March Madness

Alright, so I have been watching the past few basketball games and it all of the number ones seeds got through. I can't even think of another time this happened. Usually someone chokes but not this year. Davidson was really close to beating Kansas too. One shot in that game would have made the difference between a win and a loss.

But really, I was looking more at the Memphis game and the UCLA game. Sorry, but I didn't care as much about Kansas because they had choked over the past couple years.

Anyway, the UCLA was pretty good. I was glad they came out to play and utterly took over in the second half. Memphis did the same thing. Though I have been following UCLA whenever I happen to find them on TV, I had not really seen Derrick Rose, the freshman from Memphis, play until yesterday. He is good too. He has the same kind of talent as Love and will likely be in the NBA pretty soon. It kind of sucks because most college basketball players leave early to play in the NBA. Means I can never keep track of who is who but whatever.

Well, I am going to have to go with North Carolina over Kansas. Sorry Kansas. And then UCLA over Memphis. UCLA is simply too awesome to lose...lets hope. Three trips to the final four in the past three attempts. This better be the year to win it.

Just hope they win! Otherwise I might go off and be depressed for a couple weeks just like I did after the Superbowl. But they have a good chance but I would not count anyone out, not even Kansas. It is a new dynamic when all number ones are playing each other. I wonder how people are going to root for the underdog.

-Seth

Words for the future

Well, we have some actual Oxford sports coming up tomorrow. Softball and baseball both have games and I'll be looking to see how those turn out and talk to various people on the teams to see how it went then maybe post them about them.

In other news, my friends and I had our fantasy baseball draft today. And so now, I will make a solemn oath to pay attention to my team this year. After I had gone to Michigan last year, I came back and then completely forgot I had a baseball team until my friend wanted to make a trade with me a month and a half after I got back. But by then, it was too late to salvage the season. That and it forces me to pay attention to the league like I did a couple years back.

Strange thing is though, last year I was not really until baseball at all. And I do like baseball more than most people(if I have ever said I didn't then I was not being truthful). The games are always fun to go to. Yeah, its not as fun to just watch random games like it is for football, but if you have a favorite team then you can just watch them. They do play 162 games, enough to keep most people busy at least a couple days a week.

And if I pay attention, it gives me something else to talk about on here. For instance, I want to see if the National League has the same type of tight race all the way up to the last game like it did last year. And then I want to see who is going to dominate in the American League and more specifically, how they do it.

So far I have been watching the Angel's preseason games and it will be interesting to see how they do this year. I'll also be keeping my eyes on Seattle, Cleveland, and Boston. Oh, and congratulations to Cameron Bedard on the Mariners signing Erik Bedard in the off season. I know it made you very happy.

You know, at the last big league game I went to, it really amazed me after watching some of the high school games just how good major league players are. They are all fast and see the ball well. It is always nice to have that perspective of just how good the pros are in comparison to just everyday people. Sometimes, I think they tend to forget just how good these athletes are. And I also like when I hear the stories about guys who just go out and play cause they love it. Those are the guys I envy, and they might not always be the people with the overwhelming talent.

The real reason I cover sports is because I enjoy it. And its so refreshing to go out and see people who love whatever sport they play. Reminds me why I bust my butt at practice everyday. Because I love to. And I love the game.

-Seth

Bonfire Sports Scene

Well, the junior class committee threw its bonfire today, changing the date several times but whatever. It was fun anyway. But as this is a sports blog, I will only cover the two hours and forty-three minutes spent playing some kind of sport.

Luckily, I brought my very nice, professional sized football. I threw the ball around with a few of the guys and I was aching to play a game. Even after all the guy's showed up, most of them were pretty iffy on whether they were going to play or not. We had more than enough people but I just kind of gave up on trying to organize something.

Oddly enough, it was not until we started playing volleyball the football talk started up again(you know, I had been deprived of volleyball for almost five hours by this point). I was glad we played volleyball though. Normally, it is hard to play with friends just because its difficult to adjust to the climate. Not playing with intensity can sometimes be impossible for me. But, luckily, that was not true today. It was pretty cool just hitting the ball over randomly and since I have been having practice everyday, it was a nice change of pace.

And now I admire beach volleyball pros more than ever. I wonder how they can still jump so high in the sand. They must have some powerful legs.

At any rate, we ended up deciding to play football. It took us about twenty minutes just to get going but whatever. At least we played. I had been waiting to play all day. It was fairly interesting. My team was undermanned the whole game and no one ever wanted to play on the offensive line. On many plays we only had the center. At least the other team always had fives guys on the line, protecting against every blitzer(though I still managed to get a sack).

But apparently I have not gotten over my habit of ripping peoples shirts. Let me jog my memory(I may have more, but these ones stick out in my mind):

1. 7th grade P.E. flag football. I cannot remember the victim. I know I did but the details are fuzzy. It was so long ago...
2. 8th grade intramural flag football. Victim: Ryan Plunkett. He was running and I missed the flag but got his shirt. I ripped his P.E. shirt and then managed to get his flag.
3. 8th grade intramural flag football. Victim: Cameron Bedard. On a run play, I came around behind him and missed the flag but got his shirt. Now for the sad part. I stretch his P.E. shirt, completely disfiguring it but then HE GETS AWAY. I was just sitting on the ground very frustrated with myself.
4. 10th grade P.E. flag football. Victim: William Nguyen. Alright now this one was almost surreal. We were doing a drill where a guy runs down a track of people who will try to pull his flag as he goes by. Simple enough. So as he goes past me, I reach out with my hand to grab his flag. But instead of getting his flag, I somehow dug two fingers into the shirt and came out with a large chunk of it. He was so surprised the guy behind him grabbed his flag easy. I didn't realize I had such strength.
5. 11th grade bonfire tackle football. Victim: Eric Carpio. Now, I realize if I miss the guy or I hit him and he does not come down, then I should not pull his shirt when we are just out to have fun. But sadly, I cannot think of these small details when I attempt to bring someone to the ground. So as I tackled him, his shirt ripped and I think a bit of it came out and is now lost to the ocean. Sorry! I didn't mean to. I only wanted to tackle you.

If only I was bigger then I might have played football. I am a pretty good tackler for my size and also fairly hard to tackle. The final score was 14-7 if I remember correctly, with no scoring after the first two drives on each side. The other team gave up a few interceptions(I had one of them) and our team had no offensive line and kept turning the ball over on downs.

But my pride from this event comes from a single play. We were at the thirty yard line(these numbers are, of course, relative) and Andrew Park was quarterbacking. Playing wide receiver, as soon as he hiked the ball, I took a step back from the line of scrimmage and he threw me the ball. I then took the ball all the way down the field for a touchdown. I broke around eleven tackles(I may be exaggerating but it sure seemed like that many when I was running) which probably isn't impressive because only about five people on either side can actually tackle(I will demonstrate I can if necessary). I just sprinted past them and if they managed to wrap their arms around me, since they do this weird wrap around tackle instead of actually hitting the guy, I just shoved them off and kept running. It was so awesome.

Sorry, but it's my blog. Go figure.

We called the game for darkness and everyone just chilled afterward. I was pretty tired, especially after having gone to practice already.

But it was so much fun. It is nice to just go down to the beach and play with your friends. It was a nice addition to my spring break, an overall good experience.

Oh, and UCLA advanced to the elite eight. Awesome.

-Seth

Return of Tim

Whoo. So Tim was back today(and he is supercool). Its always nice to have the captain and best player on the team at practice. So instead of the usual seven, we had a whopping eight people today. Exciting.

We did some serving and passing drills but the highlight of my day came when we played 3v6, Allen, William, and I against the other six guys. And we won of course, swept them, winning three out of three games. Pretty sweet.

I still need to work on my jump float serve though. I don't want Tim and Justin to be the only ones jump serving. Especially when its fun to do.

Well, practice was pretty good this week and I have tomorrow off so I can finally relax for one day on my oh so wonderful spring break. Going to the bonfire later today and I hope we play football.

Oh, and what is up with Kobe being ejected yesterday? He's getting close to a suspension and the Lakers need Kobe!

-Seth

News

Hey,

If you are reading this sports blog, good for you. The only reason I am not really talking about any other sports except for volleyball is because no one else is practicing so its hard for me to get my usual news.

But regardless, if you ever want me to talk about your sport or have a problem with anything then feel free to email me at svillegas@oasports.net. As long as its sports related, it is does not have to be important, merely interesting. And I might put in the good word for you and have someone from GameDay check further in on any stories. And by put in the good word, I mean make someone do it.

Anyway, if you have not checked out the article about Shreena Chopra, then you should. I am amazed myself because she is fast for anyone of any size. I can't imagine being so small though. Its always nice to hear about the different athletes, especially during a season in which I can't go out and see all the different sports myself, like I usually do.

We'll see what goes on then. At the end of each week I will post the games for next week, both home and away so everyone can know what is going, since schedules are so fascinating.

-Seth

Cheeseballing

So once again, only around seven people showed up to our morning practice, from 8-11. It was kind of strange having three setters(myself included) and only four hitters.

Basically, we worked on tipping and rollshotting(a hit where you hit it with your palm and then push up for top spin) to short middle and to the deep corners. Because we had so few people, we kept on going through the line very fast and everyone ended up extremely tired before we started our little 2 v 6 game against coach Allen and Gerard. We played two games, one to twenty-five and one to fifteen.

In the first game, we got beaten(we almost always lose the first game). Allen was hitting most of the spots he showed us were open. One shot was pretty scary, the block did not get up in time and the ball whizzed past my head into the corner. I didn't even have a chance to get my hands up. Our main problem is we were not moving to the ball fast enough. William was not as alert as he usually was(we all could tell he was pretty tired).

And then Allen has been picking on Jake, the big white man, always placing the ball right in front of him where he can't get to it. It looks like Jake is moving in slow motion when he tries to dive for the ball, which almost never works for him. Our defense was pretty sluggish. Usually its the best part of our game, but not today.

So then, to try and get some quick and easy points while I was setting, I kept dumping the ball, or turning and then doing a light set just over the net. If Eric Chung were still here, he would undoubtedly being calling out the cheeseball.

Cheeseballing is anything "cheap" to get a point, like dumping. In the second game, everyone started doing it. Allen kept hitting it right back to the server, with much success. I dumped a few balls. And most of the other guys were finally hitting the open spots like they were supposed to.

I think its funny though, because usually we are not hitting the open spots, even when we work on them the entire practice. We were just so tired that the quick and easy points available we immediately taken. But were always supposed to play that way. We should more often.

Yesterday, Aric Anderson, the Savannah coach and good friend of Allen, was at practice and said the Whitney coach thinks were only going to dump and tip the entire game. We don't usually so I think he will be in for a surprise, especially now we can hit and cheeseball whenever we want.

Looking forward to the Whitney game, they only have one good outside hitter so we should be able to beat them. We have been doing a good job hitting this year, better than the last. We just got a get our plays down and we should be able to hang with most other teams.

-Seth

Spring Break Volleyball Practice

So over spring break, the volleyball team is still having practice Monday through Thursday. Usually every year we have practice over the break. But yesterday, I was surprised when I only saw seven people show up to practice. Even Tim and Michael were not there. Though it was pretty funny when William Trinidad said, "What? Were being lead out by the third co-captain!" when I started up the warm-ups.

Practice had a very different feel, also in part to not having practiced since like the week before. Everyone was a little off in their passing and hitting and the overall feel for the practice was a tad too laid back.

Allen mainly took each person to practice float jump serves to use against Sage Hill and Brethren Christian. Not only do we have to be able to serve floaters consistently but also pass them well, something our team has always struggled with.

Well, I guess I will see how practice goes today. It sucks only have seven people because can't scrimmage quite as readily.

It was still nice to hang out with the guys. And oh, Jake Wainwright got a haircut and he needs to do something with it because it just looked comical yesterday. William could not stop laughing for the first five minutes of practice.

-Seth

Karch

Alright, so I recently wrote an article about Academy League concerning the volleyball team. Our league has got so much better within the past few years, especially with a superstar like Karch Kiraly taking over St. Margaret's.

Karch Kiraly has been one of my heroes ever since I started playing volleyball and I almost could not believe I was going to get to see him. He looks the same as he does on TV (whenever I watch AVP beach volleyball he usually makes guest appearances to comment). I was in awe just to be shaking his hand. And then by the end of last season, I was mad because I never got his autograph.

Oh, but that is going to change this year! I am going to try and get a picture with him at our first game against them and then get him to sign it at the second one. It will be one of those treasures I will hold onto for years to come.

I might be back on here depending on how practice goes.

-Seth

Yes, I am still following March Madness. And UCLA is still doing pretty well (even though the last game was too close for comfort). They better win the whole thing. Look for them to beat West. Kentucky on Thursday!

All Access

Whoo.

Apparently I have a banner now on a smalltime, student body run sports organization's homepage. Awesome.

I only hope you will keep coming to oasports.net just to hear me rant.

-Seth

Kick off the Blitz

Hello.

I am Seth Villegas, news editor for on the GameDay staff.

Here is how this is going to work, I will be posting my thoughts on the sports seasons as they go on and overall talking about a number of random sports things at my discretion. Power. Yum.

A bit about me:

1. I am a male junior.
2. I currently play for the varsity volleyball team.
3. My favorite sports are football, volleyball, and baseball, in that order respectively.
4. I am also a varsity speech and debater, so please bring on the controversy. I love to argue or rather, discuss civilly in a strong tone.
5. I love writing so hopefully this blog will be updated often.

Also, this blog may become an outlet for me complain about anything sports related.

Should be interesting to see how this turns out.

-Seth

Oh yeah, GO UCLA! WIN IT ALL!