At the Barbershop - 12/10/09

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the basketball is so delightful, and since there’s so much to know, let’s gather round the old barber pole.

Yeah!  In your face Perry Como!  How’s that taste Bing?  Cower in shame Elmo & Patsy!  It’s time for a Christmastime barbershop!  Ho, ho, ho!

Miller girls basketball coach Brandon Weiss was kind enough to invite me to attend Hannah Wilkerson’s letter of intent signing a few weeks back.  I had that day off and decided to go.  Man was I glad I did.

We all know the kind of stats that Hannah has put up so far in her career.  But when she was given a chance to speak, she didn’t mention a single one.  She thanked her parents & brother, her coach, & her teammates with genuine affection.  Not in ‘athletespeak’.  She spoke of winning districts this year.  And she spoke of her dream of playing for the Lady Bears.  Hannah teared up as she told how she never thought she’d actually get the chance to live that dream.  Then she sat down, put pen to paper, and took the next big step toward achieving her dream.

Just about everyone has a dream like that at some point.  To play a sport in college, or the pros.  To sink the winning shot, score the winning goal, hit the winning home run.  For others it’s to write a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, win an Oscar, go platinum, make a billion, become president, make the huge discovery.  A dream is a dream no matter whether it’s in sports, business, politics, science, or the arts.  Once a dream sinks it’s hooks into you, you either work like crazy to make it come true, or work like crazy to get away from it.

I also had a dream when I was in young.  Much like a million other boys, I wanted to be a professional football player.  I was a good player in Mighty Mites and just knew I had what it took to make the pros.  There was just one problem.  My school didn’t have high school football.  There was also the fact that I was only 5’10″ with the speed of a tree sloth on Valium.  Those things conspired to kill my dream of playing on the defensive line for the Kansas City Chiefs, after an all-American career at Michigan of course.  My parents offered to move to allow me to play.  It would have been a short move to get me in either the Camdenton or School of the Osage school districts.  But I didn’t feel I had the right to uproot my whole family especially when I knew that I was never going to be pro or even college football material.  It would have been a selfish thing of me to do when I knew I couldn’t achieve what I wanted.

Life is funny.  And has a funny way of slapping you in the face with your own experiences.  I now have a son who has a dream.  He wants to play college volleyball.  He loves playing volleyball period.  Where most boys in this area are practicing their jump shot, fastball, or spiral; he bumps, digs, sets, & spikes off the wall of our garage.  Just like when I was young, his school doesn’t offer the sport he wants to play.  In fact no school in Missouri outside of St. Louis offers men’s volleyball.  But unlike me, he has the skills to achieve his dream.  He’s been going to volleyball camps since he was 3 years old, as a 7th grader he’s almost caught up to me in height, and we have good reason to believe he’ll pass me easily.  He’s been spiking & blocking since he was in 5th grade.  And I’ve been told by a few people that know volleyball that they think he’ll be good enough to play college ball.

And so I’m ready to become a traveling parent if he wants to go for it.  As always, I won’t push him but I will make him finish what he started.  If he commits to play a season, he plays a whole season.  I’ve always encouraged my children that they can do whatever they set their mind to, and will continue to do so.  I will let him know that if his mom & I decide to do something to help him reach his dream, he’s worth it, he has the right, and he has the ability.  If it gets too much for us, we’ll let him know.  And if he does decide to reach for his own personal brass ring, and it entails long miles on the road, dollars out of the pocket, and many hours separated from home & loved ones and I find myself needing to recharge my batteries, all I’ll have to do is remember the joy Hannah Wilkerson showed when she saw her dream come true.  I’ll be encouraged and ready to go just a little bit further.

Thanks Hannah, and good luck.

• With the traffic on the site growing so much, some people don’t understand what we’re all about her.  So in the interest of consumer education, here’s a few sample rules for posting comments based on things people have tried to post in the last month.
  1. If you accuse someone else of doing something illegal or immoral, especially a high school athlete, it will not get posted.  I don’t care to hear gossip and I sure won’t post it.  (Oh, and if you’re a coach pointing the finger at a player from a team that beat your team, I will be sorely tempted to out you, and at the very least publicly embarrass you.  Please don’t tempt me like that.  I have enough stress already.)
  2. If you attempt to post declaring how pleased you are to see another player get hurt, knocked down, embarrassed, suspended, etc, it will not be posted.  You’re wasting your time and mine.
  3. Posts that accuse another team or player of cheating will not be posted and will most likely make me laugh.  I know sometimes it’s true, but it always sounds like sour grapes.  And sour grapes make bad jelly.
  4. If you feel the need to tell the world that you think someone is cute, hot, or dateable, do it on MySpace or Facebook.  Unless you’re talking about me in which case you need to keep it to yourself.  Unless you’re my wife and then we can discuss it later.
  5. All you have to do is read through some of the comments on this website to see that I have no problem correcting my errors, adding information, or giving credit to people I forgot to give credit to.  I’m just one person without an editor.  My readers are a big help with content on this sight.  But if you ask in a manner that is rude or sarcastic, you most likely will be ignored.  I try not to read emotion into a comment or email, but sometimes it’s unmistakable.  (But at the same time, I won’t let someone’s lack of decorum stop me from doing what’s right.  If some kids deserve credit and I forgot to give it to them, I’ll fix it.  And so I will a little further down.)
  6. Foul language or inappropriate content is not allowed at all.  If your comment contains major infractions of this rule, it will be deleted immediately.  Minor infractions will be edited by me.  The last poster I edited did a self-edit the next time he decided to post.  He’s now welcome to post here anytime.
  7. When it comes to sports, I am old-school, old-fashioned, idealistic, hard workin’, respectful of opponents, play for the name on the front not on the back, outlaw the DH, help your opponent up, shake hands after the game, love a perfect give-and-go more than a dunk, no artificial turf, hockey players are tougher than football players, daytime baseball, practice makes perfect, do it right or don’t do it at all kind of guy.  If that sounds like you, you’ll like it here.  If it doesn’t sound like you, you’ll still like it here.  It’ll just take a while to grow on you.
• A couple of games of local interest were played Sunday.  The Kickapoo girls took on St. Joseph’s Academy in the MBCA Norm Stewart Classic in Columbia.  While the Glendale boys played Harrisburg on the men’s side of the same event.  The Lady Chiefs fell behind by 10 at the end of the first period to the Angels who are loaded with college prospects.  And could never recover falling 63-47.  The Falcons though almost outscored St. Joseph’s in the first half of their game putting up 62 in the first half on their way to a 100-29 win over last year’s class 2 runner-up.  Now I’m not going to pontificate on how Glendale ran up the score and how they should have called off the dogs.  There’s different philosophies on that and I don’t coach basketball.  I just watch & write.  So who am I to judge?  But, I will say this game was a lose-lose situation for Glendale.  If they get beat, it’s “Oh my gosh.  They lost to a class 2 team.”  If they win, “Well they should win against a class 2 team.”  And if they win big, “Look how they ran up the score.  That’s really classy.”  Again, it’s just my opinion.  But from the outside looking in, maybe Coach Sean Williamson should have thought twice about taking this game.
• With the first wave of 09-10 basketball tournaments behind us, the second wave is just around the corner.  With the Walnut Grove Holiday Classic playing it’s first round the 19th, the Blue & Gold and the Cabool Tournament starting the 26th, and the Pink & White, the KTXR Lady Classic, and the Neosho Holiday Tournament the 28th.  I’m making every effort to get as much info as possible on all of them.  And hopefully do some more writeups like I did on the KTXR Lady Classic.  I’ll be posting one on the Walnut Grove Classic later today.  Look for the Neosho Tournament writeup this weekend.
• Speaking of tournaments, the Joplin Lady Eagle Classic kicks off tonight.  Miller, Webb City, Joplin, Neosho, and Marshfield are the local contingent.  Along with Harrison, AR, Springdale Har-Ber, and Blue Valley West of Overland Park, KS.  Should be a pretty good tournament as usual.  Anvil Welch of the Joplin Globe has a nice article on it today.
• Lost in the state championship run of the Cassville Wildcats and the coaches all-state team was the Wildcats offensive line.  The O line usually gets overlooked on most teams but of the five offensive linemen and the starting tight end for Cassville, only senior Dylan Gibson received all-state recognition as a first team selection.  And in a way that’s right and proper.  They excelled not at overpowering and bowling over opponents individually, but at outworking them and wearing them down as a unit.  So here’s a big tip of the hat to the foundation of Cassville’s big black machine, the O line.  Linemen Gibson, Adam Prier, Tyler Skinner, Brock Jacobs, Derik Testerman, and tight end Taran Holt.  You boys did a great job.  And in case you’re wondering, only Gibson and Holt are seniors.  Everyone else returns next year.  Oh my.
• Girls swimming and diving kicked off this week.  Names for you to remember include Glendale seniors Sara Snow, Liz Mace, and Olivia Harrell, junior Allie Reynolds, and sophomores Gretchen Stein and Sarah Powell; Kickapoo senior Julie Wiskur and juniors Meredith Swain, Hallie Roach, and Jenna Harmison; and Central juniors Jordyn Johnson, Livie Sommerfeld, Caroline Croessmann, and Amy Allen.  All are returning state qualifiers from last year.
• I’ve added a new link to the Goodfellas list.  Allen Vaughan’s RecSpecOnline covers the full range of sports in the Ozarks, from prep to pro.  But he still keeps a good flow of high school information and features going.  Plus he has a good track record at the News-Leader.  Congratulations.  You’re now a made man Allen.
• Wrestling is also under way in Missouri.  We’ve got a lot of returning talent in the area and it should be another strong year for Ozarks teams.  Seneca and Neosho both return a lot from teams that finished well in the state tournament.  Monett will look to reload with a good returning core.  And teams all over the area return wrestlers that finished in the top 6 last year.  Rolla, Waynesville, Ozark, Bolivar, Rogersville, Carthage, etc…  Good wrestling will be found everywhere.  Returning state champs include…
  • Tim Harner, JR, Seneca – Class 1 , 112
  • Colbey Skaggs, JR, Seneca – Class 1, 125
  • Sam Zimmer, SR, Rogersville – Class 2, 125
  • Joe Barnes, SR, Neosho – Class 3, 103
• With that in mind, I’m always looking for wrestling coaches, or any coaches that would like to send their scores and other information in.  You can always email them to scores@ozarkssports.net, or drop me a line at joboo@ozarkssports.net and I’ll be happy to give you my toll-free score hotline.  And I’m toying with the idea of moving into the 21st century and starting to accept scores via Twitter.  But we’ll have to see on that.
• And since it is the Christmas season, here is my gift to you.  Thanks for all your support folks.  And Merry Christmas.

The OzarksSports.Net Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring except Joboo and his spouse.
The tournament schedules were posted on the internet with care
In hopes that many readers soon would be there.

His children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of a normal father danced in their heads.
And his wife in her robe with a remote in her lap,
Said softly out loud “What a poor, deluded chap.”

When from Joboo’s office there arose such a clatter,
She sprang from the couch to see what was the matter.
Away to the office she flew like a flash,
Tripped over a basketball and fell with a crash.

The glow of his desk lamp on her newly formed bruise
Was to Joboo nothing except really bad news.
For what to her wondering eyes did appear
But Joboo typing madly, his fingers in high gear.

With a crazed gleam in his eye and twitching so quick,
She thought to herself “He must really be sick.”
He seemed quite excited with his eyes all aflame,
In fact he sounded nuts as he called her by name.

He said “Oh the news that I just did receive
A new rule for football, told to me by Steve.
It’ll change the high school game and it starts this next fall,
So I must tell the world.  I must tell them all!”

His eyes-how they twinkled!  His chin oh how hairy!
He reread the email upon his Blackberry.
She recognized the look that meant he’d be at it all night,
But it being Christmas Eve, it just didn’t seem right.

She kissed him quite tenderly upon his thinning hair
Saying “That can wait my darling. Tomorrow no one will care.”
He replied “They can read it as they eat some Christmas pie.
I’ll post it on MoSports. I’ll tell the Scoreboard Guy.”

But he knew his work was done when she forcefully said
“Get off that stupid computer and get your butt in bed!”
So when you see no post on Christmas, please don’t complain,
Joboo will be seeing his children because of a wife who is sane.

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