Category: sports

Fight through Pain-It hurts to write this one, guys!

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I mean that completely literally, by the way. Last night, we traveled to Maricopa to play a football game. We knew from the beginning that this one was going to be a battle.

This is probably the understatement of the century.

We worked hard and just couldn’t make anything happen on either side of the ball. We started strong, and finished strong. But somewhere in the middle, we lost ourselves a little bit.

We didn’t lose our drive and our determination. We were confused and in pain. A lot of what happened last night was very controversial, especially to the spectators, who had a pretty good view of the carnage that was being left on the field.

I want to thank the spectators that came out to support and cheer us on. I speak for the whole team when I say we could never show how much we appreciate the shouts and yells from the sidelines. Trust me, we hear you.

The reason this post hurts is actually completely physical pain. I’m still a little shaken in the head from taking as many hits as I did. Also, I have a very swollen hand that is making typing very impossible. I am also sitting in a position that keeps the computer close to my body, as I cannot fully extend my left arm.

None of that matters, however.

Pain heals itself.

We will get back to work this week and keep on going.

Enjoy this picture of men running into each other.

For those wondering who that is, yes it’s Brian Dawkins hitting Alge Crumpler :).

We Run.

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Yesterday was a special day for me. I had my first cross country meet in my life.

We left for The Thatcher School for the meet. The whole team went there and most of us were going to run under the fervent sun for 3 miles.

My leg still hurt from last day’s practice and I didn’t really feel nervous until we stood on the starting line, with other girls talking by my side. They cheered, laughed. Five of us – me, Min Ju, Momoe, Emmy and Ally represented our school. I was in Line 6, the number stands for luck in Chinese.

“Take your mark, ready, GO! ” We flew out of the lines like birds finally gained freedom from the cages. “Three miles, just as what we usually run at school. ” I encouraged myself.

It was hard, I admitted. We need to run two times of the course. For the first one, Min Ju and I was running together and we sometimes talked to each other so that we would not feel tired.

I ran.

Read More »

Brian Dawkins-An Eagle Forever

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Last week, Brian Dawkins‘ number 20 was retired by the Philadelphia Eagles during their game against the New York Giants on Sunday night Football. As many of my readers may recall, my role model has been Brian Dawkins throughout my entire life. He’s the number one reason I play football. He has acted as someone that I strive to be everyday. This past Sunday was the final act in Dawk’s storied career.

The Friday before the game, my cousin went to Lincoln Financial Field to join in the celebration with the rest of the Eagles personnel. The team, coaches and alum were celebrating Dawkins’ career and my cousin decided that he wanted to get involved. While not to the extent of myself, my cousin also has a strong admiration of “Weapon X”.

My cousin then made his move and did something that I will always appreciate and never forget. He decided to surprise me by getting Dawk to call my cell phone and talk to me. I almost had my chance.

EXCEPT I WAS AT FOOTBALL PRACTICE!!!!

However, Dawk left a voicemail that I consider almost better. I can never replay a conversation that I have over the phone, but I can always replay the voicemail. He didn’t even have to say too much. He just told me to “Make sure I ball out every play”. For those that don’t know, “ball out” means to play every play like it’s your last. I’ve been living that way since day 1 of my football career, and Dawk’s words have resonated throughout my mind, body, heart and soul since the first Eagles game I ever went to.

That voicemail has meant the world to me. I have played it every night since I’ve received it before I go to bed. Finally, I have a piece of the Wolverine that I can share with everyone.

Moving Forward

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After the OVS football team came home with an outstanding victory in Lee Vining, that winning streak did not continue this past Saturday.

After our return we had a week to prepare for our next game against Hillcrest Christian of Thousand  Oaks, California. During this week practice seemed to be filled with not only focused faces and hard work, but excitement and laughter after the team had just broken a new Ojai Valley School record of being the first team to win a varsity football game.

It seemed that the win may have gotten to the heads of some players, myself included, and that if we beat that team, that we would probably be able to carry that win into the next game.

Although the game did not put another W on the Ojai Valley School’s standings it did teach the team a valuable lesson, a lesson our coaches were trying to instill in us all week.

Yes we won, but that is just one game, and that while we should be happy we won, there was still plenty of work. In practice Coach D said that yes we did play well, but we need to be better, the word better was repeated over, and over, and over, but apparently in this game our opponent ended up with the better score, which means, they won.

While many of us wanted to walk off of the field with our heads down, we had to keep them up, and come back to our next game playing even better than the first and second.

This past loss has given the team a reality check that while we did play well the first game, and this is not to say we did not play well on Saturday, that we do indeed need to be better.

Our next game is Saturday night against the Maricopa Indians.

This game will be very special for the team because we get to play in the Indian’s stadium arena at night under the lights.

This next coming week of practice is going to be tough, but it will only give us more time to sharpen our minds, and sharpen our plays, because come Saturday it will hopefully be time to put another win up on the boards for this team of new records.

Hopefully we can show everyone that we do deserve to play, and shatter the harsh words that some put on OVS football, like the program should be cancelled because “we aren’t good.”

To all of the people who doubt our team or speak I’ll of us, I ask you to come out and try to do what we do everyday, and see after that what you think about the fact that we aren’t good or that we don’t deserve to play.

If you have to win all the time to be worth it, than sports would not be what they are, nobody would ever win because everyone would be just as good as the other. And if we are to follow in this thought that winning is the only reason to play, than nobody would be able to play because winning would become impossible.

Empty Stadium

If any of you would like to know what it is like to go through what a football team goes through together, I beg you to come out on to the field everyday, put on your helmet and pads, run around in the heat, get beaten and battered, and then return from a loss, and hear, “wow who could have seen that coming,” in a sarcastic tone.

Hopefully we can better ourselves from this game and have the season of all seasons. If you can come out and support at any of our games it would be greatly appreciated. And to all of you who doubt us I really hope we can change your minds at some point, and if not try and keep it to yourself.

Eagles-Giants/Don’t get much better!

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Well that was really disgusting.

Honestly, I was very concerned about this game going in. The Eagles and Giants squared off tonight in an epic battle for the division. Man, it really wasn’t pretty.

The entire first half was scoreless until the 2 minute warning where Michael Vick connected with DeSean Jackson for a touchdown pass. Then the Giants quickly made their way down the field to notch a field goal of their own.

7-3 at the half. Advantage Eagles.

Fast forward to the last 15 seconds, the Eagles could have completely screwed themselves out of a victory.

But they didn’t.

Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes lined up for a game-winning field goal. The score is 19-17 and Tynes has a 54 yard kick to give the Giants the W.

He misses wide! Game over! Eagles win!….NO!!!!!!

There is a popular occurrence in the NFL known as “Icing the Kicker”. This act is when a head coach calls a timeout right before a kicker is about to make his kick. However, the timeout is used exactly as the long snapper snaps the ball to the holder. The kicker will then take the kick, yet it will not count.

Unfortunetly, Mr. Fatass…i mean Reid gave Tynes a second shot.

Thank God Tynes screwed it up again. This time, he didn’t put enough into the kick, and it fell about 3 yards short.

This time, the Eagles really did win.

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about this one. There weren’t a lot of stats that really stood out to me.

I’ll explain more next week. I’m just freaking out that Tynes sucks. That’s all!

Next post, I’m going to discuss something completely amazing. Brian Dawkins is finally gone, and he deserves his own post. Till next time, I’m going to do Spanish.

Adios!

A Fantastic Start

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Saturday’s football game against Lee Vining was a great game for us at OVS. The new players and the veterans had great games. Juniors Cody Triggs, Keaton Shiffman and John Olivo were just a few of the players that endured nearly ever play.

John Olivo also ran for one of the 8 touchdowns, shedding 5 tacklers on the way there. He had a second carry later on in the game resulting in 15 yards and a number of Lee Vining defenders with failed tackles.

Sophomore Masaki Takamatsu, in his first ever football game, ran for three touchdowns eluding the defense and shedding tackles on his way to the end zone.
He also caught a pass for his fourth touchdown of the day. Read More »

Behind the Scenes of the Lee Vining Live Blog

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Hello all, we are finally back from our football road trip where we came out victorious against the Lee Vining Tigers, putting us 4th in our free lance league, and currently putting us in an undefeated position with our 52-28 win.

Now, if you are reading this post I hope you have read our Lee Vining updates where the whole trip is laid out day by day, highlighting major moments and fun times.

What you as a reader get is different than what I as a writer experience on a day to day basis. Some of our readers may envision students and teachers alike sitting in an office or classroom that is well groomed and maintained, writing on computers in newsrooms like those portrayed on TV and in movies.

It is actually quite the contrary if you are reading our blogs from the Lee Vining trip. Our three  journalists on the Lee Vining trip were me (Keaton Shiffman), second year journalist (John Olivo), and first year journalist and photographer (Nicholas Giannetti).

It may seem obvious that trees and bushes do not output a strong WiFi signal, rather, none at all. So every night of our trip after all of our camp business was done, and food was taken care of, the journalists along with Mr. John Wickenhaeuser travelled down the road into the small town of Lee Vining.

Lee Vining is not the most normal of towns, because as it currently states on its welcome sign, it has a population of 398, which could have varied from the first time this sign was put up.

The first night of blogging was done from a Mobil Gas station, which also supplemented as a restaurant, gift shop, and convenience store. John, Mr. Wick, and Mr. Craig Floyd, all sat outside on the picnic style benches this gas station had to offer, and used a phone’s internet to post our Lee Vining: Day 1 post. John and I sat outside in the cold writing on the computers to inform our readers of how the first day and night had gone so far. This blog can be found on John’s profile, backinphilly, where we co-wrote the first story.

After about an hour of blogging John, our faculty supervisors, and I headed back to camp to find all of our teammates and remaining coaches asleep.

The next morning was the game which can also be found on the “backinphilly” blog. This day turned out better than expected with a great victory, but we played against a team with such great work ethic, and even better sportsmanship. Read all about Day 2 in Lee Vining @ Lee Vining: Day 2. This blog was written in an even more unique spot than a gas station diner, a McDonalds PlayPlace.

After our first varsity victory, the team enjoyed a fantastic meal at Giovanni’s Pizza in Mammoth Lakes, CA.

After dinner, we once again ventured out to a new blog spot, and it turned out that McDonalds had accessible WiFi, so we hopped on that opportunity.

When we first arrived, briefcase in hand, covered in dirt, sweat, and tears, I would have expected an unusual look from the staff, but maybe that was normal for them.

What really should have provoked a look was the fact that when we could not find any power outlets, we set up shop in the middle of the napkins and straws. And even at that no McDonalds employee minded the fact that we had set up our computer at a random condiment counter in the middle of their restaurant.

While writing we had a few visitors trying to find a straw or a napkin to wipe off their hands. Even at that nobody really wanted to question the two large teenage boys sitting and writing on a laptop in the middle of a McDonalds in Mammoth.

About 30 minutes into our writing one employee finally decided to tell us there was a power outlet under a seating area in the front lobby of the establishment. We picked up and moved there, and in this area there was a PlayPlace located conveniently on our left.

While we wrote on the couch like seat, we had to seize a great photo op in which John and I sat in the PlayPlace finishing our Day 2 blog.

I now see why these play places are made for children and not grown adolescent boys who have heights that exceed 6 feet.

This blog spot provoked a few laugh after an amazing and exhausting day.

We once again packed up, got in the car and headed back to camp, where once again we found a campground in a slumber after a day of hard work.

This really shows the dedication of our Journalists, and the want to let our readers  know how we do what we do.

I hope this shed some light on what really goes on behind the scenes in the life of an OVS Journalists, and what it is like blogging on the road while playing one of the most memorable football games any of us will ever take part in.

From Keaton “That Guy” Shiffman, back in Ojai, I bid you good evening.

Also, contrary to popular belief apparently, I was not stuck in the slide at the PlayPlace, I was merely lost in the ever so confusing maze of tunnels that I may or may not have been to large to have been crawling around in.

Stuck

Lee Vining Day 2-Game Day

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Today, we woke up to our pregame breakfast. First off, this consisted of a 4 pound slab of bacon (purchased from the Mahogany Smoked Meats Co.).

You have never seen a group of guys go this wild for meat.

With the bacon, we made sausages, eggs cooked with the bacon grease, potatoes and onions cooked with bacon grease, and threw it all into breakfast burritos. Clearly, there was salsa and cheese involved. But it was meat-tastic.

After breakfast, we relaxed and either slept or went into the freezing cold river for a nice wake up dip. We then gathered to elect team captains while getting game gear ready to go.

Each player had to vote for three players that they think displayed the greatest form of leadership. Although we only planned on having three captains, the vote was so close that the coaches added a fourth. The result was John Olivo, Cody Triggs, Grant Spencer and Min Ung Choi.

We checked our gear one last time before loading up into the vans and blasting pump up music. We all got into our own zones, and prepared ourselves for battle.

We arrived to the field with one goal in mind: Win. We showed up an hour prior to kickoff, and began our warmups. The captains led the team in their stretches and agility workouts, and then broke up into individual position drills.

The whistles blew, and the starters took the field to compete in what very well may be the greatest 48 minutes in OVS history.Read More »

Lee Vining: DAY 1

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The OVS football team traveled to Lee Vining for the team’s first football game of the season. For those that are completely unaware of how far Lee Vining actually is from Ojai, the team needed to camp out overnight before reaching Lee Vining. Tinnemaha Creek was the stop for the team the first night, which was Thursday. We pulled in at about 10 PM and unpacked for the night. We relaxed and slept before we set off on Friday morning for Lee Vining.

Before leaving, we did a walkthrough of our plays for the game at Tinnemaha Creek. We got our work done and packed back up. We got on the road and moved on to our final destination.

Lee Vining is a very small town, but we aren’t here to sight-see. We came to do some business, and we plan on doing just that. With another practice session in the afternoon, we go into our game confident that we will be at our best. The game is tomorrow (Saturday) at 1 PM.

On to more miscellaneous things!!!

Let’s talk about the trip up here. There was music blasting and tons of inside jokes that I’m sure we are never going to forget. At our campsite, food is never an issue. Not only do we have a lot to eat, but we have a lot of guys that LOVE to eat. What do you expect from a bunch of crazed football players?

As I write this update, we are cooking a rather large pre-game dinner.

How could you say no to a meal like this?

At the campsites, we are finding ways to stay occupied. When we aren’t exploring or practicing, we are having a good ol’ time with the boys. Some can be seen off in the distance learning how to throw a ball properly, others are off wandering in to the great never ending creek, building wooden fishing rods with hooks (most likely infected with tetanus), or building makeshift fish traps. With so much to explore and so many unruly teenage boys always expect the unexpected.

The end of this story ends with two of the coolest guys around sitting at a gas station/restaurant/convenience store/bar writing a blog using internet off of an iPhone’s hotspot while Mr. Floyd and Mr. Wick just sit and watch us type away to entertain all of you readers, no matter where you may be.

John “The Honey Badger” Olivo and Keaton “That Guy” Shiffman signing off on night one in Lee Vining. Check for more blog posts to see if mama and baby bear left us alone tonight.

Lives are at stake here. Please send help (just kidding).

NFL week 2 recap-A reflection on a year ago

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This time last year, the Eagles were 1-1, after beating the Rams in their first week and losing to the Falcons a week later. People were beginning to question just how good the “Dream Team” was. This year, we have a different situation. The Eagles BARELY stole a win in week 1 by beating the Browns 17-16. This week, they had to deal with the Ravens, and the Eagles needed to step it up in order to beat the Ravens. Turnovers were once again an issue, as Michael Vick threw two interceptions (only one was his fault, the other was a tipped pass that should have been caught).

Before I continue about the Ravens-Eagles game, I want to point out my rational behind stating that Vick is only accountable for a certain number of interceptions. When the ball leaves his hand, if it hits his receiver first, I expect it to be either caught or fall incomplete. But if the receiver has good enough contact with the ball, the interception should not be on Vick. My one exception is the fact that Vick throws with such an extreme amount of velocity. It must be hard catching that ball.

Anyway back to the game. The Eagles were dropping like flies. Jeremy Maclin, Jason Kelce and King Dunlap all dealt with injuries. Maclin aggravated his hip pointer from week 1, and Kelce is likely lost for season with a torn MCL and partially torn ACL. Dunlap (who I have no sympathy for) apparently strained his hamstring. Quite frankly, I could care less about King Dunlap. Kelce and Mac are tough losses.

At halftime, 17-7 Ravens. The air was taken out of the stadium and spirits suffered.

That is…until DeMeco Ryans intercepted Joe Flacco.

A turnover can go a long way, and this time, it went for a touchdown. The Eagles were rallying.

We go inside the two minute warning. Eagles down 23-17. They need a touchdown to take the lead. They’re close to midfield, and Michael Vick showed why he’s an elite quarterback.

He chucks the ball down the field to tight end Clay Harbor (who caught the winning touchdown pass a week before in Cleveland) and gets them down inside the Ravens five yard line.

1st and goal the Eagles rush from the 3 yard line to the 1.

2nd and goal, the Eagles give everyone a heart attack by sending Vick on a pass play. He was being rushed by star defensive end Haloti Ngata, and almost fumbled the ball. However, he was able to throw it away.

3rd and goal, the prayers were answered. Vick decided to run through everyone into the end zone.

Only one problem remained. The Eagles, now up 24-23, needed to hold the Ravens in check with just less then 2 minutes remaining. A lot can happen in 2 minutes.

1:48 left in the game, Ravens at their own 21. Anyone that has followed the NFL like I have can remember last season. When it came down to close games, the Eagles defense failed to hold onto the lead, and usually cost the team the game.

Not today.

Today, Nnamdi Asomugha, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Brandon Boykin, Mychael Kendricks, Trent Cole, Jason Babin, Cullen Jenkins, Derek Landri, Fletcher Cox, and DEMECO RYANS shut down the Ravens.

It wasn’t pretty however.

On 3rd down, Nnamdi played an incredible dose of coverage to keep the ball away from Ed Dickson of the Ravens. It looked completely legal, and yet was called illegal contact. That gave the Ravens a fresh set of downs. But in the end, it wouldn’t matter. The defense refused to budge. They forced the Ravens into a 4th down and 2 yards to go situation, and forced Flacco to overthrow star running back Ray Rice.

The stadium has never been louder. I’ve been to a lot of Eagles game, and I can’t remember one being much louder than that.

Now let’s break down one very funny play. Enter BRENT CELEK!

The tight end accounted for more than 150 yards of total offense, and capped off his day with a hurdle over All-Pro and future Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed.

Leap Frog!!

Coaches always teach players to stay low when engaging a tackle. They also tell you to keep your head up.

Ed Reed simply whiffed. But man was it funny!

The Eagles next week travel to Arizona, where they will take on a Cardinals team fresh off an upset over the New England Patriots. The Cardinals have showcased a relatively strong defense in the first two weeks, and the Eagles may have their work cut out for them. These two squads played against each other last season, and the Eagles fell in the minute.

There are two things that I’m very excited about going into this matchup.

Number one is seeing if Juan Castillo uses Nnamdi correctly this year against Larry Fitzgerald. If they stay 1-on-1 all day, that’s gunna be a very interesting duel.

Number two is that last year, the Cardinals used John Skelton as their quarterback.

This year, they may be forced to use Kevin Kolb, the former Eagle.

Last year, the Eagles traded Kolb to Arizona for Cromartie and a 2nd round pick that turned out to be Mychael Kendricks. Needless to say, the Eagles ended up winning that trade.

Maybe Babin and Cole can break Kolb.