Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Mott goes to mound, throws one more pitch for nets

Mission Prep two-sport standout Bob Mott is set to take the mound Tuesday in the CIF-Central Section Division V baseball semifinals against powerhouse Fowler.

Mott, many may remember, raised $2,335 in the past two years with a campaign to buy malaria nets for children in Africa. The Tribune covered his story each of the past two seasons as he used 3-point shooting as an incentive to fundraise.

Malaria, a mosquito-borne, flu-like illness, claims more than 1 million lives each year worldwide. Most of the victims are young children in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Much of the danger of malarial mosquitoes can be eliminated through the use of bed nets like the one Mott has above.

Since a few people have e-mailed in to find out how they can contribute to the cause, I asked him about it after the Royals' quarterfinal win last week. Mott suggested logging on to NothingButNets.net, a Web site run by the United Nations Foundation that's raised money for more than 2 million nets.

Mott originally got the idea to raise money after both reading an article by former Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly and taking a trip through one of the largest slums in Kenya. On a return trip last summer, he shot this video at an orphanage while playing soccer with some of the kids.

Kibagare — AMAZING soccer kid


Mott said he tried out some of the moves, but slipped and fell in the mud instead. He should stick to hoops. Check out this video of one of his monster dunks:

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now that people see what Mission Prep as well as their basketball teams really stand for, they have nothing to say. That's weird....

Anonymous said...

I got something too say. Mission Prep is doing the right things for the wrong reasons. They want recognition for there help. Tell me i'm wrong, but it's the truth.

Anonymous said...

You are wrong. And pathetic.

Anonymous said...

First of all, how can you possibly say that Mission Prep is asking for recognition when it is only Josh Scroggin who put this story up on his own accord? Secondly, if you want to make a convincing argument why don't you work on your word usage first?

Anonymous said...

first off what bob mott is doin is great and i applaud him.

2ndly tho it has nothing to do with mission as a whole, the fact that he goes there means nothing with the mentality of the school, obviously since he's the only one doing it.

and 3rdly, the fact is what he's doing doesn't change how the school has acted, or acts now, one good thing doesn't change many bad things.

Anonymous said...

It's always a bit sad when people spout opinion as "fact" about things which they simply are wrong.

The "many bad things" was another attempt to give those less fortunate from 3rd world countries a chance to get out and get an education in the US. These were raw athletes who were coached to reach their athletic potential as well. Yes, it was wrong and violated CIF rules. Now the 1 Dream Foundation can do the same while sending the athletes to schools in states outside of CA where it's within the rules.

Mission is an outstanding school academically with a real sense of community. All students participate in community service and many go well beyond the basic requirement with the simple desire to help those less fortunate. 100% of last years graduating class was accepted to a 4 year college or university, and it's usually been around 98 to 99%.
Those are "bad things" I hope they keep.

Anonymous said...

all you haters out there go and do something good for your community and stop ragging on the athletes that do.

Anonymous said...

oh cmon dont play us with that bs that we were simply trying to help out these poor 3rd world kids, they were only used for the basketball talent and that was it. if it was all about the kids then why arent there loads of kids goin to mission from 3rd world countries that arent in athletics?

and thats nice and all that mission sent 100% of their kids to 4 years but its not that hard with a graduating class of 40 or 50, plus if you go to a prive school whether its amazing or not ur automatically looked better at by universities, im not saying mission is totally bad and does nothing good, but there are things that you didn't mention about mission that arent so good.

Anonymous said...

wow u must hate your life.

Anonymous said...

1:14 PM is so sad.
You know, when you say things out of spite that clearly show you don't know what you're talking about, you just end up making yourself look bad. - Maybe if you ever go to College you'll learn that ratios allow us to accruately compare things like small schools to big schools in things like this. There are lots of reasons why, but the comparison is still very valid.

MCP's graduating class this year is close to 70. That's a little bigger than Coast Union. Coast's numbers to college don't come close. There's really nothing wrong with Coast, but it does make a difference when you can be in an environment where everyone is expected to work hard and excell.

There is life after High School Sports.

Anonymous said...

i think 1:14 might've missed a couple opportunities in life. somebody call the waaambulance.

Anonymous said...

actually i did go to college and no ratios aren't exactly the same when it comes to schools and how kids are treated a school with 1000 kids isn't the same as a school with 50, a school with 50 kids gives way more personal attention to each student then a large school does. so its a lot easier to take a small school and make it do well then a large school

and you guys can take lame personal shots at me or anyone else that doesn't like mission but facts are facts and if all u can back with is lame shots then dont waste ur breath.

Anonymous said...

12:10 speaks the truth.

Anonymous said...

5:57 speaks lies.

Anonymous said...

i wonder if 12:10 knows he's acting like he's in high school still...?

Anonymous said...

i wonder if anyone thats saying bad stuff about 12:10 realizes that they just dont have any facts to back up their side. and that he's just stating facts.

grow up the rest of you

Anonymous said...

kinda ironic u said grow up when that kook acts like a pre teen. The facts are easy...this guy is a barney.

p.s. your a kook 2 1:21.

Anonymous said...

apparently in the world today your a "kook" if you spit facts, who besides a pre teen says kook anyways?

as its been said before, all of you whiners have been proven wrong and u dont like it get over it and stop calling people names. talk about pre teen.

Anonymous said...

Okay, let's step back here and try to get some clarity:

"Facts" represent verifiable information. (ie: college bound percentages, class size in comparison to Coast, Cirriculum)

"Opinion" is often influenced by bias and insecurity and uses anecdotyl evedence as "fact".

What Bob is doing doesn't make Mission a good school or a bad school. As a matter of fact, it doesn't even necessarily make Bob a good or a bad person. It just makes him a person trying to do something good.

We all have good and bad qualities. Much of the bad qualities of human nature is evidenced by many of the comments above.

Some people feel the need to use this blog to bash Mission. Some Mission supporters in turn feel the need to defend. It devolves from there.

Local Public high schools have much to offer that Mission cannot. Mission isn't for everyone just as college isn't for everyone. I believe (this is opinion) that a high-achieving student would do well at either school. Recent national studies (fact) shows that the majority of high school students benefit most from a small school setting (under 700 students).

So let go of your anger guys! What Bob's doing is a good thing. That's all!