Fort Worth Weekly Classifieds // May 13-19, 2026

Under the Bodhi Tree

As part of our AAPI-month coverage, we joined the monks at Chùa Hương

for Vesak.

BY AMBER CHADWICK

STUFF

World Cup Preview (Groups G-L)

England, France, Spain, and a host of newcomers populate this half.

BY KRISTIAN LIN

We continue giving you snapshots of all 48 teams in the field. England vs. Croatia will be another match at AT&T Stadium, and it should offer plenty for neutral fans to watch.

Group G

We are some distance removed from Belgium being the world-class power that it was eight years ago, but Kevin de Bruyne can still make magic with his feet and Romelu Lukaku can still bull his way through defenders and score. They’ve got some newcomers, too, in dynamic winger Jérémy Doku and playmaker Charles de Ketelaere. My feature about Iran covered the complicated geopolitics of their situation, but almost all their players are domestic. (Remember when they had strikers good enough to play in the German league?) Egypt is in a similar situation, but in Omar Marmoush and the aging Mohamed Salah, the Pharaohs have players who are dangerous in front of goal. Rounding out an easy group for the Belgians is New Zealand, which relies on Chris Wood, an old and slow striker who nevertheless is coming off a career season for Nottingham Forest.

Group H

All eyes are on Spain here. I’m not sure if I trust their defense, which is full of interesting talents like Pau Cubarsí and Dean Huijsen who haven’t been tested by World Cup pressure. Their fans are crossing their fingers that Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal’s torn hamstring will heal in time for the tournament. Spain’s offense will take a major hit without him. Their matchup against Uruguay will be one to watch, since the South Americans field Barcelona team captain Ronald Araújo and Real Madrid vice-captain Federico Valverde. Far shorter on quality is Saudi Arabia, whose players mostly ply their trade in the well-heeled confines of their country’s domestic league. (They just fired their head coach, too, which is seldom a good sign this close to a tournament.)

Making their World Cup debut is Cape Verde, the set of Portuguese-speaking islands off Africa’s west coast. This will be a career highlight for the country’s alltime leading scorer Ryan Mendes as well as Columbus Crew defender Steven Moreira.

Group I

This might be the Group of Death here. On one hand, France have so many offensive options (Kylian Mbappé, Désiré Doué, Bradley Barcola, Michael Olise) that they won’t even miss Hugo Ekitiké, who got seriously hurt playing for Liverpool. On the other hand, Les Bleus’ defense will have their hands full playing against Norway They have two extremely large humans — Erling

Haaland and Alexander Sørloth — who can light up scoreboards at the highest levels, while behind them is the playmaking sharpness of Martin Ødegaard. Should something happen to the starters, reserve strikers Josh King and Jørgen Strand Larsen would be starting for many other countries. Neither team will overlook Senegal, which has hard midfield runners in Idrissa Gueye and Pape Gueye (no relation) and speed up front with Ismaïla Sarr, Nicolas Jackson, and the still-potent Sadio Mané. Pity poor Iraq, who are back in the World Cup for the first time since 1986. If the Mesopotamia Lions can just make a game of it against any of these opponents, they should be proud.

Group J

Here we have Argentina. I have reasons to doubt whether they can repeat as champions, starting with goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez’ streaky form over the past four years. Regardless, they still have the firepower of Lautaro Martínez, Julián Alvarez, and that Messi guy. They also have a fairly easy group. Austria has a bunch of useful Bundesliga players like playmakers Marcel Sabitzer and Konrad Laimer. Feel happy for team captain David Alaba, a defensive mainstay for Bayern Munich and Real Madrid who will be making his World Cup debut at age 33. The strength of Algeria will be on their backline, with heavily experienced Aïssa Mandi and Ramy Bensebaini holding down the center and Manchester City’s Rayan Aït-Nouri

launching attacks from the left-back position. For World Cup debutants Jordan, watch for team captain and main goal threat Musa al-Taamari, who cuts in from the right wing for French club Rennes.

Group K

Plenty of intrigue here. Cristiano Ronaldo will be available for Portugal after he was initially suspended for elbowing an opposing player during a qualification loss to Ireland. The suspension has been temporarily and suspiciously lifted for the World Cup, but his team is so flush with attackers that they might be better without the aging superstar. Their talent at all positions makes them a threat to win, but their lack of consistency opens a door for the others. Colombia has toughness in defense (Jhon Lucumí, Davinson Sánchez) and goal threats up front (Luis Díaz, Jhon Durán). Fun fact: Attacking midfielder Yáser Asprilla is the son of Faustino Asprilla, who played for Los Cafeteros during the last American World Cup in 1994. The last time the Democratic Republic of the Congo was in the World Cup, it was 1974 and the country was called Zaïre. The Leopards will have reason to believe they can advance out of the group, too, with attackers like Yoane Wissa and Cédric Bakambu, as well as Premier League defenders like Aaron WanBissaka and Axel Tuanzebe. The most familiar face for debutants Uzbekistan will be on the sideline: Coach Fabio Cannavaro captained Italy to that World Cup win in 2006. The White Wolves are led by hulking Manchester City defender Abdukodir Khusanov.

Group L

At some point one of these tournaments is going to break England’s way. Right? Manchester United’s Kobbie Mainoo arrives to stabilize the midfield, and if playmakers Cole Palmer and Phil Foden can blow hot and cold, Harry Kane is still there and scoring goals aplenty. For Croatia this will be a last hurrah for all-time great midfield operator Luka Modrić. As always, there are lots of goal threats in the famous checkerboard jerseys, including the late-blooming Ante Budimir. If giant left-back Joško Gvardiol can get healthy in time for the tournament, it will give them a huge boost. Previous editions of Ghana were strong through the middle of the pitch, but the Black Stars’ best players now are on the wings, with Antoine Semenyo, Mohammed Kudus, and Iñaki Williams all either delivering threatening crosses or dribbling inside and shooting. Panama may be favorites to finish last, but Los Canaleros have more talent than others in that position, with Dynamo Kyiv’s Eduardo Guerrero scoring goals and Beșiktaș’ Amir Murillo manning the right-back position. l

BUCK U

Can’t Buy Me Love

Nonrevenue sports enter the danger zone during the new era of professional college athletics.

BY BUCK D. ELLIOTT

This week’s title represents neither the 1964 free-love anthem by The Beatles nor 1987’s GenX-favorited high school-based pseudo-prostitution story starring Patrick Dempsey (who is aging insultingly well), just the reality for many universities facing a slew of financial challenges and that must make Sophie’s Choice on what’s essential and what’s expendable.

In the last week, several universities have cut their NCAA tennis teams, representing a larger trend. The University of Arkansas, St. Louis University, Gardener-Webb, and North Dakota all concluded their regular seasons by announcing their schools would forgo fielding men’s and women’s teams indefinitely. Illinois State similarly axed their men’s program moving forward.

The Razorback men oinked their final “Woo Pig Sooie” on Friday on the TCU tennis courts as they dropped their round-of-64 match 3-4 against Cornell. Maybe Andy Bernard from The Office would have been proud, but the larger tennis world — especially U of A alums — isn’t. The sixth-seeded Frogs rolled through their home regional by beating Denver, then Cornell (both matches 4-0). Before another perfect 4-0 match against their super-regional opponent, Stanford, TCU advances to Athens, Georgia, to face third-seeded Ohio State on Thursday in the national quarterfinals.

TCU women’s tennis, who have not enjoyed the level of success of their counterparts, battled to one of their best seasons in the last decade by

winning the Big 12 tournament and Coach Lee Taylor Walker earning the conference’s coach of the year award. Despite a 2-4 loss to Rice during the Baton Rouge Regional, the Frogs can point to tremendous upswing for recruiting and building toward continued success for TCU as a co-ed tennis destination program.

Despite the shock of programs cutting competitive teams, TCU Athletic Director Mike Buddie assured alumni and fans that there are no plans to cut nonrevenue sports in Fort Worth anytime soon. In case you haven’t ventured to the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center for a match, the facility itself is a utopia nestled between TCU’s Greek Village and The Colonial and has the corresponding country-club vibe. There is no charge for regular-season matches, and coaches Walker and David Roditti regularly have gifts, food, and festivities to attract crowds to enjoy and support the teams. TCU has won attendance awards multiple times for largest single-match and average attendance.

It shouldn’t be surprising that director Buddie is committing to supporting these programs, as they represent some of our school’s most successful. Men’s tennis, beach volleyball, and rifle have all claimed national championships in the last three years, and women’s soccer just recorded their best-ever finish, reaching the final four.

Despite being a smaller university with a correspondingly miniscule alumni base compared to a school like Arkansas (roughly triple TCU’s enrollment), our local university enjoys the advantage of private funds as compared to state purse strings, as well as a bustling city rather than a small college town surrounding it. The smaller student body at what can now only be thought of as a luxury university also represents a lesser threat from the dreaded enrollment cliff, which triggers larger universities’ anxiety year to year and can leave publicly funded institutions with sudden budget deficits to contend with (see: UNT).

Buddie asserted that he understood the challenges many of his colleagues are facing in the new business of college athletics, acknowledging that the balance sheets matter now more than ever and that hard decisions will have to be made. That’s where the term nonrevenue really becomes a misnomer. Almost every collegiate sport — at least on its face — loses money. Football is generally the only athletic-funds producer for colleges, and men’s basketball programs tend to self-sustain or possibly profit to a much lesser extent. Schools like UNC and Duke (the most valuable basketball programs) still net less cash than their football programs, but their cache drives greater overall value and other revenue for their universities.

It seems Funkytown fringe sports are safe, but the overall flux for many universities in the country is indicative of the greater spending trend among colleges: Pay whatever it takes to win at football or basketball. The Razorback tennis program was spending approximately $2.3 million per year to field both teams, though their money generation was effectively nothing. In comparison, it’s estimated that that cost is similar to the amount QB Arch Manning is accepting from the University of Texas as part of his generosity to accept less than he could receive elsewhere and open funds to pay other players and fill out the roster.

You don’t even need to leave North Texas to see the devastating effects of the new professional college system. UNT football enjoyed one of their best seasons in years and was even a dark horse for selection to the College Football Playoff. Their walk-on quarterback Drew Mestemaker burst on the scene as the most productive in the nation. Former Mean Green coach Eric Morris left to fill Mike Gundy’s open position at Oklahoma State (Gundy is still a man; he’s just 58 now), and Mestemaker tagged along. Morris is now making more than double his old salary, and Mestemaker is being paid by a single

donor almost the same per year as his head coach (around $3.75 million). Almost all of UNT’s roster transferred somewhere else, and now Denton’s university, who should have had an amazing foundation to build on, is rebuilding from Square 1.

Meanwhile, the academic part of North Texas is reeling from the sudden severance of international students as the school faces a $45 million budget shortfall and is consolidating programs and majors and encouraging buyouts for tenured faculty.

Successful athletics are supposed to drive general enrollment and larger budgets and create recognition of the rest of the university. TCU itself is one of the most poignant modern examples of this strategy, but the sudden tremendous cost to be competitive might be soiling this playbook in real time. Unfortunately, for those who love college sports but miss the days of players driving cars in booster’s names and McDonald’s bags full of cash, it doesn’t seem like a reprieve to the current arrangement will arrive anytime soon.

Donald Trump’s executive order to protect college sports does a good job of acknowledging its cultural importance and that the current arrangement isn’t sustainable but little else. Trump has threatened to withdraw federal funding from universities who accept an athlete who is playing for more than five total years or who is transferring more than once without sitting out for a year. The order itself is a paper tiger and will be challenged in court — which Trump has acknowledged — and will likely be struck down. It would take a dedicated effort from Congress to change laws surrounding the formerly amateur status of collegiate athletes, and this is unlikely to gain traction with other political priorities taking the forefront. Trump’s executive order — even if unenforceable — does correctly assert that Olympic and women’s sports are disproportionately hamstrung by the pay-for-play frontier into which we’ve entered.

The next course of action is writing your congressperson to enact common sense restrictions to bring back a more nebulous era of college sports. I’m kidding. Those legislators have more important work to do (Cancun, y’all!), and they won’t even give earnest effort to that unless it’s for a major campaign donor. As with almost anything in our post-capitalist America, dollars vote, and it will require a concerted desire from those at the bottom who spend to disengage from major sports and restraint from those at the top who are ponying up the money to pay to level the playing field. Rather than forking over the equivalent GDP of developing nations for their alma mater to win, major donors will have to commit to some modicum of fair play. Sounds likely, right?

Sadly enough for The Beatles and Patrick Dempsey, it seems that right now money can indeed buy you love. l

CALENDAR

Under the Bodhi Tree

As part of our AAPI-month coverage, we joined the monks at Chùa Hương

Đạo for Vesak.

BY AMBER CHADWICK

On a serene Saturday evening, the sounds of chanting and prayer filled the air at Chùa Hương Đạo Temple as hundreds of venerable monks, worshippers, and visitors from across North Texas gathered to bear witness to the striking culmination of the Vesak celebration: the lighting ceremony of 24,000 candles arranged in the shape of a sacred lotus flower. Vesak is one of the most significant observances in the Buddhist calendar, honoring the birth, enlightenment, and passing of Siddhartha Gautama.

For Buddhists, Vesak is a time of deep reflection, compassion, and peace, exemplifying and honoring the Buddha’s teachings of mindfulness, nonviolence, and liberation from suffering. Vesak is typically held on the first full moon of May, but Chùa Hương Đạo Temple hosted a nine-day celebration, with community peace talks, meditations, prayer services, sacred chanting, an evocative candle lighting ceremony, and a rare opportunity for worshippers to pay respects to the Buddha’s sacred relics, which are venerated within Buddhist traditions as sacred objects of devotion.

United in prayer, reflection, and reverence, attendees gathered in a collective moment of contemplation, blending spiritual devotion, cultural tradition, and community in celebration of peace and compassion. Beneath the glow of thousands of candles, this year’s Vesak celebration carries additional spiritual significance, following the return of the Walk for Peace monks (“Walk for Peace,” Feb 18, 2026) from Sri Lanka with the Buddha’s sacred relics and a sapling from the venerated Bodhi Tree, thereby permanently linking Fort Worth to one of Buddhism’s holiest traditions.

This tree is a powerful symbol of awakening and wisdom, believed to be the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago, making its presence at the temple this year especially meaningful for worshippers.

While the flickering flames of the lotus flower are undeniably impactful, it is important to note that they are more than just a visual display. They are expressions of individual intentions. continued on page 11

Each of the 24,000 candles is sponsored by individuals from the local community and around the world, serving as a prayer, a commemoration, or an act of dāna (the Buddhist act of selfless giving). Together, they form a testament to the hopes and dreams of the spirit of humanity. As the Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra said, “These are not merely lights shining in the darkness. They are symbols of hope, compassion, and awakening for our world today.”

This year’s celebration also vividly mirrors the shifting cultural landscape of North Texas. Over the last decade, Asian-American

communities across the region have grown and flourished, now representing 6% of Tarrant County’s total population. Temples like Chùa Hương Đạo Temple, rooted in Vietnamese Buddhist tradition, serve as vibrant cultural and spiritual hubs, welcoming visitors from neighboring communities to engage with Buddhist practices. In doing so, Buddhism has become an increasingly visible and practiced faith in North Texas, with temples also functioning as crucial “third spaces” for reflection, community, and cultural exchange. This growing presence is further reflected in the temple’s long-term vision, which includes a planned 14-acre expansion that will add hundreds of stupas and additional sacred spaces for worship, study, and meditation.

As the embers from the candles flickered into the night, the Vesak celebration and the image of

the lotus flower left a lasting impression on me. Like the lotus flower rising from the mud and overcoming obstacles, this gathering reminded thoughtful visitors that even in a world of intense friction and political instability, kindness and peace remain possible. As the crowds dispersed, everyone carried the quiet light home within themselves, leaving the sense that even the smallest flame can become a source of change.

With a goal of cultivating moral intention, integrity, and practice, the Chùa Hương Đạo Temple at Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center (4717 E Rosedale St, Fort Worth, 817-710-6885) is open daily from 7am to 8pm. Daily activities include Morning Chanting in Pali at 5am Mon-Sun and Evening Chanting in Vietnamese at 7pm Mon-Sat. There are also biweekly Dhamma Talks at 1pm Fri/Sun. All are welcome. l

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