Packing my bag and checking it twice

Had a really stressful night's sleep. Nothing transpired over the past few days that could account for it. But, it was probably brought on by a strange dream from earlier this morning, which I can still vividly remember.

Doctors suggest we forget 95% of what we dream.

Every once in a while I get a doozy where it's still going on despite my being fairly certain I'm awake in the real world.

The heart is running at an elevated rate, and when I fully wake up, I'm really stressed, as if I'd run a 5k the night before.

* * *

This morning's dream involved a return to playing ice hockey, and primarily about getting dressed to play.

(Most people reading this have no idea of how slow I was at getting suited up when I first started playing ice hockey.

I used to get to the rink 60-90 minutes before game time just to make sure I had plenty of time. Yet, somehow, it was pretty certain I'd be one of the last people to leave the locker room.

Out of necessity I cured that problem, back in the 1990s, when I went away to hockey camp.)

It is my first time back on the ice after a prolonged stoppage. I don't exactly remember why I had the hiatus.

WILL MY LEGS HOLD OUT?? WILL I ACTUALLY PLAY DECENTLY OR SIMPLY BE A PYLON??

(I went skating last December for the first time in about three years and it was also the first time since I'd hyperextended both knees the year before. I felt like I was learning to skate anew. Very unsettling and I almost wanted to cry. But, as in baseball, there should be no crying in hockey!)

I don't know any of the players, except one. Most have already headed out to the ice while I'm still getting ready.

My equipment is strewn all over the small white cinderblock room. I go to grab something. But, can't find it!

(I still vividly remember one game where I got all dressed. On my way out to the rink I realized I had forgotten to put my shin guards on. Thank God I didn't take a shot in warm-ups as I certainly would have broken something.)

The clock on the wall keeps ticking and pretty much everyone else is out on the ice for warm-ups already. Only one returning player remains; urging me to hurry up.

ANXIETY IS CLIMBING!!

Causing more frustration is the fact I'm not the only new player to the team. My sister is joining. She has no problems getting dressed.

(To the best of my knowledge she has never played hockey. Has never had the urge to go to one of the NCWHL's Give Hockey A Try Days, nor even strapped on a pair of hockey skates, which makes her being in the dream even more odd.

Co-rec teams are common these days, especially at the lower levels. Checking is expressly forbidden, though we always reminded ourselves the rule was "No Checking Does NOT necessarily mean No Contact.")

The clock keeps ticking as I struggle to get ready. I hear the buzzer off in the distance signifying the game is about to start.

WHERE ARE THOSE DAMN SHIN GUARDS?!?!?

A few more minutes are gone, and the first period starts. The veteran player comes back in asking how things are going?

"It's going" is about all I can answer as I look for a packing tape gun to throw on some tape over my hockey socks that now adorn my shin guards. (I think the only place I've actually seen packing tape used was in Mystery, Alaska.)

Glancing at the clock again, half of the first period has now vaporized. But, I cannot locate my hockey pants.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!? THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING!!!

Finally locating them, I step my skates through the leg openings and pull the pants up.

Grabbing my helmet and gloves, I shuffle out of the room, only to freak out again. Light jersey or dark jersey? I'm wearing white at this point.

(I always made a point of emailing my teammates to remind them which jersey to bring, only to have the league switch us from 'Home' to 'Visiting' team one week. After that, I always brought BOTH!).

I've now wasted two-thirds of the First Period yet, strangely, people are still skating around as if warming up…and my jersey has morphed into a matching black. Don't ask me how, as my subconscious never explained that.

Sitting quickly on the bench, I stretch my legs before gingerly jumping on the ice to take a couple quick laps…and then it happens.

I WAKE UP!!!

End of dream. No idea how I played; how my sister played. Did we win or lose the game?

So the moral of the story is to always check your hockey bag and make sure everything you need is in there, and to give yourself ample time to prepare.

(And to, perhaps, not eat Wasabi Hummus before bedtime! But, that's a story for another time…)

Olympic detox…Part Deux

 
Well, it's time for my biennial case of withdrawal from watching nearly wall-to-wall Olympic coverage for the last couple of weeks. Last time it was London. This time it's Sochi.

The Winter Olympics have always been my favorite. Don't get me wrong. I can just as easily get lost in the Summer Games. But, it's the Winter Games that I'm especially fond of. Not sure if it's the hockey, the skiing, or just the scenes of clean white snow that seems so pure, especially back growing up as a 10-year-old kid.

Up until 1998, we were pretty much stuck with whatever they were broadcasting on NBC (or CBS and ABC before that). Every Olympiad would add additional hours of coverage. But, it was still only a single channel.

Then, in 2002, coverage expanded exponentially by use of their family of channels; namely adding MSNBC, CSNBC. More channels equaled more coverage. Simple as that.

However, that was yet another proverbial drop in the bucket. As the Internet reached its maturity, they realized they could offer a virtual cornucopia of coverage by streaming events.

I was able to watch the local cable channel on the TV, while streaming something else on my computer. This included some sports not normally covered on broadcast TV.

You could probably count on one hand the amount of hours devoted to curling in 1998. Now, with streaming, you could watch whole matches, and ALL matches if your heart desired it!

Absolute Olympic Nirvana!

But, with NBC's ever expanding coverage came the realization that NBC's coverage could be pretty bad, leaning towards events where Americans had a good chance of taking a medal, and flipping from event to event without regard to continuity. And don't forget the commercials!

Last time around, during the London Olympics, I decided to let technology take its course, and add the BBC's coverage of the London Summer Olympics to my viewing regimen.

Absolute night and day when compared to what NBC offered. Mind you, I still watched NBC. However, my laptop was hooked into the BBC on a daily basis.

It wasn't perfect because if I joined a live event and then scrolled back to the beginning, I'd lose the feed all of a sudden when the live program ended. Then I'd have to wait till the event was cataloged before I could see how it ended.

Still, they were full events, with ALL competitors, and was commercial free! I think I watched every route of archery in 2012.

But, things were a bit complicated this time around because I did away with my television cable package in late 2012.

This meant that I only had access to the local NBC affiliate. This also meant NO hockey coverage from Sochi since they usually aired that on the NBC Sports Channel, a cable only channel.

I think the final insult was that NBC would allow anybody to watch their streaming coverage. However, if you could not prove you were subscribed to a cable or satellite provider, your signal was abruptly cut after 30 minutes, forcing you to log back in again.

With that in mind, I returned to alternate methods to get my Olympic fix. Unfortunately, the VPN I signed up for this time seemed to have problems giving me a quality signal from the BBC.

There were a couple of options to take off to the Great White North, and so I experienced my first Canadian television, other than when I used to watch Hockey Night in Canada with the NHL Network.

While the CBC does have commercials, they don't seem to be as numerous as on American television. Plus, I could stream all events on their website, only I didn't have to directly prove I was Canadian or have a Canadian cable subscription.

For the most part, the announcers were very well informed and could hold a candle to any of their American counterparts. And they knew when to simply shut up and let the pictures do the talking.

I was able to watch the whole Opening Ceremonies, and watch them live.

Not only did NBC not offer the festivities live, NBC Sports Group chairman Mark Lazarus insulted the intelligence of every American viewer, suggesting "…the colorful ceremonies would not make sense without description."

Mr. Lazarus kindly explain why you couldn't have aired it live with commentators, just like every other event you streamed…including the Closing Ceremonies!!

So this time around I never did watch any NBC coverage. It was all CBC, and even though I had started watching events live, it eventually devolved to all tape delayed as a few days of watching till the wee hours of the morning started wrecking havoc with my sleep cycle.

I will have to admit, there were times I wanted to throttle my computer, especially during any US hockey game coverage.

An American women's game didn't go by without having to hear about the "battling Lamoureux Sisters" or how Jocelyne Lamoureux played with a chip on her shoulder and liked to "mix 'em up." (a reference to the two fights that occurred during pre-Olympic action with Canada).

Then there were Glenn Healy's idiotic remarks, such as that Team Sweden didn't know who they were playing against, when referring to Sydney Crosby. This despite the fact that all but one Swedish player came from NHL teams.

Technologically, signal quality did vary from time to time, especially if I was using my laptop over a wireless connection.

I will readily admit I missed NBC's traditional end of the Olympics highlight reel set to Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

Every time I'd watch it I'd well up in tears because of the realization the Games were over and it would be a couple years before they'd be on again. (It even happened watching the YouTube clip linked above and thinking how 1996 seems just like yesterday).

Also missing was all the cultural fluff. By steaming the events it became all about the events, and not the locale. I do enjoy the cultural and historical aspects we're sometimes given, though in moderation.

So now comes the two year wait before the 2016 Summer Games, in Rio de Janeiro. With Rio being only four hours ahead of San Francisco, I'll be bombarded with lots more live coverage during a more sane part of the day. Of course, I'm sure there will be new unforeseen challenges.

I just have 892 days to figure exactly how to accomplish it all!

My Son was bullied last week!

My son was bullied last week at his football game!!
That's what a Texas parent is claiming.

Was it in the stands? No.
Was it when he was using the bathroom? No.
Was it walking home from the game? No.
Was it on the football field itself? YES!

Did players from the opposing team taunt him? No.
Did players physically beat him more than what's normal in football? No.

According to complaints filed, the Aledo coaches bullied their son by allowing the score to get so lopsided.

The Ft. Worth-Western Hills High Cougars walked into a buzz saw when traveling to a road game against the Aledo High Bearcats. Final score was 91-0. Y'OUCH!!

Take my comments with as much salt as you want. I am not a child psychologist. But, I have been members of a few team sports which, frankly, weren't very good.

* * *

Aledo is currently ranked 24th in the ENTIRE nation (4th in Texas). FW-WH is ranked 10,812 in the nation. (To give you some perspective our Albany High Cougars are ranked 13,701 in the nation, while the perennial powerhouse De La Salle Spartans are 8th in the nation)

FW-WH has not won a single game this season (currently 0-7). The first three games this season, they lost 61-7, 62-10, 63-0. Aledo has outscored their opponents 485-47 so far this season.

By the end of the 1st Quarter the score was 28-0, and Aledo coach Tim Buchanan had pulled his starting players. By Halftime the score was 56-0.

Game officials implemented a running game clock in the Second Half, meaning that the clock keeps ticking regardless of whether someone goes out of bounds, or not. (FWIW, it was 77-0 at the end of the 3rd Quarter).

*  *  *

I get that they had the tar kicked out of them. I get that it's no fun being beaten up like that. I get that the poor kids must be counting the days till the season mercifully ends. But I don't get how a 91-0 score equates to bullying.

In an interview on Dallas-Ft. Worth's NBC5, Coach Buchanan sounded generally humble. He said they could have easily scored more, and that he was concerned the score might break 100.

Normally, that might sound like smug bragging. But, the way he said it, made him sound almost embarrassed.

Another thing Buchanan said is very important. He doesn't want to get to a point where he tells his players to not play 100%.

From my experiences playing sports, it's an important fact that if you pull up and don't give your all you're risking the chance of injuring yourself because your opponent isn't holding back.

In a hockey game once, I pulled back because the guy skating at me was about half my size, and I knew we were going to collide. Well, I got rocked good, with my heels flying out from under me and my head hitting the ice. (Thank God for helmets!!)

So now Aledo High School administrators are tasked with having to investigate its coaching staff for bullying. This will also go to the Texas Education Agency for review.

Here's what they consider bullying:

Aggressive behavior that involves unwanted, negative actions. Bullying involves a pattern of behavior repeated over time. Bullying involves an imbalance of power or strength.

I could be really sarcastic and say all three of those things certainly happened. But, making light of such very serious charges wouldn't be right.

So did that 91-0 score REALLY constitute bullying on the part of Buchanan and his staff?

No. Especially after the way FW-WS has been playing this year. Add to that, their records from the last two season; 3-7 and 3-7; and it suggests FW-WS simply isn't a very good football team.

Would it have been better to invoke a mercy ruling and end the game early? (Currently, a rule in about 38 states only. Texas, not being one of them.)

From a player's perspective….HELL NO!!

It's very likely that most, if not all, of the FW-WH players won't be continuing on in football beyond high school. Cutting short games just means you're cutting their playing time and it emphasizes the "Winning IS Everything" mentality even more.

Way back in Little League, the poor Albany Redlegs were getting swamped by the Albany Mets. Albany Little League had a mercy ruling that if the score reached a certain point, the game would be ended.

I think they lasted something like three innings before the game was called. All the Redlegs' players felt bad since they weren't getting to play all seven innings, especially the one player who didn't even get to play a single pitch of the game….ME!!!

In all fairness to Coach Kenny, I wasn't a very good baseball player, having made contact with the ball only once in all my at bats before a knee injury, suffered while playing tennis, mercifully knocked me out of commission.

But, I still remember that game 30-something years later and how I sat there hoping to get a chance to play. But, I never blamed Coach Kenny, suggesting he kept me out on purpose. Neither did my parents.

Years later, when I played hockey there were a couple of teams that had players who clearly played in a division below where they should have, so they routinely scored tons of goals against us.

We routinely accused them of "slumming" to run their personal stats up. But, we never accused them of bullying!

* * *

As long as children are going to be involved in competitive sports there are going to be good teams and bad teams. There are going to be close scores and blowouts.

Suggesting to your sons and daughters that the other team and/or coaches are bullying them because the score got lopsided is even worse than if you accused the other team of cheating, and does nothing more than emphasize the end result, and not the taking part, which is what 99% of us can ever take solace in.

* * *

On a positive side, FW-WH needs to keep their heads up. Their final game of the year is against the Wyatt High Chaparrals, the only team lower in the standings than themselves, and who also lost to Aledo…

84-7