Even
though we’re on a break from practice and competition, there’s still plenty
going on in the world of track and field.
Track and Field
Most
of my time this week was spent in Phoenix, Arizona, at the USTFCCCA
Convention. It was another good
convention where I was able to learn some things, discuss our sport with peers
and see lots of coaching friends in a relaxed social atmosphere (and play a
little golf).
Here
is the day-by-day of what I did at the convention:
Sunday
– I arrived around 10pm and hung out with friends from Texas A&M,
Pittsburgh and Auburn. We mostly talked
about our head coaches and their unique personalities.
Monday
– I played in the coaches’ golf tournament with Coach Rainbolt as well as
friends from Stephen F. Austin and Black Hills State. Our group only managed to place 10th
out of 19 teams with an -8 score of 64, but we had a blast and unfortunately it
was the only day I played golf this week.
Later in the day I went and saw legendary coach Dan Pfaff talk about
sprinting. Pfaff has coached some of the
fastest men in the world and it was a comfort knowing that much of his
philosophy is the same as ours at Wichita State. Also on Monday I listened to well-known
recruiting expert Dan Tudor speak about how to brand our program in the
recruiting process. He was very
interesting and I plan on using several of his ideas immediately. I also attended the Hall of Fame dinner and
induction ceremony where six coaches were honored. Our director of operations Ryan Patton
arrived very late in the evening after flight delays so I stayed up and
socialized with coaches from our staff and many others who passed through the
crowded lobby bar until he arrived.
Tuesday
– I got up and worked out for a while before heading to what’s called the Opening
Session of the Convention, where everyone is welcomed and someone of high
regard usually speaks. The speaker this
year was Jeff Schemmel, who is a former track coach and athletic director, who
tried to give us some insight on what’s happening at the NCAA level and how it
will affect our sport. As you may know
the NCAA will be going through some major changes in the upcoming months. The “Big 5” conferences have autonomy to make
whatever rules they want and the rest of us will have to deal with it. Much of what they will do will likely result
is more spending and thus could affect Olympic sports like track and
field. The one sobering statement
Schemmel made was, “Your program might not get cut but you are probably sitting
next to someone who will have their program cut.” I could go on in a lot of detail about this
topic but before knowing what the Power 5 conferences are going to do it’s
probably a waste of this space. Check
back in a couple months for those thoughts.
I also went to a short session where former Oregon coach and now
Tracktown, USA, bigwig Vin Lannana spoke about how to connect our sport better
with our community. I got some good
ideas from this session that I hope to use during the track season to get more
people interested in Wichita State Track and Field! We then had a Division I general session and
Missouri Valley Conference breakout where we talked about many of the issues
facing our sport like possible rule changes, changes to our national meet and
how to make our sport more important on our campuses. The night finished with an excellent barbeque
dinner sponsored by Mondo where we all overate and hung out talking about our
sport until midnight.
Wednesday
– After getting up for another morning workout, this day was filled mostly with
being in the Division I general meetings where coaches debated topics from the
day before. Sometimes there can be some
very entertaining back and forth discussions but usually we don’t end up
accomplishing much. For me that’s one of
the most frustrating parts of the convention because track coaches all want to
have their own agendas and often don’t agree with how to move the sport
forward. One good thing that came out of
this week is it looks like our NCAA Outdoor Championships will move to separate
days for the men and women (men on Wed/Fri and women on Thur/Sat) where it will
be much easier to promote the meet and championship storyline. ESPN will be broadcasting all four days with
field event action on ESPN3. It’s the
most live track (12 hours) that the NCAA has had in my lifetime and probably ever. Now we just need to get some Shockers to that
meet and compete well! The other
highlight of Wednesday was the annual Bowerman Awards given to the top male and
female track and field athletes for 2014.
It’s often referred to as the “Heisman Trophy of Track and Field”. It was another first-class affair this year
with the winners being Laura Roesler of Oregon and Deon Leondre from Texas
A&M. Good job to the USTFCCCA office
for putting together
such a great event!
Afterwards I got to spend some time with our friends from Sacramento
State as well as my best friend Kevin Lucas (and his wife), who is the head
coach at Mount Union College in Ohio.
Kevin was honored earlier in the week at the Opening Session for winning
the 2014 Division III NCAA Outdoor Championships. It’s pretty cool that two country kids from
Eastern High School in Brown County, Ohio, ended up doing ok in the college
track and field coaching world.
Thursday
– The only thing left for the week was to vote on the various topics brought
forward so by 10am our convention was over.
We voted to approve text messaging recruits and voted against having
volunteer coaches more involved in recruiting (although I voted for that
one). I was traveling back to Wichita
with Ryan Patton and our flight didn’t leave until 4:30pm so we decided to take
a walk and grab some In-N-Out Burger before we left (those are good burgers
man). We were joined by one of my former
Shocker athletes Nate Thiesfeld, who is now the sprint coach at High Point
University in North Carolina. After that
is was off to Houston and then Wichita before arriving home around midnight.
So
if you were ever curious, that’s pretty much what goes on at the USTFCCCA
Convention each year (well at least the stuff I can write about here).
WSU Track and Field
Most
of this week was just keeping in touch with our athletes via text messages,
Facebook and phone calls about how their training is going. So far I’d say most of them are doing well
but I know some of their individual training situations aren’t ideal. Hopefully they can stay focused through any
cold weather and difficulties they encounter.
We
have about two more weeks of “on your own” training left before we are back in
the Heskett Center. And in three weeks
from today we’ll have competed in our first meet already!
Academically
it looks like our team has come through finals pretty well. We’re still waiting on a few grades but our
men’s team will have around a 3.0 GPA this semester while our women are above
3.2. On top of that we shouldn’t have anyone
come up ineligible. Hats off to the hard
working student-athletes as well as their academic coordinators (Andrew Moses
and Sarah Wiley) for keeping them on task.
For a team of 130 athletes, that’s a remarkable feat!
The Interview
Did
you hear about how Sony pulled their upcoming movie “The Interview” from
theaters after getting threatened that terrorist activity would result if the
movie was released? When I first heard
about this I thought it was a clever way to market and would get people talking
(and who knows it still might be), but now they have totally pulled the movie
from theaters and said it would not be released on DVD or On Demand. The Interview is a comedy starring Seth Rogan
and James Franco where they are trying to assassinate the leader of North Korea
– Kim Jong-un. I can see how the subject
matter is controversial but the fact it’s a comedy and obviously a joke makes
me worried what will happen in the future to other things regarding our freedom
of speech. I think Sony should go ahead
and release the movie and if this somehow puts us in danger (which I don’t
think it will) then I would much rather deal with that then bowing down to
other countries who don’t like what we do.
Because if we do things will get worse and worse in regards to what
“terrorists” think they can do. I was
glad to hear President Obama say that Sony made a mistake by not releasing the
movie.
There
are all kinds of offensive movies made in the world every year – lots are even
about the USA and our leaders – but not letting people have freedom of speech
is very bad. There have been recent
movies made about our presidents that were very negative but no one ever
thought about denying their ability to be made or released.
Is
it possible that a movie could be made that goes too far? Yes, I’m sure there is, but I’d rather our
country decide that instead someone from another country who threatens to harm
us. The proper way for North Korea to
have handled this would be for their leader to call our leader and let us know
how offensive it is. But we know that’s
not how things work over there. The
worst thing you can do when a bully tries to intimidate is back down.
I
feel like there’s been too much politics in this blog recently so let’s take a
break from ALL that for a while!
“R” Movies
I
don’t have any “Q” movies so we’ll move onto the next letter!
This
is the 17th 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 11 “R” movies, one of my most popular letters. Here’s the list from best to worst …..
Movie Name (year
made, length, MPAA rating, IMDB rating, Worldwide box office)
Ringu (1998, 96 min, NR,
7.3, $??) – This is the original Japanese version that inspired the hugely
successful American version. It’s
basically the same movie as the American one but done with a little bit less
gore. I really like this movie for how
creepy and original it is. The plot is
whenever someone watches a mysterious video they get killed a week later unless
they can figure out the mystery. If you’re
into horror movies you should definitely put this one on your list.
Rocky Balboa (2006, 102 min, PG,
7.2, $152m) – This is the final “Rocky” movie which details Balboa coming out
of retirement to fight the reigning heavyweight champion in an exhibition fight
that gets serious. I don’t own any of
the other Rocky movies because they are so often on TV but this would still be
my favorite of the bunch. I’m intrigued
by people who are almost out of the game (or a musician who’s not popular
anymore) and how they deal with it. Also
this is the most realistic fighting in any of the series and they basically
make it a HBO fight just like they would broadcast it. Very well done!
Requiem for a Dream (2000, 102 min, R,
8.4, $7.3m) – Ok this is not a movie for the faint of heart but if you can
handle uncomfortable scenes and situations it’s well worth your viewing. Jared Leto is the main star here who plays a
guy addicted to drugs. In fact it
follows several people with all kinds of addictions and the director Darren
Aronofsky (who also did Black Swan) does visuals that make it seem like the
viewer is also on the same drugs so often you don’t know what’s going on. If you like a movie that will make you feel
all kinds of emotions then this is the one for you.
Running on the Sun (2000, 100m, NR,
7.4, $2.4k) – I found this documentary online and took a chance when buying it
and am I glad I did! It follows several runners
who are competing in what some call the most grueling race in the world, the
135 mile uphill race through Death Valley and into the mountains. It's not a big budget movie at all (in fact
it only made $2400 in theaters) but what's so good about the movie is how it
shows in excruciating detail what these athletes go through to finish the
race. There are elite level runners all
the way to people in their 60’s who are just trying to conquer the race and
finish. Very motivating – every time I’ve
shown it to my athletes they have no reason to complain about their workouts,
haha!
Reservoir Dogs (1992, 99 min, R,
8.3, $2.8m) – This is the first movie the general public ever saw from director
Quentin Taratino (Django, Pulp Fiction, etc).
It didn’t make much money but from this came Pulp Fiction and the rest was
history. The plot is simple, a jewel
heist goes wrong, but the only thing you see as the viewer is the aftermath
inside the hideout afterwards. Tarantino’s
normal signature items are here (great dialogue, brutal violence, unique
characters) and there isn’t a moment wasted.
If you are at all a fan of QT then you need to see this movie because
this is where it all started!
The Rookie (2002, 127 min, G,
7.0, $80m) – There are some parts of this movie that really hit home with
me. It’s a true story about Jimmy Morris
(Dennis Quaid) who makes it to the major leagues for the first time when he’s
36 years old. Another movie about an
older guy trying to see if he still has what it takes to be successful at the
highest level (see Rocky Balboa). It’s a
truly remarkable story that is very effective in how Disney put it together. I’ll admit the part where he finds out he’s
finally going to the majors is one of my favorite ever movie moments (and I
still get a lump in my throat every time).
I saw it’s rated G, I didn’t know that was still possible!
Running Brave (1983, 106 min, PG, 6.8,
3m) – Another true story turned to dramatic movie about a sports star. This one is about the improbable life of
Billy Mills (Robby Benson). It follows
him through his younger years, onto his college days at Kansas then culminates with his incredible Olympic victory. It’s
one of those movies that if it were fiction no one would think it was
possible. I saw it as a kid in school
(my junior high math teacher was the track coach) and now I live in Kansas and
have a whole new respect for it. It’s
not the best movie with the best acting but if you’re a track fan you’ll enjoy
it.
The Ringer (2005, 94 min,
PG-13, 5.8, 40m) – This is one of those movies that you’re not sure you should
be laughing at while you’re watching, but can’t help it because it’s
funny. Johnny Knoxville needs money so
he plays a mentally handicapped guy so he can fix the Special Olympics. There are a lot of seemingly insensitive
jokes about the handicapped but in the end you realize they were probably in on
it and you feel a lot better. It’s an
odd movie-going experience where you feel bad for laughing then feel good for
watching the movie afterwards.
The Rocker (2008, 102 min,
PG-13, 6.2, $8.7m) – Not many people saw this movie but I think it’s pretty
good. Rainn Wilson (from the TV show The
Office) plays a failed drummer who is given another chance at success when his
nephew’s band needs another member. Like
I said it’s a funny movie that just never found an audience so if you have a
chance to catch it you should. The video
of Wilson that goes viral and makes the band famous is worth seeing the whole
movie.
Reefer Madness (1936, 66 min, PG,
3.7, $??) – I can honestly say I’ve never had marijuana in my life but I’d
heard this was one of those “it’s so bad it’s good” movies so I bought it on a
whim. It was originally made to try and
scare teenagers away from smoking weed by showing all the bad things that will
happen if you do it. It was so bad an
ineffective (and not accurate) that it became a cult movie where people
actually got high while watching it! It’s
definitely a very bad movie but I laughed a lot and the version I have has a
commentary track by the guy from Mystery Science Theater where he makes fun of
it the whole time. I don’t recommend
using drugs but feel free to have fun with this one!
Rock of Ages (2012, 123 min,
PG-13, 5.9, $59m) – I’ve heard the musical of the same name has been hugely
successful and this movie has a lot of big stars and music but for some reason
it just misses the mark. Don’t get me
wrong, it’s still quite fun and seeing Tom Cruise go all Axel Rose on everyone
is awesome, but at 123 minutes it’s about 20 minutes too long. Although if you like 80’s rock music you’ll
enjoy it for that alone.
What
a great list of movies – a little bit of everything. And who wouldn’t love a list with two running
and five sports movies!
Next week
With
it being the holidays and all I might take the week off but then again who
knows maybe I’ll have another long plane trip to kill some time here with you
fine folks! As a matter of fact I will,
I’ll be heading to Florida to see my family so possibly look for a long, long
list of “S” movies (15).
Until
then, thank you for being such dedicated readers and Go Shocks!
It’s pretty
simple. No matter if we don’t see or
talk to each other as much as we’d like, I can always count on Kevin to be one
of the best friends a guy could have. We
talk the most during the track season, giving each other recaps of our teams
and being a sounding board for ideas on how to be better. He also makes me laugh every time we
chat. I’ve been with Kevin through the
highest of highs and the lowest of lows and I think we both have grown up to be
better for it, whether it was watching him celebrate a NCAA title in track or
surviving a road trip through the West Coast or a thousand memories along the
way. It’s pretty remarkable that two
skinny kids from Eastern Brown High School grew up to earn significant coaching
positions (and become not as skinny) in the highly competitive world of college
track and field. Thanks for everything
Kevin. You’re an inspiration to many,
many people including me!
