The Home Run

[sptcoupe]

I love this video, and we need a lot more of this in America nowadays, IMHO. I just wish our professional athletes, Little League coaches, college and high school coaches would make a point of teaching this lesson by their actions on the field, as It would go a long way in affecting how we act off the field....

Watch in full screen, and to the end.

http://zanylol.com/home_run.html

[fiat218]

I love this video, and we need a lot more of this in America nowadays, IMHO. I just wish our professional athletes, Little League coaches, college and high school coaches would make a point of teaching this lesson by their actions on the field, as It would go a long way in affecting how we act off the field....

Watch in full screen, and to the end.

http://zanylol.com/home_run.html

Awesome

[azruss]

I read this story when it happened and thought "only women would do something like that in a game". Interesting to see someone made a full blown movie of the event.

[Jimb]

While it's good to see that display of sportsmanship at a youth level, if any athlete who was wanting to make a career out of their sport did that they would have buried themselves right then and there.
Unfortunately, if you want athletes to play for just that warm fuzzy feeling then we have to stop paying them millions of dollars and we have to stop celebrating their victories as if they were World aid relief heroes.
Could you imagine if the Philadelphia Flyers did something like that? Their fans would be angrier than a pack of Bald-face Hornets (Google it) who's nest had just been attacked.
Like you say though, it's good to see.
Jim

[BEEK]

Being a youth sports coach, I coach 6th grade football in central Florida, I’m a baseball league president as well as a coach. I have coached baseball and football for over 8 years. One of the many lessons I teach is that of team work, self pride and to give of your self. If you look at records, in the early years it was all about records and how well the team did. That was the benchmark of a good coach right? All the good players wanted to be on your team because they new you would lead them to a championship. Then one day something happened, we had a bad season, we did not win everything and the people who had to be winners left, they wanted the next best thing. If we weren’t winning it had to be the coach. Let’s get a new coach. It even played on my self esteem; left me wondering wow could I have lost the touch? How can I not be able to take this group of the best athletes and win with them? I survived, the next season I started over with the leftovers the kids who no one wanted. No this is not a rags to riches story, we didn’t win everything. Almost nothing that next year. Only won 2 games as a matter of fact. Two of the 4 times we played that super team. The kids dug down deep and pulled out great games. They lost so many games in the season against much lesser teams. But they rose to the occasion when it was the time for them to shine. That was when my players were 7-8 years old. Now they are all 11-12, the same kids stuck together from then on. The super team has come and gone, their coaches have come and gone, but this group of 12 kids has stayed together. Now they play football and baseball for me. we still have struggles, last fall football season we went 2-7, in the spring we went 5-2, as well as played baseball, finished 16-9 2nd in our league with 4 of the team playing on all-stars. Our first football game of this fall is Saturday. We play last years champions; they beat us 38-0 last year... so we'll see.

today we not only work on making ourselves better players, better athletes, we work on being better people , better scholars, yes I didn’t mention my team has a gpa of 3.8 average. The league requires a 2.0 we as a group won’t accept that. We have players missing practice to complete homework, as this is the first year of middle school for these kids. We learn life’s lessons, about respect, accountability and teamwork.

Last spring season we were playing a football game where we were up 36-0 at halftime. The other teams coach asked us if we would please let them score, as it was the last game of the season and that team had not scored all year. I thought about it, looked at my kids, thought about it some more and then decided. We would give them the ball at our 20 yard line every time they had the ball; all they had to do was go 20 yards to score. We took out all of our starters and let the 2nd string play. The kids not only did not let them score they pushed them back 30 yards every time. Why did I do this? well last season they were beating us 36-0 and their coach was on the sideline taunting my kids and telling his kids that we can never score on them, our team did not have what it took to score on them, he would not accept us scoring on them. Well we did score and he blew a gasket! Still lost 36-7. There was no way I was going to ask my team to roll over and let an opponent score on them, even if it was the "right thing to do", I didn’t see it that way. I let the kids decide and play their hearts out and prove their own point. They worked hard for it and I wasn’t going to take anything away from them. But at the same time I demanded sportsmanship from my team and coaches, we would not sink to their level and taunt or disrespect their players.

In a different game last spring a team showed up with only 10 players. This team was not very well coached. The players really had no idea what to do or when to do it. Unfortunately the rules made them forfeit, due to lack of players. But we decided to play the game anyway, even though it didn’t count for them, it was scored 7-0 for us. We loaned them a player, not just any player one of the best players on our team. And we played football. About half way thru the game the score was 21-0 even though it didn’t count the scoreboard was still on. This team had never had a 1st down, never scored. They had another player get injured, so now they had 9, so we lent them another player. Our 1st string quarterback. He went in and started calling plays like Fran Tarkenton, the other coach just sat there and watched, as did I. my qb and wide reciever and the other team, marched down the field on my 1st string defense, who was giving them nothing. And scored. It was absolutely the best thing that could have ever happened to that other team, all of a sudden their attitudes changed. They held their heads up high. And quite a game of football was played. The final score was 28-13. Both teams got together after the game and had a great time. The parents and coaches of the opponents were incredibly happy that we not only cared we helped. The next week they had 15 kids and won a game on their own.

[BEEK]

double post

[Gunsmith]

I love to see both sportsmanship and also kids giving it their all and not feeling bad for triumph. Those are really great life lessons you are teaching those kids. It is a good thing to see a team come together and outplay their opponents through practice and hard work but it's a sad thing to see a coach try to belittle an opposing team and encourage his players to do the same. That is really nice of you to put forth so much effort into teaching and helping kids become something more than their ability to throw or catch an object.


I used to be on the board of a college now a university and was asked to be an honorary coach for a visiting girls volleyball team that was to play in a national tournament at our school. I laughed and said "What do I know about volleyball and are you sure you want to give a recently divorced guy time with a girls volley ball team, sounds like a bad idea to me?" Anyways as a recently divorced guy they somehow convinced me to do it and introduced me to my visiting team from some tiny Midwestern College that I never heard of. They were ranked at the bottom of the stats and their coach openly said he had no idea how they got to play in the tournament at all? I pulled the guy aside and said I didn't think that was very motivating for him to say that in front of his team and even other players. He basically said he wasn't saying anything that wasn't already known. This still bothered me quite a bit. Now my real duties as honorary coach for the girls was to show them around the school and city and make sure they had something to do on their off time and that they were where they were supposed to be at the right times. But I was still haunted by this coach's lack of enthusiasm for his team. These were typical girl next door Midwestern girls that had tiny scholarships that amounted to next to nothing so they all worked and also played other sports for the school, not your typical collegiate full ride stars. I got to know the girls over the next couple of days taking them boating and snorkeling and letting them enjoy South Florida and their trip. What I learned is that they still were competitors and that their coach was anything but. So I took them back to the school to watch who we were playing in the tournament. Turns out the lowest ranking team, ours, was to play the number two ranked team first. So we watched these towering women imported from Brazil on full scholarships smash the ball into the wood floor, very impressive! The ball hit with a thunder and could hardly be seen after it was served. My girls coach vocally said "Wow we're going to get creamed.", So I asked him "Who sent you the enemy?"

I asked the girls to pay close attention because there was something that nobody noticed about this team yet. There were a few girls on the team that were not imported from Brazil and didn't speak any more Spanish or Portuguese than they spoke English so when ever they would pass the ball or call it for themselves they would yell "Shhh" like they were telling someone to be quite. This was their signal since they could not communicate with a common language. So I told my girls here's what you need to do. When ever you're about to slam that ball on they're side of the net just yell "Shhh" and they all will leave it, for a while anyway. As soon as you start scoring on them it will knock them back on their heals for a while.

So the next morning they hit the court and did just that. They were the first team to have scored that many points on them in a single game all year and won the game. This really through off the other team since they already knew they had this one in the bag and just had to go through the motions. They eventually figured out their problem and beat us by a point the second game and by 3 or 4 for the 3rd but these lowly ranked girls made them earn every point and amazed the other teams that where there. I looked around and our bleachers were packed with other teams and their parents rooting on these little girls and watching with amazement as they played so hard. I could only imagine if they had a real coach all year and at the tournament instead of Eor and myself.

Bottom line is coaches do make a difference and in a lot more areas than the field or court. Again Beek I'm glad you're doing what you do it does make a difference.

[BEEK]

Game results week 1 for our fall season:

We lost 20-8, unfortunately the score doesn’t tell the true story. I know this story sounds bias, but it is not. I tell it like I see it. If my team plays poorly ill tell it.

We were playing last seasons champions, no one has scored on this team in 2 years, they have beaten my team 38-0 and 32-0 the last 2 times we played. Last Saturday was not the case. My kids played the best game I have ever seen them play ever. At halftime the score was 7-0 them. But the only reason they scored was we made a mistake. They didn’t outplay us at all. In fact we controlled the ball and gained many more yards but couldn’t put the ball in the end zone. We kicked the ball to them in the second half and mistake 2 happened, followed by 3, 4, 5... 4 broken arm tackles in route to a 70 yard runback for a touchdown.
So now it was 13-0. Then we went to work, drove the ball 70 yards in 8 minutes and scored. Then we really surprised them by kicking the point after. This has only happened 2 times in our division, both by my team, different kickers though. It’s really tough for them to block and make a live kick at this age. Now 13-8. We kicked them the ball and they drove it down the field for 20 yards, then 1 fatal mistake again and poof a 40 yard run. 20-8. we tried one last time to score , had a 60 yard drive which ended on the 12 yard line 4th and 8 and tried to pass into the end zone, but it was slightly over thrown.

Like I told my kids, I have never been so happy to loose a game in my life. Even the other coach told us we totally outplayed them, they just got lucky. It wasn’t their luck, it was our mistakes. We made a very few, but costly ones. My kids reported to me Monday at practice. The other team was crying during the game. (I do have some big kids)

Now we prepare for this week, our first home game of the season... With lots of tackling practice!!!!! Hope they remember some of it.
I went into this game with the mindset of damage control. My game plan was to try and control the clock and keep the ball from the other team as much as I could to lessen their opportunities to score. I never thought we would score or even really be in the game, but they far exceeded my expectations. Granted I never told them of my expectations, we were there to win! My personal goals and expectations (known only to myself and coaching staff) was to score and bring this team some game. The kids did exactly that and more.

I have never seen a team smile and hold their heads so high after a loss in my life, myself included. I’m still beside myself with what they accomplished.

[BEEK]

game 2 results:

we won! 27 to 0

today we played a opponent who was not quite as prepared as we are. and yes im a gloating father, here only, never in front of the kids. but my kid scored 3 touchdowns and ran for 100 + yards. but it was not about him it was about the team.
the boys played great today, they played with a bit less effort than last week, i dont know if it was the opponent wasnt of the same quality. but they played a great game anyway. our passing game is still having issues as we did not complete a pass that counted, we had 1 pass for 20 yards but a penalty brought it back. we just pounded the ball up the middle all day, 5-10 yards every play. was slow progress but very effective. luckally for my son , he is the full back. so he got the call many times and performed well.

next weekend we play a better team, so i hope the boys are up for it. we will practice all week in preparation

[sptcoupe]

Sounds like it may be your year!

[BEEK]

Sounds like it may be your year!

not my year ...their year

but we have some very tough opponents left. frankly if we finish 5-4 ill will be impressed
for now our new goal is 8-1

[Gunsmith]

Must have been a great day. Not a bad day to be a Father either form the sound of it.

[BEEK]

honestly i didnt know exactly what my son had accomplished until after the day. i did know he scored 2 times, i didnt realize the third time, because i was going over defense with some other players. i call my plays 3 at a time. i didnt know which play they were on. my 2 back has had a problem for the last 2 weeks, he is not as intense as he needs to be to get the job done. we will work on that this week or find a replacement. he will still play , just more defense than offense.

[BEEK]

game 3 and game 4 results:

game 3: 34-6 vs dolphins 3td's for my son... yay. the season is looking good for now. but the harder teams are yet to come. other than the first game.

game 4: 50-0 vs jets 7td's and a safety, was a real good day for us and a not so good day for the jets. they are a first year program and need better coaching and depth in the program. we were where they are last year, this is our teams second year. 4th season as some play spring and fall.

so after 4 games we are 3-1, we were tied for 2nd in our division entering this week. the next 2 games will determine our season. i hope the boys are up to it as they will have to play beyond their abilities to win.

[BEEK]

Week 5 update: it all went wrong!

The boys had a horrible day. Just couldn't get anything right. The team we played was better and it showed. This was such a reversal of the prior efforts. It was like once they started playing and the other team scored they quit! We had a "spirited halftime talk" to say the least, well out of the ears of the parents. They came back in the second half and played better ball. But with absolutely no result. We had multiple injuries, including my son’s ankle. (He is fine).

This week will be a tough one at practice as we will retrain on the ideas of blocking. Which everyone forgot! My QB was so aggravated at the team; they didn’t give him the time to make anything happen. I do love the spirit that they showed; they were all very mad at themselves after the game and believed they let each other down. They will work thru that and get better.

I was proud of them for the disappointment and taking responsibility for their actions. I was disappointed in the fact they let themselves down and did not put forth the effort needed to be in the game. Granted I think they could have won, realistically they could have won. But they did not show the heart and effort necessary to win. Hope this will be a good lesson for them. This coming weekend we will face an equally as tough team. I hope they play much better.

The good news is (which i'm not telling them), mathematically we will make the playoffs if the remaining games go as planned, and we loose 2 of them as could happen.

oh yea the score redskins 45 cowboys 0