Sports
Missing Equipment Mystery
by Lacey W.
Have you ever wondered where all the sports equipment goes for recess at School #4? That means kickballs, soccer balls, footballs, wall balls and more. My classmates and I definitely have because at recess we find the balls in very weird places. We hear weird theories that go around at recess. We also find ways to prevent this from happening and why it is good for our school to prevent it.
Questionable Theories
We have heard weird theories throughout the year, some of them go like somebody stole the equipment, people threw it over the fence by accident and they didn’t ask the security guards or lunch monitors to go get it for them. People think that a dog is on the other side of the fence in its backyard when kids accidentally let it go over. Joey thinks that people put the balls all the way in the back of the field because students can’t go there and then after school the kids go get the balls and play with them and then leave them there. Joey also thinks that some people are like ball hogs because they hog the equipment/balls so that other people can’t use it. He thinks when he finds things like footballs, people were trying to hide them from the other classes. He thinks some classes try to hide the equipment so that class doesn’t have to worry about losing it because other classes don’t know where the equipment is. Some people even think that it went over the fence and the kids didn’t see the balls, so they didn’t tell an adult about it. Some of these theories sound really crazy, and others sound quite reasonable about what could have happened.
Weird Findings
Sometimes my classmates and I find some of the equipment in bad condition, or it’s still good to use it, but we find the equipment in very weird places. We see deflated kickballs on the field, wall balls in the teachers’ parking lot, footballs on the field just lying there, and soccer balls and basketballs on the storage crate that is on the field. We also find a bunch of balls in between the crate. We find Wiffle balls, softballs, and baseballs all over the place. Joey says when he finds equipment in bad condition, people are just not taking care of it, and they are too lazy to put the equipment back. When we find the balls, we put them back that we don’t want to use, and we play with the ball that we do want to use, and then at the end of recess, we put the equipment back where it is supposed to go.
Stop! Start Preventing!
If you didn’t know, you could prevent this from happening. You can do this by taking out the equipment and, when you're done with it, by putting it away so other kids can use it, and we can play with it tomorrow. Also, if it goes over the fence, you could ask an adult to go get it for you. If it goes over the fence and you can’t see it, then you should still tell an adult so we can get more. If you see this happening and somebody isn’t telling an adult about it, you should do the right thing and ask if they could get the equipment if it goes over the fence. If they don’t put it away, then get it and put it away for them.
Why Does It Help?
If you didn’t know, already we have a student council in our school that does things that they think will benefit our school. So if you see someone doing something wrong with the balls, they are not helping our school. When we lose the balls, or they are in such bad condition we can’t use them anymore, then we have a problem. When that does happen, the student council has to use the money to buy new equipment for the school, so the kids have something to play with during their recess time. If that doesn’t happen, the kids in student council can use the money for something else that will benefit the school and make kids and adults happy in the school. If you didn’t know, then it’s a win-win for us because we have balls that are in good condition that we can play with during recess, and then the student council can use the money to buy something else that will benefit our school in many ways too.
You might hear these theories around the school, and you might be making up your own about what happened to all the balls that we play with at recess. You want to prevent this from happening because then the other kids from School #4 can play soccer, kickball, two-hand touch football, or any other game they might play during recess. Also, if you save the balls, you will have it next time you want to play something on the field or the blacktop. By doing the right thing, you can help our school because then they don’t have to worry about buying new equipment for the kids and they can spend the money on something else that our school can benefit from.
Muhammad Ali
By Aiden G.
Muhammad Ali was an American heavy-weight boxer. He was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had one younger brother, Rahman Ali. But before he was Muhammad Ali, he was Cassius Clay. Ali decided to start boxing when he was riding his bike with his friends and his bike was stolen from a bunch of bullies. From then on he wanted to become a boxer so he could fight back. He started his professional boxing career on October 29, 1960. From then he won gold in the 1960 Rome Olympics light-heavyweight. He died June 3, 2016, at the age of 74 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Even now he is still called “The Greatest.”
The Broad Street Bullies
By Aiden G.
The Philadelphia Flyers (or Broad Street Bullies) are a hockey team in the NHL that was established in 1967. They were the first expansion hockey team in the NHL to win the Stanley Cup and they won it twice in a row! Over the years they have had many great players like Bobby Clarke, Ron Hextall, Eric Lindros, and most recently Claude Giroux. Now the reason that they are called the Broad Street Bullies is that the Flyers are a rough and tough team and their old stadium, the Spectrum was on Broad Street so, after a while, that’s what the fans started calling them. Now
their new one is the Wells Fargo Center and it is still on Broad Street. At the time I am finishing this, which is February 8th, 2022, the all-star competition is over
and it was held in Las Vegas. After the games, the Metropolitan Division won and the Flyers captain Claude Giroux was named 2022 all-star games MVP. Because in the finals game he had 3 goals and two assists.
Babe Ruth
By Adem R.
I think Babe Ruth was one of the best baseball players on the Yankees. Many of baseball’s legends played for the Yankees, like Derek Jeter, Aaron Judge, and Mickey Mantle. Around the 1930’s, Babe Ruth hit almost 700 home runs in his career. He is one of only two people to ever hit three home runs in a World Series games.
I suggest that you watch the movie “The Sandlot.” That movie inspired me to want to play baseball and taught me about Babe Ruth aka The Great Bambino. In the movie, you see Babe Ruth’s ghost say, “I’m going over the valley.” These were his famous last words before he died from throat cancer in 1938. He got throat cancer from swallowing tobacco over the years when he played baseball.
The baseball fields were smaller back then. According to chantillyouth.org, “Babe Ruth played on regulation baseball fields the same size used by high schools, colleges. It is 90 feet between the bases and 60'6" from the pitcher’s rubber to home plate.”
Many people today think that Mike Trout, of the Los Angeles Angels, is the best player of all time. He hits more home runs and is better at batting. But, everyone who likes baseball and plays baseball still remembers Babe Ruth aka the great Bambino. The Angels were not always a very good team. Now that Mike Trout is a part of the team, it is considered a good team. I have never watched Mike Trout play the real MLB clips but I did watch some clips of him play on YouTube. I am a Yankees fan. I usually only watch Yankees, Mets, and Dodgers games.
Noah Syndergaard
by Noah B.
Noah Seth Syndergaard was born in the year of 1992 in Mansfield,Texas. Did you know that Noah Was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays. Noah went to Mansfield Legacy High School and he played basketball as a kid but in the 2000s or the 2010s, he got a baseball deal with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2015. The best baseball team in my opinan wanted him in the team of the New York Mets but in 2019 it started going downhill for Syndergaard, he was out for almost every game, why because he got an ulnar collateral ligament which meant that he had to get surgery. Covid happened, then the baseball season was canceled, then in late 2021 he left the mets for the angels but he will be his famous number 34 for the Angels, the Mets, and the Blue Jays.
The Great 8
by Aiden G.
One goal I think that should be talked about more in hockey was Alex Ovechkin’s goal against the Arizona Coyotes on Jan 16, 2006. First, let me tell you a little backstory about him. Alex was born on September 17, 1985, in Moscow, USSR. He was drafted in 2004 in the first round by the Washington Capitals which he is still with today. Anyway, back to the goal. He scored it with 8:06 left in the game. Brandon Witt threw the puck to the neutral zone right to young Ovechkin. Ovechkin was one-on-one and the defenceman sent him to the corner, but Ovechkin slid and hooked the puck past the goaltender into the net. And even Wanye Gretzky, "The Great One,” was coaching the Coyotes and got to see the goal.
Different for a Dancer
by Elliana B.
Being a kid is great. You have school, family, friends, fun and maybe a sport or two. From my experience of being a competitive dancer, I know that life as one is very different from the other kids, but it was the best choice I ever made!
We Can’t Forget School
I have loved dance all my life, but as most competitive dancers know, one of the biggest struggles is balancing school and dance. It is hard to come up with a better excuse for missing an assignment than, “I’m sorry I had dance late last night,” but that is simply unacceptable to some parents. Some dancers find it easy to manage both school and dance, but a schedule is desperately needed for others. My advice is to try your best, and you’ll figure it out.
Expenses Explode
Dance for kids on a competition team is most likely a passion, let's just say an expensive one. Dancing for twenty hours a week, well, as you can imagine, expenses explode! Tens of thousands of dollars are spent on dance every year. Some children have up to 16 competition dances alone. Competitions can cost anywhere from one to two thousand dollars! When dancers have so many different styles, they have lots of different costumes, accessories, and shoes. A pair of tap shoes can cost up to $200. Costumes can cost up to $400. Dancing costs a lot, so all you dancers out there should appreciate how much your parents do for them.
Dedication Is Everything
Being a dancer means dedication all the way. Competitive or not, dance requires hard work and commitment. As a serious dancer, it can be very hard to even try another sport. Coming to dance at 3:30 pm and leaving at 9:00 pm can be tiring and hard, but also a lot of fun. Most competitive dancers are at dance four to seven days a week for at least three hours. Dance can be fun, but it can also be a way of expressing yourself. Dance is amazing, and I can't imagine my life without it.
Dance Is a Sport
I understand that it can get annoying to hear boys say, “Dance is not a sport, it is just a bunch of girls spinning around in tutus.” Just know that the boys are wrong. Dance is so much more than that. It is long hours of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears. Though at the same time each individual dancer sees and experiences dance in a different way. I see dance as a place to escape the rest of life, laugh with friends, and work as hard as I can to improve and be sore for days. Dance IS a sport because no other sport takes as much hard work, pain, and strength as dance does.
Missing Out for the Better
As a dancer, there's no not going to dance because you want to be with your friends or you just don't want to. It is hard to say no when your best friend asks to hang out or you have been invited to a party. You HAVE to say no because you have dance. Dance teachers don't care that you have a party because finishing dances is what matters to them. All I am saying is that if you join dance you get a lot of obligated rehearsals and parties may just have to wait.
In the end, it is up to you. I love to dance. It's my talent, my passion, but it's not for everyone. You don't have to like dance. You do you!
