2014-2015 Lady Lancers

     The Lady Lancer basketball team has always been known for the team who "isn't good" but this season the girls hope to change that around. In the past the girls haven't had very convincing records. Truth be told, the girls are all very talented players in their own ways, but the mystery is, why can't the girls seem to win a game? The girls have been mocked because of their playing and it's very discouraging to the players even if they put up a hard fight in the game. "This season will be different" quoted by a couple of the incoming senior players.
     The past basketball season the girls sadly did not win a game, but they worked their butts off and always continued to hustle and fight for every position. The majority of the varsity players were actually freshmen. It was a big transition team from the girls last year whether you were a senior or freshmen. The freshmen girls did a great job transitioning from 8th grade basketball to the varsity high school level basketball. It was a long hard fought battle but the girls got used to the difficult level of playing quickly.
     The girls hope to pick up where the left off last season and only hope to continue to improve to start winning some games. There is high hopes for senior Chloe Gill to come in clutch with more three pointers. Sophomore Maddie Murphy is expected to keep bringing the ball up well and making played happen as well as taking it to the hoop when the opportunity strikes. Coach Langmead will be going into his third year of coaching these ladies and couldn't be more excited to watch film and help lead this team to win. This team shouldn't be underestimated. You should expect great things from the Lady Lancer basketball team this season.

Coach Jimmy

     Coach Jimmy Choquette has been coaching the Bay State Monarchs for four seasons of both spring and fall AAU basketball. Coach Jimmy has always been in love with the sport basketball and has played his whole life. When he was growing up and people asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he always said a basketball coach. He currently coaches the Bay State Monarchs and is a coach at Canton High School. Jimmy is always positive when it comes to coaching his teams and will always be there for his players with whatever question comes his way.
    The last tournaments the Monarchs played in was the "Huskie" tournament hosted at Wheaten College in Norton, MA. Coach Choquette had nothing but positive things to say about how his team played. Sure they were off to a rocky start, but after a key timeout called by the Monarchs, they returned better than ever; cleaning up their silly mistakes and making key plays to pull off a win. The team played as a whole and almost resembled a school a fish, always staying together and moving as one unit. Coach Jimmy cheered hard from the side lines yelling out plays and always calling out a girls name and telling her she did a great job on defense or that was a great shot, don't worry about that miss, keep shooting. Coach Jimmy couldn't have been more proud of his team.
    With the last tournament quickly approaching Coach Jimmy Choquette has high hopes for his Monarch team. With two of the girls in their final year of AAU basketball, (since they'll be 18 when the next season comes up), he hopes to get these two girls plenty of playing time and hopes they will just play basketball to have fun before they head off too adulthood. "Basketball has always been a big part of Jill and Bridgett's life these past 10+ years of playing. They've been playing basketball before they could even talk, I just know it. These girls have been a key aspect of my team and I couldn't be more happy to see them move on in their lives whether  that does or does not include basketball. But yet, it's still disappointing to see them leave. They're always hustling for every ball. Bridgett is always willing to be the tough point guard who will knock you to the floor if needed and Jill sacrifices her body every play; I can't help but love and respect that about their playing" Coach Jim smirked whiling commenting on two of his players final season. This coach is beloved from his players and is truly one of the best coaches to be coaching high school basketball girls.

Pro Girl Sports

     Girls sports have never been as common as boys sports, due to this, professional girl sports fall off the face of the planet simply because there isn't enough interest in it as there is mens sports. I don't think the falling of female sports is the same now as it was in the 40's because back then women played baseball while the men were out fighting the war and when they came back, it would all return to normal and women would go back to house work. Now, I feel like it's just more of a popularity contest within the sports. At this point there is only really women's basketball and soccer left for people to watch. Out of all the sports these two are probably the most watched and more popular sports for women. There are obviously many other interesting sports, but this brings in the biggest fan base so naturally, they have to keep the teams that make them the most money. These teams survive because they bring in money and are very fast pace. Basketball is a very rapid moving game, the ball is always moving and there can be contact. Women's basketball has survived for its fast moving games and amazing plays that go down. Soccer stays alive because it's more physical than basketball, but it's amazing to see how far the ball can soar in the sky. Soccer is also a pretty fast paced game, but low scoring. It's defiantly interesting to see how the goalie can make such insane saves. Basketball and soccer are both sports that managed to survive in the women's league because of a common interest of intensity, fast pace playing and physical contact.

Athletes and Drug Tests

     I believe that athletes of any level should have to be randomly drug tested throughout the season. For high school athletes, there is a ton of pressure from coaches, fans and parents to succeed and get a scholarship if you want to play in college. Most athlete's dream is to go pro, and do to that you need to go through high school and college and play your very hardest no matter what. Throughout all this stress, student athletes feel like pressure to always do well, so they start doing drugs to keep themselves calm or to enhance their performance. Therefore, high school athletes should have to be drug tested to make sure they are maintaining a healthy lifestyle and not harming or pushing their bodies to such an extent that they get seriously injured. High school students have too much to lose to be stupid and take drugs to improve their performance in order to get a scholarship or get noticed by a D1 or D2 school. They have so much more to offer than just their ability to shoot a basketball or to have a killer fast ball. Students have their character and if they work hard in school, they could easily get a scholarship for their hard work in school instead of their drug enhanced sports performance.

     When athletes reach the college level, things get even more serious. Athletes are now craving a chance to play for the pros and have fans buy jersey's with last names on the back. At this point, athletes will do anything to get to the top. Whether they play far and train excessively or take drugs such as steroids to gain more power in their jump shot or a grand slam hit. College athletes should be drug tested more regularly than high school athletes because of the increase of added pressure to do well to be able to make it to the pros. At this point in their careers, athletes put the most pressure on themselves to do well because they want to make it to the pros. Because of this added pressure from the athletes themselves, they should be drug tested more to continue to make sure that they are keeping up with their health and not causing harm to themselves.

     Lastly, pro athletes should be drug tested the most. In my opinion, they should have weekly drug tests to make sure they are not giving themselves an advantage to increase their chances of making it into the hall of fame for their sport. Professional athletes get the most pressure from the fans. Athletes hate to let all their fans down, so some of them take drugs to make sure that doesn't happen. Professional athletes also have their families and finances to think about. They have to make sure that they take the better deal in order to provide for their families. Athletes at this level get more money than I will ever have in my life. They begin to get greedy on drugs and think they are better than what they are getting paid, so they begin the argue about it and that's what gets them to end up jobless or what gets them caught taking drugs.

     Every level of sport gets more and more competitive and more pressure is put on the athletes to succeed. In order to make sure athletes are staying healthy they should have to take a mandatory drug test to keep everything in check. Drugs in the end will hurt an athlete, not help one.

Transgender Athletes

1. Authorities should just let Fallon Fox fight. In my opinion, she shouldn't be treated differently because she is a transgender athlete.
2. Transgender athlete's don't have advantages because they went through all the surgeries. It's like telling a basketball player they can't play because they're too tall so they have an advantage.
3. I would understand if a transgender wants to compete, as an athlete myself I know I love the sport I play so if they do too, I wouldn't do anything to stop them, I would just do my best to compete against them. This would encourage me to train harder in hopes to reach the skill level of the transgender I'm competing against.
4.This shouldn't be handle in the future... people shouldn't have a problem to begin with.

Prefontaine

Pre is portrayed as a great runner who is becoming very cocky and self absorbed. He thinks he's better than everyone else because he knows he's  good. He doesn't seem to be too likeable because he takes everything as a race and can't stand to lose because of his cocky personality. Pre does many arrogant things to his teammates including making practice a race and saying he's too good for them. Pre teaches a 9 year old boy that he can't beat him no matter how good he gets. Pre's high school goal was to go win the gold in the Olympics. The living conditions at the Olympics are tough and seem to be in a poor area. A hostage situation happens when they are at the Olympics, causing the Olympics to be postponed for a couple days.

What is a Sport?

     Today, the majority of people are getting active with physical activity. However, not all physical activity is considered a sport. Some things that people do are more considered hobbies than actual sports. I believe that to be considered it has to have some physical contact as well as competitive. For example, hockey, basketball and football are all obvious sports for physical contact. Softball and baseball also have physical contact when the players slide into the bases trying not to get out as well as dodging the players in your way while running the bases. The only tree sports that don't involve physical contact that I would consider a sport is golf, tennis and swimming. Those three involve a lot of active movements and hard work. An example of an activity or hobby would be figure skating, cheer-leading and dance. To me, all of those are considered hobbies because of the lack of physical endurance. Sure they all get competitive and you learn difficult moves, but that's not enough to be considered a sport.
     Football is a sport because it is very competitive and physical. You can't be afraid to shove someone to the ground or even get shoved to the ground yourself. You also have to be prepared for anything and you have to protect your teammate no matter what. It's kind of like your teammates are your family, you'd do anything to protect your family. Yoga isn't a sport because there is nothing competitive or physically enduring about yoga. Yoga is a hobby to relax and get  your balance all together. Sure if you do yoga it'd help you with sports, but it itself isn't a sport.
     Ping Pong and Curling shouldn't be considered a sport in the Olympics because they are more hobbies than anything else. Sure they involve a lot of effort but curling is more strategic than skill. A ball is a big part of something being a sport. The only sport I can think of that doesn't involve a ball is swimming. Swimming is a competitive sport that involves a lot of physical strength and endurance.