Month: February 2011

Brophy avenges prior playoff defeat, advances to semis

By Justin Janssen ’11
THE ROUNDUP

With the score knotted at 61 and just more than a minute to play Feb. 26, Sai Tummala ’11 buried a long jump shot against North (24-5) propelling Brophy’s basketball team (20-7) to the semifinals.

“I had to hit that shot,” Tummala said. “It’s on my team, I got a great pass (from Chris Pierre ’11).”

The Broncos scored 10 unanswered points in the final two minutes of the game and walked out of North High School’s gym with a 69-61 win.

Basketball earns first playoff victory in five years

By Justin Janssen ’11
THE ROUNDUP

Fred Gammage ’12 scored nine of his team-high 12 points in the first quarter and Brophy (19-7) held on for a 61-54 victory Feb. 23 vs. Cesar Chavez (22-6) in the first round of the playoffs.

“We feel lucky and we’re happy to win,” said Brophy head coach Mr. Tony Fuller, who won his first playoff game with Brophy. “It was a little sloppy because of the long layoff, but we’ll take it.”

Brophy had not played since Feb. 11, but they were riding a season-high five game winning streak.

Soccer fights their way to state championship

By Ian C. Beck ’12
THE ROUNDUP

The No. 1 ranked Brophy soccer team is the 2011 5A-1 state champions after a 1-0 victory over the Hamilton Huskies Saturday, Feb. 12.

“The guys spoke about national rankings and what we could achieve, but when it came to game-time, nothing else really mattered except pulling together to achieve victory,” head coach Mr. Marc Kelly said in an e-mail Tuesday after the game.

At the half, the game was scoreless but Brophy jumped out to an early lead in the second half when Kyle Seeger ’11 scored on an assist from Esteban Obregon ’11.

Observers split over importance of online social media in Egypt

By Eric Villanueva ’11
THE ROUNDUP

“The flames of the protests in Egypt are being covered and perhaps fanned by media old and new. Organizers found supporters and planned protests through Facebook, Twitter and text messaging, at least until Internet and cellular communications were shut down,” NPR’s All Things Considered reported Friday, Jan. 28.

While many news agencies label online social media as fanning recent unrest in the Middle East, other observers hold varying views on the importance of social networking sites in the organizing and planning of these mass demonstrations.

In Egypt’s case, online social media use has permeated the society, with more than 20 million Egyptian Internet and Facebook users, creating a new space for Egyptians to communicate, according to Professor Adel Iskandar, a media and communications lecturer at Georgetown University.

Brophy basketball hitting their stride in time for playoffs

By Justin Janssen ’11
THE ROUNDUP

The Brophy Broncos (18-7, 7-3 Fiesta Region) concluded their regular season Feb. 11 by feasting on another region foe in the Chandler Wolves (8-17, 1-9 Fiesta Region) with a 67-56 win.

The two teams are headed in opposite directions; the Broncos won their fourth straight game and eight of 10, while Chandler has lost nine straight games.

“We’re playing our best basketball right now,” said Brophy basketball coach Mr. Tony Fuller. “The team is looking forward to the playoffs.”

Robotics team creates mechanized miracles

By Julian De Ocampo ’13 & Dillan Ducar ’13
THE ROUNDUP

Heavy beats were blasting from the stereo as students were busy boring holes through metal, programming the latest codes and piloting a large robot around the room.

Meeting nearly every day on the second floor of Loyola Hall, the robotics team is hard at work preparing new robots for upcoming events.

With the guidance of Mr. Andy Mazzolini and other Brophy faculty members, the students use power tools to craft new parts, constantly improving their robots.

JV coach Hooten ignites fire within players

By Jackson Santy ’13
THE ROUNDUP

Mr. Matt Hooten has had almost every coaching position with the basketball program.

“I spent my first four years as the freshman assistant coach, and two as the junior varsity assistant coach,” Mr. Hooten said.

Mr. Hooten is now the head JV coach.“At the JV level, one of the biggest goals is to help players grow and develop into varsity players,” Mr. Hooten said.

Broncos ride early surge to victory against Desert Vista

By Ian C. Beck ’12
THE ROUNDUP

The offensive prowess of the Phoenix Suns of old seemed to rub off on the Brophy basketball team at U.S. Airways Center on Feb. 8.

The Broncos exploded early en route to a 67-43 win over the Desert Vista Thunder.

Sai Tummala ’11 led the charge for the Broncos, scoring a team-high 21 points along with eight rebounds and three blocks

Students face risks, impacts of obesity

By Eric Villanueva ’11
THE ROUNDUP

With two-thirds of adults and one in three children nationally obese according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services statistics, what some are calling an “obesity epidemic” is being strategized and fought against on a battlefield stretching from coast to coast.

Locally, with one in four Arizonans obese according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Brophy’s annual Summit on Human Dignity this year will focus on food, one part of the problem with obesity, through three lenses: production, consumption and nutrition.

Concussions becoming all too common trend in student-athletes

By Eric Villanueva ’11
THE ROUNDUP

Picture the football two yards shy of a first down.

The coach calls a quarterback draw straight up the middle.

The quarterback snaps the ball and follows his blocks.

Somewhere short of the first down, the quarterback meets with a defenseman, leading with his head, who tackles the quarterback for a stop.

Inside the defensive player’s head, as he slams into the base of the quarterback’s shoulder pads, his brain hits the inside of his skull.

As he stands up after the hard tackle, he feels dizzy and foggy.

Though this is a hypothetical situation, this is all too common for Mr. Chris White, Brophy’s head athletic trainer.

In his 25 years as an athletic trainer at Brophy, Mr. White said he has seen hundreds of concussions like the one suffered by the imaginary player, not only in football, Brophy’s highest risk sport for concussions, but in many other sports like soccer, wrestling, basketball, baseball and volleyball.