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.

   I agree with the author that college student athletes are being treated unfairly and are exploiting their students. One reason is because when Fullback Devin Ramsey emailed his paper to his tutor and the tutor added another paragraph to his essay and the paper was never emailed tot the teacher. Then the NCAA found him guilty on frod on something he didn't do and for something he didn't do. So the NCAA revoked his scholarship which meant he couldn't play football. Also another reason is when a former Colorado running back became paralyzed after a player hit him hard during a game. the college then revoked his scholarship  and refused to pay for the medical expenses. I think that its just wrong for university to just turn their back on a former athlete that came and committed to play for their school like that and then for them to get injured and then for you just to turn your back is wrong. That's why i agree with the author that the NCAA are treating their student athletes unfairly and are exploiting them.

           Blog post #7


  In Trevor Martin's documentary " Schooled- Price of College sports,2013" he argues that college student athletes are being underutilized and miss treated by the NCAA. The author argues by first interviewing former players who were treated unfairly like North Carolina's Fullback Devin Ramsey wast typing his paper and emailed it to his tutor for revisions that he had to make and the tutor emailed him back and added an extra paragraph for him and he thought that the tutor was going to send it to the teacher but he never did and he was caught in a frod  scandal revoking him from playing football and couldn't even fight the situation, he then interviewed some tutors that helped the star athletes with there academics and the tutor said that some of the athletes had a reading level of a first grader and some didn't even know how to pronounce letters and he concluded with trying to interview people that were apart of the NCAA board and they all declined which sends a message that they know what they are doing is wrong and wont admit to their wrongs and treat layers more fairly. His purpose is to express that NCAA athletes are being unfairly treated and that they work their butts off to help their team win a championship and when they do they don't get rewarded like the coaches do with millions of dollars, and that college students aren't getting the education they payed for. Martin seems to have student athletes in high school and in college now and even former athletes that for college athletes that their miss treatment wont be silent anymore and that for incoming college athletes that NCAA sports isn't just a walk in the park that players in college sports are being treated unfairly and that there being exploited by the people who created college sports.

Celtics vs Warriors

          This past Sunday, Isaiah Thomas 20 points wasn't enough to hold the 26 point half time lead against Steph Curry who had an outstanding 37 points and the visiting Warriors. On Sunday at the TD Garden the c’s defense breakdown cost them the game. After a mediocre half the c’s fall 106-101.

         The Celtics came hot out of the gate with 38 first quarter points in large part of Isaiah Thomas’ 8 point out burst in the last 69 seconds of the first quarter. Then in the second quarter the Celtics big three off the bench ( Jerebko, Crowder, and Thomas) kept the scoring streak going early in the second. The Celtics hit three big threes in 60 seconds to expand their lead to 26 with 6:56 remaining in the first half.

 The Celtics looked promising to get a win but….. everyone knew the warriors would come back in the second half. Surely enough the Warriors chipped the lead away and with Draymond Greens tip in with 3:24 left which put the Warriors up 96-94.  The Celtics came back with a 3 pointer that put them back up by one with 1:43 left the go but the Warriors kept responding with more buckets.

   Then it finally came down to one finally attempt to put the game into over time and with Isaiah Thomas with the ball it almost was an absolute definite that he would hit the three but he got a great looked and missed and the Celtics lost 106-101.

     The big takeaway from Boston though is that “These Celtics can hang with the NBA elites and should not fear what lies ahead of them if the seek into  the playoffs”.( by Chris Forsberg).  Which this reporter is right they shouldn't really fear because with the addition to Isaiah and Jerebko this team could be a possible eight to seven seed.

        The Celtic’s “valued the ball” and were able to hang with the Warriors because of that. Also because they were able to take care of the ball they only had one first half turnover which played a huge factor in their 26 point half time lead. Unfortunately as the Warriors started to come back and when they ended up winning that’s when the Celtic’s didn't take care of the ball and let up SEVEN turnovers in the second half.

         But they were some positive things that came out of this game one is that the Celtics came and played one great half of basketball which makes you think if they could be a potential second round playoff team if they can come to play for 48 minutes instead of 24. Also another thing is that even without their big men and without really having any stars on the team for them to hang with these types of elite teams means that our coaching staff must be doing a fantastic job with this team. Finally the last positive thing that came out of this game was the fact that we almost beat the best team league in the league.

Reaction on the Superbowl!

                      Well to start off the Superbowl was very exciting! The patriots won by a score of 28-24, it was so cool to see our patriots come back against the Sea-hawks from such a big deficit. I was personally impressed with Tom Brady's because in the past two Superbowl he couldn't get the job done which really made me question his supremacy of a quarterback. But instead of tom being all panicky he was calm and cool and collective about being down so much and came out and showcased what and who the real Tom Brady was and why New England drafted him. I'm so excited that out home town Patriots won and I hope that's one of many Superbowl's top come!!!

Summary and analysis of hoop dreams and the theme that interested me.

                      The summary and analysis of hoop dreams can summed up in many ways with many questions. If i had to sum it up i would say Hoop Dreams was about two young good basketball athletes named William and Arthur who are using basketball as their ticket out of poverty. But along the way faced challenges like for example when at the end of their freshman year St. Joseph high school had an increase in tuition causing Arthur to leave due to the inability to pay forcing him to go to public school. Another example is when William tears his miniskis causing him to miss the rest of his sophomore year at St. Joe's. By the time both Arthur and William were seniors they were superstars at their high schools and big time ball players knowing that it was the only thing that was keeping them from the bitter streets of Chicago. So William was offered a scholarship at Marquette for basketball and due to not high enough grades for Arthur he was forced to go to a junior college for two years in order tom get high enough grades to accept an athletic scholarship and finally did to Arkansas state college and there he became a star point guard at Arkansas state and as for William he quit the basketball team but resumed with the team in his senior year.

             As for a theme for the documentary I think the most common theme was " was basketball a job or a sport to William and Arthur". Now my response to that is I think personally it was a job because they were a natural talent at the game from a young age. Also you can not forget the fact that playing basketball was basically the only thing from keeping them from the bitter streets of Chicago. So yes i do think it was a job to them because it was also a way for them to get their families out of poverty which made both William and Arthur play their hearts out on the floor every time they played. Even William said at the end of the documentary that basketball has become more of a job  because that is all he does everyday is get up and play basketball and would be still happy if he had to stop playing. So that's why I think that basketball was more of a job then a sport to both William and Arthur.

The Superbowl

                      The Superbowl was very exciting this year. It included the Seattle Seahawks and our very own New England Patriots. The Superbowl is a game that means a lot to the two temas that are in it. It shows the drive and determination and hard work that took that team just to get their and how it paid off. Its a game where the two most hard working team can show off their talents and show that they deserve to be their and that they deserve to win the last game of the year and a chance to bring home the championship trophy also known as " The Lombardi Trophy".

                   It was an intense moment, there was a little under a minute left in the game Seattle had the ball on the one yard line.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7rPIg7ZNQ8 and then the ball was snapped and Russel Wilson throws... and there is Malcolm Butler their to save the day and picked off the pass at the one yard line creating a sigh of relief for Patriots fans around the world. I my self was cheering because the pats really needed this win to submit the legacy between Tom Brady and Bill belichik. When the team was down by ten Brady put his team on his back and led the way and threw a touchdown pass to Julian Edelman  which ended up being the game winning touch down. That comeback ended up being the biggest comeback in the fourth quarter of a Superbowl in NFL history. As a fan Im proud of my football team not giving up when people thought they should and came back and won the game to bring back the trophy to Bean Town!!!!

Aaron Hernandez

( by David Linton)

            

            In the article "Opening Round " by David Linton its trying o explain if Aaron Hernandez orchestrated the murder cover up or if he was unfair accused . Now did Aaron Hernandez orchestrate the murder cover up? I think he did because DNA says that both Hernandez and Lloyd shared  a marijuana blunt found near Lloyd body. Also after there is evidence of Hernandez arriving home and holding a glock in his bathroom. Now investigators still haven't found that weapon yet which indicates hes tying to cover it up so it looks like  he didn't do it. also after the murder Aaron secured the flights of his two associates Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz but later were fund and pleaded innocent.

           But I don't think that he was persecuted unfairly because of his celebrity status. Aaron' s defense lawyer said tat he had no reason to kill Lloyd. He said Lloyd sold Aaron marijuana blunts, and that he went nightclubbing with Lloyd. The lawyer also said that just because a person hangs out d be convicted f the murder.with the wrong people and is at the wrong place at the wrong time doesn't mean he should be convicted of he crime. but i disagree because if there solid evidence that he was at the murder seen and was caught killing Lloyd and DNA shows he was with that person and that theirs a picture with him and the murder weapon, then he must be the killer hands down and hes not being persecuted unfairly.

What is the definition of sports?

                     What is the definition of sports? What does it mean to play sports? Is it just an activity you do            after school to stay in shape? Is it a hobby you like to do and just play for fun? I think to some people sports is just an activity their parents force them to do or to have fun with friends and also meet new friends. Also i think that to some people its just a seasonal sport they like to play almost like a hobby. 

                   Do you wanna know what sports is to the people who play it year round like me? Sports is an outlet for me and for others like me. Sports is the only thing we have besides friends and school. Sports is where we the athletes get to use our talents to put on a show for people watching. Sports is what keeps us from going crazy.Sports is what brings our friendships with the people who have the same love for the game become stronger . Sometimes even sports is what evolve friendship into brotherhood, also sports is the determination in one to push through the pain and win the game but most of all.... its about team work. That's what i think is the definition of sports

What is the definition of sports?