I really enjoyed Witherspoon's presentation. Vype is a great magazine that really focuses on the personal side of sports.
Profile writing is one of my favorite sides of the job. Vype does an excellent job.
There is never a laps in personal coverage.
I do wonder how this mag will stay in circulation. Every issue I have ever read, has been picked up for free in a Dillon's.
Guess it is just the power of advertisement. If people are willing to bet you will pick it up and look at it, people are willing to bet you will see the ads.
I had my ears pinned back when the question about competition came up.
He gave the Eagle as the biggest source of competition. I actually wasn't offended by that. A monthly magazine and the Eagle are about on the same page.
Vype does such a good job with previews, and giving up-and-comers the press they deserve. As a monthly rag, they are the best at keeping high school sports timely.
Great balancing act. I am really interested in the freelance part of it. Tom talked about getting stories and photos out there. Make yourself visible to any media out there.
The beautiful part of journalism, is that there is a niche out there for you. If it is sports, great. If it is music, there is a mag for you.
If it is food, eat up.
But even within sports, there is a unique niche. Hockey, football, baseball, basketball, combat sports, you have a home.
Just need to get out there and write, show you have some chops, and elbow your way in.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Kansas sports Hall of Fame
There has been a lot of, shall we say, negative feedback on the Hall of Fame visit.
At Catch It Kansas, we work pretty closely with the Hall in order to keep our records. We get a lot of negative feedback saying my kid just broke the state record with these numbers. Why don't you report it.
Well, don't bitch at us. It is up to the coach for your team to report this information, to THE OFFICIAL RECORD KEEPERS AT THE HALL OF FAME!
Of course there is a big basketball list of Kansas heroes. But I enjoyed the bulk of the museums' high school accomplishments.
There were a lot of Jim Ryun SI covers. But I loved the lack of Ryun displays!
Have any of you met Ryun? I have. I can't believe this religious lunatic represented a district in this state as an elected official!
Anyways, It was nice to see a photo of, Derby head coach Ryan Herrs, dunking in a McPherson uniform (short shorts). I covered Derby last year, and Herrs seemed tough as nails. Not so mean in daisy dukes huh?
Sorry Ryan. People will make fun of my dumb, high school ass too! But I won't be in the Hall!
Speaking of McPherson. The Hall also acknowledged McPherson as having the best gym in Kansas. The, "Mini Roundhouse," as KWCH calls it, is with out a doubt, the basketball destination.
As a wrestling fan, I was impressed by the display. It wasn't updated with Chase Nitcher's 175 career wins. If you are not into wrestling, 100 wins is probably a school record.
Nitcher had 175 career wins. I'm not good at math, but that is an extra Hall of Fame career worth of wins.
Nitcher did lose eight matches. Punk.
Sorry Chase! Didn't mean to call you a punk. Don't kill me!
There was also the display of Bo Maynes. In the Hall as a 130-0 career wrestler from Salina South, but there is a big omission.
Maynes holds a record that may never be broken. The Cougar was never taken down in his entire wrestling career.
Never taken down?
You tell me what's more impressive, 175 wins, or 130-0, never taken down?
If you have seen it all, then tell me about Lauri Koehn! Four-time 2A state basketball player of the year. NCAA record holder for 3-pointers made in a career with 392. I graduated with her brother and knew her from the time she was blowing us off to shoot.
When we were playing kids basketball, she was the only one on the court during halftime practicing her shot.
I never, ever, saw Lauri without a basketball in her hands. She hit 392 career 3-point shots through a lifetime of dedication.
Forget Ohlde and Wecker. Koehn was the glue.
I liked the Hall. Sorry if you didn't.
At Catch It Kansas, we work pretty closely with the Hall in order to keep our records. We get a lot of negative feedback saying my kid just broke the state record with these numbers. Why don't you report it.
Well, don't bitch at us. It is up to the coach for your team to report this information, to THE OFFICIAL RECORD KEEPERS AT THE HALL OF FAME!
Of course there is a big basketball list of Kansas heroes. But I enjoyed the bulk of the museums' high school accomplishments.
There were a lot of Jim Ryun SI covers. But I loved the lack of Ryun displays!
Have any of you met Ryun? I have. I can't believe this religious lunatic represented a district in this state as an elected official!
Anyways, It was nice to see a photo of, Derby head coach Ryan Herrs, dunking in a McPherson uniform (short shorts). I covered Derby last year, and Herrs seemed tough as nails. Not so mean in daisy dukes huh?
Sorry Ryan. People will make fun of my dumb, high school ass too! But I won't be in the Hall!
Speaking of McPherson. The Hall also acknowledged McPherson as having the best gym in Kansas. The, "Mini Roundhouse," as KWCH calls it, is with out a doubt, the basketball destination.
As a wrestling fan, I was impressed by the display. It wasn't updated with Chase Nitcher's 175 career wins. If you are not into wrestling, 100 wins is probably a school record.
Nitcher had 175 career wins. I'm not good at math, but that is an extra Hall of Fame career worth of wins.
Nitcher did lose eight matches. Punk.
Sorry Chase! Didn't mean to call you a punk. Don't kill me!
There was also the display of Bo Maynes. In the Hall as a 130-0 career wrestler from Salina South, but there is a big omission.
Maynes holds a record that may never be broken. The Cougar was never taken down in his entire wrestling career.
Never taken down?
You tell me what's more impressive, 175 wins, or 130-0, never taken down?
If you have seen it all, then tell me about Lauri Koehn! Four-time 2A state basketball player of the year. NCAA record holder for 3-pointers made in a career with 392. I graduated with her brother and knew her from the time she was blowing us off to shoot.
When we were playing kids basketball, she was the only one on the court during halftime practicing her shot.
I never, ever, saw Lauri without a basketball in her hands. She hit 392 career 3-point shots through a lifetime of dedication.
Forget Ohlde and Wecker. Koehn was the glue.
I liked the Hall. Sorry if you didn't.
Bob Lutz
Bob Lutz really is a fun guy to hear speak. Sports Daily with Bruce and Bob is entertaining.
I get the podcast every day.
But there is a good reason Bruce is listed above Bob.
Sorry, can't take the I out of this one.
I lost all respect for Bob when he wrote a column about the firing of Hesston College head coach Tim Swartzendruber.
At the time, I was the Hesston College sports beat writer for the Hesston Record. Keep in mind, this was my very first venture into journalism. And I lived in a "mod" with the big three basketball players at Hesston.
Marlon, Mike, and LaMonte were my roommates, and are still my friends.
Three black students, and basketball players from Louisiana, Texas, and Wichita respectively, at a mostly white, Mennonite school.
I had been at Hesston throughout a couple of coaching changes. And I can say that this class of basketball players were special.
They achieved success on the basketball court no other class had achieved. And they were the most stand up, likable humans I have ever known in my lifetime of years on the Hesston campus.
But when Swartzendruber's contract was let go by the college, he ran to every media outlet that would listen, with the message that racism had to do with his firing.
Like I said, this story broke in my first, untrained year of journalism. I have many close friends, people I consider family, inside of Hesston College.
People who would, and did break Hesston's code of "we don't talk about personnel issues," silence.
Swartzendruber's failure to have his contract renewed had nothing to do with his recruitment of black players to the basketball team. I will get into this later.
But this was the rumor he circulated. It spread like wildfire in a small Kansas town.
His players were hurt, understandably. How would you feel if you were a black kid from Louisiana in the middle of white Hesston College. And all the sudden everyone is talking about RACISM!??
It all came to a head when a basketball player presented me with a copy of the Wichita Eagle with a Bob Lutz column detailing the possible racism leading to Swartzendruber's firing.
A player actually slammed the paper down and said to me, "It's in the Wichita Eagle. It's true."
At that moment, I knew that you actually can't believe everything you read.
I had this revelation at a bible school mind you!
More importantly, I learned a real lesson. As a journalist, people are going to try to use you as a bullhorn for their own gain. It is important to filter this garbage out when sitting down to write.
Since then, it has always been my goal to abstain from sounding off for any cause that would take advantage of my situation.
I held back from this story as a bright green kid who didn't have a clue. But Bob Lutz taught me the importance of holding back, getting all the facts, and knowing what you are talking about before pulling the trigger.
I knew better. Lutz pulled the trigger and wounded an entire college campus.
I get the podcast every day.
But there is a good reason Bruce is listed above Bob.
Sorry, can't take the I out of this one.
I lost all respect for Bob when he wrote a column about the firing of Hesston College head coach Tim Swartzendruber.
At the time, I was the Hesston College sports beat writer for the Hesston Record. Keep in mind, this was my very first venture into journalism. And I lived in a "mod" with the big three basketball players at Hesston.
Marlon, Mike, and LaMonte were my roommates, and are still my friends.
Three black students, and basketball players from Louisiana, Texas, and Wichita respectively, at a mostly white, Mennonite school.
I had been at Hesston throughout a couple of coaching changes. And I can say that this class of basketball players were special.
They achieved success on the basketball court no other class had achieved. And they were the most stand up, likable humans I have ever known in my lifetime of years on the Hesston campus.
But when Swartzendruber's contract was let go by the college, he ran to every media outlet that would listen, with the message that racism had to do with his firing.
Like I said, this story broke in my first, untrained year of journalism. I have many close friends, people I consider family, inside of Hesston College.
People who would, and did break Hesston's code of "we don't talk about personnel issues," silence.
Swartzendruber's failure to have his contract renewed had nothing to do with his recruitment of black players to the basketball team. I will get into this later.
But this was the rumor he circulated. It spread like wildfire in a small Kansas town.
His players were hurt, understandably. How would you feel if you were a black kid from Louisiana in the middle of white Hesston College. And all the sudden everyone is talking about RACISM!??
It all came to a head when a basketball player presented me with a copy of the Wichita Eagle with a Bob Lutz column detailing the possible racism leading to Swartzendruber's firing.
A player actually slammed the paper down and said to me, "It's in the Wichita Eagle. It's true."
At that moment, I knew that you actually can't believe everything you read.
I had this revelation at a bible school mind you!
More importantly, I learned a real lesson. As a journalist, people are going to try to use you as a bullhorn for their own gain. It is important to filter this garbage out when sitting down to write.
Since then, it has always been my goal to abstain from sounding off for any cause that would take advantage of my situation.
I held back from this story as a bright green kid who didn't have a clue. But Bob Lutz taught me the importance of holding back, getting all the facts, and knowing what you are talking about before pulling the trigger.
I knew better. Lutz pulled the trigger and wounded an entire college campus.
SID sorta censored info
I was amazed by the list of rules given to college athletes at WSU. I wonder what the rules at Oklahoma or Kentucky entail.
On the list at No. 7: Do not conduct an interview over the telephone unless you have been notified by someone from the media relations staff or your coaching staff.
It is illegal for a member of the media to record a phone conversation, without first saying the conversation will be recorded. If you aren't informed, say what ever you want. If they print it, you are not in trouble, THEY ARE!
No. 8: Dress appropriately.
These athletes are bringing millions into there schools. Ticket sales, TV contracts, and enrollment. If you want me to wear a nice shirt and pants, GIVE ME THE MONEY TO BY THEM. Dillard's is not cheap and I am a college student.
No. 10: Answer all questions honestly. If you do not feel comfortable with the nature of a questions (off the quote a minute--nature of a questions? Really, go back and look at the hand out.) answer, 'I do not want to discuss that.'
Yes. Answer everything honestly. Unless honesty will get us, and you, all in trouble. In which case, turn it over to the coaching staff and AD. They are much easier to demonize than a scholarship athlete who has an intelligent opinion.
There is a real sarcastic tone to all of this. But Wichita State has a stellar record of graduating athletes.
What nonsense does Florida have on its list of things not to say to the media?
How about, "The U!" Miami?
Should those athletes be any more censored than any of the people in the media?
Do we have free speech or not?
How about Kentucky basketball, or Virginia Lacrosse?
What bullshit rules did the mens, and more importantly, the womens lacrosse teams at Virgina have to follow when the, "evil," "gonna take it out of context and make us look bad," media came knocking.
I would like to refer these questions to the AD!?
Yes my best friend and teammate was murdered by a member of the mens team.
But, due to rule No. 11: If uncomfortable with the tone or direction of the interview, politely terminate the interview....
Sorry! Can't say a word. Guess I'll just keep my mouth shut an enable the next douche with a violent past. Wouldn't want to make the athletic department look bad! After all, it's about winning games and looking good, right?
If we, as journalists, operate under the umbrella of free speech, than the people we talk to should have the same rules.
But, whenever someone in athletics speaks their mind, all hell seems to break loose.
Catch 22 huh?
Lets not forget the recent history of Baylor mens basketball.
On the list at No. 7: Do not conduct an interview over the telephone unless you have been notified by someone from the media relations staff or your coaching staff.
It is illegal for a member of the media to record a phone conversation, without first saying the conversation will be recorded. If you aren't informed, say what ever you want. If they print it, you are not in trouble, THEY ARE!
No. 8: Dress appropriately.
These athletes are bringing millions into there schools. Ticket sales, TV contracts, and enrollment. If you want me to wear a nice shirt and pants, GIVE ME THE MONEY TO BY THEM. Dillard's is not cheap and I am a college student.
No. 10: Answer all questions honestly. If you do not feel comfortable with the nature of a questions (off the quote a minute--nature of a questions? Really, go back and look at the hand out.) answer, 'I do not want to discuss that.'
Yes. Answer everything honestly. Unless honesty will get us, and you, all in trouble. In which case, turn it over to the coaching staff and AD. They are much easier to demonize than a scholarship athlete who has an intelligent opinion.
There is a real sarcastic tone to all of this. But Wichita State has a stellar record of graduating athletes.
What nonsense does Florida have on its list of things not to say to the media?
How about, "The U!" Miami?
Should those athletes be any more censored than any of the people in the media?
Do we have free speech or not?
How about Kentucky basketball, or Virginia Lacrosse?
What bullshit rules did the mens, and more importantly, the womens lacrosse teams at Virgina have to follow when the, "evil," "gonna take it out of context and make us look bad," media came knocking.
I would like to refer these questions to the AD!?
Yes my best friend and teammate was murdered by a member of the mens team.
But, due to rule No. 11: If uncomfortable with the tone or direction of the interview, politely terminate the interview....
Sorry! Can't say a word. Guess I'll just keep my mouth shut an enable the next douche with a violent past. Wouldn't want to make the athletic department look bad! After all, it's about winning games and looking good, right?
If we, as journalists, operate under the umbrella of free speech, than the people we talk to should have the same rules.
But, whenever someone in athletics speaks their mind, all hell seems to break loose.
Catch 22 huh?
Lets not forget the recent history of Baylor mens basketball.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Score one for the Dirtbags
If you haven’t seen Bryan Holmgren’s video of the Newton Railers baseball team yet, I have no idea what you are waiting for. This package brought on a flood of memories.
Athletes across the board are borderline loopy at best. But nothing compares to the obsessive compulsive disorder that seems to be a part of the same genetic code that makes a baseball player.
Hockey players might have an argument, but it’s a close race.
And in the middle of Harvey County, the Railers have found a way to crossbreed baseball and hockey madness, in the form of facial hair. Playoff beards have been a hockey tradition as old as the sport itself. When the playoffs come around, you let it grow—plain and simple.
It doesn’t matter if you have to shave four times a day to keep from looking like you have lived off the land in the mountains for the past decade, or if you have the scrawniest, patchiest, 13-year-old beard known to man. You let it grow.
Now Newton’s baseball team has taken this scruffy, awesome superstition and made it their own. I hope the team adopts this as an annual tradition.
Dirtbaggers, I salute you!
I happen to be among the ranks of the crazies who believe in these superstitions. There are a billion or more baseball superstitions—stepping over the foul line when you come on and off the field just to give one tame example.
My tick was not washing my game socks for an entire season. Let me tell you, it didn’t get to smell any better throughout the course of the summer. And no one was knocking anybody over to haul my disgusting feet to the road games either.
But the way I see it, I had all the dirt from all the games in the past with me, and I was a catcher so my “essence” was extremely distracting to the opposing hitters.
Naturally, there was a ceremonial burning of the socks when the season was over. All just a completely normal, rational part of being the best ballplayer you can.
I have been in a heated argument over the reality of superstition with a friend of mine that has been going on for years now.
He thinks the whole thing is completely absurd. I beg to differ.
It’s not that I believe in superstitions on a supernatural level. I would not be swallowed into the bowels of a monster without my superstitions. But it is a form of OCD. You need your rituals to get yourself right in the head.
If I had washed my socks, I wouldn’t have been able to stop thinking about it. It would have been the itch on your back you can’t quite reach. In a game of failure, it wouldn’t have taken much to send my thoughts into a tailspin of negativity.
Swing and miss for strike one with dirty socks—no big deal. Swing and miss for strike one with freshly washed socks—oh no, what have I done!?
Wait. You mean its over?
After going to the girls soccer game between Maize and Wichita Heights on April 16, I have to say that I was left frustrated. It is not because the game was boring or one-sided though.
The game went into double-overtime.
It was because after investing the 80 minutes of game time in regulation, plus the extra 20 minutes of game time in the two overtimes, the game ended in a 2-2 tie.
Was there a reason to even play this game? I suppose it’s the old glass that’s either half empty or half full I hear so much about. Of course, when a game ends in a tie, nobody loses. However, nobody wins either.
Winning isn’t everything in high school sports. It is much more important in high school than middle school, but learning to work as a member of a team, learning the importance of hard work in preparation for an event, having fun…etc, are important too.
Blah, blah, blah.
Look, nobody likes to lose. It’s not fun.
But sometimes more can be learned in a loss than a win. The measure of who we are as humans comes down to how we deal with adversity.
Ever met someone who has skated through life without ever having to deal with any kind of a rainy day?
Admit it. They make you want to puke, don’t they?
Steve Morse from the Bad Dog boxing gym in Wichita once told me the tough guys aren’t the ones who knock people out. The tough guys are the ones who get up and keep fighting after being knocked down.
You never can tell if an undefeated prospect has a real shot at a title until you see the fighter deal with adversity. It may come in the form of a knockdown, or even a knockout. It may just be a really bad cut. The ones who keep fighting through it are the ones who become champions.
So, here is my idea for a better version of high school soccer overtime, one that doesn’t waste everyone’s time with a tie.
First, keep the sudden death format. But either cut each of the periods in half so there are two five minute overtimes, or just go with one, 10 minute overtime.
Why shorter overtime periods?
According to KSHSAA, the maximum amount of overtime allowed in a regular season game is two 10-minute periods. So, with the extra 10 minutes saved, let’s get to the shootout and have some closure.
Someone wins and someone loses, the way competitions were meant to be.
With these rules, you could go to a hockey-style points system to determine league champions, and playoff seeding.
Just won a game? That’s two points added to your wins and losses season point total.
Lost in regulation? Sorry, but you don’t get any points.
Lost in overtime? You do get one point for losing in overtime, or in a shootout. Some credit for making it that far is due.
Plus, you are already guaranteed at least a point. So go for it in the sudden death portion. Push the attack. Time is short and losing one point isn’t as big a deal as the point you will gain if you get the goal in overtime.
Acquire the most points using these rules at the end of the season, you are a league champion. The teams with the most points in each side of the postseason bracket are the No. 1 seeds, and so on.
Of course using this point system will still require tiebreakers at the end of the regular season. There are a number of possible tiebreaker scenarios, that all end with a coin flip anyway, so get creative. Take it down to head-to-head if possible. Did you rack up the points with overtime losses or with wins? The team with the most wins takes the tiebreaker.
However you break the tie, make sure that it is broken for Pete’s sake.
At the end of the day, all I want is for there to be a different outcome at the end of the game than there was before the game started. It’s a competition, not friendly pick-up game where everybody has to quit in time for supper, right?
Amazing soccer goal
I just watched a YouTube video of one of the most amazing soccer goals I have ever seen. In the Mexican Premier League, a goal was scored on a free-kick from 45 yards away! I played soccer for 15 years and I have never seen that happen before.
You might ask how could the goalkeeper let this happen? It was such a long shot! I was a goalkeeper when I played and I would have never expected someone to take a shot from a free kick that far away. I would have been just as helpless as he was.
The kicker of the whole deal was it the game winning goal with ten minutes left. How embarrassing for that team to lose a game in that fashion. If that doesn't give you a reason to watch the World Cup this summer, then you really need to watch this. Give soccer a chance, you'll see things you've never seen before.
You might ask how could the goalkeeper let this happen? It was such a long shot! I was a goalkeeper when I played and I would have never expected someone to take a shot from a free kick that far away. I would have been just as helpless as he was.
The kicker of the whole deal was it the game winning goal with ten minutes left. How embarrassing for that team to lose a game in that fashion. If that doesn't give you a reason to watch the World Cup this summer, then you really need to watch this. Give soccer a chance, you'll see things you've never seen before.
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