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

Manny in Albuquerque

Yet another reason to miss the Land of Enchantment--I so would be at Isotopes Stadium tonight to catch ManRam begin his rehab. Interestingly enough, he was struck out the first time by Manny Parra, who I saw pitch against the Marlins a few weeks back.

Looks like Sr. Parra and I both found changes in latitude since we last met.


Manny in my old stomping grounds

Isotopes Park is a sweet venue. I worked a high school All American baseball game there a few years back (and had some hacks in the amateur home run derby). I also had the pleasure of hosting the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds there when they visited the Duke City a few years back for the Kirtland Air Show.

I'll be back, one day...maybe as the Diplomat in Residence at UNM.

Day 3: Albuquerque to Salt Lake City

Woke up in Albuquerque and hit Kirtland Air Force Base, my old stomping grounds. I was a shark in the pool and ran another 4.5 for some great cardio. A quick word on exercising out West: the weather's so great, the scenery's so awesome and the pace of life is just right that I find the West the perfect place to get outside and run. New York really doesn't size up on that end (although I still love NY).

At the same time, while I love New York and the pace of life here, I'm truly inspired by the West. Moreso than any other place I lived, New Mexico is my favorite place to press the reset button. More on this when I do my post-trip wrapup.

After leaving base, I met up with some of my old base colleagues and then had lunch with loyal morganobrien.com fanatic, Celena Soto. Man, I worked with some terrific folks.

After lunch, it was time to head back to Salt Lake. The GPS took me on a little different route than I would have figured, I didn't take I-40 but 550. A cool part of that route was that I drove through Bloomfield, which has some tie to the Derby winner. I hear that New Mexico is thrilled about Mine That Bird. From there, it was a scenic drive into Utah.

After driving through Moab, which appears to be an awesome mountain town, I came upon Arches National Park. This time, I got a picture of myself in front of the sign, but I have to admit that I didn't get the shot on my first try:


12th time's the charm!

After Arches, I had a couple hundred miles to Salt Lake...piece of cake, right? It was right up until I was about 150 yards from my exit (about 5 miles from the airport) when the flashing lights appeared in my rearview. Man, I was so close--I'd driven more than 600 miles. I was so close. I was exhausted. I had a little work to do before going to bed. I just wanted to get to my hotel. Alas, it wasn't to be.

I was told I was going 90 in a 65! Damn you, Infiniti FX and your 303 horsepower!!!

The officer was nice, however he brought me back a ticket for 76 in a 65 (which honestly did me a favor, and I appreciate it). But before I signed the ticket, the following exchange occurred:

Me: Would it have helped if I told you my brother was a cop?

Officer: (pulls back the ticket) Where's his jurisdiction?

Me: Fairfax.

Officer: Virginia?

Me: Yes.

Officer: (handing me a the ticket) 90 in a 65, I can't let that go. My wife and kids drive these roads.

END SCENE

Hey, I can't begrudge the guy, that's a fair point. I'm just glad he didn't ask about the contents of the Fiji water bottles on the floor of the passengers side. To tell the truth, didn't even put a dent into my overall awesome time. Just the cost of doing business out West, I guess.

Miles Traveled: 621

Daily wrapup

States visited: 3

Trip Stats

Total Miles Traveled: 1921
Total States Visited: 5
Total National Parks: 2

DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of my favorite places to visit is the Four Corners Monument, located on Navajo land at the confluence of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, near Shiprock and Teec Nos Pos.


Not Quite

But now it turns out that this may all be an elaborate sham, fooling yours truly not once, but twice!

Marker was off, but Four Corners monument legit
By ELIZABETH WHITE – 3 hours ago
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Many a family touring the Southwest has made a stop in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado — all at the same time.
Or have they?
News reports this week that the site of the Four Corners monument was off by a whopping 2 1/2 miles drummed up some concern that anyone who ever got down on their hands and knees to touch four states at once had lived a bit of a lie.
Not to worry, government officials say. The marker is indeed the only place where four U.S. states meet, even though surveyors were a little off when they set the marker in 1875.
The marker is 1,807.14 feet east of where it should have been placed, said Dave Doyle, chief geodetic surveyor for the National Geodetic Survey, which defines and manages a national coordinate system. That's about the length of six football fields, but Doyle calls the measurement a "home run" given the limited tools surveyors had to work with back then.

Close, but not close enough--it cost me $3 to get to the monument (at least it did the second time, I snuck on the first time), and now I want my money back.


The Navajo owe me $3

"Their ability to replicate that exact point — what they did was phenomenal, what they did was spot on," Doyle said. "(They) nailed it."
There would be about a 2.5-mile discrepancy had the monument been measured to the 109th meridian west of the Prime Meridian passing through Greenwich, England, but Doyle said that isn't what happened. The statute creating Colorado's western boundary mandated measurement from the Washington Meridian, which passes through the old Naval Observatory in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
In any case, the measurement differences don't matter anymore, Doyle said, because "the monument controls."
"Where the marker is now is accepted," Doyle said. "Even if it's 10 miles off, once it's adopted by the states, which it has been, the numerical errors are irrelevant. It becomes the legal definition" of the Four Corners. (link)

Like Mandy Moore in A Walk to Remember x 2

Kirtland: People are Strange

No one here gets out alive

I finally got around to watching the 1991 Oliver Stone pic The Doors over the weekend, and wanted to learn more about young Jim Morrison's time in New Mexico (where he had the transformational moment where he saw the Indian dying on the side of the road between Albuquerque and Santa Fe).

Much to my surprise, it turns out that Jim Morrison's dad, George, was Admiral George Morrison, who was one of the fastest movers in the history of the Navy to flag rank. And get this--Morrison was STATIONED AT KIRTLAND. I knew we should have had kids while we were stationed there.

George Morrison, the Times obituary tells us, was an instructor for secret nuclear-weapons projects in Albuquerque following World War II.

And that's how Albuquerque came to be the fleeting home of our own poete maudit -- not once, but twice.

Nearly 21 years ago, the Albuquerque Journal's own Toby Smith visited the Morrison's home at 8912 Candelaria NE (in an article titled "Jim Morrison Slept Here" in the Journal's now-defunct Impact magazine).

Jim Morrison lived in Albuquerque for two years, 1955 to 1957, when he was 12 to 14 years old, and he attended Monroe and Wilson middle schools, while his father was executive officer of the Naval Special Weapons Facility at Kirtland Air Force Base, according to Smith's sleuthing.

It was George Morrison's second stop in Albuquerque, the first time in the late `40s, and according to online biographical material, Jim Morrison was 4 or 5 years old when the family was here -- and it was here that his sister, Anne Robin, was born in 1947.
(More here, courtesy ABQ Journal)

Love cannot save you from your own fate

How freaking cool is that? I'm not even a Doors fan, but the cache tied to living mere blocks from one of the Lizard King's childhood homes is certainly not lost on me.

Unfortunately, it also turns out that Admiral Morrison past away last month, marking the passing of yet another member of the Greatest Generation and conquering heroes of World War II.

After taking part in operations in the Aleutians and the central Pacific, Mr. Morrison took flight training in Pensacola, Fla., and flew combat missions over Wake Island and Honshu, Japan, in the last year of World War II. After the war, he was an instructor for secret nuclear-weapons projects in Albuquerque. During the Korean War, he was assigned to the joint operations center in Seoul, earning a Bronze Star for his part in combat operations against North Korean and Chinese forces.

Mr. Morrison took command of the Bon Homme Richard in 1963 and in 1967 was promoted to the rank of rear admiral. In 1972 he became commander in chief of naval forces in the Marianas, which included some of the same islands he had bombed as a pilot during World War II, and where he organized relief efforts for nearly 100,000 Vietnamese refugees sent to Guam in 1975. It was an assignment he called the most satisfying of his career.

Rest in peace, Admiral.


Father of the Lizard King

Kirtland + Weed = Fun with kids

No commentary necessary:

Employees cited for pot at Kirtland daycare

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Oct 30, 2008 15:57:22 EDT

KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. — The Shandiin Child Development Center at Kirtland Air Force Base has been temporarily closed after three employees were cited for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

Col. Michael Duvall, 377th Air Base Wing commander, and representatives from the National Nuclear Security Administration Service Center decided to temporarily suspended operations at the child-care center after the workers were cited Tuesday.
(more here)

RIP Tony Hillerman

Morganobrien.com was said to learn of the passing of best-selling author Tony Hillerman last weekend in Albuquerque. The war hero former newspaperman, college professor and champion of the Navajo people was 83.

I regret never having the opportunity to meet Mr. Hillerman while we were neighbors in the Land of Enchantment, and am upset that I never went to a reading of his while I was there. While his ability to craft a heck of a mystery is unchallenged, Mr. Hillerman's personal story is every bit as compelling. Rather than memorialize him and come up short, I'll defer to the NY Times, which did its typical phenomenal job (I've linked it below).

I love that he was a war hero that came home, got into newspapers and didn't begin writing books until later on in life. It's refreshing to see people don't need to find their niche by 30.

I also love how he viewed the Native American people, specifically the Navajo. During a ceremony where the tribe honored one of their own returning from war, Hillerman was mesmerized by their warrior ethos and sense of community and took it upon himself to celebrate these forgotten people in his work.

Tony Hillerman, Novelist, Dies at 83
By MARILYN STASIO
Published: October 28, 2008
Mr. Hillerman’s evocative novels, which describe people struggling to maintain ancient traditions in the modern world, touched millions of readers, who made them best sellers.
(link)