Always Choose the Right

China stripped of 2000 gymnastics medal for underage athlete

By Chris Chase

Follow Yahoo! Sports Olympic blog, Fourth-Place Medal on Facebook and Twitter.

"China was stripped of a team all-around bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics on Wednesday because it fielded an underage gymnast. Dong Fangxiao was discovered to be 14 at the time of those Games, two years younger than the minimum age requirement.

The medal will be given to the United States team which finished fourth in Sydney. The IOC has asked for China to return the medals "as soon as possible" so they can be reallocated to the U.S. team."

Students, how embarrassing; what a shame, how sad. China thought they were getting away with cheating, but no, it caught up with them even several years later. Dong Fangxiao is now about 24 years of age, and how do you think she feels? The glory and fanfare of winning the olympic medal is long gone, but memories of cheating and CTW impact for years long after the they occur. She should have been strong enough to CTR and not let the Chinese persuade her to CTW, but she was weak and fell for the temptation. Imagine how she feels today and how she faces people and what they think of her action. She hides her face in shame along with all the others who permitted this infraction. They knew about, but were too anxious to WIN, that they CTW. "The short term gain is not worth the long term pain."

Today, cheating is wide-spread throughout athletics, schools, families, communities and nations, and we need to do all we can to promote goodwill, that which is right.

Students, Always Choose the Right, CTR. If you CTW, you may get away with it for a period of time, but inevitably it will catch up with you, even if it's in the end. Individuals, teams, churches, businesses, schools, states, nations.....all must always do what is right--no exception. "True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what's right" (Brigham Young)

Small Precedes Great

"From small beginnings come great things"

A Proverb

Students, just think about it. Great things come from small beginnings. For example, from one small acorn a giant forest can result. From the small beginning of kindergarten one can become a high school and university Academic Champion. From little league one can go to the major leagues.  All great students started small, but they persisted by working hard, working smart, and working together and they became academic scholars and high achievers in school. 

Honesty is More Important than Victory

Davis calls penalty on himself, gives up shot at first PGA win

By Jay Busbee

“Honesty is more important than victory.”

Imagine standing on the edge of achieving your life's dream. You make a small mistake that will cost you your dream -- but if you don't say anything, you might just get away with it. Would you own up to the mistake, or would you keep quiet and hope for the best?

Brian Davis isn't the best-known name in golf -- or even the hundredth-best-known -- but after Sunday, he ought to move up the list a few notches. Davis was facing Jim Furyk in a playoff at the Verizon Heritage, and was trying to notch his first-ever PGA Tour win.

Davis's approach shot on the first hole of the playoff bounced off the green and nestled in among some weeds. (You can see the gunk he was hitting out of in that shot above.) When Davis tried to punch the ball up onto the green, his club may have grazed a stray weed on his backswing.

So what's the big deal? This: hitting any material around your ball during your backswing constitutes a violation of the rule against moving loose impediments, and is an immediate two-stroke penalty. And in a playoff, that means, in effect, game over.

Okay, you can think that's a silly penalty or whatever, but that's not the point of this story. The point is that Davis actually called the violation on himself.

"It was one of those things I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye," Davis said. "And I thought we’d check on TV, and indeed there was movement." Immediately after the shot, Davis called over a rules official, who conferred with television replays and confirmed the movement -- but movement which was only visible on slow-motion. Unbelievable.

As soon as the replays confirmed the violation, Davis conceded the victory to Furyk, who was somewhat stunned -- but, make no mistake, grateful for the win.

"To have the tournament come down that way is definitely not the way I wanted to win," Furyk said. "It’s obviously a tough loss for him and I respect and admire what he did."

Furyk took home  $1.03 million for the win. Davis won't exactly have to beg for change to get a ride home; he won $615,000 for second place. And he may have won much more than that by taking the honorable route.

To be sure, this isn't quite in the same category as J.P. Hayes, the golfer who disqualified himself from qualifying school after learning -- in his hotel room, all alone -- that he had played a nonqualifying ball; or Adam Van Houten, who cost his team an Ohio state title when he admitted signing an incorrect scorecard.  For starters, Davis's shot was on television, and while he could have "not noticed" the movement, the TV cameras still did, and someone might have called him on it later on.

But the bigger deal is this -- the guy gave away a chance at winning his first-ever PGA Tour event because he knew that in golf, honesty is more important than victory. It's a tough lesson to learn, but here's hoping he gets accolades -- and, perhaps, some sponsorship deals -- that more than make up for the victory he surrendered.

Arete Scholar/Athlete

Students, succeeding in school is like succeeding on the basketball court--both require hard work. The harder you work, the more enjoyment you'll experience from your pursuits. There is no substitute for hard work. Bill Bradley was both an Academic Champion and an Athletic Champion. He was an outstanding student at Princeton University and then a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford England. In addition to being an Academic Champion, Bill was a basketball All-American, College Player of the Year, Olympic Gold Medal winner, NBA World Champion, Senator of the state of New Jersey, and even ran for US President. Work hard in your worthwhile endeavors and enjoy the sweetness of great success. You can do it IF YOU WILL.

Bill Bradley

Steve Haymore Casts

Benny Moss

 Surry County North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame To Induct Moss

WLMINGTON, N.C. – Husband. Father. UNC Wilmington men’s basketball coach. Now Benny Moss has added another title: Hall of Famer.

            The third-year UNCW skipper will be inducted into the Surry County Sports Hall of Fame this Saturday during a special ceremony at the Surry Community College Auditorium in Dobson, N.C. The Pilot Mountain native will join six other athletes, coaches and volunteers from the northwest North Carolina County in being recognized.

            “This is a great honor for me and I’m very humbled,” said Moss. “I have many fond memories of my high school career. I owe a lot to Mike Burge, my high school coach, as well as my high school teammates. An honor like this is always a tribute to your coaches and teammates, and anyone else who has helped you along the way.”

            A 1988 graduate of East Surry High School, Moss enjoyed a tremendous career with the Cardinals. He remainsEast Surry’s all-time leading scorer with nearly 1,400 points after earning All-Northwest 2A Conference honors three straight years and collecting league Player-of-the-Year in his senior season. He was also named All-State twice by the Winston-Salem Journal.

            The 6-8 Moss averaged 23.5 points during his junior year and pushed the margin to 27.0 ppg in his senior campaign, attracting the attention of college scouts. He went on to UNC Charlotte, where he was named to the 1989-90 Sun Belt Conference All-Freshman Team. After two seasons in Charlotte, Moss transferred to Pfeiffer College and helped Coach Bobby Lutz and the Falcons reach the NAIA Final Four in his senior year.

            Moss begin his coaching career with Lutz at Pfeiffer in 1993 and made stops at Phillips, HendersonState and UNCC before landing the UNCW post in 2006-07.