Professional Prodigy- Martin Odegaard

Something among the un-ordinary happened this year in the athletic world. In the month of January, 2015, Real Madrid signed a young boy who could be a professional prodigy in the near future. Martin Odegaard is 16 years old. Officially signing with Real Madrid on January 21st, 2015 from his former team Stromsgodset. Currently he plays games with Real Madrid reserve team, Castilla. He trains with both the reserves and the professional roster. Doing so must give him much exposure and getting him better day by day. Martin has made 3 game appearances since signing with Madrid. He scored his first professional goal  while playing for Castilla, Madrid’s reserve team.Within a few years, Martin hopes to be pulled up from the reserve team and onto the real, Real Madrid team.

In his youth years of playing Martin played with Dramman Strong, a local club in which was coached by his father. In 2011, at age 12 attended a tournament for U-16’s. This tournament gathered all of the best 15 year olds in the country, yet at age 12 he was competing and outshining boys who’m were 3 to 4 years older than him! Martin made many appearances with the Norwegian national teams, 16 in total. In these 16 games, Martin did not score any goals but played well and played every game. This kid is no doubt an unbelievable athlete and player and is most likely to encounter a very successful future in the soccer world.

CS

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Outdoor Stadium Series

One of the most intense, competitive games of hockey all season; the Stadium Series. Kings VS Sharks. There were 70,205 seats sold to fans from across the nation. This is the third highest number of seats sold in NHL history. This is an insane number considering the NHL has been around since 1917. 98 years of records, fans, and intensity, and this game of the San Jose Sharks and LA Kings holds the third highest number of fans to attend a game.

These two teams have been rivals since the beginning due to their high ranking in the NHL and the fact that  it’s about five and a half hours from SAP Center in San Jose to Staples Center in Los Angeles if you drive. This geographical similarity is another reason there is such a strong rivalry because the fan basis is from around the same area. Also both have a number of Olympians and high-end, marketable talent to showcase.Joe Thornton has been a monster point collector and play maker forever, while Logan Couture and Antti Niemi are quickly rising stars. The Kings, of course, have Conn Smythe and Vezina winner Jonathan Quick and add to that with the talented Dustin Brown. Mike Richards, Jeff Carter and Drew Doughty. The stars from both teams go at each other hard, on and off the ice.

Now, this rivalry draws the fans and intensity, but this game was needless to say, incredible. The Kings scored first, and were answered with a goal from Burns with the Sharks. The score was tied up until late in the game when the kings scored again,a rifle of a shot, resulting in a final score of 2-1, LA Kings.

KMM

Sold Out Levi’s Stadium for a hockey game.

kings VS sharks

Olympics

The Olympics are very hard to participate in.  The Olympics are a competitive meet where hundreds of Countries bring their best athletes to compete for gold medals.  The Olympics are every four years and have amny different sporting events.  Every 2 years the Olympics switch between the Winter and Summer games.  Swimming is during the Summer Olympic Games.  Swimming is the most watched sport in the Olympics.  To get into the Olympics for swimming you need to meet the following requirements.  First you have to qualify for Olympic trials.  Olympic Trials is where all the American (your country) swimmers that have the time standard come to race.  If you place first or second at Olympic Trials, you make the Olympic Team.  Once on the Olympic Team you will receive many items for making the team.  Some of these items are: a 300$ Tech suit, USA sweat shirt, USA sweat pants, USA shirts a different color for everyday, and USA swimming caps.  Making it to the Olympics is a major accomplishment.  You are looked up at by many other athletes as a superior athlete.  Making the Olympic Team for swimming is truly amazing.

-BM

Soccer

Growing up playing soccer for my entire life, or almost my entire life, since I was 4 has taught me a lot of things. I’ve grown up traveling lots, playing more, and enjoying the most. Playing over 1,000 game I’ve had my fair share of soccer. I work day in and day out on improving my game to make  me the best player I can be and only hoping my teammates are doing the same so that one game day we can come out with the win. Winning is a really important part of the game to me, sure anyone can play the game going through the motions but champions emerge from the ones who always find the will and desire to win the game. Recently my team has been losing games and we are going through a rough time, but we are training hard to get back on track.

CS 7th

TODAY IN HOCKEY PT. 2

In my last blog I wrote about how absolutely excited I am about the Stanley Cup and the play off games that lead up to the big game. When one thinks hockey they think, tough guys skating around and fighting each other due to tension and rivalries, right? Well yes, that stuff happens but off the ice hockey players are some of the most down to earth professional sports players I have ever met. Though I appreciate the sport and love to watch any team play, I am personally a die hard San Jose Sharks fan due to the fact that when I was born I lived in San Jose and my uncle played for the sharks. I was always in and around what is now the SAP center. Weather that was in the locker rooms, the box seats or the nose bleeds, I developed a love for being involved in this sport. The guys on the team treated me like I was family even though I was only related to one of them. At first I thought they were just being nice because I was young and looked up to them, but now as I grow older, I have realized that I formed quality relationships with many of these players. There are many players who I could reach out to today and they would still know who I am and carry on conversation. My uncle moved back to Canada once he stopped playing hockey, and even though he is there and not here our hockey-formed relationship will never be broken.

~KMM:)

TODAY IN HOCKEY

Sadly, the hockey season is nearing an end. This is not all sad though. This season ending means that the Stanley Cup is right around the corner! This event starts off in play offs, in a series of 7 games, the winner of those games moves on and so on until the final game: the Stanley Cup! This is one of the most exciting and aggressive games in the entire season! As of now, the Detroit red wings are ranked 1 in the Atlantic division. The 1 seed in the Metropolitan division is held by the New York Islanders. though these are two very strong teams, the team I am personally most excited to see in the play offs is the team that holds the wild car seed: the New York Rangers. The rangers are a very strong team with a very aggressive defense and a skilled offense. They are part of the metropolitan division, and their  record is 27 wins and 14 losses. This teams longest “streak” was one loss, after that loss the rangers got their heads in the game and fought back for a win in their next game. Hockey is a very tough and physical sport; with this being said, one would expect the players to be mean and tough. This isn’t necessarily the case. stay tune for my next blog post to read more about these “tough guys” personalities! Thanks for reading!

~KMM 🙂

Swimming

People usually think swimming is an easy sport.  Whats hard about swimming back and forth in a straight line, starring at the tile that lines the bottom of the pool.  If you don’t participate in the sport it is easy to criticize the event.  Swimming is possible the toughest sport in athletics.  It may not be the fastest or the longest, but it requires strength in all muscles not just a few muscles.  Most people don’t have the dedication or passion to swim.  imagine getting up at 4:00 o’clock in the morning everyday of the week to go to a pool and swim.  Then you leave the pool to go to school or your job then after that you go back to the pool to do another two hour work out.  After that work out you go to cross-fit, a high intensity work out where you lift weights and use your body as a weight itself.  Finally you go home either to care for your kids or do homework if you are in school.  This is not easy.  I challenge any athlete to go through a month of this sport and see how long you last before your body gives up.

-BM