*********** FITCH ADVANCES TO CONNECTICUT STATE FINALS TUESDAY NIGHT, TROUNCING 10-0 NEWTOWN- "Hi Coach, I just came from watching Fitch Beat Newtown High School 50 to 8 in the Connecticut Class L semi-final state game. It was like attending another Double Wing clinic! It takes me an hour and a half to get there, and I missed about one minute. That's how long it took for Newtown to recieve the kickoff, run three plays and punt. I got there in time to watch Fitch run two superpowers for about 35 yards, a sweep for 15, and another superpower for a 17 yard touchdown. Four plays! There must have been about 400 yards of total offense before the J.V.s went into the game. They soaked Mike Emery with the water bucket after the game. This Saturday, Fitch plays in it's third State playoff game in a row. Coach, I can't get over how this Offense dominates defenses. I'm hooked for life!!! I know what I'll continue to run." Paul Smith, Freshman Coach, Bullard-Havens Tech, Bridgeport, CT. *********** As you know, I am a passionate fan of soccer, but I can't always get all the soccer news I want, so I frequently have to depend on my son, Ed, whose job calls for him to deal with that sort of stuff. All kidding aside, I did find it pleasing to learn that even in the overly-demonstrative world of European soccer (futbol) there are still a few sportsmen. Ed writes, "A quick word from the 'dark side'...international soccer players can occasionally show a little class. Gabriel Batistuta, who plays for Roma in the Italian Serie A, scored the winning goal against his former team, Fiorentina. He refused to celebrate - no dive to the ground, no shirt over the head - in fact, he didn't celebrate at all. After the game, Batistuta said it was out of respect for his former team and their loyal fans." *********** A Canadian coach writes, "I was reading your site and saw the fire marshal's name (Stan Smoke). Well I had a student a few years back whose name is Treasure. Not all the bad until I read her last name; HUNT. TREASURE HUNT, I felt so bad for this young lady I never roll-called her by her whole name." *********** I'm kinda new in town... so maybe you can tell me how this is good for a kid. A New Jersey youth coach sent me a newspaper article about some kind of "junior football league" near him in which there appears to be some sort of weight limit. One 13-year-old was quoted in the Atlantic City Press as saying how gratifying it was to help his team win the championship because he had had to lose 20 pounds to get under the 155-pound weight limit. "I don't know how I lost the weight, but after every game I eat a bunch of candy," he told the Press' reporter, "with a large bag of chocolate in hand." *********** HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN - With the success of Oregon and the turnaround at Oregon State it is easy to overlook the fact that when somebody wins, somebody else loses. Somebody like USC. From 1967 through 1979, USC won 122 games - an average of nine games a season - and four national championships. But USC hasn't even finished in the Top Ten since 1989, and hasn't been at the top of a weekly poll since October, 1981. There has to be a problem that those of us on the outside can't see. How, otherwise, can you not win at USC? *********** Coach Gavin Monagle of East Boston's Savio Prep hopes his Double-Wing offense, which has produced 468 points in 11 games, will be enough to help Savio defeat Boston South champion Charlestown in a Massachusetts Division 6 Super Bowl Saturday night at Boston University Stadium. The Super Bowl is the nearest thing Massachusetts has to a state championship. Savio, 9-1-1, boasts the state's all-time single-season scoring leader in junior Stephen Grillo, who in 11 games has scored 296 points, with 44 touchdowns and 16 two-point conversions. (Stephen carried 11 times for 232 yards and four TDs in Savio's 40-14 Thanksgiving Day win over archrival Austin Prep.) *********** For this they're paid millions. Experts in California have discovered to their apparent amazement that children who cannot speak English well enough to understand what is going on in the classroom (roughly 25 per cent of the state's 5.6 million school kids) don't perform as well in statewide achievement tests as those who are fluent in English. Imagine that! Politicians and school officials say that because the tests are given in English, the results are somehow influenced by a kid's ability to understand English. Anybody want to guess what their solution is going to be? *********** When does a team finish 9-1, rank seventh in its entire state, and not make its state's playoffs? How about when the state has an abbreviated four-team playoff system, and the four teams are chosen by a computer rating system. Notre Dame High of West Haven, Connecticut, under coach John De Caprio, has made great strides running the Double-Wing the past few years, and it can't feel good to miss making the state Class LL playoff foursome by five points. Points are awarded on the basis off 100 points for a win in the same class, 90 for a win over a team one class down, 80 for a win two classes down, 110 for a class up, 120 for two classes up, and so forth. Notre Dame, 9-1, amassed 1225 points, five less than the 1230 of New Britain. New Britain, 8-1-1 goes to the playoffs, West Haven, 9-1, stays home. *********** Steve Gervais was first in a line of celebrated Puyallup, Washington quarterbacks, and he's still leading the way. Puyallup is also the home of Damon and Brock Huard and Billy Joe Hobert, and they may have made it to the NFL, but Gervais, who played quarterback at Oregon State, has accomplished something far more noteworthy in my mind - something never before achieved in Washington football. Saturday, when he takes his 12-0 Skyline (Sammamish) High team to the state 3A finals in the Tacoma Dome, he will become the first coach in state history to take three different schools to state finals. He won three 1A titles at Eatonville, then took Gig Harbor to the 3A title game in 1994. This is only the fourth year of Skyline's existence, and its first class of seniors, and in their first year of varsity play, they were 0-9. *********** "Coach: The Peewee Giants (10-11yr olds) are champions. In one year the Giants went from 2-8 to 9-1. The Giants started off the playoffs by beating the Patriots 34-0, and the 49ers 36-6. The championship was against the Packers and the Giants won 16-0.The Packer defense game plan was to stop the super-power. They did in the first half. The 47c criss-cross scored from 30 yards out. The second touchdown came from the 7-c and scored from 15 yards out. The rest of the second half was taken up by long drives that saw our counters open for long runs. Once the 77-c,7-c, and the 47-c opened things up the super-powers were wide open. For the year our B-back had 8 td's, our A-back had 10 td's and our C-back had 23 td's. Thanks Hugh for all your help the kids had a great time and the system involved everyone. Thank you, Coach Greg Cheverier, West Hartford, Connecticut"
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***********
The Golden Screw, made from pure gold taken from the Golden
Dome at the University of Notre Dame, has been donated
jointly by Notre Dame, NBC ("The Network That Brought You
the Olympics and Also Has Paid Notre Dame a Lot of Money to
Televise Their Games Every Saturday") and the BCS. It will
be awarded Sunday to that college team clearly outranking
Notre Dame in the AP Poll which, in the opinion of the
Selection Committee is more deserving of the place in the
BCS series sure to be given to 11th-ranked Notre Dame, which
choses to remain an independent and grab off all the money
from a TV contract and bowl revenues without having to play
a conference schedule. Finalists are Oregon State, Oregon
and Nebraska. Oregon State is ranked higher and has a better
record - a missed last-second field goal and a 33-30 loss to
Washington are all that stand between the Beavers and
playing for the national title; Oregon, with the same record
as Notre Dame, is the only team to have beaten once-beaten
Washington, the only team to have beaten once-beaten Miami,
the only team to have beaten once-beaten Florida State;
Nebraska, with the same record as Notre Dame, has beaten the
Irish in South Bend. Ranked lower than Notre Dame but
equally deserving of consideration on the basis of
comparable records: Texas, TCU, Clemson, Georgia Tech.
Florida State and Miami are already in. Florida, Auburn and
Kansas State can play their way in by winning their
conference championships. Oklahoma, even if it should lose
to Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game, is still
likely to go to a BCS bowl as an at-large team. Virginia
Tech, which outranks Notre Dame, could miss out, but unless
Kansas State beats Oklahoma, will probably slip into the
Fiesta Bowl, against Notre Dame. Oregon State, hoping to go
to the Fiesta Bowl itself, will go instead to the Holiday
Bowl. Oregon, in the running for the Rose Bowl just a week
ago, will go from the penthouse to the outhouse and play in
some meaningless game against some 6-5 opponent. Nebraska
and its rabid fans will be welcome somewhere. But relative
to Notre Dame, Oregon State, Oregon and Nebraska are Golden
Screwed.
*********** "I've never liked the dunk. I thought it was the best thing for basketball when they outlawed it, and I didn't like it when they put it back in. I think it brings on selfishness, showmanship, too much individual play... About three or four years ago, I was at a UCLA game and one of our players broke ahead of the pack and went in for a whirling, 360-degree dunk. The crowd roared; the students stomped their feet. Somebody asked me how I liked that. I told him I'd have taken that player out of the game before he hit the floor." John Wooden, greatest basketball coach of all time *********** I can't remember a year when there were so many high-profile jobs open. To the list of D-I A schools looking for coaches (Alabama, Arizona State, Bowling Green, BYU, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Rutgers, USC, West Virginia) add Memphis, Buffalo and Arizona. And if these jobs are filled by current head coaches at other schools, a domino effect would be started. Rip Scherer at Memphis might have saved his job if Tennessee hadn't beaten him at the wire; but clearly, a place that hires John Calipari to coach its basketball team has high aspirations. Buffalo has been playing a Mid-American Conference schedule with Division I-AA talent - and not very good I-AA talent at that. Arizona and Arizona State went into Friday's game 5-5. ASU's Bruce Smith had already been fired, and Arizona's Dick Tomey had to win to save his job. Arizona lost. Coach Tomey resigned Friday night. Bet things are fun around that place - Dick Tomey's son, Rich, is engaged to Athletic Director Jim Livengood's daughter, Michelle. Irony? ASU finished 6-5 and is now bowl-eligible. *********** A youth coach in the South told me about a scrimmage against another team whose coach reminded his players that he had taught them how to "take a guy out for the game" - or words to that effect. The writer said he pulled his kids. Here's basically what I wrote back: "I am afraid that until we have a king - which in view of our electoral situation is not as unlikely as it once seemed - we are going to have guys like that influencing the way outsiders view our game. Unfortunately, when we do get a king, he may very well just decide to end football. I can't believe that people like this coach continue to focus on the small picture - their own little team - without realizing the jeopardy the game is in right now, and the damage they're doing to it. I talked to a football dad at a game a few weeks ago, and he told me that as a result of all the stories in the papers and on TV about the serious head and neck injuries we've had in the Portland area this year, he'd heard at least two dads tell him that they were going to let their kids play this season out, but they were not going to let them play next year. You were absolutely right in pulling your kids out of a situation like that. Your first obligation is to the safety of your kids. Your second is to the game of football. Your third is to try to do something to rid the game of people like that. " *********** "At the end of the game, when we were running SUPER POWER continually, we decided to run it to the right because of how we were able to block it on the corner and who we had pulling from our left tackle and guard spots. It sure was a pretty looking play because it was coming directly into our bench which is in front of our stands. As a result, all the parents saw exactly what were we seeing from the field. Their kids were running over the top of larger (much larger) players. The fans were pumped up! People were yelling down (I know in a lot of games people yell down a lot of things), "Run it again. They can't stop it!" It was fun to see the crowd positively involved in the game and with their son's success. "We have always pushed the idea that our number one goal is to play with pride and class. If we go out and perform to the best of our abilities for that day and to stay with it no matter what difficulties or hurdles appear to be in our way, we will be successful. Then, with team success will come wins. Our kids have always bought into that theory and the parents have been tremendously supportive. They like what we do and how we do it. "Our kids have been excited about you publishing the results of the games (WINNERS CIRCLE) and can't wait to get on to their computers to see how we performed compared to other teams throughout the US and Canada regardless of level. Thanks for everything and, when you get a 2000-2001 clinic schedule established, let me know. Take care and keep up the great work." Mike O'Donnell, Head Freshman Coach, Pine City, Minnesota *********** My favorite comedian, Mark Russell, says that if God had intended for either Bush or Gore to be President, He never would have created Florida." *********** So Colorado scores a touchdown Friday with 47 seconds to play, pulling to within a point of Nebraska at 31-30, and - evidently not wanting to go into overtime in Lincoln - Gary Barnett takes the "set of stones" route and goes for two. And Colorado makes it, and goes ahead by one. But the Buffs, perhaps nor eager to kick off deep to Bobby Newsome, kick it a little shorter than they wanted. And Nebraska drives into field goal range and wins on a last-play dimpled chad - er, field goal - 34-32. *********** I've shown you the adcritic.com web site before, but it's worth another look, to see a cute little Nike "football" ad.
I like the latest drill you posted on the site addressing that very same problem. I will be emailing you during the offseason while I get myself ready for the upcoming season. Next season shows a lot of promise. I will have more than just two starters returning. Coach, thanks again and I will be in touch." Jason Clarke, Millersville, Maryland
*********** Just in case it's necessary - I've been back and forth in my copy of the Constitution, and I can't find anything that covers it, but here's how Los Angeles County specifies the way its election ties will be broken: "A U.S. Minted Quarter" must be tossed "to a height of at least six feet, flipping end over end." This is no kidding. It does not, however, say whether a Democrat is allowed to wait until after the coin has landed to call heads or tails, or whether the coin toss will be repeated until it comes up his way. *********** In Minnesota it is estimated that some 44 percent of all welfare dollars there are spent on families that began with a teen birth. And the cycle is never-ending. Yet I read a column by a bleeding heart columnist in St. Paul who argues against abstinence education. A waste of time, she said. ("They're going to do it, anyhow.") Instead, she fell back on that old liberal garbage that what's really needed is more "education" (like they think storks bring babies) and, of course, lots more condoms. ("Here kid, we know you're going to do it anyhow, so have a pack of these. It's on the taxpayers."). It's probably indelicate and insensitive of me to ask, but I'll ask it anyhow - are spaying and neutering totally out of the question? *********** The seventh-ranked Wildcats of Linfield College, in McMinnville, Oregon, felt pretty good when they went into overtime Saturday against second-ranked Central of Iowa in a Division III first round game. They felt even better when they kicked a field goal in the top half of overtime to go ahead, 17-14 and they were downright excited when they held Central for three downs, forcing them to attempt a 38-yard field goal on the sloppy field. Imagine how they felt, then, when the Central kicker slipped and booted the ball into the rear end of one of his linemen. They stormed onto the field - players and fans alike - to celebrate their win. Uh-oh. Slight problem. While the Linfield players and fans were celebrating, a very savvy Central lineman named Reid Evans, realizing that the ball had not crossed the line of scrimmage and therefore was still live, picked it up and handed it to a running back, who carried it in for a 21-yard touchdown. Central goes on to play St. Johns, of Minnesota, winner over defending champion Pacific Lutheran. *********** A letter to the Wall Street Journal sneers at the polls that reveal that "most Americans are pretty satisfied with their public schools," and attributes this phenomomen to a "halo" created by the "remarkably good public relations arm of the public education establishment." It goes on, "If you ask college professors what they think of the ability and willingness of high school graduates to undertake college-level work, the halo quickly turns to dust. For a decade, I was one of those professors, and I keep up with the views of those who still labor to impart knowledge to undergraduates. Many will candidly say that a high percentage of today's high school graduates are 'disengaged.' They read and write poorly and have no interest in challenging academic work. They are used to education that is easy and entertaining, and rebel against rigorous standards and criticism. The 'award-winning' public schools that parents keep hearing about are in fact producing hordes of young people who may be very pleased with themselves, but are almost unteachable. Perhaps most Americans are satisfied with the public schools, but they shouldn't be." George C. Leef, Director, Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, Raleigh, North Carolina *********** This year, the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA), governing body of Oregon High School sports, decided to attack the growing problem of misconduct on the part of players and coaches by enacting a schedule of fines: the first player or coach ejected from any contest is on the house; the second time any player or coach from a school is ejected from any contest, the school is fined $50; the fine increases by $50 for each offense until the fifth ejection, at which time the fine, now up to $200, must be accompanied by a formal plan for correction. Sam Barlow High, in Gresham, Oregon, has gone further, deciding that if it is going to cost the school money, it's also going to cost the kid: in addition to the state-mandated suspension from the next contest, a student ejected from a game must perform 10 hours of community service before being permitted to return; a second ejection of the same player means he or she must appear before a board made up of administrators, athletic officials, parents and other athletes, to determine whether he/she can represent the school for the rest of the school year. *********** Ron Hennig coaches at Bullitt Central High in Shepherdsville, Kentucky but he teaches at Valley High, in Louisville. One reason is that he has the kind of principal we'd all like to have. When a kid refuses to do school work, he's sent to the principal, who deals with it as insubordination. Five days suspension. Just like that. Ron says you don't have to do it very often - the first time you send a kid out it immediately gets the attention of the rest of the class. *********** Double-Wing Coach Matt Durgin of Lynn (Massachusetts) Classical High has to look back and wonder, what if... On Thanksgiving Day, in a crosstown battle of 9-1 teams, the Classical Rams beat Lynn English 26-0 to finish 10-1. Only a 7-6 early October loss to Gloucester kept the Rams out of a Super Bowl berth. (In Massachusetts, the top four teams in each class meet in post-season mini-tournaments, with the finalists meeting in Super Bowls.) Savio Prep, a Double-Wing team, beat Austin Prep, another Double-Winger, 40-14, to earn a spot in the Division VI Super Bowl playoff, as Stephen Grillo carried 11 times for 232 yards and four TDs. *********** In Wenatchee, Washington, the Fire Marshal is a guy named Stan Smoke. |
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"Coach, I finally have a decent picture to send. We ended up
2-7. The upside to that is we were competitive in every
game. No one could take us lightly. We could have very
easily been 7-2 minus the mistakes that come with a young
and inexperienced team and coaches. If it hadn't been for
your system - I'm sure we would have been a lot worse off. I
have had so many compliments since our last game it's
unreal. Our last game we played the best in our conference
that had only given up six points all year. We moved the
ball easily on them and even scored once. We lost due to
fumbles but that is something that plagued this team all
year.
*********** "Coach Wyatt, Check this out! Coming to school this morning I heard on the radio about a situation that took place at Villanova stadium last weekend where some 11 and 12 year old youth football playoff games were taking place. Anyway, it turns out that the people in charge of organizing the playoffs have canceled this weekend's championship 11 and 12 year old youth football game because of the fact that a large "parents-on-parents" brawl broke out in the stands after last weekend's contest. Officials close to the source say that the reason why this weekend's championship game was cancelled and the reason why the game won't be played is because of the fact that the CHILDREN were 'so upset at what they witnessed' and because the PARENTS needed time to 'reflect upon their actions.' Unbelievable! Sincerely, Mike Lane, Avon Grove, Pennsylvania" *********** "Coach,, I was discussing our basketball team with a parent of another team during last night's game. He complimented us on how many good athletes we had on our team. I kind of laughed and pointed out that the best player on our basketball team and probably the best athlete in the school along with three other starters won't play football. We won the game at the last second with a foul shot. Those same boys on the other team won our county football championship this past year and beat us 7-0. I have no idea how to get more of our better athletes to play football. Our head football coach is also the basketball coach. I know he encourages all of them to play several sports. I think parents have some strange idea that their kid is going to be a Div.I basketball player and playing football might get them hurt. Yea right. Well they better take away their bikes, golf carts and skate boards because those things get more kids hurt than football ever did. A former student from our middle school was tragically killed last week when she fell out of a golf cart her boyfriend was driving. I'm taking our team to the Georgia Dome in a few weeks to see the high school football semi finals. Perhaps it will inspire them to keep playing and get more of their friends to join them. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless, Dan King Evans Georgia"
*********** "North Delta Colts 3 - Richmond Rebels 2 - As much as you dislike field goals, we kicked one in the third quarter from the 10 yard line and it proved to be the winning score. We gave up a safety on the final play of the game for the win. We had just stopped them in another magnificent goalline stand at our two-yard line (that's the second game in a row the D has come up big like that). This was the only team to beat us this year and also the biggest team. We started slow until we found out what would work. We kept probing with new plays. They stopped our regulars in the beginning but our 88/99 SPs and 47C can only be stopped for so long. Those plays started to pay off and we moved the ball. I made a couple of mistakes play calling and got nervous which is why I opted for the FG. "It was a tough battle, a very physical game. But now we head to the DOME (Vancouver's B.C. Place Stadium - identical to the Minnesota Metrodome) to play for the championship against the Coquitlam Vikings. They beat the league's only undefeated team in the other semi-final 8-0. They will come very prepared so it should be a great matchup." Roger Kelly, Delta, British Columbia *********** Portland's Central Catholic High and Beaverton's Jesuit High are the only two private schools in Oregon class 4-A. They are both 11-0, and tied for first place in this week's poll. And, thanks to the geniuses who decided not to seed Oregon's playoffs, two teams who shouldn't have to meet until the state finals will meet tonight - in the quarterfinals. *********** "Coach Wyatt; Our season is over and thanks to you our team went 7-1..... !!! We lost a tough game early in the season to the eventual champions. Words can't express the gratitude I owe you for your continued support through out this season. I feel like I belong to a fraternity of DW coaches.....Coach Barnes from Texas and I keep up with each other's progress. I've turned another coach on to the DW and gave him a quick overview of the system. He said he would order your materials and run the DW next year. At my end of the season evaluation (given by the commissioner; whom wanted to see me fail in the first place) I was told that I did a good job but....I'm getting an EGO.......!!! and that isn't good for the club !!! ME ???? I'm a very humble coach and only want to see the ENTIRE CLUB DO WELL..... I must admit it felt DAMN GOOD !! To win the way we did this year !! and shut up a lot of people who wanted to see me fall flat on my ass !!! ANYWAY coach..... good news. The commissioner wants to use 1 system for the ENTIRE CLUB next year.... All of the coaches are being asked to prepare a presentation on their choice of an offensive system. I will have about 3 weeks to get ready......I plan to package this presentation as best I can and let my record speak for itself. Coach I look forward to attending one of your clinics and meeting you in person. Thank you for everything !! Respectfully yours, Coach Dwayne Pierce, Washington, DC" *********** When we step on a scale and discover we've lost 10 pounds, most of us go, "Yes-s-s-s-s-s!" It never occurs to us that there might be something wrong with the scale. So now the WASL (pronounced "WOZZLE," the Washington Assessment of Student Learning), a test administered to all Washington students at various grade levels to determine whether they're learning, has revealed that just 23 per cent of the state's fourth-graders, 18 per cent of its middle school students and 20 per cent of its high school students met all the state standards in reading, writing, listening and math. Now, Florida is not the only place in the world with stupid people; there are a lot of them out there and I've taught some of their kids, and it is possible that the kids are growing even stupider, but is it also possible that the scale itself - the WASL - is screwed up?
Championship Game note- With the game tied at zero and under 5 mins. to play, we were pinned back on our own 8yd. line with 4th and inches. Punt? Nope, 3 Wedge was the call and we picked up two for the first down. This late in the season, everyone knew the play and probably figured it was coming, but there was know way our boys were'nt going to get a yard on our linemans favorite play. Our next play was tight rocket 3 basic and our B-Back went for 85yds. HUGE! Final- Falcons 8 Chiefs 6 Finally, we have good kids, a good staff, and a great system, but nothing is more valuable than hard work and execution. Thank You Coach Wyatt. Coach Denis Gillen, Dunedin, Florida
*********** I recently heard from Coach Kyle Jones, defensive coordinator at Mt. Vernon (Indiana) High, and, knowing that he was a Purdue guy, asked him why he wasn't making more noise about the Boilermakers' trip to the Rose Bowl. I mean, Purdue goes to the Rose Bowl with the same regularity as Oregon State. He wrote back to tell me that he was a trifle disappointed because he wanted desperately to go to the Rose Bowl, but "Unfortunately I am silly enough to be the wrestling coach here too and that kills my personal life! We have a major tourney over the Christmas (don't let the thought patrol know I didn't call it "Winter" break, shame on me) break so I can not go. We also have a big invitational we host this Friday and Saturday, so I won't get to go to the football state finals once again. At least we've got a great group of kids on the team this year ... at least as far as their character. There are many fine young men who have wrestled for me the past 5 years, but in general they tend to be a little different type of cat altogether and sometimes a bit hard to anticipate in the ways they can find trouble to get into. Unfortunately, this group is green and we are going to have a long year if we just consider W's vs. L's as a team.
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"Coach, we have had an enormous amount of success this
season with the DW. Our Varsity PeeWee team
(11,12,&13yr.olds) went 12-0 and won their FIRST
Suncoast Youth Football Conference Championship last
Saturday. Throughout the season we outscored our
opponents 332- 62! Our players (although skeptical at
first), coaches and fans loved this offense. Who wouldnt,
with those kind of numbers? Simply Awesome! We have now
been invited to play in a Championship Tournament against
other Championship teams from nearby counties. The final
game is to be played in Raymond James Stadium on Dec. 6.
We are very excited to be playing teams that have never
seen our DW.
So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city, and therein quieted their spirits. When they came to Delfs-Haven they found the ship and all things ready, and such of their friends as could not come with them followed after them, and sundry came from Amsterdam to see them shipt, and to take their leaves of them. One night was spent with little sleep with the most, but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse, and other real expressions of true Christian love. The next day they went on board, and their friends with them, where truely doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting, to hear what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them; what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches pierced each other's heart, that sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood on the Key as spectators could not refrain from tears. But the tide (which stays for no man) calling them away, that were thus loath to depart, their Reverend Pastor, falling down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks commended them with his most fervent prayers unto the Lord and His blessing; and then with mutual embraces and many tears they took their leaves one of another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them. Being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectations, they now had no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses or much less towns, to repair unto to seek for succour; and for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were, they then knew not; for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand in apperance with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hew. If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now a main bar or gulph to separate them from all the civil parts of the world.
*********** How about a warm, fuzzy Thanksgiving story? A few weeks ago, Bruce Weber, publisher of Scholastic Coach magazine, told me this story, which had been told to him by Joe Lombardi, younger brother of the late Vince. As Joe Lombardi told it, it was his senior year at St. Cecilia High in Englewood, New Jersey. The head coach at St. Cecelia was Joe's older brother, Vince, who was even tougher on his own brother than he was on the other players - if that was possible. Coming home from practice the evening before the big Thanksgiving Day game, Joe was met by his mother, who presented him with a list of things he had to do around the house to help her get ready for the next day's festivities at the Lombardi house. (For those of you who live elsewhere in the country and aren't familiar with the tradition, it is still customary for many high schools in the mid-Atlantic and New England states to play the Big Game on Thanksgiving Day, usually in the morning so that following the game, fans can repair to their homes for turkey dinner and more football on TV. Even state playoffs, already underway in several of those states, are set aside in favor of the Thanksgiving Day games. These are the high school versions of Alabama-Auburn or South Carolina-Clemson, games that make or break a season.) Even with a game the next day, there was no arguing with Mom. Joe was a dutiful son, so he set to work. He finally finished scrubbing the kitchen floor a little after ten o'clock, when older brother Vince walked in the door. He gave Joe a cold stare, and said, "Do you know what the team curfew is?" "Sure," said Joe. "It's ten o'clock. But..." "But nothing," Vince snapped. "You're suspended."
*********** Division I-AA Football Playoffs Start Saturday No. 16 Eastern Illinois (8-3) at No. 1 Montana (10-1) No. 9 Youngstown State (9-2) at No. 8 Richmond (9-2) No. 12 Florida A&M (9-2) at No. 5 Western Kentucky (10-1) No. 13 Appalachian State (8-3) at No. 4 Troy State (9-2) No. 14 McNeese State (8-3) at No. 3 Georgia Southern (9-2) No. 11 Hofstra (8-3) at No. 6 Furman (9-2) No. 10 Lehigh (11-0) at No. 7 Western Illinois (9-2)
*********** "Coach, Just to let you know we finished up 7-1-1. Not bad for a team that had 28 out of 32 kids (7, 8 & 9) that had never played organized football before and a coach that had never run the DW. As the year went on, I felt more comfortable coaching it and calling plays. I agree with Coach Urbaniak about the parents appreciating the DW more when they can sit up high enough to see the entire system working. We played several games at high school fields where they could get up higher and see the entire team working together. After each game, more and more parents jumped on the bandwagon. I will be ordering your "Troubleshooting the Double Wing" in the near future. Thanks." L. E. "Stew" Stewart, Yuma Scorpions, Yuma, Arizona *********** "Coach Wyatt's offense is incredible and really made the season a success. We finished the year 11-0 and without a doubt the best 9-10 team ever in this park. Coach Wyatt, please let me know when you are giving a clinic close to Atlanta and we will be there. Thanks" Dave Clark, Cumming, Georgia *********** R.I. DOUBLE-WINGERS A WIN AWAY FROM DISNEY WORLD - The Chariho Cowboys, Rhode Island state Pop Warner champs, have downed New Hampshire, 31-16, and Connecticut, 20-12, to reach the New England finals this Saturday, against the Easton Wildcats, Massachusetts champions. The winner will advance to Orlando to play for the national championship.
I hadn't seen an Ivy League game in years, and I must say that the football itself was surprisingly good. Yale won 34-24, in a game growing all too typical of college football: were it not for Rashad Bartholomew, who during the game passed Dick Jauron as Yale's all-time leading rusher, it would have been almost totally a passing contest, with all that that implies about the giant size and midget athleticism of the offensive lines. Besides Bartholomew's running, I was impressed with the hands of Yale wide receiver Eric Johnson, who clinched the game with an incredible back-of-the-end-zone catch, leaping to tip a high pass back with his left hand, then catching it with his right, while doing an acrobatic toe-dance to stay inbounds. I took special pleasure in watching him make the catch, because he was one of the few receivers I've seen this year who still seems to think you can catch a football with your bare hands. All the rest of those accessorizers I've seen seem to think that they have to wear the sort of gray gloves that funeral directors issue to pallbearers. For me the highlight of the telecast came when a Harvard kid, obviously influenced by the buffoons at high-profile programs and presumably referring to classic old Harvard Stadiium (capacity 30,000), leaned forward and scowled into a sideline camera, and said, "This is our house, Baby!" *********** Call him the AD from Hell. If you think you can make it as a coach without administrative support, read on. I received a call last week from a Double-Wing coach back East (sorry I can't be any more specific, because the guy plans to coach again, and people can be vindictive.) It was late in the evening for me on the West Coast, so I know it was late for him, but he needed to talk. He'd just been fired. He finished the year 1-9, but that wasn't really the problem. His kids were very young. You've been there - he was playing JV's in varsity games, but they were improving. The problem was an AD suffering from a terminal case of CLG (Can't Let Go). See, the AD used to be the head coach there, and our guy was his assistant. The AD had been a Wing-T guy, and now he kept telling his former assistant that he needed to be running the Wing-T, too (instead of being his own man and using his coach's prerogative to decide what offense to run). When some kids started getting hurt in midseason, the AD blamed it on the offense - said that as a result of its ability to control the ball, the kids were "running too many plays." Finally, in their post-season conference, after he passed the Queen of Spades, the AD said, "I couldn't stand by and watch you with tight line splits and that fullback up close any more. I couldn't take it." (Think I wouldn't like to give all you guys that AD's name, address and phone number?) *********** Portland, Oregon recently was pronounced the most liveable area in the United States by "Money" magazine. As a resident of the area, I call tell you that it really is a great place to live (the first $500,000 takes my house) even if the city of Portland itself is a little, uh, quirky. Portland really does seem, at times, to have an obsession with tolerating "alternative lifestyles." For example, the police chief came under fire a few weeks ago when it was revealed - by an "alternative" newspaper - that 11 years ago he had made some derogatory remarks about the homosexual lifestyle. And last week, the Mayor, a rather bizarre character named Vera Katz, called for an expansion of the city's anti-discrimination laws to cover "transgender" discrimination - for those of you who don't live near Portland and might require translation, that means transsexuals and cross-dressers. I am not kidding. The deputy city attorney who drew up the measure said that men who dress as women would be protected, "even if they still look like men and even if their attire drives off some customers." (Now, I ask you - what kind of a customer would get up and leave a bar just because the "barmaid" with the spaghetti straps over those bare shoulders has a bad case of five o-clock shadow?) Wait. I'm not finished. Remember the police chief? Well, he's obviously out to make amends, trying to show the gay and lesbian community - and, yes, the transgender community - that for a born-again Christian, he's not such a bad guy after all. So he showed up Sunday at Darcelle's 70th birthday. It was a festive affair, according to the newspapers, with lots of guests wearing chains and leather. Darcelle, you see, is Portland's most famous "transgender" personality, a female impersonator whose nightclub, Darcelle's XV, is one that, in my 25 years in the area, I have managed to stay out of. You might say I was "driven off." *********** "I wanted to let you know how we finished up the season. We ended 11-1 and lost in the sub-state championship game. We had 6 turnovers in the game but had a great season. I had numerous coaches tell me after the game how they couldn't find the ball and when they did we had them overloaded with blockers. We averaged .38 pts. and 389 yds per game , we had a back with 2298 yds. and c-841 and b-505. The offense was one of the main reasons our team did so well. I wish I had known of this along time ago. My RT avg. 7 pancakes per game and my b-back 5 per game. If you would like to see any of our film I would be glad to send you some. Thanks again, Mike Beam, Rock Creek High, Rock Creek, Kansas"
At issue is the fact that Michigan high schools play girls' basketball in the fall and girls' volleyball in the winter, the opposite of colleges and all but a handful of other states. The plaintiffs' contention is that any difference between girls' and boys' programs, or between high school and college programs, is by itself discriminatory. It would seem to be difficult to come up with ways in which the Michigan system harms girls: while Michigan's high school population is seventh or eighth in the nation, depending on the figures you use, Michigan ranks third in the number of female high school basketball and volleyball players. Five surveys of member schools over the past 25 years and a 1999 survey of female student-athletes have shown huge support for the current system. Now, to some well-meaning do-gooders, and to the sort of people who could even manage to find victims in the Kingdom of Heaven, this case may seem somehow to be about gender equity. But to those of us who understand the proper scope of the federal government, it's about a private organization's right to conduct activities that are not clearly illegal, without the federal government sticking its nose in. *********** "Coach, Here are some of the high points of our offense. All my backs are small, Mathews(A-back) 5'8, 160, Johnson (B-back) 5'9, 170, and Tentinger (C-back) 5'11, 180. The QB was are 4th best back with leadership ability, couldn't pass well, but effective. This offense's ability to keep defenses from keying on the backfield is great, look at the numbers. A-back 198 carries/1208 yards 6.1 yds/carry 7 TDs B-back 175 carries/1137 yards 6.4 yds/carry 17 TDs C-back 167 carries/1197 yards 7.1 yds/carry 8 TDs QB 62 carries/257 yards 4.1 yards a carry Passing 53 of 155 for 590 yards, 9 TDs/8 picks (he kept throwing to the deathstar first half of season) Over 4500 yds of offense in 13 games with a team that was supposed to be rebuilding. 1st section championship in school's history 1st State quarterfinal win in any sport in school's history 1st trip to Metrodome for state semifinals in school's history I can't thank you enough for all your help and advice. This small town is buzzing, and the rest of the sports now know it is possible for our school's athletic teams to compete in the very top level of our state. I always believed that if the fall sports do well, it will carry over throughout the year. If you have anyone in the state who needs to be convince of this offense's ability to turn a program around, have them call me. Look for my staff and I at a clinic this spring, we will be there with bells on." Chris Davis - Murray County Central High, Slayton, Minnesota *********** What do you suppose the folks down at PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) think about that Red Lobster commercial? You've probably seen it - it's a typical sunny day at the beach, when suddenly little kid sees a fin sticking up out of the water and calls out, "Shark!" A guy points and, seemingly panicked, yells, "There it is!" And the rest of the sunbathers, rather than fleeing the beach, instead charge pell mell into the water. It's hard to figure out what's going on until the lifeguard stands up and, holding a megaphone to his mouth, hollers, "Fire up the grills!" |
***********
After years of receiving invitations and discarding them, I
finally decided that before I got too old, I had better go
to another Yale-Harvard game. Not the one in Massachusetts.
The one in Portland, Oregon - a closed-circuit telecast sent
to cities all over the US for the viewing pleasure of alumni
and friends of the two schools. It turned out to be more fun
than anything I'd done in years. For openers, it was held at
a truck stop, a seemingly incongruous place for Yale and
Harvard types to gather, until one sees the truck stop. It
is Jubitz' Truck Stop, run by the Jubitz family and known
all over the West as a truly classy place that treats the
people who spend their lives on the road like human beings.
Although there was friendly rivalry once the game got
underway, the atmosphere was convivial, and my wife and I
met some great folks, Harvard people included: a young woman
who is a professor of Medieval History at the University of
Portland; a gentleman who is faculty athletics
representative at Portland State; a former teammate, who
grew up in Salem, Oregon and just moved back, after 42 years
on the East Coast.
*********** I do think that Florida State is the best team in the country. I just don't like watching them. It's like watching an NFL team. Let them go ahead and throw two Florida teams together in the BCS "championship" game. Ho hum. And while you're at it, give Weinke the Heisman, too. Drew Brees? What's he done? Take a team to its first Rose Bowl since 1966? Yeah, but has he beaten Duke? And Josh Heupel - has he beaten Maryland? Or Wake Forest?
*********** Larry Smith of Missouri, one of only four coaches in college football history to take four different teams to bowl games, was let go with three years left on his contract. After Saturday's loss to Kansas State, Smith had said he had no plans to resign, and instead talked optimistically about recruiting and plans for next year. But he was blindsided later that night by Athetic Director Mike Alden, who listed four reasons for the firing: a losing record, in particular the last two seasons, after back-to-back bowls following the 1997 and 1998 seasons; failure to beat the Big 12's better teams during that period; "deficiencies in the personal development of players" (whatever that means); and poor recruiting classes following the two bowl seasons. Smith issued a statement saying he was given no reasons for the dismissal. "I am very proud of what our program has accomplished these past seven years,'' Smith said. "It appears that what counts to this administration is only winning and losing.'' *********** Four losing seasons were all that Maryland was willing to give Ron Vanderlinden, and he was released with a fifth year left on his contract. The Terrapins started the season 5-2, but dropped their last four, including one to Duke. Like Larry Smith, Coach Vanderlinden, too was looking forward to next year. "I know that a solid foundation has been laid, and I'm sorry that I won't be here to be part of the future success,'' he told the Associated Press. *********** Are you sure you want to be a college assistant? The hours are long and the work is hard. There are dozens of guys waiting to take your job. You must grovel and beg high school kids to come to your school. You work on a year-to-year contract basis, and you serve at the pleasure of a boss who can terminate you in a heartbeat - and just might do that, if he thinks it could get him one more win, or if he needs to find an old crony a job. It's murder when you don't win. Larry Smith was just cashiered by Missouri, Ron Vanderlinden by Maryland. Or win enough. Head coach Bruce Snyder was just fired at Arizona State. He won. He just didn't win enough. So he's out of coaching for the moment, which is not pleasant for anyone who has made coaching his life's work. But at least he'll have a soft landing - he's got three years left on a very nice contract. So does Larry Smith at Missouri. Ron Vanderlinden has a year left at Maryland. Not so for their assistants, most of whom have one year contracts and earn a whole lot less than the head guy. Now, some of them may be lucky enough to be hired by the incoming head coaches, but assistant coaches have to be realists, so for the last several weeks, as rumors about their bosses' firing began to swirl, they have undoubtedly been working the phones hot and heavy, "networking" as coaches have done for years, long before it had a name. And they will be at the AFCA convention in January working the lobby, resumes at the ready and alert to the slightest hint of a job opening. The wives of the more experienced assistants, most of whom have been through this before, have already begun to pack cartons. Their kids, like military brats, are dealing with the prospect of starting over at new schools and finding new friends. That's what happens when you lose. Not that being an assistant coach is necessarily all that great even when you win. Bobby Ross won a national title at Georgia Tech and shortly after, was hired by the Chargers. But Chargers' owner Alex Spanos permitted him to bring only three assistants with him. And Ross' replacement at Georgia Tech, Bill Lewis, brought along his entire staff from East Carolina, which meant there were no jobs at Georgia Tech for the rest of the Coach Ross' staff - who'd just won a national championship. They were SOL. As my friend and former AD Gary Garland puts it, "being a college assistant is the closest thing there is to legalized slavery."
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*********** MANNING GOES FOR IOWA STATE TITLE - "Two DW teams played for the the right to play in the state championship game in class A last Friday in the UNI (University of Northern Iowa) DOME at Cedar Falls. Manning came away with the win over two time state champ West Bend Mallard. Coach Capaldo (Don Capaldo, of Keokuk) and I thoroughly enjoyed the game. Manning plays a wing-t team this Friday for the state title." Steve Staker, Fredericksburg, Iowa (Best of luck to Coach Floyd Forman!) *********** Coach, I called you in October. At that time our record was 4 and 2, and our two losses were against a team that was older and much stronger than us up on the line. In both games we only managed to gain five first downs- the score was 13-0 and 10-0. I was running my old High School Offense which is a pro set wide open bombs away type of offense. I had won with it in the past but always had problems with teams that were bigger on the line. After talking to you and you explaining the advantage of the blocking scheme in the DW.I decided to purchase your book and installing the system Video. We implemented it in our bye week. I received some hesitation from some of the parents and receivers but I went ahead as planned. This past weekend we played for the conference championship against the same team that we had lost to twice.Coach,I am happy to inform you that we beat our nemesis 28 to 15. They had no clue how to stop the DW.We finished 8 and 2 and earned a trip to the Fed Exp Youth Orange Bowl representing Dade County 125 pound Division. Coach could you E-mail me the address for the pages that cover the no Huddle System and the New Play? Thank You For a great system." Ernie Barrios, Miami, Florida *********** "On October 18, 1970, Thomas Harrington, a student at Ohio State University, was driving his 1962 Volkswagen to campus when he was flagged down by a Columbus policeman and arrested for violating Section 2343.02 of the city's Municipal Code. The charge: public obscenity. Caught up in the spirit of the football season, Harrington had pasted a popular pro-Buckeye bumper sticker to his windshield. The sticker bore the simple imperative: F--- MICHIGAN. "Judge James A. Pierson, presiding over the case in Franklin County Municipal Court, took note in his ruling of the prosecution's argument that no word in the English language was more obscene than F---. The judge went on to cite the prosecution's definition of the word as a slang term for sexual intercourse. "'But,' said Judge Pierson, following the obscenity guidelines of the pre-Nixon U.S. Supreme Court, 'we must consider the material as a whole.' The judge reasoned that applying the prosecution's own definition, Thomas Harrington's bumper sticker could only be interpreted to mean, 'have intercourse with the state of Michigan.' This, he said, 'is absurd.' "Next, the judge examined the question of whether the sticker appealed to a prurient interest in sex, given the standards of the community in question. Quite the opposite, he said, considering the 'prevailing mood' of the citizens of Central Ohio before an Ohio State-Michigan game. "'Mr. Harrington's bumper sticker,' the judge wrote in his opinion, 'accurately expressed the derogatory nature of this mood toward the University of Michigan football team and the state of Michigan as a whole. "'Most of the people of Ohio,' the judge added, 'would say that Mr. Harrington's bumper sticker also had redeeming social value.' "Case dismissed."
*********** From an article by Buzz Gray in the Albany (New York) Times-Union came these kind words about the job Pete Porcelli, a Double-Wing coach, did in turning things around at Troy, New York, Catholic Central High: Ask most high school football fans which Rensselaer County team made the most dramatic turnaround this season and the answer would probably be La Salle Institute, the Section II Class A champion. Nobody is doubting the superb accomplishment of first-year coach Al Rapp by taking the Cadets from 3-6 in 1999 to 9-0 so far this season. However, somewhat lost in La Salle's shadow is the effort of another first-year coach at yet another private school in the county. He is Pete Porcelli of Catholic Central, who inherited a program in far worse shape. Not only had the Crusaders gone 0-9 in 1999, they had lost 14 in a row and 48 out of 52. Porcelli seemed like a starry-eyed optimist when he said his goal was to finish .500 this season. To nobody's surprise, he was way off. But in the wrong direction. CCHS just put the wraps on a 6-3 campaign, topped off with a 14-10 triumph over Bethlehem, Gold Division champ in the Suburban Council. All this from a program which at times had less than 20 players suited up for games. "The whole thing boiled down to trust,'' said Porcelli, a former professional with the Albany Firebirds of the Arena Football League and now a teacher at Albany High School. "This game is 90 percent mental. Once the players began believing in themselves, we turned the corner.' "I think our success was due to a combination of me being a disciplinarian and the kids being tired of losing,'' said Porcelli, who is also the wrestling coach at Albany High. "They learned early that I don't accept missed blocks or blown assignments." *********** I would like to see NFL defensive players given five seconds after the play is over to get their butts back to their side of the line of scrimmage. After that they would be penalized for being offside or delay of game or unsportsmanlike conduct. Or whatever. I don't care. But I am up to here with defensive players who make a play and then continue strutting out to center stage - which just happens to be deeper into offensive territory - out where they can hog the spotlight as they posture, pro wrestling style, for the audience and the cameras. Get back on your side of the line, Bozo, and see if your teammates think your play was as great as you think it was. *********** SAVE THIS AND SHOW IT TO THOSE WUSSIES AT YOUR SCHOOL WHO THINK THEY NEED TO QUIT FOOTBALL SO THEY CAN CONCENTRATE ON THEIR HOOPS - Aaron Miles just signed to play basketball next year at Kansas. So did his pal, Michael Lee. Miles and Lee, seniors at Portland's Jefferson High, led the school's basketball team to a 28-0 record and a state championship last year. But unlike the wussies who pass up football to spend the fall shooting hoops in the gym, they spent this fall playing football and leading Jefferson to a city title. Last Friday night, Jefferson's football team won its opening game in the state playoffs, with Lee starting at tailback and Miles - persuaded by his buddies to join the team after the second week of fall practice - starting at quarterback.
*********** "After practice last night my wife and I were relaxing and I was channel surfing. I tried to find a football game to watch but was vetoed when the TV show ER came up on the screen. A high school football player was injured by a helmet hit which was thought not to be serious but ended up with heart surgery. The player that caused the injury was brought in later with a compound fracture of the leg he said was caused in retaliation because of his hit on the first player. As he was brought into the ER the mother of the first injured player screamed at him, "You shouldn't lead with your head." Things got worse. There was a riot after the game and the ER was full of injured players (from both teams), cheerleaders, and spectators. When the first boy almost died a riot broke out in the ER. I noticed that they had not consulted your Tackling video when scripting the hits. "I guess I mention this because of your recent articles about some serious football injuries that have happened. This type of sensationalism sheds a bad light on football at a bad time. I have been coaching for just 6 years and have seen only a few bad injuries. None of them were caused by retaliation or riots. Injuries happen in football as well as other sports. It is unfortunate, but it happens. We lose more kids to injuries every year because non-football injuries than football injuries. In fact our 11-12 year old team has not had an injury that has caused a kid to miss a game so far. I, and I am sure most people realize, that this is just television. However some people cannot distinguish fact from fiction. It only fuels the fire for those that want to take cheap shots (pun intended) at the sport. "Earlier in the week, HBO had a "Real Sports" episode about violence in youth sports. While I didn't see all of it, they did talk about youth football. One town in Florida makes the parents attend a class and take an oath on parent behavior. They showed their team playing another town and how the two side acted differently. Their side was cheering and encouraging/coaching the kids while the other side was screaming and complaining to the kids and referees. They showed the coach going ballistic on the referees and the kids (looked like 8-10 year olds). When the reporter asked the coach about his behavior, the coach replied he probably went a little overboard with the referees, but the kids need to be yelled at to be motivated. Did you happen to see these shows and what are your thoughts?" Greg Stout- Thompson's Station, Tennessee I didn't see either of the shows. To paraphrase a famous writer, I only watch TV for benefit or pleasure, which certainly limits it. It does sound as if the ER show combined two very unfortunate stereotypes: The brutality of football and the idiocy of adults at kids' games. As with all stereotypes, there is some basis in fact. I am worried about our sport. I am afraid that we are approaching a crisis. Either there really is a serious problem that is producing these injuries, or the media have jumped on football - or both - but I can promise you that once people see the XFL, they will be certain that they don't want their kids to play football. For some reason, there hasn't been much talk - the way there used to be - about all the benefits that kids can derive from playing football. And in the absence of positive talk, the vacuum that's been created is being filled by unsavory things.
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*********** In identifying this week's Mystery Man, David Crump, of Owensboro, Kentucky, obviously was stirred up by memories of watching him run the triple option. He writes, "It's a shame that Oklahoma now feels that it has to pass the ball on almost every down. They got their new offense from Kentucky. Coach Stoops' offensive coordinator came from Kentucky and put in alot of what Kentucky runs. He left this year and took the Texas Tech head job. I still see alot of Hal Mumme in Oklahoma. Hal lost to Vandy on saturday with his great passing offense. They can move up and down the field, but they cannot punch it in the end zone. They can't run the ball and it is killing them. I thought that they could run the wedge and use their 280 Lb. quarterback at B back and they might have scored enough touchdowns to win the game." *********** My daughter Julia, who went to Duke, married a Duke guy, and decided to stay in Durham, North Carolina, sent me a copy of an e-mail she received, which has helped my frame of mind a lot: "Sure, it's just possible that the disarray and recriminations in Florida could be the first step in the unraveling of 200 years of American democracy. Sure, it's just possible that this could be the worst constitutional crisis since the Civil War. Sure, it's possible that we could collapse into the next Yugoslavia. But, really, let's keep it all in perspective. Duke will beat the crap out of Princeton tonight (Tuesday) at 9:30, so the truly important things in life do go on. Yours philosophically, Will" *********** Now don't you wish Bill Bradley - boring speaker or not - had stayed in? *********** WELLS WINS NEVADA STATE 1-A TITLE: The Wells Leopards, playing 8-man football for the first time this year and pioneering the 8-man version of our Double-Wing, finished 9-1 with a 41-14 victory over Indian Springs in the state championship game. Coach Steve Rodriguez, a state champion in his first year, wrote me to say, "I would like to thank-you for the work you did at our camp and for all your help." What a thrill to learn that those seniors, whom I've had the privilege of working with for three years, will graduate with a state championship to their name! Congratulations to the players, to Coach Rodriguez, who had the stones to sit down and look at an 8-man Double-Wing and to his assistant, Mike Cromie, and to former head coach Marty Linford, now coaching in Wyoming, who originally had the stones to commit to the Double-Wing. NEVADA CAMP *********** SCOTTSBLUFF HEADED FOR FINALS FOR SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR- Scottsbluff, Nebraska, defeated Hastings Saturday, 7-3, to advance to the state Class B (second-largest classification) final game for the second straight year. The Bearcats (12-0) will take their powerful Double-Wing attack against Crete, (9-3), upset winner over defending state champion Elkhorn in the other semi-final. Goos luck to Coach Gary Hartman and the Scottsbluff Bearcats. *********** GERALDINE ADVANCES IN ALABAMA PLAYOFFS: When Geraldine defeated Cleveland, 14-0 in the first round of the state playoffs, it marked the school's first playoff win in eight attempts, and gave Geraldine High its first 10-win season in over 75 years of football. Says Coach Tim Cochran, "This week we play Pickens County, whose line averages over 260 pounds on both sides of the ball. It will take a lot of heart for our boys to win, since our biggest player is 220 pounds( he happens to be our QB! ) *********** RHODE ISLAND DOUBLE-WING TEAM BEATS NEW HAMPSHIRE CHAMPION: The Chariho Cowboys, Rhode Island state Pop Warner 11-12-13 year-old champs, defeated the Amherst Patriots, champions of New Hampshire, 31-16. Next game - Sunday against the Connecticut state champs. *********** TROY (MICHIGAN) COWBOYS WIN SUPER BOWL: " Dear Coach:Our season ended with a "white knuckles" 16 to 8 Superbowl victory over the Clawson Mavericks. Our kids finished with 386 points, while giving up 32. Their record is 11-0. Because of our success on Varsity, the Junior Varsity will use the double wing next season. We installed two plays for them, which almost got them into the playoffs during the last week of the season. They are now believers! I told my wife the only Christmas present I really want, is your updated video and playbook. To use the cliche we have all heard: "It's the gift that keeps on giving!" Thanks from our kids for a wonderful offense. You have given us one more item for our Thanksgiving. Merry Christmas!" Bill Livingstone, Troy Michigan *********** PLAYOFF RESULTS FROM THE GREAT WHITE NORTH "North Delta Colts 8 - Cloverdale Cougars 0. Whew what a battle. The Colts advanced to the semi-finals after beating Cloverdale 8-0. We struggled a bit early in the game but after a goalline stand in the second quarter we took control. Running 5X and 6X leads, 3 tr 2 and 88/99 SPs we drove from the one dow to their 25 as the first half ended. In the second half we ate up the third quarter with the same plays finally scoring late in the third on a 3 tr 2. Our defense allowed two first downs all game (the goalline stand was the result of a lost fumble). Next week we face the only team we have lost to all year in the semifinals." Roger Kelly, Delta, British Columbia (Just joking about that "Great White North" stuff; actually, it rarely snows around Vancouver, B.C., which, much to the surprise of most Yankees, has a relatively mild climate.)
*********** While talking with my high school coach, Ed Lawless last Sunday, I jogged his memory a little by asking him about Chuck Bednarik. Ed played at Penn in the 1940's, and he and Chuck and several of the other Catholic players on Penn's team lived together in a dorm called Newman Hall, and for one year he and Chuck roomed together. He said Chuck was "a helluva catcher," and had several major league baseball teams interested in him. Ed also said the guy could throw a football 60 yards, and could punt the ball 60 to 65 yards - "if he hit it right." Unfortunately, Ed said, he didn't always hit it right, and it could just as easily go 30 yards if he didn't, so the coaches entrusted Ed with the punting. Ed said that as feared as Bednarik was by opponents, he was every bit as dangerous to his own teammates during the week. "You had to be careful," Ed said. "He didn't know when to stop." Ed remembers line coach Rae Crowther (yes, the guy who invented the blocking sled) having to say, quite often, "Now, Chuck - remember where you are. We're all on the same team." *********** A coach in North Carolina, Dave Potter, wrote to share my disgust with NFL celebrations, but added that after he told the kids not to dance, he then had to encourage them to congratulate each other. It does seem to be something you have to teach kids - they idea of sharing the excitement. Kids tend not to be demonstrative and they aren't normally encouraged to be enthusiastic. They want to be cool. Several years ago, while watching game tapes, I noticed this on my team. Our fullback had scored an important TD, yet the kids had acted as if it was nothing special. I put together some video clips of major college teams celebrating - not individually, like NFL buffoons, but as a team - congratulating each other, hugging, patting each other on the back, etc. Then at the end I included the clip of that TD we had scored when no one had congratulated the runner. I showed it to my kids at the beginning of our Monday video session, then shut off the VCR and asked the kids if they noticed anything different. My fullback - the one who had scored - said, "Yeah. Nobody even came over to me." The kids all looked at each other and you could see the lights going on. From that point on, we had enthusiasm. *********** "Hi Coach, I wanted to thank you for helping to make my first year of coaching tackle football a success. I coached Pop Warner kids (age 11-14). Our team went 9 and 1 in the regular season, with the only loss due to a fluke interception return for a touchdown. "Although we lost in the playoffs 22-16, the other team was 10 and 0, and considerably bigger, faster, and better coached. "The kids really had fun with the offense, and we even added a few things for fun, like a direct snap to the B-Back (through the QB's legs)--e.g., Tight Rip Houdini 7-G. (The QB and the A-Back run to the right after the snap, and the linebackers usually go with them, while the B-Back runs a 7-G.) We also had some great play action passes but, of course, the misdirection plays were the best. I really tried to teach the techniques, stances, etc. that are in your book and video, since they have already been tested and proved. Anyway, we had a lot of fun, and I appreciate your help. "I would love to try this offense at the high school level. Maybe some day I will get the chance. (My son starts high school next year, and he is now a believer too.) Thanks again, Coach! Hope you are having a good season. Sincerely, Larry Murnane, San Diego, California" *********** The upstanding American citizens who serve as Aldermen (shouldn't it be Alderpersons?) on the Chicago City Council have decided that they will no longer say the Pledge of Allegiance at meetings, because of doubts among some of the members about whether the United States is really dedicated to the principle of "liberty and justice for all." Last I heard, that group of patriots hadn't yet gotten around to considering whether they will continue to accept the copious amounts of federal aid poured into their city courtesy of the taxes paid by those of us who are still loyal to our country. Or is it just a scheme to get foreign aid? *********** FIELD GOAL PATROL. The thrill goes on, as the NFL's kickers attempted 50 field goals (making 40) in the 14 games this past weekend. The 28 teams did produce more offensive touchdowns - 57 - than abject surrenders (field goal attempts), but the entire difference was accounted for by one game - Seattle-Jacksonville - in which the two teams scored seven touchdowns - without attempting a single field goal! In exactly half of the 14 games played, there were more field goals attempted than touchdowns scored. Eight of the 28 teams in action scored only one touchdown; two - Chicago and Cincinnati - scored none at all. As usual, the weenies with the single-bar face masks were right around the 80 per cent mark (slightly more suspenseful than the 81 per cent NBA free throw rate). Who wasn't thrilled by the game-ending field goals in the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh and Denver-Oakland games? *********** Speaking of Oakland- Did it remind you of PE or flag touch Monday night when the Raiders, in their final drive, gained eight yards on first down, and then - faced with second-and-two, third-and-two, and fourth-and-two - threw the ball three straight times? |
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*********** I was watching the ESPN special, "Remembering Marshall," Wednesday night, trying not to cry, when I looked up at the clock and saw that the show still had 20 minutes to go. I made it, but it was tough - for me, the show was that moving. The gist of the show was that the fantastic success of present-day Marshall football - winningest college program in the 1990's - was spawned in the ashes of the tragic plane crash that killed most of the Marshall team in 1970. The disaster took players, coaches, and prominent citizens of Huntington, West Virginia - and nearly the Marshall football program. Especially moving were the interviews of those who survived - players who didn't make the trip, parents of players who did, the wife of a Marshall booster, who stayed home because she'd just had their fourth child. Several of the players and one of the coaches - who missed the flight because he had to drive off recruiting - confessed to having feelings of guilt because they survived while their teammates and fellow coaches perished. A player's father said he is still tormented by the fact that he didn't drive his son and two buddies back to Huntington, as he'd intended, because the Herd had lost a tough one to East Carolina, and the coach was extremely upset, and the boys didn't dare ask his permission to drive back. The dad said he regrets not pushing the issue: "it haunts me to this day." One of the survivors, Reggie Oliver, was a freshman at the time and was left behind. He's now the head coach at Eastmoor Academy, in Columbus, Ohio, and he recalled being an Alabama high school star and going to Marshall, mainly because he knew some older guys from Alabama who were already there; they were on the plane and were killed. He decided to stay on at Marshall and try to help rebuild the program. "If Marshall was good enough for those guys to die for," he said, "it had to be good enough for me to stay and play for." *********** "Thanks for the heads-up on the "Remembering Marshall" program on ESPN last night. I watched it (and remember the incident well. My cousin, who was an all-conference football star in high school, was then a college student at Marshall. He'd done a stint with the Marines in Vietnam and had just returned to go to school at Marshall. I remember being so thankful that he was no longer playing football.) A powerful program. ESPN did a fine job. Thanks again. Sincerely, Dave Potter, Durham, North Carolina" *********** "Coach,I coach the pee-wee division Charter Oak Youth Football (10-12 year olds). I have been with these kids since they were 8. In three years of football we could only win 2 out of 8 games per year and we never put up more than 40 total points per year. Last year we ran a half-assed version of a double wing and made all the mistakes. I spoke with my staff and told them we were changing to your system. I purchased the material and we all began meeting in March and the entire staff learned the system. "I had others tell me it will not work because you can't teach pull both guards and tackles. The QB will not master the footwork etc. The staff held firm on their commitment to this system. "Well we finished 5-3 this year and scored 151 points. 4 of the 8 teams were in the playoffs last year. We had 2 two in a row where we were shut out. I read your article on looking hard at what went wrong. I found it and switched my TE to B back and our kick outs went from 60% to 90% and we started rolling again. The last 2 games were a test of heart. We were down in both games and during a time out we told our kids to trust in the system and trust each other and don't quit!!!!!!. Well they put up 38 points in 15 min. and 21 points in 10 min the next game winning both games by 18 points. "We filmed every game and if you are ever interested in material geared strictly for the youth level let me know. We know exactly where we need to spend the majority of our time next year. In 2 of our loses we were just flat out played and got man-handled but then again it happens. "Thanks for everything - even the 2 phone calls I made to you where you took the time to talk with me and help me. Sincerely, Sam Fleming, Head Coach, Charter Oak Chargers, Los Angeles" *********** Parkersburg, West Virginia's Big Reds advanced to the second round of the state AAA (largest class) playoffs with a 69-0 defeat of Hampshire County.
*********** A team in our area had one particular set it liked to use whenever it needed to pass - trips right. Not left. Only right. The problem with that, of course, is that you're going to spend a lot of time on the right hash. What are you going to do then? Line up in trips to the short side of the field? That's what they did. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to bunch all your receivers in such a constricted area. What it comes down to is this - no matter how right-handed you and your offense are, if you are going to require some field to work with, you must have a dependable play that will get you back to the left hash. Which, come to think of it, is another great advantage of our Double-Wing - its plays can be run equally well to the right or the left, so you can get the ball to either hash. Not that that's all that important, anyhow, because other than certain passes, most of the offense can be run equally well to the wide side or into the short side of the field. *********** *********** "Dear Coach, We defeated a very good Sidney Lehman Catholic team and we did it by running the football. We ran for a total of 355 yards while passing for just 15. Our fullback, Sam Sampson, carried 29 times for 234 yards and scored three touchdowns. Randy Hubley scored once and had 71 yards. The line controlled them the entire second half as we scored evry time we had the ball. The score was 10 - 0 at halftime with Lehman leading. So once again we have proven our ability of coming back when behind. A running team that controls the clock is hard to beat. We play Paint Valley out of Bainbridge, Ohio this Saturday in Xenia, Ohio. Marc Gibson, Brookville, Ohio" (Brookville, now 10-1, advances in the state playoffs.) *********** My niece, Bonnie, who lives in Reading, Pennsylvania, hit me a while back with this one: "I find it incredible to believe that the QB of our local HS has been diagnosed with diabetes as was their RB of last year. Is something going on here? These are athletic kids, not couch potatoes. I maybe knew one kid in school who had diabetes." Interesting that you noticed, because as a matter of fact, something is going on. Between 1990 and 1998, there was a 33 per cent increase in the number of diabetes cases diagnosed in the US. For people in their 30's, the increase was especially pronounced: diabetes cases in that age group increased by 70 per cent in that same period. "It's becoming a disease of the young," said a leading New York endocrinologist, Dr. Arthur Rubenstein, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He calls the increase in cases among teenagers "extraordinarily worrying," since if people become diabetic at an early age, "you can predict that when they are 30 or 40, they could have terrible complications." It is known that up to 85 per cent of the population carries a particular variant gene that is associated with greater risk of Type 2 diabetes. It is also believed that among people with a higher susceptibility to the disease, diet and way of life can act as a trigger: among the Pima tribe of the US Southwest, 50 per cent of adults suffer from diabetes; yet among people genetically the same - Pimas living in Mexico, who eat a more "traditonal" diet - the incidence of diabetes is considerably lower. Now, then - would you like me to super-size that? *********** From the Westerly (RI) Sun------ COVENTRY - Add another jewel to the ever-growing crown of the Chariho Cowboys Pop Warner football program. Chariho's Junior Midgets used a strong defense and a pounding running game to shut out Cranston's Leagues for Cranston's Future 13-0 to win the Rhode Island state title on Sunday night at Coventry High. This group of Chariho players have now won state titles at the Junior Peewees, Peewees and Junior Midgets level. Chariho is now 10-0 and advances to regional play in Manchester, N.H., on Sunday to face the New Hampshire state champion at 2 p.m. The Cowboys have scored 256 points this season, while only allowing 22. Seven of the wins have been by shutout. The Cowboys put the game away in the final two minutes of the game when Bertrand scored from seven yards away on a fourth-and-goal play. The play started with Ryan Garofano coming off right tackle, but he handed off to Brian Bertrand on an inside reverse for the score. The play worked to perfection as Bertrand went in almost untouched. Garofano ran in the extra point to make it 13-0. "We thought they would be defending the pass," Cowboys Coach Ken Brierly said. "The middle linebacker was keying on the first back. We thought it would work and it did." The Cowboys use a double wing offense nearly identical to the one employed by Fitch High (of nearby Groton, Connecticut, currently ranked #1 in the state in all classes). The offensive linemen have tight splits and the lone back is very close to the quarterback. Chariho coaches have seen Fitch run the offense and attended a clinic in Providence this summer where Washington high school coach Hugh Wyatt spoke about the formation. "We think it has a lot of power and deception," Brierly said. "Any time we need help we just e-mail coach Wyatt and he gives us a few pointers." The real success of the Cowboys is actually based on something much more basic. "We just have a lot of hard-working kids. No superstars. They are dedicated and they practice hard and play hard," Brierly said. "They are all good friends and they take care of each other." *********** I was listening to the Seahawks-Chargers game Sunday (it's actually easier than watching, because on the radio you can't see the antics and the celebration-of-me that punctuate every play) and as the game neared its end, the Seahawks began playing their little cat-and-mouse game of wanting to set up a field goal, but making sure that they wasted enough of the clock so that when they did make the kick (an 81 per cent predictable outcome) there would be no time left for the Chargers to respond. Can there be any more boring time in sports, outside of a yacht race, than the last minute or so of a football game that you have no personal involvement in, as a team maneuvers - with frequent cutaway shots of the twerp with the single-bar face mask kicking the ball into a net - to get just the right angle, and allow just the right number of seconds, to attempt a field goal? *********** "Coach Wyatt, Hope you are doing well. We just ended our season this past Friday with a tough loss in the the playoffs. It was the most wins for a Ware Shoals team since 1989. The first playoff game in 8 years. We averaged 314 yards a game rushing. Our sophomore c-back ran for 1184 yards and averaged 10.3 yards per carry. Our junior b-back rushed for 623 yards and averaged 9.4 yards per carry, our junior a-back missed 3 games with injury and still rushed for 603 yards and 7.2 yards per carry.We had fifteen different ball carriers rush this past year. We went 8-2 in the regular season and lost in the first round of the playoffs. Thanks for all your help." Jet Turner, Ware Shoals HS, Ware Shoals, South Carolina *********** Hey Coach, Sorry I haven't updated you recently. Been very busy. My wife jokes that I have become a part-time lawyer and a full time football coach. I had to agree she is right. Our first season of "real" high school football ended Friday night. It was a real nail biter in a rain storm on a flooded field. We won in dramatic fashion. We recovered a fumble and drove the length of the field. We called our last timeout on the 3 yard line. We called Stack-I 88 Power which had worked well for us all night. Our tailback was tackled on the one and could not get out of bounds. Luckily we called a second play during the timeout. Our boys lined-up fast and we immediately ran 6-G Pass. TOUCHDOWN!!! We went up 19-16 with 6 seconds left and won the game! We finished our season 4-5. Not bad for a first year program that most people felt would be lucky to win 2 games. I cannot say I was satisfied, but we sure had a lot of fun. Our C-back, Micah Gertson, was a senior who never played football before. (Not even pee-wee ball). He came out for the team to show some support for the new program. He ended the season with over 1000 yards rushing, 400 yards receiving and 10 TDS. He has been recruited by several NCAA div. II & III teams and will be playing college ball next year! We are all very proud of him. Next season we should be much better. We only lose 4 starters. Besides being more comfortable with the system, we have our entire offensive line, quarterback (2) and A- Back returning. We will average 260 lbs. on the line. We are very excited about next season. One thing we found was that as a first year program we must get stronger. We were very well conditioned, but since our boys never played football before they were not very strong. All of them are now on the Bigger, Faster, Stronger Program. After getting beat up pretty good a couple of games, most of our boys are now very enthusiastic weight lifters. Thanks for everything! The double wing system definitely helped us put a group of "first-timers" on the field in a position to compete and WIN. We added some of our own twists and I hope to send you a few of our plays for your review. We were very successful with Tight B-Rip 0 Wedge against odd fronts. Once the fullback went in motion, linebackers would fly out of there. Our QB would open (first step of 88 Power) and immediately dive right into the wedge behind the center. We actually ran it for big yardage (over 30 yards) a few times. We also experimented with a little option stuff towards the end of the season. With more reps next year we will definitely run a couple of different option plays. (Our 47 Option Right was a killer once teams saw us on film and started looking for 47-C and XX 47-C). Please send me information on your off season camp and clinic schedule. Give my best to your wife and have a blessed, happy and safe Holiday Season. Coach Jim Hanley, Cypress Christian High School, Houston, Texas *********** I don't know about you, but I'd like to see the ground start to cause fumbles. I'm tired of loose footballs being given back to the idiots who lost them, just because, "after further review," it was determined that the ground had caused their fumbles, which as we all know, like two objects trying to occupy the same space, is just not possible. I'm also tired of hearing the cliche. If the whistle hasn't blown, it should be a loose ball. No more replays needed. Who cares what caused it? If a guy isn't responsible enough to protect the ball, or his coaches don't have the stones to correct his problem or sit him down, play on. *********** "Coach Wyatt, Just an update on our season. We defeated the Glendale Pirates last week 27-20 in overtime (Kansas Plan) to make the playoffs for the first time in 28 years and to win our league championship. We were trailing 20-13 with 4 minutes to play and we ran a wingback screen to the left up the sideline for 80 yards. However, we had a clipping penalty on their 10 yard line and had the ball at their 25. We then took 4 plays to go in and score to tie it up. In the overtime, we took the ball first, and scored in 3 plays (the last being a quick dive up the middle for 6 yards and a TD) and held them to 4 straight incompletions. We are now 8-1 and in three years of our program we have gone from worst to first in league! We stopped Glendale's 19 game league winning streak and ended up with 315 points in 9 games, while giving up only 90. We open the playoffs at home on Nov. 11. Regardless of what happens from here, we are very proud of our kids and their effort this season. Thanks for your wonderful website! Cal Szueber, Head Coach, North Douglas High School (Drain, Oregon)" *********** Sh-h-h-h-h-h... I've got a lot to write and I don't know how much time I've got... The Thought Police are liable to be here any minute now... I'm writing this from inside the People's Republic of Washington...I guess you heard that Washington went for Gore back in November, as expected... Well, that's not all - they also went and elected another liberal Hillary clone as senator - that made two for Washington, same as Maine! .... Ever since then, it's been scary around here - gas stations are jammed with people anxiously trying to fill up before the price of gas goes up to $10 a gallon in order to fund free taxicabs for the homeless... Tomorrow was supposed to be my day to gas up, because I'm only allowed to drive on odd-numbered days, but it doesn't matter, since the environmental police came and towed away my Bronco the other day ... They've closed all the prisons because they were such a waste of money - and "they're so punitive".... They're talking about converting all the vacant churches into halfway houses, now that Wicca is the official state religion ... Other than "The Gay Dating Game" on The Diversity Channel, the only thing on TV is Rosie O'Donnell and soccer.... Rush Limbaugh's gone from my radio; all I can get now are Barbra Streisand hits and "The Best of President Gore" speeches.... Sales of Boeing's new battery-powered jet have been slower than expected... Microsoft after being ordered to close the Digital Divide by providing a free computer and free one-on-one instruction to every disadvantaged child in America, has gone broke, and its former campus has been converted to affordable housing... Surveys show that the percentage of our school kids that feel "real good" about themselves is pushing 98 per cent now that most of the school day is spent on self-esteem... They're reading better, too, simply by changing the titles of the schoolbooks so that the old third-grade reader is now the sixth grade reader... Speaking of school, my neighbor's fourth-grader came home today all excited - tomorrow's "Cross-Dressing Day"... Two guys caught smoking cigarettes (who knows where they got them?) at home in their living rooms were chained to the big statue of President Gore - the one out in front of the needle exchange place - and publicly ridiculed by passing non-smokers... I'd like a beer but all I have is O'Doul's - my wife and I have already finished the one six-pack the government allows us every month... We still have red meat occasonally - I'm not going to say where I get it. Let's just say I have a source... I will say that medical care is cheaper. At least abortions are. Heck, they're free. And you get frequent flier miles... Viagra's free, of course... I'd break out of here if I thought I could make it, but my options are limited: to the west of us is the Pacific Ocean; to the north is Canada, but it's five hours away, and I hear the border's jammed with refugees just like me; Idaho makes the most sense, because there are still some real conservatives there (actually some, I hear, may be a little too conservative) but it's six hours away, and who knows whether I can make it all that way past the Washington secret police? Of course, there's always Oregon, just across the Columbia River to the south of us. There's lots of good, solid heartland - logging and farming and cowboy country - out there. Good conservative country, if you can just get past Portland. They've been busy there for some time now trying to decide what to do with their police chief. He's done a good enough job fighting crime, but he's a (gasp!) born-again Christian, and back in the early nineties he made the mistake of saying something critical of the homosexual life style. And ever since then, he's had members of the Gay Police Officers' Association (see what I mean about Portland?) upset with him... I've got to hurry... I don't know how the Thought Police found out I'm not certified Politically Correct, but that means they probably know about the .22 single-shot rifle in my bedroom closet, too. And the box of ammunition in my desk drawer... I hope I can finish this before we have another blackout; we have one every hour or so now, ever since they blew up all the dams to make it easier for the salmon to swim upstream... Wait a minute - someone's at the door. Don't go away. I'll be right bac... |
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I was sent this photo by Frank Simonsen, a youth coach in
Cape May, New Jersey, who in his real life is a captain of
an oil spill recovery vessel, and a former oil tanker
skipper. It is a photo of the USS Cole, being transported on
the deck of the Blue Marlin, a highly-specialized,
modern-day version of what used to be called a floating
drydock. Seeing the USS Cole actually perched on the deck of
another ship would seem to call into question the old Naval
definition of the difference between a ship and a boat ("you
can put a boat on a ship but you can't put a ship on a
boat"). Frank writes, "I can just imagine the problems they
must have with stability. When discharging an oil tanker, if
you do not do it just right it is very easy to break them in
half. As you load and discharge you must constantly shift
ballast and cargo to keep the stress within the safe
limits.It's unbelievable to think they can keep that ship in
a stable attitude while lifting the other, as well as being
able to carry it safely in a rolling sea."
*********** Roger Kelly, who has pioneered the introduction of the Double-Wing into British Columbia youth football, writes that as a result of his team's success, "at least three other teams now try to use the wedge." Those of you who have success with the Wedge know that the key word there is "try." If you don't know what you're doing, it is just another dive. *********** FIELD GOAL PATROL. The NFL's field goal kickers hit on 82.6 per cent of their attempts this past Sunday and Monday, giving new meaning to the term "deadly." Deadly dull is more like it. (Don't forget the magic benchmark of 81 per cent, the thrilling standard of accuracy set by NBA free throw shooters during the 1999-2000 season.) No kicker missed more than one attempt. Only four of the 28 teams in action did not attempt a field goal. The Eagles-Cowboys masterpiece consisted of six field attempts and only two touchdowns. In all fairness, there were actually more offensive touchdowns scored this week - 56 - than abject surrenders - 52 field goal attempts - but that figure is heavily skewed by the performance of one team, the Oakland Raiders. With kicker Sebastian Janikowski sidelined, the Raiders vainly attempted one field goal, then decided to go ahead and play real football - and scored seven touchdowns! Think of that - one single team with a lame field goal kicker scored one-eighth of all the touchdowns in the entire NFL last weekend! Twelve of the 28 teams scored just one touchdown or none at all. Tell you what - let's try benching all the kickers for a weekend and see what happens! The highlight of the weekend's NFL games - from a field goal haters' viewpoint - came on Monday night, when the Vikings missed a field goal - one of those potential game-enders - enabling the game to go into overtime where it could be decided by two football teams - playing real football. *********** "Hi Coach, Just a note to tell you that my Junior PeeWees won the RI Championship yesterday 25 - 16. They really showed the heart of a Champion by giving up the lead twice then stepping it up and taking the game. We were the only team to score points on them this year!! As I mentioned in an earlier Email, We ran strictly Single Wing, ( the Buck Lateral and spinners were beautiful) but we used some of your Drills to prepare the kids, namely the Pancake!!! These kids take over in the 4th quarter because they are wearing teams down from all the big hits. I thought I'd sleep well (I've been up for an hour). Thanks again Hugh, for your systems, your site, your articles and a place for coaches of all levels to turn to!! Greg Laboissonniere, Coventry, Rhose Island"
It was not uncommon then for athletes to endorse cigarettes. But beer- which everybody knew they drank? Not a chance. I worked in marketing for a Baltimore brewer. We owned the Orioles and sponsored the Colts (the real Colts - not those phonies from Indianapolis who stole the uniforms in the dead of night) but there was no way we could ever use Boog Powell, or Frank or Brooks Robinson, or John (nobody in Baltimore called him "Johnny") Unitas, or Lenny Moore or - perhaps the best potential endorser of beer who ever lived - Artie Donovan. You just were not permitted to associate alcoholic beverages with athletic performance. You couldn't use live athletes to endorse your beer. And then, along came the folks at Miller, combining their marketing genius with the fact that thanks to the explosion of televised sports, fans still recognized well-known ex-athletes - in fact, in many cases, they didn't even realize they were ex-athletes. Voila! Out rolled the "Tastes Great! Less Filling!" Lite Beer from Miller campaign, one of the most successful in American advertising history, employing old-timers well past their prime, having great times together while they good-naturedly disputed the right reason to be drinking a Lite Beer. In the process, by using all those decidedly masculine guys, the Miller people convinced a generation of men that drinking a light beer didn't make you a - well, let's just say they made it okay for real men to order a light beer. (An important bit of trail blazing for which the Bud Light and Coors Light people should remember the Miller guys in their prayers every night.) Which brings me to the current lame Coors campaign in which Ahmad Rashad sits in a stadium and hits us with assorted riddles, the answers to which are always well-known former athletes, who then appear at the end of the commercial, following the mandatory mountains-and-streams-and-snowdrift-and-product montage, holding a bottle of Coors and saying something brief. Very brief, thankfully, because what they have to say is also embarrassingly vacuous. Now, I have no problem with Willie Mays making a few bucks pitching Coors. Or even Bill Russell, who had little time for the public when he played. Not even Joe Montana, who's been out of the game long enough now that little kids don't know who he is. But John Elway? Are you kidding me? How long's he been out of the game? He coaches youth football, for pete's sake! Does he really need the money that bad? *********** "Coach, Just wanted you to know there is still hope for our sport. This past week we were involved in a great, hard-hitting game. This game was for our league championship but both teams were already in the playoffs. We are 8-man small and they are 8-man large. Before the game was over at least 5 players on both sides had to leave the field because of good solid hits, but all returned. I'd love to say we won, but two blown coverages, and a 70yd k.o. return were the difference. "After the game amid the cheers and tears that go with a game like this both teams met at midfield for PRAYER. Although both teams played their hearts out and laid it all-out, perspective was kept. This is the joy of small school football. Although we don't get much press and 8-man is considered "football light" in some quarters it's the best game in town.
"The Edmonds Cyclones have come a long way since May when it looked like we might not be playing anywhere. Because of the hard work of our parents, players and coaches this team was able to overcome. As an organization we were able to raise thousands of dollars to gear up two teams and outfit our home field. We had Friday night cookouts, spaghetti feeds and a car wash. We even were able to include sixteen cheerleaders ranging in age from 6-12. We had a great year, one we can build from and start a new tradition here in Edmonds, Washington.
*********** "Coach I wanted to give you an update on our season. We put in the dbl wing this season and have had great results. Currently we are 11- 0 and one game away from the state Championship. Our best season before this one was 6-3. Here are a few of our stats: Team Rushing- 3929 yds.on 522 carries and 50 TD's/ 517 yds. passing on 18 of 37 and 9 TD's/ Total yds. 4446 yards. My top back has 2205 yds.on 211 carries and 38 TD's/ B- back has 482 yds. on 94 carries/ C-back has 792 yds. on 107 carries. We have only used the Tight formation this season and about seven of your plays. This offense also helped our J.H. to their best season ever 6-1 and they lost in the championship game. Thanks for your help and I will let you know what happens. A good state H.S. site for football in Kansas is ksfootball.com Thanks again, Mike Beam- Rock Creek High School, Rock Creek, Kansas - (I had to apologize to Coach Beam for not hacing followed his progress all season, because I wasn't sure whether he'd decided to run the Double-Wing. Obviously, he had, and he's had quite a bit of success with it. I did as he suggested and went to www.ksfootball.com and sure enough - not that I doubted him - Rock Creek is ranked third in the state in class 3-A, and headed for the state finals!) *********** Maurice "Maus" Collins, 69, ninth-winningest high school coach in the country, retired Monday after 38 years as a high school coach in the Washington, D.C. area. In 28 years at Archbishop Carroll High and 10 years at Gonzaga Prep, Coach Collins' teams won 322 games and 16 league titles. "It's been a nice ride," Coach Collins told the Washington Post. "I feel fortunate to have worked at two good schools, and I was blessed to work with some great kids. But I have not done as well with my health as I had previously done. I came down to Gonzaga to work for a few years and ended up staying 10." (Thanks to Scott Russell, of Sterling, Virginia, for the story.) *********** This was sent me by my son-in-law, Rob Love, in Durham, North Carolina: C. Louis Robinson, 79, of 3509 Courtland Dr., died Sunday, November 5, 2000, at his home. He was born May 7, 1921, in Sylva and was the son of the late Charles B. and Nina Johnson Robinson, of Tazewell, Va. Mr. Robinson was educated at Tazewell High School and Washington & Lee. He served in the U.S. Marine Air Corps during World War II. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, six air medals, Philippine Liberation Medal, and two Presidential Citations. He was a member of Duke Memorial United Methodist Church, where he served many years on the official board, was former chairman of the board of trustees, and over 30 years in the church choir. A member of the Lions Club of 50 years, he served as president of the Tazewell Lions Club in Tazewell, Va., and was a member of the Durham Lions Club since 1961. He retired from the Sperry Corp. in 1983, where he was manager of plant facilities for 10 years. On December 31, 1943, he married Polly Anne Gray, who survives, as do one son, Ronald L. Robinson, of Atlanta; one daughter, Anne R. Jones, of Roswell, Ga.; and four grandchildren. I printed it because Mr. Robinson could have been your father or grandfather or uncle. He happened to have been my kids' and grandkids' neighbor, and as my son-in-law, Rob, commented, "The greatest generation lost one more." With Veterans' Day so close, I thought it appropriate to mention him.
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Back
before there were Surgeon-General's warnings, there NFL
All-Stars kicking back in front of their lockers,
enjoying puffs of their favorite cigarettes. On the left
is All-Pro Paul Hornung, well-known for his play on (and
off) the field, pictured on the back cover of Sports
Illustrated's September 10, 1962 issue - the annual pro
football preview issue - relaxing with a Marlboro. He
appears to be deep in thought, but he's probably just
trying to decide whether to call Marlene, or Pam, or
Sherry, or just go out on the town and try his luck
(which was legendary).
*********** "Hi Coach Wyatt, We just had the first back to back winning seasons in Hoxie in 18 years. We finished the season 6 - 3. Our opponents that beat us have a combined record of 26 - 2 and one of them should win the state championship in Kansas in 2 weeks. Our C back, Greg Meyer, who is a three year starter rushed for 3340 yards and 34 touchdowns in his career." Scott Moshier, Hoxie, Kansas *********** "We won our last district game 52-7 over Tavares. Had about 410 yards rushing and 20 yards passing (1-2 for 20 yards and a touchdown). Didn't throw a pass in the second half, but one of their assistant coaches said something to me after the game about running the score up. I told him that we didn't throw a pass in the second half and that the last TD we scored consisted of one 88 Super Power and then all FB plays, 2-wedge, 6-G, and 4-X , to score the last TD after they fumbled on our 21. I said that I wasn't going to ask our kids to lay down for anyone, and that if they had been able to stop the superpowers I would have probably thrown more, but that is probably not true. We had another freshman get 126 yards, and at sometimes in the 4th quarter I had all freshman at a, b, and C back positions. I didn't feel I had anything to apologize for." Ron Timson, Umatilla, Florida (Personally, I don't think it was an assistant coach's place to be making comments to an opposing coach about running it up. I think things like that could lead to nasty incidents which are easily avoided by letting the head coach make all comments to the news media, the administration, the parents, and the opposition. HW) *********** Perhaps you remember my making mention some time ago of a coach who was one of the men I most admired in coaching, and how, despite his best efforts, his team was very young and inexperienced and was not winning. He was getting heat - so was his superintendent - from a group of parents who wanted his job. In mid-season! They thought he should open things up and throw the ball more, and he was too hard on the kids, and besides (here's where my antennae went right up) he wasn't giving his assistants enough responsibility. Well, this was Eddie Cahoon, from Swan Quarter, North Carolina, and besides being a heck of a good man and a good coach, he has a set of stones, too. So, fortunately, does his superintendent, who stuck with Eddie and sent the disgruntled parents home. And Eddie rallied the troops and began to win. Eddie is a Marine, and after the first big win, he sent me an e-mail saying, "The Marines have landed and the situation is well in hand." And Saturday I received one of the most welcome letters I have ever received. "Hugh, It really feels great to have a winning season - the first the school has had since 1978. We rushed 42 times for 400 yards, passed 3 times completed two, 6-G pass for a TD to one of our Seniors, and 20 first downs. Our A back finished the season with 172 carries and 1497 yards for 8.7 yards per carry. Our total rushing offense was 426 carries for 2798 yards, 6.6 yards per carry and a 6 - 5 season. Our opponent had a -7 yards rushing and 129 yards passing, we gave up a kick-off return for a TD and a 70 yard pass for a TD, with a lot of rookies in the game at the time. Next year should be even better since we only had three seniors on this team. I've enjoyed the kids and the season, but I'm glad its over. Look forward to seeing you at the clinic." Eddie Cahoon, Mattamuskeet High, Swan Quarter, North Carolina *********** "Coach,Well, we did it. After being here 4 years and 3-5 last year, we beat Red Rock Central for the Section 3A title. We now are officially in the state Quarterfinals. We won 31-14 at their place. Now have all three backs over 1000 yds, and we rushed for 370 yards in the title game. Thanks again. This is the best any team from this school has ever gone. I have gone from the coach with that unorthodox offense, to the coach who calls the plays for the REBEL offense. Funny, ain't it. We email again next Friday, after the game." Chris Davis-- Murray County Central, Slayton, Minnesota
*********** No doubt you have encountered parents who expressed all sorts of support for the strong discipline you promised to provide on your team or in your classroom. Heh heh. Until the rules were applied to their kids, that is. It's the same with education. They're all for it in concept, "but we're going to be taking the kids to Hawaii, and can you please give them all their assignments for the next two weeks?" So I have to laugh at all those "good parents" who want the government to "do something" about the filth that their kids are being exposed to on TV and in the movies. Know why? Because, as usual, they're talking out of both sides of their mouths. Froma Harrop's got it right. She's a columnist for the Providence Journal, and she writes, "There seems to be a huge disconnect between the pleas of parents to curb sexual messages in the media and the state of undress with which their daughters leave the house." She wrote a great column recently in which she told of going to the mall and seeing teenage girls, who "wear tight sweaters and show their pierced navels to the boys." Her dismay, she wrote, didn't result so much from seeing those kids "done up like over-the-hill street-walkers," but from the realization that a great many of them walked right past Mom and Dad on their way out the front door. "And very often," she observed, "these are the same middle-class parents who complain that a sex-saturated culture is corrupting their children." All too many mothers and fathers simply lack the "stones" to be parents - to stand up to their kids. "Sending a daughter back upstairs to change can be unpleasant work," Ms. Harrop wrote. "It is so much easier to blame the media." *********** Do you suppose Al Michaels knows who the Essendon Bombers are? Or the Collingwood Magpies? From Ed Wyatt, in Australia, comes this: "I talked to Bruce McAvaney today. He's probably Australia's most respected sports announcer, the voice of Channel 7's footy (Australian Rules Football) and the Olympics. He has an unbelievable sports mind. He asked me what American sport I was most passionate about and I said college football. Not only did he say "I saw where Oklahoma beat Nebraska" but when I told him I was an Oregon fan, he said "Yeah, they've got a shot at the Rose Bowl, right? And Oregon State is having a great year too." What a guy. Then he proceeded to critique the BCS system, saying the bowls had lost their magic. Unreal." *********** "There is hope at our local high school. 6 senior football players that tried to take a golf cart fishing in a camp ground pond have been given the duties of cleaning the school urinals. I hope the parents don't sue them because they think this is too harsh. (Actually the parents were in favor of it)." Frank Simonsen, Cape May, New Jersey *********** DIGNIFYING OUR PROFESSION - PART TWO - The brother of the head coach of Denver's South High was accused of brandishing a gun at a practice a week ago, allegedly waving it at members of his brother's admittedly contentious staff. It evidently was common knowledge that for the last two seasons various staff members were contemptuous of each other, even resorting to tossing the N-word (the staff is all black) back and forth. It isn't bad enough that grown men can let their own selfish interests create such an ugly situation, but the South kids look to be the biggest losers. With their head coach suspended for the remainder of the season, South High, which had won eight in a row at that point, now appears doomed to carrying on the city schools' tradition of poor playoff performances. (Jim Kuhn, of Greeley, Colorado, wrote to tell me that two days after the head coach of Denver's South High was suspended, he resigned. What a tragedy. I don't know the man, but it sure sounds as if he was brought down by selfish, insubordinate assistants. That, and his brother's earning a place in Wild West lore for apparently trying to settle a dispute with a shootin' iron.) *********** You probably thought Rick Neuheisel moved from Colorado to Washington because he likes rainy Seattle winters. Think again. Not only is he earning lots more as Huskies' head coach, but his coordinators make at least $35,000 a year more than they would have at Colorado, and the assistants about $17,000 more. "When Washington opens its wallets," complained a member of the Colorado athletic department, "bills of large denominations fly out." *********** As the XFL, like an out-of-control lab culture, begins to grow, I found an interesting take on the subject of sportsmanship on a "Rivals" website. It's written by a guy who calls himself "The Ref," and it's worth reading. "I'm not sure where this all began," he wrote. "Was it when Ali proclaimed himself 'The Greatest', implying that his opponents were not worthy of competing with him? Was it when Billy 'White Shoes' Johnson first did a touchdown dance, bringing attention to himself, instead of to the rest of the players on his team that either threw the pass or made the blocks that enabled him to score that TD? Was it when the Miami Hurricanes of the Jimmy Johnson/Dennis Erickson era brought the concepts of thuggery, belittlement of opponents and trash talking to college football? Who was it that first gave the 'throat slash' after a big play? Charles 'I'm not a role model' Barkley? Michael Irvin? Brian Bosworth? I really don't remember, but that single act exemplifies what I am talking about. The attitude has become 'we're going to beat you, we're going to show you up, and we're going to (figuratively) kill you'. What happened to helping an opponent up? What happened to congratulating an opponent for a good hit/catch/run? What happened to respect for your opponent? What happened to honestly feeling that the better team won and congratulating them, and that it wasn't the officials', or coaches', or teammates', or fans' fault that we lost?" Virginia Preps *********** The BCS champion will be decided on the field by the top two teams - after the polls and computers tell us who the top two teams are. There are some problems here. First there is the undisputed number one team, Oklahoma, which has earned its spot at the top by beating Texas, Kansas State and Nebraska. But the Big 12, which not so long ago was the Big 8, became the Big 12 for one main reason: so it could pocket the extra money to be made by playing a conference championship game, permitted by the NCAA only if a conference has 12 or more teams. This year's Big 12 championship game will be played in Kansas City, a mere morning's drive from Lincoln, Nebraska and its red-shirted fanatics. Should Nebraska and Oklahoma be rematched in the Big 12 Championship, it is not at all certain that Oklahoma will emerge unbeaten. But let's say that Oklahoma does. Florida State is now esconced in the Number Two spot. But wait a minute - didn't Miami beat Florida State a few weeks ago? So why is Miami ranked below Florida State? And didn't Washington beat Miami rather handily? So why is Miami ranked above Washington? And didn't Oregon hammer Washington? Oregon hasn't lost since dropping one to Wisconsin in early September, yet in at least one poll Washington still outranks Oregon. Makes even an anti-playoff guy like me wonder if I can make it to 2006, when the BCS deal expires. *********** While the pros are going up and down the field from the 20 to the 20 exchanging field goals, Michigan and Northwestern go from goal line to goal line, scoring 105 points between them and amassing 1,189 yards of total offense. *********** The Oregon Ducks caught up with Washington State in the fourth quarter and pulled out their second overtime win in as many weekends, defeating the Cougars, 27-24. It was a bitter defeat for Mike Price's Cougars, who lost in overtime for the third time this season, but WSU lost a big payday as well, as snow, sleet and 20-mph winds tied up roads throughout the Palouse Country of Southeast Washington, and kept the crowd to an announced 23,314. *********** Oregon, on the other hand, seemed to have won something a whole lot bigger than a football game. Phil Knight was at the Oregon-Washington State game in Pullman Saturday. And boy, were the coaches and players and athletic officials happy to see him. Mr. Knight, the Oregon alum who co-founded and now heads Nike, made news earlier this season when he announced that as a result of the University of Oregon's throwing in with a group of radicals opposed to Nike's overseas "sweatshop" operations, he was withdrawing his support of the University. His support is considerable: in 1996, he donated $25 million to Oregon, and until Oregon's unfortunate cave-in to the campus radicals, he had been expected to donate as much as $30 million toward an $80 million expansion of Autzen Stadium. As a result of Mr. Knight's announcement that he was pulling out, a number of other influential donors joined him, and stadium plans had been put on hold. Oregon coach Mike Bellotti is known to be a special favorite of Mr. Knight, and Oregon officials have expressed some concern about being able to hold onto Bellotti without Mr. Knight's influence and, perhaps, financial assistance. Neither Mr. Knight nor Nike officials were making any commitments, other than to say he would be at Oregon's game against Cal at Autzen Stadium Saturday. *********** There are now three major college coaching jobs open. One is at Alabama. Great facilities. Great recruiting territory. Good pay. Great tradition. That's the problem, of course - the tradition. Down there, it's spelled B-R-Y-A-N-T, and if that ain't your last name, and your first name ain't Paul, you're likely to become just another in a long string of good men who weren't The Bear. Then there is West Virginia. The state of West Virginia has a population of under 2 million (and it continus to shrink) and only 133 schools playing football. That means WVU has to import most of its players, which translates to a lot of coaches hitting the roads of adjoining states looking for Division-I players. There is pretty much no West Virginia football tradition except the one that Don Nehlen built. Before him, the Mountaineers were always know for being hard-nosed, and making you pay for everything you got, but until Coach Nehlen came along, they were mostly spoilers. I don't know how many bowl games he's taken them to, but I do know he had them in the Fiesta Bowl, playing Notre Dame for a national championship. In the Nehlen years, West Virginia's stadium has grown to over 60,000, and it is filled every Saturday. But Don Nehlen announced his "retirement" this past Saturday. Retire, my ass. The man still has plenty of coaching left in him, but he became the victim of his own success - the Mountaineer fans wanted more, so Don Nehlen had to go. And then there is Rutgers. It has a tradition as old as football itself - it played in the very first college game, against Princeton - but nothing much lately. Like Alabama, Rutgers is in the heart of good football country, but the resemblance ends there. Few New Jersey kids grow up wanting to play for Rutgers someday, and as a result, the good ones go out of state to play. Terry Shea, the guy who's been in there, the guy who just resigned, seemed to accept that. He came from the West Coast, he brought in the West Coast offense, and he brought in West Coast players - California JC transfers. Great for a quick fix, maybe - except it's a real slap in the face to New Jersey's high school coaches. Rutgers ought to be good. It has a nice campus, a nice on-campus stadium, and the opportunity to play an occasionally really big game in the Meadowlands. It is in a competitive league (Big East) in the middle of prime recruiting territory, on the outer fringes of the media capital of the United States. Of the three jobs, if you want to accomplish something and still keep your sanity, I say apply at Rutgers. Seems to me they should consider hiring a successful New Jersey high school coach, preferably one of southern European extraction. |
I mentioned to another Black Lion, General Jim Shelton, a former wing-T guard at Delaware, that it was ironic that the Air Force team succeeds on the ground, while Army's new coach espouses a totally pass-oriented offense. Jim's observation was quite interesting: "As you know the new AD and coach will suffer until they understand that they are basically light infantry and have to fight using grit, surprise, deception , brains and conditioning." (Sound a little bit like the Double-Wing?) Jim went on to tell me a little more about this year's reunion. "The West Point (pilgrimage) is special this year because two of the daughters of LTC Terry de la Mesa Allen, Jr, the battalion commander who was also killed that day, are joining us for the weekend. Terry had three daughters, 5 years old, 3, and 2. They don't remember him. He was West Point, Class of 1952, and a fine guy. I was his Operations Officer until just a few days before the battle. Now these girls are 38 and 36 years old. The youngest has two small children and can't make it. The girls have never been to West Point. It will be a fun time, and nostalgic."
*********** I have come to make it a practice of telling players before a game that it is not likely that the defense alone is going to stop us. Not without our help. There are three things, I tell them, that are far more likely to stop us: Careless turnovers, stupid penalties, and dumb-ass calls. You take care of the first two, I tell them, and I'll take care of the third. Hey - check out for yourself how many times teams stop themselves in one of those three ways. (Especially check out the occasions when the fault lies with Mr. Coach for trying to be too cute.) I got this interesting letter on the subject from Jody Hagins, a youth coach in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and a diehard South Carolina Gamecocks' fan. (Translation needed: down in that part of the country, "USC" is not the University of Southern California.) "Not sure if you saw the USC/Tennessee game, but I remember your three things that will kill a football team: Penalties... Turnovers... Stupid play calls Well, we had all of the above. First, after stopping UT, we put in Derek Watson to return the punt. Not only has he not returned a punt all season, but he has fumbled at least once in every game. Well, he muffed the punt and UT recovered on the 1 foot line. We had 6 false starts in the first half, AT HOME!!! Also, we had an interception on our first drive, receiver wide open at the 10, and the ball bounced off his shoulder into the hands of the defender. In addition, we had three more fumbles that we recovered. We missed a chip-shot field goal.
*********** Al Michaels pointed out on Monday Night Football that for the past 60 years, whenever the Washington Redskins have lost their last home game before an election, the incumbent party has lost. *********** DIGNIFYING OUR PROFESSION - PART ONE - Four members of the River Rouge (Michigan) High School team, despite being formally charged with first-degree sexual misconduct in the alleged rape of a 14-year old girl, were allowed to play in their team's last two games. A gutless school board allowed the four to rejoin the team, and a coach of questionable motives allowed them to play. The school board said that its reasoning was based on fear of a lawsuit should one of the boys be denied a college scholarship as a result of its not allowing him to return. Sure. Apart from the fact that perhaps they should be thinking less about the future of such kids and more about the welfare of the female students at any sleazeball college that might be so desperate for football talent as to admit them, the school board's thinking is clearly rubbish. Despite the fact that the lawyer of one of the players says his client is "being recruited" by "'top' Division I schools," there is no apparent evidence that any of these kids has been sought after. The coach himself admits that no one has yet received any offers. And, as Mick McCabe of the Detroit Free Press writes, there were already six game tapes from earlier in the season anyhow, should any college take a serious interest in any of these louts. The bigger question, asks McCabe, is why the coach decided to play them. "During the last week." he wrote, "I have spoken to many high school coaches, and not one of them said he would permit the four players to play again. One said that if the school board ordered him to play them, he would resign." Not River Rouge coach Burt Henderson, though. He evidently had no problem with playing the four players, two of whom were team captains. "It's not my job to punish them," Henderson told McCabe. "This is a legal matter. From my side, I support my players." "These are good kids," he insisted. "They're good boys and I support them. They're like my sons." ("Not," most coaches I know would say, "like my sons.") "If they were my sons," wrote McCabe, "the last thing they would be doing after being accused of a crime like this is playing high school football." PS- For those of you who like to see justice served, River Rouge's season came to a close last Friday night with a 35-0 loss to Dearborn Divine Child High. *********** "It's been 3 games since we have been working the Rip & Strip drill (See TIPS) ..No fumbles since!! Prior to that we had at least 2 fumbles per game including one where we coughed it up 7 times. The boys really enjoy the drill..at the beginning of practice it's "Coach Thomas, can we do Rip & Strip today?" Another very cool by-product of the drill is my defense has caused a few more fumbles than previous by stripping the ball (The defensive players tell me the ball belongs to our offense anyway, so they might as well take it away). Once again Coach Wyatt you passed on some very valuable information and presented it in such a way that we coaches can instruct our players." Christian Thomas, Cypress, California *********** "Man, do you have timing. Just minutes before reading your latest tidbit about "pretty boys" my 10-year-old son and I were riding home talking about this silly-assed hair-dye practice you described as "shoeshine" where the tips of the hair are dyed. "My boy, Brock, idolizes his 13-year-old cousin who just recently shoeshined the tips of his brown hair blonde (the kid is a pretty fair football player and student as well). Brock expressed an interest in doing the same thing and I told him if he tried it, I'd shave his head! He got a kick outta that.
*********** "To me it's a bunch of crap, and I don't want my name linked with anything like that." So said Oregon State head coach Dennis Erickson, delivering a good lesson in ethics to football coaches everywhere. What Coach Erickson was referring to was the speculation, started in the Los Angeles papers, that he was all lined up to succeed Paul Hackett, the USC coach who is almost certain to be fired. Hackett is a friend of his, said Erickson. Not only that, but he is a fellow coach. Ethical coaches don't do that to each other. For those of you out there who don't know how these things are supposed to work, it is simple: you do not go after another coach's job. Period. Until it is made public that it is no longer his job - that a coaching position is vacant - you have no right to start the application process rolling; you do not let your name appear in public as a potential successor, and you do not start making phone calls or putting out feelers or talking to people who claim to represent the school. Nor do the people in authority at a school have any right to go sneaking around behind the back of their present coach trying to talk to you. Until something is officially done and announced publicly, stay away! You need to stop being flattered by all the attention, and realize what you are doing to another member of your profession. You also need to reflect on this a minute: if that's the way those people operate, one day they will do it to you. *********** It is a bit off the beaten path for a lot of folks, but perhaps for that very reason, there can't be too many places in the country as attractive as San Luis Obispo, California and its surrounding area. Slightly inland from the coast and roughly midway between LA and San Francisco (each about 3-1/2 hours away), "SLO" has a picturesque downtown that on a Saturday evening teems with college students, locals and tourists. It is a walking town, with a lot to see, and all manner of restaurants and assorted watering holes that seem almost to reach out and haul you in off the sidewalks. But it is not a "cute," contrived, touristy town. It exists to serve the townies who live there and the kids who go to school there every bit as much as it does the tourists. It has all of the cultural amenities and sports events of a college right in town at Cal Poly, an engineering-oriented state university whose students seem to exist in relative harmony with the townsfolk. Just minutes away is the Pacific Ocean and several beach communities, probably the most famous of which is Pismo Beach. There is still evidence of Pismo Beach's funky past as a sort of Wildwood (New Jersey) West, but the moneyed folk have discovered it, and they have been planting their expensive, red-tiled-roofed homes all over the hillsides overlooking the Pacific. The views are incredible, and evidently the surfing is pretty good, too (how would I know?), because there were all sorts of guys out surfing when my wife and I were there last Sunday morning. As a favor to her, I agreed to go to Pismo Beach State Park, where supposedly all the monarch butterflies on the West Coast gather in October and November to rest up and mate, or mate and rest up - I forget which. Doggone if we didn't walk into a grove of eucalyptus trees and look straight up and see hundreds, maybe thousands, of the orange-and-black critters flying around, looking like so many high school kids out cruising on a Saturday night. Now, if each of you kind souls who log onto this web site will just start sending me $10 a month, I promise that after I retire to San Luis Obispo I will send you a post card on your birthday every year for the rest of my life. *********** "Coach Wyatt, James Madison High School won last week 34-13 over McLean. We had 295 yards on the ground and passed twice for 35 yards. 66 SP Special blew the game open on the first play in the third quarter. We will see you at your Fort Washington clinic. Thanks for a great website and God Bless you and your family. Coach Gordon Leib, Vienna, Virginia" *********** Coach Kyle Wagner at Jasper Place High in Edmonton, Ontario was browsing through the "Winner's Circle" and came across a comment by a youth coach, Doug Aiken, in Roanoke, Virginia, mentioning the success he'd had with Rip Stop 77 Special Power/Liz Stop 66 Special Power. He asked me to tell him about it and I told him I was ashamed of him - that I thought by now, in his second year of running the Double-Wing, he'd have known to look in his playbook. Duh. He had to confess that one of the other coaches had the master playbook, and he was left with a few copied pages. So he retrieved the playbook and turned to page 59 as I'd suggested, and there it was. (It's also shown in "Dynamics IV") He ran it the other night against Eastglen High and it played a major role in Jasper Place's 35-22 win. He wrote me, "Thanks to you and Coach Doug Aiken for the tip on that play. If you could pass on an email to him from me that would be great too." (He knows I don't give out people's e-mail addresses.) I think the moral here - other than the fact that it's great when people can share ideas and it's great that the Web permits it - is that there's a lot of good coaching and innovation going on at the youth level, and high school coaches who look down their noses at youth coaches, and don't realize that we can all learn from each other, are missing a real opportunity to grow. *********** "We were practicing in my front yard and a bunch of geese flew over our heads in their traditional formation..one of the boys stopped and shouted 'Hey Coach...Look...They're running the Wedge!' - then they all started laughing and saying how the geese had stolen their play!! I just about rolled on the ground! these 10yr olds are great!" Scott Barnes, Rockwall, Texas *********** Head Coach Brett Peabody returned to the South Torrance (California) High sidelines last Friday, a week after he was allegedly beaten by members of a player's family. South Torrance beat Compton Centennial 56-0, but it didn't do a whole lot for Coach Peabody's peace of mind. "I felt like I was looking over my shoulder all night to be quite honest with you," Peabody told Gary Klein of the L.A. Times. Peabody, who was provided with a police escort throughout the evening and was accompanied by his attorney during a postgame news conference, said, "I've never been so scared in my life." A week earlier, following South Torrance's 24-21 loss to North Torrance, Peabody, according to all reports, was struck from behind and knocked to the ground, then beaten, allegedly the victim of John Martinez Sr., 34, and his brother, Anthony Martinez, 23. The elder Martinez reportedly was upset at his son's lack of carries in the game, and had angrily confronted the coach as he walked off the field. The Martinez brothers were booked on suspicion of misdemeanor battery and released. Evidently for some reason nobody thought they were a danger to anyone. The son, John Martinez Jr., quit immediately after the incident. Although he has since rejoined the team, he was not in uniform for the Compton Centennial game, instead attending the game dressed in a tuxedo and taking part in halftime festivities as one of the candidates for homecoming king. Coach Peabody, who according to reporter Klein "walked with a noticeable limp Friday," allowed as how he was still "very sore. My back, my neck and my head and just about every part of my body is more or less nearly aching. I'm in a lot of pain. More emotionally." He said he would finish the season at South Torrance before deciding on his future plans. His family, he said, wants him to continue coaching. "They still want to see me involved because they know how much I love coaching," he told Klein. "That's the thing that really bothers me. I love to coach." *********** Many of you know of Coach Bruce Eien from his excellent web site, BC Warrior Football Coaching. Bruce has his ideas about stopping the Double Wing, and we can disagree professionally on that, but I have a lot of admiration for him as a person and as a football man, and we sometimes bounce ideas back and forth - Coach Eien first alerted me to the South Torrance story just above - and so I considered it a great compliment to receive this note from him yesterday: " keep up the great work i love getting to read REAL INFO every morning from a real source and not the crap i get from a newspaper." *********** "I gave up drinking in 1986 and I haven't had a drop since. And it wasn't because of a federal program. I had a higher calling." Governor George Bush *********** "Think Nebraskans don't know a good man when they meet one? Tom Osborne is projected to receive 81% of the votes. Nearest competitor 7%." Daren Hatch, Arapahoe, Nebraska *********** Boy, am I glad I vote the way I do. I got a call Wednesday from General Norman Schwartzkopf, and yesterday I got one from Steve Largent. Gosh, next maybe I'll get one from that Ed Asner guy, whoever he is. |
TRIVIA
QUESTION: An early devotee of weight training while also
gifted with blazing speed, he was called both "The
World's Strongest Sprinter" and "The World's Fastest
Shot-putter." He is considered the best football player
ever to play for his school, and after being at the
center of a bidding war between two rival pro leagues, he
enjoyed a successful pro career, first as a runner, then
as a tight end (HINT) His school's uniforms - especially
the white jerseys - haven't changed a whole lot since he
played there. (HINT) A long, electrifying
fourth-quarter punt return gave his team a 7-3 win over
its arch-rival on Hallowe'en night; (HINT) He became a
dentist after retiring from pro football; (HINT) His son
was a very good football player at Texas A & M
---- OOPS! - I MADE A
MISTAKE!!! In the year that he broke his
game-winning punt return against Ole Miss (a 7-3 win) ,
his team did not go on to win the national
championship. It had won it the year before. In fact,
when the two Hallowe'en Night teams were later rematched
in the Sugar Bowl, Ole Miss would win, 21-0. HINT: He was
a hometown boy, a native of Baton Rouge who attended
Istrouma High there. He spent his pro career with Houston
and Oakland; his signing by the Oilers was considered a
major coup for the AFL.
TRIVIA ANSWER: It
is BILLY
CANNON, LSU All-American and Heisman Trophy
winner. Among other things, Billy Cannon was perhaps the
first great weight-training football player. Lots of
colleges then lifted, of course, and there were some
body-builders who played football; but the concept of
strength training was unknown, and Cannon, 6-1, 210
pounds of rock-hard muscle who had been timed in 9.5 in
the 100-yard dash, was considered almost freakish. Not
only did he play a major role on the Tigers' 1958
national championship team and also win the Heisman
Trophy, but it was his good fortune to be born when he
was, graduating at the precise time of the formation of
the American Football League. He was first signed by the
Rams of the NFL, then by the Houston Oilers of the AFL.
The story is involved, but basically the Oilers won out,
and Cannon was paid a lot of money, which was just as
well, because by that time he was married with three
kids.
***********
Last Saturday, before the Hofstra-Cal Poly game, I
was introduced to Cal Poly's coach, Larry Welsh. When
Coach Welsh learned that I live in Washington, he said,
"Our offensive coordinator's from up your way." Sounded
to me like one of those "You're from Canada? Do you know
Fred?" deals, but when he said the guy's name was Don
Bailey, I said, "Whoa..." Sure enough, there he was, over
on the other side of the field. Don Bailey. When I first
saw him, years ago, I was coaching at Hudson's Bay High
in Vancouver, Washington, and Don Bailey was a young pup
of a sophomore quarterback at rival Evergreen High. I saw
a lot of him for three years, and watched him play
basketball in the winter as well. He went off to play JC
ball, and the next time I ran into him, I was doing color
commentary for Portland State's telecasts, and Don was
playing quarterback for the PSU Vikings, who were at that
time - late 80's, early 90's - a Division II national
power. It was great to see him again last Saturday, and
although I obviously wanted Cal Poly to lose (they wre
playing Hofstra), I came away highly impressed by the job
Don's done in his two years there. I was especially
impressed by the kind of "stones" he showed, when at one
point, after Hofstra had finally begun to wake up
offensively and taken a 6-3 lead with a 73-yard run to
start the second half, the Mustangs came back with a
drive of their own, but faced a crucial fourth-and-one at
the Hofstra 36. With the crowd making as much noise as
3,500 people (announced) can make, Don called for his
I-backfield to flow right and for the QB to hand off to
his flanker on a reverse left. The flanker, the fastest
man on the Cal Poly team, went in untouched. I
complimented Don after the game for the gutty call, and
Coach Welsh very graciously gave him full credit. "That
was all Don," he said. For those of you with college
coaching ambitions, Don's career up to this point is
instructive: keep your bags packed. Following graduation
from Portland State, Don played two years of Arena
Football, then was hired by his college coach, the late
Pokey Allen, who had moved on to Boise State. Pokey was
either going to be able to stay at Boise State foever, or
move on to bigger things if he chose - he was that good.
Sadly, though, he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in
his upper arm that proved fatal, and with Pokey gone,
Don, along with the rest of Pokey's staff, eventually
found himself looking for work. (A not uncommon
experience in the college coaching profession, by the
way.) From there, his next stop was clear across the
country - at Division II Shepherd College in
Shepherdstown, West Virginia, not far from Hagerstown,
Maryland, where I started coaching in 1970. After two
seasons coaching Shepherd's quarterbacks and receivers,
he accepted the job of offensive coordinator at Cheyney
University, a historically-black school in Pennsylvania
which has served as the starting point for some
exceptional coaches, including basketball coaches John
Chaney of Temple and Vivian Stringer of Rutgers, and a
former pro fullback named Billy Joe, now head coach at
Florida A & M. Don's experience as offensive
coordinator at Cheyney led to his hiring at Cal Poly, and
a relocation back to the West Coast. I certainly wish him
well. I always admired him as a competitor and as a
person, and I sure was proud of the job he did last
Saturday.
(1) The media and their emphasis on glorifying the Big Hit in their highlights shows and pre-game montages. Forget the fact that the hitter may have led with his head and put his life in jeopardy. The important thing is that he laid the other guy out. Set to music, and run back in slow motion, it's sure to make it onto a "Greatest Hits" video. WHAT YOU CAN DO: Call or write ESPN and let them know how they are contributing to the downfall of our game; (2) The negligent coach, who is ignorant of safe techniques, or who knows, but looks the other way, and in so doing, condones his kids' head-first play. Although it is hard to believe, it is possible that this guy just doesn't realize what's at stake here. WHAT YOU CAN DO: Depending on your relationship, you might consider an "I'm concerned about some of the things I'm seeing" sort of personal approach. It is, after all, in his best interest as well as his kids' - and our game's. Write an article for your state coaching association's publication. (3) The criminally irresponsible coach, who actually encourages his kids to "punish" opponents with head shots. You owe this guy nothing except directions to the exit. WHAT YOU CAN DO: Ask a lawyer friend to contact this guy's superintendent and inform him (or her) of the potential legal costs to the district of allowing this sort of "coaching" to continue. (I would consider raising enough money for a bounty on every one of these guys you can run off.) (4) Officials. The people charged with enforcing the rules. The rules that exist to prevent one team from gaining an unfair advantage and to protect the participants. And when was the last time you saw a kid ejected for spearing? WHAT YOU CAN DO: Ask that same lawyer to contact the local officials' association and remind them that if a kid should get hurt and there is evidence (the game tape ought to suffice) that they tolerated unsafe play, their hands will not be clean. So the NFL actually tries to do something about it - takes a look at the game tapes and fines the Browns' Courtney Brown $7,500 for a helmet shot to Kordell Stewart's ribs. (True, it wasn't so much to protect Brown as it was to protect Stewart.) And what does Brown's agent do? Why, he announces that he will appeal the fine, based on the fact that Courtney Brown wears a neck brace that forces his head downward. DON'T YOU SEE? IT'S NOT HIS FAULT! HE CAN'T HELP HIMSELF! HE HAS A DISABILITY! THAT MEANS WE HAVE TO ACCOMODATE HIM! IF WE DON'T LET HIM SPEAR OPPONENTS, WE'LL BE DEPRIVING HIM OF HIS LIVELIHOOD! Welcome to America in the 21st Century. We will preserve Courtney Brown's right to slam his helmet into an opponent, even if it means destroying our game in the process. *********** "Ended on good note. Arapahoe finished above .500 for the first time since '92. Our 4 losses came to playoff teams and we were never blown out of a ballgame. Nebraska only had a 16 team playoff field this year. Out of the 16 teams in the playoffs 4 of them came from our district. We play 25% of the playoff field and with a break here or there could have won a couple of those close games." Daren Hatch, Arapahoe, Nebraska *********** I figured that Dennis Miller on ABC Monday Night Football would anger me. I mean, a comedian in the booth? How disrespectful of the game! But instead of angering me, something even worse, from the standpoint of ABC, has happened- he bores me. I suspect he does the same to lots of other people. Can you say anything worse about someone who was supposed to bring something new and exciting to the Monday Night Football broadcasts than the fact that he is boring? I mean, who cares how smart he is and how much he knows about every subject, and how many different historical or artistic or literary or theatrical references he can come up with to describe the type of defense the Redskins are playing? Hey - it's only pro football! I thought it was a given that where the game itself was concerned, the color guys on TV were not to "talk technical" - that they were to refrain from using terms that the ordinary viewer wouldn't understand. (Which is why John Madden's level of "intellectual" analysis seems just about right for the average American fan: "See, he fumbled the ball. And when you fumble the ball, that means the other team has a chance to recover, and when they do, you got a turnover, and see, when you get enough turnovers, you're gonna lose.") So if they're not supposed to get into tiny little details about football - the reason why most people are watching - then how in the world can anyone justify Dennis Miller's finding ways, like the smartest kid in class, to let us know how much he knows about archaeology, mythology, history, music, movies, theater, and, for all I know, neurosurgery? The Washington Post referring to him in a great play on words as "Citizen Arcane" (arcane meaning "mysterious," or "obscure") writes, "maybe a lot of people just want to watch football without having to fumble for the Britannica and a thesaurus. You know as well as we do that the average football fan can barely be bothered to lift himself off the Naugahyde to restock the Funyuns and Old Milwaukee." *********** Speaking of Dennis Miller - Monday night, during the first half of the Redskins-Titans game, some graphics were displayed illustrating the point that Washington fans are the NFL's most screwed-over. That is to say, the average cost of attending a Redskins' game is the highest in the NFL. Said Miller of Daniel Snyder, the 'Skins rapacious owner (he's the guy, remember, who not only had the guts to charge people to attend Redskins' training camp practices, but also to charge them to park), "at least he puts it back in the team." Uh, do you realize what "putting it back in the team" really means? It means putting it in the pockets of millionaire thugs. Of a 40-year-old defensive lineman who's a step too slow to sack quarterbacks but not to take his check to the bank. Let's see - we charge the peons an extra $10 a ticket and an extra $5 to park and an extra $2 a soft drink so we can pay Bruce Smith an extra $500,000. Now, what was it that Al Gore was saying about benefitting the "wealthiest one per cent?" *********** "Hugh, A quick note on the state of Maine DW teams. Our regular season is over and the play-offs start next Saturday. Although all the DW teams will be considered underdogs it has been a great season for the the three Maine high schools running the DW. Cony finished 5-3, Boothbay finished 6-3, and Gorham finished 8-0. Although Gorham plays in what is called the Developmental League and is not eligible for the play-offs they had a heck of a season. Tom Hinds at Cony brought the DW to them form Boothbay, where he coached with us for a couple of years. Cony plays in the largest class in the state and was picked to finish near the bottom of the division. Their program has been down for a number of years and Tom did a great coaching job taking them to the paly-offs in his first year as head coach. Boothbay had only four returning seniors and a starting backfield that included one freshman, and three sophomores not bad to finish 6-3 in a building year. These teams finished the regular season with a combined record of 19 - 6 with two teams picked to finish in the bottom half of their conferences and one team that has been playing a varsity level program for only its second year. Pretty darn good ! Jack Tourtillotte, Boothbay Harbor, Maine. PS: You might say you were the father of DW in Maine - not bad to father three off-spring who have done so well and all of that while being an old-fart!" (Old fart, am I? It seems like only yesterday I was being called a smart-ass young punk. Where did the time go?) *********** Those of you who have run the Stack-I know that it can be tough on defenses. Same with the 5-1, or "Double-Over" formation. These are examples of nice offensive changes-of-pace that require little or no extra teaching on your part but can totally flummox a defense. Spring something on an opponent unexpectedly and you can keep them off balance all night. I hesitate to recommend doing that sort of thing as a steady diet, though, because there are too many variables. There is always the chance that if you run a surprise formation two weeks in a row, the next week's opponent may have a defensive surprise in store for you. Give opposing defensive coordinators credit - if you give them a week to get ready, they could dish up some problems for you that you're not prepared to deal with. With that in mind, I heard from two Double-Wing coaches who told me of two offensive surprises they pulled on opponents:
*********** Corey Dillon's uniform will be displayed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I assume it'll be the Bengals' uniform he was wearing when he rushed for an NFL-record 278 yards a week ago, and not the orange coveralls that some people would consider every bit as appropriate. "They did what was right," Dillon observed. Not that he ought to be considered the authority on what is "right": in the book "Pros and Cons, written by Jeff Benedict and Don Yaeger, and devoted to raking up and exposing to daylight the human muck that cavorts on the tube every Sunday for the amusement of the great unwashed, Mr. Dillon merits an entire chapter. *********** "The Referee told us that our 47 Criss Cross was the best looking play he had ever seen at our age level. It was a nice compliment." Mike Ryan, St. Charles, Missouri *********** Scott Russell, a youth coach in Sterling, Virginia, writes, "Interesting, isn't it, that despite losing (winning, too) when a 7, 8 or 9 year old walks off the field his thoughts are of his juice box and Rice Krispy treat?" (Hey - high school kids aren't all that different. One of the biggest mistakes a coach can make - at any level - is thinking that the game means as much to his players as it does to him.) *********** Soccer wormed its way into our schools in Washington because the soccer players, who already had plenty of places to play and plenty of teams to play on, wanted to be able to win a school letter. Then the "educators" decided that members of the band should win letters. Next came "academic letters." Pretty soon they'll be giving letters for perfect attendance. Might as well. In most youth sports, everybody gets a trophy. Can you see the fine hand of the "self-esteemies" here? The ideal situation, in the minds of all educrats, is called "Win-Win." Everybody wins. Then there are no losers. In ordinary competition, of course, there are winners, but there are also losers, and we have to think about the losers' feelings. Now, if everybody's a winner, then there are no losers. Problem is, when "everybody wins," there aren't any real "winners," are there? I mean, who stands out? Hey, even the United states Army is getting into the act. Used to be that you could tell a guy was a member of an elite Army group by the fact that he wore a beret: green for Special Forces, black for the Rangers, maroon for Airborne. Now, everybody can be special. Everybody can be elite! The Army has announced it will be allowing everyone to wear a beret. Says an Army spokesman, it's "a signal to the young that we are moving, we are changing." Yeah. Also a pretty good signal to the Russians. And the Chinese. And the Iraqis. And the North Koreans. *********** Just in case you wondered why Jimmy Johnson's not coaching any more - why he took the money and ran - the answer is free agency. As he told USA Today's Gordon Forbes, "One thing free agency has done is dilute the loyalty of fans and players. I had players that played for me in college that (in the pros) held out and missed games. And all the injury grievances when you knew the players were not hurt. It's just a shame," he went on. "There were real quality people who came up as free agents. All of a sudden, they sign huge contracts, and just go to crap. You don't see the same effort. You don't see the same hunger, even with borderline players." *********** I don't know whether you remember a basketball player who played at UNLV named Mark Dickel, but it interested me when I heard he was from New Zealand. New Zealand? Are you kidding me? A kid from the mean streets - the ghetto playgrounds - of New Zealand, playing at UNLV? Are you sure you didn't mean New Jersey? When my son, Ed, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, learned that Dickel had signed to play with a local professional team, he interviewed him for the SBS network, and wrote to tell me how it went: "Just got back from the Mark Dickel interview. He's a pretty nice kid...a little wary at first, but he was interested to meet a fan and someone from another country who had an Australian visa! He's playing here as an "import" rather than an Australian citizen. The story is that his Dad is the NZ women's Olympic coach. He grew up in Dunedin, which is on the south island of NZ, nearly as far south as you can get. According to Mark, the town is a little bit of a hotbed of hoops and that's where he learned his game. The coach of the Victoria (Australia) Titans is Brian Goorjian from La Crescenta, Calif (His Dad coached at UNLV, brother played at UNLV). Brian saw Mark Dickel on TV one night playing for a NZ junior team and ran into Mr. Dickel one night at a tournament and mentioned Mark. Mark went over and spent some time with Brian and the Titans before Brian's brother called from UNLV and said "I need a point guard." The rest is history... he played all four years and is one class short of a degree in hotel management." Ed said that thanks to the fact that most of his exposure to American culture came through his relationship with his UNLV teammates, Dickel's accent is now an amazing mix of Kiwi (New Zealand) and American urban black. *********** Lou Orlando. a youth coach and fellow Yalie from Sudbury, Massachusetts, wrote and told me how his high school coach had a great love of music, especially the band Blood, Sweat and Tears, and so had named his football team's three units - first, second and third - "Blood," Sweat" and "Tears." I had to write Lou back and say that without any disrespect intended to his high school coach, I was willing to bet that the naming of the units was not inspired by a musical group or by Winston Churchill, the originator of the phrase. My bet is that it came from the late, great Jake Gaither, long-time coach of Florida A & M, whose teams, back before the major southern schools were admitting black athletes, were very talented and deep, and were killing people with three interchangeable units which he named "Blood," "Sweat," and "Tears." I suspect that Lou's high school coach, for all his love of music, may have known his football even better than his music, and named them as a tribute to Coach Gaither. I would certainly like to know more about Coach Gaither. I was talking this weekend with Bruce Weber, publisher of Scholastic Coach magazine, who over the years (he's the same age as me) has met and talked with just about every guy in the last 40 years who has coached the game of football. Bruce is a very witty guy and a great conversationalist who really knows his sports, and he can give and take with the best of them. But he said he sat and listened to Jake Gaither talk for two hours, and never said a word! *********** Field Goal Patrol: There were 49 field goals tried in NFL games this past Sunday and Monday night, an increase of three from the previous week, but there were 10 misses, which dropped the percentage made down to 80 per cent. That had to please NFL executives, enraged by my daring to compare the excitement of an NFL field goal with that of an NBA free throw. (Interestingly, they share an amazing similarity in their boring consistency - the entire NBA averaged 81 per cent on free throws last year.) In not a single NFL game were there no field goals attempted. In fact, only two teams - the Dolphins and the Redskins - did not so much as attempt a field goal. In five of the games, field goal kickers made every attempt. Only one team - Atlanta, whose kicker is the great Morten Andersen - missed more than one field goal (Andersen missed two). Please- try to stay awake until I tell you about the Oakland-San Diego game: the Raiders beat a team that scored two touchdowns without having to score one themselves. Five thrilling field goals by Sebastian Janikowski were enough to "earn" the Raiders a 15-13 win. In the NFL's behalf, it should be pointed out that although its offensive units did wave the white flag of surrender on those 49 occasions when they attempted field goals, they did manage to score 52 touchdowns. But wait! Not so fast - four of those touchdowns came on returns - three on interception returns, and one on a punt return! Net offensive touchdowns: 48. Net abject surrenders by the offense: 49. In the Atlanta-Carolina thriller, there were eight field goals attempted, and only one touchdown scored. Gimme a break. Kill the field goal, guys, before it kills you. It is as exciting, as unpredictable, as an intentional walk. Baseball does not award runs for intentional walks. *********** Strangely unnoticed at the Hofstra-Cal Poly game last Saturday, October 28, was the fact that the next day was the 40th anniversary of a tragic day in football history, and an especially tragic one for Cal Poly. On October 29, 1960, a plane with 46 passengers aboard crashed on takeoff at the Toledo, Ohio airport, killing 22 people, including 16 members of the Cal Poly football team. The Mustangs had just lost, 50-6 to Bowling Green, but they were excited about heading home. The plane. a twin-engine C-46 prop job, got 100 feet into the air before jerking suddenly to the side, crashing into the runway and breaking in two. Most of those killed were in the front section, which caught fire (the rear did not). The crash was attributed to an engine failure, and to the discovery that the plane was overloaded by more than 2,000 pounds. 40 years later, memories are still sharp and poignant. Those who lived reject the term "lucky, " preferring to think of themselves as "crash survivors." A few attribute their survival to chance decisions such as deciding at the last minute not to sit up front and play cards with friends; one admitted that after multiple leg fractures kept him hospitalized for nine months and left him walking with a cane, he spent years beset by guilt at having survived, and anger at the thought that he'd been deprived of a chance at a pro football career. Another became a high school teacher and wrestling coach, but had to retire in 1980 after a sudden series of blackouts that doctors finally attributed to injuries he'd sustained in the crash. Carol Roberts, then editor of the school newspaper, would name her son, now 36 years old, for Curtis Hill, a receiver from Bakersfield who died in the crash. Bill Dauphin, then a sophomore who rarely played, told the San Luis Obispo Tribune that he remembered how foggy it was at the time, "But what did I know? I was a country kid. I figured if they said it could fly, it could fly." He was out cold in a Toledo hospital for over a week, and when it came time to transfer him to a hospital in Bakersfield, he had to fly out of Toledo. With the wreckage of the ill-fated plane still on the runway, "We wept as we went by it when we took off," he recalled. He said what helped him begin getting his life back to normal was his return to football the next fall. "That was such a huge healing thing for me," he said. "Just to have the team and be out there on the field. I think of someone like Ted Tollner (then the Cal Poly quarterback, now head coach at San Diego State), limping back to the huddle because of crash injuries. That was awful to see, but he was a hero to me and a lot of those other guys." Dauphin, who also wrestled at Cal Poly, finishing fifth nationally as a senior, spent most of his career as a teacher and wrestling coach, and told the Tribune, "You know, when guys get a little older and they talk about life, it's the times when you compete athletically, when you're bonded as a team, when you really felt most alive. It's something special." |
"When
we had to put the Wingback in at QB (chose him because he is
a good kid with some brains) he couldn't throw at all. We
needed to throw a little in a two minute drill before the
half so we invented a play on the sideline (not usually a
good idea). Our B back-- fullback-- could throw but we
needed him as a runner more. I had our
QB call the cadence and then send himself into motion!!!
(LEFT) They didn't know what to do as we snapped directly to
the B -back and then he threw to the QB and completed it!!!
Later in trying for the two point conversion I had them do
it again, but this time the B back ran wedge (eveybody
dropped to cover the QB). " Coach John Dowd
(Eastridge High JV's -- Rochester, New York)
"Coach
Wyatt, Thank you. We tied for the last playoff spot in our
state and lost on a tiebreaker so we did not get in. If we
would have it would have been the second time in the history
of the school. Nonetheless, it was an outstanding year with
a 6-3 mark (first winning season since 1985). We amassed
2,665 yards rushing and 3,078 total yards with 27 touchdowns
(NO FIELD GOALS) and 215 points in all. Also, we tried
something on Friday against Scribner-Snyder because their
d-ends both ran 11-flat or better in the 100 and they
chased. We dropped our c-back to
tailback, moved our a back to the left cheek of the qb and
our b back to the right cheek of the qb and ran either super
power right or super power left. The up backs both kicked
out d-ends and we still pulled everybody else.(LEFT)
It was funny to watch. For example we would run super
power right and the a back would kick out the left d-end and
the left linebacker would go that way as well, but we were
actually running away from them. We didn't have to cut the
down lineman on backside either. I guess teams really over
key on our fullback, huh? We stayed in this look most of the
game and ran super powers and FB traps. We ran for 233 yards
against a team that was only giving up 100 yards a game
rushing, including holding the state's leading rushing team
to 150+ yards. Anyway, thank you again. I look forward to
another one of your clincs. " Coach Steve Cozad,
Lyons-Decatur Northeast High, Lyons, Nebraska|
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