Going Back Home

I'm going home to take in the 10-C district basketball tournament this upcoming weekend. I always find it funny that in a small town, something like districts actually brings more kids home than a holiday such as Easter. I find the importance of sports in small towns fascinating. I remember going to games when I was younger and looking up to the athletes on the floor like they were the professionals that we see on TV. Small town athletics are different than anything else in the world. The entire town puts their hopes into teenage boys and girls that don't always have the opportunity to fully understand the responsibility they are taking on until long after they graduate and are watching from the stands; with their hopes riding on the skinny shoulders of some 17 year old.

Stanley Gordon West writes about this in his book "Blind Your Ponies". If you have never read it, I totally recommend it. It's my favorite book of all-time. If you've been part of athletics in a small town you will appreciate the detail that West uses when describing the gyms and atmosphere surrounding the games. If you haven't had the priviledge to be part of something so special, you should read it so you can get a feel for it. Walking into the gym on cold winter nights and knowing that the community is behind you is what I miss most about high school sports. When you are in a small community and ask anyone about their sports teams they always talk about the season using "we". I love how sports can bring the community together, and warm the souls of the people no matter the weather outside the gym.

Our boys this year are a talented bunch of kids that have done quite well this season. I have watched these young men grow over the years and the expectations have seldom been higher around Sunburst. No matter what happens over the next few weeks, I hope these guys enjoy their time together and the town appreciates the hard work they have put in over the last 7 seasons in preparation for the run at the state tournament. I'll keep you posted on their progress as we go.

Joe Johnson didn't win the all-star HORSE contest. Although he was the only one man enough to try some creative shots, that ended coming back to bite him in the butt when he wouldn't make them. The whole contest took too long and if they want to keep it part of the all-star festivities I think some major renovations are going to need to be done. As for the rest of the all-star weekend I thought the slam dunk contest was pretty entertaining but I was disappointed Dwight Howard didn't bring more to the table on his last dunk. The dunk on the 12 foot rim was my favorite, and people downplayed it like every player could do something like that. Let me put it in perspective for you, Dwight Howard and LeBron James are the ONLY two players in the NBA that could do that. And I'm not even sure about LeBron, but he is a freak and I am not about to doubt him. One thing I think they need to change about the WHOLE thing is allowing Kenny Smith and Reggie Miller to ever speak on air again. They were not only obnoxious with Smith declaring the winner and loser of each event about 10 seconds in and then changing his mind immediately after the next contestant started, and Miller trying every trick to get back to his glory days saying old-timers need to participate in the events more. You guys had your time, let it go. Reggie wasn't even that good of a player, he flopped all the time and couldn't lead a team to a championship because he couldn't take over a game. He was an epic shooter, but how many rings does he have? Kenny Smith had his time when he put down one of the best dunks of all-time at the slam dunk contest, but saying things just to be bold then having to backtrack every five minutes isn't entertaining at all. I just have a feeling that everytime those two try to talk, the producers are giving each other a look like someone just passed gas in an elevator. They don't know why they couldn't just hold it in.

I'm tired of the steroid talks around baseball...AGAIN. I wish the sport could put this behind them and say "our bad, let's just move on" but it just doesn't seem like it can happen. There are probably a couple reasons for this such as it is possibly one of the biggest sports corruption/cover ups in history, and ESPN has to have programming for 24 hours a day. They run out of things to talk about so they overanalyze everything. Its the same with 24-hour news stations. Sometimes I think I would prefer infomercials for like 5 hours a day just so I don't have to hear about politics, steroids, and what the body language of a certain politician means. I just don't care that much. I'm sorry if you do; I'm sure we can compromise somewhere between 10-15 hours of news a day. Anyway, that's all for today; I have nothing else to complain about I guess.

SHOUT OUT OF THE DAY: On second thought I have one more thing....Jason Richardson is the recipient of my shout for today. He was quoted as trying to be "the best father he can be". Really Jason? In case you haven't heard (and don't partake in the 24-hour news circuit), Richardson was clocked doing 90 in a 35 MPH zone. Sometimes being dumb behind the wheel of a vehicle is just a lapse of common sense (I would know, but that's a story for a different time). Richardson had his three year old son in the car with him....without a car seat. How can you possibly claim to be a good father if you are doing 90 and have your son in the car, WITHOUT A CAR SEAT. Come on man, you can't be serious. I don't know what the punishment for this should be, but I'm glad the Suns suspended him for a game. That's a good start.

Day One

Hey there everybody! So here I am sitting in the library thinking about all the homework I should probably be doing and instead I'm putting in the first installment of my blog. I have been signed up to write this blog for about two weeks now, but I hadn't really had any idea about writing a blog so I would bring up the screen, look at it for awhile, then check my facebook. The problem is, once you've checked your facebook, read your e-mails, and caroused around espn.com long enough; you eventually have nothing left to do but write a blog.
I suppose as an introductory post I should probably let all you readers out there know a little about me. I am 22, looking at finishing up my degree at the University of Montana in education in the next year or so; and hopefully going to be a successful basketball coach someday. I grew up in a small town known as Sunburst, MT.

When someone grows up in a town with a name like Sunburst, people seem to want to call you that instead of your name. This is becoming so common that I don't even think about it anymore. Earlier this semester I had two teachers (TWO!!) call me by Sunburst instead of my name for the first few weeks. Sunburst has a high school of about 60 kids, however it is a combination of four towns (Sunburst, Kevin, Oilmont, and Sweetgrass). Although it is small, it is always a nice refuge to get away from the city and go home to a place where everyone knows you and will stop to chat at ya on mainstreet. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I'm a sports fanatic and love to watch nearly any sport. Obviously, because I aspire to be a coach I am most interested in basketball. The sport fascinates me. I always hear this argument that people enjoy college ball more because they say the NBA is all about selfish millionaires who travel all over the place and don't know how to play the game. I love to argue about this because the players in the NBA are the greatest players in the world, and if you really enjoy basketball;(like all you college fans claim you do) you would enjoy the NBA for just how amazing these players are and how there is no point in slowing down the game on an extra half-step when the athletes are as talented as these players are. My favorite player is Joe Johnson, who I just found out is taking part in the HORSE game during all-star weekend. I'm not a betting man, but I'm gonna go ahead and say he's gonna win.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll get to more sports topics as I continue to write on this. I don't plan on writing everyday, but just whenever I feel like I have a point to make (so don't hold your breath). But check it out, and welcome to Nate's World.

Shout out for the day: Alex Rodriguez--Not for coming clean about using steroids, but the excuse given for injecting performance enhancing drugs. A-Rod said felt that he needed to take the PEDs because he was feeling the pressure of being labeled as one of the best players in the game. If you were the best in the game would you really need to cheat to prove yourself? Why is no one crucifying this guy for cheating? Furthermore, why is it ok to cheat if you come clean and admit you did it? I guess maybe I'm wrong about this. (No wait, I'm not)