[Vision2020] For spring break, there's nothing, and then there's Mao Tosi's world

Sat Mar 24 01:05:11 PDT 2007

My youngest son and some friends from Troy taking a break from a FFA meeting
at the UI went the high school to play some BB. Some girls were there and
they decided to challenge the boys to a pick up game. Very soon it was
obvious the two other girls were feeding the ball to one of the girls and
she didn't miss. After a short time one of the guys said they had to get
back to the meetings and then they did the introductions and yes it was
Andrea who was not giving the guys any break at all. The guys got back into
the car and decided that next time they would do the intros first and then
play if they still wanted to!! He likes to tell people he played with her
and did well but the truth is that they got their collective clocks
cleaned...by a girl.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sue Hovey" <suehovey at moscow.com>
To: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>; <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] For spring break, there's nothing,and then there's
Mao Tosi's world

..   And remember Moscow's Andrea Lloyd, who played on the U of Texas NCAA
Women's championship team, then later won a gold in the Olympics.  She
played in Europe and in the WNBA for for Minnesota.  She's now a sports
commentator.  Well anyway she will be inducted into the WNBA Hall of
Fame--in June, I think it is.

Sue
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 9:38 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] For spring break, there's nothing,and then there's Mao
Tosi's world

> >From today's (March 23, 2007) Anchorage Daily News at:
>
> http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/anchorage/beth_bragg/story/
>
> Remember the 1996-2000 Vandals' All-American 6'8", 280-pound defensive end
> Mao Tosi?  I am sure that former WSU QB Steve Birnbaum does.  After
> graduation he went on to play professional football for a few years with
> the
> Arizona Cardinals.
>
> Where is he now, you ask?  Well . . .
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> For spring break, there's nothing, and then there's Mao Tosi's world
>
> BETH BRAGG
> COMMENT
>
> (Published: March 23, 2007)
> Spring break, and it's chaos at the Spenard Rec Center. Controlled chaos.
>
> The gymnasium is filled with kids that society calls "at risk," but the
> only
> thing at risk here is that gym time will end before the kids are ready to
> go
> home.
>
> Six basketball hoops hang from the ceiling, and four-on-four games are
> being
> played at three of them. Clusters of kids shoot baskets and collect
> rebounds
> at the others. Dozens more sit on small sets of bleachers, watching the
> action or waiting their turn. Astonishingly, only one person is wearing
> earbuds, and no one is talking on a cell phone.
>
> In the middle of it all sits Mao Tosi, the giant-sized man responsible for
> all this activity. He's the West High security guard who responded to the
> city's spike in youth violence last fall by starting after-school clubs at
> West and East high schools.
>
> Tosi is cutting up four bags of oranges with a paring knife, and the kids
> are eating them as fast as he can slice them.
>
> "We're trying to keep them all occupied," Tosi says as he jokingly
> admonishes a teenage boy trying to sneak up from behind and snatch a whole
> orange. "Keep 'em playing. Keep 'em busy."
>
> Tosi, 30, didn't learn until late last week that he could use the Spenard
> Rec Center and the Cellular One Sports Center for this week's three-day
> camp. There was little time to spread the word. But spread it did.
>
> "The gym doesn't open till 9," Tosi said, "and at 8:30 there were 20 kids
> sitting outside waiting. Some of them didn't even have coats."
>
> Ola Vaivai, a 17-year-old from West High, was among those who showed up.
> His
> spring break alternative?
>
> "Nothing," he said. "I got parents that's working, and some of us don't
> have
> cars, don't have transportation. Mao got us our ride.
>
> "Everybody here's for the same reason. He got everybody interested because
> it's free. Some of us can't afford five dollars, or even one dollar. It's
> a
> good thing."
>
> It is a good thing.
>
> And it's getting even better. People in town -- important people, people
> who
> can make things happen -- have seen Tosi at work, and they're ready to
> help
> him help kids.
>
> Tosi will soon leave his job as a security guard for a job running youth
> programs for Communities in Schools of Alaska. The position will let him
> work full-time with kids in the city's middle and high schools.
>
> Tom Morgan, state director of CIS-Alaska, made the change possible by
> raising money from a variety of sources impressed with Tosi's work. The
> state's Department of Juvenile Justice says it will help. CIRI and Taco
> Bell
> each donated $10,000, and the city added a one-time contribution of
> $60,000,
> half from the police, half from the mayor's office.
>
> "You pay it one way or another," city manager Denis LeBlanc said. "If we
> can
> keep the kids out of trouble, then the police aren't making police calls.
> We're convinced this will pay dividends to the city."
>
> The show of support for Tosi's work is one of the best, most tangible
> results of the city's increased focus on youth and gang violence since a
> number of shootings and killings in the last year.
>
> Tosi, a former NFL player who graduated from East High, isn't taking guns
> or
> drugs away from kids. But he's diverting kids from those kinds of things
> by
> giving them somewhere to go and something to do.
>
> It might seem like bribery when he tells kids that if they participate in
> a
> poetry workshop, they can win digital cameras or T-shirts. But Tosi knows
> such offerings are a valuable currency. They buy him a kid's time and
> attention.
>
> The scene this week at the Spenard Rec Center was amazing. Kids of all
> sizes, ages and colors shot baskets, ate snacks, showed off their beat
> boxing skills and even tried a little poetry. There wasn't a hint of
> friction, a hint of bullying, a hint of trouble.
>
> "Look at the different race groups and ages,'' said 16-year-old Nicole
> Suapaia of East High as she watched a group of older boys play an intense
> yet friendly game of basketball. "This is good."
>
> It is good.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
> Came a tribe from the north brave and bold . . .
>
> "Here We Have Idaho"
> http://www.tomandrodna.com/HWHI.mp3
>
> "I-D-A-H-O Idaho Idaho Go Go Go"
> http://www.tomandrodna.com/Vandals.mp3
>
>
>
>
>
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