HOME

 BACK ISSUES - APRIL 2003

April 29, 2003 - "If we forget that we are a nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under." President Ronald Reagan   THANK GOD FOR HIS BLESSINGS ON AMERICA - NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER - THURSDAY, MAY 1   2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)    A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: His given name was Clyde, but no one in the world of football called him that. He had a nickname that was highly appropriate for a man who has been called "the toughest player ever." Considered one of the greatest centers in the history of the game, he played his high school ball in Sweetwater, Texas - two years after Sammy Baugh - his college ball at Hardin-Simmons, and his pro ball with the Chicago Bears. Before he ever got to play a down in the NFL, and despite the fact that he came from a little-known college in the days when pros did little in the way of scouting, he was involved in a fierce contest between the Bears and the Lions for his services. Drafted number one by the Bears, he became a starter at the age of 20, and in his second year, he became the first man since 1932 other than the Giants' great Mel Hein to be named All-NFL center. He went both ways, as did all players of the era, and even by today's standards he was a good-sized linebacker at 6-2, 235. He was extremely fast, and in 1942 he led the NFL in interceptions with eight. In one game in 1944, when the Bears' ran out of running backs, he was moved to the backfield and gained 48 yards on one of his carries. With time out for World War II service, he played 13 years with the Bears, and was six times named All-Pro. He played on four NFL championship teams, including the one his rookie season that trounced the Washington Redskins, 73-0. After retirement, he was an assistant coach with the Bears, and in 1962 was head coach of the woeful New York Titans (now the Jets) of the American Football League. In George Halas' memoirs, "Halas by Halas," he recalls the time our guy served as his team's enforcer. "One day a player jumped on Bill Osmanski's brother after he was down, breaking his back. Bill told the player he did it deliberately. He replied, 'That's part of football.' (Our guy) overhears. On the next punt, (our guy) hit the guy so hard he was carried off." He had a reputation as a rough-and-tumble guy who enjoyed himself at all times, a fact Halas alluded to in saying that "he had provided so much excitement, on and off the field." In an interview with Myron Cope in "The Game That Was," (1970) he recalled that he had served as the Bears' captain "for about seven, eight years," although it was only after five years or so of his taking on the captain's role on the field that Halas made it official, "'cause to be a captain, you didn't only have to be a good player and a leader of men, but your off-the-field activities had to be real good, too, which mine weren't too good." He recalled how Halas took care of him when he'd get into scrapes. "Damn near every year," he once told a teammate who had his doubts about Halas, "I'd get in a little bit of financial trouble, and I'd need money during the off-season. I'd get in pretty bad trouble. But I would do two things. I would pray and I would call George. And you know? Every damn time, George Halas came through first." In 1966 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. *********** I was so busy doing a clinic all day Saturday that I missed the First Annual Hip-Hop Summit in downtown Detroit. The city of Detroit, so desperate to recover some of the glory of the Motown Days that one of is newspaper columnists has been conducting a slogan contest to attract tourists (one particularly nasty entry: "Detroit - We Don't Suck As Much As Cleveland!") actually invited well-known rappers to the summit, and encouraged young people to attend so that might pick up tips on how - brace yourselves - to launch their own careers as rappers. Said one 12-year old interviewed by the Detroit News, "I came to help start my career." Admission was free, and organizers had hoped 13,000 people would attend, but according to the Detroit News, "the arena was not quite full." Nevertheless, said Detroit native Eminem, "There are 10,000 me's, nome sane?" (Translation: know what I'm saying?) Scary. (By the way, I saw several explanations of the difference between "rap" and "hip-hop," and I'll be damned if I can understand a bit of it. That sort of thing tends to happen when people speak in tongues.) Many of the speakers seemed to be really full of themselves and the "importance" of hip-hop. "We can become the largest political party in the United States," said one local DJ. "We can elect governors, presidents and mayors." Governors and presidents, I rather doubt. Mayors, maybe. I mean, the Honorable Kwame Kilpatrick, Mayor of All Detroit, was one of the sponsors of the "Summit." "Hip-hop mogul" Russell Simmons went the DJ one better, though, and went global - "Hip-hop," he told the gathering, "is the most powerful cultural phenomenon in the world. You are already the leaders." In fact, he went on (in what sounds to me like a hell of a condemnation of the rest of the world, and the strongest argument I've heard yet for pulling out of the United Nations), "artists" such as Eminem, Jay-Z and Sean "P-Diddy" Combs are more loved around the world than President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. One rapper named Nas received the "Heroes" (although it could possibly have been a typo - maybe they really meant "Herpes") Award for his "hit song and video," entitled "I Can Be What I Want to Be," described by Detroit News reporter Kimberly Hayes Talor as "a powerfully inspiring song for young people." "Powerfully inspiring," huh? Wow. I never would have guessed that a guy could actually make money selling a song and video telling "young people" to forget about getting high and making babies, to forget about careers as professional athletes and rap stars, and instead to help other people, to stay out of trouble with the law, to go to school every day and do the work work , to be respectful to their elders and listen to them. Where can I buy it? *********** You'd have to live in a place like Portland, or Seattle or San Francisco to appreciate the delicious irony of listening to people trying to poo-poo the victory in Iraq by whining about the rioting in the streets of Baghdad. These are pretty much the same people who raise hell here in the US about "police brutality" whenever peace officers attempt to do anything at all to control "demonstrations" (riots). *********** Coach Wyatt: I discovered your website back in November after watching a team run a form of the double-wing and just run all over a more athletic football team in the West Virginia Class A playoffs. Since then, I have continued to read quite regularly. I am a football and track coach (tried and true) and a semi-pro football player, but I am going to do something that many people would likely be upset about, but hear me out. I'm going to defend the sport of soccer. When I was too young to be playing football, I played several years of soccer, and now that I have daughters in who are now at a competitive age, I have gotten involved, at least on a spectator level, and I have made some observations. Soccer is not the enemy. Soccer has merely become the personification of a mindset that we can't stomach, a touchy-feely way of dealing with things and wanting to litigate success rather than making kids earn it. In my experience here in the states, soccer is played by the children of parents whose children won't participate in the barbaric sport of football with commoners. The SOCCER MOM is a symbol of affluence. Go anywhere else in the world - Latin America, Europe - and soccer is the common man's game. Kids play it with great zeal on any spare field they can find and fans get excited about it. All kids, not just well-off kids. Grown men play soccer in parks rather than softball. The game is also played with a physicality which, though it could never reach the excitement of Lambert growling, "That'll cool your ass," (2) is more physical than any basketball except that gorilla ball they play in the NBA. American soccer, and the attitude it seems to represent, is the enemy, not the game of soccer itself. Dan Polcyn, Gallipolis, Ohio Dear Dan, Believe it or not, we are not that far apart. I do think that in America, soccer represents a "Europeanizing" of our culture, with all the softness and lack of emphasis on competing that that implies. But I am well aware of soccer's importance elsewhere, and of the fact that at the right time and place (I'm not sure I know when and where that is) it can be very exciting. My son, who works for a sports network in Australia and worked for Fox Sports World before that, has been heavily involved in coverage of world soccer, and as a result I am not totally ignorant of the sport. BUT... if soccer is to have any chance at all of succeeding in the United States, it has to attract the better athletes - not easy with football, baseball, basketball, and - in more and more places - lacrosse and ice hockey grabbing off their share. I have maintained for some time that the soccer people have to drop their attack-football approach - trust me, they started it, because there was never any reason to notice them. And they have to attract tougher kids. To accomplish this, I think they need to work out an athlete-sharing arrangement with football - we have them in the late summer and fall, they have them in the late winter and spring. It's the only possible way that the best athletes in America - let's be frank and say "black athletes" - are going to be attracted to a game that right now they see, rightfully, as elitist and white, for the kids who can't play anything else. It's not going to happen, of course, because the soccer people have been very good at the money-raising and the political influence that builds their youth soccer empires, and they see football as the big, bad bogeyman every bit as much as we see them as a pain in the ass. So I will support soccer elsewhere in the world, but I will do anything I can to run it out of the U.S. *********** Many, many people told me that the site of the Philadelphia clinic, the Holiday Inn in King of Prussia, PA, was a great place to hold the clinic. Doink. Monday, I got a letter from the Holiday Inn, telling me that they are closing down on June 15, not to reopen again until September, 2004, when they will reopen as the Crowne Plaza-Valley Forge. *********** The Ditzy Chicks are trying to spin the public reaction to their Bush-bashing in front of a London crowd as being good for them. You know, any publicity - good or bad - is good, etc. (Yeah. Like it really helped Jane Fonda's career.) Anyhow, a guy named Jeff Wyatt - guaranteed no relative that I'd lay claim to - who is V-P of programming at a Washington, D.C. radio station, told the Washington Post, "There are a lot of people who know about the Dixie Chicks who'd never heard of them before. Those people who made a lot of noise about this succeeded in bringing them a lot of publicity." Evidently the Chicks believe him, because they seem to have gone on the offensive. Natalie Mains, the little one with the Moon-pie face who started the whole damn thing in the first place, actually has come out and said, "People think this will scare us and shut us up and it's gonna do just the opposite. They just served themselves a huge headache." Ooooh. Scare me-e-e-e-e. *********** Your tax dollars at work. Scott Peterson had $10,000 in his pocket when he was picked up, but he is going to be defended by a public defender, paid for by the taxpayers. *********** The old saying is, "what's everybody's business will soon become nobody's business." So there were the Minnesota Vikings, represented at the draft by (1) a general manager; (2) a head coach; (3) a director of player personnel; (4) a director of pro personnel; (5) a director of scouting. A whole bunch of guys looking out for their own turf, and nobody in charge. They had an entire year to look at players, look at tapes, attend combines, go to the players' schools to tape them weight them, time them and interview them. They'd spoken to other teams, put names up on the board, taken some down and moved them around - and yet when their pick finally came, they choked. They had a seventh pick in the first round, but by the time they finished diddling around with a trade that didn't go through, and with the indecision that followed, two other teams chose ahead of them, in effect dropping them to ninth pick. Major trades have been made in order to move two places in the draft, and here were the Vikings, fumbling it away. The only member of the organization missing was the owner, Red McCombs, who was said to be at a livestock sale in Texas. Here's the NFL draft, the biggest livestock auction in the world, and this guy is down in Texas, looking at cattle while his "brain trust" can't even make a draft pick on time. *********** The recently-deceased Senator from New York, the brilliant and witty Daniel Patrick Moynihan, called it "defining deviancy down." He was referring to the lowering of our society's standards - our increasing tolerance for behavior once considered abhorrent or unacceptable. RECENT EXAMPLE NUMBER ONE: Numerous legislators and college presidents are attempting to bring about changes in a law that withholds federal loans and grants from students convicted of possessing illegal drugs. Forget the fact that the law doesn't punish kids for smoking pot back when they were in junior high - it says that in the event of the conviction of someone 18 and older, the student will lose federal aid for a year. A second conviction will result in the loss of aid for two years. This, say feel-gooders, is too tough! Says one idiot legislator from Minnesota, "At some point, you want folks to recover, you want them to be educated and make something of their life." Yeah. Like in getting busted, these students were actually "crying out for help." Some colleges, such as Yale (aargh), Swarthmore (what would you expect) and Western Washington (pot friendly) have established their own programs to provide aid for druggies who are ineligible for federal aid. The overeducated fools who run universities make it sound as if these students are in recovery, and only harsh government policy stands in the way of their straightening their lives out. Yeah right. Party on, dude. RECENT EXAMPLE NUMBER TWO: The Honorable Gary Locke, Governor of the Great State of Washington, saved the state legislature the trouble of debating a bill that would make it possible for illegal immigrants graduating from Washington high schools to pay in-state tuition at all state universities, by issuing an executive order making it official. Did you get that? Instead of turning these kids in to the authorities, as they should, Washington universities give them a better deal than United States citizens who happen to live across the border in Idaho or Oregon. RECENT EXAMPLE NUMBER THREE: In the Portland area at least, homosexuals are valued more than Boy Scouts. The local United Way chapter has announced that it will no longer provide funds to area Boy Scout organizations, because the Boy Scouts "discriminate" against homosexuals. And, of course, atheists. RECENT EXAMPLE NUMBER FOUR: Back in 1988, a wealthy gentleman named Ewing Kauffman, who'd made a lot of money manufacturing pharmaceuticals and bought the Kansas City Royals, decided to do something good for the kids at his old high school, Westport High in Kansas City, which by then had become mostly poor and heavily minority. He told the school's ninth-graders that starting with them, he would guarantee Westport kids a free college education - wherever they were accepted - but they had to graduate in four years, agree to submit to drug tests, and not get pregnant. Over the years since then, 270 of those kids have graduated from colleges, some of them from such prestigious schools as Duke, Stanford and Notre Dame. Mr. Kauffman died in 1993, and now, to show how important it is to catch up with the changing times, the administrators of the program have removed the no-pregnancy rule. "We were just punishing girls," said the director. *********** But how's a fella supposed to get information about penis enlargement? The three leading providers of e-mail accounts - America Online, Microsoft and Yahoo - announced Sunday that they had begun to work together to develop ways to cut down on unwanted commercial messages, otherwise known as spam, that are increasingly clogging their customers' mailboxes. Their aim is technical changes in the way e-mail is sent through cyberspace, in hopes of making it easier to find out who really sent it. *********** Frank Simonsen, from Cape May, New Jersey, sent me some photos from Crete, "gas station of the US Navy", where his expertise in oil spill mitigation was required. Now, Crete is a sunny island in the Mediterranean, and I had to ask him why none of the photos he sent showed him doing anything remotely resembling what he was sent over there to do. In fact, he seemed to be relaxing and enjoying something wet and cold. He wrote me, "I was recovering from FSSS (F--king Soccer Shock Syndrome)."   *********** *********** Coach: I just wanted to say that your (Providence) clinic last week was without a doubt the most productive I have ever attended!! Some might think that it was because the subject matter was so specific, but really it was more than that! Your approach to your audience is terrific. You engage them and make it clear that the question that is NOT asked is the most important one. We will be installing the DW this summer for our Pop Warner B Team and will certainly meet resistance from many groups. Your insight and suggestions were priceless!! I took so many things away in my 18 pages of notes that it's too difficult to count. It's clear to see why you have such a strong following. I already look forward to the next clinic. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Coach Tourtillotte (sp?) and thoroughly enjoyed what he had to say. I can see why you two have achieved such a bond. It is such a pleasure to be around people who genuinely love what they do. And finally, I'll be trying to convince my son to move from HB to Guard this year for the good of the team. He has very good skills, but I think he will deliver a blow more effectively than he takes one. Now we will see what kind of a salesman I am!! Nobody runs this system in our league and very few run it in Massachusetts, so with the right personnel we should have great success. The family is away tonight so I'll be watching my new video re: Installing the System. Now that's a great night!! Thanks again! Jim Smith, Boston (Later) I watched the Installing the DW video last night and was amazed at the relative ease with which you got those kids on board so quickly. Your style of engaging the players is very effective. *********** Coach Wyatt, the Detroit Clinic was outstanding! Customizing the session to the audience of youth coaches worked great. It was refreshing to see the sharing of ideas between coaches that compete against each other throughout the year. I've already emailed Donnie Hayes and Dave Livingstone to confirm their interest in setting up a "Double Wing Team Camp" next year. Doug Parks, Milford, Michigan *********** And then there's Senator Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania, who was asked a question about a case now in front of the Supreme Court , dealing with a state law that makes sodomy illegal. Since the law means that technically, Georgia state troopers with nothing better to do could break down doors and catch homosexuals, uh, "committing sodomy," homosexuals have found in the Constitution something never put there by the Founding Fathers - a supposed right to privacy - and resorted to the old "behind closed doors" argument. That is, anything going on between two consenting adults should be legal. The Senator, without condemning homosexuals or expressing the hope that the Supreme Court would rule one way or another, pointed out the legal consequences of allowing the "behind closed doors" argument to stand - that incest and polygamy would also be protected. What if, for example, two consenting adults engaging in a sex act in the privacy of a bedroom happened to be a father and his 18-year-old daughter? If two consenting adults could do whatever they wished, behind closed doors, wouldn't incest be allowed? Wow! Did the Senator hit a nerve. The next thing you know, homosexuals were saying that he had equated homosexual behavior with incest, and claiming that he wanted to gas gays. Leading Democrats, desperate for anything at all to pin on any Republican, were calling for his resignation from important committees. Even among his own party there was condemnation - that is, if you consider the Party Pussies (Susan Collins and Olympia Snow of Maine, and Linc Chaffee of Rhode Island) to be Republicans. Senator Santorum is also being castigated by the libs because he had the effrontery to say, among other things, "I have no problem with homosexuals. I have a problem with homosexual acts." This makes him a Hitler? I think it shows how really out of touch with American values the Democratic Party and the so-called mainstream media are. I'm willing to wager big bucks that if you were to read that statement to a sampling of Americans (allowing a little extra time to carefully explain to naive, young liberal things exactly what is meant by "homosexual acts"), you would find somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 per cent of them answering "Strongly Agree" or "Agree." And then, of course, there would be that other ten per cent answering "Strongly Disagree" - because they have a problem with both. SO WHY DOESN'T ANYBODY HAVE THE GUTS TO DEFEND WHAT HE SAID! *********** A coach informed me - didn't ask, informed me - that he was bringing his 10-year-old son to one of my clinics, and, at risk of offending him and losing an attendee, I felt I had to deal with the issue. Here's what I wrote: I do everything I can to discourage people from bringing youngsters to a clinic, and here is why: I do not take the Lord's name in vain and I do not use sexual vulgarity, but I am a football coach and I make my presentation to football coaches and I may from time to time use barnyard words. One of the reasons I got out of education and went on the road is so I no longer had to be answerable to prissy school administrators who mess themselves if a coach so much as says "bullsh--," or refers to someone as an "a--hole." (On occasions, I use the actual words, without apology.) *********** Hugh, Just wanted to write and tell you I had a great time in Moscow (Idaho, not Russia). Went up to see 2 of my ex- players in the spring game at U of I. I have never been to Moscow - what a pretty town and campus. The spring game was good / both my ex-players were anxious for me to critique them/ like, what I thought really mattered, but I guess to them it does. We went out to dinner after the scrimmage along with a few other players I coached that are just going to school. It is amazing their perspective of what they went through playing football and how they feel it impacted their lives. How much they wish they could still be playing. It was pure enjoyment. I was reading your news last night and I saw the thing on Rasheed wallace and I swear I will never watch a NBA game again. Take care. Mike Foristiere, Boise, Idaho *********** Dear Coach Wyatt, I just received your Tackling Video. I'm sure you hear this over and over, but what an outstanding way to teach tackling. I've always thought we did a decent job, but continue to search for a better, surer, safer way to teach it. I have found what I was looking for. Thank you for both the information and the quality of your video. We are a Wing-t team. I was very interested in your comments on blocking. We drive block everything we do and are also always looking to improve how and what we teach our kids. You will be receiving an order from me for your blocking video. It goes out today. Again, I want to tell how much I enjoy learning from your video. I hope all is well with you and yours. Sincerely, Vern Reed, D-Coordinator, West Burlington HS, West Burlington, Iowa *********** The people in Detroit were happy - really happy - with the Lions' selection of Charles Rogers, one of the best-looking wide receivers I've seen in a while. He is a native of Saginaw, Michigan (where he was state HS sprint champion), he played his college ball at Michigan State, and now he is going to be playing pro ball in the Motor City, where the Lions certainly have been needing a go-to receiver. It is a perfect fit. And, as Christopher Anderson, a native Michigander now attending school in Cambridge, Massachusetts observed, "he can be closer to his children, too." *********** I suggested to Coach Armando Castro, in Roanoke, Virginia, that maybe as long as we've got the guns out, it is time to train them on Cuba and Fidel (no relation) Castro. Knowing he's a Cuban-born American, I was interested in his take, and here's what he wrote: I'll tell you what my research on the Fidel Castro subject has revealed .The left for years has had a romantic view of the situation in Cuba. The romantic,charismatic,revolutionary standing up on his beautiful Island to the bad America. The left in our nation has just fallen in love with this man. They just will not let all the terrible stories that are true come out about the true situation there. Anything bad they blame on the radicals in Miami and their propaganda against one of their heroes, Fidel. Right now, as we speak, long prison sentences have been passed out to people just for speaking out. No reports. The people are in a terrible situation. Sent to prisons far away from their families to punish the entire family, who are expected a lot of times to even provide food for the prisoners. Remember this is the last dinosaur from the socialist movement left. They want to hold on to him as long as possible. Remember all that is reported is followed by,"they are no threat to us." Thanks for caring. We Americans should always care about freedom. Keep up the good work. Always nice hearing from you.Blessings,Coach Castro *********** The National Federation of High School Associations, unable to ignore some of the incredibly lopsided scores of girls' basketball games, has approved a rule change allowing states to act on their own to allow running clocks once the score differential reaches a certain point. It is up to each individual state to determine whether it will adopt a "mercy rule," and at what point it would go into effect. Michigan and Missouri experimented with a mercy rule from 1999 through 2002, and Michigan's rule called for a running clock once the differential reached 40 points. The rule was dropped this past season because the NFHS failed to approve it, and one Michigan girls' high school game wound up 115-2. *********** Coach, I just wanted to give you an update on Coach Peck. He had quadruple by-pass heart surgery and also had a valve replaced. He is home and doing fine. He is walking every day, eating well, and is hoping to be on the field in a limited capacity when we start spring drills on 1 May. I want to thank those coaches and others who sent their well wishes to Coach Peck, and the many that included him in their prayers. He is an institution in the coaching profession, and I am so glad he will be with us for the coming season, and hopefully many more. I'll keep you informed of his status. Thanks, Ron Timson, Umatilla, Florida *********** In reading the double wing sites of both the youth and High School it was mentioned several times that you have made quite a few changes in your system. Will you be coming out with an update on the system in the next year? I don't know what sites of "youth" and "High school" you are referring to, but perhaps it is the chat of people who have been to one of my clinics, reporting on some of the things I've covered there. Yes, there have been some changes and numerous additions made since 1996. To show them as they've occured I have put out subsequent videos, such as Dynamics II, III and IV, and Troubleshooting and A Fine Line, and the current edition of the Playbook, which is the second. And there is my Highlights video, which shows an fairly up-to-date version. At my clinics, I always try to bring people up to date on the latest things I've seen or done that haven't yet been incorporporated into any videos. I think it is only fair that if I am charging people to attend a clinic they should get something special in return.  I am working on an updated playbook.   *********** I agree with you that the job Drill Instructors do in molding young men and women into US soldiers is remarkable. I second your nomination for 'Coach of the Year' honors. Regards, Keith Babb, Northbrook, Illinois *********** For years, General Jim Shelton, one of my Black Lions friends, worked on a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which so many Black Lions died, Don Holleder along with them. It is now in print.   It is entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton. Its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967" and it is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   General Shelton is shown at left at West Point, at a book signing. (He does a lot of autographing - he personally signs every Black Lion Award certificate.)   You can get an autographed copy of General Shelton's book for yourself or for a friend - send him a check for $25 per book, and tell him who the books are for, and he'll personally autograph them and mail them back to you. His address is General James Shelton, 6610 Gasparilla Pines Blvd #118, Englewood FL 34224   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.   THE PHOTO AT THE LEFT is what the Black Lion Award is all about - connecting outstanding young men of today with the men who've served. Shown here is Cody Allen, of Las Animas High in Las Animas, Colorado, and Mr. Ernesto Vargas, a Black Lion. Las Animas coach Greg Koenig contacted Mr. Vargas, who was happy to take part in the award ceremony. Mr. Vargas, by the way, was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. On the left front of his jacket, from bottom to top, are badges of the Black Lions (28th Infantry Regiment), the Big Red One (1st Infantry Division) and the Combat Infantryman.     YOU WANNA SEE SOMETHING COOL? http://www.jackson.army.mil/228th/index.htm

April 25, 2003 - "We're all ignorant on different subjects." Mark Twain   2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY IN GETTING YOU SCENES FROM RALEIGH/DURHAM, PHILADLEPHIA & PROVIDENCE -- KEEP CHECKING!   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)    A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: Joe Kuharich is the only coach in Notre Dame football history to have a losing record there. A native of South Bend, as a kid he used to hang around Notre Dame practices when Knute Rockne was coaching the Irish. After graduation from South Bend Riley High School, he attended Notre Dame and was a three-year regular under Elmer Layden, Rockne's successor. After graduation he played pro ball with the Chicago Cardinals, then spent four years in the Navy during World War II, returning in time to finish out the 1945 season with the Cards. After a spell as line coach of the Steelers, he moved to the University of San Francisco in 1950, and stayed there four years. In his last year there, 1953, his Dons finished 9-0. They were one of the greatest college teams of all time, led by such future pros as Ollie Mattson, Ed Brown, Burl Toller, Gino Marchetti and Bob St. Clair. (The school's sports publicist was a bright young guy named Pete Rozelle.) From USF, he jumped to the Washington Redskins in 1954, and although he coached the Skins to an 8-4 record in 1955 and was named NFL Coach of the Year, his four-year record was just 25-32-1 when in 1959 he was named to succeed Terry Brennan as coach at Notre Dame. His four years at Notre Dame plunged the Irish into the depths of mediocrity. He finished 5-5 in three of his seasons, and his 1960 team finished with a 2-8 record, worst in school history. (Nonetheless, his quarterback won the Heisman Trophy, the only time a player from a losing time has ever won the award.) Notre Dame people, so shocked to learn that he had been given a contract extension that they offered to buy out the remainder of his contract, were relieved when in 1963 he announced that he had accepted an offer to become the NFL's Supervisor of Officials, and was replaced, on an interim basis, by Irish assistant Hughie Devore. After a year in the NFL office, though, he was hired by young millionaire Jerry Wolman, who had just bought the Philadelphia Eagles, and given a then-unheard-of 15-year contract as general manager and head coach. In his first two years in Philadelphia he went 6-8 (a great improvement over the previous year) and 9-5 in 1966, but after he went 6-7-1 in 1967 and then dropped to 2-12 in 1968, the Philadelphia fans were mercilessly chanting, "JOE MUST GO! JOE MUST GO! JOE MUST GO!" When a new owner, Leonard Tose, took over the Eagles in 1969, Joe Kuharich, 22-34-1 in his four years in Philadelphia, was gone. 11 years of his contract remained to be paid off. Between the era of Buck Shaw (1960) and Dick Vermeil (1976) those were bad times for Iggles fans - the 15-year Nick Skorich/Joe Kuharich/Jerry Williams/Ed Khayat/Mike McCormack stretch produced exactly three non-losing seasons. Skorich went 10-4 in 1961, (It was essentially the same team that had won the NFL title the year before. Buck Shaw had left him a championship team intact except for Norm Van Brocklin - and Sonny Jurgenson didn't do a bad a job of replacing him); Kuharich was 9-5 in 1966 - how the hell did that ever happen?; and Mike McCormack turned in a 7-7 record in 1974. Correctly identifying Joe Kuharich: Joe Daniels- Sacramento... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski, Wisconsin... Kevin McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Joe Gutilla- Minneapolis... Mike Foristiere- Boise, Idaho ("Paul Horning was the Heisman Trophy winner. Hey, I am a closet Notre Dame fan.")... Jon McLaughlin- Oak Forest, Illinois... Jeff Belliveau- West Berlin, New Jersey ("As an Eagle fan, this week's legacy photo can best be summed up in one word- OUCH !!...;-)... John Muckian- Lynn, Massachusetts ("He was the coach I believe that told Nick Buonoconti he was 'too small' for the Pro's. Great Judge of talent!")... Akis Kourtzidis - Brea, California... Greg Stout- Thompson's Station, Tennessee... Mark Kaczmarek- Davenport, Iowa... Dennis Reardon- Peru, Illinois... Mike Framke- Green Bay, Wisconsin... Mike O'Donnell- Pine City, Minnesota... Bert Ford- Los Angeles ("I was living in Somerdale, NJ at the time and playing for the Magnolia Rams. At the tender age of 12 I discovered how a team could break your heart over and over. Can you imagine he took Leroy Keyes over O.J.? Damn, the Eagles sucked during that time.")... Pete Porcelli- Troy, New York ("as a former arena football league player, I played against a certain coach named Larry Kuharich. His dad was the Notre Dame coach years ago. It looks like him. His brother was the player personnel director for the New Orleans Saints.")... Keith Babb- Northbrook, Illinois ("It took me awhile to come up with the name, but I finally remembered who was coach of the "Iggles" when I moved to Wilmington, De. As I recall, he was the victim of those famous South Philly boo birds on several occasions." Coach Babb is so right - his last year in Philly, a 2-12 disaster, the fans never stopped chanting "JOE MUST GO! JOE MUST GO! JOE MUST GO!")... Norm Barney- Klamath Falls, Oregon... *********** Hey, that rugged looking guy in your legacy this week is none other than Joe Kuharich. Kuharich was the coach of that great USF Dons team in 1951. In fact, there is a really good book about that team titled "Undefeated, Untied, and Uninvited". It is a very revealing story of how that team was built, and what led to the eventual demise of football at USF. I have a pretty good idea of the football history at USF. The Dons revived football in the mid 1960's with modest success. I was recruited to play football at the hilltop in 1972 and almost enrolled. However, it so happened that it was the same year the school decided to drop the football program for the second time. I returned to USF in 1980 when there was yet another movement to bring football back. I took a job as the assistant to the director of recreation and intramurals, and was asked to coach of the USF "Gray Fog" football club for two years. Unfortunately, at the same time, the school received a black eye due to the violations of the basketball team (Quentin Dailey and the nursing student-boosters providing fake jobs for the basketball players, etc.) so the president of the university suspended the basketball program for two years and made it very clear to me and the football club to forget thinking that football would ever become an intercollegiate sport at USF again. When the players heard that they disbanded the club, I moved on, and about half of them transferred to other schools. But, the legacy of that 1951 Dons football team remains strong, and is a vital part of San Francisco sports history. Take care. Talk to you soon, Joe Gutilla, Minneapolis *********** Hi Coach: I have seen in "News You Can Use", a few references to the Spinner T offense that was ran by the Phoenix Pirates, a high school in Southern Oregon and a member of the Skyline Conference. I have first hand experience with the Phoenix Pirates and that wacky offense. My first recollection of the Spinner T was as a young boy in the early 70's. The memory that stands out the clearest (besides Phoenix kicking the crap out of my beloved Henley Hornets) was the way the shifted into formations. It was true poetry in motion. The quarterback would bark a verbal signal and the backs would high step and crossover in unison and bark back something to the effect of "one, two, three" as the high stepped then on the snap proceed to run over the opposition. Coach, tell me if I'm wrong but wasn't this kind of shifting outlawed a short time later? As a player facing the dreaded offense it was pure guess work. To make things even dicier, they had the audacity to use their QB as a blocker. He would align under center sometimes and other times he would line up behind one of the guards and they would direct snap to the FB on either occasion. He was the guy who would have you looking out your ear hole most of that Friday night. This fella happened to be about 6'4" and 215 pounds. Ron Williams was the coach at the helm during my time in high school. He won a state title in 1979 with the offense and was beating by Henley in the state final of 1982. See you in Vancouver. Respectfully, Norm Barney, Henley High, Klamath Falls, Oregon *********** The first time I was exposed to your offense was through an article in Coach magazine. I was impressed because I felt it would work really well at Great Neck. We aren't usually blessed with big lineman, so I thought the misdirection would be great, along with everything else. I had the school order the first playbook and the tape, and the rest is history. Anyways, as a show for how this offense has impacted football in our area, here are some stats. We, Great Neck MS that is, had been the door mat of our district of 13 middle schools since the school was opened. Winning 2 games in a season was considered a success. After we installed the offense and went through the nurturing process we have found incredible success. The first year we won 2 games. The second year we went 3 and 3. The third year we went 4 and 2 and almost made it to the division championship. The fourth year we went undefeated (7-0) and won the city championship. The fifth year we went 4 and 2 and missed going undefeated by a total of 6 points, we were second in our division. This season, the sixth year of running this offense we went undefeated (7-0) and again won the city championship. I know defense is important too, but the offense has gotten us on track. This season, I also coached a recreation team at the same time as the middle school team and we ran the same offense as well. The Great Neck recreation 125 pound team also won a first ever city championship. Thanks again for your hard work, I know I have enjoyed it. Coach Mike Cochran, Great Neck Middle School, Virginia Beach, Virginia (I must say that I am impressed that Coach Cochran "stayed the course" and didn't expect immediate, spectacular results. That is coaching, regardless of the offense you choose. A lot of guys in that same position would have bailed, and would be on their third or fourth different offense by now, and they never will never understand why they weren't successful.)  *********** Man, I was barely able to handle "painful rectal itch" and "Gotta go/Gotta go/Gotta go/Gotta go/Gotta go," but it sure seems to me that American advertising has hit rock bottom when the ad for the "male enhancement" drug that promises to turn you into a "sexual tyrannosaurus" is followed by the one in which a woman confides to a male friend ("what are friends for?" he says, reassuringly) that she has been diagnosed to Irritable Bowel Syndrome - "My doctor calls it IBS." She then goes on to tell her pal (that's what friends are for, after all) about the symptoms, which include "abdominal pain, much more frequent bowel movements, constipation and diarrhea." And these people sound young! Usually, people are in their their mid- to late-seventies before that becomes the main topic of conversations. *********** Doug Wead, presidential biographer, describing his earliest impression of President Bush as an up-front, do-what-needs-to-be-done kind of person. "He's the sort of guy who could shoot Old Yeller if he had to." *********** Massachusetts Democratic Senator, gold-digger and potential presidential candidate John (the Man With the $75 Hairdo) Kerry has been caught at various times claiming all sorts of ancestry, depending on whose votes he was courting. Naturally, since it is a great asset to a Massachusetts politician to be Irish, he once tried to claim that he was Irish, but he has since stopped doing so. (Having it pointed out that it's a lie will sometimes do that to a politician.) He and his wife are reportedly incensed by "someone in the White House" claiming that he looks French. *********** Wrote a person named Randy Lucas to the Portland Oregonian: "I was appalled by the greed displayed by some parents at the Easter egg hunt at Woodstock Park last Saturday. "I saw parents knocking over children to pick up eggs and fill their children's baskets to win the coveted prizes of cheap toys and candy. I overheard a few volunteers complaining about parents combining eggs from several children to maximize their eggs count." Just think, teachers and coaches - you get those parents next. *********** This is my first time on your web site. My name is Dave Kenan. I have coached 16 years in youth football, the last 5 years with Bill Livingstone.I coach the freshman Troy Cowboys. Prior to this year I had run mostly wishbone and power I's, we went to three straight championships my first three years winning two in a row before losing by two points (could not make pat).Bill approached me at the start of the 2002 season and showed me the double wing, superpowers, counters and the G series.The first game we ran three double wing plays and scored on runs of 70,45 and 6, I was impressed but not totally sold on it. Bill was persistent as he was worked with me all season on six basic plays from the d-wing,one was a pass we called a 88 delay. We finished the regular season 8-1. We won the playoff game 13-0 rushing for 200 yards on just those six plays and controlling the clock the whole fourth quarter. The superbowl was with our rival Shelby. I stuck to the six plays and as Bill told me to stay patient, we controlled the ball the entire game rushing for 275 yards. Their offense had the ball 4 plays in the final quarter, we moved the ball all over the field on those six plays and ran the final four minutes out with a 13-0 win and our 3rd Super bowl in 5 years, Bill coached me as a player and as a coach, he was my friend, mentor and a father figure to me and the rest of the coaches on our field. He's also my second cousin to boot. As I walked our practice field on a dreary April day wondering how I will  handle not having my friend who seems to always have an answer for my questions, a tear ran down my face and I smiled up a the sky and remembered what he always told me. He'd say "Dave it doesn't matter how old or young they are i love to teach football and so do you," and I'd agree and he'd grin and say "that's all that matters is you're doing something you love and you're willing to learn even more about the game and sometimes about yourself!" I loved him and I miss him everyday, He was the Troy Cowboys, and I will be visiting your site more than ever now since Bill is gone,Sincerely Dave Kenan,Troy Freshman Coach (AGES 8,9, AND 10) (Dave - Nice to hear from you. Although I didn't work as closely with BIll as you did, and I didn't know him as well as you did, Bill was the kind of guy who had a way of quickly making you feel like an old friend. I miss him very much, especially as this weekend's Detroit clinic approaches. Thanks for taking the time to write. Think of all the kids who, if it weren't for football, might never had had Bill Livingstone in their lives. HW) *********** Back in March, Colonel Bob Novogratz, a West Point All-American in 1958, presented the Black Lion Awards at the MIllersville, Maryland football association. After I heard a lot of compliments, I asked him if he'd be good enough to send me a copy of the speech he'd given. He was kind enough to do so, and I thought that other coaches might like reading it: Congratulations on completing your football seasons. I hope you had a good time, learned a lot, improved your skills, are feeling good about the experience, have thanked your parents for making the sacrifice to allow you to play and thanked your coaches who have contributed much time and effort in teaching you the game. As you get older you'll realize that you have learned more than you imagined. Football teaches you many of the lessons of life that will always apply no matter what you do. Working together with your teammates, respecting one another, pulling in the same direction and working with your coach, you are able to improve your team's abilities and in the end, do the best you can. Further, coaching is about leadership. Sometimes this comes from the players. It's about bringing out the best in you. Playing football is not only fun. It's also hard work. Sometimes it's a bit like torture. And when hard work is combined with discipline and determination, you will always achieve your best performance. In line with the above, the West Point motto is "Duty, Honor, Country". There's a sign up there quoting General MacArthur, one of the famous Generals who helped win World War II. It goes like this, "On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory." Another, by General Marshall, says, "I need a man for a secret and dangerous mission - send me a West Point Football player." One of the best and most famous West Point Football players was Don Holleder who was an All American end as a Junior, but switched to quarterback as a senior because of the needs of the team. West Point had an excellent record and beat Navy. Don Holleder exemplified the team player, the man who commits himself to the good of the team. I knew him as a coach and can tell you he was fiercely competitive. In his book on the Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh, James Shelton writes, "He was big and strong. Tackling him was a punishing task. He gave no quarter. After being tackled he would bound up from the ground knocking people aside with an air of indomitability. As a brigade operations officer, he was much the same. He was confrontational, demanding, forceful and brave. He was one tough dude. On October 17, 1967 at Ong Thanh he arrived on the scene of a fierce battle. It was chaos. Many were killed and wounded. On his own volition, he organized a small party to regroup the force and save the wounded. None of these men knew him, but followed his simple instructions, "come with me, we are going to help, get the wounded out." The Major led, going in almost a dead run through tall grass and knee deep water. He outdistanced the rest of the group by 50m in the 350-450m. He plunged. The draw narrowed with a tree at the end of that draw. Shots rang out from the tree sounding like an AK47. He was dead by the time the medic applied the first bandage. The unit was the 28th Infantry Black Lions. 57 soldiers died that afternoon. There were many acts of heroism. Lieutenant Harold Durham was seen pressing the "press to talk " button switch of his radio handset (calling in artillery fire) with the stub of his wrist, because his hand was blown off. He was awarded the Medal of Honor. Private Joe Costello, who survived, acted as the Battalion Commander and took actions that may have saved many lives. Many courageous actions that day were documented, and many we may never know about. It was a tough day for the Black Lions, but a day on which they showed their stuff. Jim Shelton's book is dedicated to Ray Neal Gribble and the other Black Lions. Ray Neal Gribble did not want to die at the age of 24 in the middle of a hostile jungle. At a critical point in time, he made the decision to place himself in harm's way on behalf of his fellow soldiers. It was a conscious decision with the understanding of the possible consequences. He did it. He assured that a purpose was given to his life. His selfless act is an uplifting example to all of us. Tonight, we honor the memory of the men of the 28th Infantry Black Lions with the presentation of the Black Lion Awards. I am honored and humbled to participate in the ceremony. In closing, I would like to make three points: 1. These Black Lions were the ultimate team players. 2. We have great soldiers currently serving in a great U.S. Army. 3. This is a great Nation. *********** I have been studying (with great interest) the benefits of the double wing offense. I am trying to determine if it is right for my boys and am considering your video and playbook. 1. What age group is the youngest that can successfully run this offense? We have yet to find kids too young to run our system. 2. What are the pitfalls to this type of offense? The biggest pitfall is your own people (assistants, parents) who don't like the looks of the offense and /or ignorantly claim that it won't work (or doesn't look like what they're used to seeing) and will undercut you. *********** "We tell kids to read and achieve and all that, then those same kids turn on the television and see that one of the guys that was reading to them just got caught for marijuana." Karl Malone *********** The Tri-County Midget Football League, the major youth football league in Southern New Jersey, has decided by a 15-5 vote to go unlimited - to base participation solely on a player's age instead of his weight. One of those favoring the switch said he believes that more players will be involved at a younger age, proving beneficial for playing at the high school level. Before, because of weight restrictions, "Bigger kids could never play midget football," he said. "I think it's real beneficial. Everybody can play now. They'll get the fundamentals down and a lot more to work with going into high school." Another argument in favor of removing weight limits is the sometimes-dangerous practice of children cutting weight in order to stay eligible to play football. "I've been around it a long time and I hate to see kids lose weight to play football," one league official said. "Is it healthy at that age? Parents don't want kids to lose weight. Now everybody can play and that's what we're looking for." He pointed out that it had become the practice for older kids to cut weight in order to play in a younger division. For example, he said, "If we were 7-8 years old and 80 pounds, you could be 9 and be 70 (pounds) and play in that division. Those kids were always the biggest, the baddest and the toughest, and they kicked our butts. We're at a disadvantage in maturity. Teams that were against (the rule change), it was because they were so successful playing with older kids." One of those in opposition to the change conceded that eliminating weight-ins will get more kids out for football, but contended that smaller, less well-funded organization might have problems finding money to outfit larger kids. "What happens when we get bigger kids in on one of the younger age groups?" he asked. "We've got to go and get a new uniform and you're talking about $200 to suit a kid. Where does that money come from? *********** How well do you know your Trail Blazers? A sample question from "Year-End Blazers Crime Quiz" by Taylor Clark, in Willamette Week, a highly thought-of Portland weekly: 3) Which of the following things did Rasheed Wallace not say to referee Tim Donaghy in a post-game confrontation that led to a seven-game suspension, according to eyewitnesses? (answer at the end of the NEWS) (a) "You better flinch, you motherf--king punk." (b) "I'm going to shove that f--king whistle up your ass." (c) "Let's see how tough you are off the court, you punk-ass bitch." (d) "I'm going to kick your f--king ass." *********** Hi Hugh: Thank you for a great clinic at Providence. It is good to get together with high school coaches. If the professionals and some college coaches would do some of the things that successful high school coaches do we would have a much better game. Keep up the good work. With your knowledge and understanding of the game and your ability to communicate with coaches it is a pleasure to attend your clinic. Bill Mignault, Ledyard, Connecticut (Bill Mignault is the winningest coach in Connecticut high school football history. Needless to say, he has been at it a while - a few years ago, he coached his own grandson. But in all that time, he hasn't lost his touch - just this past season, Ledyard made it to the state Class L (Large school) final game. Full disclosure requires me to point out that he does not run my Double-Wing - he has built his record running his own version of the Wing-T. I think one of the major reasons why Bill, who is a contemporary of mine - he played at UConn back in the 50s - has been so successful for so long is that he is still hungry. He is always on the lookout for new ideas. I am flattered to say that he has attended my clinic for the last three or four years. He is a credit to our profession, and I am proud that he considers it worth his while to attend my clinics. HW) *********** Out of the mouths of babes... There was an article in our local paper about an outstanding group of seniors at La Center, Washington High School. Now, that got my attention. I coached at La Center, and loved the principal and the kids I coached. Although I didn't teach there, but I didn't get the impression that it was anything special academically. There was a handful of high-achievers, same as you'd find at most schools, but not that many kids aspired to going on to college. This year's group, though, sounds pretty good overall. Granted, there is such a thing as grade inflation, but 42 per cent of the seniors have GPA's of 3.5 or higher. The GPA of the entire class is 3.02. There are more kids in the class going on to college than ever before, and more of them passed the state's Washington Assessment of Student Learning than ever before. And this year's class has produced the school's first-ever National Merit Scholar. So what's the reason? Maybe it's the water. Maybe there was a full moon when these kids were conceived. Or maybe, said one 18-year-old Honor Society member, it's because "A lot of my friends' parents are still married." Added another, "We don't have to split our time between two households." *********** Mark Cuban is one smart businessman. He sold the company he'd started, Broadcast.com, to Yahoo for many, many millions. Trouble is, he took most of his pay in Yahoo stock, so just to play it safe, he bought "put" options which enabled him to sell his shares some time down the line for as high as $183 a share. Good thinking. When Yahoo shares stumbled (they now sell for around $25) and other dotcom fortunes went down in flames, he was converting his stock into cash. The cash enabled him to buy the Dallas Mavericks in January 2000 for $280 million.When he bought the team, it was bringing in $40 million a year in revenue; this season's revenue will approach $100 million. Attribute that to aggressive salesmanship and expecting his employees to do their jobs. When he took over the club, he hired an old friend as director of ticket sales, and told him, "I don't care if you have to hire 18,147 sales people and give them each one seat to sell. I want the house sold out every night." The actual sales force numbers considerably less than that, but it works hard - working in a former warehouse under a large sign that reads, "EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY IS SELLING TIME", each salesman is expected to make 100 "outbound" calls every day. Owner Cuban occasionally wander by the phones, sometimes making sales calls himself. No B-Sing allowed, either. "If you aren't talking to someone who can write the check, you're wasting time." And he is definitely not a "Trophies for Everybody" kind of guy. "I try to put everyone in a position to succeed," he told the Wall Street Journal, "But I don't believe in rewarding people for just doing their jobs." In fact, the Journal reported, when all of his sales people met their quotas recently, there was no big celebration - no party. Mr. Cuban's message to them was, "Good. That's what you're supposed to do." HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR TRAIL BLAZERS? ANSWER: (b) (He saves that for on-the-floor confrontations. These other things were told the referee in the parking garage underneath the Rose Garden. And all Wallace got was seven days!) *********** For years, General Jim Shelton, one of my Black Lions friends, worked on a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which so many Black Lions died, Don Holleder along with them. It is now in print.   It is entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton. Its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967" and it is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   General Shelton is shown at left at West Point, at a book signing. (He does a lot of autographing - he personally signs every Black Lion Award certificate.)   You can get an autographed copy of General Shelton's book for yourself or for a friend - send him a check for $25 per book, and tell him who the books are for, and he'll personally autograph them and mail them back to you. His address is General James Shelton, 6610 Gasparilla Pines Blvd #118, Englewood FL 34224   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.   THE PHOTO AT THE LEFT is what the Black Lion Award is all about - connecting outstanding young men of today with the men who've served. Shown here is Cody Allen, of Las Animas High in Las Animas, Colorado, and Mr. Ernesto Vargas, a Black Lion. Las Animas coach Greg Koenig contacted Mr. Vargas, who was happy to take part in the award ceremony. Mr. Vargas, by the way, was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. On the left front of his jacket, from bottom to top, are badges of the Black Lions (28th Infantry Regiment), the Big Red One (1st Infantry Division) and the Combat Infantryman.     YOU WANNA SEE SOMETHING COOL? http://www.jackson.army.mil/228th/index.htm

April 22, 2003 - "Energy and persistence conquer all things." Benjamin Franklin   2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)    A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: He is the only coach in Notre Dame football history to have a losing record there. A native of South Bend, as a kid he used to hang around Notre Dame practices when Knute Rockne was coaching the Irish. After graduation from South Bend Riley High School, he attended Notre Dame and was a three-year regular under Elmer Layden, Rockne's successor. After graduation he played pro ball with the Chicago Cardinals, then spent four years in the Navy during World War II, returning in time to finish out the 1945 season with the Cards. After a spell as line coach of the Steelers, he moved to the University of San Francisco in 1950, and stayed there four years. In 1951, his Dons finished 9-0. They were one of the greatest college teams of all time, led by such future pros as Ollie Mattson, Ed Brown, Burl Toller, Gino Marchetti and Bob St. Clair. From USF, he jumped to the Washington Redskins in 1954, and although he coached the Skins to an 8-4 record in 1955 and was named NFL Coach of the Year, his four-year record was just 25-32-1 when in 1959 he was named to succeed Terry Brennan as coach at Notre Dame. His four years at Notre Dame plunged the Irish into the depths of mediocrity. He finished 5-5 in three of his seasons, and his 1960 team finished with a 2-8 record, worst in school history. (Nonetheless, his quarterback won the Heisman Trophy, the only time a player from a losing time has ever won the award.) Notre Dame people, so shocked to learn that he had been given a contract extension that they offered to buy out the remainder of his contract, were relieved when in 1963 he announced that he had accepted an offer to become the NFL's Supervisor of Officials, and was replaced, on an interim basis, by Irish assistant Hughie Devore. After a year in the NFL office, though, he was hired by young millionaire Jerry Wolman, who had just bought the Philadelphia Eagles, and given a then-unheard-of 15-year contract as general manager and head coach. In his first two years in Philadelphia he went 6-8 (a great improvement over the previous year) and 9-5, but after he went 6-7-1 in 1967 and then dropped to 2-12 in 1968, the fans were out to get him. When a new owner, Leonard Tose, took over the Eagles in 1969, he was gone, 22-34-1 in his four years in Philadelphia, with 11 years of his contract left to be paid off. *********** On the subject of "multiple intelligences" about which I wrote last week, Derek "Coach" Wade, a career Coast Guardsman from Tomales, California writes: I happen to agree. I'm one of those people that can write and say anything on paper, where I have time to polish a phrase and put the right spin on my words. Unfortunately, I have the remnants of a stutter from my youth, and I tend to be overly emotional when I speak (I've been in tears twice delivering the Black Lion Awards.) I work with a guy that can fix anything. Seriously, when my transmitter breaks for the class I teach, I have the experience, but he has a thousand times the practical knowledge I do. It took him sixteen years to get to the same pay grade that I hold (E-5) because the Coast Guard advances through competitive examination and he just doesn't do very well on written tests. He's been in twenty years now, and just passed the E-7 test after taking it three times. I tell you, though, when I need to fix something at my house, I call him at home. I made E-5 in two years because I do really well on written tests. Anyone with half a brain would turn to HIM, though, when they needed something fixed! (Especially since I do!) I can turn anything into a football metaphor, but I think this really applies. A couple of days ago you had on your site an email from someone that sat on a plane next to a soccer mom that had taken some kind of coaching course to 'certify' her to coach that awful sport. You, or he, I don't recall off the top of my head, brought up the very valid point that the certification really didn't mean much if she still couldn't coach after completing the course. By the way, I discovered a site yesterday that was attempting to garner support for recalling Michael Moore's Oscar for Best Fake Documentary "Bowling for Columbine". According to their own Academy Award rules, he should not have won, since much of the information was incorrect, and several of the events were faked. Dramatic reenactments are one thing, deliberate deception is another. (Hey, why did Charlton Heston's shirt keep changing color? Maybe it was because Mikey spliced two different speeches together?) I sent an email to the Oscars from that site. I really don't care overmuch about Hollywood folks stroking their own egos, but I'd love to see him get slapped down, publically, after his lies and distortions. If nothing else it would sure damage his credibility! He said in an interview that he had the number one best selling book in America, so he had his finger on the pulse of what the real American people think and feel. I wish I could tell him, "Dude, the 'Harry Potter' books have been on the bestseller lists for six YEARS, and nobody is trying to make out like J.K. Rowling has her 'finger on the pulse'". *********** Coach, Thanks again for a great Saturday in Providence. The camaraderie of the DWers is a great thing. Being from Maine, the little talk that Coach Tourtilotte gave was priceless, pure down-east Maine. I love it how the down-Mainers like to let the flatlanders from Mass., NY, etc. think that they're not too bright. For example, a neighbor I grew up with in Maine owns a successful plumbing co., and a well-known and not very well liked out of stater (from away, the Maine term), was building a huge house with 2 guest houses, but was stiffing most of the contractors for 10-25% of the bill. So he just doubled what he would normally charge, and when the inevitable meeting with the owner came to give the news that he was paying him 15% less than the estimate, the plumber acted all pissed off, ranted and raved, then proceeded to buy a second home in ski country with the extra cash he made off the guy. Well, that was off the subject a bit. As always, an informative and entertaining clinic. I'm counting the days 'til preseason. Rick Davis, Duxbury, Massachusetts *********** Hope the Providence clinic goes well and you don't have to turn anyone away at the door. Here in Melbourne they refer to the women who work the doors at nightclubs as "door bitches"...maybe you need one of those! Ed Wyatt, Melbourne, Australia (Can you imagine the "sexist" stuff those Aussies get away with?) *********** First of all, congratulations on having such a great informative, and entertaining coaches clinic yesterday. I learned a great deal. I have been coaching and attending various coaching clinics for 22 years and this one rates as one of the best that I have been at. It was nice to finally meet you and Jack Tourtillotte in person. Now, on your 4 X play, why not call it 4 G? Isn't the blocking the same? 4 X Lead, 4 G Lead? Thanks, Donald Herman, Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts (Good question - as Woody Hayes would say. But it really is. I suppose you could call it a "G" although (1) I am afraid that the TE might get confused and block down, when I want him to turn out, and (2) the "X" is just a 2-man combo, and it is also possible to use a "6-X between the Tackle and TE. HW) *********** BLACK LION AWARD NEWS! Coach Wyatt; Hello and Thank you for having this program again in 2003. With everything going on with the military today, the kids "look up" to the men and women of our armed services. They are strong role models for them. Our winner last year was Jacob Blosser, an 8 year old who played quarterback. He has been working hard in the off season to get faster and stronger and is looking forward to this season. Jacob told me at the end of last year that he wanted to wear a different number. He wore 25 last year and wanted to change to number 13, (Dan Marino). We got your award package (certificate and regimental patch) in on Friday (the day before our banquet). We (his parents and I) called the place that makes our jerseys and had him a number 13 jersey, complete with his last name on the back, and my wife's mother sewed the Black Lion patch on it for him. At the banquet, I spoke of the things that the Black Lion award stood for, and I spoke of our winner for the award wanting to change numbers. In the end, I held up the jersey with "Blosser" and the number 13 on the back. Needless to say, Jacob was shocked. I believe, correct me if I am wrong, that Jacob was the first player in West Virginia to win the award? The newspaper did a story and if you would like a copy of it, I can get it to you. Again, I believe that this award stands for everything that it was meant to. I know our kids are looking forward to it again this year, it seems to be an award that they all would like to earn. I would like to register our team for the program again this year. Bryan Justice, Head Coach, Danville Panthers, Danville, West Virginia *********** I don't know about you, but I agree with Scott Peterson's family that he is innocent. I think it is just a coincidence that he was fishing (on Christmas Eve) in the same spot - 80 miles from his home in Modesto, California - where the bodies of his wife, Laci, and their, uh, "baby" (more about that in a minute) were found. Furthermore, I think that despite the fact that he was carrying on with a masseuse whom he'd told he wasn't married, he truly loved his wife and looked forward to being a father to his not-yet-born son. I agree with his family that the Modesto police turned Laci's family against their son. And I don't see anything at all suspicious about his change of identity - dyeing his hair and growing a goatee - shortly after his wife's body was found, or his carrying $10,000 in cash on his person. And where did people get the idea that he was heading to Mexico? And besides, what if he was? I mean, was he supposed to stay in Modesto, where the police and Laci's family had practically convicted him? Okay, okay. I think the f--king dirtbag is guilty as sin and I hope he fries in hell. But oo-whee, is this case going to be a tough one for the femmies and their belief in the sacrament of abortion! "Pro-choice," they call it, as if it's just a matter of flipping a coin - heads I abort, tails I keep it. I mean, here's a dead woman. I presume that most feminists think murdering one of their sisters is wrong. But what was that other thing found with Laci, that dead thing that looked like a human baby, its umbilical cord still attached? Was that just a "mass of tissue", as the pro-choice folks say is all that a fetus represents? Or was that a second murder victim? Trivia: Scott Peterson's congressman, until 2002, was Gary Condit. Hmmm. *********** Jarrod Martin will go free. That's my prediction. There's not a jury in America that will convict him. Martin is the Nashville guy who stood around and watched his apartment burn while his dog remained trapped inside, then finally, growing tired of the fire department's promises that they'd do something about the dog, and broke through the fire lines, climbed up to the deck of his apartment, broke open the glass sliding doors, and freed his dog. He was taken away in handcuffs, under arrest for "disorderly conduct" and "reckless endangerment." (What? No "Rescuing dogs without a license?") My advice to the prosecutor in Nashville: don't waste your time or the taxpayers' money on this one. *********** At the clinic, I forgot to ask you about extra points. Obviously the line would be Tight. Are the Wings standing as they would in Punt formation? Is your holder approx 7 yards from the ball? Last, in the event of a bad snap, what plays (run or pass) would you recommend for the "scramble" calls? NAME WITHHELD On PATS, my wings are lined up normally but they are turned out. They are responsible first for the gap to their inside. That is where most blocks will come from. if nothing comes through that gap, they block first man to the outside. The entire line is foot-to-foot, but at the same time, I want a wide front, to get the outside rushers wider, so I teach wide stances. The two guards lock their inside feet inside the center's feet. That is legal. No one else can do that but the guards. This is crucial - at the snap, I teach all blockers - wingbacks included - "step with the inside foot, don't move the outside foot." (If your linemen do move their outside feet, they will create gaps.) Also, it is good to have a slight stagger in the lineman's stances - that way the man on the outside takes that step to the inside with his inside foot and it will actually wind up behind the outside foot of the man to his inside. It is the responsibility of the center to make sure that the ball is spotted exactly in the middle of the goal posts. The ball is spotted exactly 7 yards back of the spot. Any less than that and the kick is more likely to be blocked by someone coming through the middle (or just getting a hand up); any deeper than that and it is more likely to be blocked from the outside. It is the responsibility of the holder to find that spot, and make sure it is on an imaginary line drawn from the center of the crossbar through the ball. The ball is snapped AFTER "Ready" - it is not snapped ON ready. We do not want to give the defense a verbal cue. When the holder has checked to make sure we have 11 men and they are all set and steady, he turns to the kicker and asks if he's ready. When the kicker says he is, the holder calls "READY!" and the center can snal it any time AFTER that - but not ON "Ready." When the ball is snapped, our ends and wingbacks block for "1001-1002" (same as screens) and fan out to their side. You have to constantly work on them to do this everytime - not too soon, though - against tha one time that you will need them to be there. If anything goes wrong, the kicker goes through with the kick, just as if the ball was snapped correctly, but the holder rolls (reverses out) outside to the right and it is an automatic "RED-RED." We also practice plays such as 6-G with the holder carrying, and RED-RED A SCREEN LEFT (with the holder throwing), and occasionally a 58-C or 49-C, with the holder shuffling the ball to the runner (which makes it a pass play). *********** Coach, Just read your site about Coach Fowlkes in Virginia and the possibility of her being the first woman high school football coach. I have information I know first hand that Scott Frost's High School team in Nebraska had his father as head coach and his mother was the receiver's coach. She had been a former track athlete at Nebraska and coached there for quite a few years. Later his parents moved to Iowa (Council Bluff's area) and I think she was on his father's staff there. Just wanted to let reader know that she was very knowledgeable and well respected in Nebraska high school ranks as far as I was aware of. Ron Timson, Umatilla, Florida *********** Coach My name is Phil Joyal. I am a Vermonter. I am a football coach that has converted the entire football program in my city from grades 5-12 to your double wing system. Your comments in the news you can use section got my attention. Howard Dean is our former Governor and he is a spineless idiot. He doesn't represent me and never did for that matter what Vermonters really think and believe. Jeffords surprised us just as much as he did you. Trust me when I tell you that Howard Dean is not in our news. But what is are the funerals of two soldiers, one a 21 year old Marine sniper and former lineman at South Burlington, the other a helicopter pilot that was shot down outside of Baghdad. I don't care what Howard Dean thinks - what is very apparent around here is that the war has hit home. Vermont is a great place to live. It does have it share of morons and rednecks, and unfortunately most run for office. Phil Joyal - A Proud Vermonter - Barre, Vermont ( Glad to hear from a Vermonter. I am a proud Washingtonian, and I have to admit that we have politicians - like our two ditzy female Senators, and Congressman Jim McDermott, who visited Baghdad and bragged about it - that give us a reputation to rival anything you've got. I see the sort of liberal stuff that has taken place in Vermont - but probably not in a hard-working town like Barre that has made its living quarrying granite - and I wonder what happened to the spirit of Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys.) *********** In all of the articles I've read and all of the talk I've listened to over the last 3 weeks, I've seen a remarkable dichotomy between words used to describe the action. When words are used to support a political point of view or to tell bold faced lies, the words fade to irrelevance when exposed to the searing truth of the compelling results of actions taken. Contrast the 'reporting' of Baghdad Bob or Peter Arnett with the reporting of various Centcom and Dept of Defense officials. Also, words backed up with action are so amazingly strong, that outcomes become fait accomplis (sorry for the French). It's so comforting to have a leader/leaders who say what they mean and back their words up with action. One of the collateral benefits of our actions in Iraq will be to restore a degree of credibility in the elements of our government that demonstrate reliance on the link between words and actions. In short, spin is dead! I'm so proud to be an American, I can't see straight. The lessons we teach as football coaches and parents that actions speak louder than words and that talk is cheap are receiving gigantic confirmation in the images of 'Operation Iraqi Freedom'. Thank God, the pendulum of public tolerance that swung toward secularism, left-thinking, pseudo-intellectual rationalizations in the 1960's has begun to swing back toward the truly liberal vision of the greatness America could achieve as envisioned by our founding fathers. All correct thinking, love America types still have work to do to rescind the negative impacts of the last 40+ years, but hope will continue to burst forth as the powerful link between direct words coupled with compelling action reduce rhetoric to the sideshow status it deserves. Finally, God bless our young men and women in uniform. Their professionalism, enthusiasm, competence, and esprit de corp are marvels to behold. Thanks for including Major General J.M. Mattis' address to the troops. I showed it to Nicholas. He has never wavered in his decision to sign up and the General's speech just added to his conviction. Regards, Keith Babb, Northbrook, Illinois  *********** My nominee(s) for Coach of the Year has to be America's drill sergeants and drill instructors - the people who turn American youngsters into soldiers, sailors and Marines. They take ordinary kids, in some cases a little less-than-ordinary kids, based on their lives up to that point, and instill in them a new - and dare I say better? - set of values. What does it say about our system of education that it can spend 12 years allowing kids to be selfish, rude, lazy, irresponsible, unproductive oafs, and then, in the space of several weeks, our military people can undo all that the schools have done and turn out disciplined, responsible, team-oriented people? *********** With states everywhere in financial crisis, unable to find the money to pay for essential services such as education, not to mention all the fluff programs they so eagerly put in place back in the days when it seemed like prosperity would never end, I would like to suggest one potential source of funds: find out how all the young professional agitators - the "activists" who never saw a protest they couldn't find some reason to take part in - manage to avoid having to work to support themselves. I'll bet they'll find some government program or grant or some such deal is subsidizing these louts. *********** MY SON THE VICTIM I had to share this with you. You'll appreciate it. Thursday afternoon just before I was leaving school for Easter break, the phone rang...... I answered, "Hello, Mr. Lane speaking. How can I help you" A parent said, " Yes, this is Mrs. (we"ll say Jones) and I have a question for you." I replied, "And what might that be?" The parent asked, "Why did you write up my son for saying 'M.F.er' in your class?" (Of course, the student had said the word in its unabbreviated form.) I replied, "Excuse me! I thought the referral was pretty clear." The parent then asked, "Well, I mean, what did the other students do or say to make my son say that?" Mike Lane, Avon Grove, Pennsylvania *********** Coach Wyatt, I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed attending your clinic in Philadelphia. Once again it was very informative. I also appreciate your great support for the military and enjoyed seeing the photos from Quantico on your web page. As the son of a former Marine who served in the 4th Marine Division at Iwo Jima it always makes me proud to see the statue of those men raising the FLAG on Suribachi. My father was involved in the first wave on Iwo Jima and lasted on the island until early March when he was wounded in the neck and back. My father was a true hero who loved this country and would have been extremely proud of the effort put forth by our current soldiers. Coach, keep up the great work and I look forward to seeing you at next year's clinic. Sean Murphy, Head Football Coach / Archbishop Curley HS, Baltimore, Maryland *********** Wow. Talk about defaming somebody. A gay rapper (talk about a contradiction in terms) named Caushun says he wants to be "hip-hop's homosexual Jackie Robinson." Can you believe that? A guy combines two activities of questionable taste, not to mention healthfulness, and he wants to be compared with one of the most courageous men of our time. This Caushun, described in the New York Times as "totally street: baggy jeans, wrist bands, fresh black Timberlands, a diamond stud in his left ear and a baseball cap (worn to the back, at an angle) with his name spray-painted across the bill in graffiti bubble letters," has a poodle named Wesley, and lives in "an apartment with ornate pillows with silk flowers on them and beautiful vases filled with giant lilies." He is described as having "floppy wrists and a gay twang" - and he loves to do women's hair. (www.thegayrapper.com) So here's where the Jackie Robinson comparison supposedly comes in: it is fair to say that there isn't a lot of openly gay activity among big-time rappers, whose lyrics are heavily into finding various, uh, uses for "ho's." (God help us all if Caushun's lyrics explicit describe homosexual acts.) And, since hip-hop is now claimed by some to be as big - "as large a cultural stage" - as baseball was in the 50s (a highly doubtful premise, in my opinion) there are those - gays, undoubtedly - who see Caushun's making it on the big stage as having "a profound impact on how gay people are perceived throughout America." Now, that last statement may very well be true and there may be a "profound impact," but it may not necessarily be an impact that results in a favorable perception of gays and lesbians. And as for the comparison with Jackie Robinson, it's as if Martha Burk had dared to liken herself and her frivolous cause to Dr. Martin Luther King and the struggle for civil rights. While Jackie Robinson's example made it possible for other black athletes to find opportunities previously denied them, I have my doubts that a gay rapper openly chanting rhymes about the things he and "the boys" do to/with one another will be opening many doors for gays.   *********** A friend who just returned from his state's high school athletic directors' convention told me that one of the major topics being discussed was the subject of out-of-season workouts. He said that AD's were warned not to mention the subject in job interviews, for fear that if out-of-season activity were seen as an expectation - as a part of the job description - they might wind up having to pay the coach(es) for such activity. MORAL: just because he/she doesn't mention it in the interview, the AD still expects you to do those things, and so there's no harm in your bringing up the subject and specifying what you intend to do if you're hired. *********** Writes Craig Smith in the Seattle Times: Girls basketball and soccer have become almost exclusively upper-middle class and middle-class sports at Class 4A and 3A schools in the Puget Sound area. That's because of the nearly year-round competition on club teams is expensive and many girls can't afford it. Club and select-team competition produces the best players because of the good coaching and level of competition in practices and games. I suspect the same holds true for softball and volleyball as well. Once again, the rich get richer, "buying" their children scholarships at the expense of the downtrodden poor. Where are Al Gore and Bill Clinton when we really need them? Where is the federal program that pays club team fees and hires personal coaches for the children of the "working poor?"   *********** For years, General Jim Shelton, one of my Black Lions friends, worked on a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which so many Black Lions died, Don Holleder along with them. It is now in print.   It is entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton. Its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967" and it is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   General Shelton is shown at left at West Point, at a book signing. (He does a lot of autographing - he personally signs every Black Lion Award certificate.)   You can get an autographed copy of General Shelton's book for yourself or for a friend - send him a check for $25 per book, and tell him who the books are for, and he'll personally autograph them and mail them back to you. His address is General James Shelton, 6610 Gasparilla Pines Blvd #118, Englewood FL 34224   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.   THE PHOTO AT THE LEFT is what the Black Lion Award is all about - connecting outstanding young men of today with the men who've served. Shown here is Cody Allen, of Las Animas High in Las Animas, Colorado, and Mr. Ernesto Vargas, a Black Lion. Las Animas coach Greg Koenig contacted Mr. Vargas, who was happy to take part in the award ceremony. Mr. Vargas, by the way, was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. On the left front of his jacket, from bottom to top, are badges of the Black Lions (28th Infantry Regiment), the Big Red One (1st Infantry Division) and the Combat Infantryman.     YOU WANNA SEE SOMETHING COOL? http://www.jackson.army.mil/228th/index.htm

April 18, 2003 - "When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite." Winston Churchill   2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)    COACHES PLEASE NOTE - BECAUSE OF THE SIZE OF THE RELATIVELY SMALL SIZE OF THE MEETING ROOM, THE PROVIDENCE CLINIC IS NEARLY SOLD OUT. IF BY SOME CHANCE YOU HAVE NOT PRE-REGISTERED BUT YOU PLAN ON REGISTERING AT THE DOOR, PLEASE CONTACT ME NOW, BECAUSE THERE IS A STRONG POSSIBILITY THAT WE MAY HAVE TO TURN PEOPLE AWAY AT THE DOOR. A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: One of his George Allen's sons, George, Jr., is a United States Senator; another, Bruce, is an executive with the Oakland Raiders. His daughter, Jennifer, wrote a not-so-flattering book about his utter failure as a father. That's because George Allen defined the obsessive coach. Football was all he knew and all he had. He was famous for sayings that equated winning with living, losing with dying. ("Every time you lose," he said, "you die inside and every time you win, you're reborn.") For a time, he subsisted largely on ice cream, because he could eat it without diverting his attention from watching films. He once said that he believed that a man needed sleep and he needed leisure time, and he believed in doing them both at the same time. He was successful on the field, largely because of the loyalty he inspired - some would say bought - but he also developed a reputation around the NFL as a coach who would cut corners to win (he was once fined by NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle for trading the same draft choice to two different clubs) and among owners as devious and uncontrollable. After serving as George Halas' defensive coordinator, he tried to accept the Rams' head coaching job while still under contract to the Bears. Halas sued him and won, but them, having made his point, released him to the Rams. When he was lured east to try to turn around a Redskins franchise that had not known much recent success, he announced that there was going to be no long-range building. "The future is now," he said, as he surrounded himself with players considered too old by other teams, but players he knew and trusted. He left the Redskins after the 1977 season and never coached in the NFL again. Although a proven winner, he had alienated three of the most powerful owners in the NFL in George Halas, Carroll Rosenbloom, and Edward Bennett Williams. Perhaps his relationship with owners was best described by the Redskins' Williams, who told reporters, only half-jokingly, "I gave him an unlimited budget - and he exceeded it." His last coaching gig was at Long Beach State, in 1990. He died that December. Ironically, his son attributed his death to the chilling Gatorade bath given him after his final game. George Allen is the only coach in NFL history to coach more than 10 years and never have a losing season. In his 12 years as an NFL head coach, he compiled an overall regular-season record of 116-47-5, managing to get into one Super Bowl (losing to the Dolphins). He was installed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame last summer. Correctly identifying George Allen: Akis Kourtzidis- Brea, California ... Jeff Belliveau- West Berlin, New Jersey... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski, Wisconsin... John Bothe- Oregon, Illinois... Greg Stout- Thompson's Station, Tennessee... Barry Gibson- Ardmore, Alabama ( "I had the opportunity of a lifetime of playing for Coach Allen when I signed with the Washington Redskins as a rookie out of Southern Mississippi in 1976. What a tremendous motivator he was. He never asked us to do anything he wasn't willing to do himself. This was a man who after a three hour practice, would start running around the track for about 5 miles just to stay in condition because he stressed being in great condition to his players. I have nothing but fond memories of George Allen and I am forever grateful for the invaluable lessons I learned from him about being the very best player and person I could be. Even today, I still use some of his strategies in my practice organization. I truly loved the man.")... Ron Singer- Toronto ("He also got in trouble with the NFL for introducing his special teams unit pre game instead of his offense. A pioneer in the use of special teams and defense.")... Kevin McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Scott Barnes- Rockwall, Texas ("The Anti-Tom Landry")... Mike Foristiere- Boise, Idaho ( I remember in 1990 he spoke at a coaches clinic in Anaheim on Special teams and not too much later he was dead. I thought he was an awesome speaker/ in fact Eddie Robinson spoke and so did Tony Mason. It was a good clinic.")... Mike O'Donnell- Pine City, Minnesota...Dave Potter- Durham, North Carolina ("I loved his teams. Watching "Whiskey Bill" Kilmer and Sonny "Fatman" Jurgensen, Jack Pardee and Myron Pottios...a great cast a characters.")... Norm Barney- Klamath Falls, Oregon ("I can still remember coach Allen making a big deal out of Special Teams when no one else seemed to.")... Tom Hinger- Auburndale, Florida (("I see I'm not the only one that was not impressed with George Allen. He was a legend in his own mind").... Sam Knopik- Kansas City... John Muckian- Lynn, Massachusetts... Mike Framke- Green Bay, Wisconsin ("I remember something he said to his team prior to going on the field - not exact - 'Forty men together can't lose!'")... David Crump- Owensboro, Kentucky ("The legacy this week is George Allen of the Rams and Redskins of the NFL. A proven winner and master motivator of highly paid pros. I consider him to be the best special teams coach ever. His book on special team play is a classic and should be a must read for all coaches.")... Keith Babb- Northbrook, Illinois... John Zeller- Sears, Michigan... Mark Kaczmarek- Davenport, Iowa ("Sioux City, IA Morningside College Coach George Allen")... Michael Morris - Huntsville, Alabama ("What I remember the most about George Allen was his enthusiasm for the game and coaching.")... John McLaughlin- Oak Forest, Illinois... Dwayne Pierce- Washington, DC ("I had the privilege of meeting him in a hotel lobby just outside of Washington, DC in 1990. That summer I was a bellman and while many of my colleagues were afraid to speak to him...I politely walked over to him and said 'Coach Allen.. I'm sorry to bother you sir,but may I have your autograph.??' He looked a little frail but smiled and in a low voice asked me what my name was and signed a note pad. We shook hands and I said thank you. As a fan of the Redskins... We still love Coach Allen. There hasn't been a coach quite like him in the NFL...and I doubt there ever will be.") ************ "Of course, You and I have already talked about George Allen being an Alma College man. Alma, a member of one of the great Division III conferences, the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, was kind of a mini "Cradle of coaches." "Besides George Allen, another nationally known figure to come out of Alma is Bob Devany, the architect of the Nebraska machine. Also, Denny Stoltz, former head man at Michigan State, Bowling Green, and San Diego State was a student at Alma. Coach Stoltz also coached Alma to three consecutive MIAA championships in the late 60's and early 70's I believe. "A fourth great coach to come out of Alma was Pete Schmidt, the pride of Port Austin, Michigan. Coach Schmidt was a highly successful coach at my Alma Mater, Albion College. He had a record of 104-27-4 in 14 years, including the 1994 NCAA Division III National Championship. In 1997 he became Cam Cameron's quarterback coach at Indiana (Can you say Antwan Randle-El?). If you were a fan of Big Ten football in the late 90's, you know that Indiana didn't fail because of a lack of offense. Sadly, Pete passed away in the fall of 2000. "I'll also mention two outstanding high school coaches here in the state of Michigan who were Alma men, the Fraser brothers, Morley Jr. and Doug. They are the sons of another Albion College coaching legend, Morley Fraser, Sr, who had a record of 81-41-1 in 15 years at Albion. "Even though Alma and Albion were rivals, I'm proud of these Alma guys because those of us who played MIAA ball have a kind of brotherhood. I assume that it is the same for many of your readers who played Division III ball. We had nothing compelling us to play (scholarship), but played for the love of the game. I'm sure there are many Division I players who love the game, but having been in a Division I and III program as a player, and a Division II program as a coach, there is nothing like Division III ball. It's pure football." John Zeller, Sears, Michigan *********** Coach Wyatt, I wasn't aware Coach George Allen's daughter wrote a less than flattering book about what it's like to be a coaches daughter...Kind of makes you think a little..I'm glad my daughter enjoys being at the field as much as I do... It was good to finally meet you at the Philly clinic this past weekend...Judging by the crowd you may have to do an encore presentation here on one of those open dates you have listed on your clinic calendar... I think I've mentioned my love of the "Single Wing" to you in the past...Your "spread gun" will enable me to get my "SW fix"..Thanks...Great presentation in Philly, and hope to see you soon.. Jeff Belliveau, West Berlin , New Jersey. (Jennifer Allen's book, "Fifth Quarter," is very sad. She doesn't exactly rip her father, but it is obvious that she - and her mother - felt ignored by the Great Man, so obsessed was he with football, and at the end, when there is no more football for him, you come away with the impression that for all the fleeting success he had in football, there really wasn't much to him as a man.) *********** (" One of my favorite books has over 500 football drills and it was written by Coach Allen. I had just come over from Greece and didn't really understand much at the time but sounds to me like Coach Allen was a lot like Bill Parcells. Is that accurate? Akis Kourtzidis, Brea, CA In many ways, as coaches, he and Parcells were quite different, I think. Parcells has a reputation for being blunt and direct, rather excitable, sometimes loud. George Allen, on the other hand, was calm and reasoned. Calculated, some might say. In other ways, especially as regards their surrounding themselves with players they know and trust, even if they're older, they are similar. They are similar in their desire to control things. They also are similar in that, even though they are winners, management would prefer not to have to deal with them. *********** Coach, The idea of a spinning fullback who takes a direct snap from the center through the quarterback's legs is an interesting one. In Minnesota, Dick Lawrence of Eveleth High School (now Eveleth-Gilbert) won a state championship in 1973 using a double wing formation (with the QB under center) with a spinning fullback. Coach Lawrence, who is enshrined in our state's hall of fame, had tremendous success for years with this attack in a highly competitive Iron Range Conference with most of the schools significantly larger in population than Eveleth. Quite a few years ago (I guess it would be almost 20 years now), I contacted the coach at Phoenix, Oregon after seeing an article he wrote for "The Coaching Clinic" magazine and we exchanged ideas regarding the spinning fullback attack. At the time, he was running a multiple formation offense although its basics were primarily of a Wing-T nature in terms of having one back in the halfback's spot while the other was on the wing (either strong or weak) as well as including the double wing set. They were very successful as well. However, Coach Lawrence was 100% double wing (tight, spread, Roy, and Lee) and his offense was a thing of beauty to watch. We played them in 1977 (when Eveleth was down in talent) and I scouted them twice. We put coaches in pads (young guys will do anything to help their kids regardless of the intelligence of the decision) to simulate the spinning FB style and I was the spinner. It was great fun and we had a very difficult time trying to stop the man who had the ball (fullback or wingback) because of the confusion it caused. For those coaches who have played or coached the single wing with the spinner series, it is an offense that still has a tremendous amount of potential. Coach Lawrence is a legend in our state and is one of the pioneers in our coaching association. I am proud to say that he has been a long time friend of mine. Interestingly enough, possibly the second best team in the state in 1973 was John Davies' double wing squad from Crosby-Ironton. Coach Davies ran a Delaware-style of offense from the double wing set and it was disappointing that his C-I team did not get a chance to meet Coach Lawrence's Eveleth squad. C-I was not invited to the playoffs because they were not one of the top four teams in the state that year based on an unusual computer ranking system. Lastly, Michigan State's standout teams of the middle 1950's under Coach Biggie Munn ran the multiple offense (and Coach Munn published a book through Prentice Hall) in which he used the QB under center as well as the spinning fullback as a part of his offense.  All the best to you and your family. I hope the clinic season continues to go well with you and I am impressed that the Providence clinic is sold out. They will be getting the best from one of the best. Mike O'Donnell, Pine City, Minnesota (Biggie Munn's book is "Michigan State Multiple Offense." I consider it a treasure. HW) *********** "Everybody is really excited about Spring Practice starting in a couple of weeks. The Atlanta clinic was so helpful. Look-out, here comes Ardmore's 'Wave of Steel.'" Barry Gibson, Ardmore, Alabama (In an incredible success story, Coach Gibson, in his first year at Ardmore, brought the state's longest losing streak to a halt this past year - after spending less than a week installing the Double-Wing! HW) *********** As the field hockey coach at Frank W. Cox High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Nancy Fowlkes had a record of 390-55-20 record, winning 13 state titles.And then she retired.From field hockey - but not from coaching. A year ago, Cox head football coach Steve Allosso approached her about joining his staff. She accepted the offer, and the rest is history. This past season, as far as any can tell, she became the first female high school football coach in the state of Virginia. Actually, the National Federation of High School Athletic Associations hasn't been able to find a record of another female high school football coach anywhere. Ever. Now, I'm not a big fan of Freak Show sports. Nothing pisses me off more than to come home after the first day of summer practice to read an article in the local paper about the one girl in the entire county who has decided she'd like to try football. I mean, what about the 600 boys who also practiced that day? But Nancy Fowlkes is no Freak Show hire. She is the real deal. I go along with Coach Allosso here. I'm a great believer in hiring for personal qualities first. I think the football can be learned. And although I am on record as being opposed to girls playing football with boys - I mean, hell, that's why there's soccer - I am not opposed to girls (or women) playing football against one another, and I would have no qualms whatsoever about hiring a qualified woman as an assistant. I believe that 13 state titles - not to mention the respect of the kids, the other coaches, the faculty, the administration and the parents - qualify Nancy Fowlkes. I also suspect that she didn't achieve that record without having "a set of stones." So she hasn't played football before. So what? I know lots of good male coaches who for one reason or another played very little football. While in Virginia Beach recently, I had the good fortune to meet Coach Fowlkes and talk with her a bit about her experience so far. (She's been coaching running backs.) She said that what has really blown her away has been the great camaraderie of a football coaching staff. She said that all those years she was coaching field hockey, it was just she and one assistant. To be part of a close-knit group of people that works and socializes together is something new and invigorating. In addition, she said she was struck by the fact that football coaches share what most outsiders would call an obsessive love of the game. Any of you who has ever taken the wife and kids out to dinner and then drawn plays on the restaurant tablecloth will understand what she means when she says, "football coaches are always on task." Nancy Fowlkes, welcome to the club. FOR ALL YOU MARINES OUT THERE... I have been accused by certain readers of having "an infatuation with the Military." To them, I respond, "You noticed!" It was worth having my car searched by America's finest in order to get these shots on my recent swing through the East. After living in the fetid leftist miasma that is the Pacific Northwest, where the pinkos are still disputing the legitimacy of President Bush's election (get over it, a**holes!) it does a fella good to get out among real Americans. At right is the sign at the entrance to the Quantico Marine Base, "Crossroads of the Marine Corps." Below left, the Iwo Jima Memorial replica, on a beautiful spring day. (And to think there were some idiots who raised hell because a young Marine dared to cover Saddam's head with an American flag!); Below right, check the beribboned trees. Thanks, USMC. *********** Ever wonder how come the guy who could barely pass English is now considered a genius as a football coach? The answer probably lies in the concept of "multiple intelligences." Many of you have seen the description of the Young Soldier... or the Young Marine... or the Young Infantryman. It's been circulating on the Web, and it's a great description of a young guy just like the hundreds we've taught and coached, who in the process of becoming a soldier has become quite a man. He's not good with words, the description goes, so he doesn't like writing letters, but he can field-strip a rifle in seconds with his eyes closed. He's a good example of what is coming to be recognized as "multiple intelligences." A few years ago at my class reunion, I heard a Yale professor talking on that subject. He noted that it is possible for a person to be very, very intelligent in one area, and near-imbecilic in another. . One of his illustrations was Bill Clinton - how, he asked, could a person supposedly so highly intelligent do such stupid things? (How, I might add, could someone as intelligent as Al Gore is supposed to be keep telling whoppers and not think he'd get caught?) The reason, the professor said, was that Mr. Clinton was considered to be oh, so very bright by the news media in an area they prize - he was a smooth talker who could rattle off figures, a mark of great intelligence among the media elite (and, consequently, by the people who allow themselves to be influenced by the media.) I think that TV has brought this about, because I think of the young soldier and realize that things haven't always been so. I think that one of the things that this War With Iraq (or whatever the hell we're going to wind up calling it) may do for us is bring about a return of the respect once accorded to the UnClinton - the sort of man who maybe had to quit school in the sixth grade because he had to work to help support his family, but he had a lot of common sense, he could spot a phony a mile away, and he could fix damn near anything. In a pre-Information Age society, this was a man who was respected by all. He embodied the American spirit of "Can Do." I am constantly reminded of this when I note that George W. Bush is scorned by elite media types because he doesn't appear to have their preferred type of intelligence - which is defined by glibness, by the ability to speak without stumbling, by always having the right word ready, properly pronounced and properly phrased. Now, that's all well and good if you're anchoring a TV news show. Or casting a movie. Great. But meanwhile, this war has shown us that George W. Bush, the guy the media types love to make fun of, has a form of intelligence far more useful to a President than theirs. *********** Mike Lynn is no longer the General Manager of the Minnesota Vikings. But he must have been one hell of a GM, because even in retirement, he's making more from the Vikings than their current GM. Get this - part of the deal he cut with the Vikings when he sold them on the idea of paying the Metropolitan Sports Commission $1.2 million a year rent on luxury boxes inside the Metro Dome was that he would get 10 per cent of the total revenue the boxes brought in. For God knows how long. Last year, the boxes earned the Vikings $5.2 million. Hmmm. 10 per cent of $5,200,000. Do the math. Mike Lynn got a check for $520,000 this year. *********** The Greek Diogenes wandered in search of an honest man. Wyatt wandered in search of a courageous school administration. Don't know how successful Diogenes was, but Wyatt's search was successful. There is a courageous school administration at Mark Morris High School in Longview, Washington. Seems the Mark Morris baseball team took an early season road trip, and at some point, while out of town, some drinking went on. I don't know a whole lot more than that, but it was reported in the local papers that the school administration, in determining how to mete out punishment for the rules infraction, asked players to report what they knew, and gave them a drop-dead deadline of April 2 to do so. When April 2 came and went without anyone coming forward, the school cancelled the season. The first lawsuit by a parent claiming that the administration has cost his son a chance at a college scholarship/pro contract has yet to be filed. Count on it. *********** Before we knock any more Hollywood types for going outside their sphere of competence (whatever it may be) to attack President Bush, it's time to ask ourselves why the people who are paid to write and talk about "sports" wasted so much ink and air time on Martha Burk and her feeble protest of the Masters. If nothing else, the way the members of the media carried her bag for her exposed a great number of them for the lefties that they are. Coupla questions: (1) Why were a bunch of sports junkies, tripping over each other to show how politically sensitive they were by commenting on a constitutional issue beyond their comprehension, any less out of their depth commenting on August National than the dimmest Hollywood bulb commenting on President Bush? (2) Now that their best efforts were unable to produce a larger crowd of than 40 people at Martha's Rally, what liberal cause will they turn to now? *********** From a Conservative Special-Op, hidden deep behind enemy lines in the Peoples' Republic of Massachusetts... .....Coach in the words of the immortal Dixie Chicks ," I am embarrassed and disgraced that Sen. John Kerry ( As well as Teddy Boy) comes from the state of Massachusetts." Coach Wyatt, you nailed it right on the head when talking about Kerry ( as well as most liberals) they are the most disingenuous, phony, fakes you will ever come across in your Life. Coach, in the 2 month period since he announced he's claimed he's everything under the sun , Irish, Yankee, Jewish - and the moronic Irish tribe (I count myself as one of them) will come out in droves and vote for this nitwit. If Jesse Helms or Newt Gingrich used that phrase "regime change" when Slick-Willy was in office , there would have been "holy-hell" to pay - see ya Friday John Muckian Lynn, Massachusetts *********** "We lost a good one," wrote Chris Davis, of Slayton, Minnesota, telling me about the recent death of longtime Murray County Central Coach Ken Sagedahl. Coach Sagedahl sure did sound like one of those coaching legends. He retired as a teacher in 1989, after 34 years in the classroom, but he continued to coach. In 1981, when he was honored by the Minnesota State High School Coaches Association for 25 years of high school coaching, he said, "It's nice to get the honor. I guess if you didn't like working with the kids and with athletics, you wouldn't be in coaching. I always told myself that if I ever got completely out of athletics that I would also have to get out of teaching. Athletics has always been my first love. When you are working with the kids, the academics and the extra-curriculars go hand and hand. The kids gain so much from both areas." *********** Coach, Can you run the wing-t successfully with 1-1-2 splits? Thank you for help. NAME WITHHELD I'm sure you can run the wing-t successfully with those splits. People do it all the time. But if your question is, can you run our Double-Wing successfully with those splits, I have an answer and a question: My Answer: NO My Question: Why, in the face of overwhelming evidence that our offense works because of its tight splits, would you want to? *********** Coach Wyatt, after listening to the withering attack by the press in trying to discern the United States intentions in warning Syria over harboring Iraqi leadership and chemical weapons I had to write. The press wants to know exactly what message we're trying to send. How about this. Knock the crap off or we'll be toppling statues in Damascus. Stop supporting Hezbollah and radical Palestinian groups or you might consider hiring the missing Iraqi information minister as your public relations guru. I work with some left wing liberals. They believe the entire process is contrived, part of a predetermined strategy undertaken by the Bush administration. I typically respond by saying that I hope that is the case. I hope that we finally have an agenda, be it predetermined or smartly impromptu, that could lead to lasting peace in the Middle East, if not only through the elimination of the radical Islamic fundamentalists. I hope Syria, Iran, the PLO, and even Saudi Arabia are quaking in their boots (I was going to add France but they don't even merit space). We have a unique opportunity to change the world. I truly believe we need to "use it or lose it." Sorry about the diatribe, see you at the Detroit clinic. Doug Parks, Milford, Michigan (I think we have sent a beautiful message. The press may be too dense to figure it out, but I think the rest of the world is not. Lacking the eloquence of a Benjamin Franklin, I would put it, "Don't f--k with us." HW) *********** Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon may not be welcome at the Baseball Hall of Fame, but they are most welcome at any of my clinics. I invite them to attend, where they will be free to share their views on War and President Bush with the coaches in attendance. *********** There's never a good time for a successful coach to move on, and Roy Williams' timing in leaving Kansas - before they could even have the annual post-season parade in Lawrence - was no better than most. Kansans rightly feel jilted, and they are taking their shots at the former coach. Advertised on eBay is a "Roy Williams is My Coach Survival Kit." "You wanted him, you got him." it says. "Now get the essentials necessary to survive his seasonal rants and post-season faceplants." The kit includes: 1. Tissues (pocket pak for big games, case for everyday use) 2. Book of Royisms (a must to interpret his dadgum *liar* frickin *liar* I'm as corny *liar* as they come *liar* vernacular and subliminal *liar* messages *liar*) 3. Dean Smith Mini-Me Puppet (any similarity to Roy Williams is purely intentional) 4. Roy Williams Family Tree ( seedling-must be planted in shadow of Daddy Dean Oak, cut branches back severely, keep roots choked in tar, guaranteed to never achieve independent growth) 5. Certificate of Loyalty (*signed personally by Roy at the July 2000 "I'm staying" rally in Memorial Stadium at KU.) *in disappearing ink *********** On April 25, in a ceremony in Washington, D.C., Black Lion Clark Welch will be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. It is the second-highest honor that can be bestowed on an American serviceman, second only to the Medal of Honor (which honor, I should add, may yet be conferred on Mr. Welch, if General Jim Shelton has any say in the matter.) I thought you might find it interesting to read the award citation: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, (amended by act of 25 July 1963) has awarded the Distinguished Service Cross to ALBERT C. WELCH (THEN FIRST LIEUTENANT, UNITED STATES ARMY) For extraordinary heroism in action against the enemy on 17 October 1967, near Chon Thanh, Binh Long Province, Republic of Vietnam. First Lieutenant Welch's company was moving behind Company A, 2d Battalion, 28th Infantry into an enemy base camp. After two hours of cautious movement, Company A was devastated by withering enemy small arms, grenade and machine gun fire, killing Company A's platoon leaders and seriously wounding the company commander. First Lieutenant Welch rapidly directed a perimeter defense around the Command Group and raced forward to ensure that his forward elements were tied in with Company A's rear elements. As he approached through heavy enemy fire he received a wound to the chest but succeeded in bringing several wounded soldiers from Company A back into his company's perimeter. He ran to his men to encourage and direct their fire. Ignoring sniper fire from the trees, he cannibalized damaged radios to call for artillery fire, close to and on to his position, while carefully avoiding the area where the dead and wounded were lying. Seeing an enemy rocket propelled grenade being launched against the Command Group, he raced forward through both enemy and friendly fire and killed the enemy soldier, receiving a serious wound to his left arm. With his sidearm, he killed another enemy soldier who had penetrated the company's perimeter. Exhausted, he slumped to the ground. His first sergeant called to him that enemy soldiers were executing American wounded. He again rose to his feet, raced forward, and killed two more enemy soldiers, then fell unconscious but still alive from five battle wounds and loss of blood. First Lieutenant Welch's heroism, care for his men, personal fighting skills and leadership epitomized the actions of an infantry leader in close combat against an overwhelming enemy force. First Lieutenant Welch's actions reflect great credit upon himself, the 1st Infantry Division, the United States Army, and the United States of America.   To put the ferocity of the battle described above - the Battle of Ong Thanh - in perspective, in the approximately three hours that it lasted, 58 American soldiers were killed. That is nearly half the total of all the Americans lost in the entire Iraq War, in combat and in accidents. Clark Welch's fellow soldiers still speak of him with awe. Read more about Clark Welch, a great American in CLARK WELCH - RELUCTANT HERO and in General Shelton's Medal of Honor Recommendation   *********** For years, General Jim Shelton, one of my Black Lions friends, worked on a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which so many Black Lions died, Don Holleder along with them. It is now in print.   It is entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton. Its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967" and it is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   General Shelton is shown at left at West Point, at a book signing. (He does a lot of autographing - he personally signs every Black Lion Award certificate.)   You can get an autographed copy of General Shelton's book for yourself or for a friend - send him a check for $25 per book, and tell him who the books are for, and he'll personally autograph them and mail them back to you. His address is General James Shelton, 6610 Gasparilla Pines Blvd #118, Englewood FL 34224   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.   THE PHOTO AT THE LEFT is what the Black Lion Award is all about - connecting outstanding young men of today with the men who've served. Shown here is Cody Allen, of Las Animas High in Las Animas, Colorado, and Mr. Ernesto Vargas, a Black Lion. Las Animas coach Greg Koenig contacted Mr. Vargas, who was happy to take part in the award ceremony. Mr. Vargas, by the way, was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. On the left front of his jacket, from bottom to top, are badges of the Black Lions (28th Infantry Regiment), the Big Red One (1st Infantry Division) and the Combat Infantryman.     YOU WANNA SEE SOMETHING COOL? http://www.jackson.army.mil/228th/index.htm

April 15, 2003 - "If you've lost your history, you've lost both eyes."  Alexander Solzhenitsyn   2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)    COACHES PLEASE NOTE - BECAUSE OF THE SIZE OF THE MEETING ROOM, THE PROVIDENCE CLINIC IS ABOUT SOLD OUT. IF BY SOME CHANCE YOU HAVE NOT PRE-REGISTERED BUT YOU PLAN ON REGISTERING AT THE DOOR, YOU SHOULD CONTACT ME NOW, BECAUSE THERE IS A STRONG POSSIBILITY THAT WE MAY HAVE TO TURN PEOPLE AWAY AT THE DOOR. IN ANY EVENT, I AM OBLIGATED GIVE SEATING PRIORITY TO THOSE WHO HAVE PREREGISTERED AND PREPAID. A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: One of his sons is a United States Senator, another an executive with the Oakland Raiders. His daughter wrote a not-so-flattering book about his utter failure as a father. That's because he defined the obsessive coach. Football was all he knew and all he had. He was famous for sayings that equated winning with living, losing with dying. ("Every time you lose," he said, "you die inside and every time you win, you're reborn.") For a time, he subsisted largely on ice cream, because he could eat it without diverting his attention from watching films. He once said that he believed that a man needed sleep and he needed leisure time, and he believed in doing them both at the same time. He was successful on the field, largely because of the loyalty he inspired - some would say bought - but he also developed a reputation around the NFL as a coach who would cut corners to win (he was once fined by NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle for trading the same draft choice to two different clubs) and among owners as devious and uncontrollable. After serving as George Halas' defensive coordinator, he tried to accept the Rams' head coaching job while still under contract to the Bears. Halas sued him and won, but then, satisfied that he had made his point, released him to the Rams. When he was lured east to try to turn around a franchise that had gone a long time without much success, he announced that there was going to be no long-range building. "The future is now," he said, as he surrounded himself with players he knew and trusted. Considered too old by other team, the "Over the Hill Gang" still had a lot of football left in them, and he molded them into perennial playoff contenders. Despite building a poor team into a powerhouse, he left this team after the 1977 season and never coached in the NFL again. Although a proven winner, no NFL owner would touch him. Perhaps his relationship with owners was best described by owner Edward Bennett Williams, who told reporters, "I gave him an unlimited budget - and he exceeded it." He did resurface in the USFL, and his last coaching gig was at Long Beach State, in 1990. He died that December, not long after the end of the season. Ironically, his son attributed his death to the effect of the chilling Gatorade drenching given him after his final game. He is the only coach in NFL history to coach more than 10 years and never have a losing season. In his 12 years as an NFL head coach, he compiled an overall regular-season record of 116-47-5, managing to get into one Super Bowl (losing to the Dolphins). He was installed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame last summer. *********** Thank God for the return of the POWs. Interesting that in all the interviews of the parents and brothers and sisters that I saw, they all mentioned that they were sustained in their ordeal by faith and prayer and by the prayers of others. *********** I heard a TV anchor say that she couldn't understand how other Arabs could admire Saddam Hussein, given his murderous ways. She sure doesn't understand human nature - and she sure wasn't listening to the same radio station I was when I heard about people mobbing O.J. Simpson for his autograph. *********** Speaking of prayers, you might say a prayer for Dr. Rod Paige, Secretary of Education. He needs strength to face the heathens, after he dared to cross the "All Cultures/Values/Religions are Equal" folks by saying, "you know, all things being equal, I would prefer to have a child in a school that has a strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community, where a child is taught to have a strong faith." Sounds about right to me, but Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York (ever seen the guy?) called Dr. Paige's statement "religious bigotry," and said it had "no place in the Department of Education." Despite demands that he apologize, Dr. Paige, a former football coach, did not Dixie-Chicken out. "I don't think I have anything to apologize for," he said. I don't either, Dr. Paige. Hang tough and keep the faith. *********** Dr. Paige might have been thinking about the sort of sh-- that took place in a Minneapolis-area public school recently, where out of deference to the large number of Muslim children in a school, its principal decided that teachers should take a "neutral" approach to the War in Iraq. Excuse me? Neutral? When our country is at war? What kind of weasely crap is that? Listen, Mr. Principal - those kids are in our country. They are welcome here, too - provided they support our country. If not, f--k 'em. And their teachers and principals, too. Go, USA. Beat Iraq. *********** Hey, you left-wing pukes... You think George Bush is bad? Just be glad that there's no way I could ever be elected President. But just in case fate were somehow to put me in the Oval Office, I have my list of targets ready: 1. France 2. There is no one in second place - no one else is even close to France 3. Hollywood 4. Russia 5. Tie: Saudi Arabia, Syria, the UN, CNN, New York Times, Columbia University *********** Hello Coach Wyatt, We won our 5th game of the year: 8 - 10 in a defensive standoff. Our record is now 3-2. We now have a slight chance of reaching the playoffs, but no matter what happens we have shown quite an improvement this year. All games with this team had been quite close, but we had lost all of them until now. We had chances to make this an easier game, but we could not use them and had to endure a nerve wracking game! Despite all my mistakes, we have been quite competitive this year with a very limited squad (in terms of squad size and experience), and we have a tough team on defense-special teams partially due to the mentality the double wing brings. We have our last group game next week. We will need to score a lot of points in this game as it might come down to "most points scored" for playoff qualification. In either case, it will not be our last game this season, since we expect to schedule exhibition games post-season. I'll let you know how it goes. Regards, Kerem Ates, Gazi Warriors, Ankara, Turkey *********** Coach, One other Buck Nystrom tidbit. He had one of my favorite quotes of all time when I saw him at that clinic I mentioned. When talking about the development of an offensive lineman he said: "Coaches, you gotta go out an make 'em cause Santa Claus ain't gonna sh*t one out of the sky!" Matt Bastardi, Montgomery, New Jersey *********** Hi Coach, I heard about your shotgun DW and would like to purchase the plays or playbook. I purchased the DW playbook and videotape,Installing the System tape and Dynamics 3. I ran the Wildcat last year and would love to run the shotgun offense this year. Also what do you think of a direct snap thru the legs of the QB for all fullback plays in your indirect snap offense? (1) I don't have a shotgun tape ready at this point, but I am considering putting one out even though with a few exceptions it is largely untested under game conditions. (Although it does show promise.) (2) Provided that your center can make the direct snap and the T-formation snap with the same grip, without giving anything away, I certainly see some merit in a direct snap through the QB's legs. I don't know the rules in this case. There are risks to doing so, of course, because your QB might not get out of the guards' way, but you could work that out. Several years ago, a high school coach in Phoenix, Oregon was very successful doing something along those lines!  HW  *********** "I went to the Baltimore Clinic a year ago with the sole intention of learning enough about the Double Wing to stop it. We had suffered some serious whippings by a the first DW team I had seen the previous season. At the first break I bought the playbook and Dynamics tape. By lunch I was 90% converted and by the afternoon break I was looking for "a Set of Stones". Five months of study and a worn out video head later we installed the system, by the book, and my 11-13 year old Panthers went 9-0 winning the Rockville Football League Championship, averaging 29 points a game and close to 300 yards rushing per outing. "We just got back from the Philly Clinic this weekend and you know what? I'm going to have to spend the next three and a half months working on all the "new stuff" I picked up as a second timer. Anybody who thinks they have got it by attending one clinic and working with the playbook is selling themselves short. I have always maintained that youth players make huge advances from year one to year two as they progress through the various weight and age divisions. If they have even a little bit of ability they almost always become contributors in their second year. I have a feeling the same goes for coaches if they participate in learning opportunities. Adding what I just absorbed from this years clinic to where I ended up last season is going to take my coaching and teaching to a higher plane. "Hugh, you are a special guy. Thanks for your dedication and devotion. With your guidance and teaching we will all continue to prove that IT DOES WORK!" Eric Heckman, Rockville Football League, Rockville, Maryland *********** "Coach, I laughed out loud just now when I read the comment from the reader who couldn't believe we have 11-man football with only 168 kids in the school. We usually get about 32-35 kids out the first couple of days, but we usually end the first week with about 30 and end the season with 25-28. Obviously most of our kids go both ways and play on most of the special teams. Anyway, I attended the ( ---) Coaching Clinic in conjunction with their spring scrimmage this weekend, and the head coach of a state runner-up was talking about how difficult things are at his "small" school. He complained because about 40% of the students in their school receive free or reduced lunches. I quit taking his complaints seriously at that point because 75-80% of our students receive free or reduced lunches. He was whining because 6-8 of his guys have to go both ways. I seriously thought about walking out." As for the "small school" problems, I can safely say that you haven't truly rounded out your coaching career until you've coached at a small school. The small-school coach deals with problems on an everyday basis that the big school coach never imagines. HW *********** Coach Jason Clarke, of Millersville, Maryland, was at my Philadelphia clinic Saturday, and handed me a tape of his team's championship game this past season. He followed up with a note saying, "Not one of my best coaching jobs, but we played back in to the game. We lost in Double-OT. Learned a valuable lesson about staying mentally focused. Hope you can see that we are working and having a lot of success with the Double-Wing. We are 21-3 since running the double-Wing exclusively." *********** Greg Koenig, of Las Animas, Colorado, wrote to tell me about a clinic he attended last weekend: "An 'expert' coach (they are considered experts because they are at big schools or have won championships, I guess) was discussing offensive line play and said, "We hold a lot, and we get away with it a lot." So you can imagine all the young coaches returning to their schools ready to teach their kids how to violate the rules." That guy sure gives the impression that he is condoning holding. If that is so, he is a cheat. And if there is anything worse than a cheat, it is a cheat who makes light of it. Once again, I would refer all football coaches to the AFCA Code of Ethics. According to the code, there is no room in the game for people who disrespect the rules.   *********** Back when the media types were wondering how we would identify the corpse of Saddam - should we suspect that we'd found it - without a sample of his DNA, Rush Limbaugh suggested we could probably get some from Peter Arnett's lips.   *********** How do you normal people in Vermont enjoy life behind enemy lines? First it was your oh-so-courageous Senator Jim Jeffords, who cut the deal in which he'd become an independent - forgetting the fact that he'd been elected as a Republican, using Republican campaign funds - thereby making Fishface Tom Daschle the Senate Majority Leader.   More recently it was your delusionary Governor Howard Dean, who back when it was fashionable to ridicule President Bush as a warmonger really thought that all the applause he was getting for his anti-war, anti-Bush speeches actually meant that he had a chance of being elected President. Make me laugh - your guy is so leftish he wears pink lace panties. His comment on learning of the fate of Saddam Hussein was - I am not making this up, as Dave Barry would say - "We got rid of him. I suppose that's a good thing."   Yeah, Guv. I guess, in balance, weighing all the factors, you'd also have to say it was probably a good thing that we defeated Hitler.   Did you really elect that nut? Do you really know people who voted for him?   "I suppose that's a good thing."   Wow. You wanna see a military coup right here in the old US of A? HOWARD DEAN as Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces would almost assure it.   *********** Not that John Kerry, from Massachusetts, would be much better than Howard Dean. I mean, politically, Massachusetts is just a larger Vermont, with Kennedys. A little more than a week ago, before it became clear that we were going to whip Iraq, Kerry had the gall to say, "what we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States."   Now, this guy may actually be a war hero, as reputed, but he is a phony in other areas - claiming on at least two occasions in the past that he is Irish (a decided political asset in Massachusetts) but lately, when pressed for the truth, denying that he'd ever made the false claim. It really pisses me off that he is living high on Jack Heinz's money. He is married to the very, very wealthy widow of Jack, my college classmate. Jack, at the time a Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, was killed in a helicopter crash outside Philadelphia, and he left his family fortune - earned the long, hard way by the Heinz family of Pittsburgh - to his wife, who then married Democrat Kerry. Which is how Senator Pretty-Boy is able to spend $75 on a hairdo.   *********** Great, Great statement by Coach Boeheim.They are sure words for a Coach to live by.I know it touched me.Hope you are having a good time.Well what are the left going to say now? It could not be going better.Except for our loss of heroes' lives it could not be better.Iraqis seem happy. Then scumbag in Cuba sentenced 26 human rights activists to minimum 25 years for wanting changes there.Then the scumbags in our nation always question our freedom, and our right to protect it.Amazing.Thanks for all you do for us Coaches.FOOTBALL MEN.As long as our movement stays strong we will be all right here in our nation.Hope all goes well in Philly.Blessings,Coach Armando Castro, Roanoke, Virginia *********** "I have been told that armed with the knowledge of this material, I will be ready to conquer the task of implementing the DW with 9/10 year olds. "If you have time please share some wisdom when implementing your system with young kids." I think that Installing the System will show you step-by-step how to teach this system to your players. But the most important tip I can give you is to make sure that there are no doubting Thomases on your staff. The Double-Wing is not familiar-looking to the average Joe, and you are likely to run into resistance from people who've "learned" their football from when they played or from Madden (the man or the video game). If they don't share your vision and you keep them on board, they will undermine you. The kids won't fight you. They will take your word for whatever you say is the best offense there is, and if the Double-Wing helps them be successful, they will love it. Their parents, even at that young age, may object for the same reasons I cited above. Tell them that in your judgment, this offense will give the kids the best chance to succeed.   *********** Around Chapel Hill, where the University of North Carolina administration made a mess of the firing of Matt Doherty before finally managing to lure Roy Williams from Kansas, much was made of the importance of hiring someone from within "the family." Carolina people really talk like that, and the reason for that is the great Dean Smith.   Al Featherston, of the Durham Herald-Sun, told of Smith's incredible ability to forge family ties among his former players: "If you were to ask Dean about some fourth-string walk-on guard who played for him in 1969, he'd say 'Oh yeah, I just talked to Chuck last night. he and his wife, Ethel are expecting another child. They just added another level to their deck. Chuck shot an 81 the other day and their son, Chuck, Jr., just got an A-minus on his math test.'"   *********** Matt Doherty, of North Carolina, apparently was a tad too hard on his players. He's now out of work. Geno Auriemma of UConn was, by all accounts, even harder on his. He's an NCAA champion.   You have to admire Auriemma, and you have to admire his girls. He and the girls make no secret of the fact that he is hard on them in pushing them to excel, and he recruits girls who are tough enough to take his coaching.   Said Auriemma, "If I was a lovey-dovey coach, always patting my players on the back, we'd probably have lost five or six games. I think greatness is something you achieve by punishing yourself, and it doesn't matter if it's men or women."   *********** Not saying that high school sports are our of control or anything, but in order to get LeBron James to agree to play in the Capital Classic all-star game outside Washington, D.C. this week, the sponsors have had to insure him for $10,000,000. It is believed that the premium on the policy could run the sponsors in the neighborhood of $100,000. *********** On April 25, in a ceremony in Washington, D.C., Black Lion Clark Welch will be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. It is the second-highest honor that can be bestowed on an American serviceman, second only to the Medal of Honor (which honor, I should add, may yet be conferred on Mr. Welch, if General Jim Shelton has any say in the matter.) I thought you might find it interesting to read the award citation: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, (amended by act of 25 July 1963) has awarded the Distinguished Service Cross to ALBERT C. WELCH (THEN FIRST LIEUTENANT, UNITED STATES ARMY) For extraordinary heroism in action against the enemy on 17 October 1967, near Chon Thanh, Binh Long Province, Republic of Vietnam. First Lieutenant Welch's company was moving behind Company A, 2d Battalion, 28th Infantry into an enemy base camp. After two hours of cautious movement, Company A was devastated by withering enemy small arms, grenade and machine gun fire, killing Company A's platoon leaders and seriously wounding the company commander. First Lieutenant Welch rapidly directed a perimeter defense around the Command Group and raced forward to ensure that his forward elements were tied in with Company A's rear elements. As he approached through heavy enemy fire he received a wound to the chest but succeeded in bringing several wounded soldiers from Company A back into his company's perimeter. He ran to his men to encourage and direct their fire. Ignoring sniper fire from the trees, he cannibalized damaged radios to call for artillery fire, close to and on to his position, while carefully avoiding the area where the dead and wounded were lying. Seeing an enemy rocket propelled grenade being launched against the Command Group, he raced forward through both enemy and friendly fire and killed the enemy soldier, receiving a serious wound to his left arm. With his sidearm, he killed another enemy soldier who had penetrated the company's perimeter. Exhausted, he slumped to the ground. His first sergeant called to him that enemy soldiers were executing American wounded. He again rose to his feet, raced forward, and killed two more enemy soldiers, then fell unconscious but still alive from five battle wounds and loss of blood. First Lieutenant Welch's heroism, care for his men, personal fighting skills and leadership epitomized the actions of an infantry leader in close combat against an overwhelming enemy force. First Lieutenant Welch's actions reflect great credit upon himself, the 1st Infantry Division, the United States Army, and the United States of America.   To put the ferocity of the battle described above - the Battle of Ong Thanh - in perspective, in the approximately three hours that it lasted, 58 American soldiers were killed. That is nearly half the total of all the Americans lost in the entire Iraq War, in combat and in accidents. Clark Welch's fellow soldiers still speak of him with awe. Read more about Clark Welch, a great American in CLARK WELCH - RELUCTANT HERO and in General Shelton's Medal of Honor Recommendation   *********** For years, General Jim Shelton, one of my Black Lions friends, worked on a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which so many Black Lions died, Don Holleder along with them. It is now in print.   It is entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton. Its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967" and it is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   General Shelton is shown at left at West Point, at a book signing. (He does a lot of autographing - he personally signs every Black Lion Award certificate.)   You can get an autographed copy of General Shelton's book for yourself or for a friend - send him a check for $25 per book, and tell him who the books are for, and he'll personally autograph them and mail them back to you. His address is General James Shelton, 6610 Gasparilla Pines Blvd #118, Englewood FL 34224   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.   THE PHOTO AT THE LEFT is what the Black Lion Award is all about - connecting outstanding young men of today with the men who've served. Shown here is Cody Allen, of Las Animas High in Las Animas, Colorado, and Mr. Ernesto Vargas, a Black Lion. Las Animas coach Greg Koenig contacted Mr. Vargas, who was happy to take part in the award ceremony. Mr. Vargas, by the way, was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. On the left front of his jacket, from bottom to top, are badges of the Black Lions (28th Infantry Regiment), the Big Red One (1st Infantry Division) and the Combat Infantryman.     YOU WANNA SEE SOMETHING COOL? http://www.jackson.army.mil/228th/index.htm

April 11, 2003 - "Most battles are won before they are fought."  Sun Tzu (450 B.C.)   2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)   THE DOUBLE-WING AND THE US ARMY- A WAVE OF STEEL   SORRY- NO "LOOK AT OUR LEGACY" THIS WEEK - : I AM ON THE ROAD ALL WEEK, TRYING TO COMBINE A LITTLE VACATION WITH MY WORK, AND I SIMPLY WON'T HAVE THE TIME TO STOP AND HANDLE THE E-MAILS THAT "A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY" GENERATES    PHILLY CLINIC GUYS - IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE STAYING FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE HOLIDAY INN (OR NEARBY) OR IF YOU JUST LIVE IN THE AREA AND YOU ARE INTERESTED IN HAVING DINNER WITH SOME OTHER COACHES, I WILL BE IN THE LOBBY OF THE HOLIDAY INN AT 6:00 *********** "...the antiwar forces, who have had to contend from the start with the widespread belief that their position is unpatriotic and unsupportive of American troops engaged in deadly combat, must now bear the additional burden of arguing with success." R. W. Apple, in the New York Times *********** When I see those tanks rolling into Baghdad, symbolically they are rolling down the main streets of American's most liberal cities, shoving aside the dissidents and winning the hearts and minds of the fence-sitters. MORAL: When you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow. *********** Coach, I know you are traveling this week, and I hope you and your wife enjoy your trip. Just wanted to bring you up-to-date on Coach Peck. He is going to have double by-pass surgery, but they had to take out four teeth today before they can go ahead with the heart surgery. It has to do with possible infections, etc. It looks like it could be Friday at the earliest before his heart surgery. I appreciate you putting something on the web site, and Coach Peck is in great spirits and looking forward to getting his plumbing fixed and hopes to be back on the sidelines as soon as the Doctor will let him. The Doctor is very positive about his ability to return to coaching. Just to bring you up-to-date and thanks again. Ron Timson, Umatilla, Florida *********** Coach Wyatt, I loved the feature this morning about the kids who called 2 Wedge on their own despite what the coach had originally called in as the play call. Too funny!  If it were up to the kids, I think they would run the Wedge every play, every time, every down. My kids loved it too!  Even here at (-----) I was able to get the Jr. High coach to allow me to put the Wedge in. (Well reluctantly put it in) In fact, the varsity staff frowned upon me calling that play because it was, as they said, "not a part of the varsity offense." I said to the varsity coach who told me that I could now only run the wedge 1 time per quarter, "We'll maybe it should be."  The truth shall be told - hands down the wedge was our most productive play. It was instant yardage anytime we needed it. And with a team that never practiced blocking and tackling, trust me we needed yardage any time we could get it. NAME WITHHELD *********** You ever stop to think about the pussy NFL rules that favor the passing game? Blocking with the hands and with the arms extended, making it way too easy to cross over the line and out-and-out hold (sometimes strangle) Permitting offensive tackles to line up way back off the line of scrimmage Liberalized intentional grounding rules that lessen the chances of a sack Protecting the quarterback who runs by allowing him to hook slide Stopping the clock for an incompletion - rewarding passing inefficiency with a free time out - this may be the biggest of all incentives to trash the running game in favor of the pass Permitting the spike - making a total farce of legal intentional grounding "Rolling the dice" - throwing the ball on the chance that at the very least you might get a pass interferecne call (In pro ball) Placing the ball at the point where interference occured, automatically assuming that the catch would have been made The "illegal chuck" rule, allowing a defender one pop at a receiver within five yards of the line of scrimmage, and thereafter permitting the receivers to run free in the secondary ***********  Go West, young man... Just to give you an idea how our area is growing- in the Vancouver, Washington School District, where my wife teaches, one-fourth of the teachers have been hired in the past four years. In the adjacent Evergreen School District, in the outlying areas of Vancouver where the growth has been especially rapid, one in every two-and-a-half teachers has been hired in the past four years. Evergreen now has 23,000 students. *********** "CHASTITY CODE IRKS DIVINITY STUDENTS" read the headline. Now, that I had to read! What it was was a group of Duke University divinity school students bitching about the school's "conduct covenant", a code of behavior that calls on students to show respect, honor friendships, and be welcoming, hospitable, and chaste. "Among Christians," the article read, "chastity has traditionally meant being faithful if married and celibate if single." Right. Except what about the "gay and lesbian students?" See, they're concerned. I mean, they can't marry, so maybe they would be violating the code if they were to go ahead and have sexual relations. (Seems kind of a sordid thing for future clergy to be discussing, doesn't it?) Just to be sure though, an ethics professor has suggested a new, revised definition of chastity as "conducting one's intimate life in a way that's not demeaning to oneself and to others." Right. And the peace protestors tried to tell us that they were the real patriots. *********** Is it just me, or does it seem like the things being said by some of our "enlightened" members of congress, the media, and of course the entertainment industry would have been considered treason not that long ago? Even the kids in my Sunday School class (junior high age) said, "Mr. Zeller, don't those peace protestors even remember 9/11?" John Zeller, Sears, Michigan  *********** My wife and I recently entertained house guests, a young Australian couple, and, knowing how difficult it is to obtain a gun in Australia (you need to undergo all that registration business just to own a BB gun), I asked him if he'd like to fire a gun. Through my sight, I saw him nodding and saying "sure." (Just kidding.) He said, yes, so off we went to a nearby range. Later, as we were cleaning the guns, he said what really surprised him was how serious and responsible everyone at the range had been. He confessed that based on the popular conception elsewhere in the world of Americans and their guns, "I expected to go out and see a bunch of hillbillies." ************ The Alabama-Mississippi All-Star basketball games, once played every summer between graduated seniors of the two states, went out of business last summer. The problem? A lack of players of all-star calibre. More and more of the top graduating high school players are going to summer school, paid for by their colleges. "Most of the kids who signed scholarships go to summer school," Larry McCoy, chairman of the All-Star committee told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. "The colleges want them in the program getting ready for the season. And other kids are playing for AAU teams. There are just so many other options for the top players today." ***********Please sign our team up for the 2003 Black Lion program. I had several of our players tell me that the Black Lion was the one award that they kept thinking of during the season. Thank you for the opportunity for us to participate in this program. Casey Kester, Head Coach, 49'ers, Fremont Football League, Fremont, California *********** After 21 years at the same school, Larry McCutcheon has stepped down as head coach at White Salmon, Washington. Oh, it's not old age. Larry's young enough, and he keeps himself in good shape. It's not losing, either. True, his 2002 team finished 3-6, but that was White Salmon's first losing season in the last eight years. Overall, Larry's record was 124-75. He was 2-8 in his first year, but he worked hard at building a program, and he succeeded. He started weight and speed programs - he now teaches three weight-training classes a day - and every summer he took his team to at least one team camp, usually at Boise State. He made it to the state playoffs eight times. Three of his teams were undefeated in the regular season. Twice, he made it to the state quarterfinals before losing - his 1996 team finished 10-1, and his 1998 team lost, 7-6 to the eventual state champion in a mud bowl. (I played them both that year, and I thought Larry had the better team.) So why's he leaving? I haven't spoken to Larry, but I've spoken to enough people who say the same thing - a**hole kids, a**hole parents, and an a**hole principal. A lethal combination. Essentially, a small group of kids, football players unhappy with Larry over something or other, painted all sorts of obscenities - aimed at female members of Larry's family - all over the school's new football stadium. At least twice, they scattered tacks on Larry's driveway, causing several flats. Yet it sounds as if the case was not disposed of in the manner that most normal people would have expected. So Larry McCutcheon, the best thing that ever happened to football in a small, logging community in the Columbia River Gorge, has stepped down. To the good kids who have been victimized by a handful of their buddies, I extend my sympathies. I extend my sympathies to hs successor, too, except... Except, that it's one of Larry's former chief assistants, who resigned following the season, when Larry was still head coach. Hmm. *********** You thought that the Nobel Peace Prize was cheapened when they gave it to poor, silly old Jimmy Carter? Comes word now that serious consideration is being given to former Illinois Governor George Ryan, who just before leaving office commuted the death sentences of 164 residents of that state's death row. Much has been made by the bleeding hearts of the "fact" that if not for Governor Ryan, the state would have fried "innocent men." It is time that the lefties who write for major newspapers - and the simpletons who read them - understood that the "innocent" is not the same as "not guilty - that the "not guilty" that a clever defense attorney can come up with as a result of one technicality or another does not mean the same thing as "innocent." "The word 'innocent' has been tortured beyond recognition," says Joshua Marquis, co-chairman of the National District Attorneys Association's capital litigation committee. " 'Innocence' means didn't do it, wasn't there. A very small portion of the people pardoned by Ryan, to say nothing of commuted, are innocent in that sense." *********** Coach Wyatt, Just to let you know, I think there may be an error in the coaching vacancy listing at the bottom of your web site. You have listed that there are 168 students enrolled at that particular school that you mention in grades 9-12. Now maybe it is true but, 168 kids seems to me to be inaccurate. If it is true no wonder there is a vacancy. Who could even field a decent team! I mean you've got to figure that half of the 168 students are females. Mike Lane, Avon Grove, Pennsylvania Coach, At the first school I taught and coached at, Gaston, Oregon High, there were 124 kids - total - in four grades! Nearly half of the boys in school were out for football. You would be amazed at the size of some of the high schools in America that play 11-man football. There are some schools in which nearly every able-bodied boy plays on the football team. Those that are smaller play 8- or 8-man or, in Texas, 6-man. Some schools in the wide-open farmland of Eastern Washington are so small that they form "combines" with one or two other schools (sometimes 20-30 miles away) to get enough boys to play 8-man football!   *********** For years, General Jim Shelton, one of my Black Lions friends, worked on a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which so many Black Lions died, Don Holleder along with them. It is now in print.   It is entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton. Its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967" and it is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   General Shelton is shown at left at West Point, at a book signing. (He does a lot of autographing - he personally signs every Black Lion Award certificate.)   You can get an autographed copy of General Shelton's book for yourself or for a friend - send him a check for $25 per book, and tell him who the books are for, and he'll personally autograph them and mail them back to you. His address is General James Shelton, 6610 Gasparilla Pines Blvd #118, Englewood FL 34224   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.   THE PHOTO AT THE LEFT is what the Black Lion Award is all about - connecting outstanding young men of today with the men who've served. Shown here is Cody Allen, of Las Animas High in Las Animas, Colorado, and Mr. Ernesto Vargas, a Black Lion. Las Animas coach Greg Koenig contacted Mr. Vargas, who was happy to take part in the award ceremony. Mr. Vargas, by the way, was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. On the left front of his jacket, from bottom to top, are badges of the Black Lions (28th Infantry Regiment), the Big Red One (1st Infantry Division) and the Combat Infantryman.     YOU WANNA SEE SOMETHING COOL? http://www.jackson.army.mil/228th/index.htm

April 8, 2003 - "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke, English philosopher   2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for infon THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)   THE DOUBLE-WING AND THE US ARMY- A WAVE OF STEEL   SORRY- NO "LOOK AT OUR LEGACY" THIS WEEK - : I AM ON THE ROAD ALL WEEK, TRYING TO COMBINE A LITTLE VACATION WITH MY WORK, AND I SIMPLY WON'T HAVE THE TIME TO STOP AND HANDLE THE E-MAILS THAT "A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY" GENERATES    *********** "I've got to be the luckiest guy in the world. And some people will never accept that, because they have the mentality that if you don't win the championship, then you're not fulfilled. If that's what it takes to fulfill your life, you're really a small person and you don't have a clue." Jim Boeheim, Syracuse basketball coach (And that was before he won the Big One.)   *********** Some time just before to the American invasion of Iraq, just prior to heading into combat, a Marine general addressed his troops. So impressed was The Wall Street Journal by the general's words that it made them the centerpiecce of its lead editorial on March 20. So impressed was the Journal that it wrote, "In explaining the mission of our soldiers, we can't do any better than Major General J.M. Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, somewhere in Iraq." I think it is one of the most stirring things I have ever read. I was so taken by the way the man exhorted his soldiers to fight that I have reprinted his words below. Although the general's words were spoken in time of war, and all we do is coach a game, he said such wonderful things, and expressed them so beautifully, that I could see myself saying some of them to young men about to play a football game:   "For decades, Saddam Hussein has tortured, imprisoned, raped and murdered the Iraqi people; invaded neighboring countries without provocation; an threatened the world with weapons of mass destruction. The time has come to end his reign of terror. On your young shoulders rest the hopes of mankind.   "When I give you the word, together we will cross the Line of Departure, close with those forces that choose to fight, and destroy them. Our fight is not with the Iraqi people, not is it with members of the Iraqi army who choose to surrender. While we will move switfly and aggressivelt against those who resist, we will treat all others with decency, demonstrating chivalry and soldierly compassion for people who have endured a lifetime under Saddam's oppression.   "Chemical attack, treachery, and use of innocents as human shields can be expected, as can other unethical tactics. Take it all in stride. Be the hunter, not the hunted" nevr allow your unit to be caught with its guard down. Use good judgment and act in the best interests of our Nation.   "You are part of the world's most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon. Share your courage with each other as we enter the uncertain terrain north of the Line of Departure. Keep faith in your comrades on your left and right and Marine Air overhead. Fight with a happy heart and strong spirit.   "For the mission's sake, our country's sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division's colors in past battles - who fought for life and never lost their nerve - carry out your mission and keep your honor clean. Demonsrate to the world that there is 'No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy' than a U.S. Marine."   *********** Coach, I just had the opportunity of watching some old high school film on the Single-Wing. The film at times jumps, is too dark, or too light. IT"S GREAT. You don't see the crap we do today, and on one they even have shots of the BAND! After one game you see the players walking across the field to shake hands, not the fake crap of today. In fact when did this crap begin? Also you see some great tackling and blocking, the kids haven't been exposed to the "modern" NFL. When was the last time you saw players keeping their hands in and pass blocking well? Thanks for letting me rant. Bert Ford, Los Angeles (I don't want to sound too much like an old fart, but I think the game of football peaked around 1980-1985 or so, and it has declined since. I think the change in the blocking rule ("legalized holding") and the resultant lack of athleticism in offensive linemen has been the major reason. HW) *********** Coach, As a son of a retired military career man, I agree with the letter that Derek Wade wrote to that Columbia professor. But I would add a couple of words to that letter: "MEN AND WOMEN HAVE DIED FOR YOU AND THAT IS HOW YOU REPAY THEM?" Still, I do appreciate the support you show for all the members of our military service. Thanks, Jim Kuhn, Greeley, Colorado *********** Nothing was so sure in baseball "back in the old days" as the knowledge that in the early days of the season, in the chill of an April day, unless you hit the ball just right, your hands were going to sting. Part of the reason is that there were no batting gloves. Batting gloves? Get serious. You might as well wear pink lace panties up to the plate. But the major reason was the wooden bats. As any old-timer knows, somewhere between the autograph near the end of the bat and the trademark near the middle, there is a "sweet spot" in a wooden bat. When you hit a baseball right there, it is a feeling unlike any other in sport. When you don't, it stings your hands. And when it's cold out, it seems as if the sweet spot is about the size of a BB. That wasn't the only problem with wooden bats. The biggest is that, being wooden, they can break. Used properly, "trademark up", a bat is less likely to crack under normal use, but it still happens. And then came aluminum bats. They don't break. They're expensive as hell - $200-$300 a bat - but kids somehow come up with the money. And they have changed the game. Wherever they're used - which is everywhere but professional ball and a few summer leagues for college players - they have altered the beautiful balance of baseball, pretty much changing it from a pitcher's to a hitter's game. "Pitcher's duels" are rare in high school ball. High scores are commonplace. Professional scouts are frustrated by the difficulty of evaluating players using alumimum bats - it's not unusual for a good high school player to bat in the neighborhood of .500. (New York Times writer Bill Pennington estimates aluminum bats are worth 91 points in higher batting averages; wooden bats mean 61 percent fewer home runs. But the cost of replacing all those broken wooden bats is high, and colleges and high schools, finding that aluminum bats, expensive but unbreakable, are a lot easier on the budget, have been unwilling to discuss changing back to wood. Until now. Until safety became an issue. Aluminum bats can be dangerous. The ball flies off the aluminum bat a good deal faster than off wood, putting pitchers especially in danger. And doggone if Massachusetts high schools haven't responded to the safety issue by deciding to switch back to wooden bats next year, at least for post-season playoffs. And 25 of the state's 40 leagues have already anticipated the changeover by making the switch this year. Baseball purists are happy, but I predict failure for the experiment. Batters are not going to like the results, and there are more batters than pitchers. As one Massachusetts coach told The Times, "Kids have trouble with failure and metal makes it easier to hit; nobody likes to hit .200." *********** I had have heard it and seen it in several places on the Web, but I was reluctant to pass it along until I'd checked out its authenticity. I finally have. When it appears in the Wall Street Journal, I trust it. Perhaps you have seen the story: Martin Savitch, an "embedded reporter" for CNN, told about the four Marines to whom he'd offered an opportunity to make calls home - one each - on his video phone. One of them ran off to get his sergeant, who hadn't spoken to his wife in three months. The other three said they'd use their phone time to call the parents of Lance Corporal Brian Buesing, a buddy who'd died the week before near Nasiriya. "Where do they get young men like this?" Mr. Savitch wondered. Brian Oney, of North Fairfield, Ohio, was one of those who sent me the story, along with an answer to Mr. Savitch: Coach Wyatt, I have not emailed you in a year probably and here I am sending you a second message in 1 day. The following message reminds me of the students I have coached and taught in my 15 years of education that are now serving their country in the mid east. At the end of this message the reporter asks, "where do they find men like these?" I know the answer. It is in the hallways of schools across America. I might add that it is men and women, not just men. The media shows the public the losers that roam our schools. They show these kids on a grand scale every time they get a chance. On the rare occasion when they do show one of the 95% of our kids that are good and decent it is on a minute scale that only lasts a few seconds. This depresses me. I see a lot of good in our schools. I think I detect a conservative trend coming. I have been noticing it more the last few years. Most parents are doing a better job raising and taking responsibility for their children. I am sorry to hear of all the liberals raising hell and embarrassing us on the West Coast. The behavior of people where I live in Ohio makes me proud. Lots of support for the troops seen in the form of actions, words, flags on display everywhere, and ribbons. My neighbor up the street has a massive 15 foot red, white, and blue ribbon on the front of his house. There has been very little protest of the war in this area. A few nights ago Barbara Bush spoke at my alma mater, Ashland University, about 20 miles from here. Only a few protesters showed up and from what I understand there were more pro-Bush people outside the university than anti. I did not attend her lecture. It was a bit pricey for me at this time. I would have liked to have gone. I am very proud to have George Bush as our president. I am very proud of our troops and their purpose word wide. Hope you like this message, it about made me start bawling when I read it. As always, Best regards, Bryan Oney *********** In another answer to Martin Savitch's question about where they find young people like those selfless young Marines over in Iraq, who, offered a chance to call home, immediately thought of others before themselves, I concur with Bryan Oney of Ohio, who suggests that maybe Martin Savitch and others like him should come to Ohio. Or Mississippi. Or Idaho. Or Wisconsin. Or New Mexico. Or any place else in "fly-over country" - the American between New York City and Los Angeles that the elite media people ignore as they fly over it. There's still a lot of real Americans out there, young and old. The really astonishing thing is the fact that other than members of the young unwashed, who will march in protest of anything, a tremendous number of Peace Protesters are over 50. They are the Woodstock kids, the Flower People, the generation that would change America. They did that all, right, but not for the better. And now they're on their Seniors Tour - they're marching again, just as they did in the 70's, looking like the pace-march version of the rich guys who go to fantasy baseball camps. But if they would take the time to look back, they'd see that nobody's following them! There are those who attribute a campus-wide swing toward conservatism largely to September 11, and others who say that today's young men and women remember the Gulf War, not Vietnam, but whatever the reason, an annual survey of UCLA freshmen, taken over the last 37 years, showed that this year, more students called themselves conservative than in other recent surveys. Nearly half of them - 45 percent - supported an increase in military spending, more than double the percentage in 1993. At elite colleges, where it's estimated that the faculties are 90 per cent opposed to "Bush's War", the student bodies are evenly divided. Professors, a great many of them aging relics of the protests of the 60's and 70's, are baffled to discover that their students are not marching to their orders. At the University of Wisconsin, once a hotbed of anti-Vietnam War protests, a columnist for a student newspaper ripped a professor to for canceling classes to protest the war in Iraq, saying that the university should reprimand her and offer tuition refunds for the missed class time. Amherst College in Massachusetts, a large number of students raised hell when 40 professors paraded into the dining hall carrying antiwar signs. One student confronted one of the protesting professors and shoved him. An assistant professor of politics at Princeton asked his class on "Causes of War" how many of them were in R.O.T.C. When of them two raised their hands, the rest applauded. "I had asked the question before Sept. 11," he said, "and not gotten that response. I definitely hadn't expected it." *********** Finally, in trying to answer Martin Savitch's question about where those Marines come from, let's give a little credit to the people who train them. In fact, let's give them a lot of the credit. They are getting good kids, yes, but good kids or not, they are for the most part soft and lazy, highly self-absorbed, and unaccustomed to taking orders. They are not used to doing anything they don't feel like doing. And they have been taught that they are the single most important person in the world. And then they report to Basic Training. Bye-bye ME. Hello, TEAM. Basic training for the Marines is San Diego. Or Parris Island. "Parris Island," wrote Wall Street Journal reporter Tom Ricks, "routinely transforms the Beavises and Butt-Heads of America into United States Marines. After 11 weeks here, recruits emerge self-disciplined, with a serious bearing. They are drug-free, physically fit and courteous to their elders. They have overcome deep differences of class and race and learned to live and work as a team." While visiting Fort Jackson, South Carolina recently, I had a chance to meet and talk with some of the people charged with teaching and training the young people who "cycle" through there, on their way from MTV-watching to combat-readiness. One of the company commanders, Captain Bill Brockman, described his mission about as well as any man could, and in a way that any of us football coaches could appreciate. By the time they are done their training under him, he told me, young soldiers will have three things ingrained in them: TEAMWORK. RESPONSIBILITY. DISCIPLINE. For an America in desperate need of those things, military training couldn't have come at a better time. *********** The DW is moving to the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast. I was named the new Head Football Coach at Ocean Springs High School on Friday. I made a presentation to the AD about the DW. He loved it! I have three weeks to assemble a staff for spring training. I'll keep you posted! Steve Jones, formerly Columbia, now Ocean Springs, Mississippi (Got to do a little more research on this one, but Coach Jones told me that Holmes Junior College won this year's Mississippi JC championship running the Double-Wing, most of which it got from him. Coach Jones also swears that he was once behind 30-0 at the half and won, 33-30. Running the Double-Wing. But he did tell the Atlanta clinic that you need to know when to go to "Plan B" - he said that for him that's never before somewhere into the third quarter.)*********** Got to do a little more research on this one, but Steve Jones told me that Holmes Junior College won this year's Mississippi JC championship running the Double-Wing, most of which it got from him. Coach Jones also swears that he was once behind 30-0 at the half and won, 33-30. Running the Double-Wing. But he did tell the Atlanta clinic that you need to know when to go to "Plan B" - he said that for him that's never before somewhere into the third quarter. *********** Coach, I was wondering if maybe you could put something on your site about one of my assistants, Bill Peck, who is about to have open heart surgery on Monday 7 April. Coach Peck works with my defensive backs, but he is of immense importance to our staff because of his overall experience. He has been a football coach and teacher for 51 years, at all levels. Just this past year Middle Tennessee State had a reunion for his 1973 team that won a conference championship and honored him and his former staff. He is a living encyclopedia of American football and joy to have on the staff. I would ask that viewers of your staff keep him in their prayers and if they want to send any well wishes they can send emails to him at my email address, timsonr@aol.com. and I will pass them on. I think it would mean a lot to him. His son Bill, Jr., also is our offensive and defensive line coach. I appreciate it, we are all hoping for a very speedy recovery for Coach Peck. He is a true icon of an American football coach. He lives for every practice. Thanks, Ron Timson, Umatilla, Florida (Coach Timson has promised me an update on Coach Peck following surgery. HW) *********** On a serious note, Coach -- I haven't heard much discussion about this, but as I watch our boys perform, I get a real sense of pride and reassurance in American "toughness". I have to be honest with you -- I wasn't sure we were growin' tough kids anymore -- I thought that just "maybe" all the technology and "army of one" bullsh-- might have created a fighting force that wasn't capable of "feet on the street" warfare -- Well, shame on me for doubting the spririt of America's fighting force. Watching those American warriors going house to house, taking bridges, carrying their wounded buddies (basically just kickin' ass and takin' names) gives me a renewed sense of faith in our country! All we hear about are the cry baby punks who sue their schools for being "unfair" and all the other soccer mom B.S. -- but I think those are really the minority - The basic kid from the streets of Philly, or Omaha or Mesquite are still the toughest kids alive and I'll pit them against anyone.! I'm truly proud of our warriors, our President and the parents who have raised these brave men/women in uniform. God Bless America -- and F the french. ;-) Scott Barnes, Rockwall, Texas *********** Commenting on the news that Qyntel (sounds like a company, doesn't it) Woods, Trail Blazer rookie, was picked up for driving 80 in a 55, with a suspended license, the smell of marijuana heavy in the car and a warm "cigarette" still smoldering in the ash tray, the Portland Oregonian's Ryan White noted that this young millionaire didn't have insurance, either. White wrote, "If you're going to continue to drive uninsured and you hit somebody, could you please hit me? My credit card is through the roof. The lawsuit would take care of that, the student loans, and any offspring I might someday have." *********** A coach who for obvious reasons doesn't want his name used told the other coaches at one of my clinics that when he left to take another job, his successor came in and changed the offense. Not to say that the kids resisted the change or anything, but on the last two plays of the year, the kids "checked off" the calls sent in by the coach, and on their own, ran - what else? - 2 Wedge! *********** Brian Garvey,of James Madison High in Vienna,Virginia, says a HS teammate of his brother who is in the Air Force, stationed in Qatar, sent along this great football analogy: "It's not pretty; it's not surgical," he quoted Chief Warrant Officer Pat Woellhof as saying. "You try to limit collateral damage, but they want to fight. Now it's just smash-mouth football." Still waiting for the first soccer reference. *********** Professor: As the subject states, I support your right to free speech. I am an American, with all the freedoms accorded someone lucky enough to be one. So while I disagree with your position on the War in Iraq, I must support your right to speak out. However, I find your statements abhorrent in the extreme. To wish death on the young men and women of our armed forces is both beyond comprehension and morally reprehensible; but to pray they die like the valiant Americans who were slaughtered in Mogadishu -- their bodies dragged through the streets, desecrated in death -- is to show yourself as nothing less than a soulless monster whose pursuit of "intellectual purity" has obliterated any shred of humanity within. Your right to free speech was paid for with the blood of the soldiers who have died protecting our freedoms. Were it not for their sacrifice, you might well be teaching Marxist claptrap to pampered students -- wait, you are, no doubt, doing that already. I do know that without the brave men and women of our military, and their selfless actions, you would never have been afforded a box on speaker's corner from which you might air your views (however loathsome they are). Do you honestly believe you would still be alive if you had been an Iraqi professor who spoke out in a similar fashion against the Iraqi military? The right to speak freely is debt you can never repay, but is one you should never forget is owed. You should be ashamed of the words you have spoken. You owe an apology to every man and woman who has ever served in the military; what little honor you may have left in your twisted soul hinges on you doing the right thing. You do not deserve to be an American, for you have failed to honor your debt to those who built this country with their lives. Jim Carlton, Campbell, California *********** Coach, Thanks for including prof. DeGenova's email address. While I was not as succinct or as eloquent as your email was, I think that he probably got the gist. Just for the heck of it, I typed in his name for an MSN search, and got a couple of links to what looks like some sort of a seminar that he was speaking at. What a weasel, he and his other liberal cronies promoting vicitimism to anyone who will listen. Anyways, thanks again. Rick Davis, Duxbury, MA *********** Let me start by saying that Muhammad Ali was a hell of a boxer. Not "The Greatest," in my opinion, but very, very good. But he was also a big-mouthed braggart. Yes, he delivered - once he became champion, once the mob got Sonny Liston to take the pair of dives that made him the champion. (Wow - what kind of a threat must it have taken to get Liston, the meanest, nastiest man ever to hold the heavyweight title, to step aside for Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali, a young punk he despised? At 7-to-1, the mob couldn't pass up the opportunity. They cleaned up. You sure do have to admire the way they laid the money off.) Ali started all this shameless boastfulness, this "look-at-me" self-promotion that we see among today's athletes. Listen to elementary school kids some time. They learn from the athletes. Listen to them as they tell you how great they are. To those of us raised in the "Before Ali" culture, their words sound like fingernails being raked down a blackboard. Ali brought about a real departure in American culture, from one which traditionally prized "actions, not words," to one in which athletes routinely brag like Arab generals. ("In the Mother of All Battles, We will cut off the testicles of ten thousand American soldiers and feed them to the dogs." Yeah, right.) Speaking of which, maybe - just maybe - thanks to some idiot who used the term "cakewalk" in predicting the outcome of our war with Saddam, we'll "revisit" the whole idea of "talkin' about it before you done it." *********** Coach Wyatt, I sent you an earlier email registering my disdain for our European (I hesitate to even capitalize it any more) allies in their lack of support, and in come cases undermining, of our efforts in Iraq. Today's news that the Germans are now supporting regime change, and a dominant role for the UN in the aftermath of the war, only pisses me off more. They remind me of the Dixie Chicks. Speak your mind, realize it might affect your pocketbook, and try to recant your position or figure out a way to play both sides of the equation. It's becoming painfully clear that it's all about money. Everyone wants to make sure they're allowed to get on the bidders list for all those fat reconstruction contracts after the war (without having to pay the brutal price to get there). I have an idea. Limit the contracts to the 'coalition of the willing' countries, remove ourselves from the UN, and change this world before it tries to change us. Airborne! See you at the Detroit clinic. Doug Parks, Milford, Michigan   *********** Hugh, Great article on Bill Livingstone. I agree with you about taking the best youth league coaches. Though I'm coaching High school now, I've spent the bulk of my 2.5 decades of coaching in the upper Youth level. Other than my senior year of high school the best coaches I ever had were at the youth level and that went for many teammates too, from other areas that we had to play till age 14. There were about 4 or 5 teams in Atlanta youth leagues that were coached as well as any high schools anywhere, and better than most. There are dud coaches on the youth level for sure, but just look around you at the high school programs in your area - amazingly, about the same ratio. Great coaches come in many shapes, (ha ha) forms, and backgrounds, and the proof is in the product. I have found that you are either a good coach or you're not. The level matters not. A good coach will prepare thoroughly, at the level he's involved and will win at any level. This has been my experience. I am thoroughly grateful for the great youth coaches I had as well as a great high school coach. They certainly gave me my style, philosophies and the will to prepare to win. Bill Livingstone had to have been one of these greats. I'm sure his hundreds of kids will testify to that, with the exception of that 1% to 5% of the ones that will never get it. He obviously knew his stuff and how to instill great values, that results in consistent winningI know he will be missed… but strongly remembered. Thanks for the article.Larry Harrison &endash; Snellville, Georgia *********** Congratulations to David Gardi, son of my friend Joe Gardi, head coach at Hofstra University. A graduate of Brown, where he played football, and Hofstra Law School, Dave has been named a Labor Relations Counsel for the NFL Management Council, which means he will represent the League in labor disputes. When Joe and I worked together with the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League, back in 1974, David was a baby. Wow. *********** Coach Wyatt, I'll second Coach Fisher DeBerry's book, "For God and Country." I've read it. Great book, great coach, great man. Dave Potter, Durham, North Carolina *********** Matt Doherty's "resignation" as North Carolina's basketball coach has been a major news item down here in Carolina, and nobody is enjoying it more than the Dukies, unless it's the folks from N.C. State. See, Carolina folks have this idea that theirs is the best basketball coaching situation in the world, and the facts of Doherty's "resignation," as they come out, tend to indicate an ugliness not even found in the NBA. The UNC AD is a guy named Dick Baddour, whose record to date includes a mishandled firing of football coach Carl Torbush, followed by a "jury's still out" hiring of John Bunting to replace him, then the hiring of Matt Doherty after Roy Williams rejected him. He has totally botched the Doherty situation, beginning with his meeting with the players to ask them wehat they thought of their coach. Bear in mind that these are big-time basketball players, meaning that they have huge egoes fed by adulation since they were 13 or 14, they were kissed and fawned over by grovelling recruiters then, once at college, treated like Lady Astor's pet horse - and now their team has turned out to be a loser. That bad season couldn't possibly have been their fault, could it, now? You telling me you can't come up with a half-dozen of those guys pissed off at their coach? Besides - are you ready for this? - the guy had a temper! He shouted at them when things went wrong. Once, he threw chairs, even! Why, four of them even threatened to transfer or turn pro if Doherty were to return. (Bear in mind that after last season Duke lost Jay Williams, Carlos Boozer and Mike Dunleavy - three players far better than any of the disaffected Carolina guys - and this year still made it to the round of 16.) So Baddour, who's never been a coach, panicked, and confronting Doherty with the tragic news, forced a resignation out of him. Then, though, he had the gall to tell a news conference that Doherty had "offered to resign." That was enough for Doherty, who went public with the fact that thinsg were not as clean and sanitary as the AD had described them - he had been forced to resign. Not that Doherty is without sin. He came in elatively inexperienced - one year as head coach at Notre Dame - and, although a Carolina guy himself, decided he was going to put his own stamp on a tradition-laden program with Dean Smith's prints all over it. Some of the things he did - such as not retaining any of the long-time assistants already on the staff - did not endear him to the folks in Carolina Blue. But Baddour has totally blown it. This idea of meeting with players? What would you expecta bunch of losers to tell you? That they should have listened to Coach? They should have worked harder? He also blew it by putting Roy Williams on the spot, cutting Doherty loose when Kansas was still alive in the NCAA tournament. He knew damn well that the news was going to upset Williams' focus. Williams, the Kansas coach, is a Carolina guy whose return to Chapel Hill is the dream of every Tar Heel, and he was disturbed by the fact that the Carolina job opening was more on sports reporters' minds than the job facing his Jayhawks against Marquette. And finally, he blew it by being publicly deceitful (okay, lying) about the conditions of Doherty's departure. (Did I mention that Doherty had been a loyal assistant to Roy Williams before taking the Notre Dame job? Williams can't be happy about the way his former assistant was treated.) I have a feeling that the only way Williams comes to Carolina is if Baddour "offers to resign." (Coach Williams capped a highly memorable post-final game interview with Bonnie Bernstein, one in which she insisted on perstering him about the UNC job, by saying - and I quote - "I could give a shit about North Carolina.") *********** Meanwhile, down in Carolina, the Dukies and State folks continue to yuck it up. Suggested one Roy Twisdale, in a letter to the Durham Herald-Sun, New TV reality show: "Name Carolina basketball coach." Start with 10 applicants and a three-judge panel (Dick Baddour, Chancellor James Moesser, and Dean of Students Melissa Exum). They get to ask questions each week. At the end of the show, the current Carolina players get to call in and vote for their favorite. The applicant with the fewest votes gets the boot. This continues each week until there is one left standing.   *********** For years, General Jim Shelton, one of my Black Lions friends, worked on a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which so many Black Lions died, Don Holleder along with them. It is now in print.   It is entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton. Its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967" and it is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   General Shelton is shown at left at West Point, at a book signing. (He does a lot of autographing - he personally signs every Black Lion Award certificate.)   You can get an autographed copy of General Shelton's book for yourself or for a friend - send him a check for $25 per book, and tell him who the books are for, and he'll personally autograph them and mail them back to you. His address is General James Shelton, 6610 Gasparilla Pines Blvd #118, Englewood FL 34224   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.   THE PHOTO AT THE LEFT is what the Black Lion Award is all about - connecting outstanding young men of today with the men who've served. Shown here is Cody Allen, of Las Animas High in Las Animas, Colorado, and Mr. Ernesto Vargas, a Black Lion. Las Animas coach Greg Koenig contacted Mr. Vargas, who was happy to take part in the award ceremony. Mr. Vargas, by the way, was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. On the left front of his jacket, from bottom to top, are badges of the Black Lions (28th Infantry Regiment), the Big Red One (1st Infantry Division) and the Combat Infantryman.     YOU WANNA SEE SOMETHING COOL? http://www.jackson.army.mil/228th/index.htm

April 4, 2003 - "Americans never quit." General Douglas MacArthur   2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)   THE DOUBLE-WING AND THE US ARMY- A WAVE OF STEEL   A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY:(ADDITIONAL INFO) It must be winter, because he's shown playing basketball. If it had been spring, it would have been baseball, and if it had been fall, he'd have been playing football. He was a three-year letter winner in all three sports at the University of Minnesota, and he played professionally in two sports - NFL football with the Philadelphia Eagles and Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and NBA basketball with the Minneapolis (now Los Angeles) Lakers. He's Bud Grant, and he was, in the words of his biographer, "the most versatile athlete in Minnesota history." He would go on to become one of the greatest coaches in the history of both the Canadian Football League and the National Football League. He was born and raised in Superior, Wisconsin, and his given name was Harry, although no one ever called him that. His dad's name was Harry, too. To avoid confusion, his mother took to calling him "Buddy Boy," which in time was shortened. Despite an attack of polio when he was young, leaving him with a limp that lasted through hgih school, he was a three-sport star at Superior Central High School. (The "rehab" program that the doctor suggested to the Grants: "Get that boy a glove and ball.") Straight out of high school, with World War II still going on, he enlisted in the Navy. Sent to Great Lakes Naval Training Station, he came to the attention of Great Lakes' football coach, a fellow named Paul Brown. Brown's assistants were Blanton Collier and a young fellow named Wilbur "Weeb" Ewbank. Although he had been a pretty good fullback in high school, he recalled deciding that he'd play a lot more at another position after seeing a rather large individual also playing fullback. It was Marion Motley, who would go on to become a pro football legend with the Cleveland Browns. On a team made up of men older than he was, Grant excelled at end,and was instrumental in Great Lakes' defeat of a strong Notre Dame team. (Years later, when he was playing with the Eagles, Grant remembers Brown running across the field to shake his hand.) After his discharge, he turned down the University of Wisconsin to play at Minnesota under Bernie Bierman. Bierman was tough. "He taught survival," Grant said, years later. "If you survived, you played. if you didn't survive, you didn't play." He became one of the first collegians to leave school early for the pros when, following his senior football season, he signed with the Minneapolis Lakers for $3,500 - contract, not bonus. The Lakers won the NBA title his first year, and he picked up some playoff money, so even though he was drafted first by the Eagles, he refused to report when he was offered only $7,500. He also failed to report to play in the college All-Star game,but that was because he was getting married that day. After another NBA season, it became obvious to him that there wasn't much of a future in basketball for a 6-3 power forward, and he contacted the Eagles to see if they were still interested. They were. Sort of. But now their offer was $7,000. Take it or leave it. He took it, somewhat resentfully, and managed to lead the Eagles in sacks as a 6-3, 200-pound defensive end. He was an NFL free agent before anyone ever used the term. After his rookie season with the Eagles, he was offered the same amount of money - $7,000 - to sign for a second year. No raise. Take it or leave it, again. Once again, he reported, but when this time he refused to sign the contract, the team arranged for him to meet and talk with NFL Commissioner Bert Bell. "I asked Bell what would happen if I didn't sign," he recalled. Bell said that if he didn't sign, he would be playing out his option, which would mean that at the end of the season he would no longer be Eagles' property. In the meantime, he contacted the coach at Winnipeg, informing him that he was playing out his option and would be free to sign with anyone. At season's end, Winnipeg offered him $10,000 to sign. He asked the Eagles one more time for more money, but $8,000 was as high as they'd go. "I'd been there two seasons," he said. "I led the defense in sacks my first year, I led the team in pass receptions my second year. I told them I thought I was worth more than that." But the Eagles wouldn't budge, so Grant headed north, the first NFL player to leave his team as a free agent after playing out his option. He played three seasons in Winnipeg, a place that suited himand his love of the outdoor life. At the end of his third season, he was named to play in the CFL All-Star game, held that year in Vancouver. He and five teammates who also played in the game were scheduled to fly back to Winnipeg the next afternoon, but they found out that they could catch an earlier. They arose early,but had trouble rousing Calvin Jones, a promising young rookie from Iowa. Jones told them to go ahead - said he wanted to sleep in. He'd catch the later flight. Jones' flight, forced to return to turn back to Vancouver by bad weather, crashed into a mountain, killing all on board. In 1956 he was named head coach of the Blue Bombers. He was only 29. On the day he was offered the job, he learned that his father had died, and on the day his hiring was announced, he was en route to his father's funeral. In his first season at Winnipeg, he took the Bombers to the Grey Cup Final, and in his second year, he won it. In his ten years as coach of Winnipeg, his teams played in six finals, and won four Grey Cups. He moved a short distance south to the Minneapolis in 1967, and spent 18 of the next 19 years as head coach of the Vikings. He has been on occasion been derided by the jackasses of the media because of his so-called failure to win "the big one" - his teams played in four Super Bowls and lost them all - but that is a cheap shot that obscures his incredible accomplishments: His Vikings won 11 Division Titles, and won the NFL title in 1969, and three NFC titles (after the merger with the AFL). Prematurely gray, he was given the nickname "The Gray Fox" in Canada. In the NFL, his most prominent characteristic seemed to be his expressionless sideline demeanor, which earned him such nicknames as "The Great Stone Face" and "The Glacier." His teams seemed to take on his personality. They were not showy or flashy; they were solid and steady, and theydidn't beat themselves, and they were famously tough in cold weather - they took great pride in not wearing gloves or long-sleeved shirts. So dominant were they in their division ( (the so-called "Black and Blue" Division) that in the 14 years from 1968 through 1981 they failed to win it only three times. His 168 career wins are ninth among all coaches in NFL history. Add in his record at Winnipeg of 122-66-3 and his 290 pro wins (yes, NFL, some day you will have to admit that they play professional football in Canada) rank him behind only George Halas and Don Shula. Interestingly, only one of his NFL seasons ended with a win. Of course, in most of those seasons, the Vikings made the playoffs, and were defeated at some point. When he retired after the 1983 season, it was following his first-ever season-ending win. Perhaps he took it as a sign. But sure enough, when he returned to coach in 1985 after after a year off (the disastrous Les Steckel era), that last and final season ended with a loss. When he finally retired, he was only 56. He quit while he was on top. He still had his health and plenty of energy, but it was time to move on - he was always a great lover of the outdoors, and a great family men, and he wanted to enjoy life. Bud Grant was installed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1994. I would have to say that I admire him as much as any man who has ever coached our game.   Correctly identifying Bud Grant: Joe Daniels- Sacramento... Steve Tobey- Malden, Massachusetts... Ron Singer- Toronto, Ontario... Jon McLaughlin- Oak Forest, Illinois ("When I was younger, I used to hate the Vikings. It was hard to be a Bear's fan back then. Sometimes it is hard to be a Bear's fan now.")... Kevin McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Alan Goodwin- Warwick, Rhode Island... Mike Framke- Green Bay, Wisconsin... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski, Wisconsin... Norm Barney- Klamath Falls, Oregon ("My next oldest brother is a fan of the Purple People Eaters so I remind him every chance I get about "0 & 4 in the Big One." One of the coaches in my old league was a starting guard opposite the great Ron Yary, his name is Andy Maurer. Andy truly admired coach Grant.").. Dave Potter- Durham, North Carolina ("You said, "...won four Grey Cups." My brain went, "Bingo!--Bud Grant!")... Jerry Lovell- Bellevue, Nebraska ("Your picture is Bud Grant. I was a Viking fan from day one and he was the coach. ("When he cut Alan Page, I was crushed as only a 12 year old can be when his idol isn't on the team anymore. Still like the number 88.) He always got self-starters for players. I read that he posted signs to stay off the grass and cut players because they couldn't / wouldn't follow simple directions--he found out about players early because the same things they did in everyday life would come out in games." (info from AFC Coach June 1999))... Greg Koenig- Las Animas, Colorado ( What a superior coach. Did you know that his son is a high school coach in Minnesota? I read about it in A SWEET SEASON by Austin Murphy.)... Larry Hanson- Rochelle, Illinois... Joe Gutilla, MInneapolis ("I just knew you couldn't pass on the opportunity to highlight one of Minnesota's finest in the "NEWS". That's Bud Grant, and I'm sure you got that picture from the book you found in the bookstore this weekend! Though I have not had the opportunity to meet Coach Grant yet, I have talked on a few occasions with his very successful football coaching son, Mike Grant, who has built a powerhouse program at Eden Prairie HS just outside of the Twin Cities. Although I haven't been in Minnesota for very long it didn't take me long to find out that Bud Grant is revered in these here parts.")... Mike Foristiere- Boise, Idaho... Sam Knopik- Kansas City ("Bud Grant is one of the men who have greatly shaped my coaching philosophy, although I never saw one of his teams play. The day I walked into the office of my first job I wrote on the top of the board, 'Time does not equal work.'")... Bill Nelson- West Burlington, Iowa... Akis Kourtzidis- Brea, California... Vern Reed- West Burlilngton, Iowa ( "I think that your basketball player is Coach Bud Grant. His eyes give him away without any hints at all.")... Dan King- Evans, Georgia ("As a child I followed the Vikings. It was much better to see them play outdoors where they could really have a homefield advantage. Norsemen shouldn't ever have to wage their battles on astroturf.")... John Reardon- Peru, Illinois... Art Osmundson- Woodland, Washington ("That's Bud Grant!!!!!!!! My mom dated him in High School. When I was a little kid my mom would rush home from church services to see "Buddy Boy" on T.V. Pops wouldn't get too excited about it.")... Greg Stout- Thompson's Station, Tennessee ("I can't tell you how many times his Vikings came to the Silverdome and frustrated my Lions.")... John Muckian- Lynn, Massachusetts ("That is the Great Bud Grant. Coach did Bud Grant play for Bernie Bierman at Minnesota ? (YES) if he did that's one more branch on a great coaching tree considering the Wilkinson-Royal branch.")... Bert Ford- Los Angeles ("As a kid (late 60's-early 70's) I remember some GREAT play-off games againest the Rams. The bad thing is I loved the Rams.")... Steve Staker- Fredericksburg, Iowa ("the man was a stud as an athlete, and a great leader of men, as a coach of my beloved VIKINGS. He was also an avid outdoorsman, making several trips to the great state of Iowa to go pheasant hunting. One of the legendary coaches in the NFL.")... John Bothe- Oregon, Illinois... Chad Clark- Concrete, Washington... Marlowe Aldrich- Billings, Montana ("In Eastern South Dakota, where I was born, you either cheered for the Vikings, or risked being thrown out of the bar.")... Keith Babb- Northbrook, Illinois ("Bud Grant's teams sure were a pain to teams I rooted for in the 70's, but I always respected the way they played. My best friend in HS is still a huge Minnesota fan because of the Bud Grant era. My friend often joked that they were going to install massive air conditioners on the roof of the Metrodome to recreate the conditions of old Metropolitan stadium during the playoffs").... John Grimsley- Gaithersburg, Maryland... Mike O'Donnell- Pine City, Minnesota ("His son, Mike, is the head football coach at Eden Prairie High School (a suburb of Minneapolis) and is one of the best football coaches in the state. Coach Grant's teams at EP have been nationally ranked as well. As for Coach Bud Grant, his teams were exciting to watch. His offensive coordinator, Jerry Burns, was one of the early forerunners of the short passing game (aka "The West Coast Offense") in the NFL and he utilized the talents of Fran Tarkenton and Chuck Foreman to the utmost. However, the "Purple People Eaters" and special teams were what set the Vikings apart from the others.")... Mike Benton- Colfax, Illinois ("Coach, I think he's the greatest coach in NFL history. I have always been a Vikings fan, and most of the reason is Bud Grant. I love the story he tells about his first day of training camp when he arrived in Minnesota. he told the players that there was a spot on the field that had some new sod on it and not to walk on it because it was new sod they were testing it. He then observed as some players ran around it. Some players ran right through it, while others started to run through and then realized they were on it and got off. He just observed the players. He said he found out that day which players would follow instructions, which wouldn't follow instructions and which didn't have good concentration. There are many other stories but that one always stuck out.")... Kevin Haley- Barnum, Minnesota ("one of the greatest coaches to coach at the professional level.")... Michael Morris- Huntsville, Alabama ("Next to Dallas' Tom Landry, Minnesota's Bud Grant was the epitome of class for me when I was just learning the game of football. It's good to learn some of his background. His Minnesota teams were some of my favorites during my teens. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that the 70's were the best years for pro football, with Landry, Shula, Grant, and Noll the best of that generation of pro football coaches.")... Mark Kaczmarek- Davenport, Iowa... John Zeller- Sears, Michigan ("I have three comments on Coach Grant. First, one of the things I loved about the Vikings under Coach Grant was that they were always the last team to report for practice in the summer. Sometimes by as much as a week! Next, as a Lion fan in the 60's and 70's, I'd have loved to have been able to lose as many "Big Games" as the Vikings did. People who don't think he was a great coach are nuts. Finally, I think that his son is a highly successful high school coach in Minnesota.")... *********** It was just about this time last week that I first heard the news, from Brian Rochon, a coach in Michigan - Bill Livingstone had died. And then I heard from another coach, and then another, and then I heard from his son, Dave. It was true. We'd lost Bill Livingstone. He was 64, my age. (That's Bill, in the front row, on the left, after last year's Detroit clinic.) I was shaken and saddened - I'd never see Bill Livingstone again. Steve Haskell, one of his fellow coaches, described him to me as "a great Marine, Father, a Mentor to our young men in the Troy Michigan area, and a good friend of mine." I often say that if I could have ten of the best youth coaches in America as my assistants, I'd have the best staff in the country. Bill Livingstone would have been on it. I first got to know Bill as a customer. Actually, it was through his wife, Jan, who bought him one of my tapes as a present. (God should give all of us wives like that.) But, perhaps because we were contemporaries, we became fast friends. We corresponded quite a bit, we spoke on the phone, and every year we spent a little time together at my Detroit clinic. With Bill, even though you'd just met him, it was easy to feel like you were old friends. I will always treasure the memory of last year's clinic, when Bill, his son Dave - who had the privilege of coaching with his dad - Donnie Hayes and I sat around afterwards and had a few and talked football. You couldn't know Bill and not like him. He had a great sense of humor, and he loved the game of football. In 30 years as a youth coach, he'd affected the lives of a lot of kids. And - trust me - he knew his stuff. He'd learned a lot about football and how to teach it. His career record was 227-27-1, with 19 championships. Yet, with all that success and all those years of experience, he saw something in the Double-Wing - an offense that could help his kids do even better and - like that - he switched over. Combine a proven offense with great coaching and good kids and the results were smashing - a year ago, his Troy Cowboys, 13-year-olds, played in the Pontiac Silverdome in the Detroit area's Super Bowl, soundly defeating a team that hadn't so much as been scored on all season. I remember our writing back and forth in the days before the game, thinking that a team that hadn't been scored on probably wouldn't know how to deal with the shock of it if you could just punch one in. We were right, and Bill said it was a huge thrill to tell his quarterback to take a knee in the final seconds. This past season, the Cowboys were in the Super Bowl for the second straight year, barely losing out to another Double-Wing team. I wrote a year ago about how inventive Bill was: Back before there was videotape, there were... read-throughs. Bill Livingstone, a youth coach in Troy, Michigan, and his son, Dave, told me how, early in Bill's career as a coach in Royal Oak, Michigan, one of his coaches would keep a play-by-play of every game. And then, afterward, the team would gather at someone's house, or maybe they'd stop a practice early, and gather out on the field, and some coach or parent with a little talent would reconstruct the game from the play-by-play. "32 off RT for 15 yds" would turn into "Watson over the ball, Johnson underneath him at center. Watson takes the snap, hands to Brown running right... Good hole... Brown cuts upfield - great block by Green - dodges one tackler, breaks a tackle, and finally he's brought down by three men just over the 45... Gain of about 15, enough for a first down." My prayers go to Bill, and my deepest sympathy to his wife, Jan, to Dave, and all the members of the Troy Cowboys organization. Wrote Dave, "While we are shocked and very saddened, the outpouring of people, family, current players, ex-players was overwhelming. The half a dozen or so eulogies were some of the best stories and commentary I have heard been a part of. There were some 400 people at the funeral home and church service. This is very hard to write, I do not have my usual long spirited wind these days, so I will leave now. We WILL coach this year. We WILL be at your clinic, and we will try to fill a huge hole on our staff, though at this point it seems impossible. I KNOW dad wouldn't have it any other way. Wednesday was rainy and cold, perfect football weather." Dave added, "He also thought very highly of you and "the offense" that was brought up several times during the eulogies. I look forward to seeing you, but I wonder how difficult it will be without him there. For these kinds of things we would get a room for afterwards, our whiteboard, beer, and cigars and talk football until dawn. Oh God how I will miss that." *********** I'm pullin for the 'Cuse. Nothing against Marquette, Texas or Kansas, but a Syracuse win would shove a certain something up the butts of a certain group of people. Syracuse is starting a true freshman at point guard. His name is Gerry McNamara, and he's from Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was a very good high school player, BUT - and here is why I want Syracuse to kick ass - HE DIDN'T PLAY AAU BASKETBALL!!! OR GO TO NIKE CAMPS!!! His high school basketball coach, Bishop Hannan's John Bucci, told USA Today, "Gerry's a good example of not being a big-time AAY kid, of being kind of off the radar for the really elite players. His summers were spent going to the shore (that's what Pennsylvanians call the Jersey seashore) with his family, being with his friends. It wasn't necessary for him to peddle himself. He did it on his terms." Go Orangemen. *********** Meanwhile, near where I live, the county girls' player of the year said that after last season, she was burned out, and needed a rest. So she laid out of basketball from - get this - the end of the state tournament until the start of summer league. *********** If you follow girls' basketball in the high schools, you've probably noticed that there are some programs being run at a level comparable to top boys' programs - recruiting, for God's sake - and some where it appears they found five girls with nothing else to do who, uh, need to work on such things as dribbling and passing and knowing which basket to shoot at. And so, more than 25 years after Title IX, there are still lots and lots of ugly scores in girls' basketball. This unfortunate disparity works its way up to the college level as well, where there are a relative handful of very solid programs, many of which play before large crowds, and then all the rest. As evidence: all four of this year's NCAA quarter-final games were between the #1 and #2 seeds. Three of the women's Final Four - Duke, UConn, and Tennessee - are #1 seeds. Texas is the only #2 seed left.. *********** George Connor died this week. He was 78. His passing received a couple of lines in our newspaper. Guys - I know you're young, and you can't be troubled with reading about the old geezers, but GEORGE CONNOR WAS AN ALL-TIME GREAT! He started out at Holy Cross but World War II came along, and after the war, he wound up at Notre Dame, then coached by Frank Leahy, who before the war, as head coach at Boston College, knew Connor well. At Notre Dame, he became the first winner of the Outland Trophy, awarded to the nation's top college lineman. He was drafted by the New York Giants, but he informed them that he would play only in Chicago, his home town. The Giants traded him to Boston, where he said the same thing. Finally, as Halas recalled in his autobiography, "Halas by Halas,", "the message got through." He wound up with the Bears. "He came to us," said Halas, "very mature, very fit, very experienced, most determined. He was a very big man for the time, and as a standout on both sides of the ball, he became one of the greatest of all Chicago Bears. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 'About 1950," he recalled, "Coach Halas needled me about how a great 49er fullback named Joe Perry would run all over me. Halas had me believing the game was a personal vendetta between Joe and me. I was 6 foot 3, 240, and I hit Perry so hard I broke the tape holding up my socks. Perry was knocked out." *********** I noticed that one young man killed in Iraq was an Iowan, and the article mentioned that he'd played football at Assumption High in Davenport. Now, that meant his coach had to be Mark Kaczmarek, who now coaches across the river in Illinois, and I wrote "Coach Kaz" to express my condolences. Coach Kaczmarek wrote back, " Thanks coach. He was a good kid. One of those "program" kids that are essential for success." Yup. It's the "program" kids - the hard-working non-stars - who go on to build America and keep things running, and protect our streets ands defend our country. God love 'em. *********** While these ego- and money-driven retired officers preen and pontificate on TV and call our military campaign in Iraq a "failure," we are already on the outskirts of Baghdad, and I am willing to bet that there will be more young Americans killed on the roads of America as a result of graduation festivities than have been killed so far in two weeks of war. *********** Coach great commentary regarding that asshole Prof. DeGenova. It's assholes like him, that's why middle-America will and should cast a suspect eye over the world of academia. Prof. DeGenova is your typical over-educated ,elite-academic, left-wing, Anti-American , Liberal academic who never worked a 40 hour work week in his entire life and spouts this "rubbish" and Columbia and other "elite" institution of higher learning are fine with it. There are a lot of "salt of the earth" people out there like a farmer in Iowa or mechanic in Michigan whose sons are fighting their asses off for us, and assholes like DeGenova don't have enough common sense to at least shut their mouths out of respect for what those young men are doing- I apologize for the rant see ya Friday Coach , John Muckian Lynn , Massachusetts *********** "I just read the transcript of Rumsfeld and Myer's press conference, yesterday. I've also listened to the centcom briefings all of this week. I'm sure glad that the American public is getting the opportunity to see first hand what a bunch of ignorant, agenda pushing, non-objective, know nothings most of the press corps is. This is a good thing. I'm also very impressed with the men running this enormously complex and successful operation. Competence shows - and it can be seen by the blindest of people." Keith Babb, Northbrook, Illinois *********** "WE CAN'T WAIT!" wrote Jason Sopko, of Forest City, Iowa, in sending me an article from the Des Moines Register. Tonya Harding, the Pride of Camas, Washington, the former figure skating champion whose name more often conjures up visions of kneecapping and flying hubcaps, has signed a deal to appear May 9 at Lakeside Casino Resort in Osceola, Iowa. Her opponent has yet to be named, but, according to the promoter, "we think it's going to be a girl from Iowa."   "She's excited about coming to Des Moines," said the promoter, feeding grateful comedians everywhere a great set-up line.   *********** "The Illinois High School Football Coaches Assoc. (IHSFCA) is having their annual clinic this Thursday-Friday-Saturday at the University of Illinois. It attracts upwards of 1500 coaches per year. The organizers do a great job. To my knowledge, they have never had a double wing speaker yet." John Bothe, Oregon, Illinois (That suits me fine. HW) *********** California school and union officials estimate that 25,000 teachers around the state have been given layoff notices this month. The notices are required under state law if school districts are contemplating letting teachers go this summer. It's still uncertain how many of those teachers will actually lose their jobs, since most districts have yet to settle on budgets for next year, but the news, part of the fallout from the state's economic crisis, is hitting young teachers the hardest, and is particularly discouraging to potential teachers still in college. *********** Coach, Regarding your comment about having a drawing for the honor of cutting off Chirac's testicles next 9/11, you're making a pretty large assumption that he still has any left! Looking forward to Providence. Rick Davis, Duxbury, Massachusetts *********** Have you read FOR GOD AND COUNTRY, the autobiography of Coach Fisher DeBerry at the Air Force Academy? I just finished it the other night. Almost no football information, but a great book for any coach. Greg Koenig, Las Animas, Colorado. (Haven't read it, but it just went on the list! HW) *********** Mike Foristiere, of Boise, Idaho, flew out to the Minneapolis clinic, and evidently had an eventful flight back: Hugh, there is another thing I want to relate to you that happened on the plane ride home to Boise. I feel bad about it now but at the time I couldn't stop myself. I had the pleasure of sitting next to a soccer mom on the plane. This woman asked me what I did and I told her I was a Football coach and a Teacher. She then started to berate the great game of football and competition and how it was disheartening to the young kids. I tried to maintain my composure but she kept on about how she earned her coach's license from a book and a class. She said she never played sports as a youth and so on and so on. Finally I had enough and I said did you play dodgeball in elementary school? She said yes but they always threw the ball at me. My response to her was "Why am I not surprised? The problem, Miss, is that people like you are making a mockery of sport and the values it holds. You never had the courage to play sports but now you come off as some authority. I have invested my life in sports and youth and I can assure you that it is the best thing we have going. I am sick and tired of people like you who feel that everything should be fuzzy wuzzy and touchy-feely (this is quoting Joe Gutilla). The world is not that way. There are no group hugs and we don't call the coach by his first name. You need to realize young people need to learn to compete early in life, because if they don't they will be eaten alive. I bet you are even against the war with Iraq." She started to say she supports the troops but not Bush. I said "you don't want them to win!!" (Gee I wonder where I got that!) I then said "you can't ride the fence - either you're in or you're out. Either you're with us or you're against us! There is no in between, and that, Miss, is what soccer has taught you and what football has taught me. We are not like the rest of the world and we should not want to be!" Needless to say the rest of the flight was in silence! I feel bad but you know, some people just get under your skin. Well I hope you enjoyed the story and once again thanks for every thing. Mike (Wow- Beautiful job of taking that femmie on. I wonder what it is about these liberal jerks that they think they can mouth off like that to anyone without anyone ever getting in their face? They want to suppress our opinions, even to the point of labelling them "sexual harassment" or "hate speech," yet they think nothing of speaking openly about how stupid football is. Or "Bush" - I love to piss them off by insisting that they call him "President Bush." What Mike is referring to when he says "wonder where I got that" is my suggestion that any time somebody starts this "I support the troops, but..." weaseling, you ask them, "DO YOU WANT THEM TO WIN?" You will be surprised at the way that makes some people squirm. HW) *********** I thought you might appreciate what I wrote to that professor at Columbia you wrote about on your web site today. Somehow, I don't think I'll get much of a response. =============== Dear Sir; As a member, a proud member, of the United States Armed Forces that have bled and died to give you the freedom of speech you so richly abused on Wednesday, 26 Mar 03, I am writing to express my utter contempt for you. I strongly doubt that you will have the courage to read this entire message, so I will be brief. You are a despicable coward. You stand, safely protected by the ivory walls of your college, well inside the borders of your country, and you degrade the armed forces that are dying to protect you. How DARE you? How DARE you sit in your comfortable chair, free from oppression, free from reprisals, and spout such filth? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? You disgust me. Had you any sense you would be on your knees begging the servicemen around you for forgiveness. Had you any clue you would be facing the ghosts of Pearl Harbor, Omaha Beach, Ong Than, Mogadishu, and above all SEPTEMBER ELEVENTH, and you would be wailing to be pardoned. MEN HAVE DIED FOR YOU, AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY THEM? Words can simply not express my revulsion at the thought of what you have done. You are a coward, plain and simple, hiding behind your academic credentials in your Ivy League college. Why don't you walk the sands of Kuwait, or swim the waters of Pearl Harbor? I'm sure the ghosts of the Arizona would be happy to know that they gave their lives so men like you could disgrace their memory. With no respect; Derek "Coach" Wade, Tomales, California (He probably gets a good laugh at the reaction he gets from people like Derek Wade and me. HW) *********** Hugh, Just a quick note. If you can, please send Peter Arnett back through the Crete Air Base (The Big Gas Station). I have met a lot of young men here that would like to help him off and on a plane. For that matter I would like to also. Hope your clinics are going good. You're loud and clear here. Frank Simosen, on an island somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea *********** GOOD NEWS! Mere weeks after announcing that its football program was being dropped, the victim of budget cuts mandated by statewide higher education spending reductions, Michigan Tech has annouonced that it will play varsity football this fall. The 2003 football season will get underway August 30 at home against Ashland. According to head coach Bernie Anderson, Michigan Tech and alumni have come up with a plan that will assure that the 82-year-old Michigan Tech football program will survive for at least four more seasons. Yeah, right. First they probably have to come up with 45 more athletic scholarships for women, and then some bogus sport to park them in. Maybe, considering they're located on the UP, they could try ice fishing. *********** Hi coach, I am in complete agreement with you about the subject of returning phone calls. People not returning calls is a big pet peeve of mine, especially since I have a boss who insists that we do return phone calls (again, I'm a sportswriter). Often those calls are from angry parents who are unhappy about their kids' teams' coverage. It's not usually a pleasant experience returning those calls, but it's a lot better than blowing off the readers and having them call the boss. Often times the root cause of these parents complaints about a lack of coverage in a particular sport is coaches not returning our phone calls. I can understand that sometimes a coach may be unhappy that we can't go to all of his team's games (after all, you always go to the football games, they say), but we can't be everywhere and if a coach refuses to talk to me because I don't go to all of his team's games, to me he's cutting off his nose to spite his face. Last year, I read an anecdote from former U of Iowa wrestler Matt Furey about his coach Dan Gable. Once, Furey said, Gable said "I have 78 phone messages today and every one of those people will think I'm an asshole when I don't call him back. But there's no other way. I have a team to coach." As a former high school wrestler, few athletes have inspired me more than Dan Gable, but I must admit I lost a little bit of respect for him after reading that. Though I do agree, 78 messages is a bit much. take care, Oh and by the way, this week's guy is Bud Grant. Steve Tobey, Malden, Massachusetts (The problem is that when you get to Dan Gable's level - or Bill Parcells', or Rich Brooks' - you come in from practice and there are 78 calls to be returned. It is a hellish problem for people who are already pressed for time and would like to have a little home life, too. Whenever I can, I try to convert phone callers to e-mail, because even though I spend a couple of hours a day answering e-mails, I can promise people - and keep my promise - that I will return e-mails. Except for snotty ones, of course. HW) *********** COACHING VACANCY: I am wondering if you would be willing to post our vacancy on your website. I would be very grateful. It would be great if I could get a coach with DW experience (or at least someone who is interested in the DW), and your website obviously attracts those people. Greg Koenig - Las Animas, Colorado (I know Coach Koenig and I'm familiar with his program. Both are first-rate. If you're looking to coach football in the West, you ought to get in touch with Coach Koenig. POSITION: Assistant High School Football Coach SCHOOL: Las Animas High School in Las Animas, Colorado (80 miles east of Pueblo) POSSIBLE TEACHING P0SITIONS: middle school/high school PE (including weightlifting); high school science; middle school English OTHER POSSIBLE COACHING OPPORTUNITIES: girls basketball; track; wrestling INTERESTING INFORMATION: We have been running the double-wing for the past four seasons and have qualified for the playoffs two of the past three seasons. We are among the state leaders in rushing and total offense each year. We play in a very competitive 1A (smallest 11-man schools in the state) league with some great rivalries. We have great kids in the program who are dedicated to the weightroom and to winning championships. We use the Bigger Faster Stronger program and have three class periods of weightlifting each day. The community is very supportive of the football program and the other athletic programs. SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY INFORMATION: Las Animas High School has a current enrollment of 168 students in grades 9-12. We have adequate facilities (a better weight room than most schools our size). The principal is a former football coach, and the head football coach is the AD. The current population of Las Animas is about 2500. We are the county seat of Bent County, and we have a rich history and heritage along the historic Santa Fe Trail. Interested parties should contact either Coach Greg Koenig or Mr. Mike Miller, principal, at 719-456-0211, or they could send an email to gregory.koenig@lasanimas.k12.co.us.   *********** For years, General Jim Shelton, one of my Black Lions friends, worked on a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which so many Black Lions died, Don Holleder along with them. It is now in print.   It is entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton. Its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967" and it is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   General Shelton is shown at left at West Point, at a book signing. (He does a lot of autographing - he personally signs every Black Lion Award certificate.)   You can get an autographed copy of General Shelton's book for yourself or for a friend - send him a check for $25 per book, and tell him who the books are for, and he'll personally autograph them and mail them back to you. His address is General James Shelton, 6610 Gasparilla Pines Blvd #118, Englewood FL 34224   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.   THE PHOTO AT THE LEFT is what the Black Lion Award is all about - connecting outstanding young men of today with the men who've served. Shown here is Cody Allen, of Las Animas High in Las Animas, Colorado, and Mr. Ernesto Vargas, a Black Lion. Las Animas coach Greg Koenig contacted Mr. Vargas, who was happy to take part in the award ceremony. Mr. Vargas, by the way, was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. On the left front of his jacket, from bottom to top, are badges of the Black Lions (28th Infantry Regiment), the Big Red One (1st Infantry Division) and the Combat Infantryman.     YOU WANNA SEE SOMETHING COOL? http://www.jackson.army.mil/228th/index.htm

April 1, 2003 - ""We have the power to be patient." General Tommy Franks   2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)    A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: It must be winter, because he's shown playing basketball. If it had been spring, it would have been baseball, and if it had been fall, he'd have been playing football. He was a three-year letter winner in all three sports at the University of Minnesota, and he played professionally in two sports - football with the Philadelphia Eagles and Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and basketball with the Minneapolis (now Los Angeles) Lakers. He was, in the words of his biographer, "the most versatile athlete in Minnesota history." Did I mention that he would go on to become one of the greatest coaches in the history of the NFL? He was born and raised in Superior, Wisconsin, and his given name was Harry, although no one ever called him that. When he was named head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1956, he was only 29. In his first season, he took the Bombers to the Grey Cup Final, and in his second year, he won it. In his ten years at Winnipeg, his teams played in six finals, and won four Grey Cups. He moved a short distance south to the NFL in 1967, and spent 18 of the next 19 years as head coach of the same team. He has been on occasion been derided by the jackasses of the media because of his so-called failure to win "the big one" - his teams played in four Super Bowls and lost them all - but that is a cheap shot that obscures his incredible accomplishments: His teams won 11 Division Titles, and won the NFL title in 1969, and three NFC titles (after the merger with the AFL). He became prematurely gray, earning him the nickname "The Gray Fox" in Canada. In the NFL, his most prominent characteristic seemed to be his expressionless sideline demeanor, which earned him such nicknames as "The Great Stone Face" and "The Glacier." His teams seemed to take on his personality. They were not showy or flashy; they were solid and steady, they didn't beat themselves, and they were famously tough in cold weather - they took great pride in not wearing gloves or long-sleeved shirts. So dominant were they in their division ( (the so-called "Black and Blue" Division) that in the 14 years from 1968 through 1981 they failed to win it only three times. His 168 career wins are eighth among all coaches in NFL history. He was installed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1994.   (If you can identify him, e-mail your answer - be sure to include your name and hometown - to coachwyatt@aol.com) *********** I think that the importance of football as a way to teach values and work habits and teamwork to young boys is vastly overrated. I think the safest and most effective way to teach tackling is to have your players practice - full speed - grabbing the ball carrier's legs. I forgive coaches who teach their kids to take out our fullbacks at the knees, and referees who look the other way when they do. I forgive fathers who shop their kids around from high school to high school, looking for the offense that will showcase them the best, and I forgive coaches who recruit those fathers and kids, then take a starting job away from one of their own players who's been working hard and playing by the rules for the last three years. I forgive people who don't know the first damn thing about our offense, except that "it won't work." I forgive coaches who say "it isn't holding if you don't get caught." I forgive assistants who lurk in the shadows during practice and tell anyone who'll listen - kids, parents, other coaches - that if they were the head coach, they wouldn't be running your stupid offense. I forgive administrators who encourage parents to bypass you and come directly to them with any complaints. I forgive liberal teachers who lead their kids out of class to protest the war. I forgive coaches of other sports who tell your kids' parents that if they hope to win a college scholarship, they need to concentrate year-round on one sport - theirs. I forgive feminists who couldn't care less how many men's sports have to be cut in order to achieve "proportionality." I think that football would be a lot more fun for everybody if kids were allowed to talk trash with their opponents. I think that American education continues to improve as it becomes more feminized. I ask for forgiveness for all the things I've said that put down soccer, and I realize that football coaches need to understand that all sports are equally important. I forgive people who openly root for Iraq against the United States, and those who call my President names and accuse him of all manner of vile things, and I vow to be less openly admiring of our country and our armed forces. I forgive the French, and I think that there's a lot we can learn from them about being fighters. And I can't believe if you read this far that you haven't recognized this for what it is, which is pure bullsh--. Gotcha. April Fool. *********** If you've ever been out of work and had to call around chasing down jobs, you learn very quickly that there are plenty of guys even in this great profession of ours who just don't return calls. They're just too busy or too damned important. Piss on them. To me, there is nothing colder than not getting back to a guy who's calling about a job, and having spent some time on the beach myself, ans having sat by the phone waiting for it to ring, I have requested that a special place in hell be reserved for people who don't call you back. I thought of that when Rich Brooks called me Monday. I'd called his office just to wish him the best of luck with his first day of spring ball at Kentucky, but I'd left word with his secretary that he didn't need to call back. He did, anyhow. Now, I'm telling this to drop names. I'm telling it to illustrate what kind of guy Rich Brooks is. I just wish there were some way I could help him, because there isn't much I wouldn't do if I could. I have that much respect for him. My association with him goes back to the late 1970s, but I was never anything more to him than a high school coach who worked his camp and had a beer or two with him in the evenings, yet here we are, 25 years later and even though there's not a damn thing that I can do for him, he's classy enough to return a phone call. He'd just come in off the field from the first day of practice, but he took the time to call back just to chat. There's also a special place for this kind of guy - the kind who remembers people and returns phone calls. *********** World War II had Tokyo Rose. Vietnam had Jane Fonda. Iraq, so far, has Peter Arnett. Peter Arnett, paid by National Geographic and NBC to report from Baghdad, went on Iraq TV - the same TV that showed American Marines with execution-type bullet holes in their head - and told viewers that American military plans were a failure, thanks to the unexpectedly strong resistance put up by the Iraqis. Most American news people had already been booted out of Iraq, but not Peter Arnett, and now we know why. Nice pep talk, Pete. (To be honest, except for the fact that said it on Iraqi TV, I've heard South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle and New York Congressman Charlie Rangel say things far more helpful to the Iraqi cause.) Arnett's been fired by NBC, which at first tried defending him but quickly saw the error of that going too far down that path. I heard him interviewed and he sounded unrepentant - gave it the "Sorry if anybody was offended" shot. (Anybody seen the guy, by the way? He must have been one hell of a reporter, because otherwise I can't imagine what a guy with a mug like that was doing in front of a TV camera.) I wonder if he's got any plans to return to the US. I'd be happy to meet him at the airport and whisk him down to Fort Jackson, South Carolina to introduce him to my friends in the Black Lions. *********** "Michael Moore is the fourth Dixie Chick and now Peter Arnett is the fifth. Nice going guys." Rob Tiffany, Houston, Texas (Rob is my son-in-law. Nice going, guy. HW) *********** Last Wednesday night, some 30 faculty members at Columbia University held one of those mutual-masturbationary sessions called a "Teach In," during which the geniuses try to see who can say the most seditious thing to the assembled masses. During his speech, one Nicholas DeGenova, Professor of Anthropology and Latino Studies (whatever the hell that is) said "the only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military." And then the traitorous son of a bitch went on to call for "fragging" of American officers by subordinates, and, even worse, the death of American soldiers. "I personally would like," he said, "to see a million Mogadishus." Long Island Newsday reported that the crowd "loudly applauded" the weasel when he went on to say, "If we really believe that this war is criminal ... then we have to believe in the victory of the Iraqi people and the defeat of the U.S. war machine." Free speech, huh? So far, it hasn't cost that asshole a dime to spout off like that, surrounded as he was in his ivory tower by fellow leftist faculty members and adoring America-hating students. (By the way, who, on an elite college campus, dares to dissent from those faculty giants who so take such pride in calling themselves dissenters?) Free speech, yes. The constitution guarantees that. But it doesn't guarantee that there won't be consequences. Nowhere in the Consitution is it guaranteed that Professor DeGenova can say whatever he pleases and not have to answer for it. "Fragging," did he say? Fragging would be too good for him, a sheltered professor who abuses the blessings of liberty to the point where he feels free to call for the death of those sworn to defend his freedoms. Mogadishu, did he say? Whoa - he just gave me a hell of an idea. I'm thinking Fayetteville, North Carolina. Or Columbus, Georgia. Or Norfolk, Virginia. Or San Diego. Some military town. Some place where we can get a good crowd of service people and their families to come out and line the streets and scream and shout, as soldiers, sailors and marines drag his sorry ass through the town. I'm working on getting the rights to the movie, with Professor DeGenova playing himself. I've got Michael Moore or Peter Arnett lined up as his stunt doubles. (Why not drop the professor a line - npd18@columbia.edu - I did. Let him know that not all speech is free - try telling the folks at airport security that you'd like to see your plane go down. Better yet, if you've got a son, daughter, brother, cousin, sister in the armed forces, have them drop him a line thanking him for wishing they were dead. Here's what I wrote: "You, sir, are a disgrace to American higher education, and not worth the spit on the street of an American army town. May you be drummed out of Columbia in disgrace, and spend the rest of your days as a wanderer through the "red counties" of America, without the bubble of your beloved tenure as protection." HW)   *********** There will come the day - may we all live to see it - that there will be some hellacious books written and movies made about this war. William Safire, writing in the New York Times, suggested some of the stories waiting to be told when that day comes: What tales of special-ops derring-do await the telling? Who, in the fog of peace, will honor Iraqis inside Baghdad spotting military targets to save civilians? Will we learn first-hand of the last days of Saddam in his Hitlerian bunker? What scientists, murdered lest they point the way to germs and poison gases, left incriminating documents behind? Where are the secret files of Saddam's Mukhabarat, detailing the venal transactions with Western, Asian, Arab and Persian political and business leaders &emdash; and connections to world terror networks? *********** Michelin - a French company - is offering a free Palm digital organizer to customers who buy four new tires. Now, if a French company really wanted to sell tires in America, it would give each customer a raffle ticket, with the winner of the drawing earning the right to cut off Jacques Chirac's testicles at Ground Zero next September 11. *********** Coach, Wouldn't it be great if the Army program went to Denny Creehan? The Wing-T, like option FB would adapt well to the athletes in academy football.  With Delaware leaving the fold, I would live to follow the progress of the beloved system at the Div. I level. Mark Kaczmarek, Davenport, Iowa (Coach- Denny Creehan is on the scene at Army now, having recently been hired as special teams coordinator. I don't know if that's good or bad. I suppose in balance it's good, because at least this way, when Todd Berry gets fired, Denny won't be a complete unknown to the Army people, and yet as a newcomer to the staff, it's possible that he can escape being tainted by association. I hope. HW) *********** At the Air Force Academy there stood, for decades, a stone arch on which raised letters said, "BRING ME MEN." That always seemed reasonable to me, at a place whose every existence depended on helping to build and maintain a warrior culture. Now, as a discredited "symbol of academy culture," that is to say the warrior culture, the words have been chiseled off. Consider the erasure as a partial payment to those who blame the recent rash of "sexual assaults" at the academy on the culture itself. Just to show you the state of things at the AFA - how bad things are in the minds of those who would put skirts on all of our military - a woman named Lory Manning, described as "a retired Navy officer who monitors the military for the Women's Research and Education Institute (sure sounds like a professional feminist group to me) recalled attending a conference at the Academy in 1998 and seeing faculty members wearing caps with the initials "LCWB" on them. In case you don't know what that means, members of the last all-male classes at the academies have long referred to themselves proudly (but quietly, I would imagine, if they expect to be promoted in today's modern, politically-correct armed forces) as the Last Class With Balls. *********** One of the "sexual abuses" that took place at a service academy, leading to giant steps to control "abuses", reportedly occured at Annapolis back in 1990 after a female midshipperson (I gag on words like that) threw a snowball at a couple of male midshippersons, and they attempted to teach her an "actions have consequences" lesson by (gasp!) chaining her to a urinal and (ohmigod!) taking her picture. Now, that was likely bullying - hazing, even - and worthy of some sort of discipline. But if that is considered "sexual abuse," then how are those of us who read past the headlines supposed to take all the other charges seriously? *********** Saddam's been using one of our cultural strong points - our reverence for the value of human life, even that of our enemy - against us, with his use of human shields and his dressing soldiers as civilians, and his display on TV of American prisoners of war and dead American soldiers. I say, it's time we took advantage of one of his cultural weaknesses. The Muslim's aversion to pork. A former student who is now a West Point cadet told me of a legend about General John "Black Jack" Pershing, who once, while stationed in the Philippines, had to put down an uprising of Islamic radicals. The story goes that he captured 50 of them and tied them up, ready for the firing squad. But first, as they watched, he slaughtered a couple of pigs, dipped the rounds of ammunition in the pigs' blood, and then shot 49 of the 50, sending them to an unspeakable eternity thanks to their contact with the blood of the pig.. Then, as the lone survivor looked on, General Pershing ordered the 49 dead ones untied and thrown into a mass grave, where they were covered with the pigs' intestines. Finally, he turned the survivor loose and let him return home. Evidently, they guy told his buddies that this crazy American meant business, because Persing had no further problems with radical Islamists. Now, I remember World War II, when housewives were asked to save used cooking fat, to be collected by government agencies for - what? Who knows what it was for? Maybe they actually made explosives with it, as we kids were told, or maybe it was just some symbolic way of making Americans feel "involved" in the war effort. Who knew? But it gave me a great idea. What if all patriotic Americans were to eat pork for dinner at least three times a week for the next three weeks, being careful to trim off and save all the fat? People would take their cans or ziploc bags of fat to central collection points - post offices, maybe. Then, government officials would collect all the fat and ship it to Iraq. This time, though, I can tell you that it would definitely be used. Remember the story of General Pershing? Our pork fat would be stuffed into bombs to be dropped out of B-52's and shells to be shot by howitzers. And then Saddam wouold be given fair warning - the minute that he used nerve gas - or whatever other evil substances he has cooked up - we would subject Baghdad - soldiers and civilians alike - to one solid day of artillery bombardment and carpet bombing, with shells and bombs full of pork fat. *********** Coach Wyatt, I just received the 5 blocking shields I ordered. They are exactly what I was looking for. Also, please keep up the outstanding work in supporting our troops and administration. As an ex-Army Officer who was stationed in West Germany during the cold war, I am appalled at the reaction of our 'so called' allies Germany and France. I guess I should expect it from the French, we never counted on any assistance from them if the Warsaw Pact crossed the border other than providing the enemy cheap wine and hookers. The Germans are the ones who really upset me. It's interesting that a society freed from the grips of a brutal and totalitarian regime can't support a very similar cause in the Middle East. Hell, even the Japanese are supporting us. Oh well, hope the Europeans don't need our help anytime soon. thanks, Doug Parks, Milford Michigan ( If this war does nothing other than get us out of UN entanglements, it will have been worth it. Consier it a Second War for American Independence. I hear people refer to this as an "illegal" war and it occurs to me that some poeple actually think we are governed by the United Nations - the very "World Government" that the old-timers used to warn my generation about. HW) *********** I heard the Michigan Tech football (ex-)coach this week on a radio interview. He wasn't very happy to say the least. They were given no warning. (Michigan Tech dropped its Division II program a week ago. HW) He was really angry for the student athletes. They have a long football tradition. There's a number of Green Bay area players up there too. I have also heard stories from the coaching staff from my hometown, Menominee, MI about Buck Nystrom. Amazing. They use Buck's techniques in their single wing. They have seen him enough to know better than sit in the front row! I remember hearing of one "lucky customer" who got himself a nice hand shaped bruise on his chest from one of Buck lectures. Adam Wesoloski, Pulaski, Wisconsin *********** Sent to me by Doug Gibson, of Naperville, Illinois (he didn't know where he got it, and I don't normally print things when the subject line starts with "FW,", but this is pretty good): .You know the world's gone mad when --- * the best rapper is a white guy, * the best golfer is a black guy, * the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, * the Swiss hold the America's Cup, * France is accusing the USA of arrogance and * the Germans don't want to go to war! ************ EVERY GOOD DECISION STARTS WITH A STOP Most of us are regularly confronted with choices that can have serious and lasting impact on our lives. What's more, most really bad decisions -- the one's that mess up our lives -- were made impulsively or without sufficient reflection. Thus, the wisdom of the oldest advice in the world: "Think ahead." The maxim telling us to count to three when we're angry and to ten when we're very angry is designed to prevent foolish and impulsive behavior. But anger is just one obstacle to good choices. Others are fatigue, frustration, impatience and ignorance. We can improve our lives immeasurably if we can get in the habit of self-consciously stopping the momentum of thoughtless behavior. We must force ourselves to reflect on what we are about to do. Just like we teach our children to look both ways before they cross the street, we can and should instill the habit of looking ahead in making decisions. So each good decision starts with a stop. We must stop to sort out facts from rumors, to evaluate the evidence and devise alternatives so we can choose the most effective and ethical course of action. Stopping to think before we act also allows us to muster our moral will power to overcome temptations. The "stop" is a break in the action that allows us to ask ourselves a few crucial questions that could set us on a better road: "Wait, what do I really want to accomplish here?" "How will my decision affect others?" "What are my alternatives?" "What could go wrong?" This is Michael Josephson reminding you to think ahead because character counts. Reprinted by permission, Josephson Institute of Ethics, copyright 2003; (Michael Josephson's nationally syndicated radio commentary is heard in 181 countries around the world on American Forces Radio. For further information visit www.charactercounts.org. To subscribe to the weekly commentaries, send an email to commentary@jiethics.org and write "Subscribe" in the subject line.)   *********** I read with interest Coach John Neff's comments on what I'll call, "Team dynamics." Three years ago at the University of Michigan clinic, I got somethig similar from Michigan's Strength and Conditioning Coach, Mike Gittleson. He gives every freshman to enter a program a card with these five points: 1. You're going to die. 2. Life is hard. 3. You're not in control. 4. You're not that important. 5. It's not about you. To me, this has TEAM written all over it. These are the kinds of things that football is supposed to teach you. John Zeller- Sears, Michigan (Modern, touchy-feely educators wouldn't like that, because they're so busy with that self-esteem bullsh--, trying to teach every little child that he's so very, very special, but I LOVE it. HW) *********** COACHING VACANCY: I am wondering if you would be willing to post our vacancy on your website. I would be very grateful. It would be great if I could get a coach with DW experience (or at least someone who is interested in the DW), and your website obviously attracts those people. Greg Koenig - Las Animas, Colorado (I know Coach Koenig and I'm familiar with his program. Both are first-rate. If you're looking to coach football in the West, you ought to get in touch with Coach Koenig. POSITION: Assistant High School Football Coach SCHOOL: Las Animas High School in Las Animas, Colorado (80 miles east of Pueblo) POSSIBLE TEACHING P0SITIONS: middle school/high school PE (including weightlifting); high school science; middle school English OTHER POSSIBLE COACHING OPPORTUNITIES: girls basketball; track; wrestling INTERESTING INFORMATION: We have been running the double-wing for the past four seasons and have qualified for the playoffs two of the past three seasons. We are among the state leaders in rushing and total offense each year. We play in a very competitive 1A (smallest 11-man schools in the state) league with some great rivalries. We have great kids in the program who are dedicated to the weightroom and to winning championships. We use the Bigger Faster Stronger program and have three class periods of weightlifting each day. The community is very supportive of the football program and the other athletic programs. SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY INFORMATION: Las Animas High School has a current enrollment of 168 students in grades 9-12. We have adequate facilities (a better weight room than most schools our size). The principal is a former football coach, and the head football coach is the AD. The current population of Las Animas is about 2500. We are the county seat of Bent County, and we have a rich history and heritage along the historic Santa Fe Trail. Interested parties should contact either Coach Greg Koenig or Mr. Mike Miller, principal, at 719-456-0211, or they could send an email to gregory.koenig@lasanimas.k12.co.us.   *********** For years, General Jim Shelton, one of my Black Lions friends, worked on a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which so many Black Lions died, Don Holleder along with them. It is now in print.   It is entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton. Its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967" and it is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   General Shelton is shown at left at West Point, at a book signing. (He does a lot of autographing - he personally signs every Black Lion Award certificate.)   You can get an autographed copy of General Shelton's book for yourself or for a friend - send him a check for $25 per book, and tell him who the books are for, and he'll personally autograph them and mail them back to you. His address is General James Shelton, 6610 Gasparilla Pines Blvd #118, Englewood FL 34224   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.   THE PHOTO AT THE LEFT is what the Black Lion Award is all about - connecting outstanding young men of today with the men who've served. Shown here is Cody Allen, of Las Animas High in Las Animas, Colorado, and Mr. Ernesto Vargas, a Black Lion. Las Animas coach Greg Koenig contacted Mr. Vargas, who was happy to take part in the award ceremony. Mr. Vargas, by the way, was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. On the left front of his jacket, from bottom to top, are badges of the Black Lions (28th Infantry Regiment), the Big Red One (1st Infantry Division) and the Combat Infantryman.     YOU WANNA SEE SOMETHING COOL? http://www.jackson.army.mil/228th/index.htm