photo courtesy of www.labeez.com

Chris Faulknor was a member of the 1984 and 1988 Jamaican Olympic track and field team. Due to injury he was unale to compete in 1984 but in 1988 he and his team took just barely missed a medal in the  Men’s 4 X 100 relay finishing 4th place in the final.

Today Chris Faulknor or “Coach Chris” as he is know to the over 105 athletes age 5-18 that he coaches is the head coach and founder of a Los Angeles-based club track program called the Southern California Running Cougars.

The program is very successful turning out Junior Olympic Champions and NCAA Division I Scholarship athletes regularly since its inception in 1999.

For more information about the team’s most recent performances click the link below

Southern California Running Cougars Official Site

Two of the most successful Cougars are Jeshua Anderson and Bryshon Nellum. Jeshua is still a Cougar on the Washington State University Cougars track and field team. He also plays football at WSU. Bryshon is attending the University of Southern California. His track career is currently on hold while he recovers from being shot in the legs three times at a restaurant near the campus. In high school Nellum was the 2007 Gatorade national boy’s track and field athlete of the year, and considered a potential Olympian. Depending on how his recovery goes, that is still a possibility.

Another success story is Khalfani Mohamed, the 2008 Southern California Association-Athlete of the Year, Youth Division. Khalfani won Junior Olympic Gold as a member of the 4 X 100 relay and 4 X 400 relay teams and placed highly in all the other events he entered as well.

The funny thing about how successful the team has been, is that is was founded by accident. Faulknor saw from a young age that his son was really fast and he had an interest in track. In 1999 he brought him to a Los Angeles-based club track team called LA Unity.The people who ran that club were unhappy with their current coach’s inability to interact with kids and saw something special in Faulknor and within a few weeks he was the head coach of that team. The next year Faulknor started his own program with only four kids and four parents. They were unbelievbly successful going undefeated the entire season and all the way to the Junior Olympics. The next year the program went from four kids to 35 and the Southern California Running Cougars were born

Faulknor says it was a combination of his being the captain of the Jamaican Olympic team and having kids at a young age that has shaped his success.

“When I was participating back then(on the Jamaican Olypic team) I was the one in charge of the team. I was in charge of the workout, the scheduling, the program,” he said. “When I moved here to this country I coached soccer for five years and it was a youth program of course with my son. And it’s not every professional athlete that becomes a coach. It how you interact with kids and I was young when I had kids so I can relate.”

Faulknor is more than just a coach to his athletes he also acts as a father-figure and mentor to them.

Parents of kids in the program say that Faulknor’s interactive coaching style and love of track are his greatest assets.

The kids also feel a connection that is more than just coach and athlete with “Coach Chris” but don’t take my word for it.

More Useful Links

LABeez article about Cougars

Video highlights of Cougars at a meet

Inauguration Viewing Party

Obama’s Message of “Change” is Heard Loud and Clear in South LA

By Chris Siciliano

Barack Obama’s message of “change” resonated all the way from Washington D.C to an auditorium in South Los Angeles on the day of his inauguration where a group of 800 people — mostly African Americans and Latinos — gathered to watch him take the Oath of Office.

Community Coalition organized an inauguration viewing party at the James A. Foshay Learning Center for kindergarteners through high school seniors as well as locals who wanted to take in the historic event with members of their community.

“We wanted to do the celebration of Barack Obama’s presidency, his inauguration here at Foshay because this is an area that is rich in diversity with African Americans and Latinos,” said Aurea Montes-Rodriguez, the Senior Strategic Projects Director for the coalition.”It has lots of good assets and important assets like Foshay Learning Center and we want to focus in our organizing resources in this school to create a transformative change in this community.”
Community Coalition’s mission is to improve the economic and social conditions in South LA through community organizing events such as the inauguration viewing party.

The area around Foshay, near the intersection of Exposition and Harvard Boulevards, is home to many African Americans and Latinos. People in attendance said that seeing a man of color become President of the United States of America made it possible for them to tell their children and grandchildren that anything is possible and to actually believe and have a tangible example of change and progress.

“It’s hard to believe(anything is possible) until you actually see that something is possible like this, that this time America chose a president based on the connection that they had with him not because he was white, and not because he was black just because we make a connection , “ said Foshay Principal Veronique Wills. “That’s what’s significant and that’s what I want the kids to see.”

The students and other party attendees said that they hoped Obama keeps his promise to promote change across the country and specifically his pledge to help the underprivileged and the poor.

“For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies, “said Obama in his inaugural address.

Go to 17 minutes to see this part of the speech

One Foshay student said this part of the speech resonated with him and he understood that he and other members of the community need to be responsible for making a change on a local level.

“We cannot put all our expectations onto (Obama). My expectations are for him to help us, to guide us positively so we can create change here.” said high school senior Richard Aviles .

Obama’s message struck the same chord with people from previous generations as it did with youth. Many of them remembered the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as they listened to Obama speak and said that they see him as a catalyst for the next generation.

“It comes to mind you judge a person not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character and so by him coming out and saying ‘I can, I can,’ ‘change change’ those words and that phrase has taken a whole new life,” said 50-year-old South LA resident Dolores Moore. “It’s sparking the people and they’re taking on the energy ‘ I can, I can’ of having hope instead of despair. Not saying that he can make changes, not saying that he has all the answers, not saying all of that, but just creating that spark and that flame.”

That spark and that flame is what many of the people in attendance said Obama ignites in them. The students said that he made them want to strive to be as successful as him and to aspire to the heights that he has reached and they believe they can do it based on his success.

“When it comes down to it, we can do anything that we want to do, and we can be anybody that we want to be and even though we’re in a bad community something good can come out of it and Barack Obama is a symbol of that.” said high school senior Jeffreda Clarke.

The first recollection I have of really enjoying music that I could take ownership of, was when I first heard Green Day’s album “Dookie”.

Unless you’ve heard it you are probably laughing at the album title and wondering “What on Earth could the songs be about?” That’s understandable. This was the first album I heard on CD. I was at my best friend’s house when I was in 3rd grade. He had just recieved a CD player for his birthday. I was still listening to a walkman with antiquated cassette tapes so I was very intrigued by this new piece of technology. He popped in “Dookie” and I was immediately taken with the catchiness of the melodies and the quality of music played from a compact disc.  Songs like “Welcome to Paradise” and “Basket Case” have stuck with me through the years. It is now 15 years after I first heard this album and I still enjoy the songs and listen to them regularly. The lyrics aren’t the most poignant and they aren’t full of wisdom, but listening to thew soongs just makes you want to have fun. They are mostly upbeat and typical of the pop-punk genre. They were the kind of songs that make you want to sing along and you can’t get out of your head.

I will always remember Green Day “Dookie” and credit it with shaping my musical future.

]]> http://csicilia.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/music-that-hit-me/feed/ 0 csicilia greendaydookie2 http://csicilia.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/dancing-in-the-streetsor-all-around-the-mall/ http://csicilia.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/dancing-in-the-streetsor-all-around-the-mall/#comments Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:04:20 +0000 csicilia http://csicilia.wordpress.com/?p=35 ]]> I attended the open rehearsal for an unconventional dance show a few weeks ago presented by Collage Dance Theatre , prior to the performance. It was a site-specific performance, meaning the performance was tailored to a specific location when it was created. The performers rehearsed in the 7+Fig mall in Downtown LA for seven weeks. The video below was shot on the last day of that seven week process a week before the performance.

After I shot the video I had the privilege of attending the actual performance. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. The performance started in a white room with blue fabric on the walls. The performance space was packed.

Collage Dance Theatre presented a site-specific performance all over the 7+Fig Mall in downtown LA Wednesday Feb. 18 called “A Material World” drawing new patrons to the mall and giving shoppers a surprise.

The dancers used the mall’s existing architecture and objects as the backdrop for their performance in conjunction with a 200-feet-long piece of blue fabric in an attempt to make the audience view Los Angeles from a different perspective than they are used to.

Volunteers lead the audience from one location to the next

In this specific performance the “stage” so to speak was moved to different areas of the mall. A trumpeter and violinist played the role of a “pied piper” and there were also volunteers from Collage who wore shirts that said “follow me” that showed the audience where the dancers were going.

This piece was a joint creation of Brookfield Properties, the mall’s owner, and Collage Dance Theatre. Brookfield contacted Collage and asked if they would like to create a performance in the mall. Then the dance company practiced in the mall for seven weeks trying different things to see if they would work for the performance and used what they learned to create the end product.

There was a large crowd of people that came to the mall to see the performance. In fact it was so large that when they were trying to follow the performance up the escalator to one of the other locations, the escalator started rolling backwards then broke down completely.

The excalator buckled under the pressure of the exuberant audience

After the opening piece the dancers moved to the street level of the mall. Here they used the handrails as their stage, laying on top of, sliding down, and leaning against them.

One of the dancers said this was her favorite part of the performance because people who were just walking by the mall without any intention of seeing the performance got to be a part of it.

“It was great to see people stop their hustle and bustle and get off their cell phones for a minute to see what we were doing,” said dancer Nina McNeely. “It was nice to see that our performance got them out of their regular routine and exposed them to the arts in a new way.”

The next part of the performance took place in the open air space on the mall’s top floor. The movement of the dancers and audience from the previous area to this one was part of the performance as well.

In this area was a large grassy area and some trees and the dancer’s took full advantage of both climbing the trees and swinging from them and rolling in the grass.

The performance culminated with the finale which was done in the atrium area of the mall the audience watched from the balconies above as the dancers manipulated tables, chairs, umbrellas, each other and the blue fabric.

The director of the piece hopes that the performance has a profound impact on the audience and changes the way they look at art.

“I think the public could perhaps look at art as an act that enhances daily life,” said Heidi Duckler Collage Dance Theatre artistic director. “That it isn’t something so pristine and elitist that you have to buy a ticket and sit in a seat, but that art is an activity that we call all participate in and that it’s something that can happen all the time, day and night.”

In regards to sports I am one of the few people I know who legitimately follows just about every mainstream American sport except golf, multiple European soccer leagues and even a few sports that only certain groups of Americans follow. I am a fan of football(college and pro), baseball, basketball(college and pro),hockey, and NASCAR. I have attended events in each of these sports regularly over the last 5 years. I watch MMA(mixed martial arts) events on TV when I get a chance. I follow tennis intensely as well. I am also a college lacrosse fan. Lacrosse is a sport that is really only big on certain parts of the east coast, but I really enjoy it. I also follow the four main European soccer leagues,  Serie A in Italy,  La Liga in Spain, the Barclay’s Premiership in England, and the Bundesliga in Germany. In all of the sports I follow I have a favorite team and certian favorite players, but I also appreciate the sports as a whole and as long as the game is well-played and exciting I can watch any teams or events. I love to debate or some would say argue about any and all of the sports that I follow and have a decent knowledge of the majority of them.

I also enjoy participating in many of the sports I have listed above. I am not very good at most of them but I am always willing to give them a shot and I always give 110% when playing any of them. Tennis is a sport I play regularly. I won a state championship in high school for volleyball as well.

When it comes to entertainment. I was a born performer. I grew up singing with my relatives and whenever my family would have special occasions I would put together a show with my brothers and cousins and we would perform. These shows included singing and dancing and one time we even made a short film. As I grew older I began singing in a chorus. That experience started in elementary school. I was one of only a few students chosen to perform solos regularly. I also joined band in middle school and learnedLater I started performing in musical theater, doing musicals with a youth theater and eventually with my high school. I also branched out into doing student films when I was in high school for a local film school and also got a supporting role in a little TV pilot. It eneded up not ever making it to air but it was a fun and uselful experience. When I got to college I joined an all-male a capella group and also sang in one of the selct choirs. I performed in a musical and a play and the pep band, a band that plays at the sporting events without marching. When I got to USC I realized my dream of being in “The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe,” the Trojan Marching Band and had the pleasure of performinf in front of 92,00 people on a regular basis.

I also am a huge fan and semi-expert on TV and film. I majored in Audio, Video, and Film as an undergrad and took screenwriting and film and tv theory and production classes.  I regularly watch a combination of roughly 25 serial, comedy, and reality TV shows. I have a Netflix account and often rent indepent films and foreign films in addition to mainstream ones. I really enjoy the moviewatching and moviegoing experience, and will watch films in just about any genre out there.

Ultimately I’d like to become an expert in sports and be a reporter who covers some of the biggest sporting events in the world or use my knowlege of the entertainment world as an actor or someone who reports about TV and film.

The lights show at Staples Center before the LA Lakers vs. Atlanta Hawks game makes an American flag on the court

Dancer Neena McNeely performs at the 7th + Fig Mall in downtown LA as part of the Collage Dance Theater’s Production of “A Material World”

A delicious Triple Chocolate Pizookie from BJ’s Restaurant in Westwood

Students walk away from Annenberg on Tuesday, February 17th 2009 during an emergency response drill.