Thanks From a Grateful Country

Enjoy this special video on Veterans Day.

Soldiers surprising their families (Click Link)

Title IX is a Joke

In it's original intent it was supposed to create some equality in sports offerings. That is why today, there are as many women's sports teams as men's teams.

But it is all a sham. A complete sham and a big flim-flam. It's a monumental hoax.

25 years ago when I coached, I joked about Title IX, only to have an old coach tell me, "wait til you have daughters and you will think differently." So here I am with a 16 year old daughter and I realize that regardless of Title IX or any other legislation or purple lipstick you put on the pig, women's sports get shafted.

Oh sure, athletic directors can find enough energy to recruit 15 coaches to help out with the football team, but cant find enough money, time or energy to find one qualified coach for women's (you name the sport.) Often its just an assistant football coach who is wasting everybodies time coaching the sport just for the measly supplement.

You can tell the schools that truly invest in women's sports (Kings Mountain, Hendersonville). They understand that our girls need great role models, people that understand the female psyche and also someone qualified to teach a sport. But most idiot AD's find a  baby sitter. A make believe coach. A pretend wanna-be coach.

And this is an issue across the board. Look at who coaches the girls and boys sports teams at your middle school. Study who is coaching the JV and Varsity sports teams at your high school. And go find out about pay scales and recruiting budgets for the men's and women's sports teams at a close by university.

If we find obvious inequity we ought to lock that AD in a room with Pat Summit for 30 minutes while she rips him a new one.

My solution is each school should have an AD for men's sports and an AD for women's sports. Let each AD find the best qualified coach possible.

My hat goes off to the AD's that have a vision for all sports and treat women's athletics with the respect it deserves. There are so many great life lessons we learn through competition and the value of our athletes must be equal, whether they are on the gridiron or the tennis court.

Again, most schools can find 15 tobacco chewing, high pocketed, cussing and fussing, can't teach anything football coaches, but we can't find a match for any women's sports? Pisses me off, can you tell?

"Hey coach, Pat Summit's on line 1 for you!"

It's Tough Work but Somebody Has to do It!

As I prepare to lead the 3rd annual CEO Leadership Summit, I am getting excited about being around true servant leaders. These leaders don’t wait for the perfect time to use their gifts. Instead, they see opportunities to reach out, serve others and lead their organizations every day.


These 3 days will not be about finding some quantum-leap moment to improve our leadership skills, but it will be about looking for ways to stretch our minds and broaden our horizons.

This Leadership Summit experience is a different style of personal development. When great leaders come together, the synergy between relationships and mentoring can provide an avenue for leadership growth.

Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

WE ARE.....T.J.

I say “WE ARE” and you say “TJ.” “WE ARE…..”
I think it’s funny how you said TJ out loud even though you are reading my blog!!!!

But that is the chant I kept hearing over and over Friday night as my kids charter school, Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy, played their first ever home football contest. Headmaster, Joe Maimone and Head Football Coach, Tony Helton, were walking on air. I am sure when they walked up to that field and those lights came on, they had one of those moments like Rudy’s dad had the first time he walked into Notre Dame’s Stadium, “this is the most beautiful site these eyes have ever seen.” I'm sure Joe Maimone asked Coach Helton the old Field of Dreams line, "Is this Heaven?" and Tony replied, "No, Avondale."

Every game Coach Helton could give the We Are Marshall Speech. (Click Link)

Every team we play is bigger than us, faster than us, stronger than us and much more athletic than us. They all have twice as many players as us and have years of football tradition and feeder programs that just make their programs over power us. But Friday night was special. Even though we quickly fell behind 41 – 6, when we recovered a fumble, the crowd cheered like we were about to win the super bowl.

And we had a crowd. The typical 120 parents and students at a game turned into well over 1200 people. Many of those were kids from the lower school, all wearing uniforms of their hero TJ players. These kids sang the national anthem and it was more inspiring than a Blue Angels Jet fly over.

Not even aware that their heroes were being dominated, all they saw were these great young men in the burgundy and gold. I saw one little girl crying because her dad was making them leave at half time. “There will be more games sweet heart.”

“But they need me to cheer for them.” she cried.

I overheard a fan from the other team mention, “I don’t think I have ever been welcomed to a stadium like this before.” TJ fans are awesome. In all sports when our teams are getting killed, I don’t hear much grumbling about referees (except for me). I don’t hear comments about crazy head coaches (well maybe me again) and I don’t hear cries about the other teams bullying us (OK so I have some issues). What I hear from most parents is all of this encouraging, “keep your head up guys” “We are proud of you” “Great job men.”

Again we are down 35 points and our crowd breaks out into the chant, “WE ARE…TJ.”

We may never be a football factory. But we are a community of families that care deeply about helping guide our children through life and helping them reach goals and dreams that they never thought possible. We are a community that believes in character and values and honor and duty. And when you meet a student from Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy you feel good about the future of our world.

WE ARE (TJ)! WE ARE (TJ)!