field, Kern said. They just outflanked us, and they were able to get on their blocks a little quicker when theres not hang time. Ill take 100 percent of the blame.Tennessee also got lucky with officials ordering a redo on fourth down after the Texans apparently blocked a punt.Mularkey hired April after being given the head coaching job in January. This was Aprils 25th season in the NFL after also working for the Jets, Oakland, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Rams, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Atlanta. The Titans currently rank 11th in kick return average but next to last in the NFL in defending kickoffs and 27th on punt return coverage.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFLWholesale Sneakers Ireland . -- Sergey Tolchinksy scored his second goal of the game 3:56 into overtime as the Sault Ste. Wholesale Shoes Ireland . - Oakland Raiders running back Rashad Jennings was speaking to a group of local high school students earlier this week when the conversation turned to the importance of being prepared when opportunities in life arise. http://www.wholesalesneakersireland.com/ . P.A. Parenteau scored early in the third period to help the Avs edge Toronto 2-1 on Tuesday night. Cory Sarich also scored for Colorado (3-0-0), which is off to its best ever start. Cheap Mens Shoes Ireland . At a news conference Tuesday where it was thought that the fiery Schallibaum may be shown the door after a dismal finish to the Major League Soccer season, team president Joey Saputo said no decision has been made on whether the Swiss Volcano will be back in 2014. Wholesale Sneakers For Sale . White came in fourth place in the event. He was the two-time defending gold medallist. The gold medal went to Swiss snowboarder Iouri Podladtchikov.In winter Australians love their footy. And this Olympic year we will all suddenly become experts in swimming and rowing and BMX and the like. Scores from a Test in Colombo or Galle might seep in at the edge of the public consciousness, mentioned late in the nightly news bulletin. A flicker of recognition will register when the names are mentioned. Did they say Warner? Starc? Theres cricket on, is there?So what hope does an Australia A series have of generating any attention at all? The same hope that Australia has of winning an Olympic medal in handball. And yet it is well worth keeping an eye on Australia A this winter in their four Tests against South Africa A and India A, and a quadrangular one-day series. These matches in Queensland will feature a young group of men who could just be Australias batting future.To the fair-weather cricket fan, the last Sheffield Shield season was as normal: their state either won the title or didnt, and that was the extent of their interest. If a ball is bowled and Channel Nine didnt show it, was it bowled at all? Yes, it was, it and 56,000 others like it. And as the more ardent fans know, it was a season of quiet revolution, a summer of breakthroughs for a number of young batsmen.For some years the Sheffield Shield has been dominated by older batsmen. At different times runs have been piled up by Adam Voges, Michael Klinger, Ed Cowan, Marcus North, Chris Rogers, even Ricky Ponting in his valedictory season topped the run tally. The occasional young batsman came through, Joe Burns or Usman Khawaja, say, but they were the exceptions.Two summers ago, only one of the Sheffield Shields top ten run scorers was 24 or under - Cameron Bancroft - and just as significantly, six of the top ten were in their thirties - Voges, Klinger, Cowan, Shaun Marsh, Rob Quiney and Callum Ferguson. The selectors rewarded Voges with a Test call-up, but they must have wished there were more youthful batsmen applying the pressure. *Head was withdrawn from the squad to play county cricket with YorkshireLast season, there were. Of the Shields top ten run scorers in the 2015-16 summer, seven were aged 24 or under - Bancroft, Travis Dean, Peter Handscomb, Matt Renshaw, Kurtis Patterson, Travis Head, and Sam Heazlett - and only one was in his thirties - George Bailey. And the next two on the list outside the top ten - Alex Ross and Jake Lehmann - were also in the under-24 bracket.Every one of those young batsmen was named in the Australia A squad, although Head was later withdrawn so that he could take up a county contract with Yorkshire. Also picked were Marcus Stoinis, 26, who was ninth on the Shield run tally; Chris Lynn, 26, a Test batsman-in-waiting whose past two summers have been curtailed by injury; and wicketkeeper Sam Whiteman, 24, averaging 37 in first-class cricket.That is why this winters Australia A matches will be so fascinating. How will this group of young batsmen handle the step up? Who will thrive? Who will succumb to nerves? Bear in mind that this time last year Dean and Heazlett had not even made their first-class debuts, while Renshaw, Lehmann and Ross had played just one, two and three games respectively. These are batsmen who have emerged rapidly.None more so than Dean, who last year was completing a greens-keeping apprenticeship at Werribee Park Golf Club when he was handed his first Cricket Victoria contract. The states new coach, David Saker, was a key backer of Dean and when the young opener was given his first opportunity in the Sheffield Shield side, he did not disappoint.Against Queensland at the MCG, Dean became the first man ever to score a century in each innings of his Sheffield Shield debut. And both innings - 154 and 109 - were unbeaten, which meant he was on the field for every ball of the match. Dean, who is now 24, went on to play every game for Victoria and scored 111 and 54 in their Sheffield Shield final triumph, finishing second on the Shield run tally.The other man who began the summer uncapped was 20-year-old Heazlett, who like Dean plundered a century on debut. He wasnt far off matching Deans feat of a hundred in each innings on debut, scoring 129 and 78 against Tasmania at Bellerive Oval. Heazlett, who is studying to be a physiotherapist, finished with 649 Shield runs for the summer; only Matthew Hayden andd Graeme Hick enjoyed more prolific debut seasons for Queensland.dddddddddddd.His state team-mate, the opening batsman Renshaw, finished the summer as Queenslands leading Shield run scorer and fifth on the overall competition tally. Renshaw, now 20, quietly accumulated 738 runs for the Shield season and proved himself a similar batsman to Western Australias Bancroft, a grafting opener with immense concentration. Renshaws maiden hundred, scored in Mackay, was a near nine-hour 170. To find such a young man with such an old-school approach to batting, and the talent to match, is potentially significant for Australias selectors. Renshaw, like Bancroft, looms as a Test opener of the future. He cites Alastair Cook as a batsman he would like to emulate, and like Cook, Renshaw was born in England. He still holds a British passport, but is firmly part of the Australian set-up now.The other batsman Renshaw idolised as a young kid was Michael Hussey, and there is a tinge of Hussey elsewhere in this squad as well. Lehmann also nominates Hussey as a batsman he looked up to as a child. And what a childhood it was. Like Shaun and Mitchell Marsh, Lehmann had the rare privilege of spending time in the Australian dressing rooms as a kid, as the son of Darren Lehmann.But his name and background naturally led to higher expectations, and when he was chosen for his South Australia debut last year, there were no doubt some wondered if he was being favoured. Three centuries last summer, including 205 against Tasmania in Hobart, silenced any doubters. Lehmann, now 24, might bat a bit like his father but he is very much his own man.His South Australia team-mate Ross, also 24, is the only one of these Australia A batsmen who is yet to make a first-class hundred. He has come close, though, with a best of 92 not out and six fifties to his name, all last summer. Ross also impressed in the BBL, particularly through his use of the sweep shot, and he was named the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year for 2016.Those are the really new faces. Then there is Handscomb, highly rated for many years, third on the Shield run tally last season with 784, including 112 and 61 not out in a Man-of-the-Match performance in Victorias successful Shield final. Handscomb was 24 when last season ended and has since turned 25, still young in batting terms, and had his first taste of international cricket as an injury replacement in Australias ODI squad in England last year.Bancroft, 23, has also been named in an Australia squad already, though for the Test tour of Bangladesh last year, which was cancelled for security reasons. Another solid summer for Western Australia - 732 runs at 45.75, including three hundreds - has done him no harm. David Warner and Joe Burns are the incumbent Test openers but Bancroft is waiting patiently, fitting for a batsman of his temperament.Patterson, 23, has finally started to live up to the promise he showed when he struck 157 on New South Wales debut at the age of 18 back in late 2011, at the time becoming the youngest batsman ever to score a Sheffield Shield century. He was sixth on the Shield run list last summer, with 737, including two centuries.The one member of the Australia A batting group who was much further down the Shield run list in 2015-16 was Whiteman, but then he is primarily chosen as wicketkeeper anyway. That he can bat is unquestionable, and this is a perfect opportunity for him to position himself close behind Peter Nevill in the Test keeping queue.And then there are the two (slightly) older members of this Australia A batting outfit. Stoinis has played for Australia in ODI and T20 cricket, and keeps scoring well for Victoria in all formats. Lynn is arguably the best batsman of the lot, but shoulder injuries in the past two summers have curtailed his run-making ability. This is a terrific chance to push his case for higher honours.All of these men will get the opportunity this winter to test themselves against India A or South Africa A, or both. And the Australian sporting public might not notice them just yet, but dont be surprised if one or more of these young batsmen find their way into an Australia team sooner rather than later. ' ' '