November 19, 2009 · 1 Comment
Elizabeth Lambert vs. Tonya Harding
For those of you who have been living in a black hole the past few weeks and don’t know who Elizabeth Lambert is let me help you out. She is the University of New Mexico Soccer player who achieved millions of hits on YouTube when her brain was stolen by aliens in a conference playoff game vs. BYU. “Miss” (I use the term loosely) Lambert over the course of the game kidney punched an opponent, tripped another player, slapped a player in the face while battling for the ball and then to top it off yanked a player’s hair so hard it probably gave her whiplash as she slammed to the ground. Yesterday she broke her silence after the aliens finally returned her brain.
“I think the way the video came out, it did make me look like a monster. That’s not the player I am. I’m not out there trying to hurt players. I definitely feel that because I am a female it did bring about a lot more attention than if a male were to do it. The female, we’re still looked at as, Oh we kick the ball around and score a goal. But it’s not. We train very hard to reach the highest level we can get to. It’s a game. Sports are physical”
Let me help you out dear sweet Elizabeth…the way you play the game is an insult to any player that takes the field in soccer, male or female. The reason you look like a monster is because you became one when the aliens took away your common sense and self control. As for training hard, I am assuming you trained in the secret land where they teach you how to attack when people aren’t looking (Tonya Harding hmm), as the kidney punch, the slap to the face and the hair pulling occurred when your opponent had their back to you and the trip was delivered when your opponent was about to beat you. In the school yard I grew up in you would be called a bully. The fact that you use your female sexuality as an excuse for the attention you have garnered is a crock and I don’t mean of honey. The attention is because you are a poor excuse and example of a student athlete. It would have been safer for your opponent to step onto a college wrestling mat with no experience because at least the referees could have protected the BYU players. Which leads me to the question of where was the control from the U of New Mexico coaches and referees for the players on the field?
Through all of these actions not one Coach on the University of New Mexico sideline said (bear with me while I state the obvious) “We need to get Lizzy off the field; she has clearly lost her mind and is going to hurt someone”. What a terrible breakdown in the leadership of the coaches as they failed Elizabeth, their U of NM team, BYU and all of the young people who were watching this game. Furthermore the two sideline judges with the cool flags and the referee couldn’t get their act together (besides a yellow card for the tripping) to somehow help this young lady who had clearly lost all control. Currently Elizabeth is suspended indefinitely while her Coach and A.D. decide what repercussions will suit her actions. (I don’t know maybe a charge of assault) In the meantime who is deciding what repercussions her Coach will receive for the terrible leadership the University of New Mexico displayed as a staff and the missed calls by the referee? (And you thought the umpires had issues in the World Series)
If each one of Elizabeth’s actions (excluding the ponytail hair pull) had occurred separately over the course of the season they could be attributed to tough physical play but the fact is that her clashes transpired during one game which shows true loss of self control which is intolerable. Nor is it acceptable that her coaching staff failed her. At the end of the day she can only blame herself and the aliens who ironically years ago made off with Tonya Harding’s brain.
FOR NOW I am waiting for UFC to set up a fight between Elizabeth Lambert and Tonya Harding.
Categories: NCAA · Soccer
Tagged: BYU, Elizabeth Lambert, NCAA soccer, University of New Mexico
Athletic Director of the University of Hawaii, Jim Donovan had the opportunity to make a statement in hiring a new women’s basketball coach, instead he has simply left the majority of college women’s basketball fans scratching their hands and saying huh? The job posting for the University of Hawaii Women’s Basketball Coach should have read: If you have PAC-10 experience, are among all time coaches in wins, represented the USA in the Olympics for Basketball, left the island to gain experience in the game of college basketball you NEED NOT APPLY. So Joan Bonvicni former Head Coach of the U of Arizona, Mark Trakh former Head Coach at USC and Pepperdine and Cynthia Cooper-Dyke two time MVP in the WNBA and Olympic Gold medalist THANKS BUT NO THANKS FOR YOUR APPLICATION WE ARE JUST GOING TO FILE IT here next to we don’t give a crap about women’s basketball.
Instead we are going to hire Dana Takahara-Dias. Oh you have never heard of her? Well she was the City and County of Honolulu’s Director of the Department of Customer Service. Each year she puts together an A.A.U. Team with Mayor Mufi Hannemann to travel to the mainland. Years ago she was the administrative assistant to legendary coach Vince Goo at the University of Hawaii and later coached Moanalua High School to several state championships. Now had she remained in her position as high school coach I believe a justifiable argument could be made for her hiring, except for the fact that the job posting stated you had to have a minimum of 4 years Head Coach experience at the college level. So how exactly did the University of Hawaii circumvent their own advertisement especially at a state school? Perhaps they rewrote the requirements, but failed to repost the job so that the rest of the Directors of Customer Service across the country could also apply.
Jim Donovan certainly managed to make quite a statement with this hiring, especially to all the coaches who have sacrificed families, spouses, relationships with their own children, sleeping on an office couch instead of their own beds, weddings, funerals and other obligatory observances all in the name of coaching college basketball. Jim Donovan you have spoken volumes with this hire and I wish Coach Takahara-Dias the best of luck, as all accounts are that she is truly a great person. (So is my mom by the way). I would love to see this nonsense happen on the men’s side of college basketball…yeah right.
FOR NOW I AM LEFT TO WONDER WHO LEID JIM DONOVAN?
Categories: NCAA · basketball
Tagged: Jim Donovan, U of Hawaii, Women's Basketball
Nothing like having an overly motivated brother- in-law in your life when you are trying to lay around on a Sunday at your parent’s lake house and relax. On the Fourth of July while the extended O’Brien family ate drank and slept, my sister’s husband Mike Bosl hooked up his compu-trainer and pedaled away to nowhere for 5 hours and then went for a “light” run of 15 miles, all in the name of preparation for the Lake Placid IRONMAN Triathlon several weekends ago.
In real life Mike is a trader for Citigroup in Manhattan, which is an extremely high stressed environment and for most people would be enough of a challenge but Mike is a glutton for punishment. His average day is enough to exhaust me for a week waking up at 4am to train, working a full day and then training again until 10:30 at night. The weekends bring no relief as you can find him biking along the West Side Highway to 9W and up to Bear Mountain.
When my sister first started dating Mike ten years ago their common interest was basketball as he was a walk-on at Villanova and she was a two sport athlete at Barry University. Nothing in his athletic background suggested future triathlete stud unless you take into account that he won two NY State basketball championships at St. Dominic’s High School and everyone knows that NY has great hoops. My sister can only blame herself for Mike’s introduction to IRONMAN as she originally bet him that he couldn’t complete one. Who knew two and a half years later he would have two half triathlons and two full IRONMAN completions to his credit.
On Sunday the phone started ringing with hourly updates from Lake Placid and 9 hours and :58 minutes later Mike completed the IRONMAN finding himself in 44th place out of 2,500 competitors and 8th place in his division 30-35 year olds, which if you know anything about IRONMAN it is the toughest age group. To top off the event Mike punched his ticket the next morning for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii on October 10, 2009. Not only that he beat out pro athletes. Are you kidding me? In only his second full IRONMAN TRIATHLON HE QUALIFIED FOR KONA! How does a trader with a job that drives most people to drink find himself 7 days before his wedding tearing up the IRONMAN field? DESIRE! If you haven’t actually seen it I suggest you hunt Mike down and look at his face, it is written all over it. Desire to succeed; desire to be the best, desire to chase his dream. So many people talk about their dreams, but few actually pursue and realize their dreams. Luckily for Mike his wife realizes that the window of opportunity for dreams is small and supports him in his fanatical pursuit of KONA IRONMAN.
If you have never been to the finish line of an IRONMAN I suggest you find one near you, sit for an hour and cheer for those competitors as they cross the line, it is awe inspiring. Just ask Mike and Steph who returned to the finish line 6 hours after Mike completed the race so that they could cheer FDNY member Matt Long to the finish line 2 minutes before time expired to be crowned an IRONMAN. Four years ago Matt was an IRONMAN in 11:19, three and a half years ago he was dead after being run over by a NYC bus and this year he walked the marathon part of the IRONMAN because he can no longer run. So what did you do with your Sunday?
FOR NOW I AM PACKING MY BAG FOR HAWAII AND WONDERING WHAT DOES A GUY HAVE TO DO TO GET SOME SPONSORSHIP?!!!
Categories: IRONMAN · basketball
Tagged: IRONMAN, KONA, LAKE PLACID, MIKE BOSL, VILLANOVA BASKETBALL
Everybody has a favorite time of year and for me it has always been the month of March because of the conference and NCAA basketball tournaments. March Madness has barely begun and I am already wiped out and exhausted.
The madness began in our household on Sunday when my dad’s team, Queens College locked up a spot in the NCAA DII tournament, by winning their conference tournament. Although I am on the opposite side of the country we were able to watch the game via the internet. (The wonders of modern technology). Of course this left me with no choice but to book a flight to New York so that we could support the man who rarely missed any of his children’s games. On Wednesday I packed up the two kids, my husband dropped us at the San Jose airport for the red eye to New York and several hours later my husband was picking us back up as the plane was having some form of technical difficulty. LOTS OF FUN sitting in an airport with two children for hours. Needless to say we will be watching the game tonight on the internet.
Yesterday all we did was watch the Big East tournament on television and nothing else mattered. Dishes remained in the sink, beds unmade and children swinging from the chandeliers. The great thing about living on the west coast is that when you wake up, the games are already on! The heartbreaking part is that if you grow up near Madison Square Garden attendance at the Big East Tournament is mandatory and that is hard to do if you are living on the west coast. I almost felt as if I was there because I watched the Syracuse vs. UConn game with one of my old teammates from Hofstra, April Fitzpatrick. She lives on the opposite coast but that’s why they invented text messaging. It was just like old times when we sat next to each other on the Hofstra bench; yelling at the referees, second guessing coaches, imploring players to go harder and loving the fact that walk-ons and third stringers decided the outcome in what has to be one of the greatest games in the history of the Big East Tournament.
March Madness strikes everyone at some point. I spoke to my mom this morning who was driving to Philadelphia to cheer my dad on tonight. She could hardly form a sentence since apparently she stayed up until 2am watching the UConn/Syracuse game. Did I mention she and my sister took half days from work so that they can get to the game in time? I have to run now the Georgia Tech game is about to begin and I am hoping they can pull off another upset.
FOR NOW I am hoping to get out of my pajamas before noon!
Categories: Uncategorized
A few clicks of the mouse, a payment of $112 and I have actually paid to torture myself for the next two months. Running a marathon has always been on my “list” of things to accomplish in life before the age of 35 and since that day passed several days ago, I apparently have left myself with no choice but to enter the Big Sur Marathon at the end of April. That would leave me approximately 8 weeks to train and be able to actually cross the finish line.
This would be a piece of cake for me if it was 1991 when I was 108 lbs and could run a mile under 5 minutes. Or 1994 when I could run lots of 6 minute miles, or even 4 years ago when I could run ten miles in a 76 minutes, but sadly it is none of those years and somehow I haven’t run any kind of race in at least five years. It may be because I have been pregnant in 2006, 07 and 08 and the only place I actually ever ran to during that time was the freezer for some extra ice cream. I would love to say that I am motivated by an intense desire to cross an accomplishment off of my list of things to do in life, but I have a sneaky suspicion that I am driven more by the fact that I don’t want to be the “plump mom” in my sister’s wedding pictures this August. (Although I have been lobbying to be placed between the two bridesmaids that will be pregnant)!
I am also driven to cross the finish line at Big Sur because a player I coached at West Point, Adrienne Payne will be running Big Sur as well. Quite simply Adrienne is one of the toughest individuals I have ever come across, she suffered through numerous shoulder injuries as a player yet still found a way to inspire and lead her team. I would hate to miss out on an opportunity to run in the same race as her. (Although I am hoping that she won’t fall asleep waiting for me at the finish line). So tomorrow morning I begin the great experiment of attempting to get myself in shape to run BIG SUR in two months.
FOR NOW I know why moms run marathons, it is so they can be guaranteed peace and quiet for at least three and half hours.
Categories: Running
Tagged: Big Sur, Marathon, West Point
I love athletics but have always wished that high school coaches received the plaudits on a national level they deserve. The majority of high school athletes do not go on to play at the collegiate level, thus their last chance to be mentored in a team environment is the high school level. Therefore it is on the shoulders of high school coaches across the country to affect as many student athletes as possible before they move on.
How do these numbers strike you for a basketball coach’s career? 611-354, 5 Elite 8s and an induction into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Coaches Hall of Fame in 2001 and a 2009 Regional High School Boys Basketball Coach of the Year. Wonder who it is and why you missed his final home game as he concludes his 38 year career. He is Tom Wierzba head coach at Farmington HS in Illinois. (Can’t forget the 2 State Titles he won as a softball coach either).
Somehow big sports outlets managed to miss the final home game coached by Wierzba as Farmington won on Saturday night. Nearly 100 former players and coaches attended the game but perhaps none more important than his two sons, Ben and Rhett. Both are former DI players, now deeply immersed in their own coaching careers at the college level. Rhett is the Director of Basketball Operations for the U of Maryland Women and Ben is an Assistant Coach for the men at The University of Evansville. Rhett changed his ticket two times to make the game and Ben thought he couldn’t possibly make the game when ESPN assigned them a tip-off time of 2:00pm for their bracket buster game. When you need to show your love and gratitude to the man who has given so much to you, your family and the game of basketball it leaves you with no choice but to charter a plane to get home in time for the game! (Who cares if Ben will be eating Ramen noodles for the next 30 years)?
The players, coaches and fans that showed up to support and express their thanks to Coach Wierzba are the one that truly understand the value of high school athletics. My hope is that all high school coaches can have as profound an impact as Coach Wierzba has made on his student athletes.
FOR NOW I am keeping my fingers crossed that Coach Wierzba is awarded the 2009 National High School Boys Basketball Coach of the Year for which he is one of 6 finalists.
Categories: basketball
February 9, 2009 · 1 Comment
Clearly there is no such thing as an anonymous drug test in the world of MLB especially if you are Alex Rodriguez. My dad always told me don’t put anything on paper (or apparently in a cup) if you aren’t fully prepared to stand by the results, criticism or reviews. For the past few days I have heard that A-Rod has ruined his legacy, his numbers are not legit and he should not be inducted into the hall of fame.
My first question is how has he failed a drug test that was anonymous? If this was truly an anonymous drug test by MLB then how do we know that A-Rod failed? An “anonymous” drug test would not have names attached to the 1,198 samples that were drawn from the players; vials not labeled simply would have been tested and the results recorded. The actual samples of 1,198 players were kept in one lab in Las Vegas and had codes, not players’ names. A list with the names and corresponding codes was in an office in Long Beach, Calif. They were never supposed to be united. Clearly MLB didn’t live up to the standard of anonymous testing. Now the fans, the press and Curt Schilling want the rest of the 103 names released so that the remaining 500 or 600 players’ names won’t be tainted. I say no way! The samples were provided under the auspice of anonymity in the hopes of developing a mandatory drug testing policy for players. Two wrongs don’t make a right and all that MLB players will take from this is not to agree to any further “anonymous policies” that may help benefit the future of MLB.
All Alex Rodriguez can do now is speak the truth if he used illegal substances, take ownership like Andy Pettitte and Jason Giambi and stop making a mockery of what MLB has brought upon itself. If MLB had instituted proper checks and balances years ago the choice to use steroids by a player never would have been an issue if the threat of automatic dismissal existed. After all the promise of hundreds of millions of dollars causes people to usually lose their moral compass.
FOR NOW I AM PRETTY SURE THE MAGIC OF BASEBALL DISAPPEARED A LONG TIME AGO and THAT “HEROES” LIKE ROGER MARIS, BABE RUTH AND HENRY AARON ARE SIMPLY MEMORIES. (Such a shame that Maris isn’t in the HALL OF FAME)
Categories: MLB · NY Yankees
As a rising senior in high school the assistant coach from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, Tom Flahive called to express interest in my truly amazing point guard skills 
The match didn’t end up working out, but somehow his presence remained in my life for the next 17 years. When I was in college at Hofstra University he interviewed for the assistant position on the staff; as Coach walked him through the gym I thought to myself hey there is the assistant from St. Francis, wonder what he is doing here. Once again no match.
Ten years after that I went to work as an assistant at Army and our director of basketball operations turned out to be his daughter Kelly who became my roommate. So Coach Flahive was at our games, our house and eventually got his break as a head coach at Queens College in New York. A well deserved opportunity after mentoring plenty of New York basketball players. However a daunting task lay ahead of him as Queens College was not the dominant Women’s Basketball Program it was in the late 70s.
Our paths crossed again as he hired my dad to be his assistant coach; two Irish Catholic men out of Brooklyn and the Bronx, a coaching match made in heaven! One loud, one not quite as loud, both with the ability to talk to anyone about anything. (Actually on a phone call from Coach Flahive, I was able to put down the phone, get a drink and came back without him taking a breath!) More importantly both possess a desire to teach, coach and mentor student athletes, all the right reasons for coaching and none of the wrong ones. My father and Coach Flahive made basketball their life calling over the past thirty years and are now realizing their dreams after retiring from the jobs that allowed them to raise families. Last night Queens College beat Molloy College to take over first place in the ECC and run their win streak to 12 games in a row. Not many teams in the country can say they have strung together 12 wins in a row at this point in the season.
And so a phone call to our house 16 years ago has come full circle as two coaches perfect for each other and their team, are leading the women of Queens College on the ride of a lifetime!
Categories: basketball
Tagged: basketball, ECC, NCAA, Queens College, Tom Flahive
