Shocker Cross Country is off to a fast start, Dorf got married and I own a lot of "D" movies

Another week has rolled by and we’re starting to see what kind of team we have this year.

I have to start with our cross country team because they really ran well this weekend at Nebraska.  Obviously I’m not an expert on distance running but I’ve been around a lot of great coaches and athletes in my lifetime.  We’ve had some really good cross country teams at WSU and some really average ones.  It looks like we have a couple of really good ones this year and so far they are undefeated through the first two meets of the fall.

We thought our women’s team would be pretty solid but they appear to be coming around more quickly than we thought.  There’s a good mix of veterans and rookies and you never know how long it will take to mesh.  After easily defeating the likes of Nebraska, Air Force, Northern Iowa, Miami and Northern Colorado this weekend on top of edging Kansas State two weeks ago, I have to imagine they are starting to turn some heads.

Same for the men in terms of turning heads.  It wasn’t as easy but they beat all the same teams this weekend and seem to be coming together very nicely.  Coach Hunter’s teams don’t have any superstars and seem to be working together to prove the preseason MVC rankings of fifth and sixth wrong.

The next meet will be a step up in competition at the University of Arkansas in two weeks.  I’m going to travel over with the team so I’ll be able to see their progress in person.  Good stuff!

As for the rest of the team, it will take a little longer to see what we have although after a few weeks of practice I think we are cautiously optimistic.  We had another good week of practice and the newcomers are starting to look less like newcomers than a few weeks ago.  We’re about midway through our preseason conditioning phase and each week is better than the previous.

In preseason conditioning we have two main goals.  The first is to, obviously, get the team into shape.  Basically we’re trying to get everyone to the point of being able to train specifically for their event in about six weeks.  If they have done a nice job in the summer then this phase is usually fun.  If they haven’t done a good job in the summer then it’s pretty miserable.  Luckily we’ve had a lot of fun so far.

The second part of preseason conditioning is trying to get the team to become more of a “team”.  We purposely have large groups of athletes running, jumping and lifting together so they can get to know each other.  We demand our team come together at championship time but it’s a whole lot easier if they can come together earlier in the year.  It’s very tough because we have over 60 athletes on each team and just getting to know most of your teammates is very time consuming.  So far we’ve mostly just focused on learning to practice together but we’ll have some other team building activities coming up in the last few weeks conditioning.

The newcomers, and especially the freshmen, are always the last to figure out the “team thing”.  They have a lot on their plate when they first get to campus but pretty soon we will be expecting them to get up to the level of their teammates in terms of teamwork and work ethic.

Like I’ve said before, so far so good, but it’s really too early to know what kind of team we have.

Coach Hetzendorf gets married!

For the second time in as many months, one of our coaches got married this weekend.  Our throws coach (and my former teammate at Kent State) John Hetzendorf got married to Amber McGown in a beautiful outdoor ceremony in Wichita.  Amber was a terrific distance runner for Cornell and Oregon and we have already decided to recruit their kids.

My job for their wedding was to play certain music before and during the wedding ceremony.  I’m not sure what Amber was thinking putting me in charge but luckily I didn’t mess it up and everything turned out great.  Even the forecast of rain stayed away – I’d say it was a good way to start for the Hetzendorf’s!

Congrats to John and Amber!

“D” Movies

This is the fourth 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 150 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.

Here is the list of my 15 “D” movies from best to worst (this is the most movies in any letter I own) …..

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

Dallas Buyers Club (2013, 117 min, R, 8.0, $55.1m) – You can hardly recognize Matthew McConaughey as a man diagnosed with AIDS in the early 1980’s.  He lost over 50 lbs for this role and the dedication to his craft was as inspirational as anything I’ve ever seen on film.  On top of that this is a great movie about a subject that is sometimes hard to talk about.

Django Unchained (2012, 165 min, R, 8.5, $425m) – Since Pulp Fiction I’ve always been a fan of Quentin Tarantino and this may be his best movie yet.  Brutal and funny with a completely different perspective on the issue of slavery, Django left a significant impression on me.  Jamie Foxx is one talented dude!

Dazed and Confused (1993, 102 min, R, 7.7, $7.9m) – One of Richard Linklater’s first movies and definitely one of his best.  It follows a bunch of high school kids on their last day of school.  It doesn’t really have a lot of drama but it’s a great snapshot of a time in life that is captured very well.  This was Matthew McConaughey’s first movie and what a great creepy guy he played!

Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, 95 min, PG, 8.5, $9.4m) – One of director Stanley Kubrick’s most well liked movies despite the longest name ever, haha.  It’s a dark comedy about an insane general who tries to start a nuclear war while a bunch of bumbling politicians try to stop it.  The more I watch it the more I like this crazy old movie.

Death Race (2008, 105 min, R, 6.4, $75.6m) – You won’t see a lot of action movies in my collection but I am a Jason Statham fan and I loved the original Death Race 2000 movie (see below).  They did a great job making this movie stylish and funny while keeping it entertaining throughout.  Although it’s not the same story as the original it’s a great new version of the old absurd concept of killing people with your car.

The Departed (2006, 151 min, R, 8.5, $289m) – What’s not to like here?  A great action/drama with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars directed by Martin Scorsese.  I wouldn’t say this movie is the most original movie in the world but its fun and entertaining the whole way.  Jack Nicholson as a bad guy always makes a movie better!

Donnie Darko (2001, 113 min, R, 8.1, $1.2m) – This is a really weird movie where a teenager (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) has visions of a bunny rabbit that makes him commit crimes.  Yes, I said it was a bit weird.  But it’s really a great movie when you sit down and give it a watch.  It is full of emotions and great acting for a movie with such a small budget.

Death Race 2000 (1975, 80 min, R, 6.2, $???) – The plot is ridiculous (a cross country race where you gain points by killing people with you car) and the acting is atrocious (one of Sylvester Stallone’s first movies). But somehow it caught on as a cult classic and luckily I saw it as a kid.  You don’t watch movies like this to comment on its artistic beauty.  You watch it with your buddies and laugh at how ridiculous it is.

Dan in Real Life (2007, 98 min, PG-13, 6.8, $68.3m) – I’m a big Steve Carrel fan and this movie shows off some of his non-comedic talent.  There’s a part where he’s singing “Let my love open the door” with Dane Cook that motivated me to learn how to play a guitar so I could show off to girls.

Don Jon (2013, 90 min, R, 6.7, $30.4m) – Written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, this movie takes a completely different perspective on a “love story”.  Even though the subject matter is a bit risqué, I definitely found this movie very entertaining and thought provoking.

Deliverance (1972, 110 min, R, 7.8, $???) – A white water rafting trip that goes to hell is a pretty good summary of this classic starring Burt Reynolds.  This was a very controversial film in the 1970’s and still makes some people uncomfortable viewing it today.  One of the more beautiful scenes, however, is their version of dueling banjos – great stuff!

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988, 110 min, PG, 7.3, $42m) – This is a funny little movie with Michael Caine and Steve Martin who try to continually top each other by being seeing who can be the best con man.  There are some really funny scenes and a twist ending that seems appropriate for the two scoundrels.

The Doors (1991, 140 min, R, 7.2, $34.4m) – A biopic movie of the popular and controversial band The Doors with lead singer Jim Morrison.  It was directed by Oliver Stone so it has a bunch of weird scenes where he tries to be very artsy.  It’s entertaining but a little bit too long.  I like it but I probably would like a documentary of the band just as well.

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982, 88 min, PG, 6.8, $18.1m) – This is an early Steve Martin film that was probably way ahead of it’s time.  It’s a parody of a detective story from the 1940’s or 1950’s where this movie is blended with scenes from older movies and stars like Cagney, Douglas, etc.  It probably needs to be watched more than once to appreciate it.  I’ve only seen it once.

The Da Vinci Code (2006, 149 min, PG-13, 6.5, $758m) – I always thought this was an interesting premise – clues in Da Vinci paintings that lead to religious mysteries that could shake the foundations of Christianity.  Unfortunately it never really connected with me but apparently it did with many others as it made over $700 million worldwide.

Whew that was a lot of movies!  Luckily next week I only have 4 “E” movies.

Go Shocks!

Why seniors are special for WSU, STC, and Gunga Galunga.

I had recently read this year was supposed to be colder than normal during the winter months and, if it’s true, we got an early dose of it in Wichita this weekend.

Some very chilly weather occurred during our weekly 6am Friday morning workout and with our weight room not available for another week or so (because of remodeling), we had an outdoor session.  It’s interesting how you can be cold and shivering when you start warming up but 30 minutes later be down to a t-shirt or tank top in 40 degree weather because you’re sweating so much.

I’ve had a few people ask me how our workouts are going and how the team looks.  My usual response is, “I think we’re pretty talented but we have a long way to go before we figure out if we’re any good.”

One of the reasons I say that is because we’re lacking in seniors.  This might be hard to believe but I have 28 athletes (men and women) in the sprint/hurdle group and only two seniors.  While this means we should have a heckuva group for the next few years, an area that I worry about is leadership.

Seniors bring a special kind of leadership to a team.  Seniors usually become less selfish and less interested in their own goals and more focused on the team than juniors and sophomores.  This type of thinking lends itself to terrific leadership over the course of their final year.  Those seniors become desperate to win championships and will do anything, including motivating their teammates, to win.

Don’t get me wrong, there are always great leaders from younger members of the team, but the desperation isn’t there because they know they still have at least another year remaining.  I was the same in college.  I was a captain at Kent State for my junior and senior years and I was a much better leader as a senior because all I wanted was to win a MAC title.

I’ve seen some of the younger members of my group show some early signs of good leadership but it is something I will be concerned about throughout the year.  It takes a lot more than putting together some talented athletes to win a Missouri Valley Conference track and field championship.

Shocker Track Club

I’m fortunate to be part of a non-profit organization called The Shocker Track Club (I’m the head coach of the Elite Team and on the board of directors).  This weekend the STC hosted their annual master’s and open meet at WSU’s Cessna Stadium.  There were almost 100 athletes in competition who were beyond their “prime athletic years” and it was awesome.

Athletes up to their 80’s from all around the country were there running, jumping and throwing on the same facility that hosts thousands of college and high school athletes each year.  I only had a small part in the hosting of the meet but it was definitely inspiring seeing how much spirit was in these tremendous athletes!  We had many of our new athletes work the meet as officials.  Hopefully they came away inspired as well!

For more information about our organization you can visit www.shockertrackclub.com.

“C” Movies

This is the third of a 24 part series (maybe) 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 150 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.

Here is the list of my 8 “C” movies from best to worst …..

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

Caddyshack (1980, 98 min, R, 7.4, $39.8m) – Most every male over the age of 30 has seen it and can recite at least a dozen quotes.  Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and Rodney Dangerfield are in the primes of their comedic lives, “so it’s got that going for it, which is nice.”

Coming to America (1988, 116 min, R, 6.9, $288.7m) – Seeing Eddie Murphy at his funniest when you’re in the eighth grade just isn’t fair.  I laughed the entire time and was amazed at the end when I realized he played an old, white Jewish man.  I know I’m the only person in Kansas who owns a Randy Watson World Tour T-shirt.

Clerks (1994, 92 min, R, 7.9, $3.1m) – The movie that made anyone think they could make a movie because Kevin Smith only spent $20k making it with a bunch of his friends.  You don’t watch this movie to see how well it was made; you watch it to be inspired about what can be done with so little.  And to laugh at crude jokes.

Crazy Heart (2009, 112 min, R, 7.3, $47.4m) – This is a terrific movie about the “over the hill” side of country music starring Jeff Bridges.  I’ve always been intrigued by what happens to talented people when their popularity is gone.  Colin Farrell is awesome as well.  Who knew an Irish guy could play a country music superstar?

CB4 (1993, 89 min, R 6.1, $17.9m) – Being from a totally white place growing up, I was intrigued with rap music in high school and this Chris Rock movie came out during my senior year.  It still holds up quite well and is one of Rock’s best movies.  So many funny quotes that can’t be spoken in this public forum.  Eddie Murphy’s brother Charlie was hilarious as Gusto!

 

Casa de mi Padre (2012, 84 min, R, 5.5, $8m) – Even though it didn’t really come off as successful, I am very proud of Will Ferrell for making a movie where he speaks Spanish the whole time and he knew wouldn’t make any money.  Most people won’t like this movie because they don’t realize it’s supposed to be bad.

The Campaign (2012, 85 min, R, 6.2, $104.9m) – Will Ferrell and Zach Galifinakis running against each other for public office.  I’m a sucker for good old fashioned dumb humor and this one is high in that category.  ”Because Filipino tilt-a-whirl operators are our nation’s backbone.”

Cold Mountain (2003, 154 min, R, 7.2, $173m) – One of those “gift” movies that I think I watched once when I got it.  It’s not really that bad of a story about the Civil War.  Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were at the height of their romance I believe. Easily forgettable.

Once again most of these (except the last one) earn high marks for me.  I own 15 “D” movies so next week look out for movies that start with Dazed, Death, and Django!

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!

Cross Country has begun, Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick, and my "A" movies

It seems like not long ago our track season was just completed (actually it wasn’t long ago with summer meets) and now we are already into our cross country season.  Our cross country team took some of their younger runners down to Tulsa Saturday to get some experience and see who might be contending for top-7 spots in bigger meets this year.  Overall the young Shocks ran pretty well and this week the whole team will run when we host our only home cross country meet of the year.

The JK Gold Classic, named for former Shocker head coach John “JK” Kornelson, is held at the RAFT in Augusta, Kansas.  The RAFT stands for Retired Area for Teachers and is an old sand green golf course.  That’s right – sand greens.

Once upon a time sand green golf courses outnumbered what we consider regular golf courses today, especially in the Midwest when both summer grass strains and irrigation systems were rare.  From the tee to green, golf on sand green courses is the same as regular golf.  On chips and short pitches players can be more aggressive since the greens are flat and the ball stops immediately.  Putting on the green is obviously a unique experience.  Next to every green are a roller and a rake.  Players smooth a path from their ball to the hole, and well, you just have to see it to believe it.

So if you’re a cross country fan or want to check out a sand green golf course, come out to the RAFT this Saturday morning!

This past week we had our newcomers a week early for practice to get a head start on their upperclassmen teammates.  It was a solid week of learning and training, hopefully some of these youngsters can make an immediate impact on our team.  Usually you can’t depend on freshmen to be significant contributors right away but I think we have a few that can make a difference.  We also have some transfers from both 2-year and 4-year colleges that need to be ready this year!

We will get the rest of the squad going this week with our pre-season conditioning.

NASCAR

I usually don’t get too opinionated on here but I thought I would give my two cents on a couple of items in another form of racing – NASCAR.  I feel that I have some credibility considering I grew up in the racing world and was a passionate racer from the age of 6 until I went to college.  I raced all around the Midwest on both asphalt road courses and dirt ovals, often competing against kids who are now in NASCAR and IndyCar.

When I heard about Tony Stewart hitting a fellow driver and killing him during a dirt track race, I felt terrible.  Unfortunately, deaths from motor sports have been part of its long history and usually no one is to blame when something bad happens.  Obviously this was different.  For those few of you who don’t know, Stewart and Kevin Hall had a wreck where Hall’s car wound up in the outside wall and Stewart raced on.  Hall, visibly upset that he was wrecked on purpose, got out of his car and walked down into the racing line, eventually being hit and killed by Stewart’s car on the next lap.

After this happened there were many, many people felt that Tony Stewart purposely ran over Hall, or hit him when he was trying to give him a scare.  These people wanted Stewart to be put in prison for murder.  While Tony Stewart is probably the only person who knows exactly what happened, let me explain something about what probably occurred.

First of all, a large portion of the blame (if not all) is to be put on Hall for walking down into the racing line.  I can tell you from experience when you are driving around a track, seeing a person standing in the middle of the track would immediately throw you off guard because you don’t look down and across the track when you are driving.  You look directly in front of you or to the side.  There was a car in front of Stewart who also almost ran into Hall right before Stewart did.  Next, they were driving on dirt.  If you are driving on dirt and turn left to avoid a wreck (or in this case a person), your back end of the car will slide out – and the rear right wheel is what hit Kevin Hall.  I imagine Stewart saw Hall at the last second, turned left and the right wheel slid out and got him.

For those of you who think Stewart should go away for murder I feel you are wrong.  I believe in innocent until being proved guilty.  Was Stewart at fault?  I don’t know and neither do you.  What I do know is Hall played a major role in his own death.  What percentage was his fault?  I don’t know that either but I would guess it was at least 95% his fault, maybe 100%.  If you think Hall wasn’t at fault then you don’t understand racing.

I generally try to listen to everyone’s opinion with an open mind but some people make it tough for me on this one.  If I don’t understand something – for instance like how to run electrical wiring in a house – then I won’t give my opinion.  Let’s all take that advice!

NASCAR part 2

While we are talking about NASCAR I want to mention another person who is a lightning rod for controversy – Danica Patrick.  She just finished sixth this weekend in Atlanta which was her career best.  What I find interesting about Danica is that the people who hate on her the most are women.  I just don’t get it, I would think women would be celebrating Danica and how she is busting through barriers that no woman has ever done.

Her naysayers give the opinion that she is only there because she’s pretty and can bring in money.  Once again these are very uneducated people.  Danica has been a good racer for many years and even finished in the top-5 in the season long point standings on the IndyCar circuit.  Yes she is very pretty and that helps her bring in more sponsorships for her racing endeavors but that is the case for every male driver in NASCAR too.  They all do things to try to bring in more money, sometimes when their on track results don’t deserve it.

But here’s another way I look at it.  What other sport do women compete head to head with men?  There have never been professional women athletes in any of the major men’s sports.  Some would say driving a car isn’t like playing football or basketball – and you’re right – but it isn’t much different than playing golf.  There have been women who have tried to play events on the PGA Tour with pretty much zero success.  And how many times did the women of our country criticize them for it?  Not much at all – they were rooting for them!

Will Danica ever win a NASCAR championship?  Probably not.  But it wouldn’t surprise me if she eventually won a race or made the NASCAR playoffs.  Hey everyone – she can drive.  She’s really good and is only in her second full year in the sport.  There have been lots of pretty women to try and do what she’s doing in the past few years and no one can hold a candle to Danica.  Growing up I raced against Sarah Fisher who eventually raced Indy Cars and now is an owner.  Sarah never beat me in a race and made it to Indy Car largely because she was a decent driver and, yes, a woman.  After years of not being successful she moved into ownership and is doing much better.  Danica is so much better than Sarah, and yes she happens to be very pretty too.  Oh well.

As I was watching Danica race side by side with Carl Edwards to the finish for a top-5 I just thought – ladies, don’t be jealous, you’d be proud of your daughter if she was so talented AND pretty.

Movies

I can’t believe this but I had several people message me saying they enjoyed my take on movies so I decided on a different slant this year.  I own a couple hundred movies and people are always borrowing them so I thought each week I’d say what movies I own by letter and rank them from my favorite to least favorite.

Here are my eight “A” movies that I own from favorite to least favorite:

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

Anchorman (2004, 94 min, PG-13, 7.3, $90.5m) – If you don’t like this movie then we “agree to disagree” and you are what Ron Burgundy thinks San Diego is Spanish for.

Animal House (1978, 109 min, R, 7.6, $141.6m) – The all-time classic college comedy and you have to give it props for having Historic Hayward Field in a scene!

Audition (1999, 115 min, R, 7.3, $131k) – The last 30 minutes of this Japanese horror film totally freaked me out and I love making other people watch it and see their reaction at the end.

Airplane! (1980, 88 min, PG, 7.8, $83.4m) – This is a heckuva list when this movie is fourth!  Awesome goofball comedy that paved the way for all those Naked Gun classics.  Roger, Roger.

Attack the Gas Station! (1999, 113 min, R, $??) – Korean comedy/drama about some hooligans who try to rob a gas station and things go wrong.  I’m pretty sure I’m the only person in Kansas who has ever seen this movie.

Any Given Sunday (1999, 162 min, R, 6.8, $100.2m) – I actually like this movie a lot but this list is impressive!  A little over the top about professional football but very entertaining.  Al Pacino’s inches speech always gets me fired up!

The Aristocrats (2005, 89 min, R, 6.4, $6.8m) – Not to be mistaken with the cartoon “Aristrocrats” which is funny when you find out what this movie is about.  It’s an 89 minute long dirty joke.  I love the fact this movie got made.

Against the Ropes (2004, 110 min, PG-13, 5.2, $6.6m) – Boxing movie that was part of one of those two-CD deals with Necessary Roughness.  Watched it once, not impressed.

FYI – I don’t own too many movies that I don’t like.  I’ll have 12 “B” movies next week.

Have a great week everyone!  Go Shocks!

Shocker Track is back on the attack!

It’s great to be back!

I’ve taken quite a while off from blogging and for some reason I’ve had several people ask when I was going to start it up again.  Who knew so many people were interested in what movies I watch on a weekly basis? (sarcasm)

So what has been going on since June 17?

I went to the USA Junior Nationals in Eugene, Oregon, with a couple of our athletes at the end of June/beginning of July.  Much of July was spent traveling and recruiting – we can have in person, off campus contact beginning July 1 for rising seniors.  I’ve tried to take some time off in August and took advantage of the cooler than normal Wichita summer by playing a lot of golf.

Now school is back in session and practice has already begun.

The beginning of the school year is mostly spent helping our new student-athletes get accustomed to college life.  They are put through a variety of orientation meetings that are both informative and I’m sure long and boring for most 18 year olds.  They are a necessary evil and after a week or so the new kids are getting into a routine.

Although the cross country team started practice right away, we give our track kids a couple weeks to get their feet wet academically.  This week we will get our newcomers started with some light conditioning activities to give them a head start on their upperclassmen teammates, who generally have a much better summer in terms of training.  It’s a great time to get the newcomers on their own and start to establish “the Shocker way” of training.

The wide-eyed enthusiasm of a freshman college athlete is always refreshing.  They are very eager to work hard and learn and our first week is usually one of the most energetic of the season.  We will get the rest of the team together next week and begin the long grind of the training – working gradual and consistent in search of our goals.

What are those goals?

We talk about our goals in the first team meeting of the year, which is on the first day our athletes are on campus – winning MVC Championships.  Last year we only won one championship (women’s outdoor) and finished second three other times.  I think most programs would be very happy with finishing in the top-2 in every track championship.   We are not.

It’s not a matter of being arrogant that we think we should win even more than we do, it’s an expectation from our athletic department and ourselves to be winning as much as possible.  All of our sports at Wichita State are at or near the top of the Missouri Valley Conference and we have to hold up our end of the bargain.  Track and Field in the MVC is very competitive and we face tough opponents in every championship we compete.

This brings me to cross country.

Our program will compete in six MVC Championships this year – men’s and women indoor and outdoor track and cross country – and every one of those championships are very important.  But winning the cross country championship might be the toughest for our program.

We’ve been very fortunate to have had a string of upper level women’s distance runners in the past decade (Desiraye Osburn, Mica Land, Kellyn Johnson, Tonya Nero, Aliphine Tuliamuk) and those ladies have carried our teams to MVC Cross Country titles and runner-up finishes.  At the moment we have some really talented young women but not a front runner like the ones listed above.  On top of that, the MVC is probably the deepest and most talented it’s ever been in the women’s distance races.  There’s another factor against us as well but I’ll get to that in a minute.

Our men’s cross country team has always been solid but unable to break through to win a championship and, like the women, we don’t have a major stud to lead the way right now.  We have lots of really good guys who may be champions in the coming years and have already had success on the track.  Coach Kirk Hunter has done a great job of building a solid group of runners that should be tough come championship time.

What’s the other factor that’s against us?  Scholarship limits.

Now we’re not the only team that has this issue so I’m sure other coaches feel the same way but how it hurts us especially in cross country is that we have 18 women’s scholarships and 12.6 men’s scholarships to spread across the entire track AND cross country teams.  And believe me we put plenty of scholarship into our track teams so that leaves Coach Hunter will less money than many of his counterparts that might focus on the distance events more.  This can especially be seen on the national level where teams like Oklahoma State, Colorado, Northern Arizona, etc. focus almost all of their efforts in distance running and in turn, their track teams suffer come winter and spring.

I’m not trying to make any excuses for us but I just want to educate some of those who didn’t realize we only have one scholarship pool for all these sports.  It’s been talked about limiting how much scholarship money a school can put into cross country but I doubt that will ever happen.  Coach Hunter would never make that excuse and he continues to do a great job building his team with the resources given.

Last year our men’s team finished sixth at the MVC Championships.  Not very good huh?  Well they were only 25 points from second!  That’s how close the competition is in this conference and it looks like this year will be the same.

The Shocker Cross Country team opens up the season this weekend in Tulsa for a low-key meet.  While no one outside of WSU thinks the Shockers will be a big factor in the MVC race, our humble and hard-working kids seem to have come in ready to turn over the form charts!

While the distance crew is churning out the miles on the dusty Wichita country roads, the sprinters I work with will be putting in some good work on the 100+ degree Cessna Stadium track.

Just a typical start to the season for the Shocker T&F/CC program!

Break time!

First of all I wanted to thank everyone for their supportive comments after my last blog about my dad.  I didn’t think it would get so many views but was very glad it did!  Thank you very much!

I’m gonna take a bit of a break from blogging for a while.  Most of my time in the next month will be spent recruiting and traveling so I won’t have a lot of WSU Track & Field stuff to report on.  I may do a blog about once a month or so – probably focused on how many new movies I’ve seen!  Haha.

Have a great summer everyone!

The world lost a great man today ... my dad.

So normally this blog would be mostly about track and field, and especially at this time of the year as we are in the middle of the NCAA Championships.  I wouldn’t normally write about something personal but it’s hard not to when you’ve just lost someone who is probably the most influential person in your life.

As I was leaving the track in Fayetteville, Arkansas, tonight (Saturday, May 31, 9:02pm) I got a phone call from my mom who told me dad had passed away after fighting a battle with several ailments including cancer.  We knew this day was coming as he had been put in Hospice Care recently.  My dad was 83 years old, he had lived a great life.  When I saw the phone ringing I knew what I was about to hear.

Our kids were in the middle of celebrating Ashley Petersen’s dramatic qualifying for the NCAA Championships by winning an 8-women jump-off in the High Jump.  It was definitely the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in that moment.  I’m not one to be real emotional so I didn’t say anything about it (with the exception to one of our coaches) so as not to dampen the euphoric mood of the team as we loaded up the bus and began our trip back to Wichita.

 Ever since I knew this day was coming I’ve mostly tried to not think of myself because, in reality, I am doing fine.  I’m healthy and am able to do anything I need.  I mostly just feel bad for my mom who just lost her husband of 51 years, and is all the way down in Florida dealing with this.  Luckily there is a large support group of friends that live in a community for retired couples there and she has plenty of people to help in this time of grief.  Also she is one of the strongest people I know.

The last time I visited my parents was Christmas and I had a very deep and meaningful conversation with my dad about death.  He knew it was coming and the peace he had during that conversation was remarkable.  Just so everyone knows - he was totally at peace with his life and everything he had accomplished.

I’m sure many of you who are reading this have lost a parent or loved one who has meant so much to you.  Obviously it’s never easy and no one knows how to act because it’s not something we go through very often.  I’ve coached lots of kids over the years that go through loss of loved ones.  Just this year one of my athletes lost his brother in a motorcycle accident.  The older you get the more frequent things like this happen.  I always tell kids that they are going to be ok and to be strong for the ones who are really suffering – like the husbands or wives who are going through the biggest struggles.

I know I will get a lot of those sentiments and I appreciate them.  But mostly I just wanted to share some of the things that my dad did for me throughout my life. Really and truly my parents have made me who I am with the foundation they gave me growing up.

One of the first memories I have as a child was going on long family vacations.  My mom and dad, along with me and my two older brothers would pile into a large vehicle and drive most of the way around the country taking in the sights and visiting places of significance.  I’m confident this is one of the reasons I enjoy traveling to this day.  When I was a kid I was always finding ways to amuse myself while we were on our way to our next adventure.  As I am typing this I am currently on another adventure, riding from Arkansas to Kansas with the Wichita State Track and Field team.  Kids are laughing, watching movies, playing cards, bonding – it’s wonderful!  I’ve been to 46 states and 6 countries – I have a long way to go to catch up to my parents list!

My life has mostly been consumed with sports and my parents got me into them at a very early age.  Our entire family has been involved in racing of different types throughout our lives and the beginnings of that were definitely with my dad.  He used to race hydroplanes before I was born and with his brothers and my grandfather invented a type of boat that was faster and lighter than had ever been made before.  They named the boat “Flying Debris” and it went on to win lots of races and challenge world record speeds during its lifetime.  Racing has always been a big part of the Wise family.

When I was very little I could remember going and watching my brothers race motorcycles.  When I was 5 years old my dad built me a homemade go-kart that I drove around our family farm.  Within the next year we bought a “racing” go-kart and I started playing my first team sport – baseball.

For 12 years my parents drove me around the Midwest racing go-karts.  For a little kid there isn’t anything much better than driving a fast go-kart every weekend and picking up trophies for the effort.  Dad was the mechanic, I was the driver – and it was a special time for the both of us.  There are several guys (and girls) that I raced against that are in Indy Car and Nascar today.

I think my dad really enjoyed the fact I was very into racing.  I couldn’t get enough of it as a kid and we would go to races all over the place.  We’d go to the Indianapolis 500, Eldora Speedway, drag strips, random dirt tracks – anywhere they were racing cars.  I don’t know if my dad realized it but I just wanted to be like him.  We could sit and watch races all day and both of us loved every minute of it.

As a very young child my dad would put me on his lap and let me hold the steering wheel as we went down the freeway.  When I got to about 12 years old my dad would let me drive while he sat in the passenger’s seat.  It was a different time back then.  I can’t imagine much of that going on today.  I can also remember when I got a little older – maybe 14 – on Friday nights when we would drive to a late go-kart race, my dad – tired from work – would fall asleep while I drove to the race.  I thought of it as my warmup for the race that night.  I didn’t think much of it then but the amount of trust he had in me at such a young age is an amazing feeling now.  There is a song Alan Jackson sang called “Daddy Let Me Drive” and always get goosebumps when I hear that song thinking about my dad.

Baseball was the other sport I played as a very young child and my dad was always around.  He didn’t necessarily coach but he was always at practice and spent endless evenings tossing a baseball back and forth in our front yard.  We all know the energy a young person has and I was no different as a kid, and my dad would always go out and play even though I knew he was tired from working at the phone company all day.  It reminds me of the movie “Field of Dreams” when Kevin Costner gets to play catch with his dad at the end of the movie.  That part always makes me think of my dad.

Basketball was the next sport I developed a major passion for.  I played for 8 years and thought that would be the sport I would go onto play in college.  Basketball is a big deal where I am from and I wanted to be the best I could be.  Every kid where I grew up had a basketball goal at their farm and we were no different.  But my dad had a large garage where he would work on cars, my go-kart, or other random projects that he enjoyed.  The other half of that large garage had an indoor basketball court in it that was big enough to shoot 3-pointers.  There were so many nights in m childhood where I was playing basketball by myself on one side of the garage while my dad was tinkering on the other side.

My dad was never a guy who showed anger or had a temper but he was a strong person who knew how to keep me in line when I needed it.  I remember in the fifth grade when I was on an independent basketball team and I was also a manager for the junior high and I decided on my own to skip practice so I could go to the junior high game.  I was probably more interested in looking at the junior high girls than basketball and my dad came to the game, picked me up and proceeded to explain what being committed to a team meant.  I arrived to practice late, got chewed out by the coach, and that was that – lesson learned.  I’m so glad I didn’t miss the whole practice and to this day that single incident helped me know how to never be bigger than the team – even if I was the best player.

The one team sport my dad got into in terms of coaching was soccer.  Organized soccer came to our community when I was a fifth grader and of course I wanted to play.  I played for four years and my dad coached me about half of the time and then I assisted him for another year when I was done playing.  I think soccer was a game my dad could easily enjoy because, more than most every sport, soccer is a team game and the glory goes to the team and not an individual who is garnering lots of stats.

Speaking of stats, if you know me very well you know I’m a numbers and stat geek.  When I was very young I would sit at my dad’s feet while he read the newspaper.  Once he was done with the sports page I would start looking at it and what drew me in were the baseball box scores and stats.  As a little kid I could figure batting averages and shooting percentages with ease and I’m certain that is the reason I was considered a sort of math phenom as a kid.  I was just trying to be like my dad.

He would keep our stats during basketball and baseball games.  Then when we bought a family video camera and every sporting event I ever did got put on tape – I would come home and stat the games myself.  One of the coolest things he ever did was when our high school basketball games would be on the radio is hook up the video camera so the play by play would record along with the game.  This was back in the early 1990’s and technology was not near as advanced as today.  I could go home after the game and it seemed like watching the game on TV!  Very cool.

My dad was very creative.  He was someone that enjoyed writing detailed journals about his passions and keeping track of important accomplishments through writing or video.  He had a small artistic side to him where I can remember dabbling with music from time to time.  People always tell me I’m a creative thinker in my job.  I write a blog to journal my track and field journeys.  I learned how to play guitar a few years ago.  Just trying to be like my dad.

Of course the sport I eventually fell in love with, and is still earning me paychecks today, was track and field.  My dad, who was born in 1930, also did track and field.  His best event was the pole vault and I actually have a picture from the late 1940’s of him clearing 10 feet with a straight bamboo pole.  I carried it around in my wallet for most of my track and field career.  My brother Jimmy also pole vaulted and my dad built him a homemade pole vault pit on our farm.  I wasn’t as much of a daredevil as my brother and luckily I was very fast as a kid so I just stuck with running and long jumping.  So my dad, with help from my mom, built a set of wooden starting blocks and a long jump pit full of sawdust from a local Amish farm.  I had everything I ever needed to start a track and field career!

My parents were the driving force behind raising money to build a track at my high school.  I never had a track to practice on and they wanted the future Eastern High School tracksters to be able to reach their potential and have somewhere to train every day that wasn’t a grass field or parking lot.  The amount of volunteer hours they put into that effort was incredible and hopefully we can do something to help the community realize how significant they were to the project.

Like a lot of parents, mine went to every sporting event I was ever in as a kid.  And when I moved onto college and starting traveling all around the country they would still make it to many meets.  I would often feel bad that they would drive hours and hours to only watch me run a 21 second 200 meter race.  But I think they would usually make it an adventure and maybe see places around our country they hadn’t been to or hadn’t been to in a long time.

My dad tried his best to keep up on the teams I’ve coached in the past 16 years.  He seemed especially interested in our teams at Wichita State and most every phone call we had ended up talking about our team or some of the kids that I coach.  I had a particularly frustrating situation this year with some athletes in my group and I used my dad as an example of being unselfish in tough situations for them.  It was just over a month ago and he wasn’t able to walk anymore.  The first thing that was said when we started talking that day was he asked how my sprinters were doing.  In a time of significant health issues he was still being unselfish and asking how I was doing.  The situation eventually worked itself out and we ended up winning a championship because of our teamwork and unselfishness in the end.  I give a part of the credit to my dad and him giving me an avenue for communicating some motivation to my team.

There are so many stories and good memories I can recall about my dad that could be used as examples of what kind of person he was.  Here are two short ones that I think of often.

The first one was in 1997.  I grew up on a farm in a very rural part of Southern Ohio and I was pretty insulated from much of the world until I went to college.  I was always a pretty open minded person but not until I got to Kent State did my eyes open up to what the world really had to offer.  Like most guys that age I was consumed with two things: sports and girls.  And in 1997 I started dating a girl from Jamaica – yes she was black!  It seems pretty crazy to me now, but at that point of my life – and coming from where I came from – that was a very big deal.  Small town, star athlete, lots of gossip!  I remember bringing up who I was dating on my Christmas visit to my parents to see what kind of reaction I’d get.  By the end of the conversation my dad had already gotten out an atlas and was asking where she lived.  By the end of the night he was flying to Jamaica on his computer flight simulator.  I always had total support for anything I did.

The second story goes back to when I was a freshman in high school.  I got accused of cheating on a test by one of my teachers – and to this day I promise I wasn’t cheating – and I was going to have to have Saturday school for kids that get in trouble.  I also had a track meet that day that now I would have to miss.  Growing up I never questioned an authority figure so even though I knew I hadn’t cheated I was still in trouble and I knew when I got home and told my parents I would be in more trouble.  After telling them my side of the story my dad said I needed to take their punishment and sometimes things like this happen in life that we can’t control.  He wasn’t happy with it but he believed what I said.  So that Saturday I went to the school to put in my time and when my dad picked me up he asked what I had learned.  I told him I needed to make sure not to put myself in situations that could be interpreted like that ever again and that it really sucked to go to Saturday school.  He seemed to be satisfied with this and pulled out a bag of clothes and my track spikes.  He hustled me over to the meet and even though I missed the beginning I was able to run the last few events and put the whole thing behind me by the end of the day.

To this day whenever any of my athletes do something to get in trouble I try to listen to them and their side of the story first.  I want them to know I believe in them, just like my dad did for me.  I’m sure athletes have lied to me from time to time – as I’m sure I told a few fibs to my parents – but the belief my dad always had in me gave me a level of confidence that I could accomplish just about anything I wanted in life but still knowing he was there to keep me in line if need be.  And I try very hard to pass that on to anyone I work with on a daily basis.  I’m not as good at it as my dad but he gave me a great example to learn from and follow.

If you’ve made it this far in this blog then you probably know me or my dad very well.  I don’t know many people that ever met my dad and didn’t think of him in the highest of terms.  I’ve got so many terrific memories of my dad and the great life he lived so I am doing fine with all this.  If you feel the need to reach out to someone please reach out to my mom who is now without her husband of 51 years and is living alone for the first time in 72 years.  We will not be having any kind of public service – that’s not the way my dad wanted it.  He will have his ashes spread out into the Gulf of Mexico from a sail boat.

Something like that sounds pretty good to me.  Thank you dad for another understated example on how to live our lives so well.