Football
The sound of helmets clapping and pads slapping while crushing against each other is the reason I love the quick, hard hitting sport of football. Athletes leave it all on the field for 60 minutes, every weekend, to achieve the prize of postseason wins at the end of the season. The American sport football is the most loved since athletes, fans, and coaches alike give their all to be the best.
Because football is so common in America, there are many leagues for all ages. One of the first leagues you can participate in are called Junior or Youth leagues. These leagues are used for teaching kids the basics of football. After you get to old for these leagues you can play for a high school team. There are many different teams for high school, including Varsity; the team with the best players is usually the team that everyone comes to watch. Junior Varsity is another team in high school. This team usually contains the backups for Varsity and the players not good enough to play at a Varsity level. The next team is freshman; this team is for the new high schoolers. All these leagues are in high school although the next level of football only looks at Varsity players to recruit to their team. This league is College teams look at players in high school to give athletic scholarships. If you go to play football in college you get to play on Saturday. If you can make a difference on Saturday you might be able to play on Sunday. This is where the next league comes in, the National Football League, or otherwise known as the NFL. Though, only the very best go to the NFL even some of the best don’t make the cut. But for those who can make it they get paid millions of dollars along with fame and fortune.
If you want to be able to do all these things you need to learn the rules. Football has many rules. These rules are worth different punishments. The more severe the penalty the more yards you give up. For example, a holding call is enforced when an offensive or defensive player holds the jersey of a player not carrying the ball and is worth ten yards. A larger punishment penalty like a face mask is worth fifteen yards for an intentional and five yards for and unintentional penalty. One of the most severe penalties is called unnecessary roughness. Unnecessary roughness is when one player intentionally attempts to injure another player after the play is called dead. This penalty is worth fifteen yards or if very severe ejection from game or suspension from league. Unnecessary roughness is closely related to a personal foul call. A personal foul is called when a player intentional commits a very serious version of another penalty or starts to jaw off to the referee. This penalty has the same results of unnecessary roughness. Some rules are not for on the field and have an enormous consequence. A few of these penalties are using performance enhancing drugs related to steroids. These drugs are known to make you stronger, faster, and have more aggression. Using steroids can get you suspended from your league.
Even if you don’t do any of these things you still must have a ton of determination, pride, and will to win. I’ll tell you why. You must have the determination to win every game and to give all you got to your coaches and teammates. Pride is important because if you don’t feel good about what you do won’t want to do it anymore. Of course you absolutely need to have the will to win every single game. If you have a will to win it will lead to your will to get up every morning, go to practice, study plays, work out, get stronger, and be the best. That’s what it takes to be a football player.
The most loved sport in America is football because you have to give it your all. So go be the best football player you can be, and you just might go far.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Lost at Sea
Lost At Sea
When six men embark on a 600 mile race from Galveston to Veracruz, Mexico tension builds. The thought of being on a boat in the middle of the ocean with twelve foot waves slamming into your vessel is unbearable. Yet these brave men leave port to begin the grueling race. The article lost at sea is the perfect example of the human instinct to survive in an unusual environment.
All the warning from the gut feeling at port to the radio weather warnings telling the crew that the boat was going to be battered was a sure sign the boat didn’t have a good chance of making it to the end of the race.
Eventually there’s no more time for warnings. At about 11:30 p.m. Travis Wright, a student at Texas A&M, jumped from his bunk to do his share of night watch. He jumped into a puddle. A puddle under the deck of a boat is the definition of bad things to come. He lifts the floorboard and a geyser of ice cold salt water smashes into his face. The water is coming in so fast they would only have about ten minutes to get everyone off the doomed vessel.
At this point in my reading I started to think about the Titanic and how hard it would be to get all of those horrified people off the boat and safe. Although these men didn’t hit an iceberg and everyone had a life vest this horrible and unfortunate event would still strike fear, panic, and desperation into anyone. It will make anyone not want to sail or be in the middle of the ocean. Just the thought of your boat or vessel sinking 80 miles off shore with no one within 15 miles of you is the most gut retching, heart sinking, horrifying situation anyone could be in.
After they manage to get everyone above deck they all grab onto anything within reach while the boat lurches onto its side. They all struggle to get their life vests on and fastened. One after another the men start to plunge into the freezing, black, and violent water. All the men swim for their lives, to get away from their doomed vessel.
At this point it starts to sound like there is no hope at all. Yet, all of those men still fighting for life is tremendous. The human instinct to live is above all instincts. It could be the difference between life and death in the situation these men are in.
If the instinct to live is the number one instinct, the instinct to help one another is the second. For a very long time those men floated on the ocean surface. All of that time those men helped one another survive. Then they get even more help. At about two a.m. a coast guard helicopter makes a low pass over the surface and spots the men. A rescue diver named Albert Shannon dives into the water. He lifts each man into a basket connected to the helicopter by a wire. Then the men are flown back to Galveston and rushed to the University of Texas Medical Branch. What those coast guards do is save lives and they did their job to an almost complete perfection that night.
Unfortunately all but one of the men, Roger Stone, one of the two safety officers, aboard the vessel survives their grueling encounter and recovers in a hospital in the University of Texas Medical Branch. That is why being lost at sea is the most incredible example of the instinct of survival going into play.
When six men embark on a 600 mile race from Galveston to Veracruz, Mexico tension builds. The thought of being on a boat in the middle of the ocean with twelve foot waves slamming into your vessel is unbearable. Yet these brave men leave port to begin the grueling race. The article lost at sea is the perfect example of the human instinct to survive in an unusual environment.
All the warning from the gut feeling at port to the radio weather warnings telling the crew that the boat was going to be battered was a sure sign the boat didn’t have a good chance of making it to the end of the race.
Eventually there’s no more time for warnings. At about 11:30 p.m. Travis Wright, a student at Texas A&M, jumped from his bunk to do his share of night watch. He jumped into a puddle. A puddle under the deck of a boat is the definition of bad things to come. He lifts the floorboard and a geyser of ice cold salt water smashes into his face. The water is coming in so fast they would only have about ten minutes to get everyone off the doomed vessel.
At this point in my reading I started to think about the Titanic and how hard it would be to get all of those horrified people off the boat and safe. Although these men didn’t hit an iceberg and everyone had a life vest this horrible and unfortunate event would still strike fear, panic, and desperation into anyone. It will make anyone not want to sail or be in the middle of the ocean. Just the thought of your boat or vessel sinking 80 miles off shore with no one within 15 miles of you is the most gut retching, heart sinking, horrifying situation anyone could be in.
After they manage to get everyone above deck they all grab onto anything within reach while the boat lurches onto its side. They all struggle to get their life vests on and fastened. One after another the men start to plunge into the freezing, black, and violent water. All the men swim for their lives, to get away from their doomed vessel.
At this point it starts to sound like there is no hope at all. Yet, all of those men still fighting for life is tremendous. The human instinct to live is above all instincts. It could be the difference between life and death in the situation these men are in.
If the instinct to live is the number one instinct, the instinct to help one another is the second. For a very long time those men floated on the ocean surface. All of that time those men helped one another survive. Then they get even more help. At about two a.m. a coast guard helicopter makes a low pass over the surface and spots the men. A rescue diver named Albert Shannon dives into the water. He lifts each man into a basket connected to the helicopter by a wire. Then the men are flown back to Galveston and rushed to the University of Texas Medical Branch. What those coast guards do is save lives and they did their job to an almost complete perfection that night.
Unfortunately all but one of the men, Roger Stone, one of the two safety officers, aboard the vessel survives their grueling encounter and recovers in a hospital in the University of Texas Medical Branch. That is why being lost at sea is the most incredible example of the instinct of survival going into play.
Improved Intros
“The Clearing”
Competition is a part of life. Whether it’s between you and another individual, or just in sports, there’s always some sort of competition. But why, why compete with one another if you can join forces and be twice as powerful as you were alone? “The Clearing” is the perfect example of how working together is more effective than fighting one another.
“A Secret for Two”
Depending on something your whole life, and then waking up one day and to realize it wasn’t there, can really have a devastating effect on your life. An example of this might be if you’re on a plane and the pilot has a heart attack, no one to fly your plane. Now you might say that’s highly unlikely, but that’s precisely when it happens. It happens when you don’t expect it and when you can’t stop it. ”A Secret for Two” represents, man’s struggle to deal with the unexpected.
“The Circuit”
Having to move constantly with your family takes a toll on every member, but takes a bigger toll on your own self-esteem; wanting everything while many people have nothing. “The Circuit” will teach the reader to appreciate what they have and to not focus on what they don’t have.
“The Black Stallion and the Red Mare”
Loyalty can be very hard to commit to. It can also be a very hard decision to choose who to be loyal to. One of the hardest decisions in my mind would be a decision between an old friend ad his bad decision or something new that could defiantly benefit you but would go completely against your old friend. The short story “The Black Stallion and the Red Mare” is a great example of this situation and can teach the reader many things.
Competition is a part of life. Whether it’s between you and another individual, or just in sports, there’s always some sort of competition. But why, why compete with one another if you can join forces and be twice as powerful as you were alone? “The Clearing” is the perfect example of how working together is more effective than fighting one another.
“A Secret for Two”
Depending on something your whole life, and then waking up one day and to realize it wasn’t there, can really have a devastating effect on your life. An example of this might be if you’re on a plane and the pilot has a heart attack, no one to fly your plane. Now you might say that’s highly unlikely, but that’s precisely when it happens. It happens when you don’t expect it and when you can’t stop it. ”A Secret for Two” represents, man’s struggle to deal with the unexpected.
“The Circuit”
Having to move constantly with your family takes a toll on every member, but takes a bigger toll on your own self-esteem; wanting everything while many people have nothing. “The Circuit” will teach the reader to appreciate what they have and to not focus on what they don’t have.
“The Black Stallion and the Red Mare”
Loyalty can be very hard to commit to. It can also be a very hard decision to choose who to be loyal to. One of the hardest decisions in my mind would be a decision between an old friend ad his bad decision or something new that could defiantly benefit you but would go completely against your old friend. The short story “The Black Stallion and the Red Mare” is a great example of this situation and can teach the reader many things.
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