The grind of Fall track practice, XC battles for titles and Who-Dey!

I apologize for not being more consistent with these blogs – luckily I don’t write for a living.  I’ve actually been pretty busy and I’m sure you all feel very sorry for me.

What is the track team up to?

Most of the attention lately has been on our cross country team (see more about them below) but the tracksters have been busy too.

October and November are real grinds for athletes who aren’t competing.  There aren’t any competitions and the training is often brutal in building up a large foundation to be ready to compete from January until the summer.  We do our best to keep these 18-23 year olds interested and motivated, but to be honest I can’t wait for the season to start either!

We do have some important things we’re focusing towards, however.  We only have 3-4 weeks of the academic semester remaining and we stress the importance of finishing strong in the classroom just like on the track.  The other thing we have coming up is our annual Intrasquad Meet on December 4 in the Heskett Center.

Last week we had the “Draft” where the upperclassmen members of the Gold, White and Black squads pick new teammates from the class of newcomers.  It’s always fun to see everyone trying to get to know each other because of the common characteristic of competitiveness.  Our Intrasquad Meet is probably the most intense and fun “scrimmages” you would ever see – complete with a tug-of-war at the end!

Cross Country battles to high finishes at the MVC Championships

Myself and a few other Shocker coaches took the 650 mile van ride east to Evansville, Indiana, to watch our distance runners vie for titles in last week’s MVC Championships.  In a couple of exciting races we watched our women finish a strong second and our men tie for second.  Our men ended up losing a tiebreaker for the second place trophy.

Do you know how ties are broken in cross country?  Most people would think you take the best sixth place runner (our sixth guy was well ahead of Illinois State’s).  In fact what they do is compare the top five runners head to head (we lost that 3-2).  The guys only lost first place by 11 points so you can imagine their frustration when they found out they lost a tie for second.

However, we have a lot of really good distance runners on both sides and we think they’re going to score a lot of points on the track this winter and spring.  They run this week at the NCAA Midwest Regionals in Lawrence, Kansas, on the famous Rim Rock Farm Course.

It’s the early signing period!

For one week in November (Nov 11-17) athletes can sign National Letters of Intent for NCAA Division I track and field.  We are excited to have at least four new Shockers signing this week with the possibility of a few more by early next week.  We have sent out around a dozen NLI’s and are anxiously awaiting for many of them to come back.

We have some more athletes coming on visits in the next few weeks and then recruiting will ease back a bit during the holiday season.

 

The Bengals are 8-0!

Just wanted to rub it in to my Steelers and Browns friends.  Lord knows I was the recipient of the same for most of the 1990’s and 2000’s.  Who-Dey!

Movies!!!

I’ve been seeing a steady diet of movies (about one a week) and they’ve been hit and miss.

I saw the Steven Spielberg directed movie Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks.  It was also written by the Coen Brothers (Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, Fargo).  It’s a true story about an American Lawyer (Hanks) who is recruited to defend a Soviet spy during the Cold War.  It started a little slow but then built into a pretty darn good movie by the end.  This is a difficult topic to make interesting for two hours but Spielberg did a nice job.  After the movie I wanted to learn more about the lawyer Hanks played and his life after where the movie left off.  I would say that is a sign of a good movie.

Next I saw the final (so they say) movie in the series, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension.  I have seen three of the previous five PA’s and have generally liked them.  I thought the original was great and PA3 was equally entertaining and spooky.  This last one was pretty solid but probably not as good as some of the earlier ones.  It’s a similar plot and has a little more in the way of CGI/technology involved in the making.  If you like these movies I’m sure you’ll like this one too.  If you don’t care for these “found footage” type movies then take a pass.

The last movie I saw was Steve Jobs about the former president and CEO of Apple.  The movie had been getting great reviews but had struggled at the box office so I figured I would check it out before it was gone from theaters.  While it was well made and offered good acting from a variety of people it was just too dialogue driven for me.  And that’s weird for me to say because I generally like movies driven by a lot of clever and well written dialogue.  I think the problem for me was this movie wasn’t that clever.  It’s not a bad movie by any means but I was probably expecting more.

Next time

Shocker basketball is getting started!  Our guys are ranked #10 and looking strong again.  Depending on how long it takes me to write another blog I’m sure I’ll be talking about the Intrasquad Meet and our new recruits (and hopefully gloating about more Bengals wins).

Until then, thanks for reading and Go Shocks!

Chile Pepper, fall testing, and Fargo gets the nod this week

There’s a lot happening in Shocker Track and Field so I’ll just get right into it.

I traveled over to Fayetteville, Arkansas, with my fellow assistant coach Pat Wilson to watch our cross country teams compete at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival on Saturday.  It was the first time I’ve been to this meet and was quite impressed with how well run and organized it was.  I would estimate there were around 40 colleges and at least twice as many high schools competing.

 This was our cross country teams’ first significant challenge of the season as both our men and women had won their previous two meets.  Our women finished fourth and our men ended up fifth.  I sat in for the team meetings the previous night and their goal was to finish in the top-3 so I know there was a little disappointment afterwards but I thought our group looked very strong and worked well together.  They’re a great group of kids that really seem to like and respect each other – that should help them come championship time, which is rapidly approaching!  The Shocks will head to Pre-Nationals in two weeks and in four weeks the MVC Championships will be at Southern Illinois.  The fall season is flying right on by!

On the track, this past week was our last full week of what we call “pre-season conditioning” where we are limited to eight hours of practice per week.  The next two weeks are “testing and regeneration”.  After a normal Monday practice and Tuesday off, we will do our annual fall testing on Wednesday and Thursday.  We do this every year to see how our athletes have improved from year to year.  With not having a competitive fall season it also helps to give our athletes something to look forward to in terms of a competitive effort.  We do this with all the sprint, hurdle, multi, and jumps athletes – basically everyone except the throwers and distance runners (the throwers have already done testing of their own).  Our testing goes like this:

Day 1 – 30m fly (with a running start), 30m acceleration (from a 3-point start), and then a long sprint of 150m, 300m, or 600m depending on what event the athlete runs.  We do all of these tests at our indoor track so that weather and wind won’t play a factor in comparing times from year to year.

Day 2 – Standing long jump, standing triple jump, overhead back shot put, and the Olympic lift hang clean.  We try to do these at our outdoor track because the weather doesn’t significantly affect these tests.

A few years ago I created a scoring system for each event so at the end we have a total score much like a Heptathlon or Decathlon.  I’ve seen all kinds of testing competitions like this and after many years of trial and error we have landed on this system.  It’s fun for the kids and very informative for the coaches.  We can narrow down where an athlete needs to make improvements as we head into our specific preparation phase – which starts October 15.

Besides our annual Intersquad meet in December, this is one of my favorite weeks of the fall semester.  The upperclassmen, who have been through our fall testing before, get very enthusiastic and create a fun atmosphere.  The newcomers are mostly nervous and a little intimidated by the scene – which is usually good, because it’s an introduction to what will happen when the actual track season begins.

After testing is over we give our athletes several days off (which coincides with our fall break) before gathering back up October 15 for our next phase of training.

As for recruiting, October will be a very busy month. We will have lots of official visits on campus as we lead up to the early signing period in November.  In fact I need to finish this blog so I can meet a recruit later today!

All of that and I will be turning 40 Saturday!  The best birthday present I can get will be some great test results from our athletes!  (And I also like cash)

“F” Movies

This is the sixth 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 157 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.

F seems like a popular letter for movies so here is the list of my 11 “F” movies from best to worst …..

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

Fargo (1996, 98 min, R, 8.2, $60.6m) – I love the Coen Brothers’ movies and this is one of their best.  Fargo is crime drama that shows perspective from both the criminals and the police trying to solve the crime.  Interesting and funny throughout, it won two Oscars for best screenplay and best actress.  If you haven’t seen it you won’t be disappointed – “you betcha!”

Full Metal Jacket (1987, 116 min, R, 8.4, $46.3m) – The first 30 minutes of this Stanley Kubrick war movie is some of the most intense cinema I’ve ever seen.  It’s really two movies, the first part is about basic training and the second part is the actual fighting in the Vietnam War.  R. Lee Ermey plays the king of all drill sergeants – I would quote him here but none of his lines are suitable for this blog!

The Fighter (2010, 116 min, R, 7.9, $129m) – Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale play professional boxing brothers Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund in this based on a true story movie about the early years of Micky Ward’s life.  I’ve always enjoyed movies that are based on a true story and Ward’s life is a more recent version of Rocky.  Great movie and Christian Bale is pretty incredible as a former boxer turned to a waste of space brother.

Friday (1995, 91m, R, 7.3, $28.2m) – One of those movies that crosses racial and ethnic lines because it’s just so funny.  Chris Tucker and Ice Cube (who also wrote the movie) star in what happens on a typical Friday in the hood.  It spawned several sequels but none could capture the magic of the original.  This movie is still as funny as ever!

Friday Night Lights (2004, 118 min, PG-13, 7.3, $61.9m) – Another based on a true story movie about Permian High School (Texas) football.  The book was controversial and very popular because of all the inside info the author let loose and obviously it made for a good movie as well. Billy Bob Thornton plays the head coach who tries to keep his team together through tumultuous times.  Really good movie, I imagine it hits home for many people who look back at their high school athletic career.

Footloose (1984, 107 min, R, 6.4, $80m) – This is one of those cheesy 80’s movies that just seem to never get old.  Kevin Bacon plays a teenager who moves to a small town where music and dancing have been banned.  I’m sure Bacon is embarrassed to watch some of the scenes nowadays but that’s what makes this movie so enjoyable.  And whenever the theme song comes on Coach Yost starts dancing like crazy.

Fletch (1985, 98 min, PG, 6.9, $59.m) – One of Chevy Chase’s classic flicks from the 80’s with classic lines and scenes that anyone my age remember like it was yesterday.  Upon more recent viewings this movie doesn’t stand up as well today so if you’ve seen it before I would recommend just watching the funny parts on YouTube.  “Awww, come on guys, it's so simple. Maybe you need a refresher course. [leans arm on hot engine part] Hey! It's all ball bearings nowadays. Now you prepare that Fetzer valve with some 3-in-1 oil and some gauze pads.”

Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994, 117 min, R, 7.1, $245m) – This was Hugh Grant’s coming out movie and a very good one at that.  The title explains the plot as it follows a group of British friends one summer.  This is how romantic comedies should be – funny!  I think Hollywood forgot the “comedy” portion of that genre.  I think the Brits make funny movies, I only wish more of them made it over the pond so we could see them!

The Fall (2006, 117 min, R, 7.9, $3.6m) – I stumbled onto this movie through one of my weird friends on a weird night.  It’s a super artsy film but something about it kept me intrigued.  It’s one of the most visually appealing movies I’ve ever seen but most of my friends who I’ve tried to get to watch it usually fall asleep.  That must be why it only made $3 million dollars at the box office.

Friends with Benefits (2011, 109 min, R, 6.6, $149m) – They took two good looking people (Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake) and had them try to avoid every Hollywood cliché possible but in the end you knew they were going to get together.  It’s not a bad movie, I was just hoping they would be more creative with the ending for a movie with this kind of subject matter.

The Fountain (2006, 96 min, PG-13, 7.4, $15.9m) – Another super artsy film starring Hugh Jackman and directed by Darren Aronofsky (who also directed Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan) about death, love, spirituality, and uhhhhhh yeah I kind of got lost halfway through.  It does have a pretty cool ending so if you can hang in there it’s almost worth it.

There are a whole lot of great movies up there, you really can’t go wrong with any of them except maybe The Fountain.  I only have two “G” movies so next week will be a short review.

Until then have a great week and Go Shocks!

Shocker XC wins at home, I'm an ESPN hater, and Bull Durham edges Beverly Hills Cop

It was a successful weekend for the Shocker Cross Country squad as we hosted our annual early season meet, the JK Gold Classic.

We had 16 colleges and 11 high schools attend our meet this year and the Shockers came away with the double victory, taking down Division I opponents Kansas St and Oral Roberts.  The DI portion of the meet was scored as duals and our men came away with perfect “15’s” in both meets.  The women’s meet was much closer as we edged Kansas St 28-29.  The difference was getting our sixth and seventh runners in ahead of KSU’s fifth.

Although it’s very early in the season and winning a meet like this doesn’t mean a whole lot in the big picture, I’m sure Coach Hunter and the cross country crew will head to Nebraska in two weeks with a little more confidence.  Being picked fifth (women) and sixth (men) in the preseason MVC poll has motivated our team.  Good job Shocks!

Hosting a cross country meet isn’t nearly as difficult as putting on a big track meet but there is still a lot to do. We have our entire 130 person team out on the course working at 7am.  It’s a good way to do some team building and even though most college kids aren’t that excited to get up early on a Saturday morning and drive 30 minutes out into the country, once they get there they generally have a good time.  It also helped that it was a beautiful morning in the mid 60’s and 70’s – perfect for cross country!

This was our first week of getting our entire group together for track practice as well.  It’s always interesting to see how the first few workouts go.  We get to see who put in work this summer and who did not.  I’d say overall our kids look pretty solid.  Our men probably look a little better than our women but that is to be expected since they are more experienced.  It’s too early to tell how good we’ll be but looking at our groups work out last week reminded me of how talented we are.  Now the grind of the fall has begun and we will try to mold them into a team – getting in shape and teaching them how to work together in search of our goals.

The fall training seems like an endless stage of training because the meets are so far away so you have to try to mix things up to not get bored.  I like to get away from the track as much as possible so we will go off campus for workouts from time to time.  Most of our work on the actual track will be warmups and sprinting.

Our track schedule should be posted on our website this week.  Next week I’ll talk a little bit about how we put our schedule together and where we’re going this year!

I don’t like ESPN anymore

I’m old enough to remember when ESPN got started and for a sports geek like me it was heaven.  Unfortunately I have changed my opinion of the “World Wide Leader in Sports” lately.

Like most sports fans I used to watch SportsCenter religiously and it was always a great place to get scores and see the great highlights from around the world of sports.  A few years ago SportsCenter started turning more and more into human interest stories and accordingly I started losing interest.  This is not why I have now turned away from ESPN, however.

As ESPN started focusing more on “stories” than the actual sporting events I became less interested.  But one moment put me over the top and I have been on an ESPN boycott ever since.

In mid-May, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban made some comments after all the racist stuff about the Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling came out.  Cuban, not defending Sterling but being honest about himself, basically said all of us have discriminatory tendencies and if it was late at night and he saw a black kid with a hoodie walking down the street he would go to the other side. Then if he saw a white kid who is bald and with tattoos on his head on that side he would walk back to the original side of the street.

It was an honest, straightforward, non-racist answer to a question.  But like so many other things in the sports world today, ESPN turned it into a “Mark Cuban is racist” story and only focused on the images of Trayvon Martin in a hoodie aspect. 

Now I’m not really all that interested in sitting here and talking about racism, but my point is that instead of reporting about sports ESPN decided to take an opinionated stance on this issue and make it out to be more than it was.  And ESPN has consistently done this more and more over the years to the point that I couldn’t take it anymore.

Last year I mentioned how ESPN.com is probably my favorite website and that the information on there is as good as it gets.  Well after this deal I decided only to watch live sporting events on ESPN and only to look at their website for statistical information regarding those events.  Since May, my brain has not been inundated with ESPN’s slant on anything and I have to say I haven’t been more at peace!

I heard people talking about Johnny Manziel and Michael Sam.  I didn’t pay it any attention because neither of those guys are significant in actually playing in the NFL.  They’re just stories.  As I get older I guess I feel like I’ve heard enough of the “stories” and mostly just want to see or hear about the sport – now that I think about it that’s why I fell in love with sports in the first place – the actual competition and the story that evolves from that competition.  There is a place for stories to be told on ESPN and the 30 for 30 series is great – they should leave it to people who know how to tell stories properly.

So if you are a big sports fan and want to continue to love sports for what they are – avoid anything on ESPN that isn’t a live sporting event and you’ll be just fine.  There are plenty of other channels and shows on television for made up drama.

“B” Movies

Last week I gave my best “A” movies that I own, here is my list of 12 “B” movies from best to worst …..

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

Bull Durham (1988, 108 min, R, 7.1, $50.8m) – The movie that made Kevin Costner famous is one of my favorite movies of all time.  The life of a career minor league baseball player is done about as well as possible.  “Don’t think, it can only hurt the ballclub.”

Beverly Hills Cop (1984, 105 min, R, 7.3, $316.3m) – Eddie Murphy at his peak.  Everything he did around this time was the funniest thing on the planet.

Buck (2011, 88 min, PG, 7.6, $4m) – Documentary about Buck Brannaman, who was the original “horse whisperer”.  Wonderful and inspiring story that will make you feel good about humanity.  I was lucky to have stumbled upon it, if you can find it you should watch it ASAP.

Black Swan (2010, 108 min, R, 8.0, $329.3m) – On top of being just a flat out great movie, who wouldn’t like that Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis make out scene?

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987, 100 min, R, 6.4, $299.9m) – A really great sequel.  1980’s Eddie Murphy could do no wrong.  He even made Judge Reinhold look funny in this one.

Bowfinger (1999, 97 min, PG-13, 6.4, $98.6m) – I’m realizing Eddie Murphy made a lot of “B” movies.  This one with Steve Martin is really, really funny in my opinion.  One of Murphy’s best performances is him playing “Kit”.

Burn After Reading (2008, 96 min, R, 7.0, $$163.7m) – Another quirky, funny, off-beat, and entertaining movie by the Coen Brothers.  Brad Pitt as the over excitable gym trainer is my favorite character in the movie.

Ben-Hur (1959, 212 min, PG, 8.2, $74m) – Charleton Heston as a Jewish prince who becomes a slave and has the most intense chariot race ever!  It’s long as heck but the chariot race towards the end is all worth it.

Bruce Almighty (2003, 101 min, PG-13, 6.7, $484.5m) – Jim Carey and Steve Carrell were hilarious in this funny flick. Lot of other people must have thought so too as it made almost half a billion dollars worldwide!

Boiler Room (2000, 120 min, R, 7.0, $28.7m) – Basically a lower budget version of the Wolf of Wall Street with Vin Deisel and Ben Affleck.  Great little movie that if it was made today would’ve made a lot more money.

Black Sheep (1996, 87 min, PG-13, 6.2, $32.4m) – Underrated follow-up to Tommy Boy by Chris Farley and David Spade.  Who would ever forget the RO-AAAAAAAADS scene?  “Sir you were driving 7 miles per hour.”

Beverly Hills Cop III (1994, 104 min, R, 5.4, $119.2m) – Luckily Eddie Murphy has announced Beverly Hills Cop IV will come out in 2016 so we can all forget #3 ever happened.  I only own this because it came in the 3-pack with #1 and #2.

Lots of great movies here!  I would say all of them except the last one are worth a viewing!

See you next week!  Go Shocks!