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TORRANCE TRIBUNE September 28, 2017 Page 3
Up and Adam
North High Saxons, Galloway Roll Over Morningside
Politically Speaking
One Man’s Opinion Another Man’s Opinion
President’s Ignorance Has
Moved Past Laughable
By Cristian Vasquez
Personally I wouldn’t kneel during the
National Anthem, but I have no problem with
athletes that do as a form of silent protest.
What I do have a problem with is the false
equivalencies and flat-out lies that critics of
these athletes use to attack these actions,
including the President’s recent campaign
rally comments. It’s no surprise at this point
that this train wreck of a president would call
peaceful protestors “Sons of B…” while giving
Nazi sympathizers the benefit of the doubt
as some of them being “very fine people.”
However, it is disgusting how many of his
supporters have distorted the truth regarding
this peaceful protest in order to make villains
of people infinitely more decent than the tiki
torch-carrying cave-dwellers in Charlottesville.
For starters, the taking of a knee isn’t
because players feel oppressed. So to the
President and his supporters arguing that
these million-dollar athletes aren’t oppressed,
here’s a reality check: they aren’t claiming to
be victims. Colin Kaepernick never said he
took a knee because of how much injustice
he has suffered. He never claimed that social
injustice has kept him from succeeding or that
it has personally ruined his life. Kaepernick
took a knee for those who are mistreated
and who have to live with injustice day-in,
day-out. He knelt for the unarmed murder
victims and their families who have to live
knowing that the murderer who ruined their
lives goes unpunished. No matter how much
the President and his supporters deny it, there
are many people in America who suffer abuse
from authority figures and have no recourse
to fix the situation.
Second, accusing these athletes of being
unpatriotic is a lazy argument and is further
proof that Trump supporters can’t see beyond
the lies and hypocrisy their cave-dwelling president
spews. Let’s not forget that NFL players
were not required to be on the field during
the National Anthem until 2009. Furthermore,
these patriotic events prior to kick-off came
with a price tag paid for by the Department
of Defense and were in part a recruitment
strategy. Paid patriotism is more of a slap in
the face than a peaceful protest, but again it’s
45 we’re talking about and we all know his
hypocrisy has no limits.
For those who worship Trump, here’s a
challenge. Go back into the President’s Twitter
feed and look at how he praised the late
Muhammad Ali when the boxing legend died.
The President called Ali “a truly great champion
and a wonderful guy.” He praised one man
known for his social activism and defiance of
the status quo and now he berates another for
the same reason. And just to get ahead of it…
no, I am not saying that the great Muhammad
Ali and Colin Kaepernick are the same. Their
actions, however, are similar. So for the President
to call one a great guy and the other a Son
of a B is beyond hypocritical. Maybe he and
his followers don’t understand what being a
hypocrite entails. They don’t understand why
these players are taking a knee. Or maybe in
the end, it just does not matter to them because
the only thing the President really cares about
is vilifying anyone in order to rally his base. •
The President Demands Respect
from Pampered Athletes
By Duane Plank
So the President took direct Twitter and
verbal aim at the corpulent midget, NoKo nut
job Kim Jong-Un, at a groundbreaking speech
to the United Nations, dismissively labeling
him “Rocket Man.” Not the same Rocket Man
the great lefty crooner Elton John sang about
back in the day, but a more troublesome little
guy with unknown proclivities, with his stubby
finger on the trigger of the nuclear button--the
man-child with the codes that could someday
launch a very bad rocket tipped with nuclear
matter at the U.S. mainland.
President Trump fired his salvos at the NoKo
dweeb early in the week and then apparently
took a couple of days off from playing Twitter,
hopefully busily throwing himself into
getting something done with the repeal or
replace of Obamacare. Or maybe working on
the tax cut that he promised. Or rekindling
the negotiations and the “Art-of-the-Deal”
brilliance to finally get something done with
a Congress that his party supposedly, and I
say supposedly, controls?
Well, I headed up to the old Easter Sierra
fishing hole for a couple of days of alleged
reeling with brother Chris, who is a great
fisherman, and politically has probably not
purchased nor wasted any money on Hillary’s
money-grab book, What Happened.
I was somewhat out of touch, digitally and
politically, in the middle of last week when
I finally heard about Mr. Trump’s speech
made in Sweet Home Alabama. That’s where
he threw it out last Friday that NFL owners
should “fire” players who decide to take a knee,
or worse, during the playing of our patriotic
national anthem before the start-up of another
four-hour commercial fest that masquerades
as a sporting event. He used a term that apparently
riled up, maybe deservedly so, the
showboating, grandstanding players who are
incredibly lucky millionaires. Called them
“son-of-a-guns,” or a similar epithet.
The pampered players, most NFL employees,
Richie-rich owners and media elites went into
their typical tizzy, calling Trump—shockingly-
-a racist! First time that term racist has been
thrown out there by the liberals who were
triumphantly congratulating each other on that
election day on the first Tuesday in the early
gloaming of evening--swilling Chardonnay
and ridiculing those rednecks who had wasted
their vote earlier that day on the reality show
star from New York.
Whoops! Or maybe Whoppi/Something
changed in the darkness of that November
Tuesday, with tears being shed and the reality
that the political glass-ceiling was not going
to be shattered that evening. Too bad, so sad.
Trump, who even in my somewhat redtinged
view, spends a tad bit too much time
Tweeting, responded to a league whose ratings
and attendance are currently cratering
to epic levels that “if NFL fans refuse to go
to games until players stop disrespecting our
Flag and Country, you will see change take
place. Fire or suspend.”
A great bromide, Mr. Commander-in-Chief.
Now please get back to what your base elected
you to do and stop opining on the actions of
pampered athletes. •
By Adam Serrao
Losing by 35 points is enough to light a
fire under any head coach and his football
team. That’s precisely what happened to
Todd Croce and his North High Saxons two
weeks ago when they lost to the Culver City
Centaurs. Last week when the Saxons took
on the Morningside Monarchs, the team
promised as a collective group that a loss
like that would not happen to them again
this season. With a 21-7 nonleague victory
at home last Friday night, that promise was
made good. Behind strong performances from
Saeed Galloway and Sean Sigala, North was
able to roll to its third victory of the season.
Both teams began the contest without much
offensive firepower, perhaps leading the Saxon
faithful to become a bit more nervous than
they had already been about their team. It
was Galloway who put those nerves to rest,
galloping into the end zone from eight yards
out early on the in the second quarter to score
the first points of the game and give his team
the lead. Right as North began feeling good
about the night, however, Morningside would
do its part to dampen any arising feelings of
excitement. Just seconds later, the Monarchs’
Brian Watts would return the kickoff and take
it the opposite way for a 68-yard touchdown
to tie things up.
The Saxons remained resilient and this
time relied on their quarterback to pave
the way for the team. Just before halftime,
Sigala connected with wide receiver Mehki
Jordan on a 22-yard touchdown pass. The
throw gave North a 14-7 advantage heading
into halftime. “We wanted to grind it out,”
Croce said of the Saxons’ game plan. “The
plan was to keep the ball on the ground and
keep it out of [Morningside’s] hands.”
Once Sigala’s touchdown pass gave his team
the lead, Croce leaned heavily on Galloway
in order to run out the clock. In the process,
the star running back flashed with another
touchdown--this time from 50 yards out--to
put his team up 21-7. Galloway carried the
ball 18 times for 151 yards to go with his two
scores, while Sigala converted 7 of 12 passes
for 107 yards and his touchdown to Jordan.
“We’ve got a chip on our shoulders,” Sigala
explained after the game, surely referring
back to his team’s game against Culver City.
“We’re a scrappy team and that’s how we’re
going to play. We have to be able to bounce
back and execute and we did that tonight.”
North will head into a bye week with
momentum on its side. The team will look
to keep its successful season going as competition
begins to stiffen with the arrival of
league play. When the Saxons (3-2) return
to action, they will travel to West High for
a matchup against the Warriors in a rivalry
game that is sure to make a mark in the
Pioneer League standings. With a talented
team led by Galloway and Sigala, the Saxons
will continue to look to define themselves
as the best high school football team from
the city of Torrance.
West High
The West High Warriors are suffering
through a lackluster start to this year’s regular
season. On the heels of a three-point loss to
Redondo, West moved on to take on the Bay
League’s Mira Costa Mustangs last week.
Things didn’t get much better for the team
led by quarterback Brandon Poffenbargar.
A 35-6 loss to the Mustangs dropped the
Warriors’ record to 1-3 on the season and
slides them even further down in the Pioneer
League standings.
The Warriors have had trouble keeping up
with teams from the Bay league in recent
history and despite keeping the game close
throughout the first quarter of play in this
one, continued with their difficult times
last Friday night on the road. West scored
the first points of the game early on in the
opening quarter of play after the defense
came up with a clutch interception. Despite
the team’s quick start, however, those six
points were all the Warriors could muster in
regulation. It wasn’t long before Mira Costa’s
scoring frenzy began. A touchdown in the
first quarter in response to West’s gave the
Mustangs the early lead. Two touchdowns
in the second put Costa up 21-6 at the half
and two more TDs in the third quarter put
the game out of reach.
The 35-6 loss is the Warriors’ second loss
in a row, both to Bay League opponents. The
Carson Colts are next up on the schedule
for West before it welcomes the North High
Saxons to town for the first game on this
year’s league play schedule.
Torrance High
A slow first half doomed the Torrance Tartars
from the outside in last Friday night’s matchup
at home against the El Segundo Eagles. After
witnessing the Eagles score 13 first quarter
points, Torrance was only able to muster a
field goal in the first half of play. The Tartars
cut into El Segundo’s lead to begin the third
quarter with a touchdown that brought the
score to 13-10. Just when the team thought
it was close, however, the Eagles rattled off
28 unanswered points to eventually take a
41-10 win. Torrance (1-3) hopes better days
are ahead when they travel to Lawndale this
week to take on the Cardinals before opening
up league play against the Centennial Apaches.
South High
To say that the South High Spartans are
going through growing pains may just be
an understatement. Winless on the season,
the Spartans have now been made victims
to three shutouts in just four games of play,
including last Friday night at home against
the Santa Monica Vikings. Santa Monica
scored early and often and eventually ran
out to a 26-0 win. South (0-4) has now been
outscored 149-14 on the season. Head coach
Matt Mishler will look for something positive
to find this week when his team takes
on the same El Segundo Eagles squad that
just walloped the Torrance Tartars.
– Aserrao6@yahoo.com •