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

Sat Mar 24 11:36:25 PDT 2007

Great story.  Even in high school she would do pick up games with some of 
the Vandal men's team members.  She was also a delightful student, too, and 
hasn't forgotten her Moscow roots.  She invited Jennifer Barrett to attend 
the induction ceremony.

Sue
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pat Kraut" <pkraut at moscow.com>
To: "vision2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2007 6:29 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] For spring break, there's nothing,and then there's 
Mao Tosi's world

> Obviously it was late last night when I sent this and I was not in good
> form. Please accept this altered version. I had been at the relay for life
> and was worn out.
>
>
> My youngest son and some friends from Troy took a break from an FFA 
> meeting
> at the UI and went to Mosocw high school to play some BB. Some girls were
> there and
> they decided to challenge the girls 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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>> 3:27 PM
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