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31 years coaching experience/Worked Camps/Clinics on 6 Continents

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

What Toughness Brings to the Game


You CAN be tougher than your opponent AND make shots and you will win most, if not all of your basketball games.

You CAN be tougher than your opponent, NOT make shots and you will win some and lose some, but still be relatively successful.

You can NOT be tougher than your opponent and MAKE shots and you will win some some and lose some, but still be relatively successful.

You can NOT be tougher than your opponent and NOT make shots and you won't win many, if any.


Monday, November 21, 2016

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Whoa is Me! #1stWorldProblems


My natural inclination is to be a sarcastic, snarky, elitist, "you're stupid" type of person when encountering social media garbage.

When Facebook started, I shared everything and I felt the need to let everyone know what I thought about their opinions. Then I realized how stupid that was and it did nothing for me and my mental state. All I did was get into arguments that could never be won that would go on and on.

I started unfollowing people and it has worked, but the occasional comment or post shows up and I lose my mind.

So I have seriously considered deleting it all together.

If I weren't friends with so many people I have met through the years in foreign countries, I would do it.

I am stuck.

Keep and continue getting upset, or deleting it and maybe missing out on an opportunity in the future with someone from around the globe or here at home.

Whoa is Me! #1stWorldProblems


My natural inclination is to be a sarcastic, snarky, elitist, "you're stupid" type of person when encountering social media garbage.

When Facebook started, I shared everything and I felt the need to let everyone know what I thought about their opinions. Then I realized how stupid that was and it did nothing for me and my mental state. All I did was get into arguments that could never be won that would go on and on.

I started unfollowing people and it has worked, but the occasional comment or post shows up and I lose my mind.

So I have seriously considered deleting it all together.

Why do I feel the need to get involved with every single argument I read?

Why do I feel the need to get involved with every single comment whether I agree with it or not?

Why does every post have to turn into a political stance?

I'm not the social media police, but neither are you and I have my share of "accountability" partners online. You know those that respond to your stuff, it's almost like they your posts sent to their notifications.

And when they do, it's sarcastic, snarky, and elitist and it just kills me not to respond, yet I am learning to do so.

I can guarantee you that if you have a worldview, belief, opinion, you will not sway anyone by coming off as if they are ignorant, it just won't win you supporters.

If I weren't friends with so many people I have met through the years in foreign countries, I would do it, I would get rid of it completely.

I am stuck, but I have gotten it off my phone and it felt great.

But...

If I delete it all together, I very well could miss an opportunity for me or my family, so I will continue to be in misery, but I'm trying to not allow it to bother me.

Yea...sure.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

I Fear For Our Future (But Not Why You Think)


After any presidential election, the supporters of the candidate who lost are not happy. In fact, in today's age they go to social media and air their opinions over...and over...and over. And I believe that it can be good for people to do so, it can be cathartic. I mean, I have a blog that I write to do just that very thing, and I am about to do it some more.

As Generation X adults, we often complain about the new generation, the Millennials, it is a rite of passage, I believe for the older generation to complain about the younger generations. We talk about how Millennials aren't as tough as we were or are. We talk about how they complain about opinions different from their own. We talk about their "safe spaces" on college campuses and how pathetic it is. Yesterday, I heard and read about college professors allowing students to skip exams or miss assignments or miss school because they were so emotionally distraught they could not function.

Gen X has done a great job in allowing the type of behavior in Millennials that we complain that they have.

I do understand the disappointment when your candidate, someone you were so vested in loses. It hurts.

And because of Mr. Trumps rhetoric, I do understand why minorities or Muslims would have some concerns, maybe even huge concerns over his taking office.

But that's not who I am around.

That's not who I read extreme posts from on Facebook.

They are, for the most part, middle class white people.

If Donald Trump tries to impose some of his extreme comments, he has to deal with Congress and ultimately the Supreme Court and if he even tries, he will be the first President in my lifetime to try and fulfill his promises.

I read where our "poor little girls" have lost all hope in this country and that we have set women's rights back 100 years. That the poor little girls are depressed.

I'm not a woman, I'm not a girl, but I do know that many, many women voted for Donald Trump.

I have a 12 year old daughter who is not distraught over the presidential election. She has an inflamed tendon and is out of sporting events for a month...that has caused her tears, not having Hillary Clinton lose the presidential election. She paid attention, she read and listened, she knows what Mrs. Clinton stood for and she understood what Mr. Trump said and did.

She has not lost hope.

She has an Aunt that had a heart transplant when she was two and has fought for her life every single day of that life.

She has a mother who donated a kidney to that Aunt.

She has a grandmother that takes care of her disabled sister many times during the week in another town.

She has a grandmother that continues to work and is a shining example to other people in her community.

She has another Aunt that works a 40+ hour job to help take care of her family.

And I don't know this for a fact, but I am willing to bet that none of them voted for Hillary Clinton.

I have a daughter and what do I tell her after this election? Work hard Maddie, dot every I, cross every T and do things that will make you successful, but understand that does not guarantee success. And Maddie, you are going to deal with hardships, some that will drop you to your knees, but you get up and go to work the next day. Life is hard, it is horribly unfair most days and for every day of happiness, you may experience sometimes more that are not full of happiness.

So, you don't whine, complain, call the world unfair (it is) and cuddle up in a fetal position.

You go to work.

My daughter lives in a different world than her great grandmothers and I have no doubt that she will see a woman President some day, but it wasn't this year and I think it says more about who the person was than what gender she is.

I fear for the future, but for different reasons.

We are teaching our children that it is okay when you don't get your way to quit, to sit in a corner and throw a fit and maybe, just maybe you can get a day off school or from taking a test.

But what do I know? Maybe I am just venting on social media about something I don't know anything about which would not make me much different from most of America.

Monday, November 7, 2016

Drinking From the Same Pool Differently


I have written often about how great I believe that the United States of America is. I believe there has been no greater country than here, but I do know that we are not perfect and have many "black eyes" from our past.

One issue that rises to the level of media coverage from time to time is that of racism.

As a white man, I can only sympathize and explain how I see this issue from my perspective. My perspective is so much different from African-American people and I should never believe that I know more about their lives than they do

But as a history teacher I know that much of this country was built by black slaves.

As a history teacher I know that many of our current race issues go all the way back to theat "peculiar institution".

As white Europeans wanted cheap labor that would be easily recognizable, they decided to work with Africans there to enslave their fellow men and women. When brought here, they were beaten, raped and stripped of their pasts and history, and so much more that I could write books about it and there have been. And after many generations, black people in this country were brain-washed that they were not equal to white people and taught fear to stay on the plantation.

Black slaves were not often chained, there were no fences up on property and they fought to live, yet as not only non-citizens, but as non-humans.

When this institution was ended after The Civil War, black people in the South were freed. Free to do what? They knew nothing but their current surroundings and if they did decide to leave they were entering a depressed economic area post-Civil War with little to no hope for even the local whites.

If they chose to stay on the plantation, they were entered into legal slavery of sharecropping where they went into debt to farm part of the old plantation to never be able to pay that debt off. If they left and went North, they encountered racism there and were often treated as badly as in the South.

Black people in the US were slaves. Once slavery ended, they entered an area with no jobs, entered legal slavery in sharecropping, or went North where they were discriminated against.

As they fought for their rights in the late 1800's and early 1900's, they were jailed, beaten, and murdered. Black men couldn't find jobs, couldn't take care of their families and often turned to illegal ways to make money. If they were caught their punishment was often more stringent than for their white counterparts because of racism.

As the mid-1900's occurred, African-Americans fought for equality and were fought in every situation for their "inalienable rights". It wasn't until the civil rights bill of 1964 was passed that black people here were guaranteed their rights as US citizens, and yet they still encountered severe racism and inequality that exists still today.

What has occurred in the black community is they have been held back economically (every single sociologist will tell you that poverty is generational), educationally and to overcome these struggles, they have little hope to improve their current situation.

Because black people who are struggling economically want to have the rewards of their white cohorts, yet cannot do so (generally speaking), they resort to illegal activity to get the spoils of the Capitalist economy. Because of this, they have more interactions with law enforcement.

This creates mistrust on the part of both parties. African-American citizens feel they are harassed, and police officers feel they are surrounded criminals and the support of their communities of those criminals. (I am not speaking of the clear cut violation of laws by law enforcement that should be investigated and conviction)

I read recently that when black people see that a police officer has killed a black person, they see it as a sign of the system. White people see it as an individual act. Black people see this horrible occurrence and believe that there will be no recourse for the crime that the law enforcement will win more often than not.

Black people grow up fearing the police.

White people grow up thinking the police are here to protect and serve.

So when something happens, it is a divisive issue strictly from the experiences of both parties.

What I don't understand as a white man who has never had issues with the police, never been followed around a store, never been questioned because I "fit the description" is when illegitimate issues occur (there are many legitimate for sure!) that these "criminals" are pushed as some sort of civil rights martyr.

Because we as white people see each situation as individualistic, we don't understand how they can hold someone up to such high esteem. Black people don't see it that way, they see it as the ongoing corrupt system harassing and further violation of laws against black people.

I regret that these conversations cannot be had between our people on a regular basis. That our emotions get in the way of learning why each side feels the way that they do.

Why do black people not seem to get as upset about the systematic destruction of their societies through abortion, drug addiction, crime, and murders, usually by other African-Americans?

I grew up in Henryville, IN.

I was not really friends with an African-American until I started working at United Parcel Service in Louisville, KY, but I did broach some of these ideas then much to the surprise of my new black friends. I did not do it in a way that I tried to tell black people how to behave or how to feel, but in a way that I wanted to learn. I wanted to and still do want to learn and try to understand how black people feel compared to how I feel.

Racism occurs in this country way too often and the only way to overcome it is discuss with an open mind why it still occurs. Why, as the rapper Lecrae has stated, is Sunday the most segregated day of the week? Why can we not step outside of ourselves and try to understand our fellow man?

African-Americans experience an overall lack of better life in our country than white people do and its roots go all the way back to slavery. If you have an open, intellectual mind, you will see and comprehend that.

However, at some point you must take responsibility for your actions individually and as a group.

But what do I know?

I can only speak from my experiences as a middle class, white man from Southern Indiana.

So I MUST listen to my African-American brothers and sisters.

Though I believe that there is still some manipulation of black people in this country of how they think and who they support, they know better about black issues than I or any other white person could ever know and they should be listened to from all different angles of members of the black community.

We owe it to the present, but we must improve this scourge of racism for future generations. We must learn to get along, and Lord willing, love one another.

I'm Pro-Life


As a Christian, I am trying to live my life from a biblical worldview standpoint. I often feel that in the US, we have an American Christian worldview and that, I believe, is not how Jesus would want us to see the world.

Pro-life as a biblical worldview is for the unborn. It's for refugees from Syria and northern Iraq. It's for the justly imprisoned for both them and their victims. It's wanting and fighting for cheaper/easier adoptions.

It's for helping orphans and widows. It's caring for the sick and elderly until the end of their lives.

It is not limited to borders, believers, or the deserved.

It is not limited to race, culture, gender or experience.

God loves each of us, created each of us, sent his son to die for each of us.

For you and the person who has done you wrong.

For you and people that are non-white in foreign countries.

For you and serial killers.

For you and ISIS.

For you and all other sinners...all of us.

Christianity is so much more than our little country church made up of people similar to me. And it is so much more than the hip, cool church where I can go and hide and be entertained.

The church is all of us non-believers doing what we were called to do, share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'm not perfect and my family and friends can tell you quickly of my shortcomings in my actions, but my beliefs must align with the Bible and I must strive to reach them.

I'm trying to live in such a way that I have to answer to my children and wife in this life and to my make in the next.

And I can say with zero hesitation, that I'm not perfect by any means...but I'm trying.


Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Kids...and Basketball

She's my all time favorite girls' basketball player and boy did she play well last night. I wish she understood how good she is and how good she could be and quit playing the other 45 things she does, but he...you're a kid once, let her be a kid.


And Brandon, I could not be more proud of him. He is in the 2nd grade and plays with a group of 4th graders and does very well.


My Time with The Speaker of the House of Representatives

Okay, the title is a little misleading, I didn't really spend time with The Speaker, or I guess I did, enough to beg him to run for President and wish him well and get a picture.

I went to a campaign event for Trey Hollingsworth who is running for Congress in my 9th District of Indiana. I still haven't made up my mind about him, but I could not pass up taking a personal day to see the man who is 3rd in line for the Presidency of the United States.

Paul Ryan, Congressman from Wisconsin, was in Sellersburg at Happ's Airport stumping for Hollingsworth and Todd Young who is running for the open Senate seat in Indiana.

I just cannot pass up as a high school Government teacher, the chance to see and hear someone of his high ranking. And it wouldn't matter to me which political party he belonged to.

It is inspiring to be around someone like that, everything that they go through, but I really admire Mr. Ryan, so it made it even better.

And who knows...he very well could be President some day.