Great Potential



Here's the Link

This article is from today's Purdue Exponent (That's the school paper. I don't think it's award winning...but I could be wrong).   Reading it, there were a few things I remembered about how my dad got his job that didn't make the article. I'm going to share those things here.
Quick frame of reference: I was a junior at Ball State so obviously very busy doing super cool things and not living at home, but my parents were still in Muncie so I saw them regularly. Also, you should know that I have a very sporadic memory. There are years of my life that I don't have any memory of living. Back to my dad. I don't really remember learning that he was interested in the job or even hearing that he got an interview or the story about Roger being late. I do remember him preparing for an interview, but I'm thinking that could be the interview with the committee that he references. I really just remember three things.
1) Power Point Presentation - He put together a power point presentation and I remember proof-reading it. It was full of exceedingly optimistic charts and graphs demonstrating exactly how he was going to turn the program around, and, personally, I thought it was a little bit over the top, but Dad did not. Go big or go home, I guess, and turns out that it worked.
2) Networking - In the article he said he went overboard soliciting phone calls, which I think is probably the one factor (if I had to pick one) that got him the job: The glowing recommendations. He had every volleyball coach who might matter call, of course, and then just anybody else who might have any influence. I remember him standing in the narthex during (maybe after, but probably during) soliciting a call from a John Purdue Club heavy hitter, whom I should probably know because I should know the names of all of the elders I went to church with at that time, but I do not.
3) I Quit - This one could be an old wives tale because I was not there to witness it, but it's one of my favorite parts of the story. Dad was teaching middle school PE and health at this time, but once he got the call that he got the job, he quit. From what I'm told, Kyle, the middle-schooler, had to clean out his office, and as the article reports, he was on Purdue's campus the next day.
Now what the article doesn't say is that he lived in student housing for months before they could buy a house and was driving back and forth to Muncie a couple times a week. He immediately started building a program.

So I just found this, the highlight video from 2003, while looking for their record that first year. Their record wasn't impressive enough to share although I believe they finished around 8th in the Big Ten, which was a great improvement from 11th. The video's a little long, but watch a little bit of it. If you've been to a game recently, you can see how far we've come and some great potential for the future. Plus my dad looks a lot younger.

Rainy Days and Mondays...

This song just popped into my head today and it won't seem to leave. To help us through this rainy Monday...

Peter Dinklage is Hot

If you don't watch Game of Thrones, you should. Peter Dinklage plays Tyrion Lannister, a misshapen dwarf and most people's favorite character (including author, George R. R. Martin). But he is not misshapen. He's hot. I don't mean to sound insensitive here, but if there was some way to document the hottest dwarf ever, he has to be it. Now if just being the hottest dwarf ever wasn't enough to make you swoon, it turns out he uses his powers for good. If you watched last night, you saw Mr. Dinklage ever so cooly mention a Martin Henderson at the end of his acceptance speech and told us to google him.  When you do, you get this. I'm not going to recap it here, but I think it was a cool thing to do. It seemed genuine...not cocky or bitter just cool.

I'm going to bring it back to Thrones to wrap things up here. Like I said, if you haven't watched it, you really should. It's on HBO. The first season is available on demand now and on DVD March 6. Based on the book series by George R. R. Martin, it's a fantasy surrounding several houses battling for the Iron Throne and the right to rule the Seven Kingdoms. And Peter Dinklage isn't the only one who's hot.  

Maybe it's Spring

Some years I can tolerate the winter, and appreciate it for what it is, and be grateful that I get to enjoy all four seasons (unlike people in LA and Miami). This is not one of those years. Christmas is over, winter should be, too. Let's move on. We've even had some unseasonably warm days the past few weeks which has me wondering if maybe it's spring. I have absolutely no issue with spring coming early. Maybe the groundhog will come up with a new sign to alert us that spring's not right around the corner... It's already here. We were patient with winter last year so we are being rewarded with an early, early spring!
I've been around long enough to know that a few warm days in January or even February does not a spring make. We have not seen the last of winter's fury and we'll more than likely have two feet of snow in time for the Super Bowl. Due to this dose of reality, I've given myself a goal. If I can get to March, then I know I'll make it. March seems like the holy grail, the start of spring, the answer to all of my prayers. While March can still be a little depressing, it brings with it March Madness, The Hunger Games movie, spring break (which I don't actually get, but I'm hoping to show enough growth to be happy for those who do), and occasional to frequent sunshine. In Indiana it can drop 30 degrees in a day and be 65 and sunny one day and 25 and snowing the next so all I am asking for is a few more days where I can wake up and say to myself "maybe it's spring"....At least enough to get me to March.

Tribute to Cursive

OK, I did this in September when I heard the state removed cursive from the standards. Poor penmanship aside, I was able to make all of the letters., and I think its a shame that future generations won't have the ability to sign their names in cursive. So if you have kids, I think you should teach them to write in cursive. That is all.

Rules Aren't Meant to be Broken

I wouldn't necessarily call myself a rule follower. Now, if you'd have asked me 10 years ago, I might have answered differently...And compared to my sister I've always come off that way. (NO, I will not tell you which sister! Come on, people. Seriously.) I am the oldest child. I think it's a birth order thing. Although, I tend to put a lot more weight in birth order than most people. I get that from my mom. Okay, I'm getting off topic. Let's try and bring it back. The only reason I mention that I'm not a real stickler for the rules is because I'm afraid I'll lose credibility in regards to this subject if that is your opinion. (That being said, if you are reading this as a parent or grandparent or some other paternal-type relative and would feel better assuming I've never broken a rule, please feel free to do so. You may be right.)

Whether it's college football or high school soccer or little league baseball*, people in this country seem to have a hard time following the rules (I really don't feel comfortable speaking for more than just our country). Newsworthy incidents have been hard to miss over the last couple months or so, but the one that set me off was this one. I won't make you read it. It's a high school soccer team in New York who has been declared ineligible for playoffs due to a "technicality". They played 17 games this season while the state high school association rules say they can't play more than 16. They, of course, threw a fit when they were told they couldn't play, and thankfully the athletic association denied their appeal. Their argument was that it was a clerical error and not fair. It's this notion of not fair that really irritates me. I'm sorry for picking on high school girls when it's the Ohio State's and Miami's of the world that I'm really mad at. The lady tigers were just the straw that broke the camel's back.

The aforementioned collegiate football programs seem to be leaning on the same defense, however. The rules aren't fair. I don't plan to argue the fairness of the rules today, although for the most part I don't have any issues with their objectivity. The point I want to make is that breaking the rules is not the way to change the rules, nor is your perceived unfairness a legitimate reason to ignore the rules. I feel like that is exactly what all of these teams are doing. I've also heard the everybody's doing it argument, which I find equally asinine. (Editor's note: I would have bet good money there were two s' in asinine.) The two teams that got in trouble, of course, swear that every team out there is breaking the rules and this is just the way it is. Most people I've talked to about this or heard talking about it on TV tend to agree with this statement as well. You know what I have to say to that? If everybody else was jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you? (I was going to say something more vulgar, but this is a family show.) We have rules for a reason. I think everybody would agree with that. We couldn't play the sports that we all love, if it weren't for the rules. So we have rules, we need rules, we know the rules, and yet we don't always follow them.

If in fact it is true that everybody is breaking the rules or that the rules really aren't fair, then maybe we should get together and work on updating some rules that maybe no longer make sense. I'm completely okay with that. I'm not anti-change, just anti-cheating. And it is possible to run a successful team and a successful program and follow the rules all at the same time. I'm just tired of all of the excuses. Everybody is making excuses. Even Yahoo is crying a river for the soccer girls, when the fact is that somebody messed up and sometimes life's not fair. Sometimes people make mistakes and there are consequences for those mistakes. We are all free to make our own decisions, but if you decide to cheat, you better be ready to pay the piper when he comes looking for you.

Thanks for letting me rant. I know it's annoying, but if you can't rant on your own blog, where can you rant?!?


*I don't actually have an example for little league baseball so if none exist, I apologize for dragging them into this.

The Week Before High School

August 12, 1996

Dear Diary,

Today is Monday. I just got back from riding Jennifer home. It was hilarious. We stopped at Dennis'. We sat there forever trying to find a rock or piece of mulch to throw at his window. Then when we found one and threw it, he didn't even do anything.

Last night was so much fun. Yesterday was Sunday and because of volleyball it's our only day off right now. Until school starts, we have two practices a day. School starts in 8 days. this summer has flown by. I am not ready to go back. Kind of I am, but mostly I'm not. It's not just the going back to school thing that bothers me. We are going to be freshman. We're going to Central. I'm kind of scared. My dad said if I could go from Burris to Northside, I could definitely go from Northside to Central.

Last night was so much fun. Meredith, Jennifer, Nikki, Stacy, Courtney, Kelly and I all went putt-putting (in one car). We had country night, and we didn't listen to anything but country. It was so fun. Kelly broke a couple of driving rules, but hey it was worth it. Next week we're going bowling. It's gonna be "oldies night". I can't wait.

I don't know who I like. I might like Bryan, but I don't know. The other day, I went over to Meredith's. Then Bryan came over. He got there two hours later than he said he was coming. He didn't stay very long. Then we went to his house to jump on the trampoline. Then we left.

This was obviously the summer before Freshman year. I was fourteen. I really like this entry. I feel like it gives a good picture of what this summer was about. When I said I rode Jennifer home, that was on my bike. I'm not sure why that was necessary, but we spent a lot of time on our bikes that summer. A lot of people I knew lived within biking distance so that bicycle gave me a lot of independence. I'm amused by how amusing I found the Dennis' house incident. It didn't take much, I guess.

I know I was scared to go to high school. Everything scared me then. I was scared to transfer to Northside in 8th grade. I was scared if high school. It was all very scary. I thought people were going to make me smoke and drink. Seriously, this is what I was afraid of. In my defense, I did see people smoke and drink after I transferred, but nobody made me do it.

My favorite part is the part about putt-putting. This is one of the stories in this old diary that I actually remember. As many of you know, I don't have a great memory, and many of my old memories are hiding in my brain somewhere. For this reason, I guess it's good I kept a diary. Anyway, I remember this night. Meredith's older sister took us out with them. They were going to be seniors and therefore beyond cool in my mind. I don't have any recollection of the putt-putting, but I remember that car ride. It looks like there were seven of us in one car. I remember it being crowded. This was also my first exposure to country music, and the first time I'd ever heard John Michael Montgomery's "Sold". We listened to that song more than once and I loved it. I still love it, and now I know all the words. Again all I remember was that car ride, which was thrilling and involved Kelly driving the wrong way down McGalliard for a short way just west of Oakwood.

I don't have much to say about the last paragraph, except that we spent a lot of time talking about who likes whom so I needed to keep my diary abreast on such topics as well.