FOOTBALL
Ndamukong Suh – Grant High School (Portland)
One of the best defensive players in the entire NFL.
Troy Polamalu - Douglas High School
One of the faces of the NFL.

BASEBALL
Jacoby Ellsbury – Madras High School
Having one of the best seasons in all of MLB.

BASKETBALL
Kevin Love - Lake Oswego High School
Led the NBA in rebounding last year.
Kyle Singler - South Medford
Drafted by the Detroit Pistons… waiting to see about the lockout.

XC/TRACK
Ashton Eaton – Mountain View High School (Bend)
2nd @ World championship in the decathlon.
Galen Rupp – Central Catholic High School (Portland)
Just set the USA record in the 10,000 meters (26:48.00).

Stephanie Howe – Stephanie won the elite women’s division of the Pole Pedal Paddle for the second year in a row.

Chris Horner – Horner won the Tour of California and could make a run at this year’s Tour de France.

Jesse Thomas – A Bend native and Mountain View graduate, Jesse won the Wildflower Triathlon in California.

Paxton Deuel – Paxton lost just five games in four matches en route to winning the Class 5A state boys singles title. Earlier in the month he we the IMC district doubles title by losing just one game in four matches.

Parker Nichols – Became just the third Summit boys tennis player to reach the state quarterfinals in singles, joining Paxton Deuel and Cody Kohlmoos.

Haley Younger/Lindsey Brodeck – The freshmen duo won the Class 5A state doubles title for Summit.

Dylan Cramer – Dylan took 2nd at the Class 5A boys state golf tournament, the best showing ever by a Summit boys golfer.

Megan Fristoe – Megan won her second-straight Class 5A girls state 3,000 meter title.

Ashlety Maton/Megan Fristoe/Kira Kelly – Pulled off a 1-2-3 finish in state in the 1,500 meters with times of 4:41.27, 4:42.46 and 4:34.04 to score 10-8-6 for 24 points in just one event. Those 24 points would have been enough to finish 10th in the state with just that one event. Summit scored a record 112.5 at state.

Summit boys track/girls track/boys tennis/girls golf – All state champions!

CENTRAL OREGON
• Summit high school wins 5 team state championships in 2010.
• Crook County wins its fifth-straight state volleyball title.
• Kellie Schueler wraps up the best Oregon prep track career ever.
• Marshall Greene wins his fifth Pole Pedal Paddle title.
• Stephanie Howe wins her first women’s Pole Pedal Paddle title.
• Max King wins pretty much every race he runs.
• Austin Sears breaks Mountain View rushing records.
• Megan Fristoe wins her second state cross country title for Summit.
• Ryan Powell is on staff for the Super Bowl champion Saints.

OREGON
• The Ducks perfect football season.
• Jesuit girls win 9th-straight State XC title.
• Terrence Jones McDonald’s All-American basketball player.
• Brandon Roy NBA All Star.
• Kyle Singler wins NCAA basketball title @ Duke.

That’s a start. What did I miss? Let me know and I’ll add more.

NBA – Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers
NFL – Chris Henry, Tennessee Titans
MLB – Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds
NHL – Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
Tennis – Rafael Nadal, Spain
Golf – ?
College football – Denard Robinson, Michigan Wolverines
College basketball – ?
Soccer - Wayne Rooney, England
Snowboarding - Shaun White

What do you think?

Who did we miss from this past week?

In sports there are three relationships that are vital to your growth as an athlete and as a person. They can be broken down in the following directions. I’ll use tennis as my example sport.

UP – This is your mentor/coach relationship. As a tennis player this relationship may be your parent (if they are a knowledgeable tennis player), your private coach or an adult who has taken an interest in your growth. This is a vital relationship. It is the person who teaches you how to play the game, pushes you to work hard and makes sure that you are getting the opportunities you need to get better. A good “Up” is not only working on your game, but your attitude and watching out for your best interests.
• Makes sure that you are getting match play.
• Makes sure that you have the proper equipment you need to succeed.
• Helps facilitate your tennis relationships; setting you up with people to play, coordinating your tennis schedule, clinics, lessons, hitting sessions, matches tournaments.
• Holds you accountable for your attitude and work ethic.

OVER – This is your peer/teammate/competition relationship. If you are a 16 year-old boy for example, this is another tennis player who is in the 14 to 18 year-old range ideally, who is close to you in skill. He is someone who you play against competitively. As the old proverb goes, “Iron sharpens iron.” Having someone close to your age that you can battle against helps you to grow and gives you a competitive outlet. A great fictional example of this is Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow from the “G.I. Joe” comic series, they pushed each other as young ninjas (I’m a nerd, I’ll admit it). A real life example of this is would be Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish.
• Your over can be a teammate, a sibling or a competitor from another team.
• This is the person you hit with regularly.
• This is often your doubles partner.
• You can have more than one “Over” but it is vital that you have at least one.
• Having “Overs” is what makes sports fun and the more “Overs” you have, the more likely you are to stick with a sport.

DOWN – This is your relationship to a mentee and this is the most overlooked relationship of them all. Many young tennis players only have “Up” relationships. Some have “Up and Over” but very few have added the “Down” relationship to the list. The Down accomplishes many things for a young tennis player:
• It teaches them to give rather than take.
• Adds some accountably to a young athlete. A young person may not care about disappointing their “Over” but perhaps having a “Down” will help them to stay on the straight and narrow.
• It helps you understand how your “Up” views you.
• Teaching/mentoring someone often teaches you just as much as it does them.
• The opportunity to be a hero can be very rewarding
• “Circle of life,” “Balance to the force,” “Centergy” … however you want to put it, this relationship makes it all work. If there were no “Downs” there could be no “Ups” and then where would we be?