Its all relative, the older I get the more I understand exactly what that means. There are no, or shall we say there are few “black and whites,” rather most all is some shade of grey. I am making reference to last week’s column where I was “much too political” for a sports writer. Agreed and point taken – but that doesn’t insure it will not happen again. For now though, over, done with, gone!
Thank you to all of those who inquired as to how my son “Dee” was doing. He is, and will be just fine. A very special thank you to the reader who hooked me up with the gentleman from St. Clair, MO – who now has another dog on his 175 acres. Yes, Buddy is now singing the tune from the movie “Born Free.” My seven year old son Joe insures me Buddy is happier now than he ever was with us. “Dad, he spent most of the day sitting in the chair looking out the window. He needs to be an outside dog.” And now he is.
A special welcome to Louis J. Launer who will be covering minor league sports for the First Capitol News. Louis wrote some letters to me concerned about the lack of up to date coverage of the Otters and Rascals. He shared with me his anger about all minor league coverage going to the Rage – and he was right. My response to him was something along the lines of “if you can do better.” Well, he can, and hopefully he will. Lewis has done some coverage for the UHL and now will cover the Rascals and Otters exclusively, at least exclusively, locally, for the FCN. Welcome aboard.
On a related note, very soon we hope to expand the Sports Section to three pages of coverage. I have spoken to Tony and Phyllis about it and they are supportive. Louis will concentrate on minor league coverage, Mike Thompson will give his take on the Rage, and if all goes well our high school coverage will expand. Of course yours’ truly will continue with this column, and of course Bob Barton’s pictures will cover all three pages. Nothing is too good for our readers.
Finally, question number two for St. Charles City residents Ryan Wallace and Corey Nesslage, who will face each other at St. Charles High on September 2 in both their debuts as head coach, was too late to make the deadline. However, these two young men are both bright beyond their years – in all aspects of their lives. Here is how they responded to the following question: Many say offense wins games, but defense wins championships. Both of you played offense in high school and college, and both of you are former offensive coordinators. Please share your thoughts on that saying.
Wallace: “I never liked that saying. It undermines the concept of “team”. You have a football team, not an offense and then a defense. Moreover, a championship is nothing more than a game....is it not? You gotta have players on the field that love to play the game of football and understand the concept of team. As long as your players understand that the objective for the offense is to score points and the objective for the defense is to stop the opposition from scoring points......I’m comfortable.”
Nesslage: “The one thing that I think, and I am sure a lot of coaches think the same way is that if you can’t stop people, it doesn’t really matter what you do on offense. I also think the defensive side of the football can really set the tempo especially from a physical standpoint. We as a staff at St. Charles High are constantly preaching to our kids to out hit the opposing team. Again, we are stressing to set the tempo on the defensive side of the football.
So as much as I like the offensive side of the football, I understand that the defense can really define a personality of a team and that is what we stress to our kids.”
Yeah, I guess what I am doing is hyping the game on September 2 as much as I can. Wallace will be bringing his Jennings Warriors to town for what I think will be one heck of a game.
Once again, thanx for the concern for my son Dee; it means the world to me. See you next week.
ttt
