Alden

Yoyoyoyoyoooooo wassssuppppp.  Welcome ladies and gentlemen to another edition of a blog by the one and only Austin Hopcia.  You are in for a treat today, but I don't really know what to talk about.  I guess there's a couple things on my mind but some of them I'm not talk about here.  But guess what I’m not in a good mood today.  And I'm going to vent about our town for a it just to show its awesomeness.  LOL@that.  Sometimes I just hate a lot of people.  Like there are a lot of db's in this joint.  Today is one of those days, one of those many days that make wanna leave.  Here are today's examples: Second block I was in chemistry and my binder is a little too small for all the papers we are getting.  And you know how the binders you get at like tops or dollar general aren't that good in quality and they are very weak.  Well after class I opened the binder wrong or something and all the papers flew out and oh my god I was so mad.  I know this doesn't really have anything to do anyone else, but it started my hatred to this day.  Then I go to my locker after second block with the binder I just spent time cleaning up, and someone was hugging me but I don't really remember who it was.  And then E to the Shizzle came up behind him and was doing something, and he got me and he hit that same binder out of my hands and all the papers flew out again.  That was awful.  I stayed on the ground for about 10 minutes cleaning up all of my papers that was pretty cool I guess.  This morning I forgot to bring Matty the Baddy his cleats he kept asking for due to rushing and I didn't want to upset him by telling him I forgot them so I needed to find a way to have someone go get them from my house so I could get them to him.  Plus I lied to him twice saying to meet me at my car after school so he could get them so now I really needed to get them.  This leads me to another reason why this day makes me angry.  After advisement I was trying to find someone to go to my house and go get them from my garage.  And then I saw Allen who I was gonna ask to go to my house and get them because he had lunch release.  Now lunch release lasts 40 minutes long.  There is a lot you can do in 40 minutes.  And he told my he can't like why.  Why can you not help a brothaa out?  Whatever.  And then I asked B and he said the same thing.  Like what is your problems guyzz.  Brian lives closer to school.  Oh and btw he got back to school with 15 minutes left before the next bell rang.  You mean to tell me he couldn't find time to go to my house and go get them?  Please.  Then I go back to United States History.  After the bell for that class I realized I didn't have my agenda.  Like really.  Why.  Why do people gotta be so mean?  What pleasure does it honestly give you by taking my agenda?  The reason I am going straight to blaming someone is because people have done it on multiple occasions.  And so the thief is on the loose.  And I seriously really need that thing.  I don't even know what my homework is now.  I hate people.  And I cannot wait to get outta this town sometimes.  Like right now.  Bye Bye Small Town USA. The only good thing that this day could consist of is that I may or may not have a date tonight, but who knows, if I'm up for it. The problem with this is that my "date" is not sure as to which guy she wants. Like whatever. I hate girls. Girls are stupid. All I need is Austin Zelasko. He's my main man. He always knows how to have a good time. That's all we really need, isn't it? Like just this past Sunday, I slept at Zelo's house and we constructed the greatest fort in the history of mankind. Well by we, I mean he did, because I did not help at all what-so-ever. He worked very hard on this castle as I lay on the floor and did nothing beneficial at all. Anyways, once we had finished the fort we noticed that we had trapped Clover (the best dog ever) inside of the fort! When we opened one of the walls, Clover was just lying there silently, and we thought she was dead for a second there. But she wasn't. So we kicked her out, because we hate her.  After I lost to Austin in NBA 2k13 blacktop edition, we then entered the fort, which is kind of like entering the wardrobe to Narnia, Except this fort provided way less light. We then had our normal bro talk, and did some investigating because we are going to end someone’s career, but that’s classified information, so I can’t really touch anymore onto that topic. So to sum this blog up, Austin Zelasko is the only real friend in this town. The End.

Jake Woj

Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls from all over this graceful planet we call Earth, and thank you for joining my into today's blog session.  We are going to talk about a lot of things today.  Some of which may have no relevance to my life or anything we talk about, because quite frankly no one will ever join my blog session according to the graces of Jake Woj.  You know, he is really hating on me today.  He must have been drinking too much haterade in lunch today.  Guess what I did in lunch today, I played hide and seek and flow with my friends in the courtyard.  It was awesome.  But anyways Jake Woj.  Hmmmmm....what to write about him.  I'm sorry folks but this may just be the topic for a little bit, because 9-hundo words is a lot when you don't feel like talking about the same thing every two weeks.  You know, I heard a rumor today that he is that guy from the State Farm commercial.  You know, that commercial where the guy goes on the phone and is secretly talking to this guy from State Farm really late at night and his wife comes home and thinks he's talking to another girl but he's really talking to Jake from State Farm and they guy is wearing khakis, it quite a comical commercial not gonna lie.  You should look it up.  And I keep tapping Jake's shoulder to see if he'll fall for that trick but he doesn't and he thinks it is stupid.  But whatever Jake Woj.  Me and him used to have some good times, walking home from school every day together.  We'd always stop in Henry's and look around most times, but sometimes we'd buy chocolate.  Or mainly Swedish fish because they were really cheap.  But then one day we were there and we didn't buy anything this day and the lady working there yelled at us and was like don't come in here if you aren't going to buy anything!  And so we were basically banned from there and it wasn't cool because we loved it there.  SO uh yeah that's basically all I have about Jake Woj.  He's a cool kid when he’s not mean but now he’s mean so whatever.  Oooo I got something.  Let's talk about baseball! And how the high school baseball season has begun.  We have played 5 games and we are 4-1, winning the last 4.  This season is just so exciting and so fun to be in.  I’ve never had so much fun playing a school sport in my life and it is awesome.  And we are so good too.  We have three stud pitchers.  Myself, Corey Barczykowski, and Jake McNamara.  That is basically our starting rotation.  We have Allen Darrow, Aaron Glaser, Mitchell Lezynski, and Tom Widman as our relievers.  I've done pretty well so far.  I have started two games, and in those games I am 2-0, in 11IP, a 0.00 ERA, 2 hits allowed, 19 K's, 2 runs given up, and just pitched a complete game yesterday against JFK in a 9-2 win.  And JFK is supposed to be one of the best teams in our league.  I don't think they are that good but maybe we are just that good.  Corey's pitching today against Lackawanna.  They are awful.  I'll either play Right Field or I'll get the day off as this is out third game of the week.  Here is a good story for you, one time when I was in seventh grade we played Lackawanna at home, and we beat them 45 to 1.  That is insane.  It was like batting practice.  I will never forget that game.  I mean how do you score 45 runs in only 6 innings of batting?!?!?  It looks like though, that we have a team that could possibly make a run  to the State Title.  How cool would that be?  But anyways new topic.  How about we finish the day with talk of the NCAA Tournament and review the Championship game.  First here is what happened to my boys Syracuse.  Syracuse made it all the way to the Final Four!  It was the first time since 2003 since they made it there, unfortunately, their road ended in a loss to the Michigan Wolverines in the late stages of the game.  Their sophomore stand out point guard Michael Carter-Williams, as well as their senior leader Brandon Triche, fouled out in the late stages of the game and lacked a ball handler on the court in crunch time.  And they ended up losing by 5 in what had the making to be a historic comeback in the National Semifinal.  So the last two standing left were Michigan and Louisville.  Two high powered offenses who loved to run.  Michigan came out firing, and it was all on the shoulders of a kid who doesn’t even ever play.  Spike Albrecht, a small kid who is a freshman, lit it up.  17 points, 6-6 from the field in the first half!  This guy was on fire, but eventually the size and experience of Louisville took over, and they just went on a huge run to end the game and ended up winning by 6.  It was a great game and thank you all for tuning in today.  I hope to see all of you next time, good night and good luck.

NCAA Tournament

Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls from all over the world and welcome to another edition of 'Life of a Student Athlete.'  In today's edition we are going to talk about College Basketball.  It's March people and you know what that means.  March Madness.  And the tournament is a good one my friends.  For one, my two teams, Syracuse and Miami are still alive and both in the Sweet 16.  Syracuse has to go through Indiana now, the #1 seed in the East Region.  Indiana has been one of the top teams this year, and a lot of analysts have been riding high on the Hoosiers this year, but I’m not too sure.  The ‘Cuse is playing very well so far this tournament, and as a fan, and an ‘‘expert’’ I think the Orange will move on to the Elite 8 for the second straight year.  Miami played a very close game last night against Illinois; they did end up coming away with a 63-59 win though.  The Hurricanes will take on #3 seed Marquette in the East Region.  The Golden Eagles are a team who loves to grind it out in close games, and they have already had a last second layup to win the game.  Although Marquette is a tough team, too much spunk from the Canes will get them through to the next round, putting them in the Elite 8 for the first time in school history.  The biggest story of the tournament thus far though, the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, #15 seed from the Atlantic Sun Conference.  They have advanced to the Sweet 16, marking the first time in the entire 74 years of the tournament; a 15-seed has advanced to the regional semifinal.  I’ve watched both games they have played, from start to finish, and this is no 15-seed people.  They play like a 1-seed.  They have absolutely dominated their first two opponents.  They beat Georgetown, a team who had high expectations, they beat them by 10.  And they were up by 19 at one point.  Last game they played San Diego State, and they beat them by 10.  At one point they went on a 17-0 run!  They have the swagger, they have the confidence, and I seriously believe they have a chance at this title.  They’re so fun to watch, it is insane.  I’ve fell in love with this team since I’ve laid eyes on them.  Now they take on Florida, the #3 seed in the South Region.  I have a feeling that this team will do something, and will make history.  It’s looking like they have the right foot size for that glass slipper this year. The tournament resumes tomorrow night as the West and East Regions will play their games, Friday night the Midwest and South Regions will play their games. In the West bracket, we saw another huge upset, as the Harvard Crimson upset the New Mexico Lobos. As if the Florida Gulf Coast University upset over Georgetown didn't do, this game was sure to mess up a whole lot of brackets, as New Mexico was projected to be one of the best teams in the entire tournament. Tomorrow we will also see Wichita State, a 9 seed take on La Salle, a 13 seed. Both of these teams have created their own Cinderella stories, as La Salle has beaten Kansas State and Ole Miss, and Wichita State upset Gonzaga (the 1 seed) in their second game. It would be very exciting to see either of these teams make an even deeper run, especially seeing that most brackets across the country do not have either of these teams doing any serious damage. The next game tomorrow night features Arizona, a 6 seed, and Ohio State, a 2 seed. Ohio State is led by Aaron Craft, who has only gained popularity since the tournament has begun. He has earned the reputation as one of (if not the best) defensive guards in the country. In their game on Sunday, Craft hit a 3 pointer with .4 seconds remaining to win the game. Now, with momentum, Ohio State is a team that will be a tough match up for any team, especially a 6 seed. Arizona, however, is not your average 6 seed. Throughout the year, the Sun Devils have lived and died by the 3 ball. The game is as simple as this; if the 3 point game is hot, the Sun Devils have a chance, but if the 3 ball is cold, the Buckeyes will blow the Devils out of the water (or fire, if you will). Another interesting topic is the Wooden Award, which goes to the MVP of the season, NOT the tournament. As they days go by, the standings for this award have changing faster than ever. In my opinion, both Kelly Olynyk from Gonzaga and Otto Porter from Georgetown have been falling off the map due to their teams early exits in the tournament.  Thank your for tuning in to today's episode.  Hopefully your brackets are as busted as mine, and hopefully you all have a very good rest of the tournament.  Oh and Happy Easter!  Goodbye folks!

How Bout Them Ravens?

Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls from all over the world and welcome to another edition of 'Life of a Student Athlete.'  In today's edition we are going to talk about the NFL a little bit I'm thinking.  The NFL Free Agency period has begun and there have been a lot of big names floating around, as well as some teams tearing up their rosters.  Some are looking to rebuild after an awful 2012 season.  Some teams are looking for that missing piece to get their team to the next level, and take that next step towards a championship.  As most of you know, the Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl.  I don't think I ever gave my take on that game did I.  Well may as well now.  I think that I hate the Ravens, I cannot stand Joe Flacco, don't really know why. Hes probably my second most hated quarterback behind Tom Brady.  And I also think that the new contract he just received is absolutely absurd.  He is not that good.  It’s just that simple.  There is nothing you can say or do that will change my opinion of him.  And now that their team has just been torn up is hilarious.  They probably won’t even make the playoffs next year.  Wait they have Joe Flacco though.  You're funny guy.  Joe Flacco is a joke.  But he's got a Super Bowl ring.  So what big deal.  You know who else has a Super Bowl ring, Brad Johnson, is that guy elite?  I was watching NFL Live a week or two after the Super Bowl when Flacco got his contract, and Merrill Hoge was rating the top quarterbacks in the league.  He had Flacco at one.  Are you serious dude?  First of all this guy inst even elite let alone the best guy in the league.  Drew Brees and Eli Manning weren't even in the top 5.  Can someone explain that to me?  I know they both didn't make the playoffs, but Eli is one of the best in the league.  You wanna know why he was good this year?  His defense and Anquan Boldin.  And guess what Joe, your D and Anquan are both gone.  Anquan Boldin was recently traded this past week because the Ravens didn't want to give him the money he wanted/couldn't give him the money he wanted.  And get this; he was traded to the 49ers.....for a 6th round pick in the draft.  A 6th round pick in the draft.  I don't even understand how that even came about.  A 6th round pick.  Blows my mind.  But what do I know.  Let’s see who else they've had to get rid of because of no money.  And BTW all these moves are due to Joe Flacco's huge new contract, which made him the highest paid player in the game, which he isn't worth but okay.  Whatever floats the Ravens' boat.  So there goes their top receiver.  Here’s the defense that's gone: Starting MLB Ray Lewis due to retirement, okay not the Ravens fault, but the anchor of the defense the past 15 years.  Starting Defensive End Paul Kruger, who had like 12 sacks this year, among the league leader, probably their best pass rusher, he was released and has been picked up by the Browns.  Starting Safety Bernard Pollard, a very hard hitter and a lot of teams would love to have him.  He was released.  Starting Safety Ed Reed, he is not gone yet but there is a 95% chance he will be gone.  Hes meeting with teams today.  MLB Dannelle Ellerbe, he filled in for Lewis all year when he was hurt.  He did a great job and he’s released.  Starting corner back Cary Williams, he did a great job shutting down receivers all year.  And Matt Birk who was the starting center but he retired.  They pretty much have no defense right now.  I honestly hope Flacco feels good about himself, and I hope he enjoys his only championship hell ever get.  Because due to that paycheck he just received he has no team.  No class.  So selfish.  Idiot.  Even Tom Brady took a pay cut so that his team could stick together for the most part.  Now I hate Brady, but that's pretty impressive.  Sic years, 120.1 million dollars is his contract.  Over the next six years, Flacco will be making just over $168,000 a day when the regular season comes about.  How is that even possible?  I think it’s all so stupid.  Bold prediction for next season: Ravens will go 7-9 and finish third in their division.  You know what else I'm getting sick of, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms doing every Patriots, Steelers, or Ravens game.  Like it gets old, and they aren't even good announcers.  Like stop.

Heres an article by Jeffri Chadiha about the Ravens offseason.   This one wasn't even close. The Ravens had to trade Boldin to San Francisco because he wouldn't agree to a massive pay cut. They also watched Ellerbe and outside linebacker Paul Kruger -- who signed with Cleveland -- bolt for more lucrative offers elsewhere.
Those are big losses for a defense that already is moving on without Ray Lewis and may very well lose safety Ed Reed, as well. Baltimore knew it was in for a tough start to the offseason. That's exactly what it got.

This off season has been joke regarding the Ravens, but its about time. 

NCAA Tournament

Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls from all over the world and welcome to another edition of 'Life of a Student Athlete.'  In today's edition we are going to talk about College Basketball, the craziness that is going on there, high school basketball as it is playoff time there and the finals at Buffalo State are looming for this weekend.  Maybe we will visit the disappointing news of Alex Smith and his story.  The Buffalo Sabres have been on an awful slide lately and are currently the worst team in the Eastern Conference, but they won their last game, have fired their coach, they play tonight again, and who knows they could be making a huge run on the trail to comeback city.  For you those of you who don't know comeback city is a place you try and go when you are falling behind.  I'd just like to say that I invented it.  You're welcome world.  First though to start off this evening, I'd like to give a huge shout out to Keith McShea, a high school sports reporter for the Buffalo News, and maybe the reason I started this blog.  He had the birth of his first child yesterday, a boy and a healthy boy at that, so congratulations to him.  Now to College Basketball, everyone knows about March Madness, but this season has been madness from the beginning.  Dick Vitale is a big idol of mine, and he wrote an article about the craziness this season has brought.  More specifically to what happened last night between Michigan and Penn State, one of the few crazy games I missed because I didn't know it was on.  Here is a little script of the article:  

"I cannot remember a wilder and more exciting college basketball season in my years at ESPN. Over 30 years of action, and every night this season, we get another incredible story.
Look at last night. Penn State did not have a Big Ten win. Michigan was a top 10 team and big favorite over the Nittany Lions. So what happens? Another shock city upset. It throws more bracket predictions out the window."....

....."Then we have March Madness and I feel for the NCAA Selection Committee. How do you seed this field based on all of the wacky results? Is this the year that a low seed cuts down the nets in Atlanta?"

And there were two other crazy games last night alone!  I happened to be watching both.  The first was Georgetown vs. Connecticut.  Now this is in the Big East and that conference is unbelievable.  Unfortunately this is the last year all teams will be together.  The Big East is struggling and fighting to just keep the name alive.  Half the conference is leaving to go to other ones.  Problems could be looming for the Big East.  Anyways, the Hoyas and the Huskies went into overtime, but I can't even believe they go there.  UCONN had a big lead but the Hoyas roared back with a lot of three balls.  Otto Porter the star of Georgetown is unbelievable.  This kid is going to be something someday people lemme tell ya.  Last night he made the game winning layup carving through the defense with 9 seconds left, part of his 22 point night.  This kid is 6'8" 205 lbs. and can handle the ball with ease.  He has put the team on his back lately and is currently second in the race for the Wooden Award which is basically the best player in college basketball.  Coming off of a career game against my team Syracuse this past Saturday.  It was awful.  He put up 33 points in that game.  The rest of his team scored 24 points.  Syracuse scored just 13 more points than Porter.  It was embarrassing, and was by far the worst game they played all year.  I must say I'm a little concerned with my boys going into March.  We've dropped 3 of our last 5 and have struggled shooting.  My other team though Miami is riding high.  Beating both Duke and Carolina by 25+ earlier this year they just lost their first game in conference play this season to Wake Forest which isn't good, but it's hard to run the table.  They have a huge showdown this weekend in a rematch against Duke.  Duke's #3, Miami's #5.  I'm pumped.  In my personal opinion I think this is Miami’s year, and I cannot wait for the tournament this year.  It is going to be cray.  Duke is the best team I've seen personally, although they aren't ranked number one, Indiana is, they are hot and have beat some really good teams.  They've already beat three Top-5 teams in Kentucky, Louisville, and Ohio State.  I think they are poised to make a run, until they face Syracuse of course. Here is Joe Lunardi, Bracketology experts, prediction on the last teams in and out.

 ON THE BUBBLE

Last Four In

• Temple
• Kentucky
• Villanova
• Ole Miss

First Four Out

• Baylor
• Arizona State
• Indiana State
• Southern Miss

Next Four Out

• St. John's
• Boise State
• Maryland
• Alabama

Thank you all for joining me today, I hope you have a good weekend and I also hope that you guys will join me for next time.  Please comment on this blog so I can see your predictions and takes on this entire subject, thank you come again.

New Things

Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls from all over the world and welcome to another edition of 'Life of a Student Athlete.'  In today's edition we are going to talk about this new trend that has come about once a week and also this new twitter sensation.  I am really excited about this week's blog and I hope you are too.  First things first, make sure you guys are all following The Bulldog, @The_Bulldog14.  I demonstrate a lot of quality work and provide a lot of information from that account.  Also there is live tweeting from every JV basketball game.  Anyways there are a couple big stories flowing around the school these days.  The first is Jersey Thursday.  Or if we're talking Twitter terms using the hash tags, #JerseyThursday.  I can proudly say that I am one of the three co-founders of Jersey Thursday.  But honestly I think of myself as the only founder, as I am the only person of the three founders to still wear a jersey every Thursday, it's a little disappointing.  But I'll tell you the story of how it came about anyway.  It was a Wednesday night, and myself, Allen Darrow, and Brian Stoldt were all over at Brian Stoldt's house because his parents weren't home and they were not coming home so we decided to have a sleep over at his house.  So we just got home from McDonalds because that's where we had dinner.  Brian went to the bathroom and me and Allen were just taking a stroll around the house because we were bored.  And we decided to go up to his old room because we haven't been in there in a while and there were a lot of memories in the room and a lot of good times.  We were shooting some hoops because he has this like double basketball net thing and whatever we were having some fun.  And then I decided to check out his closet cause he's always had some cool gismos in there.  But then I just saw this massive amount of jerseys, and I was like whoa!!  Al come check this out.  There had to be at least 20 jerseys mostly NFL.  From Jerry Rice to Emmett Smith to Mike Alstott.  Mike Alstott I guarantee half the nation doesn't even know who that is.  Well he's a fullback or was a fullback he has retired and was a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There was also the best jersey I've ever seen in my life.  Mike Williams in his college days at Syracuse.  It was an actual jersey, like a game worn jersey.  It was awesome and I wanted to wear it so bad.  I was planning on wearing it in school, it was so tight but it was so cool.  So I was gonna wear it and Al wanted one too so we came up with this theory of we should do this every week and call it Jersey Thursday.  Even Brian was in on this.  So now almost two months later Jersey Thursday is still a thing, but pretty much I'm the only one participating.  And that’s kind of stupid.  I haven't missed a Thursday, but it has started to spread not only throughout our school, but to other schools.  I was at JFK two weeks ago for a basketball game and I saw a kid wearing a jersey.  No big deal.  But then this past Thursday, the girl sports anchor from SportsNation was wearing a jersey.  NO BIG DEAL.  That's crazy and I like to think of myself of a great trend starter that I will follow the rest of my life.  I'm currently trying to get a new Kenyon Barner jersey; he's a running back for the Oregon Ducks.  Now the other big deal swirling around the school is the new twitter sensation of AlDeN PrObZ.  They came about the night of January 30^th, and has been the talk of the school since.  No one knows who he/she is.  Everyone wants to know.  All they do is make harmless tweets that are quite comical that essentially problems in Alden.  They also make shout outs of the day every day.   No big deal but I was the first student in the school to be shouted out to.  The most recent was Josh Weisbeck.  I do remember one of the days after Alden Probz came about that for the entire 40 minute lunch period I was in; my table was non-stop talking about the subject.  The funniest part is, no one knows who it is.  We made up these big diagrams of who it could be, but no.  It’s sad, there’s been a lot of suspects, one is Cole Lamacchia I personally think it is him.  A lot of people think it’s Miner, but it has been proven that it is not him.