Dan+S

Ben Gilbert profile By Dan Schwarz

Since he was a little boy playing town basketball he dreamt of being a varsity basketball player for the Wellesley High School. Around 3rd grade the he played his first basketball game and knew he would be a combo guard for the Raiders. “I like style of play, fast play, and athletic plays” Ben said about basketball. He also showed his athleticism by playing soccer for 5 years and football for 2 years. But he wanted to focus on basketball of his high school career, saying “I am pretty good at it, so I don’t embarrass myself as much, and it is a lot of fun.

In the off-season he worked hard every year to help achieve his goal. He worked hard, ate right, but most of all had a positive outlook on his upcoming season. He exceeds expectation during the off-season, the coach at the high school strains an hour a day. But to become a better player he put in 2-3 hours a day and ran track to keep in game shape. Being a combo guard he must work on all-important aspects of the game, which he incorporates, dribbling and shooting, in his off-season routine.

Hating Natick, he looks forward to the game every season. “They think there cocky so every time we beat them, I feel that were the best in our region.” Even though he does not agree with the system he tries to run the plays to perfection every time he is on the floor. “It has its ups and down and I wish we had a more fast pace game, so we can get easier points.” His dreams will come true come the next basketball season, for this all around player.

Bruschi set to return to Pats Sox visit sounded soldiers

Bruschi set to return to Pats

This article is about Teddy Bruschi returning for his 13th season, not retiring. When I read this article, I wondered about players who graduated from the Wellesley High School and who has come back to coach. The Bradford could have a feature on these coaches. What sports did they play, and why they wanted to return to the high school. Mr. Cluff played basketball and return to coach, same with Mr. Davis in football.

Sox visit wound soldiers

When I read this article I thought about how the Red Sox are so charitable and visit hospitals. The Bradford could write an article of the past charitable events, by sporting teams. The Wellesley football team is doing a charitable event for Children’s Floating Hospital. I was wondering about other events by other teams.

Colvin sent packing Winchester perfect again

Colvin sent packing This article is about longtime Patriot Linebacker Rosevelt Colvin and how he got cut from the Patriots today. The Bradford could to research on how cuts are made in all sports. What are similarities between the sports and the reasons why they cut potential players. Is it harder for player to take a year off from a sport and then tryout again. Does the player often get cut from the team.

Winchester perfect again

Winchester wrestling has been perfect for two years straight. The freshman basketball team has gone perfect for the last two seasons. The basketball team was featured in the By the Numbers section in this edition. An article could be written about either the basketball team or other teams that have gone undefeated in the past. Why it is so hard to go undefeated in the Bay State Conference? Track team has gone undefeated before.

Super 8 play-ins Eastie stymies Charlestown

Super 8 plug-ins This week I am going to follow the sports page form the Boston Globe. Super 8 play-ins are tonight (hockey state tournament), Needham vs. Xaverian and Waltham vs. Westford Academy. It’s interesting because Wellesley was close to making the tournament but lost one game and eliminated from running. The Bradford could write an article about the criteria of making tournaments, in all sports. Is the criteria to harsh, is there other systems that are talked about in the MIAA.

Eastie stymies Charlestown

This article was about boy’s high school basketball tournament. It made me think about how the Wellesley basketball team was a disappointment this year, winning only 7 games this year. They obviously did not make the tournament this year. Each year the Bradford writes an article about the teams that made the tournament. I think that the Bradford should write about the teams who did not make their tournament.

Students affected by half days Dan Schwarz

There are 365 days in a year, and a required 180 days in a school year. Once a month, instead of a full day, students and teachers are given a half day for a break. The half days are usually the first Wednesday of the month, and students are released at 11:30am instead of the usual 2:30pm. The half days at Wellesley High School are the most effective of all the school days. This is because everyone pays attention, it is easy to focus for 35-minute blocks, and the movies watched are the best tool for learning. Students pay closest attention to their teacher because they need to learn a lot in a small amount of time. Classes are shortened from one hour to a 35-minute class. Everyone has there eyes fixed on the teacher, not the clock. With full student attention, the amount pages of notes sky rockets from a messily one page of notes, on full days, to a minimum of six pages, on a half day. Electronic distractions are at an all time low, because students are focused on the teacher and what they are learning. Look around the class room and observe courteous guys in blazers, with a pen in one hand and their hands raised high in the air. In the Wellesley High School the best of learning happens in 35 minutes. Students come to class on time, and prepared because they know that 35 minutes is the perfect amount of time to focus on one subject. They know how important learning is. They waste not a moment, in their seats, with their work out, and already ahead in their assigned practice problems. The teachers take advantage of the short classes, by bringing up numerous new materials. Teachers never fall behind in a class, and students respond higher to this teaching style. Sophomore, Dan Levy said “I feel lost if less then two new topics a day are brought up, during class.” Thirty five minutes is the perfect amount of time for class. Students learn better, and teachers bring up more material, positively affecting everyone. Movies about the specific topic are a more effective way of learning than lectures and discussion. Movies are the perfect way for students to prepare for a test. The most important information about the unit is in these half day movies. The interesting movies are the backbone of a unit and the discussion that teachers control are miscellaneous information. Movies are picked very carefully; this is obvious because every teacher shares the same movie and shares it with all of their classes. Movies are perfect to learn about current events because it never talks about a tribe during the 80’s but how that tribe is doing today. It’s obvious that students are affected more by movies more than a lecture. The superintendent, administration, and faculty should order more half days because of the effectiveness of the learning.

Dan Schwarz Whiteout means black ink for resorts By Nicole C. Wong http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/12/18/whiteout_means_black_ink_for_resorts/

In this article by Nicole Wong, the lead is one sentence long, with 42 words in it. In this article there are 15 paragraphs. An article that has 15 paragraphs oddly averages only one or two sentences a paragraph. This article answers that New England is bennifitted from the Northeastern this past week. The only reason why this year is the best start for ski resorts in the last 10 years is because of the northeastern. The reader can be left wondering what the worst start for ski resorts was in the last 10 years. This is not a story idea that we could use for the Bradford. This article shows ski resorts around New England and the closest that we could talk about is Blue Hills and the snow they get. My reaction is that resorts should make snow instead of getting bailed out from a Northeastern.

Dan Schwarz Bradford Critique The Bradford is a student run newspaper, about the happenings in the Wellesley High School. The Bradford’s task was to critique the paper using the guidelines of the CSPA (Colombia Scholastic Press Association), the CSPA judge’s newspapers country wide and the Bradford was one of them. As a member of the Bradford, my findings were close to the judges’ opinions. The Bradford is well balanced paper but it still leaves out some key departments out of the Wellesley community. Sports has its own section of the Bradford; it usually expands to three or four pages of the Bradford. In the October issue one-fourth of the Bradford was dedicated to sports events. If a fourth of the paper covers one department, an attempt should be made throught the department. Wellesley has one of the best drama departments in the state and there should be a section for drama as well as sports. Besides the drama department, clubs are not having the opinions shared. Academic clubs such as the Math team or general clubs like the Ping-Pong club. What also are missing are annual projects. Events like the senior projects, or any jobs that students are doing to help the Wellesley High School. The CSPA award the Bradford 266 points out of 300 points. To have an All-Columbian newspaper, the paper must have been rewarded 285 points, 16 more point than what the Bradford received. I think that one of the Bradford’s strengths is avoiding bias. You can tell that on some of the stories, mostly sports stories are from a neutral writer. However, Bradford sports writers have to improve on getting every perspective on that event. Some of the stories are with a perspective of the coach or captains. I think that are leads needing a little more work too. The leads are one of the most important part of an article, it sets the tone for the article, tells the reader what is it about, and if it is interesting. In the articles there is little emotion from the writer. The article should lively and the writer sometimes doesn’t show the passion in the articles. In the writing portion of the judges the Bradford was given 331 points out of 400. The All-Columbian score is 380 or above, that’s 49 points under for the Bradford. I think it is the Bradford has to be improved its writing to be an All-Columbian newspaper. I think the Bradford’s weakness is its Graphics. Graphics should liven up the paper but without them it makes the paper is dull. There should be more exciting pictures. The newspaper should include sidebars, little sections of facts on the side of the article. A great place to put a sidebar is in the sports section, some random facts about the teams. There should be action shots of players or performers, not posed pictures.

Book letter 1/3 Dan Schwarz

In the first third of The Greatest: Muhammad Ali by Walter Dean Myers it talks about his early days in boxing. The main point of this section is Cassius Clay dream of become a boxer. He got his big break as a boxer when he trained with the boxing legend Archie Moore. Archie trained Cassius to become the best young fighter in the world by winning the 1962 Olympic gold medal. Cassius Clay would predict the round that he would knock his opponent out. He was a spectator to the political views around the world and I think he will later be a key contributor around the world.

Walter Dean Myers did a fantastic job of describing the events of his young life of Cassius Clay. To do this job he must have researched a lot about Cassius and his life. As reporters you have to get every single fact right. I can tell that Myers researched very well and made every detail of Cassius’s life very exciting. Usually in a biography the author will just talk about the same event on and on. But what Myers does is talk about how that event impacted Clay’s life and the questions that surrounded him.

“How has Clay come so far and learned so incredibly little about his craft? Simply because he hasn’t had to learn anything. Doug Jones is the only real fighter Clay’s met so far, and he too should’ve been a setup because of his great lack of height, weight, and reach in comparison to Cassius … Some of us would like to buy a large in insurance policy on Cassius clay before he steps in with good old Charley Liston.”(pg 36) In this quote that Myers uses, as a reader you can see the hype in Cassius. His ability is so great that you can tell the criticism that people had about him.

What I noticed in Walter Dean Myers writing is that he foreshadow amazingly. In the first chapter of the book Cassius is in Archie Moore’s boxing camp. Later in the book he fights his forty-eight-year-old mentor in a fight that Archie Moore had to take. “It wasn’t what either of us wanted, but I was in a bind financially.” (pg26)

Book letter 2/3 Dan Schwarz

The book is continued, it is in the middle of Cassius Clay’s boxing career. The second third of the book is all about what happen in Cassius life outside of the ring. What came as a big surprised is that he said that he was converting to Islam and was changing his name to Muhammad Ali. He was drafted into the Vietnam War but being so unique he did not enroll himself. His reasoning for not going into the war was that he was a conscientious objector, this is an odd reasoning because he is slugging away with two-hundred pound opponent for hours. The banishment of Muhammad’s boxing career until the war was over was damaging toward boxing, and his prime years.

The sports world was shocked that Cassius was now a Muslim. But what was intriguing was that sportswriters would still refer to has Cassius not Muhammad Ali. I think that Cassius had a desire to always be in the spotlight. I can tell this from Walter Dean Myers writing because he would always show the constant change of Ali’s mind. The way he describes Muhammad throughout the book you can tell the traits he posses and I have learned that being the center attention is one of Ali’s character trait. Myers made you feel like you were Ali and you could control what he will do and say. The connection that you have with Ali is amazing and it teaches journalist to provide that reader, protagonist connection.

Walter Dean Myers does a great job of balancing the world events during Muhammad’s time period. The most important event that happens in this section is the Vietnam War. He did a great job of describing the emotions that Ali was feeling. As I was reading the passages about the war I could feel the nervousness that Ali was feeling. He was nervous if he could get away as a conscientious objector. I thought that there was no shot that he could get away with it, but felt like he was going to because I felt the nervousness feeling switch to a confident feeling while he was in the court room.

“Freedom means being able to follow your religion, but it also means carrying the responsibility to choose between right and wrong, So when the time came for me to make up my mind about going in the army, I knew people were dying in Vietnam for nothing.” (pg 64) After he did not enroll to the army his championship was taken away, his boxing license was stripped, and he was called a coward for his actions. The way Myers describe the pain that Ali was suffering for his actions of standing up for what he believed in was unbelievable.

Book letter 3/3 Dan Schwarz

In the last third of the book was focused mostly on his comeback to the ring. This was his comeback this is what made him the boxing legend the fights that he did after his prime. The rumble in the Jungle, Ali vs. Joe Frazier no fight were as big as those two. These fights would prove to the world if Ali still had the skill to fight two-hundred-pounder's.

“It was Muhammad Ali’s first professional defeat. Ali took more punishment than ever before.” He was no longer the greatest his first defeat. Walter Dean Myers described the fight like it was the last fight you would ever see. “The fight was scheduled for fifteen rounds, and it looked as if it would only be a matter of time until Frazier got to Ali for the Knockout.”(92) This is a great quote from Myers describing the fight to do this he had to research from every article about that fight, getting picture. I think Myers is a great writer and a great researcher.

The Rumble in the Jungle is the fight that everyone thinks about when you say Muhammad Ali. This fight was in Africa against Gorge Foreman. Muhammad showed his courage by knocking out Gorge Foreman who is 15 years younger and 30 pounds heavier. “He was landing the shorter punches, and every time he would unleash the full fury of the longer blows.”

Myers shows Muhammad Ali legacy at the end of the book. He was one of the 20 greatest athletes of all time, and a great activist. The whole point of the book was not to tell people about how great Ali was as a boxer but also show how great of an activist and leader he was.