Thanksgiving Break, we sign 5 new Shockers and Nebraska barely beats Old Men (not a Pellini joke)

The busier I am the shorter the blog – so this one will be pretty short.

Track

It’s Thanksgiving break so obviously it was a short week of practice.  Basically we worked out Monday and Tuesday then gave the team the rest of the week on their own to go home and enjoy the holiday with their family and/or friends.

Coach Rainbolt made a good point how this marked the first of six straight weeks that are different.  We’ve been in a routine for most of the fall and now we have 1) Thanksgiving week 2) Intersquad week 3) Finals week and then 4-5-6) Winter break.  It will take our athletes being disciplined and focused over that time period to come back ready for a successful indoor season.  So far we’ve had a good fall so we can’t afford to lose ground in the coming weeks.

This is a big week in our program.  We have our annual Intersquad Meet on Friday where our team is divided into Gold, White and Black and compete for the traveling trophy along with a bunch of our alumni (Gray).  It’s a very fun and exciting way to finish our fall semester and at the same time see how our team looks heading into the break.  The field events begin at 10:30am and the running events begin at 1:00pm at the Heskett Center.  If you can’t make it be sure to tune in online for the livestream.

We also have our annual team banquet after the meet on Friday night.  It’s a great way to celebrate last year’s seniors and to kick off the 2015 year.  After the banquet we get together with our alumni (old and new) to socialize and mostly talk about Shocker Track & Field!

We hope to see you at one of the above events on Friday!

Recruiting

We have released our list of signees for the early signing period.  HERE THEY ARE

Even though the list is only five athletes we have definitely addressed some of our needs.  We were looking to improve in the 400/800 area for the women as well as finding a triple jumper on the men’s side.  We still have some key areas of need that we are working on as the next signing period approaches in April.  And who knows, we may even add an athlete or two in January that will be on our team immediately!

Recruiting never stops.

“N” Movies

This is the 14th of a 24 part series (are you bored yet?) where I list movies I own by letter (I don’t have any movies that begin with Q, X or Z but I do have some that start with numbers).  I currently own a small collection of 178 movies (and growing most weeks) on DVD.

Most of the movies I own I had previously seen and enjoyed immensely.  Some are movies that I had not seen but was curious about.  Some were gifts from people with bad tastes in movies.

I own 6 (or 7 see below) “N” movies that are VERY different so here is the list from best to worst …..

Movie Name (year made, length, MPAA rating, IMDB rating, Worldwide box office)

Nebraska (2013, 115 min, R, 7.8, $17.6m) – There are a few reasons I love this little independent movie.  First of all it was made by Alexander Payne (who also made Sideways which I love) and I generally like his movies a lot.  Also it’s set in the Midwest so I feel like I’ve driven through a lot of places that are portrayed in the movie.  Finally, it was the last movie I ever saw with my dad who passed away this year and the father/son road trip storyline is one that we could definitely relate.  On top of that it’s just a really good movie.  It’s funny and interesting throughout, I say check it out if you haven’t seen it!

No Country for Old Men (2007, 122 min, R, 8.2, $171m) – This barely lost out to Nebraska and is really a great movie.  Another great effort by the Coen Brothers (Big Lebowski, True Grit) that is memorable for me because of how simple it is.  There is so much of the movie that has no dialogue or music.  It’s very dramatic and will keep you on the edge of your seat until the end.  Javier Bardem plays the role of bad guy as good as could be, I would never want to see that guy at a hotel I was staying in!

North Dallas Forty (1979, 119 min, R, 7.0, $26m) – Nick Nolte stars in this movie based on a true story (sort of) about a professional football team.  It was based on a book by a former Dallas Cowboys player who told the previously untold stories of the darker side of pro football like drugs, steroids, parties, etc.  Nolte does a great job playing a guy just trying to hang onto the team and the scenes of him getting out of bed after a game or sitting in an ice tub makes your bones and joints ache just watching.

Nail Gun Massacre (1985, 85 min, NR, 4.0, $??) – One of the best BAD movies of all time!  I stumbled across this terrible low budget movie at when I was a kid and it left an impression on me.  It was so, so, so bad that after a while I started laughing and before I knew it I was laughing through most of the film.  It wasn’t supposed to be funny – it’s just that bad.  The plot doesn’t matter (a crazy killer terrorizing with a nail gun) and the acting is atrocious (you can actually see people reading lines off paper) but it does have a quality that makes it hard to not watch.  Some people like to think Plan 9 from Outer Space by Ed Wood is the worst movie ever and this is definitely in the same category!

Necessary Roughness (1991, 108 min, PG-13, 6.0, $26m) – It’s not a bad sports movie, it’s just a little on the light side (compared to North Dallas Forty) for most people to remember.  Scott Bakula (remember him from Quantum Leap) plays an aging college quarterback who is brought in to help revive a struggling football program (I guess they didn’t have the same rules we do today about age limits).  There’s a lot of funny stuff in this movie and it’s all pretty innocent family fun.  But you really can’t take a movie too serious that has Sinbad and Kathy Ireland on the same team as the guy from Quantum Leap.

Nymphomaniac (Volume I and II) (2013, 118/123 min, NR, 7.1/6.9, $12.4m) – Ok, so obviously by the title you can probably gather what these movies are about but they’re probably not what you might think they are.  If you think you’re sitting down to watch some kind of pornographic movie then you would be wrong – although there is a lot of adult subject matter – I think the film maker was trying to make this movie in a way that would drive away people looking for that.  If you have an open mind and can watch these two movies as more of a clinical case study then you will probably find them interesting.  If you can’t then I would avoid them all together.

This is a pretty good and diverse list this week!

Next week

I will give a full report on how the Intersquad Meet goes as well as delving into my collection of ”O” movies.  There’s only five of them and a couple start with the word Office and Old.  You know them too – classics!

Until then thank you for reading and Go Shocks!

The track season begins (sort of) and Moneyball slices up Machete

Track

It has been a very busy week in the track and field world.

Most notably the early singing period ended Wednesday.  We are currently preparing a press release so since it’s not out yet I’m not allowed to make public comment about our signees.  We're very excited about the recruiting class so far and look forward to adding more quality young men and women when the next signing period begins in April.

My sprint/hurdle group has continued to progress nicely.  So far we have avoided significant injuries this fall and look to be in good condition heading into our winter break.

Intersquad begins

While the top distance runners in the nation were out in Terre Haute, IN, for the NCAA Cross Country Championships, we were back in Wichita getting our competitive track and field season underway (sort of).

Breanne Borman

In two weeks we have our annual Intersquad Meet but this weekend we had our Intersquad Multi-events competition.  There were some really good scores for being this early in the season and I know Coach Rainbolt is very excited about how it has gone.  We had three girls score over 3600 points led by Breanne Borman who scored a meet record 3817 points.  Our ladies have a very strong group right now and we could see multiple Shockers at the NCAA Championships indoor or outdoor.  Our guys, who are still very young, will finish on Monday and they are performing well also.

The rest of the Intersquad Meet will be on Friday, December 5 at the Heskett Center.

Time flies when you’re having fun

It’s hard to believe the semester is almost over.  Our kids will be heading home for Thanksgiving this week and they will be taking finals in a couple weeks.  And as quick at the first semester goes by, the spring will fly by even quicker.

Even though the competitive part of our season is full of travel and stress, it’s also full of excitement and accomplishments.  I am very excited for this season to begin!

Inspirational video

Sometimes I try to find videos to show our athletes in an effort to inspire and this week I came across this terrific story about a distance runner from North Carolina.  It is well worth 12 minutes of your time. VIDEO - CATCHING KAYLA

“M” Movies

This is the 13th of a 24 part series (if I don’t bore you all to death) where I list movies I own by letter (I don’t have any movies that begin with Q, X or Z but I do have some that start with numbers).  I currently own a small collection of 170 movies (and growing most weeks) on DVD.

Most of the movies I own I had previously seen and enjoyed immensely.  Some are movies that I had not seen but was curious about.  Some were gifts from people with bad tastes in movies.

I own 10 “M” movies and there are some of my favorites here so here is the list from best to worst …..

Movie Name (year made, length, MPAA rating, IMDB rating, Worldwide box office)

Moneyball (2011, 133 min, PG-13, 7.6, $110m) – One of my all-time favorite movies!  One reason I like this movie so much is because it’s very entertaining and well done but mostly because I can relate to it because of the job I do in athletics.  Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s general manager who comes up with a new way to find baseball players with less money than everyone else.  It’s based on the great book of the same name by Michael Lewis.  Often I find myself in the same situation as Beane, trying to figure out a way to beat the big boys with fewer resources.  Loved it!

Machete (2010, 105 min, R, 6.7, $44m) – The original reason I was interested in this movie is because I happened to be staying in a hotel in Austin, TX, across the street from where it was filmed.  So when I saw it come out in theaters I made sure to see it and immediately loved it.  Danny Trejo plays Machete, an ex-Federal agent from Mexico who singlehandedly attempts to mess up all the bad guys’ plans.  I love that Trejo is the main character in a movie filled with stars like Robert Deniro, Jessica Alba and Steven Segal.  It’s full of cartoonish violence but also very tongue and cheek funny.  It also stars Michelle Rodriguez – I have a celebrity crush on her.  Great little movie, check it out!

Million Dollar Baby (2004, 132 min, PG-13, $216m) – Another one of Clint Eastwood’s great films also stars Hillary Swank and Morgan Freeman in the world of women’s boxing.  This movie is cut into two distinctive parts and if you’ve seen it then you know what the two parts are.  It’s a beautifully done film that is inspiring, touching and in the end very thought provoking.  I love a movie that make you sit and talk about it with your friends after it’s over just to get their opinion on the subject matter involved.  What would you do if you were in Eastwood’s same situation?

Major League (1989, 107 min, R, 7.2, $49m) – I remember watching this movie in high school and laughing at all the crazy characters it had.  They really got lucky with some of the casting for this movie in getting actors like Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes and Rene Russo, who were young but very popular.  This movie follows a fictional year for the downtrodden Cleveland Indians who are owned by a former stripper when her husband-owner passes away before the year.  Great movie, hilarious baseball comedy, lots of swearing – all in all one of my favorite sports movies of all time.

More Than a Game (2008, 105 min, PG, 7.6, $960k) – A very good documentary about Lebron James and his high school days.  I really enjoyed this movie and felt a little more connected since I worked at Kent State (just a few miles from where Lebron went to HS) during the time chronicled.  I saw Lebron play several times in high school and was always impressed with his unselfishness.  This movie does a good job of showing he was just a pretty normal, yet really talented kid who blossomed into a great player and role model.

Martyrs (2008, 99 min, R, 7.1, $??) – You’ve probably never heard of this movie and I hadn’t either until I got in a phase of wanting to see movies that freaked me out.  This movie starts out as a normal horror movie then goes to a very, very dark place.  One of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever seen, yet it was so well done I can’t help but like and respect it for what it is.  I would not recommend this movie for the faint of heart but I would recommend it for moviegoers who want a unique viewing experience.

Metropolis (1927, 153 min, NR, 8.3, $1.2m) – I started reading about this movie years ago online and I finally bought it after hearing they found several missing parts of the film almost 75 years after it was originally released.  The story behind this movie is fascinating but there’s no way I can do it justice here so I advise to go online and read about it yourself.  As for the movie, it’s a silent picture about a futuristic city.  Watching it now and thinking about the vision the makers had 87 years ago is incredible.  Sometimes they’ll play this movie on AMC and if you have a chance make sure to watch it!

Mystic River (2003, 138 min, R, 8.0, $156m) – Another very good Clint Eastwood movie that has probably been overshadowed by films like Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino.  This one stars Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon about three friends that come together when one of them loses a daughter.  It’s been a while since I’ve watched this movie but I do remember it being very good and liking the story.  I might have to try and watch it again sometime.

Machete Kills (2013, 107 min, R, 5.7, $15m) – When Machete had moderate success on a low budget, the powers that be decided to make a sequel and unfortunately like many sequels it doesn’t quite match up.  The same over the top violence and humor are in this movie and it’s filled with cameos by stars like Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen and Lady Gaga, but it doesn’t have the originality of Machete.  I still enjoyed it though, but I don’t think the third movie Machete Kills Again …. In Space will ever get made.

The Monuments Men (2014, 118 min, PG-13, 6.1, $154m) – I really wanted to like this movie because it had some great actors (George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman) and an interesting story (a World War II platoon tries to rescue art masterpieces from the Nazi’s) but it just never really took off.  It wasn’t a bad movie and I’ll probably watch it again someday but it was definitely underwhelming for all the talent that was on the screen.

I would say all 10 of these movies are watchable but the top-8 are all VERY good - hard to go wrong with anything on this list.

Next week

I plan to eat a lot of turkey!

Oh and I have 6 “N” movies including one of my favorite movies of all time and one of my favorite bad movies ever!

Until then, thanks for reading and Go Shocks!

Recruiting heats up, Shocker XC is over and Abraham Lincoln edges Jim Carrey

The fall is flying by as we only have a few weeks left of practice before our athletes go home for the holidays.

Track

Our sprint/hurdle group continues to grind away and I can say I’ve been very happy with our progress this fall.  As you may remember I made some observations about our group after our October testing sessions that I was cautiously optimistic about this group.  Even though we haven’t had any competitions yet I can say I have been impressed thus far.

Our guy’s group works very well together and it shows in their workout results.  This group has chemistry as good as any group I’ve ever coached – and they are pretty talented too.  Our young women’s group continues to improve each week and our speed endurance workouts are evidence of that fact.  I still believe both groups will have some struggles that everyone has when we start the competitive season but I am excited even more for the season to start with each week that passes.

We are a little over two weeks from our Intersquad Meet on December 5^th at the Heskett Center.  Next Sunday/Monday, however, we will be having our Intersquad Heptathlon/Pentathlon so we will get to see some actual competition soon!

Recruiting

We’re currently in the middle of the early signing period (which runs through Wednesday).  So far we have four commitments and we expect a few more before the deadline later this week.  Next week I should be able to link to a press release about our early signees.

Recruiting has been our major focus over the past few weeks as around 30 high schoolers have made official visits to our university.  Not all of those athletes will make a decision this week but the new date of the early signing period (last year the signing period began in February) has definitely sped up the recruiting process for many athletes.

The next signing period won’t begin until April but we’ll continue recruiting every week all the way through the summer.  We know we will find athletes in April and May that we don’t know about now.  Every year we find out about athletes at the state track meet in June and try to convince them to be Shockers.  Recruiting never stops!

Cross Country

The cross country team ended their season with 12^th (women) and 15^th (men) place finishes at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships Friday.  Our women ran much better than at the MVC meet (they were the second team from the MVC at Regionals) and Coach Hunter seemed pleased with the results.  Now that the cross country season is over the distance squad can take a little breather until the indoor season – although I saw many of them running just a few hours after returning from Regionals Saturday morning.  Distance runners never take a break!

It’s a tough season for the distance runners because of how long the competitive season is.  The only month that some of them don’t compete is usually July.  I have a lot of respect for all the distance runners in the NCAA, they are truly warriors!

Speaking of Cross Country

 

Kevin Costner has done a bunch of different sports movies throughout his career and now he can check Cross Country off his list.  He is starring in the new movie “McFarland, USA”, which tells the true story of a “high school coach from California that transforms his team into a championship contender.”  It is set to open in February.

Here’s a link to the trailer, looks interesting ….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74eJaVQFybI

Shocker Basketball

Another exciting year of Wichita State Basketball is underway.  What an awesome time to be working in the WSU Athletic Department with all the excitement our basketball team brings.  I went to the season opening win against New Mexico State and it appears we are very good again this year.  I can’t imagine we will go 35-0 again but look for these guys to be one of the best teams in the nation!

“L” Movies

This is the 12th of a 24 part series (if I don’t bore you all to death) where I list movies I own by letter (I don’t have any movies that begin with Q, X or Z but I do have some that start with numbers).  I currently own a small collection of 170 movies (and growing most weeks) on DVD.

Most of the movies I own I had previously seen and enjoyed immensely.  Some are movies that I had not seen but was curious about.  Some were gifts from people with bad tastes in movies.

I own seven “L” movies so here is the list from best to worst …..

Movie Name (year made, length, MPAA rating, IMDB rating, Worldwide box office)

Lincoln (2012, 150 min, PG-13, 7.4, $275m) – This story of Abraham Lincoln is very fascinating and incredibly well played by Daniel Day-Lewis.  It’s very dialogue driven but if you are into history and great acting then you will like this movie.  Steven Spielberg directed and Sally Field played Lincoln’s crazy wife.  Seeing him deal with his family issues while battling slavery and all the other politics of the time really puts some perspective on how great of a leader Lincoln was.

Liar Liar (1997, 86 min, PG-13, 6.8, $302m) – I think this may be Jim Carrey’s best movie.  Movies like Pet Detective and Dumb and Dumber are certainly funny but this movie is vey well made as well as being hilarious throughout.  The plot, which has Carrey being a lawyer and not being able to lie, is secondary to how he totally gets into the character.  This movie is almost 20 years old but it holds up extremely well.

The Longest Yard (1974, 121 min, R, 7.1, $43m) – Burt Reynolds stars as a former pro quarterback who is sent to prison and is recruited to put together a team of inmates to take on the prison guards.  This isn’t the Adam Sandler remake (which was ok), the original is much better and Reynolds was at the top of his game, literally.  In fact Reynolds was a former football player and looked the part.  It’s hard to believe that some of the great football movies were made before the NFL became our most popular sport.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006, 101 min, R, 7.9, $100m) – This quirky movie about a family trying to get their little girl to a beauty pageant is both very funny and touching.  It was one of those little independent movies that caught a lot of momentum at the right time and made quite a bit of money on a very small budget.  Steve Carell is the most famous actor in the movie although he isn’t the main character.  Good stuff, check it out if you have a chance!

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998, 107 min, R, 8.2, $3.7m) – Director Guy Ritchie became best known for directing the movie Snatch with Brad Pitt but Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels was his first actual full length movie.  If you’ve seen Snatch then this movie will feel familiar.  It’s funny, dramatic and had a great plot full of regular guys who become criminals out of necessity.  It’s also one of Jason Statham’s early movies (who was also in Snatch).  Hopefully Ritchie comes back to directing this type of movie again someday.

The Last House on the Left (1972, 84 min, X, 6.0, $10m) – This was Wes Craven’s first major movie and the low budget horror movie (made for $90,000) quickly became a cult classic because of its gritty filming and X-rated violence.  After this movie Craven went on to direct horror classics like The Hills Have Eyes and Nightmare on Elm Street.  Last House is worth viewing if you are into low budget horror movies but it’s not for the squeamish!

The Lonely Guy (1984, 90 min, R, 6.2, $5.7m) – I bought this as part of a 4-pack of Steve Martin movies and have yet to watch it.  IMDB describes it as “A writer for a greeting card company learns the true meaning of loneliness when he comes home to find his girlfriend in bed with another man.”  Hmmm not sure if I will watch it anytime soon, haha!

All of these movies (except possibly the last one) are definitely worth viewing.

Next Week

I should be able to list some of our new recruits for next year as well as listing the 10 “M” movies I own.  Who will be at the top with titles like Major League, Moneyball and Machete?

Until then, thanks for reading and Go Shocks!

Wichita St indoor preview and why my alma mater should cut their football team

Track

As the weather begins to cool off and the indoor season grows closer, we’ve continue to grind away at track practice.  This is always a difficult time of the training year for the sprinters and hurdlers because 1) the newness of the fall has worn off and 2) it still seems like a long time until we get our season started.

Two months from today we officially open our season (Jan 9 at Kansas) so we do have a long time until we start but we are only 4 weeks away from our annual Intersquad Meet on Dec 5 at the Heskett Center.  Our Intersquad Meet serves as something to shoot for at the end of the fall and while it isn’t just around the corner it does feel like we’re almost there.  We’ll have our Intersquad Multi in about two weeks so for those athletes it’s almost go time.

This week at practice we talked about how important it is to be ready to go at the beginning of the season.  Research has shown the NCAA champions (and conference champions) run very fast in the first meets of the year.  If that’s true then we must get ready to go in the coming weeks so that when we start our season in two months our performances will be where we need them.

Let’s take a look at our indoor schedule:

 Dec 5 @Wichita St – This is our annual Intersquad Meet where we divide into three teams (Gold, White, Black) and well as having a bunch of alumni (Gray) come back.  I have to imagine it’s the most fun and intense Intersquad Meet in the country.  Someone try to prove me wrong!

Jan 9 @Kansas – Low key season opener, most athletes will run one event (if any) to shake the rust off from the winter break.

Jan 16 @Wichita St – This meet will be for the athletes who don’t travel to K-St the next day.  Only 26 athletes make the K-St meet so this will be an opportunity for a lot of Shockers to showcase their talents at home.  Our opponents will be Emporia St, Friends University and Butler County.

Jan 17 @Kansas St – This is the first ever Wichita St-Kansas St-Kansas Triangular.  Next year will be at KU with 2017 at WSU.  We are very excited for this meet and picking the top 26 athletes to compete will be very tough with our deep and talented team.  Fans of T&F in Kansas should put this meet on their calendar every year!

Jan 23-24 @Nebraska – The first night at Nebraska is more of a small college meet where we have a lot of our younger athletes compete with the following day being a scored quad meet against Nebraska and two other D1 teams on UNL’s banked 200m track.

Jan 30-31 @Northern Iowa – Another great scored meet against UNI, Indiana St and Kent St.  This is will be very significant because 1) we are competing on the facility that the MVC Indoor Champs are hosted, 2) we are competing against our main MVC rival Indiana St and 3) we are competing against my alma mater Kent St!

Feb 7 @Notre Dame – Most of my group will be off this weekend but the distance crew will travel to South Bend to run some fast time trial races on ND’s oversized track.

Feb 14 @Wichita St – The annual Herm Wilson Invitational will include UT-Arlington, Oral Roberts and Emporia St in a scored meet.  This is what we consider our final “team meet” in preparation for the MVC Indoor.

Feb 20-21 @Nebraska and Kansas St – These are just tune-up meets, with most of the athletes either running one race to get ready for MVC or one final attempt to make the MVC team.

Feb 28/Mar 1 @Northern Iowa – MVC Indoor Championships – This is what our team will be focused on getting ready for the whole indoor season.  32 men and 32 women make this squad and it is two days of intense competition for the MVC title!

Mar 13-14 @Arkansas – NCAA Indoor Championships – Only 16 athletes per event make it to this meet. It’s the elite of the elite of NCAA track and if you make it you are a major stud!

So as you can see we have a very exciting indoor schedule this year with lots of scored meets and great competition!  I can’t wait for it to begin!

My alma mater is really bad at football

I happened to notice Kent State was hosting Toledo on Tuesday night on one of the ESPN channels so when I got home I turned on the second half.  Now it’s no secret that my alma mater has been historically terrible in football (the exception being 2012 and some of the 1970’s) but something I saw made me decide to write about it here.

Now understand that Kent State entered this game 1-6 and it was a cold and rainy night but when I turned on the game all I could notice was how no one was at the game.  And I don’t mean they had a small crowd of 10,000 people – I mean NO ONE was at the game.  It wouldn’t surprise me if someone said there were 100 people in the stands.  It reminded me of my college days where I would go to a game and sit among the hundreds of spectators and watch our 0-11 team get manhandled.

But why am I talking about this?

It’s not to point out how bad my old school is in football – in fact I love Kent State and I root for them every week – I’ve even started donating back to my school in the past couple years to the track team now that I have a little change in my pocket.  But the reason I’m talking about this is because I currently work at a school that does not have football and most everyone around here couldn’t be happier about it.

You may or may not know but all but about 20 NCAA D1 schools lose money in football – and many lose LOTS of money, so much in fact that the entire rest of the athletic department suffers and in some cases programs get cut.  Football budgets are so bloated by how much the sport costs to maintain and outrageous salaries that schools like Kent (and the rest of the MAC) feel like they have to keep up with the BCS schools and maybe become the next Boise State (by the way Boise State loses money every year too).  One of the main arguments for having a football team, even though they lose money, is for free advertising on ESPN, Fox, etc. which in turn drives enrollment figures up.  I don’t agree.

All that money that my alma mater loses in football every year, Wichita St uses to invest into our basketball program.  We pay our head coach $2 million/year, our team flies to games in private charter jets, the assistant coaches get PAID (and thus are retained) and the athletic department marketing resources are dedicated to promoting this team that doesn’t cost near as much as a football team.

Most schools in conferences our size (MVC, MAC, Sun Belt) get around 60-70% of their athletic department budget from the university through student fees.  At Wichita State we get less than 30% from student fees.

Guess what else?  All the other athletic department teams are budgeted at the top of our conference and sometimes as high as our local BCS rival schools that we aim to beat.  In terms of track and field we never feel that we take a back seat to anyone.  Our athletes have access to the best facilities, travel budgets and coaches they can get.

So what would my advice be to Kent State?  Drop the football program.  I know those 4-5 weekends where the Golden Flashes play a home game are fun but the benefits of not having the team would greatly outweigh the negative.  And do you know when Kent State had its largest increase in enrollment in the past 20 years?  The year after the BASKETBALL team went to the Elite 8 in 2003.

Cutting the football program won’t be happening and sorry if I have offended any of my fellow Kent Staters.  I’ll still follow and support my alma mater through every 2-9 season they have while rolling my eyes as year after year go by without Kent having an outdoor track facility.  Go Flashes!

“K” Movies

This is the 11th of a 24 part series (if I don’t bore you all to death) where I list movies I own by letter (I don’t have any movies that begin with Q, X or Z but I do have some that start with numbers).  I currently own a small collection of 169 movies (and growing most weeks) on DVD.

Most of the movies I own I had previously seen and enjoyed immensely.  Some are movies that I had not seen but was curious about.  Some were gifts from people with bad tastes in movies.

I own five “K” movies so here is the list from best to worst …..

Movie Name (year made, length, MPAA rating, IMDB rating, Worldwide box office)

The King’s Speech (2010, 118 min, R, 8.1, $414m) – The very entertaining and interesting story of how King George VI rose to the throne and had to overcome his public speaking difficulties for a major speech at the end of the film.  This was the surprise hit in 2010 that won four Oscars and all kinds of awards.  Colin Firth did a great job as King George VI of being very vulnerable yet trying to maintain the dignity of the King of England.

Kingpin (1996, 113 min, PG-13, 6.9, $25m) – The hilarious bowling movie starring Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray who end up competing for a major bowling championship after a long string of unfortunate occurrences for Harrelson.  Made by the Farrelly Brothers (Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber), this is a great comedy that is some of Murray’s funniest work.

King of Kong (2007, 79 min, PG-13, 8.2, $790k) – No joke, this movie is about two guys who are trying to break the world record on the arcade game Donkey Kong – and it’s great!  I got sent a copy of this movie from a friend of mine who works in Hollywood and worked on the film so I had some special insights to the production.  If you can find it you will definitely enjoy this little documentary about 80’s video games!

Kids (1995, 91 min, NR, 7.0, $7.4m) – This highly controversial movie is described by IMDB like this, “A day in the life of a group of teens as they travel around New York City skating, drinking, smoking, and deflowering virgins.”  This movie will hit you will all kinds of thoughts afterwards and I always tell people they should see it.  It will probably drive most parents crazy as most boys between the ages of 17-20 temporarily lose their minds – this movie shows that fact in disturbing detail.

Kiss Shot (1989, 90 min, PG, 5.0, $??) – I have never seen this movie.  It came in a two-pack with the Jesse Owens Story (who came up with that idea?).  I think it has Whoopie Goldberg in it who probably never saw it either.

All of these movies (except Kiss Shot) are really, really good and I recommend them all.

Next week

Our cross country team travels to Peoria, IL, for the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships and I’ll review my “L” movies.  There are seven great movies that start with words like Liar, Lincoln, and Last!

Until then thanks for reading and Go Shocks!

MVC Cross Country and Jaws vs The Jerk

It’s been a busy weekend and I’m a little under the weather so this is gonna be a short blog, I’ll do better next week I promise!

MVC Cross Country

I traveled with our coaching staff out to the MVC Cross Country Championships in Carbondale, IL, this weekend and we came back with mixed emotions.

The MVC has become a very strong conference in distance running recently and our team has improved as well.  Our women ended up in fourth place with our men placing fifth.  As you look at the team scores it’s easy to see how things could’ve been different.  Our women had a good total score of only 94 points and was just 23 points from second.  Our men also had a nice score of 116 and was only six points from fourth (and also two points from seventh).

I know Coach Hunter and the cross country team was disappointed in the final result but we all knew they ran their hearts out and sometimes the cards don’t fall how you want them.  Still, WSU placed higher than last year on both sides so congrats to the Shocks!  Kudos to the Bradley women and the Indiana State men who won well deserved titles.  With just the regional and national CC meets left the track season is just around the corner!

“J” Movies

This is the 10th of a 24 part series (if I don’t bore you all to death) where I list movies I own by letter (I don’t have any movies that begin with Q, X or Z but I do have some that start with numbers).  I currently own a small collection of 168 movies (and growing most weeks) on DVD.

Most of the movies I own I had previously seen and enjoyed immensely.  Some are movies that I had not seen but was curious about.  Some were gifts from people with bad tastes in movies.

I own five “J” movies so here is the list from best to worst …..

Movie Name (year made, length, MPAA rating, IMDB rating, Box office)

Jaws (1975, 124 min, R, 8.1, $470m) – One of my all-time favorite movies is still a very effective horror movie today.  This was one of Steven Spielberg’s early movies and the story of how difficult it was to make is about as interesting as the movie itself!  What I wonder about is how effective would it have been without the simple musical notes that foreshadowed Jaws’ arrival throughout the movie?  Either way I love this movie!

The Jerk (1979, 94 min, R, 7.2, $73.6m) – Another classic movie from the 1970’s starring Steve Martin who “was born a poor black child in Mississippi.”  I’ve had a few friends that told me they didn’t think this movie was that great and I have no idea what they are talking about.  There are tons of great scenes and funny lines and an ending that is appropriate for the “Jerk”.  My favorite scene is near the end when Martin is walking out and keeps taking a few things, saying he doesn’t need anything, well except this, and this, and that.

Juno (2007, 96 min, PG-13, 7.6, $231m) – Directed by Jason Reitman (who also did Up in the Air), this was the breakout movie for Ellen Page that took a sensitive subject (abortion and teenage pregnancy) and made it funny as well as touching.  Michael Cera did a nice job as the cross country runner and father of Page’s baby.  I guess you could categorize this as a romantic comedy and if so, I would say it’s one of the best of that genre.  “Uhhh, I hate it when adults use the term "sexually active." What does it even mean? Am I gonna like deactivate some day or is it a permanent state of being?”

Jerry Maguire (1996, 139 min, R, 7.3, $273m) – This popular movie stars Tom Cruise as a sports agent and Cuba Gooding Jr as his only (eventually) athlete he represents.  I thought this movie was very well done and gave us the great line, “Show me the money!”  I’m not a fan of all the sappy stuff so I could’ve done with more of the behind the scenes sports action but I still give this movie a favorable review.

The Jesse Owens Story (1984, 174 min, NR, 6.8, $?) – I think this was a made for TV movie that I saw as a kid and a couple years ago I found it at a store for $2 and grabbed it up!  It’s not a bad biopic for one of the most famous Olympic track and field athletes of all time but being a made for TV movie it had its limitations.  I’ve heard there is a new Jesse Owens movie in production that is scheduled to come out in 2015.  Hopefully it will be done as well as the recent movie about Jackie Robinson (42).

All five of these movies are very good and this list includes both a track AND cross country athlete.  Win-Win!

Next week

Hopefully I’m not sick!  And I also have five "K" movies that are VERY diverse.  Check back for those!

Until then thanks again for reading, Go Shocks!!!