The disgusting creature we know as Barry Bonds has finally been indicted for someof his criminal activity.

His record should be erased from baseball and his name should be associated only with disgrace.

Read about it HERE.

The Shannon Forest Christian School Fall Sports Banquet was held on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007. During this time awards were given for girls volleyball, girls & boys soccer, and mens and womens cross country.

Devon Tyson received the prestigious Coach’s Award for exemplary performance, skill, attitude, and leadership during the Middle School soccer season.

Bryce Tyson received the prestigious Coach’s Award for exemplary performance, skill, attitude, and leadership during the Varsity Cross Country season. He also received the Academic Award for the highest academic achievement of a male cross country runner.

On a brisk fall night, the Furman Paladins faced the Belmont Bruins in a hotly contested soccer match. As you know, Furman clinched the number 1 spot in the Southern Conference last Saturday vs. Elon. With a 14-2 record over all and a spotless record at home, we were expecting Furman to have an easy ride vs. Belmont.  Besides, this weekend is homecoming, so surely “they” scheduled a lousy team to play: WRONG.

Things started out pretty well. A good crowd assembled on the home side and Furman came out strong in the first half, ending it with a 1-0 lead. Furman’s defense was bulletproof, and their offense was aggressive enough to keep the ball near the Bruins goal nearly the entire half.

The second half was different. The Bruins’ coach must have given the team a royal butt chewing because the team came out aggressively and with brute force after half time.  Furman, on the other hand, was lethargic. They seemed a bit overconfident and lacked the fighting spirit of the first half.  Belmont scored in the last 8 minutes of the match to send both teams into overtime.

The big surprise was the first overtime period.  With less than 32 seconds off the clock, Blemont found an amazing gap in the Paladins’ defense and put a long, forceful shot right into the far corner to win the game.

Overall I must say that the game was well played. It was competitive, and only one card was given. The crowd seemed to be in violation of Southern Conference rules with the way they were bad-mouthing the referee, who made a good number of controversial calls.  Concessions were good and a number of the soccer fans left Stone Stadium to visit the Homecoming festival taking place on the main mall.

Inside a packed Paladin Stadium, the Mountaineers of Appalachian State showed everyone why the Paladins suck this year.  A great afternoon for football manifested a Paladin offense that could not consistently get through the Mountaineers’ - a defense known as being weak.  Perhaps the most frustrating illustration of Furman’s incompetence was their failure to score from ASU’s 3-yard line.

Offensively, the Mountaineers dominated.  Nothing was able to stop them except for a small variety of penalties.  Furman’s defense was in full “Swiss Cheese” mode, as they allowed the Mountaineers to move at-will down the field, even on 4th downs!

The Furman crowd, though large, was quiet for almost the entire game.  The only time we heard from them was when a mini scuffle broke out between opposing players in the 3rd quarter. Other than that, the home crowd was motionless, quiet, and depressing.  Even as the referees showed a clear bias towards ASU, the defeated fans started filing out of the stadium less than halfway through the 3rd quarter.

The ASU fans were completely different: they were enthusiastic, loud, motivated, and persistent - an asset that surely helped the Mountaineers play an upbeat game.  The ASU band must have been 4-times the size of the Paladin Regiment and was so loud, they could drown out the PA announcer as they desired.

The result? A downtrodden, downcast, demoralized home team and home crowd.  For them the game was even worse since they had to see and hear all the fun that was across the field as they wallowed in the despair of a disgraceful, pathetic embarrassing season put on by their team.

After a long victory drought, SFCS Middle School came through against Veritas for a 7-1 win.

Whew!  I don’t know what went wrong with Veritas, but we were all very happy to see our team win again.

The SFCS Middle School Soccer team has struggled this season. After a stunning opening day victory, the battles have been long and prolonged. The crowd? Demoralized, discouraged, searching for answers, asking “why?”

So, what is the problem?

• The coach?  They didn’t do any better with the old coach.  They don’t do any better with the varsity coach.
• The offense?  Well, there’s something to say about the dearth of goals.  The defense can only keep the ball out of their own goalfor “so” long!  Why have they been shut out so often?  Obviously, the offense has not been doing its job at all.  In fact, without offense, it’s impossible to win!
• The defense?  The defense as a whole has been pretty good I think.  For every goal scored by the opposition, the SFCS defense has stopped 50 or 60 (well, maybe I am exaggerating!).
• The goal keeper?  Just like the defense can’t stop every shot from an endless barrage from the enemy, neither can the goal keeper.  Has he made errors?  Sure, but he’s not the reason why the team is struggling.
• All the kids who do not belong to the parent(s) who is (are) complaining?  You should hear the parents while watching the game.  Each one criticizes and berates all the players except their own.  It truly is disgusting!  Then they criticize the coach, then they criticize the old coach, then they criticize the Athletic Director.  Sure, it’s not all the parents.  In fact, I would say that most of the parents do not participate in such talk.  It’s the loud, vocal, “my son is the greatest soccer player in the history of the planet” parents who make it SEEM like it’s all the parents… it’s really not.

It’s bad enough to see your team struggling so much in almost every game.  It’s almost intolerable to sit and hear the same discussions over and over again, with increasing intensity as the season progresses!  “So what?” you ask.  Well, I’m glad that you asked this question.

First, let me say that I do not advocate “thought police.”  If this is how some parents want to act, that’s fine.  I understand that it’s frustrating to have another year of lackluster performance from the team.  It’s monotonous to see the opposition score unanswered goal upon unanswered goal.  It’s discouraging to see the players bicker, blame each other and become discouraged.

Second, from my experience, I would say that the parents in youth sports everywhere act the same.  It’s horrible, but it’s true.  I’m just glad that we’ve never really encountered any of those “out of control” games you read about in the news!

Finally, the solution.  I don’t really think anything is wrong with the coaches or the players. Seriously.  I think that the other teams are better than the Crusaders.  We need to understand why the other teams are better rather than search out other people to blame for any perceived failures.

Do I know why the other teams are better? Well, let’s think about this:

• Maybe all the good soccer players go to other schools.  Well, I guess this is possible, but I find it hard to believe that all the “bad” soccer players go to our school.  Besides, I fully believe that the Crusaders can beat any team out there.
• Maybe the games are rigged.  I doubt it.
• Maybe the coaches are all better than our coaches.  No.  This is middle school.  I don’t have any problem believing that our coach is as good or better than the others.
• Maybe the VARSITY coach is better.  Well, if so, wouldn’t the varsity team win a couple?
• Maybe all our players have family “issues” and all the players on the other teams don’t.  Very unlikely.  I expect that “issues” are fairly uniform in their distribution.
• Maybe the other teams practice more.  Could be.

SUGGESTED STRATEGIES: I’m no expert on soccer, so I can’t really get into any in-depth strategies here.  Here’s a couple suggestions that might help:

• Score more goals.
• Stop passing to the opposing team.
• RUN OUT THE CLOCK for the whole game.  That would be a feat in itself if it were ever done!

Well, that’s my analysis folks.  It’s been a tough season, but it’s almost (finally) over.   I’m just glad that “winning isn’t everything.”  GO CRUSADERS!

After losing 4-2 on the road to Asheville Christian last Friday, SFCS takes on Oakbrook Prep at home today.

Friday’s action saw some new offensive and defensive assignments that looked like good moves.  In the first half, Devon Tyson assisted SFCS’ first goal from defense, and in the second half scored the Crusader’s 2nd goal.

Check to see if there’s any SFCS middle school soccer updates HERE.

Phillies phans everywhere have been waiting for this moment. Yes, it’s real. You can breathe now. After a traditional Phillies disastrous loss on Saturday, many fans were feeling despondent and hopeless. Fortunately, the team with the most losses in history was able to pull one out against the Washington Nationals in the season finale..

NEW YORK (AP) -The collapse is complete. When the New York Mets needed a big game, Tom Glavine pitched one of his worst.

After blowing a big September lead in the NL East, the Mets missed the playoffs Sunday when Glavine was tagged for seven runs during the first inning of a season-ending 8-1 loss to the Florida Marlins.

New York’s loss coupled with Philadelphia’s 6-1 win over Washington gave the division title to the Phillies and sent the stunned Mets home for the winter wondering how they squandered a seven-game cushion over the final 18 days of an excruciating season.

Now, David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez and the rest of this talented team will forever be remembered alongside the 1964 Phillies and other famous failures for skidding to one of baseball’s most monumental collapses. To make it worse, start slugger Carlos Delgado broke a hand in the first inning when he was hit by a pitch.

No major league team had owned a lead of seven games or more with 17 to play and failed to finish in first place. New York, which had that margin on Sept. 12, matched the largest lead blown in September. The 1938 Pittsburgh Pirates (Sept. 1) and 1934 New York Giants (Sept. 6) also led by seven games in the final month only to tailspin.

Read the entire article HERE.

The MRCA Jamboree was somewhat disappointing for Shannon Forest Soccer fans.  Friday saw the Crusaders down 5-0 to St. Joseph’s, and 4-0 to MRCA.  In action on Saturday, Hampton Park blew out the Crusaders 8-0.  In perhaps the best game of the tournament, SFCS lost 2-0 to Asheville Christian.

While some seem to be disturbed at the SFCS losing streak, encouragement was found in the great performance against Asheville Christian.  During this game, the Crusaders demonstrated that they are not discouraged and have an even greater desire for victory.

We’re hoping the next victory comes tomorrow vs. Spartanburg Day!

Today, Shannon Forest Cross Country participated in the CAA Meet at Spartanburg Day.

Stay tuned, maybe we’ll have some results soon.