Article # 1-MP2

Cheerleading, A Sport?

The definition of a sport is an individual or group competitive activity involving physical exertion or skill, governed by rules, and sometimes professionally done. When people hear the words sports, they think of football, baseball, basketball, etc., but they never think of cheerleading. Some people get into big arguments about if cheerleading would be considered a sport or not, and the top arguers would be the cheerleaders. I can relate to both sides why cheerleading could be a sport or not.
I can see why cheerleading would be consider a sport for many reasons. First, the definition of the word sport is: an individual or group competitive activity involving physical exertion or skill, governed by rules, and sometimes professionally done. Notice how it says competitive activity involving physical exertion or skill. Well the last time I checked it took physical exertion and skill to do cartwheels and back hand springs. Another reason is cheerleaders compete in competitions, and again in the definition it said: an individual or group competitive activity. Well you can’t do cheerleading by yourself, so that would fit the definition of a group, and the group, which would be the cheerleaders competes in competitive activities such as competitions. To get better, you have to practice and practice makes perfect, so the cheerleaders usually practice five days a week for three and a half hours at a time and have to go to a mandatory camp during the summer which is about a twelve hour day each day. They also have to maintain a healthy diet and exercise daily to keep in shape.
I can also see why cheerleading wouldn’t be considered a sport. When do you mostly see cheerleaders? You just mostly see them on the sidelines of a football game or a basketball game. They are mostly there just to cheer and be like “Go team, GO!” and “Let’s go (team’s name), let’s go! Clap clap.” Most people think that cheerleaders are just stupid preppy blondes that go out with the jocks on the football team.
So there we have it, two sides of a great and never ending argument, cheerleading can be considered a sport to some people and some people don’t consider it a sport. The following is a poll I took with everyone in the Calloway Confidential journalism staff:

18 people said cheerleading was a sport. I have interviewed some people to support why they said cheerleading is a sport. For people who said cheerleading was a sport, I decided to ask a cheerleader and a non-cheerleader about why they thought cheerleading was a sport. Andie Beth Caputo (cheerleader) says: “It’s just as physical as any other sport. We all contribute the same effort as football and baseball players and deserve to be noticed for it. Like football players have the Super Bowl and baseball players have the World Series, we have competitions and it’s just as competitive as the Super Bowl and the World Series.” Greta Sweeney (non-cheerleader) says: “I’m not a cheerleader and I know I haven’t had any experience with anything like cheerleading, but from the looks of it, it doesn’t look simple.”

Another World Series?

Another World Series?

As you all know or heard, (if you didn’t, where have you been?) the Philadelphia Phillies won the 2008 World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays. It was a very exciting series and for the first time in World Series history, they had to delay game 5 of the series due to a torrential downpour of rain. The game was a real nail biter but the Phils came back and won the championship!
As of today, the Phillies are leading their division by six games! At the moment they have 77 wins and 58 losses. They are head of the Florida Marlins by 6 games, followed by the Atlanta Braves (behind 8 games), followed by the New York Mets (behind 16 games) and followed by the Washington Nationals (behind 31 games). Out of the National League, they place second overall with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals tied for first. And in the Major League Baseball, the Phillies rank fourth overall.
So the question is, will the Phillies win the World Series two years in a row? Well I guess we will just have to wait for the playoffs and cross our fingers that the Phils will do good once again.

Two Sandwiches with Salami

By: Maddy Hill
On Tuesday April 28, 2009, the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Washington Nationals with a heart stopping score of 13-11. But what makes this game so special? It all started in the bottom of the fifth inning, the score being 2-6, Phillies losing. The bases were loaded when the Phillies first basemen, Ryan Howard, came up to bat. All the Philadelphia fans stood up on their feet as they heard the crack of Ryan’s bat meeting the ball and watched the line drive go into the shrubs, behind the centerfield line. Ryan Howard had just hit his sixth career grand slam or “grand salami.” This then tied the game up 6-6, but this didn’t calm the fans down. They were all biting their nails down in the bottom of the eighth when the bases were loaded (once again), with two outs, and the score being 9-11, which the Phillies were once losing again. The Phillies new leftfielder (who replaced the Phillies former leftfielder, Pat Burrell, who is now on the Tampa Bay Rays), Raul Ibanez, stepped up to the plate. He swung and hit the ball. The ball went for a ride as he hit it into the right field crowd. You probably heard of one grand slam happening in one game, but how about two? This had the crowd on their feet not biting their nails anymore. The Phillies took the lead 13-11! The Phillies then shut out the Nationals in the top of the ninth and walked away with an amazing win.

Feaature

The Secret Life of the American Teenager
By: Maddy Hill

The Secret Life of the American Teenager has just completed their second season with a total of twelve episodes, and adding on from the first season; the hit TV show came to a total of twenty-three episodes.
I thought the show was just outstanding, phenomenal! I used to watch the Secret Life every Tuesday night at eight o clock p.m. (well I’m waiting for the third season to come out, so the show isn’t on anymore). Never, in my whole life, have I been attached to the TV on a Tuesday night so much! The show is just so interesting and can relate to people our age because they are only in the ninth and tenth grade, which isn’t that much of an age difference.
The show has a basic plot about a fifteen year old girl named Amy, gets pregnant. Some girls can relate to that and it can show girls that it’s not good to get pregnant at such a young age because as they show in the TV series, Amy not only struggles to survive the teenage world, but has to deal with being pregnant.
The Secret Life kept you on the edge and made you begged for more. It made you keep the TV on for five more minutes just to watch next weeks previews. The show not only taught you a valuable lesson, but it also made ABC Family gets more viewers watching the show. I just thought ABC Family had put on a great TV series and I can’t wait until the third season comes out!

Digging Deep

Digging Deep

By: Maddy Hill

 

    Pat Devlin, standing at six foot four, weighing two hundred and twenty-two pounds, and born on April 12, 1988 (age twenty), has transferred from PSU (Penn State University) to U.D. (University of Delaware). Luckily, I got some information from Pat first-handed (meaning that I interviewed him).

    Pat Devlin Downing Town East High School just about forty-five minute ride from here, which makes Pat happy to be so close to home. Just because Pat is known for football being his biggest hobby, but that doesn’t mean he has other hobbies. Depending on what season it is, he likes to hunt and fish. Every football player has a dream of someday making it to the N.F.L. (National Football League). Devlin says the ultimate goal would just be to make it to the N.F.L., and not everyone makes it.

    As a kid, Pat had three simple steps: go to school, do his homework, and go outside and play sports.  He would always go outside and either play basketball, baseball, or football. As he got older, he dropped baseball and continued high school with basketball and football until his senior year. Things worked out great for football so he stuck with that. Not only did Pat play quarterback for his high school team, but he also played a bit of safety too. Safety was fun for Pat because being the quarterback; people are always trying to hit him, so it felt good to be the other side of the coin and hit people as opposed to being the one hit.

    A lot of big athletes get nervous before a big game, so people need a little help to get calmed down. So Pat learned a couple of techniques, like meditations to calm him down and controlling you’re breathing. You should always try to use the technique before a big game if you are nervous or really tense.

    Just coming down from Penn State to U.D. in January, Pat has been getting to know the guys on the team better by going to one of the basketball games down at the Bob Carpenter Center, and some of the guys had fun and danced at half time. Not only did Pat need to get to know the guys on the team, but he needed to find a place to stay. For Pat, it was tough for him to find a house down here, but the coaches were great and helped him find a house. Again, socialization with the guys came in to play, because Pat was rooming with some of the guys who were on the team last year and are graduating this year. One of his biggest parts coming down here to U.D. was to try and get to know the guys on the team and hang out with them as much as possible.

    In each career, male or female, he or she has one major obstacle to overcome in their career. For Pat, his biggest obstacle was just the Penn State, but it came out for the best and he’s happy where he’s at now. Another obstacle for Pat would to make it to the N.F.L., but not everyone makes it, so you should always have a “Plan B” or a back up plan, just in case things don’t work out, so Pat needs to look in to other careers. Being finance major, he would love to go into banking or financial management if football doesn’t work out.

    In Pat’s college football career, he has had two coaches, Coach Keeler (University of Delaware’s Head Coach of Football) and Coach Paterno (Penn State University’s Head Coach of Football). Pat said he has recently talked to Coach Keeler a lot, and think he’s a really great guy, but when he think it comes to comparing both coaches, he says “I think both coaches want what’s best for their players.” Pat is also very thankful that Coach Keeler took him in and gave him a second chance.

    At Penn State being a Division One team, they did not have play-offs; instead, they had bowls (no, not the kind you put cereal in) such as the Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, etc., but down here at U.D., we have the play-offs. Pat said he is definitely excited for the play-off system versus the bowl system because for bowls, you have to wait around for a while (like you get a month off then you play one game), but in the play-offs, there’s more excitement and it just follows the regular season immediately.

    If you are a recruit, it means you transferred from a different college to another college to get more playing time in a sport, just like Pat and others down here at U.D. But
Pat has noticed that some of the other recruits have more experience here on the field than him and he thinks that you wont see as many things down here as you see in Division One, but as far as experience goes, there are more guys down here that have more experience than me, but just against some of the guys such as Joe King, I think that gives him more of a heads up. So far, Pat can’t tell between the Division One recruits. A lot of the guys who got recruited from One A, but they just didn’t get scholarships for whatever reason. Back when Pat was up at Penn State, his team had some great wide receivers, but he can’t gage it of that, he has to gage it off everyone else. He couldn’t see a step down as for athleticism, but we got some short guys, some tall, guys, and all kinds of stuff down here at U.D.

    Academically, Pat is considered a junior, but on the field, he’s considered a sophomore, which means he has two more years of playing time on the field. With the schedule already out for the Blue Hen’s 2009 season, the game Pat is looking forward to the most is the West Chester game because a few of the guys who were on his high school team plays for West Chester.

    Athletes have the “shining” or “golden” moment in their careers. Pat’s moment was when he was a senior in high school and his team was in a play-off game against a team, which the odds were, they were going to lose. The night was just beautiful and they scored with ten seconds left in the fourth quarter and won the game. Pat said there was nothing better than to go out in front of your community and play, but there’s a lot more people who come to see the college games and it’s such a rush.

    Athletes strive to do their very best and to make it to the top. If Pat could give advice to a high school football player who wants to play football in college he would say “Work as hard as you can. My dad always told me there is someone out there always working harder than you. There will always be someone always bigger, faster, and stronger and you got to work up to that level. You work harder in high school, but when you get to college it’s another step up.”

    Every quarterback will always have one hit in their career that they will always remember. When Penn State played Ohio State, Pat got some playing time because Penn State’s starting quarterback got hurt. On one play, they ran the Quarterback Sneak (QB Sneak) and what your supposed to do is you step back and get low and then the linemen are supposed to make and opening for you to run through. Well, Pat took the snap, stepped back and got low and then he stood up a bit because he thought he was clear and then one of Ohio State’s linemen came and hit him right in the chin.

    Penn State went undefeated the whole season until the Iowa State game came. Pat described the day being a terrible, cold, and windy Iowa day. Iowa was a good team but not a great one, nut something went wrong in every play, and things just didn’t click that day, so we came out with a loss. It was disappointing because you go the whole season undefeated and then you face a team that’s good, but not great and then you lose when everyone expects you to win.

    On January 1, 2009 in Pasadena, California, Penn State traveled there to compete in the Rose Bowl against USC (University of Southern California) Trojans. Pat went to Coach Paterno and said that he was going to look at different schools, but Paterno said okay, but I don’t think it’s the best thing for you to do, but you do what you think is best. Pat and his team had a meeting with Coach Paterno about going to Pasadena, but Pat didn’t ask to go, but in the meeting Coach Paterno said you deserve to go, but he didn’t say I think you should go. Pat gave him Paterno a call saying what did he think about Pasadena and Coach Paterno replied give me two days to think about it. So Pat gave Paterno a call two days later thinking that he would have made up his mind, but Paterno said “I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to go to Pasadena, I think it would just be a distraction.” But Pat thought coming to U.D. would be great because it would give him a second chance to get more playing time on the field.

    Even though Pat is from the Philadelphia area, he’s a Pittsburgh, Steelers fan (booooooooo!!!). His mom was from the Pittsburgh area and always watched the Steelers so he just picked up on it and became a Steelers fan. A lot of people have iPod’s or MP3 players. On Pat’s current play list, he likes to listen to Pearl Jam and a little bit of the older stuff. If Pat could ever run his own play, it would probably be a pass play, defiantly something deep. Studying does not come natural to Pat. He has to work really tough and he had good high school academics. Pats a really picky eater, so he’s doesn’t eat anything like pizza. A lot of athletes have nicknames. So far, Pat says he does not have a nickname because he says he hasn’t been down here long enough to get a nickname. Probably the most common trait people first see in Pat is his athleticism, but besides that, people usually notice that he’s very calm and reserved. Most little boys have a dream of someday becoming a superhero. Pat didn’t watch too much TV when he was younger, but when he got older he was in to multiple sports and stuff. So if Pat could be a superhero, he said, “I’d be Batman you know, because he has all that money, and he goes out around Gotham and saves people.” Liking to watch movies, Pat would say one of his favorite movies would be “The Dark Knight” following the Batman scheme. Like most people, Pat has siblings. He has an older sister who just graduated from Penn State and now is in a Master’s program up there, and a younger sister who is still in high school at Downing Town. One of U.D.’s former quarterbacks, Joe Flacco, (now currently playing for the Baltimore Ravens in the N.F.L.) had the same exact problem as Pat. Joe was also a recruit and came down to U.D. hoping to get more playing time. Well, Pat got a chance to meet Flacco at U.D.’s Pro Day and Pat said he was a really great guy. Every person has a role model to look up to. Pat’s quarterback role models are Tom Brady (New England, Patriots), Peyton Manning (Indianapolis, Colts), and Ben Rothlisberger (Pittsburgh, Steelers). If Pat could go anywhere in the world he would go to Ireland because he’s Irish, and he would love to go and see the scenery. Pat is not absolutely one hundred percent sure, but he thinks his jersey number for U.D. will be number seventeen. Pat was never really big on numbers. When he was little, he started out on the number “ten” and then one season got the number “seven” and stuck with that for a bit. One year, his dad was coaching his Pee-Wee All-Star game and he wanted a specific number, but his dad said you get what you get, and Pat ended up being a quarterback with the number “seventy-five.” Since then, Pat never really cared which number he got. If Pat could throw a football to any wide receiver in the N.F.L., he would choose Larry Fitzgearld because what he did in the play-offs was just amazing. And last but not least, if Pat could learn from any N.F.L. quarterback he would choose either Peyton Manning or Brett Farve (New York Jets) because they have been around I the leagues for so long.  

Eagles Article By Maddy Hill

The fans of the Philadelphia Eagles and people of Philadelphia held their breathes for the 2008 post-season. Our Eagles just barely made it in to the 2008 post-season (in other words, the play-offs). At four thirty p.m. (eastern time) on January 4, 2009 played in the Mertodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota against the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the play-offs. The game worked out great for our Eagles because they obviously won with the score being Vikings fourteen, and our Eagles coming out on top with twenty-six points. The defense just totally shut down Adrian Peterson (the Vikings star running back) and the passing was nailed down to the receivers by quarterback Donavan McNabb.
The Eagles moved on to the next round of the play-offs against their biggest rival on January 11, 2009, the New York Giants. The Giants best wide receiver, Plaxico Burress, has just been put in jail for carrying a gun without a license. What good timing for us and bad timing for them. This really effected the Giants because apparently they lost with the Eagles out on top with a 23-11 win.
On January 28, 2009, every Eagles fans had their fingers crossed. The Eagles had made it to the NFC Championship against the Arizona Cardinals who had just defeated the Carolina Panthers which was a big upset. I really hate to say this but after the clock ran out in the fourth quarter, all of Philadelphia turned off their TV’s upset. Our Eagles had lost to the Cardinals 25-32. things just didn’t click for the Eagles because most of the penalties that were called were on the Eagles. The game was very close, but the better team pulled out on top.

Real Article

Our Next Hometown Hero?

If you have no interest in sports or football at all, or just simply despise the University of Delaware athletic teams, then I suggest you don’t read this article because it will cause you despair and drive you insane. But if you just love the Blue Hens, then just go ahead and read this article.
In downtown Newark, the University of Delaware’s head coach, K. C. Keeler, of the University’s football team, had an announcement to make. He made an announced that he had the largest recruiting class of his seven seasons with the Blue Hens with a total of twenty high school standouts signed to the NCAA (National College Athletic Association) National Letters of Intent for an athletic scholarship, for this upcoming semester this fall. Not only do the Blue Hens have twenty recruits waiting for an athletic scholarship, but the Keeler made a bit hit with the team’s newest quarterback.
Coach Keeler proudly announced that Pat Devlin, the top quarterback up at Penn State University (PSU) for the past two seasons and a former high school All-American out of Downingtown, Pennsylvania East High School, has transferred to the University of Delaware, and has already began classes. Devlin will take place in spring training (still being a Sophomore) with the Hens and has two seasons with the football team, in which he will most likely be the starting quarterback, beginning this fall.
Standing at six foot four, weighing at two hundred and twenty two pounds, and born on April 12, 1988 (age twenty), Pat Devlin was a Nittany Lion (Penn State’s mascot) until right after the 2008 Rose Bowl. Devlin decided that he would transfer to the University of Delaware to continue his college football career.
In his 2008 season with the Nittany Lions, he was rated as a quarterback as a 163.31, (they rate a quarterback by how many touchdowns, yards, interceptions, sacks, etc. they had that season) four touchdowns, and a total of for hundred and fifty-nine yards that season.
If you’re bad at math, you might have a little bit of trouble with this: What do you get when add a good offense plus a good defense plus a good kicking team plus a star quarterback from Penn State? A kicking butt Blue Hens football team! Let’s hope that we have a shot of the championship with our new star quarterback!

What Does are Future Hold?

Are you feeling down upset depressed to the most likely cause is lack of football in your T.V diet. Do not fret because I have the thing for you... The fate of the next season, who is being dropped, picked up and of course who are these new college kids we hear so much about. First of all I’d like to introduce Chris Wells. Straight from Ohio State. Currently in his college records during 2007 he had 576 yards 7 scores all on 104 carries as a backup running back. When He became first string running back in 2007 he got 1609 yards 15 scores on 274 carries. Then in 2008 he had 1197 yards and 8 touchdowns on the 207 carries he received in the just ten games. According to experts Chris Wells will definitely be a first round pick. His vision is impeccable ESPN.com states he rarely ever misses a hole. He has no off field problems is an amazing combination of height and speed his durability is amazing and frankly he has a crazy last minute burst. Next up is Knowshon Moreno another shoe in for the first round. In his first thirteen games in 2006 he had 248 carries 1,334 yards and 14 scores. In 2007 he had 1334 yards 14 scores and 248 carries. Finally in 2008 he had 1400 yards 16 scores and 250 carries. Knowshon is not one to be dancing behind the line he go’s straight for the first down marker and doesn’t stop till he gets there he is well built but is going to need to gain weight when he gets drafted and is a natural born leader. Top on the list though is not a running back but a wide receiver Michael Crabtree from Texas Tech. Let’s put it this way his worst season consists of a 50 yard kickoff return, 18 touchdowns, and 1135 yards and through that season he played through an injured ankle. That’s a first round draft pick if I ever did see one. In other news the ravens might rob Anquan Boldin from the Cardinals, and Ray Lewis to Dallas? Ray Lewis is predicted not to move but who knows. Deangelo Hall might get drafted to the Raiders if he’s not going back to the Redskins and does anyone really know if Plaxico Burress is coming back? 2009 is going to prove to be quite a season.

SUPER BOWL HOAX

The super bowl a joyful time for family gatherings, rooting for your favorite team, and the amazing commercials. But the truth that the NFL has been hiding from us for years… the super bowl is fixed. Every year all the coaches get together in the preseason and decide who will win the super bowl. Drastic? Yes, yes it is but they are the ones who decide who’s going to walk home with a ring. Coach of the Steelers Mike Tomlin states “hey you got to make friends in this league.” Mike Tomlin was selected to win super bowl 43. One third of the super bowl decision is random the second third is voting and the third and most important is players. You can’t fake a good super bowl if a team with bad player’s wins that just doesn’t make sense so they decide which team has the best players which will help them get chosen for the super bowl. To add to the fact that the NFL picks the teams they also chose interceptions, touchdowns, turnovers, and even fourth down conversions. So yes if you are a Steelers fan the one hundred yard interception for a touchdown was planned well as far as we know. You see some times players improvise like the Steelers safety that was an accident but since the Steelers were chosen to win they pulled it out somehow. The fact that the Steelers have 6 super bowl rings is half luck and half skill considering that the NFL announced that they started planning super bowls in1995. The biggest news held a secret from American society until now.

April Fools Article

Local Delawarean Makes the M.L.B.
By: Maddy HilL

Bradley Johnson, was the M.V.P. (Most Valuable Player) of baseball, in the NCAA college league. Bradley attended the University of Delaware as a senior last year, and was the starting pitcher for the Blue Hens baseball team. About a week ago, Bradley was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals as their new starting pitcher. You might think that Brad is just your typical pitcher, but he isn’t.

Twenty-six year old Bradley Johnson, can pitch over one hundred and seven miles per hour. That’s really fast compared to other pitchers that can pitch at a maximum of one hundred and one miles per hour. To those of you who don’t know that much about baseball, when there is a left handed pitcher pitching against a right handed batter, the pitcher has more of an advantage striking the batter out. But if the batter was also a left handed, the same as the pitcher, the batter has more of an advantage to hit the ball. Well, Johnson can pitch left handed and right handed. So any time a right handed batter comes up, he pitches left handed, and any time a right handed batter comes up, he pitches left handed. If Bradley has a healthy and successful career, he will most likely be voted in to the Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame, voted Rookie of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, and maybe even Athlete of the Year.

So, your probably thinking that this is just a fluke, or this is impossible. I’ve heard of a ambidextrous writer, but never a baseball pitcher. Well, when you thought this article could get any nuttier, I would like to take the time and just say……..
APRIL’S FOOLS!!!!!!!

Die now or later?

Killing people, Should it be legal? Now most of you reading this would immediately scream no, close the paper, and never read my articles again. But read farther and i assure you, you'll start to understand why i say yes. Yes killing people should be legal. Do you believe on euthanasia?
Did Dr. Kevorkian have the right idea, maybe. When you say killing people you almost instinctively think "CRIME!" Who wouldnt? But what if the victims welcomed death, wanted it, awaited it. Some people think of putting there dogs down but when we do it to humans it is all wrong. Let me ask you if we cant do it to humans why do we do it to other living things?
Think of it this way. You are Wealthy yet on your deathbed. You want all your money to go to your only son. Instead you use three quarters of it on the hospital who just to inform you your going to die anyway. Had euthanasia been an option you would have died obviously even though you were going to anyway and your son proceeds to have a nice wealthy life. opinion stated.