"In real life, I can't play tennis at all," junior Taylor Smith says. But when it comes to Wii tennis, she could go pro.
Controversy, a history of injuries and disappointment. These qualities mar quarterback Donovan McNabb's recent years on the Philadelphia Eagles.
To cut costs in the Cottonwood Heights education system, Senator Chris Buttars (R - Utah) suggested statewide elimination of senior year in public high school. He dubbed 12th grade a year of "nothing but playing around" and advised lawmakers not to waste their bucks on slacking seniors. While some juniors feel they have completed high school and are ready to engage in bigger and better things come senior year, others feel 12th grade provides essential opportunities and time for mental, social and intellectual development.
After overcoming a point loss early in the game, the girls' varsity lacrosse team dominated the Whitman Vikings 9–8 on both offense and defense.
The varsity baseball team has been evicted. Clumps of snow and a soggy surface of moist dirt cover their field, as batting cages sit on the sidelines under the weight of snow.
March 4 - Several key nations on the U.N. Security Council are hesitant to approve a sanctions resolution for Iran because it could sever important diplomatic and military ties between Middle Eastern countries.
illmore Music Hall, designed as a three-floor music venue with a performance space and seating for community events, will be constructed this October in Downtown Silver Spring.
For 16 years, they've served in silence. They've risked their lives for those who didn't believe in them, for states that denied their right to love and for a country that forced them to conceal their true identity.
When Nicolas Chartier saw the $1.84 billion figure that represented the record-breaking success of "Avatar," he knew he had a problem. As the producer of rival Oscar nominee for Best Picture "The Hurt Locker," Chartier shook at the thought of a shoo-in film ruining his chance to claim the first Oscar of his career.
Due to fire safety regulations that prohibit indoor pep rallies in the Blair gym, the Student Government Association (SGA) decided to hold a winter sports-themed spirit week, according to SGA president senior Alex Bae.
Feb. 1 - The Obama administration asked Congress to increase education spending by about 7.5 percent for fiscal year 2011 for the restructuring of a test score-based rating system established under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
This may be the most emotional Super Bowl in history. Every game in the season boils down to one Sunday night and we couldn't be more excited.
This week promises some of the best match-ups we've seen all season. We've trimmed the fat and weeded out the weaker teams; all that's left is unadulterated gridiron action. Through injuries, sideline drama and doubt, these four teams have worked hard for the chance to battle it out for a spot in the first Super Bowl of the new decade.
Jan. 4 - The Obama administration recently implemented increased security checks for airport passengers arriving from 14 foreign nations. The Transportation Security Administration and State Department agreed to narrow the list of countries due to a lack of comprehensive scanning technology.
The division playoffs bring us another week closer to the Super Bowl. The match-ups are more intense than ever and teams' momentum and consistency come into play.
The best teams in the NFL kick off 2010 January football with intense match-ups that read revenge and intensity all over. Last week, Blazers might have snagged a glimpse of how the Jets, Bengals, Eagles and Cowboys will fair on the field this week. But some of our weekend match-up teams deceived us.
It's time again to tune in for a couple days of of hard-nosed gridiron action. These last two weeks will determine the final playoff picture and yield some intense performances unseen in previous weeks. Games like Houston v. Miami, Baltimore v. Pittsburgh and Denver v. Philadelphia represent what is at stake.
With only three weeks left in the season, football fans learned of Chris Henry's untimely death on Thursday. The Bengals franchise will have to work through this tragedy and adapt to Henry's absence, a loss that will definitely affect them as we near the end of the season and begin the playoffs.
Week 14 is when the playoff talk begins in earnest. With a ticket to January football on the line, teams will be pulling out all the stops this week (lucky for us). Some teams are already out of playoff contention, but others are ready to give their all for a spot. We've got some truly heavy-hitting games this week.
We've finally made it to December. Though most games will be played on Sunday the sixth, they might as well be played on Friday the 13th. That's right, sports fans, Week 13 spells bad news for some teams.
Nov. 16 - Tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in Moscow's Butyrskaya Prison after a one-year incarceration for his discovery of police participation in a $230 million burglary of government funds.
Week 12 of the NFL regular season makes fans across the nation reflect on what they're so thankful for. An undefeated season? A shred of a chance for the playoffs? But maybe fans are just thankful for this national holiday, when they can sit down with friends and family and enjoy three games of football right after dinner.
Michael Phelps was the only one with his chest bare at the Stockholm races. But in a waist-high 2008 Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit, Phelps cut through the water 1.84 seconds too slow.
This week some interesting games are coming out of the AFC. We've got Houston vs. Tennessee, Buffalo vs. Jacksonville and New England vs. the Jets. All eyes are going to be on the match-up between Randy Moss of the Patriots and Darrelle Revis of the Jets, which will be a battle between one of the best receivers and one of the best cornerbacks in the league.
"Can we bring down the lights?" University of Maryland Professor Ross Salawich asks. The auditorium gradually dims, enveloping the Blair student audience in a darkness that Salawitch's voice soon penetrates. "It's the little things that decrease our carbon footprint," he says during the environmental assembly.
This is a week of hardcore rivalries, which is why you hardcore football fans tune in every Sunday. This is real, pride-filled, friendship-breaking, enemy-making gridiron action.
We're coming up on the ninth week of the season, and the games are still as exciting as they were when the season started. Now more than ever, a retrospective on the first half of the season is in order. Let's take some time to remember the first eight weeks of 2009.
We've got quite a lineup of games in NFL Week Eight. The Colts play the 49ers, the undefeated Denver takes on the Ravens at home and the Dolphins swim against the tide of the division rival Jets.
The picks are getting harder and harder to select each week, as we seem to be heading into unknown territory. Winless teams like the Chiefs are getting their first victories, and undefeated teams like the Giants are receiving their first losses. But where does "the unexpected" put us? To be honest, we're really not sure.
On June 23 at 8:35 p.m., the tweeting world was abuzz. Bruce Manley, the official "King of H.O.R.S.E. Trick Shots," had just been offered $1,000 to defend his title. But it wasn't just any audacious ballplayer who offered Manley a large allowance for a little friendly competition.
The most we can say for the Redskins is that they have been lucky. Not only have most of their first competitors hung at the bottom of their divisions, but all the teams had no victories to their name when they played the Redskins.
The sixth week of the NFL is here, and it looks to be a fantastic week for football. Great match-ups and rivalry games are sprinkled here and there: the New York Giants vs. New Orleans Saints game, the Chicago Bears vs. Atlanta Falcons game and the Houston Texans vs. Cincinnati Bengals game are among the top.
Only five teams remain undefeated after the first five weeks of the 2009 NFL season. From the National Football Conference (NFC), the Vikings, Giants and Saints haven't dropped a game yet. From the American Football Conference (AFC), Denver and Indianapolis stand alone.
As the upsets in week three slowly move to the back of our minds (well, maybe not all of the upsets), NFL week four promises to be thrilling.
Uncertainty is rampant in NFL week three. First of all, the NFL was full of drama last week with unbelievable upsets that marred SCO staffer records. Teams like the Houston Texans, New York Jets and Cincinnati Bengals proved to be formidable opponents for princes of pigskin like Tom Brady, and reminded football fans everywhere of that old saying "any given Sunday…"
Opening week has ended and week two of NFL football is right around the corner. We got a taste of what's to come this season, but we've only touched the surface. Much of the week played out as many had expected: Adrian Peterson once again tops the league with 180 rushing yards, Peyton Manning connected with Reggie Wayne for 162 receiving yards and ol' Tom Brady threw for 378 yards.
As September arrives, millions of Americans across the nation share a common interest: football. With fall comes the much anticipated beginning of the NFL season - a time when fans everywhere rejoice and saturate their lives with goodness otherwise known as America's most popular sport.
With the sweltering summer heat quickly approaching, it's hard to fight the urge to spend most of July and August plopped in front of the TV with the air conditioning turned on high. But even with the humidity, SCO has diSCOvered some hidden gems that will get you to enjoy all that D.C. has to offer.
June 4 - After the mysterious June 1 crash of Air France Flight 447 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Brazilian navy planes from the U.S., France and Brazil have launched a search for remaining debris, which may lead to an explanation for the accident.
Blazer field has been through some tough times.
The 2008-2009 spring sports seasons has officially ended with all Blair varsity teams having concluded their participation in playoffs. Many teams have achieved more wins in the playoff rounds than in previous seasons and collectively share a positive and aggressive outlook for next year.
The Blair stage will once again shine with Blazer talent as the Thespian Club takes the stage this Friday to perform Four Acts of Desperation, a series of one-acts that glow with twisted drama and unique personality. Directed by seniors Adam Carey and Andy Scott, the compelling variety of scenes depicts tales of rebellion, scandal, warped relationships, deep sentiments and unsolved mysteries that provide everything from comedy to tragedy.
As the smell of burning candles wafted through the Media Center Friday night, a lonely mic sat patiently on a vacant stage as purple fluorescent lights illuminated the empty platform. An intimate gathering of parents, teachers and students waited in quiet anticipation for another budding poet to stand courageously and approach the bare stage. With a sudden burst of enthusiasm, freshman Alison Kronstadt made her way to the mic.
On their senior night, Blair gymnasts swept the floor with focused technique and clean execution, achieving an all-around score of 167.4 over Gaithersburg's 101.4 and Springbrook's 89.75. After placing first at state championships last year, sophomore Sophie Sidell returned for her first meet of the season to place first with an all-around score of 36.95. Senior Anna Hadfield took third with a 35.45, sophomore Taylor Smith ranked fourth with a 33.7 and senior Abby Cember placed fifth with a 32.1.
In a close meet Thursday, Blair gymnastics fell slightly short of Walter Johnson 159.6 to 156.5, as senior Anna Hadfield placed second on bars and third on vault while sophomore Taylor Smith ranked third on both bars and beam. In the all-around score, Hadfield took third, Smith placed and senior Abby Cember ranked sixth.
Kicks fly high. Flyers soar in the air. Girls jump and move across the court with energy, beaming with smiles as wide as the poms they clutch in their hands. Many doubt that girls in skirts and smiles can participate in hard-core athletics, and the job is a lot harder than it looks.
In their first meet of the season on Thursday, Blair gymnastics was defeated by the Blake Bengals 159.7 to 143.8, with senior Anna Hadfield tying for first on beam and third on vault. In the all-around score, Hadfield placed fourth with a 34.0 and sophomore Caitlin Hoffman placed fifth with a 26.6.
Silver Quill, Blair's literary arts magazine, raised over $1,100 at its community arts event "unchARTed lands" in Downtown Silver Spring on Saturday evening from 6 - 10 p.m. to fundraise for the magazine's 60th year of publication.
Leave it to the Montgomery Blair Players to make the dark and dismal Fleet Street radiant with intense depth of emotion and glimmering personality. As soon as the curtains of the Blair stage were pulled aside, the bleak atmosphere of downtown London overwhelmed the audience. The torn rags and dirtied faces on the stage protruded sullenly from the painted gray background, drearily oozing with fog.
"On your mark, get set, begin." Heads bowed in intense concentration. Pencils flew across papers. Packed together like the squares on a crossword puzzle, ambitious solvers hunched over the puzzles in front of them, scribbling furiously. The air was dense and thick with concentration, and the scratching of pencils on paper was the only sound that penetrated the silence. The clock ticked.
It has taken the online social networking world by storm. The "25 Random Things" note, which asks Facebook users to list 25 interesting, bizarre, fun and often surprisingly revealing facts about themselves, is part of a new and strangely addicting phenomenon.
The Montgomery County Board of Education (BOE) finalized the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 with a vote of five to one this past Monday, after a series of conferences and public discussion sessions during which teachers' unions, community members and the board discussed economic priorities within Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS).
As Dr. Allan Wigfield peruses his classroom, his eyes scan the 17 faces at the desks in front of him. They grip their pencils at the ready as they wait for his lecture on human development to begin. A level of knowledgeable understanding is visible on the students' faces, a level of professionalism is unwonted in the normal college environment. Then again, the students aren't living in dorm rooms and aren't underage - they are teachers from Montgomery County schools, hoping for county recognition for their extra efforts to improve their teaching.
Under the new management of Magnet teacher John Kaluta, Magnet students will take the stage yet again in a display of their musical talent at Magnet Arts Night tomorrow evening. The evening will include two acts during which Blazers will play musical instruments, sing, perform skits and demonstrate their artistic capabilities.
Four-inch stilettos and a stubborn attitude are hardly compatible with the unrelenting wintry snowstorms of places like Minnesota (think Cameron Diaz in "The Holiday"), but the slapstick-prone combination can offer the occasional chuckle. Amid an unoriginal plot and grating Minnesotan accents comes "New in Town," a surprisingly heartwarming tale of community commitment, strong friendships and love.
Due to a massive budget deficit in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), the Montgomery County Board of Education (BOE) negotiated with three teachers' unions to forgo cost-of-living wage increases for teachers in Montgomery County next year.
We can always count on Disney to produce a sweetly unique storyline complete with lovable and funny characters. In this bolt of delightful comedy, directors Chris Williams and Byron Howard take audiences on a fun adventure complemented by tender friendships, life lessons and a simplistic charm that is sure to light up movie goers everywhere.
It has been more than a year since the father of Jeremy and Justin Herring fatally shot his sons in their beds one tragic night at the end of July, and the memories still resonate clearly within the John F. Kennedy High School community. Jeremy, 18, was a leading Kennedy basketball player for four years, an outstanding scholar and a quietly humble friend to many. Justin, 20, a Kennedy graduate who attended Montgomery College, was just as athletic and admired. He offset his brother's calm persona with a dynamically outgoing personality and a vigorous innocence that was well-loved by family and friends alike.
Blair hosted the 20th annual Females in Science and Technology (FIST) conference on Saturday to foster further female interest in a variety of science fields. About 150 countywide middle school girls gathered to hear keynote speaker Dr. Sharon Milgram from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and participate in three workshops to perform interactive projects in different science disciplines.
Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) staff, students, parents and community members appeared before six members of the Board of Education (BOE) Wednesday evening at Albert Einstein High School in Kensington to raise awareness about specific issues to be considered for the 2010 MCPS budget. With the economy in a downward spiral, the focus of the forum was to suggest ways in which MCPS could improve student achievement without spending more money.
Blazer runners crushed the previously undefeated Clarksburg Coyotes at the final meet of the cross country season yesterday, taking the title of Division III champions. Junior Roxanne Oroxom took second place for the girls, followed closely by senior captain Elaine Chung who stole third. Senior Rutvij Pandya finished first for the boys, breaking the Clarksburg course record with a time of 16 minutes and 38 seconds, and senior Greg Vogel dashed to second place.
The Vault, Blair's student-run, In-School Branch (ISB) of the MCT Federal Credit Union, officially reopened at the beginning of 5A yesterday with a ceremony to instigate the 2008-2009 school year. With special appearances by Principal Darrell Williams and MCT Director of Marketing Kristine Mathey, the celebration commemorated almost ten years of successful vault service and included a ceremonious ribbon cutting performed by Williams.
Blair runners clinched an easy victory in their cross country meet against Springbrook Tuesday, tacking on another win as they improve to 2-0. Senior captain Elaine Chung, freshman Myla Sapp, sophomore Martha Lafen, senior Abby Cember, sophomore Jenny Sholar and junior Jan Nguyen stole the first six places respectively, keeping together in a pack for the majority of the race with Chung leading the last stretch by several hundred yards. Seniors Rutvij Pandya and Greg Vogel claimed first and second place for the boys after sprinting ahead of a Springbrook runner during the last minutes of the race.
Blair cross country defeated Einstein by a large margin at yesterday's meet, despite a twisted and poorly marked course, according to Blazer runners. Senior captain Rutvij Pandya came in first in the boy's competition, followed closely by senior Greg Vogel, who clinched second. The girls were also victorious, with junior Roxanne Oroxom taking first place, senior captain Elaine Chung arriving second and sophomore Theresa Regan stealing third overall.
Imagine a rapidly fading movie star still brimming with celebrity ego, an Australian actor turned black, an obscene and rap-enthused star selling the energy drink Booty Sweat, a cocaine-addicted actor known for his farting abilities on screen and a slightly dorky young star collaborating on an honorable film commemorating courageous Vietnam War veterans. The image is looking slightly incongruous...and completely ridiculous.
The lights are dimmed as social studies teacher David Swaney sits among teenage students, below a stage decked with flashy costumes and dramatic actors. He sits as those around him do: with their violins propped steadily on their shoulders and their right arms flying wildly to create an energetic stream of music, as background for the torrent of song coming from the stage. Swaney plays with his fellow pit members, delighted to be engaging in one of his favorite pastimes while supporting his students' extracurricular interests.
Sophomore Sophie Sidell placed first in the tri-meet, and enhanced her beam routine with flourishes and graceful movements.
Blair english teacher Adam Clay (number 45) reaches to score a basket in a spirited game against Northwood staff and community members to support the Herring scholarship fund.
A Kennedy High School community member flings the ball into the basket right above the heads of crestfallen Blair staff, epitomizing his team's victory.
Two seventh grade girls mash strawberries in plastic bags to extract DNA, as a part of a day at Blair for girls interested in science.
Middle school girls stretch, knead, toss and handle their colorful, homemade silly putty, as a part of a workshop called "Flubber."