SI's Prep Top 50 (er...51)

Sports Illustrated has always been a great showcase of high school athletics, and in the Lebron era, this spotlight has only grown more bright. Accordingly, SI has recently stepped up it's coverage of prep athletes.

While this promotion of high school athletics is a mixed bag, I always look forward to SI's annual list of top prep sports programs. This year's list was no different. While my beloved alma mater, Chaminade, has yet to crack the annual list, there are a number of other schools with which I share tangential relationships.


A picture of the track would have been so much better

For instance, in Albuquerque, Mrs. Morganobrien.com and I would do our sprint training at La Cueva High School in the Northeast. I also covered the gridiron exploits of former La Cueva and University of Texas star Aaron Lewis for an award-winning piece in the Kirtland Air Force Base Nucleus (not kidding). I got a kick out of seeing that Falls Church's George Mason High is Virginia's representative, because that's where I do my sprint training now.


I had my camera the other day to get a picture, but I forgot the memory card

And while the 'Nade isn't on the list, our arch rivals, St. Anthony's, represent New York. A friend of mine argues that this is due to St. Ant's co-ed nature, they're able to compete in twice the amount of sports. Interestingly, I can't remember ever wrestling at St. Ants, all my matches against Friar opponents either came in the House of Noise or neutral sites during Leagues.

I have friends/coworkers that attended St. Ignatius and Regis in Ohio and Colorado, respectively. Which brings me to my next point--the Jesuits have heavy representation on this list--helming 5 schools (Regis Jesuit, Gonzaga, Jesuit, Rockhurst and St. Ignatius).

Overall, there is some heavy Catholic representation (I count 18 schools) on the list, with most coming from the diocesan ranks. In addition to the Jesuits, here are the other orders represented:

Don Bosco Prep- Salesian
Bishop Hendricken- Christian Brothers
St. Anthony's- Franciscan

I'm a huge proponent of Catholic education (especially single-sex), and think it's great (for the most part) that our sister institutions are so well represented on this list of national giants. That said, Catholic schools have a specific mission and athletics are only a part--a small part--of developing upstanding young men and women.

A friend of mine thinks that St. Thomas Aquinas (alma mater of the likes of Chris Evert and Michael Irvin) represents everything that can go wrong when Catholic education moves its focus from Jesus. In related news, and not that I'm competetive about these things, but so far as I can tell, John Curtis is the only "religious" (yeah right) affiliated school on the list in addition to the Catholics.

One final note, Punahou, President Obama's alma mater, is pretty badass and represents Hawaii.

State	School	Location
Alabama	Leeds	Leeds
Alaska	Dimond	Anchorage
Arizona	Hamilton	Chandler
Arkansas	Fayetteville	Fayetteville
California	Archbishop Mitty	San Jose
Colorado	Regis Jesuit	Aurora
Connecticut	St. Joseph	Trumbull
Delaware	St. Marks	Wilmington
Florida	St. Thomas Aquinas	Fort Lauderdale
Georgia	Collins Hill	Suwanee
Hawaii	Punahou	Honolulu
Idaho	Highland	Pocatello
Illinois	Central	Hinsdale
Indiana	Ben Davis	Indianapolis
Iowa	Ames	Ames
Kansas	St. Marys	St. Marys
Kentucky	St. Xavier	Louisville
Louisiana	John Curtis	River Ridge
Maine	Camden Hills Regional	Camden Hills
Maryland	DeMatha	Hyattsville
Massachusetts	South	Newton
Michigan	Muskegon	Muskegon
Minnesota	Eden Prairie	Eden Prairie
Mississippi	Sumrall	Sumrall
Missouri	Rockhurst	Kansas City
Montana	West	Billings
Nebraska	Millard West	Omaha
Nevada	Bishop Gorman	Las Vegas
New Hampshire	Salem	Salem
New Jersey	Don Bosco Prep	Ramsey
New Mexico	La Cueva	Albuquerque
New York	St. Anthony	Huntington
North Carolina	North Davidson	Lexington
North Dakota	Bismarck	Bismarck
Ohio	St. Ignatius	Cleveland
Oklahoma	Union	Tulsa
Oregon	Jesuit	Portland
Pennsylvania	Neumann-Goretti	Philadelphia
Rhode Island	Bishop Hendricken	Warwick
South Carolina	Bishop England	Charleston
South Dakota	Lincoln	Sioux Falls
Tennessee	Hillsboro	Franklin
Texas	The Woodlands	The Woodlands
Utah	Lone Peak	Highland
Vermont	Hartford	White River Junction
Virginia	George Mason	Falls Church
Washington	Skyline	Sammamish
Washington, D.C.	Gonzaga	Washington
West Virginia	Charleston Catholic	Charleston
Wisconsin	Arrowhead	Hartland
Wyoming	Southeast	Yoder

SI's Methodology: Whether it's school size or the depth of the regional talent pool, not all state champions are created equally.

After sifting through state tournament results for the 2008-09 school year, contacting athletic directors from top programs, examining all-around success rates as well as weighing the importance of producing star athletes and teams that excelled on the national level, SI.com has assembled a list of the top high school athletic program in each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.

Link: CNNsi

Morgan O'Brien Endorses

Here's hoping Bill White becomes our next Secretary of the Navy, and takes the reigns as the top civilian for the Navy and Marine Corps.

Before I explain my endorsement, here are some key disclosures:

- The current SecNav, Donald Winter, serves at the pleasure of the president. He is a Bush appointee held over under Defense Secretary Robert Gates. There is no set time frame for his departure, but all service secretaries are expected to serve for the next several weeks. This endorsement is in no way a call for Sec. Winter to step down until he's prepared.

- I am totally bias because Bill White is a Chaminade alum.

As President of Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum & Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, the 41-year-old New Yorker is one of America's foremost champions for our military, veterans and their families. Under his leadership, the Intrepid Museum emerged as a world-class education attraction welcoming over 700,000 visitors each year and featuring exciting exhibits like the British Airways Concorde. Recently, I had the opportunity to experience the ship's majesty firsthand, spending Veteran's Day 2008 celebrating the reopening of the ship with President Bush and a bunch of proud American vets.

An incredible fundraiser, White's raised more than $400 million for the families of military personnel lost in Afghanistan and Iraq, for the construction of the Center for the Intrepid, the national Armed Forces Physical Rehabilitation Center in San Antonio, Texas and other related military and Intrepid foundations. This 65,000 square-foot “state-of-the-world” center serves military personnel and veterans who have been catastrophically disabled in action.

As if that wasn't enough, he is currently leading fundraising for construction of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, a $75 million Traumatic Brain Injury center. Oh, by the way he also served eight years in Point Lookout-Lido Volunteer Fire Department (his hometown), including three years as captain of rescue company.

I heard Mr. White on Imus last week (download), and was blown away by his singular focus on combating the suicide rates of our returning war veterans and healing those who've sacrificed their physical, emotional and mental wellbeing for their country. During the interview, Imus reiterated his endorsement of White to become SecNav. Likewise, noted warrior and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Hugh Shelton called White's work on the Intrepid "legendary" and also endorsed White for the post. While Imus and Shelton have championed Mr. White's cause, White himself is most concerned about taking care of our uniformed personnel than promoting any personal agenda.

According to Newsday, White's spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, said White "considers it truly the highest privilege to be of service to the brave men and women of our armed forces, and their families."

One more interesting tidbit:

In 2003 White helped lead the first major entertainers visit to troops fighting in Iraq. Kid Rock, Robert DeNiro and others major celebrities joined in this visit to tens of thousands of military personnel in the war zone. White has visited the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan several times since then.

I was actually all set to see Kid Rock at BIAP in June '03, but our Hummer broke down in some weird village outside of Baghdad and I missed the show.

So, with this impressive resume, With sounds too good to be true, right? Before I forget, Bill's gay*. Talk about perfect timing.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs is on the record stating that Don't Ask, Don't Tell will be overturned under President Obama:

In a response to a question on the Web site Change.gov asking whether Obama would get rid of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "You don't hear politicians give a one-word answer much. But it's 'Yes.'"

I've made it perfectly clear that I support overturning this ban. If we can allow criminals, the undereducated and the overweight (to say nothing of non-Americans) to wear the uniform of our nation's armed forces, it's about time we allow patriotic homosexuals to serve openly. As if White's incredible devotion to supporting our troops and tremendous organiztion skills aren't enough, he also happens to be the perfect candidate to lead the charge in overturning this archaic mindset.

For as conservative an organization the military is, it's often been at the forefront of social change. For example, Jackie Robinson was an Army lieutenant before he was a Dodger. Leave it to the military to lead the charge in taking the next giant leap in providing gay Americans with equal rights.

There it is--morganobrien.com endorses Bill White to be the next Secretary of the Navy. Go Flyers!

*Ed's Note: Bill's probably the second most noteworthy gay Chaminade alum since Glen Hughes, giving the smash hit "In the Navy" a whole new meaning

Ryder Cup not Iwo Jima

This ad, for a Portuguese TV station covering the Ryder Cup, really struck a nerve:

There are some things that are just not fair game. I'm all for creative freedom and the First Amendment (although this is a Portuguese ad), but to quote With Leather:

...when someone says "Ryder Cup," the first thing I think about is the 35-day battle that featured the fiercest fighting in all of World War II and resulted in the deaths of 6500 Marines and more Medals of Honor than any other battle in history.

When I think of Iwo, I think of a personal hero, Jack Lenz, Chaminade '43. I'll never forget the day he came to speak to my senior history class back in '97, and told us about his time as a young Marine--remember, he graduated in '43. This was one of those moments that made me proud to accept that ROTC scholarship and follow a proud Flyer tradition of service.

God Bless Mr. Lenz, who I had the honor of catching up with again on my last day in uniform, when we caught Gen. Pace's talk to the student body. That day, Mr. Lenz showed me a bottle of that black sand from Iwo. Is there a more impressive keepsake?



Semper Fi!

Photo Courtesy: Dugo

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