The good, bad, ugly and humorous from the week in sports

What an amazing and inspiring story. If you're a coach, this should be why you are in the business. This has to be worth more than any amount of trophies and ribbons and accolades. Making this kind of a difference. AWESOME STORY!!! This story highlights all that is good in the youth sports arena.

From Tampabay.com
http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article1172792.ece

DeWalt is proud that Ladarious came within 13 positions of being in the top half of the 310 graduates at Gulf High. "It just speaks to his determination,'' the coach said, "but also to the power of athletics. Without wrestling, he wouldn't be here. Sports is the greatest dropout prevention program we have in school.''

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Then there's the bad news.

This puts winning and losing a baseball game in perspective and is a story that we never want to see minimized just because it happens relatively infrequently.

From Hardballtalk.com
13-year-old dies after getting hit by pitch
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/03/13-year-old-dies-after-getting-hit-by-pitch/

13-year-old Little Leaguer Hayden Walton, from Winslow, AZ, was killed Tuesday when a baseball hit him in the chest as he was attempting to bunt.

“He took an inside pitch right in the chest,” Winslow Little League official Jamey Jones said. “After that he took two steps to first base and collapsed.”

He died Wednesday morning at a local hospital. Paramedics said the cause was commotio cordis. His heart stopped after he was hit by the pitch.

Coaches would do well to spend some practice time teaching kids how to protect themselves in the batters box when squaring to bunt or when faced with the occasional inside pitch. Many young kids turn into the pitch instead of away. In most cases, the kid is better off getting hit in the backside rather than the front. When they expose the face and chest to the pitch, invariably they "freeze" and cannot protect themselves.

A side benefit is that, once kids are more comfortable in knowing they can better protect themselves from errant missiles, they become better hitters. The "fear" factor is lessened and they can hit relaxed rather than tensed.

More on commotio cordis from Wikipedia.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotio_cordis

Commotio cordis (Latin, "agitation of the heart") is a disruption of heart rhythm that occurs as a result of a blow to the area directly over the heart (the precordial region), at a critical time during the cycle of a heart beat. It is a form of ventricular fibrillation, not mechanical damage to the heart muscle or surrounding organs, and not the result of heart disease. The fatality rate is about 65%. It can sometimes, but not always, be reversed by defibrillation.[1]

Commotio cordis occurs mostly in boys and young men (average age 15), usually during sports, most often baseball, often despite a chest protector. It is most often caused by a projectile, but can also be caused by the blow of an elbow or other body part. Being less developed, the thorax of an adolescent is likely more prone to this injury given the circumstances.

And more from medscape.com

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/730549_3

Commotio Cordis

Commotio cordis is defined as sudden death or aborted sudden death secondary to a chest wall impact. This phenomenon is reported in 10–20 individuals a year. Nearly all are male and the mean age is 14 years.[32,33] Individuals in competitive sports account for nearly 60% of cases and impact always occurs over the left chest. Nearly one-third of those in competitive sports were wearing a chest protector. Resuscitation is possible with rapid cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation.

An animal model has shown that the timing of the impact relative to the cardiac cycle is perhaps the most important variable of commotio cordis[34] followed by location of impact,[35] hardness of the impact object,[36] and energy of the impact object (Fig. 2).[37] Commercially available chest wall protection does not appear to be prevent commotio cordis.[38]

Figure 2.
Variables and proposed mechanism of commotio cordis. In the animal model several variables of commotio cordis have been described and include characteristics of the impact object such as shape, hardness, diameter, velocity of the impact. Timing and location of the impact are perhaps the two most important variables accounting for the rarity of commotio cordis. In addition, cellular determinants of commotio cordis are just beginning to be understood; cell membrane stretch likely leads to ion channel activation which increases the dispersion of repolarization and providing the substrate for ventricular fibrillation to occur An appropriately timed ventricular contraction caused by the impact leads to ventricular fibrillation.




Commotio cordis is thought to occur when a chest strike causes both altered dispersion of repolarization and a ventricular depolarization trigger.[32,39–41] The altered dispersion of repolarization is likely secondary to alterations in current flow. Thus far, the KATP channel, normally closed but opened by myocardial ischemia with resultant increased K flow during repolarization, has been shown to be involved in commotio cordis.[42]

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And of course, the ugly side is on display as well.

From Foxsports.com
Report: Violence erupts at hoops tourney

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/Players-attack-parents-as-San-Fernando-Valley-teams-brawl-at-San-Diego-youth-basketball-tourney-053111

Players attacked parents and each other when a Memorial Day youth basketball tournament erupted in violence that left one player hospitalized and another arrested on assault charges.

Police were called to San Diego's Mira Mesa High on Monday when teams from Southern California's San Fernando Valley began brawling at the end of their game, according to NBC San Diego. The tournament featured varsity, JV and traveling teams.


FANS GONE WILD
Some people just can't enjoy a game without getting involved. Here are a few unruly spectators.

The semifinal game between the Rising Stars of San Fernando Valley and the Granada Hills Eagles had been so rough that referees ended it a minute early. Parents and spectators exchanged words and taunted players on the court, according to officers, then things got violent when a coach confronted parents who allegedly used a racial slur. A fight broke out involving at least 15 people.

"Within about 20 seconds, almost the entire Eagles team ran over to the stands and started attacking one of the Rising Stars parents," witness Stuart Schneider told NBC San Diego.

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And finally, the humorous side of baseball.

Apparently, Aubrey Huff's wife is quite the budding young hitting coach. Or maybe it's just a matter of Aubrey knowing well the theory of "when momma is happy, every body's happy" (Happy wife, happy life). Atta boy, Aubrey.

From the San Jose Mercury News:
Aubrey Huff hits three home runs as San Francisco Giants win 12-7
By Andrew Baggarly

http://www.mercurynews.com/giants/ci_18195781?nclick_check=1

The timing couldn't have been better -- for the team, for Huff and for his better half, too.

"My wife, Baubi, it's her birthday today," Huff said. "She wanted me to hit her a home run. I hit three. That's Brownie points."

It was Mrs. Huff who first convinced him to purchase the Rally Thong last year, and everyone knows how that played out. But it took more than magic underwear for Huff to break out of a two-month slump that dragged down the lowest scoring lineup in the National League.

It took hitting the mental reset button.

My early season front-runner for Coach of the Year - Tom Walter

A great demonstration of a coach who doesn't just "talk the talk" about a team becoming a family or sacrifice. This guy "walks the walk" in a way that shows he has a true understanding of the concept of the servant-leader. It's easy for coaches to call for sacrifice in the name of team unity when the direction of the sacrifice is moving from others and towards enriching them. This coach stood tall when the equation was flipped in reverse.

According to the founder of the concept of servant leadership, Robert K. Greenleaf, a servant leader makes sure the highest priority needs of others are being met, which leads them to become "healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants. The goal of servant leadership is to serve others. You change yourself and then you change one person at a time. And the movement grows. The change you desire to see in the world begins with yourself. Coach Walter definitely fits the mold with his actions.

A truly remarkable story. I believe either the coach or one of the players parents referred to the circumstances that led to this as "divine intervention". Amen to that.

The most discouraging part of the story and evidence that the NCAA is an out of control bureaucracy is that the Wake Forest athletic department felt compelled to check-in and make sure that this selfless, benevolent act was in violation of the NCAA's rules regarding extra benefits to athletes.

Something is rotten in college sports in general and that organization in particular when an act like this could even remotely be considered questionable while at the same time it takes them years and years to see the wrongdoing surrounding athletes like Reggie Bush and (S)Cam Newton.

http://sportscasm.com/2011/02/10/wake-forest-coach-donates-own-kidney-to-one-of-his-players/

Coaches are often to do whatever it takes for their players. These kids are often like the coach’s own children. They not only see the kids as athletes, but as young people who need to be mentored and pointed in all the right directions.

Sometimes, however, coaches go above and beyond what anyone would expect. Such is the story of Wake Forest Baseball coach, Tom Walter, who gave one of his players his own kidney.
Wake Forest’s slogan for the baseball team in 2011 is “What are you willing to sacrifice to help make this team better?”Head coach Tom Walter’s intent was to have his players thinking about sacrifice bunts, moving runners over, and giving up personal glory to help the Demon Deacons improve as a team.

But what Walter chose to sacrifice is greater than simply hanging in on a curve ball and taking one for the team.

Walter gave up a kidney.

In a procedure performed Monday (Feb. 7) at the Emory Transplant Center in Atlanta, Walter had one of his kidneys removed and donated to Kevin Jordan, a freshman member of the Wake Forest baseball team.

Jordan suffers from ANCA vasculitis, a type of autoimmune swelling caused by autoantibodies. The immune system produces normal antibodies to fight infection in the body. However, an autoantibody is an abnormal antibody that attacks a person’s own cells. ANCA stands for Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Autoantibody and when these autoantibodies are present in the kidneys, it causes a leaking of blood and protein into the urine and eventually results in kidney failure.
Dr. Kenneth Newell, the lead surgeon on the team that removed Walter’s kidney, was pleased with the procedures.

“Both surgeries went very well,” said Dr. Newell. “We are pleased with how each patient is progressing. We expect each will recover fully.”

Wake Forest actually took to time to find out if the donation would have been considered an NCAA violation – a gift from a Wake Forest employee. Todd Hairston, associate athletic director in charge of compliance did some research. But it looks like the NCAA is willing to bend the rules on this one Deadspin reports:

MARCH CANDIDATE(S) FOR COACH OF THE YEAR

I had a really tough time with this one with two great candidates. But the solution was easy, co-winners.

FROM MARCH MADNESS TO FILLING SANDBAGS IN FARGO N.D.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/25/sports/BKC-Tim-Dahlberg-032509.php

1st Candidate: Coach Saul Phillips, North Dakota State basketball coach.

Thousands of people from all walks of life, many of them with vivid memories of the disastrous 1997 floods, are racing around the clock to keep the city dry. With school canceled, students are stacking sandbags, while others are taking time off from work to do what they can to help.

Working right alongside them, shovel for shovel, are coach Saul Phillips and the Bison basketball team.

The coaches quote at the end of the story says it all and transcends wins and losses.

"If this is our country's future," Phillips said, "then we're in awfully good shape."

We hear a lot about spoiled, self indulgent, self centered athletes at this level and beyond.

We hear a lot about the missteps and mistakes that go with competing in this type of high stakes, big money atmosphere.

We generally do not hear enough about kids like this, doing things like this. Humble service to their community in its time of need.

The North Dakota State fans provided support to he team in its time of need and the players are now able to return the favor. They will learn more and gain more value out of the work they are doing at home than they could have learned if they were still playing in the tournament.

Great job Coach Phillips.
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KANELAND H.S.(IL) BASEBALL HONORS TEAMMATE:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=281987

PHOTO GALLERY FROM DAILY HERALD:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=281983

2nd Candidate: Brian Aversa, Kaneland High School, baseball coach

The sun made an appearance in Maple Park only moments after the Kaneland baseball team honored a fallen son.

"It didn't feel whole out there today," Kaneland coach Brian Aversa said. "We felt like we were missing something."

After a pre-game ceremony in which the Knights retired the No. 41 jersey of Jeff Malewig, Kaneland put on a near-flawless performance against visiting Burlington Central Thursday afternoon.

Jeff Smith and Steve Colombe combined on a 3-hit shutout as the Knights opened the season with a 6-0 victory over the Rockets.

Malewig and fellow senior Blake Denton were killed in car accident last December while on the way to school.

Malewig would have been the starting second baseman for the Knights this spring, and one of many tributes to his memory was the team vacating his position in the top of the first inning.

From my experience as a coach I know that many times you get tunnel vision and so immersed in wins and losses and competing for championships that you forget what is really important in life. The Kaneland baseball family suffered a loss greater than any they will suffer from an opponent this year: the loss of a player.

Kudos to Coach Aversa for allowing his players and school to take the time to honor and remember their teammate.
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So now there are four:

So here we go, the early candidates for Coach of the Year:
January - JEREMY CIVELLO, DALLAS ACADEMY (TX) HS
February - DAVE ROHLMAN, DEKALB (IL) HS
March - SAUL PHILLIPS, NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY
March - BRIAN AVERSA, KANELAND (IL) HS

MY SECOND CANDIDATE FOR COACH OF THE YEAR

Dakalb (IL) HS coach Dave Rohlman now becomes February's candidate for Coach of the Year after demonstrating that he gets it. That being a coach is about more than wins and losses. It once again demonstrates the power of sports to offer opportunities to teach important life lessons that transfer beyond the field of play. We need more coaches like Coach Rohlman that are able to recognize those opportunities and have the strength of character to do the right thing.

So here we go, the early candidates for Coach of the Year:
January - JEREMY CIVELLO, DALLAS ACADEMY (TX)
February - DAVE ROHLMAN, DEKALB (IL) HS
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http://sports.espn.go.com/highschool/rise/basketball/boys/news/story?id=3914375

Two missed free throws, ordinarily the cause of a coach's headache, became the symbol of sportsmanship in a Milwaukee boys' basketball game earlier this month.

Milwaukee Madison senior Johntell Franklin, who lost his mother, Carlitha, to cancer on Saturday, Feb. 7, decided he wanted to play in that night's game against DeKalb (Ill.) High School after previously indicating he would sit out.

He arrived at the gym in the second quarter, but Franklin's name was not in the scorebook because his coach, Aaron Womack Jr., didn't expect him to be there.

Rules dictated Womack would have to be assessed a technical, but he was prepared to put Franklin in the game anyway. DeKalb coach Dave Rohlman and his players knew of the situation, and told the referees they did not want the call.

(click link to read the rest of the story)

MY EARLY CANDIDATE FOR COACH OF THE YEAR

Sometimes you read a story that just demonstrates what the true spirit of sports and competition are and should be. I believe this is one of them and I submit that this coach clearly gets it and his team and school are better off for it.

Watch the video and read the excerpts from the article (or the entire article if you'd like) and see if you don't agree that Dallas Academy although defeated 100-0 was the clear winner over The Covenant School.

I HEREBY NOMINATE, JEREMY CIVELLO, DALLAS ACADEMY FOR HS COACH OF THE YEAR
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DALLAS ACADEMY TEAM TALKS ABOUT THE GAME:
http://www.hsgametime.com/dfw/videopage.html?nvid=324099&shu=1

DALLAS NEWS ARTICLE ABOUT THE GAME:
Academy basketball coach sees a win in 100-0 loss

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/012209dnsposhutout.40d72ee.html

The final score of the high school girls basketball game was 100-0, and his team had the nothing. Still, a week later, Dallas Academy Athletic Director Jeremy Civello was chalking up the game in the win column.

"My girls never quit," he said. "They played as hard as they could to the very end. They played with all their hearts at 70-nothing, 80-nothing and 100-nothing. I was really proud of them. That's what I told them after the game."

The game took place Jan. 13, on the road, against The Covenant School. Civello didn't expect his girls to win. He never really does. His girls haven't won a game in his four seasons at the White Rock Lake-area school, renowned for its work with students with a variety of learning problems. In most games, they haven't come close.

The Bulldogs play, Civello said, for more than the final score. They play in hope of improving skills, learning teamwork and picking up whatever life lessons athletics may bring.


"Most of these girls would never play on any other school in the state," he said. "But they can say they were high school varsity players here. And they can say it with a sense of achievement."

Later on the 100-0 night, Civello told his girls the life lesson they could take from their loss: "I told them someday they will be on top in a similar situation and they should remember how they felt when some people were cheering for a team to score a hundred points and shut us out. Hopefully, my girls all learned a lesson in sportsmanship that will last them a lifetime."

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Let me step back and define what I mean by the "true spirit of sports and competition" are because apparently we have different opinions on what that term means.

Competitive sports offer the best opportunity for personal growth and character development that will continue to serve us throughout life. It is our strength of character that will have the greatest impact on those with whom we deal with daily.

Really, there is nothing about wins and losses that truly defines the spirit of sports and competition. The games themselves are zero sum. Ultimately, if you can leave the field or court with your head held high, you're a winner. You haven't been defeated.


When I saw the headline of the article, Academy basketball coach sees a win in 100-0 loss the first thing that came to my mind was the line from the movie White Men Can't Jump where Gloria tells Billy

"Sometimes when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win, and sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie, and sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose. Winning or losing is all one organic globule, from which one extracts what one needs."

This is central to the plot of the movie and the lesson it provides shows why, as I've been trying to convince my wife, this is a truly underrated movie.

See, when Billy was losing games and money and continuing to behave foolishly, his girl stood by him, but when he won the "big" game and the "big" bet, he lost his girl. She left him. His focus was on the wrong things and he lost even though he though he had won. He lost the most important thing in his life, the most valuable thing, by pursuing less important things.

This is where I see The Covenant School heading. Because I see from The Covenant School athletics page, the school states that its philosophy is:

"To glorify God by equipping students with the tools necessary to pursue a lifetime of learning so that they may discern, reason and defend truth in service to our Lord, Jesus Christ"

It sounds more like, based on this game and some others from it results page, that The Covenant School girls basketball program is more interested in glorifying themselves than in glorifying God. That's both sinful and shameful.

They should be ashamed of themselves and I believe they are. You know why I believe that? Because if you look further on the teams game results page, they have every other game score posted, except for the 1/13/2009 Dallas Academy game where they simply posted a W. And these rascals have not been strangers to running up the score, previously defeating Ursuline Academy 139-48, Terrel High School 133-79 and Prince of Peace Christian School 147-51.

My question to The Covenant School coach and AD would be as follows:
How do these results fit in within your schools published Athletic Program Goals?

1. To enable Covenant student/athletes, coaches and spectators to glorify God and be witnesses for Jesus Christ.

8. To build Christ-like character traits and develop servant leadership skills through discipline, and physical and mental training.


From the Dallas Academy web page I learned that the Dallas Academy defines their mission as: "restores the promise of full academic enrichment to students with learning differences." And they report their results as "by incorporating a strong curriculum, team sports and a wide variety of extra curricular student activities, Dallas Academy strives to prepare our students for further study (80% to 90% of DA's graduates attend 2 or 4-yr colleges) and more importantly a successful and satisfying life."

It sounds as if the Dallas Academy understands what the "true spirit of sports and competition" means better than The Covenant School does.

Therefore, I believe that the Dallas Academy should reconsider its cancellation of the January 30th game. And I believe that The Covenant School should take the time in between to re-examine its goals, philosophies and priorities and demonstrate that they have learned something that goes beyond wins and losses.
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UPDATE: APPARENTLY WE HAVE A WIN-WIN SITUATION

I e-mailed my concerns to the headmaster of The Coventry School and here is their response. Apparently, the school has been doing appropriate soul searching since the game was played and formulated a very equitable response. So the Dallas Academy will get an additional "victory". And The Covenant School gains a "greater" victory as well. GREAT NEWS.


Mr. Slavik,
Thank you for your email. I appreciate your honest feedback. Please know that we are truly sorry this happened. Below is our extended response to this situation.

Sincerely,



Kyle Queal
Head of School


Statement Regarding Dallas Academy Game

1/22/2009

The Covenant School , its board and administrators, regrets the incident of January 13 and the outcome of the game with the Dallas Academy Varsity Girls Basketball Team. It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christ-like and honorable approach to competition. We humbly apologize for our actions and seek the forgiveness of Dallas Academy , TAPPS and our community. The school and its representatives in no way support or condone the running up of a score against any team in any sport for any reason. The school’s board members, Head of School Kyle Queal and Athletic Director Brice Helton have acted to ensure that such an unfortunate incident can never happen again.

Covenant school officials have met with and personally apologized to Dallas Academy Headmaster Jim Richardson and Athletic Director Jeremy Civello and wishes to extend its highest praise to each member of the Dallas Academy Varsity Girls Basketball team for their strength, composure and fortitude in a game in which they clearly emerged the winner. Accordingly, The Covenant School has contacted TAPPS and is submitting a formal request to forfeit the game recognizing that a victory without honor is a great loss.

Kyle Queal
Head of School

Todd Doshier
Board Chair


Kyle Queal
Head of School
The Covenant School
7300 Valley View Lane
Dallas , TX 75240
214-358-5818 Office
214-358-5809 Fax
www.covenantdallas.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Slavik [mailto:theslav1959@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 1:36 PM
To: Kyle Queal; Kyle Queal
Subject: DALLAS ACADEMY GAME

It is apparent from this story that your school as represented by your girls basketball program has lost its way in representing Christian values.

You need to

1) seek forgiveness from the Dallas Academy

2) reinstate the January 30th game

3) demonstrate that your program is back on the right path in the rematch

And by the right path I mean glorifying God and not yourselves, your program or your school.

I pray you and your school will find the strength to make the right decisions going forward.