They are going into full pads now and hitting each other at High Schools across the county and Ventura High School is beginning their 9th season with Brad Steward at the helm.  He’s been there for 2 years before that as an assistant and he coached there from 1986 to 1992 as well.   When you cut coach Steward he bleeds black and gold. 

Coach Steward is in tune with the offensive lineman and he appreciates their athleticism and special nature.  Many players, including lineman, have gone on along with Tyler Ebell, the running back who is currently playing in the Canada Football League with the Toronto Argonauts.  Tyler had a huge offensive line in front of him at Ventura HS and “He was able to bring it behind that line and is appreciative of their efforts to this day in making him successful,” according to Steward. 

There’s a lot of hitting with Ventura teams and Coach Steward is happy with his job because he gets to see them playing with reckless abandon and growing up.  “This year we have a young group of offensive lineman, and we may have 5 juniors starting.  I’m   looking forward to designing a scheme around these guys that are maybe not the biggest but they are agile and we will spread people out and get the ball on the perimeter.  “We have all the assets in our package and we will bring in the system that works best with our personnel.”

“There’s always guys (Former players) rolling through and telling us to “Get em tough, coach”.  Our entire JV staff are former Cougars.  The players have a great experience at Ventura high and that is gratifying to see them look at their experience as a positive lesson for them from football and on to their successful parts of their lives.  Whether they are soldiers, businessmen or other professions, they see a great link to their experience at Ventura”.  

Coach Steward on the all-around athleticism of his players:  “I don’t know if all the guys surf,  but most of them do, they use skateboards to get around but it takes a little more, a special kid, to play the game of football because they have to hit people and do things that ordinary people don’t want to do.  It’s a great time hitting people and football players like that stuff.”

This year they have Keihan Gibbs, a 1200 yard thrower as a sophomore quarterback starting as a junior at Ventura High School.  He is the first sophomore to start every game at Ventura in a long team, maybe ever, so look for a great year from Keihan.  “A standout player on the JV team as a freshman, we figured he will be a great varsity player as a sophomore”, Steward states.

On multi-sport athletes and coaches in all sports: “All the coaches have been here for so long, it is a key to our success at Ventura.   Basketball Coach Dan Larsen and I have an outstanding relationship in terms of sharing athletes.  We talk so he can have his players when he needs them and I can have the players when I need them.  Multi-sport athletes at Ventura have a great time because of this relationship.  Our Athletic Director, Dave Hess, is also the offensive line coach and the defensive coordinator and the varsity track coach.”  They have won 4 Channel League track championships in a row and coach Steward recently became one of the assistant track coaches.  It helped the track team and it helped the football team as well in terms of speed and strength. 

Steward talks further about the Athletic Director: “Dave Hess played football at Crescenta Valley High School and was a pulling guard. He is a sought after speaker at clinics for his zone blocking schemes and is a great offensive line coach.”

On the importance of the offensive line: “When you have an awareness for the technical nature of the position, the team will be successful.  No more one on one every play as the players must be aware of 3 or 4 defensive players every play, that is the key to successfully moving the ball in today’s game.  Coach Hess starts speaking to the freshman and JV teams and starts the process of learning early.  The zone schemes give the kids a tool to handle the many blitz situations and they are big believers in the concept.  Look for Ventura HS to do great things this year in the Channel League.”

Fans in Ventura County get alot more out of the sport when they attend games and can see the angles, the hitting and the things no one else gets to see when they go to games.  It’s difficult even for the coaches to see the line because even the coaches want to see the ball and don’t watch the line all the time.  If you are a fan, watch those offensive lineman and as coach Steward indicates, the end zone is the best place to see the line. 

Every year the boosters at Ventura High School raise money to award scholarships to students to go on to the next level, and not always football players. What a great program for everyone in the community and to support the team and support all these programs, the scholarships, the band, the snack bar and the cheerleaders that are all part of the experience. 

If you are now convinced to see the game as a real fan, Ventura is having practices at night at Larrabee stadium on Wednesdays, under the lights.  So go over and watch coach Steward and his great staff teach the players to play the game the way it was meant to be played. 

 

By: Keith Gunther
What do Ray Anderson, Vice President of Football Operations, Jason Belser
Regional Director of the NFL Players Association and Roger Goodell NFL Commissioner have to do with high school football in Ventura?  They started the NFL website, www.usafootball.com, that offers great tips on how to get the most out of the game for the players. 
They have taken some of the greatest teachers in the country and published their work on the site.   David Jacobson of the Positive Coaching Alliance says it best: "Encourage your child to act with humility and compassion, as those traits enhance performance and show true leadership."
Talking with your high school or youth player can be the most important time to influence their experience in the game.  To make sure your athlete uses their time on the gridiron to grow into a successful adult requires de-emphasizing winning and emphasizing their experiences as part of the team.   When speaking to a youth football player after a game, listen more and get the youngster to talk about the game from his or her own perspective.  The goal is to get them to talk about the game the way they saw it, not for you to tell your child what he or she could have done differently.  
Conversation with your child about his or her youth sports experience is one of the single most important factors in the ability to learn life lessons from sports. Three principles that responsible sport parents can apply to their conversations with their children are:
An approach called ELM focuses on effort, learning and mistakes. When players give their best effort, learn along the way and realize that mistakes are not to be feared, they will perform their best, making them winners regardless of the outcome of a game.
Keep "Emotional Tanks" overflowing.  Fill the emotional tanks of youth athletes and like a car's gas tank, a full "emotional tank" can take us anywhere, but an empty tank will take us nowhere. Use the ratio of five specific, truthful praises for each correction.  Getting players to go all out in drills, conditioning and games calls for positive reinforcement.
Honor the game through the core elements: Rules, Officials, Opponents, Teammates and Self. Treat these elements with respect and players, coaches, parents and fans will all enjoy the football experience.
Begin to look for ways to enforce these principles with more informal "values demonstrations".  This means demonstrating the principles and values through actions. By taking those steps ourselves, we create an environment where others can follow.  When one parent walks across the bleachers to congratulate a parent of the opponent, it speaks volumes about the culture of the team. That shows individual leadership and a personal commitment to the culture of honoring the game, including opponents.  Culture is kept not just on the field, but in the stands as well - cheering for a great play made by an opponent for example.  Try sticking around for the Championship game after your team has been eliminated and cheer on the team that narrowly beat your team in a hard, well-fought game. Cheer for the coach because he or she needs praise as well.

It's not easy, but it's worth it. Education through sport can develop children of high character, who lead, persevere, overcome adversity and function as productive team members. Sports provide the ideal classroom for teaching life lessons and parents who demonstrate responsibility lead a good example for their children to follow.

 

Randi Hicks is an all around athlete from Rio Mesa High School that has excelled at Basketball and Volleyball at Ventura College while pursuing an amateur boxing career.  Then she found another calling in Track and Field and has the longest javelin throw in the state for a junior college athlete this year.  Randi will be representing Long Beach state in the javelin, hammer, shot put and discus this coming year and we sat down with her for this interview recently for the Breeze.  With all these activities she doesn’t stay at rest long so we were lucky to get her impressions of life in Ventura in between workouts and classes. 

20 years ago there were no Randi Hicks’ as women weren’t given these opportunities to do what they wanted and it is a tribute to her coaches that they recognized her unique skills and supported her in her boxing as well as the more traditional sports.  Foot speed, coordination and an aggressive attitude make her the quintessential female athlete and she is a fore runner for the female athletes of 2010 and beyond.  Well spoken and well mannered, Randi is a great example of the kind of person that will look you in the eye and show a caring side while still capable of knocking another woman out in the squared circle.  

Tall and athletic, Randi has a drive to achieve that LB State recognized, along with her Ventura College coaches, family and friends.  Is there anything she can’t do?  Apparently not as she balances disparate sports such as boxing and throwing in Track and still maintains an academic pursuit that will surely land her in a great career when she is done in sports.  That may be awhile as Randi intends to pursue her boxing career after her college career is over and the 2012 London Olympics could figure into the mix as well.

Not many men have entered the ring and in an era of mixed martial arts she is a throwback to the sweet science that is the most violent sport on the planet.  Why, you ask, does Randi go after gym time with gloves in a ring?  She does it for the competition, for the joy of competing.    Look for Randi to make national headlines as she pursues this incredible combination of sports.  Look for Randi to be the representative of Ventura County as she is discovered by the national media.  Our own Wonder Woman here in Ventura County, Randi competes to be a role model for younger girls and performs for all the right reasons.

Sparring against men at the Oxnard Police Activity League Gym in Oxnard with trainer Rocky Garza and Olympic weightlifting with her trainer, former Olympian Freddie Bradley, allows Randi to develop as an athlete and she credits her Ventura College throwing coach, Tom Lawrence, with motivating her to develop ability in the field events.  It’s a village that is helping Randi Hicks to become the best and it is a tribute to the coaches in Ventura County that athletes are achieving at her level as a result of their efforts.

Businesses and organizations large and small can be prepared to mitigate events that threaten their operations and people by creating a simple plan. This strategic plan should include a philosophy of teamwork and collaboration, leading to service excellence.

The National Response Plan (NRP) covers the full range of complex and constantly changing requirements in anticipation of or in response to threats or acts of terrorism, major disasters, and other emergencies. The NRP also provides the basis to initiate long-term community recovery and mitigation activities.

Private-sector owners and operators, particularly those who represent critical elements of infrastructure or key resources whose disruption may have national or major regional impact, are encouraged (or in some cases required under law) to develop appropriate emergency response and business continuity plans and information-sharing and incident-reporting protocols that are tailored to the unique requirements of their respective sector or industry, and that clearly map to regional, State, and local emergency response plans and information-sharing networks.

The NRP recognizes 8 areas of catastrophic potential:

16 Acts of God- earthquakes, fires, floods, lightning strikes, landslides, heat waves, storms, drought, cold waves, volcanic activity, tornadoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, cyclones, insect swarms

Biological Incidents-Pandemics-acts of God

Food and Agriculture Incidents-mad cow disease

Nuclear/Radiological Incidents

Oil and Hazardous Materials Incidents

Terrorism Incidents- bombings, kidnappings, armed attacks, assassinations, arsons, firebombings, hijacking

Cyber Incidents- form of terrorism

Civil unrest

Develop and publish detailed operational procedures. Identify appropriate assets and establish agreements and procedures for their rapid deployment. Designate representatives, develop appropriate training programs and make lists of organizations that will provide ping, power and pipe, appropriate cleaning and recovery services and any other activities required for resumption of normal business operations (NBO).

Eliminate any event that is unlikely for your areas, such as hurricanes on the West Coast.

Here’s a scenario of a prepared business continuance effort after a pandemic, H1N1 flu outbreak:

From the command center at IS West, the CEO’s home office, redundant systems and online backups insure that the organization continues operations during the catastrophic incident. International health rules require that all employees stay at their homes and that all physical businesses with the exception of those vital to health and safety, be closed. Maintaining client websites, producing contract work on time and providing a safe working environment for the team requires access to all applications and data from anywhere, through secure connections, to an offsite, colocated facility. VOIP programs insure communications remain active even if cell phones are overloaded and inoperable. Redundant Internet connections, cable, DSL and satellite, insures connectivity to the colocation and other team members remains active. IS West now becomes a resource for information on the pandemic and to reach others to assist the communities around the home based team members. Assisting thousands of clients in these same areas exhibits service excellence and connecting with pre-determined local disaster agencies such as police, emergency operations or Homeland security, assists in the business continuance efforts for individuals and organizations.

The DR plan for IS West includes data and applications backups to a centralized, hardened data center. Data and applications can be accessed from any laptop or PC from anywhere with an Internet connection, with the proper credentials.

Through their local IT services partners, Lanspeed and Ecotec, IS West is able to help themselves and others around them by providing what they do best, access to information and connecting people and organizations to help move forward during an incident. The services become more mission critical as the pandemic continues into weeks of inability to reach out to physical offices or to utilize transportation systems.

Steady-state preparedness or readiness activities conducted in the absence of a specific threat or hazard are essential to successful catastrophic incident response

Top priorities for incident management are to: Save lives and protect the health and safety of the public, responders, and recovery workers; Ensure security of the homeland; Prevent an imminent incident, including acts of terrorism, from occurring; Protect and restore critical infrastructure and key resources; Conduct law enforcement investigations to resolve the incident, apprehend the perpetrators, and collect and preserve evidence for prosecution and/or attribution; Protect property and mitigate damages and impacts to individuals, communities, and the environment; and facilitate recovery of individuals, families, businesses, governments, and the environment.

Private-sector organizations may be affected by direct or indirect consequences of the incident, including privately owned critical infrastructure, key resources, and those main private-sector organizations that are significant to local, regional, and national economic recovery from the incident. Examples of privately owned infrastructure include transportation, telecommunications, private utilities, financial institutions, and hospitals. Private-sector organizations provide response resources (donated or compensated) during an incident—including specialized teams, equipment, and advanced technologies —through local public-private emergency plans, mutual aid agreements, or incident specific requests from government and private-sector-volunteered initiatives.

Does your business have a service or product that could be used to help recovery after a catastrophic event? Fire Extinguisher or medical products or pharmaceutical companies can distribute their products on a reduced fee or free basis, with agreements reached prior to the incident with state and local officials.

As a member of the Department of Homeland Security Lessons Learned program, Ecotec can help your organization create an effective Incident Response Plan.

About IS West

ISWest offers enterprise class high speed Internet access, Server Colocation, Managed Server solutions, Web and Email Hosting, and a full range of Firewall/VPN security services to small and medium sized growing businesses in Southern California.

ISWest's core philosophy of "People Wrapped around Technology" creates a superior customer experience that powers our company's continued growth and success. We are a results-oriented organization known for providing "Non-Stop Internet, Non-Stop Support, Non-Stop People" through our dedicated employees and exceptional products and services, leading to total customer satisfaction, guaranteed. They can be reached at 877-735-1500, www.iswest.com face=Verdana size=2>

About Ecotec

Offering IT services in the Ventura County and Southern California area, Ecotec offers assessment services with certified IT professionals and has partnerships with the best of breed providers in the area. Call us at 805-491-0363 or visit our website at www.myecotec.com.

This Story was written by Vern and Keith Gunther and is a compendium of anectdotes and events occuring across our great country in the new mellenium.  Beware of the tell-tale signs of a circle in the back jeans pocket from the Copenhagen can, excessive politeness, obsessions with NASCAR, Bass fishing and wearing pants at waist height::

"I'm not sure where we went wrong," says Ellen McCormack, nervously fondling the recycled paper cup holding her organic Kona soy latte. "It seems like only yesterday Rain was a carefree little boy at the Montessori school, playing non-competitive musical chairs with the other children and his care facilitators."

 

"But now..." she pauses, staring out the window of her postmodern Palo Alto home. The words are hesitant, measured, bearing a tale of family heartbreak almost too painful for her to recount. "But now, Rain insists that I call him Bobby Ray."

 

Even as her voice is choked with emotion, she summons an inner courage -- a mother's courage -- and leads me down the hall to "Bobby Ray's" bedroom, for a firsthand glimpse at the psychic devastation that claimed her son.

 

She opens the door to a reveal a riot of George Jones CDs, reflective 'mudflap mama' stickers, empty foil packs of Red Man, and U.S. Marine recruiting posters. In the middle of the room: a makeshift table made from a utility cable spool, bearing the remains of a gutted catfish.

 

"This used to be all Ikea," she says, rocking on heels between heaved sobs. "It's too late for us. Maybe it's not too late for me to warn others."

 

Pandora's Moon Pie Box

 

While poignant, Ellen McCormack's painful battle to save her son is far from isolated. Across coastal America, increasing numbers of families are discovering that their children have been lured into "Cracker" culture -- a new, freewheeling underground youth movement that celebrates the hedonistic thrills of frog-gigging and outlaw modified sprint cars. No one knows their exact number, but sociologists say that the movement is exploding among young people in America's most fashionable zip codes.

 

"We first detected it a few years ago, with the emergence of the trucker hat phenomenon," says Gerard Levin, professor of abnormal sociology at the Stanford University. "At first we thought it was some sort of benign, ironic strain. By the time we realized the early wearers really were interested in seed corn hybrids and Peterbilts, it had already escaped containment."

 

Levin points to 'Patient Zero,' who in 1997 was a 23-year old graduate student in Gender Studies at San Francisco State

 

"During a cross-country trip to New York, he stopped at the Iowa 80 Truck Stop in Walcott, Iowa, and bought a John Deere gimme cap as a gag souvenir," says Levin. "Within a year, he had dropped out of graduate school, abandoned his SoMa apartment, and was working at a drive-thru liquor store. Today he is a wealthy televangelist in Bossier City, Louisiana."

 

The contagion of 'Patient Zero' would prove devastating. Soon trucker hats were appearing throughout trendy coastal neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Park Slope and Portrero Hill, often accessorized with chain wallets and 'wife beater' t-shirts. A new alternative youth movement had emerged, rejecting the staid norms of establishment NPR society and embracing the 'tune-in, turn-on, chug-up' ethos of the Pabst Blue Ribbon underground. Before long, it would broadcast its siren call to an even younger generation -- one whose parents were woefully unequipped to recognize it.

 

Youthquake

 

"It was one day last spring," says Ellen McCormack. "My life partner Carol and I were in the garage, working on a giant Donald Rumsfeld papier mache head for the Bay Area March Against the War, when Rain walked by. I thought he looked kind of strange, so I stopped him and looked closely into his eyes. Then I realized the truth -- he was wearing a mullet. I was shocked, but he swore to me that it was only ironic."

 

"After a few months, it was clear Rain had lied to us -- that hideous Kentucky waterfall was completely earnest," she adds, choking back sobs. Her 18-year old son would soon exhibit other signs of disturbing changes.

 

"I was driving past a McDonalds one day last summer, and I thought I saw Rain's bike outside. He had told me earlier that he was going to a friend's house to stuff envelopes for the Dennis Kucinich campaign. I pulled a U-turn and headed back," she recalls. "When I confronted him in the parking lot, he started giving me a lame story about how he was only there to protest globalization, but I could smell the french fries on his breath."

 

McCormack says that Rain's erratic behavior would also come to include excessive politeness and deference.

 

"Everytime I tried to talk to him it was 'yes Mom,' and 'no Mom,' when he knows damn well my name is Ellen," she says, anger rising in her voice. "It was like I didn't even know him anymore."

 

McCormack tried an intervention with friends from the Anti-war community, but to no avail. In October, Bobby Ray packed up his Monte Carlo and left for basic training at Camp Pendleton.

 

"I have no son," she says in a barely audible whisper.

 

Across the country, in toney Westchester County, New York, Jim and Sandy Vandenberg describe a similar tale of family grief.

 

"We are people of faith who keep the sabbath," says Sandy, a curator in the Dada collection of the New York Museum of Art. "Even when she was a toddler, we made sure Emily got up early every Sunday morning to read the New York Times Book Review. Sunday morning was our time, until..."

 

"Until those damned Jesus bastards stole my little girl," interrupts her husband, barely containing his anger. Once a Freshman honors student in Lacanian Deconstruction Theory at NYU, their daughter is now better known as Lurleen McDaniel -- reigning Princess of the Tulsa Livestock Show and Rodeo.

 

In Bainbridge Island, Washington, single mom Jane Michelson says she began suspecting that her son Brian was in trouble after he started hanging with a new crowd at school.

 

"These weren't normal kids, neighborhood kids in Che t-shirts who want to drop a couple of hits of X and chill on Radiohead," she says. "They would talk in a sort of strange code language, like 'Roll Tide!' and 'Gig 'em Ags!' and 'Piiiig Sooieeee!'"

 

Signs of trouble would soon multiply.

 

"One day I got into my Volvo and hit the stereo preset for Pacifica Radio, and then I heard this obscene 'Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy' song coming from the speakers," she recalls. "The very next week, the maid found a tin of Skoal in his Wranglers. I told him right then -- it was either me, or his tobacco-spitting friends."

 

Now known as Randy Dale Cash, her estranged son is a starting linebacker for Montana State in Bozeman.

 

Peer Pressure

 

Jane Michelson is not alone in her story. Throughout coastal America, school adminstrators and parents are reporting an alarming surge in 'Cracker' cliques on campus. Also known as 'Y'alls' or 'Neckies,' officials say the groups thrive by attracting outcasts and misfits from the student body.

 

"We try hard to engage all of our students in fun, healthy activities like Progressive Eco-Action March and Rage Against Intolerance Week," says Lawrence DiBenedetto of Patrice Lumumba Magnet School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Unfortunately, there are going to be those who fall through the cracks, into a life of bass fishing and stockcar racing."

 

It appears those cracks are widening. In one recent three-week period, fourteen high school students in Portland, Oregon were suspended for distributing pork rinds; a Burlington, Vermont high school was briefly closed for decontamination after janitors found a bible hidden in a restroom; and forty-six undergraduate coeds at Swarthmore were expelled for staging clandestine Mary Kay cosmetics parties.

 

"We became suspicious after several heavily made-up students arrived at a Katha Pollitt lecture in a pink Cadillacs," says Swarthmore Dean of Students Geraldine Marcus.

 

Some say the craze threatens even the nation's most exclusive prep schools. At Exeter, Andover and St. Albans, rumors abound of secret societies where initiates are steeped in the black arts of restrictor plate cheating and satellite descramblers. Washington's elite Georgetown Univeristy was nearly forced to close after scandalized parents learned that several students were openly touting Sams Club cards.

 

To better understand what attracts young affluent students to the subculture, I spent a recent evening interviewing a group of self-described 'Neckies' from exclusive Cates School in Winnetka, Illinois. Like countless other Friday nights, the close-knit group had made the 80 mile ritual journey to rural Belvidere, Illinois, to cruise Steak 'N' Shake and hang out at the Mills Fleet Farm parking lot.

 

"Y'all, check out these new mudders," says 17-year old 'Dakota,' proudly displaying the gigantic knobbed tires under his radically lifted 4x4 Audi Allroad. "I'm fixin' to get me a winch and Tuffbox fer it next week."

 

Not to be outdone, friend and fellow Neckie 'Duane' sounds 'Dixie' on the novelty horn of his jacked-up BMW M3. An early graduation gift from his parents, Duane has turned the expensive German coupe into an homage to the Dukes of Hazzard's General Lee, complete with orange Stars-and-Bars paint job and spit cup on the console.

 

"Grandma gave me some money fer a summer study trip over ta Paris, but I thought the paint job was cooler," laughs Duane. "Hell, she thinks I'm over in the Sorbonne right now, studying Foucault and all that shit."

 

"I'm a-fixin' to put in a nitrous system on the General Lee, so I'ma call Grandma up and aks her for some book money," he adds.

 

Like most of their classmates, these North Shore Neckies were once bound for some of the top universities in America -- Yale, Duke, Stanford, Northwestern -- until they succumbed to the allure of the Downhome slacker lifestyle. Now some openly talk of dropping out, learning TIG welding, waiting tables at Waffle House or draining oil at Jiffy Lube; some even hint of enrolling at Oregon State University.  What drives privileged teens to such seemingly self-destructive behavior?

 

"I guess you might could say we're rebels," says Rachel 'Tyffanie' Stern, 17, lighting a Merit Menthol 100. Once destined for Vassar, Stern is now living with friends after her parents kicked her out of the house for spending her bat mitzvah money on a bass boat. Last month she became the youngest Jewish female to win an event on the Bassmasters Pro Tour.

 

Pausing for furtive glances, several of the teens share sniffs from a bottle of Harmon Triple Heat deer scent.

 

"Wooo-eee, shit howdy, that's gonna bring a mess of them whitetail bucks," says 19-year old Wei-Li 'Lamar' Cheung. A former Westinghouse Science Award winner, Cheung has devoted his chemistry and biology skill to building a fledgling hunting supply business.

 

A first generation Asian-American, Cheung says he was drawn to the group by their acceptance of minorities. "Hell, I kept tellin' all my family and teachers I wanna play fiddle, not violin," he explains. "The 'Necks accept me the way I am."

 

African-American Kwame 'Joe Don' Harris agrees. "Just because I'm black, teachers were always pushing me to go to Spellman to study Langston Hughes and Thelonius Monk," says the 17 year old. "These ol' boys here never laugh at my dream to be a crew chief for the Craftsman Truck Series."

 

If there is one aspiration that unites them all, it is the dream of moving to Branson, Missouri. Long famed for its laid-back attitude toward religion, country music and the military, Branson has become a Mecca for radical young Neckies seeking an escape from the stultifying conformity of their coastal hometowns.

 

"Heck, y'all, I heard Branson's got like four Wal Marts, and more $5.95 all-day breakfast buffets than Glencoe has Starbucks," enthuses Dakota, adding quickly that "pardon my French. Plus it's only a short drive up to Fort Leonard Wood," adds Tyffanie.

 

Talk arises of Branson's 'Summer of Bubba,' the upcoming hedonistic hillbilly festival of music, hog calling and nightcrawler gathering expected to draw millions of Neckies from as far as Santa Monica and Ithaca -- even Europe.

 

"Y'all, I heard them Swedish 'Necks are hardcore," says Joe Don. "They digitally remastered all the original Jerry Clower albums."

 

A live-for-today attitude permeates the group's ethos, with little concern about consequences. I ask Justin 'Jim Rob' Borowski, 18, what motivates young men and women to abandon promising academic careers in Gender Theory and Critical History to take a wild ride in the dark world of roofing and drywall contracting.

 

"My daddy was sorta mad when I tolt him I was gonna skip Columbia Journalism School for a plumbing apprenticeship," he answered philosophically, popping a plug of Red Man into his lip. "I tolt him that journalism is important, but the world needs plumbers too."

 

"After the toilet backed up, I think he got my point."

What a great recounting of Coach  Marv's influence on a young Water Polo player at Pepperdine.  Motivating without shouting, getting the best out of people everywhere he goes, we appreciate having Coach on our show!

Keith Gunther

I sat down at my desk the other day, looked at my calendar, and realized that I only have 20 days of school left. Twenty more days of living in a dorm, 480 more hours of eating caf food, 28,800 minutes left to do all the goofing off I’ve been meaning to do my first four years at Pepperdine. Kind of scary really. I mean, it only feels like yesterday that I came in here with eyes as big as dinner plates and wild ambitions to take over the collegiate water polo scene. How quickly things change.

I’ll stand at the graduation platform, four years and three sports later, two inches taller and five pounds heavier. But appearance and athletics don’t leave the lasting impression that my memories do. I’ll give you a minute to get a tissue, ‘cause you’re going to need it by the end of this one. It’s my final article and I’m going to milk it for all it’s worth.

I’ve played sports every day for my entire life since I was 5 years old. From tee-ball to high school water polo, PAL soccer to club lacrosse, I’ve seen teammates break world records, watched friends crumble at crunch time and cried my eyes out when I lost the big game. Competition has driven me my entire life.

So now that I’ve been all over this school, what do I do? I don’t have a job and I don’t know what I want to do. My instincts would tell me to learn to surf or at least learn to skate better. But that’s not always the best course, I’ve learned. Life is lived through the heart, my friends.

My volleyball coach, Marv Dunphy, took me aside at the beginning of the season and he asked me if I knew why I was on the team. “Umm, to shag balls?” I replied. “No,” he said. “You’re here to make these guys tough.”

I was confused -- I didn’t know what he meant. I mean, I’ll be perfectly honest with all of you: I’m not good at volleyball. I played one year in high school and this is my first season playing at Pepperdine. I’m not exactly thriving off a wealth of experience that my teammates have. But you know what? It doesn’t matter. I know that when I go to practice each day and lace up my shoes, I’m a member of the No. 1 team in the nation. I may never see the court again, but I know that I played once, and I helped us win.

I joke with the other guys on the bench that us B-teamers are really the guys who run the team because we control the pace of practice. We shag all the balls, feed the players and if we weren’t there, practice would never get done. So in essence, I feel somewhat responsible for a small part of our success.

But back to my point. I take pride in the fact that I have made an impact on this school and especially on this team. I work hard at what I do even if it’s shagging balls for the rest of year, but I’ll tell you this. Nobody in the nation shags volleyballs better than I do. And that’s all you need to do in life. Do something and do it well.

I’ll close with this. At 6-2, I’m the second shortest player on the team and I definitely realize it when I’m on the court, standing next to my teammates. After practice was over one day, Marv came up and asked me how tall I was. “Eh, I’m 6-1, 6-2,” I said. “That’s OK,” he replied. “You’re a bigger man than me …” Thanks, coach.

Submitted April 04, 2002

One subject that there is a ton of stuff that I could talk about but it is either very specific to me or I don't want to give all my secrets away is of course weight lifting. Stuff that Phil and I are doing in the weight room really is very specific to our weaknesses and what our schedule is like. I get a lot of people asking me for tips on how they should lift or what lifts they should do. Certainly I can give basic principles and lifts but what works for me may not work for you. I have weaknesses that need to be addressed and are done so in the weight room. If I told someone this is what I am doing, they might not be addressing what their weaknesses are and therefore will probably not get out of the workout what I am getting out of the workout. For reference, Phil and I do a similar workout but not the same. He does some exercises that I do not need to do and vice versa. << MORE >>

Now is not the time for serious baseball -- for young fireballers like Scott Kazmir and David Price or power-hitting rookie of the year front-runners like Evan Longoria. We don't require amazing displays of power or speedy baserunning or Joe Maddon's aggressive, balls-to-the-wall style of managing. No, in this moment of myriad catastrophes, when all Americans could use something uproarious to numb the misery, I demand the return of laughable, old-fashioned Tampa Bay Devil Rays baseball.<< MORE >>

Men: The new misfits Are guys cut out for the womanized workplace of the 21st century? In an excerpt from a new book, The Decline of Men, the author explores why many males are tuning out and giving up. By Guy Garcia Last Updated: October 8, 2008: 5:18 PM ET (Fortune Magazine) -- The mood in the ballroom at Cipriani Wall Street was exultant as several hundred influential New Yorkers gathered last year at the Women Who Make a Difference gala to benefit the National Council for Research on Women. Dina Dublon, a PepsiCo board member and former CFO of J.P. Morgan Chase, introduced one of the evening's honorees, PepsiCo chairman Steve Reinemund, who was about to hand over his post to his chosen successor, Indra Nooyi. In her remarks, Dublon noted that Reinemund was the first man ever to receive an award from the group, adding that he was "part of our No Man Left Behind program." The mostly female audience laughed appreciatively, but the truth behind the jest stirred conversation. The suddenly pensive diners traded stories about men they knew who had lost their jobs or their marriages or both, and were now basically idle, taking up golf or the piano, writing that novel, doing nothing. The women spoke about brothers, sons, nephews, and husbands. "It's weird how everyone has a story like this," remarked a woman officer from a Fortune 1,000 company. "There's definitely something going on." What's going on is a conundrum with economic and cultural ramifications for both men and women. From the classroom to the boardroom, American men are losing ground. It affects affluent white men in the heartland and young immigrants in the Southwest, computer nerds and family guys. To some extent it's the inevitable result of greater competition from women - as barriers have fallen, women have achieved according to their potential. But it raises a critical question: If the playing field is level, why are so many men tripping up and dropping out? Why have they failed to keep up not only with women but with the higher competitive standards of the global marketplace? That failure is not just eroding the ability of men to earn a living and become contributing members of society but also undermining the very definition of what it means to be a man. No wonder that cable reality shows like Ice Road Truckers and Deadliest Catch, which glorify men who do dangerous, physically demanding jobs, have struck a nostalgic chord in the zeitgeist. America's gender divide starts in elementary school and progresses through college, where women now earn 60% of all degrees (51% of the total U.S. population is female). On American college campuses, women now outnumber men by more than two million. "Women have been making educational progress, and men are stuck," Tom Mortenson, senior scholar for the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, told the Associated Press. "They haven't just fallen behind women. They have fallen behind changes in the job market." Those changes tend to favor women, whose innate networking and social skills often give them an edge in the service industry, now the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. economy. In corporate America the cycle has accelerated because women tend to know their customers: other women. The ability of women consumers to make or break a brand is being felt in industries from publishing to health care. Women, armed with advanced degrees and expanding spending power, are increasingly seen as the decision-makers in housing, autos, and technology. And that power is showing up in paychecks. While women on average still earn less than men, the gap in some areas has reversed itself. A study by the Citizens Union Foundation calculated that females between the ages of 21 and 30 earned 117% of male wages in the same age group; U.S. Census figures confirm that women in their 20s already make more than their male counterparts in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis, and Dallas. As many women's earnings have soared, incomes for men, including those with college degrees, have stalled or declined. Ronald Mincy, a professor of social policy at Columbia University, has spent a decade tracking what he considers a very ominous number. "We've seen no growth in the average hourly earnings of men in 25 years - and that is the biggest, most glaring statistic because as the earnings of men go, so go the fortunes of men," he observes. One consequence could be a painful impact on family life. A pillar of male identity is the ability to work - to earn money and social status to help support a wife and family. "If you're a man," says Mincy, "you can't play house if you're not making enough money at your job." Most disturbing of all, perhaps, is the drift of able-bodied unemployed men of all ages who are dropping out of the workforce altogether. Among American men in their prime working years - between the ages of 30 and 55 - 13% are not working, up from 5% during the 1960s, according to the New York Times. Most of those men, who number about four million, are former blue-collar workers who have been displaced. But a growing number are college-educated professionals in their 30s and 40s who have been out of a job for years. While it's been widely noted that women have innate skills that help them thrive in an organization - communication, multitasking, collaboration - what's less well-known is how this extends to global competition. Geert Hofstede, a Dutch psychologist who worked at IBM and now consults at major corporations, has profiled national cultures according to key values, including masculinity. On that index the U.S. scores relatively high at 62, compared with countries like Sweden (5) and Norway (8), but lower than Japan, which has the highest masculinity index in the world at 95. For Christopher Liechty, a design and marketing executive based in Salt Lake City, "Masculine is primarily competitive and prestige-oriented; feminine is primarily nurturing, caring, but that means egalitarianism. Women are more consensus-building." Liechty notes that when national gender values are overlaid onto corporations, many of those with the most "feminine" traits, including Scandinavian companies like Nokia (NOK), IKEA, Lego, and Volvo, have an inclusive brand identity that often gives them an edge in today's global - and increasingly feminine - markets. The world, it turns out, may be curved after all. Help for struggling U.S. males will have to take many forms, starting with school. But one way for men to help themselves is to take a few pages from the female playbook: less hierarchy, more networking; less aggression, more consensus. Not all men are swimming against the tide. "Women are playing a bigger role, but I think it's a good thing," says an affable, 34-year-old software designer in the Washington, D.C., area, who says he has no problems working for a woman (but didn't want his name used). "Change is difficult, though, and some guys will have an identity crisis." To put it in bluntly male terms, those who fail to adapt may find their next position is at the end of an unemployment line. Adapted from The Decline of Men by Guy Garcia, to be published in October by Harper. Copyright © 2008 by Guy Garcia. First Published: September 29, 2008: 7:02 AM ET

If you are wondering what happened to the masculine society we have the answer.  Women are going beyond "Desperate Housewives" into the boardrooms, playing fields and broadcast studios of America and the world.  This new world order is fantastic for men that understand the rules of the game.  Would you rather work with an intelligent, athletic woman or an intelligent, athletic man?  If your answer is both, you are headed down the right track.  Coaching young men or women is the same.  30 years ago, before title 9 gave women the same opportunities for athletic scholarships as men, women had to be taught to be aggressive in sports.  Years of conditioning had told women that winning and aggressive sports behavior was inappropriate as was sweating.  30 years later, perhaps the US women's soccer player ripping off her jersey and dropping to her knees, fists clenched, in her sports bra, celebrating her team's victory, is the epitome of the modern, successful woman.  We have created a new subdomain of life where everybody can put on the "Big boy pants" and move forward.  This is about getting over the change and living in the new world order where everyone is equal, regardless of race, color, creed or sex.  Economic ramifications are more competition in the workplace, just like more competition in the athletic arena.  Try playing one on one with a division 1 female basketball player.  You will probably lose unless you are 6'8" and a mad skills baller.  Try going one on one with a Fortune 500 female CEO.  Unless you are Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, you will probably get schooled.  Fortunately, the new world order lets us team with these great people.  No need to butt heads, we can find joint solutions and move forward, together.  If you have to compete with a woman for the same job, be assured she will be every bit as tough as a man to beat so you might want to think about a solution where you both win.  The US was built on competition and our continued growth and success are guaranteed by allowing everyone to compete.  Computer scientists from India and China coming in to the US to take high paying jobs?  Bring it on, men and women, because when you make that team it means you are a better computer scientist as well.  Football players from Samoa and the Ukraine with 500 pound bench presses and sub 5.0 second 40 yard dashes?  Bring them on because when you make that team it means you are a better player as well.  Celebrate our new strength and congratulate those you meet that are working to get better.  Because, as Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno, says; "You are either getting better or you are getting worse". We look forward to hearing from you on our shows and our blogs, on how you are doing in the "No man left behind" program!