The NBA is known for leaders on the court, showcasing their talent and ability to be a team player. They never show what the players do off the court that's inspiring. Nowadays, players have the ability to be inspiring and have a voice through the power of social media, which allows their opinions to spread fast. Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are two very historic players on and off the court.

 Bill Russell was drafted from the University of San Francisco to the Boston Celtics in 1956 while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still in high school and wasn’t drafted until 1969. The two were still able to develop a connection. In 1961, they met at Abdul-Jabar's high school gym. He was only a freshman when first introduced to Russell by Coach Auerbach and he was described to Bill as the “next him”. Abdul-Jabar had always dreamed of becoming an activist but had no idea in what direction to start whether it be attending rallies and protests at UCLA.

 On June 4, 1967, Russell and Abdul-Jabbar met in the office of Browns Negro Industrial and Economic Union along with a number of other famous black athletes who gathered together. Muhammad Ali had been stripped of his heavyweight title and was facing charges of draft dodging for his refusal to serve in the Vietnam War based on his Muslim faith. They tried to persuade Ali’s decision to go to trial, but they failed. Russell, being the youngest person there, has remained relevant in the social justice world more than 60 years later being best known as an activist for racism, systematic racism, communities of color, the LGBTQ community, and religious intolerance.”Their record is a shining example of being dignified and principled in challenging times” Filip Travic said in an article on Basketball Network.

Russell was part of the first player boycott organizing it after 2 of his teammates were refused service at a hotel cafe in Lexington, Ky because they were black. This led to the ultimate decision for the team to fly back to Boston instead of playing the St. Louis Hawks. He faced lots of discrimination in his time as an NBA player and being the first black NBA coach, always using his voice to take action, helping him become one of the most influential figures on and off the court. 

 The reason the new generation of NBA players can fight the way they can and have the voice they do is because of the courage Russell and Abdul-Jabbar showed at that time, putting themselves on the line for taking a stand.

The NFL season is officially over and was capped off with one of the best Super Bowls in recent history. The Super Bowl contenders were the Kansas City Chiefs, representing the American Football Conference (AFC), and the Philadelphia Eagles, representing the National Football Conference (NFC). Both teams were No.1 in their divisions, holding a regular season record of 14-3.

This Super Bowl was full of new records: It was the first Super Bowl where both starting quarterbacks were black, and it also was the first to have a full female jet flyover before the game began. Jalen Hurts was the first quarterback to rush for two touchdowns and also throw a pass for one. He also broke the quarterback rushing yards record by rushing for 70 combined yards. The previous record was held by Steve McNair with 64 yards. Both teams broke the record for most combined yards gained (1,151), and the game had the fewest combined punts in any Super Bowl.

 This was also Rihanna’s first time back on stage in 8 years, performing in the Super Bowl halftime show. This was also her way of announcing to the world that she was carrying her second child. She sang songs like, “Umbrella”, “Diamonds”, and “Dancing in the Dark”, all while moving up and down the arena on floating platforms. She was accompanied by mediocre backup dancers that did nothing out of the ordinary. Many viewers felt that her dancers were a bad distraction from the rest of the show. Some viewers however enjoyed the choreography of the show thinking that it was impressive to get that many people to do the same thing.

The game was quite a thrill, with the Eagles scoring a touchdown first on the opening drive of the game. The game stayed close the whole time, with the Eagles pulling away at the end of the second half and going up by 10. Chiefs fans also had to hold their breath during the half because Patrick Mahomes went down after reaggravating a high ankle sprain that he had suffered 2 weeks before in the AFC Championship game against the Bengals. Luckily, Mahomes was able to return for the second half and the Chiefs were able to overcome the deficit, winning the game by a field goal.

With it now being March and winter sports coming to an end, let's take a look back at the great season the Lady Bears basketball team has had. The Lady Bears have a tradition of being a well-rounded team, and this year was no different. With great coaching from Josh Luttrell and leadership from the only senior Jany’ah Kirk, the Lady Bears finished with a record of 15 wins and 10 losses. They finished their last 10 games winning 8 of them. 

“The end of the season was very emotional,” says Jany’ah Kirk just days after losing to formidable opponent Assumption. 

This season the Lady Bears were led offensively by sophomore Jordyn Luttrell and senior Jany’ah Kirk both averaging 6.5 points per game. This duo has seemingly been in unison playing with each other since middle school. The chemistry they have is something that doesn't come by often. The dual-threat situation of having a sharpshooter in Luttrell and a beast inside with Kirk doesn't get much better than that.

Although being a smaller team height wise one cannot underestimate the defensive ability of the Lady Bears. They were led by Kirk and Leyla Taylor on the boards with Kirk averaging 7.5 rebounds per game and Taylor averaging 6 per game. They finished with the best defense in the state. Halfway through the season Kirk was moved to center which really improved the team's defense. Although standing small at 5 '4, she has elite blocking ability, She has been known to block players who stand 6'3".

Looking to the future with this team there are many upsides. The players have great chemistry having played together since middle school. They won’t lose players again until the 2025 season as they have no player older than a sophomore. Chabely Perez Tolon has great defense and will be pivotal to next year's team. Trista and Taylor Morris, both freshmen guards, have picked up the game very well as their main sport is soccer and you can tell how their speed helps the team. Makenna Pendleton, an 8th grader, has proven to be quite the shooter and has plenty of time to develop. 

Reflecting back through the years and this year this girls team was special. The bonds that were built will last a lifetime. Kirk will be missed, hence the title “The Last Dance.” This team will be great for the next few years and will be enjoyable to watch for years to come.

The Brown Elementary basketball community is made up of 38 kids in total and split up into 3 different teams. The Blue and White teams, which are occupied by all boys and the Golden Girls, which is Brown's first-ever all-girls basketball team. The Blue team is coached by Petty Brown and Greg Thomas; the White team by Kurosh Javid and Terrence Brown; and the Golden Girls are coached by Mike Gorena, Chris, and Lindsey Arnold. 

This is the largest basketball team Brown has ever had, especially with girls. I myself used to play on the elementary team. I started when I was in 4th grade and I was the only girl on the team still only having about 7 or 8 players in total on the team. “Numbers are growing, we are able to add more opportunities but the gym space is an issue because it's hard to keep 38 players in the gym,” said Athletic director Justin Leonard. The Blue team of all boys plays here at Brown on Saturdays and is the more skilled team; the Golden Girls and the White team are both in the developmental league and they play at Seneca High School on Saturdays.

 I recently attended one of the Blue team's games at Brown where they competed in the Silver tournament with several other teams. They took the first win (14-11) against Cane Run Elementary, moving them up to the Elite 8 against Portland. They won that game (18-14), advancing them to the  Final 4 against Breckinridge Franklin taking the win again (19-17). They competed against Bloom Elementary in the championship and took their only loss in the tournament. 

Meanwhile, Brown's Golden Girls advanced to the Final 4 in their tournament, playing Foster and winning (9-7), moving them up to the championship against Kennedy. They won that game and took home the trophy. 

Brown has never been a big athletic school but in recent years athletics here have been on the rise, growing in the blink of an eye. Our principal, Dr. Angela Parsons, has seen the potential our teams have, giving her the idea to focus on athletics even more especially our girls' teams to keep the numbers up. Creating more social media pages run by staff and the coaches, giving live updates, and overall just giving our sports team more attention rather than being only an academic school like we were.

“Growing girl's athletics is our main goal. We've seen a decline over the last 15 years in girl players so we want to boost that number up and the first step is opportunity,” says Justin Leonard. He also discussed what he meant by opportunity: “the decline we've seen in girls' athletics, I believe, comes from girls not starting when they're in elementary and that's partially because there's no opportunity or they don't want to play against the boys”.

The elementary season is usually 7 weeks long, starting in late November/early December with practices starting in late October. The blue team has won 5 games, Gold won 4 and White won 3. Leonard speaks on the progression this season. “Each team has progressed a lot in their practice, playing other teams they've come a long way and you’ve especially seen it with the kids who couldn’t even make the ball to the rim at the beginning. It was just hard for us to have 38 kids in our gym”. 

I definitely see a brighter future for Brown's athletics, especially the girls' teams and I really can't wait to see it progress and keep getting stronger and bigger every year. As I mentioned before I used to play on the elementary team, middle, and all throughout high school and this year is my senior year and it's the first year we've had enough girls to rotate the whole starting 5 out. In middle school and till my junior year of high school we really only had between 6-8 players every year. So seeing the girls get acknowledged more, athletics getting acknowledged more, and just promoting the basketball community more than ever is a good sign for the future high school team. 

The Brown Boys basketball team ended a successful season even though their last home game ended in a close loss against the Seneca Redhawks. This was a close defeat with the Brown Boys basketball team fighting all the way to the end of the game.

The team had lots of success this season with 2 players reaching the 1000-point club: Justin Bibb(junior) and Kris Watts(senior). This was the first time in 23 years that 2 players have gone to the 1000-point club in one season. Justin Bibb is also projected to break the Brown School scoring record.

The game was a rough one with very rocky points that should be worked on for next season. The first quarter was rocky for the Bears only able to muster 8 points while the Redhawks scored 21. This was because of bad ball security and forced shots which both lead to multiple turnovers. Tension was rising on the team and Coach Jermill Bibb was beside himself, because of the team's lack of production.

The second quarter showed some promise even though the Redhawks were able to extend their lead to 20 at halftime the Bears scored 11 points bringing their total to 19 going into the break. People were still hopeful that Brown could make a run and make things competitive again though and that is exactly what they did.

The third quarter was filled with excitement because the Bears were able to get it together after the break. They were able to cut the lead down significantly; they scored another 11 points and held the Redhawks to just 46 points, cutting the lead to 16.

The comeback continued into most of the fourth quarter but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for the team to make the comeback falling short with a final score of 70 -56 going to the Seneca Redhawks.

Hayden Pollock, a senior forward said “Their best player got injured in the first 3 minutes of the game, which made us change our game plan. We doubled up which allowed them to space the floor well leading to open shots which they were able to knock down.” Hayden also commented on the end of his high school career. " I had a lot of good memories and it ended too soon.”

Guess what time of the year it is? Its baseball season again and coming off an amazing season last year, the Bears are ready for action. Losing 5 seniors from last year's team the Bears are looking to bounce back and pick up where they left off. Jake Amettis, head coach, has been having practice and working with the players' mechanics for months now such as throwing and knowing hand signals for in games. Just now getting on the field in February, the team has to take advantage of what little time they have before the season to get ready.

This year there are many new faces that are going to take the field. Only returning 2 seniors, experience will be a challenge for the Bears. For the 2023 baseball season there are 14 games and 2 tournaments scheduled. There will likely be changes so be on the lookout. The Bears take on Waggener for their first matchup on March 17th. The season runs all the way until May. 

When interviewing Jake I asked “How are you changing your game plan this year with such a young team”? He said “ Yes we are extremely young and many players still need to develop to the high school game but we look good.” “Despite being young going into this season, what are you focusing on bringing to the table with this team?” “Our team's stifling defense is our strong point. Our ability to field the ball will win us games. Our offense is going to steal as many bases as possible with as few strikeouts as possible”. “With a 17-man lineup how are you planning to utilize all your players? “ I want to motivate others as playing is not guaranteed as hard work pays off. So those who put in the time and effort will see the field.” 

“When facing formidable opponents, how do you plan on overcoming them?”  “By staying confident as baseball is a very mental game. Keeping your head in the game is very important.” Are there any players you think will have a breakout season this year? “Chase Taylor Sharpe -8th grader is looking really good. His arm strength will be well proven on the mound combined with his speed and athleticism for base running.” And for my final question for you Jake, what is your favorite thing about coaching? He said “ Being able to see players improve and seeing the happiness and comradery that comes with it.”

Based on what coach Jake has told me first hand and what I've seen this season should be one for the history books. I know with the dedication of the coaches and players and support of the student body the baseball team will be successful.