DEC 2005

DECEMBER 2005

SEX! VIOLENCE! NUDITY! (Not.)

OKAY, OKAY - SO I EXAGGERATED A LITTLE. ACTUALLY, THOUGH, MY "VIRTUAL CLINIC" IS MUCH BETTER! TAPED AT MY 2005 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC, IT'S AN ENTIRE CLINIC, UNEDITED (WARTS. OFF-THE-CUFF COMMENTS AND ALL), SOME FIVE HOURS LONG, ON THREE DVD'S.

THERE'S COACH TALK, PLENTY OF GENERAL TIPS, PRACTICE AND GAME IDEAS... USING SLIDES, DIAGRAMS AND VIDEO CLIPS... LOTS OF NEW AND IMPROVED DOUBLE-WING STUFF, LIKE WAYS TO RUN POWER FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF FORMATIONS, INCLUDING UNBALANCED AND SPLIT BACKS... A GREAT SWEEP PLAY... RE-DIRECTING THE WEDGE... A "VEER" DIVE... SIMPLE OPTIONS AND OTHER WAYS TO USE A RUNNING QB... PLAY ACTION PASSES... SHIFTING... AND MORE!

ORDER YOUR "VIRTUAL CLINIC" NOW - - - - - - - PRICE: $69.95 INCLUDING SHIPPING.

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL!!! $49.95 IF YOUR ORDER IS RECEIVED BY CHRISTMAS
SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER (OR SCHOOL P.O.)

to Coach Hugh Wyatt - 1503 NE 6th Ave - Camas WA 98607

December 20, 2005 - "There is no shortcut to any place that's worth going to." Dave Ramsey, financial advisor

*********** My vote for NFL Player of the Year - Tiki Barber. Man of the Year, too - Unless he is a total phony, which I doubt, he comes across a really classy individual.

My vote for Coach of the Year - Lovie Smith (how are they doing it?). Or Marvin Lewis (potential Super Bowl contender.). Or Bill Belichick (lost both coordinators).

*********** One of the cool things about our flight to and from Europe (if there is anything cool about a 7-1/2 hour flight) was the video-on-demand. I don't watch a whole lot of movies, but I got caught up very quickly in "Four Brothers." It's a pretty gripping film.

*********** The sports editor of our local paper wrote a column recently listing his "10 Memories That Draw a Smile." One of them was the memory of the US women's soccer team winning the 1996 Olympic gold medal. But that wasn't all - "a week later, Shannon McMillan let me hold her gold medal. Still the highlight of my sportwriting career."

Wow. Did you get that? She really let him hold it!

Now, what kind of a sports section do you suppose you're going to get when that's the highlight of the sports editor's career?

*********** For years, George O'Leary had a line or two on his resume claiming a graduate degree that, it later turned out, he'd never earned. When it was "brought to his attention," it was at the worst possible time - he'd just been hired by Notre Dame, and the little falsehood cost him the job.

Then there's Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico. For years, he knew of a couple of lines in his bio claiming that he'd played baseball at Tufts University (true), and then that he'd been drafted by the Kansas City (now Oakland) A's (false). When this falsehood was brought to the governors, attention, he simply did a tap dance. "After being notified of the situation and after researching the matter" he said, "I came to the conclusion that I was not drafted by the A's," he fessed up, after years of enjoying his status as a would-be professional jock.

So far, nothing has happened to Governor Richardson yet, nor is anything likely to.

That's because George O'Leary is a football coach and Bill Richardson is a politician, and in our country football coaches are held to a much higher standard than politicians.

Concerned that society might not let me off as easily as Governor Rochardson, I decided to take a look at my own resume. I did find a few "embellishments" on it, and I have made the necessary corrections and am issuing the following the following statement to anyone to whom I might have sent one in the past...

"After being notified of the situation and after researching the matter... I came to the conclusion that I did not turn down numerous football scholarship offers to major colleges while in high school... that I did not receive honorable mention on several All-America teams, nor did I receive any Heisman Trophy votes, nor was I drafted in the third round by both the New York Giants of the NFL and the New York Titans of the old AFL... I never sparred with Muhammad Ali... I did not graduate from college with highest honors, nor did I turn down both an NFL career and a Rhodes Scholarship in order to volunteer to serve in Viet Nam, where I earned a Purple Heart and a Silver Star... On my return, I did not turn down Vince Lombardi's offer to help coach the Packers, nor is it true that at his request, I called coach Lombardi every Sunday night to offer my critique of the Packers' play that afternoon... I have not run in the Boston Marathon or climbed Mount Everest, and I have not been nominated for either a Pulitzer or a Nobel Prize. Yet..."

If anyone was misled by anything I stated, I am truly sorry.

I did, however, perform a dangerous mission, at the request of the President. But it is top secret and I'm still not permitted to talk about it.

*********** An exchange of e-mails sent me by a youth football coach who also coaches basketball during the winter. He gave me permission to reprint it only with my promise to conceal any reference to the persons involved (the kid's real name is not Michael) or to the location...

Coach, I thought you would get a kick out of this exchange I had with a parent. It is long. Sorry.

COACH TO MOM: Subject: Michael 's tardiness problems drop off and pick up Ms. ------, I have 7 other kids on my team who have never been late and are promptly picked up at 7:30. Michael is consistently late getting to practice and last night makes the 2nd time you have kept me waiting at least 1/2 hour for him to be picked up. I cannot leave until you pick him up. There was no sight person at CSES last night. Because of limited gym time, pee wee teams must start at 5:30. Our next practice is Tuesday from 5:30 to 7:30. If you want Michael to continue as a member of the team, he needs to be 5 minutes early arriving and promptly picked up at 7:30. This needs to continue for the rest of the season. If he is late again being dropped off or picked up, I'm going to request that he be removed from the team. If these times do not work for you, maybe you should seek an activity for Michael that more fits your hectic schedule. Recreational sports are not for everybody. I realize that some parents have work schedules that prevent them from being at an activity at 5:30. But, if you do choose to participate, you must work around OUR schedule.

MOM TO COACH: Well, maybe if you would listen and try to be a little more understanding, you wouldn't act so nasty. I am a single mom with 2 kids and a full-time job. I have no family in town to help me with anything. I am the mother, father, breadwinner, chauffer and everything else in between. Michael has been late to practice twice. The first time it was because I was held up at work. I can't lose my job to bring him to practice, so I bring him as soon as I can after work. If you want to help out, why don't you come pick him up and bring him home if I am having a conflict? Bet you wouldn't be interested in that, now would you? Neither is anyone else. It's me or no one. The second time he was late was because he had another class before basketball practice. He has a class from 4:30-5:30 on Wednesdays in (nearby town) that I pay for. I told the other coach the week before, that Michael had this particular class every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 and that I would bring him to basketball practice if it fell on a Wednesday, straight from his class in (nearby town). The other coach said OK. I realize that I picked him up late twice. The first time it was because I was sick. I have severe Asthma and sometimes I have really bad attacks. That particular evening, I had gone to the store while Michael was at practice and while I was driving to pick Michael up, I had a severe Asthma attack in the car. I vomited all over myself and all over the car while driving. I had to go home before picking Michael up and change clothes, clean the vomit off myself and out of the car. Sorry it happened, but it is out of my control when I have the attacks. None the less, it caused me to be late picking him up. I guess I could have come, covered in vomit, but I really didn't want to...The second time, I will take the blame for. I went to Wall-mart because they were calling for the severe ice storm we just had, and there was nothing in the house for the kids to eat if they didn't have school the next day. I have to go to work regardless, because I need the money, and I didn't want to leave the children with no food in the house. I went to Wall-mart during the practice to get food for the kids (if they didn't have school the next day-which they didn't). The lines were so long that I spent most of the time waiting to check out. I guess I could have put everything back, picked up Michael , then went back. I was very tired though, and just wanted to get it done so I could go on home after picking up Michael . I know you don't have any way of understanding how hard it is to have to do everything yourself with no one's help. Let's hope you never do. Anyhow, you would be a cruel person to punish my son because of his circumstance. I do the best that I can do...feel free anytime to offer to lend a hand.

COACH TO MOM: Ms. ------- , What myself and the other coaches do to "help out" your son is volunteer our time for free to teach him basketball, discipline, and a since of responsibility to the team. I coach basketball, football, and baseball and use my vacation time if my work conflicts with a game or practice. My wife and I have not taken a full weeks vacation in 5 years due to my commitment to the youth in our community. For you to insinuate that we need to do even more, quite frankly is insulting. Like I said, not everybody can or wants to work their schedules around youth sports. We like Michael and would like him to continue as a member of the team. But, he needs to be on time getting there and he needs to be picked up on time. If you or he are ill, obviously that is an exception, but you must call or email our secretary and let her know what is going on. I have no problem with Michael furthering his education on Wednesdays, but I was not aware of it. Please give our secretary a list of any practice or game conflict 2 weeks in advance. Don't just tell one of the coaches. Our secretary is the gatekeeper. She will mark absences on a calendar so we can work out line-ups on game days. It is also difficult to plan practice when we do not know if a child is going to be there or not. Sorry if you think the emails are "nasty", but I am a man of few words and hate to type. Email cannot convey emotion or intent and some people read too much into them. Feel free to talk to me before or after practice. I would rather talk in person than trade impersonal emails.

(The coach followed up and said that when he attempted to speak to Mom at the next practice, she blew him off.)

*********** "I've told college football coaches that if they ever go to a national playoff system, they're ridiculous. The NCAA (basketball) tournament has gotten to the point where nothing else counts any more other than to win the whole thing." Lute Olson, Arizona basketball coach

*********** Silly me. I thought that Title IX was all about equal opportunities for American girls. I really believed all those teary "let me play" ads on TV, telling us that our girls would be less likely to drink, take drugs, get pregnant out of wedlock, date abusive guys, etc. if we'd just see to it that they had opportunities to play sports.

I really believed that all those feminists were being sincere when they argued for proportionality - for awarding athletic scholarships to women and men based on their percentages in the student body.

So where are those people now, when American girls are still being denied opportunities?

I cite as just one example the University of Oregon's women's basketball team: it has four players from Oregon, two from California, and one from Washington. Oh, yes - and two from Australia and four from Canada. That's six of 13 who aren't even Americans.

Can someone please tell me how, exactly, it helps our little American girls if we give those precious athletic scholarships to Australians and Canadians?

Feminists tell us that the proportion of athletic scholarships a college awards to men and women should be close to their proportions in the student body - in the interest of "fairness." But it is all a lie, because only the most ingenuous of do-gooders actually believe that the athletes who play scholarship sports come right out of the student body anyhow. And then those scholarships, fraudulently acquired in the interest of securing some supposed constitutional right, are then handed out to non-Americans.

There is a certain dog-in-the-manger scenario going on here, when scholarships, demanded for women in equal (or greater) numbers than for men, all in the interest of "fairness," aren't given to American women after all. They are outsourced, so to speak.

In terms of "fairness" to American female athletes, all that screaming about gender equity seems scarcely to been worth all the trouble, since giving those scholarships to foreign athletes isn't much different from not having the scholarships available at all.

Now, I have nothing against women's sports, and nothing against letting foreign athletes play for American colleges. Not even against giving them scholarships. But if a school has scholarships available to give to foreign athletes, that would seem to imply that the needs of American female athletes in the student body have been met, and that those scholarships weren't really necessary to address any claimed inequity.

So go ahead and give scholarships to foreign athletes. But first make sure that Title IX is doing what it intended (providing equal opportunities for American women).

And to try to reduce coaches' temptation to send scholarships overseas, I submit this modest proposal: for purposes of determining whether a college is compliant with the demands of gender equity, every athletic grant-in-aid to a non-citizen (male or female) will count as two scholarships on their gender's side of the ledger.

*********** Noting that the Vikings were 1-3 before their, uh, "cruise," and they've been 7-3 since, Ben Garvin of the St. Paul Pioneer Press notes, "one man's inappropriate behavior is, apparently, another man's team bonding experience."

*********** Hugh, Welcome home-- sounds like a great trip. I got the DVD's on the Virtual Clinic and found them to be very good. A lot of new and interesting ideas and plenty of things for DW coaches to think about. Of-course I was surprised and pleased to the reference on disk 3 to Danny Kaler. I remember the incident well where he reached into the boiling steam pot to retrieve the lobsters with his bare hands. Those lobsterman are truly a tough lot. His Crab and Lobster House continues to do well. He takes the tourists on lobster fishing trips and does a trick with a live lobster where he stands the lobster on its head and puts the creature to sleep-- really amazing. Danny does not do our play by play anymore but everytime I see him he reminds me not to punt.

Danny has son, Ben, in the Marines who was an officer and was severely wounded in Iraq. Ben was a captain on one of our first football teams and I still have an essay he wrote about football and what it meant to him and what an influence I was on his life. It is one of the reasons why I still coach!!

Have a Merry Christmas and our best to Connie.

Jack Tourtillotte, Boothbay Harbor, Maine

*********** I am sure you know that Linfield's Brett Elliot won the 2005 Gagliardi Award. Did you know he was a D1 transfer good enough to start at QB for Utah as a soph?

http://utahutes.collegesports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/elliott_brett00.html

Now, given that D3 is the last bastion of non-scholarship football, do you think this is fair for all those kids who have been D3 forever for someone to transfer in from as a starting scholarship QB for a major D1 program?

Todd Bross, Sharon, Pennsylvania

Very good point--- It is a zero-sum game when a star moves in, because that means that someone else must step aside.

In Elliott's case, though, he was a local kid, from Lake Oswego, Oregon (Linfield is in nearby McMinnville, Oregon) and he already knew a lot of the kids there, and they knew him. There is that angle, and there is also the fact that Linfield's expectations are high, and unlike some other places, very few people at Linfield would see a chance to maintain or advance their program in terms of "fairness."

After leaving Utah, Elliott's options were somewhat limited if he wanted to play right away and play close to his home, because other than Portland State, there aren't any D-IAA programs close to Portland, and although there are a few D-II programs, very frankly, Linfield's reputation around here, both academically and athletically, surpassed theirs. Portland State plays in the Big Sky, at a higher level of competition, but for most kids from the Portland area, I would say that Linfield, with its campus life in a small town, would be a more attractive place to go to school and play football.

There are D-III programs, and there are D-III programs. There are those that act like academic snobs, and look at football as a necessary evil, something they have to provide. And then there are those that look at football as one more thing to excel in. That would be Linfield.

*********** Here at (our high school) things are really getting bad. Since sept. they have fired (the head football coach), who was undermined by his staff except for me. The girls basketball coach was fired for having his hand with one of his players. They hired a guy who is retiring at the end of the year instead of hiring the girls assistant Basketball coach who is a former college player and former player here. A real stand up gal. Anyway the kids or parents didn't want who they hired and in fact the guy they gave the job to didn't want it. It all boiled over last week when during a girls BBgame 2 gals who hadn't played much ran on to the court during the game, the refs immediatley stopped play and they were charged 2 technicals. The coach started to yell at the girls who ran on the court, "what the hell are you doing?", the gym was dead quiet, and the girls yelled "F--- You!" and "F--- Basketball!" and ripped off their jerseys and threw them in his face, and walked off the court in their sports bras. The worst part was the parents stood up and clapped and cheered. NAME WITHHELD

*********** Hello Coach Wyatt , I thought I'd send you an e - mail on our 2005 season . Well we went 6 - 0 in the regular season beating our crosstown rivals the S.B. Chargers 38 to 26 in double overtime in what could possibly be the game of the year for our division . This was a most challenging season for Coach Gil Short and myself . First of all , we get a bye the first game of the season , then we played 4 games straight , then our scheduled game against the Ojai Eagles fell thru due to the fact we had NO officials to call the game . Bummer!! They were the "weakest" team in our division because they only had 13 players for the entire season !! But I want to tip my hat to that Head Coach , because even though they were short handed players , those kids played their hearts out Coach . They could' ve quit or given up , but they never did . I admire that kind of dedication . It is the reason why I have been coaching at the youth level for the past 12 years . We as youth coaches are here for the kids and not to glorify ourselves and or live out our football dreams thru the kids . This is their time not ours . Anyways back to the season recap . We were never able to make up that Ojai game because it had no playoff implications . So now we come back from our "involuntary Saturday off " and we play the Chargers in what everyone in the stands said it was the most exciting game they' ve ever seen . People were even saying the game was more exciting than some of the college games that were on T.V. that weekend ! It was that type of a game . But after this game took place , things really started to get more challenging . First of all we had another bye week after we beat the Chargers , then we played Nipomo a second time beating them 38 to 20 then another bye week because we were the # 1 seed going into the playoffs , and then it's the week of Thanksgiving and no games were scheduled due to the Holiday . After the Holiday weekend we have to play the Nipomo Cowboys a third time to see who will represent the North Division in the Super Bowl . Unfortunatly we came up short the third time around with the Cowboys losing 18 to 12 in the semi - finals in a very cold hard fought game . Like they say everything happens for a reason and for whatever reason this was just not our time . It also does not help when you turn the ball over 3 times in the game due to fumbles and center / qb miscues and not having the ball enough on offence in second half . We did have a chance to win it or tie to go into o.t. with a little over a minute left in the 4th quarter . We called 6 - G Option we wanted the Q.B. keep the ball which would' ve put us in the red zone to score but he decided to pitch the ball and lo and behold Nipomo intercepts the pitch runs the clock out and there goes our season . I' m very proud of our kids and our season ! Even though we did not win the Championship , I consider our season a success !! Have a Merry Xmas and a Prosperous New Year Coach.......... Coach Augie Sanchez, 2005 Cardinals S.B. City Champs e-mail asancha@veeco.com - Home address : 64 bristol place , Goleta , Calif. 93117

*********** Turner Gill to Buffalo. Glad to see him in charge, but another black coach gets sent to the back of the bus. Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California

*********** By now you probably heard about the guy who called Donovan McNabb a "choke."

Not that plenty of Philadelphia fans haven't done the same at one time or another.

But this wasn't just any guy - this guy, named J. Whyatt Mondesire, happens to be the head of the Philadelphia branch of the NAACP.

Writing in a black-readership paper called the Philadelphia Sunday Sun, he called McNabb "mediocre at best" (a charge ridiculous on its face when he happens to be talking about a starting quarterback in the National Football league).

And then he went on to blame McNabb for letting the Terrell Owens situation come to a boil. McNabb, he said, wasn't enough of a leader off the field.

Huh? With issues like literacy, illegitimacy, absentee fathers and second-rate schools to contend with, the head of the NCAA is taking on an NFL quarterback?

Strangest of all, Mr. Mondeshire wrote that by not running as much as he once did, insisting instead on staying in the pocket, like a "white" quarterback, McNabb was a sellout. Wrote Mondeshire, "claiming that 'everybody expects black quarterbacks to scramble' not only amounts to a breach of faith but also belittles the real struggles of black athletes who've had to overcome real racial stereotypcasting in addition to downright segregation."

Sheesh. Poor Donovan. He's not only a mediocre talent and a poor leader at that - now he's selling an entire race down the river.

Fotunately, there's always Charles Barkley to put things in a way that I can't.

When he happened to call in to Dan Patrick's show on ESPN radio last week, Patrick of course brought up the whole affair, and Barkley, as always, was ready with an opinion.

"I guess if you don't act like a fool or you are not an angry black guy all the time, some black people are going to call you a sell-out or an Uncle Tom," Barkley said.

*********** Coach: I haven't written to you in awhile, but I still read your site every week and appreciate all you do for all of us "old-fashioned, offense-in-a-phone-booth, boring football" coaches.

I had to comment on the Barnett firing at CU. He is no friend to the high school coaches here in Colorado, especially compared to Coach Lubick and his staff at CSU. Up at Boulder, they have a black iron fence around their practice field, like they have some big secret weapons and secret way of doing things and are so important that they have to keep the little people away from their prima-donna program.

Up at Fort Collins, they have a fence around the practice field (probably to keep the footballs from bouncing out into the street) but the gate is wide open. Coach Lubick is the kind of guy that meets you once and knows your name forever. His staff is made up of guys just like him, real people who do not take themselves so seriously. They are all friends to high school coaches, head or assistants, doesn't matter to them. When I want to go to a CSU game, I just call Coach Delaney (running backs Coach) and he has someone set aside tickets. They do that for any high school coach.

At local clinics, the CSU guys hang out and are just one of the guys. The CU guys think they are something special and we should be honored to be in their presence.

Barnett will not be missed around here, in fact.......good riddance. Coach Hawkins looks to be a young Coach Lubick. A genuine nice guy who knows his football.

Wishing you and yours the best at this special time of year! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Gary Creek, Skyline High School (used to be at Lyons High), Longmont, Colorado

p.s. My granddaughter, Madison, is 2 now and knows her football!!

Actually, I don't know a thing about Gary Barnett. I was just commenting on the ultimate irony of CU's letting all that other water pass under the bridge and still keeping him on as coach - but letting him go after the Buffs got trounced a couple of times, sending a clear message that they will tolerate anything except losing.

I do know a few things about Sonny Lubick, though. He is a Butte guy, which says all I need to know. I happen to have coached with and against a bunch of Montana guys who settled in our area back in the 1970's, and they are salt-of-the-earth guys. I don't think it's possible for a Montana guy to put on airs.

I have a feeling that you will like Dan Hawkins. I think, in the Colorado AD's words, they "hit a home run." Everyone here knew that he was going to have his pick of top jobs and that with a good situation at Boise he could afford to bide his time and wait for the best one to come along, so he must see a great opportunity at CU.

I'm guessing that Skyline is a good move for you. I hope so, and I hope you had a great season.

*********** Coach Wyatt, I am writing for advice on how to become an assistant football coach. There is a new high school opening next year near my home and I have already contacted the head coach volunteering myself for a position. However, I have no football playing or coaching experience, and little coaching experience period (I coached a 5th/6th grade floor hockey team when I was in 6th grade). However, everyone must start somewhere. I did play soccer for 12 years growing up and served 4 years active duty in the US Marine Corps and therefore think my best angle when interviewing for a position is to draw off these abilities and work for special teams (kicking) and general fitness coach and also indicating my desire to have a positive impact on the players and teaching non-academic items (honor, leadership, etc). Perhaps also mentioning that being a blank slate such that the head coach can easilly teach me his system/positions/coaching methods? Or indicating someone willing to commit for several years so they don't think they will invest their time teaching me and not receive any results in the long term?

Can you please provide me with any other information or advice on what else I can do to increase my chances of landing a position? If at the very least, could you provide me with the interview outline you mentioned in the February 2005 News section on your website so I may try to prepare myself better? In short, would you hire someone in my position? If not, what would someone like me be able to say or do to change your mind?

Thanks for writing. I think that you have already taken a big first step in contacting the new head coach and offering to work as a volunteer coach.

Your first order of business, of course, is to get him to take you on.

Impress him with the things that you have told me. The fact that you've been in the service should impress on him that you understand leadership (and following), you understand the need for discipline, and presumably you have self-discipline. I would also assume that you understand how the chain of command (loyalty) works, which isn't always the case with people who haven't served.

Hit home the idea that you are a blank slate. That is not necessarily a disadvantage.

You may be able to help with conditioning. You may be able to help with paperwork - coaches have mounds of that stuff. You may be able to help with videotaping. Or with equipment or first aid.

I would certainly want to meet with you and then, before agreeing to anything, if you impressed me in the interview, I would want to see how you work with kids and other coaches. That's the real unknown here.

I would want to observe you in off-season conditioning workouts. I would want to see how you handle yourself with other coaches, and whether you are consistently on time.

If you are hired, never miss an opportunity to impress the coach with your work habits and your enthusiasm and eagerness to learn. Do everything and anything required. Do it quickly and enthusiastically and do it right. In short, make yourself indispensible.

I have attached my "Assistants Qualifications" sheet. That's what I use if I'm ever interviewing a guy who is unknown to me.

*********** Coach, Writing to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas. I am just not into having to use Happy Holidays. Really enjoyed your account of your trip to Amsterdam. It brought back many memories of my three years at Rhein Main AB, Germany from 1976-79. Your take on the train systems in Europe are right on and they are the best I have ever seen anywhere. I remember one year that 4 families of us took off and went to Garmisch for a week before Christmas and we did it all by public transportation. We went to the railroad station at the Airport and then proceeded to ride the trains to Garmish (had to change in Munich) and then took a bus to the Von Steubben Hotel (an AFRC hotel in Garmish). We had a great time and it was without a hassle as far as the weather and transportation. The trains over there run like clockwork and if you are two minutes late you have to wait on the next train.

Although I was the offensive coordinator for the base football team, I also played on the fast-pitch softball team. We always started the season with a tournament at Soesterberg AB, Holland and it was right during the tulip festival there. We took many of our families on that trip and we stayed in a youth hostel. It had bunk beds in an open barracks forum (much like the old military barracks) and you had to put coins in the shower if you wanted hot water. here were playgrounds and many animals for the children to play with. We then toured the tulip farms and it was just gorgeous. We also went to windmills and climbed the ladders and then went to the miniature city of Muduradam which was almost like going to Disney. It was always a great trip and the families looked forward to it every year.

The football on the bases was very good at that time and if I would have been versed in the double-wing I know we could have won every year. As it was we always finished as the runner-up to Bitburg because they were a fighter base and always had some former college QB there flying jets and they would beat us in a close one every year. We would get 3-4 thousand people to games played on Saturday and Sundays and our Wing Commander called it the best Commander's Call possible. There were various social organizations on base (Latino Club sold tacos and burritos, Pamoja Club cooked ribs and chicken, Chiefs' Club sold beer at all the home games) Then these clubs would get charter buses for our away games. Every now and then many of our fans would roll off the buses when they got to games three or four hours away, as they had made many stops at their favorite gasthouses along the way. It was really a fun time and had great support at that time. My wife still gets on me that she never got to go to the big Octoberfest in Meunich because I was always involved in football. Maybe I can take her back one of these years.

Glad you and your wife had such a good time, and yes I remember the Red Light district in Amsterdam and I also remember seeing the smallest (narrowest) house on some street in Amsterdam. It was a great place to visit.

The very best to you and your family over these holidays. I got the Virtual Clinic DVDs and have watched them a couple of times. Some really good stuff in there I am anxious to take a look at on the field. Thanks for a great job on it.

Merry Christmas to you and yours,

Ron Timson, Umatilla, Florida

*********** Words of wisdom from the Great John Madden: "Any time you can play major league baseball, I think you're a good baseball player."

Osama shows that he will stop at nothing in his plot to weaken America...

BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM

GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS!

Army's Will Sullivan wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game
(FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners

SEX! VIOLENCE! NUDITY! (Not.)

OKAY, OKAY - SO I EXAGGERATED A LITTLE. ACTUALLY, THOUGH, MY "VIRTUAL CLINIC" IS MUCH BETTER! TAPED AT MY 2005 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC, IT'S AN ENTIRE CLINIC, UNEDITED (WARTS. OFF-THE-CUFF COMMENTS AND ALL), SOME FIVE HOURS LONG, ON THREE DVD'S.

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December 16, 2005 - "Beware of the young doctor and the old barber." Benjamin Franklin

*********** As I write this, my wife and I are returning to the Northwest after spending a few days with kids and grandkids in North Carolina, following a long weekend in Europe - Holland, to be exact.

"Why Holland?" asked a German coach whom I met with while overseas.

Simple. (1) Call it a mileage run - Northwest Airlines, on which I do most of my flying, has a partnership with KLM, the Dutch national airline, and I needed some miles to maintain my frequent flier elite status; (2) This being the off-season for European tourism, Northwest/KLM had some pretty decent fares (if you didn't mind flying just on Thursdays and Mondays); (3) Amsterdam lets you make the absolute most of a short stay because it is very easy to fly there, stay at a hotel right at the airport, and take a train right from the airport to downtown Amsterdam ("Amsterdam Centraal"), or anyplace else in northern Europe, for that matter. In a short stay, convenience like that is hard to beat.

It isn't exactly Europe on the cheap - we didn't hitch-hike and we didn't stay in elderhostels - but it is Europe on the quick, and Europe on the easy.

Easy? Not that any seven-hour trip is a pleasure, but the flight itself is merely something to endure. You leave the US in the afternoon and fly overnight, arriving in Europe early the next morning. With any luck, you don't have any screaming babies near you. (We did.)

You arrive at Amsterdam's Schiphol (SKIP-hole) Airport, which not only provides air service directly to anyplace in the world (on airlines I guarantee you've never heard of), but also doubles as a major railroad station and a very, very cool shopping center with walkways lined with shops and lots of places to eat and drink. The central entrance to the intermodal terminal is a huge, round atrium, with airport concourses branching out like spokes, and railroad tracks running directly beneath. The bustle at almost all hours was indescribable.

Convenient? Up an escalator - actually, one of those "people movers" on an incline - from the station, and another 100 yards along a broad, covered, well-lighted walkway was our hotel, the Sheraton Amsterdam Airport.

One of the things I really love about Europe is its train service. I am like a little kid when it comes to riding trains, something you don't get much chance to do in the US. (Unless you happen to commute to and from a big city. I've done that, and while it's better than riding a bus, it's not exactly what I'd call joy-riding.)

From Schiphol Station, trains run every 15 minutes to Amsterdam Centraal Station. Fare is 3 Euros each way (A Euro at present costs about $1.20 American, so it's not difficult to convert). Tickets are easy to buy, either from machines or live people. I choose the latter, because my Dutch is not very good, and the live people invariably speak English. Good English. English so good that it makes me realize that we are not doing a very good job of preparing our teenagers to speak their own language very well, in a global economy in which increasingly places a premium on good spoken English.

The people you deal with not only speak good English but are very friendly and helpful. (Are you listening, retail America?)

This was my first trip overseas since 9-11, and not knowing whether there might be Islamofascist terrorists lurking behind airport pillars to shoot the first obviously American tourist they see, I deliberately left all my "Look at me - I'm an American" stuff home. I needn't have worried. If there is any considerable anti-American sentiment about, I didn't detect it.

Maybe that's because the Dutch are a generally tolerant people, as evidenced by their allowing prostitution (in Amsterdam's so-called "Red Light District") and permitting the sale of drugs. (One does note, from time to time, the acrid smell of pot.) Amsterdam is also, I am told, the place to go for a sex change, but you can only see and do so much in three days.

Unlike anything you will find in America, where downtowns have surrendered to the suburbs, Amsterdam is a real city, with real people - normal people, not homeless or criminal - walking its streets night and day. Instead of block after block of empty storefronts, there are countless shops, coffee houses, restaurants and pubs and, (I'm quite sure although I didn't actually see any) drug cafes, or whatever they're called.

In fact, although you can't blame WalMart for giving Americans what they want, after seeing dead and dying main streets all over America, I wonder if that's what Americans really did want. In Europe, people can still live in town and shop in town. The public transit and the crowds of people walking around shopping reminded me of the center-city Philadelphia of my childhood.

As was the case in previous visits, Europeans smoke. Perhaps they do not smoke as heavily as formerly, but smoking nonetheless is common in most public places. The Dutch obviously have not bought the "second-hand smoke" bill of goods the way we have, because we stopped in at one smoky pub where two little kids sat at the bar sipping on cokes while Daddy sat and tossed down a few with his buddies. I am not competent to talk about the dangers of second-hand smoke, but stunting one's growth does not appear to be one of them. The Dutch people have been living with smoke for quite some time now, and lemme tell you - overall, they are some of the tallest people I've seen. Especially the women.

Did I say they are good looking, too?

The Dutch are also healthy-looking, men and women alike. Maybe it's because of all the bike riding they do. In Amsterdam, bikes are everywhere. There must be 10,000 of them parked around the railroad station alone. Safety isn't the issue it would be in most American cities - there are bike paths everywhere. In fact, after five minutes as a pedestrian, I came to the conclusion that it's a good deal safer riding a bike in Amsterdam than being on foot and having to dodge the damn things.

Amsterdam is a great city to walk around in. Although it has lots of interesting little streets and alleys to explore, the central area (Centrum) is hard to get lost in, surrounded as it is by canals.

While a tourist might not exactly get lost, the unwary might stray into Amsterdam's famous "Red Light District," with its live sex shows and ladies of all shapes, sizes and colors posing in streetfront windows in, um, "undies." Suffice it to say that my wife and I stumbled by accident onto it, and she was a lot happier when we found our way out.

On a more serious note, we paid a quick visit to the Anne Frank house, just to see the home where the brave little Jewish girl kept her diary while spending two years in hiding from the Nazis.

Amsterdam struck me as amazingly diverse. There were, of course, the stereotypical blonde Aryan types, but also a great many of African and East Indian descent (all speaking Dutch and, when called on to do so, flawless English).

The food offerings - Argentine, Italian, Indian, Indonesian - reflected the diversity. Argentine steakhouses seem to be everywhere. We found a great one, which supposedly raises and imports is own beef. Indonesian? The Dutch originally colonized much of the East Indies, and the Dutch and native culture combine in the Rijstaffel (translated "Rice Table"), an assortment of spicy meat and vegetable dishes served over rice.

It is hard to find a place that doesn't have Heineken "Van de Tap" ("from the tap"), but if you do, it will have Grolsch. If it has Heineken, it will not have Grolsch, and if it has Grolsch it will not have Heineken. Amstel, fairly well known in the US, is named for the river which runs through Amsterdam, a river whose damming by the earliest settlers gave the city its name.

A highlight was a visit to the lovely little city of Leiden, where I convinced my wife to tour a windmill with me. "Tour" doesn't do it justice - the sucker was eight stories high, and one "toured" it by climbing narrow, steep ladders to each floor.

Leiden was of special interest to me because it was the temporary home of the so-called Pilgrims, the English separatists who were forced to leave England by the Church of England. They were welcomed in Holland, and were free to worship as they pleased, but fearing the moral influence on their children of the more liberal Dutch, many of them decided in 1620 to pull up stakes and head for the New World. It was with a great sense of awe that I stood in front of the very church where the Pilgrims prayed, and where they made their fateful decision to risk everything to worship the Lord as they wished.

What an amazing people the Dutch are. What an amazing country.

In a relatively short time, we were able to see and experience enough of Holland to know that we want to go back. As easy as that is to do, I'll be keeping an eye out for fares.

One of the neat, bright store-lined walkways in Schiphol, Amsterdam's airport

Another look around Schiphol

One of Amsterdam's cool walking streets

Another walking street, filled with Christmas shoppers

A windmill in the city of Leiden

Looking up at the windmill - this sucker is BIG!

A barge full of Christmas trees (kerstboomenboot) for sale

German Coach Mathias Bonner stopped by for a brief "One Man Clinic"

First I've ever seen this sign

I guess this is where you go in Amsterdam to buy rope

A little girl and her brother (on the right, just beyond the guy's shoulder) belly up to the bar

It is a moving experience to stand at the door.

A typical Dutch street scene, this one in Leiden

One of Holland's many canals

Amsterdam's canals are especially beautiful at night

*********** "Codebreakers," ESPN's much-promoted attempt to deal with the so-called "Cribbing Scandal" that took place at West Point more than 50 years ago, finally aired last Saturday night. As expected, the sycophants (suckups) in the media were kind to it.

Brian Lowry, in Variety, said the movie "features a born-to-play role for Scott Glenn as Army's snarling, grizzled football coach Earl "Red" Blaik." and praised "a particularly well-staged reenactment of the Army-Navy game."

Barry Garron, in hollywood reporter.com praised "G. Ross Parker's brilliant script."

I beg to differ. I thought "Codebreakers" was pathetic, from top to bottom, start to finish. From the casting, to the characters, to the costumes, to the dialogue, to the football scenes, it fairly screamed "Low Budget!" Riddled with lack of concern for minor details, it didn't do a lot better with the major points, dealing only superficially with a very complex subject. Oh - and on top of all that, it was bo-o-o-o-ring.

I initially feared that "Codebreakers" had the potential to hurt West Point, Army football, and the memory of the great Colonel Earl "Red" Blaik, but it turned out to be so cheesy and devoid of focus that I doubt that any viewer with the patience to stay to the end would have come away with any conclusions one way or the other - or bothered to take the time afterward to arrive at any.

Much of the material on which the show was based came from "Return to Glory," a book by a West Pointer named Bill McWilliams. Mr. McWilliams tells the story of an organized cheating ring operating at West Point whose discovery in the spring of 1951 resulted in the expulsion of 83 cadets, some 30 of them football players.

The incident Mr. McWilliams tells about is very complex and convoluted, far beyond ESPN's abilities to tell it in movie form, and certainly not capable of being told thoroughly in an hour and a half (less commercials).

Another problem in trying to tell the story in movie form is that it required depiction of the "cheating" cadets, and Mr. McWilliams, although a cadet himself at the time and well aware of the general facts of the story (to the extent that they can ever be fully known), was not a member of the football team, and could have had no firsthand idea what of actually transpired among the accused cadets or what they said to each other. ESPN's solution was a flimsy attempt at recreating what took place.

The end product was a made-for-TV movie that does little more than demonstrate the inability of a network whose name contains the words "Sports" and "Entertainment" to deal in depth with any topic that barely touches on either, and requires close viewer attention.

Lack of respect for details and facts, both large and small, make the movie immediately suspect to anyone who knows either the military or football. It was supposed to be about the Army football team, one of the most powerful programs in the country at the time, but movie guys just don't seem able to understand that pencil-necked actor types simply aren't convincing as football players; on top of that, there is nothing that passes for believable football "action." The story was about an Army team that was ranked in the top ten nationally, but the team we saw on the practice field couldn't have beaten most high school JV teams. Interestingly, there is some brief practice footage of a single-wing spinner play, although Army had been a T-formation team for almost 10 years.

Military guys I've heard from had a few laughs at upside-down brass (their terminology), and decorations that looked as if they'd been bought at an army-navy surplus store.

No tailor looking on could have been very happy, either. The ill-fitting uniforms looked as if they came straight off the racks at Acme Costume Rental.

The producers fell prey to the conventional, portraying Army coach Earl "Red" Blaik as the stereotypical coach - a bit of a bumbler, and a bit of a shouter ("snarling" as the Variety reviewer put it). Neither is close to the truth.

Bumbler? Few coaches then and now were as thorough. So solid was his system, so effective his teaching, so astute his judgment of people that 20 of his assistants went on to become head coaches themselves.

"Snarling?" Author David Maraniss, in his prize-winning biography of Vince Lombardi, noted that calm, cool Colonel Blaik had to remind Lombardi from time to time to go easier on the players at practice - they'd already had a full day of regimentation and discipline by the time they got to practice.

(The Lombardi character, by the way, reminded me a bit of a young, underweight John Belushi.)

Actor Scott Glenn plays Blaik, or so we are told. Glenn, who looks as if he's been rode hard and put away wet, to the point where the reviewer refers to Blaik as "grizzled," may be playing some coach, somewhere, but he is not playing Earl Blaik. Always dapper and well-groomed in real life, Coach Blaik is shown as generally rumpled and unkempt. In fact, his hair is actually a bit shaggy in the back. Imagine Colonel Blaik - any West Point coach, for that matter - needing a haircut!

I did laugh my ass off at one scene in which Coach Blaik is shown walking across campus in a black-and-teal windbreaker. Teal! What kind of men did they think we had back then? That was 1951, just six years after the end of World War II, and men still dressed like men. No clothing manufacturer in his right mind would have had anything like that in its line to begin with, but even if it did, and even if it had occurred to one of them to try bribing coaches to wear its stuff, they wouldn't have found a football coach anywhere in the country willing to appear in public - especially on the grounds of the United States Military Academy - wearing robin's egg blue.

In terms of bigger issues, we are frequently reminded that there is a war going on in Korea, but the storywriters don't even attempt to point out that Korea is key to the story and the harsh, peremptory way the young so-called cheaters are dealt with. Picture the scene - tens of thousands of young American men are being drafted and shipped to fight in a godforsaken part of the world, and while the sons of the poor are being sent off to die, this elite group of privileged, pampered football players stays home and plays a game - and cheats in order to do so. Think there aren't politicians today who could run with an issue like that? They had 'em then, too. It is safe to assume that the Army felt that anything less than dismissal from the academy would have been unacceptable to those politicians.

There is reference made to some people wanting to bring down Army football, and there is some evidence that that was actually the case, but nothing is done to probe deeper into that part of the story. There is the claim that Colonel Harkins, the Commandant (the Commandant is second in command to the the Superintendent, and is in charge of the Corps of Cadets) is out to get Blaik, or the football program, and this may in fact have been the case, but we're not given much to go on here except for possibly one instance in which Harkins brings some foreign dignitary out to the practice field to introduce him to Blaik, and the coach blows him off.

"I don't allow visitors after 15:30," coach Blaik says. "I'm sorry, but I can't extend special privileges."

Harkins fires back, "The academy gives your team nothing but special privileges."

That little incident is not believable, if only because Colonel Blaik was himself an Army man and a West Pointer who understood the importance of protocol and diplomacy; but in the event that he were not, if that sort of conduct were typical of the hard-driving Blaik, Harkins would have been smart enough not to have submitted his guest to such a snub.

At the very least, as thorough as Colonel Blaik was, he would have made sure that everyone on the post was aware of his "no visitors" policy.

I was put off by their portrayal of coach Blaik, I was put off by their portrayal of his son, Bob, the team quarterback, and I was really angered by ESPN's portrayal of their relationship. While the characters for the most part are fictional, as are most of the scenes, coach Blaik and Bob, his quarterback son, are clearly identified, and the producers take unforgivable liberties in attempting to recreate private exchanges between the two. (The Colonel died in 1989, and while Bob Blaik is very much alive, he had nothing to do with the movie.)

There is one scene in which Coach Blaik offers up his own son - offers to have Bob resign - in exchange for a pardon for the rest of his players (the implication being that this coach was so obsessed with winning that would even sell his own son down the river in order to save his football program). Trust me - it is a total fabrication.

I have a feeling that Mr. McWilliams himself, with whom I have corresponded, couldn't have been too happy with the production, either, because as the title of his book , "Return to Glory," suggests, he is as interested in telling how West Point and West Point football recovered from the scandal as he is in telling about it, and the movie barely mentions the recovery.

The story gives only short shrift to the "return," casually mentioning at the end that after "three losing" seasons, Army came back to beat Navy and win the Lambert Trophy, which at that time was given to the best football team in the East. In reality, playing with JV's and walk-ons, Army did have one horrible year (2-7) in 1951, but in 1952 the Cadets broke even at 4-4-1, and in 1953 they were 7-1-1. That's one losing season, the way I count.

Three losing seasons? In a row? ESPN gets an F for an inexcusable failure to do its homework. In 25 years as a head coach at Army and Dartmouth, Earl Blaik had just that one losing season in 1951.

In my estimation, Codebreakers is, in industry terms, a "Piece of Sh--", just one more in what promises to be a long run of sports-as-told-by-ESPN productions.

In the end, it was a story in which there are no winners, hardly the sort of thing to satisfy a sports fan. But, hey. For those who don't mind seeing Disney/ABC/ESPN fall on their faces, look at it this way - this movie was so dull it couldn't have held many viewers all the way to the end.

*********** John Simar played football at Army, and after military service, came back to coach at West Point. Just a few months ago, he was keeping busy as athletic director at the Lawrenceville School, a prestigious New Jersey prep school, and serving as president of the Army football club. But Major John Simar, US Army Reserve, wanted more. He volunteered for service in the Middle East, and he got it, and recently, he wrote several hundred of his closest friends...

Hi Everybody,
I'm in Kuwait. Big surprise to me. When I saw Kuwait on my orders several weeks ago and inquired of the folks at the Pentagon what that meant, I was told, "don't worry, you'll be in Iraq a lot." Well I am here in Kuwait and staying here, evidently. Had the typical experience of arriving and everyone saying Major who? Where'd you come from? Stuck me in the Policy & Programs section of the Coalition Land Forces Central Command and managing the R&R program for all troops and DA civilians in theater. That part's good. I get to do something that impacts every troop in the combat zone. Just disappointed that I am riding a desk in Kuwait. We are totally safe. Never carry weapons except when we leave base (which I'll do once a week or so) and never wear body armor of kevlar helmets.

There are two to four wide body planes that fly from Kuwait to Atlanta to Dallas and back every day, taking troops and DA Civilians on their free 15 day R&R leave. My job is to make sure that we program the planes ahead of time and don't waste the tax payer's money by programming too many flights. One plane costs a half million a day. I also have to make sure we are doing the right thing at the APOD (aerial port of departure) because, again, if we don't load a plane we are wasting money. The wide bodies are nice, so we are doing the right thing by the troops. Congress got it right this time. They're the ones that said "We are going to fund a 15 vacation for everyone and they can go anywhere in the world." Good deal, huh? ( for those deployed on a one year tour only)

This base, and all of them, have PX's, food courts, laundromats, gyms, activity centers, and so on. The dining facilities are excellent and so is the food. Everything air conditioned, but the weather is very nice for now. It has been about 50 at night and in the AM and 75 in the afternoon.

My job takes me to the main aero port of entry near Kuwait City once a week or so. That gets me on the highway for an hour and a half of excitement. They drive like the Italians here! Camp Arifjan (google it and read about it) is loaded with command HQ and rear area support. I have seen no one that I know and that is a testament to the fact that West Pointers are where the action is - and that's not here. I am not the only retiree to come back on active duty. There are several here near me. One guy has a son stationed in Kuwait, so he gets to see him every once in a while. Soon the son may move to Iraq with his engineer unit. This particular retiree is a '78 WP grad Ed McGaugh.

If you're inclined to send something to the troops, international phone calling cards are the best thing to send. They have pretty much all they need otherwise. I happen to be in the place that oversees the Morale, Welfare, Recreation programs for the whole theater (Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait) and can get the cards distributed. I can use the phone on my desk, as can most officers, but the troops have to use pay phones.

I have everything I need. My address, if you would like to send phone cards is:

MAJ John Simar

HHC, 1st PERSCOM (FWD)

OIF 05-07

APO AE 09366

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We Americans have much to be thankful for. As we prepare for the Christmas season, once again it's a good time to be thankful. I thank you all for your support, well wishes, and prayers. Keep our troops in your prayers.

God Bless America!

John

*********** You can't blame the folks in the military for treading lightly around libs (there are a few of them in Congress, if you hadn't noticed), but this is ridiculous...

When our local Army post sent out invitations to the "Annual Vancouver Barracks Holiday Tree Lighting," it added that appropriate dress for civilians is "Christmas casual."

*********** If the sleaze don't get ya, the losin' will...

Remember all that fuss at Colorado? You know, all that business about luring recruits with strippers and booze, and charges of players raping women at will, etc.?

Well, it cost the AD his job. The President, too. But Gary Burnett survived.

But let the Buffaloes get trounced by archfoe Nebraska, and then let Texas come back the next week and thump them unmercifully (not that Texas hasn't thumped damn near everybody unmercifully), and Coach Barnett is history.

It will cost the Buffs something like $1.8 million to pay him off. His assistants are SOL.

*********** Scarcely a community in this country has been spared the troubling news that some trusted adult has misappropriated the funds of this Little League team or that youth sports organization.

Considering the amount of money raised for - and blown on - so-called "drug-and-alcohol free" post-graduation parties, which lavish all sorts of goodies on high school graduates in return for their submitting to one night's chaperoned incarceration in a drug-and-alcohol-free environment (after which they presumably are free to do as they wish for the rest of their lives), it was just a matter of time...

Money - a lot of money - is missing from the graduation party fund at Henry Sibley High School, outside St. Paul, Minnesota, taken, apparently, by one of those entrusted with raising the money.

How much money is involved? Hard to say, exactly, but according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the budget for the annual party "ranges from $20,000 to $25,000."

*********** James Lofton expressed interest in the San Diego State head coaching job. Through his agent of course.

I guess Dick Butkus wasn't available.

*********** For the first time in its history, the Las Vegas Bowl , between Cal and BYU, is a sellout.

Those Cal fans really love their team, don't they?

Ha, ha. Guess again. Ninety per cent of the tickets were snapped up by BYU fans.

*********** Brace yourself for all the "Paterno vs. Bowden" you can possibly handle.

Otherwise, the only-in-the-BCS matchup of a four-loss team and a team that's one second away from a shot at the national title, shows what happens when you don't let the bowl people make their own matches.

What a downer for Penn State. What a miserable excuse for a bowl game. For sure, Florida State's emerging as the ACC "champion" ought to show what a fallacy it is that a playoff could determine a "true national champion."

Or suppose there were an "And One" playoff and Florida State, having defeated Penn State, were chosen to play the USC-Texas winner - and won. Could anyone possibly accept the legitimacy of Florida State as "National Champion?"

*********** Arkansas' Houston Nutt has apologized to Rich Rodriguez. Wonder if SMU's Phil Bennett has called Mike Bellotti yet.

I've seen sausage being made, and now that I've seen how the coaches vote in the BCS poll, I'll take the sausage factory.

When the final coaches' ballots in the College Coaches' poll were made public, 99 per cent of them made perfect sense.

But Nutt's had completely omitted West Virginia. To his credit, though, when it was brought to his attention, Nutt called Rodriguez to apologize, saying that he'd just totally left West Virginia out when filling out his ballot. Brain lock.

Those things can happen.

Bennett, on the other hand, is another story entirely. He had Oregon in fifteenth place on his ballot. Fifteenth! How could he, or anyone else holding a head coaching position at a major college, justify doing that - putting Oregon, a team that finished a close fifth in the BCS standings, just one spot removed from the BCS loot, a team that has lost only to USC, FIFTEENTH on his ballot?

There may have been more such outrageous shows of disrespect, but Bennett's inexplicably low opinion of Oregon was the one that jumped out at me,

Perhaps you will remember that this time last year there was so much suspicion about coaches voting their prejudices (or their wallets) that a huge cry went out to make all coaches' ballots - every week - public. Finally, the AFCA grudgingly agreed to go public with just the final week's voting, and now that we've seen it, at the very least, Phil Bennett's vote casts suspicion on himself as a voter, and on any coaches' poll as a fair means of rating teams.

With the vast difference in money between a BCS- and non-BCS bowl berth, and the ever-present temptation to monkey with the polls, it behooves the AFCA and its member voters to carefully avoid any hint of corruption.

*********** Coach Wyatt, regarding Boomer Esiason, commenting on Army's decision to punt on a fourth-and-one just before halftime, saying "I would have went for it."

In this day, where a Michael Irvin is paid to be a BROADCASTER, the "Boomers" of the world are, unfortunately, plentiful. One more thing: what kind of ADULT gets called, "Boomer?" For a dog or an 8-year-old kid, it's one thing. But a grown man? Sheesh.

BTW--Did you happen to see the Georgia Southern/Texas State play-off game? GSU was ahead 35-16 in the 3rd Quarter (and showing an awesome running game) but before you know it, Texas State comes flying by, going ahead 50-35 and takes a knee inside GSU's 5-yard line at game's end. Wow.

Dave Potter, Durham, North Carolina (As I understand it, Boomer got his nickname when he was still in utero, because he kicked so hard. HW)

*********** Coach, Just wanted to let you know that I received the Black Lion certificate and the DVDs. I just finished doing some highlight videos for 2 of our youth teams, and now need to hustle to finish mine for my party this coming Sunday, so unfortunately, your DVDs will have to wait until things are as busy. I'm looking forward to seeing them though.

I had some exceptional news today. The West Point Cadet who I had present the Black Lion award for me last year, Joe Riley, was not able to make it. He recommended another Cadet football player, Peter Harrington, very highly. Peter emailed me today and confirmed that he would be honored to help me present the award. These guys don't disappoint. It made my day and I can't wait for the party. As opposed to last year, I have board members and others in the program emailing me and asking me if they can come to the party b/c they've heard such great things about it. Promoting these values on the team and giving the award is the best thing that I do as a coach. Thanks again for creating this award, and for promoting it from year to year...it's a great thing.

Regards, Rick Davis, Duxbury Youth Football, Duxbury, Massachusetts

*********** Hi Coach: Season Greetings:

The Virtual Clinic DVD was great. You do a wonderful job. It seems that over the years we have been doing some things right in Ledyard. I was delighted to see some of the plays from the double wing run from the split backs. This is what our basic Ledyard Wing T is run from. I enjoy your clinics, tapes and DVD'S because some of our fans think that we run too much and should pass more. We have three double wing teams in the conference. Saint Bernards, Stonington, and Griswold.

Keep up the good work. If God is with me, I have two years left to coach at Ledyard.

In a tough league this year our Freshman and Junior Varsity both went 7-2. They both have players that believe they can do well if they work smart and hard.

Take Care; Bill Mignault; Ledyard, Connecticut (Bill Mignault is the winningest coach in Connecticut state history. HW)

*********** Coach - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family. Army looked like they were in the game for a while, then... Navy's staff and the players on the field with the Wing/Wishbone is executed well enough to get 490 yards on the ground. Good game to watch nevertheless. Good, solid season for Army, though, and I am glad Coach Ross is at the head of the column with the Army program

Being the Christmas shopping season, I was at Best Buy looking for a DVD, in this case, something educational and historical in nature. I was looking for Ken Burns' (of the PBS documentary series) DVD on Lewis and Clark. Not seeing it on the shelves, I asked a manager who instructed me to ask the clerk to see if they had it in stock. I tracked her down, waited in line behind a few other customers, and when she finished with them, I described to her what I wanted to find. I told her they had quite a few other Ken Burns titles (Jazz, Baseball, New York, The Civil War) but not the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery title. Sounding confused as to what I was looking for, she went to her store computer, and typed in the following search terms - "Luis & Clark."

I asked her to try a different spelling -

They still didn't have the titled DVD even after she changed the spelling with a little help, and had a twisted, pained look when I told her who they were and said she had not (surprise) ever heard of them. I shifted gears a bit and, for fun, asked her to search for a "Fifty CentS" CD from the rapper Fifty Cent, with my intentional emphasis on the (incorrect) plural use of the term. She promptly corrected me and said "Oh, yeah, you mean '50 CenT' - not 'CentS,' he actually goes by 'Fiddy Cent,'" while giving me a nervous giggle over the dumb dad, who clearly did not know his pop culture. She went on to tell me how he has a movie out on his life story, etc.

I realize I sound 'old' in saying this; however, I do not understand how our culture can lionize someone who goes downstairs from his (paid for housing), hustles for drugs or stolen property, and doesn't leave his 'neighborhood' because he owns his 'corner' and how he 'lost' so many friends on the streets. As a culture, we don't seem to be amazed at two guys who left St. Louis with basically nothing and found their way to the Pacific Ocean - and back - alive and responsible for 50 other men traveling through other Indian "'hoods." Sounding even 'older,' I do worry about the future of this country, Terrorism aside, with Communist China spending $500B a year on defense and no one seeming to care as long as they get an XBox 360 or a CD. The only hope I have is in seeing what I see from those select kids who choose to play youth football that I have the privilege to coach, or in seeing those young men on both sides of the field Saturday in Philly - I mean that with all sincerity. For each one of those young men, there is a solid family, and a community that still has a school system, likely a church family, and a coaching staff somewhere who cared enough to make a difference or those cadets and midshipmen wouldn't be who they are today...

I won't go on here; however, from wavering on terrorism to Iran, to North Korea to Communist China we are essentially being undercut with a culture of appeasement and enforced equality and outcomes without sacrifice (I should have asked that clerk to do a search on 'Communism' to see what she would say) -- I came across a few quotes recently and thought I'd share them with you...

Remember Churchill's judgment on Chamberlain at Munich: He had a choice between war and dishonor; he chose dishonor, and got war. This one, taken from a company command HQ in Fallujah: "If you don't correct a Marine when he's wrong, you weaken him, the entire unit and lower our standards." Sounds like a football maxim from a good football coach somewhere. Last, a motto from the SW school at Ft. Bragg: "Straight Talk and Hard Looks get Results."

Take care Coach. Regards, Mark Bergen, Keller, Texas p.s. - the actual Christmas DVD I will be purchasing for my son to give me as a gift will be your virtual clinic; please look for my order in the coming week. (Ha- Luis and Clark! There's multiculturalism for you! Watch what you say about Fiddy Cen' - you might be coaching against him some day. We've got Snoop Dogg owning his own youth league in California and now comes the wonderful news that rapper-turned-youth-coach Luther ("Me So Horny") Campbell and his Liberty City (Miami) Warriors have made it to the Pop Warner Super Bowl. That a millionaire rapper has managed to assemble a powerhouse team in South Florida will come as no surprise to anyone who has read "We Own This Game." It is absolutely frightening. HW)

*********** Hi Coach, Just wanted to let you know that we (Holy Name High School, Worcester Mass.) ended up winning the Division 2 Super Bowl- 37-12 vs Waconah Regional High School. This year we averaged 30 points and over 400 yards rushing per game. Thanks for all of your help and influence.

Regards, Scott Anderson, Worcester, Massachusetts

*********** Explanation from MAJ Joe Ross, former Army football captain who's now with West Point's Center for Enhanced Performance...

Hugh,
Charlie is the word the Army uses to say the letter C. Mike is the word the Army uses to say the letter M

We use words to spell out letters on the radio to ensure the person on the other end hears the correct message.

Army guys will say Charlie Mike to represent continue the mission as slang. Pete Bier (our center) likes the terminology and always uses it around Coach Brock (former NFL great Stan Brock, Army's offensive line coach. HW). Coach Brock likes it and uses it with the O-line. So the TV guys probably got wind of this and talked about it on the air.

Let me know if this helps. I agree this is a great slogan for the off-season.

Joe

*********** A storyline for a reality show, pitched to me by Christopher Anderson, of Palo Alto, California...

A former pro linebacker turned TV actor with questionable qualifications is hired to head up a sagging football program. His farcical incompetence turns the team into a laughingstock across the nation and fails to ignite the expected renewal, as failure is broadcast across the country.

"Bound For Glory"? No - the Detroit Lions.

*********** Coach Wyatt - Can you tell me the dates and locations of your clinics in early 2006? Topics that will be discussed? Cost? Only the 2005 clinics are on your website. Thanks!

I haven't set up the clinic schedule for 2006 yet, although for the most part dates and places will roughly correspond with 2005.

The 2006 clinics will typically deal with improving on the basics, attacking common defensive looks, and "expanding" the system (and reasons for doing so).

Wherever possible, I try to have a guest speaker or two to give a different slant on what can be done with the Double-Wing.

Last year, for example from your area, Bill Mignault of Ledyard, Connecticut spoke at the Providence clinic about ways he has incorporated Double-Wing thinking into his Wing-T system, as well as ideas from his system that might prove useful to Double-Wingers as part of their systems.

*********** Coach Wyatt, It's great to finally be able to write. I've been teaching all new classes this year, and have been kind of swamped.

Thought I'd bring you up to speed on the status of the Upland Cardinals. We came up with 12 guys by the middle of last summer. When we got to within three weeks of the start of practice, we made the decision to put all of our efforts in to next season. We lost one player, but have added (on paper anyway) three more, making our number right now 14. Last year at this time it was 2. We continue to be optimistic. We have a place to practice. A principal of a small school in our area has agreed to let us practice on their facility when we can, and has offered another piece of land owned by the Lions Club that we can use when the school field is unavailable. We are looking into the NFL youth football fund, and have made contact with them. Also, the Grand Rapids Rampage Arena League team has told us that they will help in some way, although that has yet to be nailed down. What we need to do and have been unable is to get all of the families together. That is the next goal. We had a meeting set up, but had poor attendance. I'm going to try to set up a booth at the homeschool and Christian school basketball games to get the word out. The Christian school AD's are a little hesitant to help, because they think I might raid their soccer teams. There are a couple of things I could say about that, but I'll just let them go!

I have been reading the news faithfully, and want to point out one thing. I agree with all you have said about the awful uniforms worn by Virginia Tech, Miami, Florida and others. But what bugs me just as much is these coaching shirts with the stripe that starts under one armpit and runs across the chest and down the other sleeve. I teach 5th grade math, and my kids know what symmetry is!

I hope to be purchasing the CD's before Christmas, it looks great.

John Zeller, Tustin, Michigan (Coach Zeller's mission is to start a football program to enable kids attending small private Christian school to play football. HW)

*********** Coach- I will be patiently awaiting your return so that I can get my fix of "news". My alma mater (University of Northern Iowa - UNI) and former coach (he was an assistant while I was there: Mark Farley along with OC Bill Salmon) have the UNI Panthers playing for a national title. I sat in a room in Ames with a dozen guys I played with who are now coaching either football or track or both and watched the semifinal game vs. Texas State. That was 12 Gateway Championship rings (and really more as I have 3 of them) sitting in a little hotel room full of purple and gold pride. What a great feeling, lot's of emotion from a program that is very special to a lot of guys. I know many Panthers that walked with their chests out and heads held high all weekend. I am so proud of Coach Farley and Coach Salmon, they are GREAT people, and they bleed purple and gold as they both played ball at UNI as well. They know a little something about loyalty. Have a great Christmas! Brad Knight, Holstein, Iowa

PS- Just to show what a ring means, I was at the state finals drinking a few beverages with some coaches at the Panther Lounge (Old fart bar) in Cedar Falls (home of UNI). 3 players (young bucks probably sophomores or lower) came in to see a coach I was with and were talking of playing for UNI and how much they enjoyed it, they noticed my ring and they whispered a little to one another...finally one guy asked if he could see the hardware...I felt like the Godfather himself showing off my 1991 Gateway Championship Ring. I even allowed them to try it on, as they will be getting theirs soon, hopefully (no jealousy here) theirs will be just a tad bigger and will say National Champions!

Osama shows that he will stop at nothing in his plot to weaken America...

BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM

GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS!

Army's Will Sullivan wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game
(FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners