January 10 – 14

Time to catch up:

January 14 - Isla channeling Elvis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 14 – Sometimes when we’re playing, Isla’s lips get stuck in her teeth, and she looks like Elvis.  It usually lasts about a minute, and is good for a laugh.  The added squint here makes her look mean, but that’s not the impression you would get from seeing it in person (stupid camera flash).  Notice the jug in the background, which my boys won during the quarterfinals against Eagle last year.  We pas sit around, giving it to the hardest working player at conditioning every week, but a player finally let me take it home since he had  already had it before.  I, on the other hand, had not had a chance to bring it home since we won it last May.  It’s a pretty sweet living room decoration.

Jan 13 - Video Editing...my missed calling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 13 – Every year I end up putting together highlight/recruiting tapes for some of my players.  I love this part of the job, and kind of wish I would have pursued a career somewhere in this category.  According to my sister Beth, it takes a while to make serious cash out of it in the news-industry, but maybe running a recruiting video service would have worked out.  There are a few of those guys already around here though, and it’s not like the Treasure Valley has a huge market for potential college players.  Still might try to do it on the side at some point.  In any case, I was working on a tape for Cole, a sophomore goalie in our program.  You can see the finished product here. 

Jan 12 - BK Lax Booster Club

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 12 – In an effort to keep up with our football and baseball brethren, we’re in the process of trying to put together a Bk lacrosse booster club.  These two gentlemen, along with another not pictured, are at the forefront of the effort.  It’s already managed to produce open-field time at the Caven Williams indoor complex.  Open fields are frustrating, because by rule you can’t do any coaching, but it’s a good chance for the seniors to get out there and establish their leadership.  Hopefully this booster club effort will result in some serious financial advantages in the near future.

January 11 - Still a gamer...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 11 – Not much to say about this, other than that I still play video games, even as a 27-year-old.  It’s not to the level it was when I was in high school or college, and most of my gaming happens when Dana goes out of town for work.  I firmly believe, however, that my generation of fathers will be the first that can consistently beat their kids in video games.  No mercy.

Jan 10 - Maybe I was built for California

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 10 – Every year around this time we start going outside for our conditioning sessions at BK.  Therefore, every year around this time my entire body starts drying out from the cold/wind and it results in both cold sores and bloody noses.  Sometimes, as was the case on January 10, I get both at the same time.  Fairly inconvenient.  I think if my parents never moved me out of California, this wouldn’t happen very often.

January 9

January 9 - First outdoor conditioning session of the year.

Clicking on the actual file, or downloading and zooming in make this a heck of a lot better, but this is a pretty fun picture made using the Pano app.  Around this time we often take our conditioning outside, using the track for a better mix of distance and sprint work for the guys.  It also helps get the acquainted to the cold air.  I’ve always thought the athletic complex on the BK campus was really pretty, and this picture does it some justice.  32 guys at conditioning today, not including any of our wrestlers, basketball players, and many of our hockey players.  Going to be another good year.

January 8

January 8 - Dana Tebowing (Broncos 29 - Steelers 23 (OT))

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dana isn’t a fair-weather-fan.  She’s been enjoying the Tebocalypse, as should every long time Bronco fan, and I think this picture sums up how she felt about their win over the Steelers Sunday afternoon.  It’s nice to have at least one family team still in the running, so I’m jumping on the Bronco Bandwagon for the post-season.

January 7

January 7 - Sushi at the new Shige location in Meridian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dana and I are huge sushi fans.  Our favorite place in the area is Shige’s Japanese Cuisine in downtown Boise.  However, we got word that there was a new Shige location in Meridian, so we had to check it out.  Bottom line, it’s not as good as the down town location, but a Shige Express with the boat system is going to open up next door and we’ll have to give that a shot.  One major difference between downtown Shige and the Meridian Shige is the size of the portions.  They have a limited selection, but their version of a “roll” is actually the equivalent of two rolls at the down town location.  I ordered a spicy tuna roll and a sugar daddy roll, but ended up getting two of each.  Dana ordered one spicy tuna, and ended up getting two.  Between the two of us there were only 2/36 pieces left on the table when we were finished, and I took the majority of that.  I’m not complaining, but man, I wasn’t mentally prepared for that much sushi….hence the face I’m making.  It’s also an homage to Tommy Fernandez and the Stuffed Tigers.

Project 2012

I’ve decided that I will be posting a picture from every day of 2012 both here and in a facebook photo album.  More details will be shared about the photos here, but the album will be easier to cruise through casually.  Here are the first few entries from 2012

Janaury 6 - My Classroom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My class went fairly well today, so I decided to use the room as today’s entry.  I’ve experimented with a lot of different setups, and the “forum” setup I’m currently using is great for class discussions.  It’s also pretty good as far as management goes, since students can’t really hide behind anybody, and it’s easy to spot where/who a distraction is coming from.  It’s not great for group work, since it can be difficult to remember where all the desks go after they shift them around and it gets pretty sloppy pretty easily as well.  Still though, I think it’s the best one I’ve done so far this year.

 

Jan 5 - Isla going after her toy. Action shot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isla is still in her puppy stage, and wants to play every five minutes.  Her two favorite games are tug-o-war, and being chased.  In fact, at the dog park she likes to pester other dogs until they chase her.  She’s super fast, so I think she just likes showing off her speed.

 

Jan 4 - BK Boys at Conditioning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We can’t officially start practicing at BK until February 24th.  Until then, our options are two open fields a week (no coaching, just observing), and/or conditioning sessions.  We generally go with conditioning because of the weather, and because we’re looking to avoid burnout.  It was a system that worked for us last year, so hopefully history will repeat itself.  Starting in February we’ll probably head outdoors for the workouts.  Guys generally do sprint work, plyometrics, agility drills, and periodically some distance running.  For the guys who don’t play a winter sport, it’s a great way to stay in shape.

 

Jan 3 - Cake Walk Auctioneer at CHS vs. Vallivue Game

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the past five years I’ve been doing stats for the CHS girls basketball team.  At first I just took stats for my wife’s squad, but starting last year I picked up responsibilities for the varsity girls as well.  The stats program is pretty fun to operate, and I’ve always liked dealing with statistics.  Also, it helps keep my focus on the game, and not in the stands.  Sometimes you can get caught up in a conversation and lose sight of what’s going on down on the court, but nobody bothers you when you’re running the program.  At this game Vallivue was doing a cake auction to raise cash.  Centennial does the same thing, and it was interesting to see the differences in bids from school to school.  At a CHS home game, cakes are going for 30, 50, even 100 bucks a shot.  At Vallivue many of them were selling for $5.  It might have something to do with attendance, since there were probably half as many people at the Vallivue game as there are at a typical CHS home game.

January 2nd (the only day I don’t have…because I decided to start doing this on January 3rd)

January 1 - Porter laughing at me as I lose at Jenga.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those of you who know how Porter and I’s friendship works, you understand this picture and need no explanation.  If you don’t, then you’re probably better off.

Student Teacher

A few weeks ago I found out that I would be a lead-teacher for the first time next semester.  At the beginning of the year the College of Idaho asked if I would take on a student-teacher for the fall semester, but given all the changes our school was going through and the fact that I was teaching a new elective in the mornings, I thought it might be a little too hectic.  They asked me again in late October if I would be willing to take on one of their interns in the Spring.  This time I decided to do it.  A few thoughts:

1. I think the primary reason I agreed to this was because I still feel a little bit of a debt to C of I (aside from the literal debt I’m slowly paying off).  My experience there was so positive, so motivating, that I feel like I needed to do something to pay them back.  If taking on one of their interns will help them out, then I’m game.  Furthermore, it will give me an opportunity to stay involved in the program.  Having a student-teacher means meetings with advisors and a trip or two back to the college, which I look forward to.  Don, Patti, Dennis, and Deb were all huge in my development as a teacher, and it will be nice to have a reason to go back and talk to them again from time to time.

2. Education is a real “flavor of the month” field, where new ideas are constantly finding their way to the forefront of the profession.  The students in the education program will have been introduced to the most recent developments, and having a student-teacher in my class will help me get acquainted with some of those things.  They also bring new ideas on lesson planning, and I’m sure I’ll end up stealing a few of her thoughts for my future lesson plans.

3, Student-teachers often bring an energy in to the classroom that can be contagious and spread to their lead-teacher, which I could use right now.

4. Having a student-teacher will constantly force me to explain why I do things the way I do, giving me the chance to change things that aren’t working as well as they could.  I’m sure I’ve become lazy in a few areas, and a student-teacher will be in a great position to call me out on those things.  This experience will force me to become more reflective about my own teaching.

5. Probably the worst reason to have a student-teacher….but I’ve got to address it.  When I was a student-teacher I dove right in.  In fact, all of my College of Idaho classmates dove right in, particularly in the second semester.  By the third day I had completely taken over the four U.S. Government classes that were available.  Furthermore, I hated it when the lead-teacher was in the room because it created a weird power vacuum that wasn’t there when I was the only “authority figure”, so he would leave to make it more obvious who was in charge.  Seriously, his free time went through the roof.  Given that Spring is lacrosse season, if this intern turns out to be good and wants me to leave the room, the time crunch created by lacrosse season might not be as much of a burden. Obviously this situation isn’t guaranteed, but it would be nice if that’s what occurred.

I’ve heard horror stories about student-teachers in the past, and have seen a couple of collapses first hand.  A less-than-favorable intern experience can actually lead to double the work load.  That said, I have a ton of confidence in the program this intern is coming from, and the fact that they will have had a full semester under their belt before they come in to my room makes me even more confident.

The one major bummer about the whole process, however, is that it will definitely have an effect on my relationship with the students next semester.  My favorite part of teaching is getting to know the kids.  Last week alone I had three students come back to visit me from the high school, and each visit absolutely made my day.  Chances are I will be missing out on that kind of relationship with the 90 new U.S. History students from next semester, which is a bummer.  Oh well…spread the love I guess.

New Challenge

Last winter I made the decision that I was going to run a half marathon.  I found one that was taking place the day before my 27th birthday, signed up for it, and put together a six month training plan that accommodated for a busy Spring lacrosse season.  A few weeks in I started developing some knee problems that ultimately ended my hopes of participating (and resulted in me throwing away my $70 entry fee). I am still reminded of my failure from time to time as the Fit For Life organization constantly sends out emails to the race’s participants reminding them to sign up for next year.

However, one door closes and another one opens. The good news is that I’ve recently found another goal that is related to athletics: gaining a significant amount of muscle mass.

When I was at the University of Utah I lifted constantly.  I got in to a phenomenal routine of split training at the gym (upper body days and lower body days), and was literally in the weight room 6 times a week.  I became a tiny bit addicted to it, and certainly got stronger, but I didn’t gain a ton of weight.  I now realize that a combination between my ridiculous metabolism and terrible eating habits were to blame.  In my most aggressive stretch of lifting (September 2003 to March 2004), I only put on five pounds.  FIVE!  I also plateaued  pretty quickly in terms of adding weight to the different lifts.

Now I have a diet plan to go along with the weight training, a new membership to a gym that is literally a stone’s throw away from my house, and a whole bunch of free time in the afternoons now that volleyball is over.

So goodbye old goal (half-marathon), and hello new goal (putting on significant muscle weight).  Very excited about this prospect.

Love Winning or Hate Losing

Last night Dana and I went to see Moneyball.  Great film…wish I would have read the book first though.  I’m sure the book goes in to much greater detail than the movie, but I don’t want to deal with the overlap.  In any case, there’s one scene where Brad Pitt’s character tells a player on the Oakland A’s roster that he hates losing “probably more than he likes to win.”  This stuck with me because that thought has crossed my mind before.  My friends all know I’m super competitive…so is my wife…so are many of our friends.  In fact, our competitive nature is a bit of a running joke.  However, I’m not sure what drives that competitiveness.  Do I love winning, or do I just hate to lose?

Dana and I discussed this on the drive home and basically decided that it comes down to expectations.  If you expect to win, the elation of winning doesn’t hit you the way it does when the expectations aren’t there.  For instance, when I coached at Vallivue our expectations were rather low.  I certainly didn’t enjoy losing, but given that all of my players were brand new to the sport, I was able to take each game for what it was.  We lost to a lot of experienced teams but we learned from our losses and moved forward.  The fact that the guys were busting their tails every day at practice, putting everything they had in to the game, and could honestly say that they did their best in a 10-3 loss made losing easy to cope with.  When we did win a game the feeling was phenomenal, but it was something we did not achieve all that often.

However, at Bishop Kelly the expectation has always been to win.  A loss, no matter who it is to, no matter what point of the season it’s in, makes me feel like I took a baseball bat to the chest.  Therefore, a large amount of my motivation for winning at BK is simply to avoid the feeling that goes along with losing.  When we do win I don’t always feel like it’s something to celebrate, because victory was the expectation.  I feel satisfied, the way you feel satisfied when you do any job well, but the high of winning isn’t nearly as dramatic as the low of losing.

The kicker here is that you likely won’t experience much success unless you expect success.  So for me that means either having a lot of success but not enjoying every minute of it, or having less success but enjoying those individual moments more.

Reading this back to myself, I feel like I’ve just described a drug addict.  It’s like I need a fix, but each time I get it I need more to reach the level I got to before.

Guess we’ll just have to win another championship in 2012…

Gaudet Fantasy Football Logos

Two stars = two championships

 

Old Men’s League

When I was in high school/college, I felt invincible on the lacrosse field.  It didn’t matter how many times I took a shot off a bone, was blown up by a big-eyed attackman after leaving the crease, or how many sprints we did at practice…I would always recover quickly.  Once I took a shot off the shin and a hematoma the size of a lacrosse ball swelled up around the bruise, making it difficult to walk for the rest of the day. By the morning, the pain was gone and I was ready for practice.

That guy bounced back quick. Where did he go?

Man how things have changed.  Examples:

1. I decided to start training for a half-marathon in January.  A month in my IT-Band was shredded, and I had to go to physical therapy for the first time.

2. This July in Tahoe, during my annual exercise in trying to convince myself I’m still a halfway-decent lacrosse player, I found that my fatigue factor had gone through the roof. Playing goalie isn’t the most difficult position on the field in terms of endurance, but after every game I was sweating bullets. The black uniforms probably didn’t help, but I used to be the one guy walking off the field looking like I could play 3 more games. Now I’ve truly come to appreciate the one-game-a-day format that Tahoe provides.

Good warm up guys. Who else is spent?

3. In an effort to mix things up, I picked a long-pole in summer league this year.  I’m not a fan of playing goalie in summer league, since defenses aren’t used to playing with each-other, midfielders aren’t in the best shape (making them slower to get back on defense), and it generally turns in to a shooting gallery. While long-pole has been tons of fun, I get home from the field and have aches and bruises that seemingly arise without origin.  Last Thursday I took an elbow to the chest during a ground ball scrum, and according to the Doc, I likely cracked at least one rib, and possibly two.

Would any of this have happened when I was 22? Do I have the right to complain about “being old” at 27? I guess it’s all relative.  When the average age of the other players is hovering around 21, 27 is old.  Let’s just say I’m starting to look forward to being able to join the over 30 league in a few years.