Very White Christmas

For the first time since I moved to the DC area, I decided to drive home to Ohio instead of flying. Thank goodness I didn't wait one day later to go back because my poor Mustang would not have made it very far with the foot and a half of snow that fell. Although I was limited from going anywhere with the Level 3 Snow Emergency that was in place (making it illegal to be on the roads for any reason other than an emergency), I was much better off than many others who lost power for several days to to significant ice instead of just snow. On my way home from a Christmas Eve party, it was around -10° (-17° according to The Weather Channel) without factoring in the wind chill...not the best time for thousands of people to be without any power.

 

Now it's back to work for 3 days, and then off to London for New Years!

Proud to be a Buckeye (and Polar Bear)

Can someone please tell me why athletics in the state of Ohio must always be clouded by some type of controversy or NCAA violation. First it's the whole Maurice Clarett suspension and stupidity, then he "clears himself" from any wrongdoing by blaming everything on Ohio State, and now this. Apparently, the Buckeye hoops team has banned itself from postseason NCAA and NIT postseason play due to the violations by former coach Jim O'Brien. I guess it's good to admit these things and accept the appropriate punishment, but these major violations seem to recur every 2 to 3 years. How about following the rules in the first place and putting guys like Maurice Clarett in their place before they think they're above the university and NCAA regulations.

Even my very own Ohio Northern Polar Bears (yes, our mascot is a polar bear) can't escape these type of things when it comes to athletics. My former football coach was fired in 2003 for violating NCAA rules pertaining to practices during the offseason. So, Division III football, no athletic scholarships, very little media scrutiny compared to D-1, but still this.

Of course we had the "voluntary" 7:00am offseason conditioning sessions and "optional" 7-on-7 practices and workouts the one year that I played at ONU, but I honestly thought we were following all NCAA rules and regulations. But even without the glamor of the Divsion I schools, no athletic scholarships, and tight admission requirements, we still ended up with some pretty bright individuals. Take for example the morning of the biggest game of the year against the undefeated and two-time defending national champions Mount Union Purple Raiders. One of the starting cornerbacks called me up that Saturday morning to review some of our coverages. By review, I mean teach. Somehow he had almost no recollection of what we had been practicing that week and the rest of the season (as an aside, he did have 10 interceptions the following year, so I must have taught him well ;-)).

Mount Union ended up beating us by a mere 5 points that game, 42-37, before going on to win the Division III National Championship for the third straight year. Unfortunately, certain people will say that I gave up two of those touchdowns, while I would argue that our coverage, and not me, was to blame. As a sophomore who decided not to play my freshman year, I was primarily used on our Nickel package as a free safety at the time. Both of the touchdowns that I "gave up" were out of a Trips formation where we essentially did not have enough guys to cover the three receivers on that side in addition to the back out of the backfield, and I had to make a decision as to which receiver was the biggest threat based on our zone coverage. The first time I took the tight end at the front of the end zone as a receiver slipped behind to catch the touchdown, and the second was exactly the opposite. But it was my fault both times and I payed the price by getting reamed on the sideline after each. After that game and a knee injury that kept me out half of the season, I decided to call it quits and "retire" after only one year. For some reason they didn't retire my number. Here's a picture from that game...oh, the memories...

Now it's just flag football for me :-)

Thanks, TLi

The reemergence of mywebpages.comcast.net/tli78/ has inspired me to take advantage of my web space and domain name that have gone unused for so long. There's not really much exciting here at the moment, but that should change before too long. We'll see...