|
RETURN
TO HOME PAGE
|
A Visit to
the Travelling Wall!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
The
World's Two Best Sprinters Both Race -
But Not Each Other!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
 May
30, 2006 -
"It's harder
to maintain than it is to climb. Climbing is a
thrill. Maintaining is a bitch." Darrell
Royal-
-
-
  -
  -
- *********** I do not like traffic. I will
drive five miles to avoid a block-long traffic
jam. For my last eight years of teaching, I
drove 30 miles each way, and I never complained
- because I didn't have to stop for a single
traffic light (29 miles of it was Interstate)
and it never took me more than 30 minutes.
-
- But I sat in a traffic jam Monday and never
complained. The jam was caused by thousands of
people on their way up Mt. Scott, outside
Portland, to visit Willamette (pronounced
"will-AMM-it") National Cemetery - and the
Traveling Wall - to pay their respects to fallen
servicemen.
-
- It was our good fortune that the Wall was in
the Portland area for the entire Memorial Day
weekend, and the huge turnout of Oregonians
(even on Saturday and Sunday when it rained)
really restored my faith in a state whose
politicians so often seem preoccupied with
stymieing our military recruiters, accommodating
sexual perversions of one sort or another, and
making it easier for society's least productive
elements to sponge off its most productive.
-
  -
- *********** Part of the Memorial Day display
was an enormous display done by the class of
2001 at Milwaukie (Oregon) High School as its
contribution to their school's now-famous
Veterans' Day activities. It consisted of more
than a million pull-tabs, each representing an
American killed in one of our country's wars,
strung on wires - 1,000 to a string - on 4 x 8
panels, 60,000 to a panel.
-
- The Vietnam War required most of a 4 x 8
panel to represent its 58,000+ dead.
-
- But get this - the Civil War, with 650,000
dead, required 14 panels!
-
- *********** One of the best lines I ever
heard came shortly after the start of the
Indianapolis 500, when two guys were out of the
race just moments after it had begun: "The
National Anthem lasted longer than they
did."
-
- *********** Wanna know why track sucks?
Really sucks?
-
- This past weekend, the Prefontaine Classic,
honoring one of the great names in American
track, was held in Eugene, Oregon, the place
where Steve Prefontaine built his legend, and
easily one of the last places in American that
truly appreciates track.
-
- So, to please the fans in Eugene, they held
TWO 100-meter races.
-
- Just kidding.
-
- They held TWO 100-meter races because Justin
Gatlin and Asafa Powell, the two prima donnas
who now dominate the event refused to race
against each other.
-
- I am not making this up.
-
- They were paid generous appearance fees just
to show up, but not enough to race each other.
For that, race promoters are really going to
have to pay.
-
- Instead of racing, they woof. Gatlin's
winning time in his "section" was .05 seconds
faster than Powell's in his, so naturally he
felt empowered to say sort of crap about
"defending the house."
-
- *********** President Bush stood up at a
press conference and apologized for something he
said - "Bring it on!"
-
- He told the news media, "that was tough talk
that sent the wrong message."
-
- Amazing.
-
- Actually, Mr. President, it was one of the
few things I've heard you say in the last couple
of years that I've totally endorsed.
-
- *********** I was doing a little research on
sports figures from the place I consider as much
my hometown as anyplace, Hagerstown, Maryland,
and I invariably came to one of the Hub City's
most illustrious native sons, Cletus Elwood
"Boots" Poffenberger. Boots spent just a couple
of years as a pitcher with the Detroit Tigers in
the late 1930's, but that was enough to hoist
him into sports immortality around Hagerstown.
That and the fact that he was a legendary
rounder whose love of a good time cost him a
potentially great career.
-
- One of his roommates recalled, "When Boots
was with Detroit, they had a detective follow
him. He told them that they should give him the
money they were giving the detective and he'd
tell them where to go. All they'd have to do was
go to the beer joint closest to the
ballpark."
-
- *********** Just one quick question, if I
may. If I want to run "88 Power", from the
"Tight" formation, should I have the pulling
guard block the cornerback or continue to have
the guard turn inside and let the cornerback
go?
-
- Seems to me that someone would have to
account for the cornerback if the Q.B. is not
leading through to block him.
-
- Coach- I do NOT recommend sending the
guard for the corner, because that guard is VERY
important in sealing off the inside (LBer,
Safety)
-
- I do NOT recommend running power (instead
of Super Power) because accounting for that
playside cornerback requires the
quarterback.
-
- Beware of tweaking.
-
- *********** Saturday I caught a little of
the so-called World Bowl, the NFL Europe
championship game. (Of course, with five of the
league's six teams located in Germany, and 95%+
of the league's players coming from America, it
is a "World Bowl" in the sense that the Chicago
White Sox are "world champions.")
-
- In terms of exciting, enjoyable football, it
was the usual NFL b-s, except the European fans
have really bought into the sorryass concept
that the game is really about the fans. It did
seem as if everybody in the stadium had a
noisemaker or costume or both.
-
- I did get a good laugh when one of the
players was injured. Not because a player was
injured, certainly, but because the lull in the
action forced the two announcers to "fill" - to
fill the dead time. By interspersing mindless
babbling with dead cliches. One of them
mentioned at least twice the great "sacrifice"
all the players were making by coming to Europe
and playing football.
-
- And I thought, "sacrifice?"
-
- Are you kidding me?
-
- Bear in mind that this was Memorial Day
weekend. We won't even get into the guys who
sacrificed in World Wars. Or Korea, Of Vietnam.
Or The Gulf. Or Afghanistan or Iraq.
-
- Let's keep it on the subject of football
"sacrifice."
-
- If he was talking about "sacrifice" in any
football sense, those guys playing in NFL Europe
wouldn't have gotten much sympathy from the guys
I once coached in Hagerstown, Maryland. And the
guys I played with for two years before that in
Frederick, Maryland. Sacrifice? Many of those
guys worked at daytime jobs, then drove as much
as an hour each way to practice, four nights a
week. By the time practice ended and they got
home at night, it had to be midnight. Quickly to
bed, then up and et 'em early the next
morning.
-
- Many of them had families. Many of them had
been cut by NFL clubs, and were still trying to
keep alive their slim hopes of someday making
it. Oh - and did I mention that only when things
were flush were we able to pay them anything
more than gas money?
-
- And there I was listening to a guy feeling
sorry for Americans being paid a living wage by
NFL clubs to play football. In Europe.
-
- Sacrifice? What were they giving up? What
the hell else would they have been doing?
-
- *********** This was sent to me by Greg
Koenig, of Beloit, Kansas. It was shown him with
Christian overtones, but he and I agreed that it
has applications to football, as well...
- Life might be less complicated for all of
us if we each received our own Lego kit at
birth.
-
- Yes, I realize there is a choking hazard
for children under three. But when you are
old enough, you can learn a lot from Legos. I
have learned that:
-
- There is strength in numbers. When the
bricks stick together, great things can be
accomplished.
-
- Playtime is important. Sometimes it
doesn't matter what you are building, as long
as you're having fun.
-
- Disaster happens. But the pieces can be
put back together again.
-
- Every brick has a purpose. Some are made
for a specific spot; most can adapt almost
anywhere - but every one will fit
somewhere.
-
- Color doesn't matter. A blue brick will
fit in the same space as a red brick.
-
- Size doesn't matter. When stepped on in
the dark, a 2 x 2 Lego brick causes the same
amount of pain as a 2 x 8 brick.
-
- No one is indispensable. If one brick is
unavailable, another can take its place.
-
- All Lego men are created equal (1.5625
inches tall). What they become is limited
only by imagination.
-
- It doesn't always turn out as planned.
Sometimes it turns out better. If it doesn't,
you can always try again.
-
- *********** Dear Coach Wyatt; As we approach
Memorial Day I always enjoy reading your
website. This year I'd like to draw your
attention to another soldier. I recently re-read
"Starship Troopers" by Heinlein, which is
perhaps the finest essay ever written on the
purpose for war. The book is military science
fiction, and while somewhat sterilized from
actual depictions of combat and violence, it
focuses on the reasons why war is necessary.
(Didn't Kenny Rogers once say, "Sometimes you
have to fight to be a man…"?)
-
- The book features the mobile infantry, a
rough and "on the bounce" group of
powered-body-armor-wearing warriors. They are
delivered to interstellar combat by "drop
ships." Each drop ship has a name and a
particular song associated with it. In order to
be extracted from the combat zone, a pickup
craft homes in on a broadcast transmitter
playing the drop ship's song. Then the troopers
orient on and advance to retrieval by following
the song.
-
- In the book, the main character is assigned
to the drop ship "Rodger Young," and there is a
brief blurb at the back of the book about PFC
Rodger Young. I also looked him up on the
internet. I found this wikipedia article on him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodger_Young.
-
- Sounds like he and Don Holleder had quite a
bit in common. Not physically, but any man that
requests to be reduced in grade out of fear that
their disability will be a liability in combat
is a Black Lion in my book.
-
- From Frank Loesser's "The Ballad of Rodger
Young"
 -
-
- Very Respectfully, Derek Wade, Petaluma,
California
-
- Believe it or not, I knew the song. When
I was a kid of about 11 or 12 I had a camp
counselor named Dick Flood who sang and played
the guitar - he went on to become a fairly
successful C & W singer, but that's another
story - and this was one I remember him singing.
I'm glad to have the words. HW
-
- (Pvt Rodger Young, of Tiffin, Ohio, was
posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his
heroism on July 31st, 1943, during the battle
for the Solomon Islands.)
-
- TO HEAR THE SONG: http://www.west-point.org/greimanj/west_point/songs/RodgerYoung1959.mp3
-
-
- *********** Boy, I envy the Pilgrims. They
faced incredible hardships, but at least they
had some place they could flee to, to get away
from a tyrannical government and a culture that
didn't respect their religion.
-
- *********** For those who may wonder why I
never finished Friday Night Lights (apart from
the fact that I thought it was poorly written).
I consider it to be a disgraceful slap at
Odessa, Texas, a town which opened its arms to a
writer who said that he just wanted to show the
world how big football was in their town. The
little pissant took advantage of their
hospitality and trust, then turned around and
portrayed it as a haven of racist rednecks.
-
- I finally found the damning evidence - a
tape of the 1989 Texas state AAAAA title game,
in which Odessa Permian High School was playing.
One Buzz Bissinger, was down on the sidelines.
He had spent the previous two years in Odessa
researching the Permian Panthers and their
spirit of "Mojo," and he was being interviewed
on TV about a book he was working on. He had
obviously not yet let on that his book was going
to be a hatchet job on his hosts.
-
- SIDELINE GUY (SKIP BALDWIN): This is Buzz
Bissinger who's on leave from the
Philadelphia Inquirer, and for the last two
years, Buzz, you've been writing a book about
Mojo. Why did you decide to do that?
-
- BISSINGER: Well, I'm currently writing a
book about high school football and the
impact it has on a community, and you look
out here, there's seven or eight thousand
people from Odessa, it's freezing, it's 10
degrees, and I'm trying to capture the very
spirit of what you're seeing here... I think
it's. it's a great phenomena of high school
football. It can really bring a town together
and I'm trying to capture that, and came to
Odessa to do it
-
- SKIP BALDWIN: Kinda like Hoosiers,
huh?
-
- BISSINGER: Kinda like Hoosiers. I hope
it's as good and sells as many books. But I'm
really trying to capture the spirit of sports
and what it can mean to a community.
-
- Yeah, "capture the spirit of sports." What a
Richard Cranium.
-
- *********** I was wondering if we could have
one set of line blocking rules. For example,
G.O.D. ( Gap On Down) or G.O.B. ( Gap On
Backer). Know what I mean? I learned a lot at
your clinic and I liked what you said about "it
doesn't matter the front". I had mentioned to
you that we had a specific man to block on a 4
man front, but the d lineman would line up in a
position that would not make sense to our
blocking scheme. So what is a good way to teach
the line their blocking assignments that they
can figure out on their own when the D line
lines up? Sorry for the long question and hope
this makes sense.
-
- I am guessing that you don't have my
playbook, so basically - on the playside of
power plays and counters, our basic rule is
Gap/On/Area - It's almost Gap/On/Down but the
word "area" accounts for the fact that even if
there isn't anybody in a guy's inside gap or on
him, anybody from a linebacker to a man in the
guy's outside gap could challenge his position
and we don't want him to leave it so suddenly
that he leaves a hole - so we have him take a
VERY SHORT step with his outside foot, ready to
pick up anything that challenges him, and THEN
we "read up" = starting to block down but if the
lineman vanishes, blocking a linebacker away.
(His "area" starts at his outside gap and goes
as far as "linebacker away.")
-
- In certain cases, we may do other things
such as "block down regardless," but this is
basically it.
-
-
- 2006 DOUBLE-WING CLINIC
SCHEDULE - AS OF 4-1-06 (2006
CLINICS)
- CLINICS
START AT 9 AM SHARP AND GO UNTIL 4 PM WITH A
1-HOUR BREAK FOR LUNCH
|
|
CLINIC
|
LOCATION
|
|
FEB
25
|
ATLANTA
|
HOLIDAY
INN AIRPORT NORTH - 1380 Virginia Ave -
404-762-8411
|
|
MARCH
11
|
LOS
ANGELES
|
HOLIDAY INN-MEDIA
CENTER -150 E. Angeleno, Burbank -
818-841-4770
|
|
MARCH
18
|
CHICAGO
|
ST. XAVIER
UNIVERSITY - 3700 West 103rd St.,
Chicago
|
|
APRIL
8
|
RALEIGH-DURHAM
|
MILLENNIUM
HOTEL - 2800 Campus Walk Ave - Durham -
919-383-8575
|
|
APRIL
15
|
PHILADELPHIA
|
HOLIDAY INN, 432
Pennsylvania Ave, Fort Washington, PA.
- 215-643-3000
|
|
APRIL
29
|
PROVIDENCE
|
COMFORT INN AIRPORT
- 1940 POST RD, WARWICK RI -
401-732-0470
|
|
MAY
6
|
DENVER
|
WESTMINSTER
HS - Westminster, CO (For more details
call Coach Kevin Uhlig -
303-870-8582)
|
|
MAY
13
|
NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA
|
HOLIDAY
INN EXPRESS - LATHROP, CA.
|
|
JUNE
10
|
PACIFIC
NORTHWEST
|
PHOENIX INN &
SUITES - 12712 SE 2ND Circle, Vancouver
WA - 360-891-9777
|
NEXT CLINIC -
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - SATURDAY,
MAY 13 - HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS - LATHROP,
CA-
- Attendees will
receive a complimentary DVD breaking down,
play-by-play, the Full-House Belly-T offense of
the powerful 1953-1954 Army teams, coached by
Earl "Red" Blaik, with Vince Lombardi as his
offensive assistant. On the video you will see
action clips of Army greats, including the
immortal Don Holleder, whose memory is honored
by the Black Lion Award. This DVD is not for
sale. It is provided by the Board of the Black
Lion Award in the interests of furthering
football and the Black Lion Award
itself.
-
-
|
|
Osama shows that
he will stop at nothing in his plot to
weaken America...
|
|
BECOME A
BLACK LION TEAM
GIVE THE BLACK
LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR
PLAYERS!
|
|
|
Army's Will Sullivan
wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all
winners) in the Army-Navy game
|
(FOR
MORE INFO)
|
The Black Lion
certificate is awarded to all
winners
|
|
|
Honor Our
Brave Dead on Memorial Day!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
Take
Time to Thank a Veteran on Memorial
Day!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
- May
26, 2006 - "Behind every scheme to
make the world over, lies the question, What
kind of world do you want? The ideals of the
past for men have been drawn from war, as those
for women have been drawn from motherhood. For
all our prophecies, I doubt if we are ready to
give up our inheritance. Who is there who would
not like to be thought a gentleman? Yet what has
that name been built on but the soldier's choice
of honor rather than life? To be a soldier or
descended from soldiers, in time of peace to be
ready to give one's life rather than suffer
disgrace, that is what the word has meant; and
if we try to claim it at less cost than a
splendid carelessness for life, we are trying to
steal the good will without the responsibilities
of the place." Oliver Wendel Holmes, Jr -
"The Soldier's Faith"
-
- MEMORIAL
DAY SPECIAL
-
- "They never
fail who die in a great cause."
Lord Byron
-
- *********** Memorial Day, once known as
Decoration Day, was originally set aside to
honor the men who died in the Civil War. (There
was a time when certain southern states did not
observe it, preferring instead to observe their
own Memorial Days to honor Confederate war
dead.)
-
- The Civil War soldiers
called it "seeing the elephant." It meant
experiencing combat. They started out cocky,
but soon learned how suddenly horrible - how
unforgiving and inescapable - combat could
be. By the end of the Civil War 620,000 of
them on both sides lay dead. Hundreds of
thousands of civilians were left dead or
homeless.
"I have never realized the
'pomp and circumstance' of glorious war
before this," a Confederate soldier bitterly
wrote, "Men...lying in every conceivable
position; the dead...with eyes open, the
wounded begging piteously for
help."
"All around, strange
mingled roar - shouts of defiance, rally, and
desperation; and underneath, murmured
entreaty and stifled moans; gasping prayers,
snatches of Sabbath song, whispers of loved
names; everywhere men torn and broken,
staggering, creeping, quivering on the earth,
and dead faces with strangely fixed eyes
staring stark into the sky. Things which
cannot be told - nor dreamed. How men held
on, each one knows, - not I."
Each battle was a story of
great courage and audacity, sometimes of
miscommunication and foolishness. But it's
the casualty numbers that catch our eyes. The
numbers roll by and they are hard for us to
believe even in these days of modern warfare.
Shiloh: 23,741, Seven Days': 36,463,
Antietam: 26,134, Fredericksburg: 17,962,
Gettysburg: 51,112, and on and on (in most
cases, the South named battles after the town
that served as their headquarters in that
conflict, the North named them after rivers
or creeks nearby. So Manassas for the South
was Bull Run for the North; Antietam for the
Union was Sharpsburg for the
Confederacy).
General William T. Sherman
looked at the aftermath of Shiloh and wrote,
"The scenes on this field would have cured
anybody of war."
-
- From "Seeing the
Elephant" Raw Recruits at the Battle of
Shiloh - Joseph Allan Frank and George A.
Reaves - New York: Greenwood Press,
1989
-
- Probably the best known poem from the Civil
War, The Blue and the Gray, by Frances Miles
Finch illustrates the
truth that as bitterly as the men of the two
sides were divided, as ferociously as they
fought, the fallen - winner and loser alike -
are finally united, "Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day."
-
|
The Blue and the
Gray, by Frances Miles
Finch
|
|
|
|
By the flow of the
inland river,
|
|
Whence the fleets of
iron have fled,
|
|
Where the blades of
the grave-grass
quiver,
|
|
Asleep on the ranks
of the dead;
|
|
Under the sod and
the dew,
|
|
Waiting the judgment
day;
|
|
Under the one, the
Blue;
|
|
Under the other, the
Gray.
|
|
|
|
These in the robings
of glory,
|
|
Those in the gloom
of defeat;
|
|
All with the
battle-blood gory,
|
|
In the dusk of
eternity meet;
|
|
Under the sod and
the dew,
|
|
Waiting the judgment
day;
|
|
Under the laurel,
the Blue;
|
|
Under the willow,
the Gray.
|
|
|
|
From the silence of
sorrowful hours,
|
|
The desolate
mourners go,
|
|
Lovingly laden with
flowers,
|
|
Alike for the friend
and the foe;
|
|
Under the sod and
the dew,
|
|
Waiting the judgment
day;
|
|
Under the roses, the
Blue;
|
|
Under the lilies,
the Gray.
|
|
|
|
So, with an equal
splendor,
|
|
The morning sun-rays
fall,
|
|
With a touch
impartially tender,
|
|
On the blossoms
blooming for all;
|
|
Under the sod and
the dew,
|
|
Waiting the judgment
day;
|
|
Broidered with gold,
the Blue;
|
|
Mellowed with gold,
the Gray.
|
|
|
|
So, when the summer
calleth,
|
|
On forest and field
of grain,
|
|
With an equal murmur
falleth
|
|
The cooling drip of
the rain;
|
|
Under the sod and
the dew,
|
|
Waiting the judgment
day;
|
|
Wet with the rain,
the Blue;
|
|
Wet with the rain,
the Gray.
|
|
|
|
Sadly, but not with
upbraiding,
|
|
The generous deed
was done;
|
|
In the storm of the
years that are fading,
|
|
No braver battle was
won;
|
|
Under the sod and
the dew,
|
|
Waiting the judgment
day;
|
|
Under the blossoms,
the Blue;
|
|
Under the garlands,
the Gray.
|
|
|
|
No more shall the
war-cry sever,
|
|
Or the winding
rivers be red;
|
|
They banish our
anger forever,
|
|
When they laurel the
graves of our dead.
|
|
Under the sod and
the dew,
|
|
Waiting the judgment
day;
|
|
Love and tears for
the Blue;
|
|
Tears and love for
the Gray.
|
*********** Following World War I, Americans
began to celebrate the week leading up to
Memorial Day as Poppy Week.
It was because of a poem by Major John
McCrae, a Canadian surgeon, that the poppy,
which burst into bloom all over the once-bloody
battlefields of northern Europe, came to
symbolize the rebirth of life following the
tragedy of war. -
- Long after World War I ended, veterans'
organizations in America, Australia and other
nations which fought in the war sold imitation
poppies at this time of year to raise funds to
assist disabled veterans.
-
- After having spent seventeen days hearing
the screams and dealing with the suffering of
men wounded in the bloody battle at Ypres, in
Flanders (a part of Belgium) in the spring of
1915, Major McCrae wrote, "I wish I could embody
on paper some of the varied sensations of that
seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At
the end of the first day if anyone had told us
we had to spend seventeen days there, we would
have folded our hands and said it could not have
been done."
Major McCrae was especially affected by the
death of a close friend and former student.
Following his burial - which, in the absence of a
chaplain, Major McCrae had had to perform - the
Major sat in the back of an ambulance and, gazing
out at the wild poppies growing in profusion in a
nearby cemetery, began to compose a poem,
scribbling the words in a notebook as he went.
But when he was done, he discarded it. It was
only thanks to the efforts of a fellow officer, who
rescued it and sent it to newspapers in England,
that it was published.
The poem, "In Flanders Fields", is considered
perhaps the greatest of all wartime poems.
The special significance of the poppies is that
poppy seeds can lie dormant in the ground for
years; only when the soil has been turned over do
the poppies flower.
The violence of war had so churned the soil of
northern Belgium that by the time Major McCrae
wrote his poem, poppies were said to be blossoming
in a way that no one could ever remember having
seen them do before.
|
In Flanders Fields...
by John
McCrae
|
|
|
|
In Flanders fields the
poppies blow
|
|
Between the crosses,
row on row,
|
|
That mark our place;
and in the sky
|
|
The larks, still
bravely singing, fly
|
|
Scarce heard amid the
guns below.
|
|
|
|
We are the Dead. Short
days ago
|
|
We lived, felt dawn,
saw sunset glow,
|
|
Loved, and were loved,
and now we lie
|
|
In Flanders
fields.
|
|
|
|
Take up our quarrel
with the foe:
|
|
To you from failing
hands we throw
|
|
The torch; be yours to
hold it high.
|
|
If ye break faith with
us who die
|
|
We shall not sleep,
though poppies grow
|
|
In Flanders
fields.
|
|
|
MEMORIAL DAY IN
OUR LITTLE TOWN - CAMAS,
WASHINGTON
It's not the worst
thing in the world to live across the
street from a cemetery, as we do - not
when the cemetery is as beautiful as our
town's cemetery is. And it's especially
beautiful on Memorial Day and Veterans'
Day, when the lush green hilltop is
studded with flags and flowers. The tall
evergreens, silhouetted against the sky,
stand guard in the background.
My wife and I look
forward to Memorial Day as the informal
kickoff to summer, but also as a reminder
that Americans still care.
Every year, the routine
is the same: on Saturday a local Boy Scout
troop places flags on the graves of
veterans at the town cemetery while each
Veteran's name is read aloud by a member
of the local American Legion post; then,
for the rest of the three-day weekend, a
steady stream of visitors passes through
to place flowers and pay their
respects.
|
|
- *********** Robert W. Service is one of my
favorite poets, and this poem, about a young
Englishman and his loving father, is especially
poignant on a day when we remember our people
who gave everything, and extend our sympathy to
those they left behind.
|
Young Fellow My
Lad by Robert W.
Service
|
|
|
|
"Where are you
going, Young Fellow My Lad, On this
glittering morn of May?"
|
|
"I'm going to join
the Colours, Dad; They're looking for
men, they say."
|
|
"But you're only a
boy, Young Fellow My Lad; You aren't
obliged to go."
|
|
"I'm seventeen and a
quarter, Dad, And ever so strong, you
know."
|
|
|
|
"So you're off to
France, Young Fellow My Lad, And you're
looking so fit and bright."
|
|
"I'm terribly sorry
to leave you, Dad, But I feel that I'm
doing right."
|
|
"God bless you and
keep you, Young Fellow My Lad, You're
all of my life, you know."
|
|
"Don't worry. I'll
soon be back, dear Dad, And I'm awfully
proud to go."
|
|
|
|
"Why don't you
write, Young Fellow My Lad? I watch for
the post each day;
|
|
And I miss you so,
and I'm awfully sad, And it's months
since you went away.
|
|
And I've had the
fire in the parlour lit, And I'm
keeping it burning bright
|
|
Till my boy comes
home; and here I sit Into the quiet
night."
|
|
|
|
"What is the matter,
Young Fellow My Lad? No letter again
to-day.
|
|
Why did the postman
look so sad, And sigh as he turned
away?
|
|
I hear them tell
that we've gained new ground, But a
terrible price we've paid:
|
|
God grant, my boy,
that you're safe and sound; But oh I'm
afraid, afraid."
|
|
|
|
"They've told me the
truth, Young Fellow My Lad: You'll
never come back again:
|
|
(OH GOD! THE DREAMS
AND THE DREAMS I'VE HAD, AND THE HOPES
I'VE NURSED IN VAIN!)
|
|
For you passed in
the night, Young Fellow My Lad, And you
proved in the cruel test
|
|
Of the screaming
shell and the battle hell That my boy
was one of the best.
|
|
|
|
"So you'll live,
you'll live, Young Fellow My Lad, In
the gleam of the evening
star,
|
|
In the wood-note
wild and the laugh of the child, In all
sweet things that are.
|
|
And you'll never
die, my wonderful boy, While life is
noble and true;
|
|
For all our beauty
and hope and joy We will owe to our
lads like you."
|
|
ON MEMORIAL DAY, WE HONOR
THE MEN OF THE BLACK LIONS, AND
ALL-AMERICA DON HOLLEDER
|
|
|
- "THE
BIG RED
ONE", the
1st Infantry Division, of which the
Black Lions are a part, is a very
proud U.S. Army division.
-
- The 2nd
Battalion, 28th Infantry "Black
Lions", the U.S. battalion which
fought the Battle of Ong Thanh on
October 17, 1967, was part of a rich
military tradition.
The first U.S.
victory of World War I was won when
the 28th Infantry Regimentof the !st
Division attacked and seized the
small French village of CANTIGNY on
the 28th of May 1918, earning for
The 28th Infantry Regiment the
nickname "Black Lions of
CANTIGNY".
General John J.
Pershing, Commander of the American
Expeditionary Forces in World War I,
said of the 1st Division: "The
Commander-in-Chief has noted in this
division a special pride of service
and a high state of morale, never
broken by hardship nor battle."
These words have
never been forgotten by the 1st
Infantry Division. All military
units seek to be known as special
and unique - the best. The 1st
Infantry Division has been able,
over the many years of its
existence, to retain that esprit,
and most of those who have served in
many different US Army divisions
remember the special esprit which
the 1st Division was able to imbue
throughout its
ranks.
|
|
LOST AT ONG THANH, VIET
NAM, OCTOBER 17, 1967
|
|
K
I A
...
Adkins, Donald W.... Allen,
Terry... Anderson, Larry M....
Barker, Gary L.... Blackwell,
James L., Jr.... Bolen, Jackie
Jr. ... Booker, Joseph O. ...
Breeden, Clifford L. Jr ...
Camero, Santos... Carrasco,
Ralph ... Chaney, Elwood D.
Jr... Cook, Melvin B....
Crites, Richard L....
Crutcher, Joe A. ......
Dodson, Wesley E.... Dowling,
Francis E.... Durham, Harold
B. Jr ... Dye, Edward P. ...
East, Leon N.... Ellis,
Maurice S.... Familiare,
Anthony ... Farrell, Michael
J. ...Fuqua, Robert L. Jr.
...Gallagher, Michael J.
...Garcia, Arturo ...Garcia,
Melesso ...Gilbert, Stanley D.
...Gilbertson, Verland
...Gribble, Ray N.
...Holleder, Donald W.
...Jagielo, Allen D.
...Johnson, Willie C. Jr
...Jones, Richard W.
...Krischie, John D.
...Lancaster, James E.
...Larson, James E.
...Lincoln, Gary G. ...Lovato,
Joe Jr. ...Luberta, Andrew P.
...Megiveron, Emil G.
...Miller, Michael M.
...Moultrie, Joe D. ...Nagy,
Robert J. ...Ostroff, Steven
L. ...Platosz, Walter
...Plier, Eugene J. ...Porter,
Archie ...Randall, Garland J.
...Reece, Ronney D. ...Reilly,
Allan V. ...Sarsfield, Harry
C. ...Schroder, Jack W.
...Shubert, Jackie E.
...Sikorski, Daniel ...Smith,
Luther ...Thomas, Theodore D.
Jr. ...Tizzio, Pasquale T.
...Wilson, Kenneth P. ....
M
I A
...
Fitzgerald, Paul ...Hargrove,
Olin Jr.
|
Several years ago, while visiting
the First Division (Big Red One) Museum
in Wheaton, Illinois I read these
lines, and thought of those
men...
|
If you are
able
|
|
Save a
place for them inside of
you,
|
|
And save
one backward glance
|
|
When you
are leaving for
places
|
|
They can no
longer go.
|
|
Be not
ashamed to say you loved
them,
|
|
Though you
may or may not always
have.
|
|
Take what
they have left
|
|
And what
they have taught you with
their dying,
|
|
And keep it
with your own.
|
|
And in that
time when men feel
safe
|
|
To call the
war insane,
|
|
Take one
moment to embrace these gentle
heroes
|
|
You left
behind.
|
|
|
|
by
Major Michael D. O'Donnell...
shortly before he was killed
in action in Vietnam,
1970
|
|
|
DON HOLLEDER - THE MAN WHOSE
STORY INSPIRED THE BLACK LION
AWARD...
|
|
|
Army's
All-American Don Holleder... Donald W.
Holleder's name on the Vietnam Wall...
Don Holleder as a West Point
cadet
|
- A TRIBUTE TO DONALD WALTER HOLLEDER
UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY CLASS OF
1956
KILLED ON THE BATTLEFIELD IN VIETNAM 17
OCTOBER 1967
By retired Air Force General
Perry Smith (Don Holleder's West Point classmate,
roommate and best man)
"If you doubt the axiom,
'An aggressive leader is priceless,' ...if you
prefer the air arm to the infantry in football, if
you are not convinced we recruited cadet-athletes
of superior leadership potential, then you must
hear the story of Donald Walter Holleder. The saga
of Holleder stands unique in Army and, perhaps, all
college gridiron lore." Hence begins the chapter,
"You are my quarterback", in Coach Red Blaik's 1960
book, You Have to Pay the Price. Every cadet in the
classes of 1956, 57, 58 and 59, and everyone who
was part of the Army family at West Point and
throughout the world will remember, even 50 years
after the fact, the "Great Experiment". But there
is much more to the Holleder story. .
Holly was born and brought up in
a tight knit Catholic family in upstate New York.
He was an only child whose father died when Don was
quite young. Doc Blanchard recruited high school
All American Holleder who entered the Point just a
few days after he graduated from Aquinas Institute
in Rochester. Twice turned out for academic
difficulties, he struggled mightily to stay in the
Corps. However as a cadet leader he excelled,
serving as a cadet captain and company commander of
M-2 his senior year.
Of course, it was in the field
of athletics that Don is best known. Never a
starter on the basketball team, he nevertheless got
playing time as a forward who brought rebounding
strength to a team that beat a heavily favored Navy
team in the early spring of 1954. That fall, the
passing combination of Vann to Holleder quickly
caught the attention of the college football world.
No one who watched those games will ever forget
Holly going deep and leaping into the air to grab a
perfectly thrown bomb from Peter Vann. Don was a
consensus first team All American that year as a
junior.
Three football defeats in 1955
after Holly's conversion to quarterback brought
criticism of Coach Blaik and Don from many quarters
but the dramatic Army victory over Navy, 14 to 6
brought redemption. Shortly thereafter, Holly
received the Swede Nelson award for sportsmanship.
The fact that he had given up all chances of
becoming a two time all-American and a candidate
for the Heisman trophy and he did so without
protest or complaint played heavily in the decision
by the Nelson committee to select him for this
prestigious award.
Holly's eleven year career in
the Army included the normal schools at Benning and
Leavenworth, company command in Korea, coaching and
recruiting at West Point and serving as the
commanding general's aide at Fortress Monroe. After
graduating from Command and General Staff College,
he was off to Vietnam.
Arriving in July, 1967, Holly
was assigned to the Big Red One--the First Infantry
Division-- and had considerable combat experience
before that tragic day in the fall--October 17.
Lieutenant Colonel Terry Allen's battalion was
ambushed and overrun--the troops on the ground were
is desperate shape. Holleder was serving as the
operations officer of the 28th Brigade--famous
Black Lions. Hearing the anguished radio calls for
help from the soldiers on the ground, Holly
convinced his brigade commander that he had to get
on the ground to help. Jumping out of his
helicopter, Holly rallied some troops and raced
toward the spot where the wounded soldiers were
fighting. The Newsweek article a few days after his
death tells what happened next. "With the Viet Cong
firing from two sides, the U. S. troops now began
retreating pell-mell back to their base camp,
carrying as many of their wounded as they could,
The medic Hinger was among those who staggered out
of the bush and headed across an open marshy plain
toward the base, 200 meters away. But on the way he
ran into big, forceful Major Donald W. Holleder,
33, an All-American football player at West
Point..., going the other way--toward the scene of
the battle. Holleder, operations officer for the
brigade, had not been in the fight until now. '
Come on Doc, he shouted to Hinger, 'There are still
wounded in there. I need your help.'
"Hinger said later: 'I was
exhausted. But having never seen such a commander,
I ran after him. What an officer! He went on ahead
of us--literally running to the point position'.
Then a burst of fire from the trees caught
Holleder. 'He was hit in the shoulder recalled
Hinger. 'I started to patch him up, but he died in
my arms.' The medic added he had been with Holleder
for only three minutes, but would remember the
Major's gallantry for the rest of his life." Holly
died as he lived: the willingness to make great
sacrifices prevailed to the minute of his
death.
Caroline was left a young widow.
She later married our West Point classmate, Ernie
Ruffner, who became a loving husband and father to
the four Holleder daughters. All the daughters are
happily married and there are eight wonderful and
loving grandchildren.
The legacy of Donald Walter
Holleder will remain an important part of the West
Point story forever. The Holleder Army Reserve
Center in Webster, New York, the Holleder Parkway
in Rochester and the Holleder Athletic Center at
West Point all help further Don's legacy. In 1985,
Holly was inducted into College Football Hall of
Fame. A 2003 best selling book, They Marched into
Sunlight, by David Maraniss tells the story of
Holleder and the Black Lions. Tom Hanks has
purchased the film rights to the book.
An innovative high school coach,
Hugh Wyatt, decide to further memorialize Don's
legacy by establishing the Black Lion Award. Each
year at hundreds of high schools, middle schools
and youth football programs across the country, a
single football player on each team is selected
"who best exemplifies the character of Don
Holleder: leadership, courage, devotion to duty,
self-sacrifice, and--above all--an unselfish
concern for his team ahead of himself." Starting in
2005, this award is presented to a member of the
Army football team each year.
Anyone who wishes to extend
Holleder's legacy can do so by approaching their
local football coaches and encouraging them to make
the Black Lion Award a part of their tradition.
Coach Hugh Wyatt can be contacted by e mail
(coachwyatt@aol.com).
All West Pointers can be proud
of Donald Walter Holleder; for him there were no
impossible dreams, only challenges to seek out and
to conquer. Forty years after his death thousands
of friends and millions of fans still remember him
and salute him for his character and supreme
courage.
- By Retired Air Force General Perry Smith,
classmate and roommate, with great assistance
from Don's family members, Stacey Jones and
Ernie Ruffner, classmates, Jerry Amlong, Peter
Vann and JJ McGinn, and battlefield medic, Doc
Hinger.
-
*********** A YOUNG MEN'S REMEMBRANCES OF DON
HOLLEDER...
In 1954-55 I lived at West Point
N.Y. where my father was stationed as a member of
the staff at the United States Military
Academy.
Don Holleder was an All American
end on the Red Blaik coached Army football team
which was a perennial eastern gridiron power in 40s
and 50s. On Fall days I would run home from the
post school, drop off my books, and head directly
to the Army varsity practice field which overlooked
the Hudson River and was only a short sprint from
my house.
Army had a number of outstanding
players on the roster back then, but my focus was
on Don Holleder, our All-America end turned
quarterback in a controversial position change that
had sportswriters and Army fans buzzing throughout
the college football community that
year.
Don looked like a hero, tall,
square jawed, almost stately in his appearance. He
practiced like he played, full out all the time. He
was the obvious leader of the team in addition to
being its best athlete and player.
In 1955 it was common for star
players to play both sides of the ball and Don was
no exception delivering the most punishing tackles
in practice as well as game situations. At the end
of practice the Army players would walk past the
parade ground (The Plain), then past my house and
into the Arvin Gymnasium where the team's locker
room was located.
Very often I would take that
walk stride for stride with Don and the team and
best of all, Don would sometimes let me carry his
helmet. It was gold with a black stripe down the
middle and had the most wonderful smell of sweat
and leather. Inside the helmet suspension was taped
a sweaty number 16, Don's jersey number.
- While Don's teammates would
talk and laugh among themselves in typical
locker room banter, Don would ask me about
school, show me how to grip the ball and
occasionally chide his buddies if the joking
ever got bawdy in front of "the little guy". On
Saturdays I lived and died with Don's exploits
on the field in Michie Stadium.
-
- In his senior year Don's
picture graced the cover of Sports Illustrated
magazine and he led Army to a winning season
culminating in a stirring victory over Navy in
front of 100,000 fans in Philadelphia. During
that incredible year I don't ever remember Don
not taking time to talk to me and patiently
answer my boyish questions about the South
Carolina or Michigan defense ("I'll bet they
don't have anybody as fast as you, huh,
Don?").
-
- Don graduated with his class
in June 1956 and was assigned to the 25th
Infantry Division in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
Coincidentally, my Dad was also assigned to the
25th at the same time so I got to watch Don
quarterback the 14th Infantry Regiment football
team to the Division championship in
1957.
There was one major drawback
to all of Don's football-gained notoriety - he
wanted no part of it. He wanted to be a soldier
and an infantry leader. But division
recreational football was a big deal in the Army
back then and for someone with Don's college
credentials not to play was unheard
of.
-
- In the first place players
got a lot of perks for representing their
Regiment, not to mention hero status with the
chain of command. Nevertheless, Don wanted to
trade his football helmet for a steel pot and
finally, with the help of my Dad, he succeeded
in retiring from competitive football and
getting on with his military
profession.
-
- It came as no surprise to
anyone who knew Don that he was a natural leader
of men in arms, demanding yet compassionate,
dedicated to his men and above all fearless.
Sure enough after a couple of TO&E infantry
tours his reputation as a soldier matched his
former prowess as an athlete.
-
- It was this reputation that
won him the favor of the Army brass and he soon
found himself as an Aide-de-camp to the four
star commander of the Continental Army Command
in beautiful Ft Monroe, Virginia.
-
- With the Viet Nam War
escalating and American combat casualties
increasing every day, Ft Monroe would be a great
place to wait out the action and still promote
one's Army career - a high-profile job with a
four star senior rater, safely distanced from
the conflict in southeast Asia.
-
- Once again, Don wanted no
part of this safe harbor and respectfully
lobbied his boss, General Hugh P. Harris to get
him to Troops in Viet Nam. Don got his wish but
not very long after arriving at the First
Division he was killed attempting to lead a
relief column to wounded comrades caught in a
Viet Cong ambush.
I remember the day I found
out about Don's death. I was in the barber's
chair at The Citadel my sophomore year when
General Harris (Don's old boss at Ft Monroe, now
President of The Citadel) walked over to me and
motioned me outside.
-
- He knew Don was a friend of
mine and sought me out to tell me that he was
KIA. It was one of the most defining moments of
my life. As I stood there in front of the
General the tears welled up in my eyes and I
said "No, please, sir. Don't say that." General
Harris showed no emotion and I realized that he
had experienced this kind of hurt too many times
to let it show. "Biff", he said, "Don died doing
his duty and serving his country. He had
alternatives but wouldn't have it any other way.
We will always be proud of him,
Biff."
-
- With that, he turned and
walked away. As I watched him go I didn't know
the truth of his parting words. I shed tears of
both pride and sorrow that day in 1967, just as
I am doing now, 34 years later, as I write this
remembrance. In my mind's eye I see Don walking
with his teammates after practice back at West
Point, their football cleats making that
signature metallic clicking on concrete as they
pass my house at the edge of the parade ground;
he was a leader among leaders.
-
- As I have been writing this,
I periodically looked up at the November 28,
1955 Sports Illustrated cover which hangs on my
office wall, to make sure I'm not saying
anything Don wouldn't approve of, but he's
smiling out from under that beautiful gold
helmet and thinking about the Navy game. General
Harris was right. We will always be proud of Don
Holleder, my boyhood hero... Biff
Messinger, Mountainville, NY, 2001
-
***********"They
never fail who die in a great cause: the block
may soak their gore, their heads may sodden in
the sun; their limbs be strung to city gates and
castle walls--but still their spirit walks
abroad. Though years elapse, and others share as
dark a doom, they but augment the deep and
sweeping thoughts which overpower all others,
and conduct the world at last to freedom." Lord
Byron
- Like many other phenomena
in life, history has a tendency to be fickle.
In 2001, some thirty-four years after the
Battle of Ông Thanh, and the subsequent
withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam in
1973, which was followed by the "honorable
peace" that saw the North Vietnamese army
conquer South Vietnam in 1975 in violation of
the Paris Peace Accords, most historians, as
well as a large majority of the American
people, may consider the U.S. involvement in
Vietnam a disastrous and tragic waste and a
time of shame in U.S. history. Consider,
however, the fact that since the late 1940s,
the Soviet Union was the greatest single
threat to U.S. security. Yet for forty years,
war between the Soviet Union and the United
States was averted. Each time a Soviet threat
surfaced during that time (Greece, Turkey,
Korea, Berlin, Cuba, Vietnam, and
Afghanistan), although it may have been in
the form of a "war of national liberation,"
as the Vietnam war was characterized, the
United States gave the Soviet Union the
distinct message that each successive threat
would not be a Soviet walkover. In fact, the
Soviets were stunned by the U.S. reactions in
both Korea and Vietnam. They shook their
heads, wondering what interest a great power
like the United States could have in those
two godforsaken countries. They thought:
"These Americans are crazy. They have nothing
to gain; and yet they fight and lose
thousands of men over nothing. They are
irrational." Perhaps history in the
long-term--two hundred or three hundred years
from now--will say that the western
democracies, led by the United States,
survived in the world, and their philosophy
of government of the people, by the people,
for the people continues to survive today (in
2301) in some measure due to resolute
sacrifices made in the mid-twentieth century
by men like those listed in the last chapter
of this book. Then the words of Lord Byron,
as quoted in this book's preface, will not
ring hollow, but instead they will inspire
other men and women of honor in the years to
come.
From "The Beast was Out There", by
Brigadier General James Shelton, USA
(Ret.)
-
- Jim Shelton is a former Delaware
football player (wing-T guard) who served in
Korea and Vietnam and as a combat infantryman
rose to the rank of General. He was at Ong
Thanh on that fateful day in October, 1967
when Don Holleder was killed. He had played
football against Don Holleder in college, and
was one of those called on to identify Major
Holleder's body.
-
- Now retired, he serves as Colonel of
the Black Lions and has been instrumental in
the establishment of the Black Lion Award for
young American football players. General
Shelton personally signs every Black Lions
Award certificate.
-
- The title of his book is taken from
Captain Jim Kasik's description of the enemy:
"the beast was out there, and the beast was
hungry."
-
- *********** "Major Holleder overflew the
area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet
Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded,
trying to make their way our of the ambush area.
He landed and headed straight into the jungle,
gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the
wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he
could get very far. He was a risk-taker who
put the common good ahead of himself, whether it
was giving up a position in which he had
excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an
attempt to save the lives of his men. My
contact with Major Holleder was very brief and
occured just before he was killed, but I have
never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made.
On a day when acts of heroism were the rule,
rather than the exception, his stood out."
Dave Berry
-
- click to read ... MORE
ABOUT DON HOLLEDER - THE FOOTBALL PLAYER AND THE
MAN
-
- *********** THE
YANKEE FROM OLYMPUS - AND MEMORIAL
DAY
-
- "We have shared the incommunicable
experience of war. We felt - we still feel - the
passion of life to its top.... In our youths,
our hearts were touched with fire." Oliver
Wendel Holmes, Jr.
-
- Oliver Wendel Holmes, Jr. was born in Boston
in 1841, the son of a famous poet and physician.
In his lifetime he would see combat in the Civil
War then go on to become a noted lawyer and,
finally, for 30 years, a justice of the Supreme
Court. So respected was he that he became known
as "The Yankee From Olympus."
-
- He graduated from Harvard University in
1861. After graduation, with the Civil War
underway, he joined the United States Army and
saw combat action in Peninsula Campaign and the
Wilderness, and was injured at the Battles of
Ball's Bluff, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. He
was discharged in 1964 as a Lieutenant
Colonel.
-
- The story is told of Holmes that in July
1864, as the Confederate general Jubal Early
conducted a raid north of Washington, D.C.
President Abraham Lincoln came out to watch the
battle. As Lincoln watched, an officer right
next to him was hit by a sniper's bullet. The
young Holmes, not realizing who he was speaking
to, shouted to the President, "Get down, you
damn fool, before you get shot!"
-
- After the war's conclusion, Holmes returned
to Harvard to study law, being admitted to the
bar in 1866, and went into practice in
Boston.
-
- In 1882, he became both a professor at
Harvard Law School and a justice of the Supreme
Judicial Court of Massachusetts. In 1899, he was
appointed Chief Justice of the court.
-
- In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt named
Holmes to the United States Supreme Court, where
served for more than 30 years, until January
1932.
-
- Over the years, as a distinguished citizen
who knw what it meant to fight for his country,
he reflected on the meaning of Memorial Day, and
of the soldiers' contribution to preserving our
way of life...
-
- On Memorial Day, 1884, 20 years after the
end of the Civil War, Mr. Holmes said,
-
- Accidents may call up the events of the
war. You see a battery of guns go by at a
trot, and for a moment you are back at White
Oak Swamp, or Antietam, or on the Jerusalem
Road. You hear a few shots fired in the
distance, and for an instant your heart stops
as you say to yourself, The skirmishers are
at it, and listen for the long roll of fire
from the main line.
-
- You meet an old comrade after many years
of absence; he recalls the moment that you
were nearly surrounded by the enemy, and
again there comes up to you that swift and
cunning thinking on which once hung life and
freedom--Shall I stand the best chance if I
try the pistol or the sabre on that man who
means to stop me? Will he get his carbine
free before I reach him, or can I kill him
first?These and the thousand other events we
have known are called up, I say, by accident,
and, apart from accident, they lie
forgotten.
-
- But as surely as this day comes round we
are in the presence of the dead. For one
hour, twice a year at least--at the
regimental dinner, where the ghosts sit at
table more numerous than the living, and on
this day when we decorate their graves--the
dead come back and live with us.
-
- I see them now, more than I can number,
as once I saw them on this earth. They are
the same bright figures, or their
counterparts, that come also before your
eyes; and when I speak of those who were my
brothers, the same words describe yours.
- On Memorial Day, 1895, Mr. Holmes
addressed the graduating class of Harvard
University.
-
- The society for which many
philanthropists, labor reformers, and men of
fashion unite in longing is one in which they
may be comfortable and may shine without much
trouble or any danger. The unfortunately
growing hatred of the poor for the rich seems
to me to rest on the belief that money is the
main thing (a belief in which the poor have
been encouraged by the rich), more than on
any other grievance. Most of my hearers would
rather that their daughters or their sisters
should marry a son of one of the great rich
families than a regular army officer, were he
as beautiful, brave, and gifted as Sir
William Napier. I have heard the question
asked whether our war was worth fighting,
after all. There are many, poor and rich, who
think that love of country is an old wife's
tale, to be replaced by interest in a labor
union, or, under the name of cosmopolitanism,
by a rootless self-seeking search for a place
where the most enjoyment may be had at the
least cost.
-
- I do not know the meaning of the
universe. But in the midst of doubt, in the
collapse of creeds, there is one thing I do
not doubt, that no man who lives in the same
world with most of us can doubt, and that is
that the faith is true and adorable which
leads a soldier to throw away his life in
obedience to a blindly accepted duty, in a
cause which he little understands, in a plan
of campaign of which he has little notion,
under tactics of which he does not see the
use.
-
- Most men who know battle know the cynic
force with which the thoughts of common sense
will assail them in times of stress; but they
know that in their greatest moments faith has
trampled those thoughts under foot. If you
wait in line, suppose on Tremont Street Mall,
ordered simply to wait and do nothing, and
have watched the enemy bring their guns to
bear upon you down a gentle slope like that
of Beacon Street, have seen the puff of the
firing, have felt the burst of the spherical
case-shot as it came toward you, have heard
and seen the shrieking fragments go tearing
through your company, and have known that the
next or the next shot carries your fate; if
you have advanced in line and have seen ahead
of you the spot you must pass where the rifle
bullets are striking; if you have ridden at
night at a walk toward the blue line of fire
at the dead angle of Spottsylvania, where for
twenty-four hours the soldiers were fighting
on the two sides of an earthwork, and in the
morning the dead and dying lay piled in a row
six deep, and as you rode you heard the
bullets splashing in the mud and earth about
you; if you have been in the picket-line at
night in a black and unknown wood, have heard
the splat of the bullets upon the trees, and
as you moved have felt your foot slip upon a
dead man's body; if you have had a blind
fierce gallop against the enemy, with your
blood up and a pace that left no time for
fear --if, in short, as some, I hope many,
who hear me, have known, you have known the
vicissitudes of terror and triumph in war;
you know that there is such a thing as the
faith I spoke of. You know your own weakness
and are modest; but you know that man has in
him that unspeakable somewhat which makes him
capable of miracle, able to lift himself by
the might of his own soul, unaided, able to
face anniliation for a blind belief.
-
- On the eve of Memorial Day, 1931, at the
age of 90, Mr. Holmes wrote to a friend:
-
- "I shall go out to Arlington tomorrow,
Memorial Day, and visit the gravestone with
my name and my wife's on it, and be stirred
by the military music, and, instead of
bothering about the Unknown Soldier shall go
to another stone that tells beneath it are
the bones of, I dont remember the number but
two or three thousand and odd, once soldiers
gathered from the Virginia fields after the
Civil War. I heard a woman say there once,
'They gave their all. They gave their very
names.' Later perhaps some people will come
in to say goodbye."
- Justice Holmes died on March 6, 1935, two
days short of his 94th birthday, and was buried
in Arlington National Cemetery. He once said,
"taxes are the price we pay for civilization,"
and in keeping with that sentiment, he left his
entire estate to the United States
government.
-
- So spry and alert was he, right up to the
end, that it's said that one day, when he was in
his nineties, he saw an attractive young woman
and said, "Oh, to be seventy again!"
-
- A 1951 Hollywood motion picture, The
Magnificent Yankee, was based on his
life.
-
- *********** Ahem. How many of you can brag
that you live in a state visited by
Mexican President Vicente Fox????? Ahem.
-
- So the First Immigrant visited us
Washingtonians on Wednesday, and he found the
time to speak to a group of his fellow
countrymen in Yakima, a central Washington city
whose population is 40 per cent Hispanic.
-
- Clearly not concerned about winning friends
among us nativists, he spoke to them in
Spanish.
-
- I thought, wait a minute - I thought
our politicians were the only ones who
tripped over themselves trying to suck up to
Hispanics by speaking in Spanish.
-
- (Jay Leno's take on Vicente Fox's coming
across the border: "Okay. That's it. That's the
last one across. You can turn off the lights
now.")
-
- (David Letterman's take: "He offered to take
President Bush's job for $3 an hour -
cash.")
-
- *********** Paging Jerry Tarkanian...
-
- Florida State rescinded its scholarship
offer to a kid named Jonathan Kreft after he was
arrested last week and charged with possession
of cocaine and marijuana.
-
- *********** Paul McGuire, who's been working
pro games since 1986, will be switching over to
college football on ABC this fall, teaming with
Bob Griese and Brad Nessler.
-
- About Griese, he said, "This will be the
first time I've worked with a quarterback who
knows anything about football."
-
- (To put a point on that - McGuire worked 12
years at NBC with Phil Simms, and the last eight
years at ESPN with Joe Theismann.)
-
- *********** Brad Knight, of Holstein, Iowa,
a white man, says he feels "excluded" by Army's
teams calling themselves the Black
Knights. He is certainly not pushing for "White
Knights," but wants to know why they can't be
just plain "Knights," or maybe even - somehow I
don't think this one is going to fly - "Rainbow
Knights."
-
- Officially, he would make them "The Rainbow
Caring Knights who are NICE and friendly towards
all people and allow all players a chance to
participate regardless the outcome or the
score."
-
- *********** Dad...just FYI... Scoop on Boris
Diaw, who hit the winning shot for Phoenix
today...
-
- *Actually should be pronounced "Jhow"
(rhyming with cow)
-
- *Dad is a lawyer in Dakar who was a former
high jump champion, Mother lives in Paris
&endash; was one of France's best-ever women's
basketball players and taught PE for years
-
- *Grew learning the game in the "playgrounds
of Talence and Pessac" (Bordeaux region) under
the toutelage of Vincent Mbassi " a well known
figure from the locals who is passionate about
the game and often devotes his free time to the
youngsters in the area"
-
- *Recruited to French institute of Sport in
1999 where he bonds with Tony Parker and Ronny
Turiaf.
-
- *After high school turned down US
scholarship offers to play professionally in
France &endash; has an older brother who played
at California Univ of Pennysylvania (!) and a
younger brother now at Georgia Tech.
-
- ("The playgrounds of Talence and Pessac??!!"
I get the feeling the big cities in France are
getting to be like the US - black African and
West Indian kids playing hoops!)
-
- Ed Wyatt, Melbourne, Australia
-
- *********** Wow - ABC claimed it had inside
info that the Department of Justice is
investigating Speaker of the House Dennis
Hastert. But the Justice Department itself
officially denied any investigation was going
on. Yet ABC stands by its story. So there is the
possibility Speaker Hastert will sue ABC for
libel, since it has been told that its story is
not true, yet it persists.
-
- Now, this is one I'd pay money to watch: In
this corner, the lead member of one of the most
detested of all political creations, the United
States House of Representatives, and in the
other corner, ABC, owned by Disney (which also
owns ESPN plus ESPN-this-and-that plus
DisneyLand plus Walt Disney World, etc.,
etc.).
-
- Loser leaves town.
-
- *********** My Belgian friend, married to an
American, just got her permanent resident status
(green card.) If you didn't know, there's a big
interview involved to make sure it's not a sham
marriage, and all this stuff. Too bad she's not
a Mexican illegal or she'd have an amnesty
coming down the pike, even if she'd sent all her
income back to her home country.
-
- Read a great line in an op-ed: "we have a
guest worker program. It's called a green
card."
-
- How is the country going to survive another
generation if we can't even get our own
executive and bureaucracy to enforce the laws on
the books? Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto,
California
-
- *********** Connecticut has passed a rule
stipulating if a team wins by 50 or more points,
its coach will be suspended for the next
game.
-
- Realistically, it is a typical
administrative response to the fact that there
is one coach in particular who has earned
himself quite a reputation as a run-it-up
Joe.
-
- Of the 659 high school games played in
Connecticut last year, there were 27 in which
teams won by at least 50 points. This one guy
was responsible for four of them, including one
90-0 debacle.
-
- In fact, the coach of one of last year's 50+
victims was charged with breach of peace after
he had a few things to say as their teams left
the field at halftime. Seems he was a bit miffed
that this guy had called a timeout near the end
of the half in hopes of scoring more (his team
won, 60-0).
-
- So why, when the state knows it has a
problem, can't it deal specifically with that
problem?
-
- Yes, the guy wins. He has won everywhere he
has gone. But there are many who will say that
he wins in questionable ways, and there are
numerous accusations of blatant out-of-district
recruiting.
-
- There is more. Let's just say that not every
place where he has coached before has been sad
to see him go.
-
- It is actually amazing to me that there are
still people in "education" who will hire
someone with his baggage, but evidently the
people at his latest stop are so anxious to
return to their glory days that they routinely
make excuses for him.
-
- A coach like this really stands out from the
fraternity of coaches. By and large, coaches
respect one another, because although they are
very competitive, they understand that at base
they are all in it together. The vast majority
of them are doing something they love, and they
really do care about promoting the game and the
value of sportsmanship. Every so often, though,
we all run into a guy whose perverted idea of
the game is that football exists for him only,
for him to advance himself at any cost. Everyone
else knows who these guys are, and everyone else
is pulling for them to get nailed. Problem is,
they rarely do, and I don't think that
Connecticut has done so in this case.
-
- Frankly, I don't think that an immediate,
out-of-hand suspension is the answer.
-
- Instead, if I were the head of a state
assocation, I would bust a run-it-up guy's chops
in ways that he would hate the most.
-
- I would make him fill out forms - long,
complicated forms - describing in painful detail
what precise steps he took to help keep the game
under control, and what additional steps he will
take to avoid a repeat. (Every man hates
filling out forms.)
-
- Then, I would make sure that he
hand-delivered the forms to my office. By 7 AM
sharp Monday. Accompanied by his principal and
AD. (That will convince them that they have a
stake in this, too.) In some states, that would
require everyone's getting up in the wee hours
in order to get there on time.
-
- And then we would meet. And at the meeting I
would inform them all that I was placing him on
suspension until he completed an American Sports
Education Program (ASEP) class. (ASEP is
required of all coaches in many states,
including Oregon, and it is unbelievably,
painfully boring. Think diversity training.) He
will really enjoy that one, especially if it is
taught by a female soccer coach.
-
- I would conclude by telling them all that
the next time it happens he'll be banned from
coaching anywhere in the state.
-
- I guarantee you that after that, if he is
the coach he seems to think he is, he would find
innovative ways of avoiding bashing teams with
nowhere near his talent, merely for his own
gratification.
-
- *********** My spring ball at --------- is
going well, I am doing the O-line and
incorporating some D-wing with the offense out
of spread. My o-line is learning d-wing
principles and are haveing a hard time using
their arms and not there hands. Yesterday we
went through a 20 min. time period on extention
drill from crowther sled progression. The kids
were amazed on how I want them to hit and weld
on to their man. We used the hoops for pulling
and welding on to a LB on toss. I bought wood
boards at a Hardware store for Board drills for
12 step and keeping their base while drive
blocking. Hugh we don't have big kids so we may
have 5 guard types who start at O-line and these
kids would love traps, fold, and X blocks. In
fact in team the kids drive block their man
until the whistle. which means at times they are
10 yards or more down field. The head coach
asked How I get kids to do that? I told him I
talk it I walk it we run it and I demand it. The
kids who played last year want to use their
hands and push and shove, it will take a while
for them to break the habit. One cool thing was
that the special teams coach who is 70 was
watching what I was doing and came to me and
said it brought back memories of when he was in
high school and ran the single wing. I asked him
if they ran the version with the spinning
fullback. He just looked at me ( I thought,
Hugh, he was going to kiss me) and said "Do you
really know it?? I thought it had gone the way
of the dinosaurs." I am now his new buddy. I
thought it was cool!
-
- *********** My son, Ed, lives in Melbourne,
Australia, which among other things prides
itself on having the world's largest
concentration of Greeks outside Athens. So when
the Greek national soccer team arrived in
Melbourne this week to play a "friendly"
(non-counting) match against the Australians,
more than 10,000 Greek-Australians (I'm just
calling them that based on all the hyphenated
bullsh-- we endure here in the US) showed up at
the airport late at night to greet them. And the
match itself was a sellout (95,000) "the G" -
otherwise known as the MCG, the Melbourne
Cricket Grounds.
-
- *********** One of my assistants said that
after watching and studying the way we run our
offense for 4 years he has reached the following
conclusions We don't have a place to put the
wide receiver type player…the good athlete
who is tough enough to play the game, but
probably not the defensive type. This is
probably a relatively valid point, as I have
really hammered home the KISS principle and we
run tight formation 98% of the time. I
think we should look at the "tools" we've been
given and use the flexibility of our system to
better utilize them.
-
- We certainly do have a place for a gifted
wide receiver, but this objection is only a
valid point if he happens to be a kid who can
make more of a difference as a wide receiver
that our tight ends can as tight ends or our
running backs can as running backs. By the way,
the ability to operate without the needs for
wide receivers is a mjaor plus for me, since you
may have noticed that most of the problem
players in the NFL are wide receivers.
(Question: if a kid is a good enough athlete to
be looked at as a wide receiver, and "tough
enough to play the game," how can he not be "the
defensive type?" HW
-
- *********** Yuki Smolin, wife of Pete
Smolin, a long-time Double-Winger in Southern
California, has her own battle going on with
scleroderma, a serious skin ailment, and she is
taking part in the 4th Annual Stepping Out to
Cure Scleroderma, trying to raise money for the
Scleroderma Foundation - Southern California
Chapter.
-
- As Yuki writes, "having Scleroderma
(Kyohi-sho) is challenging. But with support
from all of my family and friends it is getting
easier to deal with."
-
- She's asking for help in fighting this rare
disease, and urges people to sponsor her. Anyone
who wants to help can go here -
-
- http://www.firstgiving.com/yukismolin
-
- It is possible to donate online by credit
card, and you'll receive a receipt for your
donation.
-
- She asked me to mention that all donations
are secure and will be sent directly to the
Scleroderma Foundation - Southern California
Chapter.
-
-
- 2006 DOUBLE-WING CLINIC
SCHEDULE - AS OF 4-1-06 (2006
CLINICS)
- CLINICS
START AT 9 AM SHARP AND GO UNTIL 4 PM WITH A
1-HOUR BREAK FOR LUNCH
|
|
CLINIC
|
LOCATION
|
|
FEB
25
|
ATLANTA
|
HOLIDAY
INN AIRPORT NORTH - 1380 Virginia Ave -
404-762-8411
|
|
MARCH
11
|
LOS
ANGELES
|
HOLIDAY INN-MEDIA
CENTER -150 E. Angeleno, Burbank -
818-841-4770
|
|
MARCH
18
|
CHICAGO
|
ST. XAVIER
UNIVERSITY - 3700 West 103rd St.,
Chicago
|
|
APRIL
8
|
RALEIGH-DURHAM
|
MILLENNIUM
HOTEL - 2800 Campus Walk Ave - Durham -
919-383-8575
|
|
APRIL
15
|
PHILADELPHIA
|
HOLIDAY INN, 432
Pennsylvania Ave, Fort Washington, PA.
- 215-643-3000
|
|
APRIL
29
|
PROVIDENCE
|
COMFORT INN AIRPORT
- 1940 POST RD, WARWICK RI -
401-732-0470
|
|
MAY
6
|
DENVER
|
WESTMINSTER
HS - Westminster, CO (For more details
call Coach Kevin Uhlig -
303-870-8582)
|
|
MAY
13
|
NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA
|
HOLIDAY
INN EXPRESS - LATHROP, CA.
|
|
JUNE
10
|
PACIFIC
NORTHWEST
|
PHOENIX INN &
SUITES - 12712 SE 2ND Circle, Vancouver
WA - 360-891-9777
|
NEXT CLINIC -
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - SATURDAY,
MAY 13 - HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS - LATHROP,
CA-
- Attendees will
receive a complimentary DVD breaking down,
play-by-play, the Full-House Belly-T offense of
the powerful 1953-1954 Army teams, coached by
Earl "Red" Blaik, with Vince Lombardi as his
offensive assistant. On the video you will see
action clips of Army greats, including the
immortal Don Holleder, whose memory is honored
by the Black Lion Award. This DVD is not for
sale. It is provided by the Board of the Black
Lion Award in the interests of furthering
football and the Black Lion Award
itself.
-
-
|
|
|
Osama shows that
he will stop at nothing in his plot to
weaken America...
|
|
|
BECOME A
BLACK LION TEAM
GIVE THE BLACK
LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR
PLAYERS!
|
|
|
Army's Will Sullivan
wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all
winners) in the Army-Navy game
|
(FOR
MORE INFO)
|
The Black Lion
certificate is awarded to all
winners
|
|
|
So What Are
Big-12 Teams Doing With Their 12th
Game?
(See"NEWS")
|
|
Big
Beer: Why Bother to Compete? Infiltrate
'Em or Buy "Em Out!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
- May
23, 2006 - "Good breeding consists
in concealing how much we think of ourselves and
how little we think of the other person."
Mark Twain
-
- *********** How sad was it - and how
disappointing - to see that beautiful horse
Barbaro pull up lame no more than 100 yards into
the Preakness? Up until then, the word was,
after his overwhelming win in the Kentucky
Derby, that he was possibly a super horse.
-
- And how freaky was it when he prematurely
broke open the the starting gate? In all my
years of watching horse races, I';d never seen
than happen.
-
- *********** Florida
and Georgia claim that they want to end all
references to their annual game in Jacksonville
as the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.
My guess is that before actually changing the
name, they're hoping to find a title
sponsor.
-
- *********** It wasn't
so very long ago that I said that adding a 12th
game to college football schedules was going to
be a ripoff comparable to the pros' charging
their fans' full-far for the privilege of
watching pre-season games. I was right. Except
that the colleges are much worse, because their
employees (sorry - "student-athletes") have
nothing comparable to the NFL Players'
Association to insist that their employers
compensate them when they extend the
season.
-
- So what do the fans
get in return for having to pay for an extra
game?
-
- Take a look at the Big
12 teams and their home openers and decide for
yourself:
-
- Baylor - TCU;
Colorado - Montana State; Iowa
State - Toledo; Kansas - Northwestern
State; Kansas State - Illinois State;
Missouri - Murry State; Nebraska -
Louisiana Tech; Oklahoma -
Alabama-Birmingham; Oklahoma State -
Missouri State; Texas - North Texas;
Texas A&M - Citadel; Texas
Tech - SMU
-
- Realistically, only
TCU (at Baylor) and Toledo (at Iowa State) would
stand to have a decent chance of winning, with
Louisiana Tech (at Nebraska) and SMU (at Texas
Tech) with a ghost of a chance.
-
- *********** Coach, This email is long
overdue and I wanted to thank you again for
another outstanding clinic (Philly). Very
informative and they (the clinic's) continue to
renew my interest in Double-Wing football. The
funny thing about football, is everyone is
trying to come up with the next best thing. Each
time I pick up the playbook you already have it
in there! Your system bar none is the most
complete system out there. It can be adapted to
any style of play a coach desires. I answered a
question the other day on our 'football
messageboard' in my county. To make a long story
short, the poster were talking about player
development for the next level. Making claims
that coaches are not preparing the kids
correctly. To which I replied, providing the
player has been taught the fundamentals and
basics and has the ability to learn and adapt.
So I posed the question - what else am I
missing?
-
- Jason Clarke, Millersville, Maryland
-
- *********** "They never had the sense to
make good beer. When all you do is concentrate
on taking the taste out of beer, and you finally
remove all taste, you shouldn't be surprised if
people look for beers with flavor."
-
- So says 80-year-old Fred Eckhardt, widely
considered the one who started the craft beer
revolution in Portland, and therefore in all of
America, in explaining why Big Beer, otherwise
known as Anheuser-Busch, finds itself bedeviled
by the tastier brews of its small-time
competitors.
-
- Big Beer's answer? If you can't drive the
craft brewers out of business, and you can't
make a better beer than they do, why, infiltrate
'em. Take a piece of their action. And if you
can't be bothered being sneaky about it, do it
the old-fashioned way - buy 'em out.
-
- Whatever happened to the legacy of Teddy
Roosevelt? Where is the anti-trust gang that
used to strike terror into the hearts of
American business?
-
- Big Beer has acquired Rolling Rock of
Latrobe, Pennsylvania from another brewing
giant, Inbev, and will begin brewing Rock at its
brewery in Newark, New Jersey. Wow. From the
mountain springs of western Pennsylvania to the,
um "waters" of Newark Bay.
-
- Anheuser-Busch, the NFL of the brewing
industry, did not purchase the Rolling Rock
brewery - only the brand and the formula - and
Inbev announced that the brewery "will be sold,"
but unofficially, workers at the brewery have
all been given severance notices, and informed
that the brewery will close on July 31 "unless a
buyer can be found."
-
- Good luck finding a buyer in a business
which for years suffered from chronic
overcapacity. In all likelihood, the brewery
will be torn down and its storage tanks sold to
brewers in China, as has happened to so many
other defunct US breweries.
-
- Rolling Rock is not the first brewery to
suffer at the hands of Big Beer. By leveraging
its huge size to make massive media buys that
smaller brewers can't afford, by tightly
restricting the competing beers that its
nationwide network of distributors can sell, and
by strategically waging price wars in markets
once controlled by smaller competitors,
Anheuser-Busch has managed to acquire a 50 per
cent share of the US beer market. In the
process, it has squeezed more little guys out of
business than Wal-Mart.
-
- Now, with their sales flat (perhaps because
more sophisticated beer drinkers have begun to
awaken to the fact that its two best-selling
products might just as well be called Water and
Water Light), A-B's answer has been not to
produce new and better products of its own, but
to worm its way into smaller, more innovative
companies (first Redhook in Seattle, then Widmer
in Portland, and now Goose Island in Chicago) by
acquiring large pieces of them. Interestingly,
they make no mention on their Web sites that Big
Beer owns some 30 per cent of them, and still
refer to themselves as "independents."
-
- Oh, yes - and for those of you who prefer to
drink an imported beer? Our leading import,
Corona, is brewed by the Mexican brewing giant,
Grupo Modelo - which happens to be 50 per cent
owned by A-B.
-
- Those moves were all stealthy, under the
public's - and the government's - radar. Big
Beer was discreetly hiding its muscle. But in
gobbling up Rolling Rock, it is showing that it
no longer sees the need for pretense - that from
now on, its strategy is going to be simply naked
aggression.
-
- Chalk up another small town brewery
steamrollered by Big Beer.
-
- Bastards.
-
- *********** So Barry Bonds, symbol of all
that is wrong with today's professional
athletes, breaks Babe Ruth's home run record.
Big F--king Deal. Bonds needed hundreds more
at-bats than Ruth, and in reality he might have
managed to hit 600 home runs, instead of 714,
without the help of juice. But that's baseball's
problem, and to their everlasting discredit,
they don't seem to think they have one.
-
- Oh- and has anybody noticed that attendance
is off - way off - in once-hot baseball cities
such as Baltimore and Seattle? And don't look
now, but in just the second year since its
return, major league baseball's attendance is
also down in Washington, D.C., where they're
blaming it on the location of the stadium
(admittedly, not the greatest).
-
- *********** Hey Coach, on a football note I
think I told you before that my son is a decent
player. Anyhow he has developed a bit of a bad
habit the last few years and I'm looking
for maybe some kind of drill to correct it. He's
a lineman and he has become a bit of a waist
bender instead of a knee bender.Do you follow
here? Hes strong enough to get away with it
at this level but it's not good. He needs proper
form (as do all players). Can you think off
hand of any off season drills I can give
him?
-
- Coach, The habit you describe may not
actually be a matter of not bending at the
knees. it could very well be a matter of not
bending at the hips.
-
- Just a suspicion, but I suspect that,
being a lineman, your son is a big boy, and
therefore he has a lot of meat in the
hips.
-
- Bigger kids, I find, sometimes have
trouble with stances and flexing at the hips
simply because they have more flesh there, which
gets in the way of bending.
-
- Part of that won't change, simply because
of what nature has provided.
-
- I'd work on strength. I'd certainly
recommend hip flexors - hanging from a bar and
and alternately raising the knees to waist
height, then lowering them. This is never easy
for big kids to do at first. And I would
recommend squats.
-
- I'd also work on flexibility - on
exercises specifically aimed at the hips, such
as lying on the back and pulling one leg at a
time to the chest. And I'd recommend exercises
such as mountain climbers - starting out in a
four-point stance with one knee under the chest
and the other leg extended, then rapidly
switching legs. (They used to recommend duck
walks, and while I'm sure they'd help, I think
there is concern that these might put damaging
stress on the knees.)
-
- I'd work on a combination of strength and
flexibility. I would recommend plyometrics. And
I would recommend running in place with the
knees as high as possible.
-
- *********** Alabama football took a pretty
serious hit over the weekend when starting
linebacker Juwan Simpson was arrested on charges
of receiving stolen property, possession of
marijuana and carrying a pistol without a
license.
-
- Simpson was a 2005 Academic All-Southeastern
Conference selection who earned his
undergraduate degree in financial planning in
December. (Trust me with your money and I'll
invest it in, um, "grass futures.")
-
- He is also pursuing a second degree in -
this may come in every bit as handy as the one
in financial planning - criminal justice.
-
- IF he is guilty, and as we all know from
watching "COPS", he is presumed innocent until
proven guilty in a court of law, he has
massively betrayed his caches' trust in him
-
-
- At the end of spring practice April 1, they
presented him with the Derrick Thomas Community
Award, named after the late Alabama and NFL star
who was active in good works in the
community.
-
- *********** Hugh, I loved your comments on
the NCAA mascot issue, especially the one about
Muslims taking offense to the Crusaders mascot
at Holy Cross!
-
- This mascot thing with the NCAA has reached
the point where it makes me want to puke. Not
only did they determine (in their "infinite"
wisdom) that William & Mary's mascot would
be perceived as "offensive," they also turned
down the appeal of the University of North
Dakota, even though the local Sioux tribes and
their tribal councils gave their support of the
university to continue using the "Fighting
Sioux" mascot because of the university's
historically consistent commitment to the
mission and education of Native Americans.
-
- In his response to the NCAA's denial the
president of UND vowed to continue to pursue
legal action even if it means taking it to the
highest court. So, inevitably, the NCAA will
once again manage to place the burden on the
innocent (taxpayers this time) for its ludicrous
and ridiculous attempts at maintaining its PC
image. The late Mr. Englestadt (who initiated
and financed the drive to build the Englestadt
Hockey Arena at UND - the finest collegiate
hockey facility in the U.S. - and which has the
"Fighting Sioux" logo on every seat, on tile
mosaics on the floor, and everywhere else in the
building) must be rolling over in his
grave.
-
- My question is what will the NCAA do about
the "Fighting Irish?"
Joe Gutilla, Columbus, Ohio (I am deeply
offended that MacAlester College, that Minnesota
bastion of political correctness, somehow thinks
it's all right to call its teams the Scots.
HW)
-
- *********** Coach Wyatt, Great job at the
Nor Cal Clinic last weekend. Lots of good stuff
brought up. My guys and I had plenty to talk
about later that evening regarding DW football.
Will you be providing this clinic on DVD? Please
let me know as I would definitely enjoy
reviewing it. Thanks, Mark Rangel, Lathrop
Titans JV HC, Lathrop, California (Thanks for
writing. Glad you enjoyed the clinic. Yes, as
soon as I can get around to it, I'll be putting
this year's clinic out on DVD, too. Good seeing
you again. HW)
-
- *********** Coach - that story was amazing
about R.C. Owens !!! That is phenomenal !! Coach
you are the coaching version of Kevin Bacon , 6
degrees of separations !! WOW !!
-
- BTW tell your wife you hit Clam season at
the Right Time in your trip to New England, We
have had major, major Rain for a week straight,
that has Caused MAJOR Flooding in Southern NH
and most of the North Shore ( the heart of Clam
Country). They have closed the Clam Flats from
Cape Cod all the way up to the NH /So Maine
Coast, or fear of Red Tide. In a week or two the
price of Clams will shoot Up !!! ( not that
they're cheap to begin with ) See ya next week
Coach - John Muckian Lynn,Massachusetts
-
- *********** Coach, long time no talk. Just
when you think things have sunk as low as they
possibly can that august body, The United States
Senate, lowers the bar into the negative
numbers. 50 of these rumpswabs voted illegal
aliens (i suppose I should refer to them as
undocumented workers.. certainly don't want to
offend anyone here) who have forged social
security cards should still be eligible for
benefits. Makes sense to me. In his increasing
effort to show just what a boob he is or has
become John McCain revealed that he wasn't aware
that employees paid SS taxes. He thought it was
only their employers that did so. How to stay in
touch with the common man Johnnie. The state of
Arizona and the USNA should be very proud. That
Great American Hero Harry Reid feels that it's
racist that English be thought of as our
national language.
-
- Really, I have no problem with the Dems. As
harmful as the traitorous, mindless, silly
left-wing mob is I can deal with them. They are
what they are. It has always been so easy to
marginalize their lunacy by simply opposing it
and beaming the light of day on it. But when our
supposed side loses the desire to fight and
actually goes along with these idiots I'm
starting to think all is lost. When the opinions
of the New York Times, and Washington Post
intimidate these cowards into going along or
watering down their own ideals and beliefs then
we are in real trouble. And this at a time when
they have controlled both STINKING houses since
1994. They run and hide like rats. What bravery
under fire. Wasn't there a good reason we were
talking about term limits a few years back.
-
- Dan Lane Canton, Massachusetts (Term
limits is the only answer - that or a revolution
- but getting term limits out of American
legislators is like asking Barry Bonds to strike
himself out.
-
- I am disgusted with the Republicans -
House, Senate, President - who once in power
proved to be far worse than Democrats, because
the Democrats have never made any pretense of
being anything other than what they are, while
the Republicans, who came into office preaching
conservatism, have shown themselves to be utter
cowards.
-
- I used to teach my high school classes
that all they really needed to know in order to
understand American government is this:
politicians like their jobs very much and they
will do anything to keep them. HW)
-
- *********** Hugh! I didn't hear much of the
Tony Snow thing but it makes me sick. Our
leadership in this country is at an all time
low, and I think the government has developed
into a class of their own, like Royalty, and the
rest of us will have no power at all. It doesn't
matter who's elected, they are all the same. One
side may mention a word or two about freedom but
even that is getting lost and there is never any
action taken to give anyone more freedom, just
more chains. Remember, the more numbers in the
lower uneducated class in this country, the more
the ELITE governing class can control. We're in
big ass trouble and America as we once knew it
and was proud of, and was safe in, has been
hijacked. And you are talking to the eternal
optimist, but I've had it completely now with
all politics, and politicians. Our posture on
many fronts is so pukingly politically weak now,
that I can't watch it or here it anymore. The
Boarder problem has made so many other things
transparent as well, and the reason is that most
of us want to give our leaders the benefit of
the integrity, of the offices they hold, but
now… the whole thing is a giant rouse!!!!
We've been had, conned, herded, raped, and
pillaged. They said the only way we could fall
is from within….. WELL , HERE THEY
ARE….. ALL WITHIN. Lets all prepare to
welcome Hillary. Hell, maybe she is B---h enough
to have some backbone…NAH… She is the
biggest political power whore of them all!
-
- "God forgive me for these bad words and may
all of my ranting be wrong!"
-
- Larry Harrison, Snellville, Georgia (You
have seen through them the way I have. I truly
believe there's not a politician in the bunch
who's worth a damn.
-
- Not after I heard Senator Lindsay Graham
from South Carolina, a wolf in sheep's clothing
- a Republican, for God's sake! - say on
national television that he feared what might
happen to the Republican Party if it turned its
back on this large minority - of illegal
immigrants. That we might just as well forget
the idea of criminalizing them because there are
now way too many of them. The problems was out
of control, he said, because "the American
people" had stood by and "let it
happen."
-
- That toadsuck. Right, Senator Graham -
blame it on "the American people," those of us
who've been screaming about it for years,
powerless to do anything. And all the while, you
princes ignored us, so busy were you sucking up
lobbyists' money and sipping their champagne and
dining on their lobster and caviar. HW)
-
- *********** I think the point that ALL
politicians are missing is this - is anybody
sure that these illegals really care enough
about citizenship to the point that they'd pay
fines, pay back taxes, keep their noses clean,
etc. in order to gain it? I mean, as things
stand right now, the American taxpayers provide
them with all their "entitlements," and they get
all the benefits of citizenship - including
registering to vote, since no one bothers to ask
them for ID - without any of the hassles, such
as paying taxes or serving in the military. And
if they're caught, they're simply cited and
released. There is no fear of being
deported.
-
- So with all those goodies, and no price to
have to pay for them - who needs
citizenship?
-
- *********** Sounding more and more like Nazi
Germany, Iran is said to be getting ready to
enforce a new dress-code law ensuring that
religious minorities - mainly Christians, Jews
and Zoroastrians - will be easily identifiable
in public.
-
- Jews, it is said, will have to wear a yellow
band on their exterior in public, while
Christians will be required to wear red
ones.
-
- The purpose of the law supposedly is to make
it easier for Muslims to avoid becoming
"unclean" by accidentally shaking the hands of
non-Muslims in public.
-
-
- 2006 DOUBLE-WING CLINIC
SCHEDULE - AS OF 4-1-06 (2006
CLINICS)
- CLINICS
START AT 9 AM SHARP AND GO UNTIL 4 PM WITH A
1-HOUR BREAK FOR LUNCH
|
|
CLINIC
|
LOCATION
|
|
FEB
25
|
ATLANTA
|
HOLIDAY
INN AIRPORT NORTH - 1380 Virginia Ave -
404-762-8411
|
|
MARCH
11
|
LOS
ANGELES
|
HOLIDAY INN-MEDIA
CENTER -150 E. Angeleno, Burbank -
818-841-4770
|
|
MARCH
18
|
CHICAGO
|
ST. XAVIER
UNIVERSITY - 3700 West 103rd St.,
Chicago
|
|
APRIL
8
|
RALEIGH-DURHAM
|
MILLENNIUM
HOTEL - 2800 Campus Walk Ave - Durham -
919-383-8575
|
|
APRIL
15
|
PHILADELPHIA
|
HOLIDAY INN, 432
Pennsylvania Ave, Fort Washington, PA.
- 215-643-3000
|
|
APRIL
29
|
PROVIDENCE
|
COMFORT INN AIRPORT
- 1940 POST RD, WARWICK RI -
401-732-0470
|
|
MAY
6
|
DENVER
|
WESTMINSTER
HS - Westminster, CO (For more details
call Coach Kevin Uhlig -
303-870-8582)
|
|
MAY
13
|
NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA
|
HOLIDAY
INN EXPRESS - LATHROP, CA.
|
|
JUNE
10
|
PACIFIC
NORTHWEST
|
PHOENIX INN &
SUITES - 12712 SE 2ND Circle, Vancouver
WA - 360-891-9777
|
NEXT CLINIC -
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - SATURDAY,
MAY 13 - HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS - LATHROP,
CA-
- Attendees will
receive a complimentary DVD breaking down,
play-by-play, the Full-House Belly-T offense of
the powerful 1953-1954 Army teams, coached by
Earl "Red" Blaik, with Vince Lombardi as his
offensive assistant. On the video you will see
action clips of Army greats, including the
immortal Don Holleder, whose memory is honored
by the Black Lion Award. This DVD is not for
sale. It is provided by the Board of the Black
Lion Award in the interests of furthering
football and the Black Lion Award
itself.
-
-
|
|
|
Osama shows that
he will stop at nothing in his plot to
weaken America...
|
|
|
BECOME A
BLACK LION TEAM
GIVE THE BLACK
LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR
PLAYERS!
|
|
|
Army's Will Sullivan
wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all
winners) in the Army-Navy game
|
(FOR
MORE INFO)
|
The Black Lion
certificate is awarded to all
winners
|
|
|
I Meet R.C.
"Alley-Oop" Owens!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
A
German Double-Wing Coach Comes Up With
the Perfect Retort!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
- May
20, 2006 -
"A man
convinced against his will is of the same
opinion still." Unknown
-
- SHOTS
FROM THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
CLINIC
-
           -
- *********** My wife
and I drove to California last weekend (11 hours
each way) and, arriving late Friday night,
headed to one of my favorite spots, Kelley
Brothers Brewing Company in Manteca, to grab a
bite to eat.
-
- As we looked around
for a table, I saw a guy who looked as if he
worked there, and waved to him. He came right on
over, shook my hand as he introduced himself,
and said, "Hey! Want to meet R.C.
Owens?"
-
- Huh? R.C. Owens?
One-time 49er? The guy who pioneered the Alley
Oop?
-
- "Sure," I said. Take
me there.
-
- I remembered R.C.
Owens well because he'd played a couple of years
with the Colts when I lived in
Baltimore.
-
- Shoot - R.C. Owens was
from California, so maybe this guy really
was going to introduce me to him.
-
- We went out on the
terrace, and I'll be damned if this guy wasn't
sitting there, wearing a 49ers' polo shirt, with
two Super Bowl rings - TWO FRIGGING SUPER BOWL
RINGS - on his right hand!
-
- A couple of quick
questions about the Colts confirmed that he most
certainly was R.C. Owens.
-
- Mr. Owens has to be
70. He was very cordial and very sharp, able to
relate in great detail stories of his college
days (College of Idaho, now renamed Albertson
College, in Caldwell, Idaho, where he played
football and basketball), of his brief time in
the NBA and his NFL playing career with the
49ers, Colts and Giants, and of his 23-year
career in the 49ers' front office.
-
- At College of Idaho,
he was an outstanding football player, but he
also averaged over 21 points per game in three
years of playing basketball. It is almost
frightening to think of how good Idaho could
have been had not another young star, a kid from
Washington, D.C. named Elgin Baylor, decided to
transfer to Seattle U.
-
- Although just a
14th-round draft choice, he became a starter at
San Francisco. He also was drafted by the
Minneapolis Lakers of the NBA, and although he
never played a game in the NBA, he played for
the Western All-Stars in a post-season
barnstorming tour. He told me that the tout
convinced him he could play in the NBA, but that
his future lay with football.
-
- Long before basketball
appropriated the term "Alley-Oop", it was used
to describe a play designed to take advantage of
R.C. Owens' good height (6-3) and great leaping
ability by throwing the ball so high that no
defender had a chance at it. On the throwing end
was famed 49ers' QB Y.A. Tittle.
-
 R.C.
Owens also deserves some fame as the first
player to successfully challenge the NFL's tight
hold on its players by playing out his option
and signing with the Colts. In those days before
free agency, NFL contracts called for a team to
retain an "option" on a player's services for
one years after his contract term expired.
During that option year, the player's salary was
automatically reduced by 10 per cent, and at the
end of that year, he was a free
agent.-
- Theoretically.
-
- In practice, NFL teams
did not sign other teams' free agents. And
typically, players playing out their options
were persona non grata with their coaches. Such
was the case with R.C. Owens, who was riding the
pines until the 49ers' top receivers went down,
and, pressed into service, all he did was have a
1,000-yard year! That was enough to interest the
Colts and their owner, Carroll Rosenbloom, in
signing him.
-
- The fact that the
49ers lost a star player and received no
compensation led eventually to the so-called
Rozelle Rule - since struck down - under which
Commissioner Pete Rozelle would determine what a
team signing a free agent must provide - money,
players, draft choices - to that free agent's
former team.
-
- When his playing
career ended, R.C. Owens returned to the 49ers,
serving in a number of management areas, before
finally retiring to Manteca. It is important to
note that he is able to retire thanks to his
49ers' pension, and not his pension as an NFL
player. Like so many of the men who built the
league, he preceded the days of big money and
big pensions, and his pension is so small, "I'm
embarrassed to tell you what it is."
-
- As we talked, I
noticed that he was drinking water. When I
commented on it, he said he'd had a kidney
transplant. I asked him how long he'd had to go
through dialysis, and he said 14
years!
-
- He'd been waiting
three years, and was ready to go in, when his
mother died and he had to deal with all the
details. When he returned, someone misplaced his
name, and by the time he was called in for his
operation, another 11 years had
passed.
-
- But here's the amazing
thing - no one else ever knew! For 14 years, he
kept his weekly dialysis a secret, despite the
fact that with the travel his job with the 49ers
entailed, he had to set up a network of
hospitals around the country where he could
sneak off for dialysis. (No doubt there were
co-workers who suspected that he had other
reasons for slipping out on them at odd
times.)
-
- Why the secret? I
asked him.
-
- Simple, he said, and
quite understandable to anyone who's ever been a
big-time athlete - just as an injured player
begins to fade from the picture until he is as
good as invisible, R.C. was afraid that as a
front-office worker he'd be seen the same
way.
-
- So for 14 years,
although he'd traded in his uniform for a
business suit, in the best show-must-go-on
tradition, he played hurt.
-
- For his pain, though,
he has FIVE Super Bowl rings.
-
|
A CALIFORNIA THAT NOT
EVERYONE EVER GETS TO
SEE...
|
|
 
|
|
To those who've never been there -
and to many who have - the name
"California" conjures up images of
movie stars, beaches, deserts and -
sometimes - urban gang crime. But in
reality, California is many states,
each of them different in its own way,
all large enough to be states on their
own. The northernmost part of the
state, stretching roughly 150 miles
east-west and the same distance
north-south, is really an extension of
the Pacific Northwest - a
sparsely-populated land of rugged
coastline, pristine mountain lakes,
high plains and giant trees. And
snowcapped mountains, such as
14,000-foot Mount Shasta, possibly
America's most photogenic mountain,
shown here in two shots taken along
I-5, about 60 miles apart
|
*********** A coach wrote me...-
- I wanted to thank you
again for your assistance earlier this
week.
-
- I most likely will not
get the job - the other applicant is in the
school system, and I am not. The local Board Of
Education has a policy stating that a BOE
employee must be hired ahead of an
applicant that is not a BOE employee. My only
chance was for no one else to apply for the
job. I imagine that my interview will
just be an effort to recruit me as an
assistant.
-
- Ironically, the school
Principal, is my former Head Coach whom I had
played for and coached for. I coached both of
his sons in Youth League and then in High
School.
-
- He is the one that
encouraged me to aspire to be a Head Coach. Now
that the Head Coach position is open, he
will have be the one to deny me the
opportunity. I am sure that he feels terrible
about the whole situation. I believe that he has
done all that he can do to assist me in getting
this job.
-
- It is strange how good
intentions mixed with a couple of policies can
put people in difficult situations.
All you can do is
give it your best shot. It's probably more than
a district policy - it is probably in the union
contract.
-
- My personal feeling
is that, all things being equal, the person "in
the building" should get the nod. But only if
all things are equal, and that is used as the
tiebreaker between two equally qualified
candidates.
-
- Otherwise, it is
hard to escape the conclusion that the head
coaching position is a union-protected job,
which does what the union intends for it to do -
secure jobs for its members. That's all well and
good, but it does not always take into
consideration the best interests of the
kids.
-
- *********** Dennis Erickson has been head
coach at Idaho, Wyoming, Washington State, Miami
and Oregon State. He's also coached the Seahawks
and the 49ers, and now he's back as head coach
at Idaho for a second time.
-
- So when he says what he said to a San
Francisco Chronicle writer, who asked him what
he thought about the Nike combine held last
weekend for some 350 of the "top sophomore and
junior college prospects on the West Coast, " I
listen.
-
- "These showcases are nice," he said, "but
for the most part you only see how these guys
jump and run. There's so many different
intangibles - like playing in a game - you can't
measure here."
-
- (Think these "combines" aren't big business?
Mike Pucko, of Worcester, Massachusetts, told me
about one held at Holy Cross College last
weekend - said there had to be 700-some kids
there, at $90 a head.)
-
- *********** George Blackburn died the other
day at the age of 93 in his native Ohio. He had
a long and distinguished record as a coach, and
he was widely respected for his offensive
innovation, but if you didn't know anything else
about the man, you ought to know that he
replaced Vince Lombardi at Army when Lombardi
left to become offensive coach of the New York
Giants.
-
- Coach Blackburn was born in Columbus, and
after graduation from Findlay College he coached
high school ball before becoming an assistant to
Sid Gillman at Miami of Ohio. That was 1945, and
he became head coach at Miami (another in the
long line of coaches claimed by Miami, the
"Cradle of Coaches") in 1948, going 7-1-1 before
leaving to assist Gillman at Cincinnati.
-
- He stayed at Cincinnati as Gillman's
offensive coach until being hired at Army in
1954, but left West Point after just one year to
return to Cincinnati, this time as head coach.
After six years at Cincinnati produced a 26-26-6
record, he left coaching and went into business,
but in 1964 he returned as an assistant to Bill
Elias at Virginia. Exactly one year later, he
was appointed head coach of the Cavaliers.
-
- Virginia was known in those days as a tough
place to win at, as Coach Blackburn discovered,
but his 1968 team finished with a 7-3 record,
the first winning season for a UVa football team
in 16 years, since the 1952 went 8-2. For his
feat, he was named ACC Coach of the Year, but
two years later, he was gone. His six Virginia
teams compiled an overall record of 29-32. While
at UVa, he had the pleasure of coaching his twin
sons, Jim and John.
-
- He was 57 when he left UVa and he never
returned to coaching, staying in the game as a
scout for the Saints, the Oilers, and then the
Patriots.
-
- *********** In Germany, the Buxtehude
Dragons beat the Nordic Wolves, 48-42 on a
last-second wedge reverse.
-
- Dragons' coach Mathias Bonner, a
Double-Winger, told me that the win was
especially sweet for a couple of reasons.
-
- First, the opposing defensive coordinator
had written on a German Internet forum how
"easy" it would be to stop the Double-Wing with
his 4-3. The game wasn't more than four minutes
old, Mathias said, when the guy was out of the
4-3 and into a 6-2.
-
- Then, following the game, Mathias and the
opposing coach were required to sit side-by-side
at a "press conference" (foreigners love to
imitate the NFL, in every respect imaginable).
When a reporter asked the opposing coach what he
thought of the Double-Wing, this guy - whose
team had just given up 48 points to the
Double-Wing - had the colossal crust to answer
by turning to Mathias and saying, "Your
play-calling was very boring."
-
- (I should mention at this point that Mathias
did run 88 Super Power 35 times!)
-
- Mathias, who has obviously learned well,
shot back, "If you can't stop the play, why
should I?"
-
- *********** Gas stations are running low on
fuel in Bellingham, Washington, up near the
Canadian border. The reason? Canadians are
coming across the border to fill up, because as
expensive as gas is here, it's even worse in
Canada. Wonder if Canadians are blaming
Bush...
-
- *********** I used to be a big fan of Tony
Snow. Up until he gave up his show recently to
become the White House press secretary, he was
one of my favorite conservative talk show
hosts.
-
- But man - you should have heard him
Wednesday on a local (Portland) talk radio show,
trying to spin the President's recent farcical
attempt at "immigration reform." It was a
fulsome (disgustingly excessive) exercize in
deceit, almost as bad as that put on by the
President himself on Monday night.
-
- Clearly, Tony Snow has sold out. He is such
a total sellout that it occurs to me that the
smart thing for the Bush administration to do
right now is to effectively neuter all
conservative talk radio - by hiring all the
hosts.
-
- *********** The NCAA has very graciously
allowed William & Mary to remain the
"Tribe", but not in NCAA championship
competition. And so long as it insists on
remaining the Tribe, W & M is barred from
holding NCAA events.
-
- The school, argued that its nickname was
consistent with the NCAA's policy of
nondiscrimination, claimed that it's "designed
to communicate ennobling sentiments of
commitment, shared idealism, community and
common cause," that it appropriately highlights
the school's founding mission (to educate
indigenous peoples) and that regional tribal
leaders had stated they do not consider the
school's nickname hostile or abusive.
-
- The NCAA begged to differ. In a letter to
college president Gene Nichol, it said that
while it agreed that the nickname "Tribe" wasn't
offensive, when combined with the schools logo
showing two feathers - two f--king
feathers! - it "transforms that use from one
associated with 'togetherness,' 'shared
idealism,' and 'commitment' to stereotypical
reference to Native Americans."
-
- As a result, it said, the school's use of
the imagery "creates an environmental over which
an institution may not have full control...
Fans, opponents, and others can and will exhibit
behaviors that indeed are hostile or abusive to
Native Americans."
-
- "The good news is that we are forever going
to be the Tribe," William & Mary spokesman
William T. Walker said, although he noted the
irony of Florida State's getting a complete pass
from the NCAA: "To say that what William and
Mary does is not acceptable and what Florida
State University does is acceptable boggles our
minds," he said.
-
- YOU THINK THE NCAA HAS LOOKED FOOLISH AND
COWARDLY SO FAR, IN ITS EFFORTS TO APPEASE
ANYBODY WHO RAISES A SQUAWK? WAIT UNTIL RADICAL
MUSLIMS - WHO UP TO NOW HAVEN'T PAID A WHOLE LOT
OF ATTENTION TO FOOTBALL, SINCE IT REPRESENTS
EVERYTHING EVIL AND SATANIC ABOUT OUR CULTURE -
FIND OUT THAT HOLY CROSS IS STILL THE
CRUSADERS.
-
- 2006 DOUBLE-WING CLINIC
SCHEDULE - AS OF 4-1-06 (2006
CLINICS)
- CLINICS
START AT 9 AM SHARP AND GO UNTIL 4 PM WITH A
1-HOUR BREAK FOR LUNCH
|
|
CLINIC
|
LOCATION
|
|
FEB
25
|
ATLANTA
|
HOLIDAY
INN AIRPORT NORTH - 1380 Virginia Ave -
404-762-8411
|
|
MARCH
11
|
LOS
ANGELES
|
HOLIDAY INN-MEDIA
CENTER -150 E. Angeleno, Burbank -
818-841-4770
|
|
MARCH
18
|
CHICAGO
|
ST. XAVIER
UNIVERSITY - 3700 West 103rd St.,
Chicago
|
|
APRIL
8
|
RALEIGH-DURHAM
|
MILLENNIUM
HOTEL - 2800 Campus Walk Ave - Durham -
919-383-8575
|
|
APRIL
15
|
PHILADELPHIA
|
HOLIDAY INN, 432
Pennsylvania Ave, Fort Washington, PA.
- 215-643-3000
|
|
APRIL
29
|
PROVIDENCE
|
COMFORT INN AIRPORT
- 1940 POST RD, WARWICK RI -
401-732-0470
|
|
MAY
6
|
DENVER
|
WESTMINSTER
HS - Westminster, CO (For more details
call Coach Kevin Uhlig -
303-870-8582)
|
|
MAY
13
|
NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA
|
HOLIDAY
INN EXPRESS - LATHROP, CA.
|
|
JUNE
10
|
PACIFIC
NORTHWEST
|
PHOENIX INN &
SUITES - 12712 SE 2ND Circle, Vancouver
WA - 360-891-9777
|
NEXT CLINIC -
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - SATURDAY,
MAY 13 - HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS - LATHROP,
CA-
- Attendees will
receive a complimentary DVD breaking down,
play-by-play, the Full-House Belly-T offense of
the powerful 1953-1954 Army teams, coached by
Earl "Red" Blaik, with Vince Lombardi as his
offensive assistant. On the video you will see
action clips of Army greats, including the
immortal Don Holleder, whose memory is honored
by the Black Lion Award. This DVD is not for
sale. It is provided by the Board of the Black
Lion Award in the interests of furthering
football and the Black Lion Award
itself.
-
-
|
|
|
Osama shows that
he will stop at nothing in his plot to
weaken America...
|
|
|
BECOME A
BLACK LION TEAM
GIVE THE BLACK
LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR
PLAYERS!
|
|
|
Army's Will Sullivan
wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all
winners) in the Army-Navy game
|
(FOR
MORE INFO)
|
The Black Lion
certificate is awarded to all
winners
|
|
|
Floyd
Patterson, a Man of Class, is
Gone!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
Jarrin'
John Kimbrough Passes On!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
- May
16, 2006 -
"I would
rather have no bill than a bad bill."
Representative Peter King, New York Republican,
commenting on proposed immigration reform
legislation.
-
- *********** Where is
Harry Truman, when we really need
him?
-
- President Truman, well
aware of the old expression "passing the buck" -
meaning pushing the blame onto someone else -
used to have a sign on his desk that read, "THE
BUCK STOPS HERE!"
-
- In other words, the
buck - and the blame - could go no further than
the President of the United States. There was no
one left to blame.
-
- And then there was
President George W. Bush, telling us last night,
as if someone else had been in charge for the
last six years, that the United States "for the
last several decades" - has not been "in control
of its borders."
-
- Well, no sh--,
Sherlock. Where ya bin?
-
- Uh... With all due
respect, Mr. President, you sounded like some
outside observer - some news reporter - instead
of the person who's been running the
country.
-
- *********** I was
watching FOX News and the subject was the Duke
Lacrosse Rape Fiasco. Ted Williams, a defense
attorney from Washington, D.C., noting the
paucity of hard evidence shown so far, said that
the DA must have "something up his sleeve,"
adding, "It wouldn't surprise me if he were to
'turn' one of these other two
players."
-
- Haw. Make me laugh.
Not that I think for a minute that any of those
young men is guilty of what he is accused of,
but Mr. Williams obviously has no conception of
how tight a team - a lacrosse team especially -
can be.
-
- *********** On
Tuesday, May 16 at 11 AM (Eastern), CSTV.com
will carry a live free audio feed of the press
conference announcing the 15 Division I
inductees into the 2006 College Football Hall of
Fame (13 players and two coaches). CSTV will
also make video content of the day's events
available shortly afterward on
www.cstv.com
-
 - The kids
from Westminster High, in Westminster, Colorado,
who came in and helped demonstrate the offense
at the Denver clinic. Despite many of the
players playing baseball that day and many
others at a district track meet, there were
still 20-some kids able to do a nice job of
running the offense. Many thanks to Westminster
head coach Kevin Uhlig and defensive coordinator
Landon Wiederstein.
- *********** Following
my observations about what appear to be growing
tensions between the national Pop Warner
organization and local youth football
organizations around the country, Frank
Simonsen, of Cape May, New Jersey, wrote, "I
know you knew I would weigh in on this
one....
-
- The main reason
that Pop Warner is coming unraveled here in
the East is due to their ridiculous
eligibility requirements, of weight and age.
They just want to keep control of all youth
football in America. They did not see that
kids were getting bigger and that the cities
were giving way to more rural developments
and regional schools.
-
- Years back it was
impossible for a small community to field
teams under the Pop Warner eligibility
requirements. Only the heavily populated
cities had the numbers of players that could
qualify to make up the different divisions of
weights and ages. Therefore smaller
communities had to develop their own criteria
for eligibility (weights and ages) that would
work for their numbers. Now the trend is age
and grade, with no limit on weights. Most
organizations have a third and fourth grade
team, fifth and sixth grade team, and seventh
and eighth grade team.
-
- It has only been in
the past few years that anyone has done an in
depth study of youth football injuries and
the studies showed, that it is not weight as
much as it is maturity that causes injuries.
In fact, under the age of fourteen the
heavier youth player is the more likely to
get injured, of course there are exceptions.
-
- In the past, Pop
Warner has always catered to the children
that would probably not play football in
school, due to grades or discipline problems.
It was directed more to the problem child, in
order to help keep them off the streets and
out of trouble. Now that the policy of our
education systems is "No Child Left Behind",
any child wishing to play school-related
sports is eligible. Now the schools at the
junior high level are starting their own
programs, and scheduling teams in their
leagues just as they do with basketball,
baseball, wrestling, track, etc.
-
- In order to make
sure all children can participate, even the
special school children must be bussed to
their sending district (schools). My wife
teaches at a "Special Services School"
(Alternative High School), and the school
must bus the children to their sending
district (school), and get them there on time
for practice. This is one of the problems
with the State of New Jersey's "Education
System" - The state does not pay for this
bussing, and the expense of it eats up much
of the school's budget.
-
- This takes all the
12, 13, and 14 year old football players,
eliminating all the eligible aged and
weighted players from Pop Warner's criteria
of eligibility.
-
- "Pop Warner
Football" had better wake-up and get better
management to get them in step with the
present day trends. They must give up their
arrogant attitude of controlling all of
America's youth football.
- *********** We were
sitting around at dinner Saturday night after
the Northern California clinic when Derek Wade
said he thought it was Pat Buchanan who asked,
"When did 'The Love That Dare Not Speak Its
Name' become The Love That Won't Shut the F--k
Up?"
-
- *********** Haven't
e-mailed you for a while and I always appreciate
your quick responses and opinions. I hope you
are doing well. I e-mailed you quite some time
ago about how I could never catch a break and
get offered a big school job. I finally got that
offer last winter and accepted a position at
--------. They have an enrollment of 1600 and
are 1-39 over the past 4 years.
-
- I now continually hear
how the double wing will not work at that level.
Even some of the coaches I have beat here and in
other jobs are saying I will have to change my
offensive approach a little to succeed at that
level. I am 38-16 with the double wing and do
not believe that to be true. First, why do you
think they say that? Is it true at all? Thank
you for your time and all the videos. I think I
almost have them all.
-
- First of all -
congratulations.
-
- You ask, why do I
think people say that it won't
work?
-
- The Double Wing is
often dismissed as a "big school" offense
because you don't see it at many big schools,
and a major reason for that is that, very
frankly, most big school coaches are not in a
position to put all their chips on anything as
radically different as the Double-Wing. Some
would say that those coaches lack "stones," but
they are under considerably more pressure than
most smaller school coaches are - from their
administrators, their boosters, their parents
and their own assistants - to conform to what
they think of as "real" football, i.e.,
pro-style, spread-it-out, video game
football.
-
- You can be very
successful - but be sure to sell it to your
parents as the offense that you think will give
your kids their best chance of success, and be
sure to convince your kids that it gives them an
edge. I try to do that by turning our
detractors' argument into a plus - by using the
fact that others insults us, that we are
different, we are unconventional and (in some
peoples' opinion) ugly - to convince our kids
that we are the people nobody else wants to
play. Kids are very receptive to the idea that
they are tougher than everybody else, and every
disparaging remark about our offense just feeds
that attitude!
-
- *********** Hi Coach
Wyatt, Your video clinic DVD was great. It was
good for me to see what is new in DW football. I
love the wedge at 4 and will be looking at
completing some passes this year. I will also be
running the Quick Pitch ,pulling the onside
tackle. Coach Wyatt , I had run that play for
years with great success, it didn't occur to me
to run it with my DW team. Thanks again....the
DVD idea was the best. Regards, Ron Singer,
Toronto JR Ti-Cats, Toronto, Canada
-
- *********** There is
fishing, and there fishing. Some guys were
fishing off the Oregon coast this weekend, when
one of them hooked a halibut (think flounder on
steroids - these suckers get BIG). His buddy,
the boat's skipper, tried to help him get the
fish on board when, in the words of the
fisherman, "He just flipped over the rail."
-
- Now they had a problem
- getting the skipper back on board. He was a
big man - 6-2, 300 - and his clothes were
soaking wet, and the fisherman and two other
guys were unable to hoist him back on
board.
-
- And so, as he bobbed
there, they called for the Coast Guard. The
helicopter arrived just 15 minutes after the
call, but it was already too late. By the time
they arrived, the skipper was dead of
hypothermia.
-
- Said his fisherman
pal, given the 51-degree waters of the North
Pacific, "It was all over within five
minutes."
-
- *********** Wonder why
Mr. Strong Borders, President Bush, thinks it's
suddenly such a great idea to send our military
down to the Mexican border. What a joke. I mean,
after six years of ignoring the elephant in the
living room, of acting as if our porous border
is no problem, he suddenly picks up the phone
and realizes there are many of us who have been
trying to get him to answer. Not that he
proposes sending soldiers down there to do what
soldiers are trained to do - they're merely
going to serve as "backup" to the real border
agents. They may even be looking through scopes
and alerting the border patrol when people try
to sneak across. Well, whoopee do. That's
exactly what the Minutemen offered to do, and
yet they've been branded by the President as
vigilantes. Hmmmm - you don't suppose those
National Guardsmen are being sent down there to
control the Minutemen, do you???
-
- *********** It's news
like this that really warms your heart... It
wasn't so many years ago that I sat in a hotel
lobby in suburban Detroit, rehashing the clinic
that had just taken place, and a young coach
from the Detroit area, a highly-successful youth
coach named Donnie Hayes, confessed to me that
he had "the urge." The urge to become a high
school coach. But like so many youth coaches who
get the urge, he had a good job and so did his
wife, Tami, and they had a nice home. They had a
lifestyle they couldn't support on a
teacher/coach's pay - not that there were that
many teaching/coaching opportunities in the
Detroit area, anyhow.
-
- The only option was to
move to Florida, where Donnie had grown up.
Florida is growing like crazy, and there are
teaching and coaching jobs to be had. And in
most parts of Florida, housing is
reasonably-priced.
-
- But it meant that
Donnie and Tami had to give up their jobs, and
Tami had to move 1000 miles away from her
parents in Muskegon, Michigan, while Donnie
looked for a job in the Orlando area. He did
find a job at a startup school, and played good
soldier on staffs that didn't want to hear about
his crazy Double-Wing offense, until he managed
to get on as offensive coordinator at Belleview,
a school whose coach was receptive to Donnie's
crazy offense. Donnie's offense really clicked
at Belleview. I have seen the highlights, and
his kids really executed. Nothing overly fancy,
either - just good kids who were well coached.
Only one problem - Belleview was a one-hour
commute - each way.
-
- Now, though, it can be
told. For well over a month, Donnie had been
assured that he would be the head coach at a
brand-new high school to open this fall in
Viera, Florida, to the east of Orlando on the
Space Coast. Viera will start out this year with
freshmen and sophomores only, playing a JV
schedule. In 2007, though, they'll play a
varsity schedule - without seniors.
-
- I'll let Coach Hayes
take it from there...
-
- Hey
Coach,
-
- Just wanted to let
you know that it was finally made official on
Thursday. I have been named as the Head
Football Coach at Viera High School. I was
told several weeks ago that I was the guy but
due to red tape, the Principal and AD could
not make it official. Even though I new I was
going to get the job, it is a huge relief to
be "out of the closet" so to speak. I am very
excited, as is Tami and Donovan. Colin is
still too young to understand what is
happening.
-
- We are still in
school right now and I am still coaching at
Belleview through the end of the year. We
wrap it up this Wednesday with our spring
game against North Marion HS who made it to
the final four in their classification last
season. It will be a little strange leaving
BHS because I was made to feel so welcome
there and the guys I coach with are great.
There are no hard feelings at all in fact,
they are all very happy for me and can't wait
to schedule a game (LOL). I told them, "not
for a year or two."
-
- This is a link:(
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060512/SPORTS07/605120347/1093/sports07
to the article in the local paper and I am
supposed to meet with a reporter on Tuesday
so that he can interview me for a more
in-depth article about Viera Football. The
school's mascot is going to be the Hawks and
I can't wait to get started!
-
- Thanks for all the
support and advice you have given me over the
last few years, I appreciate it more than you
know.
-
- Regards,
-
- Donnie Hayes, Head
Football Coach, Viera High School, Viera,
Florida
- *********** I don't
understand all the fuss about domestic
eavesdropping. It's supposedly a privacy issue.
What a crock. Anybody who buys this idea that
Americans really give a rip about their privacy
obviously isn't aware of what teenagers tell
(and show) on their blogs... hasn't stood at a
cash register waiting for the ditzes to stop
talking about what they did last night long
enough to take the customers' money... hasn't
dined in a restaurant and had to listen to a
young woman on a cellphone telling anyone within
earshot about her love life... hasn't sat in an
airplane and been treated to Mr. High-Powered
Businessman giving away corporate secrets on his
cellphone.
-
- *********** The Denver
Broncos' first draft choice, quarterback David
Cutler, of Vanderbilt, is from Santa Claus,
Indiana. "It's just like any other small town
anyone else is from," he told the Denver Post,
"except some idiot decided to name it 'Santa
Claus.'"
-
- ***********
Coach, I have to
replace Dynamics I and the playbook. It seems
they have disappeared. I can't put my hand on
them anywhere. I received them as a gift several
years ago from a friend (Greg Stout). I have
also purchased Dynamics II, III, Safer &
Surer Tackling, Installing The System and
Practice without Pads over the past few years.
My son and I attended your Atlanta clinic a few
years back. As far as we are concerned, the cost
of purchasing these materials and attending your
clinic was the best football investment we ever
made.
-
- Whenever new coaches
join our organization it's required that they
view your tackling tape and we require all
coaches to teach tackling as it is taught on
your tape. Here is another note, when we first
started running the DW only my son and I did so.
Now our organization has 8 teams and 6 out of
those 8 run the DW. With so many of us running
the system here, someone may have borrowed the
materials and failed to return them.
-
- By the way, my son and
I took our teams to the National Youth Football
Championships in Daytona Beach, Florida in
November. We both won a "National Championship"
in our respective divisions. Kelii's team won
the 12 Division Heavy B Conference (11-12 years
old) and my team won the 10 Division Heavy
Conference (9-10 years old). There were 92 teams
entered from the U.S. and Canada.
-
- Take care,
-
- Ron Word,
West Nashville
Broncos, Nashville,
Tennessee
-
- *********** Before we go ahead and declare
war on Iran...
-
- Iran's hardline Islamic regime has had
enough of soccer players with long hair and
plucked eyebrows.
-
- "I will ban athletes with an effeminate
look," the head of the country's Physical
Education Organization told a leading
newspaper.
-
- "It is really disgraceful for Iran that
young people step onto fields wearing make-up,"
he said. "When a man enters the field with dyed
hair and groomed eyebrows, he is disrespecting
society."
-
- Are we sure we want to nuke
people who think like that?
-
- *********** Granted, Puff Daddy/P Diddy/Sean
Combs/Diddy, is a lowlife. He is paying child
support to at least two ex-girfriends, one of
whom he owes almost $400,000 to. But before we
start calling the guy a Deadbeat Dad, we should
know that he was just ordered by a New York
court to pay that woman $19,000 in child
support. Per month. For one
child.
-
- Now, I don't mind when Mr. Diddy or someone
of that ilk learns that if you can't keep it in
your pants, you're going to pay one way or
another, but sheesh - what child on earth needs
that much "support?"
-
- To think that families are sneaking across
our border in order to earn less than the
minimum wage.
-
- *********** We all know of "educators" who
look down their noses at coaches. They're the
kind who'll hire the one candidate out of the
four they interviewed who wasn't a coach,
figuring that anybody who isn't a coach must be
a fabulous teacher.
-
- So I about laughed my ass off when I read
what schools judged as "failing" under No Child
Left Behind (thanks a lot, GW) will be forced to
do in order to "restructure."
-
- They are turning to coaches. That's
right - coaches.
-
- Said a guy who is president of something
called Center on Education Policy, "They are
offering professional development, rethinking
the curriculum, bringing coaches
in...."
-
- *********** Two of the brand-new bowl games
are actually owned by ESPN, lock, stock and
barrel.
-
- *********** A new "professional" baseball
venture calling itself the Continental Baseball
League has announced that it is looking for
cities where it can locate its teams. Perhaps
taking advantage of the unbelievable
appreciation in the price of minor league
franchises, it has announced that one of its
franchises will cost just $100,000 - a steal, at
a time when the lowest Class A team will cost
you $1,000,000 and up.
-
- For some reason its founders seem to think
that something is wrong with the game of
baseball itself, and not the people who own it
or the people who play it, because they seem
willing to tamper with the basic structure of
the game - any homer hit by a member of the
losing team after the 7th inning will count
double (a bases-empty homer will score two runs,
a two-run homer will score four, etc.
-
- They didn't say whether they were planning
on sticking with three outs a side.
-
- *********** Scott Willoughby, in the Denver
Post, quoted some extreme sport guy who was
bitching because nobody seemed willing to pay
him to do whatever it is he does. (I love
the fact that he referred to himself as "an
underpaid and often unpaid professional.")
-
- "You need passion to play as an underpaid
and often unpaid professional," the guy said,
"and I'd like to think that someday the passion
that allows these sports to continue to grow and
thrive will ultimately do the same for the
athletes who represent them."
-
- He mentioned this as competitors assembled
in Vail or Aspen or some damn place to compete
in such sports as Mountain biking, kayaking,
rafting, rock climbing, BMX, and fly
fishing.
-
- Wait - fly fishing?
-
- *********** Coach Wyatt, I was talking with
one of my players from this past year's team
about playing at the high school next year.
He is a very bright kid and this was his
first year playing football. He really
loved it and is passionate about the game.
The high school that our program feeds invites
next years freshmen to participate in two weeks
of spring practice and a dozen or so of our
players went. I asked him how he liked it and if
he was looking forward to next year. The
high school runs double slot and spread option
like Georgia Southern. He commented about
the huge line splits and the different play
calling system. I assured him that this
was all part of a different offense and he would
do just fine. He also said that the
position coach commented negatively about our
offense. I don't think that the coaches in
general at that school look down at us.
The head coach's two sons both played for
me and he has supported our school, giving us
equipment when we needed it. Should
I talk to the head coach about one of his
assistants? I consider our programs
to have a common interest to support each
other. Although I could do more harm to
his program than he could to mine, I want my
kids to succeed at the next level.
-
- In view of the fact that your major job
is to help make your kids as successful
as you can - a job, I might add, at which you
are succeeding admirably - I think it is
unprofessional and unwise for any coach at the
high school you feed to make any disparaging
remarks about any aspect of your program, and I
would let the head coach know that. I think the
head coach will understand, even if the
assistant does not.
-
- *********** I was sad when I heard of the
death of Floyd Patterson, a great fighter and a
truly classy person.
-
- Patterson, the first man to lose and then
win back the heavyweight title, was 71.
-
- He never got the credit he deserved, partly
because he was soft-spoken and articulate, and -
despite the fact that 40 of his 55 wins were a
result of knockouts - not perceived as a
puncher.
-
- "They said I was the fighter who got knocked
down the most, but I also got up the most," he
once said.
-
- And yes, he did get knocked down a lot, but
in most cases he was spotting his opponent 20
pounds or so. And even so, he lost only eight
fights, two of them to the much-younger Muhammad
Ali.
-
- He was slow to recognize Ali's newly-adopted
name, referring to him before one of those
fights by his given name (Cassius Clay), and
when Clay/Ali got the upper hand in the fight,
he pummelled Patterson mercilessly while calling
out, tauntingly, "What's my name?!? What's my
name?!?"
-
- (That latter story is for those people whose
only image of Muhammad Ali is as a kindly old
gentleman, an elder statesman, and never knew
him as a young man, never knew what a total jerk
he was capable of being.)
-
- *********** Jarrin' John Kimbrough, a Texas
football legend, died last week at the age of
87. No less a reporter than the great Dan
Jenkins has called him "Texas A & M's
all-time biggest star."
-
- A giant fullback for his time at 6-2, 222,
Kimbrough was compared only with the great
Bronko Nagurski. He starred on A&M's 1939
national championship team, rushing for 152
yards and two touchdowns in the Aggies' 14-13
Sugar Bowl win over Tulane.
-
- In 1940, Kimbrough rushed for 658 yards,
scored seven touchdowns and intercepted six
passes, and finished second in the Heisman
Trophy voting behind Michigan's Tom Harmon.
-
- In the Aggies' 1941 Cotton Bowl win over
Fordham, Kimbrough rushed for 75 yards and
scored the winning touchdown, then blocked an
extra point try to clinch the 13-12 A & M
win.
-
- Such was his fame that he starred in two
Hollywood Western movies in 1942, "Sundown Jim"
and "Lone Star Ranger," then served as an Army
pilot in the Pacific during World War II.
-
- Following the War, he played three years
with the Los Angeles Dons of the All-American
Football Conference, Kimbrough rushed for 1,224
yards and 17 touchdowns for the Dons.
-
- Mr. Kimbrough served in the Texas State
Legislature from 1953 to 1955, and was inducted
into the College Football Hall of Fame in
1954.
-
- He is survived by his wife of 64 years.
-
- Reporter Henry McLemore, in describing his
running for the go-ahead touchdown in the
Aggies' big win over SMU in 1941, captured the
essence of Jarrin' John Kimbrough...
-
- "Big John, his 222 pounds increased to
240 by equipment and mud, bore into the SMU
line seven times on this payoff drive,
gaining 31 of the 35 yards needed. There
wasn't any deceit in John's running. The
Mustangs knew where he was coming and where
he was going to hit. They just couldn't stop
him.
-
- "The SMU linemen charged viciously, met
Kimbrough at the scrimmage line, and he would
stage a one-man battle with them. He always
won. First the line would bend under the
impact of his rush, and then it would break
as he churned his great legs, and bulled his
head and shoulders."
- *********** Hugh, I enjoyed reading the mail
you received from John Trisciani regarding his
son's experience at Plymouth State. Like father
- like son! Trish is a helluva coach, and you
can easily see that his son exhibits all that is
good about his dad.
-
- I should know. When I was the head coach at
Trinity HS in New Hampshire back in the mid
90's, Trish was one of the premier youth coaches
in the state at that time. One of his former
players ended up playing for me at Trinity for
four years as a varsity starter and came into
school as one of the most fundamentally sound
football players I have ever coached.
-
- He obviously had a very good youth coach!
That young man went on to college and played
four years of college ball, and is now a very
successful engineer. It wasn't a surprise to me
when I learned recently that the same young man
was inducted into the Manchester Catholic
Schools Hall of Fame. I can honestly say a lot
of what he learned as a football player started
with Coach Trish. So, to listen to Trish talk
about his son's experience was simply a
reflection of what John Trisciani has always
been about.
-
- Joe Gutilla, Columbus, Ohio
-
- *********** Coach, I will have a lot of
questions for you. We are committed to
making the double wing work. The 1st thing
that I thought about yesterday was how I would
stop the DW on defense if I were to coach
against it. The Wedge appears to be
something where the D-line could go low and
destroy it before it gets started. How do
you combat that type of Defensive
approach? It seems you could obviously not
run the play and go off tackle with the super
power but the Wedge seems to be a big piece of
the offense. Any ideas or strategies on
this would be helpful.
-
You may remember my saying at Saturday's
clinic, "I can stop the wedge,"
and "I can stop the Power," but
it's not very likely I can stop them both, and I
sure can't stop everything you've got.
-
- The point of having a play like that is
that it strikes so much fear in people that they
will often go to unusual lengths just to stop
that one play!
-
- Not to mention the fact that, as I also
pointed out, it is one thing for a coach to tell
his kids to bear crawl for an entire game, but
it is another things for his kids to actually
do that for an entire
game.
-
 ***********
Gabe McCown, of Ada, Oklahoma, took this photo
on a recent visit to the Vietnam Memorial (The
Wall) in Washington, and wondered if I might
know anything about it.-
- Some of the names on the ball: Bill
Gillmore... Joe Zampogna...Clyde Anderson...
J.P. Romanik... Hank Stewart... Bob
Vandervort... Don Smith...
-
- I couldn't find anything about any of those
guys who autographed the ball, and there may not
be a connection anyhow, but on the Wall above
and to the left of the ball is the name
Blackshear M. Bryan, Jr., the son of a
superintendent of the US Military Academy, who
was killed in Vietnam in 1967. Amazing
coincidence - just a couple of weeks ago I
showed a photo on my News page that I'd taken of
the graves of the late Bryans, buried
side-by-side at West Point.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 2006 DOUBLE-WING CLINIC
SCHEDULE - AS OF 4-1-06 (2006
CLINICS)
- CLINICS
START AT 9 AM SHARP AND GO UNTIL 4 PM WITH A
1-HOUR BREAK FOR LUNCH
|
|
CLINIC
|
LOCATION
|
|
FEB
25
|
ATLANTA
|
HOLIDAY
INN AIRPORT NORTH - 1380 Virginia Ave -
404-762-8411
|
|
MARCH
11
|
LOS
ANGELES
|
HOLIDAY INN-MEDIA
CENTER -150 E. Angeleno, Burbank -
818-841-4770
|
|
MARCH
18
|
CHICAGO
|
ST. XAVIER
UNIVERSITY - 3700 West 103rd St.,
Chicago
|
|
APRIL
8
|
RALEIGH-DURHAM
|
MILLENNIUM
HOTEL - 2800 Campus Walk Ave - Durham -
919-383-8575
|
|
APRIL
15
|
PHILADELPHIA
|
HOLIDAY INN, 432
Pennsylvania Ave, Fort Washington, PA.
- 215-643-3000
|
|
APRIL
29
|
PROVIDENCE
|
COMFORT INN AIRPORT
- 1940 POST RD, WARWICK RI -
401-732-0470
|
|
MAY
6
|
DENVER
|
WESTMINSTER
HS - Westminster, CO (For more details
call Coach Kevin Uhlig -
303-870-8582)
|
|
MAY
13
|
NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA
|
HOLIDAY
INN EXPRESS - LATHROP, CA.
|
|
JUNE
10
|
PACIFIC
NORTHWEST
|
PHOENIX INN &
SUITES - 12712 SE 2ND Circle, Vancouver
WA - 360-891-9777
|
NEXT CLINIC -
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - SATURDAY,
MAY 13 - HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS - LATHROP,
CA-
- Attendees will
receive a complimentary DVD breaking down,
play-by-play, the Full-House Belly-T offense of
the powerful 1953-1954 Army teams, coached by
Earl "Red" Blaik, with Vince Lombardi as his
offensive assistant. On the video you will see
action clips of Army greats, including the
immortal Don Holleder, whose memory is honored
by the Black Lion Award. This DVD is not for
sale. It is provided by the Board of the Black
Lion Award in the interests of furthering
football and the Black Lion Award
itself.
-
-
|
|
|
Osama shows that
he will stop at nothing in his plot to
weaken America...
|
|
|
BECOME A
BLACK LION TEAM
GIVE THE BLACK
LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR
PLAYERS!
|
|
|
Army's Will Sullivan
wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all
winners) in the Army-Navy game
|
(FOR
MORE INFO)
|
The Black Lion
certificate is awarded to all
winners
|
|
|
If You're
Going to Criticize Officials - Do it
Before the Game!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
The
Double Wing Prepared This QB For
the "Next Level!"!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
- May
9, 2006 -
"You don't frighten us,
English pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottoms, sons
of a silly person! I blow my nose at your
so-called Arthur King! I don't wanna talk to you
no more, you empty-headed animal-food-trough
wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your
mother was a hamster and your father smelt of
elderberries! Now go away, or I shall taunt you
a second
time!"
French soldier,
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
-
- THE NEWS
PAGE WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED UNTIL TUESDAY, MAY 16
- HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY
-
- NOTE: I
HAVE BEEN FORCED TO CANCEL THE BUFFALO CLINIC,
ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED FOR JUNE 3. ALL
PRE-REGISTRATION FEES WILL BE REFUNDED IN
FULL
-
- *********** No sooner
did two Australian miners reach safety after
being trapped underground for two nearly weeks
than, being Australian, they had three requests:
cigarettes, beer, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. I
guess when you've stared death in the face, you
don't pay a whole lot of attention to health
nannies.
-
- *********** Colorado's new head coach, Dan
Hawkins, would probably make a good sales
manager. In business, sales managers exhort
their sales people to "Fish where the fish are"
- concentrate your efforts where you're most
likely to find prospects.
-
- Colorado does play good high school
football, but being relatively low in
population, it simply doesn't turn out enough
Division I-A players every year to supply the
needs of both Colorado and Colorado State, so
Hawkins, while divvying up in-state recruiting
responsibilities among his entire his staff, has
also assigned four assistants to recruit
Southern California, four to recruit Texas, and
one to recruit Florida.
-
- *********** We all know that coaches at all
levels, in all sports, stand to catch hell if
they criticize game officiating, especially if
they suggest that the officials might have been
motivated by something other than the desire to
call 'em as they see 'em. Professional and
big-time college coaches can he hit hard in the
wallet for mouthing off about those things.
After the games, that is.
-
- Apparently, if you have a problem with
officiating, you should get all that out of the
way before the game starts, judging by something
that took place in my town last week.
-
- When it was brought to the attention of a
local high school baseball coach that one of the
umpires of the game he was about to play was
related to someone on the other team, he
promptly announced that he was playing the game
under protest.
-
- The opposing coach said that he had only one
pitcher ready, and it made no sense to waste him
in a game that was being played under protest,
so he decided to forfeit the game.
-
- He is in a bit of a pickle now. But
interestingly, nothing happened to the first
coach, whose grounds for protest were entirely
based on questioning the integrity of an
umpire.
-
- *********** Faced with games that often run
close to four hours in length, the NCAA Football
Rules Committee passed measures to help speed up
games next season, including starting the clock
on changes of possession, starting it when the
ball is kicked off, rather than when it is
received, and cutting halftimes to 15
minutes.
-
- And then, to show that it wasn't really
serious at all, it practically guaranteed that
games would drag on by recommending that coaches
be allowed to challenge calls by officials.
-
- *********** When expansion of Alabama's
Bryant-Denny Stadium is completed this summer,
only Michigan, Penn State, Tennessee and Ohio
State will have larger on-campus stadia.
-
- *********** Former Tennessee quarterback
Heath Shuler, who after a disappointing NFL
career has gone on to forge a highly successful
career in real estate, won the right Tuesday to
oppose incumbent Charles Taylor for Congress in
the North Carolina 11th District this Fall.
Should Shuler win, he would be a rarity - a
former sports star winning election as a
Democrat, joining only former basketballers Bill
Bradley of New Jersey and Tom McMillen.
-
- *********** Hi Coach, I'd like to share a
brief story with you. My son John is now a
freshman at Plymouth State University in New
Hampshire. John has a 3.8 GPA and expects to
earn a degree in Physical Education and Health.
His goal is to coach college football and have 2
teaching certifications should he decide to work
at a High School in the future.
-
- You may remember that John was a DW
Quarterback at Memorial H.S. for 3 seasons and
like most of our players believed in the offense
and what it allowed us to accomplish. Last
season he went out for wide receiver unsure of
what if any position he fit into. Late in the
season he got into some games mainly for his
blocking as like his mother he is not quite
fleet of foot. His position coach complemented
his blocking and was surprised to learn that
John had never played receiver in High School.
Coach asked John,"what position did you play"?
John proudly explained to Coach that he was a
blocking Quarterback who pitched the ball and
led the play blocking DB'S,LB'S or whoever was
in the hole. In telling me the story he stated
that" stalk blocking is not a big deal for a DW
Quarterback".
-
- After a solid off season in the weight room
he is now 6'3" about 215 and saw considerable
time at WR and TE this spring. The moral of the
story is that every mother and father may want
their son to pass the ball and hand off and jog
the other way in High School. Our family
believes that you should never underestimate the
advantages of being a blocking Quarterback and
learning the leadership and physical skills
needed in the DW offense. Not every High School
player will be a scholarship Quarterback in
college but through hard work,commitment and
perseverance you can find a place to
contribute.
-
- Yours in football, John Trisciani,
Manchester, New Hampshire
-
 ***********
Army's Black Lion, Scott Wesley, had a tryout
with the Detroit Lions this past weekend. He was
the first Army player since 2003 to have such a
shot.-
- Because of Scott's size (5-11, 205) and his
good hands, Army coach Bobby Ross moved Scott
from wide receiver to running back this past
season, to provide depth behind starter Carlton
Jones.
-
- But he turned out to be much more than a
backup. As Army's third-down and goal-line back.
he rushed for 528 yards and a team-high 10
touchdowns, while handling kickoff returns for
the second straight year.
-
- Scott became a favorite of Coach Ross with
toughness and work ethic, which made him the
choice of the Army coaching staff as the Black
Lion Award winner - an honor Coach Ross
considers as prestigious as any that Army hands
out.
-
- The Black Lion Award is presented in memory
of former Army football great Don Holleder, who
was killed in combat in Vietnam on Oct. 17,
1967, and the men of the 28th Infantry Regiment,
nicknamed the Black Lions.
-
- "Scott Wesley is one of the toughest young
men that I have ever coached," Coach Ross has
said. "He does not say a thing; he just goes out
and does it. I can't praise him enough."
-
- (Pro football or not, Scott will be
commissioned as an officer in the United States
Army when he graduates this spring, and he is
committed to serve. Should he earn a spot with
the Lions, he would be permitted to defer- but
not to avoid - his military obligation.)
-
- *********** Hey Hugh, Was looking over your
'News..." section today and had to weigh in. I
was a head coach for 14 years and I WAS the
offensive line coach and OC.
-
- We ran the bone and broken bone my first 12
years and the DW the last two when I received
your flyer in the mail and was hooked. I knew
what it took to be successful and my seven were
the catalyst. We rushed for over 4000 yards on
three separate occasions and it wasn't by
accident. We ran many weaponry plays out of the
bone and we could smash you in the mouth,
misdirection you, and run the option. My linemen
loved to pull and really loved it when we went
DW.
-
- Keep up the good work. Jim Ferdon,
Hemingway, South Carolina
-
- *********** Coach Tom Smith, of Plaistow,
New Hampshire, is a rabid Dallas Cowboys fan -
so what else could he name his son but -
Emmitt?
-
- *********** My old buddy Scott Barnes is at
it again. Scott, who calls Rockwall, Texas his
home, has been a successful youth football coach
both in Colorado and Texas, and he has become a
driving force behind the development of high
school wrestling in his area (Texas, very good
in so many other sports, has lagged behind in
wrestling).
-
- Now he's ready for a REAL challenge - he and
his business partner, John McKinney, are
preparing to race in this November's Baja 1000,
which, if you didn't know, consists of racing
the length of the pretty-much-roadless Baja
California - after first building a car that can
stand up to the gruelling demands of the race.
Scott and John have a Web site -
http://www.endeavorbaja.com
-
- *********** While in
Virginia recently, I had a chance to look at
some video of a kid who might be the most
dominant high school defensive tackle I have
ever seen. His name is Daryl Robertson of
Liberty High in Bedford, Virginia, and he has
signed with Virginia Tech. I had to laugh,
because one of those bogus rating services that
list kids they've never seen play had him listed
as the number 71 defensive tackle in the US. God
help us all if there are 70 defensive tackles
out there better than Daryl Robertson.
-
- *********** Army's
Bobby Ross and Mississippi State's Sylvester
Croom have talked about setting up a game
between their two schools.
They are close friends.
Coach Croom was Coach Ross' running backs coach
with the San Diego Chargers and his offensive
coordinator with the Detroit Lions. While in San
Diego, Coach Ross told Coach Croom he would be a
head coach someday. Croom said it was the first
time anyone had said that to Croom. In 2003, he
became the first black head coach in the
Southeastern Conference.
-
- "We would love to play
them," Coach Ross said. "It's just been hard to
work out. They don't have a date that we do. But
we have talked about it several times. I would
love to play against Sly, I have such respect
for him. He's one of the finest people I've ever
worked with."
-
- Said Croom shortly
after Ross' was hired at Army: "I played and
coached for Bear Bryant. I was always so loyal
to him. I didn't want to let him down. I never
had feelings like that for anybody else until I
worked for Bobby Ross."
-
- *********** Without wanting to get into the
middle of anything, in my travels I have been
sensing growing differences between various
youth football organizations on the one hand,
and the national Pop Warner organization on the
other. Several coaches at my Providence clinic
said that numerous youth organizations in their
states had already withdrawn from Pop Warner
affiliation, to the point where one state - a
smaller one, to be sure - was left with only
three Pop Warner teams, from which came last
year's Pop Warner "state champion."
-
-
- 2006 DOUBLE-WING CLINIC
SCHEDULE - AS OF 4-1-06 (2006
CLINICS)
- CLINICS
START AT 9 AM SHARP AND GO UNTIL 4 PM WITH A
1-HOUR BREAK FOR LUNCH
- NOTE: I
HAVE BEEN FORCED TO CANCEL THE BUFFALO CLINIC,
ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED FOR JUNE 3. ALL
PRE-REGISTRATION FEES WILL BE REFUNDED IN
FULL
|
|
CLINIC
|
LOCATION
|
|
FEB
25
|
ATLANTA
|
HOLIDAY
INN AIRPORT NORTH - 1380 Virginia Ave -
404-762-8411
|
|
MARCH
11
|
LOS
ANGELES
|
HOLIDAY INN-MEDIA
CENTER -150 E. Angeleno, Burbank -
818-841-4770
|
|
MARCH
18
|
CHICAGO
|
ST. XAVIER
UNIVERSITY - 3700 West 103rd St.,
Chicago
|
|
APRIL
8
|
RALEIGH-DURHAM
|
MILLENNIUM
HOTEL - 2800 Campus Walk Ave - Durham -
919-383-8575
|
|
APRIL
15
|
PHILADELPHIA
|
HOLIDAY INN, 432
Pennsylvania Ave, Fort Washington, PA.
- 215-643-3000
|
|
APRIL
29
|
PROVIDENCE
|
COMFORT INN AIRPORT
- 1940 POST RD, WARWICK RI -
401-732-0470
|
|
MAY
6
|
DENVER
|
WESTMINSTER
HS - Westminster, CO (For more details
call Coach Kevin Uhlig -
303-870-8582)
|
|
MAY
13
|
NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA
|
HOLIDAY
INN EXPRESS - LATHROP, CA.
|
|
JUNE
10
|
PACIFIC
NORTHWEST
|
PHOENIX INN &
SUITES - 12712 SE 2ND Circle, Vancouver
WA - 360-891-9777
|
NEXT CLINIC -
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - SATURDAY,
MAY 13 - HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS - LATHROP,
CA-
- NOTE: I
HAVE BEEN FORCED TO CANCEL THE BUFFALO CLINIC,
ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED FOR JUNE 3. ALL
PRE-REGISTRATION FEES WILL BE REFUNDED IN
FULL
-
- Attendees will
receive a complimentary DVD breaking down,
play-by-play, the Full-House Belly-T offense of
the powerful 1953-1954 Army teams, coached by
Earl "Red" Blaik, with Vince Lombardi as his
offensive assistant. On the video you will see
action clips of Army greats, including the
immortal Don Holleder, whose memory is honored
by the Black Lion Award. This DVD is not for
sale. It is provided by the Board of the Black
Lion Award in the interests of furthering
football and the Black Lion Award
itself.
-
-
|
|
|
Osama shows that
he will stop at nothing in his plot to
weaken America...
|
|
|
BECOME A
BLACK LION TEAM
GIVE THE BLACK
LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR
PLAYERS!
|
|
|
Army's Will Sullivan
wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all
winners) in the Army-Navy game
|
(FOR
MORE INFO)
|
The Black Lion
certificate is awarded to all
winners
|
|
|
So We Went
and "Brought a Terrorist to Justice",
and ...?
(See"NEWS")
|
|
Suitable for
Printing - a Bushpeso!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
- May
5, 2006 - "Peace is an armistice
in a war that is continually going on."
Thucydides
-
TAKEN AT THE PROVIDENCE
CLINIC...
|
|
|
A panel of
experienced coaches fielded questions
from the audience... From Left- Bill
Mignault, Ledyard, Connecticut HS,
winningest coach in Connecticut state
high school football history; Jack
Tourtillotte, Boothbay Region HS,
Boothbay Harbor, Maine, coach of a
state champion and a perennial power;
Bill Maradei, Austin Prep, Reading,
Massachusetts, State Super Bowl winner;
Rick Davis, Duxbury, Massachusetts,
championship youth coach; Jeff Cziska,
offensive line coach at two-time Super
Bowl winner Southeastern
Vocational-Technical, in South Easton,
Massachusetts
|
            -
-
- *********** Back in the 2000-2001 basketball
season, eight members of the Clatskanie (Oregon)
High School team signed a petition seeking the
removal of their coach because of what they
described as his "intimidation tactics."
-
- After refusing to board the bus to their
next game, they were suspended from the varsity
team.
-
- In 2003 - two years later -they filed a
lawsuit claiming school officials had violated
their First Amendment rights to free speech.
(Think there were any adults involved? Maybe the
ACLU?)
-
- Although district court ruled against the
students, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
said last week that the lower court erred in
dismissing the students' free speech
claims.
-
- The court found that not boarding the bus
was not protected speech because it disrupted
the basketball program, but the panel asked the
lower court to reconsider whether the players'
free speech action of signing a petition was a
substantial reason in their suspension.
Writes Akis Kourtzidis, of Chino Hills,
California, who sent me the article - Hi Coach,
I suppose it's the way of the world with the
messed up court system. Maybe military personnel
can sue for having to go through boot camp,
because it is too tough and the sergeants use
"intimidation" tactics. Where do we draw the
line of people having the responsibility but not
the authority? Will we now have coaches further
walking on eggshells because of pri-ks who raise
brats? Crazy days are these. (The 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals - sometimes known as the "9th
Circus" - is responsible for most of the weird
court decisions of the last several years, such
as eliminating God from the flag pledge. It has
to be considered a nuisance by the US Supreme
Court because of the number of its wacko
decisions that have had to be overturned. It all
dates back to those "Question Authority" days of
the 1960s and early 1970s - those days that our
friends on the news media like to tell us were
so "liberating," but which actually drove a
crack in our society that grows ever wider.
HW)
-
- *********** Jeffrey Gitomer, author of a
best-selling book entitled "The Little Red Book
of Selling," told the Wall Street Journal that
he once jokingly put this message on his
voicemail: "Hi, this is Jeffrey Gitomer. I wish
I could talk to you but I can't. Please leave
your American Express number with expiration
date, and I'll get right back to you."
-
- He said an average of three people a day
would leave the requested information and then
hang up.
-
- *********** Elton Brand is fairly unique
among NBA basketball players in that he hasn't
defaced himself with tattoos.
-
- "I just never saw anything that I would like
when I'm 55," he told USA Today. "I don't want
to be looking down at a heart with an arrow
through it or a skull and crossbones, going
'What was I thinking?'"
-
- *********** Remember back when President
Bush said we'd catch the terrorists and "bring
them to justice?"
-
- And remember when I said that we were in
real trouble if that was our objective -
if we had to depend on the American justice
system to defend us?
-
- So we brought one to justice,
and....
-
- The sentencing of Zacharias Moussaoui (f--k
him if I misspelled it), a guy who was in on the
conspiracy to kill thousands of Americans, shows
us what a farce our "justice system" really
is.
-
- If ever a person deserved to die for a
crime, Zacharias Moussaoui was that person.
-
- But this is America in the 21st Century, and
anybody who sees what happens in our cities
every day could have predicted the outcome - a
jury felt sorry for him because he had a
rough upbringing, and gave him life in prison -
the same as if he had been a thrice-convicted
thief.
-
- The stamp of today's gutless society was all
over this one.
-
- At the ready, in the event that the jury had
sentenced him to death, stood grief counselors,
prepared to console the jurors in case they
couldn't handle the great stress involved in
killing an enemy of America. The poor
things.
-
- So in the best tradition of modern
parenting, instead of spanking him, they decided
to give him Time Out.
-
- I actually heard a woman interviewed on the
streets in Portland who thought that the verdict
was a good one - it would give Mr. M "an
opportunity to think about what he did."
I swear she said that.
-
- I'd better stuff a sock in my mouth before I
come out and say that this is what happens to a
nation run increasingly by men and women in
touch with their inner feelings.
-
- The men who fought World War II are dying
off at the rate of 1500 a day. That's 3,000 sets
of stones that will never be replaced.
-
- As he was led out of the courtroom Moussaoui
clapped his hands and said, "America, you lost.
I won."
-
- He's right.
-
- *********** Hugh, I read this in a guy's
article so I can't be sure he isn't making it
up, but this is it:
-
- During commercial breaks at Radio City Music
Hall, a woman hired by the NFL attempted to
assuage the barbarians in the crowd by
interviewing NFL players present. (Sorry, on
repeated attempts I was unable to learn the
woman's name.) When she interviewed Amani
Toomer, the Giants' receiver explained his first
name means "peace" in Swahili. The interviewer
promptly asked, "Were your parents
Swahili?"
-
- I tell ya, you gotta be spot on with this
Jeff Fisher incident. I can't imagine a GM would
allow the media to get the impression he and his
coach are feuding, unless he was ready to tell
said coach to go to hell. Added to the fact that
the Titans need a pro-ready QB now, and they
could just screw Fisher enough by denying him
the pick.
-
- Sounds like a power play to me. Speaking of
which - the Red Wings really stunk out the
joint. Garh! That sound you heard was me rooting
for a Calgary-Edmonton matchup - the Corridor
Series.
-
- Christian Anderson, Palo Alto, California
(What a great question! It reminds me of the
question someone is said to have asked of Doug
Williams during one of those inane pre-Super
Bowl news conferences: "Have you always been a
black quarterback?" HW )
-
- *********** The fact that America somehow
managed to survive A Day Without Immigrants
demonstrated once again two absolute
truths:
-
- (1) In spite of the way America continues to
grow soft and timid, she is still very
resilient. It is going to take a whole lot more
than a couple hundred thousand people staying
home from work and pulling their kids out of
school to shut down the American economy. Never
make the mistake of thinking that America can't
get along without you.
-
- (2) Every group tends to overestimate its
numbers and its importance.
-
- As Exhibit A, I submit the
Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgendered
"community," which for quite some time seemed
dedicated to selling the American public on
the idea that they made up 10 per cent of our
population.
-
- As Exhibit B, I submit the high school
kids I taught; the smokers would tell you
that "everybody smokes," the drinkers that
"everybody drinks," and the potheads that
"everybody smokes weed."
- *********** Instead of spending it on
bling-bling, golfing legend Arnold Palmer, who
lost his wife to cancer and underwent surgery
for prostate cancer himself, has donated $2
million to the University of Pittsburgh Cancer
Institute to expand its division of cancer
prevention and population sciences.
-
- *********** Ex-President William Jefferson
Clinton looking for do-good projects that might
establish his legacy as a great humanitarian
instead of a sexual predator, has enlisted the
services of Big Pop, announcing that the
so-called William J. Clinton Foundation has
reached an agreement with soft drink companies
to remove sugary, high-calorie soft drinks from
school vending machines and cafeterias around
the country.
-
- "This is a bold step forward in the struggle
to help 35 million young people lead healthier
lives," the noted physical fitrness advocate
told a news conference. "This one policy can add
years and years and years to the lives of a very
large number of young people."
-
- It is a win-win for Willie and the soft
drink companies. It may sound tough, but it
isn't exactly going to kill Big Pop, which
wouldn't have gone along with a deal like this
if it weren't well-prepared to stock vending
machines with its own brands of diet soda and
obscenely-profitable bottled water.
-
- *********** I coach the O-line...and
everything else.
-
- Coach, as you know, I coach 7 and 8 year
olds. We pull. We pull because if you do not,
you are not running the DW. I spend an
inordinate amount of time teaching 1st step (
Bird Dog ). Looking inside ( hoop drill ).
Shoeshine. I spend a lot of time on it because
if you don't, 7 year olds will wander off. Reps,
reps, reps.
-
- You CANNOT get a 7 year old lineman to pull
and look inside unless you do it every day over
and over. When it happens, there is no finer
sight than when you see a DW team running TR 88
SP. When done right, people will be amazed that
kids this young are pulling, looking inside and
whacking linebackers.
-
- As the kids get older, some guys say they
are running the DW, but they are not. It looks
like they are pulling, but a good DW guy will
spot the flaws immediately.
-
- I guess since the older guys literally are
not going in the wrong direction and are going
through the motions, the fact that it is being
done poorly does not stick out as much as it
would if it were a group of 7 year olds.
-
- Coaching kids this young makes you coach the
line if you really want to run DW.
-
- As my boy gets older, I will remember how
much detail goes into that line play. I will
trust no one else to do it.
- Dennis Cook, Roanoke, Virginia
-
- *********** Coach Wyatt, I would like to
wade in on the debate about head coaching and
who coaches the O line. As you recall my head
coach in high school was Bill Wood. He shaped my
life and my coaching career in many ways as I
have written you in the past. One of the ways he
influenced me was that way back in the 50's and
60's when he was an active head coach, he always
coached the offensive linemen. It was his
feeling because we ran a trapping offense (I
believe this applies to the Double Wing) with
line calls determining the blocking assignments,
that line play was the key to the offense. We
ran the wing T and belly series, just like Army
and Delaware. He also coached the QB's. So it
has always been my opinion that with average
backs and superior line play you can be
successful.. With superior backs and poor line
play, you will not be successful. I believe you
are coaching to beat teams with superior talent
to what you have and the only way to do this is
to block and tackle better than the opposition.
This can be accomplished with superior line play
so my vote is for the head coach to coach the
linemen in the Double Wing offense unless you
have a line coach who you can trust to get the
job done exactly as you would do it. Sincerely
the old line coach, Brad Elliott, Soquel,
California
-
- *********** Hi Coach.Very interesting
observation about communism. If any want a look
at it first hand - to Jamaica and then a couple
minutes and 75 dollars later, Cuba. It will be
an eye opening experience. But go with a Cuban.
It will be the most horrific. Load your weapons
and vow,"I will die first." Like I have. Cause
me and my family will NEVER live in that system.
But great observation. You are 100% correct.
Like Khrushchev promised, it will start from the
inside. Let me know how it all works out when we
meet in heaven. Armando Castro, Roanoke,
Virginia (Coach Castro is a native of
(pre-Communist) Cuba. HW)
-
- *********** Haw, haw. Congressmen are
receiving bricks in the mail from a group that
favors building a wall along our southern
border. My only disagreement is with the mode of
delivery. Bricks thrown through their windows
would do a better job of getting their
attention. You'd have to be careful not to hit a
congressman in the head, though - why shatter a
perfectly good brick?
- THE
BUSHPESO
 - Some of us get at least one solicitation
every day from the Republican Party, and some of
us want to say, "First do something about all
the f--king illegals and, maybe then I'll
consider sending you some money." Now, Columnist
Michelle Malkin has an even better idea - send
them "Bushpesos"
-
- *********** So long as Congress is
investigating "gas gouging," I wish while
they're at it they'd also look into bottled
water gouging... cable TV gouging... college
textbook gouging... college tuition gouging...
pro sports ticket/concessions/parking/TV rights
fees gouging...
-
- *********** Tim Rowland, of the Hagerstown,
Maryland Herald-Mail, decided to go out to the
local minor league ballpark and check out the
umpires' strike for himself. He noted that the
umps have been having a tough time winning the
public over to their side...
-
- After all, it must be tough trying to gin
up public sympathy for baseball umpires.
First, as jobs go, it's not exactly the
Matewan coal mines. I can't see Mother Jones
showing up to chain herself to a chest
protector.
-
- And all these years, we've been trained
to yell, "Kill the ump!" Now we're supposed
to yell "We want equitable pay scales, a
comprehensive benefit package that includes a
401(k) and dental plan for the ump?"
-
- I can't imagine they're complaining about
the working conditions, but in my job you can
never assume, so I - call me thorough if you
must - checked out the concession stands, the
emerald field and made notes on the birds
singing in the trees beyond the outfield
wall. I graded them as acceptable.
-
- I can understand it's not easy being
second-guessed and screamed at all the time.
Welcome to my world. And then if you get
promoted to the majors, you have to suffer
the chuckleheads in the booth who, after
watching a replay 27 times in ultra slow
motion, pronounce you an idiot for getting
the call wrong. But if you want roses, you
don't become an umpire, you become a
ballerina.
-
- *********** After viewing the Army Belly-T
DVD, Tim McAneney, of Medford, New Jersey, wrote
"Coach, my Dad's football, like yours, is about
blocking and tackling. ("You have to be able to
run off tackle and stop the off tackle.")". Tim
is head coach at Bishop Eustace Prep, in
Pennsauken, New Jersey. His dad, Vince, now
retired, is a high school coaching legend in
South Jersey and his teams were noted for the
hard-nosed football they played.
BUFFALO
CLINIC DATE & LOCATION SET
- The Buffalo
clinic will be held Saturday, June 3 at the Holiday
Inn Buffalo International Airport, 4600 Genesee St
in Cheektowaga (716-634-6969)
- PACIFIC
NORTHWEST CLINIC DATE & LOCATION SET
- The
Pacific Northwest clinic will be held Saturday,
June 10 at the Phoenix Inn & Suites, 12712
SE 2nd Circle, Vancouver, Washington
(360-891-9777) - For those driving, it is
located about 1/2 mile East of I-205 (Mill Plain
Blvd East exit) , and there is shuttle service
from Portland International Airport, about 10
minutes away
-
- 2006 DOUBLE-WING CLINIC
SCHEDULE - AS OF 4-1-06 (2006
CLINICS)
- CLINICS
START AT 9 AM SHARP AND GO UNTIL 4 PM WITH A
1-HOUR BREAK FOR LUNCH
|
|
CLINIC
|
LOCATION
|
|
FEB
25
|
ATLANTA
|
HOLIDAY
INN AIRPORT NORTH - 1380 Virginia Ave -
404-762-8411
|
|
MARCH
11
|
LOS
ANGELES
|
HOLIDAY INN-MEDIA
CENTER -150 E. Angeleno, Burbank -
818-841-4770
|
|
MARCH
18
|
CHICAGO
|
ST. XAVIER
UNIVERSITY - 3700 West 103rd St.,
Chicago
|
|
APRIL
8
|
RALEIGH-DURHAM
|
MILLENNIUM
HOTEL - 2800 Campus Walk Ave - Durham -
919-383-8575
|
|
APRIL
15
|
PHILADELPHIA
|
HOLIDAY INN, 432
Pennsylvania Ave, Fort Washington, PA.
- 215-643-3000
|
|
APRIL
29
|
PROVIDENCE
|
COMFORT INN AIRPORT
- 1940 POST RD, WARWICK RI -
401-732-0470
|
|
MAY
6
|
DENVER
|
WESTMINSTER
HS - Westminster, CO (For more details
call Coach Kevin Uhlig -
303-870-8582)
|
|
MAY
13
|
NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA
|
HOLIDAY
INN EXPRESS - LATHROP, CA.
|
|
JUNE
3
|
BUFFALO
|
HOLIDAY INN BUFFALO
AIRPORT- 4600 Genesee St, Cheektowaga
NY - 716-634-6969
|
|
JUNE
10
|
PACIFIC
NORTHWEST
|
PHOENIX INN &
SUITES - 12712 SE 2ND Circle, Vancouver
WA - 360-891-9777
|
NEXT CLINIC - DENVER
- SAT MAY 6 - WESTMINSTER HS -
DIRECTIONS
-
- Attendees will
receive a complimentary DVD breaking down,
play-by-play, the Full-House Belly-T offense of
the powerful 1953-1954 Army teams, coached by
Earl "Red" Blaik, with Vince Lombardi as his
offensive assistant. On the video you will see
action clips of Army greats, including the
immortal Don Holleder, whose memory is honored
by the Black Lion Award. This DVD is not for
sale. It is provided by the Board of the Black
Lion Award in the interests of furthering
football and the Black Lion Award
itself.
-
-
|
|
|
Osama shows that
he will stop at nothing in his plot to
weaken America...
|
|
|
BECOME A
BLACK LION TEAM
GIVE THE BLACK
LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR
PLAYERS!
|
|
|
Army's Will Sullivan
wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all
winners) in the Army-Navy game
|
(FOR
MORE INFO)
|
The Black Lion
certificate is awarded to all
winners
|
|
|
Did They
Have to Pick the Communists'
Holiday?
(See"NEWS")
|
|
Two
Signs That Today's Sports Are Screwed
Up!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
- May
2, 2006 - "A good plan violently
executed right now is far better than a perfect
plan executed next week." George S.
Patton
-
- *********** I apologize for any omissions or
misprints or anything that might offend anyone
today, but Juan, the guy who usually writes my
page for me, took the day off for some reason,
and I've had to write it myself. I would fire
Juan, except I wouldn't be able to get an
American to do it for what I pay him.
-
- *********** Interesting that we bristle (as
well we should) when we hear the word "Nazi," or
see a swastika spray-painted on a building, but
the words "Communist" and "Communism" seem no
longer to mean anything to today's Americans.
This despite the fact that Americans gave their
lives fighting Communism in Korea and Vietnam,
and our friends the Russians (Communists)
briefly took the world to the brink of nuclear
war when they secretly attempted to install
nuclear missiles in (Communist) Cuba. Despite
the fact that the Soviet premier once threatened
to bury us.
-
- In fact, Communists have massacred far more
people than the Nazis ever did. One of them,
Josef Stalin, was responsible for far more
deaths than Adolf Hitler.
-
- Yet there they were, untold numbers of
uninvited guests in our country using May 1, the
High Holy Day of Communism, the day when the
Russians would put their military and their
latest weapons on display in Red Square, as
their day to make "demands" on the people of the
United States.
-
- There was a time, back when red blood still
ran in the veins of Americans, that only fools
would have chosen May Day to celebrate defiance
of the laws of our country.
-
- Forgive an oldtimer if he suspects that the
date of the demonstrations is more than a
coincidence. Communism may be dormant, but it
isn't dead.
-
- *********** Hearing about the threats and
coercion ("peer pressure," the lib reporters
call it) that fueled Monday's attempt at
extortion that some called the Day Without an
Immigrant, I was reminded of some of the ugly
examples of mob-controlled union tactics that
I've seen in my lifetime. (Remember, I grew up
in Philly.)
-
- But this was the first time I'd seen an
attempt to strong-arm an entire nation.
-
- It was the nearest I have ever seen us come
to the dreaded General Strikes that snarl
European countries like France.
-
- As thousands more illegally scross our
borders every day, it is scary to think what
this will look like.
-
- I fully expect our politicians to cave, in
the best traditions of the French, and I look
for some hack politician to propose May 1 as a
national holiday.
*********** Upset by the news that someone has
recorded our national anthem in Spanish? Maybe you
should hear it first.
Not that I have, but listen - scarcely an
athletic event of any magnitude is allowed to get
underway without first allowing one recording star
or another - usually female - to desecrate our
national anthem. So before anyone comes down too
hard on the Spanish version of our national anthem,
I'd like to ask them when it was that they last
heard it sung well in English.
I mean, if celebrities can routinely screw with
the tune, what's so sacred about the
words?
Even worse than the hack jobs the professionals
do are those done at high school games by female
students with tinny little voices who've been told
from the time they were little that they could
really sing. (And we wonder why it hits people so
hard when Simon Cowell tells them that they are
"disasters.")
The absolute worst it can get came at one of our
school's games, with a "national anthem" (I think
that's what it was, anyhow), "sung" one Friday
night by a young female who apparently was being
paid by the hour, judging by how long it took her
to "sing" it.
The little sweetheart was wearing a tee-shirt
reading (first line) "GAY? ALL RIGHT WITH ME!"
(second line) "GAY MARRIAGE? ALL RIGHT WITH
ME!"
This was all told me, after we'd both sat down,
by the coach next to me in the press box. He'd seen
her down on the sideline before she sang. Whew!
It's a good thing I didn't see it.
The sickening thing today is that while our
school had a fairly conservative dress code,
designed to minimize distractions, cut down on gang
activity and promote tolerance, apparently it was
not considered controversial to push the gay agenda
on a tee-shirt.
So, as for singing the National Anthem in
Spanish... as far as I'm concerned, you can sing it
in any damn language you want. But sing it
respectfully. Sing it right. And don't used it to
make a dumbass political statement.
- *********** what are the most important
qualities for a QB in the DW? I would think they
are 1) leadership, 2) blocking ability, 3)
running ability, 4) passing ability. Would you
agree?
-
- (1) - WAY out in front of anything else -
Desire to LEAD. Desire to be the man on the
spot. He has to WANT to be the guy who takes the
lead and takes the heat.
-
- (2) WAY ahead of all the rest -
"INTANGIBLES" - including intelligence,
competitiveness, dependability, mental
toughness, work habits, desire to please you,
ability to take your correction, ability to
command the respect of the other
players
-
- (3) Ball-handling skill
-
- (4) Passing ability
-
- (5) Running ability
-
- *********** Interesting that many of the
same people who have been screaming about our
involvement in Iraq, were marching in the
streets Sunday on behalf of US "involvement" in
Darfur. What, exactly, do they think
"involvement" in Darfur is going to consist
of?
-
- Do they think that the genocide will stop if
we just sit down and talk with both sides? Do
they think that money will do the trick? Or
could they maybe be talking about sending
American troops to fight and die in Darfur?
-
- Aren't these the same people who said we
shouldn't act "unilaterally" in Iraq? Aren't
these the people who asked what Saddam did to
us? Who said that "Bush lied," and doubted any
connection between Saddam and Al Quaida? Didn't
they say we'd find ourselves in a
"quagmire?"
-
- Not that any of them could find Darfur on a
map of the world.
-
- *********** Among the many forms of protest
in America there are the "Take Back the Night"
rallies and candlelight vigils, where feminists
decry rape (well, duh - other than rapists, who
is in favor of it?), and warn their
"sisters" that "all men are potential
rapists."
-
- Unfortunately, the word does not seem to be
getting out, because there are still some women
going out and getting drunk and leaving
themselves vulnerable to these "potential
rapists." And, equally unfortunately, there are
still men who take advantage of such women.
-
- But at the same time, there are those men
who clearly do not understand that they are
playing with fire any time they attempt any sort
of sexual dalliance with what appears to be a
consenting female.
-
- Therefore, in an effort to get the word
across to such men, I propose a series of "You
Can Have Your Damn Night Back" rallies. While
all in attendance hold lighted candles,
"Masculist" leaders will inform the young men in
the audience that "All Women are Potential Rape
Accusers."
-
- *********** One of the Twin Cities papers
advertised a halfpipe for $3200. Install one in
your backyard, the ad said, and then the kids
can congregate there. Now there's
something to give you shivers at night.
Skateboarders - in your
backyard.
-
- *********** Last year, according to the
American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
(that's surgery merely to make someone look
better), 2361 Americans had "buttock
augmentation" surgery. It didn't say how many of
those were women, but (butt?) I am guessing that
if we take out the men, the figure would be
2360. The cost of the procedure is about
$20,000.
-
- And while many women complain about not
being taken seriously, not being appreciated for
their brains, a young woman in Miami was quoted
in the New York Times as saying, "I always got
compliments for my front, but never my back."
She is 18 years old. Good luck to the guy
who winds up with her.
-
- *********** Late last week, an organization
calling itself New Black Panthers (yikes -
didn't the old ones cause enough trouble)
distributed recruitment brochures at various
locations around Durham, North Carolina
(including the courthouse) containing such
inflammatory statements as this one: "Had enough
of disrespect and racism from Duke
University?"
-
- *********** Whew. Matt Leinart not only
loses all that dough as a result of being
drafted far lower than anticipated, (not that
he'll starve), but he has to play for one of the
NFL's Third World teams.
-
- I'm suspecting that it may be what they used
to say about Ara Parseghian's QBs - they are so
well-coached that they simply won't get much
better. There is no (as the draft "experts" like
to say) upside.
-
- Meantime, I don't care about Tennessee's
Jeff Fisher one way or another - except that I
have to acknowledge the fact that he did coach a
team to the Super Bowl - but if I were a betting
man, I'd be willing to put money on him to be
one of the first NFL coaches to lose their jobs
this coming year.
That's because I read that he wanted the Titans
to draft Matt Leinart. And so did his offensive
coordinator, Norm Chow, who coached Leinart at USC
and knows as well as anyone what the big guy can
do.
But the Tennessee GM overruled his head coach
and his offensive coordinator, and the Titans
drafted Vince Young instead.
Bill Parcells, in "No Medals for Trying," A Week
in the Life of a Pro Football Team, by Jerry
Izenberg (Macmillan, 1990), noted that when the
head coach doesn't have control over the players he
drafts, he usually isn't going to stay long.
"One of the problems with franchises in this
league," he wrote, "is the continual stream of new
coaches with new faces and new philosophy. They
continue to create chaos in their own organization
because, well, the scouts are used to doing things
the way they do it and here comes a new guy and
he's just a coach. And the coach doesn't get to
stay long enough to where the organization will
listen to him.
"See, there's only three ways to go for a coach
in this kind of world. You can dominate - run your
own team completely, with no interference ever. You
can migrate - move from team to team and make new
beginnings each time, like some coaches do. Or you
can just walk away."
- *********** TWO SURE SIGNS THAT OUR
SPORTS ARE F-KED UP...
-
- (1) Last year, Mark Leinart won a Heisman
Trophy and if he had made himself eligible for
the NFL draft, he might have been the first
player selected; instead, in hopes of leading
USC to a third national title, he returned to
use his final year of eligibility. The result?
USC did not win the national title, and Leinart
was not the first man drafted, but the 10th.
Evidently his decision to stay at USC has cost
him many bucks, and he is being derided for
staying in school. (If you call taking one class
- in ballroom dancing - "staying in
school."
-
- (2) LeBron James' contract with Nike calls
for him to make more money if he winds up
playing for a team in New York, Los Angeles or
Chicago.
-
- *********** "Sports Guy" Bill Simmons' lists
his Reasons why he loves sports, and Reason
Number 875 is: The WNBA's 10th-Anniversary
Celebration
-
- He writes, "that sentence is funny enough in
itself. But we can even vote for the All-Decade
team on WNBA.com!"
-
- *********** Hugh, last night the AD from
------- called me ... He was up front and told
me I didn't get the job. I asked him what my
weaknesses were and he said it sure wasn't my
coaching ability. He said they went with a guy
who has been in the program. So I asked If it
wasn't my coaching ability and you hired from
with in why did you make us go through the
interviews. He said, that is what upsets me
right now. You see you in my opinion are a much
better coach... from what I have learned from
your references and your interview. Yes the DW
might have been an issue but I was convinced. He
said the problem was the head of the English
Dept. (Hugh she was only there 5 min. and asked
2 questions before she left.) She was hung up on
the stigma of a football coach in the English
dept. ( you know - the dumb jock syndrome.) He
said right now we are interviewing 2 women for
the English job when we could have hired a good
football coach. I asked if the principal has any
say, and he said he left it up to the English
dept. head. I replied "You know when people
become administrators - are they neutered?? "He
said no doubt. Hugh, I thought you would find
that exchange amusing, but also scary about how
our public schools are run. NAME WITHHELD
-
- More on whether
Double-Wing head coaches handle the backs or the
line....
-
- *********** Hugh: In
2004 I did double duty with the sophs at CL
Central and I was the head coach for a sixth
grade youth team running double wing. For many
reasons I gave up coaching the backs and focused
on the line. I felt it made all the difference
and we won the super bowl that year with a small
but aggressive line. When given the chance to be
the offensive coordinator for 2006 I immediately
decided that I wanted to work with the linemen,
especially since it is our first year with the
offense. I think more coaches need to "cross
train" and get out of their comfort zone. They
will be surprised how much more they learn about
their offense. Bill Lawlor, Crystal Lake,
Illinois
-
- *********** Coach - I've been reading the
arguments for and against or rather why many
head coaches don't coach the line. Well, I am
one head coach who does coach the offense and
the line (although I was primarily a defensive
linemen in HS). Personally I came to coach the
Offense by chance - my first year as a JV coach
the Head man was a defense guy so I got stuck
running the off. (not dwing at the time). I
found it to be rather fun and really enjoyed the
chess match of figuring out blocking schemes to
combat different defensive alignments. When I
began to coach D wing football I found it even
more fun to coach the offense. Nonetheless, I
still consider myself a coach who places extreme
importance on defense. We practice both everyday
and make sure to tackle and do read drills every
single day. On offense I coach line and TE's (I
like the TE's to spend most of their time with
me - so they feel like they are linemen, but
they go w/ WB's when we are working on
passing).
-
- I guess for starters I like the Oline
because of the attitudes. It is rare to meet an
O lineman that isn't humble and hard working
etc., not sure I can always say that about
backs. I also like to emphasize the importance
of the line - I think I like to let the team
know who I think the most important part of the
team is. I always tell them that the backs are
the arms and legs of the team, the quarterback
is our brain, but the big ugly torso is the
line, because that is where the body keeps it's
heart and guts.
-
- Personally, in another offense I can see why
many a coach is the "backs" coach. Shoot - if we
ran a spread offense - I guess I'd have to be
the QB coach (no way - I think I'd quit coaching
first). In an offense like that the line zones
and slide protects and does a lot of boring
simple things I don't know about or wish to
teach.
-
- However, in the Double Wing it is different.
What is the double wing if not a formation. As
an offense I believe you are a double wing team
if you have 3 things 1. no splits 2. tight FB.
3. (and most important) - double wing blocking
schemes. So the Double wing as an offense is
defined by its blocking schemes and thus, it's
lineplay. I get to coach my backs in team time
(I say things like, put your inside hand on your
linemen and watch for cutback etc.) I think they
get enough out of that, that I get them up to
where I want them to be. When they are in
individuals they are working on passing or
blocking or faking and ball protection.
-
- In a game - how do we adjust to defenses -
we certainly don't change what our backs do - it
is blocking scheme that we must adjust. I think
linemen have a sense of how to attack defensive
alignments because they have been doing it for a
long time. Anyhow, in addition to my two cents I
have one thought (though I don't have any
research or stats to prove it - and I am sure
you or anyone could eat me up on this argument.)
BUT - it seems to me that many a famous coach
who had a reputation for a strong run game was a
lineman. Vince Lombardi, Bear Bryant, Knute
Rockne (an end), Barry Switzer, Bill Parcells
(sort of a running coach). I think Bud Wilkinson
was a QB at Minnesota and Darrell Royal - pretty
sure a RB. BUT - maybe there is something to
having a linemen mentality if your offense is a
running one??? John Dowd,
Oakfield, New York (Right on - except that
Bud Wilkinson was a single-wing quarterback - in
other words, a blocking back! Add to your list
Frank Leahy, Earl Blaik, Duffy Daugherty, Frank
Kush and many, many more. HW)
-
- *********** Coach
Wyatt, I am glad I
did not respond sooner to your question of head
coaches coaching backs or quarter backs and not
the line. Coach Bothe's comments were put
together better than I could ever do. I agree
with him completely. I played defensive back in
high school and college and I love it. But when
it comes to coaching (I have coached all
positions) it's the offensive line. If you don't
mind I'll include Coach Bothe's comments
here.
-
- "The offensive line
is probably the toughest, most
detail-oriented area to coach in football. It
requires a total commitment and great
concentration to coach. The only other area
that compares may be the defensive secondary.
I felt that I was better able to coach the
position as an assistant coach than I was as
a head coach, especially early in my head
coaching career. The head coach must in
"worry" about every position on the field and
sometimes gets preoccupied with the overall
picture. An assistant that is coaching the
line can completely commit all his energies
to that group. The head coach or offensive
coordinator must attempt to monitor
everything during a team segment. The line
coach can more effectively supervise the five
linemen and their performance and make
immediate corrections.
-
- Also the head coach
has all the off field concerns to deal with
where an assistant has a minimal number of
these distractions. This allows an assistant
to have more focused planning time for his
group. Some of the best line coaches that I
have seen build a team within a team in their
position groups that a head coach can seldom
afford to do."
John Bothe, Oregon,
Illinois
- I also agree with you
completely regarding your comment on our offense
(the Double Wing) and the offensive line. They
do like the double wing and we rely on their
recommendations much more than the "skill"
players when the game is on the line and a great
play call is needed.
-
- "Fun for the
linemen is what our offense is all about! I
think we're one of the few offenses that you
can name that doesn't cheat the offensive
linemen. The so-called "skilled" kids? They
have fun and get to do spectacular things. I
always wanted an offense that was fun for the
linemen! HW"
-
- As always thanks for
the News. Mark
Hundley, Dublin, Ohio
-
- *********** Coach - If
I may, I am getting into the Head Coach and the
offensive line debate somewhat late, but I have
some things to offer. I do apologize on being
tardy on this topic but have good reason to be.
I have been in Mexico City the last few days
meeting with officials from that country.
-
- I think that the
Offensive line is the most critical position on
the field and I can not leave our team's success
to chance by failing in this area. Frankly, I am
able to do this mainly because your video's are
so well done and most of my coaches can learn
the majority of the system and backfield
positions simply by watching your video's and
attending your clinics. Other coaches can coach
the offensive backs and then when we get
together for "team time" I am able to observe
the offensive backs at this time.
-
- Like Coach Simonsen
(?) I take the Offensive line myself and have
younger coaches with me learning our system and
more importantly, learning the RELATIONSHIPS you
need to build with your lineman. Young coaches
willing to learn are a joy to have around
because they absorb so much. I also do this for
succession planning. Though not near retirement
age yet, I know there will be one day I will not
be there to coach the O-line and I feel that it
is my responsibility to the my team, to my
organization and to the game of football to
teach these young coaches all I know so our game
of football will live on and these young coaches
have the tools to succeed.
-
- Lastly, I am a big fan
of De La Salle in Northern California. The
owners of the nations longest winning streak at
151 games. Though I became enamored with their
win streak, I became obsessed with their methods
of team building, brotherhood and love amongst
the players. That being said, Coach Lad at DLS
coaches the offensive line and I use his success
as somewhat of my rationale to coach the o-line.
I also use his team building techniques for my
entire team but specifically for the lineman.
For example, what we do often is conduct
"visualization practices". We take roughly one
segment of our practice (7 mins.) and stand in a
circle. We "family up" which means we basically
have our arms around each others shoulder pads
and then closer our eyes. I will then call a
play and ask each player to visualize himself
being successful on that play. A little funny
story is, I asked one of my players (we
nicknamed "Elmo") is if he was visualizing
himself on the 99 Super Power? He said yes
coach, I even picked up a fumble and made a
touchdown! We laughed our butts off when we
heard this!
-
- Bottom line is if you
want to be successful, head coaches should coach
the offensive line. It has worked for me. John
Torres, Castaic, California
-
- *********** Hugh, I've
been reading with interest about the topic of
whether a head coach should coach the offensive
line and thought I would throw my two cents in.
Typically, when I've started out at a new school
(usually during our early summer camp) I work
exclusively with the O Line to insure that all
the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed. I
got hired late in June here and we didn't have
our camp until late July. I spent as much time
as I could with my young O Line coach, gave him
film to watch, and had confidence that he (who
is also my D Coordinator) understood the
offense, and, since I had an older more
experienced guy working with him that things
would be ok. That was my fatal mistake. As a
head coach you cannot ASSUME anything!
-
- So, this year we will
be holding our camp immediately after school is
out and the O Line coach will be assisting me
during the camp, and that together, we will make
sure all the "little things" that were missing
last year are not missing this year. I will also
be deeply involved with the O Line come double
session practices. Once I am satisfied that the
kids know their fundamentals, and understand
their techniques, and are knowledgeable of their
schemes I will back off and let the O Line coach
take it from there. He and I have discussed it,
and he was relieved that I would be willing to
help him out because it would take a little
pressure off him, and give him the opportunity
to see exactly what it is I'm looking for from
those O Line kids. I guess what I'm saying is
that a head coach should always coach his
coaches, and that either spring practices, early
summer camps, or double-session practices would
be the opportune times for a head coach to do
that. Hope all is going well for you. By the
way, that Army DVD was awesome! I'm looking at
incorporating a couple of plays from it into our
DW this year. Just want to have a little more
for the opponents to think about and prepare
for. Take care. NAME WITHHELD
-
- *********** I recently
purchased your playbook and
three accompanying videos.
These have been terrific resources. My
question is one of your
experience. Because of the stance of the
linemen being somewhat
subdued (as they have quite a bit of weight
on their right or
left heel, depending on the side of the ball),
have you found that
the fire-outs on the blocking of the Base plays
are lacking power?
I plan to implement the system in the fall, but
it almost seems
like the linemen may have
some trouble firing off for those
straight ahead base
blocks. Your thoughts?
-
You have only to see
a Double-Wing team come off the ball on a wedge
play to see that their stance doesn't hamper
them at all. We all like to come off the ball
well, of course, but to me, the biggest thing is
not the speed before contact - it is the speed
after contact. That means not stopping at the
collision, but running right through the
collision. So we constantly stress - on all
blocks - the "12 Step Cure" - insisting that all
blockers take 12 steps after contact on
every block.
-
- Hope that helps
ease your concerns.
-
- *********** From a
coach whose life's work entails helping
others....
-
- If anyone knows of
a reliable and inexpensive used car, please
let me know. A single mother in my Sunday
School class is desperately searching for a
way to work (she has to commute to downtown
Atlanta every day) because her old Chevy
Cavalier gave up the ghost. I've really taken
to this family (her teenage son's dad died
earlier this year), and I'm trying to help
them on several fronts. She has her eye on
finding an affordable Honda, but we'll
consider anything. Thanks for your time.
-
- Tim
Luke
-
- Adult
Pastor, Eagle's
Landing First Baptist Church
-
- 2400 Highway 42
North,
McDonough, GA
30253 (678)
818-1007 (office)
(678) 618-4451
(cell)
-
- *********** Hugh, Your
info on Reggie Bush reminded me of the Argus
Hamilton line, "USC running back Reggie Bush, it
was revealed, let his family live in a San Diego
house owned by a sports agent. They packed up
and moved as soon as their right to be there was
questioned. That is the difference between U.S.
citizens and illegal aliens." Mark Kaczmarek,
Davenport, Iowa
-
- *********** PROVIDENCE
CLINIC BRIEF - As always, I greatly enjoyed my
visit to Providence, Rhode Island, where the
food is great, the scenery is beautiful, and the
clinic is consistently among the best. This
year, there were no fewer than five state
championship coaches in attendance - Jack
Tourtillotte, of Boothbay Harbor Maine; Bill
Maradei, of Austin Prep in Reading,
Massachusetts; Ned Scaduto of Southeastern
Regional Vocational-Technical, in South Easton,
Massachusetts, winner of back-to-back Super
Bowls; Mike Emery, winner of two state titles at
Fitch High in Groton, Connecticut; and Bill
Mignault of Ledyard, Connecticut, winningest
coach in state history, and winner of three
state titles.
-
- *********** Coach, I
really enjoyed the clinic in Providence this
past Saturday. I wanted to thank you for asking
me to sit on the panel at the end of the clinic.
It was an honor to be asked and I hope that I
held my own. Again, great seeing
you.
-
- All the best, Rick
Davis, Duxbury, Massachusetts
-
- PS-Each year I try to
come up with a slogan to put on a t-shirt for my
boys. A couple of years ago, it was "Individuals
play....teams win" and last year it was
"Football first....teammates always." There is a
line from the recent Johnny Cash movie that I
can't get out of my head....it's very befitting
of a good DW team...."Steady like a
train....sharp as a razor." That's the
front-runner this year.
Lastly, I saw United 93
this past weekend....a very emotional and
thought-provoking experience. I went to see it
with a friend who flies a lot for business, and
he wanted to see if he was faced with that
situation, whether he could do the same thing
(knowing him, I have no doubt that he would).
Especially based on what we know now about the
possibility of someone using a plane as a huge
jet-fuel bomb, you'd have to do whatever you
could to stop a hijacker. I think about it every
time I have to fly. Maybe this wasn't the intent
of the movie, but I left feeling pretty angry
that people could kill decent innocent civilians
like that. Most people have already forgotten
9/11, and hopefully this movie will refresh
everyone's' memory a bit. You'll appreciate
this, there was a passenger on the plane,
obviously European (not British), who kept on
trying to talk the passengers/flight staff out
of charging the cockpit, etc., and even nearly
blowing the whole attack by crying out at the
last minute which ended up warning the hijackers
(they crushed him, then proceeded on with their
attack on the hijackers). I assume that he was a
real passenger and not a symbolic character, but
either way, it was pretty telling and
representative. The Americans weren't willing to
sit back and do nothing, especially once they
realized that both pilots were
dead. (I'm glad that you felt you
were "ready" to watch. I laugh my ass off at the
weenies who keep asking if America is "ready"
for a movie about 9-11. Is it "too soon?" they
ask. I want to say, "Gimme a break. It's been
almost five years. If we'd waited five years
after Pearl Harbor before we were "ready" to
even see a movie about it, much less fight the
Japanese, we'd all be driving Japanese cars now.
Oh. You say we are? Never mind. HW)
-
- *********** Good Morning Coach: We had a
wonderful time at the clinic on Saturday. Dinner
Friday night was great and the Twin Oaks is sure
an interesting place. Susan and I both enjoy our
once a year visit and it was good to see Connie
again.
-
- What a great collection of coaches and
experience in the room on Saturday. Lots of
years running the DW and the chance to talk and
share ideas was something I really enjoyed. Your
clinic presentation was really outstanding and
lots of information. We all do very similar
things but the best is being reminded why we are
DW'ers and what we do does work.
-
- The panel was fun and Bill's film was really
interesting - even though I tried to get a head
start back to Maine I found my self standing in
the back of the room watching his team.
-
- It sure was a good crowd of coaches- one of
the biggest yet !!
-
- I did enjoy the DVD on the 53-54 Army team
and Sunday afternoon when I should have been
doing lawn chores I was breaking down the DVD.
After 35 years of marriage Susan did understand.
She is a true football coach's wife.
Good Luck with the rest of your clinics!!
Jack Tourtillotte, Boothbay Harbor,
Maine
-
- *********** Hi Coach! The Providence Clinic
was great. You always have things well
organized. Thank you for inviting me to be a
participant with the true Double Wing Coaches.
Our offensive principles and beliefs are very
similar. I enjoy getting together with high
school and youth coaches. That is where the real
coaching is done.
-
- I plan to look at the Army DVD tomorrow. I
know I will enjoy it. That is real football.
Coaching is teaching and we always can learn
more to be able to improve. Take care Hugh and
thanks again for all you do for football.
-
- Sincerely; Bill Mignault, Ledyard
Connecticut
-
- *********** Coach, I would like to extend my
sincere thanks and appreciation for the clinic
you gave on the 29th in RI. I am a new Head
coach and am looking to institute the double
wing into my offense, well not so much institute
but actually use as my offense. I was a little
hesitant about how the clinic would be run and
not having the opportunity to hear you speak
before I wasn't sure what to expect. I must say
I was pleasantly surprised. I took a great deal
of information and enthusiasm away from the
clinic. I was also fortunate to make an
additional contact or two with other area
coaches.
-
- I spoke with you at the end of the clinic
about the new program I started in Meriden, CT.
This school is so invigorated since I brought
football into it. I finished my first season 5-5
with 49 kids, now I am up to 65, not including
incoming freshman. I am always looking for more
and more football related knowledge to give to
my players, 95% of which have never played
before getting to me, I also was very much
interested in the Black Lion award for my
Program. I think that what that award represents
is a true honor and I would be greatly
appreciative to become a part of that
program.
-
- Again, I want to thank you for putting on
the clinic and making it a completely worthwhile
experience. I look forward to using the double
wing this upcoming season.
Bruce Haney, Head Football Coach, H.C. Wilcox
Technical High School, Meriden,
Connecticut
-
BUFFALO
CLINIC DATE & LOCATION SET
- The Buffalo
clinic will be held Saturday, June 3 at the Holiday
Inn Buffalo International Airport, 4600 Genesee St
in Cheektowaga (716-634-6969)
- PACIFIC
NORTHWEST CLINIC DATE & LOCATION SET
- The
Pacific Northwest clinic will be held Saturday,
June 10 at the Phoenix Inn & Suites, 12712
SE 2nd Circle, Vancouver, Washington
(360-891-9777) - For those driving, it is
located about 1/2 mile East of I-205 (Mill Plain
Blvd East exit) , and there is shuttle service
from Portland International Airport, about 10
minutes away
-
- 2006 DOUBLE-WING CLINIC
SCHEDULE - AS OF 4-1-06 (2006
CLINICS)
- CLINICS
START AT 9 AM SHARP AND GO UNTIL 4 PM WITH A
1-HOUR BREAK FOR LUNCH
|
|
CLINIC
|
LOCATION
|
|
FEB
25
|
ATLANTA
|
HOLIDAY
INN AIRPORT NORTH - 1380 Virginia Ave -
404-762-8411
|
|
MARCH
11
|
LOS
ANGELES
|
HOLIDAY INN-MEDIA
CENTER -150 E. Angeleno, Burbank -
818-841-4770
|
|
MARCH
18
|
CHICAGO
|
ST. XAVIER
UNIVERSITY - 3700 West 103rd St.,
Chicago
|
|
APRIL
8
|
RALEIGH-DURHAM
|
MILLENNIUM
HOTEL - 2800 Campus Walk Ave - Durham -
919-383-8575
|
|
APRIL
15
|
PHILADELPHIA
|
HOLIDAY INN, 432
Pennsylvania Ave, Fort Washington, PA.
- 215-643-3000
|
|
APRIL
29
|
PROVIDENCE
|
COMFORT INN AIRPORT
- 1940 POST RD, WARWICK RI -
401-732-0470
|
|
MAY
6
|
DENVER
|
WESTMINSTER
HS - Westminster, CO (For more details
call Coach Kevin Uhlig -
303-870-8582)
|
|
MAY
13
|
NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA
|
HOLIDAY
INN EXPRESS - LATHROP, CA.
|
|
JUNE
3
|
BUFFALO
|
HOLIDAY INN BUFFALO
AIRPORT- 4600 Genesee St, Cheektowaga
NY - 716-634-6969
|
|
JUNE
10
|
PACIFIC
NORTHWEST
|
PHOENIX INN &
SUITES - 12712 SE 2ND Circle, Vancouver
WA - 360-891-9777
|
NEXT CLINIC - DENVER
- SAT MAY 6 - WESTMINSTER HS -
DIRECTIONS- Attendees will
receive a complimentary DVD breaking down,
play-by-play, the Full-House Belly-T offense of
the powerful 1953-1954 Army teams, coached by
Earl "Red" Blaik, with Vince Lombardi as his
offensive assistant. On the video you will see
action clips of Army greats, including the
immortal Don Holleder, whose memory is honored
by the Black Lion Award. This DVD is not for
sale. It is provided by the Board of the Black
Lion Award in the interests of furthering
football and the Black Lion Award
itself.
-
-
|
|
|
Osama shows that
he will stop at nothing in his plot to
weaken America...
|
|
|
BECOME A
BLACK LION TEAM
GIVE THE BLACK
LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR
PLAYERS!
|
|
|
Army's Will Sullivan
wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all
winners) in the Army-Navy game
|
(FOR
MORE INFO)
|
The Black Lion
certificate is awarded to all
winners
|
|
|
