Category Archives: basketball

All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Posted on June 1, 2011 | 2 Comments

ALL I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

It is painfully obvious that Jim Tressel andBruce Pearl  never attended kindergarten because if they had they would still be employed.  So I have enclosed a copy of ALL I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN by Robert Fulghum in the hopes of helping other coaches that may have missed these important life lessons.

Share everything- just for clarification this does not mean share your house and food with players not yet old enough for official visits. Do not allow car
dealers to share cars with your players.  It means when you have made a mistake go and tell and share with your athletic director. Do not wait almost a year to admit you knew your players were selling memorabilia.
Play fair- ummm don’t cheat, don’t
pay people, don’t lie so that your team can have all their best players in the
hopes of winning a BCS championship. Besides don’t you want to win because you and your team were good enough to do so without cheating.  Do you want to look at that championship ring and think about all the shortcuts you took to obtain it?
Don’t hit people-for example Woody Hayes hitting the Clemson player, Lou Pinella throwing first base, Bobby Knight throwing a chair, Chaney threatening Calipari and McClendon actually stealing first base.  All good examples of WHAT NOT TO DO when you are upset.
Put things back where you found them-if you throw a chair return it to
where you found it.  Return players to their parents and hometown in a better state when you took them under your wing.

Clean up your own mess-if you lie,cheat or steal own up to it and take the consequences.  If you have junior recruits over to your house for a bbq and take a picture with your assistant coach’s wife and illegal recruit, do not then attempt to say you don’t know who the people are in the picture.  If you find out your players are selling their jerseys and rings to a local tattoo parlor you should fix it right away by turning them in.  If you make a mistake here is a good phrase to use at the news conference “I am sorry, I madea mistake”.  You will be surprised how forgiving fans are if you own up to your mistakes right away.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours-if
you have to lie about or hide one of your actions it probably falls under
taking things that aren’t yours. If a high school player verbals to a school
respect that decision, don’t keep calling them.  If someone wants to donate money to your program for time with your players, you are giving away your players’ time and it isn’t yours to donate without their permission.  There are a million examples, use common sense.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.-Take responsibility for your
actions.  Sure Bruce Pearl cried on television and said he was sorry, but then he went out and “bumped” a recruitseveral days later.  So his sorry is
quite hard to believe.  Tressel on theother hand never even attempted to say he was sorry.

Wash your hands before you eat-check
out the people around you, know them, and make sure they are good people who
have your program’s best interest at heart.  That goes for everyone from your secretary to the President of your school.
Flush-get rid of any crap around your program, end of story

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you- sit down with those around your program in a non threatening environment and you will be surprised what you will learn about the players and coaches in your program.  So go on dunk your Oreos.

Live a balanced life- volunteer, make time for your spouse, your kids, exercise,  further your own education and travel.

Take a nap every afternoon-if coaches as a whole took a few minutes
of solitude everyday to review their actions from the past day they might
realize some of their mistakes as well as some of their successes.  I think Eddie Fogler at U of South Carolina used to shut his door everyday, pull out his couch and take a nap everyday in his office and left us with this quote after his last game… “It is very difficult with college athletics being the way it is today and the pressures. You are darned if you do, darned if you don’t. I’m leaving college basketball with my dignity, my integrity and my sanity”.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together-find yourself assistants and support staff that you can trust.  There will always be people trying to bring you down and you will need
staff members  who aren’t afraid to tell you when you are off track.

Be aware of wonder- start to think only in terms of what its like to win a national championship and you will find yourself justifying reasons for cheating. You shouldn’t have to put on a vest and nickname yourself the Senator to give the appearance of virtue because then you are simply a contrived individual with no true substance.

Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that-build a solid foundation for your program from the start; don’t allow any shortcuts, shady individuals, or quick fixes to take root in your program.  Need a blue print look at Coach K’s example.  In his early years Duke was ready to fire him but he didn’t deviate from his plan for a quick fix and 30
years later his program is still strong and clean.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.- walk around campus, sit in the back of a classroom,show up at a recruits practice unannounced, sit in the school cafeteria for a day and LOOK.  You will be surprised what
you will learn.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup -they all die. So do we.-Doesn’t matter if you are Bruce Pearl or Jim Tressel eventually you will get your due and be kicked to the stands for your actions.

FOR NOW I AM THINKING OF THAT BEAUTIFUL FALL DAY in 2002 when I sat in the fifth row, on the 50 yard line at Ohio State, watched Maurice Clarett tear around the field and wondered to myself what did they have to do to get him to OSU.

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Posted in basketball, College Football, Duke, Uncategorized

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MARCHING TO MY OWN BEAT

Posted on March 17, 2011 | 2 Comments

March Madness is everywhere.  Millions of hours of work time are being wasted across the country as brackets are filled out, the President is making his picks as nuclear reactors are on the verge of explosion and water cooler arguments are erupting across the country in a quest to prove ourselves more knowledgeable then our neighbor.  In fact March Madness and the promise to fill out a bracket is why I originally chose to coach College Basketball.  I could watch basketball every day for hours at a time, on top of weeks at a time and call it research for my job. 

My love for filling out and winning the brackets goes back to college when I won the Colonial Square pool in college.  There was no electronic bracket, no constant updates on pool totals, no up to the minute breakdowns on who had moved into first place; all we had was a pencil, a paper bracket and some poor guy totaling up the correct picks on a nightly basis.  I still have no idea how I won as it seemed like everyone was upset that year but I wasn’t going to argue. $300 goes a long, long way at nickel beer night for at least several months, in fact if I hadn’t run out of eligibility I think that I could have gotten another few months out of those nickels. 

 Each year my husband runs a bracket but of course there is no money involved since our family and friends are spread out over the entire world.  This year when March rolled around I started reading what the experts where saying and decided to throw everything they believed out the window and use my own method of madness.  I chose my picks based on simple reason, I either like you or I don’t or I dislike you less then I dislike the other coach.  So in no particular order and no rhyme or reason here are my picks.

I picked the winner of the USC/VCU game over Georgetown because anyone growing up in New York when Chris Mullin played at St. John’s can’t pick Georgetown to win anything.  So Hoya Hoya Saxa pack your bags and go home. I have Notre Dame going to the Elite 8 and hitting the road because ND was up by 38 points last week and Mike Brey could only find 3 minutes to play his senior walk on.  Well that and the twins of Kansas will be too much for the Irish.  My college roommate said the other day after Notre Dame’s OT loss to Louisville, “It’s so hard being a ND fan sometimes.”  Course if that is too challenging you could try being an Army fan like we are in this house.  (I’m willing to bet that we were two of the only stay at home mom’s in the country who were having a mid day conversation about the Fab 5 documentary from Sunday night).

Ohio State beats Kentucky because Calipari is the Coach who has had two Final Fours vacated from his record, along with a Championship game vacated.  Apparently if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying should be his motto.  So Ohio State advances to the Elite 8 where my love for the ‘Cuse, going back to Seikaly and Coleman sends the Buckeyes back to Columbus with Syracuse losing to Duke in the Final Four.  Villanova ended the season in what has to be one of the worst skid’s in Jay Wright’s career,  but I’ll be damned if Jay allows his team to lose to George Mason in the first round.  Coach Wright is the man who used to pencil in on the practice sheet when an assistant coach had to dive on the floor to save a ball so the players would understand that everyone goes hard all the time.  I’ve got Connecticut beating Cincinnati just because they are the better team, but I have them beating San Diego State because Calhoun is clearly smarter than Steve Fisher.  Calhoun has managed to avoid getting caught in any major cheating violations, where as Fisher well we know where his Final Four Banners are now hanging.  St. John’s advances two games in my bracket because I love St. John’s, but I am scared to death of Gonzaga.   Michigan State and Florida meet with Florida moving on to the Elite 8 because Billy Donovan is still the little PG from Long Island who accomplished more than most ever thought possible. I have Utah State and Belmont advancing to meet each other, with Utah State beating Belmont and then losing to Pittsburgh.  Florida will give Pittsburgh a run for their money but Jamie Dixon has the greatest angel in college basketball sitting on his shoulder.  So Pittsburgh and Duke it is in the championship game with Duke winning it all. 

Duke wins because Coach K is the greatest coach in the game right now.  He adapted and motivated his team this year in the face of adversity and somehow led them to a #1 seed after Kyrie Irving was injured in December. There is no doubt in my mind that Irving’s injury was a blessing in disguise allowing players like Kelly and Curry to develop and gain valuable experience. Now with Irving on the verge of returning to the court and splitting defenders, I can only see defenses scrambling to recover. So Duke wins back to back championships and another banner is raised in Cameron.  

FOR NOW I am like a kid on the night before Christmas because when I win our pool my husband will be putting the kids to sleep for a month.

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Posted in basketball, Duke, March Madness, NCAA

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A COKE AND A SMILE

Posted on March 11, 2011 | 2 Comments

We all know by now that BYU has suspended Brandon Davies from the basketball team for the rest of the season.   Rumor or truth I don’t know which but it is because he had premarital sex.  Honestly I don’t care what transgression he committed as he navigates his way through his college life, it is not my business.   In my opinion his mistake should be between himself and his school.

Brandon Davies, his teammates and all student body members sign an Honor Code when they enter BYU. If a student chooses to violate the Honor Code that is their choice and with choice comes repercussions.   When I coached at Hawaii Pacific University several years ago our opponent BYU-Hawaii did not suspend one of their female players when she became pregnant, they kicked her out of school.  So are the consequences of the Honor Code at BYU applied consistently? Why is the female player kicked out of school, but the male player so far allowed to remain enrolled in school?  Each committed the same indiscretion but received very different consequences.  What about the student who is not an athlete or a participant in extracurricular activities?  How are they punished when there is no love of the game to take away?

The world of NCAA athletics is fraught with players and coaches cutting corners, violating rules and then refusing to accept responsibility.  Jim “I don’t think less of myself” Tressell can’t figure out whom to report a violation to at Ohio State.  Even though I am 100% positive he has an NCAA Compliance Office in his athletic department and an Athletic Director who could tell him how to find it if he is that confused.  Thank goodness part of his punishment is going to be to attend compliance meetings.  Then again this is the man who convinced the NCAA that his players who committed a violation should sit out games next season and not the Bowl game that was next on their schedule.  (Perhaps the NCAA accepted this because of the money bowl games generate?)  Course we could always reference the precedent set by Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl who cried on television about his mistakes after lying to the NCAA about his cheating ways.  Then several days later “bumps” a recruit while out on the recruiting trail.  Yes, yes I think he learned his lesson well.  I say fire the athletic directors who allow them to get away with this nonsense. 

My point is that BYU is an institution that is actually enforcing their rules, their regulations and their Code.  They shouldn’t be commended for enacting their rules, but they are finding themselves in the spotlight because so few schools actually hold their players, coaches and administrators to the standard that is set for them by the NCAA.   My heart breaks for Brandon Davies because the entire country is now aware of the “sexual” misconduct he and his girlfriend committed, since BYU chose to handle their mistake on a national stage, when it is most certainly not any of our business.

FOR NOW I AM GOING TO DRINK A COKE WHILE I GO REMOVE BYU FROM MY ELITE 8 BRACKET

 

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Posted in basketball, Brandon Davies, BYU, NCAA

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The Rich Get Richer

Posted on April 28, 2010 | 2 Comments

THE RICH GET RICHER

Apparently the powers that be in the NCAA office heard my rantings that expanding the NCAA tournament to 96 teams would be the equivalent of handing out trophies to everyone just for participating.  Gone would be the prestige associated with qualifying for the tournament and being considered an “elite” team.  This week the NCAA announced that they would expand to 68 teams, which in my mind is the best possible solution given the fact that the NCAA was hell bent on expansion.

 The NCAA and CBS sports signed a $10.8 billion deal good for the next 14 years.  On the plus side March Madness fans will be able to see regional games in their entirety, on the negative side student athletes still won’t be receiving any of the money that their hard work, dedication and drive do so much to generate.  In an era when million dollar contracts are the norm for high level coaches don’t the student athletes deserve to have a trust established for them so that when they graduate and suddenly find themselves going “pro” in something other than their sport they actually have the opportunity to succeed in finding a job? 

 No student athlete at the DI level has the time to participate in internships relevant to their major or hold summer jobs to build up their financial reserves for when they graduate so that they can afford to live while they job hunt.  The fairy tale of DI athletes being handed jobs is simply that a fairy tale.  Nor is it appropriate to state that the value of their scholarship is equivalent to the time and effort they invest on a daily basis to participating in a collegiate sport.  If the average cost of tuition, room and board works out to about $30,000, a regular student could work 40 hours a week at $14.00 an hour for 52 weeks and be able to pay off their tuition.  The regular student athlete easily devotes 40 hours a week to “athletic” related activities even though rules state 20 hours a week of practice and film time.  Naturally that doesn’t factor in bus and airplane rides, time in the training room, optional but mandatory shooting, volunteer clinics and a litany of other time consuming items.  It would also be remarkable if the NCAA factored injury pay to help pay for long term care down the line.  How many former collegiate athletes 15 years after graduation are suffering the after effects of concussions, knee reconstructions, steel rods implanted in shin bones and shoulder reconstructions incurred during their playing years? My sister, best friend and husband combined have had 12 surgeries, all former collegiate athletes.  How many of them are receiving health care help from the NCAA? NONE

 In my opinion the NCAA has the most brilliant minds in the country working for them as they have found a way to legally make money off the backs of individuals that they do not compensate.  How absolutely brilliant is that? They have managed to “hire” workers for free as it is the colleges’ responsibility to provide the scholarships, fund the teams and pay the staff.  In some cases the workers are under the age of 18, so I am thinking that Kate Gosselin has nothing on the NCAA.  They maintain their tax exempt status as a non-profit because they are organized and operate exclusively for educational purposes.  Is the NCAA any more worthy of tax-exempt status then the “houses” in my parents’ neighborhood that hang a sign out front and call themselves a church?  In this case I would argue that the NCAA’s tax exempt status is a good thing because it forces full disclosure and transparency.

 In any case the rich are getting richer while the student athletes are still well student athletes.

 FOR NOW I AM WAITING TO SEE HOW THE RUMORED BIG TEN EXPANSION EFFECTS MY BELOVED BIG EAST BASKETBALL CONFERENCE.

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Posted in basketball, Duke, NCAA, Uncategorized

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WHO LEID JIM DONOVAN

Posted on October 6, 2009 | Leave a comment

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?

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IRON WHAT?

Posted on August 5, 2009 | 3 Comments

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?!!!

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Posted in basketball, IRONMAN, Uncategorized

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A LIFETIME OF DEDICATION

Posted on March 3, 2009 | Leave a comment

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.

 

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Posted in basketball

IT’S A SMALL WORLD..

Posted on January 30, 2009 | 3 Comments

queensAs 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! 

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TODAY WE SALUTE YOU MR. YELLOW JACKET MAN and MRS. BASKETBALL PLAYER’S MOM

Posted on January 12, 2009 | 3 Comments

Tonight my husband and I loaded up the family and drove north to San Jose to support my former boss at the U of Hawaii, Jim Bolla as his team took on the San Jose Spartans.  We should have stayed home. 

Our 2 year old, Isabella was excited as we entered the gym and began yelling, “Basketball Basketball”. Unfortunately for her, when the event staff at San Jose dons their bright yellow jackets it causes them to misplace their sense of kindness and understanding.  Isabella had the audacity to run up and down the sidelines (supervised and behind the rope) when Mr. YELLOW JACKET MAN approached us, informing us that he thought it best if Bella sit down for the rest of the game.  I explained to him that she was 2 and with 326 people in a 5,000 seat arena I didn’t think she was obstructing anyone’s view.  Mr. Yellow Jacket Man thought he should offer some outstanding parenting advice by telling me that I should let her know who the parent was in this relationship.  Hey thanks buddy I wasn’t sure who popped her out after 12 agonizing hours of labor. 

I held my New York tongue against my better wishes and took her over to an area where there was not a single soul in the 200 seats in that section.  We sat on the bottom step and tried to watch the game.  Faster than I used to down a Bud Light in college,  Mr. YELLOW JACKET MAN whipped out his big walkie talkie, radioed his co-worker that we were sitting on the stairs and she raced over to inform us that the stairs had to remain clear in case of an emergency.  HUH?  Whose escape are we blocking?  The 200 people not sitting in that section? To top off the night, our two month old had an explosion that would never allow me to get her to the bathroom; however there was an abundance of empty bleachers, so I laid the changing pad down and took care of business.  Wouldn’t you know, MR. YELLOW JACKET MAN didn’t think this was appropriate and started to head for us.  Fortunately my husband shot him with his look of death and MR. YELLOW JACKET MAN changed course.  Careful MR. YELLOW JACKET MAN, you never know who my husband is in real life.

SO TO YOU MR. YELLOW JACKET WEARING MAN I SALUTE YOU AS A TRUE AMERICAN HERO. AS BUD LIGHT SO ELOQUENTLY STATES, “More than any neon sign or exploding scoreboard your yellow jacket says look at me…you think it looks cool, but made of space age fiber it can repel anything including women”.  WAY TO BE A HERO!

Isabella and I did return to our seats where we had the pleasure of sitting in front of a Mrs. Basketball Player’s Mom, (you know everything about basketball, even though your full time job has nothing to do with coaching) from the U of Hawaii and truly witnessed objectivity blinded by love. Thoughtfully, she introduced Isabella to the word Bull Sh**, which I thank you for since now I won’t have to include it in her vocabulary lesson next week. (Saves me some time)  Note to the family, if you want your child to get playing time move up 18 rows, don’t sit three rows behind the bench and scream at the coach “That’s B.S.” numerous times.  When your daughter throws the ball 4 feet over another player’s head, ITS NOT A GOOD PASS!! As my father very gently explained to me in 1992 that if I wasn’t playing it was probably because the player in front of me was better.  (She did have 1000 pts and 500 assists).  So lady get a clue, no coach sits someone that can help their team win.

So to you Mr. Yellow Jacket Man with the big walkie talkie, the cool jacket and the orthopedic shoes I offer you a word of advice; you are Mr. Yellow Jacket Man not secret service, let a supervised child have fun.  And to you Mrs. Basketball Player’s Parent- Those that can, DO; Those that can’t, teach and those that can’t Do or Teach, TALK the WHOLE FREAKING GAME.  So please just shut up, take the blinders off, invest in a dictionary, and get rid of all the hate. Last I checked Coach Bolla of Hawaii has over 350 wins and if you are sitting in the stands it probably means you have zero at the college level.

FOR NOW I AM DISGUSTED WITH MR. YELLOW JACKET MAN and MRS. BASKETBALL PLAYER’S MOM.

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IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE AN OTTER!

Posted on December 15, 2008 | 1 Comment

If you live anywhere from Santa Cruz to Carmel Valley the time has come to get off your couch, out of the mall, leave the nail salon, hop in your car and drive over to a CSU Monterey Bay Women’s Basketball game.  When time allows I volunteer with the CSU-Monterey Bay Women’s Basketball team, not because they need my basketball knowledge but because I need them to keep my sanity with two young girls at home.  The OTTERS are off to a school record start of 6-2, breaking records for game attendance, upsetting the top ranked team in the CCAA and their charge out of the gate has everything to do with first year head coach Renee Jimenez.

Leadership can make or break a program, especially when attempting to build tradition, while changing the culture of a team that is accustomed to losing.  Coach Jimenez leads her team with positive energy, great communication and high standards of accountability for all team members including herself.  What a refreshing change in this era of high maintenance coaches! (There is a lot to be said for having a coach who can recently recall her own playing days).  How did CSUMB manage to land a head coach who helped engineer a turnaround at San Diego State University as an assistant and who interned at Stanford under the legendary Tara Van Derveer?  There could be a million reasons, but the most obvious is the opportunity to build tradition at CSUMB, be the leader of her own destiny and affect student athletes’ lives in a positive way. 

Coach Jimenez has convinced All-American candidate Dana Andrews to place the team first and her scoring average second.  I hate to use the word convinced since Dana is a competitor who wants to win first and foremost, so while her scoring average might be a bit lower than last year (17ppg vs. 18.8ppg), the Otters have already doubled their win total from last season and are only 8 games into the season.  Did I mention Dana has a 3.8 GPA and is graduating in the spring?  Anyone out there have a job for this young lady?

People are often evaluated by the company they keep and Coach Jimenez has done herself and the OTTERS a world of good by hiring Tina Samaniego as her assistant coach.  I would find it hard to believe that there is a more motivated or qualified assistant in the CCAA.  Personally, I like her because her bluntness and sarcasm is guaranteed to make me laugh at least twice at practice. (If I didn’t know better, I would swear she was a native New Yorker). 

When my husband and I left a team dinner the other night he said, “I never expected the coaches to be this enjoyable”.  I think he had become accustomed to the nights I spent sleeping in an office, student managers having to hold the head coach’s diet coke while standing in a bus aisle, so it wouldn’t spill on her if we hit a bump and the early mornings of driving a boss’s husband to work.  I think now he understands why even when I am absolutely exhausted from our month old baby, I make an effort to be around the CSUMB family. 

So on your next free Friday or Saturday night, come find out what the CSUMB community already knows… it’s great day to be an OTTER in the KELP BED!

FOR NOW I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT HOME GAME ON January 15th at 5:30pm against San Francisco State University.  (Did I mention this is Coach Jimenez’s alma mater?)

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