Archive for category Sports

Brackets such as these are a vital component of March Madness as they bring extra excitement to the tournament.

The greatest sporting event in America is back and Roosevelt has been swept up in all the madness.  The upper commons was jam packed with basketball fans as they watched intense opening round games on Thursday, March 18, during lunch.  In addition to watching the games during lunch and keeping the big bracket updated, Rough Riders are embracing the chaos with several March Madness bracket pools throughout the school including those run by senior Matt Gross and junior Ethan Goldman-Kirst.

To enter a pool, participants fill out a bracket and pay a buy in fee.  Each bracket accumulates points throughout the tournament through the predetermined scoring system, whether it be upset scoring or points for each round.  The winning bracket is the one that racked up the most points and subsequently earns the guesser the pot.

Writing schools down on a piece of paper seems simple, but bracketology has as much a part of March Madness as the teams are.  ”Brackets make March Madness more important,” said junior Pryce Baker, who has entered Goldman-Kirst’s pool this year.  ”Because people play for money, more people watch March Madness.  Even people who don’t know about basketball fill out brackets and watch,” he continued to say.

“Doing pools have become some kind of a tradition for me,” said Goldman-Kirst, who’s entering his second year at the head of a bracket pool.  ”I wouldn’t be as excited [if I didn't fill out a bracket],” he continued to say.  Goldman-Kirst is also working with fellow junior Mourya Mamidala to organize their pool of nine participants.

March Madness owns the television ratings and it reeled in about 10.3 million viewers to CBS on the first day alone.  Don’t believe the hype?  Think about this: President Obama even filled out a bracket.  He picked Kansas to win the championship with ESPN’s Andy Katz by his side.  If Obama’s filling out a bracket, then you know it’s a big deal.

The Roosevelt men’s soccer team is entering the 2010 season with a new captain steering the boat, Coach Val Seid.  He’s looking to build up a notable soccer program at Roosevelt from the JVC team all the way up to the top tier Varsity program.  He’s encouraging team camaraderie to build to future success for Roosevelt soccer.

Coach Val comes from the sidelines of the Riders’ greatest rival, Ballard, where he was the assistant Varsity coach. He is still the head coach of the girl’s soccer team at Ballard where he nabbed Coach of the Year honors in 2006.

The season is still young and the players have yet to fully get to know their new coach, but one thing is apparent. “We can definitely tell that he wants to win,” said junior midfielder Mikko Keranen.

Just because the season has barely begun, doesn’t mean that practice isn’t hard.  ”We take practice seriously,” said Keranen.  ”It really prepares us for the season and it’s important that we play as a team.”

Last year the team made a run to the State tournament but fell short in a first round match up with South Kitsap that ending in a shootout.  The graduation of Leo Cohen and Dan Tonkovich among other seniors will be a tough task for the Coach Val to overcome but he’s dedicated to the long term success of soccer of Roosevelt and the hard work that is necessary to win. With Keranen returning for this third year on Varsity and seniors Nick Drummond and Travis Mealand leading the team, the young season is shaping up to be a good one.