Whatever Flips Your Waffle (192)
When I turned 16, I got my shot to work at Randall Foods, your one stop shopping center in New Ulm, the same store at which my dad worked. The biggest concept that was drilled into us over my seven years of working at both the Randall Foods in New Ulm and in Winona was customer service. It was not, “Can I help you?” but, “How may I help you?” It seemed obvious that we could help a customer; it was much more courteous to say the latter.
In fact, there was a two-month period where everyone in the store underwent intensive re-training on all aspects of customer service. The opinion was if a customer wasn’t satisfied and never came back, that person could tell another person, who might tell another, and we would slowly lose all that business.
That’s a sound principle. Michelle and I experienced both ends of that spectrum recently while shopping for a new vehicle.
That’s right. Once the old mini-van turned over 200,000 miles, we decided it was time to look for something different. We stopped at a number of car dealerships looking for a good used vehicle for our family.
At one location, the gentleman who helped us seemed like the entire time spent with us was a waste of his time. He didn’t smile, and he actually lied to us at one point about a noise we could hear from the rear of the vehicle. (He claimed it came from the key box outside.) When I asked to test drive a second vehicle we were looking at, it was if we had removed all energy from him.
He didn’t work very hard to sell us on the good points of the vehicles. I had to pry information from him. We were very interested in one they had, but a big part of the reason we didn’t go back to look at it again was his demeanor.
Listen, we all have bad days. However, during my grocery store days, we were told to put on a happy face, no matter what. It could be the most annoying customers in the world, but we would smile and help them find what they needed.
When we eventually stopped at Car Time in Owatonna, we faced the opposite of our previous experience. The salesman was friendly, polite, not pushy, and answered any question I had that he didn’t already anticipate.
We really liked the vehicle, but we decided not to go looking any more or even go back and look at the one we liked at the previous location, in large part because of the salesman. He can be happy that his good service helped him make a sale.
Unfortunately, I see more and more of the former type of service than I do the latter. Again, in my years in the grocery business, if a customer asked where something was, we were to lead them to the item.
It seems that if I ask someone at a store where to find something, it’s as if I’m disturbing them from the most important task in the world. I had this happen at Walmart when I was looking for a specific type of clock radio. I asked where it might be. The woman looked at me as if I was the most idiotic person in the world and told me it would be with the clocks.
I replied that I assumed that, but wasn’t sure where the clock section was. At first, she pointed in a vague direction. Perhaps when she saw the annoyed look on my face, she decided that leading me there would be a better idea. Guess what? I didn’t buy a clock radio there. I did at Fleet Farm, where a helpful employee guided me right away to what I was looking for.
Why is customer service so difficult? We seem to live in a society that doesn’t find it to be a defining feature of customer-centric businesses. If you’re at Walmart, you’ll probably come back, even if you have a bad experience. Will I go to Walmart again? Of course I will; that woman isn’t the only person who works there. But they did lose a sale that day.
I do find good customer service in our local stores, as I mentioned last week. There is always a smile at Lerberg’s and Wagner’s. I’m always shown exactly what I’m looking for if businesses in our school district have it. Maybe that’s another reason that makes living here so great. The small businesses need every sale to make it, so customer service means something to them. Plus, they seem to legitimately enjoy their jobs; they’re not just collecting a paycheck. Bravo!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is panache, which means elegant style or charm, as in, “The salesman’s panache helped make the customers feel at ease.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
Michelle and I celebrated our 14th house-iversary on May 1. Naturally, we shared this occasion by eating chili and corn bread while watching the May Day snowfall.
When we made that life-altering decision to buy a house in Ellendale all those years ago, it meant a lot of things. First and foremost was the fact that we wanted to stay here.
I was finishing my third year of teaching at NRHEG. We had gotten married the previous year, and we had no idea how we’d afford a house. However, we figured we’d make it work.
And we’ve done that, adding two children, a goldfish, and a cat along the way. But what made us decide that living here was the ultimate goal?
Every week, I enjoy reading the “Meet Your Neighbor” section across from my column. One of the questions always deals with the best part of living in a small town. Answers vary, but I’d like to add some. Understand that these might be Ellendale focused since it’s become my home!
Many people talk about how people are there to help when you need them. This is so true. When we first moved in, one of my neighbors offered me the use of his lawn mower since I hadn’t purchased one yet. A simple thing like that sets a good tone in the neighborhood.
When our basement flooded the first time, I had the use of another neighbor’s shop vac, something I never thought I’d need. Another time we flooded, I was trying to figure out what to do with all that wet carpet in the front yard. Andy Lerberg stopped by and helped me. He put it in his truck to haul it to a dumpster set up for everyone who was facing the same problem.
Even during this last snow-mageddon, my neighbor Jerry used his snow blower to take care of the end of my driveway after the plow went by. I had been dreading dealing with the accumulated muck at the end until he came along. After he was done with my driveway, he went to help others.
I know that if I have a problem with a vehicle, Mark and Al Lee will tell me the straight truth about what’s wrong. They’ll never try to get a little extra out of me with other “problems” like some places will in bigger communities. And I know that if they can’t fix it, I can truck over to New Richland and have Ike Kofstad look at it and treat me the same way.
I can go into Steve’s Meat Market or Lerberg’s and find Donovan or Ross right there to help me and always with a smile. How nice it is to be able to run and find the things I need at a moment’s notice when I realize I’m out of ground beef or am missing an ingredient for a recipe.
It’s always nice to see NRHEG grads set up shop in town and want to live in the community in which they were raised. Alex and Angela Bell have made Sequoia Landscaping the place to go to make the outside of my house look marvelous. They also treat you with that honest smile and will bend over backward to meet your every need.
If I want something to eat, there are so many great options: 5th Avenue Pizza or Judy’s Café in Ellendale, George’s in Geneva, the Willows in New Richland, and the Hartland Café, the first place I ever ate out when I moved to this district.
What’s nice about living here? If my vehicle isn’t working, I have any number of people I would feel comfortable calling for a ride to work, and I know they would not shy away from asking me the same thing. And with every one of them, I know it would be an enjoyable ride to New Richland and back.
I work with amazing people. I live in a great neighborhood. I love my town, and I enjoy visiting places in New Richland, Hartland, and Geneva, despite my tongue-in-cheek claims that I live in the best town in the district. We may be four separate towns, but we know that everyone will come together in good times and bad to make our area a place to be proud of.
There it is – our ultimate goal was to settle somewhere we would be happy and would find it best to raise a family. Mission accomplished.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is cachinnate, which means to laugh very loudly, as in, “Listening to the lady cachinnate every time something moderately funny was said led to a splitting headache.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
On January 10, 1970, according to a couple of sources I found, the Catholic Church said that it would be okay to fulfill your Sunday mass obligation on Saturday night. This helped relieve the congestion in churches at that time and to help those that were required to work or had to travel on Sunday.
I’m old enough to remember many businesses not being open on Sundays. The “blue laws” that were in effect then kept most gas stations, grocery stores, and retail businesses closed all day. The only reason you might have to work was if you were employed in a hospital, fire station, or police department.
These laws began to loosen as I grew older. Some gas stations were open. You could pick up a gallon of milk at the store, and you could grab some fresh donuts for after church. By the time I was a teenager, I worked Sundays on a regular basis. Today, about the only thing that is banned on Sundays is the sale of alcohol.
Our school district has a policy in place that keeps extracurricular events from occurring on Sundays, unless there is prior permission because of special reasons. I love this policy, though there are many against it.
Sundays should be one calm day in the storm that has become the lives of many. Many families look at their weekly calendar and find themselves running almost every night. Why not have one day where you can relax and spend time together?
A couple of my 8th-graders wrote persuasive essays on why they should be allowed to play on Sundays. One thing they pointed out was that they are with their families on Sundays. That may be true, but many families find themselves running in different directions with various kids.
Growing up, we often went to one of our grandparents’ houses after church, had lunch, and visited during the afternoon. Dad and I spent many Sunday afternoons watching football. We did chores around the house and sometimes had 4-H meetings at night.
The world has blossomed into a 24/7 mall where we feel like we should have access to anything we need on a Sunday. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
Listen, whether you attend church or not is only partially pertinent to this situation. I don’t want to make this a whole religious thing. However, families that do attend church need to be given that opportunity.
When it comes to sports events on Sundays, these should never start until after noon. Many basketball tournaments for our youth run all day Saturday and start up again Sunday morning. The same thing goes for baseball tournaments in the summer.
I umpire in Owatonna, and they start tournaments Friday night, run them all day Saturday, and start again at 8 or 9 Sunday. I do not help out on the Sunday games.
Shorten your tournaments if that’s what you need to do to at least avoid Sunday morning. Every year, the Quad Cities Baseball Association has hosted an end-of-the-year tournament for the league. I’ve been in charge of that for many years and can only remember twice we played on Sunday. Both times it was only because weather on Saturday forced us to move a game to Sunday.
Over the years, many people have commented to me that they are appreciative that they can have one day over the weekend to themselves. Sometimes this means shortening the length of games, but that’s worth it to get things done.
I know I won’t win the battle of people playing in tournaments on Sundays. It would be nice to at least wait until the afternoon. There was a baseball team last year that, if they had won a particular game on Saturday, would have had to play Sunday morning. A few boys on that team said they wouldn’t be there because they would be attending church.
That’s an unfair position in which to put kids and their families. Again, whether you are a churchgoer or not, you should respect those that choose to go.
I’m sure I’ll face some of these decisions with my daughter’s basketball team in the near future. We’ve managed to avoid Sundays so far, but there may not be much choice in the years to come.
It’s been a slow progression since 1970, but that’s a good place to point for when things really began to change. Once the Catholic Church said it was okay to serve your Sunday obligation on Saturday, people started to assume the “Day of Rest” no longer applied.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is resistentialism, which means the spiteful behavior seemingly shown by inanimate objects, as in, “My lawn mower is manifesting resistentialism by not wanting to start every spring.” Thanks to Neal and Shelley Pederson for this goodie! Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
Every time I see Activities Director Dan Stork these days, he’s shaking his head and looking at calendars. It’s been a crazy spring when it comes to athletics and just life in general. (Picture every local farmer nodding and agreeing!)
Last week, the Swami postulated that Minnesota should consider summer baseball like in Iowa. Way to steal my idea, Kugie! Anyway, I’d like to expand on that notion.
Let’s start with spring sports and then expand throughout the entire year. 2012 was an aberration when it came to weather.
I umpired a game on March 30, 2012, the earliest day you could possibly play a game. This year, I’ve had one game and suffered through some cold weather and a lot of mud.
Most years, the spring sports schedule has events the first week of April. Most years, those events are rescheduled. Why do we even try?
Rather, why not start baseball and softball in April? Spend a couple weeks getting ready, and then begin events in May.
The playoffs could begin toward the end of June for baseball and softball. Take a break before section championships over the Fourth of July. This will give teams an opportunity to have their best lineups on the field for the biggest games. Wrap up the state tournament in mid-July.
With this idea, you could play more games and give kids more of an opportunity to develop over the years.
Of course, there would be headaches with transportation once school is out, among other issues. But from a purely sports-minded point of view, it would be ideal.
It’s unfortunate, but Legion baseball is dying in many areas. Many Legion posts aren’t able to support a team anymore, so it makes sense to combine the school and summer seasons.
Track coach Duey Ferber told me he wouldn’t want to move his season. However, tracks can be run on earlier than ball fields, and they can go indoors at MSU, so weather doesn’t have quite the same impact.
Now let’s take things a step further. You could look at the rest of the activities schedule from a couple of angles. One would be to leave fall sports where they are, as well as winter sports. Basketball tournaments wrap up in mid-March, giving players a chance to catch their breath. It would also be a great opportunity for the arts to step in, specifically school plays.
The directors of Bye Bye Birdie have been frantically working around sports schedules to get in rehearsals and prepare for the show. This would give them a bigger window to prepare a show, and everyone would benefit. While the performance I saw last week was exceptional, I’m sure all involved would have liked a consistent schedule without worrying as much about athletics.
You could also look at the possibility of not starting winter sports until after the Prep Bowl at Thanksgiving. Most players (unless you were in the state championship) would get a break before the grind of winter sports. The state tournaments would be pushed back to the end of March, still giving players a short break before spring sports.
With this, you could also look at the potential of a play in November, or still keep it in March/April. Either way, students get a better chance to be student-athletes, and Mr. Stork gets a chance to breathe a little easier.
On a side note, I’ve had the chance to meet so many people who want to comment about my column. I enjoy those interactions, whether the reactions are positive or negative. My loyal readers have seen that I will take requests as well, so if you really want to have me write about something, please contact me, and I’ll do my best to keep providing you something to at least think about every week, whether you agree or not!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is mendacious, which means untruthful, as in, “The mendacious student told the teacher the computer ate his homework.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
Students sometimes ask who my favorite class was that I’ve taught. It’s an easy answer. I had a section of seniors from the Class of 1998 that were outstanding. I never had a discipline problem and everyone always completed their work. That’s tough to beat!
I received a request from a student to write about favoritism from teachers. I wasn’t sure how to go about that at first, but after some cogitation, I’ve got a few ideas.
First, there is a big difference between having favorites and favoritism. Any teacher who tells you he or she doesn’t have favorite students is lying.
As both a teacher and a coach, my favorites are the students and players who work hard and don’t complain. My favorites are the ones who come ready to work without question. My favorites work to the best of their ability, even if they’re not A students or all-star athletes.
Personality can have a lot to do with this too. It’s always amazing to hear about a teacher having problems with a particular student, and I think that I’ve never had issues with that person. However, sometimes personalities mesh better between some students and certain teachers.
I like to laugh. I try to keep my classroom somewhat relaxed; no need for a dictatorial standard when trying to learn.
Enter into this room one Alex Blaschko. I’ve had Alex in class for two years now, and it’s been a hoot. Alex often has something funny to say, whether he means to or not. However, Alex works very hard in my class, even though English is not his strongest subject.
He asks questions and tries to do the work correctly. Does Alex get away with saying a bit more than others? Perhaps, but if it contributes to a good classroom atmosphere, sometimes that’s okay.
A great example from my coaching days was when I coached Mariah Robran in 8th grade basketball. Mariah was not going to score 20 points a game, but she worked her tail off for me and fought her way into my starting lineup. She also knocked me on my can a number of times during practice drills! These are the players that coaches enjoy having on their teams.
Is it okay to have favorites? Sure, it’s only human to like some people more than others.
Now favoritism? That’s a whole different ballgame.
One of my first years at NRHEG, a contingent of boys from my seventh grade class went to Mr. Cyr to claim that I favored the girls. A short time after that, he received a visit from a group of girls claiming that I favored the boys. Well, which was it? If they both thought the other gender was being favored, there must not have been an issue. Case closed.
If, as a teacher, I let someone get away with egregious behavior or grade that person on an easier standard or treat someone as a much lesser being, that is not acceptable. Let’s look at some examples.
I was accused one year by a mother of favoring a different boy on my baseball team because one of his parents was on the school board. To her, this was the reason her own son wasn’t getting as much playing time. I was quick to point out that the other boy had been suspended for a game because of bad grades, just like some others. It didn’t matter who his parents were; if he broke a rule, he would face the same consequences. If I had let that kid off because of who his parents were, that would have been favoritism.
I had a former teacher of mine admit to me once that he would only glance over my papers. He just assumed they were A work since I always tended toward that. I was furious.
Often, favorites of teachers tend to get better grades. I’ve gone the route of being pickier on the papers of students who do well consistently. I always want to push them further. If I did what my former teacher had done, that would be favoritism. I could have written a bunch of glop in the middle of a paper and still gotten an A!
Is there favoritism at our school? I hope not. Do teachers have favorites? Absolutely. Hopefully that line does not blur.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is corraded, which means scraped together from various places, as in, “The teacher was not pleased reading the clearly corraded research paper.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
As I’m writing this, the Minnesota Twins are 1-1 on the season after winning on a walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth inning against Detroit. I have a feeling this won’t happen often this year.
I’m a huge Twins fan. I’m also a realistic Twins fan.
My parents took me to my first game in 1981, the last year of Met Stadium. I was more interested in the free bat I got and the good food I was treated to than the game itself.
When the Metrodome opened we attended games sporadically. I do remember some trips with my fellow altar servers from church and one that our youth baseball coach had to take us to after losing a bet. (When you’re the low seed in the playoffs and beat the #1 seed, it’s a good bet to lose!)
I was fascinated by the Metrodome in those early years. I explored every nook and cranny, even sneaking down into the lower bowels as a high schooler, just missing out on a meeting with my idol, Kirby Puckett.
Ah, Kirby Puckett. He was my baseball hero. I modeled my batting stance after him and tried to play center field like him. Nothing thrilled me more than to hear Bob Casey call out his name at the Dome.
When the 1987 season rolled around, I had become engrossed in baseball. I collected baseball cards, I had my radio tuned to WCCO, and I read every story in the newspaper about the Twins. What a magical time to become a true baseball fan, as the Twins went on to win the World Series that year!
I remember being so jealous of my dad, who got to go to one of the playoff games against Detroit. I watched the game, eagerly looking for Dad, even though he was in the far reaches of the upper left field seats. I hung on his every word the next day, wanting to know just what it would be like to be at a sold-out playoff game.
I got to find out a few years later. Dad managed to snare tickets to Game 1 of the 1991 playoffs and World Series. Those two games are my greatest memories of baseball and special times with my dad. Nothing can take away the experience of being part of that incredible postseason.
When the Twins won in walk-off fashion (before that phrase was even coined!) in Game 7, I was ecstatic. I remember it being a Sunday night. I was lucky enough to be a senior in high school with a first-hour study hall, so I wasn’t required to be to school until later. I didn’t get to sleep until the wee hours, so I needed that extra time!
I hang onto those two world championships. We in Minnesota don’t have many of those to lay claim to.
The first year I taught students who were born after 1991 really struck me as a lost generation. These kids didn’t know the excitement of World Series baseball. The Twins have made the playoffs a number of times in this century, but that ultimate goal seems very far away now.
I’ll keep watching and rooting for the home team. 1991 was so sweet because I had remained a steadfast fan even in the down years. The same happened when the team finally returned to the playoffs in 2002. I had followed the team through the dreadful years of the late 90s.
I’ll keep doing this to make the next World Series all the sweeter. Even wins like today’s, at the beginning of what is most likely a non-playoff season, are fun and give hope to the latest generation that they can experience the ultimate thrill like we did 23 years ago.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is apricity, which means the sun’s warmth on a cold day, as in, “The apricity during the Twins’ home opener was the only thing that kept the game from being completely miserable.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
Mash-ups have become very popular in the musical world. This is where someone takes at least two different songs and mixes them together to create a new sound.
For instance, someone calling himself DJ Earworm creates a mash-up of the top 50 pop songs every year. It’s quite the song to listen to with all those sounds!
This week’s column will be a mash-up of sorts too. We’ll see how it sounds at the end!
My predecessor in this space used to comment on the two seasons of the year in Minnesota: winter and road construction. Well, winter’s still here, and I was just reading about road construction projects this morning! However, in the world of education, we have an additional season: testing.
While various standardized tests are spread through the year, April is the big month in Minnesota. Students in grades 3-11 take the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs). These are tests that cover reading, writing, math and science.
Until you get to high school, none of these tests count for students. There is nothing negative that will happen to a student who does not pass some of these tests.
Now, in the early grades, many students are eager to please, no matter what. They are not thinking about how something might affect their grade. Throughout the state, MCA scores are wonderful in grades 3-4.
We all know that all kids head down the dark path in some way as they become teenagers. For many of them, the “How does this affect me?” attitude becomes foremost in their minds. MCAs? Eh, no impact for some.
I actually had a student in 8th grade tell me one year that he just randomly picked answers on his entire reading test. In an essay section, he wrote something along the lines of, “Thanks for making me feel dumb. I don’t care anyway.” Huh, I wonder how he did…
Yet, schools and teachers are judged on these results. I’m sorry, I can lead the horse to water. I can even shove his head in the water. Still, I can’t make him drink, and stories like this prove that.
What’s the solution? First, cut back on the incessant testing. Perhaps a test to see where students score in third grade is a good idea.
Check again in fifth grade. Do one more check in eighth grade. Then give them one that really counts in high school, such as it is now.
I have nothing against testing high schoolers to see if they can read and write and do a few math problems before they graduate. That’s a great idea! It’s the over-testing that leads to that point which is burdensome on schools and students and leads to anxiety and apathy.
Still, testing isn’t going away anytime soon. Every year, we get to hear how NRHEG measures up to local and state schools. If we don’t match up, questions are asked.
Which, makes the thought process in making up snow days curious. A plan was presented to extend the school day by half an hour a day to make up for the time we’ve lost this year. The thought was to start this right away and give more time in the classroom prior to testing since we’ve missed the equivalent of a week. This is really tough in a math room, where there is so much on the test that needs to be taught.
Instead, it looks like we’ll be babysitting in June, when absolutely no learning will be accomplished. Would it have been tough to pull off an extended school day for a few weeks? Sure, because it impacts a lot of people: bus drivers, parents, daycare, coaches, etc.
However, if it could’ve been looked at closer or earlier, it might have been the best option, educationally speaking. Maybe someday, we’ll have a better plan than June.
Who would’ve thought that tests and snow days would go together? Perhaps, since we do live in Minnesota, we should have a test on how to make a snowball. At least we could put a snow day to some educational use!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is snowbroth, which means freshly melted snow, as in, “Yesterday, he woke up to a carpet of white, but now it’s just snowbroth.” Thanks to former star Laura Yerhot for a website with this word. Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
When the weather was warming up and some rain was falling from the sky, my thoughts turned to mowing the lawn. I know, I jinxed things by allowing that to enter my mind, and sure enough, another snow storm hit.
I don’t actually mind shoveling snow or mowing the lawn or raking leaves that much. Okay, the eight inches of heavy snow the other week were a real pain, but a typical inch or two isn’t that bad on my driveway.
It takes me about half an hour to mow my lawn, so that’s not too difficult either. Raking leaves is a little more of a pain, especially since most of the leaves don’t come from my one little tree. It’s a tradeoff to have the nice shade on our patio from the neighbors though!
These tasks have become easier since I started my new habit a couple of years ago. I decided to turn on my iPod and enjoy some good music while attending to these homeowner’s chores. In addition to getting some good exercise, I can enjoy some good music as well.
What do I listen to while working? It’s quite an eclectic mix actually.
I wrote in a previous column about my former obsession with watching Glee. Thus, there is an awful lot of music from that show on my iPod. I love how the cast was able to take older songs and give them some new life. In some cases, I prefer the new version to the old. A good example is some music from Journey, such as “Faithfully.”
The cast has also done some good work with Queen, though nobody can touch that group’s original songs. Queen has to be my favorite band; something about their music is inspirational. Sometimes when I’m writing, if I hit writer’s block, I’ll switch over to some “Bohemian Rhapsody” or “We Are the Champions” to get my gears going again.
I’m sure my neighbors love to hear me belt out “Bicycle Race” when I feel so moved. It helps me take my mind off the monotony of the shoveling/raking/mowing, but I sometimes catch myself getting a little loud. Oops…
And why not listen to music while doing these things? After all, music has been a part of exercise programs for a long time.
Even now, one way I work out during the winter is to turn on the Wii and dance along to the latest version of Just Dance. I find myself breathing too hard to sing much though; plus, I have a difficult time keeping up with the dance moves without trying to sing some of the words to the more modern hip-hoppity, jip-joppity music on there.
I don’t mind some of the recent music. I’ve got some Bruno Mars and Ke$ha on my iPod, but I’m also enjoying the most recent albums (can we still call them that?) from Aerosmith and Bruce Springsteen, the best work those folks have put out in a long time. It’s just proof that some of the older groups are still the best.
Speaking of older groups, I even have some good old polka music on there! I am from New Ulm, after all…
The next time the snow falls (and we all know it’s inevitable), pop in your iPod and find at least some measure of enjoyment as you look ahead to lawn mowing season and the eventual turn to leaf raking and right back to shoveling again. But it’s easier to do these things with a little shuffle on your iPod and in your step!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is occuplanids, which means the little plastic clips found on bread bags in supermarkets, as in, “His study of the different varieties of occuplanids led him on a tour of all the area bakery shelves.” Check out www.horg.com for more information! Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
When Jade Schultz and Carlie Wagner got moved up to the varsity basketball team in 8th grade, I happened to wear a sweater vest on a home game day. Being the wonderful kids they are, they naturally mocked and ridiculed my “new look.”
They won that game. It just happened that I wore the sweater vest later in the season, and they also won that game. The following season, when I wore it for the home opener, those two hooligans laughed about it. Then they won again.
Since then, I have worn a sweater vest to school on home game days, and we haven’t lost a home game since.
Isn’t it amazing the superstitions we hold? Does my sweater vest do anything to help the girls’ basketball team win? Of course not, but it becomes a state of mind. I make sure I find Jade and Carlie every day when there’s a home game, just to make sure.
When I found out the Panthers were the home team for the state championship, I wasn’t taking any chances; the sweater vest had to go to Target Center. After all, as the commercial says, “It’s only crazy if it doesn’t work.”
Anyone ever involved in sports has had superstitions. In basketball, you probably had the same routine before every free throw, the same before an at bat in baseball or softball. What happened if you deviated from that routine? Well, if you didn’t have success, you knew what to blame.
Even in everyday life, many of us have these obsessive-compulsive tendencies. If our morning routine is ruptured in some way, we fear we’ll have a bad day. It shouldn’t matter if I shower before I eat breakfast, should it? Again, it’s all a state of mind.
I had an interesting set of occurrences this past week or so. The Friday of the sectional final basketball game, I was walking toward the offices of the Star Eagle when I noticed a penny on the sidewalk. Even though it was tails up, I picked it up and put it in my pocket. The girls demolished St. Peter to advance to state.
A funny thing happened on Wednesday, the day of the opening round of the state tournament. I had some students in Mankato at a writers’ conference. Walking through a parking lot, I saw a penny on the ground. Again, it was tails up, but I picked it up anyway, and I now had two pennies in my pocket. Despite some struggles in the first half, the Lady Panthers pulled away to a good win that night against Pelican Rapids.
Despite my best efforts looking, I didn’t find any pennies Friday or Saturday. In my superstitious mind, that explains why we had to work so hard to win those games. The funny thing is that on our way into the school Saturday evening to celebrate a state championship, my daughter noticed a penny lying on the sidewalk. Yup, tails up.
Why do we believe in these things? It’s probably because we really don’t have much control over a lot of things, and we feel this gives us a little more of that control. No matter how much we anguished over every lead change or official’s call we didn’t agree with, we couldn’t change what was happening on the floor. But by golly, I had my lucky pennies and my sweater vest, so we couldn’t lose! Yeah, that’s real control!
I feel like I’ve said so much the past week about our Lady Panther state champion basketball team. However, it deserves to be said again: these ladies represented NRHEG so well in so many ways. Not only are they the best team in the state, but they are the nicest, most respectful group of student-athletes you will find in the state as well. Congrats, girls, and thanks for letting us tag along for the ride!
Oh, and I may have to go shopping to expand my sweater vest selection for next year…
Word of the Week: This week’s word is schadenfreude, which is pleasure derived from the misfortune of others, as in, “NRHEG fans felt much schadenfreude when Braham’s leading scorer fouled out of the game and the Panthers won the state championship.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
Last week, I started pontificating about my coaching philosophy upon a request by a reader. I got so long-winded that I’ll finish up this week!
I recently read an article about youth sports that likened them to meat and potatoes. The basics and love of the game that are instilled at a young age are just like the basics of a meal.
I like gravy on my potatoes; games and competitions are the gravy. Here’s the rub: I love gravy, but I’m not just going to eat it by itself.
When we get to the point where we are asking kids to play too many games, it is like eating gravy by itself. If the focus on fundamentals disappears, the meal is not as satisfying in the long term.
The kids love the games, and so do I. But I also don’t want to get to the point where we’re playing so many games that we don’t have time to practice. Even in a win, there is always something to work on the next day.
I know a coach at the same level as my girls in 5th grade who has his girls playing a 50-game schedule every year; even our varsity doesn’t play that much! I always worry about burnout. It takes a special group of players (and parents) that want to travel all over and give up every weekend to play ball.
Winning is not everything, but there is a fine line to walk there. If a team has an opportunity to win at the end of a game, you need to give them that chance. If everyone has gotten opportunities throughout the game, crunch time can be given over to a group that gives you the best chance to win in the final minutes.
Learning to win and learning to lose are both good skills to have. Understanding that people on a team have different roles is important as well. Still, this has to be done delicately at times. Sometimes it’s easy: you can’t dribble well and thus can’t be a point guard, or you have a hard time throwing the baseball across the diamond and thus can’t be a third baseman. These ideas should be coupled with BUTs. BUT, if you work hard at ballhandling/throwing, maybe it’s something you can do in the future.
And that’s the thing. Sometimes a kid just doesn’t grow as fast as others, but will eventually turn into a good player. We can’t give up on that kid just because he or she doesn’t have the skills now. Kristina Cole is a great example of a basketball player who was average in ability coming into 7th grade. Then she grew and continued to work hard at her game. Before I knew it, I never got a chance to coach her in 8th grade because she got moved up and eventually scored 1000 points on varsity. But she was given chances along the way and encouraged to keep working hard.
Matt Dahle was pretty average at baseball when he played for me in 7th grade. He struggled at catching and hitting, but loved the game. He got opportunities to try some things. He also grew and kept working at his game. Last season he was an integral part of the Panther baseball team that won the Gopher Conference.
There are always exceptions. Some groups of kids can and want to play a lot of games, and it will only help them; the year’s varsity girls basketball team is a good example. Other groups flop from too much pressure or from maybe missing out on players that could have contributed.
Let’s keep these kids around as long as we can and see what happens. Let’s not drive them away through disinterest or burnout. It might lead to great things for Panther athletics in the future.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is pontificate, which means to be pompous or dogmatic, as in, “The columnist pontificated so much that people wondered if there was anything on which he didn’t have an opinion.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
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As basketball season hurtles through the playoffs and baseball gears up for spring, we are at the crossroads of the two sports I played growing up and the two sports that I have coached. One of my loyal readers asked if I would write about my coaching philosophy (yes, I do take requests!), so here goes.
When I started coaching in college, I thought everyone would be competitive like I was, and so I coached the way I had been coached. However, I quickly realized that not every athlete is cut from the same cloth, and coaching has been a constant adjustment over the years to the ever-changing youth athlete.
I coached three basketball teams while I was in college and then 11 years of junior high basketball at NRHEG. I also coached junior high baseball here for 13 years.
As I re-started my coaching career with my daughter’s grade when they began elementary basketball in 3rd grade, I really sat and thought about a plan for this group over the four years of elementary basketball. I talked with other coaches, including our head coaches here, to see if I was on the right track.
I knew some things that we absolutely needed to work on from my years coaching junior high. This was a nice advantage since I had seen what was needed at the next level up from elementary.
Here’s the trick: coaching your own child and the group of kids in that class is difficult. You become very invested and emotional because you really want to see your child succeed. However, the overriding goal always has to be the good of the group and the long-term viability of that team.
Whatever the sport, the beginning years should be focused on fundamentals. If a basketball player doesn’t have good shooting form, if a baseball player swings with an uppercut, if a football player doesn’t tackle properly, all is in vain. It’s hard to break bad habits in sports, so hammer home on those basics in the early years.
The tough part about that is keeping it fun too. Fundamentals are boring, so finding drills and activities that make things fun while still teaching the skills is key.
A coaching friend of mine told me that a coach’s goal should be that the same number of players that ends the year should want to play the next year. While that becomes more difficult the older kids get, it’s a laudable goal. Once kids hit high school, other things draw them away, including jobs and academic pursuits.
Too many times youth coaches want to whittle the numbers they have down to a manageable number. Let’s be honest; practices and games are difficult with hoards of kids running around. But the long-term viability I mentioned above makes it worthwhile. The more players you have now, the more potential and total numbers you will have when the games really count.
Todd Born and I have been coaching our current 5th-grade girls for basketball. We’ve tried to give lots of opportunities to see if this sport is for you. As tempting as it has been to take a top group and see what we can do, we’ve strived to divide the girls up equally and run two teams to different locations.
While trying to give kids opportunities, it’s also important to hold them to a high standard. Kids who only show up for practices when it’s convenient for them (or their parents) shouldn’t get the same considerations as those who are always there and working hard. If sports just become a social arena, the focus is lost. The skills you learn in athletics translate to the world outside of fields and courts. Teamwork, a good work ethic, and the ability to listen are valuable skills everywhere.
Wow, after I wrote my first draft this week, I realized I had enough material for two columns! Thus, I present to you my very first… to be continued!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is hagiarchy, which means a government ruled by people considered to be holy, as in, “Vatican City waited patiently for the election of a new pope to govern their hagiarchy.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
Good sportsmanship is the only sportsmanship
Written by Jim LutgensBefore every varsity event at NRHEG, I remind fans to, “Show your Panther Pride through good sportsmanship, which is the only sportsmanship in high school athletics.” This idea, however, seems to elude people at every level of athletic competition, and as playoffs approach, good sportsmanship should be insisted upon.
Here’s the basic idea that most people who yell at officials don’t seem to get: your bellowing won’t change what’s happening on the court. You can yell until your voice disappears and you’re blue in the face, but a good official will not be affected by a crowd, no matter how boisterous.
In fact, sometimes your yelling works against your team. Sometimes officials will subconsciously continue to not notice whatever it is you’re harping about.
I admit, I used to be a shouter. In the early years of my coaching career, I got after officials a lot. Shockingly, nothing ever seemed to change. Then I started doing some officiating and umpiring myself.
If you’ve never officiated or umpired a game, don’t ever bother to yell at one of them. Don’t even think about it! You have no idea what it’s like to try and notice everything that needs to be seen, especially in a varsity level event.
I learned how I wanted to be addressed, and coaches in the area are well aware of how to let me know they disagree if they want to be “heard.”
Don’t ever show up an official; it will just make them mad. If a coach lets an official know something that is concerning as the official runs past, it’s likely to get noticed. Baseball coaches know that there are better ways to let me know they thought the pitch was the opposite of what I called rather than screaming about it.
I was coaching my daughter’s basketball team during a championship game in a tournament. The officials were consistent in what they called and didn’t call; after all, this was 5th-grade basketball. The fans from the other team were irate every time the officials didn’t make a call they thought should be made or when a borderline call went against their team.
I was proud of our fans. The girl from the other team probably shuffled her feet right before the game-winning shot, but I didn’t hear an outcry when we lost the game after the non-call. The simple matter is that if you are in a position where one call or missed call can cost your team a game, it’s your own fault for being in that position. How many opportunities did you miss out on earlier that would have made that last call a moot point?
As our local teams make a playoff push, please remember these things when the referee misses what you thought was an obvious traveling or foul call. Standing up and screaming will not do the Panthers any good.
It’s important to be excited and into the game. We all hope we can head to Minneapolis to watch some basketball again this year.
If things don’t go our way though, please don’t blame the officials. Remember to show your good sportsmanship and understand that officials are human…and so are our players. They might make mistakes as well, but I hope nobody feels inclined to yell at them either. Go, Panthers!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is didactic, which means intended for instruction or to teach a moral lesson, as in, “The columnist’s tone seemed to become didactic, and some wondered if they were on the receiving end of a sermon.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
The Pope, the leader of the Catholic Church, shocked the world this past week by announcing his impending resignation. Not even his closest friends and advisors seemed to know this was coming. Claiming he would not be able to physically or mentally do the enormous job he had been tasked with anymore, he did what no other pope had done for 600 years – step aside when his time had come.
People all over the world admired Pope John Paul II, the previous pope, but it was painful to watch as he developed Parkinson’s disease and withered away. Maybe Pope Benedict was awakened by that memory and wanted to give the Church a chance to ease from one leader to another.
What will this new pope need to do during his reign? I would think many in America would say he should try to find a way to increase attendance and recover the faith that seems to be lacking.
I attend St. Aidan’s in Ellendale, a parish that is dying a slow death. Our attendance at a typical mass hovers between 30-40 people, and many of them are older members of the community. People are aware enough to recognize what is happening, but have no solution to halt this decline.
I’ve given a lot of thought to this and wondered and discussed what is happening with many people of varying levels of faith. I think I’ve finally figured out the problem: people aren’t afraid of God anymore.
Growing up, I remember a literal fear of God put into us by my parents. God was this amazing entity that had full power over us and determined whether we’d go to Heaven, where all our dreams would come true, or head to Hell, where we’d burn in eternal damnation.
To a youngster growing up in any era pre-1990s, that was a pretty amazing image. We never missed church growing up. If we were snowed in or too sick to go, we watched a televised service.
Think about the last 20 years. What do kids have to fear? If you think about it, God is a bit like a super hero to a young child. He has power, kids picture Him as living in the clouds, and He’s got these cool angels at his side.
Now you can watch TV or go to the movies or play video games with characters that encompass all that – and it looks so real! Kids have never seen this God fellow, but they’ve watched the Avengers kick Loki’s butt.
I love movies and TV shows that allow me to escape from reality, but I really think kids today have a hard time discerning reality from fantasy, and so God doesn’t seem so special anymore.
There are certainly other reasons for lower church attendance, but this might be one that has gone without much mention.
So what’s to be done? I know hard-line fundamentalists will disagree with me, but the Church needs to enter the 21st century.
Church is not exciting to kids. In our ADHD world, attention spans are waning, yet churches plod along with rote memorization and 15-minute sermons. If I have kids memorize things in my class, they will get nothing out of it. If I lecture for 15 minutes, I’ve lost them before I hit the five-minute mark.
I don’t know if you can bring that fear of God back to our youth, but it might be possible to return the respect they should have for Him. It would take a lot of change to a tradition-rich liturgy, but without change, it’s easy to see the Church continuing to shrink.
It’s hard to change. But the Church has done it before. The Old Testament God is an angry and vengeful God, but by the New Testament, He’s kind and benevolent, bestowing mercy on His followers. Maybe it’s time to change again and recognize what it will take to keep the Church vibrant in a world with ever-increasing pulls at attention. A new, liberal pope would go a long way to achieving that and making the Church more relevant again. I pray that can happen, one way or another.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is mercurial, which means unpredictably changeable, as in, “The new leader was mercurial, and the other members of the group never knew when he might change his mind.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
In November, I told you about why Thanksgiving is the best holiday of the year. Now we come to the opposite end of the spectrum: Valentine’s Day. Yuck.
For all my life, whether I’ve been in a relationship or not, I have intensely disliked this day. If you’re single, it’s vastly depressing as you watch all this lovey-dovey activity around you and realize how alone you are.
If you’re in a relationship, especially as a man, the pressure is on to get just the right gift or pay an extravagant amount for dinner/jewelry/flowers/all of the above.
Here’s the thing: I love my wife. I tell her this every day, and I mean it more every day that I say it.
It’s nice to go out of my way to do something special for Michelle sometimes, but this day seems so forced. It truly is a Hallmark holiday. Isn’t it better if I do something spontaneous? (Okay, I’m not really good at that either, but…)
I was surprised in doing some research to learn that Valentine’s Day was referenced by such notable authors as Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare. (I must have slept through that lecture in college.) Despite longings expressed through famous poets’ writings, I will not let my English major inclinations sway me from my dislike of this holiday!
I love Michelle. I picked out something that I thought she might like for Valentine’s Day this year.
I may not like the day, but I’m not dumb either. So, here’s a bold statement: (Disclaimer: This is said partially tongue in cheek.) Valentine’s Day is a cause of divorce in the United States.
How could that be so? Look at it this way. There are high expectations on this day.
If one member of the marriage has those high expectations and they are not met, there is anger. This anger can fester for some time, especially when others around the angry person are swamped in flowers and candy.
Suddenly, that person is looking at his or her spouse and examining every little flaw. It might not be immediate, but doubts begin to form. Doesn’t this person love me?
The Huffington Post reported that recent census statistics still show around one out of every two marriages end in divorce. The average amount of years before that happens is seven.
There are certainly a lot of reasons that people separate, some very legitimate, don’t get me wrong. I worry sometimes though, that when times get tough, people are too eager to just give up rather than work at it.
Listen, Michelle and I have had some rough patches, just like any couple. But we’ve worked hard at our marriage to keep it growing and getting stronger all the time.
She says that it would take me abusing her (I’m pretty sure she could kick my butt) or cheating on her (Why would I do that with such a beautiful wife?) for her to leave. Anything else that is tough for us can be worked out.
How will I be spending my Valentine’s Day? I’ll be sitting at parent-teacher conferences. I can guarantee that I’ll hear at least one divorced parent blame the other for why their child (stress on THEIR) isn’t performing to standards.
My one wish on this day full of love is that divorced parents would learn to get along well enough for the sake of the children. You don’t have to like each other, but you still have shared responsibilities for the correct raising of your children.
Please set a good example for them and work together so they can grow up and view relationships in a positive light, even when things don’t work out.
I don’t expect anything for this holiday, and my heart won’t be broken if I don’t receive anything. Although I really love Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups…
Word of the Week: This week’s word is uxorious, which means excessively devoted or submissive to one’s wife, as in, “The man was so uxorious that he was willing to buy feminine products for his wife at the store.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!