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Showing posts from September, 2018

Ewing Theory

CEDAR CITY, Utah -- I remember my Mass Media Communications professor telling that only thing better than an answer is the question. If you ask the right question, it get the other person thinking hard and long. So you already got them hooked. They might even think about answering your question with a question. Bill Simons creates a column that really engages the reader and causes the reader to ask some follow questions. By creating a Q&A style column he helps the reader questions they might have already thought of and writes it out for them. The answers he gives are credible and back up with facts which get the reader start looking more into the answers. It gets the reader to start looking for patterns in the timeline. With all the evidence backing up Simmons theory it makes you think what would happen if you apply as a practice success tool. Simmons did provide a bulk amount of data which is the key factor that made his column a very successful one. In addition he also give a bro

Tacos Take over Tuesday

Tacos Take over Tuesday EL Taco Tamer - My skin may brown but don't get it twisted. You can say the first part of my life was the stereotype of an immigrant that came here from Mexico. My family was homeless for the first four years of my life, so finding food was always challenge. Don't start crying now because surviving that part of my life was just the beginning of my struggles. On paper my name is Nestor Zapata but you can call me El Taco Tamer. I was born in Villermosa, Mexico but I was raised in Oceanside, California. Despite struggling to find food, tacos was never out of the questions when we had the ingredients to make tortillas because you could all sorts of tacos as along as you had tortillas. As a matter of fact those first years of my life consisted of rabbit and squirrel tacos because that was the only available protein around our tent in the forest. Besides tacos playing a role in American culture its has been a vital part of my life and a major contribution

New Rules

CEDAR CITY, Utah -- It wasn't everyday that someone got barely touched  and fell to the ground on the pitch. If you got hit, you took your licks and found any excuse to slide tackle that other player, even if it meant you got a red card. As a kid I couldn't really tell when a player was flopping because these players respected the true culture of the game. If I could change one rule in the sport of soccer it would be to make flopping of any sort a illegal. I would give a three flop cap where I would give the player a warning after the first flop and then a yellow card after the second. After a third flop the beautiful red card would come out and suspend the player two games for trying to be actors on a soccer pitch. The way players flop now and days has become an art form and is even taken advantage of in important matches. Some commentators even suggest it saying that the player should flop inside the penalty area so he could've picked a penalty kick. I would give them

Thunderbirds Lose to Wyoming in the Final Minutes

CEDAR CITY, Utah -- Despite scoring the first goal the, Southern Utah University soccer team lost to the Wyoming Cowgirls 2-1 in the final non-conference home game of the  2018 season. The SUU Thunderbirds fall to 1-7 while Wyoming improve to 5-1-2. The Thunderbirds came out strong controlling possession for most of the first half. Excellent box-box play by Saki Watanabe kept the Wyoming offense in check and prevented them from building any momentum. Great ball movement combined with excellent dribbling from Brielle Bourgeois led to a beautiful through ball from the midfielder to Makenzie Lawrence. Lawrence then slotted it into the back of the net for the score in the 29 minute and recorded her second goal of the season. The Cowgirls tied it up in the second half following some confusion in the back line from the Thunderbirds allowing Sakoya Romera to score in the 68 minute. It got worse for SUU in the final minutes, as an own goal in the 84 minute gave Wyoming the 2-1 lead. &q

Mexican in Charge

CEDAR CITY, Utah -- Being in charge is always a complicated position. The decisions you make have to satisfy everyone, but sometimes you have to pick a side. If I were Athletic Director for one day I would want equally opportunity for all genders in every sport. Starting with announcing the beginning of a men soccer team. After spending some time with Southern Utah University mens soccer club it's clear they have a lot of talent and a great coaching staff. The teams IQ of the sport is highly develop and they have a clear sense for proper game strategies that result in victories. They currently play a 3-5-2 formation which is a formation rarely used among professionals and these guys seem to execute it pretty well.  The reason I'm educating you on some soccer knowledge is that for this team to have all these quality factors and not be considered an official sport program for the school is absurd. This is a team that can go really far in the Big Sky conference and even ca

Decline in Pop Warner

CEDAR CITY, Utah -- Kids can be a handful and the amount of activities out there to keep them entertained is endless. Regardless of what activities we want them to do we should always make health and safety number one priority. Its no wonder that the number in youth football participation, also known as Pop Warner, has gone down over the years. Majority of the people living in this country know that Football is not only a majority sport but its practically religion. For most Americans, the moment their kids starts walking they already want to slap on a pair of pads and get them ready for the NFL Draft. At a young age a lot of these kids are being pushed to limits that adults are being pushed to as well. There needs to be regulation on proper training for anyone wanting to coach Pop Warner and what the parents to need to be aware of prior to enrolling their kids in Pop Warner. If  Coaches can properly instruct their player on correct tackling techniques they decrease the number inju

Cheerleading Competition

For decades sports were dominated by men but over time the role of females grew in society as did there involvement in sports. The more sports evolved,  new were created and added to the scene. I mean we have synchronized swimming now. For me any type of competitive event that results in lifting some type of hardware is a sport including hot dog eating contest. I do think cheer leading is a sport because of the competitive nature of it. If we define what makes a sport it would always come down to the competitive aspect of it. cheerleading may not seem like your stereotypical sports of football, baseball, or basketball but none the less it is a sport. If football were just played with a single team would it be a sport? In cheerleading, these males and females practice just like other sports, communicate like other sports, wear matching uniforms and go to competitions in hopes of winning a trophy that represents their accomplishments. Another factor that links cheerleading other sports i

Birthday Blindside

-- It was a sunny cool temperature day in San Diego and I remember listening to Santeria by Sublime on the radio as we drove south on the Interstate 5 freeway. My friend Nathan had told me that we were on going to a Polish picnic in Mission Bay and that there would games so I should wear shorts. It was Sunday so I chose to wear my Denver Broncos t-shirt not knowing that it would come to mean a great deal shortly. He asked me to reach into the glove compartment and pull out an envelope containing directions to the park. Once I opened it I realized it wasn't a sheet of paper but two tickets to the Denver vs San Diego game that was happening in two hours. I was speechless and filled with excitement as he told me "happy early birthday". He then reached behind him and pulled a hat with the Broncos logo on it and gave it to me. That day was my first ever Pro football experience and I remember it because 70% of the fans there were Broncos fans. Walking into the stadium you could

Fresh Cut

As I took the field for the first time in this sport I wasn't familiar with I asked myself, what am I doing? Maybe I should go try and play the trumpet. I was a 5'5, 215 pound Hispanic about to compete against these towering Samoan players. I had heart but I don't know if that was going to be enough. My practice pant felt loose, so I had to consistently pull them up. They prevented me from playing at my highest level, is what I kept telling myself was the reason I wasn't that good. As the coach called in the offensive lineman I got lost in this sea of gigantic players running over to the dummy drills. My helmet was not the right fit and was a little to tight which didn't allow for proper circulation of oxygen in my head, is the reason I told myself I couldn't remember the plays. Eventually we got to the gantlet where two players face each other with 6 feet of distance apart and go at each other like two pissed of rams and try to tackle each other. After being pu

Reckless Ron

You have your fat coach who cusses a lot and seems like he might have a heart attack, then you have your medium build coach who could've gone pro and but didn't and now takes all his frustration out on the team reminding everyone of his glory days. Finally you have the coach that doesn't know anything about the sport and the position happened to land on his lap because he played one season of J.V football. I was lucky enough to have a combination of all three. His name was Ron Singlar and he wasn't entirely fat but he did have a retirement belly, he always talked about his glory days along with his prion days which made matter worst and this position did land on his lap but not for the previous reasons I mentioned. Coach Ron was my wrestling coach in high school, he a loud mouth and always spoke his mind which usually got us in trouble at tournaments. The reason he was my favorite coach was because he was passionate and gave us everything he had as a coach. Sometimes he