Travel Chronicles Chapter 9

Travel Chronicles Chapter 7

Travel Chronicles Chapter 6

Travel Chronicles Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Part 2 subset A

Travel Chronicles Chapter 4

Did China lie...

Travel Chronicles Chapter 3

Remember the #Hawkeyes

My Upward basketball season has just ended and this was one of the best teams I have had as far as kids listening and doing things and they just played as a team.  It was so heart breaking the way the season ended, we lost by 2 to the number 1 seed of the tournament and we were the 5.  The kids were in tears, Peach was in tears, I totally didn't cry.  I was close but I was just so happy with how hard the kids played that no matter the result I couldn't be upset.  You see  it was the second game we played that night, during the week and we did everything we could.  The game ended for us on a turnover well 2 turnovers actually as the game was tied with 30 seconds left and some how they other team got the ball and the best kid on their team got a free layup with 10 seconds left.  So I called timeout, and told we were going for the win, we were going to shoot a 3.  So I drew up a play where a kid would dribble left and hand it off to another kid and he would shoot it.  Well the one kid came up to early and the other kid threw it off his back and it went back court for a violation.  The moral of that story is - practice a desparation 3 point play so that the kids aren't caught off guard in the last 10 seconds of the season.
This team was special and I wrote a while ago about how a team becomes a special team and while I'm not sure how or when it happened this team definitely had that, and I wanted to foster that and keep it going as long as I could.  I have coached or assistant coached the last 8 or 9 years in upward, coached some civic basketball, and learned a lot along the way from other coaches and on-line and I don't think I could have got as much out of a team before this season.  I never really coached before 10 years ago, but have coached all the way up from T-ball, baseball, basketball, and even some flag football.  I do enjoy helping kids get better by teaching them what ever I can, but Upwards is a special kind of challenge because practice time is limited.  I had one other team that I felt somewhat comfortable yelling out plays, but this was the first time I ever accomplished it at the 3/4 level.  Not saying they executed the plays perfectly every time, but it kept me involved in the game and I think they got better at things as the season went on, and started expecting things.  Maybe I'm more organized now, but there was a feeling of something kind of organic and you could tell the kids were buying in.  We didn't really have a go-to-scorer per se that I could just get the ball to and say go get me a basket.  A lot of points came from our defense were, we would get a turnover or rebound and push the ball, but if we had to run a play or get someone a shot we did.  One game we came out and hit 3 or 4 jump shots early in the game and sometimes that is fools gold because jumpers don't always fall, especially in 3rd and 4th grade.  The well dried up.  I think we scored 10 in the first half total, after having 8 in about 3 minutes.  Then we got down 10, at 20-10 in the last period and some how, some way we managed to score 14 points and win by 4.  That was the last regular game before our Upward tourney and we had won 3 in a row.  One thing about Upward though is that sometimes you can get behind in the rotation if teams don't have the same number of players, and it is especially disadvantageous if you have more players.  I won't get into the details but basically if you have 8 players they play evenly, and if a kid was out one period he has to play the next period.  By having 8 kids you ensure that your best player is out at least 2 periods.  Well the first round of the tourney we play a team with only 8 kids, and they were all boys.  Usually that is a rotation loss.  But for the tourney we could manipulate the roster and I spent about 2 hours tinkering with rotations so that I didn't have all 3 girls on the floor at once (boys don't like to pass to girls at this level for some reason, so this would give them at least 2 options to pass), I had one of my two designated in bounders on the floor at all times, and I had my best lineup going into the last period.  That was the first time I have seen a team of 8 beat of team of 6, 15-14, 5 seed over the 8 seed.  And the other team had a chance at the end just one of our players made a great defensive play and stopped a layup.
So the next game we were matched up against a team that had a similar number of wins, but also had 9 kids.  This resulted in a rotation loss for them.  That is as simple as I can put it.  I think we won like 27-21.  Then we played the number 1 seed that same night, and if we had played them fresh I feel like we would have won instead of playing with an hour of rest after the first game.  We played a box and one defense, that we actually installed the game before after halftime.  It wasn't great but man was in effective.  We lost by double digits the previous time we played and this time we lost by 2 and had a chance to win at the end.  That is all you can ask for.  And I really can't stress that with limited practice time, how hard it is to install a defense let alone a gimmicky defense, but that just speaks to the specialness (not sure about that word) of this team.  I wish we could have gotten one final team picture, but everyone was kind of upset so it was definitely understandable that we wouldn't have wanted our picture taken.  The number one seed did end up winning 18-13 over the number 3 seed, so we definitely gave them a better game.  We were also down in the rotation 8 kids to 7, so their best player only had to sit out once, and they only had one girl.  Sometimes Upward doesn't get all of the fairness check boxes just right, but every once and a while you get a team that just comes together and can almost overcome any deficit.  Hope next year is just as good, can't wait.  Here is a picture of me and my main man Charlie.

Travel Chronicles Chapter 2

Travel Chronicles Chapter 1

Adult Convo with the boy

So the whole basketball thing for the high school is kind of blowing up and multiple parents are writing letters and voice their overall displeasure with the coach and his staff.  Shocker right?  So I have written a letter as well and I wanted to talk to Sampson first before submitting it.  So we talked and he read the letter and it was a good talk.  I talked about how I had to quit my senior year because of coaching, and that maybe we are just destined to never play a senior season.  He has played well though when he played, but a lot of lessons were learned from my time to help prepare him, where I had no help growing up and neither parent played sports so sports were not very important in my household.  Anyway he said he hated last year and he only gave the coach a second chance this year and kind of everything from last year was confirmed and he doesn't want to submit himself to the verbal abuse for another year, which I totally understand.  He is in a little different situation from me, the coach pulled me and another kid in at the beginning of the season and basically said we weren't going to play and we were wasting our time.  So after 4 games (all loses) and playing for a total of 2 minutes (scored though), I could see the writing on the wall and ended my season there.  It was also a pay for play school so rather than pay to sit, I left before having to pay.  Sampson's situation is actually entirely different, after getting some varsity time last year as a sophomore he started some as a junior and was the 6th man, he just can't get by the yelling and swearing and demeaning behavior of the coaches.  I completely respect his decision and wanted to make sure he was done and he laid out a good case for being done.  I told him to never say never, but in this case there is no glory or record to obtain so it is far better to spend his time doing something else.  Maybe next year he can help me coach Upward.  Even though I had some horrible experiences with basketball and it gets me again here with my son, I still enjoy the sport, enjoy watching it and enjoy helping so that kids get a chance to play.  Now the old Hawkeyes are still in the playoffs but as the 5 seed so we got some work to do, but hopefully we can get that dub in the first round and then get another dub an hour later.  Go Hawkeyes!!!

Ugh

It's hard to describe that feeling were you have been gut punched and feel horrible about things, but the thing that caused the punch also creates a lot of doubt and questions.  So it is just like "I have to deal with this, but how."  So that is where I am right now, my boss or ex-boss was relieved of his job duties yesterday and he was a good boss.  I have had 5 bosses in my professional life, and he was definitely in the top 5.  Pretty easy math there.  Actually maybe I have had 6 bosses, but one was for around 6 months so not sure that counts, anyway he would still be top 5.  Honestly I wouldn't want to rank my bosses, but he was good.  I think Dale Clark is probably at the top of the list because he was very smart about what he was doing and always treated me well and allowed me to succeed and gave me opportunity to prove my self and improve myself.  Columbian Chemicals was an underrated stop on my employment path for sure.  Anyway today feels like there is a cloud hanging overhead.  Worry and uncertainty rule the day and thinking about what has happened has left me feeling very weird about my future and how things are going to be handled.  Just ugh, about the whole situation, about who is going to take over, about how much more work this will be, about how this may not have been completely thought out...

Season 7 continues...

Andy is now the new boss. 🙁  But funny thing is, two days in and Andy hasn't even mentioned the promotion to anyone working there.  The announcement was sent out in an e-mail.

Season 7

I figured out this weekend that my professional life is currently in season 7 of the office.  Michael has left (although, not by his own accord this time) and now we are leaderless.  I can only hope that Andy is not put in charge here, and if Andy is put in charge that there is a least an ass tattoo in the future that we can all enjoy.

Finally Over!!

Is it just me or is it a horrible thing to celebrate the end of your kids season, maybe his career?  Well that is what happened on Friday.  You see I try not to live through my kids, but I want them to be happy more than anything, so when something makes them upset I want to see them get that out of the their life.  And that is where this season of basketball comes in.  The last two years really have been a horrible experience and Sampson has had to work his way up from the freshman team / reserve team to the varsity team without anyone really helping him or a coach really seeing the potential in him.  Which is unfortunate as the kid has achieved quit a bit athletically and has settled into a couple of sports, but he hit a couple of home runs over the fence in Bronco ball, he won the summer swim title for boys when he was 12, and he is a regional qualifying cross country runner in high school, ran a sub 5 minute mile in track, plus all the stuff he has done for basketball.  But he isn't crazy tall and he isn't an exceptional leaper, but that is about all he isn't.  As far as basketball is concerned he can pass, screen, shoot (when he is allowed), and is probably better on defense that anyone on the team from the aspect of position and hand placement.  He does have freakishly quick hands if you want to give him that, but it is hard to quantify those. Anyway he worked to get to varsity and I think he thought there would be some relief if he was playing just varsity and it didn't turn out that way.  In a way it was almost worse.  Last year he was the 7th man on a team that only went 6 deep.  But he played reserve and practiced as part of the white team.  So he was in line for a tongue lashing every once and awhile, but managed to stay out of the spot light most of the time.  As far as screwing up in a varsity game, well you have to be in to screw up, and the only time he got in a game at Shadyside he actually did pretty well and knocked down a 3.  But that was the only time all season he played in the first half and netted only 10 varsity quarters all season, no where near enough to letter apparently, even though he did all of the off season varsity summer leagues and varsity practices all season.  So that is a little ridiculous because if you aren't going to reward a kid with playing time, then at least reward them for the time they put in.  But not this coach.  This is where the problem is, and I have talked about it before.  How do you make a kid hate a sport they have been playing for 10 years?  Yell at them everyday in practice and never tell them they do anything right.  And the problem isn't that it is just him getting yelled at, it is everyone gets yelled at in practice.  There is no level you can ascend to in order to get away from the wrath and that is what I think he realized this year.  That even if he did start, even if he was a focal point of the team he was still going to get yelled at and berated for every little thing he did, so he has had enough.  Which is a damn shame because I have put a lot into encouraging and building him up over the last 10 years and this next year should be his best on the basketball court.  Plus the time his mother has put in at the concession stand and doing basically everything for the parent organization over the last 4 years.  But I honestly don't feel bad about him not wanting to play because it has been that miserable and that is terrible.  How can a coach make a kid want to walk away from something they have done for the last 10 years and how bad is it that I don't want him to play either.  I mean I felt good when this season finally ended and I know how competitive he is and how much he would love to play as deep into the season as possible, but the practices are so brutal and there is no glory in anything they are doing so being done is the better option.  How sad.  I'm competitive too, and when they step on the court there is some questioning of how bad do we want to win vs. how bad do I want this season to be over.  The last game of the season was kind of the high water mark for poor player development, talent evaluation and just overall spitting in kids faces from a coach.  There is one senior that starts and has been in the system for 4 years, there are 2 seniors on the bench, one that did all of the off season stuff same as Sampson and one that was injured the previous football season, so he was restricted medically but his brother played so he was there basically.  Anyway the one senior plays and Sampson is now the 6th man even though he was told he would start based on match-ups which I guess were never in his favor the rest of the season.  The last game he only plays 6 guys, now granted it was a 2 point game at half time, but right after half we commit 8 turnovers in the third.  At some point Sampson came in, but he was the only one.  The other two seniors never came in until there were 40 seconds in the game and Sampson and the other senior had fouled out.  40 seconds. And you know what the coach posts on the way home on the bus:


Seniors you will be missed.  Apparently they were already missed because he couldn't find them to get them in the game.  Now the bad thing is the senior night game (which the seniors should have started but didn't because that is another thing this coach doesn't get) the guys played a good bit and at one point 3 senior boys (minus the starter, I mean why wouldn't you put all four seniors out there at one time for a nice moment, but no he couldn't do that either) where on the court together.  And they won by 38.  So don't you think that would register that the more rest the starters get, the fresher they are at the end and just in general during the game and the more engaged the team is and the better they play.  I mean if the abuse in practices was leading to this display every night I could kind of justify it, but it was a fluke game, a one off, that will probably never be repeated for the rest of his tenure which I hope is over actually so that Sampson would get to play his senior year.   I know you never say never, but at this point right now I hope he doesn't play and I hope 4 seniors that were on varsity and about 3 other players don't come back so he realizes you can't treat people like that.  Especially when IT ISN'T WORKING.  You have to see that the results you get are from what you put in, and we were 13-11 and probably should have won another 4 or 5 games and still been playing, but not the way this team was coached.  1960's offense, no transition, and only one kid is allowed to shoot and he only shoots 30% on a good day, makes no sense.  Maybe God can intervene some how, I hope so.

Spot Starts

Whelp this season continues to get worse.  Definitely the least enjoyable season I have ever watched my son play, but part of that, well actually the whole thing is coaching.  He got to start 2 games in a row due to suspension and he was told that he would be in the starting lineup depending on situation, but...  It seems coach has found someone else to start and he is back on the bench.  It's cool that he got the start, but we lost both games, on the road.  That may play a small part in it, one game an opposing player scored 50 points, and E guarded him for about 21 of those points, but they were pretty much all jumpers, most off the dribble and sometimes he had 2 or 3 hands in his face.  He certainly deserved the 50 (well actually 49 because one of the officials called a 2 a 3).  The second game we lost by 40, and I called it 12 minutes into the contest, sadly.

The other team ran and ran like crazy and we never got back.  Now to me that is game plan, you have to know how a team wants to play going in, and try and take away what they want to do and we didn't.  So we lost.  By 40.  This was actually the OVAC first round and we ended up as the 3rd seed, which was a little surprising, but Sophie was upset because now we have to have a concession stand on Friday.  I mean it's like we didn't realize there was more work on the line for Sophie, come on boys you could have played harder.

Anyway so now we are playing at home against the Team that E got his first start against (see earlier post).  This time however, he won't start.  Not because he hasn't played well or done his job, but well I don't know why.  Last time we were missing the tall kid, this time our point guard is out, but we won last time and if you were going to give him the start then, wouldn't it make sense to start him now?  Honestly this season is so hard to figure out, but I knew he wouldn't start.  And it isn't like him starting the last 2 games is the difference, the other kid who would start also started the last two games due to suspensions.  I'm guessing we lose by 5, E says it will be over double digits.

Update: we lost by 6, but were down 12-1 after 1.

Back to the Bench

Welp that lasted all of two starts.  Now one of the boys who was done for the season may not be done and as much as I want my son to start, I don't want to sound like someone down playing another person's motivation or ability to play or the risk, but... If the answer to what you have done to yourself is to have something surgically repaired, putting it off for the glories of high school basketball may not be worth it.  Now there is something to be said for gutting it out and I could understand if we were undefeated and had a shot at all the championships and stuff, but we are 9-7 right now, can't win the buckeye 8, probably won't make the OVAC top 4, and in all likelihood unless something drastic with the coaching philosophy changes we are probably headed for an early exit in the sectionals.  So unless you were playing for a scholarship or maybe a school record, which I don't think either are on the line, it's probably best to pack it in and call it a career.  Now would I tell my own son this. abosolutely.  There is basically nothing to be gained and a life full of potential pain or limited range of motion in one arm on the line.  You only get to do this life one time, and you only have the body you were born with so you need to take care of it.  That is my advise, just kind of unfortunate what has happened and how it might play out.  E has also had an ear infection and missed the last game so he might have gotten bumped from the lineup anyway.  Hopefully he can still play and contribute.

Update:  Well the boy with the injured arm is done, but not without the coach asking him to stay.  Insert eye roll.  So E missed one game due to an ear an infection and the coach held him out the entire first quarter even though we were losing 12-6 at one point.  Must have been concerned for his well being even though the boy with the shoulder problems missed 2 straight games, and came right back into the starting lineup and played probably about 25 minutes.  Oh and the one kid who missed a week and a half with ham string issues came right back to the starting lineup and played damn near every minute of two back-to-back losses of 30+ and 20+.  Honestly I have no clue what this guy watches during games and his main assistant is about a joke.  Oh the game we were behind, when E came in we went on a 7-2 run and got the lead, now he didn't score, but tell me that he didn't make a difference.

Defensive Basketball Tips

So I saw a video on line and while I agree with some of the concepts there are other that I think are wrong.  Defense for basketball is one of the hardest things to get right, but oh what a difference it can make if you understand defense.  For one it is difficult to practice, everyone can dribble and shoot on their own but no one works on defense by themselves.  A lot of times we give credit to people for being "good" defenders when they are simply very active and maybe even fast, but don't necessarily use correct or good technique.  Plus how often do you hear when watching a game that a player is a fantastic positional defender?  Not exactly the flashyist comment is it?  So let's start with the very basics.

BASICS

See the ball - never turn your back to the basketball especially on defense.  good offensive players will take advantage.
Try to keep your back to the basket.
Stay between your person and the basket.
Bend your knees and keep your butt down, hands out when in a stance.
Slide your feet - basically don't cross your feet or a good offensive player will go right by you.

So that is what I try to get my elementary kids to do to start with.   If you master these concepts you at least aren't a space cadet on the defensive end.  So then how do you become a "good" defender?

MODERATE

Talk - always communicate with other players about where the offense is and any screens.
Ball - you - man - This concept keeps you in a position where one - you see the ball and the person you are guarding, and two - you are in a position to defend a pass to your person.
Know personnel - this is a little higher level concept, but if you are guarding a shooter you need to be close to that person if they are away from the basket.  If someone is not a great shooter you don't have to guard them that closely away from the basket.  This will also determine if you need to try and get over screens (good shooter) or can go under a screen (bad shooter).
When trying to block a shot be the second person off the floor.  If you don't do this you will constantly be falling for fakes and be out of position.

HIGHER LEVEL STUFF BUT REALLY SHOULDN'T BE

When guarding a right handed player you should challenge a shot with your left hand.  This is a concept that is lost on players or never taught to them, but makes sooooo much sense.  If you try to block a shot with the right hand on a right handed player, your entire body has to rotate or slide over to where you are no longer if front of the player.  If they faked the ball and you bit on the fake they will be able to go left with very little resistance because you are horribly out of position.  This is why left handed players have an advantage because their instinct is to block the shot with their strong hand and it happens to line up with right handed players, so they are able to stay in front of the offensive player the entire time without getting badly out of position.  Sometimes it is hard to tell if a left handed player is good at defense, because they have a natural advantage.
Never try to steal the ball from a good ball handler when the ball is in their hands.  They are too good at dribbling and by waving your hands your feet will stop moving or you will get off balance and they will expose you.  Be patient against a good ball handle and be content to make them work hard or travel the furthest path to the basket.  "You reach, I teach" is a favorite motto of good ball handlers.
Keep your hands at ball level.  If a player is dribbling you don't have to worry about blocking a shot so your hands shouldn't be up in the air.  You should be worried about them passing the ball, though.  If they are dribbling hands should be out, palms up.  If they have the ball in a triple threat, hands should be out to the side preferably with the hand to guard the shot forward towards the ball handler.  If they raise the ball to shoot or pass, the defenders hands should go up.  If they have already used their dribble, you can move in extremely close so that passing angles are taken away, just don't get beat on a back door or give and go, you still have to stay on balance and in front of the offensive player.
When there is a lot of distance between you and a ball handler you should flatten out.  If you have a shooting hand forward (and by extension a foot forward) a good offensive player will attack the front foot to get you to open your hips.  So if you don't give them a direction they have to pick a direction and you can easily slide over and take a charge if they drive at you.  Ideally by being flat (both feet the same distance from the ball handler) the ball handler will stop their forward progress and you can assume a more natural defensive stance.  If they are still coming at you while flat they will have to take a much wider path in order to make it around you without charging.  At that point you should have help or be able to easily drop back to pick them up. Always start to their strong hand and if you can, keep the ball centered on your body from a position stand point.  This is where quicker defenders have an advantage.
When guarding the ball prior to a dribble keep the foot forward that matches up with their shooting hand.  So for a right handed shooter you want your left foot towards the shooter, but outside of their stance or at least outside the ball.  The reason for this is, if they still try to drive right, they have to go around your foot which will give you a chance to drop your hips and still be in front of them on a drive.  Ideally they will be forced to go left, but if they pull up for a shot you will be directly on their shooting hand.  The key thing here is to not switch which foot is forward with out the ball handler committing to dribbling in that direction on a hard drive.  If they are just sliding right or left you want to slide with them but still in a position to challenge the shooting hand.  Why move your right foot forward to keep someone from going left if they shoot right handed?  They will be able to shoot right over top of you because you aren't in a position to block or challenge the shot effectively.

Tales from practice

So two things here.  One, I guess they were running a fast break drill, and in the drill the point guard was furthest back, there were two wings and one post player that was closest to half court to start (makes sense because on a break most of the time the post players are close to mid court...).  The formation proceeds to the front court and the point guard I guess throws it into the lane to the post player with the wings going to the 3 point line (this at least makes sense).  Fast forward to the next day and in a game situation a break occurs (except now there is no post in front of everyone, weird), well the wings go to the 3 point line and now the coach tells them they are wrong.  They should have went to the paint first.  Which is correct, but in the drill the previous day the wings were stopping at the 3 point line, so.... what are trying to accomplish with these drills? 

Two, a player gets the ball swung to them at the 3 point line, player takes the shot.  Coach "that is a horrible shot".  Now we are teaching kids that open 3 points shots after a swing is bad shot?  He was supposed to throw it in the post.  And I wonder why we are 1-3 in the last 3 post seasons.

Why Coaches Shouldn't Dress Down Players in Public

So this hits a little close to home and is exceptionally discouraging.  Let me start with what happened then give the reasons for why this is a bad idea especially for a coach to do.  During one of the recent games the coach on E's team got really mad at a play and started yelling "he sucks, he sucks" while standing on the sidelines. Now I didn't see it, but Sophie saw it and she is always defensive about her kid so she assumed he was talking about her son.  So she files that display in her memory bank.  Well we win the game, E has 5 steals, and manages to sink 2 clutch free throws to put us up 4 with less than 2 minutes to play.  Not a great game but good enough to help the team win.  The next day he says he is done with basketball and is going to bowl next year.  Mind you he is a teenager, but this is coming after a game the week before where he said he finally enjoyed basketball again, and the team goes 2-0 in his 2 starts. So Sophie calls the coach out and he apparently cops to saying that about his own player in the middle of a game in front of his team, directly in front of our fans and across from the opposing team student section.  Now if Sophie saw it, you know there was more than her that saw it too.  In this day and age of social media a coach lambasting a players ability is going to be captured and shoved in that kids face.  I think it is totally ridiculous that a coach would say anything negative about a kid's playing ability during a game, let alone a kid on his team.  I can understand correcting a mistake or pointing out a play that could have been made (that's called coaching), but to throw your hands up in the air, and strut back and forth yelling "He Sucks, He Sucks!!" is beyond terrible, it isn't coaching because you aren't making anyone better by doing it.  What are those other kids on the bench thinking?  What are the parents thinking (glad it's not my kid... this time)? What are the other fans thinking? "wow if this guy thinks his own players suck, maybe we can win".  Then you have kids who aren't playing and just watching for the other team, but they know these players, they have grown up with each other they have competed against each other in other sports, and they know how to communicate with each other.  And if one of those kids could have got a video and posted to social media imagine the embarrassment that kid is going to go through at their own school amongst their peers.  Now allegedly that isn't what happened, but even having this as a possibility is unacceptable in my mind.  When you are the coach of a team it is your job to protect these kids from the outside.  You have to have the mentality that everyone in that locker room is not only on the same side, but there has to be a united front against the opponent, their fans and sometimes even your fans.  You have to be willing to defend the kids and any mistakes they make especially if you leave them in the game.  What sense does it make playing a kid that you think "sucks" and then if they make a mistake leave them in?  Doesn't that just make you look stupid?  Well someone once said that stupid is as stupid does and I have about had my fill of stupid.

I think the most frustrating part, at least as a parent, is that I have invested so much time in helping him get better and building his confidence.  I compare it to building a building one confidence brick at a time and every good game, good practice, learning-something-new, backyard game we play is a brick that goes into building up this structure of confidence that the kids has.  Then you have a coach that instead of continuing to build the confidence structure so that these kids can go out and compete with their full skill set, he comes in with the wrecking ball of criticism  that is capable of destroying multiple levels confidence in one fell swoop.  Shooting - No, you can't do that!! Pass it to the tall kids!! Driving to the basket - That's not your F'ing job!!!  I mean it takes so much just to get a kid to be able to play at a varsity level, and to have a kid feel like they shouldn't be playing because of their coach is a travesty.  Most kids don't even want to play sports these days because there is too many other things to do.  I remember one play at summer league where E got the ball and took off with it down the middle of the court and drew a foul.  I said "great job, see when you take something good happens".  His coach said something to the effect of that was a terrible play and he got bailed out.  I mean this is completely ridiculous right, how can a player get any better if he isn't allowed to do anything?  At least bowling won't be like this.

Hip Dislocation of Aught 20

So my mom decided it would be interesting to see what would have if she dislocated her hip.  On the 15th she was in her bathroom and she said she reached to get something for her hair and she felt her leg give out and next thing she knew she was on the floor and her leg didn't work.  So she spent the next hour or so crawling on her back to a phone in her bedroom.  Did I mention she just turned 90?  Anyway she found a way to knock the phone down and call 911.  Well the 911 operator calls my brother too because he thought that was his mother.  [not sure exactly the timeline but Jim also heard the calls over the scanner and headed out as well, I think he may have actually beaten Bill there so not sure what he was doing] The EMS arrived and took her to Wheeling.  Someone called Deena and she called me to let me know Mom had fallen, it wasn't until around noon that I found out she was going to have to have "surgery".  And I put "surgery" in quotes here because no one really knew what was wrong or how they were going to treat her, but as it turns out the hip reduction as they call it is capable of being done by pulling the leg/hip back into place without cutting.  Well I didn't know that at the time so I left work and went to the hospital.  All indications were that the procedure would take place around 4:30PM.  But then we had to wait for the doctor to get there so 5:30.  Then we had to wait for some OR rooms to clear out 6:15.  In total the actual procedure lasted about 2 minutes.  I know right.  So she was done by 6:30 and I think in her room by a little after 7 or 7:30.  Jim and Carol had stayed through the procedure and then left.  Bill had left before I even got there because he had to go check on his building.  You know the building that gave life to him apparently as that was more important that whatever was going to happen to his mother.  I stayed with her until about 9 and then headed home and would come back the next day to get her discharged.  Well that took forever for some reason.  The doctor saw her at 11 and then it took another 4 hours to get out of there.  Then we had to go out to Beallsville to get clothes and the dog.