FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2008- "Honor is not the appendage of any social class. It is a way of life which may be freely chosen by any man or women, regardless of race, color, or creed."
T. Braxton Woody, professor emeritus of French, University of Virginia

THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC WILL BE HELD AT HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS, LATHROP
LATHROP IS ABOUT 10 MILES SOUTH OF STOCKTON, JUST NORTH OF THE INTERSECTION OF I-5 AND I-205 (Take I-5 to the Louise exit. Exit Louise and go about a block to Harlan. Make a right on Harlan and the Holiday Inn Express will be on your right

SEEN AT THE PROVIDENCE CLINIC...

*********** Cannon School (www.cannonschool.org) in Concord, North Carolina is seeking an experienced Defensive Coordinator to help start their football program.  Cannon is a K-12 college preparatory school with a strong commitment to academics.  Cannon is also committed to building a quality football program. The football program will begin with 7th, 8th, and 9th graders (we will add one grade level each subsequent year). Teaching positions are available in the following areas: English,  Biology/Life Sciences, Spanish, and Guidance (no PE positions available at this time). Off-campus coaches are also encouraged to apply.  Interested coaches should contact Cannon's AD, Ron Johnson at rjohnson@cannonschool.org or Head Football Coach, Donnie Hayes at dhayes16@cfl.rr.com  

Donnie Hayes is a long-time friend, from his days as a successful Double-Wing youth coach in suburban Detroit to his more recent career as an offensive coordinator and then head coach in Central Florida. I think that this would be a wonderful opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a football program at an excellent school with great facilities in a very nice area about 20 miles north of downtown Charlotte. Charlotte is a good football area - the newspaper does a great job of covering high school sports, and the TV stations devote a lot of time to high school football highlights on Friday nights. Cannon School strikes me as the sort of place where a guy could settle in and stay for years.

*********** Fair disclosure - I have been a Mac user since before there were Macs. I started on an Apple IIc in 1983 or so, and grew good enough with it that when the Mac first arrived, like most people I resisted the idea of having to learn a whole new system. Even if it meant I could do more. (I often use that analogy in telling people that I think they'd be better off not trying to adapt their present numbering system to my Double-Wing, but instead to just suck it up and learn the new system.)

I have owned eight Macs, including six laptops. Amazingly, I have had my "newest" one for over four years. Yes, I spent a fair amount on it, but I have given it a lot of use, and except for the time that wasn't its fault - I dropped the damn thing and destroyed my hard drive - it has never let me down. I take it everywhere I go, and I use it for everything I do, including writing, video editing and clinic presentations. I keep trying to come up with a justification for getting a new one, and as much as I keep checking out those those new models at my local Mac store, I have to admit that there's nothing wrong with the one I've got.

Recently, a coach asked my recommendations on selecting a Mac.

I said, if you want a desktop, the iMac is a great computer, but you probably ought to get a laptop, because there will be times when you will want to take your computer with you to show something to your kids right on the practice field.  Or show other coaches at a clinic.
I think that your best bet is a MacBook - for $1299 you can get one with a 160 gig hard drive; for $1499 you get one with 250 gigs. (Don't look for better prices. Apple has done an amazing job of not getting caught up in the discount wars.)

Both MacBooks have 1 gig of ram; they both have 13-inch screens; they both have super drives, which means they will burn DVDs as well as CDs.

They both come with "iLife" which is Apple's own program containing iTunes, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand and iWeb.  It is one great program.

With that and Quick Time Pro, which costs only $30, with either one you are ready for most of the uses any football coach will ever have for video.

If you want a Mac with a larger screen you would have to move up to a MacBook Pro. They start at $1999 for a 15-inch, $2799 for a 17-inch. They really kick ass, but you don't really need one.

If you need a larger screen for video editing (not a bad idea) you can always buy a separate monitor.

*********** Hugh, It sounds like you had a good time in Providence. Again, I wish I could have made it, but my girls are really enjoying lacrosse which thrills me to no end. 

I was wondering what your thoughts were on this Indiana basketball mess. The latest I heard was that the former assistant coach swooped in and talked one player into transferring to his new team. Tom Crean appears to be a good guy and enthusiastic about the job. Too bad he has to bascially start from scratch, but then again maybe its for the best. I just hope  the fans give him a decent measure of patience to pick up the pieces. It's a sad state of affairs that Kelvin Sampson can so quickly move on to an NBA job... he probably is a better fit for the NBA anyway!

Sam Keator, Litchfield, Connecticut

I am sad about the whole deal because first of all, I have followed Kelvin Sampson since he was at Washington State and I thought he was a straight shooter.  Evidently I was wrong.

I'm not overly impressed with the character of a lot of basketball coaches at any level, so it didn't surprise me that he'd get another job somewhere.

I imagine Tom Crean's a good guy, so I'm sorry at the way his dream job seems to have blown up on him.  He could have stayed at Marquette and been successful, but historically, Indiana has appeared to be one of those career jobs that a guy just can't turn down.  On the other hand, maybe it's not, really, because nobody's done all that well since Knight left, and Knight himself hadn't done all that well in his last few years, either.

Fortunately for Crean, college basketball has such a short life cycle now that he'll have Indiana back in a year or so.

*********** Whew. Hillary must be really bad. Ted (The Lifeguard) Kennedy says she's not fit to be Vice-President. 

*********** I'm not going to get involved in a discussion of the pros and cons of what is shaping up to be a battle royal among Democrats over rules.

But does anybody remember the election of 2000, and all the bleating about Al Gore's having won the "popular vote" yet somehow being denied the presidency?

No one wanted to hear anything about the fact that there were rules involved, and the rules for electing the president say nothing about any so-called "popular vote."

The rules, see, are spelled out in something called the Constitution (amazing how few people at the time seemed to know this), and they are simple: You do not win the election by winning any "popular vote." You win the election by winning a majority of electoral votes, which are apportioned to each state roughly according to its population - one for each of its representatives, and one for each of its two senators.

Win a state and you win all its electoral votes. Winner take all. Win enough states - and enough electoral votes - and you are elected President.

When we lose, and we see rules as standing in the way of the results we want, it's tough to have to admit that without them, we would have chaos.

George Will, a knowledgeable baseball fan as well as an astute commentator on the political scene, wrote recently about the 1960 World Series. I remember it well, as the one that was settled in the bottom of the ninth of game seven when the Pirates' Bill Mazeroski hit one of out old Forbes Field.

It was a strange series, very tough on a Pirates' fan like myself, because the games went back and forth, alternating between Yankees' blowouts and Pirates' narrow victories.

The three Yankees' wins were by an average margin of almost 12 runs per game. The four Pirates' wins were by a margin of seven runs. Total.

The Yankees outscored the Pirates, 55 runs to 27. So they should have won the series, right?

Wrong. There were those damn rules standing in the Yankees' way.

We may not know anything about the Constitution, but we do know that the rules of baseball stipulate that the World Series will be won by the first team to win four games. And we all know they don't say a thing about total runs.

*********** Newberry College finally caved in to Big Brother, aka the NCAA, and agreed to stop calling its teams "Indians."

Meantime, one of the top cricket teams in India's Premier League is the Mumbai Indians, and there is no more uproar than there is about a hockey team in Rochester, New York, calling itself the Americans.

(Although, come to think of it, it's probably just a matter of time before some "Immigrants Rights" group claims that that name is "threatening" and "exclusive.")

Anyhow - just wondering - with US soccer teams taking the names of European clubs, and kids' teams everywhere pretentiously calling themselves "FC" this and "FC" that, why hasn't it occurred to any college being bullied by Big Brother to claim (wink, wink) that it's simply honoring a cricket team?

Interestingly, the Rochester Americans were just purchased by a group called Arrow Express Sports, headed by a guy named Curt Styres - from Ontario. Canada, that is. Meaning that the Americans are owned by a Canadian. And he's a member of the six nations. Meaning he's a Canadian Indian - er, a Canadian Native American - er, a Canadian Aborigine.

*********** Now that it apppears that O.J. Mayo will probably be taking a cut in pay when he turns pro, you can be sure that there will be lotsa people keeping an eye on those eighth graders already "committed" to USC and Kentucky. If one of them buys a new Esacalade and he claims he earned it mowing lawns...

*********** Dear Coach Wyatt

My name is Fred Klauke, and I’m a long time reader of your “News” section.  I am not a coach, and unfortunately I grew up on a small farm with a small family in Iowa, so morning and evening chores kept me from participating in sports as a kid, but I love football and have grown to love a good running game going against a good defense.  Luckily for me, my job entails directing/producing telecasts of high school games for a small cable network in Iowa and Illinois, and so I get to see a lot more angles of each play than we could possibly show our viewers.  A few teams we follow do a lot of mis-direction (I don’t know that they’re always running a true double wing, but Rock Island, Alleman, and Moline high schools here in Illinois, as well as Augustana College, seem to be running at least some double-wing sets), and I’ve grown to appreciate how hard it must be to defend, because it takes a heck of a cameraman to keep up!
 
Anyway, I just wanted to say I appreciate your weekly news sections and to feel free to give my name and email to Coach Gary Creek, as I’d love to purchase a copy of his book when he’s completed it.  Someday when I move on from television producing I would like to help out on a youth football or small high school staff (even if just as a scout or for film breakdown).  Thanks, and keep writing – I especially enjoy reading your comments about the stupid things the big TV networks are doing, because it gives me a guideline on what NOT to do (as well as ammunition when a corporate head asks us to do the same thing)!
 
Thanks again,
Sincerely
Fred Klauke

Fred:
Coach Wyatt sent me a copy of your email to him.

I am going to consider this some form of divine inspiration. I have written an outline for a book and formulated some ideas in my head over the years, but just recently I have been seriously considering writing it all down.

Your timely email is very much appreciated. I especially liked how you have grown to admire a good running game. I have always preferred the running game and use it to set up play-action passes, sometimes use the play-action pass to make the running game even better. Many times we have come out throwing just to get the defense to respect the fact that we might, and that has created more favorable match-ups defensively. Scoring on a pass play actually disappoints me. Long runs are nice but I prefer to score from no more than 10 yards out. The defense is supposed to protect their goal line, and I like to get them backed up so that they are lining up on or inside of their goal line. Something psychological happens there.

You may have seen this quote from Marcus Allen before. I carry a copy with me in my wallet. It defines my belief in the running game:

“The small picture is to gain yards. The big picture is to wear teams down. That’s what the running game is all about. Passing does not destroy a teams’ will. You destroy your opponents’ will by running the ball.”

Marcus Allen

I had this made into a poster to hang in the locker room.

Thanks for taking the time to write to Coach Wyatt. I have never met him that I  know of, but I have watched his tapes so many times that he feels like a next door neighbor to me. I read his NEWS YOU CAN USE column weekly and have realized that I agree with his take on just about everything. His system works. I have had many arguments with coaches about what to run offensively. The newspaper in our home town of Longmont, Colorado called me the "Double Wing Commander". It was a very nice article before a playoff game about our consistently leading the state in rushing yardage and, I think more importantly, rushing attempts. Rushing attempts means you are controlling the ball and goes right back to the Marcus Allen statement.

Thanks again for the inspiration!

Sincerely,

Gary Creek
Lake Havasu City, Arizona

*********** We recently observed the 25th anniversary of the famous "A Nation at Risk" report, in which it was predicted that unless our nation's schools got their act together, we were headed for problems as a nation.
Well, as it turns out, our nation's schools didn't spend the last 25 years getting their act together, and, coincidentally or not, we do seem to have our share of problems.

Face it - educationally, we suck. Yes, we have universities that are the envy of the world. (They must be, because every year foreign students make up a greater percentage of their student bodies.) And, yes, we have high schools that consistently turn out top-quality graduates well-prepared to do the work of any of those colleges.

But in comparing our younger students with those of other nations in the world, we are getting our clocks cleaned. Surprisingly to some people, Finland ranks at or near the top by an measurement.

As someone who spent seven summers in Finland coaching football, it was no surprise to me.

For one thing, the Finns read. It's a major chore taking an work in English and translating it into Finnish, and since the population of Finland is about that of the state of Washington, book publishing can't be all that profitable, but all sorts of books are available, and they gobble them up.

Their population is relatively homogeneous. They do not struggle with large numbers of children who do not speak their language. Instead of "Finnish as a Second Language" they are able to concentrate on teaching their kids two and three languages - while we struggle to teach our kids one.

Education is a matter of national pride. Finns take pride in being educated. It matters to them that they learn. There is a respect for knowledge, and there is nothing comparable to an inner-city culture that demeans the educated and takes a perverse pride in being uneducated.

Students are tracked. For the last three years of high school, they are put into separate tracks, one to prepare for university, the other to prepare for a trade. Only 53 per cent make it onto the college track. The college-bound - and their teachers - are not held back by "reluctant learners." In America, of course, we spend billions indulging ourselves in the myth that everyone should go to college. What successful football coach would spend as much time with the kids with bad attitudes, low ability and poor attendance as he does with his starters?

Teachers are well-educated in the subject they teach. In America, we frequently assign teachers to teach subjects they're unqualified to teach. Few American "educators" would think of asking a soccer coach to coach the football team, but the classroom is another thing entirely.

In Finland, high school kids don't drive. They have to be at least 18 to get a learner's permit, and on top of that they have to spend thousands to take a mandatory driver's education class. Maybe this explains why they read - and do their homework.

Although they are a nation heavily invested in technology - telephone giant Nokia is a Finnish company - they do not see technology as taking the place of a teacher or covering up for poor teaching. The emphasis is still on the teacher and on texts. Their texts are to educate, not indoctrinate - they do not waste class time and resources trying to make this group or that feel better about itself.

I hate to add this, but - for good or bad although Finns are crazy about sports, they do not have high school sports.

*********** The NCAA Academic Progress Rates (APR) were released last week. The Top Five football scores among Division I-A members for 2007-08 were Stanford (986), Navy (979), Rutgers (977), Duke (977), and Air Force (976).

How about a little respect for Rutgers! And on top of that, when Notre Dameinsisted on playing a game - a Rutgers home game, no less - at the Meadowlands, instead of Rutger's new, on-campus stadium, they told the Irish to take a hike.

*********** We all know that whatever connection there is between big time football and the college's mission grows more tenuous every day. But there is no solution. Thanks to Title IX, colleges are addicted to the money that football can bring in.

Somewhere I read the suggestion that colleges should simply shuck their football programs and let become what they have, de facto, been for some time - minor leagues, devoted to preparing talent for the NFL.
Utterly absurd. Totally impossible. Too many women's sports depend on the money.

How, without the money that football brings in, do these well-intentioned people think that colleges are going to support such feel-good extravagances as a 64-team softball NCAA tournament? Where, exactly, without football, will they find the money to fly Arizona's softball team to Hempstead, NY, Washington's to Houston, Texas, Stanford's to Amherst, Massachusetts?

*********** The Wall Street Journal, editorializing about the alll-but-certain Obama victory, wrote, "It took 10 years, but you might say Democrats finally voted to impeach."

*********** In an article by Paul Zimmerman in Sports Illustrated July 30, 1984, Steelers' Hall of Fame linebacker Jack Lambert spke about his approach to speaking before groups...

"In the old days players would go into a place, tell a couple of locker-room stories, talk about the team, take the money and run," he said. "I decided I wasn't going to cheat people."

So he began to talk about drugs, and senseless vandalism, about respect and the pride that he felt when he stood at attention before a game and heard the National Anthem played. The audience would stare at him. Is this a put-on or what? Then they'd applaud. At one affair someone asked him what he'd do to the drug dealers. His reply was typically blunt. "Hang them by their feet in Market Square until the wind whistles through their bones."

"I read about sports figures who say the idea of their having an impact on kids is overrated," Lambert says. "I can't believe that. I've had kids at my camp who I damn well know would listen to me before their parents or their teacher. We have a responsibility, and if I can keep one kid from going on drugs I've accomplished something."

*********** Aloha Coach!
Just wanted to drop you a line and thank you for sharing your offense.  I adopted your "Double-Wing T" about four seasons ago.......our first year we completed our season at 9-3, second 8-4, third 4-5 (many injuries....freak type) and last season 11-0 - Island Champions.
 
I will be ordering your DVD's soon, my VHS tapes are wiped out.
 
Thanks again for all your help.  I will be sending you some questions when our season begins in July.
 
Take care!
 
Coach Rob Lee
Kaneohe, Hawai'i

*********** Coach Wyatt, I could use your advice.
My offensive line is very young and small. I thought if worked on our schemes , down blocks, doubles, traps etc, we would be alright. we are not.

Our defense has way better players , and they are playing great. On offense we are struggling to move the ball.

As I see it I have 2 choices

1 Split the good players , put half on the offense and let the defense adjust and adapt, of course they won't be as strong.

2 Have the best players play offense and defense and have the backups give them a rest
Is there a better way?

Regards,
------- --------
PS Last year I started a JR High program in a school with no football. We faced teams that emulated the pros and threw the ball all over the park. We ran DW. our best play was the wedge, in one game we ran it 7x in a row, from our 5 to their 5. We ran 6G great better than we have ever run it.

We made the playoffs....some games we did not complete a pass.

Coach- This one is easy. Choice number 2.

Obviously, there is a lot to be said for platooning. To be able to to platoon requires (1) sufficient quality talent and (2) sufficient quality  coaches.  The NFL and major colleges attest to that.  They have the talent and the coaching to make it work.

But relatively few are the high school programs in America that have two discrete units, one for offense and one for defense.  For the most part, those that do are  the super-large schools, with enrollments of more than 2,000. 

The vast majority of American high schools do not fall into this category. In their cases, two-way play is the rule:   the best players are on the field the entire game.  Based on what you say about the disparate distribution of talent on your club, I would venture to say that this should be the case with you, too.

While your organization may have the coaching to bring it off, it is obvious that you don't have the athletes, and the only solution to your problem is to have your best players playing both ways.

In my opinion, there are two strong arguments in favor:

(1) Making sure that you always have the best player at every position at all times; (2) Making sure that an organizational decision to platoon, one made irrespective of actual talent considerations, doesn't force you to  have to make do with lesser players while better ones stand on the sidelines  (a form of "welfare football," in which positions are given to players who have not earned them on merit.)

Kids getting tired? I've never had a good player who wanted to come off the field.

Kids are young and strong and resilient.  Playing an entire 48-minute game will not exhaust a player to the point where he won't be able to make a quick recovery in plenty of time for the after-game party or dance.

Maybe kids will get tired at times, but in a tough situation, I will always go with the good athlete, even when he's tired, over the poorer player who might be fresh.

It's a whole lot easier to get a good player in better condition than it is to get a poor player better.

*********** From ESPN- The Uncensored History by Michael Freeman - 2000

The network asked and was granted permission by Jerry Jones, the NFL's top showman, to place cameras in the team's office on the day of the draft, as they did with several other teams. Showing the raw reactions of the executives and coaches as they plotted their moves live on TV made for great theater. In Dallas, the cameras had an unintended consequence. Jones, always sniffing for ways to grab a little publicity to prove to a skeptical public that he was an astute football guy, approached head coach Jimmy Johnson, who ran all football operations, shortly before the draft was scheduled to begin.

"Jimmy, I have a favor to ask, Jones said. "Before you make the pick, since we'll have these ESPN cameras in the room, I want you to lean over to me and act you're whispering something in my ear. I want to look like I'm doing something."

"What?" the Dallas coach said. "F--k that. If it's about you looking good, then you pick the motherf--king players." Johnson stormed away angrily, returning less than an hour before the draft. ESPN had played an unintentional part in one of the most volatile relationships in NFL history.

*********** Good day Coach, My name is --- ---- and this year I have come full circle and am back to coaching my sons  (8-9 year olds) I want to run the DW as I started last year with a few plays(Wedge and 88-99) and had great success.FYI ..I was a DC for 5 years and our team's offense ran the DW,so that is why I would like to take this group of boys that I will have for the next 5 years and introduce them to the DW.
 
My Question is  I find the numbering system a little heavy for my kids age group.Do you have any sugestions….

Coach,

My numbering system IS my system.  It is unique to me. In nearly 40 years of coaching I have run other systems (including the familiar "2 back at the 4 hole" routine) and I believe that this is the best way to teach a misdirection offense. I created it in 1982 because I needed a way to make sure my backs would not crash into each other.  I haven't made a single change to the numbering system in all that time.

I have personally taught my system to more than a hundred teams, including kids of all ages, and to countless  others through my videos, and I have to say that I haven't run into any problems. 

I have no suggestions  other than what I would tell anybody:  run my system  exactly as it comes, right out of the can.

You didn't say  how familiar you are with my system and how I teach it.  Like so many aspects of football,  every bit as important as what you teach is how you teach it.

*********** After watching so-called craft brewers cut into the sales of Budweiser, while at the same time continuing to require their distributors to carry Anheuser-Busch products exclusively, the people at A-B have decided to fight back.

Perhaps you've already noticed the ads for a full line of Michelob brews.

And now, in October, Budweiser American Ale is due to hit the streets.

According to its label, “Budweiser American Ale defines a new style of ale – The American Ale – created by Anheuser-Busch brewmasters to deliver robust ale taste that’s full-bodied, but not too heavy nor too bitter.”

To all of which I say, "Good luck."

I think the A-B people would have been smarter to go the stealth route - the way Coors has done with its Blue Moon and Miller has with Leinenkugel's. At least those giants understand that among many beer drinkers there is a built-in prejudice against "industrial" beer.

Part of the reason craft beers have been successful is that they are NOT Budweiser.

Plus, of course, you can taste them.

*********** One way to explain the fact that NFL coaches go against their better judgment and sign known malefactors is that whereas they once got a little time to prove themselves, it's not uncommon for a guy to be fired after two seasons.

On top of that, free agency, the worst thing ever to happen to the professional sports fan, makes it very difficult to build and sustain any sort of team culture.

When you don't have the time to build a team, talent trumps character.

The ability to overcome those obstacles and create a team culture is at least as important as talent in explaining why Bill Belichick and Tony Dungy have been so successful.

FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008- "I'm proud to pay taxes in America. The only thing is, I'd be just as proud for half the money." Arthur Godfrey

*********** Photos from the Providence clinic on Monday.

*********** Coach, Had a very unique experience today when an assistant coach from Liberty University in Virginia stopped by to see me about my A-back, Eric Samuels. Eric is 6', 185 pounds, and was our leading rusher last year with 126/956 and a 7.6 average per carry. I probably should have run him 226 times, but will do better this year. He has a tape on Sunshinepreps.net and it has generated quite a bit of interest. Auburn has called me about him and Vanderbilt will be here to look at him on the 19th of May, and he is getting a lot of mail from Middle Tennessee State, Cincinnatti, Louisville, and FAU, just to name a few. Well, this coach started looking at the tape and said I see you run the "Double-Wing", and I said yes. He asked if I knew you and I said Yes, I have been to Coach Wyatt's clinics in Denver and Atlanta. Well he played and then coached at Abbington, PA. His name is Coach Roberts, and he talked about how they had this fullback who ran for over a thousand yards on just 6/7-G after he altered his steps to receiving the ball. I said I am well aware of that and Coach Wyatt changed his way of teaching it because of this young man. I thought what a small world.

He was also very impressed when he met Eric and said "wow, he has such a presence about him. He has a firm handshake, looks you right in the eye and says yes sir, and no sir." I then told him about how we started having the players shake hands with each coach and look them in the eye after each practice a couple of years ago. He said, "you know I never could do this until my coach taught me how important it was." He talked at length about how much more we are giving our kids, than just the football experience. I thought this was great and I was very impressed with this coach.

Just thought you would like to hear about this very impressive young coach, because you had always talked about what good players Abington had and about their fullback.

Keep Coaching

Ron Timson, Umatilla High School
Umatilla, Florida (That is a GREAT story. I remember coach Roberts.  Marshall Roberts was a young coach then, just starting out. He had been a very good football player at Abington, and then had lettered for four years at Rutgers.

Abington High, outside Philadelphia,  is my wife's alma mater, and it's where I had my first opportunity to "field test" my system - to try it with a team other than my own - thanks to head coach Doug Moister, a good friend who wasn't afraid to take a chance on it.   And what a test it was!  Abington played in the Suburban One Conference, perennially one of the toughest in the state, against the likes of Central Bucks West, coached by Mike Pettine, Sr., Pennsylvania's winningest coach, and North Penn, coached by his son, Mike Pettine, Jr. The classic rivalry between those two powerful Pennsylvania programs would later be captured in an excellent documentary entitled "The Last Game."  Thanks to Doug Moister and his staff and players, I came away knowing that I was on the right track, and that, yes,  this "small school offense" could work at a big school, too. Those kids did a nice job of moving the ball against some very tough defenses. Interestingly, I think it was Coach Roberts' brother who, as I was explaining the offense to the Abington staff, was the first coach ever to ask me, "What defense gives you the most trouble?"  Which means he was the first to hear the answer I've given a thousand times, not trying to be funny: "A sound, well-coached defense with better players than we have." 

As for Coach Timson and Eric Samuels' "presence" - good for Coach Timson. Those things don't happen by accident. We do our kids a disservice if we DON'T insist that they say "thank you," and "please," and "excuse me, " and don't look people in the eye - and use their names - and shake their hands firmly - when they meet someone. Dave Potter, a youth coach in North Carolina, stresses this with his "Meet and Greet Drill." It is an impressive thing that he does for those kids, and it will give them an edge in life over kids who've never been taught the social graces. In the overall scheme of things, that sort of lesson will be more valuable to your kids than any football drill you ever put them through. Where football comes in, of course, is that if it weren't for football, you wouldn't have the opportunity to teach kids such important life lessons. HW)

*********** Coach:

Just wanted to be sure that you knew we have an In 'n' Out Burger right here in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
If you ever get over this way, a "Double Double" is on me.

Since it looks like 28 years of coaching is all for me (they don't need or want my help here at the high school) I am considering writing a book. Not an X's and O's book, I'll leave that to you, but just a book about my experiences as a coach, the learning-to-coach process, discovering your double wing in 1997 and the 138-16 won-loss record that followed. I'm thinking of calling the book "So, you want to coach football?", sort of a textbook for new coaches or coaches just looking for something that works. I would leave the nuts and bolts for you and others that have developed systems. My input would be more of a coaching handbook, how to handle stuff that comes with the territory with examples and stories of what I did right and plenty of what I didn't. Could you give me any advice as to how to go about getting a book like that published and do you think there is a need for it?

Thanks again for all the help you have given me!

Gary Creek
formerly Lyons High School, formerly Skyline High School, formerly Longmont High School (all in Colorado) now in the boat business in Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Thanks for the offer of the burger!

Hard to believe that so many coaches know so much football they can't benefit from the know-how of a guy who's already been where they'd like to go.

I have long maintained that the best thing a young head coach could do would be to find a "retired" head coach who could serve as an extra set of eyes and ears and an extra brain. So many guys find themselves in the sort of trouble - on or off the field - they could esily have avoided by having someone take them aside and say, "You might want to think about..."

As for your book --- is there a need? Yes.

Can it be published? Yes and no. Many people have the same idea, and commerical publishers, whose sole interest is in how many books they can sell, are less interested in the quality of the material than in the name of the author. (Don Shula's name will sell a whole lot more books than Hugh Wyatt's.)

You can deal always get a book published by a so-called "vanity press," which will publish a book for anybody - at a price. They don't care whether the book will sell or not, because essentially, they are high-tech Kinkos - they will sell you the books, and then it's up to you to sell them. Most people who go this route wind up with garages full of unsold books.

I would suggest that you get on the Internet and look into self-publishing. There are all sorts of resources for someone interested in that approach. You will still have to market your book, but you can publish it with a lot less investment than if you were to deal with a vanity press.

*********** It has leaked out that a panel of leading physicans has come up with an order of priority in which people would be treated in the event of a serious epidemic or disaster that exceeded our ability to treat everyone.

Last on their list are the very elderly and those suffering from serious dementia.

There was no mention of parents who got in coaches' faces.

At the very least, they should all be given tattoos reading "DO NOT RESUSCITATE"

*********** A former Double-Wing coach whose job required a relocation wrote to inform me that he'd taken a job at a local high school in his new town...

To make a long story short, they had the least amount of experience on the defense, so I took a spot where I could have the most impact. I am working under the varsity linebacker coach during spring ball and we have a great working relationship. For the first time in six seasons I get to work on an experienced staff that can teach me many new skills. The varsity coaches are an incredible group that always has time to help the JV coaches.

We are running a 3-3-5 so I have to study hard every day. It is a home grown system that is not like any of the other variations I have found, so I really have to pay attenton during team defense. If you know of any great books or other resources for defense in general or the 3-3 specifically, please feel free to send them my way.

Since it is a home-made system, I'm sure that nobody knows more about it than the guys right there on the scene, and just like with the Double Wing, it is possible to corrupt what you are already learning by bringing in stray ideas.

If you haven't already done so, you will want to watch all the video of it you can, and write down questions as you go - and where on the video those questions arose - and then see if someone is willing to take the time to answer them. From the sound of things, someone will be.

*********** In a passage in John Feinstein's "A Season on the Brink", Bobby Knight, then at Indiana, rhapsodizes about an eighth grader named Damon Bailey. Coach Knight is almost apologetic about it, as if admitting to having a crush on the kid. The idea of actually offering the kid a scholarship seems that unnatural.

My, how things have changed.

For the second time in as many years, USC's Tim Floyd has offered a scholarship to an eighth grader

Kentucky has just done the same.

It will be interesting to see how these arrangements work out, but we do have one example to go by...

Not too long ago, a kid named Taylor King, dissatisfied with his playing time at Duke and apparently displeased with Mike Krzyzewski's assessment of his chances for more playing time, transferred to Villanova. Before signing with Duke, he'd "committed" to UCLA prior to his freshman year in high school.

*********** Rick Davis, of Duxbury, Massachusetts said that my observations of New England wwere "spot on," but as a native Mainer he felt I'd left something out when I failed to spell "lobster roll" phonetically - as "lobstah roll."

*********** It's come to my attention that a great product of two of the ethnic groups attracted to New England by its cotton mills is noted chef Emeril Lagasse, a native of Fall River, Massachusetts and the son of a French-Canadian father and a Portugese mother.

*********** A former Guantanamo detainee recently carried out a suicide attack in northern Iraq.

No doubt the bleeding hearts will say that he was just an innocent choir boy who happened to be in the wrong place when he was arrested and shipped to Gitmo, where he was turned into an anti-American radical.

RIP

*********** This is why I could never coach soccer...

There was an article in our local paper about a kid who had played in two big soccer "matches" (that would be "games," to the rest of America) last Saturday.

His "elite" team (elite - now there's a word that will never be part of the vocabulary of football) had a very, very important playoff "match" at 1 PM in Beaverton, Oregon.

His high school team, meanwhile, had a very, very important playoff "match" at 4 PM in Vancouver, Washington.

Under the best of conditions, the two cities are about 45 minutes apart.

Well. The kid played the game ("match") for his "elite" team (they won) and then hustled back to Vancouver to play for his high school team, arriving just in time. To play the second half.

Whaaaaaat???

Interestingly, his high school coach was quoted in another article as saying that there was no problem- that he'd told the kid that he had to be fully committed to the high school team, and that his playing on the "elite" team would not be an excuse for missing practice.

Maybe not. But he didn't saying anything about missing half a game (er, "match") - so I guess that's okay.

You and I know what's going on with these high school soccer coaches, of course - they know full well that if they were to ask kids to commit fully to their high school team, their best kids would choose the allure of "elite" soccer. (In the case in question, the "elite" team's win meant a trip to Hawaii.

Why, if they were draw the line, they might not even have enough players for a high school team.

(So?)

*********** I mentioned that Army coach Stan Brock had closed all this spring practices to the media and the public, and since then he has announced that the policy will apply to all pre-season practices as well.

Now, I'm not happy about not being able to watch a team pracrice, but I do fully support a coach's right to determine what is the right course for his football team. He is vested with the responsibility, and it isn't reasonable to expect him to succeed without doing things his way.

Most of the comments I see and hear seem to be opposed, to the closed-door policy, but I found  these comments from the book "Hayden Fry - A High Porch Picnic" to be a good defense of it.

When Coach Fry took over at SMU in 1962, it was a major turnaround project, and he felt the need to take drastic action in several areas. One of those was practice...

"Another change I made did not go over too well with some fans and members of the news media. I closed practices, because there was too much information coming out of them. Injuries are a part of football, and if all the minor ones are reported daily, it sounds like your practice field has become a war zone.  Sometimes players are moved up and down the depth chart for motivational or disciplinary purposes, and there is no reason to report the moves. And, of course, there are lots of times changes are made in the offense and defense, and you don't want your opponent to know about them.  The fans and media eventually became accustomed to closed practices, and most understood why we were doing it."

*********** I heard a radio commercial in which some woman was saying, "Guys, Mother's Day in Sunday..."

I thought, why "Guys?" Don't women have mothers, too?

And then it hit me - I think they are trying to turn this thing into Wife's Day.

*********** While in the LA area a couple of weeks ago, I walked past one of the meeting rooms at the hotel where I was staying, and pulled up short when I read the sign on the door: "COMEDY CLUB"

Now, this was on Sunday morning, an unlikely time to be learning comedy routines, and the people inside didn't look to me like aspiring comics.

And then I realized what I had stumbled on - it was a traffic school. You know - the kind you agree to attend as an alternative to a fine or increased insurance premiums.

In California, where traffic school has been privatized, enterprizing organizations have hit on the idea of having comedians give the lessons, and apparently the concept has been quite successful.

It even appears you can now "attend" online.

http://www.comedyschoolforless.com/?gclid=CL2w743Dl5MCFQShggodLQ5Z2g

*********** If you would, could you please let all of your readers know that Cannon School, in Concord, NC is seeking an experienced Defensive Coordinator to help start their football program.  Cannon is a top-notch K-12 college prepratory school with very high academic standards.  They are also very committed to building a quality football program.  We will start the program next season with 7th, 8th and 9th graders and build from there.  We are willing to talk to coaches interested in being community coaches as well as those interested in teaching at the school.  Unfortunately, there are no PE positions available at the school but, they are looking for an English Department Chair, a Biology/Life Sciences teacher, a Spanish teacher as well as a Guidance Counselor at the Upper (High) School.  Interested coaches can contact Cannon's AD, Ron Johnson at rjohnson@cannonschool.org or myself at dhayes16@cfl.rr.com  
 
Thanks for your help!
 
Donnie Hayes
Head Football Coach
Cannon School
Concord, North Carolina

TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2008- "When men cease to believe in God, they will not believe in nothing. They will believe in anything." G. K. Chesterton

*********** You couldn't watch the Kentucky Derby (excuse me - make that The Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum Brands. Sheesh) without feeling deeply saddened by the fatal injury suffered by second-place finisher Eight Belles.

Fortunately, although TV had the ability to show us, we didn't see the doomed filly going through her death throes,

Instead, NBC made the right decision and chose to spare us the scene.

"She was writhing," said NBC producer Sam Flood. "It was gruesome. I elected not to go for it for the simple reason it's not something I'd like my wife and children at home to see."

Not that such a decision required any great courage, because all hell would have broken loose if he'd shown the poor horse down on the track.

But where was he when we needed him - when they started talking about erections lasting longer than four hours?

*********** It's not every day that I come to the defense of Senator Hillary Clinton.

But after the tragic death of poor Eight Belles, Mrs. Clinton was castigated by PETA for placing a small wager on the filly,.

Sheesh. Is there nothing people can do to have a little enjoyment without somebody throwing a tantrum?

*********** By now, you may know that Polo Ralph Lauren has been chosen as "official outfitter" of the US Olympic team. They call the outfits "preppy," but the ones I've seen look a little, um, gay.

In any event, surprise - the line of clothing inspired by the Olympic outfits will go on sale in June.

*********** Quick impressions on my recent trip to New England...

The Providence area has to have more good restaurants than any area of comparable size that I've ever been to. We're not talking Olive Garden/Red Lobster/Tony Roma's, either. The nearest thing you'll find to them is Legal Seafood, an upscale New England-based chain that puts them to shame. The ones I'm talking about are, for the most part, family-owned and operated. On Federal Hill alone there must be a dozen good Italian restaurants. Two out-of-the-way places, known only to the locals, are probably my favorite restaurants. Twin Oaks, in Cranston, is a long-time Rhode Island favorite. The Governor Francis Inn, in Warwick, is at least as good. You name it - seafood, Italian, steaks, roast beef or chops - it's on the menu. The food is delicious, the portions huge, the prices reasonable.

You'll find ethnic groups in New England that you won't find in large numbers anywhere else in the US. Around Fall River and New Bedford, Massachusetts there's a large population of Portugese-Americans, and the signs on storefronts reflect that fact. Some are recent arrivals, but many have been in America a long time. Some of their ancestors came here to work as crew on the whaling ships that sailed out of New Bedford, others to work in the giant textile mills that sprung up along New England's rivers. Actually, it's not unreasonable to trace the Portugese in America back to Prince Henry the Navigator.

Among more recent arrivals, Providence has a fairly large number of Cape Verdeans, who speak Portugese. (Take a look at an atlas to see where the Cape Verde Islands are.) And among the Portugese-speakers around Boston are a large number of Brazilians.

Many New Englanders are descended from French Canadians who came south long ago to work in those mills.

The textile industry that made New England wealthy and attracted workers both from nearby farms and faraway lands is long gone, and there's scarely a town in New England whose skyline isn't dominated by the hulk of at least one abandoned mill. Fall River alone, once the most important textile city in the world, must have dozens of the huge old buildings, built to last from brick or locally-quarried stone. In some towns, mainly those nearer the big cities - and in some of the big cities themselves - old mills are being renovated and converted into trendy and expensive "loft" dwellings for wealthy urbanites, who couldn't possibly fathom what went on when those mills were running non-stop, their machines tended in many cases by workers no older than 14 or 15.

You don't have to drive too far from any New England city to see the rock walls that are a regional trademark. They're only a couple of feet high at most, and they've been built without any mortar. The rocks were just set in place, many of them a couple of hundred years ago. You can almost see the Minutemen crouched behind them, waiting to take a shot at the red coats. Although they look great, their purpose wasn't adornment. They started out as rocks in the farmers' fields that had to be cleared before anybody could scratch out a living on the land. But typical of New Englanders' ability to turn a negative into a positive, they wound up making great-looking walls. (Robert Frost's poem, "Mending Wall," describes the New England farmers' annual routine of going out in the fields and putting rocks back in place after a hard winter.)

The New England countryside is dotted with quaint little towns full of old buildings and old houses so well kept up that it doesn't take much of an imagination to think that you've gone back in time.

Back to the present: Wildass drivers to whom red lights and stop signs and solid no-passing lines are mere suggestions. They are at their best in traffic. Tip: Do not start out too fast at a red light, because that guy across from you, coming in the opposite direction, is probably going to hang a left in front of you.

Red Sox hats and Patriots' jackets. Everywhere.

When you don't live in a major league baseball city, you forget that there are places where people care about baseball. Really care. On the day I left to fly home, the news out of New Hampshire was that a Nashua woman had struck and killed a guy with her car. Seems he went after her because she'd been telling everyone in the bar that she was a Yankees fan. Being a Yankees fan in New England should allow her to cop an insanity plea.

Someone has produced a musical about the Rhode Island mob. (Yes, it may be a small state, but Little Rhody has a franchise in the major leagues of organized crime.) The show is called "The Altos."

All over New England, you can get great fried clams. Some roadside cafes offer "lobster rolls." A lobster roll is very simple - think of chunks of lobster meat on a hotdog roll.

In Rhode Island, there are "Stuffies" - a local delicacy. A large clam called a quahog is cooked and its meat is chopped and mixed with spicy bread crumbs and packed (stuffed) back into the two halves of the late clam and baked. And served with your favorite pepper sauce.

Starbucks, fahgeddaboutit - New England is the land of Dunkin Donuts. There's one on every corner. And sometimes another one in the middle of the block.

Narragansett Beer, once New England's leading brand, has been revived and is making a nice comeback.

Living can be expensive in New England, a fact of which you are reminded in some very strange ways. For example, Boston charges you a $3.50 toll just to drive your car out of the airport.

In Boston, the capital of one of the most liberal all all states, there is no shortage of conservative talk show guys.

*********** "I have flaws. I have sometimes made choices which have not been right." Roger Clemens.

Well, not Roger Clemens, exactly.

Actually, Roger Clemens' spokesman, allegedly speaking for the Rocket

*********** I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that the Olympic gold medal in table tennis will be won by a guy from.... drum roll, please.... China.

In the world's most populous country, it is by far the most popular sport.

There are so many good Chinese table tennis players that there is scarcely a nation whose "Olympic Table Tennis Team" (does that sound as strange to you as it does to me?) isn't made up mainly of people of Chinese extraction. Not unlike Americans who head to Europe to play professional basketball once they realize they aren't going to make it in the NBA, these are Chinese who saw the writing on the wall back home and realized that their best chance to make it as a table tennis pro was to head to Poland, or England. Or the US.

*********** “The great divide in this country is not by race or even income, it’s by those who think they are better than everyone else and think they should play by a different set of rules.” Bill Clinton.

He really said that.

*********** When you are plagued with one of those guys who is blessed with great running ability but cursed with a tendency to fumble, you have to be enough of a hardass to put the team first - to sit the kid down. But don't take that from me. Take it from Bear Bryant.

"When a player has the ball in his possession and fumbles it, he has committed the unpardonable sin in my estimation. The ball carrier should remember to have one point of the football in the palm of his hand with the fingers around the end of the ball, and gripping it tightly. The other end should be in the crook of his arm, which should force the football up close to his body. If the football is carried properly, and the ball carrier is determined to hang on to it, the football should never be lost due to a fumble. The ball is the most valuable object on the football field. Consequently, if the ball carrier fails to hang on to the ball, he is letting down his entire team. Once a player has control of the ball and fumbles it, this is no accident. It is either carelessness or lack of courage. I can't build a winner with this type of player."

Bear Bryant, "Building a Championship Football Team," Prentice-Hall, 1960

*********** Author David Maraniss ("When Pride Still Mattered," "They Marched Into Sunlight," "Clemente") describes his latest book project, "Rome 1960 - The Olympics That Changed theWorld" on his Web site - http://www.davidmaraniss.com/

*********** Dentists must be behind energy drinks. Just kidding. But according to a study conducted by the University of Maryland's dental school, so-called energy drinks are far more likely than ordinary soft drinks to cause tooth decay. Or worse.

Most soft drinks contain such high levels of sugar - roughly three tablespoonsful (or the equivalent in high-fructose corn syrup) in 12 ounces of Coke, for example - that they would be too sweet to be drinkable. And energy drinks contain even more sugar than soft drinks.

The soft drink manufacturers add various acids, such as citric acid, as a way of cutting back on the sweetness.

The energy drink manufacturers have to add even more acids.

Problem is, the low pH (high acidity) which makes it possible for you to ingest all that sugar without gagging has a destructive effect on teeth.

A pH level of 4.0 is enough to dissolve teeth, and all energy drinks tested had pH levels of 3.3 or lower. In other words, they were even more likely to corrode teeth. By comparison, beer has a pH higher than 7.

Recommendations by dentists involved in the study...

1. If you must drink energy drinks, use a straw, which makes it more likely to prevent the drink from coming in contact with the teeth

2. After drinking an energy drink, rinse your mouth well with water

If I may, I'd like to make a third suggestion: drink beer instead.

*********** Sir, Buzz Bissinger is all over the internet right now thanks to his pathetic and unintentionally hilarious tirade on Bob Costas' show last night.  His sanctimonious lecturing on credibility and integrity and stuff like that reminded me of his book, "Friday Night Lights."  When I played football in high school someone asked our coach what he thought of the book.  He replied that he didn't like it because he knew the AD at the high school and Bissinger took some events out of context and misrepresented others in order to make a point.  I also once read your criticisms of the book.  I've only read the Google Books preview.  He goes out of his way to describe these people as unemployable, racist, rednecks and to paint the town in the most negative way possible.  It makes me wonder if people have ever made a serious effort to find out whether or not what happens in the book is true.
I was wondering if you knew anything about this or just your opinion of the book in general.  Thank you.
 
Cliff Evans, New York, NY

Cliff, I happen to have the (now old) video of a state title game between Odessa Permian and Aldine Nimitz. I forget who won.  I do remember that a kid named Stony Case played QB for Permian.

At some point in the game, they did a sideline interview with this Bissinger guy, who at that point was not yet known by the friendlier "Buzz" that I gather he goes by now. (Somewhat like a politician.)

He mentioned that he'd been spending the season in Odessa, and he mentioned the book he was doing research for, which he described somewhat innocuously as a look at small town America and the role football plays. Words to that effect.

I started to read the book some time ago but I couldn't finish it. It sits on my shelves, but I'll never read it.

What the guy did was accept the hospitality of small town people who opened their hearts and their homes to him - and then he paid them back by portraying them as racists, who clung to their guns and their God. No, wait - that's Pennsylvania, not Texas.

But you get the idea. As put off as I was by the way he betrayed his hosts, there was also his literary style - he described situations he could never have actually seen or been a part of, and created conversations he could never have heard, as if he were a fly on the wall.

He put words in peoples' mouths.  To me, that makes it fiction, and I don't like to see fiction being passed off as fact. What else did he make up?

In other words, I think Friday Night Lights is junk.

*********** Many of the innovations of the legendary Paul Brown, whose Cleveland Browns were the best team in football from the mid-1940's through the 1950's, are now common practice in football. One of them was his then-radical idea, of calling plays from the sideline, sending them in to the quarterback by way of "messenger guards." (The long-time football practice was for the quarterback to call his own plays.)

In his memoirs ( "PB: The Paul Brown Story" by Paul Brown with Jack Clary , 1979, Signet Books) coach Brown explained his thinking. Although his idea had long been adopted throughout pro football, you can tell by his words that the criticism he once received still stung...

"The one area of our football that drew a special amount of public attention was our play-calling and the use of messenger guards to shuttle the plays to our quarterbacks. On the basis of the number of victories and championships we won, it was a sound and very successful system, and today (1979) most of the NFL's coaches use it. Back then, though, we wre belittled, and our quarterbacks, especially Otto Graham, ridiculed for being something less than complete players. Much of this nonsense was based on ignorance, deliberate or otherwise, of how our play-calling system really worked and on sour grapes over our great successes. I know some coaches really wanted to adopt it but shied away at the time because they did not want to assume the responsibility. Others, because of their non-quarterback background, did not feel qualified, Ironically, I never understood why there was no criticism of defensive signals' being called from the sidelines. This was a common practice for most teams for many years.

"All this had nothing to do with questioning my quarterbacks' intelligence, nor was I ever worried about building character and intiative, two other criticisms that were tossed at us. I cared about winning games - period - and I stand on that record. We were a team, coaches and players together, and if we won, that's all that mattered. If we lost, then we went down together, and I never respected any quarterback who felt the system kept him from looking like a great leader. A quarterback is an important cog in the machine, but still a cog, and I wanted to give him all the help possible. I knew no quarterback ever worked as hard preparing for a game as our coaching staff did."

FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2008- "It's easy to have high self-esteem - just aim low." Albert Bandura, Professor of Psychology, Stanford

"It's easy to have high self-esteem - just aim low." Albert Bandura, Professor of Psychology, Stanford

SHOTS FROM LAST WEEK'S CLINIC IN SUNNY SANTA CLARITA, CALIFORNIA... The clinic, hosted by John Torres and the Santa Clarita Wildcats organization was held at Golden Valley High School. On hand to demonstrate were Coach Torres' 12-year-old team. The kids are good!

*********** Soccer may appear to have a lock on the little boys and girls, but it doesn't seem to be hurting football in the Santa Clarita-Valencia-Castaic-Saugus-Canton Country area, up in the mountains about 30 miles north of downtown LA.

The Santa Clarita Wildcats organization, born just three years ago, now has 12 teams, and has to turn kids away.

When another youth organization nearby held its signups, many parents camped out overnight to make sure they'd be able to sign their kids up when registration began the next morning.

*********** My wife and I noticed over the last few years of our teaching that as parents tended more and more to give their little darlings designer names (perhaps not trusting God to be able to sort us all apart), they insisted that there be no shortening of those names - "His name is Timothy. It's not Tim, and we expect you to call him Timothy."

God help the teacher - or the classmates - who gave the kid a nickname like Shorty, or Lefty.

But interestingly, nicknames seem to be a part of John Torres' team building. While working with his Santa Clarita Wildcats 12-year-old team, I noticed one kid being called "Elmo." But I knew he name was Conner. Another answered to "Buddha." And so forth.

Coach Torres said that there was nothing derogatory about the nicknames, but every kid got one, and every kid took pride in his.

He said he's had one parental complaint about the nicknames. Not long ago, a mother called him to say that her son, who was new to the team, was upset - he was the only player on the team who didn't have a nickname.

*********** Good Morning Hugh-- I was reading the News this morning and saw the comments by Mike Brusko, Zionsville, Pennsylvania-- Mike is coming to Maine this weekend to see the spring game and visit his son. I don't know how the Maine staff managed to recruit a player from the heart of football country but I am sure they got a good one! Anyway, his comments about changing offenses struck a chord with me because we have run the same basic 6-8 run plays and 4-6 pass plays for the last 15 years. Rather then changing when things have not gone right we made a decision to fix our execution and correct mistakes. If you believe that what you are doing is sound. If you fully understand and have learned everything there is about your offense, then I believe it will work and can be constructed to work with the talent available. Although, there have been times when we questioned what we were doing the record speaks for itself. We have averaged 8 wins a year over the 15 year period.

Looking forward to the visit this weekend and the clinic-- Hope we can get together Friday for dinner, maybe Twin Oaks? Susan is coming so I hope Connie will be with you. We should be arriving between 4-5 see you then.

Jack Tourtillotte, Boothbay Harbor, Maine

PS: I have heard from several coaches inquiring into our job and spent an hour on the phone with --------- last night. Don't know if he is really interested but he asked all the right questions and we had a great conversation. Thanks for putting the plug into the news.

PSS: I really appreciated the kind words from big John T and thanks for adding them to the NEWS. I have heard from several other coaches as a result all saying good things-- hell it almost made me cry.

I just finished reading Tony Dungy's book, and Coach Dungy speaks of the influence Chuck Noll - and Coach Noll's mentor, Paul Brown - had on him:

"Chuck Noll developed much of his coaching philosophy from Paul Brown, and I got mine from Chuck.  I tell people that I'm from the Paul Brown school of coaching."

A major part of that philosophy, Coach Dungy stresses in his book, is

"Do the ordinary things better than everyone else."

He also quotes Dr. George Washington Carver along those same lines: "When you can do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."

Which is exactly what Jack has done, and a major reason why he's had such success. HW
 
*********** For a senior project, a Yale "student" claimed to have impregnated herself numerous times, and to have terminated her several pregnancies with self-induced abortions and - get ready for this - passed off this farce as "performance art."

Not so fast, wrote Michael Lewis in the April 24 Wall Street Journal. Mr. Lewis is a Professor of Art at Williams College, in Massachusetts, and he argues that "immaturity, self-importance and a certain confused eagerness will always loom large in student art work," and when given a choice between real artistic training and simply doing their thing, students will always choose the latter.

But, he says, "it is not a choice that undergraduates should be given."

Before creativity, he says, must first come a solid grounding in the basics:

"Great achievement requires in one's formative years two teachers: a stern taskmaster who teaches the rules, and an inspirational guru who teaches one to break the rules. But they must come in that order.

"Childhood training in Bach can prepare one to play free jazz, and ballet instruction can prepare one to be a modern dancer, but it does not work the other way around.

"One cannot be liberated from fetters that one has never worn."

Yet in a lot of art classes in our schools, "art" is smearing something - anything - on a piece of paper (or anything else that's handy), and calling it whatever you want. And the teacher goes gaga. "Ooooooh. That's really good."

Writing's no different. Ever read the semi-literate entries on a MySpace page? It's what you get when kids who've never been forced - yes, forced - to write correctly finally get passed along to high school.

We "teach" kids how to "write" by first encouraging them to be "creative." Without bothering with such minor details as spelling, grammar or punctuation. What the hell - that's bo-r-r-r-ing. And hey - they'll learn that stuff when they have to, right?

If you taught football the way "writing" is "taught," your team would never even be able to form a huddle.

*********** You're never too old to learn something new.

After years and years of renting cars... and pulling up to gas stations and having to guess which side of the car the fuel filler's on... and invariably guessing wrong... and having to turn the car around...

Tuesday I heard a guy on the radio say that on the instrument panel of most cars, right next to the little gas pump icon by the fuel gauge, there's a little triangle-shaped arrowhead. It points to the side of the car the fuel filler's on.

The DJ was so excited at learning this that at the next commercial break he dashed outside to check his car, then raced back inside to share with us the news that it's true!

Naturally, my wife had to go check it out on our BIG, HUMONGOUS, GAS-GUZZLING, SUV'S (hear that, Al Gore?) - and damned if isn't so.

*********** A Boston sports guy named Don Gillis died last week at the age of 85. His obituary said he had once been the host of a TV show called "Candlepin Bowling."

Wow. Candlepin bowling. Did that bring back memories! My wife went to college in Western Massachusetts, and when I'd got to visit, we'd spend many a cheap date bowling. In the northern New England of those days, that meant candlepins.

Candlepin bowling differs from what most people know as "bowling" (and what New Englanders then called "Ten-Pin Bowling") because although the lanes are the same width and length, the ball is smaller - a little larger than a softball - and the pins are thin and elongated - think of a two-foot tall beer can.

But despite taking up less space than ten pins, candlepins are spotted in the same locations as the much fatter ten pins, which leaves a lot of space between them. That, combined with the smaller ball, means that in candlepins it's common, to use one very aggravating example, to hit the one pin and take out just it and the five pin.

Candlepins is a game of great skill. Spares are tough enough. Strikes are really hard to come by. And a perfect game in candlepins has to be one of the rarest feats in sport.

In the likely event that you don't get a strike or spare, you still get a third ball in that frame to enable you to pick up the remaining pins. That means it's possible to score a "10" in a frame even without getting a strike or spare,

The inventors of the game weren't totally merciless: as a concession to the fact that you don't get much help from fat pins knocking each otgher over, or a big ball wide enough to take out several pins in its swath, any candlepins that get knocked over and don't fly off the alley are allowed to lie where they fall, enabling you to hit them - the "dead wood"- to help knock down the remaining pins.

After the third ball of the frame, the pins are cleared and re-set.

A score of 100, as I recall, was not bad.

When I moved to Baltimore in the early 1960s, I discovered to my surprise that in Maryland, "bowling" meant "duckpins" - smaller, shorter versions of tenpins. Like candepins, they used the same size lanes, and the smaller ball. And three balls per frame. Strangely, not three hours' drive away, in the Pennsylvania where I'd grown up, duckpins were unheard of.

One of the most popular shows on Baltimore TV was called "Strikes and Spares." It was duckpin bowling.

It was a much tougher game than tenpins - again, as with candlepins, 100 wasn't a bad score - and, realizing full well that that Americans would be happy to switch over to tenpins once they discovered their scores jumped by 100 points or so, the big bowling equipment manufacturers - Brunswick and AMF - moved in.

One of the first ten pin operations in Baltimore was Johnny Unitas' Colt Lanes. And almost overnight, ten pins overtook duckpins in popularity.

And duckpins, although not exactly doomed, were ever after relegated to a place as something of a regional oddity.

*********** There was an article about the Army All-American Game (for graduating high school seniors) in Friday's Wall Street Journal.

For the most part, I think it's a sick project that glorifies high school kids, but this is America, and the promoters are free to try to make a buck doing things like that. If they didn't, someone else would. In fact, someone else has, and that someone else, promoting a rival all-star game, happens to be Disney, which just happens to own ESPN and ABC. Stay tuned.

I personally question whether it helps Army recruiting, which is the only justification for the Army's spending recruiting dollars to sponsor it, but I'm told that there are Army marketing guys who think it's a great idea.  Of course, there were also Army marketing guys who thought "An Army of One" was a great idea.

*********** Hugh,

Tonight on the air I played a clip of Terrell Owens saying "get your popcorn ready" and it got me thinking about the NFL watching experience.

There are few more incarcerating positions I can think of than spending three hours on the couch focusing on the pros. (Soccer might have it beat.) I wish I could have some popcorn, sit down and just enjoy it - end zone dances and interminable commercials are only the start of the trouble.

I've been able to enjoy watching the Patriots probe and grind their way to victories; they didn't have to have a bunch of highly-paid superstars, but it's possible their entire resume was augmented with cheating so that might be out the window next season anyway.

I guess I'll just have to be content with 50 college games each Saturday.

Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California (I'm still able to block out the knowledge of what's really going on under the surface in big-time college football, so consequently I find fall Saturdays to be absolute bliss.

In the case of the NFL, however, the scum is above the surface. There's always someone breaking the law, someone acting the fool, or some lickspittle commentator reminding us how much someone who has a good day is going to be worth at the end of the season when he becomes a free agent.

Not to mention the complete reversal of fundamentals -  blocking in which they use the hands,  tackling in which they don't.

If there were 50 NFL games on every Sunday I still doubt that I'd watch the equivalent of 60 minutes all told. HW)

*********** The NFL, which has sponsors for most of its major awards (Pepsi Rookie of the Year, Motorola Coach of the Year, Fedex Air and Ground Players of the Year), no longer has a sponsor for its Man of the Year Award. (It used to be sponsored, oddly enough, by Miller Lite.)

A simple name change could open up a lot of sponsorship possibilities. My suggestion: The Pac Man of the Year Award, sponsored by a bail bondsman near you.

*********** New, from Reebok - "Helmet Hoodies" - a line of hoodies in the colors of your favorite team, with hoods resembling the teams' helmets (you aren't going to believe the Bengals' hood.)

At last! A way to support your local NFL team while holding up a convenience store.

*********** Not sure what this means, but ratings for ESPN's NFL draft coverage were down 15 per cent from last year. They'll probably blame it on the fact that the Dolphins ruined the suspense by going ahead and signing Jake Long in advance, and that there weren't enough highly-rated quarterbacks.

*********** Look out for something called the United National Football League (UNFL).

There have been at least four pretender leagues to come down the pike since the All-America Football Conference in 1946, but this one differs in one respect: it claims that it has no intention of competing with the NFL, but will instead serve as a "feeder," stocking itself with players who could possibly make an NFL roster with another year or two of experience.

In other words, a minor league.

Good luck.

They point out that there are plenty of good players available. I agree.

They also will have no problem finding good coaches.

But as a business model? A minor league?

My example of what they can expect: the CBA (if it's still in business). Plenty of good basketball players, plenty of good coaches.

Not enough space on the sports pages. Not enough time on the 11 o'clock sports. No television revenue. Not enough fans.

This all translates to a l;ack of sponsor interest, and a lack of revenue.

How do you explain the large crowds of the NBA and major college basketball on the one hand, and the precarious financial situations of minor league pro basketball on the other ? Simple. The NBA and the big colleges have fan bases that they've spent years - and dollars - developing. Colleges even have built-in fan bases called student bodies and alumni. And even then, too much losing keeps fans home.

If that weren't enough, the economics of football make it a much riskier venture than basketball. With a roster at least three times that of a basketball team, a football team costs far more to staff, equip and transport. Add to that the fact that it's not prudent to play more than one football game a week, and that in many parts of the country you run the risk of bad weather wiping you out at the gate. (You're dreaming if you think you will be able to depend on season ticket sales.) I have managed a minor league football team, and I can attest to the financial disaster caused by a hard rainstorm an hour before kickoff.

There may be places where the initial excitement will draw decent crowds, but in the main, while Americans like pro football and college football, they don't like football enough to shell out good money to support a minor professional league.

"Feeder?" Aren't we overlooking the obvious - doesn't the NFL already have the colleges?

*********** Supposedly the thing that's standing in the way of a "Plus One" playoff - an additional game following the bowl season to determine a "true national champion" - is the Rose Bowl contract between the Big Ten and the Pac 10.

The Rose Bowl, as the old-timers among us know, was once the biggest football game in America. By far.

So out of respect for the great tradition of the Rose Bowl, and a Big Ten-Pact 10 rivalry dating back to the 1940s, when the whole BCS thing was cranking up, I thought that the Big Ten and Pac 10 should have just stood firm against the whole scheme and protected the Rose Bowl. Who was to say that the Rose Bowl winner wouldn't have an equal claim to the national championship?

But now that they've allowed the BCS to present a game between Miami and Nebraska as the "Rose Bowl," the cat's out of the bag. There's no longer any Rose Bowl tradition.

So, hey, you BCS guys - screw the Big Ten and the Pac 10. If they really cared about the Rose Bowl, you wouldn't have seen Texas or Oklahoma playing in it.

Plus One, fellas. Go for the gold.

*********** Prom time is almost here.

Time to reserve those stretch limos... to buy the prom dresses and rent the tuxes.

Maybe a corsage?

Don't forget dinner reservations, either.

And be sure to let the photographer know which package you want.

Maybe reserve a hotel room for the after-prom party. With booze, or course.

Cost? Easily north of $500 a couple.

Nothing too good for our kids, right?

Yes, there's a lot of suffering out there, or so the politicians tell me.

*********** A mini-screenplay ("based on a true story")

DIRTY OLD MAN (to voluptuous young girl): Come away with me... I'll show you major league cities...

FATHER: Hey, you dirty old man! Keep your filthy hands off my daughter!

DIRTY OLD MAN: Would it make a difference if I told you I was one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the game of baseball?

FATHER: Maybe you didn't hear me. I said get your filthy hands off my daughter!

DIRTY OLD MAN: How about I give you a bag of golf clubs?

FATHER: Okay

TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2008- "Never suppose that in any possible situation or under any circumstances that it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing however slightly so it may appear to you." Thomas Jefferson

*********** The Arena Football League is going to be experimenting with a special helmet containing a light that will turn red in the event its wearer suffers a concussion.

It gives new meaning to the term "Light 'em up," and considering how many young male fans are already used to watching the mountains on the Coors labels turn blue, I can envision promotions based on the number of red lights the home team can turn on.

*********** If ever there were an incongruous matchup of city and sport, it has to be the decision of Major League Soccer (otherwise known as the Oxymoron League) to locate a franchise in Chester, Pennsylvania. Chester, Pennsylvania, for God's sake! Ever been there? Rough town, to say the least. Rough as they come.

Once the home of major industries long since shuttered, Chester was a hardscrabble town even when I was in high school. And it has gone downhill since.

Now they plan to spend government funds (aka taxpayers' money) to build a soccer stadium there. On the Chester waterfront, no less. I laugh to think of all the effete suburbanites in their Priuses and Volvos driving past all the run-down projects and boarded-up buildings on their way to watch a game of futbol.

*********** Joe Daniels, wrote from Sacramento... ah yes the A-11, from Piedmont HS, in Oakland . lets just say these guys couldn't compete any other way HAHAHAHA...sad part is there are a couple of school in our area thinking about going to it..

My answer to the abomination-11 would be to assign my very best athlete to the QB, and have everyone else tackle an opponent at the line.  (Except the center, who gets protection.)

It really goes against everything I believe in to advocate deliberate violations, but if they are going to make a travesty of the game, they don't give a guy much choice.

At the very least, I will make them play tackle football. After a week of practicing against that stuff, I doubt that a defense is going to be ready for real football.

*********** Coach Wyatt, I went to News You Can Use today (Friday 2/29/08) to be vain and see my mom & dad’s greatest creation, me.  (smile)  In all seriousness, I wanted to thank you and Kevin for the Atlanta Clinic.  I kicked myself because I didn’t think to bring MY video camera to the afternoon session but I took lots of notes so I have new wrinkles to explore with the knowledge of new plays that I walked away from the clinic with.  But I will love to put my order in first for the DVD version of the plays.
 
Kevin has a very athletic team and being that I work with the QBs I couldn’t help but to admire the silky smooth composure that his starter has.  I watched his mechanics and was thoroughly impressed.  The kid has been taught well.
 
As I scrolled down and read “NEWS” I couldn’t help but read the insert from yet another coach asking you “HOW TO STOP THE DOUBLE WING”.  I think that you are getting softer as you age gracefully, that or in this election year you are being politically correct because I remember you frying coaches previously that dared ask you that asinine question.  (smile)
 
I do have one clear cut answer to the fools that ask me (us) what defense gives us the most trouble or what info can I (we) give them to stop us.  I ask them have they ever heard of the STUD 11 defense.  They usually reply “stud 11, I never heard of it.  Who runs it and how can I get info on it?  Do you know about it?”  To which I reply sure I know about it, because it will take eleven studs at every defensive position to stop the Double Wing!  I have yet to face the STUD 11.  (smile)
 
What stops most DWers is lack of execution, poor play calling, lack of defensive recognition, tinkering, lack of attention to detail, piss poor coaching, personnel in the wrong position(s) and I could go on but one that I will end on is lack of faith in the abilities of our players.  These are the things that stop the Double Wing and not one Cure All Double Wing Stopping Defensive. 
 
Respectfully & Keep Coaching,
 
Brian Mackell
Archbishop Curley & AAYFA, Baltimore, Maryland
 
*********** For a great article about Greg Gadson, former Army football captain whose bravery in battle and courage in dealing with his combat injuries was an inspiration to the Giants in their Super Bowl run (they awarded him a Super Bowl ring)---
http://www.coachwyatt.com/GregGadsonStory.pdf

*********** Back in 2006, Andy Smith, Director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, conducted a poll for the Boston Globe, asking people who'd moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire within the last year why they'd done so. Reason Number One: cost of living. Reason Number Two: lower taxes. Reason Number Three: Too many liberals in Massachusetts.

*********** Hugh: I just read your latest column(good color pictures) and something struck me about how we worked at Delaware in the fall of 1953 as a freshman team to prepare the varsity for their opening game against Glenn Killinger's West Chester team which had beaten Delaware in 1952 primarily by putting defensive lineman on the inside shoulder of the Delaware offensive guards and at the snap of the ball literally dived and pinched in between the guards and the center, sometimes turning sideways to penetrate. If those defensive lineman were quick and made a powerful thrust they could penetrate enough to screw up the pulling game. I was one of the guys who successfully could beat the center's check block on some occasions. It drove those varsity guys(guards and center) crazy and it really screwed up the offense until we did it so much that they tightened up and became quicker and more aggressive in their blocking.Mike Lude was behind this, and he drove myself and several other quick defensive linemen to give the varsity offensive linemen a lot of trouble. They hated us. That year we beat West Chester 45 to 7 (or something like that.) That type of defense against a DW team that isn't ready for those type tactics can be beaten.You probably already know about these tactics but we practiced it so much before that West Chester game that those varsity linemen were really ready to defeat the pinch and penetrate defense.  Black Lions.  Jim Shelton, Englewood, Florida (Jim- General James - Shelton, USA retired - and Honorary Colonel of the Black Lions, was a two-way guard at Delaware under legendary coach Dave Nelson and legendary line coach Mike Lude. HW)

*********** Coach - That was a fascinating  breakdown, by Mr. Babb, but when he states  1.1 Million kids play in High School, is that Just  Kids in there Senior season or kids in all 4 classes Fr,SO,JR,SR  ?
 
 Coach - one thing that has always cracked me up,  and I have I heard this for years, in almost every community and every type of community, is something along these lines  -  " Johnny Jones the Head Coach of  XYZ  High School that my  son played for didn't help my Kid  ( or didn't do Enough ) get in to College and play ball ( or Not play )  " but there main beef is  that the coach didn't do enough to  help there  Kid
 
   A )  Isn't that what the Guidance Councilors  get paid for ?  &  B )  If you're Kids is a Good enough athlete and student  the correct college  be it D1 D1-AA, D II or DIII will find the kid ? for athletics, academics or both ?
 
 Coach do you remember  Sports Illustrated  did a breakdown similar to Mr. Babb, Like 10-15 years ago, it was an estimated breakdown  I thought it went something like this, 300,000  Sr.  boys dress up for the Fall to play High School Football,  only 30,000 will move on to play college Football at all levels - D1-A,D1-AA, D II, D III, NAIA, JUCO,   3000 will play at the 1- A level,   300 will get drafted by the NFL,  90 will make  an NFL roster  and  play  at least  1 year in the  NFL,  30 will play at least   3 years ,   10 will play  5 years or more  ?  My numbers could be way off but it was a fascinating  breakdown by S.I.  that I thought every parent  with kids in High School Football should see it, with the basic message  You're kid will only come down this road once playing High School Football  ENJOY the experience  , IF you're Kid is one of the fortunate  30,000 to play at the next level  Enjoy that , but don't get caught up in it ,  I Think that SI article should be posted by every High School Football program in America  to give the parents a dose of reality  -  see ya Friday Coach  -  John  Muckian   Lynn, Massachusetts

That's 1 million kids is all kids in all grades.  So in any one year there are some 200,000 coming out (allowing for some dropouts along the way).

If there are 30,000 playing college football, that means that some 7,500 openings will be created by graduation and dropping out.

You are so right - parents put too much responsibility on the coach.  But by the same token, I see all sorts of garbage about this coach or that one "sending" players to major colleges, or "sending" them to the pros, as if the coach did it, when you and I know good and well that God and good fortune (and far too often, good recruiting) sent those kids to those high school coaches in the first place, and that's the primary reason they're at a major college or in the pros.

As for guidance counselors... they should be doing what you suggest, but in most high schools they're  tied up with making sure that the ever-growing number of  knuckleheads get the credits they need to graduate (so that the school doesn't get a failing grade from the Feds).

I sure wish that we weren't so hung up on the Big Time.  I realize that it is impossible for any kid to resist the lure of  today's big NFL money, but going back to a different time, when I was in college, I believe that football-wise I would have gotten more out of playing in a good D-III program than I did from the Big-Time Ivy program that I chose.  

And for those who dispute the "Big Time" label, and don't realize how much the power structure of the game has changed since I was in school,  I offer this:

In 1957, my freshman year, the Yale Bowl seated 71,000. Only seven other colleges had larger stadiums. (Those of such odern-day giants Alabama, Florida, Penn State and Tennessee were smaller.) That year, Yale averaged 217,000 in six games. That's an average of more than 36,000 a game.

That was more than the average attendance at such modern-day giants as (get ready for this)

Washington (35,000), Tennessee (34,000), Auburn (34,000), Texas A & M (33,000), Florida (32,000), Nebraska (31,000), Penn State (28,000), Kentucky (28,000), Georgia (25,000), South Carolina (21,600), Clemson (19,000)

Here's some good ones for you --- Florida State, which wasn't all that many years removed from being a women's school, (16,000); BYU, still a small church school somewhere out West (9,000); Virginia Tech, at that time an aggie school hidden away in the mountains of Appalachia (9,000)

And - get this -  Holy Cross (16,000) outdrew BC (14,000)

How things have changed!!!!

*********** Speaking of the Ivy League...

Coach Wyatt....Just fyi. I am a big Ivy League FB fan and thought you might enjoy this. Hope all is well and I look forward to seeing you in RI. For what it's worth Brian Dennehy lives about a 1/4 mile from me in Woodstock CT. Interestingly enough there are several "celebs" that live here and in neighboring Pomfret CT. One of the two nicest towns in New England in my opininon.

Take care, Scott Wendel

The following notice is from the National Football Foundation...

Former Ivy League Standouts Featured in New Documentary

For Love & Honor Productions has completed the documentary, "Eight: Ivy League Football and America," an original feature-length documentary film (TRT 96 minutes). A world premiere, hosted by the Ivy Football Association, will be held on Thursday, Apr. 24, 2008, at the Yale Club in New York City.

"Eight," which tells the history of Ivy League football from its earliest days to the present, is narrated by two- time Tony Award-winning actor Brian Dennehy (Columbia '60). It also features interviews with Academy Award-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones (Harvard '69), College Football Hall of Fame coach from Penn State Joe Paterno (Brown '50), ESPN anchor Chris Berman (Brown '77), General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt (Dartmouth '78), former Secretary of State George Shultz (Princeton '42), College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik (Penn '49), four-time Pro Bowl running back Calvin Hill (Yale '69), Chicago Bears' star Dan Jiggetts (Harvard '76), College Football Hall of Famer and Heisman Trophy winner Dick Kazmaier (Princeton '52), College Football Hall of Famer Ed Marinaro (Cornell '72), Intuit chair and NFF Board member Bill Campbell (Columbia

*********** I have to say that I am glad to have you helping me out.  Coaching is a funny thing - we learn it in so many places.   There is a University or College where you can sign up for double wing 101 or west coast passing game 101 etc.  And it can be difficult at times to find a mentor - as it is unlike many other professions.  I have tried to find crumbs of knowledge, philosophy etc. here and there.  It is funny how you take this from one guy and that from another, how you can work with a guy who you don't agree with on philosophy, but you learn x's and o's from him, and then how you can go work for a guy who you don't agree with x's and o's but you like his philosophy etc.  It is a great service that you offer those who are willing to buy in, because we get the whole deal, philosophy and x's and o's.  Maybe you should get some accreditation (spelling?)  For Wyatt University of Football Coaching (ha ha).  I'd like to think Im finishing up my Masters Degree with you and getting ready to begin my PHD in the double wing and coaching young men, but just when it seems to think you've got the answers - there is much more to learn.  John Dowd, Oakfield-Alabama, New York

Interesting that you mention it, because the idea of a "Wyatt University" (I would certainly use a less self-promoting name) is something that has occured to me many times, simply because (1) so many guys have no place to turn to for help, and (2) although there are ways such as ASEP to give guys certification in the "human relations" aspects of coaching, there is no way of certifying that a guy might know what to coach or how to teach it.

In any case, I would say that you have earned your Master's in the Double Wing and are on your way to earning your doctorate.

*********** Gabe McCown, an Oklahoman whom I've grown to know through coaching, knows of my beer business background, and was kind enough to send me a bottle of something called Choc Beer.

The name comes from its having been brewed in what is now Krebs, Oklahoma, in the "Choctaw Nation" of Indian territory, since the early days of the 20th century. It was the product of an Italian immigrant named Pete Prichard, who first came to Oklahoma to work in the coal mines, but after being injured on the job, turned to making and selling beer ("home brew," to be truthful), and eventually opening a restaurant called Pete's Place.

As the story goes, Pete continued selling his beer even after Prohibition (perhaps the news hadn't yet reached Krebs, Oklahoma), until 1932 when - according to the label on the bottle - "Pete was arrested for the illegal brew and had to spend a little time in a federal jail at Muskogee."

Afterward, when the rest of the country repealed Prohibition but Oklahoma chose to remain dry, Pete continued to produce his beer anyhow. Eventually, this got him in trouble again, but fortunately for beer drinkers, things are more up to date in Oklahoma these days, and now, under the supervision of Pete's son, Bill, Pete's Place is as popular as ever, and the beer is back in production.

My son's birthday was yesterday and he happens to be visiting us here in the states, so we decided to start the celebration off by popping open the Choc Beer.  Great stuff!

http://www.petes.org/

*********** From the Internet...

The Ant & the Grasshopper - 2008

OLD VERSION (Aesop's Fable): The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays
the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks th