Tradition

Matt Leinart, Colt Brennan and now Matt Barkley. Leinart and Brennan had their share of breaking records and leading their teams to undefeated seasons and Barkley might easily be next. All three outstanding quarterbacks share a little bit of history. That history all starting at a private catholic school in Santa Ana, California. Mater Dei High School.

Matt Leinart. He is USC's all-time leader in career touchdown passes and completion percentage, and is second at USC behind Carson Palmer in completions and yards. Leinart was 37–2 as a starter. In Mater Dei, he led his team to a California Interscholastic Federation Division I co-championship, and was named the Sierra League's Offensive Most Valuable Player. He was also named Gatorade California high school football player of the year.



Colt Brennan. Where do I begin? Lets just say 30 NCAA I FBS records in a nutshell. Brennan didn't start a game before his senior because he was backing up a future Heisman trophy winner in Leinart and due to that, he never really pulled "over the top" numbers with Leinart under center for most of his high school career. BUT, he still eventually became one of the best college QB's we've seen in a long time and he came from no other quarterback factory than Mater Dei.


Now a new young gun has arrived in Matt Barkley. Matt Barkley is the first true freshman to start at QB for USC from the beginning of the season. In high school, we was also the first freshman to start since 1984 . He threw fir 10 touchdowns in his first year of high school. In 2007, he threw for 35 touchdowns. Barkley was named Gatorade National Player of the year and the 2007 Gatorade national male athlete of the year, becoming the first non-senior to win both awards. Barkley also won the 2007 Glenn Davis Award given to best high school football player in Southern California, as well as the inaugural Joe Montana Award as the nation's top high school quarterback.

So what has been scientifically proven? Mater Dei is the place to go if you are a young quarterback.

Ten Long Years

As kids, we always dream of being part of high school football. Some as players and others as prideful fans. On Friday, I finally felt that excitement of the "Friday Night Lights"

Walking into the school building, it became a sea of Green and Grey. The North Miami Pioneers were showing their Pioneer Pride for our biggest rival, North Miami Beach. We all know when your team plays their hateful rival, we tend to become more excited and our true spirit comes out. No matter what sport it is, baseball, football, basketball or even tennis.

For ten years, NMB has beaten North Miami. TEN YEARS. That all changed Friday night at FIU Stadium.

NMB had a 22-7 lead with 11 minutes reaming in the 4th quarter and then the rally started. Pioneers came back to score two touchdowns to make the game 22-20 with 6:59 to go. The Chargers got the ball back and ran off 5 minutes of the game clock...

North Miami didn't give up and with the last 30 sec. the team scored the game winning field goal making the sideline and fans go crazy. For the first time in 10 years we beat the chargers! We also won the Inner City Football Trophy.

The next day, I had to go to school for a debate meet and I heard my math teacher say "it was the most amazing thing I ever saw."

Swamp Dogs!

Get Out Of Bed!

Get your lazy butts up and start getting the popcorn and soda ready! (Doesn't sound so healthy either!) Summer vacation is going to be over and no more staying up and watching movies or texting your boyfriend at 3 AM. It's more like pulling 'all-nighters' to study for finals or waking up at 4 AM to finish a long assignment.

Bright side to this! School teams! NFL! playoff races! NASCAR! You name it. All this summer you've wondered if your school team will beat their biggest rival or if Tom Brady will come back and help the Pats get another perfect season or will Jimmie Johnson be holding the trophy again at Homestead-Miami Speedway? We can finally get closer of knowing that summer is over!

What about college football! Students head back for fall semester and players gear up to honor their schools. Tim Tebow looks to win another Heisman and win yet another National Championship. How about them Broncos! Boise State has a chance to finally play in the Rose Bowl if they are able to go the season undefeated. Who will be this years Utah and upset a heavy favorite in a BCS game?

Playoff races! Who will win the NL Wild Card? It's is so hard to tell now because all the teams in the chase are playing so well. Rockies with Troy Tulowitzki, Giants with dangerous arms like Tim Lincecum, Marlins with young star power like Hanley Ramirez and the Braves with classy veteran Chipper Jones. Let it be a battle 'till the end.

How about the younger athletes? Where it all begins for some future stars. High school football is starting and we get to hear of some 5-star talent that could be a major playmaker in college. Recruiting is always a fun thing to follow and state championships are even better. As kids, some players dream of wining the state championship for their schools of rich tradition. Don't forget to check out rivals.com once in a while to check future stars for your favorite college team or the local newspaper to check on your high school.

Well summer, you've been pretty good to me and I hope to everyone else also. Good luck in school and remember, always strive for best.

The Easy Way Out Of Life

After seeing the performance of New York Yankees starter, CC Sabathia- It got me thinking about "big time contracts" in all of Major League sports (MLB,NFL,NBA,NHL etc.) and it's freaking crazy! Before reaching the pros, college. Free college. Not working for about an average of 10-18 years of your life. Millionaire. Cars. Mansion. Can it get any better? But should that money be wasted on something more useful and not make athletes multi-millionaires every year. Education maybe?

The normal way of going through life is finishing grade school and then heading off to college. Right? We make our parents pay the tuition and we would have to start working to help them off. But not sports athletes. Now all of us have had dreams of playing for the Yankees or your home town team. It's normal. But what about the people who do achieve those goals. Coming out of high school these "future stars" get scholarships from big name schools like Notre Dame, Stanford, USC, UM, any school! Some dont have to waste a single penny in books or normal stuff like that. Thats not fair! For someone that will most likely be there for only 3 years and dont even have to pay the univeristy back is great! But what about the regular students. Some can't even finish school because its so god damn expensive. So what? Everyone should become basketball players or soccer players? No.

In the 2008 NFL draft the Miami Dolphins selected linemen Jake Long for the first overall selection of the draft. Without playing a SINGLE down he agreed to a five-year, $57.75 million deal with $30 million guaranteed. Lucky enough he didn't turn into a "bust", but it is a big risk to pay so much money for a player that we are not sure that he will become one hell of a player.

We can say that general managers take the 'risk' when they sign a player. It's not like George Steinbrenner knew Carl Pavano would only play in 26 games after signing a four-year contract worth $39.95 million. Bad luck or bad judgment? We might never know. So the best thing to do in my opinion is just put a limit in a teams salary cap for they wont waste so much damn money in someone that has a fastpass through life!