Oh man it’s been a while since I’ve blogged
(over a month). So here’s an update as
to what is going on …
Did
you know I coach an Olympian?
 |
| Deja Young |
This is true.
Deja Young will start competition today (Saturday, Sept 10) in the Rio
Paralympics. Last year she won the world
title at 100m (silver in the 200m) and broke her division world record in the
100m at 11.92. She’s worked very hard to
keep fit all summer while most of the team took some time off and now it’s time
to see how she can do. She’s very
excited for this opportunity to represent her country and we’re all proud of her
at Wichita State! You can watch her run
on the NBC Sports Channel’s coverage or online.
Good luck Deja!
Here’s a couple links to stories and videos
about Deja, you might find some quotes from me if you look hard enough …..
What
else is new with Shocker Track?
It’s been a busy few weeks, as it is every
year at the beginning of school. There
are a ton of meetings the squad has to attend explaining NCAA or WSU rules and
policies. Now we are mostly beyond all
that and just finished up our first full week of practice. Two weeks ago we had a week of learning and instruction
with our newcomers. We have a very nice
group of freshman and transfers that are good people and a lot of fun to work
with.
The first week of full practice with the
entire team was also generally good. You
always have some athletes that are coming back from injuries and aren’t in very
good shape but everyone is working hard.
We are trying to instill a few new wrinkles into the program this year
and they are taking to them well. We
will do “conditioning” for around five weeks until a week of testing at Fall
Break.
We hosted the JK Gold Classic cross country
meet last weekend and our team kicked butt.
The real racing doesn’t start until October but our crew looks strong
early in the season!
Lots of work to do and we’re excited to
finally get started!
Reaction
to my blog about Asia
I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction I’d get
from blogging about my two weeks in Asia but overall it’s been great! Thanks for all the nice comments, it makes me
think about focusing on the traveling part of the track and field season as
something to possibly write about in the future. We’re always so focused on the competition
that we don’t take the time to appreciate where we are in the world. I’ll think on it and see if anything
interesting might come from it.
No
Selfie September
Last year as a joke, me and some friends came
up with the concept of “No Selfie September” on a late night over a couple of
adult beverages. I put it out on this
blog and, much to my surprise, it went viral (at least locally). After a couple television interviews I realized
that there might be something to it. So here is a link to last year’s blog and I once again challenge everyone to not take another selfie until October!
Movies
I haven’t written about movies in a while but
I often get people telling me it’s their favorite part of the blog. I’ve actually thought about creating a separate
blog about movies but haven’t decided to put that much effort into it yet. Nonetheless here is a list of movies I’ve
seen in the movie theater since April and some brief thoughts about each one …
April 10 – Hardcore Henry – Shot from a first person perspective, one of the
craziest movies you’ll ever see. I liked
the concept. It was a unique movie-going
experience. Needs to be seen on the big
screen. Rating: 7/10
May 1 – Everybody
Wants Some – Latest movie by Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused,
Boyhood) about a week in the life of college baseball players. I love this guy’s movies and this one gets
better with repeat viewings (saw it twice on my flight to Asia). 8/10
May 22 – The
Nice Guys – Kind of a buddy cop movie with Russell Crowe and Ryan
Gosling. I enjoyed it throughout. 8/10
June 6 – Journey
to Space 3D – Saw this at the New Mexico Museum of History and Science
while on a recruiting trip. Not bad but
could’ve been a lot better. 3D didn’t
add much. 6/10
June 9 – Popstar:
Never Stop Stopping – One of the great comedies of 2016 that no one
saw! They make fun of everyone in the
pop music industry and the music is actually really good! 8/10
June 12 – The Conjuring 2 – It’s hard for horror sequels to be as good as the
original but this one was. Really,
really good movie if you like horror.
8/10
June 20 – Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Luckily I live in a city where
they put classics on the big screen from time to time. This 1977 Spielberg movie holds up great
almost 40 years later! 8/10
July 5 – The
Lobster – Super weird but I give it props for being original. 7/10
July 6 – Purge:
Election Year – I’ve seen all three Purge movies and I like the concept but
they’re never pulled off as well as I think they could be. 6/10
July 13 – The Shallows – The best non-Jaws movie about shark attacks I’ve
seen. 7/10
Aug 1 – Lights
Out – From the director of the Conjuring, another really good and
suspenseful movie. I saw this in
Thailand and the theater was generally screaming throughout. Asians love horror movies (and also make the
best ones). 8/10
Aug 17 – Sausage
Party – Has to be the most inappropriate animated movie of all time. And yes I thought it was outstanding! 8/10
Aug 21 – War
Dogs – Very solid movie that’s based on a true story (and isn’t completely
true) and is entertaining nonetheless.
Part political, part action, part comedy. Jonah Hill is great once again. 7/10
Aug 30 – Don’t
Breathe – Another really good horror/thriller. I’m encouraged the genre is going more in
this direction lately. Hard to know who
the good guy is in this movie and I think that’s awesome. 8/10
Sept 4 – Hell
or High Water – One of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. Great cinematography and great music surround
an interesting take on bank robberies.
9/10
I feel as though I’ve seen a lot of really
good movies in the past 5 months. Notice
there isn’t one comic book or big budget movie on the list. I don’t think any of these movies cost more
than $30-$40 million to make and most were under $10 million. If you do a little research you can generally
find some great movie going options out there.
Next
time
I’ll be back to update everyone on the latest
goings in Shocker T&F. Hopefully
sooner than a month from now!
Until then, thanks for reading and Go Shocks!