Back to work
By dreardon
It was a good vacation, now back to the word factory.
What kind of sports-related stuff does a sportswriter do on vacation? Here’s what I did:
I went to Arizona for my niece Jennifer’s wedding to her high school sweetheart Tyler. Tyler is also Jennifer’s assistant basketball coach for a team of 12-year-olds. Jennifer gave me one of the Phoenix Mercury WNBA championship replica rings she was given when her team visited the Mercury.
Also, I got to go over my nephew Sammy’s playbook with him. He’s going to be the starting quarterback of his high school team in Ohio … as a freshman. Played catch with him and his older brother Jack, who is a starting receiver.
And watched Brasil play soccer on a big screen TV with my nephew Joey’s wife, Flavia. Her parents are from Brasil, and she’s a huge fan. And Flavia, who played high school soccer, made a simple yet profound statement: “I don’t understand why people don’t respect this game. To play it well is hard.”
We missed the Diamondbacks-Yankees game we’d planned to attend on our last night in Phoenix, but who cares? I’d already accumulated great sports memories just hanging out with the family.
I’ll throw out some topics to chew on for now, but let’s make this the blog equivalent of sports radio “open phones”. Anything sports-related is fair game.
>> Brian Ching should’ve been on the U.S. World Cup team. He’s a closer near the goal, and he’s physically and mentally tough. The Americans needed that against Ghana.
>> How much of an impact will Mouse Davis have on the UH football team this year?
>> “Howzit, Prez!”: Natasha Kai and her Sky Blue teammates (women’s pro soccer champions) are scheduled to visit the White House on Thursday.
–By Dave Reardon
Quick Reads
June 28th, 2010 at 10:55 am
Welcome back Dave! Sounds like you had a lot of fun with your family. Regarding your topics…
1. USA needed some offensive punch and it appears that Brian Ching could have provided the badly needed energy.
2. Mouse could be a big asset providing the o-line can give the QB some time and if Mack lets him and Rolo call the plays. None of this “veto” power and confusion over what play to call because of his interference.
3. It’s going to be a Kodak moment when Natasha and President Obama greet each other. Hope the cameras are rolling. Maybe she can give him a box of manapua!
June 28th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Welcome back Dave!!!!
. . . Did any law enforcement in Arizona make you produce identity documents????
June 28th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Welcome back Dave!
1) wasn’t Brian Ching injured? Maybe not at the time when they made the final cuts, but that time off could have certainly played a factor in he being selected or not.
2) Mouse will be as much of a benefit to the team as Coach Mac allows him to be. The situation is quite delicate because he is basically working under Rolo. But if Rolo is able to embrace the old man fully, then it’s lights out for our offense. Back to the days of 40+ points!
3) Nathasha? I love dat sista! She has the heart of a champion.
BIK
June 28th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
@Its over: Everyone I encountered was very, very friendly. I had to buy a pair of pants at Sears. The saleslady said “mahalo” when she saw my Hawaii license. I could tell from her voice she was from here. Turns out she’s from Waianae.
@BIK: Talked to Brian today. He says he was 100 percent fit. Tomorrow’s column will be on Brian Ching.
@Warrior Dave: I don’t know if Natasha can get good manapua in New Jersey, probably in New York, though.
June 28th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Sheesh, I pretend to care about soccer during World Cup.
The game is five seconds of highlights for a 90-minute match.
It’s like trying to watch a hoops game where 99 out of 100 shots are missed. You watch all that time for the one time the ball goes in the basket.
Yikeys.
I’m sure it’s more fun to play than watch, for folks like Brian and Natasha.
Did think the Ghana attackers were much faster than the USA defenders. Ghana beat USA last time too, so not sure how folks are saying USA was supposed to win. The better team won.
June 28th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
@Manoa Mist I agree the better team won. It means a lot to be ready to play from the start.
June 28th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
I don’t understand how soccer can be called football. Other than playing on a large green field, the two sports have nothing in common. I kept yelling at the teams to pick up the damned ball and run down the field with it or drop kick it or try tackling when on defense. Somebody better teach these people how to play REAL football
Anyhow, welcome back, Dave. What UH sports will you be covering this coming season?
June 28th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
@Capitol: I’m not 100 percent sure on this, but I think soccer was called football before American football existed.
I’ll be covering whatever UH sports are of interest to a lot of our readers.
June 28th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
What happened to someone like Craig Stutzmann for receiver’s coach ?
The UH Run & Shoot needs more variations than what it has shown the past couple of years. I kind of doubt that Mouse’s old school methods are enough.
June 28th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
@Rainbow Fan Well, I would see your concern more if Mouse Davis were hired as offensive coordinator rather than receivers coach. Nick Rolovich, the new offensive coordinator, will surely have some new wrinkles to add to the traditional run-and-shoot.
June 28th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Stutz’ UH coaching moments will come. He’ll just have to hang tight with Memphis for now. Hawaii seems to value the old “paying your dues” notion. Mouse is a legend. Sorry, cannot beat that. And he is a legend who will greatly add to the offensive showcase this year…or two. Stutz’ time will come. He just need to stay busy and keep getting older.
BIK
June 28th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
just wonder how much a 77 year old can give day in and day out for several months, plus all the travel. how much fuel in the tank does mouse have? monday thru friday might be a grind for him.
June 29th, 2010 at 1:15 am
Hey, The Dans are going to be 86 this year – and they claim that they can do whatever nneds to be done here or in DC twelve months a year.
Dave – Interesting experience at the UH ticket office yesterday while renewing our Wahine volleyball tickets. We wanted to move from the upper level to the lower level, but doing so would bump the costs of our two tickets from $255 to $595. We took a pass on that although we did move down six rows.
We expected to pay more but not that much more. I’m not sure that I even want to open the men’s basketball ticket renewal packet.
I wonder how many others are going to be turned away by the high ticket prices.
.