Why I Hate Nike

More than fifteen years ago I decided to switch my allegiance from Nike to Adidas. My decision was based on the fact that Nike uses sweatshops. I have been a loyal Adidas fan ever since. My only problem is that Nike has a lot of the sports teams wrapped up. Because of this I can't help but buy some Nike shirts to support my favorite teams. I hate it, but I can't help it.

My hate for Nike has grown in recent years as they have decided to mess with college football tradition and change uniforms. Now all they young kids are eager to see how Nike can change their favorite teams' uniforms. Nike's goal is to create more sales, which is genius from a marketing standpoint. I just favor tradition.

I believe they have stepped beyond what is appropriate with the University of Oregon. Their sponsorship of that team has created an unfair recruiting advantage. It is one thing for Phil Knight to give money to his alma mater, but it is an entirely different thing for his company to work for the university for free.

I hate Nike.

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Pride

I am so proud of Meg for the way she finished the soccer season. She played very well in the play-offs, even though her team was eliminated. In her final game on Tuesday she was one of the best players on the field again. She did not score any goals, but that was because she only got the ball a few times in the game. She even moved all the back to help several times.

I have always known that she was a good player, but that she did not always try. I had a talk with her toward the end of the season and told her that coaches were watching to find all-star players. At that point she started playing like her self again.

It was disappointing that she did not make the all-star team. She had a bad tryout, but I still think she was one of the top players there. Politics can crush the hopes and dreams of kids. She has taken it well though and really wants to work on her skills in the off season. I am so glad that she has taken that attitude.

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The Politics of Youth Soccer

I have been participating in one way or another in AYSO soccer for more than ten years. I have coached, been a team referee and volunteered for numerous team duties. I saw the politics of the sport ten years ago and I have seen the new politics this season.

I never thought much about how being a coach or assistant coach was a political move, but it dawned on me a few days ago. If you as a coach can get the parent of another really good soccer player to be your assistant, your chances of being successful are that much greater. Having two or three good players on your team is enough to move you to the top tier of your league. That means moving on to the playoffs.

Ten years ago the coach of a team would recommend two or three players to be considered for the all-star team. The coaches of the all-star team would then select the players they wanted on the team. This was a very political process since there was no formal tryout. There was also no way that the all-star coaches could get around to see all of the players that were recommended play in their league games. It was a who you are and who you know system. Chels was almost always recommended for the all-star team, but she was never selected.

With the effort of appearing to be more fair, our local AYSO has changed things us a bit. The coaches still recommend two or three players from their team for the All-star team, but now there is a three hour tryout. It turns out that Meg as recommended for the team and attended the tryout. There were more than sixty girls at the tryout and only twenty-seven girls would make the all-star team. Meg did not play her best at the tryout, which was disappointing, but I was not overly impressed by many of the girls there. I think Meg was a middle of the pack player. This, in my mind, would mean that she should make a team. We are still waiting to find out.

I was talking to Meg's assistant coach for a lot of the tryout and the first thing out of his mouth was that this looked to only be a formality. In other words, he was implying that most of the selections have already been made. For instance, all of the all-star team coaches' daughters have already made the team. That means that there were only twenty-three or twenty-four slots open for the girls trying out.

I watched the tryout pretty closely and I told The Queen that I don't know how the coaches can make a decision in just three hours, especially with so many girls trying out. There were only five coaches watching all of the girls, so there was no way that they could really watch each girl to see what there skill level was.

I read a book recently that looked at hockey all star teams. An economist studied the make up of the teams and found that the older kids usually made the teams over the younger kids. The older kids were usually bigger, which meant they looked the part of an all-star. They did not find that the bigger kids necessarily had better skills, they were just bigger. Over time these kids do end up becoming the better players because they get more practice time with better coaches. It turns out to be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The thinking goes something like this, "you are bigger, so you must be better" and eventually the kids are better.

I really hope that the selection process for this AYSO all-star team was more fair than that. Meg is not one of the bigger kids and she is one of the younger kids, but she has some natural instinct that makes her a good player. I think with some more coaching she could develop into a great player. If she does not make the all-star team, I have already told her that we will work on her skills in the off season to make her a better player next year. She has already identified the skills she wants to work on, so I know she is serious.

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Play Like an All-Star

Two weeks ago I told Meg that she was being recommended to try out for the AYSO all-star team. I told her that the coaches would be watching her and that she needed to play her best, she needed to play like an all-star.

I missed her game that week while I was in Chicago, but she did indeed play like an all-star. She scored two goals in the first quarter of her first game that day. She did not score anymore goals that game or any in the second game of the day, but The Queen told me that she played really well. I was proud of that because she has not been playing like herself this season.

I reminded her when I got home that this past weekend was the start of the playoffs and that she needed to play as hard as she could. All of the teams had three games and if she wanted to keep playing she needed to play like an all-star again. I guess she was listening to me.

Her team had to be at the sports park by seven in the morning on Saturday to check-in for the games. That was early and cold, so I did not expect very much from the team in the first game. They played a solid game like they usually do and ended up with a one to one tie. That was not a bad performance, but I knew they could do better.

They started out sluggish in their second game and let the other team get a lead. But in the second half they dominated the other team. They held them scoreless and cut into the lead. It was too little too late though and they ended up losing the game. That second half was the best I had seen them play all season up to that point. They had one game left on Sunday to try to keep their season alive.

On Sunday they came out playing hard, but gave up a goal early. They did not let that hurt them though. Meg came back and scored two goals in the first half and her team took the lead. In the second half she had a great assist which ended up putting the game away. They ended up winning the game five to four. We did not know if that was going to be enough for them to continue their season or not.

We got a call last night that they squeaked into the playoffs and that they would continue practicing for the next two weeks. The girls ended the season strong and get another chance to play like a team and continue their playoff run. I hope they can keep it up.

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First Day of Soccer

Last night was the first day of soccer practice for B. She was excited to start playing and was greeted by the assistant coaches daughter by name. That should have made her feel good.

About half way through the practice the assistant coach asked me how long she has been living with us. I told him that we picked her up on Wednesday. He asked how long she would be staying with us and I told him that as far as we know it will be permanent.

I asked him how she was doing so far and he said that she is not playing like someone who has never played before. I was watching her play and she was playing pretty well. I think the biggest adjustment for her will be running all the time. She seemed to take it easy as often as she could. But then again, most of the girls out there do the same thing.

I think soccer is going to be good for her.

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Frustration

I am so frustrated with Meg's soccer team. Her practice last night was moved all the way across town in order to scrimmage with another team. When we get there, the coach is not there as usual. I start looking around and I don't see another team that is not normally at our practices. I make a comment about it to the assistant coach and he tells me he does not make the plans.

It turns out that the scrimmage is with the coach's brother's team. The only problem is that they practice right next to us. So why did she move the practice all the way across town? I just don't understand. Typically bad decision making on her part.

Another issue is that Meg's coach has two teams this year. She has a daughter on each team and is practicing with both teams together. The problem with this is that it creates longer practices with a lot of down time. Her end of practice talks with the teams stretches on forever because she has to address each team individually. Her meetings with parents is the same way. We all get lectured for things that the parents of her other team are not doing.

It is just an unorganized, chaotic mess. I know that people will say that if I am going to complain that I should volunteer to coach next year. I have done that in the past and I committed a lot of time to it. My practices were organized and well timed. I was very efficient. I also committed a lot of time to the other responsibilities such as being a referee. I did my part and know it takes a lot of work, so I appreciate her for being a coach. I just don't think she is right for the job.

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First Soccer Practice Down

Meg's first soccer practice was yesterday. The coach chose to practice all the way across the field from where the parents sit, so we could not here anything she was saying. It was an interesting choice to say the least.

She coaches two teams. A girls under twelve and a girls under ten. She has the practices at the same time with an assistant coach for each team. The scrimmaged for ninety percent of the practice. I did not see much skills practice at all. At one point, I guess the girls were not listening and she had them do push-ups. That did not make much sense to me. Why not make them run while dribbling the ball?

My first impression of the coach at the parents meeting was that this was going to be a bad year. I can't complain since she is a volunteer, but I can still not be happy. I really hope that our assistant coach gets involved. His daughter is a really good player and I hope that he has taught her what she knows and he can share some of that with Meg.

Having the teams practice together is also an issue for me. Of course the older girls will dominate the skills competitions that you usually have at practice. They will also intimidate the younger girls in the scrimmage portion of the practice. The coach already had to tell them to watch their kicks because they were hitting the younger girls in the face. Meg got hit in the face, but she was OK.

During the scrimmage, the older girls dominated. The coach mixed the older and younger girls on the same team, but the older girls still dominated at each position. I think this will affect team chemistry if she keeps doing this. The girls need to learn to play with each other and that will not happen as long as this continues.

I will keep an open mind, but it doesn't seem like this is going to be a good year.

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Final Track Meet

Meg had her final track meet on Friday night. We invited my parents, my sister and neices and Unk Timmers to the meet. They all made it and were very supportive of Meg. I was scheduled to help time events.

Meg did not act like she was into her event very much before the meet. She did not ask me any questions. I gave her some advice and she was not very receptive. The one thing I told her that she paid attention to was to not let the tall girl from her school pull away from her again like she did the last race. That really sunk in.

I ended up having to time her race. For some of the races each timer took a lane and for the other races we took a finishing place. For Meg's race we ended up taking a finishing place because there were so many boys and girls running. I ended up timing for the fourth place girl.

Meg got off to a pretty rough start to the race. I did not see the actual start, but by the time I looked for her she was kind of lurching back because there was such a crowd around her. She struggled for ten seconds or so and then started to run her race. She has always run her eight hundred meter race at a good pace. It shows me that she has really practiced well.

She ran a really good race and as she got to the final straight section of the tack she really picked up her pace. She finished strong and ened up passing another girl to move into fourth place. She was almost sprinting as she crossed the finish line. I ended up being the one who timed her race. I met her and gave her the time for her race and told her that she finished in fourth place. I told her that she ran a great race and told her I was proud of her.

I had to keep timing races, so I did not get to spend much time with the fam. I texted them all her results. I never heard the announcement of the results for her race. We all went out to dinner when I was done timing. At dinner the fam told me that they announced that Meg got third place. I told them that she actually got fourth, but the person timing the second place finisher did not time them. It was a real mess trying to figure everything out. We don't know what ribbon she will end up receiving. I guess we will just have to wait until tomorrow to see what she brings home.

Meg's principal was in charge of receiving all of the times for the races and recording them. He was a somewhat passive person, which really surprised me. That was the first time I had any interaction with him and he was not what I expected. I guess I am used to take charge people in the business world and maybe the leaders in the education world are just not that way. Or maybe it was his first time performing that job at a track meet and he was just a little over his head. Either way, I was surprised.

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Track Meet

Before I get started, I want to announce a change I am making. I am tired of referring to people in my life with code names, so unless there is a real reason to protect identities I am dropping them. The one exception is that I will probably continue to refer to Tina as The Queen.

Meg had her second track meet this past Friday night. On Thursday night she asked me how she could get faster. I told her that she has done everything she could possibly do at that point because she has been practicing. I told her that the only thing left was to keep telling herself that she was not tired. That she could run faster. That she could pass the girl in front of her. She said that she would try that.

On Friday night, Meg was her typical self. She was full of energy and could not sit still. When they announced her even, the 800M, her and a friend told the coach that they needed to go to the restroom. I don't even think she heard her event announced. By the time they got back the announcer had already given the second call for the runners. I rushed down to her and her friend and told the coach that I would take them to the even. We hurried down to the infield.

The school track coach was just letting the runners do whatever they wanted to do while they waited for the even to start. Meg and her friends were stretching some, doing jumping jacks, doing jump kicks and doing shoulder rolls. Not at all what I would consider the proper warm-up activities. I was just hoping that she was not going to wear herself out before her event.

She had quite a long wait for her event, but the announcer finally called the runners to the starting line. Meg lined up about five runners in from the outside of the track. She got a decent start and made her way to the inside of the track. I thought she was running a great race. She held her pace pretty steady for the entire length. When she was coming around the last turn, she caught up to one of the other runners from her school. They spoke to each other briefly and then that girl picked up her pace and pulled away from Meg.

Meg finished the race in sixth place. I think she was probably the first third grader to finish the race, unfortunately the race is for both third and fourth graders. I am curious to see if she improved her time from the first track meet. It really appeared to me that she ran better this time, even though she finished two places later than her first race. She did a great job.

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Excellent Debut

Earlier this year, Cheeseball informed The Queen and I that she joined the school track team. She is in third grade this year and it is the first year they let third graders join the team. Several of her friends joined with her.

This was a big surprise to me since after our Thanksgiving 5K run she told me she didn't want to run again. I was happy she decided to give running another chance because she is pretty good at it. She tried several distances until she ultimately decided to run the eight hundred meter, which is two laps around the track.

They have practice twice a week and were scheduled to have three track meets this year, the last of which was supposed to me a type of championship meet. Her first track meet was rained out last month. She was both excited and nervous for that meet. When we go there she started to relax after hanging out with her friends. She was really disappointed when they announced that the track meet was cancelled. I was a little relieved since I signed up to help with the timing of some of the events.

Her second meet was this past Friday. It was a month after the first meet was rained out. She did not seem either nervous or excited for this meet so I did not know what to expect from her. Before we left her with her friends, I gave her some quick advice. I told her to keep the girls in the lead within reach. Do not try to keep up with them, but keep them close. I told her to sprint to the finish. That was all.

I watched with a nervous excitement as her group was waiting to be called to the starting line. She actually had to stand their waiting for a few 100 meter races. It was finally her turn. They called her group to the starting line and got them set. The race started and she did just what I told her to do, although she was a little farther back in the pack. She kept a great pace for the first half to three-quarters of the first lap. Then she got caught behind some slow runners and she slowed down a bit.

She was finally able to move around them and then picked up her pace again. I was excited for her because she was running a good race. She continued her pace for most of the second lap. She was in front of the pack at this point and was using another girl to pace herself. That girls started slowing down, so Cheeseball slowed down with her instead of passing her. She didn't sprint to the finish, but kept pace with the girl in front of her. I really thought she could have passed her, but I was happy with her race.

She made her way back to the stands where we were and actually ran with one of her friends. She was not as tired as I thought she would be. We waited to hear the results of her race. It was hard to hear, but she ended up finishing in fourth place. If she would have known that the girl she was using for pacing at the end was in third maybe she would have passed her instead. I was really happy for her though. She did great for her first race and she ended up with the best finish from her school in that race.

I think the race was very confusing for all of the runners. The race included third and fourth grade boys and girls. There was a big crowd at the start of the race with a lot of runners.

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National Signing Day

Today was national signing day for high school football players. It is the day that they can formally sign with the college of their choice. It is a day that I usually look forward to and start following as soon as I get to work. I usually keep an internet window open as I work and get updates from time to time.

Today was different. I did not even get a chance to browse the internet until about 10:00. By that time, a lot of letter of intents(LOI) had already been faxed into the college athletic departments. I only had the chance to get updates about three or four times throughout the day. I was just too busy at work.

I was looking forward to today because it was the first time USC alumni were going to be able to judge the new coaching staff. Lane Kiffin and company did not have very much time to try to rescue the Pete Carroll recruiting class and add to it with their own players. I was worried that they were going to lose a big chunk of the recruiting class.

I was pleasantly surprised with the job they did. They hauled in a couple of players who were not verbally committed to USC and virtually kept the entire class in tact. A few players slipped away, but that was expected with a coaching change. If I had to give them a grade on the class, I would go with a solid A.

They had a lot of excuses for not keeping the class complete. Nobody could blame them if it happened. The timing of the coaching change was just not ideal for them. They did not rest and did not accept any of the excuses and did a great job. I can't wait to see what they are able to do with spring practice.

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A Whirlwind Weekend Comes to an End

Wow! After the Seattle Seahawks fired their coach on Friday, rumors started to spread that Pete Carroll had accepted a deal to be their new coach. I took everything with a grain of salt since the media and Internet posters are all trying to break news. Their was no word from Pete or USC. The NFL has the Rooney Rule that requires all teams to interview minority candidates for jobs and at that point it appeared that rule had not been satisfied.

The one minority candidate they had targeted told them he would not waste his time to interview if a deal was in place. The Seahawks convinced him to interview on Saturday morning. On Sunday, Pete called the group who enforces the Rooney Rule and told them that he had not done anything to be out of compliance with the rule.

Monday morning it was officially announced that Pete was leaving USC. It was later made official that Pete had accepted the job with the Seattle Seahawks. I was glued to the Internet all day Monday. There were rumors about who would be the next coach at USC. There were rumors about who had been offered the job and who had turned it down. It appeared that the front runner, Jack Del Rio might make a decision on Today.

After meeting with the Jacksonville Jaguars owner earlier today, Jack told the media that he was staying put. Another mini meltdown happened on all of the USC message boards. Who was next in line? Nobody knew. I certainly didn't know.

At about 6:15 today an announcement came out of left field. Lane Kiffin was named the new head coach of the USC Trojans. Lane was a backup quarterback at Fresno State. After a few coaching stops he was hired by Pete Carroll at USC. He started as a wide receivers coach and quickly worked his way to offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator.

Kiffin was hired as the Oakland Raiders head coach in 2007 and fired by Al Davis in 2008. Two months later he was hired by the University of Tennessee as their head football coach. He started making waves in the SEC immediately. He was calling out other coaches and just generally being mouthy. He also had some recruiting and player issues while head coach at Tennessee. He had assembled a pretty good coaching staff with his dad, Monte Kiffin, ad defensive coordinator and Ed Orgeron as recruiting coordinator, associate head coach and defensive line coach.

Kiffin is bringing both his dad and Ed Orgeron with him to USC. Ed coached at USC and was the recruiting coordinator prior to being hired as the head coach at the University of Mississippi. Kiffin was Ed's replacement as the USC recruiting coordinator. It is great to see coach Orgeron coming back to USC. He has a fiery personality and is a great recruiter.

The rumor is that USC is in negotiations to hire Norm Chow back as the offensive coordinator. That would go a long way for recruiting. He was a great quarterback coach while at USC. He has struggled in his more recent stops, but maybe he can bring that magic back with him. We will have to wait and see.

I don't know how I feel about Lane yet. I will have to wait to see how the team does before I pass judgement. I guess I am excited about change right now. Fight On!

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AP Athlete of the Year?

Jimmie Johnson was named the AP athlete of the year. In order to be an athlete, you must participate in a sport. Auto racing is not a sport. It is a race. It is a past time. It may even require sportsmanship, but it is not a sport.

An athlete is someone who uses their physical abilities in an athletic pursuit. In my opinion, the majority of the effort has to be exerted by the "athlete." in the case of auto racing, the majority of the work is done by a machine. I am not saying that driving a race car does not require skill or endurance, but skill and endurance does not mean you are an athlete.

Poker players have both skill and endurance and are not athletes. Chess players need to have skill and some endurance, but they are not athletes. And even construction workers need to have some skill and endurance, but they are not necessarily athletes. So why are auto racers considered athletes?

I don't have the answer to that question. I just don't agree that they are athletes.

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Race Against Hunger

We started our Thanksgiving pretty early. We had to be downtown by 7:00 to check in for the 5K Race Against Hunger. This was the 5th annual race held by Visalia Emergency Aid Council. The turnout was supposed to surpass last year, and I believe it did.

It was a cold morning, so it was tough to be there an hour before the race was set to start. We had to be there early because my company broke the record for the most participants in the 5K run and 2 mile walk and VEAC wanted a photo of all of our participants. So, I guess we were there for a good reason, but it was very cold.

As the race was about to start, Meg and I began to do some stretches and warm up. She seemed to be doing pretty good in the cold weather. We moved into position and ended up starting toward the back of the pack. As the horn sounded, we began to weave our way slowly through the crowd to get to some open space so that we could run at our pace. Looking back now, that strategy could have been wrong for Meg. Maybe we should have started at the front of the pack.

Meg was struggling from the beginning of the race. She had to go to the bathroom and was also having problems running on the street. I kept trying to take her mind off of all that by talking to her, but it was not helping. About 1/2 mile into the race she finally started to feel OK, but it was still not as good as she felt in our last 3 mile training run. We hit the 1 mile mark and she was still doing OK, but she wanted to slow down a lot.

I continued to encourage her and we were able to keep a pretty good pace. She started to feel a little bit better and for about 1/4 mile we picked up the pace and began to pass a lot of people. She was still doing OK as we hit the 2 mile mark. Then, she hit a wall at about the 2 1/2 mile mark. She was really struggling to continue at our pace. I kept telling her to ignore her problems and breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth. This relaxed her some, but it was still a struggle for her.

As we got close to the 3 mile mark, she tried as hard as she could. We started to pass a few people and she had a really good finish as she saw all of the people lined up at the end of the race. We ended up finishing with an official time of 29:08. Our actual time according to my Garmin Forerunner was closer to 28:53. Either way, it was a great time for Meg's first ever 5K run. I was, and still am very proud of her. I kept telling her she did great.

I didn't see any of my coworkers during the race. They all started in front of us. In the end, there was only one of them that finished in front of us and his time was in the 20 minute range so there was no way we could compete with him. I told this to Meg and again told her that I was really proud of her and that this was a great accomplishment for her.

She already told me that she does not want to run in the race next year. We will see if she changes her mind as time goes on.

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Training Has Begun

Meg and I have started training for the Visalia Emergency Aid Race Against Hunger. It is a 5K run that will take place on the morning of Thanksgiving day. This will be my second 5K run and Meg's first. She is pretty excited.

Our first day or training was Saturday and she did very well. Soon after we started, she complained that her side hurt and she walked for about 30 seconds. I got her to run again and she did very well. I was helping her work on increasing her stride and running properly. About half way through our 2.2 mile run, she asked me when we were going to walk again. I told her we were not going to. A little while later, she was walking again.

I let her walk for about 30 yards and then got her to run again. She made it all the way home without having to walk again. She complained that her legs were frozen, she needs some sweat pants of some sort to run in. She then got undressed and laid in bed. She fell asleep in no time at all. She did very well for her first time running that distance. I think she might even be able to place in the 5K run.

The last time I was running, I had a lot of ankle pain. There were times when I had to stop and walk in the middle of my run. I took about 2 months off to let my ankles heal and I think that did the trick. I did not have any pain on our run or the next day. My legs are a little sore, but nothing major.

Tonight will be our second training day. We are going to run the same distance every day this week, then we will extend our run to the 3.1 mile distance.

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An Epic Battle in South Bend

USC vs. Notre Dame on Saturday! This should be an epic battle pitting their offensive strength against the USC defensive strength. This game scares me a little as the streak has to come to an end sometime. I just hope that Matt Barkley, the stable of running backs and receivers can put everything together and break out this week.

The game is in South Bend, so I expect some shenanigans again. I expect that their grass will be a little taller than usual to try to stop the speed of USC. Who knows what else Charlie will come up with to try to save his job? I believe that he is really on the hot seat this year, especially if he cannot beat USC.

Charlie has recruited well during his tenure at Notre Dame. He has had his guys in place for a few years now, so he has no excuses for them to underperform. JC is his quarterback and has three years of experience now. He has a good group of wide receivers to throw the ball to, even with the injuries. Their defense should also be improved with Manti working his way onto the field.

I think the USC defense can contain ND’s potent offense, but I do have some doubts. I hope the USC secondary can just shut them down and force them to run the ball. I think the front seven can contain their running game very well. I am just afraid that the secondary may let JC pick them apart a little bit. I hope I am wrong.

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Complete Game

Meg had one of her best soccer games ever today. She simply dominated the game. In the end she had two goals and one assist in a 3-0 victory. And she did it all in front of her family. My mom and Tina's sister's family were in attendance.

The game was very slow to develop as the opposing team consistently kept three defenders back near the goal. We had a couple of shots on goal early, but nothing was going in due to the number of defenders they kept back. A little later in the first quarter, Meg took a shot from pretty far out and threaded it between the defenders and into the goal. She normally does not take shots from far out, so this one was a new option for her.

At halftime, we were up 1-0. In the third quarter, Meg just took over the game. She was using her left foot as much as her right. She was sliding and hooking the ball to keep it in down the line. She was running her fastest to catch the other team's players when they had the ball. She also scored another goal to give her team a 2-0 lead.

The fourth quarter was more of the same. Meg just continued to make great plays. Her passing in this game was fantastic, as usual. On one possession, she saw a team mate running down the middle of the field and made a great pass with two defenders between her and the goal. Her team mate took the shot and scored the third and final goal of the game. After the game I told her that the assist was her best play of the game. She was very happy with her performance and said that she will eat Apple Jacks before all of her games from this point forward because of the great day she had.

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Football Season has Begun!

Today was the official start of the football season with the first game for USC. It was a beautiful day at home, but I really wish I would have been at the game. I need to get to at least two games this season because it has been so long since I last attended one.

I really thought it was going to be difficult for USC to cover the spread. I don't even remember what the spread was, but with a true freshman starting at quarterback it really did seam unreasonable. The game started and after the first quarter I thought it was going to be a long day.

USC got off to a really bad start with some sloppy play. San Jose State seemed to be doing a lot more right than USC. I thought at that point that it would be impossible to cover the spread. In the second quarter USC really started to hit their stride and began to simply dominate every aspect of the game. The running game was on fire and it did not matter which tailback was in the game. After the half, even Stanley Havili who is a fullback took some reps at tailback and had a lot of success. Stanley was a tailback in high school and that experience really showed.

In the end, USC covered the spread easily and looked much better than next weeks opponent, Ohio State. I really hope we keep things going and just embarrass Ohio state next week in the horse shoe. I think Pryor is overrated and I hope we expose him for the fraud he is.

On a side note, both Cal and Oregon State look to be legit this year. I hope we keep things together and can make a run for the national championship. The game is played at the Rose Bowl this year, so it would be nice to have a home game for all the marbles.

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High School Sports

Volleyball season has started for Chachi. Tonight we attended their first scrimmage of the year. Since Chachi is still recovering from her broken leg, her coach is slowly working her into the lineup. She played for a few minutes and looked pretty rusty, but not bad since she just started running recently.

High school sports have changed a lot in the last 25 years. The programs are very political now with most coaches also coaching club teams. The coaches love to select their club players for the high school teams and give them the most playing time whether they deserve it or not. Back in the old days, it was easier to get some playing time based on your ability. Not to say that things were not political then. It was just easier to rely on your ability without having to jump through the political hoops. I feel sorry for kids today.

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