This fall sports season has been riddled with the gloomy aura of injury. Almost all teams have been effected by the hardships of injuries, most notably football, soccer and cross country.

Football has seen the worst bouts of injury with many players out for extended periods of time. Several starters have been injured such as senior starters, Jimmy Zazo, LaTroy Lewis, Jordan Cook and Greg McMullen. While some have returned back to the playing field, others still remain on the bench.

    “Being off the field right now with a broken tibia is frustrating because I want nothing more than to be out there contributing with my teammates,” senior linebacker Jimmy Zazo said.

The boys soccer team has also seen losses on the field. Key players have been on the bench due to on-the-field injuries. Sophomore Shane Weidt will be out all season due to a strain on his cranial nerve in his eye which causes him to lose the ability to move his left eye.

“It is very frustrating being out because sports are the one thing I can turn to to forget about all the other stresses in life,” Weidt said.

Other than Weidt, sophmores Ben Easton, Ben Naragon and Kevin Outwater and senior Braden Evans have also missed time this season. The starters’ intermittent injuries create instability for the soccer team and problems for the coach regarding replacements for these key players.

The girls cross country team has also been bitten by the injury bug this season.  Senior Erin Drake has been battling tendinitis in her posterior tibial tendon.

“I get so discouraged everyday because its my last season and I want to do well, which I can’t do if I’m hurt,” Drake said. “I feel like my season is over.”

The past summer had everyone in anticipation for this year’s fall season.  Now deep into the fall season the attitude has changed and students now dread this fall sports curse.

The teams hope they can overcome these trying times and prevail against the worthy opponents that lie ahead. With football games against Walsh and Massillon, soccer games against Padua Fanscican and St. Vincent-St.Mary and cross country meets at Wadsworth and Medina, athletes need to stay healthy in order for their teams to succeed.

Freshman Sarah Carmon isn’t a typical fourteen year old girl. Most girls her age wear headbands, but she prefers a helmet. Most girls spend their weekends shopping; Sarah prefers practicing at the race track.

Carmon has been riding go-karts for almost nine years and because of this dedication is one of the top racers in the nation.

    Carmon fell in love with go-karts one day when her father took her to Cedar Point.

“We rode the go-karts for almost two hours that day,” Carmon said. “It all just started from there.”

    The karts that Carmon now drives are nothing like the ones that she first drove at Cedar Point. The body is custom-made in Italy then brought to the U.S. for competition. Carmon’s father is her wrench and lead mechanic, helping with the motor and putting the whole kart together. When the kart is entirely assembled, it can reach speeds up to 65 mph.
Carmon has also received a number of awards throughout her racing career. She has achieved such honors as Regional Champion and Most Improved on the Florida Tour. Being unfamiliar with racing phrases can cause one to underrate these achievements, but in simpler terms, Carmon is ranked tenth in the nation in the coed 12-16-year-old division.
With such a history of success, Carmon looks to continue this trend in the future.
“I want to attend Skip Barber Racing School in Atlanta, Georgia,” Carmon said. “It is the most well known racing driving school in the country.”

Skip Barber isn’t anything similar to Drive Team or Meyers Driving School. This is where students are taught techniques and strategies by either current or former professional race car drivers. Barber is the most elite driving school that the country has to offer.  In the near future, Carmon is planning on progressing to racing F1600s, which are second only to the engines driven by the professionals.

“My favorite NASCAR driver has to be Jimmy Johnson,” Carmon said. “He is the only five-time defending champion that the sport has ever seen.”

Whether professional or amateur, go-karting provides a thrill for many of its drivers.

“It is a whole lot of fun,” Carmon said. “You are filled with adrenaline before [the race], and during the race, and its just addicting.”

   Every Friday afternoon, Carmon straps on her helmet and practices her driving before racing in the weekend competition. It all begins with a ritual handshake between father and daughter. Then, the race is on.

The main focus on Sundays seems to be changing for most NFL football fans: fantasy football is taking over. Fantasy football is an interactive, virtual competition in which fans manage NFL football players against one another. Before the NFL season starts, a group of people plans out a league and has a live draft in which the goal is to draft the best possible team. The pick order is complete random, therefore the best possible choices are not always available.

         Fantasy football was created in 1962 by Wilfred Winkenbach from Oakland, California. The goal of the game was to compete against others’ teams on a performance-based point system. Although the game of fantasy football did not gain popularity quickly because of the lack of technology, by 1989 there were 100,000 participants. From 1989 to 2011, fantasy football has reached an all-time high of 19 million players according to NBC Sports.
There are several types of leagues with different sponsors that run each league.  ESPN and Yahoo are the two main choice of leagues for fantasy players. There are both public and private leagues. Private leagues are made through a group of people whose members know each other and have live drafts. Public leagues choose users at random and put them in a league already made up.
The storm of fantasy football is growing each year by the thousands and seems to becoming the hot topic of conversation on the weekends.
“I don’t even care about the Browns on Sundays; all I care about is if my fantasy football team wins,” junior Dom Orsini said. “I mean I love the Browns, but my fantasy team is way more interesting each week.”
This seems to be the consensus among NFL fans these days. Even NFL players tweet or post on Facebook about fantasy football.  In preseason, the league’s 2010 rushing leader Arian Foster pulled his hamstring and immediately tweeted about his injury.
“4 those sincerely concerned, I’m doing ok & plan 2 B back by opening day. 4 those worried abt your fantasy team, u ppl are sick,” Foster tweeted.
Fantasy fans are becoming more concerned about the wellbeing of their own virtual teams rather than the actual injury of another human. Fans gather around local bars, restaurants or their own television sets to watch all the NFL games, not just their favorite teams. The bars and restaurants are filled with people on their smart phones or laptops to keep track of their players on their team throughout their game.
“When I heard Mike Vick got a concussion, the first thing I did was go to my fantasy page and tried to find a new quarterback,” junior Sean Merle said. “I’ll be honest; I was more worried about my fantasy for the next week.”
Each team owner has his or her own unique strategy that they use throughout the season. Fantasy owners continue to show their love for football watching every game they can. It has improved ratings of the amount of football watched, making it the most-watched sport in America.
Do not worry Cleveland fans: if the the Browns cannot hang on with the 2-1 start, at least there still is fantasy football.

“That game was won purely on intensity,” Christina Dickos said.
Dickos and her fellow seniors, Tabitha Brainard, Chelsea Evans, Emily Orsini, Paige Parson, Kelsey Radabaugh, and Jessica Walpole, were pinnacles of team’s intensity and skill on their special night.
“They did the program proud; they are the epitome of what Hoban vol leybal l is about,”Freshman coach Deb Stewart said.
Stewart has watched many of the seniors grow from budding ninth-graders to the vibrant players they are today.

Coming off their senior night victory, the Knights successfully defeated the Green Bulldogs. Both teams donned pink jerseys to support the “Dig for the Cure” effort. Proceeds from a bake sale and raffle supplemented the team’s donation to the American Cancer Society.

The team finished the season with a winning record of 13-9.

With a satisfactory regular season behind them, the dynamic team is eager to begin postseason play.

“We should definitely win the first game,” senior Jessica Walpole said.
Walpole and the rest of the team are eagerly anticipating battling rival St. Vincent-St. Mary in their quest for a state championship.
For more than a third of the team, this year’s high school playoff run will be their last high school.

“Everything we’ve put into making practices and games this season successful will pay off,” Walpole said.

The team wants to insure that this year, they finally get that “pay off” in the playoffs. Results from Thursday night’s playoff game were not available
at press time.

After the arrival of new head coach Joe (Peach) Zampino this season has been all about improving runner’ s form, identifying the competitive way to run and unity
within the team.
“ We have definitely had a re-building year,” senior captain Max Straus said. “ The team did a lot of conditioning and everyone applied themselves during practice.”

In last week’ s North Coast League Meet, the team pushed on even though the squad was plagued with injury. Straus finished the course in 19:35.42 and received the best time for Hoban. Also contributing to the meet was sophomore David McHenry who finished in 19:44.77.
As for the girls, sophomore Eileen Cummins finished second team all North Coast League with the time of 22:11.50, earning the girls nine points. Freshman Casey Surblis finished second for Hoban with a time of 22:45.66 earning 13 points.
In the end, the boys finished with 120 points, coming in fifth place. The girls finished with 89 points, coming in fourth place.

“Overall, I am very impressed with the improvement I have seen from the team,” Zampino said.
Junior Liz Santucci who has been out of competition due to an injury will be returning for the district tournament.
Tomorrow at 1 p.m., the cross country team will be competing in the District Tournament at Good Year Metro Park.

“Districts will be a challenge, but I’ m sure the
kids will give 100%,” Zampino said.

It will be a tough task to accomplish, however, in part because the team dug itself a deep hole on Oct. 8 by falling on the road to the Holy Name Green Wave. The Knights came up short in this heartbreaking nail-biter, losing 13-7. It
was a game the team agrees it should have won handedly.

“We did not take advantage of Holy Name’s mistakes,” head coach Ralph Orsini said. “There were some controversial calls towards the end, but we should have taken care of business.”

Still smarting from this tough loss, the Knights squared off against Notre Dame- Cathedral Latin on their home turf. Hoban stumbled out of the gate and found itself tied with the 1-7 Lions at halftime. The unit reached deep within itself in the second half and pulled out a 14-0 victory.
Senior free safety Kerrigan Cain ignited the Knights with two key interceptions.

“In the second half we took control thanks to some big plays by the defense,” Orsini said.

The victory kept alive the Knights’ slim playoff hopes. But the road to the postseason only gets rougher as Division II powerhouse Lake Catholic visits Dowed Field tonight. Lake Catholic is a formidable opponent but the Knights are not intimidated in the least.

“There is no reason we can’t win this game,” bone-crushing cornerback Ian Santoferraro said. “Nobody is unbeatable.”
The Knights will need to be firing on all cylinders to conquer the Cougars.

“I think the game’s X-factor will be the play of our special teams corps,” special teams specialist Riley Kramer said.

Currently ranked fifteenth in Region 9, Hoban real ist ically must win out in order to crash the postseason party. The top eight teams in each region qualify.

Tonight at 7 p.m. the Knights make their final push for the playoffs.

Each Catholic parish has a chance to gather high school students from the Akron area to compete in league play and even advance to a state tournament. This is an opportunity for all boys or girls who don’t play for their high school team to showcase its talents.
CYO basketball was designed to ensure that high school students can play competitively even if they don’t play for their high school hoop squad. Many gifted high school basketball players are now playing for their Catholic parishes instead of their own high school. The time and stress needed to be a dedicated team player seems to be too much as many athletes are exchanging daily practices for time to
work to make money, focus on their studies, or prepare for a different sport. The thrill of competition is also involved, although the games are often comical and high scoring.

CYO basketball is designed to be laid back and that is why more talented players are filling the teams. There are two divisions of CYO that are split into a freshman and
sophomore league and a junior and senior league. The league keeps the same rules of
normal basketball except the infamous “no dunking” rule which does not always stop
some high flyers from throwing the hammer down.
“The excitement is like nothing I have ever seen before; I count down the days of the week until I step out on the court with my St. Francis Xavier jersey on,” junior Pat Carabin said.
CYO basketball is something high school boys and girls look forward to week in and week out. Each team has the chance to take it seriously or to have as much fun as possible with little or no stress at all.
“I love the game of basketball, even though I’m not the best. I can still show up and have fun with my friends,” senior Ashley Fisher said.
As the season starts, players all over the league have high expectations on how competitive the league will actually be.
“I know some great players that are coming out this year and should make it a season to remember,” junior Braden Evans said.
From the powerhouse teams of Immaculate Heart of Mary, St. Sebastian, Holy Family, and St Hilary to even some of the small parishes like Queen of Heaven and Nativity; each team in the junior and senior division has the opportunity to advance to the state tournament held near Cincinnati.
“I think this year St. Sebastian has what it takes to advance to the state fi nal and bring
the title back to West Akron,” senior Anthony Arnone said.
December 18th the ballers of CYO will lace up the Nikes and start their quest to the state tournament.

In addition, the 2009-10 season ended with a losing streak of four games. For the
past forty years the Cleveland Cavaliers have accumulated a record of 1521-1727. Yet, the Cavs have yet to prevail with a championship ring on their finger, a task that not even LeBron “The King” James could bring to Cleveland.

With the current season well under way, the Cavs have proven to their fans that they
are still capable of defeating opponents even without allstar forward James. The Cavaliers first game this season was against the same team who kicked them out of the playoffs last year, the Boston Celtics. Boston then went on to defeat the Miami heat, the team that James and Zydrunas Ilgauskas now play for. Through Boston’s victory over Miami, Cleveland fans have vicariously started off the season with a defeat over James, a triumph that will only be sweeter come December.

For now, Cavaliers fans are waiting anxiously for December 2nd, 2010; the day the Miami Heat step onto the court. LeBron James will be making an appearance to his old home court once again, but certainly not for the same adoration his hometown once gave him.