Justin Bibb is the newest member of the J. Graham Brown School 1000 point club. Justin came into the game on Friday having accumulated 1,139 points over three years here at Brown. He is following what is seeming to become a family tradition with one of his brothers and cousin also being in the club. He ended up scoring a total of 19 points bringing his point total up to 1,158.

The Lady Bears played before the Bears and they completely dominated the Cloverport Aces beating them 46-7. They had over 20 points before the first quarter had ended. Production slowed a bit after that with shots just not falling, but they eventually got it back together and dominated the opponent with Cloverport not even having a chance at making it to double digits.

After the 1000 point celebration the Bears played a good game beating the Cloverport Aces 49-37. They seemed to play through with ease even letting some 9th graders play for a few minutes. The Bears pulled out early in the first quarter outscoring  Cloverport 18-5. Cloverport would hold Brown to single digit points in the second quarter making the Bears go into the half with only 26 points while they had a score of 11. The Bears continued their scoring struggles only scoring 5 points in the 3rd while Cloverprt was trying to mount a comeback scoring 18 points in the 3rd making it just a 3 point game. The Bears would storm back in the 4th quarter scoring 18 points leaving Cloverprt behind, beating them 49-37.

The student section was cheering on both the Lady Bears and the Bears. But it started to get a bit out of hand during the girls game when some students began to chant “active shooter” when a player with a good shot average  would get the ball. The administrative staff had to get involved and shut it down because of the wildly inappropriate nature of the chant. This did not halt the festivities though as everyone after the incident had a great time cheering on their teams and supporting Justin Bibb on his amazing accomplishment. 

The Brown High School cheer team is coached by Coach Sloane Coleman and is made up of 17 different girls ranging from 9th to 12th grade. The cheer team is very diverse as far as just very different types of personalities. Through the years the cheer team has been rocky, with losing seniors, coaches, etc. I feel this year has been the strongest cheer team Brown has put together in awhile because they’re at more games, have new uniforms, more cheers and are just very well put together in my opinion and are more in the spirit. 

There are 3 captains Breah Crayton(12th), Kylie Duff(12th) and Peytience Mcmillen(11th).

Breah Crayton has cheered for Brown on and off since 3rd grade. “My favorite thing is being able to see everyone work together and if they need somebody to talk to they come to the captains” Breah said.“One piece of advice I would give to younger cheerleaders is that there's gonna be times you’re going to want to quit, there's going to be times that people are better than you, but that just means work harder and keep working.” “Sometimes it's hard keeping them on the same page because we are teenagers and we all have different opinions but it's okay we make it work.”

 Kylie Duff has only been at Brown since her freshman year but she said “I've been doing cheer on and off since 3rd grade”. Her favorite thing about being captain is seeing how hard everyone works to be their best and working together with the team and the other captains to be better everyday. Her advice to younger cheerleaders: “I would say to work hard and stay with it even when it gets difficult, and to push yourself to be the best you can be.” “Sometimes it does get difficult to keep everyone together and on the same page but it really is because everyone is trying to do their best for the team, which I love so much. Our team works hard and of course we can get distracted but at the end of the day we are working together as a team.”

You can tell the cheerleaders have strong bonds with one another even with the younger teammates. Strong bonds are key to success on teams to get things done especially when everybody has to be doing basically the same thing at the same time, you can’t have a good team with a bunch of teammates arguing or not wanting to listen. 

 Peytience Mcmillen, has been at Brown since her freshman year as well, but she's been doing cheer for 7 years. Her favorite thing about being captain she says is “sharing my knowledge with the team to help us improve as a whole.”  “To younger athletes there will always be someone “better” you're competing against yourself everyday” she said for her advice. “I think it truly depends on the situation, sometimes with a team full of high schoolers we get off topic; or distracted. Most of the time it's pretty easy to get everyone's attention.”

The Brown School sports community has really come together in recent years to put together the good teams we have now like the cheerleaders, getting a good coach like coach Sloane Coleman who really cares for the girls and has good relationships with them. Although after this season the cheer team will be losing 4 seniors, Brown and the team have the resources and talent to keep the team in good shape for the coming years. 

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fell in the first round of playoffs in a blowout defeat delivered by the Dallas Cowboys with the final score being 31-14. Tom Brady was limited in the first half only throwing 11/23 Completions/Attempts while finishing the game 35/66 C/ATT with 351 passing yards. Dak Prescott the Dallas Cowboys quarterback threw 25/33 C/ATT for 305 yards. But frustration mounted early for the Cowboys even with a staggering lead the kicker B.Maher missed four straight points after touchdown or PAT.

Tom Brady also caught some heat from the Internet after the game because of his attempted slide tackle on a Dallas Cowboys defender after Dallas recovered a fumble. It was eventually called back by the referees because the receiver was down by contact before the ball came out. Tom Brady was eventually fined $16,444 by the NFL for the illegal tackle. He had a couple of these not so legal dirty plays throughout the regular season, most notably against the Seattle Seahawks when he tripped a cornerback after he intercepted a pass thrown by Lenord Fournette on a busted trick play.

This wasn’t unusual for the Buccaneers this season though. The Bucs finished the regular season with a 8-9 record being the second team ever to make the playoffs with a losing record. The only other team to do it was the 2010 Seattle Seahawks with a 7-9 record. This was also the first time since 2002 that Brady has had a losing record in a season, Brady was still able to lead the league in completions even with the sloppy Tampa Bay season.

The Cowboys really did deserve the win though outplaying the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in all three phases of the game after the extra point struggles were overcome. The Dallas Cowboys had a short playoff run though with the Dallas Cowboys losing in an embarrassing fashion to the San Francisco 49ers with a final score of 19-12.

Bowling never fails as a fun activity to do on the weekends with your friends- barely getting scores of 100 and making fun of each other for how bad everyone is. Getting a strike seems like the best part of your night, or that's how it used to be for me, until you look to the lanes next to you and see people spinning the ball making it curve on the lane and getting a strike every time. It doesn't bother you much, but deep down inside it does. When you see people make something look so easy, yet the average person struggles at it, it did something to me. Now I go bowling just about every weekend and I've been improving and enjoying the game much more. When I started bowling, I was scoring around 80-100. Now that I've been going for a while, my highest score I've rolled is 186.

Some basics for bowling are your grip, your footwork, and ball speed/spin. When bowling, there are 3 holes for your fingers on the ball. 2 for middle and ring finger, as well as 1 for your thumb. The way I grip is using 2 fingers only, with no thumb. Using your feet you want to line up using the dots provided on the lane. Line up to where when you roll the ball you're going to hit near the middle. For me I start standing on the left side of the lane roll and curve my ball to where it'll hit in the middle of the pins. When you release the ball you want to release it somewhat fast so the velocity of the ball will knock down more pins. Once you get that down you can add spin to be more precise with your aim down the lane.

There are many great opportunities that you can take advantage of going bowling. If you bowl for your school, there are many scholarships. Even full rides are available for high school bowlers. Just last year, Brown School alum Nathan Shannon received a scholarship for bowling at Midway College. If you become good enough, you can receive sponsorships from companies. This will allow you to bowl for free and make money by representing those companies. You get free gear such as bowling balls, bags, shoes, etc. Lastly there are tournaments and leagues you can enter to win money. You join teams to compete head to head and winners can take home their share of a prize pool money. There are also things like if you bowl above a certain amount or get a 300(the max score) you can win money as well.

Bowling is fun and with practice you can become better. The opportunities available are worth the practice.

The Green Bay Packers lost January 8, 2023, to the Detroit Lions in the last game of the season and have officially missed the playoffs for the first time since 2018. They have a lot to consider for next season, as Aaron Rodgers for the past 3 seasons has contemplated retirement in the off season. Missing the playoffs gave the Packers the 15th pick in the upcoming draft. Having negative cap space headed into next season, the Packers are in quite a predicament: how will they work around it?

Aaron Rodgers has to go. He is a great quarterback for being as old as he is, don't get me wrong. He won us a championship 10 years ago, won 4 MVP’s, and the Packers had a real shot at becoming a dynasty. Looking to the future, there are only 3 options for the Packers: Let Rodgers walk and retire, trade him, or stick with him one last season. I know I said Rodgers must go, but the Packers have put Rodgers in the position to do basically whatever he wants. His contract gives him that power. If he retires, the Packers will still have to pay him 50 million, and this is the worst option. If he stays for another season, the Packers will be paying him 31 million but still have a good quarterback. And lastly, the best option is to trade him. It will be hard, as not many teams have 40 million in cap space and want an aging quarterback.

This pick in the upcoming draft is crucial for the Packers organization. Having such a high pick puts pressure on the Packers, as they are notorious for not drafting what the team really needs. In 2020 they drafted Jordan Love, a quarterback, while still having Aaron Rodgers and he went on to win back to back MVP’s. This year is the year to get it right! If Rodgers leaves, the Packers should trade up for a higher pick to draft a quarterback. If Rodgers stays, the Packers need to draft a safety as that is one of the weak spots on their defense, offensive lineman to replace aging players on the team, or a tight end to add depth and help on the Packers high play action offense.

One problem that will occur for the Packers this off season is dealing with cap space. Cap space is an agreement or rule that places a limit on the amount of money that a team can spend on players' salaries. It exists as a per-player limit or a total limit for the team's roster, or both. The NFL’s cap is a 53 player roster with a cap currently of 208 million per team. For the ‘23-’24 season the Packers will be negative 21 million in cap. The way a team clears cap is by making trades, releasing players, and extending contracts. Making trades gives a team more money if they trade for players with smaller contracts. When a team releases a player it's like getting fired so that contract isn't paid out fully. The last way teams create cap space is extending or adjusting contracts to allow more money to be spent elsewhere. If you had a player getting 10 million a year and could extend his contract that would in turn reduce the yearly cost of that player.

In conclusion the Packers don't have many options for next season to improve. They’ll need a perfect offseason to see an improvement from this past season. That'll be done by figuring out what to do with Aaron Rodgers, what they want to draft, and how to fix their cap space.