10. We all knew he could throw and run like few others, but here, local hero Andrew Luck shows off a new side of his football talent, impressive catches. In this one-handed beauty, the former Heisman-favorite picks up a clutch first down in a game he added 227 yards throwing as well. Have fun with this superstar, Colts.

9. The Honey Badger gets what the Honey Badger wants and here it is a 62 yard punt return to help the Tigers win the SEC championship game and secure a BCS Championship berth. This punt return towards the end of the first half features countless broken tackles and typical Tyrann Mathieu magic. We are only at #9 guys.

8. What’s better than a Hail Mary to win the game? One between two top-tier teams that is first called no-good, but then ruled a TD with review, I love technology.

7. Alshon Jeffrey may have two first names, but he only needs one hand to make this over-the-shoulder catch and put 6 points on the board for the Gamecocks.

6. In one of the more unique plays of the year, Arkansas’ Alonzo Highsmith proves LSU isn’t as perfect as we thought. Despite this great hit-and-catch sequence, the Razorbacks couldn’t hold on to their lead. Excuse the poor video quality.

5. If we gave every Trent Richardson highlight its own spot on this countdown, we would need a top 15. So as #5 I included 2 of his top runs of this year (#3 in this video is from last year). I still cannot get over his juke in the second run, watch and be amazed.

4. Surprisingly, Heisman-winner Robert Griffin III’s top 10 appearance comes off a should-be incomplete pass, untill Kendall Wright came along. In one of the best (and longest) tipped pass and catches I have ever seen, Wright turns 3rd and long into touchdown and gone.

3. In this year’s best hail mary, Boise State’s Kellen Moore heaves up a bomb right before halftime and jogs to the locker room with another 7 points. This is what you call right place at the right time.

2. Arkansas’ senior Joe Adams could have called for a fair catch on this punt; then again he could’ve broken more than 5 tackles and ran it back for the touchdown.

1.It’s safe to say that Marshall’s Aaron Dobson made the best catch, college or pro, of this year. This gravity-defying grab puts me at a loss for words and wraps up the countdown perfectly.

Starting out the first quarter, the Dons assumed the lead, as their quick pace game gave them an edge over the lagging Bears. The quarter began to close with a score of 12 to 2 when senior Dominic Tully shot for two and drew a foul. Making his freethrow, Tully brought the score to 12-5.

Building on that momentum, M-A took a step up in the second quarter, and gave Aragon a run for their money. Senior Jamar Gaddis missed a three-pointer, but his fellow senior Max Culhane was well-positioned to grab the rebound and knock the ball into the basket.

Although multiple turnovers held the Bears back, they were able to keep the score close at 16-11 with two minutes left in the period. Revving up the game, senior Ian Proulx reduced that lead to two points when he shot a great three-pointer with one minute left in the quarter, and then tied up the game 17-17 with yet another three-pointer right before the half.

Senior Miles Weiss started out the third quarter with a two-pointer, and Proulx riled up the crowd with two more consecutive three-pointers, making the score 25-23 and giving M-A the lead for the first time.

Aragon quickly came back with quick shots to take the lead at 28-25, but a shot and free-throw from Tully evened the score again, and a quick jumpshot from sophomore Ryan Roberts returned the lead to M-A at 30-28.

Both teams had their eyes on the win entering the final quarter, with each side attempting big plays, keeping the pace high and the crowd keyed-up. But Aragon came out with the most momentum and was winning 45-41 with one minute left in the game. Though Ian Proulx took a last-minute jumpshot and three-pointer, Aragon ultimately pulled out 52-48.

The Bears’ superior passing skills stood out from the start, with sophomore Elvis Arbarca showing off especially fancy footwork. Senior Edgardo Molina pulled off a hat-trick in the first half with three goals, one of which he scored off a bicycle kick that was the highlight of the night. Meanwhile, Alexis Lopez put a fourth one in the net to pull ahead 4-0 at the half. ”Our energy was great with the big lead,” said junior Isaac Hernandez.

Overall, Molina said, “we played phenomenal.” But the Bears did fall flat in the second half. Their defense lost some aggression, allowing a goal by the Cougars. ”Though the first half of the game was good, in the second half we left our foot off the pedal,” Molina said.

“We went downhill,” agreed senior Tom Kaheli. Lopez explained that the Bears “stopped trying because we thought we had them.”

Fortunately for M-A, the game still ended in a comfortable lead. The Bears now look to continue their solid play when they face Woodside today.

After senior Ian Proulx swished a jump-shot just 13 seconds into the game off of a defensive breakdown, both teams locked up defensively and Carlmont did not find the bottom of the net until 3:41 remained in the quarter. Most of the way through the first quarter, the scoreboard read 8-5 in favor of the Scots, with the majority of the points earned at the free throw line. Both teams generated several quality scoring chances but continued to misfire. In the closing seconds of the quarter, the Bears had a golden opportunity when sophomore Royce Branning fired a pass ahead to senior Ian Proulx, who unfortunately lost the ball a few feet from the net. The quarter ended with Carlmont leading 8-5.

Both teams continued the scrappy play in the second quarter, with Carlmont coming out aggressively and jumping out to a 12-6 lead halfway through the quarter. Senior Miles Weiss stopped the Scots’ run with a 3-point shot with 3:23 remaining. Strong defensive play forced a number of turnovers, and breakaways off of steals accounted for the bulk of the few points scored in the second. Near the end of the quarter, M-A cut the lead to 14-13 on a successful shot by Webb Henninger, which was the halftime score.

Just 44 seconds out of the break, sophomore Ryan Roberts drew a foul and sunk both free throws, and it appeared that the Bears had finally begun to secure the game. However, this was not the case, as the teams had limited success shooting from the field. But the foul-line remained somewhat kind to both teams, and M-A took a 20-16 lead late in the third quarter. Carlmont struck back after scoring and intercepting the following in-bounds pass, riding this surge to a 23-20 lead to end the quarter.

Just like the prior two league contests, the game came down to the fourth quarter. Senior Max Culhane fired the Bears up in the huddle, and the intensity picked up. While the offense did not flow until late in the game, the defense stepped up its intensity, allowing just two points in the closing quarter. With two minutes remaining in the game, Proulx beat one defender on the wing and, in a running layup, gave M-A a 26-25 lead. With 55 seconds remaining, Proulx drove into the teeth of the defense again and took a foul, swishing his free throws and giving the Bears a three point lead. After missing a three at the other end, the Scots fouled Weiss, who, again, knocked down both free throw shots for a 30-25 lead. After another Carlmont miss, Proulx iced the game with another pair of free throws. Carlmont’s last-ditch effort fell short, and the Bears prevailed 32-25.

The win moves the Bears to 2-1 in the PAL and 9-7 overall. Friday marks another pivotal match, as M-A battles the Aragon Dons, who defeated Half Moon Bay in overtime on Wednesday to seize take first place in the league. The Bears could move into a tie for first place with a win.

The game remained relatively close throughout most of the game. After the first period, the Bears and the Panthers were neck-and-neck at 7-7, and in the next two quarters, M-A only outscored its visitors incrementally, putting in 11 to Burlingame’s nine in the second quarter and three to Burlingame’s two in the third.

But “we truly believed we could beat them,” said junior Katherine Hayse. “That gave us the spark to pull away in the fourth quarter.” In that last period, sophomores Sierra Sheeper and Emma Heath stepped up to add six points each, securing M-A’s lead. The Bears’ scoring surge totaled 16 points, propelling them to a 37-23 win.

“We were determined,” explains junior guard Radhika Khatod. “Even though it came close at times, we pulled through in the end.”

5’10″ senior captain Tennyson Jellins led in scoring with 12 points, including a brilliant three-pointer, while Sheeper, Heath, and senior Alex Flowers each added six. Jellins’ nine blocks, along with Heath’s five steals and four assists, also helped secure the game for the Bears. Sheeper set herself apart with 10 offensive rebounds in a standout game for the first-year varsity player.

At 8-9 overall and 2-1 in league, the Lady Bears are set on improving their record. Their opportunity comes this Friday in a league game against Mills. If they can draw from yesterday’s momentum, they will be able to pull off another proud victory.

Confronted with the issue of PE substitution, the Board faces four possible options. It can maintain the status quo, allowing only school sports and out-of-school individual sports to serve as PE substitution. But, as student trustee Tyler Finn explains, “The system we have is unfair to students playing outside-of-school team sports” – members of club teams, for example.

Hypothetically, the Board also has the option of enrolling all students to take PE for two full years, without exemptions. But the $200,000 cost of establishing mandatory PE I and PE II classes dismisses this alternative as a realistic one for the school.

This leaves the Board with “only two real viable actions,” according to Finn. It can allow only school sports to replace PE; or permit school sports, out-of-school individual sports, and out-of- school team sports to serve as substitution.

Of these two paths of action, Finn supports the latter, which provides students with the greatest range of choices in fulfilling the PE requirement. “It is my fundamental belief that every student is different, and has different hopes and dreams,” he states, “and should therefore be given as many opportunities as possible … to achieve what they want to achieve.”

Finn does not feel that permitting club sports to provide sports credit would pull elite players from school sports teams. “Students want to play sports at school for a variety of reasons,” he says.

In any case, “if our top athletes were to play solely club sports, it would open up the teams for kids to play that otherwise would have been cut,” he argues. “An unintended side effect could be opening more opportunities for all types of kids at all skill levels to play school sports.”

As to that consequence’s impact on the quality of M-A athletic teams, Finn asserts that “neither education code nor district policy states that fielding competitive sports is a goal of the district.”

“I was previously in favor of [allowing out-of-school team sports to carry PE credit],” said trustee Olivia Martinez, “but upon further review and wider input, I’m convinced that option would be bad for our students.”

“Monitoring [all the different out-of-school sources of PE credit] would be costly and difficult,” she says; and removing the demand for four seasons of school sports “would enable aggressive club coaches to pressure athletes into not playing for their high school.”

Dishing out PE credit with a liberal hand would also “disparage physical education classes,” Martinez says. “Nobody would suggest allowing students to substitute English classes. Physical Fitness is already too minimal in the curriculum.”

New trustee Allen Weiner, sworn in last December, is “generally in favor of maximizing flexibility so that our students who are engaging in activities outside of school that are comparable to what they would experience in PE class can be excused from the requirement of a second year of PE – as long as it’s permitted by the law and doesn’t involve so much administrative burden that it ends up interfering with the educational opportunities for other students.”

“I have looked at the Education Code,” he said, “and have some questions as to whether there are legally permissible options in addition to those that have been identified in the School Board’s discussions to date.”

Weiner wants to “see whether there are not additional — and better — options than the ones currently on the table.”

His words will be heard along with those of his fellow trustees this evening, when the board will attempt to resolve the issue once and for all. Assuming it reaches a consensus, the decided policy will take effect in the 2012-2013 school year.

The game started off close, but M-A was able to maintain a narrow lead over the visiting Warriors throughout the first quarter with the help of several key rebounds from senior Dominic Tully.  The Bears had a comfortable six-point lead at half time, but the Warriors went on a run after switching to fullcourt pressure defense to pull ahead from during the third quarter. The back-and-forth play in the first three quarters, however, was overshadowed by an exciting fourth quarter that went into overtime.

Starting the fourth quarter, South San Francisco enjoyed a five-point lead. But as the quarter progressed, so did the fouls on both sides, with South SF giving away several opportunities to senior Ian Proulx, who was fouled multiple times and made all his free throws. Picking up the offense, senior Miles Weiss shot a fiery three-pointer, cutting San Francisco’s lead to just one point. It was apparent that the game was going to be a close one.

With two minutes left in the game, Weiss came out with a rebound that he handed off to Proulx, who drew another foul and sunk both his shots. M-A took the lead by one point.

South SF refused to let up in the last minute and scored a three-pointer for their own two-point lead. But with 11 seconds left in the game and the crowd all riled-up, the Warriors fouled Weiss, sending him to the line. Under heavy pressure, he made both of his free throws – enough to tie up the game and take it into overtime.

The four-minute overtime started out in M-A’s favor, with San Francisco’s rough play giving M-A multiple points off free throws alone. After fouls on both sides, however, the game stood at a tie.

Sophomore Royce Branning got the crowd going crazy when he pulled up in the lane, scored, and drew a foul, but missed the free-throw, making the score 62-60 for M-A. With just a minute and thirty seconds left in the game, senior Steven Perez converted a layup of his own and drew a foul. He missed his free throw, but senior Webb Henninger corralled the miss with a great rebound and putback, bringing the score to 66-63.

Shots went back and forth for both teams, bringing the score to 68-67, barely in M-A’s favor. After two free throws courtesy of Proulx, M-A took a slightly more comfortable lead of 70-67. But the Bears couldn’t relax just yet; with just seven seconds left in the game, the Warriors scored, cutting the deficit to one.

Earlier in the game, South SF’s aggressive style had generated a number of baskets and defensive stops, but their ferocity killed them in the end. Dirty play gave Proulx two vital free throws, which the standout player, who finished the game with 24 points, swished through the net to win the game 72-69. The supporters erupted in cheers as the Bears celebrated a gratifying league win that was all the more exciting for its closeness.

With outstanding offense and defense, M-A quickly came back from an early 0-1 deficit, scoring three goals for a score of 3-1 at halftime.

Though Aragon couldn’t hold M-A’s explosive offense in the first half, both defenses tightened up in the second half. After the break, Aragon let senior Tom Kaheli slip just one in the net and Aragon’s only goal of the second half came when M-A’s defensive line allowed an own-goal off a botched header late in the half for a final score of 4-2.

Senior standout Edgardo Molina led the Bears in scoring with his first half hat-trick, putting in a first, then a second, and finally a third goal all within the 45 minutes of the first period. Meanwhile, Kaheli led in assists, trailed closely behind by fellow senior Aaron Oro.

This exciting win owes to the Bears’ high level of experience on the field together. Led by a number of talented seniors like Molina, Kaheli, and Oro, the team looks forward to a strong season.

Unfortunately for the Bears, the visiting Half Moon Bay Cougars snagged an early lead, and M-A trailed 12-14 as the buzzer rang signaling the end of the first quarter.

Half Moon Bay kept a steady lead as the second quarter began, scoring five points within the first two minutes. Ian Proulx made a key interception, only to have the Cougars regain possession and immediately take it to the basket, giving them a nine-point lead over the Bears.

With 30 seconds left in the first half, senior Dominic Tully laid it up beautifully, bringing the score to 18-28.

M-A came out in the second half with conviction, with senior standout Miles Weiss scoring seconds after the clock started running. The Cougars regained control of the ball and kept the Bears in a tight defensive battle, until an impressive steal and basket from Weiss swung the momentum in favor of the Bears. An outstanding three-pointer from Proulx with seconds left in the third quarter sparked excitement in the crowd, and the 6th Man Club went wild.

With key free throws from Weiss and Proulx, the Bears tied up the game at 34 with five minutes left on the clock. Each team continued to score three baskets apiece, with suspense elevating among the supporters. But M-A trailed behind by one point, and a lucky shot from Half Moon Bay put the team ahead for their ultimate 45-42 victory over the Bears.

The Bears, who went 7-6 in the preseason, look to redeem themselves in their next game at home tomorrow against South San Francisco.

A Forbes sports ranking rated squash the healthiest sport in the world. At the recent NetSuite Pro Open a few squash professionals offered me insight on squash: preparation, the match and outside life. Saurav Ghosal (world rank 26, of India) said that squash, unlike other sports, depends on the “mental part,” without which training is useless.

Ryan Cuskelly (rank 41, Australia) agreed with Ghosal, saying, “The hardest part is mentally getting [my] swing right.” Squash is also a game of adapting to your opponent: Daryl Selby (rank 12, England) and Omar Mosaad (rank 14, Egypt) mentioned, “think[ing] about what I can do to win” or in Mosaad’s words, “think about the tactics you want to use,” the day before.

Each pro stressed that preparation extends beyond the strategic or mental aspect, as Selby and Cuskelly mentioned, “load up on carbs the day before,” and “get plenty of sleep and water.”

As Ghosal, Selby, and Mosaad illustrate, interest in squash spans many continents and cultures. Moreover, each nation or region has a unique style: as Cuskelly put it, “Egyptians tend to go for shots whereas [the] English end up with longer rallies.”

In response to prompting about their values in squash, the pros presented different personal perspectives. Cuskelly stressed “enjoying the game,” whereas Selby focused on “respect for each other and the ref.”

Differences extended to off-court practice, on which each pro had his own theory: Ghosal played down cross training and Cuskelly brought up golf and surfing as downtime activities. On the other hand Selby encouraged “running or anything else in the gym.”

In my own experience squash is also a mental game, but the mental aspect is stress. No US history tests means an “on-day.” Nevertheless, base fitness is the ultimate factor in determining squash performance.

Squash is also attractive for its variety: just as the Egyptian style works as well as the British, at the club level squash allows for many different backgrounds and focuses. Where every racquetball player must focus on technique and finesse above all, and every Ultimate frisbee player must prioritize fitness, squash encourages a different focus for each player.

A cunning 60-year-old could beat a fit college student or it could go the other way. Thanks to this diversity, squash also creates room for creativity in style and training; where Selby may focus on cross training, Ghosal may focus on precision. With its unique blend of finesse, trickery and brute strength, squash offers a unique mixture of qualities for each player. Squash is thus composed of a rich and varied player base age-wise, and ethnicity-wise from Australia to Egypt to Menlo Park.