CONGRATULATIONS!

By reading this blog right now you are officially reading my first ever blog entry as a college basketball coach.  Feelin’ special?  You should be! 

So yesterday was probably the most depressing day of my life…the olympics came to a close. Now some of you out there may call yourself fans of the olympics, but I’d be surprised if you reach my olympic enthusiasm.  Let’s put it to the test:

1. I started it off right by watching the opening ceremonies…the entire thing.  I’m pretty sure I spent 5 hours in front of the tv that night and didn’t move a muscle. It was mesmorizing! My favorite parts were definitely the drummers, the dudes that made those boxes rise and fall, and the tai chi masters.  After watching them it made me want to be a ninja warrior…seriously.

2. Olympic updates are sent to my cell phone throughout the day whenever anything news worthy occurs.  Medal alerts, stories of top athletes, USA vs. China medal count updates…I get it all. One morning I woke up with 42 new text updates. It was ridiculous!

3. At 2:30 am Sunday morning I was up watching the USA men’s basketball team take on Spain in the gold medal game.  Did you see Kobe hit that 4 point play?!? I loved the energy that those guys were playing with.  It brought me back to my playing days and how jacked up we used to get.  I live for that emotion!

4. Michael Phelps is currently on the background of my computer. It’s the picture of him celebrating after his 4×100 relay team came from behind to beat out France. He’s flexing and I’m pretty sure you can see every muscle in his body. It’s amazing!  Oh, and have you seen the Phelps Phanatic commerical?  I have one of those t-shirts.  Ok…so that’s a lie.  But I wish I had one.  Kind of.

So there it is. True olympic passion right there.  If any of you have any stories that you think could compare, I’d love to hear them!

Today is the first day of classes at IPFW.  All our players are back on campus and started back up with workouts this morning.  I’m excited to finally get in the gym with them and really start working. Check back in next week and I’ll let you know how it goes!

Hello! I am going to be keeping you updated on my life as a college coach as well as how our season is going. We are very excited about the upcoming year and I look forward to keeping you informed on everything that is going on here at IPFW.

School starts Monday, August 25. For now our girls are at home enjoying their time with the family before things start getting pretty busy. We are getting together Sunday with the whole team and are having a cookout which should be a lot of fun. I always look forward to spending time with our girls. They can be a lot of fun to be around. Well thanks for taking time and looking at our blog. Good luck with school.

Coach O

I must say one of the most wonderful perks about this job is being in touch with sports all the time. We have a tv in our office, and we are currently watching the Men’s USA Basketball team dismantle Greece. D-Wade is playing out of his mind! It’s so great to see them have so much emotion when they play. They have been getting a lot of criticism about not bringing it in the Olympics, and I think they’re definitely out to prove a point right now.

I have followed the Olympics in previous years, but never as closely as I’ve watched this year. Our staff has really been getting in to it. There’s just been such good competition. Michael Phelps has really been amazing because he’s not just winning gold medals, but he’s also shattering world records as he does it. My favorite events to watch so far have been the men’s and women’s basketball teams (obviously), swimming, and women’s gymnastics.

Other than watching the Olympics, I’ve been trying to get myself adjusted in to the new role I will be taking for our staff this year – recruiting coordinator. So far, I’ve really been enjoying myself and learning a lot. On Tuesday, a great friend of mine who is also a second year coach and myself drove up to Ann Arbor to visit a coach at the University of Michigan who we know very well, and she provided us with great information. That’s another great thing about this job. So many people are willing to help, and the more people you meet, the more ideas and creativity you are exposed to.

I got an email from one of our players, Tina Moen, recently, and she spent the past few weeks at home in Norway playing for her national team. She said her team did the best they’ve ever done in the Nordic Tournament and that she felt like she had a great game against Iceland when she went for 18 in only 16 minutes of play. Tina will be a senior for us this year, so we are really excited for her to end her career as a Mastodon on a great note.

Well, guess I should get back to work! Only 92 days until our first game!!

Have a lot going on in the office today, so I just wanted to write a real quick update. The girls are all taking off today for their two weeks at home before school starts, so it will be a little quieter in the office for a while. Crazy to think that we they get back we hit the ground running… for them it will literally be running Cuttin this one short, but time to get back at it. Coach O’Connell, Coach Mann, the women’s volleyball assistant coach, and I are scheduled for a tennis match-up later today, so I need to get mentally prepared!!

Well, last night’s games didn’t go as planned. We lost in the first round! We all just didn’t play well at all. We had to be less than 30% from the field. I don’t think I’ve played that bad since the 6th grade haha. But even though it was a disappointing loss, I love just being able to get out and play. The next session for the league starts on August 25th, and I feel confident guaranteeing a championship in that one!

We have a lot going on around the office today, so I’m going to end this one with one of my favorite John Wooden quotes that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately… “When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur.” Looking forward to seeing that materialize this year!