Get Ready to run.......

Practice for all grade levels gets into full swing this week to get ready for our first Tournament The Tigard Elite Holiday Classic Dec 13th/14th.

Our 8th grade team won this tournament last year and our 7th grade team placed 2nd. This will be a good start for our kids because the schedule just gets tougher.

Run the City

Sacramento Mayor-elect Kevin Johnson is proof that basketball can take you many places if you're prepared on AND off the court. Though he may always be remembered for dunking on players twice his size, he's got his eyes set on the future of his community. Here's a quote from his blog about what's in store for him and the city of Sacramento:

"A large part of the reason I’m running for Mayor is to give back to our community. After retiring from the NBA, I could have lived anywhere I wanted. But I’ve opted to come back home and do good in the neighborhood where I grew up. It’s a great feeling to see so many others in our community doing their part to lift our community and tackle the challenges our community faces. If I am blessed by the voters to be elected Mayor, I will be a visible and active part of these community-based efforts to make Sacramento a better place to live."

Lil Wayne on PacMan Jones

Hip-Hop star Lil Wayne posts a regular blog on ESPN.com - a young sports fan with an optimistic view on today's athletics. Here's what he had to say on the troubled Dallas Cowboy Adam "Pacman" Jones:

"I don't think the Pacman Jones situation is sad at all. I do not think Pacman Jones should be in the NFL. If I was the commissioner, I'd kick him out. They keep giving him chances and he keeps messing up. You got guys like Hines Ward out there getting fined for making plays on the field on one hand, and then on the other hand you got guys in situations where people are getting shot. Come on. You have to be smart about the company you keep. I should know. But sometimes it's not just friends—it's family members who are into bad stuff who bring you down. And how can you get rid of family? You can't. That's why I think, in his situation, there is no way he's turning it around. I mean, come on. He's a grown man. They don't give these huge contracts to kids. His main job is to stay out of trouble and he can't do that, so I'd kick him out of the league."

Garden Time

Coach Pat has some drills you might want to try at home when we don't have practice.

Student Athlete

Florida State safety Myron Rolle was awarded a Rhodes scholarship Saturday. He is the first major-college football player of his generation to win what is considered the world’s most prestigious postgraduate academic scholarship.

He became the most prominent student-athlete to win the award since Bill Bradley at Princeton in 1965. Bradley was later a Knicks star, a senator and a presidential candidate. Other winners have included Pat Haden (U.S.C. and the Rams) and Tom McMillen (Maryland and the N.B.A. and Congress).

Rolle’s quest to the win the Rhodes had received heavy attention from the news media because he chose to risk missing all or part of Florida State’s pivotal game at Maryland on Saturday night to have the interview, which took place in Birmingham, Ala.

Rolle received the news about 5 p.m.; he then received a police escort to a local airport, where a private plane waited to take him to the game. He entered the game late in the second quarter of a 37-3 victory. “He is flying high,” Sally Karioth, a Florida State nursing professor who accompanied Rolle to his interview, said before the game. “He was hopping. He’s usually real sedate.”

The full story from the New York Times.

Exercise Your Brain

Just in case you're not getting enough homework this weekend, try this website:

Superkids

Print out a worksheet of Algebra or try some logic games. Sometime you need to let the PS3 have a rest.

Better Late Than Never

Last night we had another great practice. As usual, one of our parents gets the assist for finding us a place to get together - Holy Cross Middle School.

And some of us were dressed for success.