Missed Opportunities

Tonight I am kind of depressed. A school I applied for a job, won a state championship. To know that I could have gotten a championship ring makes me sad. I guess that is part of life. That door may have been cracked, but I didn't get the opportunity. I know that all things happen for a reason, sometimes you just wonder why they happen. Oh well, the sun will come up tomorrow and I will succeed down the road.

Political Jive

I like to keep up with politics. I think that one day when I am older and wiser, I may want to throw my hat in the ring. When asked about our new governor, Dr. Robert Bentley, I told my wife that he really didn't excite me. I heard very little of his potential policies or his stance on some of the issues. A coworker is related to the governor elect and she got wind of my comments and gave me a hard time all day long. I explained to her that I am entitled to my opinion and explained to her as well what I heard (or not). I hope that the man does a great job for our state, however I want results. Politicians are like used car salesmen, they tell you how great a deal you are getting, then high fiving their coworker because he just knocked your head off. Until I see it, I will be skeptical like everyone else. I will be watching closely to see how it all goes down.

Auburn Football Musings 10/16/10

Another Satutday in the fall, another Auburn win. It never fails to amaze me though, how poorly our defensive backs play the ball on pass plays. It also shocks me that a back up quarterback, lights up our defense for 300 or so yards. It seems to me that we cannot put all the weight of the success of Auburn football on one mans back. Cam Newton is a man beast, but Gene Chizik needs to find a way to get our defense to play better in the passing game.

There were some questionable calls during the game but they went about the way they should have. They reviewed the plays on replay and they stood. Before there are conspiracy theories let me remind you, there were no ways to dispute the video evidence.

Will Auburn take the reigns in the SEC West? Who knows. There are still big games against Ole Miss, LSU and Alabama. Not to mention Georgia. They still have a lot of football to play!

Just some ramblings and observations...

I have a lot on my mind about a lot of things today. I guess I'll kind of tackle them on a first thought basis.

1. Auburn game vs. Clemson
Ugly and emotionally draining. I feared that we wouldn't come back, but the players fought through it and pulled it out.

2. Foley Football
They're good. Other than the loss at Daphne last week, they have pretty much dominated people. In Foley's 3 wins they have dominated and for a half they dominated Daphne, until a bogus call by the officials to eject Foley's best RB. I look for Foley to go deep in the playoffs and hopefully get some redemption on those Purple punks!

3. Elberta Football
We have an excellent shot to be really good. We played the best team in the county tough in defeat and dominated the other two teams on our schedule. I still think we can win out but Summerdale is tough. Bayside and UMS may give us fits, but those are winnable games in my book.

4. Oil Leak mess
I am glad the oil has stopped leaking! Now pay those who suffered and clean the beaches up as best you can. BP is going to screw it up though, I can feel it!

5. Kids
Kids are awesome. I love mine to death. They are full of life and funny without knowing it. They mean everything to me.

Oil Leak: A Microcosm of the Effects

This is my first attempt to express my feelings on the oil leak that has gripped my little slice of this great Earth. First of all let me set the record straight. It technically is not a spill, it is a leak. The media and others have referred to it as a leak, which is not the correct description of this tragedy. A spill is where one thing is holding another within itself. For example, a glass of red wine. Ideally you would attempt to put all of the wine in your gullet for the purposes of enjoying an adult beverage and maybe even getting hammered. Lets say that you are drinking your wine and you tip your glass just a bit too far and some of it falls out of the glass onto the white carpet. That is a spill. As for a leak, it is a totally different scenario. An example that I have seen personally is a pipe that bursts. One night from a night on the town, a friend and I encountered a sound of rushing water in the apartment adjacent to his. We kicked in the door to reveal a lot of gushing water leaking onto the floor of the apartment.

Now that the nomenclature is settled, let me tell you of a microcosm of the affects of this leak. I work at a locally owned convenience store on the beach. It has been there in the same location for 32 years and owned by the same man. Our store sells floats, souvenirs, groceries, beer, cokes and basic everyday things. Generally our store makes good money and is always busy during the summer months. Until two weeks ago, I was not working, however he called me back to work there. I had mentally prepared myself for busy days and nights, but what I encountered was far from it.

To call business slow would not do it justice. It is pathetic. I would say we are down 50%, but some days I think it is more than that. You may have a few customers here and there, but not at nearly the rate of customers you would experience on an average summers day. You sell more groceries than floats, more cokes than beach souvenirs, and more people dressed in jeans and work clothes than tourist in swim trunks, smelling like Coppertone.

According to co-workers, it has been like this since the leak was discovered. Numbers were off from Memorial day on. The week of July 4th, the busiest week of the year, we had some of our worst days. The owner looks despondent, employees wonder if the business will survive and all the talk revolves around the oil leak in the Gulf. Some customers come in and say how sad they are for us, some offer solutions and many offer blame for the problem. It is just sad.

I don't know who is to blame for this egregious disaster. Was it BP's or Transocean's fault? Who knows? Why wasn't the Federal Government involved sooner? Why didn't the President act sooner? There are many questions. There are not enough solutions which is the main area of frustration.

The talking heads on CNN, MSNBC, etc. all have their little spiel as to what is happening and who is to blame. Some of the problems from the tourism standpoint is from the media. When Anderson Cooper wants to rant and rave about people filming coverage of the sites where oil is washing up is he really upset about the Constitutional rights of his network? Or is he mad because an oiled bird may equal a bonus because of good ratings? They say they stand beside us, but do they really? Maybe if the media would just let the people work, more could get done. Now it is just another sad but true reality show for the media conglomerates to latch onto and exploit our area that is already suffering. Showing the globs of oil on the beach isn't going to encourage people to come here and enjoy our area. There are more things to do than sit on a beach and swim. We have local attractions that can take up a day or two of someones vacation. Also, the beaches aren't closed! They are open, but you cannot swim. 90% of the condominiums have nice pools to cool off in.

It is sad to see all of this. It has been a kick in the groin to our area. People are at their wits end about the situation. I heard it best from Jimmy Buffett, when I paraphrase, the people of this area are resilient. We have weathered many storms and while this one is different, we still have to have the same mentality. We will overcome this, one way or another.

Playing your hand...

Playing cards and job opportunities are a lot alike. In both you don't want to tip your hand as to what you have been dealt. In cards you play very straight laced and calm or other players will make their bets based on your body's reaction. In a job opportunity, you can't tip what you have been dealt either. It may be wise to just play it cool and not jump the shark by giving out too much information as it could come back to bite you. When I say bite you, I mean it could fracture relationships and cause hard feelings. That is why you wait until all issues are settled and all the small parts operate as one.

Sometimes you have to make a step back before you step up. When one door closes another one opens and that is important. It is imperitive that your decisions are made with all scenarios covered and cleared. It may mean working with someone that you may not see eye to eye with. It may mean working for someone you admire and are inspired by. All bases must be covered and you have to make the best decision for everyone involved. Also you have to look at who needs you more? Is it someplace where your help will be appreciated, or somewhere that there doesn't seem to be a payoff. The decision is yours, the grass is not always greener.

Memories from MY High School Career II

Now, the final 5...

5. Bigger, Faster, Stronger
Before my junior year our head coach, Jimmy Nazary, invested in the workout program Bigger, Faster, Stronger. One Saturday we met at the gym and these stud looking dudes showed us lifts and explained the program to us. It was cold as all get out and at the end of the day the boosters fed us. That was also the first SEC championship game and the Turds won over Florida.

4. The Damn Boat is Sinking...
My senior football season was somewhat forgetable. One game in particular that really makes me wish I had amnesia was the Robertsdale game. At Foley, you don't lose to Robertsdale. It is not negotiable. In 89 games Foley is 68-15-6. That is about as lopsided as it gets. One of the 15 losses for Foley came my senior year as we dropped a 12-7 contest to the Golden Bears. The thing aboutplaying Robertsdale is they play Foley as if they were in the Super Bowl. You are going to get their best effort and they did that night. They out played us every play. They whipped us like we stole something. We probably had superior talent, but they had the want to that night. We went from a option team to a spread team trying to throw the ball. Why that was I have no idea, but we did. The next Monday about 5-6 players decided to quit, which in hindsight was best for the entire team.

3. Thursday Night Lasagna
Every Thursday before games one of my teammates mother would cook us a lasagna dinner the night before the game. We had fun with it as we would break out the video camera and make dumb videos of us doing a coaches show we called Coach's Corner. I would be the head coach being interviewed by my buddies discussing the previous weeks game and the upcoming game. We would make dumb commercials, but it was fun. Ma Scott took excellent care of her boys. Jason was a great teammate and friend and she was a great person to have around after losing my mother.

2. The Catch Off the Head
The week after losing to Robertsdale, we had so many distractions. On Monday our quarterback and a few of his cronies who were seniors ditched practice. This strengthened the resolve of our team as we broke in another quarterback, Adam Stewart. Adam was a great athlete who could pass the ball very well and could run as well. We had to modify our offense to adjust to his new style. We were also playing BCHS and were hungry for a win. We played hard and took a pretty good BCHS team to the wire. We had the lead late in the game and thought we were going to get off the mat finally. On a third or fourth down play BCHS's QB threw a pass to their tightend. The ball ricoched off his hands, then his head and landed right into his arms. At that point we knew we were snakebitten. We allowed the go ahead TD with hardly anytime left on the clock and ened up losing the game.

1. Upset Special
You are probably saying, "damn all he's talked about were losses in his top 5." Well number won was the greatest feeling in the world. The euphoria of victory was like none I had ever felt before. Blount High School rolled into town as the 2 time defending state champion in 5-A. They had a legendary coach in Ben Harris, they had athletes all over the field. We, however, were not chopped liver. We had good coaching and great leadership from the senior class that year. Guys like Grant Corley, Matt Bond, Jason Haupt, Mike Malone, Shannon Edwards, Josh Ewing and Jason Scott made sure us younger players kept our minds right week in and week out.

The day of the game was different from any I had ever been associated with. The excitement was so thick, but it was a quiet excitement. You could see it in everyone in the school, from the people who didn't care much about football to our biggest fans. As players we were all focused. No one really said much to each other all day long. We all kind of kept to ourselves and didn't do much jacking around as me normally would. Pregame meal was totally sient. Usually someone would have to get on someone for talking, but this day was different. When we got dressed guys were starting to smile, as if they knew something big was about to happen. Then we arrived at the stadium and the t.v. cameras were on, Coach Nazary was being interviewed on local television. The stands were filling early. At 5 o'clock the bleachers on the home side were half full in the general admission, which made warmups fun because we were getting cheered on during a time when hardly anyone is there.

When the game started we kicked off to them. To my knowledge we got the ball back off of a turnover and had excellent field position. Blount then proceeded to jump offsides twice in a row and I knew they were undisciplined. When I walked up to the line, the guy in front of me looked huge. When Mike Malone and I double team blocked him about 10 yards downfield I knew I we could win on the offensive line. The game went back and forth in the first half with the score tied at 0-0. I actually caused a fumble on a punt return, however I sprained my big toe. I went on to finish the game with the help of a tape job.

Midway through the 3rd quarter, what I like to call "The Drive" took place. I think our defense stopped them on 4th down down near our 10 yard line to give us the ball back. We drove down the field in about 10 or 12 plays and scored from the 2 yeard line and kicked the extra point to go ahead 7-0. Our defens would play lights out and we held on to win by the same score.

The stands stayed packed several minutes after the game had ended. Coach Nazary gave us a congratulatory speech and told us how proud he was of us. He even shed a little tear. As a team we all ran back out and the band played for another 30-40 minutes. People were on the field congratulating us, players and parents were hugging one another. It was a great scene! It is also my fondest memory from my high school playing days.

Memories from in MY High School Career

As I wrote my blog entry on the alumni game, I was taken back to the glory days when I wore the blue and gold. My career was quite inconsequential, but we hd some fun along the way. Here are my top 10 high school football memories from Foley High School. And now, the bottom 5.

10. Defeating Escambia High School (FL)
This game sticks out because it was the first game that I ever started. We actually played the game on a Saturday night because the rain was so bad the Friday we were scheduled to play. Another memory of that game was we played against Emmit Smith's brother or cousin. He was a great athlete but made some mental errors and we won the game 39-17.

9. Season of Rain
The entire season of 1993 seemed to be on a rain soaked field. We went 9-2 and the two losses were games that it hadn't rained during the day or during the game.

8. Uh oh...
We were playing in yet another soggy game at Ivan Jones Stadium battling the #1 team in the state, the Blount Leopards. On a fourth down play our all-state punter Jeff Randa was hit in the leg after a punt off a bad snap. He rolled around on the ground in pain. Guess who his back up punter was. That would be me. I was scared to death but would not have to punt, as Jeff recovered.

7. One week, two losses
The week of the Escambia County (AL) game, I suffered the loss of my mother to cancer. It was tremendously hard for me as she passed on the Tuesday night before our game. The emotions of losing ones mother is difficult to bear, especially on a 16 year old boy. Football kind of helped me get through the time before her death, but when she died it was time for grieving and family. I missed 3 days of practice, school and camaraderie with my teammates. However after practice on Wednesday a bunch of them showed up at my house and we played the most intense game of touch football I had ever been associated with. Those guys had busted their butts at practice, but still came by to support their teammate.

The game was forgetful, as we lost 27-42 in a game that we should have won. One of our linemen were called down field on a pass that would have tied the game 28-28. Bogus call by the official as the tape clearly showed no one was down field. I did win lineman of the week, grading at 92% for blocking.

6. The Great Wall
Baldwin County was one of our fierce rivals. They were perennially good and we had success at the lower levels against them. We beat them in middle school, junior high and j.v. In 1993 they were particularly good, especially on the defensive line. The two guys they had in the middle were like a immovable wall. No one could block these behemoths but we still managed to win 23-10. The two men in the middle went on to play at Troy and had decent college careers.

Glory Road

Last month some guys from my alma mater, Foley High School, put on an alumni football game. I never anticipated playing in it because 1. I am out of shape and 2. I coach at rival school and it wouldn't be percieved very well. A bit of excitement entered my veins the day leading up to the game. Who would play? What players would play well?

I felt a little out of place being there. Coaching at our school's rival, and losing a lot of contacts made me feel most out of place. I knew I couldn't play because of my lack of conditioning. It was cool to see a lot of my former classmates playing. I felt after a quarter or two I should have played. No one was carted off, no one had a stroke or heart attack.

Overall the game was enjoyable. It was a lot of fun to see a bunch of guys who may have gotten a little bit heavier and grey haired enjoy themselves on last Friday night under the lights.

Third Time the Charm?

This is my third (and final) attempt at a blog. I assume that nobody will read it, but maybe I can entertain a few of my peeps.