Difference between revisions of "User:RahalMccall69"

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@@@ When Ethan, now 14 and an eighth-grader at San Francisco鈥檚 Gateway Middle School, first came to the Halberstadt Fencers鈥?Club on South Van Ness Avenue in the Mission seven years ago, his coaches didn鈥檛 think much of his chances. Ethan鈥檚 mother, Brett Glickman, was told she might be better off saving her money rather than buying the expensive equipment the sport requires. 鈥淓than came to us literally with two left feet,鈥?said Connie Louie-Handelman, who shares the youth saber coaching duties at Halberstadt with her husband, Rob Handelman. 鈥淗e had a hard time doing the footwork and moving his feet, but what we didn鈥檛 <a href=http://www.symbiose.ca/images/christianlouboutin.gwij.php>Christian Louboutin Outlet</a> know was that he was practicing at home 鈥?a lot. 鈥淚n about a year and a half, everything just clicked,鈥?she said. 鈥淎nd even today he continues to work really, really hard. Obviously it paid off, because now he鈥檚 No. 1.鈥? At home, while his buddies play video games in his room, Ethan shows off a collection of more than 50 medals he has earned over the years. They hang next to a thumbtacked picture of his earlier self 鈥?that small, uncoordinated boy proudly decked out in full fencing attire. On his desk is the third-place trophy he won at a national fencing tournament in Ohio during the first week of July. Ethan and his dad, Joel Mullennix, who takes him to tournaments around the country, <a href=http://www.museosangennaro.com/Public/wdluk.php>Louboutin Shoes Sale</a> thought that showing would be good enough to boost him into the top five nationally in the U.S. Fencing Association鈥檚 rankings in the youth division. It did that, and more: When the rankings came out at the end of July, Ethan was on top. 鈥淭here is a lot of pressure at big tournaments now, because I鈥檓 kind of expected to win every one,鈥?Ethan said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want people to think I鈥檓 a joke who somehow got into first place. I want them to know that I鈥檓 good and that I didn鈥檛 randomly get there.鈥? He puts in four three-hour practices a week and scrutinizes videos of his tournament work every night. When he鈥檚 not at the club, he鈥檚 practicing his saber work with ferocious intensity on a rubber dummy he calls Bob. Fencing is no game for him 鈥?he likens it to an obsession, or an addiction. He鈥檚 hoping it takes him to Notre Dame and the U.S. Olympic team, but he says he would do it without such goals or national rankings. It鈥檚 become something he has to do to be happy. 鈥淭he bottom line is hard work,鈥?Louie-Handelman said. 鈥淪ome kids you will see come and mill around the bench sitting down and talking, and you will see some kids working on the dummies or working on their footwork in front of the mirrors without being told what to do. Ethan is that type. 鈥淚 wish I could put that in a bottle,鈥?she said. 鈥淚 wish I could have a formula so I could teach it to all the kids.鈥? After warm-ups and personalized training sessions, Ethan and the other students hook their uniforms to the electronic scoreboard with an elaborate wiring setup that connects both to their sabers and their backs. With their masks down, they look like spiders with a web of wires dancing behind them. The room is filled with the sound of <a href=http://capstone.edu.sg/clreplicashoes.php>Christian Louboutin Shoes Sale</a> clashing sabers and beeping scoreboards as they fight to the finish during a mock tournament. Ethan says he takes practice bouts as seriously as he does tournament contests. For him, every bout is a chance to improve. 鈥淎t tournaments when I鈥檓 getting ready and I zip up, I think there is no going back from here. I can鈥檛 redo any of this and I live in the moment,鈥?he said. 鈥淎t the club, I act like it鈥檚 a tournament so I鈥檒l be ready for the next tournament. 鈥淚t feels great.鈥? 聽聽

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Difference between revisions of "User:RahalMccall69"

Revision as of 18:14, 25 September 2014

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+When Ethan, now 14 and an eighth-grader at San Francisco鈥檚 Gateway Middle School, first came to the Halberstadt Fencers鈥?Club on South Van Ness Avenue in the Mission seven years ago, his coaches didn鈥檛 think much of his chances. Ethan鈥檚 mother, Brett Glickman, was told she might be better off saving her money rather than buying the expensive equipment the sport requires.
+鈥淓than came to us literally with two left feet,鈥?said Connie Louie-Handelman, who shares the youth saber coaching duties at Halberstadt with her husband, Rob Handelman. 鈥淗e had a hard time doing the footwork and moving his feet, but what we didn鈥檛 <a href=http://www.symbiose.ca/images/christianlouboutin.gwij.php>Christian Louboutin Outlet</a>  know was that he was practicing at home 鈥?a lot.
+鈥淚n about a year and a half, everything just clicked,鈥?she said. 鈥淎nd even today he continues to work really, really hard. Obviously it paid off, because now he鈥檚 No. 1.鈥?
+At home, while his buddies play video games in his room, Ethan shows off a collection of more than 50 medals he has earned over the years. They hang next to a thumbtacked picture of his earlier self 鈥?that small, uncoordinated boy proudly decked out in full fencing attire.
+On his desk is the third-place trophy he won at a national fencing tournament in Ohio during the first week of July. Ethan and his dad, Joel Mullennix, who takes him to tournaments around the country, <a href=http://www.museosangennaro.com/Public/wdluk.php>Louboutin Shoes Sale</a>  thought that showing would be good enough to boost him into the top five nationally in the U.S. Fencing Association鈥檚 rankings in the youth division.
+It did that, and more: When the rankings came out at the end of July, Ethan was on top.
+鈥淭here is a lot of pressure at big tournaments now, because I鈥檓 kind of expected to win every one,鈥?Ethan said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want people to think I鈥檓 a joke who somehow got into first place. I want them to know that I鈥檓 good and that I didn鈥檛 randomly get there.鈥?
+He puts in four three-hour practices a week and scrutinizes videos of his tournament work every night. When he鈥檚 not at the club, he鈥檚 practicing his saber work with ferocious intensity on a rubber dummy he calls Bob.
+Fencing is no game for him 鈥?he likens it to an obsession, or an addiction. He鈥檚 hoping it takes him to Notre Dame and the U.S. Olympic team, but he says he would do it without such goals or national rankings. It鈥檚 become something he has to do to be happy.
+鈥淭he bottom line is hard work,鈥?Louie-Handelman said. 鈥淪ome kids you will see come and mill around the bench sitting down and talking, and you will see some kids working on the dummies or working on their footwork in front of the mirrors without being told what to do. Ethan is that type.
+鈥淚 wish I could put that in a bottle,鈥?she said. 鈥淚 wish I could have a formula so I could teach it to all the kids.鈥?
+After warm-ups and personalized training sessions, Ethan and the other students hook their uniforms to the electronic scoreboard with an elaborate wiring setup that connects both to their sabers and their backs. With their masks down, they look like spiders with a web of wires dancing behind them.
+The room is filled with the sound of <a href=http://capstone.edu.sg/clreplicashoes.php>Christian Louboutin Shoes Sale</a>  clashing sabers and beeping scoreboards as they fight to the finish during a mock tournament. Ethan says he takes practice bouts as seriously as he does tournament contests. For him, every bout is a chance to improve.
+鈥淎t tournaments when I鈥檓 getting ready and I zip up, I think there is no going back from here. I can鈥檛 redo any of this and I live in the moment,鈥?he said. 鈥淎t the club, I act like it鈥檚 a tournament so I鈥檒l be ready for the next tournament.
+鈥淚t feels great.鈥?
+聽
+聽
-Crime has fallen citywide from 1,302 incidents in 2008 to 880 incidents in 2014, according to the mayor's office.Today, there are block parties in the West Ward. Crumbling homes have been snapped up, dusted off or rebuilt. In the West Ward, it's always two steps forward and one step back, said Larry Porter, who in 1990 bought and refurbished an old bar and turned it into Porters' Pub.Porter says more and more people are driving over the hump <a href=http://www.alportico.net/page.php?sale=True-Religion-Mens-Jeans>True Religion Mens Jeans</a>  on Northampton street meaning the imaginary line on Northampton Street where downtown ends and the West Ward begins to visit local restaurants.'Wonderful place to grow up'The West Ward is bounded east and west by Sixth Street and 15th Street respectively, south by the Lehigh River and north by Bushkill Creek. About 16,000 of the city's 26,000 residents live there.Unlike College Hill, which grew around the Lafayette College campus, the West Ward grew from Easton's natural outgrowth of the city's first 1,000 acres.Business owners built more palatial homes on the western outskirts of the city, Holden said. For example, local silk mill owner Herman Simon first owned a home in the West Ward before building his more extravagant mansion now a historic landmark on North Third Street.Working-class people built row homes and more modest single-family dwellings to fill in the gaps, Holden said.When she was growing up in the West Ward, families still lived in those homes. It was a wonderful place to grow up, she said.Local artist Anthony Marraccini graduated from Easton Area High School in 1989, and for the past two years has lived at a home at Sixth and Ferry streets on the edge of the West Ward.Years ago, Easton's downtown was more of a problem spot, Marraccini said, and the West Ward, while always working class, didn't have such a bad reputation.Panto didn't grow up in the West Ward, but he attended a West Ward school and played basketball as a youth there.It wasn't perfect, he said, but people didn't wave guns. Today, the housing vacancy rate is about 50 percent higher in the West Ward than in the rest of Easton, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Families who live in the West Ward tend to make less money than their counterparts elsewhere in the city.Nearly half the properties in the West Ward are rentals, according to the survey. And many residents say one of the biggest problems the <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Tory-Burch-Sale-Flats>Tory Burch Sale Flats</a>  neighborhood faces is absentee landlords who let properties deteriorate or allow too many tenants to live in one spot.Panto said the violence commonly isn't caused by residents of the West Ward. Rather, out-of-towners use the city's proximity to Route 22 to zip into town, sell drugs and leave.Marraccini says the problems of the West Ward are part of the natural evolution of cities. I think it's a combination of things, Marraccini said. The rise of suburbia. Gradual decline. You're left with what you're left with. Fighting 'Sleaston' Be good friends with your neighbors, Micki Katz told the crowd at the Easton Area Community Center on Monday night, even if they're carrying guns. A few of the dozens of West Ward residents who'd poured into the Washington Street building chuckled.Katz, 72, lives on 13th Street.She says she sees people with weapons and drugs, and urban violence near her front stoop. I call it Sleaston, she quipped.Her survival tip: Treat your neighbors with kindness. They won't shoot you then, she said.Holden and Sophia Feller, the West Ward Neighborhood Partnership's urban agriculture coordinator, organized the meeting in the wake of the shootings. Holden said she wasn't sure what to expect. But when she arrived at the community center around 7 p.m., a crowd had already formed at the door. West Warders of all stripes filled seats in the community room. There were veterans like Katz, <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Michael-Kors-Frames>Michael Kors Outlet</a>  who seemed to have mastered a gallows humor about the neighborhood. Younger residents, artists who'd bought old row homes and cleaned them up, also joined in the discussion, mingling with the West Ward's working class.The city sent its own retinue that included Panto, Administrator Glenn Steckman, Easton Police Chief Carl Scalzo and Captain Scott Casterline. We're here to listen to you, Panto told the crowd.They discussed rebuilding the local neighborhood watch. Some residents talked about the need to install more porch lights to illuminate dark spots. Others talked about adding speed bumps to public thoroughfares (not legal, Panto said) or adding stop signs to every crossroads in the West Ward to slow traffic.Steckman told residents how to lodge complaints on the city's website. Police officers talked about doing more to increase their visibility.
+for daily updates follow @cityexposed