NEW YORK -- Every morning, three young sisters wake up together with their mom in one bed in a Brooklyn homeless shelter. Every afternoon, they train in a sport that they hope will put them on a path to a better life.Tai Sheppard, 11, and sisters Rainn, 10, and Brooke, 8, have all blossomed since taking up track and field a year and a half ago, rising to the top tier of age-group national rankings and earning a spot in the Junior Olympic Games, now underway in Houston.This is a means to get them to college, says their mother, Tonia Handy, to opening doors that maybe I cant open for them.Handy, a 46-year-old who works answering phones at a car service, has been raising her family alone for nearly a decade, enduring constant financial hardship and even tragedy. Three years ago, the girls 17-year-old half-brother was fatally shot in the street by another teen over what investigators said was a perceived insult.She always managed to make ends meet, though, until early last year, when she and the girls were evicted from their apartment in Brooklyns Bedford-Stuyvesant section for failing to pay the rent, landing them first in a motel shelter in Queens and then in the apartment shelter on a gritty Bed-Stuy street.The first time we got there, there was just roaches everywhere, Tai says. Every time I looked on the floor, a roach. And every time I looked on the ceiling there was a roach. It was horrible.Handy, however, has worked to make the apartment clean and livable. But she has also made a point of not getting too comfortable in what she hopes is a temporary situation. The only decorations are the many awards the girls have won on the track, with trophies crowding the top of the lone dresser and medals hanging from every doorknob.I dont bring in anything, she says. When Im ready and I have an apartment, Im just gone.The girls, who still have their estranged fathers last name, Sheppard, got into track in January 2015 when their baby sitter, looking for some kind of activity to keep them occupied, signed them up for a track meet that did not require any entry fees.It just so happened that the founder of the Brooklyn-based Jeuness Track Club was at the competition scouting for new talent. By the end of the first day, Jean Bell had given her business cards to each of the girls separately with the instructions to have their mother call or just show up to practice.It wasnt until they turned out for practice together that Bell realized the girls were sisters.Its been very tough for them, says Bell, an administrative law judge who grew up in the nearby projects. Theyve been moved from one shelter to the next. Their belongings are shuffled around. They dont have a lot to work with but they do the best with what they have.The 20 girls on the Jeuness team come from a variety of backgrounds, but none of them are rich. Parents and coaches pool their money to provide the funds for the girls to go to the Junior Olympics.The mission of the team is to keep girls on track, both academically and athletically to set them up for college scholarships.The sisters are well on their way.Each has qualified for the Junior Olympics in multiple events. Rainn was the top qualifier for the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10 minutes, 44 seconds -- 30 seconds faster than the next-closest qualifier.Tai runs the 400 and 800, as well as the 80-meter hurdles.Brooke, the youngest, qualified for the 800, the 1,500 and the high jump, even though the team doesnt have the equipment to allow her to practice. Her only jumps have come in competitions.The girls are set to board a plane with the rest of their team for their first time Sunday to head to Houston for the track and field events, which begin Monday. But their mother wont be with them.Im not going because the shelter has a curfew and I still have to work, Handy says. Its not that kind of job where you can take time off. You dont go, you dont get paid.But Handy is hopeful she will soon land a new job that would make it possible to get a place of her own again, and to get most weekends off so she could attend more of her daughters meets.Next year, she says, I think it will be different. Old Skool Shoes From China . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. Cheap Vans Old Skool . Dallas hasnt ruled out the star quarterback for Sunday nights game against Philadelphia, but all signs point to Romos back injury pushing Kyle Orton into the starting role after two years of limited play as the backup. Surely Ortons name isnt the first that comes to mind for fans wanting a change after years of damaging interceptions, fumbles or, most infamously, the field goal flub when Romo dropped the snap on a kick that could have won his first playoff game in 2006. http://www.cheapoldskool.com/ . Collaros, 25, was solid last season, posting a 5-2 record as the starter while incumbent Ricky Ray was injured. 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Tim Cahill says Melbourne City have eyed off the FFA Cup since pre-season as a way to break through for the clubs maiden piece of silverware.City host the final against Sydney FC at AAMI Park on Wednesday night, and whoever the winner, a drought will be broken.The Sky Blues havent lifted a trophy since claiming the 2010 A-League championship across town at Etihad Stadium in a penalty shootout success over Melbourne Victory.City, then Melbourne Heart, came into existence a few months later and this week play in their first final.Its only natural then that Cahills club is taking the match as seriously as any in their seven-year history.The match is being played at AAMI Park after City made a successful pitch to FFA for hosting rights.Executives from parent organisation City Football Group are in Melbourne for the match, after previously talking up the season as a year to deliver on the weighty investments made.At the season launch in October, club vice chairman Simon Pearce told the audience he knew rather than believed that success would come to the club.On Tuesday morning, Cahill said everyone at the club understood the imperative to be successful this season.Its defiinitely something that was on the menu at the start of the season when we talked about where we wanted to be and what we wanted to go for, he told SEN radio.dddddddddddd.To be in this position is excellent and its now about executing tomorrow night.Cahill said two factors were crucial in achieving that success; a cultural shift and a new-found strength in depth.Demanding success and trophies is one thing, he said.One of the biggest things about our football club is changing the culture.You can see the style of football were playing week in week out. Were progressing. Were improving.Silverware will definitely be the icing on the cake but improvement of the football club is first and foremost.The all-time Socceroos leading scorer said the sides bench against Wellington on Sunday, when they won 2-1, showed the unbelievable talent at coach John van t Schips disposal.We had Thomas Sorensen, myself, Manny Muscat, Bruce (Kamau) and (Nicolas) Colazo coming off the bench and youve still got Paulo Retre and Osama Malik that werent involved, he said. ' ' '