Snowboarding Essays

Snowboarding Essays Snowboarding Essay Snowboarding Essay Brad Ogden Mr. Buffington English 104 2/17/11 There is nothing more beautiful than being a part of a community. A community is a group of people with a common interest or goal who interact with each other and unite together to make what they stand for special (Students, English 104, 2011). A community can be a school, a city, a team, or simply a hobby that is shared and enjoyed together. There is a community for almost anything and no matter how big or small it is, it means a great deal to the people that are a part of it. I would consider myself a part of numerous communities but one that I especially value would be the community of snowboarders. I have had a passion for snowboarding since I was very young and my passion has only grown and matured more as I have gotten older. This passion originated from a Disney movie, â€Å"Johnny Tsunami†, where the main character is a young snowboarder who is very talented and brave. I would watch this movie every chance that I got and it summoned my love for the sport because I could not think of anything cooler than becoming snowboarder. In the movie there was one quote that stuck with me and is still an essential value to myself, â€Å"Go big or go home. † That has stuck with me my whole life; it gave me the courage to get on a snowboard, has helped me stomp my first tricks, and helped me overcome many fears of injuring myself. That quote will stay with me and will continue to help me become a better snowboarder. Becoming a part of this community made me realize that I can say that I can consider a stranger on a snowboard somewhat of a brother or sister, which might sound strange but there is a connection between two people that share the same passion. The most important asset to every snowboarder that generates the passion for snowboarding is his or her snowboard. A snowboarder without a snowboard is like a soldier without a gun or a mom without a child, without it the title is deficient. The snowboard is the key to all the locked doors and with it you can reach unimaginable goals and keep the passion for the sport burning. I first got to experience the thrill of riding a snowboard when I was ten years old on a trip to Perfect North Slopes in Indiana with my best friend and his family of experienced skiers. My best friends mother insisted that I tried skiing before I got on a snowboard because snowboarding is apparently more difficult than skiing, which I found to be erroneous after falling several times on skis going down the bunny slope. After I traded my skis in for a snowboard the day became much more thrilling. The feeling I got from snowboarding on that day was almost as electrifying as the first time I fell in love, it was something that I continued think about everyday and no matter how badly it hurt me, I wanted go back for more. From that point on, each time I would hop off the ski lift it was like another adventure, and each time my love for it would grow. Of course I wasn’t hitting frontside indy grabs or 5400’s from the get-go, which are semi-difficult moves that include a series of spins and grabs while gliding through the air after hitting a jump. Just like every newcomer to the sport I had my fair share of spills. Throughout my years of snowboarding I have knocked teeth out, broken my tailbone and arm several times, dislocated my shoulder, and have simply fallen so hard that it seemed the snow beneath my board turned into asphalt as I approached the impact zone. Even though I have suffered these injuries I have continued to go out and push myself to become a better snowboarder. The snowboard brings numerous values to the table, such as determination and patience but it all depends on the rider and the thrill they are searching for. For some riders, it is a simple way to escape from the world of stress and hard times and is just a good time relaxing, for others it is simply another outdoor adventure, and for the people for whom it is more than a hobby like myself, it is a way of life. For us, snowboarding is used as a way to see how far we can push ourselves past the realm of apprehension into a place where we can be totally confident and fearless. Snowboarding introduced a plethora of values, which have all made me a more mature and diligent individual. Snowboarding can be very frustrating at times, it is not a sport that you can simply shoot from the hip and expect to become successful, which is why you have to be determined, patient, disciplined, confident, and outgoing. Determination is huge in snowboarding because if you’re not determined to get any better then you’re not going to, you have to want it so badly that you will to push yourself each run so that you can possibly become the next professional snowboarder chairman like Shaun White or Travis Rice. With determination comes patience, to get better you not only have to be determined to improve every time but you have to realize that it takes years to become a well-rounded snowboarder. Do you think 10-time snowboard gold medalist Shaun White hit a double mctwist 1260 or simply hurled himself off 22-foot edges of a half pipe with an accumulation of spins, flips and twists right off the bat? No, everything that White attempts on a snowboard is meticulously thought out and fine-tuned (RED, WHITE AND FLYING HIGH, Kirby, 2010). He practices regularly to continue to push the limits of physics and the human body, which lead to the creation of new tricks and the growth of a more extreme snowboarding community. Patience goes hand-in-hand with discipline. Riding can become very frustrating so it is crucial that you keep a good head on your shoulders and rise each time that you fall. If you fall nine times you must stand up ten times and to do that you must be confident and outgoing on every single run. Second guessing yourself on a snowboard is very dangerous because if you are not confident during an attempt to land a trick then you will hurt yourself physically and mentally even more than if you were to give all your effort and still fall. You cannot be scared of the potential appalling outcomes from snowboarding because if you are fearful that you might hurt yourself or embarrass yourself then you will not be able to completely push yourself to your greatest capabilities. Snowboarding is one of the most difficult sports to be good at, it takes a very long time to become consistent and successful but if you put forth all the values that are installed in a good snowboarder, you yourself can become a talented rider as well. Another beautiful aspect of the snowboarding community is its fashion. Snowboarding is a hybrid culture, which combines aspects of grunge, punk and hippy cultures, and more latterly hip-hop and dance cultures, amongst others (Snowboarders vs. Skiers, Edensor and Richards, 2005). These diverse cultures, which all have different styles, wear very similar clothing while n the slopes because of the demands for the fashion. These styles typically include baggy pants, beanie hats and jackets. Unlike other sports where you can tell how talented a person is from their body type, snowboarders clothing styles assume great prominence in achieving distinction amongst members of the community. Most of the time you can look at a boarder and tell ho w good he or she is simply by what they are wearing (Pollio, 20, snowboarder). I wear baggy pants, a plain shirt, a black pinstriped jacket, a black or blue beanie, and goggles. This is the basic swagger of a snowboarder but there are other reasons for wearing this clothing other than it looks cool and that everyone else in the community wears something similar. For example, I wear baggy pants because loose clothes are required for maneuverability when doing tricks and turns on a snowboard. The catch to looking good on the slopes is not only to dress like you know how to snowboard; you have to ride like you know how to snowboard. Someone could walk out with a brand new board and you would think he is good initially but once he falls numerous times you would consider him a poser or a lame. Clothes are subordinate to the performance of a snowboarder but they are intimately linked to the degree of skill of the wearer. Not everyone seeing snowboarder’s style as â€Å"cool† or fashionable, some of the biggest haters of snowboarders are skiers. There has always been tension between the community of snowboarders and the community of skiers since each of the sports was created. Snowboarders refer to skiers as conformist, over-cautious and inexpressive. Skiers refer to snowboarders as subversive, reckless and boisterous. You could say that these stereotypes are true to a certain degree. Snowboarders and skiers have a serious problem with sharing the snow, which is where these stereotypes start to reveal themselves. A snowboarder would be considered reckless because he or she will cut off a skier because skiers go too slowly and they somehow are always in a snowboarder’s way. A snowboarder would seem subversive because they are rebellious and do whatever they please on the slopes simply because they can and want to see a reaction out of a skiing passerby, and they would seem boisterous because that’s how they are; full of energy, rowdy, unruly, and always excited. Skiers think they are superior to snowboarders because their sport has been around longer and it is more proper and professional, when in reality they are no better than any snowboarder. The conflicts between snowboarders and skiers are part of a broader, uneven process in which the competing performances of their diverse styles of movement attempt to claim space (Snowboarders vs. Skiers, Edensor and Richards, 2005). Snowboarders and skiers are in an ongoing battle to territorialize space, to claim it from other users and from those who have controlled space by establishing rules and conventions about what constitute appropriate embodied functions, performances and symbolic meanings (Snowboarders vs. Skiers, Edensor and Richards, 2005). The snowboarding community is constantly growing and the members of it are pushing the sport to limits that have not been reached yet. The best part about those limits is that they are infinite and thanks to professional snowboarders like Shaun White, young snowboarders are inspired to achieve something as great as him. Riders like White prove that the capabilities of snowboarders are limitless because after each goal made there is more that can be done to improve it. Snowboarding is a sport with no boundaries; you can ride down a slope as fast as you want, you can ride through the woods weaving your way in and out of trees, grind on a rail or a tabletop, hit whatever trick you want, make up a trick, descend off of a mountain pinnacle and the list goes on. It is a sport that will keep growing and will continuously be taken to heights that only ascend. There is no telling what the future holds for snowboarding; with the next generation of snowboarders comes another potential boarder who will completely flip the snowboarding game on its head, kids are starting to snowboard at an early age and they will develop the sport into something more mind-blowing and awesome than it is right now. With a new generation of snowboarders comes a new generation impossible tricks that are already in the process of being mastered by professional snowboarders all around the world. The community of snowboarders is very special because even if a snowboarder is not trying to change the pace of the game, they are simply having a great time with fellow snowboarders and that is all that matters. For snowboarders like myself, we want to take snowboarding to the next level and that determination keeps pushing us boarders past the fear of injuries and failure to the thrones and the mountaintops. Edensor, Tim, and Sophia Richards. Snowboarders vs Skiers: Contested Choreographies of the Slopes. Leisure Studies 26. 1 (2007): 97-114. Print. Marquardt, Katy. â€Å"King of the Hill in Snowboards. † U. S. News World Report (2008) Vol. 145, Issue 7 Kirby, Jason. RED, WHITE AND FLYING HIGH. 123. 8 (2010). Print. Murphey, Austin. Good n Ugly. Snowboarding 10. 8 (2009). Print.

Heart Rot Tree Diseaseâ€Prevention and Control

Heart Rot Tree Disease- Prevention and Control In trees, heart rot is caused by a fungal disease that causes the center of the trunk and branches to decay. The most obvious symptom is the presence of mushrooms or fungal growths, called conks, on the surface of the trunk or limbs. Most hardwood species can be afflicted with heart rot, and it can be a major problem for the logging and lumber industry since the center heartwood is the most valuable wood in a hardwood tree.   Causes of Heart Rot in Trees Heart rot in living trees can be caused by many different fungal agents and pathogens that can enter the tree through open wounds and exposed inner bark wood to infiltrate the center core of the tree- the heartwood. Heartwood  makes up most of a trees inner wood and support structure, so over time, this rot can cause the tree to fail and collapse. Heartwood cells have some resistance to decay but depend  on a barrier of protection from the bark and outside living tissue. Heart rot can occur in many hardwoods and other deciduous species but is especially common in oaks infected with the  I. dryophilus  and  P. everhartii decay fungi.  All deciduous trees can get heart rot,  while resinous conifers have some extra resistance. More on Heartwood It should be noted that heartwood is genetically programmed to spontaneously separate from living wood tissues that surround it.  Once heartwood formation has begun to lay down annual layers and increase in volume, the heartwood quickly becomes the largest part of the trees structure by volume.  When that living barrier of protection surrounding the heartwood fails, the resulting disease in the heartwood causes it to soften. It quickly becomes structurally weaker and prone to breakage. A mature tree that has a large volume of heartwood is more at risk than a young tree, simply because its heartwood constitutes more of its structure.   Symptoms of Heart Rot Usually, a conk or mushrooming fruiting body on the surface of the tree is the first sign at the site of infection.  A useful rule of thumb suggests that a cubic foot of inner heartwood wood has decayed for each conk produced- there is a lot of bad wood behind that mushroom, in other words. Fortunately, though, heart rot fungi do not invade living wood of healthy trees. Other than the resulting structural weakness heart rot creates, a tree can otherwise look quite healthy even though it is riddled with heart rot.   Economic Costs Heart rot is a major factor influencing the  economics of logging high-value lumber, although it is a natural  consequence in many older forests. The heartwood of tree is where the valuable lumber exists, and a badly rotten tree is of no value to the timber industry. A hardwood tree that lives long enough will likely deal with heart rot at some point, since it is a natural part of the trees life cycle, especially in native forests. A very old tree will almost certainly suffer storm damage at some point that will allow fungi to enter and begin the process of heart rot. In some cases, entire forests may be at risk if, for example, a catastrophic storm has caused major damage at some time in the past. The fungi spread very slowly within a tree, so it may be many years after the initial fungal infection that serious weakness becomes evident.   Heart rot is prevalent throughout the world, and it affects all  hardwood  trees. It can be very hard to prevent and control, although a tree that is carefully monitored over its entire lifetime may avoid it.   Prevention and Control of Heart Rot As long as a tree is growing vigorously, rot will be confined to a small central core within the tree. This behavior is called tree wood compartmentalization. But if the tree is weakened and fresh wood exposed by severe pruning or storm damage, decay fungi can advance into more and more of the trees heartwood. There is no economically feasible fungicide to use on a tree that hosts the heart rot fungi. The best way to prevent heart rot in your hardwood tree is to keep it healthy using proper management techniques: Minimize pruning wounds that expose large areas of wood.Shape trees at an early age so major branch removal will not be necessary later.Remove broken branch stubs following storm damage.Have trees you suspect of heart rot checked by an arborist to determine if sufficient live wood is present for structural safety.Check trees every few years to be certain new growth is maintaining a  sound structure. Large trunks and main branches with extensive decay may have little sound wood to support the tree.

Information Systems and Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Information Systems and Business - Essay Example In this background, this paper analyzes the questions where these researchers make significant compromises and who does the better job of operationalization in their research article. In their article, Hirschheim and Sabherwal make significant compromises when they deal with the issue of alignment between IS and the business strategies which has traditionally been a key issue facing IS management. Due to insufficient research being conducted on how such alignment is achieved and sustained over time, the authors find it difficult to conceptualize and operationalize their original variables. "Thus, our view of strategic alignment focuses on an organization's ongoing efforts to establish and maintain a series of interdependent relationships between business and IS strategies. These relationships involve the movement (i.e., change) of business strategy and/or IS strategy in such a way that the two are in alignment." (Hirschheim and Sabherwal, 2001, p. 87).

Boatright Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Boatright - Essay Example Therefore, since the individual assumes the risks involved, he can be said to be contributorily negligent (Edwards, Edwards, and Wells, 2008). Individual autonomy incorporates moral and political values that dictate how individuals govern themselves, irrespective of their role in social structure, as well as political alienations. In addition, an individual’s moral principles and responsibilities, and the legality of political weight are critical in self-governing the individual (Christman, 2011). Kant investigates the ideas and concepts surrounding morality and elucidates commonsense ideas that are crucial in coming up with our moral judgments. In the case under study, the individual may have been under intense pressure to find a job because of the need to fend his family and himself. However, he was well aware of the risky conditions that were combined with the job he accepted. Based on the doctrine of volenti, the individual cannot be able to bring a claim to his employer because of his assumptions on the risks involved (Miller & Jentz, 2009). The plaintiff already accepted to take the risks involved in exchange for the job. Lundmark (1998) asserts that assumption of the risk is a volitional act, and it cannot be present if the claimant has no knowledge or awareness of the impending dangers associated with the job at hand. This doctrine provides a complete defense for the defendant since the individual can be held to have voluntarily accepted the risks involved with the job. However, in case the defendant is found to have committed any form of negligence, damages sustained by the plaintiff can be viewed to be inconsistent. Kant draws his views from moral philosophy and provides general judgments that are deemed to be deeply held. In addition, Kant argues that the moral judgments should be widely accepted and acceptable to

Shedding Light on Conrads Darkness :: Essays Papers

Shedding Light on Conrad's Darkness "My mother bore me in the southern wild, And I am black, but O! my soul is white; White as an angel is the English child: But I am black as if bereav'd of light." -William Blake "The Little Black Boy". "Bereav'd of light" is the quintessential idea one encounters when reading Conrad's Heart of Darkness. We enter the Congo, a place filled with Keats' "verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways," a place where Conrad calls "the farthest point of navigation." From whence comes our source of light? Who is this source of light? In order to enhance our understanding I propose that we look into the one who is "out of place". To clarify my proposal, I mean to say that we will look at the Black man in the "White setting", and vice versa. In Book VII of his famous poem, "The Prelude", William Wordsworth tells of his encounter with "The Beggar" on the streets of London. In my opinion, the Beggar is representative of the Black man in London. He is seen as a beggar, treated like one, and respected, or rather, disrespected, like one. He is merely a spectacle, a nuisance, living off the mere scraps of the English. Wordsworth describes the beggar saying, "...a blind Beggar, who, with his upright face, stood, propped against a wall, upon his chest wearing a written paper, to explain the story of the man and who he was. My mind did at this spectacle turn round as with the might of waters, and it seemed to me that in this label was a type, or emblem, of the utmost that we know, both of ourselves and of the universe; and on the shape of the unmoving man, his fixed face and sightless eyes, I looked, as if admonished from another world." We find the Beggar out of place, in a world clearly not his own. He is labeled, shunned, outc asted. He lies blind, desolate, unmoving. This is what the English society has done to him. Like the African natives in Heart of Darkness he is silenced, yet he screams a powerful image. His label says it all. Wordsworth, the Englishman, is unable to reach out to him, as he is "from another world." Yet he cannot help but be caught, trapped, by the "spectacle" of the Beggar. His message cannot be overlooked, just as Conrad's message is not to be overlooked either.

Ronald Takaki, a History of Multicultural America

Throughout history many ethnic cliques have experienced abuse and distrust from our American society. The people in America seem to be less understanding, and less willing to accept cultures different from their own, at least years ago. Groups such as the Indians, the African Americans, and the Immigrants, fall deeply into this category. The situations and struggles they have gone through are greatly explained in Ronald Takaki’s novel, â€Å"A Different Mirror, A History of a Multicultural America. Although they have experienced a lot, particular financial and social configuration have changed, helping change our perspective of each civilization, for better or even worse. When the New England people set off to America to, â€Å"cultivate the Lord’s garden,† [pg. 26] and farm arable land, they knew the Indian people had already inhabited the area, but did not fear them. When first viewed the Indian people were believed to be savages, living as uncivilized as the Irish.To the New England people, the Indians were in deficit of all it took to be urbane, lacking attire, writing, Christianity, and urban areas, and indulging in passion and lust beyond the New England belief. Even when the Indian population tried to help the New Englanders, by bringing, â€Å"food and rescuing the starving strangers,† [pg. 35] the New England appreciation only lasted so long. The two groups soon became hostile as the New England people tried to exploit the Indian’s food supply, and fighting broke out almost immediately.With the constant fighting the governor of Virginia, Thomas Gates, decided to have the Indian people be forced to labor for the New England people. This decision was not taken lightly, but yet powerfully and unsympathetically. Even the children were treated cruelly; they would bring them to the river where they would, â€Å"put the Children to death †¦ by throwing them overboard and shooting out their brains. †[pg. 39] Even tually a peace treaty was negotiated by Captain William Tucker, but the wine served to the Indian people was poisonous, killing around 200 instantly.This was just the beginning of what was to come to the Indian people. The leader of the Cherokee tribe personally wrote a letter to President Jackson acknowledging the fact that his people will abide by the federal law, even though they had settled on this land first and established their own set of rules. This letter was ignored by Jackson, and instead the opposite occurred. Jackson wrote a letter to Commissioner J. F. Schermerhorn, in negotiation of the removal of the Indian people.When the Indian people denied this treaty they were forcibly removed from their homes, and embarked on a journey to a new land for them to settle. â€Å"The Cherokees were nearly all prisoners,† [pg. 46] stated by Reverend Evan Jones, they had no choice but to leave their homes or be killed for not. The journey in which they set upon was a long and v ery different weather than what the Indians were used to. Many Indians became ill from the trip, as well as many died. The idea behind this was to keep America â€Å"white† and free of people who were not what the New England people believed to be civilized, out of their new found land.The Indian culture was one of which the New England people were not familiar, and their need to expand their land, in search of new areas to populate and produce food, made them willing to do anything to obtain the area. The American people had this idea of a manifest destiny, in which the ideas of expansionism were expressed. This idea was a major goal at the time, and whatever needed to be done to achieved it would be. The government was the key role in the Indian removal, and maltreatment, but did this for their own personal gain.At the time it was more important for America to achieve what they wanted to achieve than to worry about who they were hurting in the process. This falls true with other ethnicities also. The Indian people were not the only ones treated unfairly for the personal gain of Americans. The African American people also experienced this pain. The typical white male in America was always protected by the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments of the constitution. These rights included, freedom of speech, religion, petition, and press, along with right to bear arms and the right of privacy.Along with these rights was a mishap, these rights only applied to the typical white male. This allowed the white American people to enslave the African American members of its society. People often made comments about the color of an African American’s skin as, â€Å"this blackness proceedeth rather of some natural infection of man,† [pg. 49] or they were, â€Å"deeply stained with dirt,† †foul, dark, or deadly. † [pg. 50] People were often afraid of the differences in the skin color that it turned to hatred. The color white to the m represented, â€Å"purity, innocence, goodness. [pg. 50] The white Americans feared that they might lose control over themselves such as the Africans already had. This fear led to hatred, and rejection of anyone this color. As this hatred grew, colonizers started capturing African people from their homelands, and bringing them to the United States to sell as property. Most were sold first as indentured servants, people who are stuck by a contract to serve their leader for seven years in order to pay them back for the expense of them to come to America.This gathering planned on completing their time as workers, and then eventually being able to own a house of their own, since the idea of coming to America offered the possibility of hope and starting over. When the rebellion of Nathaniel Bacon occurred everyt hing was about to change. Bacon was a white indentured servant who was frustrated in the ways of society. He decided to rebel creating the † giddy multitude, † [pg . 78] a group of white and black indentured servants who had enough, due to not being able to succeed in the fantasy life people created in America.This group greatly threatened the social order of Virginia. When the group had been defeated it became obvious to Captain Thomas Grantham that they needed to reduce their dependency on white laborers and focus more on Africans of which they could capture, and exploit. This also worked out in the best interest of the people of Virginia because they could deny the Africans right to bear arms due to their race. Africa became their primary source of labor. In 1674 slaves represented only 20% of households and by 1694 slaves represented about 48% of households, nearly half the population.The American people did not see the African American people as people; rather beings that they could make plow their land, or farm their crops. It was always about them. As it was with the Indians, the American people used the African American people for thei r own personal gain. They also still believed in their theory of keeping America â€Å"white† and having people different from them served as a threat they decided to squash before any damage could be done. The Immigrants that came to America experienced much similar situations with American abuse.Although one of the main differences of these situations was that the Immigrants were still â€Å"white and therefore still had more opportunity than the Indians, and the African Americans. Still there were stereotypes of the people that came, such as the Irish were seen as savages, and as Frederick Douglas said, â€Å"our degradation. † [pg. 131] They suffered from potato famines at home, and had no choice but to move toward a land that had a promise of prosperity. Even when the Irish became laborers for the canals and railroad being built, they were still seen as much lower class.They helped build Connecticut’s Enfield Canal, Rhode Island’s Blackstone Canal, and New York’s Erie Canal, which according to Reverend Michael Buckley is, â€Å" proof of Irish talent,† [pg. 138] since the Erie Canal is seen as a very impressive piece of architecture, but back then they did not receive the credit they should have. They built thousands of rail lines, including the Western and Atlantic railroad, and the Union Pacific segment of the transcontinental railroad, in which they lived in miserable conditions and worked ridiculous amounts of hours.They could â€Å"still feel the vibrations of the sledgehammers at night. † [pg. 138] The Irish were also forced to fight for America, when America decided to take over parts of Mexico. They were treated just as badly as slaves were treated. This was only one group of immigrants, others were treated just as bad if not worse. The Chinese, Jew’s, Russians, all immigrants who came to America experienced some kind of oppression, each in their own way.The Irish people were seen to America ns as workers also, people whom they could exploit, because living in America was better than living in their homeland. It was all about money. They were â€Å"disposable† [pg. 138] to the American people. The history of ethnicity coming to America is a complex situation. Years ago people were not accepting to new cultures coming to their land, but when the price of labor was seen as much lower it became a possibility. The American people exploited the Indians, the African Americans, and the Immigrants because they knew they can.They had this idea that the land was â€Å"theirs,† when the Indian people were settled here first, but they knew they had the man power and gun power to take over such a land, and anyone who didn’t approve of it, wouldn’t be a part of it. Americans tortured and ridiculed the people that came here because they were different than them, and they were seen as a threat because the Americans didn’t know what they were capable o f. They figured they had to put them in line, before the Indians, Africans, or Immigrants, did that to them. It was all because of fear of what was different, what was unknown.The American people liked having power, and liked being able to control what was going on and they took advantage of that to the point where it hurt many cultures and newcomers, but not enough to make them stop coming. What they did here in America was no worse than what was happening in their homelands. Times eventually changed, and people eventually realized their mistakes. Although things are not one hundred percent better, the Indians, Africans, and Immigrants have made great strides to overcome the oppression and due to this have made them the people they are today.

Descriptive Essay The Verde Valley Allstars

I was 11 years old and I was on the Verde Valley Allstars and we were in the District playoffs hosting the tournament in Cottonwood, AZ. Our baseball field was located next to Dead Horse State Park and this is where we practiced and played our home games. If we win this District championship then we would go to the state playoffs in Yuma, AZ to play the best teams in each district around the state in a huge tournament. We are playing Prescott Valley as usual in the district championship. Verde Valley would always play Prescott Valley in the district championship game every year because our two teams were the best in the district every year. A typical Friday night for Arizona baseball, we were under the lights in a night game. The aroma of†¦show more content†¦One out away from us receiving the banner that states District Champions. The player next up to bat gets a double down the first baseline. It should’ve been a single, but he speed made him stretch it into a double. Josh throws 4 straight balls to the next batter and causes my coach to give a mound visit. Coach Kelly jogs onto the field signaling to us to meet him and Josh at the mound. He tells us â€Å"We need to settle down, and play ball like we have been. Make sure to have fun while you beat these guys.† That was a stern pep talk and gave us the determination to end this game. Josh is now facing a new batter with runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs. Josh is in an all out war with this batter, throwing all of his junk balls and his fastball, but the batter would just foul them off saying he won’t go down without a fight. The count i s now 3-2. Josh throws a fastball on the outside corner which the umpire calls it a ball and signals the batter to go to 1st base. The Verde Valley side was very upset with that call screaming right at the ump, â€Å"that was a strike, end the game.† The umpire throws out one of our parents because he was yelling at him obnoxiously. Coach Kelly had to walk out of the dugout to tell our parents to calm down and let us play ball. To remind you the bases are loaded in the top of the 7th with 2 outs. Walking from the on deck circle is the best hitter on their team, which is the cleanup hitter in the 4th spot in the lineup. I was staring at this kid