I messed around with Videolicious again tonight at the Mason boy's football game.  Watch the video for footage of the game and to find out more about the season.  I am doing a story about the success of the boy's team in the next print edition of The Chronicle coming out Nov. 4th!  Make sure to pick one up or read it on thecspn.com to receive coaches and player's opinions on the season!

MHS Sports Radio

Tonight Mason's football team is playing a huge game at Sycamore High School!  If Mason wins this rivalry they will more than likely make it into the playoffs for the first time since 2011 and end the season with an 8-2 record! If you can't make the game then listen in at mason.localsportsradio.com! My fellow Chronicle staff member Eric Miller will be calling the game from the press box.  Tune in while your'e handing out candy or trick or treating!

Check out mason.localsportsradio.com for tonight's game against Sycamore!

Check out this video I created using the Videolicious app! It features coverage and commentary from the Mason boy's soccer team's match against Beaver Creek in the regional semi final! If you ever can't make future Mason sporting events, follow @mhschroniclesports on Twitter and Instagram for live updates during the games!

Mason Captures Both Titles in District Cross Country Meet

Mason cross country sped to the finish linsped to the finish line this weekend, capturing both the boys and girls varsity district titles with scores of 19 and 26.

Senior Nick Grismer crossed the finish line first in the boys race with a time of 15:49. The other boys finished in second, third, sixth, and seventh, securing a victory with 19 points. According to Grismer, after getting second in the GMC meet last week, this win will boost his team’s confidence.

“I think that this win is especially important because it demonstrates how we’re finally starting to pull things together as a team, since this is one of the first races where we’ve all brought our A-game,” Grismer said. “ I think that this win was crucial for our confidence.”

The next step for the team is to qualify for state through the regional meet, and Grismer knows they must take qualifying one step at a time.

“The first goal is to qualify, the second is to win, and the third is to win big,” Grismer said.  “If we can do one or more of those things, we should be ready for state.”

Grismer said he is aware of the heightening competition that comes with each advancing level. According to Grismer, all of the training the team has done has definitely prepared them for the regional meet.

“I think there are a handful of good teams, namely Saint Xavier and Lakota East, but there’s a lot of good competition at regionals,” Grismer said. “We’ve been training since June as far as preparation goes, we’ve done workouts that we need to do, and done all the little things like core, eating right, and recovering the right way.  I think we are as ready as we can be for regionals.”

The head coach of the girls cross country team, Chip Dobson, said he believes the biggest hardship for the district meet was not the competition. According to Dobson, the real struggle was creating the meet’s rooster.

“The hardship coming to the meet is always the tough decisions of who runs and who doesn’t,” Dobson said. “We have a great group of girls and I would love for many of them to run in the postseason.”

Dobson is optimistic about the regional meet approaching, and says the ultimate goal is to stand on the podium higher than everyone else.

“Our hope at the regional meet is to come home with a trophy,” Dobson said. “We would like first, but it could be a tough road. It is our goal to win.”

Junior Maegan Murphy took first place with a time of 18:08, while sophomores Ellie Brush and Ailee Henderson finished third and fifth.  Despite being one of the younger runners on the team, Henderson said she believes she still must contribute as much as she can during the regional meet in order to help the team succeed.

“It’s a good feeling to know that all the hard work we put in during the regular season pays off during the post-season,” Henderson said. “Even though I’m one of the younger girls I can still help our team succeed.”

Senior Nick Grismer crossed the finish line first in the boys race with a time of 15:49. The other boys finished in second, third, sixth, and seventh, securing a victory with 19 points. According to Grismer, after getting second in the GMC meet last week, this win will boost his team’s confidence.

“I think that this win is especially important because it demonstrates how we’re finally starting to pull things together as a team, since this is one of the first races where we’ve all brought our A-game,” Grismer said. “ I think that this win was crucial for our confidence.”

The next step for the team is to qualify for state through the regional meet, and Grismer knows they must take qualifying one step at a time.

“The first goal is to qualify, the second is to win, and the third is to win big,” Grismer said.  “If we can do one or more of those things, we should be ready for state.”

Grismer said he is aware of the heightening competition that comes with each advancing level. According to Grismer, all of the training the team has done has definitely prepared them for the regional meet.

“I think there are a handful of good teams, namely Saint Xavier and Lakota East, but there’s a lot of good competition at regionals,” Grismer said. “We’ve been training since June as far as preparation goes, we’ve done workouts that we need to do, and done all the little things like core, eating right, and recovering the right way.  I think we are as ready as we can be for regionals.”

The head coach of the girls cross country team, Chip Dobson, said he believes the biggest hardship for the district meet was not the competition. According to Dobson, the real struggle was creating the meet’s rooster.

“The hardship coming to the meet is always the tough decisions of who runs and who doesn’t,” Dobson said. “We have a great group of girls and I would love for many of them to run in the postseason.”

Dobson is optimistic about the regional meet approaching, and says the ultimate goal is to stand on the podium higher than everyone else.

“Our hope at the regional meet is to come home with a trophy,” Dobson said. “We would like first, but it could be a tough road. It is our goal to win.”

Junior Maegan Murphy took first place with a time of 18:08, while sophomores Ellie Brush and Ailee Henderson finished third and fifth.  Despite being one of the younger runners on the team, Henderson said she believes she still must contribute as much as she can during the regional meet in order to help the team succeed.

“It’s a good feeling to know that all the hard work we put in during the regular season pays off during the post-season,” Henderson said. “Even though I’m one of the younger girls I can still help our team succeed.”

Senior Nick Grismer finished the race in first place with a time of 15:49

Alberto Knows Best

I was reading fellow chronicle staff member Jessica Sommerville's blog and she brought up a great point in her most recent blog entitled "Bailando."  To basically sum up her entire post in one sentence, she believes American's need to learn more about different cultures of the world.
This school year my family is hosting a boy from Spain named Alberto.  He is an average junior here at MHS, but something sets him apart from all the other dreary faces walking the halls.  As soon as Alberto walked off the eight hour plane ride that took him across the vast Atlantic, I could not help but think to myself that I would need to explain every little American aspect of his new life to him. The first few days of school approached, and I felt it was my duty to teach him the countless slang words teenagers use at school.  'Dude, swag, bro, and selfies' were all words I assumed were foreign to him, but I was totally wrong. 
"Do you know what a 'dude' is"? I would ask.
His face stared back at me like I was the one who had just walked off that plane.
"Duh," he said and continued watching The Big Bang Theory.
"Well...what about 'swag'?"
"Duh," he said again, irritation etched across his face.
I was the one who left that conversation feeling like I had learned something new.  Alberto was just as cultured about popular American trends as I was, yet he did it across an entire ocean.  If he asked me about some basic Spanish trends...well then Google would become my best friend.  Maybe I need to learn more Spanish or find out what's new in Spain.  Or maybe we all need to expand our cultural knowledge. 

Alberto flew across the Atlantic into a world he is actually quite familiar with.