Last year, Blair's varsity football team went 0-10: one of their worst records in the past twenty years.  After that, everyone has developed the opinion that Blair football is going to be terrible forever and that there is no hope. 

 

This could not be further from the truth.  This year, the players have been working as hard as they can to make sure they dont repeat last year's record. We have already won two games, and in both of the games, the team looked really strong.

 

At the beginning of the season, teams like BCC and Quince Orchard had no trouble at all defeating us, which left many to believe this year would be bad too.  But, we defeated long-time boulavard rival Northwood, which helped boost our spirits after 15 straight losses.

 

The JV football team, unlike their varsity counterpart, has been playing strong both this and last year, which leaves us to believe that the varsity teams for our junior and senior years are going to actually be competetive within the county. 

 

At this point, all we can do is work hard and make sure we get stronger as a team in order to bring competetive football back to Blair.

Maryland Sports Pt. 2

Well last week I talked about how the DC- Maryland area was very excited over the nationals and orioles being in the playoffs and RGIII. However, Both the nationals and the orioles were eliminated from the playoffs within two days of my post.

Although it may seem bad, it is foreshadowing of what is to come.  The Nationals organization has even stated that they didn't plan on going anywhere this year, but in years to come they would.  With such young talent in Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, and others, it is nearly impossible to imagine they won't make the playoffs again.  Not only will the talent get even better, but now they know what it takes to play pennant baseball.

With the Orioles, it is a very similar story.  They have a young team with people like McClouth leading their efforts, and there's nowhere to go but up. 

The only part of my post that was proven true last weekend was the excitement building around RGIII.  Not only did he lead the team to a home victory over Minnesota, but he also ran for two touchdowns, and one of them was for over 70 yards to seal the win.  Today they are playing the Giants, a division rival, and Griffin has already thrown for one touchdown.  Another rookie, Alfred Morris, has been phenomenal as well. He has led the ground attack with nearly 60 yards in the first half alone and has been breaking tackles and staying afoot like I've never seen.

Sadly, the Redskins are the only one of the three teams mentioned to still be playing. However, with all the young talent on all three teams, the next decade of DC and Maryland sports will be overwhelmingly exciting.

Maryland Excitement

Now I'm sure all of you are aware of the situation with professional sports teams in the area.  Both the Nationals and the Orioles made the playoffs, and the Redskins have a new, Heisman trophy winning quarterback in Robert Griffin III.

For the Nationals, most fans are extremely excited because not only is the team less than ten years old, but it is also the first time a Washington baseball team has made the playoffs since World War II.  The team, led by Davy Johnson, are achieving something that was not supposed to happen for a few years to come.  The team shows hope and promise, with members like Stephan Strasburg and Bryce Harper dominating the playing field at such a young age.  The Nationals finished with the best win/loss record in baseball, which is extremely exciting because only too years ago they were losing more than 100 games a season.

Harper, a rookie, is only 20 years old now, and he played most of the season at 19 years old.  I don't know if you realize, but that means he could have potentially been a senior in high school just last year and he is now a starter for a major league team.

Strasburg isn't too much older, but two years ago when he was first brought up, he suffered an elbow injury that required tommy john surgery: a surgery that requires someone to lose a substantial amount of time in recovery.  He returned this year from his surgery, and he dominated the playing field whenever he got the chance to start, with barely any exceptions. 

The Baltimore Orioles have become a pretty surprisingly good team over the course of this year.  Unlike the Nationals, they do not have much young talent and many believed they would be lucky to not finish in last place.  However, they came out strong with Buck Showalter leading them to a wild card victory and an exciting playoff berth against the New York Yankees.

Lastly, Robert Griffin III is a star college quarterback who won the Heisman Trophy for being the best college player that year.  The Redskins drafted him and he is now the main guy lining up under center.  However, he suffered a concussion in the game against the Atlanta Falcons last weekend, and he will be forced to miss a few weeks to recover.  His backup, Kurt Cousins, is also a rookie the Redskins picked up in the draft, and he is a great filler while RGIII recovers.

All three teams cause everyone who is a fan to be ecstatic over the new talent that have shown.  I have been lucky to see the explosive talent they bring to the table first hand by going to Nationals and Orioles Playoff games, as well as a Redskins regular season game, and it was amazing.  On Friday night, the Nationals face the Cardinals and the Orioles face the Yankees for game 5 of the Divisional Series', and the Redskins play the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, so tune in to witness the excitement yourselves.