BACK ISSUES - NOV & DEC 1999
December 31 - "Man- a creature made at the end of the week's work, when God was tired." Mark Twain
My son, Ed, lives in Melbourne, Australia, where the New Year arrives 19 hours before it does on the West Coast, and he promises to let me know as soon as he finds out one way or the other whether the world ends with the New Year. The big joke in Australia (where the emphasis is all on Big Party and none on Armageddon) is that their friends in New Zealand will notify them if the world is ending so they can fly to Perth (on Australia's west coast) and party for three more hours. By the time you read this, Ed may already have found out the news. If I have any distressing information to pass on to you, I will post it on this site, so you might want to check in from time to time. It will at least give you a few hours' notice.
At long last, I have been assured by the team of engineers and programmers assigned to the task that the Double-Wing, simultaneously voted by a panel of experts to be not only the Best Offense of the First 2000 Years but also the Official Offense of the New Millennium, has been certified Y2K compliant. (For quite some time, not wanting to alarm you, I kept this news from you: but I was advised that, without the services of a highly-paid team of consultants, starting on New Year's Day, the offensive linemen on all my videotapes would begin gradually and imperceptibly to widen all splits until, without realizing what had happened, coaches would suddenly notice that the guards and tackles had split out to three feet and the tight ends out to as much as four feet; in some cases, there would be no tight end at all, and the term "Wide Receiver" would begin to pop up on the sound track. The cure these consultants proposed was costly, but what could I do? I had people depending on me, so I said, "Hang the cost! Just don't let anything happen to our Double-Wing! I can't face those coaches on January 1 and tell them that they are going to have to enter a new millennium with wide line splits! and wide receivers!" The crack team of technicians put in countless hours, and thanks to their tireless, round-the-clock efforts, the problem has been averted, they assure me, and Double-Wing coaches everywhere will now be able to ring in the New Year secure in the knowledge that even if they don't have lights and water in their houses, at least their Double-Wing still works!. I'm sure you'll agree that it was worth the many thousands of dollars the consultants charged me.)
Mike Downey in the Los Angeles Times, noting the usual Rose Bowl itinerary handed to the news media ("Century City - 8:30 AM - Team Coaches meet the press"), wrote a hilarious pre-Rose Bowl piece based on an "alternative itinerary" he claimed to have been handed. Among some of the items it contained:
"Brentwood, today, 10 a.m.--A familiar-looking man, who once played football for USC, is expected to approach Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne of the Wisconsin Badgers and ask: 'Psst, how much do you want for that trophy?'
"Long Beach, 11 a.m.--Stanford's unpredictable marching band is booked to perform aboard the Queen Mary until approximately 11:30, when it will be asked to leave the ship, due to having performed provocative musical numbers about Queen Mary.
"Caltech, 3 p.m.--Scientists will report that they have been observing Big Ten schools, and find that there are actually 11 of them.
"Westwood, Friday, 4:30 a.m.--UCLA football players will assemble before dawn to load paint cans into vans. Team members will proceed to Rose Bowl stadium for work until sunrise, painting over wheelchair emblems and then leaving vans in best parking spaces overnight.
"Mann's Chinese Theater, Hollywood, 8:15--Stanford's players gather to watch film footage of Cal's greatest Rose Bowl moments ever, between 8:16 and 8:17.
"Hollywood Bowl, midnight--'Happy New Year!' to be yelled by all, with Stanford alumni bringing the wine and Wisconsin alumni bringing the Velveeta.
"Glendale, 11:30--Two dozen Badger fans leaving their hotel for the game will discover that a travel agent has sold them bogus tickets, dated 'Jan. 1, 3000.'
"Rose Bowl, Pasadena, 1:33--Wisconsin's Dayne scores three of Stanford's best players--trumpet, saxophone and tuba."
Bill Bowerman died last week at the age of 88. He was part of an incredible American success story. For years, he was the head track coach at the University of Oregon; Steve "Pre" Prefontaine was his best-known runner, but another runner named Phil Knight was, shall we say, his most valuable. Coach Bowerman, always looking to give his runners an edge, ruined more than one of his wife's waffle irons by pouring hot latex in them in hopes of making a new, all-surface track sole. When he finally succeeded, his "waffle sole" won acceptance among his athletes, and combining his track expertise and connections with the business acumen of Phil Knight, Coach Bowerman formed Blue Ribbon Sports in order to market the invention. Now, years later, Phil Knight is CEO of the world-wide company that grew out of Blue Ribbon Sports - Nike Incorporated - and the richest man in Oregon. Some would argue that he is the most powerful single man in sports. Coach Bowerman sold out his interest in Nike years ago and retired, a wealthy man, to his cabin up the McKenzie River from Eugene. His proudest legacy is the fact that Eugene, a small city of about 100,000 which calls itself "Tracktown," is considered by many to be one of track and field's few remaining American strongholds.
December 30 - "Use it up...wear it out...make it do - or do without." Old New England saying
Rip Engle, one of the least-sung of the great old-time coaches of the last 50 years, is high on my most-admired list, for a number of reasons. One is that, in my opinion, he was the man most responsible for starting Penn State on its climb to national prominence. No slight intended to Joe Paterno, who is also on my list. After all, when Coach Engle came to Penn State from Brown in 1950, he did persuade a former Brown quarterback, a kid from Brooklyn named Joe Paterno, to postpone his law studies and come along as an assistant. Sixteen years later, Paterno would succeed Coach Engle as Penn State head coach. Much in the way that Earl "Red" Blaik served as mentor to another young Brooklyn guy named Lombardi, it was Rip Engle on which Coach Paterno modeled much of his philosophy, his outlook on the game and his style of coaching. It was largely because Rip Engle was almost devoid of ego that Penn State's transition from Engle to Paterno was as smooth as any that ever took place in major college football. Coach Paterno did not exactly inherit a mess. After being appointed Assistant Head Coach, with the clear understanding that he would be Engle's successor, he took over a program that, while not yet a national power, had established itself firmly as the Beast of the East. Coach Engle, who never had a losing season, was a real gentleman with never a whiff of scandal associated with his program. His calm, laid-back style was the perfect counterpoint to Paterno's youthful passion and assertiveness, and his advice proved invaluable at crucial stages in young Coach Paterno's career. One particular bit of advice, which Coach Paterno must have considered later on when he would twice turn down lucrative NFL jobs, sounded to me an awful lot like Frosty Westering's "Make the Big Time Where You Are" philosophy: "This thing (coaching) is not what you are at a certain age, it is what you want to get out of it. It is also important that you understand what's going to make you happy, and I don't think money or an ego trip is going to make you happy."
Dear Hugh: I was at the Motor City Bowl in person and the biggest moment of the game went unreported by virtually every form of media. BYU was somewhere around the Marshall 20 yard line trailing 10-3 and looking to score after a long play. BYU quaterback drops back and is slammed into the turf by a Marshall blitzing linbacker and imediatly looks hurt. He jumps to his feet and starts screaming at his offensive line. How do I know he was screaming? The crowd came to its feet and went crazy!!! He went so far as to grab his right tackle, slap him several times and then yank him by the arm to get out of there. To our amazment he left the field and another player came in. The crowd was going nuts. Had he lost his mind? Needless to say BYU went down the tubes from there, and the quarterback (a senior playing in his last game) was sat down for a freshman. A short time later an All-American linebacker came off the field, had a shouting match with his coaches and then smashed and broke his helmet. I was sitting among several people from Brother Rice's (Brother Rice HS in Birmingham, Michigan) football team and no one could ever remember seeing anything like it. I taped the game and plan on using it as a how not to video. Hope all is well. Have a good New Year. Rick Desotell, Lutheran Northwest High, Rochester Hills, Michigan
According to reports in a Melbourne, Australia newspaper, sales of tickets to men's events at the 2000 Sydney Olympics are hot. But other than gymnastics, which like figure skating is in a world of its own as a sports attraction for women, sales of tickets to women's events are, er, not. As of a week ago, all 21 sessions of men's basketball were sold out; only six of the women's sessions were. All 23 baseball sessions were sold out, compared with just three in softball. In water polo, the men's-women's sellout ratio was seven to two; in team handball (a big sport in parts of Europe), it was 12 to zero. C'mon ladies - put your money where your mouth is. Meantime, if the promoters of the Olympics want to know where to find buyers for those tickets to the women's events, I would suggest that they contact Christine Brennan, sports writer for USA Today. She's the one who wrote about being offended by a "clueless" (her word) sports radio guy whose reaction to all the hoopla about the US women's World Cup soccer victory was, "What's the big deal?" He said nobody he'd been talking to had been talking about women's soccer. "Then you're talking to the wrong people," Ms. Brennan said she informed the chauvinist pig. Now, if she wouldn't mind telling the folks in Sydney where to find all the "right" people...
It seems like only yesterday that he and I were PR guys for our teams; it was 1975, and he was "advancing" his team, the Birmingham Vulcans, prior to their arrival in town to play our Portland Thunder. He had been hospitable to me on my trip to Birmingham earlier, and I enjoyed his company during his Portland stay. But after the World Football League abruptly folded shortly after, everyone scrambled for different life preservers, and that that was the last I saw of Gil LeBreton. But over the last few years I began coming across his name - and reading his work - as a sports columnist with the Fort Worth Telegram, and thanks to the Internet, we've had a reunion of sorts. He recalls those WFL days as fondly as I do; no doubt we are both suffering from the same selective amnesia - an ability to remember only the good times - that gives nostalgia such a good name.
Our legislators in Washington, D.C. have evidently decided to pass over a Roman Catholic priest in selecting a chaplain. (Incidentally, can somebody please explain why it is okay to start a session of Congress with a prayer, but not a football game or a high school graduation?) One of the reasons given for not selecting him was that a celibate clergyman might not to be able to counsel married couples. Apart from the fact that Catholic priests have been doing that very thing for, oh, several centuries; apart from the fact that it isn't necessary for a physician to have a broken leg in order to treat a fracture, or a coach to have a dysfunctional family in order to counsel a kid who lives in one; apart from the fact that if married Congressmen and their spouses don't wish to take the advice of the chaplain, they are free to go to the clergy of their choice - couldn't certain high government officials have benefitted from the counsel of a clergyman - celeibate or not - before "mistakes were made", instead of running and hiding behind "spiritual advisers" afterward?
December 29 - "There is no such thing as a man being too proud to fight." Woodrow Wilson
On sale - at a gym or health food store near you. According to the Phoenix Suns' team physician, the seizure that almost killed Tom Gugliotta was probably caused by a legal, over-the-counter "dietary supplement" that he admitted taking because of its supposed ability to help people sleep after physical exertion, and aid in muscle recovery. It was revealed by the physician that Gugliotta had taken the supplement following a game against the Portland Trail Blazers, and after his collapse on the team bus, actually stopped breathing on the way to the hospital. Fortunately, the empty container was located on the bus, and doctors were able to know how to deal with his condition. Gugliotta told the Arizona Republic that he had been taking the product at the suggestion of a friend because he had been having trouble sleeping. The product, which is not on the NBA's list of banned substances, contains a drug named furanone, whose chemical name is gamma butyrolactone, also called GBL. The stuff is marketed under such brand names as ReActive, Verve, SomatoPro, Blue Nitro, and Regenerize. They are sold in all the usual places, and on the Internet as well. The Food & Drug Adinistration, which wants the supplement banned, says that GBL and related drugs have been associated with 144 serious incidents such as Gugliotta's - many of them requiring the insertion of an airway tube - and three deaths.
Playing in the Sugar Bowl for the National Title is a coach's dream. But keeping tabs on your players in New Orleans - "the town that care forgot" - can be a coach's nightmare. The Big Easy has a whole lot of, uh, adult attractions, many of them open around the clock, few of them conducive in any way to keeping a player's mind on the game. Enforcing a curfew might seem to be a problem, but by now Virginia Tech players all have heard the story of Keith Short. Back in 1995, Short, a center for the Hokies, broke the curfew and was sent home. On the bus. "We'll fly you down on a nice charter flight," said Virginia Tech Coach Frank Beamer, but if you don't do right, we'll send you home on the bus. It took him 26 hours to get home."
A couple of weeks before Christmas, Philadelphia Flyers' coach Roger Nielson learned he had bone marrow cancer. Since then, he has been upbeat about it to the point of joking - when he first announced the doctors' diagnosis, a newspaper reporter asked him if anyone had suggested he give up coaching, he answered, "just a few fans." Neilson gives credit to his faith. "The advantage of being a Christian," he told Ed Hilt of the Atlantic City Press, "is that all your life, you can get help through prayer, reading your Bible, talking to the Lord. When it's all over, you know you have a place to go. For people who don't have that, I don't know how they do it. I'm sure it's my faith that keeps me going. Look at all the times I've been fired, other things. Everybody in every walk of life has problems. You need your faith. I just don't know how people do without it. I am absolutely convinced that this is the way it is right now.He is going to see me through it. If there is a reason why I look and sound like I am optimistic and not worried, it is because I am not."
Is it just me, or has there been a sudden rash of drug commercials, most mentioning the possibility of unpleasant side effects such as "increased bowel movements?"
Peanut allergy is frightening. Exposure to the slightest trace of peanuts or peanut oil can be fatal. As a result, food manufacturers are warning people that their products may contain peanuts. The problem is, some are going so far in their warnings as to place vague statements such as "MAY CONTAIN PEANUTS" on their products - even if the product doesn't contain peanuts. The effect of this ultra-caution is to unnecessarily put many products off-limits to people with peanut allergy. This concerns some parents of allergic kids, who find their choices of foods overly limited. "I think the labels are more of a legal thing manufacturers do to cover their butts," one mother told USA Today. Well, duh, Mom. Ever heard of lawyers?
The Surgeon General now claims that one person in five has some sort of mental disorder. But in order to back up such an outrageous claim, he had to redefine the term "mental disorder." To such disorders as severe depression and bipolar disorder have now been added such frightening maladies as narcissism (extreme self-admiration - actually, I've known some people so in love with themselves that they could stand a little institutionalizing); self doubt (ever worried about your game plan?), excessive devotion to work (might as well get out the strait jackets and round up the football coaches now), obnoxiousness (uh, oh - who are those guys in the white coats coming to get me?). Maybe think the best, though, if you're looking to show large numbers, is "social phobia." Not to deny that in some people this may limit normal life functions, but in the questionnaire that revealed the existence of this "disorder," people were asked, "do you think you're more nervous than other people when you have to speak in public or attend a large social gathering?" Anybody who's ever taught teenagers could tell you that if you asked that question in an average classroom, the answers would be about 95 per cent "yes."
December 28 - "The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer." Old U.S. Army expression
Maybe I'd better lighten up a bit on pro wrestling... Remember my writing about the Indiana University study showing that, on average, only 36 minutes of a two-hour WWF show is devoted to actual wrestling? Well, a WWF show is a full-course meal, compared with the snack that a typical NFL games provides. USA Today put the clock on an NFL game earlier this season, and found that while the "show" - the game itself - lasted three hours and seven minutes from start to finish, the actual playing time - starting the clock on the snap and ending it on the whistle - was 16 minutes! And for that, they need a two-hour pre-game show.
Turns out that the whole time the NFL has been showing us how socially responsible it is by banning the "throat slash" gesture, a video game licensed by the NFL has been showing its little users how the big guys in the pros celebrate - complete with throat slashes. I doubt that you will see the NFL recall the thousands of games already in the hands of little kids all over America. If it does, though, while the games are being reprogrammed the NFL could do football coaches everywhere - and society in general - a huge favor by also deleting all the dancing, strutting and gyrations (they call it "celebration") that accompany the slightest little feats which those players are being paid - generously - to perform. Of course, kids could still get all that unsportsmanlike garbage on any Madden video game. Talk about a conflict of interest - think you'll ever hear John Madden leading the charge for sportsmanship, as long as those foolish "celebrations" are a part of his video games?
Dear Coach, I know Coach Robinson has already related our Junior (15-16) success story to you. (City Champs). I just wanted to let you know our Senior (17-18) team also has a very successful season as well. We captured our division championship for the first time in 10 years going undefeated. We scored a record 218 points and allowed only 18. We ended up losing in the semi-finals to the eventual city champs. With only 4 starters leaving, and some talented juniors moving up I am looking forward to another successful season next year. The system is perfect for our small school, and proves you do not need huge linemen to blow people off the ball to win. Thanks so much for all of your hard work and updated material. I look forward to attending another one of your clinics in the near future. Have you given any thought to a Detroit clinic? Sincerely, Chris Marcus - South Secondary School, London, Ontario (Canada)
What do you know? NBA basketball may be a team game after all. In games in which Allen Iverson has scored 40 points or more, the Philadelphia 76ers are 1-9.
I was talking not too long ago with a local businessman, Dan Heine. Dan is president of a bank in Vancouver, Washington, and I had stopped by his office to return a couple of books he had lent me. Dan, a former athlete himself, takes quite an interest in the various ways that coaching, military leadership and business management overlap. To illustrate, he told me about something that had happened to him recently: he was being urged to undertake an expansion of the business that he didn't think his people were ready for yet. He said he had to recommend against it at this time, because in his opinion, if they went ahead with the expansion, competitors would eat them up. I thought immediately of a football coach with an inexpeienced team having to play a suicide schedule in order to try to bring in revenue, or - after reading John McCain's book - military leaders in Vietnam having to send their men into battle despite the limitations put on them by the politicians in Washington.
Hugh - I finally wrapped up the 1999 season. Inventory,ordering, player and coaching evlauations are all finished. I wanted you to know that we went 8-2 at the varsity level. We got beat by the 2nd place team in Division 2 in Ohio state playoffs, and the 8th place team that happen to knock off the #1 team in Division 2 in Ohio. After two years our players are sold on the DW. Our JV went 7-2. We are expecting a good year in 2000. After the season the administration offered me an assistant AD job. It would be more money and less pressure. After talking it over with my family, praying about it and weighing all the pro and cons I turned it down. I love coaching football, but more especially the athletes make the job fun. I feel I can make more of an inpact on the players life as a coach and not an administrator. Hugh we had 14 All league players, one player made all state and we set a record with 5 players making the all Wood county team. This is the same group of kids that went 2-8 as juniors. They stuck with me and they never gave up. I will send you our highlight video after the first of the year. We ran a lot of offense. Many thanks to you and all your positive work with the DW. Ray Pohlman, Perrysburg, Ohio
Neil Jacobson, a University of Washington psychologist, reported in a 1995 article about a study in which a number of patients suffering from depression were treated in three different ways: one group was given drugs; a second group underwent conventi0onal therapy; a third group met with therapssts, but discussed othr topics - from sports to gardening. The results were roughly the same in all groups: between 20 and 30 per cent recovered from their depression and remained well for at least 18 months.
December 27 - "I'm at the point where if we win, it's because of mature leadership; if we lose, the game has passed us by." BYU Coach LaVell Edwards, 68, preparing to play unbeaten Marshall today
When I first started coaching high school ball in the Pacific Northwest, back before steroids and creatine, a substance called DMSO, first discovered in one of the Northwest's many paper mills, was the "in" thing among athletes. It wasn't a performance enhancer, and it wasn't a pain killer, but, rubbed on sprains, strains and bruises, it was said to possess magical powers - hastening the cure of almost anything short of a compound fracture. Its chemical name was dimethyl sulfoxide, but it was far better known by the initials DMSO. At first, it wasn't commercially available, but just like steroids, everybody knew how to get some, and soon it began to be sold pretty much the way today's "dietary supplements" are - underneath the radar of the FDA. There seemed to be three main concerns: (1) you couldn't be sure you were getting the pure stuff; (2) it penetrated the skin so quickly that there was the fear that it might carry foreign substances into the body along with it; (3) it was said to produce an unpleasant taste in the mouth (some said oysters, others said worse) shortly after application. The father of a coach I knew was said to drink a juice glass of it - straight - every morning. I tried it a few times myself on various bumps and bruises, but I can't say that I noticed any magical cures. (I never did get the taste of oysters, so maybe I wasn't using the pure stuff.) We also knew that some of our kids used it on their own, but on the "aspirin" theory (never give a kid anything that goes in the body), we never administered it or recommended it. Just as well, because in the years since it first appeared, DMSO has been found to cause liver and kidney damage in some users. It's still available for use on animals, though, and recently, an assistant football coach in Kansas claimed to have witnessed his head coach rubbing DMSO on one of his athletes. I haven't read anything further, but reports indicate that DMSO is not specifically banned by the Kansas state association.The incident will probably create renewed interest in DMSO, and a long-overdue ban on its use. And, almost certainly, division on one high school football staff.
When Vikings' running back Leroy Hoard was arrested back in November after a problem arose between him and his girlfriend, police found in his possession some pills with pictures of marijuana leaves printed on them. He said they were painkillers. For his knee. The court bought it. Case dismissed.
In the adjoining states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, they take the Vikings-Packers rivalry very seriously. So last Monday night, when the Vikings played the Packers on national TV, ratings in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area were Super Bowl-sized - a 40 rating and a 62 share. In terms that most people outside the TV-advertising business will understand, that means that 40 per cent of all TV sets (on or off) in the Twin Cities area were tuned to the game; and of the sets that were turned on, 62 per cent of them were tuned in. Very big numbers. So when station KSTP in Minneapolis lost the picture for an hour Monday night, there was hell to pay. Callers to the station accused KSTP of ruining their parties. Conspiracy buffs had a great time noting the unusual timing of the failure. When the station manager tried to explain to one irate caller that the station couldn't be blamed for an act of God, the caller shouted, "I don't believe in God!" and hung up. This will really be costly to the station. Advertisers paid for commercial time on the broadcast based on a very large audience made up of the sort of people - males, mostly - that watch football games. Typically, in a case like this, TV stations give advertisers "make-goods," essentially free commercial time in similar-rated shows with similar audiences. Unfortunately, there are few shows with audiences similar to the one that got blacked out, a Vikings-Packers game on Monday night, so KSTP will probably wind up having to give away time (which it ordinarily could have sold for premium rates) in the Super Bowl and in some of the BCS games. For KSTP there is also the equally big matter of fixing the problem, which is either in the main antenna tower or the main transmission line leading from it. Should it turn out to be in the 1,400-foot tower, they are going to have trouble getting people to climb it in the dead of a Minnesota winter. (It was 2 degrees above zero when I passed through there last Wednesday.)
Regarding that Vikings-Packers game, friend and football clock-management expert Jack Reed writes, " (Randy) Moss was generally heralded as the hero of the game. He was also the goat with his punt fumble that led to a Packer touchdown, his running backwards after gaining first-down yardage thereby forcing his team to punt (which drew no comment from Al Michaels or Boomer Esiason), and his going out of bounds when his team was ahead with about 2:09 left. Moss also gratuitously stepped on the back of a defender after a tackle, although no flag was thrown. The story line on Moss should have been that he was so good he even made up for all his stupid mistakes."
The gritty, now-discontinued police show "Homicide" was set in Baltimore, mainly because it was producer Barry Levinson's hometown. But he couldn't have picked a better city - or title. In 1999, for the 10th year in a row, Baltimore had 300 murders, hitting the magic mark on December 21. Falling short of that number has become a goal of sorts for a frsutrated Baltimore Police Department, and going into the last two months, 1999 looked promising. But the murderers simply would not cooperate, with 38 killings in November and 24 in the first two weeks of December. (I've lived in Baltimore, and it always seemed to me that those beastly summers would have been a more likely time for somebody to kill somebody else. Not so, evidently.) Actually, hitting 300 this year is even worse news than it sounds, because there are fewer people around to kill: back in 1972, when Baltimore had 330 killings, its population was 905,000; in 1998, murders were down slightly to 314 - but the population was down by 260,000 people - to 645,000. By comparison, with less than two weeks remaining in 1999, Los Angeles, with more than five times Baltimore's population, had 412 homicides; Boston, with 555,000 people, had only 30 killings! Even witj a new, zero-tolerance-of-crime police chief, Balimore's future is not promising: nationally, most homicides are drug-related; Baltimore, with a population of 645,000, has an estimated 55,000 cocaine and heroin addicts - approximately one person in nine!
For two dollars, you can't even get a horse to run, half the time - In Pennsylvania, prosecutors are trying to determine why a Harrisburg police officer would have paid a 10-year-old Little League pitcher $2 to deliberately hit the opposing team's cleanup hitter. The pitcher held up his end of the deal, hitting the batter "below the belt" so hard that he had to leave the game. The managers of the two teams involved said that the accused is not related either to the pitcher or the batter.The incident came to light when the pitcher confessed to his parents.
December 25 - "God bless us - every one." Tiny Tim, in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"
Before every practice, Detroit Lions' defensive lineman James Jones hands his pager to an assistant trainer. He has to know right away if it beeps, because it could mean that his long wait is over. The wait for a kidney and pancreas donor for his wife, Son-ja, back home in Bettendorf, Iowa. A diabetic since she was 9, Sonja, 30, has been receiving dialysis three times a week since October, when both kidneys failed. She is now first on the list of recipients at the University of Wisconsin, and second on the list at the University of Iowa, and while they wait, James Jones flies home to Iowa at least every other week, leaving on Sunday night and returning on Wednesday morning, to visit his wife and their 2-year-old daughter, Morgan. Lions' coach Bobby Ross understands that even if the beep comes in the middle of a game, his outstanding defensive player is out of there. This Christmas season has been a difficult time for the Joneses. They are well aware that 80 per cent of diabetics on dialysis do not live more than five years. They are also aware of the underlying tragedy behind the donation they await - that someone else must die to make the organs available. But they have each other, and they have their faith. "Because of my religious faith," Jones told the Detroit News' columnist Bob "Wojo" Wojnowski, "I've always known what my priorities are in life. Football is a good job. I've enjoyed it. But I know family is more important. I cherish every moment I spend with them." Merry Christmas to the Jones family.
MY CHRISTMAS WISHES FOR FOOTBALL COACHES: May you have.... Parents who recognize that you are the football expert; who stand back and let you coach their kids; who know their kids' limitations and don't expect them to start unless in your opinion they are better than the other kids; who don't sit in the stands and openly criticize their kids' teammates; who don't think it's your job to get their kid an athletic scholarship; who schedule their vacations so their kids won't miss any practices; who know that your rules apply to everybody, and are not designed just to pick on their kid... A community that can recognize a year when Joe Paterno himself would have trouble getting your kids to line up straight... Opponents who are fun to play against; who love and respect the game and its rules as much as you do, and refuse to let their kids act like jerks... Students who want to be in your class and want to learn; who laugh at your jokes and turn their work in on time... Freshmen who listen carefully, hear everything you say and understand all instructions the first time... Officials who will address you and your kids respectfully; who know and respect the rulebook; who will have as little effect on the game as possible; who will let you step a yard onto the playing field without snarling at you... Newspaper reporters who always quote you accurately, and even know when not to quote you at all... A school district that provides you with a budget sufficient to run a competitive program... A superintendent who schedules teachers' workdays so that coaches don't have to miss any practices... An athletic director who can say "No" to the bigger schools that want you on their schedules; who understands deep down that all sports are not equal... Assistants who love the game as much as you do, buy completely into your philosophy, will put in the time in the off-season, and are eager to learn everything they can about what you are doing... A booster club that spends its money on the sports that earn it.... A principal who figures that when there is a teachers' position open, the applicant who is qualified to be an assistant coach deserves extra consideration; who doesn't come in to evaluate you on game day; who makes weight-training classes available to all football players first, before opening them up to the general student body; who knows that during the season you are very busy, and heads off parent complaints so that you don't have to waste your time with them; who can tell you in the morning in five minutes what took place in yesterday afternoon's two-hour-long faculty meeting... A faculty that will notify you as soon as a player starts screwing off or causing problems in class, without having to notify the administration... A basketball coach who encourages kids to play football and doesn't discourage them from lifting, or hold "open gym" every night after football practice... A baseball coach who encourages kids to play football and doesn't have them involved in tournaments that are still going on in late August... A wrestling coach who encourages kids to play football and doesn't ask your promising 215-pound sophomore guard to wrestle at 178... A class schedule that gives you and at least your top assistant the same prep period... Doctors that don't automatically tell kids with little aches and pains to stay out of football for two weeks, even when there's nothing wrong with them... Cheerleaders who occasionally turn their backs to the crowd and actually watch the game; who understand the game - and like it... A couple of transfers who play just the positions where you need help... A country that appreciates the good that football - and football coaches - can do for its young men... A chance, like the one I've had, to get to know coaches all over the country and find out what great people they are... The wisdom to stop worrying about the next job, and "Make the Big Time Where You Are"... Children of your own who love, respect and try to bring honor to their family in everything they do... A wife like mine, who understands how much football means to you... Motivated, disciplined, coachable players who love the game of football and love being around other guys who do, too - players like the ones I had this past season. Merry Christmas.
December 24 - "Luck follows right behind speed." Lou Holtz
From Coach Don Capaldo, Double-Wing coach in Keokuk, Iowa: "Not the kind of Christmas gift one would wish for anytime. Our community and especially our football program and several other sports staffs at KHS lost a great friend yesterday giving his life in the line of duty. I would ask that each of us include the victims of our tragedy in our prayers this weekend. Nate Tuck, 39, a long time volunteer in our football program died yesterday along with five others while fighting a fire in our small community yesterday. He was a very loyal, respected, hardworking and an important part of our coaching family at Keokuk.
"He died living a dream. All of his life he wanted to be a fireman. He also reveled in coaching young people. He leaves behind an adoring wife, two children and a grandchild, many friends and admirers. He will be impossible to replace. Please take the time this holiday season with your loved ones and staffs to say how much they are loved and appreciated. As one of the local pastors was quoted as saying, "It's not that God wants bad things to happen", he said, "but this world is a temporary place". Life is so fleeting that when things like this occur we often wished we would have done something.
"In Nate's case, he lived each day like this and that is what I will remember most about him. He lived is life in "service to his community". What a great legacy he has left us all. God bless you all this holiday season, Don"
Not exactly the Gift of the Magi - But at least she gave Mom the Gift of Life. Remember my story a few days ago about the four Portland-area teenagers who plotted the murder of the father of one of them? The man was brutally hacked to death by repeated blows - upwards of 70 - from both a machete and a scimitar (the old Turkish sword with the broad, curved blade). But just to show you that the Christmas spirit lives in all of us, the young woman whose father was killed told police that she originally planned to kill her mother, too - but at the last minute decided against it . She didn't want her 8-year-old brother to be left an orphan.
Hawaii's June Jones travelled an unusual road to get to be Sporting News' Coach of the Year. He attended three different colleges before finding the one that was right for him; he trailed along with his college coach as an assistant in three different professional leagues; and after two stints as a professional head coach, he turned down a four-year, $1 million contract with the Chargers to take the the head job at Hawaii for a fourth the salary. So there he is, after a near-miraculous first season in Paradise, getting his Rainbow Warriors ready to play tomorrow in the Oahu Bowl against 1999's other miracle team, Oregon State, and another former pro coach deserving of Coach of the Year honors, Dennis Erickson.
At Portland, Oregon's Grant High, Jones was the winner of the National Football Foundation's Portland area Scholar-Athlete Award, and was so highly thought-of as a quarterback prospect that the University of Oregon sent two of their stars - Dan Fouts and Bobby Moore (now Ahmad Rashad) - to work him out. "The coaches told me I'd be the next Danny Fouts," Jones told the Portland Oregonian's Dwight Jaynes. "What I didn't know until I got down there is that they told that to six other guys." After a turnover in the Oregon coaching staff brought in the option game, Jones transferred to Hawaii, where the very same thing happened. Returning to the mainland, he stayed in shape and ultimately made the connection that changed his life. Darrell "Mouse" Davis, a highly successful high school coach at Hillsboro, Oregon, was hired to run the program at Portland State, and Jones was just the QB he needed to run his unique, throw-anytime-anywhere "Run-and-Shoot" offense.
Jones and the Run-and-Shoot were a perfect match, and after a spectacular career at Portland State, he managed to put in a few years as a backup in the NFL before hooking up once again with Davis, who was now on a mission to prove the Run-and-Shoot could work in the pros. Jones followed Davis to Canada, then to the USFL, and finally to NFL stops in Detroit, Houston and Atlanta, where in 1994 Jones became head coach. After being fired by Atlanta, he was serving as quarterbacks coach with the San Diego Chargers last year, and when head coach Kevin Gilbride was fired, Jones was elevated to the head spot.
At the end of the season, though, he turned down the Chargers' offer of a four-year contract. His priorities had changed. His wife had been going through a bout with cancer, and pro football itself had changed. "Professional football has changed somewhat in the last four or five years," he told Dwight Jaynes. "The game has changed. The college game right now is kind of like pro football when I first started coaching in 1984 or 1985 in the USFL. That's why we got into coaching - to be able to work with kids, not only teach them on the field, but be able to have an impact on their whole life. In the pros, that has kind of fallen by the wayside. You can't influence those guys any more in any direction. They pretty much know more than you do."
Instead, he took the job at Hawaii, back where he and his wife were married when he was a player. There, by emphasizing hard work, discipline and togetherness, he forged a team out of a group of individuals rumored to have been torn apart by a split between islanders and mainlanders. As part of his team-building, he banned freshman hazing, and made seniors room with freshmen. He introduced the run and shoot, and as defensive coordinator brought in another Oregon native, Greg McMackin, who had been serving as Dennis Erickson's defensive coordinator with the Seattle Seahawks until they got fired.
The Rainbow Warriors have had a fantastic season. Coach Jones was Sporting News' Coach of the Year. Diane's cancer is in remission. Merry Christmas.
December 23 - "You've got to make your players know that no matter what anybody else might say, you know they are doing the best they can do." Bud Wilkinson
Today's quote seemed especially appropriate after reading of Coach Steve Spurrier's admission that he may have used the wrong approach in saying some of the derogatory things he said about his players when this season took a disappointing downturn. His admission is a courageous thing for a coach whose trademark is self-assuredness (many call it cockiness), and it will be interesting to see how his players respond.
He bought some materials from me a couple of years ago, and that was the last I heard of Coach Keith Wilkes. Until last week, that is, when I read something about the success that Carver High of Winston-Salem, North Carolina had been enjoying. Recognizing Carver as Coach Wilkes' school, I took a chance and called him to congratulate him and see how much of a part the Double-Wing has played in his success.In the course of our conversation, Coach Wilkes told me that he has mixed our Double-Wing ("We use a lot of it," he said) with his Delaware Wing-T. He's still a little reluctant, though, to expose his quarterback by having him lead on the Super-Power. Coach Wilkes, who just completed his seventh season at Carver High, finished 12-3 this past season, narrowly losing out in the state Class 3-A semi-finals to Burlington Williams. It was Carver's first loss to a 3-A school since 1997. Last year, Carver was 16-0 and won it all. In the seven years he has been at Carver, Coach Wilkes has seen 80 players go on to play Division I-A, Division I-AA or Division II college ball. One of this year's running backs, Lashun Peoples, was the MVP of last year's championships, and is being recruited by Alabama, Tennessee and "everybody in the ACC." As usual, Coach Wilkes will lose a talented crew, including Peoples, who he considers the outstanding player in the state, but that doesn't keep him from predicting that the 2000 edition of his Yellow Jackets will be tough once again. "We've been able to plug 'em in and keep rolling," he told me. No doubt Carver would be good with or without the Double-Wing. But it's sure nice to be associated with programs like this.
You have got to get a copy of this week's Sports Illustrated. It's worth it just for the "50 from 50" listing - SI's idea of the top 50 athletes of the past century (it seems so downright picky to have to remind people that the 20th century still has a year to go) from each of the 50 states. But you also have to read the story on the Atlanta Braves' John Rocker. You may have heard about it already. No doubt prompted by the churlish actions of New York Mets' fans, Mr. Rocker has a few, shall we say, "politically incorrect" things to say about New York and New Yorkers. He is pretty graphic in describing a subway ride to the ballpark - he doesn't specify whether he's talking about Yankee Stadium or Shea Stadium - as being like riding through Beirut, sitting "next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids." (While I might question his word selection on one point, as a writer I have to applaud his powers of observation and his ability to draw the picture for us.) He goes on to say a few things about all the "foreigners" in New York City, complaining that "you can walk a block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English," remarking on all the "Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything," and asking, "How the hell did they get in this country?" Oh, yes - and he also makes what will surely be considered a racist statement when he says that Latrell Sprewell got off easy after choking his coach, asking "Do you think if he was Keith Van Horn, if he was white - they'd let him back?" (Can't you just see Saint Hillary tieing into this guy in a campaign speech? Mayor Rudy Giuliani already has, along with all the lords of the national media. Bud Selig, commissioner of baseball, says that he will look into the situation and determine whether any action will be necessary.) Huh? Say, action? Bear in mind, please, Mr. Selig, that as politically correct as it may be to try to muzzle the statements of this person, as noble as you can make yourself and the rest of Organized Baseball look by condemning his statements, Mr. Rocker's First Amendment rights - the same ones that protect flag-burners - are broad. He did not incite to riot, nor did he threaten the President or joke about carrying a bomb on a plane. There are the laws of libel and slander to keep him within certain bounds. And, of course, he is at the mercy of a free market which may find his remarks repugnant and choose not to employ him as a spokesman for its products. Whatever you do, though, don't forget that he is making his statements about New York, a city so dedicated to free speech that many of its citizens defend panhandling as a constitutionally-protected form of "speech."
A few years ago the state of Oregon, responding to public pressure for higher standards in its schools, instituted something it called a "Certificate of Initial Mastery," which all of its students would be expected to earn by passing a battery of tests at the end of their sophomore year. Presumably it would be the state's way of assuring employers and taxpayers that graduates of its schools had diplomas that really meant something. The plan was for students who failed the tests to take them, and re-take them, and re-take them, etc., until they eventually passed. No sense getting into all the details, but suffice it to say that the plan ain't working. In one Portland-area high school, only 67 of 360 sophomores earned their "Certificate of Initial Mastery" (CIM) last year, and even with make-up work and re-takes, it is estimated that as many as 50 per cent will still not meet the standards before graduation. And at this particular school, as has happened in other states such as Florida, Massachusetts and Virginia that "set the bar high" and then found that students couldn't clear it, public pressure is now coming from the other direction - the tests are too hard, the tests are discriminatory, etc., says the public. So this particular school, which initially provided the higher standards that the public said it wanted, has decided to do what the public now seems to want - it is dropping the CIM requirement entirely. Meanwhile, teachers everywhere go about their jobs, unsure of which way the wind of public opinion will blow next.
Bill Lyon, sports columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, sums up the Allen Iverson-Larry Brown head-to-head that has been occupying the Philly sports scene: "The player is from that generation that interprets coaching as criticism, and the coach is from that generation that expects players to understand that he is trying to make them better." I haven't seen a clearer example, or a better explanation, of the effects of American society and the anti-authoritative, compassionate, no-man-in-the-home, touchy-feely, empowerment, "listen to the children", "every-answer-is-a-correct-one", "who-are-we-to-judge?", "let's-not-be-judgmental", direction it has taken in the last 30 years.
Just in case you thought we'd hit rock bottom: The prime sponsor of Jeff Fuller's Pontiac on next year's NASCAR circuit will be Viagra.
Rodeo is a rough sport. A real man's sport. Yes, there are rodeo events for women. There is even an "International Gay Rodeo Association." (This is no kidding - one of the events is something called "Goat Milking." I'm not even going to ask.) But I think most people would say, when you get right down to it, that it's a sport for real men. They would also say, without even a second thought, that it's a sport for white men. That's its image. So it was quite noteworthy when Fred Whitfield won the PRCA's All-Around Cowboy title at the World Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas recently. Because Fred Whitfield, a 32-year-old cowboy from Hockley, Texas, is a black man. He doesn't spend a whole lot of time thinking of himself as some sort of pioneer, and there is no resentment in his voice at whatever problems his being black may have caused him. "I'm black," he says. "I'm proud to be a black person. I don't reflect a lot on what happened or what didn't happen in the past. To fall back on what happened before - if I did, that would be a type of prejudice, and I'm not prejudiced."
December 22 - "You don't learn to hold your own in the world by standing on guard, but by attacking, and getting well-hammered yourself." George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright
While some people are wildly celebrating the arrival of the year 2000, and others are sweating out the failure of their computer systems, banks, utilities, air traffic control, etc., Coach John Torres, whose day job is with the Los Angeles office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, will be on the front lines - literally. He and his fellow ATF agents will be on alert for a wide assortment of sickos and the creative end-of-the-millennium uses they may have planned for their firearms and explosives.
Coach Paul Maier, in Mt. Vernon, Indiana, just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, passes along the word that the Bluegrass State may already be witnessing the second coming of Tim Couch. His name is Travis Atwell, and he's from Hancock County High School in Lewisport, Kentucky. A quarterback, he threw for 2800 yards and 36 TD's; he also ran for 2300 yards and 33 TD's. As Coach Maier points out, that's 5100 yards in total offense, and 69 TD's that he had a hand in. Better make that 74 TD's. I almost forgot about defense. As a defensive back, he intercepted 11 passes and returned five for TD's.
The National Education Association's latest figures show a continued decline in the percentage of males teaching in public schools. It is now down to 26.4 per cent nationally, and ranges from a high of 39.5% in Michigan to a low of 16.4% in South Carolina. "It's interesting to note that the states with the highest salaries tend to have the highest proportion of male teachers," says NEA president Bob Chase. Hmmm.
Army's new coach, Todd Berry, fresh from an outstanding tour of duty at Division I-AA Illinois State, arrives at West Point with some grandiose ideas. "I expect in the near future we'll be 11-0," he remarked. "Anything less," he went on, "would be an injustice to this institution." Uh, Coach Berry, no harm in thinking big, but the last time Army went undefeated (and they only played nine games then) was 1949. Back then, in the days of Red Blaik, On Brave old Army Team and the Black Knights of the Hudson, Americans still shared a healthy respect for a military career, and the starting salary in the NFL was little more than that of a graduating second lieutenant. In other words, Army still had a shot at recruiting some of the best football players in the country. Oh, yes- there's also the matter of the schedule. Army's 1949 schedule read like this: Davidson... Penn State... at Michigan... at Harvard... Columbia... VMI... Fordham... at Penn... Navy. Essentially, they played only four teams even close to their caliber: Penn State, which was good, but not a national power; Michigan, which was Michigan; Penn, which in those pre-Ivy League days was a legitimate eastern power; and Navy. But with Army's current Conference-USA tie-up, you're not going to find too many Davidsons, Harvards, Columbias, VMI's or Fordhams on the schedule anytime soon.
If you or somebody you know has been saving those new quarters, you've got company. There has been a shortage of quarters this holiday season. But at least some quarters are in use, which is more than can be said for nickels, dimes and pennies, most of which rest inside piggy banks or in old ash trays on dresser tops. (I personally find that large plastic souvenir drink cups work just fine.) In the last 30 years, the US government has minted 420 billion coins, but it is estimated that only about 150 million of them are actually in circulation. The rest are at home. People just can't be bothered sorting their loose change, counting it, and taking it to the bank. Especially pennies. "Pennies," says a spokesman for Coinstar, a Bellevue, Washington company that operates 6,800 coin-counting machines, "make a one-way trip home. They go from the Mint to the federal Reserive to a local bank and then to a retailer. And then home for good."
An Indiana University study of 50 WWF shows found that only about 36 minutes out of a typical two-hour WWF show is spent wrestling. The rest of the time, the study observed, is devoted to "story lines filled with profanity, simulated sexual activity, drug use and miscellaneous sordidness." (Next project for the folks at IU: Ever check how much time in a three-hour-long NFL telecast is actually spent playing football?)
December 21 - "Judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends." Joseph Conrad, Author
You can't tell me the NFL and WWF aren't secretly holding merger talks - After thrice fining - but not suspending - Denver's Bill Romanowski - for illegal hits that could very well have ended opponents' careers (come to think of it, Kerry Collins has never been the same since a patented Romanowski hit a couple of years ago), after all the hubbub over the banning of the slashing-the-throat gesture, it will be interesting to see how the NFL handles the case of Cleveland's Orlando Brown, whose WWF audition Sunday consisted of shoving the referee to the ground.
The world could use a few more people like Jane Smith. Jane Smith, of Fayetteville, North Carolina is a 42-year-old middle school teacher; Michael Carter is a 14-year-old middle school student. Jane Smith has two good kidneys; Michael Carter needs a kidney transplant. When Jane Smith, Michael's teacher, learned that, she offered him one of hers. Amazingly, after a year of unsuccessful attempts to find a suitable donor for Michael, doctors found that Jane and Michael, the 42-year old teacher and the 14-year-old student, were a perfect match. If everything goes as planned, the transplant will take place over Christmas break. Michael's mother says, "I said to the Lord, 'Thank you for that lady, thank you for Jane Smith.' I was so grateful, but I was getting bold with the Lord. I was getting tough. I said, 'Don't you ever let her want for anything, Lord. Don't even let her want for a Kleenex. God, don't you let her tire go flat.' I mean, I was going down the list, because I couldn't ever repay her enough for what she had done." Jane Smith is white. Michael Carter is black. Merry Christmas.
A new study by Drug Strategies, a Washington, D.C. research institution, finds that only three per cent of parents of high school kids believe that their kids have drunk to excess (defined as having five or more drinks in a row) in the past month. Perhaps that explains why a full 25 per cent of parents said they would allow their kids to attend a New Year's Eve party at which they had reason to believe alcohol would be served. And you, you chumps, you coaches - you still think you can really establishand serious training rules? ...and then enforce them? ... and expect the community to support you when you do?
Pacific Lutheran's quarterback, Chad Johnson, who played so well in last Saturday's NCAA Division III championship game win over Rowan College, really couldn't miss. He is the grandson of PLU head coach Frosty Westering, and the nephew of offensive coordinator Scott Westering, and he was a PLU ball boy from the time he was little. In addition, he hails from Puyallup (pronounced Pyew-AL-up), Washington, which has produced a number of quarterbacks including Billy Joe Hobert and the Huard brothers, Damon, Brock and Luke (now at North Carolina).
The President and his Lady would have you believe that the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gays in the military isn't working. Don't you believe it. Basically, this is Our President's attempt to show gays that he never really did budge from his initial position of supporting gays in the military - but you know how those rednecks in Congress are. One of their major arguments that the policy is not working is that gays have been resigning from the military in large numbers. Charles Moskos, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University, writing in the Wall Street Journal last Thursday, offers a ready explanation for that: merely saying that you are gay - whether you are or not - is the quickest way to bail out of the military - and with an honorable discharge at that! More than half of all discharges for homosexuality occur, he points out, in the first year of enlistments. One reason for this, he argues, is that increased acceptance of homosexuality in society at large means that openly claiming to be a homosexual no longer carries the stigma it once did - at least not among whites. He observes that the stigma against homosexuality seems to be stronger in the black community. Consequently, white men are twice as likely as black men - and white women four times as likely black women - to be discharged for homosexuality. Mr. Moskos also attacks the commonly-advanced argument that allowing gays to serve with straight troops is analogous to integrating black and white troops. The appropriate analogy, he says, is not black and white - it's male and female. Just as sex between service members undermines morale, so also does invasion of sexual privacy. For that reason, the military insists that men and women live in separate quarters. "Nowhere in our society," Professor Moskos points out, "are the sexes forced to undress in front of each other. Most women - and many men - dislike being stripped of privacy before the opposite sex. Similarly, most heterosexual men and women dislike being exposed to homosexuals of their own sex. If we respect women's need for privacy from men, then we ought to respect those of heterosexuals with regard to homosexuals."
I believe this could be called paying your dues: Sugar Ray Robinson, who I remember was always introduced as "Pound-for-Pound, the Greatest Fighter in the World," had 75 professional fights before finally getting a shot at the title.
From the town of Graham, North Carolina, just outside Burlington, comes an amazing Double Wing success story. Coach Richard Lee, a native North Carolinian who has been running the Double Wing in Tennessee, happened to be back in Graham last summer visiting with Graham coach Pat Moser, who once played for Coach Lee. Coach Lee, who has been a regular at my clinics the last two years, happened to say, "Let me show you this Double-Wing," and after a long session at the chalk board, Coach Moser said to Coach Lee, "I want that!" Shortly afterward, he ordered some materials from me. To make a short story of it - Coach Moser, in only his second year as a head coach, taught the Double-Wing (including a whole lot of "Spread" formation) to a team that was 3-9 in 1998 - and took it to the Class 1-A state finals! Only a 317-yard, four-TD performance in the title game by Williamston's D'Brian Hudgins prevented the Red Devils from taking their first-ever state championship. As it was, the 40-20 championship-game defeat was Graham's first loss to a Class 1-A opponent all year. (Graham's two in-season losses were to Class 2-A Western Alamance, and eventual 3-A finalist Burlington Williams.) The Red Devils ended a long football drought in the town of Graham,winning their first conference title in 32 years, and making their first appearance in the finals since 1966. Instrumental in the enormous turnaround was 5-10, 200-pound John Carter, who threw for 1044 yards in 1998 as a quarterback, but asked to be moved to running back in the Double-Wing. This year, Carter ran for 967 yards from C-Back, and C.J. Jenkins, at A-Back, ran for 1406 yards.
According to Editor and Publisher Magazine, there are now 2,224 newspapers in the US and Canada with their own web sites, twice as many as there were just two years ago!
December 20 - "There is a term which has slipped somewhat into disuse, which I always used until the moment I retired, and that is the term 'an officer and a gentleman.' And those two imply everything that the highest sense of personal honor implies." Admiral John S. McCain, Jr. to his son, Senator John McCain
As the quote above might suggest, I am currently reading - and enjoying - "Faith of My Fathers," the autobiography of presidential candidate John McCain, partly because I want to learn more about him, and partly because I enjoy reading about the lives of military men. How many people are aware that Senator McCain's father and grandfather - both named John S. McCain - were four-star admirals?
If it's seemed to you as if college offenses have been placing more and more emphasis on the passing game, you've been very perceptive. The college game is becoming more and more like the pro version, based on NCAA final-season statistics. For the first time since the NCAA began keeping records in 1937, Division I teams in 1999 averaged fewer than 40 running plays per game (39.8 to be exact). Passes accounted for 58.2% of all plays, setting a new record. Average rushing yardage was 152.8 yards, the lowest since 1966. Average pass attempts and completions, 17 and 31 respectively, were new high marks, along with average yards passing (212.5).
A New Jersey coach wrote me to say that Pacific Lutheran was "the best coach college football team I've ever seen." Any high school coach who watched PLU's (maybe you read about them here first) unexpected hammering of Rowan (with mostly Washington kids - ahem) in Saturday's Division III title game recognized immediately how much of PLU's offense was based on the Wing-T. Reporters before and after the game made a lot of the fact that PLU was "so difficult to adjust to." (Are you listening, all you spread-em-out-and-throw college coaches out there?) Yes, they ran from multiple sets, but at least half the time they were in an unbalanced set which we would call "Tackle Over Right" or "Tackle Under Left," with a good shortside running game complemented by an effective play-action passing attack. The whole offensive sheme was an alien concept to TV color analyst Todd Christensen, whose knowledge of the game seems limited to the fleet ball that the NFL plays every Sunday. Never once did he utter the words "Wing-T." During a replay of one highly successful shortside sweep ( in our terminology , "Tackle Under Left - Rip 88-G Reach"), our expert got out the telestrator and told viewers,"Steve Spurrier's the one that made this famous." Yo, Todd- Just because it's a handoff to a guy in motion doesn't mean it's Florida's fly sweep. PLU's Wing-T sweep was "made famous" by people named Dave Nelson, Forrest Evashevski, Ara Parseghian and Tubby Raymond. PLAY DIAGRAM
In case you needed another reason to like Pacific Lutheran's brand of football - they've now gone 23 straight games without attempting a field goal.
I was talking with a coach from Texas who told me about playing one school whose players were so big that one of their kids had "WELCOME TO TEXAS" tattooed on his biceps - in large letters - and it didn't even go around his arm!
Anybody else watch the commercial that ran several times in the Southern U-Hampston game - the one that jumped back and forth between cuts of high-stepping marching bands and gyrating dance teams, and ended with the tag "TAMPAX WAS THERE"? Did anybody else think it was, uh, in questionable taste? (From a purely marketing standpoint, did the advertiser really think that the game had that large a female audience?)
Next time you're tempted to write a class off as a bunch of losers, here's something to think about - most of Beaverton, Oregon High's 26 senior football players had been together since fourth grade. As seniors, they won the Oregon Class AAAA state championship. As freshmen, they didn't win a game.
So how did you observe the First Anniversary of Our President's Impeachment? I think Pete Rose ought to be careful of the company he keeps. Or at least the people who support his cause. That's because, with the first anniversary of impeachment coming up, the Man From Hope was quoted in an interview in People Magazine as saying, with regard to Rose, that "just about everybody ought to get a second chance." Sounding as if he was actually making a thinly-disguised plea for his own redemption, Our President argued that Rose "gave a lot of joy to people, and he's paid a price -- God knows, he's paid a price." Wow. Just the guy I'd like to have as a character witness.
December 18 - "I ain't no equal opportunity employer. You've got to play your better players for more minutes than you play your weaker players. Those other kids, they've had their chance in practice." John Chaney, Temple University basketball coach
Dear Coach Wyatt, I attended your clinic in Cleveland last year and it made our conversion from the Wing-T to the Double-Wing much easier. Thank goodness we made the change. Two weeks before the start of the season my two QB's inform me that their select team hockey coach no longer wants them to play football. Since their parents pay close to $1,000 apiece for these kids to play on this travel hockey team you can guess what sport they decided that they were going to focus on. With two weeks to go before the start of the season I have to replace two outstanding QB's, two kids who were in our program since 7th grade. The only other kid who could throw the ball on my team was my kicker. Needless to say we ended running the ball 99% of the time. In 8 games we ran for 2,700 yards and scored 180 points. We also threw for 200 yards and 2 TD's - 150 of those yards came in the last game. We only lost three games, all against teams that were ranked in the top five in Western NY, and all the games were very close. In our opening game we played Salamanca who went 12-1 and lost in the state championship game. Our game was 14-14 with two min to go. We ended up losing 21-14. The difference in the game was the one and only pass we threw - it was intercepted and returned 99 yards for the winning TD. Without the Double-Wing we would have had to depend much more on our passing game, and with our kicker playing QB I doubt very much that we would have done as well. Chuck Tilley, Head Football Coach Cheektowaga Central High, Cheektowaga, New York
"I have a few things on my mind that I would like to relate to you. First, you probably noticed the SI Scorecard item on the paralyzing hockey hit. (In the incident referred to, a young man from suburban Chicago's New Trier High School, playing for his school's junior varsity club hockey team, was checked from behind and knocked headfirst into the boards, rendering him paralyzed. There are accusations that his attacker then stood over him and taunted him. An assault charge has been filed against the alleged assailant , and a civil lawsuit has been filed against him, the league, and his coach - contending that the blow was delivered after time had expired, that it was delivered with intent to injure, that it was delivered while the victim had his back turned and was leaving the ice, and - most instructive of all to anyone who coaches kids - that during the game the coach had "persistently heckled" the victim - who scored three of his team's seven goals - and had encouraged his players to go after him.) I know the young man who delivered the blow. My son played hockey with him for 2 years and the young man's father coached them both. The father is a hardworking, dedicated youth coach who taught everyone the rules of hockey and playing within the spirit as well as letter of those rules. I saw him discipline his son with bench time when his son did anything questionable on the ice - whether it drew a penalty or not. I can't be as charitable in my assessment of the club coaches involved. I've seen them teach questionable tactics and it doesn't surprise me that the civil suit focuses on the coach's behavior. 15-year-old youths don't have the experience to fully consider the consequences of their actions. As such, it is incumbent on coaches to not put them in a position that could lead to catastrophe. In short, coaching by the rules and with attention to sportsmanship is crucial. Here's another example of what can happen if one coaches below this standard.
"Second, I believe you know about the Katy High School football team that was denied a chance to play in the Texas 5A-championship game last year. A player forged his grade on a 3-week report to keep from being suspended for poor academic performance. When he played at the end of a blowout victory, he caused the team to forfeit when the forged report was discovered. (The Katy team was notified of the forfeit - and its ineligibility to play in the state title game - as it was boarding the buses to take it to Texas Stadium for the game. See my story from last December 21 in red below) Well, Katy is in the championship game this Saturday. I have a sophomore nephew who earned the right to dress for the game by being moved to the varsity practice squad after his soph team's season was over. There will probably be a capacity crowd in the Astrodome to watch this game. Good luck to the Katy Tigers!
"Finally, I enjoy reading the "News" because it says it like it is, confirming beliefs that I've long held. Keep up the good work. I look forward to your clinic in Chicagoland. Keith Babb, Chicago"
December 21, 1998 - Whenever you're inclined to feel sorry for yourself, consider this: you could be Mike Johnston, head coach at Katy, Texas (outside Houston), whose Tigers won the 1997 Texas Class 5-A Division II championship, and went 15-0 on the field in 1998 on their way to another state title. So why wouldn't you want to trade places with him? Read on.
Friday, as Coach Johnson and his players boarded the buses for their trip to Texas Stadium (home of the Cowboys) to play in Saturday's state final, they were informed that the bus trip wouldn't be necessary - they would not be defending their title the next day. Instead, they would be stripped of two wins, dropped from their number 10 spot in USA Today's national rankings, and staying home to watch the next day's championship game on TV.
It seems that Katy had unknowingly suited up an ineligble player in the previous two games, a quarter-final win over Clear Brook and a semi-final win over San Antonio MacArthur. The player in question had scarcely played, appearing in a handful of plays near the end of the 40-0 win over Clear Brook game two weeks before.
But Texas state law - the "no pass, no play" law - expressly forbids allowing an academically ineligible player to suit up, and specifies a minimum penalty of forfeiture. There is no appeal. So the governing body of Texas high school sports, the University Interscholastic League (UIL), with prior commitments to televise the championship game, contacted the authorities at San Antonio MacArthur - at 10 o'clock Friday morning - to offer them the chance to take Katy's place against Midland Lee.
MacArthur, a 14-6 loser to Katy just a week ago, had already collected and stored equipment, but nonetheless accepted the invitation, and on less than 24 hours' notice, hastily gathered the troops. There is no fairy tale ending to the story, though, because, with almost no preparation, MacArthur was pounded by Midland Lee, 54-0, in the worst beating in Texas 5-A championship game history. Lee led 33-0 at the half, and outgained MacArthur, 504-166.
Katy self-reported the violation once it was discovered. There was no choice, no option of waiting until after the game - failure to report the infraction immediately would have been a violation of state law. Now here's the part of the story that makes us all gnash our teeth: The violation occured, and Katy's season came to a crashing end, because the player in question - it is alleged - submitted a three-week progress report containing forged grades and forged teachers' signatures.
"Charles' idea of a balanced meal was a Big Mac in both hands." Pat Williams, GM of the Orlando Magic, who as Philly GM drafted Charles Barkley for the 76ers
USA Today's Christine Brennan, who can't seem to write on sports without giving it a feminist slant - the one who feels that is gender-inequitable that we say "Final Four" for the men's NCAA basketball tournament but "Women's Final Four" for the women - is really upset now. That's because FIFA (sounds like a shoe company), the ruling body of world soccer, has decided to hold the next women's World Cup in 2002, immediately following the men's tournament, instead of 2003 as originally scheduled. I must say that from the standpoint of women's soccer, this time I agree with Ms. Brennan. After all, men's soccer is a major sport in most countries of the world, and the World Cup is its major event. Women's soccer, on the other hand, is largely an American invention, and is in its infancy in countries other than the US. The women's World Cup, considered an event of little consequence anyplace else (sorry, girls), is likely to be smothered by the excitement and coverage of the much more prestigious men's event preceding it. The rescheduling creates other problems for its promoters: the scheduling of both soccer events in the same year as a Winter Olympics will put the women third in line for sponsors' money.
Hey coach, just wanted to tell you that we had a very successful year with our offense in an extremely tough conference. One of the first things I learned was how important the sweep is to the offense and the necessity of taking advantage with respect to the wingback's position on the defensive end. I was not able to coach the Buck Sweep well enough. I suspect that the fullback faking up the middle loses its effectiveness when the defense can't see him in the first place (we played ours extremely tight). I am intrigued by a power sweep (we shall see). We went almost exclusively with the "wings-on" approach which further stabilized our double-team at the point of the power play and enhanced the effect of the counter. The traditional counter (47-c) was too much of a crapshoot in our youth league where even a strong passing team will face eight men in the box if you catch my drift. There were times I swear I counted 12 guys stuffed in there somehow!!! Instead of "lead, criss-cross" we tagged our misdirection plays 66 and 77 Reverse. What a play! Even when the defense knows that it is coming it can still be extremely successful because of its tremendous power and it seems that a defender will hesitate to assert himself until he can see the ball. One thing was an enigma for us and that was the 7-man front. To my way of thinking there are four different combinations we can use and my indecision got in the kids way at times. (Ironically, for us, the use of blocking combinations instead of individual rules seemed to make us more aggressive.) The double-team became sort of an attitute for us and the kids worked hard with their partners at every practice. I remember a couple of youngsters mocking me one afternoon as they watched us practice, 'HIP TO HIP! HIP TO HIP!' (giggle, giggle) needless to say we had a lot of fun. One thing I found out, that at least at the youth level, we could maintain a very successful double-team on a man that is lined up a shade outside of the TE. With the proper rotation and the wing getting good leverage on the man we could often times place the DE in the lap of the Linebacker without allowing penetration. All in all, the kids loved the offense. It gave them a swagger and a dagger! They submerged themselves in the intricacies of the blocking schemes. They really dug at the underlying philosophy of what we were trying to accomplish which allowed them to make their own adjustments during the heated conditions of game time. We had offensive success against teams that clearly out-manned us. A telling statistic showed that against the two top teams we had about as many first downs as they had total offensive plays! We couldn't catch 'em, but we sure as heck could double team them. The future of the double-wing power offense intrigues me. What will defenses start to do as the plays become more widespread and recognizable; and conversely, which offenses will be more successful, those that counter with new plays or those who work harder at the basics? A penny for your thoughts.. Thank you coach and keep up the good work! Russell Ponce Jr., Santa Rosa Stallions, Santa Rosa, California
December 17 - "Never get too high with the highs...never get too low with the lows." Joe Paterno
"A little news you can use" was the way Coach Bruce Eien headed his note, and he got that right. "The Camp Kilpatrick Running back is the state's single season leading rusher. His coach was at your DW clinic in Glendale. I ate lunch with him and relived old memories of when we met in the play offs back in 1991....Merry Christmas to you and your wife Bruce Eien" --- I remembered meeting Coach Sidney Ware, head man at Kilpatrick, and gave him a call Thursday to congratulate him on a great season. What a story! Since 1992 Coach Ware has been coaching at Camp Kilpatrick, a correctional facility that's unique in Southern California in that it offers its kids a chance to play football. What a revolutionary concept! (Can't hide my sarcasm.) Is it just possible that kids might benefit from being in a situation where strong male role models teach them about hard work... rules... respect... responsibility... teamwork... sportmanship? Coach Ware has a unique coaching challenge, too- every year, he has to start over with a new group of kids - he said he "almost never" has players return for a second year. This past year, he told me, nobody on his offensive line had ever played football before. Nevertheless, he molded them into a strong unit, and coached the Kilpatrick Mustangs to a 9-5 record and a spot in its division championship (California does not have state championships); and one of his running backs, Jermaine Marshall, broke the all-time California high school single-season rushing record with 3,586 yards, running the Double-Wing, which Coach Ware has been using for three years. (He said he got a lot of mileage out of the Wedge, which he picked up at last spring's clinic.) Marshall's 57 TD's were just two short of the single season record set a few years back by DeShaun Foster, now playing at UCLA. The 6-foot, 215-pound Marshall had a single-game high of 454 yards, and rushed for over 200 yards in all but three games. For all those splashy stats, though, his future is not assured. His life to this point has not been smooth. He was raised by his grandmother who is now confined to a wheelchair. He never met his father. He has had his problems at the public school he originally attended and, obviously, with the law. And although he is a sure-fire Division I prospect, he may not qualify academically and may have to go the Junior College route. Nevertheless, Marshall's conduct on and off the field at Kilpatrick has raised hopes that he can continue to excel in football while, more importantly, living a good life. Coach Ware remains optimistic. Although he knows the frustrations of seeing former players get back in trouble - "it's terrible," he says - he prefers instead to talk about the successes - like the young man who served his time at Kilpatrick then returned to his regular high school, went on to junior college, and just signed with Nebraska. Jokingly, I suggested that he probably didn't get too many of his former players coming back to visit, but Coach Ware said that, to the contrary, he gets a lot of calls from former players wanting to come back and talk to the incoming kids! Thanks to people like Coach Sidney Ware for hanging in there with these kids, and thanks to Coach Bruce Eien for putting me on to this great story.
"We're about as clean as our President. I mean, he's got a little reputation to mend." Bobby Bowden, commenting on Peter Warrick's problems earlier this season.
Dave Boling, in the Tacoma News Tribune, praised Pacific Lutheran's successful football team for taking the Puget Sound area's mind off such unpleasant topics as Ken Griffey, Jr., Joey Galloway and the WTO. PLU, which plays Rowan College for the Division III National Championship in Salem, Virginia this Saturday, is always a pleasant topic for writers. Mainly, that's because of the overall atmosphere created by Coach Frosty Westering, a 72-year-old former Marine Drill Instructor. Any time you hear Coach Westering, you come away with a notepad full of useful quotes. "His every pronouncement," writes Boling, "seems appropriate for copying, enlarging, and hanging on a locker-room wall." Coach Westering takes great pride in taking good people who are not necessarily the best athletes available, and building them into a winning unit."I guess it's kind of like playing cards when you don't have all the aces and kings, but with some jacks and queens you can sometimes finesse a card here and there and still win," he says. In 28 years at PLU, he has never had a losing season. But it's not just the fact that the Lutes win. It's that they're so doggone likeable about it. Coach Westering takes great pride in the fact that TWA, which has flown the PLU team to two of this year's playoff games, actually called the NCAA and asked to fly them to the finals in Virginia. "These things go by bid," the coach told reporter Boling, "but they told the NCAA that whatever was the lowest bid, they'd knock a thousand dollars off it so they could carry the Lutes. We've kind of woven them into the family feeling we have around here." What is amazing about Coach Westering is that, with a national title just a day away, he remains true to his mission not to allow his players to get so focused on their goals that they miss the real enjoyment of striving to attain them. "It's the trip, not the destination, that's important to us, " he says. "The goal is not the end of the road. The goal is the road itself."
There's certainly nothing funny about a brutal murder, but I had to shake my head in amazement when I read how four teenagers in our area had plotted to murder the father of one of them, but one of the four had pulled out at the last minute. Not because of conscience pangs or compunctions, though. Seems it was a school night, and he had a nine o'clock curfew. Didn't want to get in trouble. Might get grounded.
Coach: I have been so busy lately that I forgot to chime in on this issue. I cancelled my subscription to Sports Illustrated the other day upon seeing everybody's favorite group of PC athletes on the cover as "Sportswomen of the Year." Do these women have jobs, or do they just pose for photos? What is the criteria for such an award? My Websters' states a sportsman is defined as, "One who abides by the rules of a contest and accepts victory or defeat graciously." How sportsmanlike was it to tear off your shirt in front of the Chinese squad who just played their hearts out for some three hours, in the scorching heat, on foreign soil. Not only that, the USA team didn't even win the game in regulation, it was actually a tie!!!! Is there a chance SI may have heard of Lance Armstrong? A stud athlete who at one time was told he might have a month to live due to a nasty bout of Testicular Cancer. This guy fought the cancer, beat it and then went on to win the most grueling road race in the world. (Tour de France). I believe he was only the second American to do it. To me that is the definition of a true sportsman.Bill Lawlor . (Let's not forget that one of our hallowed Sportswomen, goalkeeper Briana Scurry, admitted after the Glorious Win that she had intentionally cheated by illegally moving out of her goal and reducing the shooting angle of a Chinese player in order to make the save that assured the US of its win. "Everybody does it," she said, unapologetically. "It's only cheating if you get caught." )
Leaf through the hoopla in this week's Sports Illustrated about the women's soccer team and you will come to a nice, uplifting article about an assistant coach named Jerry Sandusky, who is about to coach his last game. Read the article, and you will realize that you are reading about the real Sportsman of the Year. Coach Sandusky, Penn State's defensive coordinator and the coach most responsble for earning Penn State the nickname "Linebacker U," announced before the season that he would retire at its conclusion, ending a career that has spanned four years as a player and 32 years as an assistant under Joe Paterno. Coach Sandusky, 55, joined the Lions' staff after graduation, and never left. Among the linebackers he has coached have been Kurt Allerman, Greg Buttle, Andre Collins, Shane Conlan, Gary Gray, Jack Ham, Jim Laslavic, Lance Mehl, Ed O'Neil and John Skorupan. This year's Nittany Lions' linebacking trio of Lavar Arrington, Brandon Short and Mac Morrison may be his best ever. One reason for his retirement is his realization that Coach Paterno, now 72, shows no signs of letting up any time soon. In the article Coach Sandusky voices his regret that he is going to retire without ever having been a head coach. Like most assistants, he had ambitions of becoming a head coach someday - if not at Penn State, then someplace else. He had his chances - in the mid-seventies he actually was head coach at Marshall for an hour or so before he changed his mind. He was offered the job at Temple and turned it down, and twice withdrew his name from consideration at Maryland. Ultimately, he couldn't leave Penn State - the loyalty of Paterno's assistants to their boss is legendary - and he couldn't leave The Second Mile, an organization he founded to help kids in Central Pennsylvania who appear to be headed for trouble. (Coach Sandusky and his wife, Dottie, have adopted and raised six children of their own.) The Second Mile has grown to the point where it has 20 full-time employees and hundreds of volunteers, and retirement will enable Coach Sandusky to devote himself full-time time to raising the funds necessary to keep it going (one of the ways he has funded The Second Mile has been through sales of his book, "Developing Linebackers the Penn State Way," Leisure Press, West Point, NY, 1981. Good Book- HW) "Yeah, I dreamed of becoming a head coach," Coach Sandusky told the Philadelphia Inquirer's Ray Parrillo at the time he announced that this would be his last season. "But I also dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player or professional football player. All dreams don't come true. But I did dream of putting together a program for kids, and that dream did come true."
December 16 - "Consensus is the absence of leadership." Margaret Thatcher, former English Prime Minister
"Playing football is physical. You've got to catch the pass, kick the ball and make the block. That's got to be done. Let's not worry about what kind of childhood you had." Mike Holmgren, Seattle Seahawks
The Australian Twelve Days of Christmas: "On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me... Twelve parrots prattling... Eleven numbats nagging... Ten lizards leaping... Nine wombats working... Eight possums playing... Seven koalas climbing... Six playpuses... FIVE KAN-GA-ROOS!... Four kookaburras... Three jabirus... Two pink galahs... and an emu up a gum tree!"
--------
What is this all about? Citing federal law that bans discrimination against the "handicapped," the Supreme Court has ruled, in effect, that Indiana's eight-semester athletic eligibility rule unlawfully discriminated against a student with a learning disability. As I understand it, the student in question was granted an extra semester as a result - and led his team to a state title.
From a reporter in Southern California: Greetings Coach Wyatt: The Markham Legacy continues as Bloomington H.S. secured its fourth consecutive CIF Championship using the DW. Bloomington has won a total of five Championships in six years. The first three under Markham, the last two under Coach Richard Smith. Also two other DW teams made it to the finals, Arrowhead Christian with their fourth consecutive title appearance fell short 14-21. Arrowhead Christian won the title in 1996,1997. The best for last---this team is playing in its 2nd consecutive championship since adopting the DW. The Malibu Kilpatrick School is a juvenile detention facility. Most of these kids have had very little structure in their lives. Learning teamwork,discipline and selflessness has given these young men positive direction. The coaching staff /counselors are to be commended for their fine effort. For the past two years many kids have declined their release date to after the season is over,which in some cases means staying an extra 3 weeks or a month. Though they have lost two years in a row in the championship,they have accomplished what many schools with larger enrollments,better facilities and booster clubs have not.
"Waaah! That's not fai-i-i-i-r! The jocks get all the breaks!" Interscholastic athletes in the Salem, Oregon school district have routinely been given waivers of PE graduation requirements. Now, not to be outdone, members of marching bands, rally (cheerleaders) squads and dance teams are also petitioning the school board for the same waivers. Don't know 'bout your school, but at most schools I know of, band members seldom stay after school and practice on their own time; they do their practicing in a class - called "Band" - and they get credit for it. They also don't sweat much.
Hugh MacDonough, a fellow Double-Winger, is the head coach at Olney High, a large Philadelphia public school. With 2,200 students and a varsity and JV team to coach, Hugh and two assistants are all there is. (The Philadelphia public schools do not permit volunteer coaches or non-teaching coaches.) Hugh told me in our conversation of a case in which the city's "zero tolerance" (of weapons) policy really nailed him. One of his players, a straight-A student and a model citizen, also makes money as a part-time barber. One morning, as he was preparing to pass through one of the school's metal detectors, he realized that he had a razor in his pocket. Extracting the "weapon," he handed it over to the security guard on duty. Nope. Sorry. A weapon is a weapon. Zero tolerance. The kid was reported and immediately expelled. His appeal of the expulsion was attended by every single one of his classroom teachers, all of whom testified on his behalf. Appeal denied.
A coach in South Carolina, commenting on the first-year success of Clemson's Tommy Bowden, writes, "All of the other coaches that we talk to can't wait to copy Coach Bowden's offense and spread it out and throw it all over the place next year. We can't wait until they do that either! I wish all teams would do that, because that means the DW will only be harder to adjust to."
You might want to steer clear of this one. A coaching friend tells me about a job opening near him. The "search" for the new coach is in the hands of a "search committee," consisting of (1) the Principal; (2) the AD; (3) two middle-school teachers; (4) two elementary school teachers; and (5) three parents, only two of whom are parents of football players. The third is the parent of a cheerleader.
Just be glad you don't coach his kid. Further blurring whatever distinction might still exist between the NBA,the WWF and Minnesota politics, retired-wrestler-turned-governor Jesse Ventura reportedly put on quite a scene at a recent Minnesota Timberwolves' game, yelling at referee Ron Olesiak in language described by security guards as "quite explicit", and charging down to courtside to demand that police arrest Olesiak. The referee had, after all, ejected T-Wolves' coach Flip Saunders from the game, so it was actually rather merciful of His Worship not to insist on Olesiak's immediate beheading.
December 15 - "Honor is like an island - rugged and without a beach. Once we have left it, we can never return." Nicholas Boileau-Despreaux, French poet
With the entire sports world breathlessly awaiting the final confirmation of what we already know - that the U.S. Women's Soccer Team will be named Sports Illustrated's "Sportsman of the Year" today - it may be useful to re-visit a couple of comments that somehow bubbled to the top back during all the hype about the "Ultimate Triumph of Title IX." Dick Morris, in the Chicago Tribune, wrote, "Do you think we're all trying a little too hard when it comes to this Women's World Cup thing? We seem to be telling ourselves that if we blow it up big enough, women's soccer eventually will become big. It will either succeed or fail based on its own merits, not because someone in a corporate boardroom is pushing it, hoping to sell more athletic shoes. That Nike has decreed it to be important doesn't mean it is. What we have here is Madison Avenue hawking a new product, which is fine, but let's accept it for what it is at the moment. It's the free sample at the grocery store. For now, it tastes great." Bruce Arena, head coach of the U.S. men's soccer team had to bite his tongue when asked for the one-millionth time what he had learned from watching the women. "You actually think we learned something from watching the U.S. women?" he asked John Powers of the Boston Globe . "We didn't learn anything. There are reporters who think Mia Hamm could play for our team. Our women couldn't beat our under-16 boys' team."
Charles Barkley is gone. Marv Albert is back. Marv Albert and the NBA. Talk about a perfect fit.
Coach Wyatt, We had 6 players make all-district. 4 offense, 2 defense. We return 10 starters on offense next year. My son, Chris was also selected to the Jackson All-Metro team as a wingback. My younger son will fill in for him next year as he moves on to college ball. My defensive coordinator is Steve Pruett, son of Marshall head coach Bob Pruett. I look forward to another great clinic in the area this year. Steve Jones, Florence, Mississippi (Coach Jones modestly neglects to point out that the Florence Eagles just finished their first winning season since 1986.)
Another argument for using our terminology. This is no kidding. It really happened. I heard it from one of the participants, who for reasons that will become clear doesn't want anyone's names used. Start with two coaches - Coach A and Coach B - who have a very close relationship. They both run the Double-Wing, and both use our play-calling system. Coach A, his season completed, was on the sidelines at Coach B's game. Early in the game, Coach B protested an official's call, a bit too vigorously as it turned out, because he wound up with two unsportsmanlike calls - and the ejection that goes along with them. Since he normally calls his offense, he had to think fast, and on his way out of the stadium, he turned to Coach A and said, "You gotta help me." So for the rest of the game, Coach A, who is quite knowledgeable about the Double-Wing and, fortunately, completely familiar with the terminology being used, was able to advise the offensive assistants in their play-calling. I won't tell you the score for fear of disclosing anyone's identity, but our guys won.
Just in case you wonder why the outcry grows for tuition vouchers, charter schools and various other devices to make it possible for people to get their kids out of public schools, there is the story of Alejandra Gonzalez-Hankins and her younger brother Dominique, students at Portland, Oregon's All Saints School. Their single mother makes a little over $20,000 a year, and even with considerable help from the school and from the Children's Scholarship Fund - set up to provide help with private-school tuition for low-income people like her - she has had to sacrifice to come up with $1,800 in tuition to send her two kids to Catholic school this year. Dominique is a kindergartner, and doesn't know any different, but to Alejandra, a third-grader, the contrast between All Saints and the public school she formerly attended is sharp- especially regarding order in the classroom. At All Saints, "We have assigned seating," she observed. (If you can imagine an elementary classroom without assigned seating.) At first, Alejandra had difficulty adjusting to the absence of socialization during class time. That's because at All Saints - if you can imagine this - talking during class is not permitted! Students are expected to concentrate on schoolwork! Wow! All Saints' principal Rose Rosinski observes that students coming into All Saints from public schools are used to "a classroom environment with more socializing." Undoubtedly there are government studies underway at this very moment to determine the damage that repressive classrooms such as All Saints' are doing to the self-esteem and creativity of "the children."
Hi Coach.....Just wanted to let you know how we ended up. We ended the season undefeated and went into the Super Bowl against a team that hadn't lost in 3 years. Remember, our boys had won 1 game out of 2 last year. The team we played, Herbert Hoover Boys Club, had outscored their opposition 186-12 in 6 games this year. We ended up losing by a 39-32 score, but it was considered a win by all of us. They could not stop our offense. We had an awesome season, and I attribute it totally to the double wing. Our coaching staff will be back next year and I will be contacting you shortly about the newest playbook. Steve Fangman - St. Charles Buccaneers 14's - St. Louis Junior Football League
You young guys out there - still want to be a college coach? Maybe you'll want to think twice after you read this.
Looking back, most people now suspect that Utah State's Dave Arslanian was gone when Utah State President George Emert witnessed a loss to New Mexico State at home in front of a disappointing crowd of under 9,000. The loss dropped the Aggies' record to 2-7, the only two wins coming over Division I-AA opponents. But Utah State rallied to win its last two games, and with Arslanian just finishing up the second year of a four-year contract, it was assumed that things were cool. Nevertheless, with his assistants already out on the road recruiting, Arslanian was fired - given an unusually quick hook at a school whose last six coaches have departed Utah State with overall losing records. But Dave Arslanian will be okay. He is a good coach who will almost certainly find more work, and he is guaranteed $180,000 for the remaining two years of his contract. His assistants, though, may not be okay. Because the head coach's firing normally means the entire staff goes, too, Arslanian's nine assistants - including his brother, Paul - are now out of work. No contract buyouts for them - working on one-year contracts as is usually the case with assistants, they aren't even sure just how much money, if any, is due them from Utah State. They are now faced with uprooting their families, finding new schools for their kids in mid-year or living apart from their families until school is out in June - that is, if they are lucky enough to find other coaching jobs. Most of them will probably be at the AFCA convention (and annual job scramble) in Anaheim next month, resumes at the ready, ears perked for the slightest rumor of an opening somewhere. Amazingly, in a profession that thrives on rumors, where coaches at schools such as Alabama and even BYU were said to be in trouble at different times last season, there were never any rumors that the axe might fall on Dave Arslanian. So as soon as the season ended, assuming their jobs were safe, Arslanian's staff began directing their efforts toward the future. They were already out contacting recruits when blindsided by the news of their boss' - and their - dismissal. "If there's any bitterness at all, that was the one thing," one assistant told Kurt Kragthorpe of the Salt Lake Tribune."We were recruiting under false pretenses. If they knew what they were going to do, why put us through the embarrassment?"
December 14 - "On the day of victory, no one is tired." Old Arab proverb
Two years ago, with just a tiny bit more defense, Beaverton, Oregon could have won the state Class AAAA championship. Instead, the Beavers lost to McNary High, of Salem, 51-48. This past Saturday, they played a whole lot of defense, shutting out another Salem school, Sprague High, 20-0 to win the state title. In registering only the third AAAA championship-game shutout since the state started playing title games back in 1971, Beaverton held Sprague's powerful wing-T to 86 total yards, and just 21 yards rushing. Beaverton defensive coordinator Bob Boyer said he had a lot of help all last week from well-meaning fans, who kept coming up to him and asking,"Have you thought about watching their guards?"
I had a call yesterday from the offensive coordinator of the Arawak Warriors. Coach Francisco Jarvis coaches the Warriors, a "combine" team, made up of boys from four different private schools on the island of St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands. Thanks to a generous grant from VITELCO, the Virgin Islands' telephone company, tackle football has been restored to the Islands after a 13-year hiatus brought about by insurance and liability concerns (it is, after all, still America, with the same American legal system and the same American lawyers), and the Warriors have just completed their first season, an abbreviated one of just three games. All told, there are now six teams playing football in the Virgin Islands, three on St. Thomas and three on the island of St. Croix (inter-island play necessitates flying). Coach Jarvis, a native of the Islands who played college football at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, managed to keep the game alive by coaching flag football, and was part of the movement responsible for the return of tackle football. He sees the next logical step as establishment of a youth program, and is already working on that. VITELCO, of course, is to be congratulated for its public spiritedness in investing in the young men of the Virgin Islands.
Congratulations to Ron Dayne on winning the Heisman. He is truly deserving. Most people know that one of the main reasons he gave for staying another year at Wisconsin was so he could remain near his little daughter, Jada. That is admirable, and it was truly touching to watch the Heisman awards show and see how much he obviously cares about the little girl. What a wonderful Christmas gift it would be for Jada - and what a wonderful example for young men and women everywhere - if he would marry her mother.
"Coach Wyatt, I finally had a chance to write you about our season here in Hoxie. We had the first winning season in 13 years. This is our 2nd year of running the Double-Wing and we still love it. We averaged 320 yards per game, and our C-back (a junior) rushed for 1500 yards and 14 TDs on 190 carries. His name is Greg Meyer and his brother Clay, who led our JVs to a winning season also will be our QB. My staff and myself can't wait to see you again in Denver. We had great success running out of the Stack I formation. If you need anyone to speak at the Denver clinic I would be honored to share what I have learned from you and your system. Hope to see you soon and God bless you and your family this holiday season. Scott Moshier, Head Coach, Hoxie, Kansas" (As a matter of fact, Coach Moshier is one of a number of experienced Double-Wing coaches who will be talking at this year's clinics about how they use the Double-Wing in their programs.)
It was sad to see Mount Union's 54-game win streak come to an end in Saturday's Division III semi-finals, but it was exciting to see Rowan College do it. Rowan College was Glassboro (New Jersey) State, back when I worked with the Philadelphia Bell in the World Football League, and it was where we held our training camp. (What stories came out of that place!) I remember it as a nice little school in a nice little town. Then a few years back, along came a rich guy by the name of Rowan who offered to donate a little money - okay, several million dollars - to the school and voila! Would you object if we named the college after you? Going against the Rowan "Profs" will be the Pacific Lutheran "Lutes," from Tacoma, Washington, 49-28 winners over Trinity, of San Antonio, in their semi-final. I mentioned the Lutes and their charismatic coach, Frosty Westering, a couple of weeks ago. Like so many top-notch Division III programs, Pacific Lutheran always has one or two players who originally signed with Divison I programs, then decided, for one reason or another, that they'd be happier at a Division III school. In PLU's case, the best example this year is running back Anthony Hicks, from Tumwater, Washington, who was considered a prime catch by the Washington Huskies a few years ago, before transferring to Pacific Lutheran.
Talk about a wild-card team winning the Super Bowl! Manchester Central High in Manchester, New Hampshire lost twice - big - during the regular season, to Londonderry, 32-0, and Nashua, 39-6. Under New Hampshire's top-four-make-the-playoffs format, though, Manchester Central still managed to finish strong enough to qualify as the fourth-ranked team. But that meant playing all games on the road, and it also meant a rematch with Londonderry and, should it somehow win, another likely meeting with Nashua - two teams that had beaten it by a combined score of 71-6. You guessed it , though - Central defeated Londonderry, 21-14 in their semi-final game, and, with momentum going for it, shut out Nashua, 18-0 to win the state title. It could only happen in football. What a great game.
December 13 - "The right to speak must be earned by having something to say." Winston Churchill
Got a call Saturday from my old pal Joe Gardi, coach at Hofstra University. Hofstra had a great season, finishing 11-2 - one of only nine teams in Division I to win 11 games - and making it to the Division 1-AA quarterfinals. Hofstra is on Long Island, less than 20 miles from Times Square, but Joe seldom gets into New York City. Last week, though, he was there twice, first for Coach Jerry Claiborne's induction into the College Hall of Fame (Joe was an assistant to Coach Claiborne at Maryland), then for the dinner honoring Hofstra's quarterback, Giovanni Carmazzi, as the National Scholar-Athlete of the Year. "Gio," 6-3, 220, is on the pro scouts' short list of quarterbacks (remember you read it here), and with his 3.9 GPA in business administration, narrowly missed selection as a Rhodes Scholar.
In writing about Everett, Mass. High last week, I mistakenly said that it had finished unbeaten. Not so - there was a mid-season loss to Peabody on Everett's otherwise-perfect record. (According to Everett Coach John DiBiaso, his kids took "a lot of crap" from townspeople after that loss. Evidently expectations are high in Everett.) I did mention Everett running back Diamond Ferri, considered by many the top football player in the Bay State, but at the time I didn't have a lot of details. How about these? During the regular season he rushed for 1683 yards and 15 TDs, good but not incredible numbers, until you realize that Coach DiBiaso pulled him early in several runaway games. In Everett's 41-6 Super Bowl win over New Bedford, though, in front of 8.500 spectators, he was at his best, carrying 14 times for 228 yards, including TD runs of 71 and 41 yards. He had an 82-yarder called back. Oh, yes - he also returned the opening kickoff 80 yards for a TD. He has recruiting visits planned to Tennessee, Syracuse, Ohio State and Nebraska. (Massachusetts, where Thanksgiving Day rivalries preclude having state championship playoffs, instead matches up its top teams in a series of post-Thanksgiving "Super Bowl" games.)
Anybody happen to notice that Ron Dayne thanked "Coach Wyatt" for recruiting him? I'd like to be able to say, "You're welcome, Ron!" and take credit for landing a Heisman Trophy winner, but it was Coach Bernie Wyatt who lured Ron Dayne to Madison.
Speaking of Heisman Trophy winners- the pursuit of dollars, the perversion of the near-sacred and the commercialization of American high school sports all converged Saturday in something called - I am not making this up, as Dave Barry would say - the Wendy's "High School Heisman." No kidding. Actually, there are two "High School Heismans" - there's both a male and female version, so obviously it is not even limited to football. (Hey, by now we football coaches are used to being fed the gender-equity line that "all activities are equally important.") The Downtown Athletic Club, which awards the "real" Heisman every year, can thank its lucky stars for that little statue- as well as for the media hype which has turned the Heisman into football's version of the Academy Awards. Because if it were not for the Heisman, that collection of stuffed shirts would have faded into oblivion long ago; instead, it has turned football's trophy into its own cash machine, first by cutting a deal that lets people stop by their Toyota dealerships and vote for the Heisman winner while they kick the tires, then by allowing the Heisman name to be extended to an award for, say, a high school volleyall player. Look for a whole line of Heisman Trophies. All it will take is sponsors with money in their hands, and you're looking at Heisman Trophies for comedy, cooking, community service, salesmanship, scholarship, literature, snowboarding, etc., etc. I'll just bet that if you try using the name "Heisman" on your little award at school, their lawyers will be on you so fast they'll make the International Olympic Committee's lawyers look like slowpokes.
The Philadelphia Eagles' Donovan McNabb, one of the NFL's outstanding crop of rookie quarterbacks, showed in an interview with Anthony Gargano, Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer, that he also has some potential as a stand-up comedian. When asked if he had gone to coach Andy Reid to complain about his lack of playing time earlier in the season, he said, "Yeah. I went into his office, threw my hat on his desk and said, 'Now look, man, I want to play!' Then I lifted his desk, turned it over, and told him, 'You're going to play me, right?'"
He is not a show-off. For instance, he drives an American car instead of a BMW or a high-end SUV. "People say, 'He's in the NFL, his head's going to blow up. He's a young guy. He doesn't know what he has.' Man, I know what I have. It's just that I don't show people. I just take things in stride, know what I'm saying? You won't see me in flashy cars or flashy clothes. That's just me." He isn't into tattooos: "My brother got his name tattooed on his leg, and my mother went offfff. She said, 'What's wrong with you? Don't you know your damn name?'"
He's uncomfortable when he's out in public and people obviously recognize him but just stand and gawk. "When we see somebody, we wave or stop and talk. That's the way I was raised." He doesn't consider himself a celebrity - "See? I do the same things everybody else does. It's just you might see me on Sunday playing football."
On being dissed by the Heisman Committee last year, when he went from being a pre-season favorite to not even being invited to the awards ceremony ("Yeah, I'm scarred to this day"), he joked about a scenario in which he would crash this year's ceremony, snatch the Heisman, and smash it to pieces: "'And the winner is...' And they're going to see me run up from behind, grab it and spike it. Nobody's going to win it. They're going to say, 'Oh, my God, what is he doing here?' Then they'll say, 'We knew there was something wrong with him.' You know, when somebody does something bad, they always bring something like that up. They'll say, 'He walked funny. He hit that little girl with the Pac-Man lunch box in the sixth grade.'"
Just in case Michigan State wondered whether they chose the right guy to replace Nick Saban when they promoted Bobby Williams off the current staff: not a single Spartans' assistant accepted Coach Saban's offer to go with him to LSU, all of them electing instead to remain in East Lansing.
A female she may be, but a professor of religion at Princeton University nevertheless wins this month's "Set of Stones" Award. According to the Wall Street Journal, when a religion major complained about a course requirement to Professor Shaun Marmon, her response was, "This is not a democracy. You are students. We are teachers. We have doctoral degrees and have written books. You have not yet written an acceptable junior paper." She went on to say," However, this is not the Marines Corps, either. Fortunately for some of you, I might add. I understand that they do not shoot people at dawn any more. Too bad. There are some traditions worth keeping." Ever thought about coaching football, Professor Marmon?
December 11 - "Given a choice between two evils, I'll take the one I've never tried before." Old-time movie star Mae West
The Beaverton Beavers will be the sentimental favorites when they take the field in today's Oregon Class AAAA state championship game against Sprague High of Salem. That's because they have been playing on equal parts talent (which they have a lot of) and dedication to a fallen teammate. A little over a month ago their starting center, Brendan FitzPatrick, a potential all-state center who had committed to play at the University of Oregon, collapsed and died at his home. (See the story, November 5 News)
A coaching associate from Framingham, Massachusetts (who does not himself run the Double-Wing), called to straighten me out because he noticed there were no mentions on my site of Massachusetts high school teams running the Double-Wing. (I knew they were out there - my problem has been not being able to locate a site that has the Massachusetts HS scores on it.) Not that my friend felt left out; he just felt that as long as his school had to play two Double-Wing teams this year, he ought to let me know about them and assure me that the Double-Wing is alive and well in the Commonwealth. (His school lost to both teams, and he didn't care to go into the results of either game in any detail.) Coach Bill Maradei and Austin Prep, of Reading, went 11-1 - losing only to much larger Bishop Fenwick - and defeated St. Dominic Savio, of East Boston, 21-20 in their league's key matchup. Savio Prep, coached by Gavin Monagle, a former assistant to Coach Maradei, also ran the Double-Wing and wound up 8-3.
Still in Massachusetts, I spoke Thursday with Coach John DiBiaso of Everett High, whose Number One ranking in the Boston Globe's final poll makes it, unofficially at least, state champion. Everett capped off its unbeaten season with a 40-6 Super Bowl win over New Bedford in which it ran only 40 plays and didn't throw a pass. Coach DiBiaso isn't exclusively a tight-split guy, but a Double-Tight, Double-Wing series is a major part of his attack. He had a 5-3, 195-pound fullback (try cutting him at the knees) who, as you might imagine, ran a heck of a trap. He also had a blue-chip running back named Diamond Ferri whom he compares favorably with his last blue-chip running back, Omar Easy, now at Penn State. Coach DiBiaso was quick to give credit to his kids and the work they put in - all year 'round - as part of their commitment to the Everett program: "We give a lot to them," he told me, "and they have to give a lot back."
Father Jim Sinnerud, Jesuit educator/coach/friend from Creighton Prep in Omaha, writes, "That paragraph on the education writer of 'Schools Our Kids Deserve' (December 2) reminded me of a statement one of my Jesuit philosophy professors made years ago. We were talking about the classroom, I believe, and he said he didn't usually think a lot about the practice of kids breaking up into small groups for discussion. He said something like, "All they'll probably do is cross-fertilize their own ignorance." His thought struck home, since it reinforced my own experience in some school room years earlier."
North Carolina's coach Carl Torbush may be a great guy, and the players may have been very happy that he managed to avoid execution, but he had to pay a high price to keep his job for another year: neither his offensive coordinator, his quarterbacks coach or his running backs coach will be back next year, it was announced last Monday. Does anybody doubt that the firings were dictated from above, as a condition of his remaining? It's a heck of a situation for a head coach to be in, because, apart from the pain of having to let any assistants go in order to save his own butt, if he refuses to do so, he's likely to be gone himself - along with all of his assistants.
Anybody notice what happened the last couple of weeks after a certain Seattle pro football team, one that had been threatening to run away with the championship of the AFC West, met star receiver Joey Galloway's demands and tried to make him a part of the team?
Weight-cutting by wrestlers- "I don't know of any absolute fool-proof method of determining how much weight a person can lose before it can be detrimental to his health. I know there are formulas using height, bone structure, and muscle-to-fat ratio, etc. We have had doctors come in to specify a minimum, and he used a thing that looked like a machinist's feeler gauge. Kind of like the pinch an inch theory. But I feel it is simply common sense, with a tremendous amount of discipline involved. The main problem I found with the weight cutting is in the home. If the parents are involved it can work. But if the parents sit down to a big meal of fried pork chops, mashed potatoes, gravy, and all the trimmings, and expect the athlete to eat a little salad and cold chicken with an apple for dessert, it won't work. He will eat and then go make himself throw up put on a wet suit or wrap himself in trash bags, and run, and spit until he gets to the desired weight. This is what hurts the athlete and gives the sport a bad name. My son was the 158 lb. East Coast Regional National runner up while at Trenton State Collage . He went from 185 lb. When he was cutting weight we would not keep any snacks in the house, or eat any more than he could, while in front of him. (we ate out a lot) And we kept a very close eye on his health. I personally feel an athlete that cuts weight sensibly will put it back on very quickly once he quits the diet. If a football player cuts weight during wrestling season then puts weight back on while staying on a good weight-lifting program through spring and summer he will bulk up and be stronger and quicker by the fall football season. Another good side effect of this is that as the athlete gets older he knows and has the discipline to keep his weight under control. My boys are in their late 30s now and when they see that they are getting a little overweight they get back in the old habit of watching what they eat, and start working out." - Frank Simonsen, Cape May, New Jersey (Frank's son, Erick, is head wrestling coach at Wildwood, New Jersey High School - HW)
I had a chance Friday to talk with our wrestling coach, John Carver, who runs an outstanding wrestling program (and also happens to be our freshman football coach). Here is what he told me about Washington's regulations: at some point prior to the first of the year, every wrestler must have a doctor certify the weight below which he cannot legally wrestle that season. The state's form reads, "I recommend that the student designated above should not be allowed to wrestle any weight less than the indicated classification checked herewith." (why do they have to use words like "herewith"?) On the particular form which he showed me, the doctor had weighed in a young man at 131, and recommended that he not wrestle below 125. No protection here against football players losing drastic amounts of weight: realistically, a typical kid has probably already lost a bunch of weight before going into the doctor's office. Also, it is possible for a kid to return to the doctor later on to get re-examined and re-certified to go drop to a lower weight. The state of Washington tries to guard against late-season weigh