Catching up/ Blog Change

I haven’t posted in a while. I finished school over a month ago and haven’t had the time or ambition to write posts. Also I don’t have high speed where I live, believe it or not. We can’t get it here and the adapter thing that the company recommends is not worth the money…it’s almost just as slow as the dial up! I don’t even go on our internet any more (the luxury of having it at school spoiled me), just use my phone...which picks up the American border  in many parts of our house sooo sometimes can’t even do that at home.

Anyways, I have decided to change the theme of my blog. I’m changing it to experiences I have/have had in my own life, and anything that interests me I decide to write about. Same old thing... just new topics/theme. Easier to write!

I plan to get caught up on everyone’s blogs very soon!

Quote of the day

"Never give up on something you can't go a day without thinking about."  - Rick Astley

Shoot For The Cure

This post is courtesy of one of my teammates. It was just before our "think pink" weekend where our basketball, hockey and volleyball teams played a couple home games and tried to raise as much money as we could for breast cancer. All the schools do it every year:

Shoot For The Cure

The minute I walked into the gym for the first time I had 15 new friends. That’s just the way it works on a team. I don’t get along with all of them all of the time, but we were brought together by something bigger than any one of us. Team. It’s just one of those things that binds people on a deeper level. It brings together people who might otherwise never be friends and shows them where they have common ground.

There are other things that connect us on a much bigger scale, things that, unlike my team, don’t give me warm feelings. Cancer. It’s touched every single person on my team. We’ve all been affected by it, but we’re not unusual. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, 487 people are diagnosed with some form of cancer on an average day.

As I write this I can’t help but think of the people who I’ve lost, and the pain I’ve seen others go through.Much like a team, the hardships faced when dealing with illness bind people together.

Over the course of the season every women’s basketball team in the league hosts Shoot for the Cure in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Forty-three teams thread pink laces through the eyes of their Pro-Models, pull pink socks up to their knees and tie their braids with pink elastics. We sell t-shirts and raffle tickets, we volunteer our time and cut our hair. We allow the pain that has brought us together to inspire us to be better. Last year, there was a cheque presented for $104,763 to the CBCF. Every dollar donated was a step towards research that could change people’s lives.

This year, we’re going all out. Our athletic therapist, and another girl on the team, are each cutting their hair and donating it to make wigs for cancer patients. Coach (whose hair isn’t quite long enough for a wig) is dying his pink. There are some awesome raffle prizes, 50/50 draws, and sweet pink VReds gear for sale. Oh yeah, and we also get to go head-to-head against our rivals who gave us two great games earlier this season. 

And why do we do this? Because, right now, someone is being told by their doctor that they have a long road ahead. We all do things we don’t want to do. We put our noses to the grindstone and we go to work, but some battles are bigger than others. Some battles can’t be fought alone. And those are the ones where a team becomes more than five, more than fifteen. Those are the ones where a team becomes a community. No one wants to watch a 40-point blowout, but right now cancer is kicking our butts. We wanted to come out that weekend and help us bring together our community in joy and celebration of life and in of the beauty of a fair battle.

Haven't updated on how my team's doing for a while. We have had an up and down season on the court this year and it's been super unpredictable. We are going in to this weekend with must win games because we are tied for the last playoff spot (because the hosting team gets in automatically). That team we are tied with is who we play this weekend twice and again later in two weeks. We have a team that has proven capable of beating the first place team in the league...but then we have a team that has lost to a team in last place. Like I said, unpredictable what is going to happen this weekend. And it will decide if we will be playing through March or not.
On another note. I actually haven't even got to  play since preseason. I have been sick I guess you could say. I hopefully will be able to get my eligibility back for this year (not wasting a year not playing at all)...and hoping to be back on the team next year to start playing..

Super Bowl

Once again the Patriots have lost to the Giants after leading in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl. Super disapointing, that game meant so much:

By Nate Davis, USA TODAY

Indianapolis - The New England Patriots were hoping to end their season with a Hail Myra. But their alst-grasp Hail Mary to end Super Bowl XLVI proved a microcosm of a game that didn't go their way.

Wes Welker shows his frustration at missing a key catch in the closing minutes of the Patriots' 21-17 loss.

Trailing the New York Giants 21-17 with five seconds to go, quarterback Tom Brady heaved the ball more than half the length of the field into the end zone where it was batted by several players including defenders Jacquian Williams and Kenny Phillips and Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. New England tight end Rob Gronkowski, playing on an injured ankle, dived for the carom, but it landed untouched. Ball game.

"It was a jump-ball play. Aaron did a good job," Gronkowski said. "We almost had it.

"I was close, but that doesn't matter at all. We didn't get it."

The play hardly registered as a mistake by New England, though it did rank among their missed opportunities in a game where the Patriots also made their share of errors.

In the two drives bridging the second and third quarters, Brady was 15-for-15 for 152 yards and two TDs. The remainder of the night he was 12 of 26 for 124 yards while throwing a costly interception in the fourth quarter. He was called for intentional grounding from his end zone on the Patriots' first offensive snap, giving New York a 2-0 first-quarter lead.

Sure-handed Wes Welker caught seven of the eight balls thrown in his direction for 60 yards. The other one? He dropped it with four minutes to go and the Patriots up 17-15 with the Giants possessing just one timeout. If Welker, who led the NFL with 122 catches in 2011 snares it, New England potentially runs out the clock or puts the game out of reach with another score.

"Biggest moment of my life, and (I) don't come up with it," said Welker. "It's discouraging."

Despondent over feeling he'd cost his team the win, Welker also offered: "I've just got to make the play. It's a play I've made 1,000 times in practice and everything else."

Patriots defensive back Sterling Moore seemingly killed a first-quarter Giants drive by forcing Victor Cruz to fumble at New England's 9. But the play was negated by too many Patriots on the field. Cruz caught a 2-yard TD two plays later.

"We had an opportunity to put this team away, and we didn't do it," said Patriots wideout Deion Branch, who nearly had a spectacular grab down the sideline on the final drive but couldn't get both feet down.

"So many opportunities that we didn't capitalize on that they gave us."

Even New England's much-maligned defense was solid, even though the first-quarter safety kept it on the field for 19 of the game's first 20 plays. New York had the ball for more than 37 minutes. After surviving the opening Giants salvo, the Patriots merely bent most of the night before intentionally breaking at the end of an 88-yard drive by allowing Ahmad Bradshaw to score with 57 seconds left in order to get the ball back with a chance to win.

Gronkowski, who suffered a high ankle sprain in the AFC title game, wasn't much of a factor despite claming he was 100% after the game. After setting single-season records at his position in 2011 with 1,327 receiving yards and 17 TD catches, he was targeted just three times by Brady, catching two balls for 26 yards. He was not able to outmaneuver linebacker Chase Blackburn on Brady's interception at the Giants 8-yard line on the second play of the fourth period.

"He just made a good play," said Gronkowski. "He boxed me out pretty well."

Branch lamented his teammates' children having to endure the loss when they return to school Monday. He was even more downcast realizing the team couldn't give owner Robert Kraft his fourth Lombardi Trophy to cap a season that began with the death of his wife of 48 years, Myra, after a bout with cancer just before the lockout's resolution last July.

Said Branch: "The entire season was for her."

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/story/2012-02-05/Patriots-Giants-Super-Bowl-XLVI/52982244/1

One of my friends posted this this morning.. found it kind interesting. Can't imagine something like this..

http://dearthey.com/2012/01/26/a-copyright-quickie-canada-is-about-to-pass-sopas-evil-little-brother-politely/

P.S. Another note from my post the other day.. Brady and the Pats are going to the Superbowel! 

Tom Brady: The Winner

This article is a little old...BUT I love it. I remember watching this episode of 60 minutes when it was on. I already loved the Pats and Brady, but this just made me like him that much more. Definitely really inspiring too.

Here's some of it. The rest and part of the video can be found at: 
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/03/60minutes/main1008148.shtml

And Here's some of the interview!

(CBS)  This segment was originally broadcast on Nov. 6, 2005. It was updated on Dec. 20, 2007.


By Daniel Schorn

Tom Brady, the quarterback of the New England Patriots, has been one the NFL biggest stories this year. On a pace to set the record for most touchdown passes, and leading the Patriots into the playoffs, he seems a lock for the NFL's MVP award. At the tender age of 30, he's already won three Super Bowls, an accomplishment that ranks him with some of the best quarterbacks ever to play the game. 


Yet when 60 Minutes first broadcast this story in 2005, he seemed underrated and overlooked. He doesn't have the arm of Peyton Manning. He doesn't have tattoos, doesn't take steroids and has never held out for more money. All he knows how to do is win. 


Former football greats say he exemplifies what the American athlete should be, yet he barely made it to the NFL at all. For much of his high school and college careers, he was a second stringer battling for the starting job. As correspondent Steve Kroft reports, Brady wasn't picked until the sixth round of the NFL draft, the 199th player chosen.

---

It is lucky Brady was drafted at all. A scouting report written before the draft sized up Brady this way: "Poor build, very skinny and narrow, lacks mobility and the ability to avoid the rush, lacks a really strong arm." 


"Yeah, it kind of all says the same thing, doesn't it?" says Brady. "So, basically, they're saying that I don't look like an NFL quarterback. Do I still look like an NFL quarterback? I think I've grown into that a little bit more. But at the same time, I haven't changed that much." 


"So, what do you think it was that all those scouts missed?" asks Kroft.


"I think they underestimated my competitiveness," says Brady.


When the game is on the line, he is the most feared quarterback in the NFL. 


He's 12-2 in playoff games, never lost in overtime, and is 26-5 in games decided by a touchdown or less. Teammate Matt Light say it's because Brady hates to lose. 


Teammates Matt Light and Willie McGinest say that's because he hates to lose. "I mean it could be anything. You could be playing a game of pool," says Light, laughing, "and if he misses a shot, you got to kind of watch out for flying sticks. I mean, he gets a little crazy out there."


One of your teammates said, "If you walk into a room, and you see backgammon chips scattered all over the floor and the table overturned, they know that you've been there, and probably lost," Kroft tells Brady.


"Yeah. Probably. I'm a pretty good winner. I'm a terrible loser. And I rub it in pretty good when I win. But as soon as I lose, those backgammon sets, I broke more backgammon sets," Brady says. "I've dropped elbows on 'em. I don't know. It's like I wish I had a punching bag nearby sometimes."


The temper is Irish. He was raised in a Catholic family of exceptionally gifted athletes in San Mateo, Calif., and grew up watching Joe Montana, the quarterback to whom he most often is compared. 


The similarities were not evident in high school, and he attracted scant attention from college football recruiters. So his father put together a highlight reel and sent it off to 60 coaches.


One of those schools was Michigan, which offered him a scholarship.


"You think that helped?" asks Kroft.


"Oh, my God, that was the reason," says Brady. "I know Michigan certainly wouldn't have seen it. I mean I was just a dime a dozen, I think. I was a good athlete on a local level."


At Michigan, he began as the seventh-string quarterback, eventually earning a share of the starting job during his junior and senior years. With the Patriots, he was a rarely used backup for Drew Bledsoe, New England's durable franchise quarterback, until a 2001 rollout when fate, in the uniform of Jets linebacker Mo Lewis, intervened. 


"I was probably 10 yards from that, and that was the loudest collision I've ever heard," Brady recalls.


Bledsoe didn't know where he was, so the reins of the Patriot offense were turned over to the untested understudy and Brady has never relinquished them. 


The Patriots won 14 of the next 17 games, including the Super Bowl in which Brady engineered a last-minute drive that led to the winning field goal. He was 24, the youngest quarterback to ever win an NFL championship.


"I mean you go from the backup quarterback, to winning the Super Bowl in five months. I mean you can't write that. There's no script for that. I mean, it just doesn't happen," says Brady.


"Do you ever feel the urge sometime to say I told you so?" asks Kroft.


"It would be too easy to do. I mean, why be a jerk? I mean, I don't need to say it," says Brady. "Let other people say it. It sounds so much better."

OSU Cowgirls

Stumbled across this article when watching updates from some basketball games on the weekend. This is the second time in less than a decade that this has happened to the basketball families at this school. Last time it was ten people associated with the men's team, including two players. This time it was the head and assistant coach. They were on their way to Arkansas for a recruiting trip. Hard to believe this kind of thing can happen once in a lifetime, but for this university it has happened twice in less than ten years!
The team is continuing on with their season and doing pretty well too.

Here's part of the article.. find the rest if you want at:
http://www.okstate.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/111811aaa.html

Nov. 18, 2011

Press Conference Quotes

(STILLWATER, Okla.) -- Oklahoma State University women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant women's basketball coach Miranda Serna were killed along with two others Thursday night in a plane crash in Perry County, Arkansas.

Budke and Serna were on a recruiting trip to Arkansas. The other two individuals, including the pilot, were not affiliated with the university. There were no survivors.

"The Oklahoma State family is devastated by this tragedy," said OSU President Burns Hargis. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of Kurt Budke, Miranda Serna and the other victims.

"Kurt was an exemplary leader and a man of character who had a profound impact on his student-athletes," Hargis said. "He was an outstanding coach and a wonderful person. We send our deepest sympathies to his wife, Shelley, and their children, Sara, Alex and Brett.

"Coach Budke elevated our women's basketball program to new levels of success," Hargis said. "He and his staff raised our profile in the nation's toughest conference."

"Miranda was an up-and-coming coach and an outstanding role model for our young ladies."

Back at 'er

Been away from the blog for a little while. Don't get good internet at home over Christmas break so I didn't get to catch up. Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year! I certainly did. It was really nice to be home and get the break and rest from school and all.
On another note, my surgery went really well and it healed pretty fast. I ended up missing a couple exams though and have to write them this week.. which kind of sucks but oh well.
I'm still not playing ball yet..and to make it worse not even aloud to travel with the team.. I have a couple appts. in the next couple weeks, and have already been cleared to start running and playing some from my doctor. I played/ ran some over the break, but got back here and have been told by someone not to do anything again... Probably one of the most frustrating things I'm going through right now but I hope to get back at playing soon, because I'm getting pretty anxious...and obviously out of shape. And not to mention how watching your team play away on webcast is the worst feeling ever.. Anyways I'm going to stop rambling and getting back to my studying.
Thanks for all the encouragement/good luck comments about the surgery!