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.

NHL Playoff

I believe that the Bruins will win the Stanley Cup this season. When the Bruins get on a roll and play the game that they know, they are unstoppable. We have seen them dominate games and we have seen them slack off in games, but in the end they will be able to pull through and win it all. Patrice Bergeron has been a key scorer for the Boston Bruins recently and if he keeps up the good work, he will help pull through a win for the Bruins in the playoffs. Chara is also a great defender for the Bruins. He is always willing to shove people into the boards in order to get the puck. He is a great captain who is always willing to stick up for his teammates. With the leadership of Chara, the Boston Bruins should be able to pull through with another Stanley Cup.

Skategate Scandal

     Tonya Harding did not deserve to be in the 1994 Winter Olympics, simply because of her unsportsmanlike act toward competitor Nancy Kerrigan. The fact that Harding had the nerve to hire a "thug" to take out Kerrigan's knee was awful. Clearly you have to be an awful person if you're okay with hiring someone to physically harm someone with a bat. If you are that worried that you will lose that bad, practice and train harder, don't harm someone.
    After reading about what Harding did to Kerrigan, I felt so bad that Kerrigan's skating career was basically over with just a couple hits to the knee with a bat. I seriously can't believe the nerve of some people. I feel like they did the right thing by not letting Tonya compete after what she did. If I were them, I would have sent her to jail for 2 years, but that's just me. As an athlete, I hate when people have bad sportsmanship, and Tonya Harding is the definition of an unsportsmanlike person who deserves to live a life of guilt.

Sandusky

     The Sandusky article on Dottie Sandusky illustrated her opinion on the matter of her husband being in jail for sexually abusing 10 boys. Dottie believes that the boys came out and told the public what happened solely based on money purposes; she also believes that her husband is innocent and none of what he is being accused of happened. Dottie claims nothing happened at her house because she was always home and would have heard something. It seems as thought professional athletes and coaches are in fact above the law. Little kids look up to these big time athletes and coaches, so people don't really want kids looking at everyone in jail. Plus, I believe that at the end of the day, everyone just wants their team to win, so if letting a star athlete go, they may just do it to win. Athletes may not get off 100% clean like some other athletes, but they defiantly are more flexible if you are a big time star.  

Is Their Momentum Bearable?

Do you think the Boston Bruins can keep this momentum up and continue in the right direction?

Interviews

    Junior, Kylie Barrows, plays softball for Norton High School. It is her favorite sport; she has been playing softball for 11 years now. Kylie's biggest accomplishment in softball is making it to nationals with her travel team in 2012. Her biggest strength is when she is playing first base. She believes that her biggest weakness is not being able to stay focused for the entire game. Something Kylie would like to improve on is focusing on the all around game, not just a couple of aspects such as hitting or fielding. Kylie plans on playing softball at Johnson and Wales University.
   Coach Newell has played volleyball for 10 years and is now a coach for Norton High; volleyball is her favorite sport to play. Her biggest accomplishment is when her high school volleyball team won the state championship her senior year. Coach's strength would have to be blocking, her weakness would be defense. She would like to improve the height of her jump. Coach Newell did continue to play volleyball at Holy Cross and is now a coach and plays in an adult league.

And Here Comes Duke

    Recently, Duke has announced that they will be attending the 2014 Coaches vs. Cancer event in Brooklyn, New York. The Coaches vs. Cancer event will be held November 21st and 22nd at the Barclays Center.This is a nationwide event that involves the National Association of Basketball coaches and the American Cancer Society. The Coaches vs. Cancer event has been becoming a big part of the college basketballs pre season.

A Fight to the End

     Head coach Dan Langmead had high hopes for the girls 2013-2014 varsity basketball team. The Lady Lancers finished the season last year with not the best record, but with very close games. Coach Langmead's goals were to start off the season strong and make it to the tournament, as well as make a new, positive name for the Norton girls basketball program. The Lady Lancers experienced a disappointing season, but continued to fight hard no matter what the outcome was at the end of the game.

     The Lancers season ended with another loss, making the ending record 0-20. Sure the season didn't turn out the way they wanted, but they always managed to fight through the tormenting crowds and keep their heads up and try to continue to play hard on defense to the end of the game, no matter what the score was. Captains Meg Pestana and Sam Lang always continued to be supportive and pick people up while they were down. If someone missed a layup, you could guaranteed that both captains would come over, tap you on the back and say "Hey, shake it off. Next play." This is what the Lancers needed to keep up their defensive game to get some stops and try to get some baskets at the other end of the court. 

     Offensively, when the Lancer's would take the time and slow the ball down to run the play correctly, it was very effective and would break down the other teams defense, opening up the lane to go to the hoop or freeing up a shooter to take the outside shot. Junior, Ashley Pelletier has a great shooting season as well as Junior Chloe Gill and Freshman Maddie Murphy. Guard Marisa Amato did very well moving and handling the ball to keep the offense moving. On the defensive end, Senior captains Meg Pestana and Sam Lang did a great job making sure no player from the opposing team had an easy post touch. Sam Lang lead the team in taking charges. She was always willing to sacrifice her body to take the charge. Meg rarely let the guard get it into the post. She played great defense on the tallest girls in the TVL and it showed. 

    Starting next season, Coach Langmead hopes to pick up were the team left off this season. He hopes that all the girls will play as much basketball as they can before the start of next season so that the girls are physically and mentally prepared to play again. The team is going to greatly miss the two seniors Meg and Sam, but next season as a team they hope to make the tournament. The girls are looking forward to a good season next year. The incoming seniors hope to make it a good one seen as it's their last season. Best of luck during the next upcoming season.

Skating into Fourth for the US

     U.S men blew a shot at a medal? The United States men's hockey team was ranked second going into the Olympics, clearly they were expected to medal when they obviously did not medal at all. The US lost to Canada in the semifinals as well as lost a chance for a silver or gold medal. But, in the finals, the US took an embarrassing 5-0 loss to Finland and also lost that last chance to medal in the 2014 Winter Olympics. Max Pacioretty, an American Forward told the Pittsburgh Tribute, "I'm not proud at all right now. I don't think anyone is. We were playing for a medal and didn't show up." The US men's hockey players clearly weren't impressed with how they played. They looked as though they were slow and very stagnate in the 2nd and 3rd period. 
     However the first period of the Finland US match up seemed to be going in the US's favor; they were out scoring Finland. If it wasn't for Finland's goalie, Tukka Rask, the U.S should have gotten a couple goals in the 1st period. Rask was on his A-game and blocked every shot coming his way. Coming into the Olympics, the U.S's biggest competition was Sweden because they were ranked first and were expected to win gold. As the games continued, Russia was a big obstacle the men needed to overcome. The game ended with a shootout goal from T.J Oshie in the 8th round. The U.S was supposed to come up and medal in the 2014 winter Olympics when in reality they blew it and came up short with fourth place.

Post Super Bowl

     The Super Bowl was sure different than most people expected. I was expecting the Seahawks to win personally because I believed that their defense would win it for them and it did. Peyton Manning didn't do as well as everyone expected. He honestly kinda blew it in my opinion. I will admit, he is a very good quarterback and everything, but he didn't have as good of a game that everyone thought he was going too. Manning threw dumb passes and didn't run the ball as well as he usually has in the past. Clearly, "Omaha" didn't work for Manning this time. The starting play of the game resulted in the snap going over Peyton Manning's head and into the end zone. That was not a very good start for Peyton and the Broncos. Also, there was multiple interceptions which helped the Seakhawks become victorious. Peyton Manning clearly under preformed and cracked under the pressure. He was talked about for weeks before the Super Bowl and how he was going to bring the Broncos to a victory, which clearly wasn't the case. The Seahawks had a great defensive game that stopped Manning before he could even start. Overall, the game wasn't too exciting due to the fact it was a big lead, but it was slightly interesting seeing Manning's face as his team crumbled right before his eyes.

Sam joins the NFL

Jill Poplawski
Norton High School


     I believe that Sam will be accepted into the NFL by coaches, players and fans. Just because of Sam's sexual orientation doesn't mean he isn't a great football player. Coaches and players want to win championships, and to do that they need dedicated players, they need Michael Sam.

The Gangster in the Huddle

Hernandez had multiple contributing factors to his life of crime. One of them being when his father died. His home life was different. His mother cheated on his father with an abusive coke addict and ended up marrying him when Dennis(Hernandez father) died. When that happened, Aaron didn't really hang around at home. The reason why Aaron dropped so low in the draft was because of his past drug use. He had failed multiple drug tests in college but they kept protecting him. Since he even admitted to his drug use, that should have raised a red flag to anyone considering drafting him. Some of Aaron Hernandez's actions were covered up by previous coaches to protect him. If his coaches never protected him as much as they did, he could have gotten help sooner and all of this may never have happened. Also, his gangster friends had a great impact on him. The cops should have filed reports when things first started going wrong instead of acting like nothing ever happened. Athletes seem so untouchable because of their amount of money they have along with how well liked they are around the world. When in reality, they're just like everyone else and deserve to pay the consequences.

Student Athletes

In the CNN article, studies have recently shown that some college athletes are reading at a 5th grade level. What surprised me the most is how competitive universities such us UNC, are letting athletes in to play football, but they can't even read. They are basically setting their students up for failure because if they don't make it in the athletic industry, they don't have a very good chance in the real world either due to the fact that many can't read. I was very surprised to see how many universities who are ranked very high academically, are letting student athletes in that have a very low reading level and allowing those students to take classes that don't involve a lot of work.