EL SEGUNDO HERALD February 11, 2016 Page 5 Eagles Off to College to Play Story and photos by Gregg McMullin Eight very special El Segundo high school seniors will continue their education s in the fall. These students aren’t special because they are going forward to college for higher education. No, they’ll join hundreds of other El Segundo high school seniors who’ll continue the next step in their yearning for higher education but with one added element; these eight will be playing a sport in college. These four years are a culmination of hard work in both the classroom and on the field of play for them. To be a student athlete in high school is one thing. To continue that drive, ambition and passion to play a sport at the colligate level, while concentrating on a potential degree, is not reserved for everyone. These eight special students will pursue degrees in Biology, environmental specialties, special education and pre-med. For Jordan Doukakis, Taylor Amaral, Stephen Moye, Nayeli Diaz, Taylor Armijo, Julie Roach, Allison Tatnall and Alyssa Pelegrin the four years at El Segundo high school gave each the foundation, the opportunity and drive to succeed not only on the field of play but in the classroom too. Sitting in a room with these student-athletes you have to marvel of their poise, articulate demeanor and how they have grown into young adults. To think that a mere four years ago they were scared freshman. In June they will walk up proudly for their high school degree along with knowledge that they’ll have an opportunity to have a portion of their collegiate degree paid for. These eight student athletes recently signed their official Letters of Intent for the college they’ll attend. The signing took place in the Hall of Fame Room at the high school in front of their parents, family and friends as well as the El Segundo high school principal and athletic director. The National Letter of Intent Program is run by the Collegiate Commissioners Association. The program started in 1964 with seven conferences and eight independent institutions, the program now has over 50 leagues with over 500 participating institutions. The program calls for a prospective studentathlete to sign, along with a parent or guardian and the athletic director, an “Inter-Conference Letter of Intent”. This letter serves as certification that the student intends to enroll at a certain collegiate institution in the fall. The athletic director indicates the type and extent of financial aid the college is willing to provide. This agreement is subject to the prospective student-athlete being able to qualify for admission to the college of their choice and the NCAA requirement for financial aid. Once the National Letter of Intent is signed the student athlete agrees to attend the college with which he/she has signed for one academic year. In exchange the institution awards financial aid, including athletics aid, for one academic year. Essentially it is a contract to help protect the student-athlete as well as their college they intend to enroll and play for. When speaking to each one of these studentathletes there is a common bond between each of them; they are humble. In this day and age of athletes being so self-centered that certainly isn’t true with this crop. Each are quick to thank their teammates who they call family. Jordan Doukakis is a life-long El Segundo resident and has been one of her class’ top performers in the classroom and on the soccer field. Jordan will attend Chico State and play for the Wildcats. Doukakis will play for a successful program that has averaged 12 wins the past two seasons and reached the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championship tournament. Jordan, who was selected to the All-Ocean League team as a junior, will miss her friends and after school activities. “I really have had a fun four years and we’ve (her Eagle teammates) have become close and are like a family.” Taylor Amaral is a four year starter for the Eagles on the volleyball court. Her leadership, demeanor and skill set earned her as the team’s captain for two years. She says the Manning Manages, Defense Defeats By Adam Serrao Yee-haw! The old sheriff hopped on his white bronco and rode it off into the sunset. Right when you doubted him, the 39-year-old quarterback for the Denver Broncos led his team to a 24-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers in last Sunday nights Super Bowl 50. Well, Peyton Manning didn’t really lead the team. The defense did, all night long. But you have to believe that his presence under center in what was very likely the last game of his entire career gave everyone on the Broncos that much more motivation to dig deeper, play harder, and sweat-out just one last game. In the end, it worked. Now Manning is a two-time Super Bowl champion and the oldest quarterback to ever start, and then win, an NFL championship. With 194 yards of total offense, the Broncos tallied the fewest yards ever of any other Super Bowl champion in NFL history. That, alone, will tell you the story of the game. It wasn’t Manning, coming out of the locker room guns-a-blazin’, slinging the football all around the field like it was a shootout in the Old West. There were even times in the fourth quarter when Denver was desperate for a first down on third-and-long that Manning, instead of throwing the ball, simply took the snap from under center and handed it to his running back, C.J. Anderson, for a modest gain of one or maybe two yards. “We weren’t going out there to throw it 50 times and do those types of things,” Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak explained. “Peyton knew that. He hung in there and just kept battling for us. He knew what it would take for us to win this championship.” Anderson finished the night with 90 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries while Manning threw for 141 yards on just 23 attempts. It wasn’t either of those players that won a game that featured exactly zero passing touchdowns. It was the Denver defense that won the championship. I’ll spare you the cliché that defense wins championships - although I immediately just went back on my promise. Von Miller totaled six tackles on the night to go along with 2.5 sacks and two forced fumbles. He was the MVP and caused havoc almost every single time the ball was snapped. “It wasn’t about me,” Miller said. “I just wanted to play at a level that would influence my team to play to the best of their abilities.” They certainly did. The entire Broncos defensive front had Cam Newton on his back all night, leading to one of the worst (if not the worst) games that Carolina and this year’s MVP have played all season long. “We were able to get pressure on the quarterback and make the team one dimensional,” defensive end Spencer Ware said. Ware was a major catalyst in that effort, but so were players like Derek Wolfe, Brandon Marshall, Danny Trevathan, Malik Jackson and many more who combined to form what might go down as one of the best defenses in the history of football. If not, they certainly played the part when they needed to the most against what was the NFL’s highest scoring offense this season. 10 points. That’s all that the Denver defense allowed a team that averaged 31.3 points in the regular season and 40 during the playoffs. The Panthers all but annihilated the Seattle Seahawks Divisional Round and then danced all over Carson Palmer and the Arizona Cardinals in the Championship Round to make it to the Super Bowl. Denver was a different beast, though. The Broncos completely took away the run game of Carolina (who’s leading rusher was Newton with 45 yards), forced them into 12 penalties on the night, four turnovers, and one missed field goal. “We picked a really bad day to have a meltdown,” Panthers tight end Greg Olson relented. “Right when we started to get something going, something bad would happen.” Maybe the biggest reason for that was because Cam looked flat. Mainly because he was being steamrolled by Broncos defenders all night. The typical flashy smile and cool, calm demeanor was literally non-existent from the start of the game and the only dancing being done was by Broncos defenders as they returned fumbles into the end zone for touchdowns. He was nervous. The Broncos had been to the Super Bowl before. Almost everyone on the team had. The Panthers, on the other hand, had no clue what they were getting themselves into. In the end, it was Manning managing the game and the Denver defense winning it. With the win, Peyton became the first starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl with two different teams. The defense tied a Super Bowl record with seven sacks on the night and while Newton only threw 15 incompletions during the team’s first two games of the postseason, he threw 20 in one game against Denver. He had only been hit three times in the first two rounds of the playoffs against Seattle and Arizona. He was hit 10 times against Denver. In three postseason games for the Broncos, they went against Cam, Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger, who threw a combined 92 regular season touchdowns. The trio combined for just one touchdown pass against Denver. In addition to the players, don’t forget to give defensive coordinator and former head coach, Wade Phillips, all of the credit in the world. See Manning, page 6 2016 EL SEGUNDO ELECTIONS Residents and Business Owners El Segundo’s Election is on April, 12, 2016 Have any questions for your City Council candidates? Send them to us at management@heraldpublications.com We will not be able to publish all submissions. See Eagles, page 6
Herald_021116_FNL_lorez
To see the actual publication please follow the link above