Mott Athletics Center will host women’s basketball games each of the three days following Thanksgiving as three teams will compete in a round-robin format in the ShareSLO Holiday Beach Classic. 

Junior transfer Devin Stanback has made an immediate impact in the middle for Cal Poly this season. By Owen Main

On Thursday, Robert Morris will face Faith Mimnaugh’s host team. Like Cal Poly, Robert Morris of the Northeast Conference is 1-2 coming into the game. The Colonials will spend Thanksgiving Day on the Central Coast leading up to the Friday 2:00pm game. 

On Saturday, the Colonials will face San Francisco. Tip time is also 2:00pm. 

Sunday’s game brings Cal Poly back to face San Francisco for a noon tip-off. 

A senior-laden team, Cal Poly is led by fourth-year twins Dynn and Lynn Leaupepe. Lynn is averaging 19 points and 7.7 rebounds per game over Cal Poly’s first three, while Dynn averages 11 points and 4.3 rebounds. 

Devin Stanback (junior transfer from Pepperdine) has helped quickly, averaging 13 points per game. A stretch-four, Emily Anderson is fourth on the team in scoring in the young season at 8 points per game. 

Cal Poly’s roster features 10 upperclasmen and seven seniors and is led by Faith Mimnaugh, in her 21st season at Cal Poly. 

Photos below from November 16th game vs. Grand Canyon by Owen Main. To see more photos or to purchase photos, click here. If you just want to contribute to the cause, Venmo @Owen-Main or paypal owen@fansmanship.com. 

Finding a friend is way more important than a fancy contraption. By Harry Alverson from Shanghai, China, via Wikimedia Commons

Happy New Year. It’s 2014 and you’re trying to lose some weight, get in shape and turn your life around. If you are trying to exercise more in 2014, I have one piece of advice for you — get a friend.

Find someone who has a similar schedule and who likes to do the same activities as you — basketball, cycling, mountain biking, running, whatever. The last ingredient in this friend is that they are a little less lazy than you and possibly in a little better shape than you already.

I suppose you could call them your “exercise mentor.”

Before 2013 ended, I was down in my exercise. A new baby and lots of bad eating had my weight up about 10 pounds and I wasn’t happy about it. I wasn’t riding my road bike. I wasn’t playing basketball. I was turning more and more sedentary. As luck would have it, a friend gave me his old mountain bike and his father, who lives locally, started inviting me out on rides. My mountain bike buddy is 25 years older than me and has better stamina and skills. Most importantly, he’s had the kindness to show me new trails and parts of my hometown I’ve never seen before.

For the past two months, I’ve been furiously pedaling up the hill behind him — almost every weekend. Have you ever seen the view from the top of Irish Hills or the trails near Turri Road between Los Osos and Morro Bay. I assure you they are worth the walk/ride.

All this weekend mountain biking has caused me to be more motivated to work out during the week as well. You see, when you know that you’ll be chasing someone on Saturday, exercising on Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday becomes much less of an option and more of a necessity. Motivation becomes easier to come by. If I know I’m riding on Saturday, my meal on Friday night usually is pretty healthy, and not too heavy.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve started marking exercise on my calendar and, interestingly, I’m doing SOMETHING at least every other day, on average. This was unthinkable just a few months ago, when the lack of sleep from the newborn was a built-in excuse to not moving.

Communities can be very successful. For me, even a very small community of people I like riding and being with makes a huge difference. Though I am not, many of my friends are “Crossfitters,” and if I had to point to one thing that has caused Crossfit to enjoy a meteoric rise over the past two years, I would point to the sense of community that is clearly evident in that world. Both real social interaction at each “Box” and online virtual interaction with a community of people with similar goals can help a person achieve something remarkable there. Compare that to the weights and weight bench that have been gathering a sad, lonely layer of dust in my garage for most of this year, and the point is made.

Balancing a 5 month-old with the rigors of work AND exercise can be challenging. But, if I had one piece of advice this resolution season, it’s to spend some serious time and energy finding someone who you like and who enjoys the same type of exercise you do. It can make a world of difference.

Peter McBride is REALLY good at disc golf. By Owen Main

As it sometimes gets in the Spring, Laguna Lake Park was so freaking windy. Clutching my three cheap frisbees (discs) I had bought earlier at Big-5, I trudged up to the professional, knowing I was about to go to school.

Peter McBride still does go to school — high school, in fact. He stands under six feet tall and wouldn’t be more than a welterweight if he boxed. His bag – a backpack with over 20 discs, seems bigger than he is, though he carries it easily and is sponsored by the bag’s label. A San Luis Obispo High School student and native of SLO, McBride has emerged in the past year as one of the best young disc golf players in the country.

After winning three top-level amateur events over the past year or so, he participated in the “Steady” Ed Memorial Masters Cup, finishing in 12th place — ahead of at least two former world champions. The high finish encouraged him enough to take the prize money and officially become a professional.

Already signed up for several pro tournaments next year, the high school junior will enroll in independent study to avoid getting behind in his school work.

So, I played a round with the kid. As his “shots” curved just the right way nearly every time, mine went awry. Nearly every time. There was one shot that looked good, but a tree branch came out of nowhere to crush my hopes of a great shot. McBride was nice — blaming my errant throws on either the wind or my discs. It was much like a golfer blaming his clubs or the ball,  and something told me that he could have made my starter-set of discs curve any way he wanted.

In a lot of ways, disc golf seems kind of like golf (disc golfers call golf “ball golf”). In “ball golf,” most players who play a lot can make a few really good shots in a round. But the ones who make mostly great shots are the people who can make money doing it. Other things are similar about the two types of golf — swearing (by me, not him), having a good walk spoiled by a bad shot, and a chance to get outside for an extended period of time. I enjoyed disc golf and will definitely play again sometime. Here’s a link to a local disc golf group, the SLO Throwers.

McBride and I talked about where he wants to go, what he’s up to, and what it would be like to have a Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) event here in San Luis Obispo. It’s a quick podcast (only about 18 minutes) and I hope you enjoy it.