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

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

Track

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

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

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

Recruiting

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

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

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

Cross Country

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

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

Speaking of Cross Country

 

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

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

Shocker Basketball

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

“L” Movies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next Week

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

Until then, thanks for reading and Go Shocks!

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

Track

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

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

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

Let’s take a look at our indoor schedule:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My alma mater is really bad at football

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

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

But why am I talking about this?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“K” Movies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next week

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

Until then thanks for reading and Go Shocks!

MVC Cross Country and Jaws vs The Jerk

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

MVC Cross Country

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

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

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

“J” Movies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next week

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

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

MVC Cross Country is this week, Throws Pentathlon, KC Royals and a couple of foreign "I" films

It’s been a busy week with all kinds of stuff going on so here’s the recap …

Track

In my world, which is the sprint/hurdle group, we had our toughest week of practice so far this fall.  Basically I killed them this week.  What does a tough week of training for a sprinter look like?  Here’s the basic outline for what we did:

Monday – all kinds of sprinting activities (and hurdling for the hurdlers), plyometrics and weights.

Tuesday – speed endurance (this only takes about an hour but it’s the most exhausting workout of the week).

Wednesday – our easy day, hurdle mobility, a couple miles to loosen the legs, stadium runs, and weights.

Thursday – more sprinting (and hurdling) as well as a hill workout.

Friday – hurdle mobility, plyometrics and weights.

Saturday – we got up early in the morning and did 10x200m (for most of the group) with one minute rest.

Sunday – I told them to take the day off!

Now maybe for some people that might not seem like a ton of stuff but understand the intensity level at which most of this work gets done for a sprinter.  I also left most of the details out and the devil is always in the details.  Needless to say my group probably hates me right now but that’s ok, hopefully they love me when the championship time comes around!

 MVC Cross Country Championships

This is a big week for our program as our cross country team will head to Carbondale, Illinois (Southern Illinois University), for the MVC Championships.  This year’s meet looks to be very close for both the men and women.

Historically we’ve had very good women’s cross country, winning a string of five straight MVC titles from 2006-2010, but after a couple a second place finishes in 2011 and 2012 our young ladies group fell to fifth last year.  This year’s group is a year older and running much better so a higher finish looks very possible.  Our men haven’t won a MVC title since 1987 but a third place finish a couple years ago laid the foundation for the men’s team we have today.  The guys probably would’ve liked to have run better at pre-nationals but we think they are much better than what they showed.  It’s a fun group to watch work together and I’m excited to make the trip to Illinois for the meet!

The races happen Saturday morning.  If you can’t make it in person make sure to check GoShockers.com for the results!

Throws Pentathlon

Our throwers were the center of attention this weekend as they held their annual Throws Pentathlon meet at Wichita State.  Coach Hetzendorf started this meet a few years ago as a fun way to do some testing and now it’s turned into an actual meet with some great performances!  I was able to watch most of the competition and saw several personal bests – and for that to happen in October shows our throws group is ready to do big things in 2015!  Good job Dorf!

Recruiting

On top of practice, MVC Cross Country and the Throws Pentathlon, we are all very busy  with recruiting.  The NCAA changed the recruiting calendar this year for track and field to include an early mid-November two-week period for signing.  Because of this, more athletes are visiting in the months of October and November so they can decide where to go to college.  I have a dry erase calendar in my office that shows all kinds of important dates as well as all of our official visits in RED.  My calendar is full of RED!  It will be crazy seeing how many recruits will be around Cessna Stadium in the coming weeks – hopefully we will convince our fair share to commit to Wichita State!

Speaking of that, we got our first commitment recently and I was fortunate enough for it to be one of the athletes I’ve been recruiting.  Because of NCAA rules I can’t comment in this blog about it specifically but I can say we are excited how our recruiting is going and the future of Shocker Track & Field is bright!

Kansas City Royals

Believe it or not with all that is going on I had a free day (well some free hours) so I went up to Kansas City to take in the hysteria that is the Kansas City Royals fans.  Being from a smaller market myself (Cincinnati), I can appreciate not having this opportunity very often.  The last time the Royals were in the World Series was 1985.  I remember being in high school when the Reds were in the World Series in 1990 and how fun it was to be living in the area.  Since they aren’t playing the Reds I will be pulling for the Royals to take the crown!

There were a lot of angry Royals fans after the loss Saturday night.  Memo to all Royals fans: it’s been 29 years since the last time you were here, enjoy it!

“I” Movies

This is the ninth 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 164 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 only have two “I” movies and they are both foreign films so here is the short list from best to worst …..

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

In Bruges (2008, 107 min, R, 8.0, $33.3m) – I can’t remember how I stumbled upon this movie but it is one of my all-time favorites.  It stars Colin Farrell as a hitman who is dealing with his personal demons when a job goes wrong.  It’s darkly funny and very well put together (Bruges is a city in Belgium by the way).  This is the movie that I became a big Colin Farrell fan as I think he is a very good actor.  The English director Martin McDonagh recently did a movie called “Seven Psychopaths” that also starred Farrell.  If you haven’t heard of In Bruges, don’t worry its well worth your 107 minutes!

The Idiots (1998, 117 min, R, 6.9, $??) – Last week when I said I’d give anyone a million dollars if they could guess the two “I” movies I own it was because I knew no one would get this one.  Thanks for those of you who tried, luckily my million dollars are still safe, haha!  A couple years ago I got into a phase of wanting to buy and watch weird movies (I guess I was bored with regular movies) so I found this one online and it’s about as weird as it gets!  It was part of a series of experimental movies made in Denmark in the late 1990’s.  The plot of this movie is that a group of people gather to basically act mentally handicapped in social situations to see what would happen.  Then it went further to their home lives and that’s when it got really weird.  I can’t say I enjoyed this movie although I did laugh several times and it made me think when it was over so I would say I was entertained.  I’m pretty confident I’m the only person in Kansas who owns this movie!

Next week

Obviously I will be back to talk about how our cross country teams did at the MVC Championships as well as letting you know if my group still hates me!  I’ve got 5 “J” movies coming next week including one about a really mean shark and another one about a jerk!

Until then thanks for reading and Go Shocks!!!

Training starts to get tough, Bolt hit 285 golf shots, and a pimp inspires us all

Track

This past week we started our next phase of training after our initial conditioning phase we finished last week.  For us it lines up with our annual Fall Break where WSU students get a couple days off around the mid-term time.  We didn’t have a Fall Break at Kent State (where I went to school) so this was new to me when I started working at WSU.  We use it to give the athletes a few days off and hopefully return to practice refreshed and ready for a new level of training.

Taking a few days off is just as important as trying to push yourself to the limit every day.  It’s impossible for coaches to know when an athlete is most susceptible for injury but it’s much more likely to happen if they don’t take a break here and there.  Our athletes want to be ready right NOW but sometimes they (and we) forget it’s most important to have them ready for the championship portion of the schedule in late February and then May (and beyond).

So after a few days off and a day at the golf course supporting Coach Bolt (see section below), we got back at it on Thursday with our first speed endurance workout of the year.  No matter how good of shape you‘re in, nothing can prepare you for the first time your body fills up with lactic acid from long and intense sprints of 100-500 meters.  I can still remember the first time I did 500-300-300-200-200 with 6 minutes rest.  I laid on the track for what seemed like an hour afterwards wondering what truck had just run me over.  I’m sure I went back to the dorm afterwards and fell asleep immediately.  This is what you have to go through to become a good long sprinter.  Luckily, your body begins to adjust to these types of workouts over time and the recovery process isn’t nearly as bad the next few times.  For a good long sprinter (200/400) these workouts are the “bread and butter” of their training.  It’s the most specific work they will get in preparation for those events.

Thursday was also the first day to get a little event work in so if you had stopped by the track it would’ve looked like a 3-ring circus with hurdles, long jump, pole vault, high jump, sprinting, and throwing all going on at the same time.  Even though it probably seems chaotic to the outside viewer, I usually find myself smiling because I know the indoor season isn’t too far away!

Cross Country Pre-Nationals

Coach Hunter took the cross country squad out to Terre Haute, Indiana, for their toughest challenge of the season so far – the Pre-National Invitational.  Run on the same course as this year’s NCAA Championships it brought together over 100 teams, many of which are ranked in the top-25.  Both of our teams were placed into the “Blue” race, which is reserved for the top teams in the meet.  There were around 40-50 teams in the Blue race and our men placed 31st while our women finished 37th.

Coach Hunter was a little disappointed in the overall placing but felt confident afterwards that our team would be ready in two weeks.  He has done a great job getting this group to believe they can achieve at a high level and I’m sure this little hiccup won’t be a major issue when we’re in Carbondale, Illinois, for the MVC Championships.

Bolt’s 57 hole golf-a-thon

Last week I mentioned Coach Rainbolt would be walking 57 holes of golf (he’s turning 57 this year) to try to raise some money for Shocker T&F.  Well he was able to accomplish the feat and it was a very enjoyable day.  Our entire team of 130 athletes made their way out to Willowbend County Club in shifts to be the “gallery” for the event that began at 7:30am and ended around 5:30pm.  It took Bolt 285 shots to play 57 holes and he said he felt a lot better afterwards than he did compared to his crazy 50k and 55k jog-a-thons.  So far we have raised around $8000 for our program and we expect it will eventually be over 10k.  Thank you to everyone who has donated – it will go a long way towards supporting our great Shocker athletes!

Tallgrass Film Festival

Believe it or not Wichita is the home to a great artistic culture.  Besides things like museums and live music, one of the biggest passions for people in this community is movies.  In 2003, the Tallgrass Film Association began the Tallgrass Film Festival with the motto being “stubbornly independent”.  It is much like the famous film festivals you may have heard about like Cannes and Sundance.  There are over 200 films being shown in Wichita this weekend and I always try to get out and see a few of these great shows.

I was able to get out to a couple of films this weekend and my favorite was a collection of short films made by Kansans or films about the state of Kansas.  There isn’t anywhere else you would be able to see such unique and quality cinema except a festival like this.  Thanks Tallgrass!

“H” Movies

This is the eighth 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 164 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 only have 5 “H” movies but they are all very good so here is the list from best to worst …..

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

Hustle & Flow (2005, 116 min, R, 7.4, $23.5m) – It’s hard to imagine a movie about a pimp who tries to become a successful rapper is one of my all-time favorite movies – but it is!  Terrance Howard is incredible as Djay, the down on his luck pimp who is desperately trying to earn a legitimate living but can’t quite turn the corner.  One of the most fascinating things about this movie is that it was written and directed by a white guy (Craig Brewer).  This was a low budget movie that was an obvious labor of love for Brewer.  If you haven’t seen it, make sure to find a copy soon.  “Everybody gotta have a dream.”

The Hurt Locker (2008, 131 min, R, 7.6, $49.2m) – Jeremy Renner stars as a Sergeant in the Iraq War who is assigned to a bomb squad and ruffles his fellow mates with his wild ways to disarm bombs.  This movie won all kinds of award including best picture of 2008 and it’s easy to see why.  Brutally honest and seemingly realistic, it will open your eyes as to why people do this sort of job and want to go back again and again even in the most harsh and dangerous situations.  I love this movie and the final scene with Renner marching off the plane will give you goosebumps, not knowing if it’s a good or bad thing.

He Got Game (1998, 136 min, R, 6.9, 21.5m) – This Spike Lee movie stars Denzel Washington as the father of the best high school basketball player in the nation (played by NBA star Ray Allen).  As a young athlete when this came out I was totally engaged in the behind the scenes recruiting as well as the drama of how all this affects a young, talented person.  It’s not a perfect movie but I think it’s one of Spike Lee’s best.

Hard Candy (2005, 104 min, R, 7.2, $7m) – This was one of the early Ellen Page movies that showed her immense talent.  She played a teenager who turns the table on a pedophile in his own home.  I don’t want to give away what happens in this movie because it’s some of the most intense stuff you will see but needless to say any male who watches it will wince while making sure his manhood is still in place.  This is a great little movie that basically only has 2 characters.

Higher Learning (1995, 127 min, R, 6.4, 38.2m) – This was one of John Singleton’s follow ups after his success with Boyz in the Hood.  The main reason I bought this movie was because the lead character, played by Omar Epps, is a college track athlete and how many movies that involve college track are out there?  Not many!  Unfortunately, most of this movie isn’t about track, it’s mostly about racism and how young people are influenced on a college campus.  I feel much of the movie is blown out of proportion but it’s still entertaining nonetheless.

Next week

We are fully back to practice so I’ll report on that as well as talking about our Intersquad Draft that takes place Wednesday night.  I only own two “I” movies and if you can guess them both I will give you a million dollars.

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

Fall testing results, birthdays, and Clint Eastwood is a bad dude

It was such a great week that this blog wasn’t able to be completed until Monday.  Sunday was used to nap, eat and watch the Bengals miss a chip shot field goal to win the game.  Well I guess the entire week wasn’t perfect.

Fall testing and what it means for the Shockers

On Wednesday and Thursday we did our annual fall training with our sprinters, jumpers, vaulters, hurdlers, and multi’s.  I explained what our fall testing was last week so check out that blog if you need the background info.  A lot of people have asked me how I thought our fall testing went and I would say it went pretty well with a few exceptions, but all it really means is that we’ve done a good job of training during the summer and first six weeks of practice.  They don’t give out any championships in October.

Without getting into crazy detail about who did what this is what I feel like our fall testing told us:  Our men are very good and our women are talented and young.

First for the men, we had very good testing in our 30m fly’s.  I tend to lean towards this test as one of the most important of the seven tests we do and, as a group, our guys performed very well.  And it wasn’t just the sprinters.  We had some very good 30m times from our jumpers, hurdlers and multi’s too.  Where did we not test very well?  Probably some of the second day plyometrics for my sprint group, which isn’t uncommon, but it does tell me we have to concentrate on our explosive actions during our next phase of training.  But like I said I think our coaches were very happy with the men – so far so good.

It’s a little different for our women although not in a bad way.  We have a lot of newcomers to the sprint group this year and we’ll need to be patient although several of those newcomers showed flashes of great potential.  When you have a younger group some of the things in testing seem pretty foreign to them (like overhead back shot put throw or hang clean) and they don’t perform like they will one year from now.  I think this group can be good but they will take longer to come around than the guys.  I’m sure some of our early season meets will be inconsistent but I do believe this group will be scoring good points when it counts at the MVC Championships.  On top of having that young group, we have a few of our studs that we held out of testing for precautionary reasons with aches and pains.  I like this group – they will be fun to coach and watch grow over the next 7 months.

Someone turned the big 4-0

Even though I have really enjoyed my 30’s I couldn’t hold back the inevitability of turning 40 on Saturday.  I got a lot of the “do you feel older now” type questions and this is what I tell folks:  I feel great, my 30’s were much better than my 20’s so I am assuming that my 40’s will be better than my 30’s.  And I totally believe that!  I think the experience you gain with age outperforms the struggle you might start to have physically and if you can pay a little bit of attention to your health you should feel pretty good by 40.  Now the other side of that is I’m not married and don’t have any kids so the level of stress in my life is probably lower than most, so you tell me?  I’m excited for the next decade and hopefully I can say the same when I turn 50!

As for the weekend, me and fellow coach (and new 40 year old) Pat Wilson hosted a gathering of friends.  It was a great time and I wanted to thank everyone who wished me well in my new old age!

Someone else is having a birthday too and he might be crazy

Our head coach Steve Rainbolt is turning 57 soon.  When Bolt has a birthday he doesn’t mess around.  Some of you may remember when he turned 50 he did a one-man 50k jog-a-thon (about 31 miles) on our indoor track for a WSU Track and Field fundraiser.  Five years later he did 55k (34 miles) on our outdoor track for the same reason.  After that 55k, which he admitted he hadn’t prepared well for, he said he’ll never do that again (it took over 9 hours).  So this year Bolt, an avid golfer, has decided to play 57 holes of golf in one day for another fundraiser.

While that is a lot of golf most people might not think of it as a huge challenge, but here’s the tough part – Bolt will walk the entire way which will end up being around 24 miles.  There is only about 12 hours of daylight so he will need to hustle.  If anyone is around Willowbend Country Club on Wednesday, stop and walk nine holes with Bolt – it should be an interesting event!

“G” Movies

This is the seventh 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 159 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.

For some reason I don’t own many movies that begin with G so here is the short list from best to worst …..

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

Gran Torino (2008, 116 min, R, 8.2, $269m) – I’ve grown up watching Clint Eastwood in movies like Dirty Harry, Heartbreak Ridge, and Million Dollar Baby and this may be one of my favorites. Some like to think this character might be and retired version of Dirty Harry.  It’s classic Eastwood, darkly funny and dramatic throughout.  I doubt he will make many more movies so it’s great to see him act and direct such a great movie at the age of 78!  “Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn’t mess with?  That’s me.”

The Grudge (2004, 92 min, PG-13, 5.8, $187m) – This is the American remake of the original Japanese movie Ju-on: The Grudge.  I’ve actually seen both movies and it gives an interesting perspective on what the differences are in what Japan likes and what Hollywood thinks we like.  Both were directed by Takashi Shimizu and the Japanese version is a little more subtle and realistic while the American version is more of a horror movie.  Both are well made and, in some places, identical shot for shot.  If you’re a horror fan you can’t go wrong either way but I like the original a little more.

Next week

I’ll be talking about our first week of “specific preparation” as well as letting you know how Coach Rainbolt’s golf-a-thon went.  I have five movies that begin with H – and all of them are very interesting and unique!

Until then … 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!