Sports

"March Madness"

March 24, 2023

By: Kyle Tung

 

March Madness is a yearly assembly basketball event that takes place in the United States every March. The event is set up by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and includes the top 68 council basketball divisions from all over the country competing in a single-elimination to determine the best team. This event is also broadcasted live in every game for fans to enjoy the game.

   The event typically begins in the middle of March with the “First Four” games. The “First Four” games determine the final four divisions that will contend in the event's main type. The main type is resolved into four corridors, each containing 16 different teams. The event is frequently known as "March Madness" because of the excitement and unpredictability of the games and the fashionability of office pools and other forms of betting on the issues. Betting on the event is also a huge part of why March Madness is veritably popular. The most common type of March Madness betting is where a person fills out a bracket guessing the winners of each game during the event. The points are awarded for each correct guess and the person who has the most points will be the winner. 

   March Madness is one of the most popular sporting events in the United States, attracting millions of observers and making billions of dollars in profit every time. It is also a major artistic miracle, with numerous fans and also non-fans playing challenges and other conditioning associated with the event.

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"CYO Basketball Leagues"

February 23, 2023

By: Ralph Izotov

 

This year’s Basketball League was very exciting and fun for St. Anne’s School. We had multiple teams win their league which is very exciting. Let me start with the sixth graders, who won the championship in division 5. The Sixth Graders went 7-1 in the season and lost to French American by very little, 21-18. They then went on to have a 7 game winning streak and won in the semi-finals against Stuart Hall 32-18, while St. Monica beat French American 23-9. It was then St. Anne against St. Monica, which was a very tough battle. The St. Anne's team was leading the whole game, and, in the end, won 25-20. It was a very chaotic and exciting game to watch. It’s amazing because the sixth graders didn’t win a single game last season but this season they won the league.

   Moving on to the 7th Graders who had 3 teams in the League. The team in Division 6 had a great season and won their league. They had a 7-1 and lost to St. Monica in the regular season.  In the playoffs, they won 32-14 against St. Philip and OLPH beat St. Monica 24-21. In the championship game, St. Anne beat OLPH 30-29, making it a great season for them. The seventh grade team in Division 4 got second place in this league, but they played really well. They were 5-2, and they fought really well. They lost to St. Cecillia 26-25 and St. Paul 37-33 in the regular season. In the playoffs, St. Anne lost to Epiphany 38-36, but they fought all the way till the end. The seventh grade team in Division 3 got 5th place and they were 5-3. They played their best and never gave up. They lost to Holy Angels 44-34, OLV 38-24, and to Town 48-37. They had a good season and they played very well.

  Onto the eighth Graders, who won in Division 6. They played amazingly and had an 8-0 streak. They played very well and fought till the end in every single game, never giving up. This shows dedication and fighting for what you want. In the playoffs, they beat St. Cecilia 19-16 and Bayview YMCA won against Salesian 32-21. In the finals, St. Anne came out victorious and beat Bayview 38-31 and had an amazing game.

   The St. Anne fifth graders in Division 8 got second place and had a record of 7-1. They played well, fought till the end and tried their best. In Division 7, the fifth graders were in Ninth place and had a record of 1-7. They fought well and will keep growing in the future. In Division 6 the fifth graders got 8th place and had a record of 2-6. They also will do better and will fight more. In Division 5, the fifth grader got 3rd place and played really well. They had a record of 5-3 and fought their best. And in Division 1/2 the St.Anne team got 7th place and had a streak of 3-5. They will keep learning and getting better and will do better next time.

   The fourth graders had multiple teams and dedicated a lot of their time and effort. In Division 7, the fourth graders were 2-5, but they worked hard, even though they didn’t win. In Division 6, the seventh graders were 2-6 but also played well. In Division 4, the St. Anne team made fourth place and were 5-3. They had good skills and did well. In Division ½, the fourth graders won their league and had a record of 8-0 which is really good. They won 19-6 in the semis and in the finals won 40-16, which is really great.

   Last but not least, we have the third graders, who also had multiple teams in the league. In Division Blue, the St. Anne team was 2-6 in seventh place. They fought, but they couldn’t make it. They will keep learning as this is all of the third graders’ first year. In Division Green, the third graders got 6th place and were 4-4. In Division Orange, they got seventh place and were 0-8. They will keep getting better and learn more. And in Division Red the third graders got 7th place and were 2-6. There was very tough competition, and they played as best as they could and will keep learning and playing better.

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The Super Bowl

February 17, 2023
By: Sophia Tanaka 

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    As many of you have heard, on February 12th, the Super Bowl took place. The superbowl is the last playoff game that happens every year to determine the football team champion. The super bowl first started in 1966, and as of 2022, the superbowl is hosted on the second Sunday of February. This year, the super bowl took place on February 12, 2023. This game was between the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Philadelphia Eagles. These teams are the finalists in the superbowl. The score was 38 - 35, with the Kansas City Chiefs in the lead. The super bowl took place at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona hosting its 3rd ever Super Bowl. Next year, the super bowl will be in Las Vegas. 
   The Super Bowl was an exciting game and has an interesting background story. In 1960, some businessmen wanted to start a football league outside of the NFL, or the National Football league. They created the AFL, or the American football league. After a while the AFL and NFL had a game which was then forthward called the AFL- NFL World Championship Game. The teams in the match were the Kansas City Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers. Later the Kansas City Chiefs owner wanted the match to be called the “Super Bowl” instead of the World Championship Game. That is how the Super Bowl came to be. Hopefully, the 49ers will win the Super Bowl next year!
 

 

"Local Hockey Team Makes it to States"

March 19, 2023

By: Robert Leung

 

The San Francisco Sabercats, a local hockey team, have made it to states. States is a tournament where the two best teams from the Norcal division compete against the two best teams from Socal. The two teams that are going from Norcal are the Sabercats and the Blackhawks. From Socal are the Maple leaves and the Condor. The Sabercats is the team I play on. We just beat Reno Ice to win the Norcal division and truly become number one in our league. The reason the Blackhawks are going instead of Reno is because Reno is not eligible to compete in this tournament as it is not in California. The tournament that decided who came to this tournament was last week during the weekend. During the regular season we had only lost three games.

This final tournament will end the season and it will be held in Vacaville. This tournament will start on the upcoming Friday to Sunday. After this the season is over and the summer clinics start. Please pray for my team as we have gone through Canada (after winning another tournament) , faced the division above us for fun and beat one of the teams, won almost all of our regular season games with not very low scores and won NorCal to become champions. Please pray for us so that you may ask God to help us win and defeat the other teams! Hope you have a wonderful week, and do what you want, for you are only a kid once.

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"Australian Open"

January 19, 2023
By: Ralph Izotov

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The Australian Open is the first major tennis tournament of each year. This year, the  tournament takes place from Sunday, January 15 to Sunday, January 29, 2023. This is a very crazy tournament because Rafeal Nadal, one of the best tennis players and the defending champion, was injured and lost to McDonald in the Second Round. Nadal’s recovery will take from 6-8 weeks. He is getting close to the end of his career and everyone hopes he can play another year and win one of the major tournaments. Novak Djokavic is also a very great player and who is a fan favorite to win after Nadal was injured during a game against Dimitrov and pulled his hamstring. He is still playing and is now in the round of 16. Also out is the world number one Carlos Alcaraz.  Due to injury, he withdrew before the tournament along with Australian favorite Nick Kyrgios.  Casper Ruud, seeded number 2, has also lost.  It will be interesting to see which men's player will prevail this year. 
   On the women’s side, there were fewer injuries at the beginning of the tournament, however the number 1 and 2 players are already out of the tournament. Iga Swiatek lost to Elena Rybakina, and Ons Jabuer lost to Marketa Vondrousova. The only player in the draw that has won a major tournament is Victoria Azarenka who won the Australian Open twice in 2012 and 2013. Also in contention is the third seed Jessica Pegula. This will be an amazing story if either one of them wins. 
 

"2022 U.S. Open Review"

September, 20 2022

By: Ralph Izotov

 

The U.S. Open is a very famous tennis tournament and is also called a Grand Slam. In total there are four Grand Slams, Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. The U.S. Open is the last Grand Slam of the year and takes place in New York. Even though this year’s U.S. Open men’s final coincided with the somber 21st-year anniversary of 9/11, it brought happiness to everyone who watched. The whole tournament is three weeks long and tennis players from all over the world come to try to win the trophy and the 2.6 million dollar prize check from winning the tournament. There are also doubles and mixed doubles competitions.

   The women's final consisted of to players who are Ega Swiatek who is ranked #1   in the women’s and playes for Poland and Ons Jabeur who is ranked #5 in the women’s and she plays for Tunisia. Jabeur is the first Arab woman to play in the U.S. Open finals. In Women’s to win the match you need to win two sets. Sets consist of somebody winning six games or if they are tied five games to five then they have to play till seven games. If it is 6-6 in games then one plays a tiebreaker game to seven. A match can go to a maximum of three sets.In the finals Swiatek won the first set against jabeur 6-2 and the second set went to a tiebreak which Swiatek won. Swiatek has proved that she deserves number 1 because she keeps winning tournaments.

   The men’s final consisted of to players who are Carlos Alcaraz who is now ranked #1 in men’s and he plays for Spain, and Casper Ruud who is now ranked #2 and plays for Norway. Alcatraz just won the U.S. Open at the age of nineteen and is the youngest player to be ranked #1 and to win the U.S. Open. That has not been done since Rafeal Nadal won the French Open ten days shy of his 19th birthday. My family and I usually root for Rafael Nadal but we now also root for Alcaraz. Alcaraz also is one of the few people to win three matches in five sets and go on to win the finals. Ruud has now gotten ranked as #2 when he was ranked number seven before. Ruud has deserved to be #2 and this is his second final in 2022. In the men’s, it is best of five sets. In the end, the U.S. Open this year was a spectacular event to watch and provided the world with a new #1 in men’s tennis.