DAWG FOOD
Thursday is here and TGIF is on the way!……It’s fun receiving news from my players on how and what are they doing now. Like one of my team mom’s noted to me recently…..”Time sure doesn’t slow down”….and if anything…..I think it speeds up….=)
We lost a great guy yesterday….Harold Strauss. He was the HC at Colton HS when they were in the CBL. Boy did he have some powerhouse teams. But what I remember most about Harold wasn’t all his players that went on to the NFL, it was his smile and positive demeanor to everyone. Now don’t get me wrong, when that whistle blew Friday night at 7pm and you were on the opposite sideline, he was a Grizzly bear. But if you met at a local Stater Brothers, it was like seeing your long lost brother. Our profession lost an incredible Ambassador for HS Athletics.
The other day I was mentioning some guys that had incredible legs…..We also had few more that came to mind. Brennan Alvarez in 06’ had 49 Kickoffs, man was he good on that 12-1 team. Nate Schultz who I mentioned as a HOG was our Punter on that team as well and he started at Right Tackle for us! Didn’t run any fake punts with him.
Jon Jimenez in 07’ was a KO guy and played DB as well. He was a heck of a baseball guy too. Over the years, I had a lot of multiple sport guys. I believed if you could play multiple sports….Go for it….HS is a short career. I never asked a player make a choice. That’s a sure fire way to lose a good athlete.
Connor Duncan was another guy that we could count on. JR Riley did everything for us as well. He’s coaching baseball & football and teaching at Kaiser HS now. He was a Terrier Asst for me as well. We missed him when he got that job. A Redlands guy in Fontana….hard to take….=) (Wes you listening?)
I was remembering back a few years when Chuck Baker was coaching for me. He left my staff to take the REV job when it first opened. He was a gracious gentleman that was put in a very difficult situation. But he handled it like a true professional and he worked his ass off. They started with a Varsity schedule that first year….brutal. But it is what it is…..
When Chuck was putting his staff together, he was trying to steal a few good guys off my staff. One of them was Bill Havard. Lucky for the Terriers we were able to keep Bill. But I regress…. So I went to The Packinghouse Silk Screen Business in town (that dates me) and printed up some T-shirts for REV…on the front ….in big bold RED letters…..” REV PRIDE”….I had the Packinghouse send them to Chuck with a letter. Congratulating him on getting the job and to enjoy his first set of coaching shirts, compliments of “The Packinghouse”…..=)
So Chuck at his first REV football staff meeting, took the shirts out and presented his staff with these new shirts. Boy they looked good…..Bill Havard was at the meeting….As they sat down….Bill was sitting behind another guy in the classroom….when he noticed a small red line in the center of the back of the T-shirt…..and there…. in the smallest font possible…..almost un-readable it was so small….you had to get about 2 inches away to read it…..was written ”DAWG FOOD”…..They came unglued….=)….esp Chuck…God I loved that….=)…I still smile to this day….=)
Chuck gathered all the shirts and returned them to the Packinghouse….He walked in and slammed them down on the front desk with a nasty note he had written…..he didn’t say a word….the owner chased him outside….Chuck confronted the guy in no uncertain terms….=)….He gave me up….the dirty dog…..=) BTW….the owner gave me that note Chuck had hand written….I still have it….framed….=)
Chuck did get me back…..but that’s a story for another day…..but let me just state for the record….mine was better!….=)
Talk Soon….Jim