Air Canada

Here is a feature I wrote on the Pac-10 pole vault champion Gabriella Duclos. Gabriella is probably the coolest Canadian in Arizona south of Steve Nash and she always genuinely apologizes when she misses my calls for interviews. I don't know if she's a Bryan Colangelo fan or not.

Pac-10 women's pole vault champion Gabriella Duclos remembers breaking down and crying in Arizona coach Fred Harvey's office early in her freshman year.

The stress of getting into classes, finding housing and adjusting to college - all while barely speaking English - was too much for the then-17-year-old Duclos, a native of French-speaking Quebec City.

She arrived in August 2006, never having committed or applied to UA. To top it off, she missed her initial flight after being stuck in Canadian customs for more than two hours. read on...

Runnin'

Here is my final feature for the 2007 season of the Arizona Daily Wildcat. There's not too much of a side story here, except that I was surprised that somebody with a biomedical engineering degree is now working at Home Depot. That's no slight to Danny. Apparently it's the best fit for some Olympic/Paralympic athletes because Home Depot, being one of the hugest sponsor of USA Olympics, has a program that allows the athletes to take weeks off at a time and still get paid. For the full interesting story read below:

After concluding a set of sprints, Danny Andrews sits down and peels the silicone liner off his left leg. He then pulls off his prosthetic carbon-fiber running leg, wipes the sweat off his residual limb with a small towel and switches to his walking leg. read on...

Black on black Charger, call it Phantom of the Opera

Here's a feature I did on Korion Morris of the UA track and field team. Korion is one of the more focused people I have ever met in my life. The dude bought himself an '06 Charger as a first car. Then he decided to throw d's on it and do everything else to make it even more badass - in case owning a black Charger that he bought with his own money wasn't enough. Also props to Korion for being the first person I interviewed to wear Jordan XIVs for a photoshoot.

Although I did not take the picture myself, it was my idea to try to recreate the picture from SLAM magazine which had Stephon Marbury posing in front of two Bentleys. Unfortunately, I couldn't find that picture any where on the internet, so you'll have to settle for the one below of Steph rocking the Vs with Coney Island in the background.

Also for those people who thought to themselves, "Hmm, that Luke Walton post was OK, but I think it could've been better." Well here's the remix, which might not be all that much better.

For those of you keeping track at home I did work sneakers into both my articles today.

The track's Rush Hour

Here's another track feature I wrote. It's about two sprinters who work together to stop the Triads and other international terrorist organizations from destroying the world. Actually that's Rush Hour, but there really is no reason why I can't allude to Rush Hour any time I write anything about a black/asian duo.

Allow me to elaborate

I really don't think the masses truly understood how good today's "What's in a name?" article was. Let me point out specifically why it could be the best article I ever wrote:

1. It mentioned Beanie Sigel. I really don't need to explain that one any further, but I will just in case there are some ignorant people out there who ain't up on Beans.

• A. In September 2005, a jury acquitted him of charges that he nearly shot to death a man on a crowded city street two years prior.
• B. In August, Sigel left federal prison after serving nearly a year on a federal weapons charge that stemmed from a 2002 traffic stop in the Illadelph.
• C. Sigel also fell behind in child-support payments. He was briefly jailed in November until he paid $27,000 in child support and $2,000 in fines.
• D. On the DJ Green Lantern-produced mixtape "Public Enemy No. 1," Beans spewed the family-friendly gem "The only thing worse than a snitch is a faggot, I hope all you fags get AIDS."
• E. Beans rephrased his kind extension to the homosexual community when he said, "Eat a dick with AIDS on the tip, keep my name off your lips, not guilty" on the "B. Coming."
• F. The Broad Street Bully was the lead actor in two of the greatest movies of all time, State Property and State Property II...which leads me to my next point.
  

2. I worked the movie State Property into the article, this was something I thought I would be unable to do so early in my journalism career. I surprised even myself with that move.

3. It says the word "sex" nine times in the article. If somehow The Arizona Daily Wildcat wound up at the neighboring middle school, little kids might snicker at this.

4. It has the line:

• Sprinter Nikki Martin is called "Nik the Quick," while fellow senior Marquita Taylor has been dubbed "Marquita the leada."

Few will get this, but those who do...Oh they'll chuckle.
(Confession: the dub was actually added to the article by an editor, I wish I was that genius)

5. It also mentions Rick Ross, who in my eyes is a poor man's Freeway (who oddly enough both stole the name of the same drug kingpin), but still it never hurts to name drop a cocaine rapper.

Warning: This post contains a picture of Ed Cota

Everyone has their day

Selfish [sel-fish] adjective
1. devoted to or caring only for oneself; concerned primarily with one's own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others

2. characterized by or manifesting concern or care only for oneself: selfish motives

3. cheering for Stanford solely because you do not want to see the Wildcats (the school I attend) play the Ducks (a school that I have been to once and love solely because of Phil Knight's association) in the opening round of the Pac-10 Tournament.

4. knowing that if the Cats do lose to Stanford, Lute's 19-year streak of 20 wins and his
22-year streak of 11 Pac-10 wins will go down the drain.

5. willing to throw away your school's bragging rights of having a power-house basketball program, just so you can further enjoy the Pac-10 Tournament, a Pac-10 tournament that you overpaid $90 for because the Zona Zoo is wildly incompetent.

The above was my views toward the Arizona vs. Stanford game, a game which Arizona won forcing them to play Oregon in the opening round of the Pac-10 Tourny. I missed the entire game because of the UA track meet. If you want to read the Antoine Cason mid-season report, based off only three! performances this season, feel free to click here sometime tomorrow.

Sadly as a result of being gone for the entire day, I missed 10 minutes of Nic Wise playing time and I missed Ivan Radenovic' have the game of his life. I still can't believe that I missed Nic come within 5 points, 9 boards and 9 steals of a triple-double. I probably should take the high road and praise ol' Ivan for his performance, but I'll leave it to the pros to describe the fluke.

Since this post is rather short for a sick basketball game I'll throw in a pic of Bibby rocking the Air Foamposite I as he d's up ED COTA!!!. You're welcome.

They read over you

My second little feature in the Arizona Daily Wildcat. Granted Troy Harris doesn't play for the Globetrotters, but he's still a cool dude.


On a different note after wasting two minutes of my life with Tyrus Thomas' "highlight tape" off the dunk contest link from NBA.com, I have no expectations for Thomas. It looks like he barely enjoys dunking. On the other hand Gerald Green is quite serious. If Green doesn't win in a landslide the NBA mine as well go back to 2-ball.