Snapshot Moment Memoir- By Courtney (sample '07)

Murray All Stars

As the batter twirled the bat in her hands, I started my wind up. As I did, I could hear my dad yelling “Come on 24, you got this!” The count was 1 strike, 1 ball. I could smell the snack shack food and the smell of my mitt. I could see only the mitt. I was focused. The cheers of the crowd and my teammates engulfed me as I let the ball fly, spinning from my hand. “STRRIIKKEEE!” yelled the umpire.

“Way to go Court!” my teammates yelled. “Okay guys,” I yelled to them “play to one! Coming your way!” I did my wind up and bit my lip. I always do that when I pitch. I let the ball shoot from my hand. But it was a ball. “That’s okay! You can do this!” the first baseman said to me.

“You forgot to finish that time,” yelled my coach to me. “Don’t forget next time.” “Got it!” I yelled back. I took a couple deep breathes and walked around the circle a few times. Then, as I walked slowly back to the mound, I glared at the batter. The catcher gave me the signs, I nodded, and let the ball fly. “STTRRRIIIIKKEE THREE! YOUR OUT!” screamed the umpire so loud, I thought our catcher was going to be deaf. “Way to go!” we yelled as we ran to our dugout. We did our cheer and we were up to bat. First to go was McKenzie.

She slammed a triple and we were screaming our heads off. Up next was Marissa. She got a single and brought Kenzie in. Alexi was up next and she bunted a double. Marissa got in and we were tied. Sami was up next and as she went to swing, the ball went whistling right by her bat. She came in, looking dejected. “That’s okay,” I told her as Alexi scored. “We’re wining!” I hurried off to go bat. I hit a pop fly right to the center field, but she missed. “Eight run rule!” yelled the ump. We ran in to get ready for the field. It was the last inning and I was in the outfield, center to be exact. The first girl got out at one, and then the other struck out.

The next, and hopefully last batter, was a big, muscular girl who looked like she could hit. “Be ready 24,” my dad yelled to me. “Coming your way!” and sure enough, after one strike and two balls, she slammed a high pop fly about three feet in front of me. I called “I got it, I got it!” and ran full speed and at the last few seconds, I stretched as far as I could and … I caught it!

As I stood there, not knowing what to do, the crowd flew to their feet and cheered so loud, it was like thunder. Alexi, who was also in the outfield, came sprinting at me and we collided and I flew to the ground. As she helped me up, my team crowded around me and they all kept congratulating me. “We won the game thanks to you!” they yelled. I saw the other team walking away, their heads hanging. We all laughed and screamed and had so much fun.

Another Contest!

DEADLINE COMING SOON.....SEPT. 30th!

This one is a great one. It is a local contest. Here is what KSL has to say about it, "Choose the local leader you'd like to "follow" for a day, and get writing! The winning essay will spend the day and attend an honorary luncheon with their chosen mentor, a $1,000 Savings Bond, essay printed in the newspaper and the overall winning essay gets $5,000 for their school! Deadline for entries is Tuesday, September 30th! See entry form brochure for more details."

Entry forms can be picked up at Macey's.

Writing Contest!

Here is a great opportunity and chance to let your voice be heard with an invitation for a national reading-writing contest. Readers (that means you!) will write a personal letter to an author explaining how the author changed your way of thinking in some way (about you, and or your world).To find out more, read samples, and how to apply click here.

p.s. extra credit will be given for entering. :)

So We Remember

1. Eliminate Prejudice -looking for the best in others

2. Dare to Dream - set goals - keep a journal

3. Choose your Influences - input determines output

4. Kind Words - Small acts of kindess= HUGE impact

5. Start a Chain Reaction- with family and friends

Here are some of Rachel's quotes:

"Don't let your character change color with your environment. Find out who you are and let it stay its true color."

"I had my ups and downs and I fell a few times but I did not give up. Don't give up."

Family Folklore By Andrew Saltzman

My Football Memory

My memory is of my 5th grade football season. It all started one morning. I had just got up at 7:00 a.m. Today was the day; it was win with a perfect season or be forgotten about with second place. I was so excited for my championship football game. During the regular season we were undefeated. Olympus, "the team we were going to play for the championship," was a tougher team that we played earlier in the season. Plus my dad agreed that he would buy me a 2005 Nissan Z if I got ten hard tackles on defense.

I played tight end and defensive end in that football season. When I first got up in the morning, I took a hot bath to relax my muscles. The hot water was so soothing I almost completely forgot about my game. After a little while, I got out of the bath and threw on my pads. On the drive to the game I was so nervous because I wanted to win this game more than anything. The year before I had played Bingham in the semifinals and lost by an extra point. I wasn't about to let that happen again this year. Alta was going to be number one. But one small slip could cost us the game.

We had just arrived at the field. It was 8:30 am and it was a freezing cold day. There were bits and pieces of snow on the ground. It was below thirty-two degrees and I was surprised that it wasn't snowing. The game was supposed to start at 9:00 am but our coach wanted us to arrive thirty minutes before the game started so that we could do our warm ups. We would stretch, hit, and run laps for our warm ups. We were as focused as can be.

The game was about to start and I was named one of the captains for the coin toss. I called the toss and said heads but it was tails. That meant we had to kick off to Olympus. So we kicked off and it landed on the thirty-yard line. Olympus picked up the rolling ball and started to run with it and they got to the forty-yard line before they got tackled. It was time to stop them on defense. On the first play I faked the tight end out by pretending to shoot though the outside gap but, as soon as he went my direction, I cut towards the inside gap. Just as I got through, I saw the quarterback hand the ball off to the running back. The running back tried to cut around the outside of me but I ran full speed towards him and flattened the kid on his back. Unfortunately, they still had gained four yards, which meant they had only six more yards to go.

A few plays after that they had gained around thirty-four yards. So they were on our twenty-yard line. On the next play, we sacked the quarterback and they lost five yards and it was second and fifteen. The very next play they gained ten yards. So it was now forth and five and they went for the first down. The quarterback was in shotgun formation and he dropped back to pass. The quarterback threw it to the wide receiver and he caught it at our ten yard line then ran it in for a touchdown. After the touchdown they made their extra point. So it was seven to zero and we were in for a tough game.

Right after that they kicked off to us and we ran it all the way back for a touch down. Plus we made our extra point. So it was tied up, seven to seven. Thing were getting pretty intense for us because we weren't used to teams scoring on us that easily.

Then we kicked off to Olympus with around thirty seconds left in the half. They got to the thirty-five yard line, then they ran a couple plays and reached the forty-yard line and the time expired. The score was tied up seven to seven going into the second quarter.

After that not much happened the game just kept going back and forth until the forth quarter. Near the end of the forth quarter they had just finished scoring and were up fourteen to seven.When they kicked of to us, there was about one minute left in the game and we ran the ball up to the thirty-five yard line. On the very first play we ran a reverse and got to the fifty-yard line. Three plays after that we scored with the game tied up fourteen to fourteen going into our first over time.

We won the coin toss for the over time so, we got to try to score first. In a overtime game, if you score on the other team they would have to score also. But if you do not score, you would need to stop the opposing team on defense to stay in the game. Both my team and Olympus kept scoring and stopping people on defense in the overtimes until we reached the eighth overtime.

In the eighth over time my team scored then we stopped Olympus on defense. The crowed went crazy and rush inward onto the field for the Alta Hawks was victorious wining with a perfect season and the state championship. There was hundreds of people watching our game because our game went overtime into two other scheduled games.

No one was sure of the final score, we lost track in the fifth overtime. We were all over the news including ESPN and on the front cover of the sports page. But I was one tackle short of the Nissan Z. But I was still very happy with how the game turned out.

Vist: www.newstoyounow.blogspot.com

Rachel Makes an Impact on Me!

Rachel was the first of the shooting of U.S.A history. She was always happy and always tried to make others the same. She taught me that we need not to be mad at others for a long time, but to help others that are new, scared, or being picked on to make them happy.

Don't you want to start a chain reaction like Rachel wanted to do?

If you think so to, write back and tell me what you think. It could help others.

Family Folklore

By John Bailey

When I was born we lived in an apartment with my mom’s sister. After a while we moved to an apartment next door and it was even in the same building. We moved because we were getting crowded. When we moved we had three kids me, my big brother, and my little brother. All the
kids shared the same room. When I was a little kid I liked going to field trips in school because of the sake that I didn’t have to be in class doing my work. I never liked school because some teachers assign a lot of homework.

None of our family has any kind of video game we don’t even have an Internet. Most people think you’re weird if you don’t have those kind of things, but I don’t think that’s weird because it makes you smarter because when you have video games that’s what your thinking about all day. I think I have the best parents in the entire universe. The reason I think that is because they love our kids and they don’t have a favorite all of them are their favorites. Most of my family has bad memory, but I don’t.

Right now we are probably going to get a computer, but it is not going to have the internet on it. I don’t really no anything about the Internet because I didn’t grow up with it. My mom has a computer with the Internet in her office at work, but we hardly ever go there because we go to

School. My brothers go to a different school than I do. I went to a school called Ensign learning Center. I really liked it there and my brothers that are going there like it a lot to. I started school when I was 3 and now I’m 11. My little sister loves school. When she wasn’t old enough to go to school she wanted to really bad. When she started school than after school when it was getting dark she would always say it’s almost dark then we can go to sleep and when we wake up we can go to school again. I never liked school except for before I ever went I wanted to go really bad, but when I started I went I wished I never had to go to school. My brothers used to not like school but this year they started liking it because they got nicer teachers.

All the teachers are nice in that school, but some of them are strict. I had a strict teacher last year and I didn’t like it. Parties at school because we don’t have to do work. When I grow up I want to be a cool minor because I think it would be really fun to work in a cool mine. I want to see how their machines work and how long it takes them to mine the cool. If I do work at a cool mine I am going to try to learn how to use the machines that mine cool so I will be able to run them if they ask me to. If I cant be a minor I want to be carpenter.