Category Archives: Sports

Deadspin on Wake’s Skinner and Swank

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Deadspin says the following about Wake Forest’s football heroes:

3. Riley Skinner and Sam Swank are Wake Forest football stars.
They also have the greatest gay porn names this side of Vince Young.
What’s the over/under on number of inappropriate posters that are
getting confiscated at rival ACC stadiums connected to Skinner’s naked photos?
Better question, name a BCS team that you would eliminate from
contention to win the ACC this year. There isn’t one. Vanderbilt would
have a chance to win the ACC this year. Seriously, they would.

I really have been surprised that the story of Skinner sending naked pics of himself to some girls and those pictures making it online never seemed to get any attention.  Honestly, I like the kid’s play at QB and I shudder to think of the stupid things I’d have done if the web was around when I was in school so I can’t say that he’s done anything dumber than I might have, but the fact of the matter is that Skinner is the starting QB of a top-20 football team and yet no one has said much about his, uh, image being spread all over the web.  Normally this kind of story would get some attention, especially in ACC markets, but I’ve seen next to nothing.  I posted about it in January when someone sent me the link to the original Deadspin story, and figured I’d eventually see something about it in the paper, but I didn’t.  I think one of the local TV stations did a bit on the story, but I’m not sure.

BTW, it’s not like the story is a state secret.  If you Google "Riley Skinner" the second result is a blog for NC State fans and the post about Skinner has 58 comments.  Me thinks that when Wake hits the road there’s gonna be some heckling from the stands. 

NCAA Clueless

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It seems the NCAA has a policy on journalists blogging from the body’s sanctioned events.  In some instances journalists have been booted from the press box for violating the policy:

This isn’t the first time the NCAA has cracked down on blogging. In
June 2007, Brian Bennett of the Louisville Courier-Journal was thrown
out of the press box for posting live updates on a Louisville-Oklahoma
State baseball game. The NCAA said in a memo to reporters that "no blog
entries are permitted between the first pitch and the final out of each
game." Scott Bearby, an associate general counsel for the NCAA, told the New York Times
that the governing body had a right to protect the contracts it
establishes with television networks and its own Internet providers.

According to the article the policy "allows for only five blog entries per half, one at halftime and two in an overtime period of football and basketball games."  This is incredibly stupid on so many levels, but to start with let’s state the obvious:

  • People are going to live blog an event, whether or not its from the press box.  The NCAA apparently missed the whole "citizen journalism" memo.
  • The way traditional media are bleeding jobs the NCAA should be grateful for any coverage they’re getting.
  • I don’t care how good the blogger is, reading about the action won’t hold a candle to actually watching the game or listening to it on the radio. We don’t watch the games merely to get the scores, we watch to see how the scores come about.
  • How is a blogger interfering with the official "internet providers"?  If a blogger can replicate what an "internet provider" is providing then the NCAA has some seriously crappy contracts.

The NCAA is exhibiting the same kind of behavior I’ve seen with some companies. They have this whole concept of image control and traditional media management that is being completely blown out of the water by the developments of the last 5-10 years.  They don’t seem to realize that in today’s media environment it is impossible to control the message and that rather than trying to micro-manage the messengers they should concentrate on creating an environment that prompts the messengers to speak positively of them in their own way.

To use the NCAA case as an example I’d say they’d be better served if they embraced the bloggers.  Some ideas:

  • Have a box on the official "internet providers" streaming video that shows RSS feeds of all the bloggers covering the event.  So if it’s a football game the viewer could see what the bloggers are writing next to the window that’s showing the streaming video feed (if that’s what it is).  This would allow the fans at home to see what others are saying and compare it to what they’re seeing with their own eyes.
  • Have the producers of the broadcasts monitor the feeds and react to interesting items on the air.  They already do that with emailed questions that the on air analysts answer, so why not use the feeds for on air fodder?  Think about it for a second and you realize that the "official" media would be getting extra content for nothing.  Why would they not want that?
  • Easy objection to the above: What if the bloggers are saying something negative about the commentators or the player?  Well, it’s going to be said/written anyway and you might as well give your official providers a chance to respond in their own defense.  And hey, nothing jacks ratings like a little controversy.

Hat tip to John Robinson for the link to the story.

The Glamor of Coaching

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Coachjondragginggearb4game2
That picture to the left is me trudging out to my daughter’s team’s second game last Saturday.  I can’t complain too much since my buddy Mac, the head coach, usually ends up doing the lugging since most of it comes from his car.  Still, can you believe we pay for this pleasure?

BTW, our girls went 1-2 in the Twin City Classic tournament.  About half of our team is new and we only had four official practices before the tournament so we have a lot of learning to do.  Next chance will be this coming weekend in the Furniture City Classic in High Point.

Pedal Powered Tennis Ball Launcher

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Some smart people invented a tennis ball launcher that’s powered by pedaling a bicycle.  This speaks to me on so many levels, including my love of tennis, the great deal of time I’ve spent on stationary bikes recently and my love of gadgetry (although I myself struggle to even put together IKEA furniture).  Readers of this blog may remember that I partially tore my LCL about six weeks ago and part of my rehab is pedaling my butt off on a stationary bike.  Well with this gadget I could satisfy my rehab requirements while getting back on the tennis court sooner than planned.  If only I had even an ounce of engineering acumen I’d give this a go.  Here’s the video:


Pedal Powered Tennis – Ball Launcher – video powered by Metacafe

Behold the Power of Email

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A couple of days ago I wrote about an email I’d received concerning the decision by the county to eliminate all but one position at the Tanglewood Tennis Center.  Well, lots of other people received that same email and forwarded it to others, and many in that larger universe of people decided to let the powers that be know that they thought it a bad decision.  That resulted in the following email hitting my inbox last night:

Hi Everyone~
 
Thank you just seems so small in comparison to the
overwelming outcry of support that you have given to keep our Tanglewood
Community Tennis Center Family intact and running as usual! I just received a
phone call from Mr. Sanders-Pratt (Assistant County Manager) that they are going
to leave me in my current position at Tanglewood Community Tennis Center! All of
the programs that you know, love and support will continue through the season
with the State Combo Tournament in November!
 
I have heard through grapevines that some are planning
to attend Monday Night’s Commissioner Meeting. You all have gone to such major
lengths for us and I am so thankful to you all for that to be unnecessary now!
 
All of this could not have been acheived without this
"Tennis Community Family"! Gordon and I cannot thank you enough! It has just
been so overwelming and amazing to see so many people that came together as one
big tennis team to win this match!
 
I do not know how far all of these emails have reached.
I am sending this to the same ones that I sent to before in hopes that you will
contact those that you have to help spread this great news!
 
Again, Gordon and I cannot believe the overwelming
support everyone has shown for us! We will never forget all the friends we
truely have in all of the tennis community!
 
~Gordon, Angie, Samantha and Ryan~

Looks like the lights will stay on for at least the near future.

Personally I don’t think it was the "noise" alone that caused the county folks to reconsider their decision.  It might have enlightened them to the fact that more people use the tennis facilities than they thought, but that alone wouldn’t have done it.  After all, there are lots of public courts in Forsyth County that require no full time staff and are available to all players.  I’m thinking that having multiple people point out the potential revenue lost from events like the BMW Combo is what tipped the scales and helped them realize that cutting a couple of positions would cost more than it would save.

Budget Cuts Hit Tanglewood

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Those of you who live here in Forsyth County, NC probably have heard that the board of commissioners asked those working in the government to make cuts in order to keep from having to raise taxes.  Of course they claim that they’re doing this in our tough economic times because it just ain’t right to ask struggling citizens to pay more taxes, but if you believe that I have some swampland in Florida to sell you.  Whatever.  The cuts have to be made somewhere and at Tanglewood at least one of the cuts they are making is in the department that manages the tennis facility, pool and Mallard Lake.  Here’s text from an email sent to the community of tennis players by one of the folks affected by the cuts:

Hi Everyone~
 
     First of all, let me start by saying how much all of you all have
meant to Gordon and I at Tanglewood Community Tennis Center! I have been here
for 16 years, Gordon 17 and Ryan 3 years. We have had the privilege to meet so
many incredible people. Thank you for such an amazing experience! You all have
taught me so much about myself including my strengths, my weaknesses and have
helped me to gain the confidence I need to move forward from here. I will
treasure this experience and the friendships I have made forever! It is with a
heavy heart and much sadness that it looks like I will be leaving you all at
Tanglewood Community Tennis Center.
 
     With that being said, I am not leaving Tanglewood Tennis by my own
will. Tanglewood Community Tennis Center as you know it will no longer exist. I
was told today that my job and Ryan’s job is being eliminated as of June 30th. I
have been offered a library position within the County as a way to not totally
be out of a job. At this point I am considering all options and trying to move
forward from here. This is especially hard for us with our budget numbers being
better than ever. Our department, Tennis and Mallard Lake (Pool comes separate),
is up a record 34% with the next highest being golf at 7%. We have also lowered
expenses by $20,000.00. If we had been doing bad financially or had made some
big mistakes along the road, then this elimination would not be as devastating
as it is to us now. The County just said that it was due to budget cuts.
 
     So what does this mean for you? There are many things still to be
sorted out since this all came to us today. You all have supported this facility
all through the years and helped to make it the success that it is – thank you
for that! We will still try to provide the services that you have come to love
and expect but we will have to be creative with that considering we only will
have one full time staff member and no part-time or seasonal help. With only
Gordon left to manage on his own: tennis, pool and lake, the scope of our
leagues, programs, tournaments and special events will more than likely no
longer exist or will only be able to be offered on a limited basis. We are so
sorry for this for you all have supported and grown these programs for so long.
We are who we are because of you! We will finish up this session of the men’s
and women’s league but will no longer be offering any new ones until we see what
the realm of possibility will be.
 
     As for the USTA Mixed and Combo leagues, we will still have the USTA
Mixed kick-off on June 13-15th weekend, but this will more than likely be our
last "hoo-rah"! Matches will more than likely be played at Hanes Park and
Visions. It appears we will not have the staff to cater for it at Tanglewood.
 
    We were suppose to have the BMW State Combo Tournament here again for a
record 4th year! However, with the loss of my position at Tanglewood, at this
point, I do not see how this will be possible. There was a good possibility of
being awarded this tournament for even more years, but that doesn’t seem likely
now either. This tournament brings in 2000 players with $2 to $3 million being
brought in to our community over one weekend through hotels, restaurants, etc.
Thank you to all those who volunteered to make this event such a success for our
community!
 
     In closing, Gordon, Ryan and myself THANK YOU for your support,
friendships and believing in us as a team all these years. Gordon will still be
at Tanglewood Community Tennis Center to try and carry on as best he can! We
have put too much of our hearts, lives and total commitment into this facility
to see it fail now! We are not asking you to do anything further, but if you
wish to express your supporting thoughts, experiences and hopes that this
decision can be reconsidered, below are contact email addresses for County
Commissioners and phone numbers for the County Manager and the Assistant County
Manager who are over us and ultimately made this unfortunate decision:

Well, the second to last paragraph is one that ought to interest folks.  Although the vast majority of folks in Forsyth don’t play tennis we all have the opportunity to enjoy the park facilities.  The fact that Tanglewood is able to draw people from outside the community to spend money that in turn helps subsidize the park system we enjoy should be celebrated, not put in jeopardy.  Just as the wine festival last weekend drew 20,000 people to the park, the tennis tournaments that Tanglewood hosts draws  thousands of participants throughout the year, and they spend money while they’re here.  Kind of crazy, huh?

Tourism dollars are a hot topic locally because of county commissioner Ted Kaplan’s tiff with the Travel Development Authority (TDA).  I’m wondering how events like the BMW State Combo fit into that picture?  Does the TDA help the park system market their events to the outside world?  If not, is this what Kaplan is talking about when he says he wants to see more TDA funds spent on grants to organizations to be used to promote and host events like this?

This is but a small bit of the picture, one that I’m interested in because of my involvement with local tennis.  Is it the end of the world?  No, not at all.  But it does help us understand what budget cuts mean in the real world.  Maybe keeping taxes frozen at current rates and reducing county services is the right thing to do, but it almost certainly will mean hearing multiple stories like this one. Sure we’re each saving some money on taxes, but we will also be losing services.  Most of you won’t care about this particular service, but I can almost guarantee that there will be a service cut that you do care about.  That’s the road our county leaders chose to take and it’s up to us to decide if it’s the right one.

Tryouts

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My daughter’s soccer club is holding tryouts this week for next season’s teams. I’ll be assistant coach once again and since I’m no longer fresh off the turnip truck as I was during this process last year I feel much more aware of what’s going on this year.  Let’s just say it’s an interesting process.

First off we have about 20 more girls trying out for the same number of slots than we did last year. That means the talent pool is deeper and that there will be harder decisions to make in terms of picking teams.  I’m not sure why we have so many more girls this year but I suspect it’s because the season is only for the fall and not fall/spring like last year.  My understanding is we don’t play spring in order to avoid conflicting with high school schedules.  Anyway, the result is we have a lot of girls to evaluate.

Along with professional player evaluators we coaches watched three hours of tryouts spread over the last two evenings.  With over 65 players to evaluate we had our work cut out for us, and it’s not over.  Tomorrow evening we will reconvene to pick our teams and it’s going to be tough.  You’d like for every kid to be able to play, but the reality is that Challenge is supposed to be a level above rec league so we really aren’t set up to be an "everybody plays" operation. That doesn’t make it any easier to tell a kid she’s just not good enough right now.  My daughter didn’t make the cut a couple of years ago and it about killed her.

I think I’ll be needing a couple of drinks when I get home late tomorrow evening.

And We’re Done

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My daughter’s soccer team (TCYSA U-14 Lady Reds) finished up their season this past weekend at the NC Soccer State Cup down in Jacksonville, NC.  We played two games on Saturday which we lost 2-0 and 1-0.  We were supposed to play yesterday as well but the skies opened and the fields were flooded by 1:00 and our game was scheduled to begin at 2:00.  The rules stated that if the fields were unplayable but the kids weren’t in danger (i.e. no thunder and lightning) then games were to be decided by penalty kicks.  Unfortunately for us all the parents on our team decided that since we were out of contention and the weather forecasts were dire they would high-tail it home.  So we three coaches showed with the five players riding with us and proceeded to forfeit a shootout since we didn’t have the minimum of 7 players required to start a game.  Needless to say a real downer to end the season.

On the positive side the eight of us had found a nice little house to stay in for the weekend at Emerald Isle.  The girls got to have some fun at the beach and we all had a couple of nice dinners out, first at an Italian restaurant on Friday night and a Mexican restaurant on Saturday night. 

Sunday started out inauspiciously and just went downhill.  I cooked up some bacon for breakfast and put the grease in a coffee cup by the stove.  Mac, the head coach for our team, thought it was his cup of coffee and proceeded to take pretty good slug before he realized his mistake.  Luckily the grease had cooled so he didn’t burn himself, but he managed to swallow enough that he felt greasy for the rest of the day.  He claims he didn’t even have to use shaving cream when he shaved.  I was in the shower when this went down, but I’m told that he made some rather spectacular retching sounds.

We had to be out of the house by 12:00 so we packed up and drove through the rain to the soccer fields about 1/2 hour away.  We got there in time to see our sister team, the TCYSA U-14 Gold team play a game in monsoon conditions.  They scored a goal and led 1-0 at half when the refs called the game due to conditions.  We hung around for another hour until they determined that the games would be decided on penalty kicks, then waited until 2:15 when they officially declared a forfeit since we only had the five girls.  Our other sister team the TCYSA U-14 Lady Royals had their shootout on the next field over so our girls cheered them on to a win, which means they are through to the semi-finals in Greensboro next weekend.

One of the problems our parents had, and one reason I’m sure they didn’t feel a real need to stick around yesterday, is that our team was put in a group with two other teams from our own league, the Royals and CCSC Flames.  That meant that we went to great trouble and expense to play teams we’d already played several times this year, and since we were out of contention after losing to Royal in our first game and we were scheduled to play the Flames on Sunday there wasn’t a lot of motivation to stick around. Originally we’d been scheduled to play teams from other leagues, but the week before the tournament they changed all the groupings.  We complained to the State folks and they informed us that it was done by seeding.  I’m not sure how they seed teams from different leagues because quite honestly there’s almost no way of knowing if the best team in one league is better than the mid-ranked team from another league because there’s definitely a disparity in competition levels from league to league.  Our feeling is that one of the great things about State Cup is that you get the chance to play teams you haven’t seen before and styles of soccer that are different from the league you play in.  Once you’ve rewarded the top two teams from each league for a good season record it really doesn’t matter what you do with the rest of the teams in terms of seeding so a priority should be given to getting the teams to play against fresh opponents.

In the end we had a fairly successful season.  Our girls had a winning record despite almost half of them never having played Challenge level before.  I’m looking forward to some weeks without practices to run to, and weekends full of games.  Hopefully the girls enjoyed themselves and learned a little something, and we’ll see how things go in the Fall.

Oy, tryouts are in less than three weeks.   

Misnomer Defined

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Until this spring I hadn’t stepped on a soccer field as anything other than one of my kids’ coaches in over 22 years.  Some of the guys that I coach with in the Twin City club told me about an over-40 league here in Winston-Salem so I decided to give it a try.  I was picked up by a team called the White Lightning, and I’m here to tell you that there’s nothing lightning-esque about most of us.  But it’s a great group of guys and we have a good time as long as we’re not pulling or tearing muscles/ligaments/tendons.

Celeste came to our game today and took some pics.  You can see the full array here, and I’ve selected one that least makes me look like the elephant on rolling skates that I am (click on it to biggify).  You’ll notice the seven inch vertical leap which is down significantly from the 9 inch vertical I had as a young man. (Note to my friends who don’t follow sports: a nine inch vertical horrible, seven inches is downright pathetic).

Whitelightningcornergrab