Who I Am..

Hello all, my name is Thomas Huitt-Johnson. I was born in Sacramento, California and moved to St. Joseph, Missouri shortly after. However, I moved back to California until I was 14 years old when my family decided to stay located in Missouri and I have been here ever since! I am 20 years old and of white and native american descent. I am not a big person, I am only 5'5 and weigh around 120 pounds, and because of my attributes I was not able to play all the sports I wanted to. I loved football growing up, but I was never going to be good at it. The same with basketball, although I did play high school basketball for two years before I decided to focus on something that made more sense to me: boxing.

I have been boxing since I was 10 years old, but really didn't take it serious until I gave up basketball. I have been able travel all over the United States (Colorado Springs, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Chicago, among other places). I wasn't always the best boxer but I have always showed that I am very capable of having potential in the sport. I boxed for the United States National Team in 2009, right before I started attending college, and that was the first time I was ever considered the best at anything in my life. I fought internationally three times against Great Britain, Ireland and Mexico. Although I was only able to beat Ireland, that is still cool that I was able to represent my country.
I have always been a sports guru, that's just because growing up with my family I had to be. Because of that, and my love for sports, I decided when I was younger that if I couldn't go professional in any sport I would do something involved around it and that is to write about it.

I am a Journalism Major at Missouri Western and also currently work at the St. Joseph News-Press. A lot of my stories have made front page and this was even before I turned 20. I am really thankful for that. Like I said before, I grew up in a sports environment and that is because I have four older brothers. They have always been around me to help me and make sure I do not make the same mistakes they did when they were younger. Yes, I am the youngest!
I also have one sister, who is one year older than me, and my mom and dad have always been there for me too. We are a very close family and still all speak to each other frequently even though we are all older. My three older brothers (Darrel, Steven and Dustin) are all managers or supervisors at a plant nearby while my brother Joey is going to college just like me. He wants to run his own restaurant in a few years and he is a really good chef. Jessica, my only sister, is going to be a nurse just like our mother, and my father is a truck driver and has been ever since he left the marines when he was 22. That is how my mom and dad met, and that is how we left Sacramento for St. Joseph. A lot of times people ask me why or how, well because my dad is originally from here and my mom from California,

and when my dad was in the marines he was stationed there and that is where they met. We lived there for years but my dad loves St. Joe so we are here.
I am a fun person to be around and try to be helpful to people I know. Although a quiet person, I am always there for people and that is just because people have always been there for me when I need help. I have great friends that I am close to and that is always nice to have. I wouldn't want to trade my life for anybody because I love my life so much. I hope to stay at the News-Press until I graduate and we'll see what happens there. I plan to graduate in about three years. Boxing has taken a back seat to college,

and it should, but I still attempt to do very well in that sport and we'll see what happens in the future. Thank you for reading my blob and I appreciate it very much!

Timeline for Athletes who Take Steroids or Weight Cycle'd

Athletes as Idols?

Sports figures all of the world are cast as idols from the very beginning. They have to be. So many people look up to them. What people do not understand is that they are real people and no different than a regular person. What we should all know is that athletes should not be anybody's idol.

Why is somebody your idol? Because you believe what they believe and they have pushed an issue that you believe in or did something special that makes you feel good and makes you believe you can act on that certain something. A idol is not somebody that puts on a uniform and beats a team.

You may idolized that person but you truely never know what that person stands for unless you know him or her personally.

An idol doesn't become a hero simply because he takes a stand against the villain but he becomes a hero because he stands for something. You may think this certain "idol" has success but success is not something that somebody can just say you achieved or even do it for you, success comes from inside you and it is who you are made of.

So idols and heroes may not help you reach your dreams, they may, but usually it's you. That is why you must be careful with who you look up to and who is your idol.

Native Americans Should Not be Used as Logos/Mascots in Sports

The Native American culture was once a proud culture that learned the ins and outs on how to live and how to go about doing things the nature way. They lived in the Americas before anybody on the Eastern side of the World knew this place existed. When the English settlers and the Europeans decided to explore what else was out in the World, it was the Natives that took care of them, fed them, and showed them simple things like how to hunt for food and live out in the wild. Hundreds of years later, the Native American culture hardly exists here in America as less than two million Indians live here (U.S. Census Bureau).

There are not many reservations that are around, and more and more of different races seem to find their way to America (Asians, Hispanics, Blacks, etc). The one thing that has kept the Native American tribes alive is the one thing that is tarnishing it the most, and that is using their Native language and culture and symbolizing it as if it was a humorous subject, a cartoon somewhat. So many names, faces, and items that the Natives are made of have been placed on a school or a team as their personalized team name, their logo, or even their mascot. I do not see this as celebrating a once proud culture, but hurting it, poking fun at it, as if the Natives are some kind of animal. Native Americans are being treated like animals, used on a platform that no other culture has felt. How? "These names and images have a damaging effect on Native Americans because it freezes us in our past, it distils our humanity to a one-dimensional term" said Joseph Gone (Plaschke, 1).

What this sentence is stating is that the Native Americans in our country are being poked at for fun in sports, games, etc. Their heritage is being placed on the line, being put on a basketball jersey or a football helmet, and nobody is taking time to notice how wrong this is. Native Americans took care of this land and helped the Europeans through the beginning of their time here, and we repay them by tarnishing their heritage, making a mockery of it, putting the face of an Indian on the side of a helmet or in front of a jersey, and that isn’t right.

My Summer Internship With the Chiefs

Duringthe Summer 2010 Training Camp with the Kansas City Chiefs I was able to intern with the Marketing Manager of the Chiefs, Jeremy Slavens, as well his own intern Jared Aeschbach, and my Professor Dr. Hardy. They gave me assignments as well as the other interns in camp with me, and the assignments they were to do simple jobs that need to be done to run a good event like the training camp was. Some of the jobs have been really easy, some have been somewhat difficult. None were extremely hard, though all of us put in tons of hours, sometimes from 6:30 a.m. all the way till 9:00 p.m. Even then though, there was a lot of downtime, and we were even able to go home as we would get close to a two hour break during those days. The camp was very beneficial to me and doing this intern was a great choice that I made.

This internship gave me three credits to my College here at Missouri Western State University. It was a well earned three credits, especially since we had to do assignments we would have to do in a regular class, such as attend on time to camp, listen to your professor as well as type a couple pages for class. Camp was fun at times, and at other times not so great. Some of the people I had to work with were not that great to talk to, as sometimes they would gripe and didn't want to do what they were asked. Instead of telling the bosses or their professor how they feel, they complained to their peers and acted like everybody should feel the way they do. Other things I could have lived without was doing jobs that other people were getting paid to do, such as what the St. Joseph Police Department should be doing, the paid interns from Missouri Western or the Chiefs own security. I guess I didn't mind doing some things like helping them, but seeing them do nothing and I had to do their work was not something I enjoyed doing. I did not expect things like that to happen at camp, but I live with it, mostly because I have to in order to receive my credits.

The fun parts about thd internship was meeting new, great people and experiencing the "behind-the-scenes" part of how an event should be run; little things, such as helping people go where they are suppose to, arriving at the event early and staying well after to clean up, talk to others about what were good things about the event and bad things, and other little things, details, as Jeremy was always preaching. All of us interns ate at the cafeteria, where the Chiefs players were eating, and the food was great. We also would get all the water, Gatorade and soda we wanted because it was so hot we needed those drinks to stay hydrated. The internship could lead to better things in the future, and knowing this is great. If we do our job and do it right, maybe a job could be in our future, a job that could lead any of us to the NFL, or any other sports department possibly, and that is a great feeling too.

Editorial on Weight Cycling for Athletes

Weight cycling causes problems with people's health. It's bad. How can anybody use this as an asset?

The weight loss of as little as five pounds does not hurt an athlete or an average person walking around. It's the point that while people yo-yo diet, they will gain it all back. The problem then occurs when gaining the weight back, especially if they were to lose over 20 pounds. The more weight they lose, the more weight they gain back, and that then causes problems to the heart, the fat and muscle tissue.

Athletes are typically known for doing this, especially wrestlers and boxers. They must make a certain weight and the only way to do this is to rapidly cut out fatty foods, dehydrate and sweat. After making their desired weight, they then gain it all back by binge eating possibly. This is so bad in many ways. Yet, coaches and trainers let their athletes do this? There is not way this should be allowed.

The affects of this are long lasting and a lot of people won't even realize what they find themselves doing and the affects of what happened because of weight cycling. People will eventually experience high blood pressure, heart disease, maybe a stroke, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, breathing problems and maybe a cancer. This isn't even all the bad problems with the cycling of weight.

The only way to fix this is for the coaches, trainers and people around the sport to be more involved. Make sure their athlete is not going through a drastic weight loss. And for the higher people who control the sport, maybe a weight master or a board member, should make it illegal. Athletes can die from this, and some have. Only they can stop the athletes, because the athletes will do almost anything to gain that competitive advantage.

Larry Bird's Book a Must Read

"Bird Watching" gives a tremendous look on the life of former basketball player Larry Bird and his triumphs he went through in order to become one of the best.

Bird was born in West Baden, Indiana. He was very poor and the book does a superb job of explaining his situation. The family made it through, but barely. They didn't have many extra assets in life. The book's first few chapters evolve around this and more background. Bird loved basketball so much, one particular part of the book talks about how he quit the more popular sports in high school in the 1970's, Football and Baseball, to focus more on basketball and become a better player.

This book has a lot of funny chapters and quotes just as any good biography does. It starts out speaking about how Bird attended Indiana University for less than month and went back to the farm where he thought he was going to spend the rest of his life. He then had a scholarship to Indiana State, a smaller university, and went there to play basketball.

Bird's life was funny to follow in the pros as well. In the chapter "My First Year as Coach" Bird spoke about what he would do to the media when he was in Boston. The media were celebrities in Boston, much different than Indiana Bird said. While playing in Boston, he could only handle them one way.

"After a game I'd go back to the trainer’s room and get iced down. I'd drink a couple of beers, wait until everyone else got done, and then I'd go out and sit on this table in the middle of the locker room. I'd answer everyone's questions"

Bird said eventually the media would quit asking questions and let him go. He didn't care either way, they could ask questions all day and Bird would not have mind.

"Bird Watching" wraps up the career of Bird just as much as his story continues when he starts coaching and working with the front office. While the book shows the transition of Bird's life, a reader still won't be lost in the book because the book follows his life and the readers will be able to see that. The only negative about this book remains in the readers who choose to take their time to read it, it is not that long, but some may find it a little frustrating that this book takes out a lot of his rivalry with Magic Johnson both in college and in the pros, but it instead focuses so much on Bird and his life.

"I'm not going to be stupid about this heart condition, but I'm not going to live my whole life in fear of this thing either. If it goes, it goes." This sentence is one of many that will help you understand the determination in Bird and what he went through to be as good as he was. One of the richest athletes of his generation, Bird suffered from Atrial fibrillation but it didn't stop him one bit. And now that his book is out, it seems that he will be around the sport he loves for years.