Thoughts

A few years ago, a then young coach named Carlos asked me why I coached. I think my answer surprised him because I said I coached for Wedding Invitations. At that time I was coaching college kids who didn’t always agree with what I asked or told them to do, but to me, getting a wedding invitation years later was a sign that I did something right when I was their coach. I thought Carlos shrugged me off then, but a few years later he let me know he was listening.

Years later, thanks in part to Carlos, I work with younger kids. Now that I work with younger kids, many under the age of 10, I’ve changed my goal to being included in their prayers. Being included in the group with Mommy, Daddy, Mimi (Grandmother), Kobe (the family dog), Nemo (the pet goldfish), Hannah Montana, and the cast of High School Musical, is quite an honor. Making the list of people, and animals, kids want to bring good fortune to is the ultimate sign that you are doing something right.

One of the podcasts I listen to added a commercial. I’m not opposed to listening to commercials during a podcast, and in fact many of the podcasts I listed to have commercials in them. This one struck me as odd because the podcast is normally only about a minute long and they added a minute commercial to it. Given the length of the podcast they probably just should have thanked a sponsor and given a web address.

The Stanley Cup Finals have gone to Game 7. Pittsburgh will visit Detroit on Friday night for the championship.

Today is my birthday. It’s also a year and a day after I moved back to Lexington to start Showtime Spirit. A lot has happened in the past year. I’ve been there for a few friends that got married and a few that called it off, engagements and marriages. I’ve moved enough that I realize I only want to do it one more time, to Aruba. I’ve realized people work in many different ways.

I’ve also realized I like children a lot more than I thought. I loved Tuesdays because the Dippers came in. I knew L. would come in smiling and wouldn’t stop. I enjoyed watching the friendship between C., D., and S. grow. I like watching J. be a leader most days, but reminding us she is a kid every once in a while. I liked watching E. wrap Josh around her fingers so quickly he didn’t know what happened. I loved the “oops” looks A. gave us at least once a practice. I also love getting hugs from J. & K. everytime they walked in the gym. S. P. and M. each contributed to a year I’ll never forget.

Over the past year I’ve learned a few thing, in no certain order:

1. Running a business is harder than expected.
2. 4, 5, and 6 year olds can have you wrapped around their fingers in less than an hour.
3. Parents will sacrifice a lot for the happiness of their children.
4. No rule will stop someone from being stupid.
5. Furniture is overrated.

To everyone that’s had a hand in making the past year what it was, Thank You.

Today marks the one year anniversary of my return to Lexington. It’s been quite a year.

This is the most disturbing story I have seen in a while.

CNN

A CNN.com article with the headline “Med student held without bail in possible Craigslist killing” was sent to me this morning. I get annoyed with headlines like this implying Craigslist or any of numerous other tools (Facebook, MySpace, AIM) are responsible for someone’s death. The victim in this case was killed by a sick person and that is where the blame should be placed. In addition to Craiglist I’m sure the killer used a computer, the internet, a car, public streets, and numerous other items, including a murder weapon, that aren’t highlighted in the headline.

If as much thought and time was put into finding and helping the sick individuals as is being put into pointing the blame finger at the wrong things, we might stop some people from getting hurt.

University of Kentucky cheerleading tryouts are this weekend. It’s an opportunity to see the most talented athletes cheerleading has to offer. Today I received a call to see if I would judge them which has me torn. There is so much I need to get done with the gym that it’s hard to pull myself away, but on the other hand it’s Kentucky tryouts. I assume I’ll end up judging them when it comes down to it. I just hope it doesn’t cause issues with anything else.

Think about the one thing you could do (or stop doing) that would have the greatest, positive impact on your life. For some this is eating healthier or excising. For others it may be drinking less or quitting smoking. Have you thought about it? Do you know what your thing is?

Do it.

Keeneland opens today, but between the wet weather and not feeling 100%, I won’t be making it out there today. Hopefully tomorrow will be different.

I had a long chat with Kimberly Archie of the National Cheer Safety Foundation yesterday. For those of you that don’t know her story, I suggest Googling it, but in short she is a mom that is on a crusade to combat cheerleading injuries. She understands participating in anything athletic is going to lead, or at least contribute to, some injuries, but we agree many of the injuries, and most of the catastrophic injuries can be prevented. The problem is we don’t know how to prevent them.

Saying we don’t know how to prevent them may have been a poor choice of words. I should have said we don’t know how to get others involved in helping to prevent them. It’s not the we think people want to injure cheerleaders, but the people involved are not being intelligent about what they have the kids do. As a coach I need to teach kids in a logical, progressive manner. I need to teach them in a manner that readies them, mentally and physically, to perform each skill I ask of them. This isn’t being done by everyone. They also aren’t evaluating their surroundings in relation to what they are asking the kids to do. The skills the Kentucky kids can safely perform on a basketball court are far more advanced than what my Mini 1 team or even my Junior 5 team should attempt.

Safety comes down to a few things. The first of which is common sense and the second is training. We can’t and shouldn’t have to create rules to combat stupidity. If you aren’t smart enough to realize and reduce the potential risks of an activity, you don’t need to be involved with it. The second is training, because once we have people with a natural aversion to (unnecessary) risk, we need to train them to help keep the kids safe.

Kentucky introduced John Calipari as the new basketball coach today. Calipari left Memphis to take a job he says he’s been dreaming about. He’ll do a good job. He’s a good coach, a good recruiter, and a good spokesperson. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about this later.

CBS published an interesting article about Memphis and Kentucky fans’ reactions to a few events. ESPN raises the question (and concerns) I have about Calipari.

CBS Sports & ESPN

I received a phone call this morning about a blog I’m involved with called Spirit Post. The point of the call was to get an email, deemed confidential by the caller, taken off the site. I’m not certain his claim that I legally needed to take it down was valid, but it didn’t matter enough to me to argue that point. When I later contacted the author of the post, we were in agreement that the old post wasn’t worth fighting over.

It did make me wonder if the notes on the bottom of many emails really mean anything, legally. If you send me an email with a note that says I cannot share it, but we don’t have any official agreement that the email or content is covered by, does that note mean anything? Can I post something that says any email sent to me can be made public and have that statement supercede the note on the bottom of an email.

If the note does hold up who is in trouble? Let say a confidential email is sent from Amy to Brian. Brian then sends Amy’s email to me without the note saying it’s confidential and should not be shared. If I make it public am I in trouble or is Brian? Or is it both of us?

It seems like Coach Billy G. will soon be looking for a new job. If he is fired the reason given will be off the court stuff like his partying antics and inability to “relate” to the major donors, but reality is it comes down to wins. He isn’t getting the job done on the court. If he had 2 consecutive Final Four appearances he would have certain job security. I have to point out I was not a fan of the hiring of Billy G., but don’t think he should be fired either. I think firing a coach after 2 seasons is a black mark for the University doing it. It promotes the win at all costs sentiment that is damaging college athletics. 2 seasons isn’t enough time to get the players needed to run your system and if you are going to hire a coach you need to give him enough time to impact the program. If you can’t do that you failed in your hiring process. I do feel 3 seasons is enough time to tell if the program is going in the right direction, so if Billy isn’t soon jobless he needs to realize the seat is hot.

Billy G. led major turnarounds at the 2 schools he coached prior to Kentucky, but neither put him in the spotlight as being Kentucky’s coach did, and he didn’t have a long track record to look at. The other candidates that were getting press for Kentucky’s new coach after Tubby (Billy Donovan & John Calipari) have longer records. I think the person Kentucky should make a run for, assuming Billy the Kid doesn’t plan on leaving the Sunshine State, is Gonzaga’s Mark Few.

Martin Brodeur became the NHL’s all time regular season winning goalie last night. Congrats!