2012: A Year in Review

President Obama's Re-Election

           As we are finishing up the month of December, it also means that if you are reading this, you have survived yet another event-filled year here on planet Earth. And what a year it has been. If you choose to continue reading, we will take a look back at the last 365 days in this Year in Review: 2012.

            Way back in January, a cruise ship known as The Costa Concordia hit some rocks along the coast of Italy, causing the ship to nearly capsize, causing people to abandon ship into the cold waters in the darkness of the night.

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama

            In February, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman for “appearing” as a threat in Florida. James Holmes killed at a movie theater in Colorado during the midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises.   

            Marvel’s The Avengers premiered in April- bringing all the superheroes from the Marvel Universe together to protect the planet. The film had the biggest opening weekend ever, becoming the fastest film to gross $1 billion dollars. Twilight and Batman both finished their sagas.  Les Misérables premiered on Christmas Day.

Jerry Sandusky

In the NFL, the NY Giants defeated the New England Patriots to win Super Bowl XLVI and defeat the Pats for the second time in five years to capture the crown. NBA: the Miami Heat defeat Oklahoma City and LeBron James earns his first NBA title and is later awarded Sportsman of the Year. The San Francisco Giants won their second World Series in 3 years defeating the Detroit Tigers in 4 games.

In August, the Mars Rover Curiosity lands on the planet Mars and begin its 2-year stay exploring the Red Planet.

September, the US embassy was attacked in Libya, killing 4 Americans.

Jerry Sandusky (Penn St.) receives 30-60 years in prison for molesting young boys, ensuring that he will die in prison. 

Space Shuttle Endeavor 

            This year, President Barack Obama openly supported gay marriage. He also won reelection after challenger Mitt Romney ran a hard fought campaign.

Hurricane Sandy hits Jersey Shore, NY and New York City. Causing mass chaos and destruction- 2^nd most expensive natural disaster in history ($70 Billion) behind only Hurricane Katrina 2005 ($400 billion).

            George Lucas sold the entire Star Wars franchise to Disney for a sum of $4 billion dollars, to which George Lucas donated it all to charity.

            The people whom we lost this year and to be missed and remembered are the following:

- Neil Armstrong, astronaut

- Andy Griffith, actor

James Holmes

- Rodney King

- Joe Paterno 

- Whitney Houston

- many many more

            The Summer Olympics in London. From the opening ceremony with the industrial revolution and the queen skydiving with James Bond to Mo Farah and Galen Rupp upsetting with their success on the track to Michael Phelps becoming the most winningest Olympic athlete in history.

            This year marked the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic during its maiden voyage.

Hurricane Sandy 

            Apple unveiled the iPhone 5, as well as the iPad mini.

            Fifty Shades of Grey, The Hunger Games, and One Direction all made their public debuts within the last 12 months. As well, popular hits such as Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” and Korean pop sensation Psy’s “Gangnam Style”. “Gangnam Style” became the most viewed YouTube video in history with nearly 900 million views in just 4 months. (That equates to more than 1 view every second for the last 16 weeks.)

Summer Olympics 2012: London

            Felix Baumgartner made history freefalling from nearly 24 miles high- hitting a max speed of over 830 mph. As well, NASA retired the space shuttles from returning to space. After 30+ years of take offs, disasters, historic feats, it is the end of an era. The year 2012 became the warmest in recorded history causing droughts, consistent triple-digit temperatures, and record heat waves.

            Kony 2012- bringing light to the issue of child soldiers in Uganda.

            Lance Armstrong was stripped of his 7 Tour de France titles and banned from ever competing again in the alleged blood doping scandal. 
           The Mayans predicted that the world would end of December 21st, 2012. Well, I am posting this early so in the off chance that they were right, I will not have written this for nothing. 

            

2012 SJXC season

Tumiel (Sr) & Belfatto (Fr)

           The 2012 season is in the books. And what a season it was. The St Joe’s team defied the odds. Monsignor Martin League Champions for the first time in 8 years. All-Catholic sweep by the Frosh, JV, and Varsity teams. Connor Tumiel won the Phil Scaffidi Award for how much he has overcome and accomplished. Anthony Belfatto was one of St Joe’s top runners as a freshman. JD McGuire shocked the crowd in his first year out. Cornell Overfield regularly finished amongst the top to help the team with their success. Joe x2 (Goergen and Suhay) always pushed through. And of course, Justin Benzino going out like a canon and keeping everyone on their toes right until the very end.

JV All-Catholic finish

The varsity team ended their season with a final race at Bowdoin Park for the NYS Federation race. The times were fast, the competition was tough, and the performances were some to remember.

view the short 10-minute clip put together by the video coordinator of the SJ XC team Ben Brownell (Sr)

St Joe's Victorious Once Again

8 years Later!

Marcus Brown (Fr)

Dominic Coppola (Sr)

            St. Joe's wins the Triple Crown. 
Freshman- 1st
JV- 1st
Varsity- 1st
          It has been 8 long years since St. Joe’s has been victorious in Cross Country. They have come close several times over the years, but always came up short. Finally, the 2012 team was able to stop the long-time powerhouse rival of Canisius Crusaders to capture the Monsignor Martin Athletic Association (MMAA) League title as well as All-Catholic Champions. 

            The All Catholic race was once again held at Elma Meadows. The morning was brisk and some light snowfall started off the day right. 
          The freshman were the first race of the day. They were victorious coming in 1st place. Led by Marcus Brown edging out a Canisius opponent for his 1^st place victory.

            The JV race was next. The race went out fast, and finished even faster. The JV boys swept the race. St. Joe’s walked away with a perfect score of 15 points. The team was led by Senior Dominic Coppola’s (19:06) first place finished, followed closely by David Miller (Sr), Charlie Grochowiak (Sr), Jim Kirkpatrick, and Matt Becker.

JD McGuire (Jr)

Anthony Belfatto (Fr)

Connor Tumiel (Sr)

Cornell Overfield (Jr)

            Finally, the most exciting race of the day was the Varsity race. St. Joe’s had beaten Canisius just a week earlier to capture the regular season title, and the Crusaders were looking for revenge. They definitely kept it close, but the Marauders were able to overcome them once again and capture the All Catholic Championship by a mere 6 points. Billy Christ did win the race, but Freshman Anthony Belfatto was first for the Marauders in 2^nd overall, following right behind was JD McGuire (Jr), Connor Tumiel (Sr), and Cornell Overfield (Jr). Rounding out the top 5 and securing the win was Justin Benzino (Sr) in 10^th place. Joe Goergen (Sr) and Joe Suhay (Jr) finished strong to finish out the top 7.

            The Varsity men will continue practice and prepare for Federations on November 17^th at Bowdoin Park in Poughkeepsie, NY. Congrats St. Joe’s on your victory!

A Runner's Shoes

     There are things in life that have meaning to us for short periods of time, as well as things that hold great memories that are in pristine condition. Many similar objects can be found in most homes, whether it be an urn of a loved one’s ashes or photos and family portraits that preserve memories.  But often times there are those objects that are in rough shape and have definitely seen their better days, but the owner of these objects simply cannot part with it. Often these objects are a childhood blanket or teddy bear. We’ve all got that one object that we can simply never part with.

            My ‘object’ is a pair of running shoes. Yes, I have outgrown them. Yes, they have seen better days. But for me, it is so much more than that. These shoes I wore my senior year of high school. I wore these shoes when we won the league. I wore these shoes when we lost All-Catholics. I wore these shoes when we finished 1^st place in New York State at Nike Regionals. I even wore these shoes when I went undefeated in the 800 meters and became the league champion.

            These shoes are neon blue with green strips. They are torn on the sides. I have bled in them, sweat in them, and even cried in them. Defeat can be tough. These shoes hold a lot of memories, and I know that I can always look at them and think back to all of the great memories I had in them. These shoes helped me get to where I am today and that is a Division 1 Collegiate athlete at Canisius College.

            And if the memories aren’t enough, when I finally wore the shoes for the last time and retired them, I had all of the fellow runners sign the shoes. My seven other varsity senior teammates are preserved in the memory that lies within the shoes. It is not the shoes that hold sentimental value, but the memories that came with it.