Page 6 March 19, 2015 TORRANCE TRIBUNE NFL Free Agency Winners & Losers By Adam Serrao Though the first regular season game won’t be played until early September, this year’s NFL season officially got underway last Tuesday afternoon with the opening of Free Agency. Normally, there are a few signings here and there that will get your attention or send some ripples across the NFL landscape, but mostly, players tend to play it safe and re-sign with their original teams. Well this year, that pattern couldn’t have been more broken. The NFL put on a free-agent frenzy that saw players as big “You can’t really talk about football lately without bringing up the name Chip Kelly and the Philadelphia Eagles.” as Demarco Murray and LeSean McCoy to players as small as Dan Williams and Davon House all changing addresses. Now, fans are in for an entirely different-looking NFL this season. With that said, let’s take a look at a few of the winners and losers of the young 2015-’16 NFL season thus far. You can’t really talk about football lately without bringing up the name Chip Kelly and the Philadelphia Eagles. The guy is either a football genius or he has absolutely no idea what he is doing and is trying his best to get demoted back down to the college ranks. After getting rid of an almost perennial thousand-yard receiver last year in DeSean Jackson, Kelly went to work again in this offseason. Bye-bye LeSean McCoy, bye-bye Jeremy Maclin, and bye-bye Nick Foles and Trent Cole, who has spent all of his ten years in the league in an Eagles uniform. It’s clear that Kelly either hates former Eagles coach Andy Reid and all of his players, or simply wants to build a roster with all of his own players on it to show the world, “Look, I did it.” While it seems unfathomable that Kelly would let two more of the league’s best players simply walk away from the team, it seems as though he has a plan in place that revolves around defense. The trade for McCoy got the team a young Pro Bowl asset in Kiko Alonso at linebacker. Byron Maxwell and Walter Thurmond were also brought in to beef up the leaky secondary of a year ago. Trading Nick Foles for Sam Bradford, however, is a headscratcher any way you look at it. Bradford is lucky if he gets through two games without getting injured. To give up an efficient Foles and a second round pick for a guy who is lucky to even see the field is certainly a loss for the Eagles unless it’s part of some big plan that we are all still blind to. The addition of DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews last Thursday, however, gives the Eagles a three-headed monster in the backfield that together with Darren Sproles and a spread offense that the running backs love will give the Eagles one of the best backfields in all of the league. The entire Eagles team has now been made over and officially renovated. A lot of the moves are questionable, but the roster is still filled with an influx of talented players. It’s hard to say if Kelly and his team are winners or losers, but they’re definitely something. We’ll just have to wait and find out to see if that something is good or bad come this year’s regular season. Two teams that are amongst this year’s biggest offseason winners are the Indianapolis Colts and the Miami Dolphins. The Colts, who made it to last year’s AFC championship game, now find themselves as early favorites to win next year’s Super Bowl as the front office did everything they could to get Andrew Luck some help. The team lost its legendary wide receiver Reggie Wayne, but to be honest, he wasn’t producing much at his age anyways. Additions of Frank Gore and Andre Johnson, however, will beef up an offense that simply couldn’t hang with the Patriots last year. Luck finally has his running back to spearhead an offense that will be much improved and much more powerful than it was a year ago. The Dolphins made the biggest signing of the year by snagging former Lions defensive tackle, Ndamukong Suh. Suh was the biggest name on the market this year. His addition will instantly give the Dolphins one of the nastiest defenses in the league. Throw in tight end Jordan Cameron and wide receiver Kenny Stills and it’s clear to see that a Dolphins team of 8-8 one year ago will certainly be much improved this coming year. Among the biggest losers of the offseason are the reigning Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. The Pats defense is what stepped up the most last year and is what played the biggest part in bringing the championship trophy back to New England. The play of the secondary was one of the strongest points of that defense. Now, both cornerbacks are gone. The best cornerback in the game, Darelle Revis, has chosen to go back to where he got his start with the New York Jets while Brandon Browner agreed to sign with the Saints. Bill Belichick always seems to find a way to make it work with the pieces he has, but there’s no doubting that his team’s defense took a major hit. Perhaps no team has taken bigger continuous hits than the San Francisco 49ers. They not only lost their head coach, but they also lost their best defensive player in Patrick Willis who retired, Frank Gore moved on to Indi, Michael Crabtree is unsigned and Justin Smith is giving indications that he will follow in Willis’s footsteps. The team did acquire Torrey Smith, but for $9 million dollars per year. Smith has caught more than 50 passes only once his career, making for an unintelligent business plan for the ‘9ers. Don’t look now, but the 49ers are slowly disintegrating before our very eyes. Honorable mentions go to the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets who both improved drastically. The Bills not only added head coach Rex Ryan, but also pulled in Percy Harvin to go alongside young receiver Sammy Watkins and beefed up the run game with LeSean McCoy in exchange for a player who didn’t even play last season (Kiko Alonso). There’s still no quarterback in sight, but the Bills are certainly a better team. In addition to beefing up their defense with the additions of Revis, Antonio Cromarte and Buster Skrine, the Jets added Brandon Marshall from the Bears to go alongside Eric Decker in the receiving core. Revis’s contract is exorbitant and like the Bills, the Jets still don’t have a quarterback, but the Jets have used this year’s free agency period wisely in order to improve their team all around. The last couple of weeks in the NFL were so crazy that Jimmy Graham being traded to the Seattle Seahawks from the New Orleans Saints couldn’t even make the list. Russell Wilson finally has the receiver that he has been needing and one that most likely would have won the team a Super Bowl last season. The landscape of the NFL will certainly look much different next year and the NFL draft is still to come. The regular season is far from being on the horizon, but as the biggest sport in America, football is naturally still making headlines at all times of the year. There will still be much more activity to come in the near future, but stay tuned because next season is already shaping up into what will certainly be one exciting ride. • North Still Rolling Over Competition By Adam Serrao If you’ve ever doubted that the North High girls basketball team is unstoppable; well, you’re either not paying attention or you just don’t know much about girls’ high school basketball. Head coach Lauren Kamiyama and the Lady Saxons want to grab your attention, and have done everything seemingly necessary to do so. If you’re still behind the times, then this article is here to “With a 70-57 win over South Pasadena last Saturday night at North High School, the North High Lady Saxons not only put together their ninth win in a row, but also advanced to the regional semifinals in the CIF State Division 3 bracket.” help. With a 70-57 win over South Pasadena last Saturday night at North High School, the North High Lady Saxons not only put together their ninth win in a row, but also advanced to the regional semifinals in the CIF State Division 3 bracket. While showing no signs of slowing down now, Kamiyami and her team may just be on pace to make history. The South Pasadena Tigers had only lost two games all season long. The team’s last loss came on the last day of February in the playoffs against a Santa Margarita team that kicked them out of the semifinal game in the Division 3A bracket this year. The Lady Saxons liked the look of losing on the Tigers, so they decided to follow suit. Things didn’t look too hot for North at the beginning of the game, though. Kamiyama’s team took the floor and began slowly, missing shots from the floor and seeing South Pasadena jump out to an early six point lead. It didn’t take long for the Saxons to wake up. In the final minutes of the opening quarter, the Lady Saxons outscored their opponent by 12 points to quickly jump ahead in the game. “Every team that is good is going to go on their runs,” coach Kamiyama said. “They came out on fire . . . honestly, I thought we came and fought back really well.” Kamiyama’s team did more than fight back. A six-point advantage going into the second quarter quickly turned into a 31-19 lead late in the first half. North looked to have things under control. The Tigers were in the quarterfinal game against the Saxons for a reason. As their almost perfectly unblemished record stated, South Pasadena is a really good team too. According to coach Kamiyama’s statement, every good team goes on runs. That’s exactly what the Tigers did. Before you could blink an eye, North’s 12-point lead of seemingly a moment ago disintegrated early on in the third quarter. “We were focusing a lot on discipline, composure, and not panicking,” Tigers head coach Tammy Lai explained. The team’s focus and composure was certainly worth it as the game was suddenly locked up in a tie and it remained neck-and-neck for the majority of the third quarter. South Pasadena’s unwillingness to go away only fueled the Lady Saxons’ fire more, though. Led by Katelyn Serizawa who had 16 points on the night, and Ryley Kamiya who had 15, the Lady Saxons ended the third quarter on a 14-0 run as they quickly jumped out to a 16 point lead and finally hammered the final nail through with a 13 points, 70- 57 victory to advance to the semi’s in the state playoffs. “We just need to play as a team,” Serizawa said. “We need to come out on fire instead of waiting until the second half.” The Lady Saxons (29-2, 10-0) will look to do precisely that as they face a team that they just recently beat for the Southern Section CIF championship by one point (51-50 in OT), El Dorado. El Dorado will most certainly be looking for revenge after being beaten in the championship game. “At this point, there are only eight teams left in the Southern California regional, so every team is going to be tough.” Kamiyamia said. “I thought tonight was a matter of toughness and sustaining their drives.” Coach Kamiyama and company will have to do exactly that once again and be on their A-game’s to fend off a feisty bunch that is now looking for payback. Follow along here as we root the North High girls on to even more championship success in what has already been an epic season. South High Unfortunately for the South High girls’ basketball team, the Lady Spartans didn’t have as much luck as North did after winning their CIF Southern Section championship title. After coming away with a nice 66-57 win over Garfield last Wednesday night in the first round of the CIF State Division II tournament, South ran into a Redondo Beach team that was simply much bigger on the interior and dominated the game from inside the paint. The Lady Spartans stuck in the game early and were basically neck-and-neck with Redondo for the entire first half. Two three pointers by Redondo to start the third quarter, however, seemed to quickly take some wind from out of South High’s sails as they were all of a sudden down by 13 with time slowly running out. The Spartans weren’t done yet. Led by Jaryn Fajardo’s 12 points and Alexi Henry’s 11, the team fought back in order to cling to hope in the fourth quarter. South cut Redondo’s lead back down to single digits, but their comeback attempt was quickly dispelled by Redondo’s big players, and a seven-point deficit that the Lady Spartans had worked so hard for quickly inflated back up to 10. South eventually took a 57-47 loss on the night in the second round of the tournament. West High The West High girls’ basketball team had an ending to their season that was somewhat similar in nature to South High’s. After an impressive first round victory over Edison in the CIF Division I state playoffs, the Lady Spartans traveled to Vista Murrieta where the Broncos were simply just too much. It was the first quarter that spelled doom for West as they came out slow and the Broncos came out quickly. At the end of the period, the Lady Warriors already found themselves down by 11 points, trying to battle back. By the end of the third quarter, Vista Murrieta’s lead was only eight, but the Broncos stayed with Mike Caporaso and his team to take a final 67-60 victory, ending South’s season for good. The Warriors have a lot to look forward too as sophomore Jasmine Jones had a coming out party and will bring a great foundation to the team. Kayla Sato’s leadership and scoring ability will certainly be missed. As one of only three seniors on the team, West should be able to find success again after an already extremely successful season sooner, rather than later. •
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