Paralympics, Shocker T&F, No selfies and a movie update

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 …..

Wichita Eagle (Bob Lutz)

GoShockers.com Rio preview

 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.

Here are the Shocker newcomers if you wanna check them out …

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!

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again ...

This was written on December 15th but I wasn't able to upload it so here is blog #2 ...

The first semester of school has officially ended and I am now in Orlando, Florida, for the annual USTFCCCA Convention.  That stands for United States Track and Field Coaches ……. something, something, ummmm well it’s our national coaches association.

The past week has been pretty uneventful with the exception of waiting to see how everyone did academically.  It appears, with a few grades still remaining, that we should be ok heading into the indoor season in terms of eligibility.  We always have good grades on our team at Wichita State but with a roster near 130 there are bound to be a few that make you nervous.  Luckily we have rarely ever had a kid come up ineligible, mostly thanks to their hard work and the work of our academic support team.  We’ll get the official word later this week on how everyone did.

I really enjoy traveling.  Today I have been in airports in Oklahoma City, Dallas, and Orlando (I drove to OKC because it saved us about $100 on a place ticket compared to Wichita).  I’m not sure why I enjoy traveling so much but the older I get the more I enjoy it.  As a very young kid I think I traveled more than most.  We would always take family vacations around the country and many of our relatives lived at least an hour away (an eternity for a little kid) but my first taste of weekly travel came when I started racing go-karts around the Midwest when I was 6 or 7.  Racing has always been a big part of our family (my dad raced hydroplane boats with his dad and brothers) and my brothers were heavy into motorcycles.  I was able to race against some current Indy and Nascar drivers back in the day and it will always be a special part of my childhood.

ANYways, back to the traveling thing.  Since going to college at Kent State I’ve pretty much been traveling for much of the year for track and field purposes.  I’ve been in 46 different states (I still need North Dakota, Montana, Alaska, and Hawaii to complete the 50) and half a dozen countries (I need to get that total up).  If you’ve ever seen the movies “Up in the Air” with George Clooney you can get a clue about me.  He’s kind of an isolated guy in terms of family and relationships but has lots of friends and is constantly surrounded by people.  Check it out, great movie.

One thing I love about airports is people watching.  I really, really love people watching and airports are one of the best places to do that.  So is Wichita, Kansas.  Something I don’t understand about airports is people’s rush to get ON the airplane.  I mean, the plane isn’t gonna leave until everyone gets on and I’d rather hang out in the airport then sit in a cramped seat for another 15 minutes.  Also, how about the people who rush OFF the plane, only to wait at baggage claim like everyone else for their bag to come?

So tomorrow starts the coaches’ convention where we will hear lots of terrific speakers and talk about issues surrounding our sport for the next 4 days.  And honestly, there is a lot of socializing.  A LOT of socializing.  Another great part of the week is that I will get to see my parents at the end of the week.  They live near Fort Myers, Florida, and I will head over there Thursday after the convention is over.  This is basically our “Christmas” together and I will head back to Wichita at the end of the week.

Next week I’ll let you know how the convention week went and what movies I’m excited to see over the holidays.  Hint, hint, Ron Burgundy is in one of them.