On ESPN’s Sports Travel page they put together the “perfect college football day”.  The article recognizes various schools for aspects of a college football experience.  Arguably the most important would be the best fans.  This article rightfully recognizes Oregon Duck fans and Autzen stadium.  “Sure, the more than 54,000 fans who crowd the stadium are loud and boisterous, but they’re also relentless.”

http://sports.espn.go.com/travel/news/story?id=4700688

Gotta love that.  Go Ducks.

oregon’s football season opener was this saturday against the Washington Huskies. i went down to eugene for the weekend and had a great time. my body hates me and i’m exhausted but it was all worth it.

RB jeremiah johnson

the ducks are starting the season in what i think is a building year. we aren’t necessarily a team loaded with veterans at the key positions, looking to win it all. I see us as a team with a lot of youth, looking for some players to step up. from what i saw saturday night, the ducks are heading in the right direction so far.

as everyone knows, oregon’s quarterback slot is up for grabs. Justin Roper started the game. He was solid but not incredible. He threw a pick and came out early after a concussion. Masoli came in and impressed many in attendance. I thought he was solid but not that special. He was pretty mobile and accurate, wont turn it over. he’ll be good at holding a lead but i dont see him as the spark we need. 4 Star freshman QB Chris Harper came off the bench running for 60 yards and 1 TD, throwing zero passes in freshman Tebow-esque fashion. everyone in the crowd, myself included, was excited to watch harper in action, i hope he can show us some consistent passing and move to be that dominant #1, but this might just be a building year for Mr. Harper. speaking of running quarterbacks, jake locker is very impressive physically. I’d be watching, convinced he was thinking pass, and then he would take off, gaining 15 yards out of nothing. He didn’t amaze me with passing yards, but he doesn’t have much to work with either.

At running back Oregon has jeremiah johnson who played phenomenally with 125 yards and 2 TD’s. LaGarret Blount will be coming off the bench as the second half of oregon’s running committee. he runs like a monster, refusing to go down, and was impressive in oregon’s spring game. i’m a little concerned about oregon’s wide outs. we have the bumbling jaison williams (who again dropped another perfect pass down field). at 6′5, 240 he’s capable of being a monster but all that potential goes to waste if he cant catch the ball. our secondary is my favorite part of this years team so far. the ducks were lucky to have the hard-hitting Patrick Chung return for his senior year. Corners Jairus Byrd and Walter Thurmond III are in the top tier of college corners in the nation. Byrd impressed me even more with his closing speed and on top of his abilities at cornerback, he’s returning punts too this year! check out this years Herbie awards to see some love for our secondary, offensive coordinator, WR Jamere Holland, and our student section woo!

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/preview08/news/story?id=3548678

on a more serious note, Oregon sophomore football player Todd Doxey passed away this summer. patrick chung wore his number 29 in memory. a different oregon player will wear 29 each game. here’s a link to read more about the late Todd Doxey

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=845128

sunday the 24th was the fourth and final day of the AST Dew Tour’s stop in Portland, Oregon. i worked all summer as a street team intern, promoting the event throughout Portland and at various events in Oregon. after all the hours leading into it, I was excited to see the final product.

during the actual Dew Tour, i worked in helping the Action Zone. The Action Zone was a ticket people could buy for $100 per day or $250 for the entire weekend. With this, they were let into the events early, were given a tour, received a free hat and a magazine subscription. During the tours they were also given access to walking on site at each of the venues, walking side by side with the likes of Dave Mirra and Chaz Ortiz. Helping lead the tours were some of my favorite parts of the Dew Tour. It was fun talking with the various guides and chatting with the Action Zone crowd about their favorite dew tour athletes.

now that its over i’m now helping out with final recap work, compiling an overall hit list of places we distributed collateral to. I will then help out with other work done by Oregon Sports Authority, including work on their campaign to bring MLS to Portland.

The AST Dew Tour’s second leg (the Right Guard Open in Cleveland) finished up last week. Here are the winners of the various events.

Skate Vert: Shaun White (very impressive run).

Skate Park: Paul Rodriguez (glad to see P-Rod do well. he’s really smooth skating switch. sheckler

got hurt before the finals.)

BMX Vert: Jamie Bestwick

BMX Park: Daniel Dhers

BMX Dirt: Cameron White

For videos check out http://video.astdewtour.com/player/?id=131571

so i go to nike.com ready to look at some shoes online and on the home page is this video titled “Courage”.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pit0zG1vswM

to start off, i noticed the song choice. “All These Things That I’ve Done” by The Killers. I actually have that part of the song (“i’ve got soul but i’m not a soldier”) as one of my ringtones. One of my favorite bands.

The video is about “stories of triumph”. The campaign includes LeBron James, Bill Bowerman, John McEnroe, and Cristiano Ronaldo among others. One prominent example of LeBron’s passion and triumph come from his performance in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals over the pistons (scoring 29 of the cavs final 30 points in game 5).

I like the quick succession of images throughout the video, creating an almost overwhelming feel. I like the quick cuts of a cheetah, liu xiang and then carl lewis. i liked the few images of prefontaine thrown in there too. I notice something new each time i watch it. This is something i want to do as a career. I want to make these creative, inspirational videos.

so a little about what I’m doing this summer.

my first job is an internship through the Oregon Sports Authority (http://www.oregonsports.org/). I am part of a team of interns, currently focusing on promoting the AST Dew Tour (http://www.ast.com/). So far we have been distributing posters and flyers to skate shops across Portland and getting involved in extreme sports events as well. For example, last weekend I worked at a booth at a wakeboard competition, handing out fliers and spreading the word about the Dew Tour. It was good experience for creating a personal relationship with customers and learning how to effectively get someone’s attention and maintain a conversation about the event. I had a good time and saw myself improve as the day went on.

My second job is working part-time at the Nike Employee Store in Beaverton. My title is a “seasonal sales associate”. My training starts on monday, i’m looking forward to it. I’m really glad to get my foot in the door with Nike, hoping to stay with it and work my way up.

Should be a busy summer working two jobs but it’ll be good experience.

Here’s a preview of this year’s skate vert competition at the AST Dew Tour (http://video.astdewtour.com/player/?id=145544#videoid=258238)

Euro Cup is going on right now. I’m a big fan. Saw the Netherlands beat Italy 3-0 today. the dutch were a pretty fun team to watch with their free flowing style. Italy had some chances near the end but couldnt make any of them count. i was impressed with schneider.

I’ll be rooting for germany (since i have some money riding on them). they looked strong in their first game with Podolski scoring twice (against Poland, where he was born).

here’s a video showcasing the german style of play throughout the last 40 years.

growing up i wasnt much of a soccer fan until high school. Then around sophomore year i started watching more of the EPL and eventually have fallen in love with it, especially international play. When i graduate in 2010, my goal is to go to South Africa for the World Cup.