Tag: win

What’s that I smell? Comeback.

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The Kings started off this shortened season on sort of rocky seas so to speak.

The home opener against the Chicago Blackhawks was nothing short of depressing after riding out the high of winning the Stanley Cup.

In the end losing to the Blackhawks made sense seeing as they went on to set the all time record for most consecutive games from the start of a season not lost in regular time.

For a while it looked like the Kings were going to fall out of playoff contention, but just as they did last year they, to quote a song, “started from the bottom, and now the whole team’s [*******] here.”

Last year they went from being the #8 seed in the Western Conference to the #1 team in the NHL within a matter of weeks.

The Kings are currently holding in 4th place, but are tied with Vancouver at 48 points.

The Blackhawks remain #1 with 62 out of a possible 76 points, and have clinched a playoff spot, but it will be a battle with the Anaheim Ducks to see who takes the west.

Hopefully the Kings climb to the top, but their final position in the west is unknown.

Hopefully they can pull out a repeat of last year and come up from the bottom, surprising everyone in their path.

Lacrosse Week

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This past week marked the first 3 games of the 2013 lacrosse season.

Our first game was against the York School from Monterrey, CA.

The team was on a southern California road trip and had played four games prior to their game against us last Saturday.

Our team on the other hand had not yet practiced as a whole team yet, and it was evident on the field.

The team has many beginning players and adding new players changes the chemistry of the team every year.

It is an adjustment period to learn how people play the game and to be able to predict how they will react to certain situations.

Come game time I was excited to be back on the field from 9 months ago.

For most of the game York was dominating offensively and defensively ultimately scoring 11 goals.

The game almost ended in a shut out until one of our star returning players, Grant Spencer, scored the one goal of the game.

We all celebrated like we had won the game, but to us it was a victory because we did not give their goalie the shutout.

Final score was 1-11 L.

I was disappointed, but also realized it was the first game of the season and we had a lot of room to grow.

On Wednesday came the game against Laguna Blanca, a game I look forward to every year no matter what sport I’m playing whether it be football or lacrosse. Even when I’m not playing in the game, but the school is, I get excited.

Many think that Thatcher is our biggest rival, and they are, but they are our biggest hometown rival. Laguna Blanca is our biggest rival over all.

Most games with Laguna consist of some mouthing off from players and their parents which at our level of play can get a little out of hand.

We aren’t playing Division 1 sports, what parents need to remember is:

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Don’t Worry About It

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This past Saturday our football team had our last league game against the Laguna Blanca Owls.

Contrary to how I was feeling going into this game, and what I wished had happened, we did not end up winning, but lost our fifth consecutive game.

Sadly this season came to an end sooner than I had hoped, and not the way I wanted to leave the field.

We finished with a final score of 44-26.

That is much closer than some games we have played, and once again we played a great second half, but it takes more than that to win football games.

We did not start off with a defense that was aggressive enough to set the tone early.

While we did stuff many plays, the Owls were able to put points up with more ease than they should have had.

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Team Rest

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This weekend was the first time since the start of the season that our team did not have a game.

This is not because one was not scheduled, but because simply we could not compete against Orcutt Academy’s team.

We are a team that defies odds, beginning a season with a mere 20 players in a collision sport.

Players are bound to get injured, and starting with a number that low doesn’t put us in the best position.

Regardless of size, we are a team who trains to compete, to show what we are made of, and even if we don’t always win, to show we will not go down without a fight.

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Defeated Again

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Once I again I walked off of another teams field not feeling the great feeling of victory

This past weekend the team traveled up to Los Olivos, CA to compete against the Dunn Earwigs on their parents weekend, just as we did last year.

We went into the game with high hopes, and a new play series that we had worked on all week.

We arrived at the school, and right of the bat the day was not going as planned.

Somehow the ball bag was left back at school, some 2 hours away.

We did not have our own game balls, or our own kicking tee.

We put that aside and made do, and went into our pre game routine of bananas, pretzels, and stretching.

Our Defensive Coordinator John Wickenhaeuser had dome some research that bananas and pretzels before a game does the body good if that comment seemed a little odd.

During our warm ups that same nauseous feeling returned, and I was once again off my game.

I even tried to take medicine to make this feeling go away, but it is clear that it is nerves, and I just need to be hit a few times so that I don’t think about it as much.

When the game started Dunn quickly scored their first touchdown, and we weren’t too worried, that happens in the game of football.

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Defeated by the Indians

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While many of us were feeling hopeful going into our first night game under the lights, it did not turn out how we had hoped.

The team gathered in the locker room 5 hours before kick off to prepare for the close to 3 hour road trip over Highway 33 into Maricopa.

We all put on the lower half of our pads and so that when we walked off the bus we could get right into our pre game warm ups.

The bus ride was filled with many people sleeping, listening to music, and having a good time.

The team has not played a game under the lights for a while, so seeing lights on a field was pretty exciting.

While it was not a huge stadium, it was still a stadium none the less.

Seeing as we arrived about an hour early we spent some time running around on the field to get accustomed to the grass, and pass the ball around, having a good time, smiles could be seen on all of our faces.

At about 6 pm we all entered the final stage of game mode.

We quit the messing around, grabbed our bags, and walked over to a covered area to finish dressing and spend time thinking about our assignments, and what we wanted this game to be like.

It was almost completely silent as we all helped each other grab straps on our pads, and get pumped for the game.

After we were all ready we lined up in two lines, two men across, holding hands, and walking out in complete silence, as one well oiled machine.

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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

Journalism Competition!

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Last Friday, 8 out of 10 students from our journalism class went to Cal Lutheran University (where I’m going to college!!!) to attend the TCJEA event which is a very competitive and large journalism competition. There were 15 schools at the event in total and we were the smallest school there hands down. Many other schools had around 20 or even 30 writers with them to compete in all different categories. It was intimidating, yes, but the experience was so awesome that it hardly mattered how small our group was.

We had writers enter almost every category available, including photography, sports writing, feature writing, news writing, and editorial writing. I was in the feature category, and we had such an interesting speaker named Cyrus Nowrasteh wrote and produced a many films including a mini-series titled “The Path to 9/11”. We listened to his story about the controversy over his series and the attempted sabotage of his career by people trying to cover up their mistakes. Then, we had about an hour to write an article on him and submit to be scored against all other works in that category.

Now, Mr. Alvarez is the best journalism teacher I could ever ask for. He has taught me so much – I was a terrible writer when I first stepped into his classroom. Regardless of his immense encouragement and preparation, I was still not confident that I could compete with others in programs much bigger and more well-known than our little “On The Hill” paper. But I was sure that we were a small but mighty force and had a great change of winning awards.

There were so many awards handed out. Each category had 1st through 3rd places and 2 honorable mentions. There were also awards for online newspapers, print newspapers, and overall best team called “sweepstakes”.

In the feature category, there were over 30 students that wrote an article for submission. My fellow feature writer Emmy Addison took a 2nd place in the feature category, and I received an honorable mention! I couldn’t believe it. I was recognized as a top 5 writer in my category. I was ecstatic. Another writer Jack Marcus also received 2nd place in the news writing category. Our online publication of the newspaper took 4th place overall, with is astounding considering it had only been officially up and running for less than a month. Overall in the competition, we placed 4th, receiving an honorable mention in the sweepstakes category.

It is just amazing to me how such a small group of students was able to go to that competition and practically dominate. We really proved to the other schools that even though we may not seem like much, we have an amazing, dedicated, and hardworking group of writers. I am so proud to be a part of this team, and the event was more amazing than I could have imagined. Congrats, journalism class!

TETRIS BATTLE!

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Tetris Battle is one of the most addicting games I have ever played in my life.

I used to make fun of people at this school who played it, including almost all of my friends. But one night I succumbed to the temptation and got sucked into the never-ending addiction.

Tetris is one of the oldest games for computers. I remember playing it when I was younger on my parents big old desktop computer.

Now, it is even more fun than ever to play a competitive version through an application on Facebook. You are allowed 2 minutes of time where in you and your opponent battle it out to see who can get the most points. At the end, depending on who wins or loses, you earn or lose stars, which help you earn a higher rank and win money so you can buy new cool features for the game.

The winner is determined by the number of “Lines Sent” – Higher number means you’re the winner!

You can play against one or more person at once, and also request to play your friends.

I know it’s terrible how much I love this game now. I really should be studying for final exams, but tetris battle is always lurking in the background, calling my name and waiting to distract me!