“Football team, volleyball, table tennis players immortalized in Cebu Sports Hall of Fame” plus 2 more

Football team, volleyball, table tennis players immortalized in Cebu Sports Hall of Fame
North-South volleyball teams released for All-Star Sports Week
Valley's Blair Brown Helps Penn State To Fourth National Title; Named Volleyball Honda Sports Award Finalist

Football team, volleyball, table tennis players immortalized in Cebu Sports Hall of Fame

Posted: 16 Feb 2011 07:29 AM PST

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

AUSTRALIAN football coach Graeme Mackinnon was considered as team M.Lhullier football team's inspiration for winning the first national championship title in 1988.

And that feat 23 years ago made the team a legend. Fot that, the team, together with volleyball player Maribel Rusiana and table tennis player Federico Ybañez were ensrhined to the Cebu Sports Hall of Fame.

Greet your loved ones this Valentine season.

For the M. Lhuillier team, the credit goes to Mackinnon for his belief in Team Cebu City.

"He was the only one who believed in us when nobody did," Paref-Springdale coach Mario Ceniza said.

Ceniza said everyone, even the local governing body, the Cebu Football Association (CFA), doubted them.

Ceniza added it was Mackinnon who encouraged them to believe that they can make it.

"The best achievement we got was proving the detractors wrong. I saw so much potential in my team," Mackinnon said. "We believed in 1988."

Ceniza said although he feels bad that no Cebu team has duplicated their feat, he understands it is mostly not Cebu's fault.

"It's been 23 years. But there hasn't been a national tournament in the past three years," Ceniza said.

Optimistic

However he added they are optimistic that there is a big chance for Cebu to duplicate it because the CFA is aggressively implementing football grassroot programs.

"We hope it will be repeated in the near future," Ceniza said.

Mackinnon and Ceniza were joined by Dante Orejudos,Allan Arcabal, Rene Maambong,Edwin Arganza, Peter Bordador and Wilfredo Juezan in receiving the recognition.

Honorees

The other honorees were Rusiana, who was a member of the gold medal winning volleyball to the 1979 Southeast Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia and 64-year-old Ybañez, who became a member of the RP table tennis team to the 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand.

Ybañez was named the top table tennis player of the Philippines in the 60s. He was also enshrined in the Hall of Fame of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) 10 years ago.

Ybañez, who is from Pasil, came from a family who loves playing table tennis. His father, Teofilo, was also a well-decorated table tennis player and was also named a Hall of Famer by the POC.

"It was my father who influenced me to get into the sport. I started playing when I was six and started competing when I was eight," Ybañez said.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on February 17, 2011.

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North-South volleyball teams released for All-Star Sports Week

Posted: 16 Feb 2011 11:08 AM PST

Published: Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 12:55 PM Updated: Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 1:01 PM

HUNTSVILLE, AL. -- Grssom and Huntsville both have two players on the roster and Bob Jones has one for the annual North-South Alabama All-Stars Sports Weekend.

Lady Tigers Regan Kennamer and Olivia Windsor, a pair of right-side hitters/setters, are on the team along with Lady Panthers outside hitter Becky Phelps and setter Lindsey Wintzinger and Lady Patriots middle hitter Drea Matthews.

Also on the team are Hartselle middle hitter Katelyn Hill and Guntersville outside/middle hitter Cati Leak. Hartselle's Tanya Lybarger is a coach for the North.

The Sports Week moves from Huntsville back to its original Montgomery home this summer. The games and accompanying clinics will be held July 11-15.

The rosters:

SOUTH ALL-STARS

Player School Position

Hannah Birdsong Auburn MH/RS

Sara Jane Cary Providence Christian S

Sherrill Dahlmann Murphy L/DS

Layne Doctson Montgomery Academy OH

Sara Goodwin Oak Mountain OH

Meredith Parrott Cottage Hill Christian MH

Mallory Raulerson McGill-Toolen Catholic S/RS

Grace Rebarchak St. Paul's MH

Elizabeth Rogers UMS-Wright L/DS

Porsha Tolbert Pelham OH/MB

Alexis Treace Spanish Fort OH

Mattie Weldy Baker MH/OH

Coaches

Bill Oldfield Providence Christian

Metta Roberts Robertsdale

Amy Rachel Eclectic Middle (administrative coach)

NORTH ALL-STARS

Player School Position

Lauren Bedford Hewitt-Trussville DS/OH

Kryssi Daniels Winston County OH

Allender Doggett Jacksonville DS

Katelyn Hill Hartselle MH

Regan Kennamer Grissom RS/S

Rachael Langston Hoover OH

Catherine Leak Guntersville OH/MH

Andrea Matthews Bob Jones MH

Becky Phelps Huntsville OH

Morgan Ray Addison MH/OH

Olivia Windsor Grissom S/RS

Lindsey Wintzinger Huntsville S

Coaches

Bobby Daniels Winston County

Tanya Lybarger Hartselle

Sue Marshall Randolph (administrative coach)

Valley's Blair Brown Helps Penn State To Fourth National Title; Named Volleyball Honda Sports Award Finalist

Posted: 16 Feb 2011 06:59 AM PST

Saturday night Purcellville resident Blair Brown managed to surpass even her most spectacular previous athletic accomplishments, helping her Penn State Nittany Lions teammates win an unprecedented four straight National Women's Volleyball Championship.

The championship round is a best of five contest, but the Lions won three straight over California to gain the championship in Kansas City, MO. Playing for a team that is one of the most dominant women's volleyball forces ever, Brown herself is proving herself a dominant player nationwide.

Brown has been named one of four finalists for the 2010-1011 Honda Sports Award, which determines the top woman collegiate athlete in volleyball. Her competitors include Texas' Juliann Faucette; USC's Alex Jupiter; and Cal's Carli Lloyd, all three of whom she knows well and against whom she has played often. The winner will be a candidate for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year award. A member of the 2010 National Championship All-Tournament Team, Brown is the 10th Nittany Lion to be named a finalist for the Honda Award for volleyball.

The 6'5" tall Brown, who was a standout performer on the Loudoun Valley High School girls' volleyball team, helped the school win the Group AA State Volleyball Championship in 2004. In 2004 and 2005, she was named the Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year. She graduated from Valley in 2006. After being red-shirted her first year at Penn State because of an ankle injury, she returned to the court in 2007 and was named to the Big Ten on the all-freshmen team.

Over the past three years, Brown increased her importance to the Penn State team. Her stats and honors are impressive. Earlier this season, she became the sixth straight Nittany Lion to be named the Big Ten Player of the Year. She is a three-time AVCA All American. A three-time All-Big Ten selection, she earned Second Team laurels in 2008 and First Team honors in 2009 and 2010. Brown has started all 37 matches this season and leads the Nittany Lions with 521 kills, averaging 4.24 kills per set on .320 hitting. She is second on the team with 281 digs and 113 total blocks. Her 4.24 kills per set ranks second in the Big Ten and 21st nationally, while her .323 attack percentage ranks ninth in the league. Her 4.72 points per set ranks 18th in the country. Brown earned conference player of the week laurels three times. She surpassed the 1,000 career kills milestone this season and closed out her career with 1,295 kills.

Brown is the 22-year-old daughter of Sgt. Jeff Brown, supervisor of the Robbery/Homicide unit of Criminal Investigations in the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, and Jaima Brown.

Her volleyball coach at Valley remembered his former player with affection. "She was a wonderful young lady, who never lost sight of her family and whom she came from," Laird Johnson said, calling her "gracious" in her approach to teammates and opponents alike.

A popular member of the Valley volleyball team, nevertheless she was also "extremely competitive," he recalled. But it was a competitiveness that never got out of hand. "She kept everything in perspective," Johnson said-no easy feat considering her success.

Much of the credit for Brown being so balanced Johnson attributed to her parents, who "have done everything physically and financially" to support her career as a player. "Early on they realized she was a very special player and athlete, and they supported her 100 percent. They traveled with her everywhere, gave all the support she needed," he said. So did her brother Tyler, a county deputy who played golf at Valley.

And her family was in Kansas City, Jeff, Jaima and Tyler, to see the culmination of Brown's college career.

"It's been a fun, fun ride," her father said Monday, hardly believing that Saturday night's championship win was not the only glittering honor facing his daughter. "It's a tremendous award (the Honda Sports Award) to be considered for," he said.

Fierce competitors all year, the four finalists for the Honda Sports Award nevertheless are friends and hold each other in the highest regard, Jeff Brown said.

One of the highlights the Brown family will take away from the championship occurred on the academic front. Having been injured her first year and red-shirted, Blair Brown is a fifth year senior. Her graduation was set to occur Dec. 18, the night of the finals. Penn State President Graham Spanier is "quite a volleyball fan," Jeff Brown said. When Spanier called Coach Russ Rose to say he would not be able to make the Nittany Lions' final games because of graduation ceremonies, he learned that Brown would not be able to make his graduation event either, as she had her other "graduation" to attend to.

Providing a personal note that touched Brown, her family and her teammates, Spanier came to the team's final practice before boarding the plane to Kansas City wearing his full academic regalia and handing Brown a cap and gown for her graduation, which he performed on the spot at the end of the practice.

"She put the cap and gown over her uniform. You could see her knee pads under the gown," her father said. "We were all totally shocked; she cried, and so did her teammates," he recalled.

"I'm very proud of her, she's a great kid," he said. Right now Brown is being flooded with offers to play professionally, either in the U.S. or abroad, including Brazil and Puerto Rico. But, she's taking a break from it all, although she will make up her mind as to future career choices in a couple of months.

"She's off on vacation, visiting her boyfriend in Switzerland," he said.

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Volleyball Sports

Thursday, February 17, 2011