Sports

2009 had it all when it came to sports. New heroes emerged from obscurity and some legends passed away. Familiar powerhouses claimed the spotlight once again and underdogs beat the odds to become champions. Sports fans cried, laughed, yelled and cheered throughout the year, and now they are preparing to do it all over again. 2010 has the potential to turn the sporting world upside-down forever.

VOLLEYBALL: Defending National Champion Anteaters return to play ready to defend title.

At traditional athletic powerhouse universities, refraining from standing or participating in student section antics is simply not an option.

basketball: ’Eaters go 1-2, beating Fairleigh Dickinson but falling to UTSA and Eastern Kentucky.

If you haven’t heard by now, there have been efforts made to construct a new stadium in Los Angeles. Edward P. Roski, a part-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Kings, has announced plans for the stadium on the northern side of the interchange of state routes 57 and 60 with the purpose of attracting an NFL team back to the Los Angeles region.

VIOLENCE: Western media does poor job of covering the soccer related violence during World Cup qualifying.

BLOWOUT: Young UCI women’s basketball squad hits rough patch after decent start to the season.

POLO: UCI finishes 5th in the conference with wins over Pepperdine and UCSB, but a loss to Cal.

VOLLEYBALL: Two losses to end the season may have cost Anteaters an NCAA Tournament bid.

I have been a journalist for about the last six years of my life. In that time, one aspect of the job never seems to get any easier for me. The interview is still the most difficult task of being a journalist. Going up to someone you don’t know and asking them a question that they probably will not like, it still scares me to death. However, in sports journalism, the interview is a must of almost every story.

To just about everyone else in the world, Wednesday night’s basketball game between UC Irvine and Loyola Marymount University was a mostly inconsequential early season non-conference match-up. But for my high school bud Pappy and me, it was our own personal Super Bowl.

SOCCER: After receiving a first-round bye in the tourney, UCI comes up short against Stanford on Sunday.