Sportsmanship can take many forms.  It can be helping an opposing player up after knocking him down.  It can be not taunting the other team after a score, fumble recovery or interception.  Sportsmanship can be not responding to a crude or derogatory statement by the other team.  It can be as simple as shaking hands at the end of a game.

Sometimes, sportsmanship can transcend the game, the ordianary, even that which is expected and go where no others have ever gone before.  Attached is a link to such an event.  As I watched it, not even knowing the players involved, I felt pride in being a coach and a father.  I can only imagine how these players coaches, parents and fans felt about their actions that day.  Sometimes, something more important than the game happens.  Sometimes, something extraordinary happens.

Please take just five minutes out of your busy day to watch something extraordinary.

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3380875

FINAL REMINDER:  LINEMENINC CAMP REGISTRATIONS AND DEPOSITS ARE DUE THIS SUNDAY, JUNE 1ST.  http://www.linemeninc.com/registration.php

Everyone has so many things going on over the summer.  There are family vacations, team camps, individual camps, perhaps a college campus visit.  The economy is also going to impact this summers activities.  Rising fuel costs are impacting everything we buy.  What to do?

You have to have options and you have to be realistic.  We realize that athletic programs are going to be experiencing great cut backs this year and as a coach, I realize that if you can only do one camp it better be a team camp.  Belt tightening is one way to cope, another is to plan ahead.  Budgets are going to need a closer look this coming season with an eye to next years wants and needs.  Start now looking at fundrasing options and scheduling them out over greater lenghts of time.  Check out LinemenInc’s Fundraising page for some ideas.  Don’t wait until the last minute and find yourself short.   

If you just can’t afford the cost or the time for LinemenInc’s three day contact camp here’s an option for you.  The San Francisco 49ers one day OL/DL Camp.  This is a non-contact camp incorporating both classroom training and on-field training.  Attendees will receive 2 preseason tickets to a 49ers game, a camp T-shirt, lunch and interaction with current and alumni 49er players.  Total cost is only $75 and the camp is held at the 49ers training facility in Santa Clara.  I’ve placed a link to their web site below.  Obviously, we’re hoping to see you at LinemenInc but a guy’s gotta have options.

https://www.signup4.net/Public/ap.aspx?EID=H2HA17E

JUST A REMINDER, LINEMENINC REGISTRATIONS AND DEPOSITS ARE DUE IN JUST NINE DAYS ON JUNE 1ST.  THE RUSH IS ON AND CAMPS ARE FILLING QUICKLY NOW.

Welcome to Coleville High School, Elk Grove High School and Pacific Palisades High School, whose players will be joining us at Long Beach and Stockton next month.

We’re getting down to the wire!  Camp is just 32 to 39 days off depending upon which location you’re attending.  Long Beach will feature college coaches from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, University of Arizona, University of Redlands, Azusa Pacific University, Whittier College and Los Medanos College.

Stockton welcomes college coaches from the University of Nevada Reno, South Dakota State University, Sacramento State University, San Jose State University, Menlo College, San Jose City College, Shasta College, American River College and Los Medanos College.

Registrations recently received for the Long Beach LinemenInc Camp include the following high schools: Banning, Brea Olinda, Foothill – Santa Ana, Otay Ranch and Santiago!

Registrations recently received for the Stockton LinemenInc Camp include the following high schools: Amador Valley, Freedom, Laguna Creek, La Salle, Loyola, Manteca, Wheatland and Manalapan – New Jersey!

REGISTRATIONS ARE DUE JUNE 1ST!  THAT’S JUST 12 DAYS AWAY.  DON’T MISS YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO GET OUT OF THE WEIGHT ROOM AND ONTO THE PRACTICE FIELD THIS SUMMER.  DON’T MISS YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE!

 

 

 

Just five weeks from the registration dead line and the camps are filling!  Where are this years players coming from you might ask?  How about Queen Creek High School and Desert Mountain High School in Arizona.  Owasso High, Owasso, Oklahoma, Rockwall-Heath High School in Heath, Texas, Delta High in Delta, Utah and Virginia City High and Wooster High in Nevada.  There will even be players attending LinemenInc Camps from the Garden State of New Jersey!  It is awesome to see these guys this serious about their play and improvement!

 Local California schools are always representing at LinemenInc:  Argonaut, Brookside Christian, Dixon, Foothill-Palo Cedro, Irvington, Liberty-Brentwood, Livermore, Maxwell, Monte Vista Christian, Moreau Catholic, Rancho Cotate, Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep-S.F., and Sierra already have registered for the Stockton camp, June 28-30.

Southern Cali, not to be out done, are jumping on the Long Beach camp, June 21-23:  El Segundo, Hesperia Christian, Marina, Rancho Verde and Thomas Jefferson have their paperwork in.

“To get what you have never had you must do what you have never done.”

“Insanity is doing the exact samething over and over and over and over again while expecting different results.” 

You get the idea.  Over 800 players from over 100 high schools have dared to do something different over the past four years.  Some have come from hundreds even thousands of miles away to improve themselves.  We’ve picked up players from airports, train stations and even bus stations.  This summer could be your opportunity to learn, improve and be challenged like never before.  This summer you could experience the most intense three days of your life: LinemenInc.

The Big John Manumaleuna Foundation seeks to use the unique perspective of Samoan and Polynesian cultures to promote education and a healthy lifestyle through sports. The Foundation is committed to running unique sports camps aimed at helping high risk youth break the cycle of poverty and strive for higher education. Through volunteers, coaches, current and past NFL players, the Foundation will seek to educate parents and kids alike on things like SAT’s, ACT’s, scholarships, grades, and the importance of higher education. The Foundation has chosen Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Hawaii, and Samoa for its 2005 camps. These locations were chosen because they have a large Polynesian culture. 

Saturday, May 17^th, Santa Ana City College, Santa Ana, CA. 9 AM to 2 PM 

Saturday, May 31^st, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA 9 AM to 2 PM 

These clinic’s are FREE, bring shorts and cleats.   

Many years ago I coached Little League baseball.  After one of the drafts I was approached by another manager and asked if I was open for a trade.  It was my first year in the Majors Division and other than the try outs, I didn’t know a lot of the kids.  So I asked him who he wanted and why?  He explained that he wanted the only female I had drafted and said it was because he had coached her brother and knew the family.  What the heck, she was my last pick and we made the trade. 

I arrived early for our first practice and was able to watch each player arrive.  One of the boys, Michael, stood out from the others.  He limped or more accurately, he wobbled out onto the field.  I asked Mike if he was injured and motioned towards his legs.  “Nope” he said with a smile, “my right leg is 1 1/2 inches shorter than my left.”  Checking my roster I realized Mike was the player I got in the trade. 

Due to his handicap, Mike was a minimal player; six defensive outs and one at bat per game.  He was good with it as this was the way it had always been for Michael.  One practice, just before the start of the season, I arrived a little late.  As I approached the diamond I saw a kid on the pitchers mound throwing some pretty good heat.  I could hear the ball snapping into the catchers glove.  I had already selected three players to pitch and had been working with them and this was not one of them.  It was Michael. 

Mike’s right leg was the short one and he was right handed.  This meant he could push off on this leg and land on his left without falling over.  Had the left been the shorter he would have fallen over during his release.  I asked him if he would like to work with the pitchers and I’ve never seen a kid more excited.  It took some work and some time but Michael became a pretty good pitcher.  Good enough to throw for about two innings per game.  Good enough to start in one game, the game where we faced the manager who traded Michael to me.  

I saved Mike for that game not allowing him to pitch in any games prior.  He was our secret weapon and I wanted his debut to come in this particular game.  You should have seen the looks around the ballpark that day, especially on the face of the other manager.  Mike struck out three through two innings and allowed one hit if I remember but no score.  He even got a hit in the bottom of the second and managed to arrive safe at first. 

I’ve thought of Michael from time to time through the years and the lesson he taught me.  Like everyone before me, I saw only the handicap at first.  I thought only of how to deal with it to minimize its impact to the team.  I figured how to work around it, not with it.  Mike was a diamond in the rough that I almost missed out on.  I have tried since to never look at a player in that way.  I try very hard to find that part of each player and each coach that can be shined to a brilliance.  I know what I did for Michael and his family in putting him on the mound but I wonder if he knows what he did for me. 

Do you have a diamond in the rough on your team?  Is there a player or a teammate you’ve given up on?  Is there not one thing that he can contribute that is of value?  

LinemenInc registrations are due no later than June 1st.  That is just six weeks away!  The Long Beach camp is only nine weeks away and Stockton just ten!  It’s almost here, guys.