Category: sports

Lacrosse

rangerthecat1 Comment

Out of my 4 years at the Ojai Valley School, I have played lacrosse for 3. At first, it wasn’t my favorite thing to do, but it has grown on me and I have truly began to love it.

I’m not an extremely athletic person, and when I first played lacrosse, it was hard for me to keep up with some of the drills and especially hard for me to play a game without becoming exhausted. But I started to love the game and build my skills. It became so much fun for me, and when it ended, I was already looking ahead and couldn’t wait for next year’s season.

The next year, unfortunately, we didn’t have enough girls to make a team. It was really upsetting at first, but we still practiced as a team and scrimmaged against each other, which gave me an opportunity to improve my skills a lot, along with some of my other team mates. I thought it would be a great way to really prepare myself for this year’s season.

But of course, as it always seems to happen, another issue arose, and after weeks of practices, followed by a small complication in numbers, we were unable to have a lacrosse team again this year. It really puts me off to know we physically had the number of girls that we needed, and that we had already scheduled all of our games with other schools.

I was extremely excited the first day of practice, knowing it was my senior year and that the team could really make this year a good one for the ladies lacrosse. We had a bunch of new players along with some returning, experienced players that would really be able to lead the team. As captain, I was determined to teach the girls to love the game like I once learned to. By the 2nd week, a lot of them were improving a great amount and I could tell that they were really enjoying themselves out there on the field.

There’s nothing that we can do to revive our team now. All of our games have been cancelled, and since it has, we have broken up as a team and filtered into other sports commitments. It really disappoints me to know that we could have had a really solid team and been tough competition if we had practiced hard and kept the team together. But unfortunately, it looks like I’m going to have to finish out my senior year on weak note, all of my effort for lacrosse being wasted away. That’s just life, I guess, but I really do wish there was something I could do to change this reality.

So long, lacrosse. It’s been a blast while it’s lasted.

My idol

thehungryrunnergirlLeave a comment

Jordan Hasay is an amazing runner who runs for University of Oregon, which has one of the best cross country and track teams in the nation.

She was born in Fontana, California and went to Mission College Prep school in Southern California. Her father used to play basketball in college, and her mother was a national swimmer in England. Jordan was selected 2008 Girls High School Athlete of the Year by Track&Field News and by Gatorade.

She has been unbelievably fast ever since her youth. She set the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics Youth record in the 1500m and 3000m run. Also, she could’ve ran World Junior Championship in 2006 to represent the US, but she was too young at the age of 14.

During her freshman year in high school, she won the Foot Locker Cross Country National Championships, becoming the second freshman to win in the history.

During her junior year, she ran the US Olympic Trials breaking the national high school record for 1500m and qualified for the finals.

She runs 6 to 8 miles per day along with swimming 3 to 5 times a week, weight lifting twice a week and biking twice a week. That’s incredible, and I don’t think many people can manage to continue this workout.

Go Jordan!!!

Asante Samuel-Oh God Not Again

backinphilly1 Comment

Eagles put Asante Samuel back on the trade block for the third time in a little less then a year. Trying to get something in return for Mr. Samuel is surely…well…stupid at this point.

Asante had arguably his worst professional season this past year and the Eagles would have been able to secure a pretty decent price for the ex-Pro Bowl cornerback. Last year, as reported, the Lions were willing to sacrifice a 2nd and 3rd round pick for Samuel, to which the Eagles wanted a 1st and 3rd. The Lions rejected that proposal and the deal was not completed.

I can only wonder what could happen this time around. I don’t think the Eagles will get much from any potential trade except for the extra 10 million dollars of cap space.

We could then use that money to pay All Pro running back LeSean McCoy.

We are building the team for the ages. How you like us now, New York?

Baseball Photos

r3t5nom2 Comments

Last week the baseball team traveled through the windy road up the 33. It was a long drive up to Maricopa, CA to play against a school but the team made it up there and came out victorious. As a photographer I took it as an opportunity to take pictures of the team playing their sport, and that I did.

People might think that it is only standing in one place and pointing a camera but the truth is that if you take photography seriously you won’t just stand in one place, you will walk around like a mad man or mad woman trying to find the perfect shot and then moving on to find the next one.

While I was taking this photo..

I came up with the idea to take this next photo, I saw that the catcher was standing in pure dirt and his glove was getting all dusty, then it came to me. A ball hit his glove and dust blew out of his glove as if it was smoke, it looked awesome!

This is what I love about taking pictures! The fact that I can capture moments that we only see and forget without a camera. It is truly a great feeling to catch moments like these.

What do you think about the photo?

Billy’s boot camp

thehungryrunnergirlLeave a comment

I heard that “Billy’s boot camp” is very popular in America, especially in California, but no one I’ve talked to recently knows about this program.

Billy’s boot camp is a fitness program consisting of 4 DVDs to teach you how to lose weight and practice core workouts in 7 days. I personally do this workout to keep my leg muscles in shape if I get injured and can’t run. According to advertisements, a lot of Hollywood stars do this program to lose weight in a very short time.

When I was in 8th grade, I had bad knees from growing and couldn’t run for almost a year. When I did this program for the first time, I lost 6 pounds and gained a lot of muscles just in one week…

The 1st and 2nd day (disk 1), Billy, the leader demonstrates the workout from pushups to jumping jacks for about 50 minutes. Using the “Billy band” makes it harder.

The 2nd and 3rd days are the hardest. He shows you a higher level workout designed by the military. My body always gets sore for the next few days.

The 5th and 6th days, he focuses on abdominal workouts for half an hour.

The final day is basically to digest all the workouts and go over what we did.

7 days and you can be fit! So why don’t you try it now? Maybe it gets hard that you want to quit in the middle of a workout, but don’t give up!

DeMeco Ryans-Newest Member of the Nest

backinphilly1 Comment

Well, the Eagles finally fixed a glaring need for their defense this week when they traded for ex-Houston Texans middle linebacker, DeMeco Ryans. They will finally be able to stop the run, which ranked near the bottom in the NFL last year.

I am a HUGE DeMeco Ryans fan. When he was a Texan, I admired his tenacity, and desire for big plays even when he was a Texan.

He’s a monster of a linebacker, and I just gotta say one thing.

9 months ago, when the NFL free agency period started late due to the lockout, and Nnamdi Asomugha was the big man on the market, I predicted the Eagles would trade for a linebacker either last year or this year. I mentioned 3 names. Lofa Tatupu, Ryans’ teammate in Houston Brian Cushing, or Demeco himself.

Turns out I was right and I couldn’t be happier about this move. He is an instant starter. Time to get us a Super Bowl. There’s no choice to lose this time. It’s now or never.

The Pint sized builder.

frog3Leave a comment

Body Building is considered an extreme sport where one must train for hundreds of hours to achieve a muscular physique. For those body builders that can rise to the top there is one event that they must compete in, the Mr. Universe competition.

There is one who was able to conquer his overwhelming poverty and his puny size to rise to the top. His name is Manohar Aich, although to some he is known as “ Pocket Hercules “. Standing at 4’11 , Manohar was born in Bangladesh a region known for its poverty.

These obstacles did not stop Manohar Aich. Around the age of 12 Manohar came under attack from black fever. To regain his health he began exercising doing thousand of repetitions for a single exercise.

His efforts did not stop their and by his early 30s people were commenting on his muscular physique. By age 37 the puny Manohar Aich was able to win the Mr. Universe competition. No one his size has since been able to replicate his feat.

The first time for everything

venturatreker1 Comment


This week we played our first game, we lost.  Now that that’s out of the way I can talk about all the good things that happened.

Firstly we showed up at Viewpoint School and were directed where to park by PARKING ATTENDANTS.  We finally get to the field to be greeted by 30 lacrosse players and a beautiful turf field.  For the 12 OVS spuds it was quite intimidating.

One person said to me as we were walking up, “oh wow they have enough players to sub every five seconds!!!”

Yet we went out there and played, and for more than half our team it was the very first lacrosse game they have ever played in.  Talk about shell shock, your either going at 110% or standing still.  It is incredibly fast paced and very intimidating to people who have never played before.

Sometimes I think we should be the stubborn spuds and not just the spuds.  Down by almost ten in the first half, we had nothing to lose.  Exhausted and on edge we squared our shoulders and started the second half zero to zero in our heads.  By the end of the third quarter we were up 3-0.

Although we lost we came together as a team learned a lot, and definitely left them some bruises to think about.

Falling to New heights!!!

frog31 Comment

Sky Diving has long been considered an extreme sport, even though in reality it is quite safe. Most people think of sky diving as reckless and perhaps even stupid, Felix Baumgartner plans to take this reputation to new heights.

Currently the record for the worlds highest free fall is 19.5 miles. The jump was made in 1960 from a height of 102,800 ft by retired astronaut Joe Kittinger. Kittinger is currently one of the advisors for Felix as Felix attempts to do what very few people have done before. Other safety officials include Dr. Clark whose wife Laurel died in the Columbia space shuttle crash in 2003. Dr.Clark has since become an expert in Spacecraft emergency escape.

Hopefully Felix’s achievement allow humanity to soar to new heights, and push the limits of what is possible and what is not.

NFL Free Agency…Gotta love it!

backinphilly3 Comments

Now that my Eagles have finally been able to sign DeSean Jackson to a long term contract (5 years, 48.5 million), I can now focus on other teams and their signings.

The talent class this year is absolutely endless. Some stars like Cortland Finnegan, Carl Nicks and Vincent Jackson went off the board very early. And now, as we sit in the third day of free agency, I just have one thing to say to the Eagles.

SIGN A FRICKIN LINEBACKER!!!!

Now that we have covered that, let’s look at some more big names. DE and OLB Mario Williams signed a massive 6 year, 96 million dollar contract with the Buffalo Bills, which may be the big signing of the year. This move bolsters an already dominant defensive line for Buffalo.

Another big signing was the signing of Brandon Carr by the Dallas Cowboys. Ya, I hate it. But it was still a smart pickup by the Cowboys.

I won’t say much more since i hate this team.

The moves are wild right now. I will probably blog a supreme amount in the coming weeks as the NFL Draft approaches and other trades and signings are made.