Marion Jones was the fastest female track athlete in the world, ready to own the track and feid event for the years to come. Then she happen to lie to Federal agents about using P.E.D's and finally admitted to using steroids. She then spoke on a podium next to the court house and made a public announcement that she used steroids during the Olympics. She was then stripped of her medals and sentenced to six months in prison.

       The Norton high school 2015 boys freshman basketball team went an outstanding 13-5 which happened to be better than the junior varsity team and the varsity team. Their record happened to be tested against a good defensive team in the Hopkinton Hillers on February 14th, 2015 which happened to be valentines day. The boys were looking to bring home a win for their moms and for their town to end a nice first half of the season.  The boys were down early at the end of the first half by thirteen and it looked like their night wasn't going to end good.

     Initially, Rylie Coffey one of their freshman stars was in foul trouble early and was frustrated which was a big blow in the first half to their team. He was the second leading scorer on the team behind Tim Munger who only had six first half points along with Rylie Coffey who also had six. The boys had a terrible first half in general missing layups, throwing away passes , and doing a one pass shot game which all together equaled them not playing team basketball. " Terrible defense, very sloppy" says Mr Weber a spectator in the crowd who was describing the Lancers defense. The Hillers had the lead in the first half, Norton fought their way back into the game even though they were trailing, " We never gave up, we fought back but Hopkinton always answered back."says Tim Munger a player of the freshman team.

  Unfortunately the Hillers struck back making a statement that they were the better team in the first half. There was only so much coach Valenti could do , she even let her assistant coach , Coach Coffey coach and she ended up taking it back over because the team ended up doing worse. The boys had to come up with a plan to come back from this thirteen point deficit.

    As the Lancers were walking back to the locker room and everyone showed signs of frustration and anger and defeat and fatigue. The locker room was silent for few minutes and everyone had a look of starstruck on their face. The boys expected to come into Hopkinton expecting a victory not knowing that Hopkinton is the hardest place in the TVL to win a basketball game. It has been for years on end because of their tough crowd, lock down defense, and full court pressure. Its something only a few teams can handle.

The boys had no idea what they were walking into and it surprised them and left them at half time thinking about a game plan about how to come back from this thirteen point deficit, this made them argue at each other and even played the blame game. " Rylie was the anchor in the locker room. He got us fired up and ready to give it full force." said Joe Weber also a member of the freshman team. The bottom line was they needed to find an outlet or plan if you will so they could come back and show that The Lancers were the better team.


     The buzzer rang indicating that the second half was starting. Norton came out fired up like they were given a new chance , like the first half never happened. They came out in a full court press and started making the Hillers cough up the ball giving the lancer boys a quick and easy eight points off four quick turnovers. The Hillers continued to turnover the ball thanks to Joseph Weber and Tim Munger on the defensive end who created those turnovers. After they got many turnovers the lancers half court game stated flowing well. Matt Goodman scored 6 strait clutch points putting the Lancers up by 5. Then the Hillers started to go back on run at the end of the third bringing the Lancers lead to just two. Raising the question again about which time has more fight and will to come out victorious and ultimately to be the better team.


     As the fourth quarter began the Norton Lancers started out strong. Freshman Rylie Coffey came up big for his team. His passing spread the floor which allowed them to run their offense. Rylie scored 14 points in the second half doing most of the work on the offensive end and creating turnovers on the defensive side. Rylie led the offense and fed the ball to Tim Munger who had 6 big points in the fourth both coming off three's and to Joseph Weber who had four big points off two contested layups.


  The Hillers didn't just roll over without putting up a fight. The Hillers went on a run with two minutes left in the game while down by 9. They hit one 3- pointer and got two buckets off of turnovers. The Lancers again were on the spot on whether or not they would come through with the victory. Freshman Cam Gill got two big offensive rebounds that he put back for 4 clutch points. But then the brought it within two again but started fouling Tim Munger and Rylie Coffey who both hit all their free throws to put the Lancers up by 9 to put the game away. Norton over came a thirteen point deficit at half time to beat the Hopkinton Hillers in the toughest gym to win in the TVL.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMRxobeNoG4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1n78PTDh9g

       
        In the article " It was lightning and thunder" by Will Grimsley he describes the heavyweight title match between Ali and Liston in Maine in 1965. He explains how the fight was real the first time but rigged the second time in Maine. He uses tip 3 in my opinion because he gives us statistics about the first fight and compared it to the second one. I also think that the rhetorical stratiges he used were the audience in which he explains how angry they are and the tone of the article.


In the article " Sox hit rock bottom" by Stephen Hawkins he describes how the Redsox lost a crushing game against the Rangers by a Josh Hamilton game winning double. The author uses tip number three and tip number four. His rhetorical strategies he uses is by telling how the audience felt and the occasion for writing this prompt which is because of the game winning double by Josh Hamilton.

 In the scandal deflate gate there is an unbiased opinion on whether Tom Brady and Bill Belicheck  knew about the balls being deflated. People think that Brady is guilty and that he knew about the footballs before the game even started. Reporters say that after the inspection of the footballs before the AFC championship game that the Patriots ball boy had two hours to tamper with the footballs. Reporters also said that Brady even sent texts to the ball boy but no evidence has been found.


I personally think that Tom Brady knew about the balls being deflated because he played with them and I think he wanted them to be a little deflated but not that much. The league even saw texts between the ball boy and Tom Brady but none about the footballs. even though he's our hometown quarterback I still think hes guilty because of all the evidence against him and that him not knowing about the footballs being 2 pounds lighter. People said that when Gronk spiked the ball that it could have deflated the ball a little bit because he spikes it so hard. But even know that some people believed that's what happened it still doesn't explain why the other eleven balls were under psi.


    I personally think that this punishment is fair because of how significant it was. Even though people say that Tom is suspended longer than Ray Rice who beat up his wife and Adrian Peterson who beat his kid , they do't realize that those two guys already missed a whole season. They missed a whole season because of the legal allegations and that they were suspended indefinatley by the league. So yes I do think that this punishment is fair because what Tom did could have and did affect the outcome of the game.

    The solution to a problem like this is to give the player a "slap on the wrist" so to speak. the NFL should penalize Tom Brady because of what he did top the footballs. I think tom should get a two game suspension and that the NFL shouldn't take away draft picks because it wasn't the whole team that did it , it was Tom. So that's what I think the solution should be for this incident.

        In the scandal deflate gate there is an unbiased opinion on whether Tom Brady and Bill Belicheck  knew about the balls being deflated. People think that Brady is guilty and that he knew about the footballs before the game even started. Reporters say that after the inspection of the footballs before the AFC championship game that the Patriots ball boy had two hours to tamper with the footballs. Reporters also said that Brady even sent texts to the ball boy but no evidence has been found.


I personally think that Tom Brady knew about the balls being deflated because he played with them and I think he wanted them to be a little deflated but not that much. The league even saw texts between the ball boy and Tom Brady but none about the footballs. even though he's our hometown quarterback I still think hes guilty because of all the evidence against him and that him not knowing about the footballs being 2 pounds lighter. People said that when Gronk spiked the ball that it could have deflated the ball a little bit because he spikes it so hard. But even know that some people believed that's what happened it still doesn't explain why the other eleven balls were under psi.

Blog post #8

                 Through out the film " The short game" by Josh Greenboum elite golfers who are 8 and younger from all over the world come play golf in a world championship. Some of the best golfers who are eight years old and younger come to play from around the world to prove their dominance in a friendly tournament. A lot of these kids dedicate their most of their childhood to the game they love. For example a seven year old golfer by the name of Allan Kornankova Was one of the elite young golfers going into the tournament and ended up winning it all. During the movie when the interviewer asked him if Allan thought as if he was sacrificing his child hood. His response was that he wasn't sacrificing his child hood and that golf was his child hood he loved it so much. I think that him saying that describes how much hard work and dedication he put in to the sport and how much he likes it. Through out the film " The short game" by Josh greenboum explains that even young kids can have a love for a sport like anyone else.

                  I think that through the film " the short game" by josh greenboum I think that its the kids choice weather or not they want to dedicate most of their time to get good at the sport they love. At anytime they could say they don't want to do it anymore its their decision not the parents . Their so young that even if they decide to take a break from the sport  they have their whole life ahead of them to get back in the groove. again. An  example is Amari Avery , she was the leader and then she had a bad day on the green and started crying. Right there she could have said she was done I want to quit but it was her decision to keep going and eventually win the tournament. That's why I think its the kids decision to put themselves through what they did.




                 
                    In  the documentary " The short game" by Josh Greenboum he shows how young kids can be dedicated to a sport at a young age.  The author first shows dedication by the interviews at the beginning on what kids had to do to get where they are, he then explains the hard work by showing short clips of the kids making difficult shots on the green. To conclude Josh Greenboum finishes the documentary by showing the result of the tournament. His purpose is to explain that kids can be dedicated to a sport as young kids. He seems to have a young athletic audience.

                   




                 



Blog post #6


         So yesterday my home town Boston Celtics hosted the Miami Heat. Now with a celtics 100-92 win last time they met in Miami it seemed to be a sure win for the Celtics. But sure enough i was proven wrong. Last night the Celtics were down by 22 in the third and seemed like they were gonna lose in a blow out even with Miami without Wade, and Bosh but the Celtics brought it within 6 with 43 seconds but ended up losing by a final score of 93-87. Even though Marcus Smart and Jae Crowder had an out standing offensive night for the Celtics it just was not enough to beat the red hot heat.