Feel good story of the week: From math teacher to quaterback

In my favorite story of the week, the Dallas Cowboys have enlisted the help of one of their former quaterbacks, now a high school math teacher, to be their third string back-up for their game this weekend.

Apparently, the other two quarterbacks are fighting injuries – and there may be need for a third choice.

It’s really an inspiring story, with Kitna saying he will donate the money he gets from playing (or even just sitting on the bench) back to the school he teaches at, according to BleacherReport:

The $53,000 he will be paid for his third-string duties on the team will not go in his pocket, as he announced Thursday that he plans to donate the money to Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Wash., according to the Dallas Morning News‘ Barry Horn.

Kitna has been a football coach and math teacher at Lincoln since retiring from the NFL two years ago following a 15-year playing career. After leading the Abes to an 8-2 record, with his son Jordan as his starting quarterback, the father of four is now making the decision to donate his entire salary to improve the school.

Kitna’s story was already pretty inspiring, as this CBS News report BleacherReport found:

Maybe in the new year, we can all hope to be a little bit like Mr. Kitna.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Big bass fish at Shikellamy Marina

I’ve fished before.

Never anything big though – and I made either my fiance or my brother-in-law take the fish off the hook because I couldn’t actually touch them.

It would’ve been gross, you know?

Anyway, that fear was apparently not shared with those at the bass fishing tournament this weekend sponsored by the Daily Item to benefit Newspapers in Education. They got right in there and plopped the fish into the weighing bags – grabbing them by the MOUTH.

I had no idea.

I took some Vine videos of the weigh-ins: Here and Here.

Apparently, that is the proper way to grab a fishie to weigh him. Who knew?

Here’s one of photographer Amanda August’s photos from the day. Enjoy.

LLWS mania – at least with me

I’m going to be hard to talk to for the next several days – My body may be here, but my heart is in Williamsport with the Little League World Series, which I fell in love with as a college newspaper intern, covering the news side of the games.

It got me up close and personal with the huge event and started my love for pin collecting.

I wish I could just take 10 days off and go stay there – but I can’t because I have a real life now with responsibilities.

So I am forced to watch the action unfold via social media until I can make my annual pilgrimage there to hunt for pins and have some fun.

The games get underway today – here’s some people tweetin’ it up from the scene:

Day 1 of the #llws bout to get started. Pretty cool atmosphere. gcsports littleleagueworldseries2013… http://t.co/GWMsB90o2s

— Jeff Kamrath (@HooRayKam) August 15, 2013

#Midwest getting some early morning work in. One day away from the big game #LLWS pic.twitter.com/WcyguRXyHM

— Michael Admire (@Admire_OnAir) August 15, 2013

Prepping Lamade for the first day of games #CTLL #llws http://t.co/YB05OH4mcW

— Doug Bonjour (@DougBonjour) August 15, 2013

Bonus Photos: Milton wrestlers

Sunday, Milton High School honored its two wrestlers who competed at Hershey in the state tournament.

Ryan Solomon placed first and Ryan Preisch placed third.

The pair rode into the high school on a fire truck, then a small ceremony was held in the school’s auditorium to honor their accomplishment.

Here’s some extra photos:

Valley Super Bowl predictions: Who was closest?

Last week, I asked the Valley’s high school football coaches to predict who would emerge from this weekend’s NFL playoff games victorious and live on to fight for the Super Bowl title.

Now, it’s time to see who was the closest.

NFC championship game: San Francisco 49er’s vs. Atlanta Falcons

Most of the five polled coaches predicted a 49er victory, so this competition comes down to who guessed the closest to the final score – 28-24.

George Goodwin, of Milton, predicted the Niner’s final tally of 28, but he predicted the Falcons would be farther off at 10.

Jeremy Winn, of Lewisburg also predicted a 28-point feat for San Francisco, and he had Atlanta at 17 – one touchdown away from their final tally.

Winn wins this round.

AFC championship game: New England Patriots vs. Baltimore Ravens

In this round, only two coaches predicted Baltimore as the victor – Winn and Jim Keiser, of Danville.

So who was closer to the final score?  It’s tough to say.

Keiser predicted a  24-21 game, and Winn predicted a 38-35 game – the actual final score was 28-13.

So it’s a tough call, though I have to hand it to Keiser, who guessed on the side of a lower-scoring game.

Overall

But the overall winner of this “guess the winner challenge” is Jeremy Winn, who picked both winners, and was extremely close on the AFC game.

Congrats, Coach Winn!

Oh, Lance.

I’ve spent the past couple of days talking to people about the saga that has become of Lance Armstrong’s life.

The conversation has raised some really interesting questions:

• Does his doping negate his good work with cancer research?
• Should we punish athletes for using PEDs?
• If everyone’s doing it, how do you punish just the people you catch?

Here’s a sampling of the conversation from a Facebook post we had:

What’s your take? Let me know in the comments!