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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LET THE MADNESS BEGIN…

Posted on March 13, 2009 | Leave a comment

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!

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Posted in Uncategorized

Lost My Mind

Posted on March 5, 2009 | 1 Comment

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. 

 

 

 

 

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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

A-NONYMOUS?

Posted on 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)

 

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Posted in MLB, NY Yankees

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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Posted in basketball

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No title needed!

Posted on January 20, 2009 | Leave a comment

Is that CARP during another hard day at work?

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Another NAVY wrestler working hard!

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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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Posted in basketball, NCAA

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Common Sense?

Posted on January 10, 2009 | Leave a comment

 

I am so confused that my head is starting to hurt.  Last night Florida and Oklahoma played in the National Championship game, so  common sense would imply that the winner is the number one team and the loser the number two team in the country.  Obviously common sense is never applicable when dealing with the BCS.  Only in their system can a team play for the number one spot, lose the game and end up with a final ranking of #5.

Then again only Utah can find their team ranked #2(AP) and #4 (USA Today) while being undefeated, having beaten 4 ranked opponents, kicked the bejesus out of Alabama 31-17 who was ranked #1 in the country for 5 weeks and who Florida had to beat to get into the National Championship game.  Heck I guess at the end of the day they should be happy that they even received one first place vote.  Of course they suffer from the same disease that Texas Tech quarterback fell victim to; you just aren’t big time enough which is why Urban Meyer hit the road and went straight to Gainesville when offered his golden ticket. 

Is it asking too much for the NCAA to step in, take ownership and develop a playoff system?  My husband, a graduate student at the Naval Post Graduate School is actually considering doing a quarter long project on how to develop an effective playoff system for NCAA football using linear programming or game theory. Are you kidding me?  Its freaking football.  X amount of teams make the playoffs, they advance, as you get down to the final 8 games, they are considered bowl games.  Sponsors, college presidents, coaches all go home happy because they will still get a big fat pay check and there will be no debate on who is the number one team in the country.

Now if we can only get President Elect Obama to sign off on the antitrust violation against the BCS, but apparently he thinks he should be focusing his time on creating 3 million more jobs.  Go figure.

For now I am confused as usual…

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Posted in College Football

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VINCIT QUI PATITUR-HE CONQUERS WHO ENDURES

Posted on December 18, 2008 | 1 Comment

kevin-sideline1

When I was an assistant basketball coach at ARMY each day I walked past a beautiful monument before entering the gym for practice.  On it was inscribed one of my all time favorite quotes… On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory –General Douglas MacArthur. I have always felt that it so adequately sums up what all forms of athletics provides each participant.  Every person who has ever taken a field, a court or participated in athletic competition leaves that arena with some form of a life lesson. 

 KevinColbert was a fullback and linebacker, who roamed the football field at West Hempstead High School during the early 1990s.  He possessed an intensity, passion and desire for the game that some believe has yet to be matched on that same field.  His senior year he led the West Hempstead Rams to the county playoffs at Hofstra University, a feat that would not be repeated by the RAMS for another ten years.  Kevin was a warrior on and off the field; if you were going to battle on the field you had better pray that he was on your side.  To know him off the field was an experience that would certainly provide you with plenty of stories that only his friends and family can hold in their hearts.

 

Kevinwas my brother’s (Pat) roommate when they were 19 years old and he was bigger, stronger and louder than anyone I had ever encountered; his brute strength was legendary among his friends. Their apartment provided me with a great place to nap on days I didn’t want to attend summer class at Hofstra and Kevin was a guaranteed source of enjoyment at the Palm.  In fact he and Pat provided me with enough “fun” nights at the Palm to last most people an entire lifetime.  I remember feeling such relief when my brother called at 5pm the day the Towers fell to let us know he was alive and for some God given reason his Firehouse had been sent into the Battery Tunnel instead of the Towers. That feeling of elation was snuffed out just hours later when word got around that no one had heard from Kevin. Somehow Kevin’s life path found him as a bond trader on Wall Street for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods on the 89th floor of the World Trade Center.

It is a struggle today for Kevin’s family as they attempt to fund his memorial scholarship.  Time has passed, people are forgetting and some really “cool” vandals burned down the snack shack at the high school football field. Unfortunately this snack shack helped generate funds for the Kevin Colbert Memorial Scholarship. (Amazing what people find cool when they are complete idiots).

So my question for the players, coaches, friends and all of West Hempstead is where are you now?  If each and every player that took the field with Kevin found a way to donate right now it would allow his legacy to continue on. Perhaps a teammate most adequately captured Kevin when he wrote “Kevin’s legacy continues to touch me in ways that will always keep his memory alive. Every year on morning of September 11, I share his life with those that never knew him and put on the Colbert #24 T-shirt. From that memory, he is what I refer to as a ROCK of West Hempstead. He embodied all the heart and soul of a town that looks out for each other and will stand up with one another when times are tough. He gives me strength and teaches me to value each and every day we have with our family and friends. He is a foundation of what brotherhood is all about.”

The only thing in life that was able to overcome #24 was the same amount of force required to topple the Towers in NYC.  There are different ways to conquer an enemy and one of the most important is to never forget; part of that is allowing the memory of lost ones to endure and remain strong.  How quickly seven years has passed for some of us, while for others it is a day to day struggle because their loved one is gone.  Kevin’s friends now have families, children, houses, and even suffer from hair loss, but for Kevin time has remained still and he will always be #24 with a smile that could light up an entire room.  

FOR NOW I KNOW THE PEOPLE OF WEST HEMPSTEAD WILL STEP UP FOR ONE OF THEIR OWN!  GO RAMS!

Anyone desiring to donate to the scholarship fund in memory of Kevin can send a check to:
West Hempstead Football Parents Club
c/o Bob Ainbinder
3544 Milburn Avenue
Baldwin, NY 11510
(In the memo area write “Kevin Colbert Scholarship)

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Posted in HS Football

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