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.