New Quest - Operation "Touch the Rim Again"

So off topic of youth sports since I'm not coaching anything now and have slowed down in that department. I weighed myself the other day ouch! So i'm gonna loose weight. I am embarrassed myself ; since 8/21/2010 till now I've gained 36 lbs. pretty terrible. I look like a pear with legs and a fat head. Anyway back in April of 2010 I weighed about what I weigh now. I lost it all in about 4 1/2 months. I kept it off for about 6 months and have been climbing ever since. So I thought what can I do to 1)lose it again and 2) be more successful at keeping it off. I thought of some good ideas last time but none really worked. They were rewards, like buying things or going on trips - This didn't work because another goal I have is to spend less money. The only other rewards I could think of involved food, so you can see the issue. I couldn't really think of any rewards to motivate myself to stay in shape so i got chunky.

Well this time I think I have it. I'm still going to have some milestone awards Toned down a bit, but the real motivation I'm going to use is basketball. I used to love basketball. I could play pretty well and one of my assets was for a 6 footer I could get up pretty high. I could touch the rim and even came close to being able to dunk. Well last night I went and played at the church. This was a dismal display of my basketball skills, such as the are. I can't even touch the backboard and have a really hard time touching the net... terrible. My guess is because i am trying to put up 50 more lbs than ever and using really out of shape muscles to do it. So here's the deal I'm gonna touch that rim again, maybe even grab it. First I have to lose some weight. Second I'm going to work out more so that my muscles can get back into action and 3rd I'm going to play more basketball.

I will put some pictures from my adventures. If you see me out running know that I'm envisioning me blocking some guy because I can jump so high in my next basketball game. So I may not know you are there because my focus will be on that. I think this will motivate me...Let's Go!

Parents and Youth Sports

Parents and their roll in their children’s sports experiences is very a very interesting study. I like to look at it as most people are normal calm people that would never fight or argue with other people, but for 2 hours a week are crazy lunatics that think that their kids’ games are life or death. Not to brag but to show you my breadth of experience I will share my youth sports experience. I have coached 21 years (seasons). I have coached football, tee-ball, softball and basketball. I tried to count once and estimated that I have had over five-hundred different kids on my teams throughout the years. That’s about 500 moms and dads and several other grandmas and grandpas, crazy uncles and many other family members. I will detail the experience I’ve had with parents specifically. Just when I think I’ve met with every type of dad or mom, I get surprised so no doubt I haven’t met them all yet. My list isn’t to be all incisive or offensive. I don’t mean to hurt feelings. I do however hope that I help some soon to be soccer mom, or football dad to behave themselves in a way that will make their kid happy that their parents came. I was thinking of writing this for a long time. I had always shied away. Last week when I was on the sidelines with one of my football teams I had a kid come up to me and stand a little closer than normal. I started to pay attention a little better and could hear his Mother just yelling. She was yelling at me, yelling at the kid and at her husband, who was standing clear at the other end of the stands. I looked at this poor kid and smiled and put my hand on his shoulder pad. He said “Sorry coach, I won’t let my mom come to anymore games”. I was sad. It was a tough situation. She was embarrassing her kid and showing some awful behavior. Soon she was sitting alone because no one wanted to be by her. Pretty sad, and if you asked her, I’m sure she thought she was defending and encouraging her son to play better, or for the evil coaches to play him more. For the love of a child she lost her mind. So with that said I will try to classify each type of parent that I’ve had on my teams, however I understand their motivation is love. Love for their kid and the desire that their kid be good in sports and enjoy the game. These are generalizations so some folks over the years have qualified for many groups. Don’t be offended just figure out which one you are in and make sure you are behaving yourself.

Group 1: Future Father’s of a Professional Sports Star
This by far is the largest group. Every team at every level has this dad. One year I think I had about 20 of them on my football team. These guys are the myopic dreamers that get upset quickly at the coach. The coach is the enemy. The coach is who these guys blame all failures on. The coach is the problem. To be this guy you only have to remember one thing: It’s never the kid’s fault all failures are the coach’s fault. One of my first years as a head football coach I had a flag team; 12 six and seven year olds. In this league you didn’t get to pick any of your players. You only got one or two plus your son so that you could pick some assistant coaches. So this particularly little kid was assigned to our team. He had never played before. The first practice the Dad came up to me and wanted to coach. I told him I was all set and that I had my coaches for a while now and we were fine, but thanks. He said “Well my son is your Quarterback.” I kind of laughed inside and wondered if I had his kid and him mismatched. His son was slow and not too knowledgeable of the game. In flag football it’s all about speed at that level and so I picked the faster older kid as my quarterback and moved on. After every game, which we won six that year and only lost one, this dad would come up and belittle me in front of my son (not the quarterback, by the way) about how dumb I must be to not have his son as the quarterback. His son was six.
I have at least two or so of these dads each year. Most want to play quarterback or point guard. I think all of us have this in us a little. I think we all want our kids to be popular, successful and happy. However we need to recognize and be honest with ourselves about how good these kids are. I always tell parents, If your kid is going to play one day in professional sports, I can’t screw that up. Just because I don’t play your kid at Quarterback in flag football at eight years old, doesn’t mean his development is stunted and he won’t make the NFL. Matt Leinardt the NFL Quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner was an offensive lineman all through Pop Warner and wasn’t a quarterback until high school. This type of Parent’s behavior includes at best some speaking with the coach about positions and playing time, just annoyances, but at worst it can be yelling from the stands at the coach, bad mouthing the coach to the player and other parents and making their son quit because of the rotten coach. These to me are the worst kind of parents because they can’t see the truth right in front of them. There are dads that never help the kid out, never play catch with the kid and then show up once in a while to watch a game and wonder why their kid isn’t out there ready for the pros. Sad really. The only way to curb your behavior on this is to try to see it from the coach’s perspective. Try to attend practice see what the coaches are doing. See how your kid does in drills, sprints and other things during practice. Try to see your kid for who he is.

Group 2: The Mom that Questions Everything
This is the second largest group and probably has a lot of crossover with group one. This parent never is happy with anything the team or the coaches do. They need everything explained to them. Their favorite word is “Why” and favorite sentence is “That makes no sense to me”. I always have a hard time with these parents. Why question things? I don’t get it. I had a dad like this the year I coached my first tackle team. He attended every practice, and every game. He showed up early and stayed late. A very good father as far as I could observe. He and his son never were late and never missed anything. But without fail he’d catch me on a break at practice and say “Hey Ben, Why did you run that drill?” or “Hey Ben, why do you have that kid at line backer?” or “Hey Ben, Why is our game at 8:00 AM?” At first I was polite and would explain things but after a while I wanted to punch him. I would just give a curt answer and move on. By the end of the year I was done explaining and would avoid him. I was glad when they moved on to another team. I have at least one of these every year. I guess they just don’t understand, or want to know things that are unclear. I have no idea. Maybe other parents just are more accepting. The problem I have is the judgmental tone to the questioning. Like “why would you do that when it’s so obvious that you should do it the other way”; it’s crazy. I think they are really Dads or Moms that think their kid should be playing somewhere else, playing more or that the coach is a problem, that are just nicer and try to be civil about it. I don’t mind answering questions but there is a big difference between asking a question and questioning a coach.

Group 3: Who are you?
This is a group of dads and moms that think Youth Sports is a babysitting service. As my boys get older I kind of like these parents. But when they were young they made me nervous. Every year there are a couple of parents who I meet at the team meeting and never see again until the team party. I’m like “Who’s that guy?” and someone will say that Jason’s Dad. I had no idea. The problem with this guy is when he wants to come up and tell me what I’m doing wrong as a coach. That’s a problem for me. I had a dad that his son was one of our better players. He was a joy to coach and all of us really liked the kid. He was a funny kid and always wanted to do his best. I knew his Mom well and his step-dad was a great asset to our team. I had seen his dad at a few games but had never spoken to him or had never seen him at a practice. However after a game that we got beaten pretty badly, he came up and loudly with anger wanted to discuss the game. I was already at a boiling point because we had just been beaten and so it wasn’t going to be a productive conversation. I was lucky that one of my assistants was standing there. This assistant coach said “Sir, how in the H*** would you know?” The Dad looked befuddled for a second, and then said “What do you mean?” I said “How many practices have you been to see your son play or practice?” He then came up with about 200 excuses as to why he was too important to come to a practice. So I said if you can’t come to practice to see how your son prepares then you can’t complain about how we use him. It ended the conversation. But these parents are still very dangerous. I do believe that though. If you can’t come to practice and just drop of your kid, then keep your mouth shut on game day.

Group 4: Silent but bitter
This group I don’t mind much. However once in a while they can be a problem. They are the ones that come to most things, practices games, parties, etc. but don’t say anything. They aren’t really friendly, they don’t complain and they don’t have other friends on the team. They just kind of trudge through the season. You can tell that they don’t enjoy it but I have learned not to ask. Once I did. This mom was a single parent and had a couple of kids. Her oldest was on our team and he was a good little player. He didn’t miss ever and was had a good attitude. His mom would come and sit in her chair and watch practice very closely. She wouldn’t smile and when I said “Hi” or “How’s it going?” she’d ignore me or give a one word answer with no eye contact. I just thought she hated me or something and so I asked her one day if I had offended her or if she was mad at us about something. She looked at the ground and said that it wasn’t us. She then went on for about twenty minutes about how she hated men and how she hated football and we were crazy for liking it and how she wished her son would want to quit. I guess her ex husband loved football and she blamed it for all the marital problems. I was glad that it wasn’t us but I was sorry I asked. I felt so depressed after her preaching that I almost hung up my whistle. Another Mom was very similar. I asked her if everything was OK and she said that she hated one of my assistants because he yelled too much. She then spent a half an hour telling me how unhealthy it was to yell at kids and how her son was so devastated when we yelled. Yet she and her son showed up to practice the next night. So were we guilty of abuse or was she guilty of neglect. If we were so awful why do you keep sending your kid? I’ve learned to just assume the best; that these types of folks just have other stuff on their mind and let them come to me if there is really an issue.

Group 5: Helpful to a flaw
This group is fine. Nothing negative to say. They are just really really helpful. I think they wish they could coach. I get a few of these each year and usually their kids are the worst players on the team. Nothing wrong with that. I need players some are good some aren’t all are welcome. I just find it entertaining when we see one of these go-getter dads. I know within two minutes of talking to the dad if the kid will be a player or not. Usually the dad wasn’t a great player and loved the game so he wants his son to be better than he was. So he asks if he can help. Can I get this or can I coach or can I do that? Its something we need so I usually use them where I can. Sometimes though, they ask to do things that we either don’t need or already have someone doing. It’s sad when I have to tell them no because I know their intentions are only positive. Rarely do any of these types of parents complain or cause any problems. This group is great, they help and they are free entertainment.

Group 6: Out of Sight and Out of Mind
This group is the kind I never know. They drop off their kid, the kid plays and they show up at the end. I never hear from them or never even see them. I kind of forget about them. They either think that we are a great babysitting service or that their kid is fine on his own and we are good dudes. I guess both are true. This is a good group until you have an issue like their kid gets hurt and you call them by the wrong name, or when you need parent volunteers. Generally speaking I have no problem with them as I know folks are busy and have more than one place to be most nights.

Group 7: Rare as a Diamond – The Perfect Parent
Never had anyone in this group. Neither has my son’s coach on the team I’m not part of :). I’m by far not the perfect parent. But if there was such a beast here are some attributes:
1. Always on time to everything. Coaches worry when people are late Even the worst player on the team. They’ve worked hard with that kid all week and want them to have success on game day, practice or even smile for the picture
2. Always sell stuff. Fundraisers are the lifeblood to youth sports. Even High Schools have to sell stuff now. I’m not saying sell everything 100 times better but do what you’re asked and then be sure you turn it in on time
3. Time and a Place: there is a time and a place for everything. I’m never gonna say you can’t complain. But there is a time and a place. Please use them. Coaches never want a parent to talk to them after a practice or a game. Email or a text is better. It allows them to answer on their own time. Some coaches would rather talk on the phone. So find out which is better for your coach.
4. Attend with the kids. If the kids go somewhere, go with them if you can. The coach will feel the support just by you showing up. And be friendly with the coach. Remember generally he’s just a dad that had the desire to coach
5. Cheer for everyone. I hate it when dads only cheer for their kid. I see it every year. They don’t even know the other kids’ names because their kid is the only one that matters. While it’s ok to cheer a little louder for your own kid it won’t hurt to learn a few of the other kid’s names and cheer them on. It will show everyone you are about the team, and most of all it will show your kid.

Conclusion
I only bring this up to help a few. I really love youth sports with all of its crazy dads, upset Mom’s and bratty spoiled kids. There is way more “good” in youth sports than there is bad. One of the best kids I ever coach had the worst dad. The kid loved the team, he loved his coaches and he just loved to play football. One day his Dad was really yelling at the coaches. I heard some new words I had never heard about our combined intelligence. It was really starting to get embarrassing. I was about ready to go over and say something to him when I noticed the kid was there talking to his dad. The dad walked away, very sullen, and sat in a chair next to his wife. His wife got up and moved. Soon the other parents moved and the dad sat there the rest of the game by himself. I asked the little 10 year old after the game what he said. He told me he said: “Dad I love to play football, I love these coaches, I love everything about it. I am sorry you hate it so much. If you want we can go home now and I won’t come back”. He said his dad apologized and walked off. I would hate for my son to say anything close to this.

Year Around Aspects of Sports

So your kid wants to play High Schools Sports? Which Sport? Which School? Who's the Coach, what does he run? Does his offense/defense match your kid's abilities and skills?

Many questions are asked these days about high school sports. A few years ago the AZ Republic did a story about the budgets of some High Schools athletic departments. It was amazing the dollars that they had. I'm not talking a few thousand. It was all crazy money in the nearly 6 figures for small schools and over $100K for the larger ones. The money was used for capital projects, Coach's bonuses, equipment, uniforms, etc. There was large amounts of money. So I state this just to say that there is no denying that High School Sports are a big business and without them most schools don't survive. And that many kids will have a strong desire to play it. Also every started on your high school teams has dreams of playing at the next level.

So back to your kid.

Let's pretend your boy wants to play baseball in High School. He's played little league and was pretty good. Once the season was over the mitt and the bat went in the closet and weren't thought of again until 9-10 months later. If you are planning on going to a big school, you can forget playing baseball there. Kids that make the teams on competitive big time high schools (remember there can only 20-25 boys per team) never put their gloves away. It's with them where ever they are. They play fall ball, They hit indoors in the summer and they play winter ball all before their "season". The only breaks they may get is during the fall if they play football and then they are still hitting and fielding once a week.

When I was a kid we played football, baseball, and basketball in season. We didn't think about the other ones until it was that season. Now that is not the case in big schools. There may be some exceptional athletes that play multiple sports in the big schools but most are specialized. In the smaller schools (like in my area) there are many multi sports kids. In fact you'll see some kids play three sports in small schools. It's purely because they don't have the numbers. I have a friend at work who has two boys. One is 20 years old and is on a baseball scholarship at a major university, his other one is a freshmen at a large high school. Both have been year around baseball players since they were 10 years old. His younger boy in 2009 played 200 plus baseball games (he turned 12 that year). A typical week in this kid's life is school, baseball (3 nights a week) then 2-5 baseball games on Saturday and Sunday. That's it. He's got to go really cool places like Cooperstown NY for a baseball tournament (baseball hall of fame) and many other places to play ball. His older boy was very similar but in High School wanted to play football. He did and was really good. He was a starter on Varsity as a Junior and Senior. When it came to college though he really had no choice but to play baseball.

Let's see what's the point? hmmm well I guess it's that you better be prepared if you want to play High School baseball or basketball at a large school. Football is still a little more clear because they need many kids and it's too physical to play year around. There are some High schools that frown on multi sport players. A different friend of mine was told his son couldn't start on the baseball team if he played football. That's just silly, but that's what he was told.

Basketball is more ridiculous. There is nothing to compare it to. There are websites that rank 8th graders for recruiting to colleges. If you want to be on that list you better be good, but you also better be on a "club" or "travel" team that is well connected (i.e. funded). They are the ones that get you ranked. The kids that play these "travel" ball teams play in 25 tournaments a year. That's nothing to do with their school team. Most recruiting isn't done at High School basketball games anymore it's all done at these weekend tournaments. The schools that win state at the big school level not only allow these kids to play travel ball many of them embrace it, coach it, fund it and require it. By the time your kids is a freshmen you'll know whether they are gonna play college basketball at a high level or not. There are some rare exceptions where the kid grows or is just really good and no one knows but mostly those kids get overlooked and have no chance really. And it's not because they aren't good enough. It's because they aren't in the system. We've had fun laughing at the high school recuriting that goes on as well. Arizona is a haven for recruiting because of the open enrollment law. A tall athlete in the 8th grade is a target for any high school coach that knows about him. I coached a player like that last year. He's a good player but wasn't even a starter on our team, but he "looked the part" played at a club team and was the popular kid at our tournaments because the host high school's assistant coaches were all over him.

Conclusion: Decide what your kid wants and then be willing to be all in. But if you aren't then don't complain to a coach* that cuts your kid. I hate travel ball, club teams and weekend play. Hate it. I like kids that play three or four sports and are all about their "seasons" but those kids aren't going to make teams at high schools that have 2000+ kids at them or if they do they are lucky (or gifted). It can happen. There is a kid at our high school who is a good football player, basetball player and baseball player. He's a good athlete. However he isn't going to be good enough to play at a large college in any of them. If he wanted to quit two of the three and just focus on one, he may have been able to play. However he loves his High School time and he is my favorite kid at the school because he is all about the school, and not so much about himself (he's also in the band). It's interesting how people look back at things once they've left. I think this kid won't look at wins and losses, but more about the relationships, experiances and time that he spent with his teams. I always say "If your kid is meant to play in the pros some day, he will, no matter how much he plays now."

Hope I've helped. I know it's a tight wire because we all want our kids to do well but at what expense? I've struggled with it forever.

*Next blog subject is Parents vs. Coach

High Schoool Football Coach = CEO of Football

So generally speaking I don't have good ideas. But I think I do here. So if you are stunned, so am I. 99% of you (which means all) won't care about this idea so there. It is just something that I wanted to blog so when the whole world comes to grip with what a great idea this is i can say "I thought of that, years ago" and have a blog post to prove it.

Subject: Successful High School Football program in today's environment

Introduction: Today with HS football being the #1 perception of high school it is important to be successful in football more than anything at the school; including academics, music etc. (wait I know some of you just said "no way!"). It is important to run it like a business and not in the traditional "extra-circular" activity. The head coach should be a CEO of football and everyone involved in the football program should work for him (or her, but I'm assuming "him" for simplistic sake). He should have say in all things related to his program, including scheduling, hiring, and even teachers at the school. Points that I will bring into play will show how this is necessary.

Section 1: Mind shift CEO not a Coach

At most high schools you have more kids involved in football than any other singular activity by 200%. At a normal medium HS you have say 1200 students. 250 of them will be involved in football as players, managers, cheerleaders, student trainers etc. that's a large percentage of your student body. It's also the only sport that has such a community binding influence. You will have 1000+ people attend each Friday night, you have people in the community that come to the football games that have nothing to do with the school, you have kids that aren't even interested in sports that show up and pay to come to the football games. This is truly a large event and should be. They come to watch the boys play football, cheerleaders cheer and the band play. But make no mistake, if there wasn't a football team there are no cheerleaders and the band becomes the Orchestra, something no one knows about outside of the parents of the kids involved.

The point is the person over the HS football team, traditionally the head coach, is the singularly most important person at the school. I know that some folks think I'm nuts for saying this but I’ll get to that. Assume for now I'm right. The head coach needs help to be successful. He needs good coaches for on the field, he needs a good training staff to keep people healthy. He needs a good weight room coach to keep his players strong and he needs good admin type folks to help him with scheduling, travel, equipment, safety, etc. Typically with 3 or 4 teams a football program needs 15 or more on-field coaches. This means that they need these folks to be at every practice and each game that they are assigned. There are training staff usually one full-time trainer and 5 to 10 student trainers. The support staff includes an athletic secretary and an administrator. Also there are equipment managers, and student managers. all included this is a lot of folks that the Head Coach must keep tabs on, direct and assure everything is being done correctly. This is equivalent to a medium size business. Not only that but on game night, pep assemblies and special occasions the Head Coach must be aware of and involved (don't even get me started on the boosters either - much work there too). This is why the Head Coach must a) be a CEO and b) given power like one. A CEO in the business world means "Cheif Executive Officer" and he only answers to the Board of Directors. I am indeed stating this should be the case in HS Football. The CEO should answer to someone like a board of folks like the Principle, superintendent and others. Not to one athletic director that has 20 other sports to worry about.

CEO role should include:
1) Hiring his assistants first and foremost. He must act as a CEO and should be comfortable with the assistants on the field. This also includes trainer, strength and conditioning coach, equipment person and football secretary. This includes getting some of his assistant’s jobs at the school. School should accommodate all of them even if it means not giving existing teachers contracts for the new staff. Remember the assumption is if football is good everything else gets better.
2) All activities on game night. Game nights support EVERY other club and athletic teams in the school. This is the only time the community and students all come together. Every other team does their fundraisers during football season. They sell things, work on things and advertise things at the home football games. Football supports everything, and thus should have the choices of what goes on during their game time.
3) Fields and use of fields. The CEO of football should have full rights to his fields during the season. If he wants youth football teams to practice there he should get them to. It should be his an only his decision. If he wants the freshmen team to practice on a specific field at a certain time then it should be so. These fields are his and should be his during the season.
4) Assemblies and community involvement should be his responsibility. Make no mistake about it this, is important. Kids that are at the district’s elementary or middle schools have no obligation to a specific HS they can go wherever they want. It's important for the football team, cheerleaders and band to be involved. All of this should be up to the CEO of football. He shouldn't have to hassle another district administrator for him to bring a few players to an elementary school or have his own principle not allow it. This can be negotiated so it's often but still in line with academic goals. This is how a community gets behind a football team and a HS.

Section 2: Why so important?
This section will tell you why we should do this. There is no other reason than this: a good football team makes everything better.
A. Money: Football drives money. Not just players but many kids won't come to a school that has a crappy football team that loses, doesn't include everyone, has many issues with players, parents or is generally an embarrassment. They will leave a school to go to one that has a better perception. In today’s world especially with the younger kids perception is reality. And these perceptions change every minute. So the more students that show up to the school the more $$$ the state gives the school, The more students (and thus state money) the more programs can be included, the more involvement from these kids there is and the larger staff you'll need. Every club uses the gathering of a football game as a fundraiser. This is where the basketball team sells things, this is where the softball team works at the snackbar to get money for their season and it's where the volleyball team and wrestling teams advertise events or fundraisers they are having. Every team has money needs if you have a huge crowd at a winning football team's home games it pads the pockets of everyone. It's also the only time a school makes money because of the number of paid attendees.
B. School Spirit. This may be an ancient idea to some. But there is a lot of value of a person having pride in what they are involved in. I'm not talking about yelling at a game or yelling at a pep assembly but there is something to be said about being proud of where you went to school. This is important for self-worth and commitment abilities later in life. Many kids these days have never stuck with anything before. This is the motivation they may need. A successful (winning) football team is where this will start. Also a proud student will be much more successful in the classroom rather than one that "hates" his school. Bad runs quickly downhill.
C. Community involvement is important. YOU must have involvement with the community to have kids start to get excited to come to the HS. They coming makes everything better, the football team gets better, the band gets better and the academics go up just because of sheer numbers. It also gives you a good perception with the folks that don't even have kids in the schools. They buy more fundraising things, get their cars washed by the kids and buy a t-shirt with your school logo. Service hours, parades, visits to elementary schools, and a general presence are all part of it.

Section 3: Execution
Of course the first step is a huge culture change. Today the head coach of football is the same status and power as the head coach of the badminton team in prestige and power at the school (or so the structure is setup to be- no offense to the badminton team I happen to like badminton but it’s not the spectator sport of football). The culture has to change to the large university idea: Football drives everything so hitch your wagon to them and enjoy.

The second step is finding the CEO. Yes they should probably have to have done something in football before. They should have a concept of the football game as either a coach or a player. However I don’t think that experience of being a successful head coach is needed. If they have the personality and the leadership of being a CEO and the “buck stops here” kind of presence they will be successful. Remember their role is to set it up for success. Be a salesman and rally support to himself and his coaches and players. Great coaches (on the field) should be his coordinators. This assures success on the field. Where does a good on the field coach want to be? He wants to be on the field, with the players or in the film room game planning. Does he really want to be at the elementary speaking to the kids? Does he really want to discuss fundraisers with the booster club? Does he really want to discuss game night activities with the principle or other teams’ coaches? Nope this is the CEO’s job.

The final step is to treat it like a company would. Do reviews of folks, evaluate where the program is. Cut brutally when needed and reward huge when needed. CEO’s get fired sometimes. This is a large investment for a potentially large return but sometimes the plug needs pulled when it’s not working out.

Final Summary:
High School football is big business these days. The football team is the face of the school. There is no other singular aspect of the school that can have such a positive (or negative) effect on the school. It drives money, student enrollment, school spirit and every other aspect of the school including academics. Running it like a big business is very important. Hiring a CEO instead of a Head Coach (you can still call him the head coach) and allowing him to run it exclusively is the one way to be successful. It is a culture change from the “everyone is equal” society that we have, however everyone benefits when the football team is run well and is successful. There are plenty of schools already doing this in part. They have a strong willed head coach that takes on more roles then perhaps others traditionally would have. But if you don’t have this culture now, this is the way to go.

Jimmerific!

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Hoops, Football and etc.

Well our basketball season started up again after the two week break for the Holidays. Drew broke his arm so he's out for a while. Skylar played a lot on Saturday and did some good things. He's getting it. His feet are just one second behind his brain. It will all click one day and he'll be fine. He didn't score but his team won by 16. Katy's team won too. My goal for her is just to score one basket... I can't believe that she hasn't yet! oh well.

Football is over for now. But we are doing the ACS Relay for Life again this year. We do this with our Football family. Its a fun time to go raise some money for ACS and enjoy each other. We are doing a football camp this year as our fundraiser. I enjoy doing the camps. It's like having football practice for 3 nights in a row. I'm happy to be able to help the kids do better too.

Another Week

Another week has passed and a bunch of things going on in the wide world of kids sports at my house. Katy's team the Sharks had a tough loss. We just couldn't make a basket. We took more shots then the other team, most of them really close, we just couldn't make any. Poor Katy struggled to get into the flow. She's getting better but had a really tough game. I hope that she gets better soon as I'm afraid she may get frustrated and not want to play anymore. She's pretty good but just really learning the game. Playing with the boys will be good for her but is very frustrating at first I think. Keep practicing and her getting more confidence is important. Her attitude is good so hopefully that will help.

Drew and Sky's team the Sting won again. Not the best game, like the Sharks we just missed a bunch of "bunnies" that will hurt us against a tougher team. More practice. Skylar played this week since he's caste free finally. He did really well in limited time in. He ran the point while he was in and actually made basket. I was happy that he was so aggressive. He's not scared at all eventough he's the youngest kid on our team. He got right in there and fought for eveything. I enjoyed having him back on the court. He gets upset with losing and not getting in the game as much as the older boys I can tell, but I understand that and would want it any other way. Drew did well too. I don't want diminish his role, but he's one of the best players and leads our team. It's just that he did what he does and sometimes I forget or just take him for granted. He's really working on his jumping ability and wants to be able to play HS ball next year. He should be able to but he's afraid to get left behind. He scored a bunch and pretty much won it for us with his shooting and passing along with Carter and Semone. However he did get into a staring contest with the Ref. That ref is dumby though and has no idea how to ref youth games. He's so inconsistant. I know it's a hard job but my gosh... I still benched Drew for a while because of it though.

Vance is starting running again after a couple weeks off between CC and track. He just ran 8 miles yesterday to ease back into it. He's not as excited about track as he was CC but will run it anyway I guess. Marly's basketball cheer season is in full swing and I think she cheers everynight but one this week. She's busy.

Next up is another Saturday of fun. 3 pm for Katy and 5 pm for Sky and Drew. BYU plays their bowl game at noon so we'll get to see some of it. I haven't seen BYU football even once this year. Very strange. So I'm glad at least I can watch some.

Basketball

We are playing in a new league this year called the "East Valley Thunder". It is really only for Queen Creek and San Tan Valley kids. There are some Higly and Gilbert kids too. All the games are local so that's nice. I decided to coach Drew and Sky's team. We started practicing and have a pretty good team. Only practice two nights a week and then games on Saturday. Katy wanted to play to so I signed her up. Games start this Saturday. However they still hadn't called us on a coach for Katy. I was getting worried. Sunday an Email came from the league saying that they still needed coaches. Yikes. Stacy looked at me and I at her and we knew what to do. So instead of Katy not playing I get to coach a second team. This will be interesting. Katy isn't that experianced at basketball. She's the only girl on the team and she's never been coached by mean coach Ben in Basketball. We'll see how this goes. Two teams will be tough, my easy two nights a week has now turned into four.

Blog Change

With Facebook, Twitter, Linked in and a blog I got my "social network" on lock. I think I'm crazy to not segregate. So if you read my blog well, cool. But it's gonna change.

See I'm Cybil a bit. I have "Professional Ben" where I am a Manager of Projects for IT at Honeywell. That puts food on the table pays for Mt Dew and basically keeps kids happy. I also have "Coach Ben", he's the guy that coaches every sport year around from HS football to coach pitch softball, to high level basketball to 3 year olds t-ball. Then there is "Phycho Ben", he's the one that dwells on the negative of the world, to the depressed, crazy, thinks everyone is weird and wrong. Also likes politics as long as he can stay on the fringe and just make fun of it. I also have "Brother Ben" who is very dedicated to his religion, his spirtual side, being a Dad, husband and best friend who will do whatever is needed.

So there are very distinct "people" in my person. So this is how its gonna be: Facebook, that's Brother Ben, the dad, friend and normal Ben, Twitter - Phycho Ben, Linked In: Professional Ben, and This Blog will be Coach Ben.

So kinghornet.blogspot.com will be for my kids and their sports and any other coaching I end up dowing. I'm gonna do game reports, funny things about sports and kids and even some advise to the parent coaches out there. I've had a lot of experiance and want to share, even if very few folks will actually benefit. Maybe some one will or maybe I'll start a trend.

twitter: azbenj
facebook: facebook.com/azbenj
linked in: Benjamin Johnson (ben@gotsting.com)
blogspot: (well you are here right?)

Favorite Time of Year

Well we went to California for a quick 2 night vacation. We camped at this RV place and rode the trolley and had one really long day at California Advernture and wore out. Drove home and are now back into life. It was worth it. Gas, Camping, and fun at the park was about $300.00. We used our "Give a day, Get a day" vouchers and had a blast. Marly and Vance couldn't come so we missed them. Anny and Derek were great. Best choice ever was to borrow Aunt Allison's double jogging stroller. That thing is the coolest. We enjoyed our time to say the least. The only thing I was disapointed in was the swimming pool at the campground was broken. But i'm not sure we would have had time anyway. Also it was really foggy when we woke up on Tuesday so it might not have been a good "swim" time anyway.

We got back last night. I love this time of year. It's cool outside in the morning and evening and the days are nice. It's dark early and it makes me think of basketball, football and all the teams that are in their seasons. It's a good time to be outdoors in the day but under a blanket with a hot cup of soup watching a movie at night. Its getting close to the Holidays and getting closer to the end of the year. Its for sure my favorite time of year.

I went to the basketball parent meeting last night. There is a group of folks putting together a new basketball league in Queen Creek. It's called East Valley Thunder Basketball. It brought back memories when I was part of the teams that helped bring Pop Warner and Girls Softball to Queen Creek. I was just part of the groups that did this but still got a front row seat to all the issues, problems and accomplishements for each league. This new group is doing just fine too. I think that we will have a successful season.

New Look Homey

I shaved my head recently, and when I say "I" I really mean me. I shaved it. It was weird to see the really long hair falling. I did it later one evening when Stacy and Derek were the only ones up... Now Stacy did fix a few spots and trimed the edges. But it was strange to do it myself. The next morning when I got up and went strait to work no one saw me. I went to work and since I go in only about once or twice a week no one at the office said much. They figure it's not that new since they never see me. I got home and walked in and kind of forgot that no one had seen me. Tawny was by the door as I walked in and said "Hi Dad, Whoa!" and that's it. I smiled and kept heading in. I walked by Katy and she said "Hi Dad" and kept walking bearly looking up. Next was Stacy, she didn't mention it because she'd seen it. I headed into my room to drop off my bags and there was Anny. She looked at me silently like staring. I said "Hi Anny!" She smiled and said "You look silly" I laughed and gave her a kiss. Leave it to a 2 year old to blurt out exactly what they are thinking. It was too cute (and funny).

whatever

Yeah well it's been a long time since I've blogged. No reason except lazy and busy. Here are my "excuses"
1) Busy coaching two football teams both perfect just in different ways. Combs Freshmen were 0-9 and Hornets were 8-1. Both awesome love them all, but it was like living two different lives (picture twighlight zone)
2) Having 8 kids is busy...
3) Still breaking in new job - not liking it. Depressing
4) Anger managment issues. - Afraid I'd blog something inapproriate. That's what facebook is for...
5) Fail by comparison. - my blog sucks compared to others like my wife and friends
6) I enjoy blogging but not enough to make it a priority
7) I'm addicted to 3 TV shows, so other wise "down time" would be available.
8) Busy losing 25+ lbs between these last two blog posts
9) Stress makes me shut down instead of doing things like Blogging
10) No one reads it anyways.

New Phone

Finally I'm cool like Stacy. I got a new phone (yeah!). In fact I think it's the coolest.

I even took a picture.

Combs Softball

Well, if you didn't know I was a volunteer JV Softball coach at Combs High this year. It was fun. I love those girls (shh, don't tell them). I am really hoping to coach again next year (shh, don't tell Stacy). I will post more pictures when I can and then I will brag more about the pictures. We had our end of year banquet last thursday. It was really fun and good food too. El Rico's in Queen Creek is great, if you haven't been their, you're missing out.

Getting ready for a team picture. Coach LeBeau trying to figure out which camera to look at!!!

Team Picture.

Four girls - good friends Destiny, Rene, Raime, and Gabby!~ fun.

Enjoying Anny

I'm working from home a lot lately. Anny and me enjoy this time. I enjoy that kid. I think the "terrible twos" should be called the terrific twos. She is really a good girl. She keeps us laughing. She's really smart too. She can figure stuff out. She has the camera on my phone all figured out. She turns it on then looks at it way too close and says "CHEESE". The only problem is she takes pictures of what's below the camera, since she's looking at the screen and the lens is on the back. She's starting a bit of the attitude that all of our kids have had. She reminds me of Marly in this sense. Anny has a major "stink eye". She's not afraid to use it either. She'll mumble under her breath too. Its really funny, but we have to fake anger or displeasure about it. It's hard.

"Let's go to QT Daddy!"

Here are a couple of pictures I took with my phone that I thought were funny or interesting.

Sent this to Lance Jimenez I thought he would like to know where he is!

How bad of a sin is coveting anyway? I mean is it still in the top 10...

Found out the best thing about High School Sports in AJ is that you 1) you don't pay and 2) can take your truck, dinner and chairs and watch from the front row. I wish we had this... (NOT).

Great News Today!

Since no one reads my blog and since he doesn't have one, I guess it's OK if I spill the beans!

Vance is a genius! He got a full ride Presidential Honors Scholarship to MCC. His Cross Country Athletic Scholarship goes into his pocket...

Daddy doesn't have to pay anything for college. Save that $$ for the mission.

Yeah boy! Thank you. Here are some photos in your honor...!

Vance and younger kids in 1999

Vance in 2001

Vance in 2003 (studly!)

Vance in 2005

Vance in 2009

That's Amar'e.

I love the suns. I am a long time fan. When I was a kid I only liked the Celtics because my Aunt and Uncle lived in Boston and Ainge, Bird, McHale, DJ, and Parrish were great. I think that I became a Suns fan because we moved to Phoenix and the Suns were on TV a lot. Chambers, KJ, Dan Majerle and others were great. My favorite Sun's player ever is probably Kevin Johnson. He was great. Could score anytime, good leader and could dunk when he wanted. When they drafted Amare I started really liking him. I like Nash, I like others but Amare is why I watch. He does something once a game that is worth the time of watching. I hate it when the Radio/Papers/TV start to say that we need to trade him. He's great. He really makes us better. I don't care who you get for him in a trade, he's better. I don't trust the Suns, so he'll probably be on another team in a year or two. But I'll enjoy him while I can...

Here's his dunk from last night. I think that it was good. But the one when he was younger against the Timber Wolves was better. The thing about this one is it stopped the kid that he dunked on from dominating the game (which he had been doing before). So enjoy Amare in Purple while you can... it won't be long until he's some where else because Steve Kerr is terrible (www.firestevekerr.com)

ch-ch-changes!

I love newness. Or change, or anything that refocuses. I think that change is always good at some level. Sometimes change is bad, in part, but it usually refocuses me to do different things, better things or sometimes scary things. Things like a new year, a new job, a new boss, or a new home. I think that it gives me a chance to evaluate. I'm great at new year's resolutions. I keep them for a while. I'm not perfect. I give up or I stop doing them. BUT I love them. I really like new jobs too. I used to be a consultant. I'd get a new job about every 6-8 weeks. It was great. At first it was intimidating but after a while I liked it. I was "on" at all times. Absolutely no comfort level with co-workers or managers, and I had to prove myself over and over again. I even try to change my appearance. I think that my wife gets annoyed with this one. I get very bored very easy. Wake up, shower, shave, comb hair, put on deodorant, brush teeth, go to work, come home, go to bead, wake up, shower, shave, comb hair... you get the idea. So I change it. Quit shaving or grow a goatee, grow hair long, shave head, comb hair differently... anything to entertain myself. I need to do these things because 40+ miles to work, doing basically the same job for 8+ years day in day out gets a guy like me extremely bored.

I like my current job because it is stable, I'm home every night, I don't worry about much. However sometimes it gets stale. So I think of new ways to make it interesting. I think about applying for other jobs but always realize this is the one I want and want to keep food on the table. So my idea is to do something different. I can't have changes really (with 8 kids, a good job, a good home and a nice neighborhood, why change?), so I'm going to change my outlook on change. Stability in somethings is a change. There are some things I don't want to change... my family, my wife, my church calling, my friends and my hobbies (GO HORNETS!). But somethings I do want to change... and work to do just that! Hey, if you aren't improving (i.e. changing) then you are getting worse!

Sky's gonna be famous

Skylar my 11 year old is a good kid with a huge imagination. I call him 'demo' because he can't tell a story without "showing" or acting it out. It's pretty cool, but slows him down on his story telling. We laugh at him about that all the time. Last year he did stand up comedy at the school talent show. He was good. Very unique personality. He told me for his middle school next year he is dropping PE for Drama. He is very excited to be getting older and can't wait to get in front of an audience. He is the host for this years talent show (following in Drew's footsteps) and I'm sure he'll get to do some of his stand-up in that too.

Sky started writing raps recently. Not short ones either. He has full blown verse and chorus. He does it very well. He started doing these and we wondered about them a lot. We thought he was just messing around, he was even accused by the other kids of plagiarism. So he kept writing. He has a few now that are really pretty good. He decided today that he wanted to publish them somehow. So he asked how he could put them on the web. He decided that a blog would work. So he put them on http://djfluffman.blogspot.com so check him out. I'm not sure he's posted anything yet... but videos are sure to come soon. Marly is his camera man and creative director... this should be good (I'm nervous)

Utah in 72 hours or less

This weekend my nephew Colton was baptized. We were invited to go so we went. Trying to save vacation days and since I've already taken some for Derek's birth this year, we decided to go up early Friday morning and come home on Sunday. This was a good plan for a quick trip. However it didn't exactly work. The Van needed some work and they didn't finish till Friday about mid-day. We took off and made good time and got into Highland, UT at about 11PM. We had a very full Saturday with the Baptism, Mt. Timp Temple (me, Mom and my Sister Candice), Stacy, Derek and Anny to the BYU library for some homework and Grandpa taking the other kids (Drew, Katy, Tawny and Colton) sledding. Afterwards we went to Eric (my brother) and Lindsay's house in Sandy to check it out. They recently bought this home. Then back to Highland for an adult dinner out. AFTER all that we still ran down to this grocery store called Macey's for some shopping before we left for home and for our traditional KONG CONE ice cream treat. If you don't know about KONG CONES trust me just go if you are ever in Utah. Drew ate one and had a stomach ache that he couldn't get over for a few hours. So yesterday (Sunday) we got up and ate and were on the road by 7 AM. It was snowing in southern UT and Flagstaff area so we went to Las Vegas. This was fine until it took an hour to get across the dam. It was funny because we all made a bunch of dam jokes. Like "this is a lot of dam traffic" and "look there's the dam cops" (Hoover Dam does have it's one police department called the "Hoover Dam PD"). So even though it was slow it was still only 1pm and we were in good spirits. The rest of the trip was fine with mixed in rain Stacy studying (how she can type and ride in the car at the same time? I don't know). About ten miles outside of Wikenburg it stopped raining. I turned off the windshield wipers, but they wouldn't turn off. Stacy said: "I think you can turn them off now" I just smiled and said real softly "They won't turn off" She giggled then laughed then eventually just really belly laughed because each kid had the same conversation with me. "Dad you can turn them off, it's not raining anymore". To each I smiled and said "It's broke they won't turn off" Stacy laughing the whole time. I think she had finally gone nuts. We made it to Phoenix only to be delayed another 90 minutes with a huge semi-truck crash on I-10. It was amazing there were parts of the truck everywhere! We finally got home about 10:30 pm and in all were gone just about 60 hours. Vance, Marly and Sky stayed home and all was well (and clean) when we got home.

We have wonderful vacations, and this overall wasn't wonderful in the Van, but in Utah it was amazing and any trip you make it home safe from is a good one. We're glad Colton made the choice to be baptized and we are glad everyone was OK. I for one am glad I got to go to the Mt. Timp Temple and look forward to going to the SLC temple in the summer when we return (for a longer stay then one day).