Ok... not really.
The Idaho State basketball team announces a few changes to its 2008-09 schedule on Wednesday, two of which involve bumping the final two home games of the season into the tiny confines of Reed Gym, and out of the Mummy's Tomb-like environment of Holt Arena. The reason is the Idaho High School Activities Association's state wrestling tournament is that weekend, and if you've ever been to that, you know it's fitting into Reed Gym about the same time a sumo wrestler fits into a Geo Metro. Check out the official Idaho State release here.
A lot of Idaho State people are upset by this. During the Doug Oliver era, the team played all its home games in Reed Gym. That was ok, because the team wasn't good enough to draw crowds large enough to fill 3,000-seat Reed Gym, much less Holt Arena. Joe O'Brien took over three years ago and one of his first decisions was to move the team back in the Minidome, and he's been able to bring out teams capable of filling it. So it's a safe bet Joe O'Brien isn't a happy camper. Kellis Robinett, the Idaho State Journal's ISU basketball beatwriter, certainly isn't happy. You can read Kellis' opinions here.
Let me tell you why I think this is not just a good thing, but a great thing. I go to Idaho State, I work at Idaho State, I'm an avid supporter of all things ISU sports, and there are few people in the Western Hemisphere that would be happier than Mitch Worthington if those last two games, against perennial power Northern Arizona and perennial not-such-a-power Sacramento State, actually meant something. Way more than Reed's capacity of 3,000 people will want to come to those games.
However, high school sports make up the backbone we build our communities on, and on this side of the state, wrestling is more popular than high school basketball, and it takes a close second to high school football. Having covered more than a couple of these tournaments, both in Holt Arena and at Nampa's Idaho Center, I can almost guarantee the state wrestling tournament will bring in more fans than any basketball game that didn't feature the Bengals hosting Duke or UCLA. As stated in the release in a quote by ISU AD Jeff Tingey, the local hotels and restaurants -- most of whom pony up sponsorship dollars for ISU athletics every season, knowing a majority of the programs will finish in the lower half of the Big Sky Conference and have a hard time attracting crowds -- make huge dollars off this tournament. The amount of money they'll make off this is much, much larger than anything it would pull from a ISU regular-season basketball game, and I'd use "much" seven more times if it wouldn't look completely asinine.
A college is not just supposed to be part of the community, and sometimes, the cornerstone of the community, but it's supposed to give back to the community. Would the Idaho State basketball players, especially senior and Pocatello native Matt Stucki prefer to play what might his final home game in Holt Arena? Sure. But that would force the wrestling tournament over to Nampa, and not only would take tens of thousands of dollars out of the local economy, it would also make the IHSAA think twice about bringing the tournament to Pocatello in the future.
Good for Idaho State making the right decision.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Who are you, and what have you done with eastern Idaho high school football
Ok, yeah. I moved to Texas for a year. I chased the money and better football, where Division I-A recruits get a yawn and a shoulder shrug because they're a dime a dozen instead of continuous front page coverage because they're the once-in-a-lifetime kid. I admit it -- that was me.
But that didn't give everyone else in eastern Idaho the right to send the high school football scene straight to hell in a handbasket while I was gone.
Mitch Buck is at Bonneville? What? Who's running things in Rexburg (and from the looks of things, he is _running_ things, which is something 'ol Mitch never cared much for)? Hillcrest has a coach from California? Someone from California was willing to coach Hillcrest? Wait...... Hillcrest won a game? AGAINST A 5A STATE SEMIFINALIST?
What have you people done? When I left this happy hardly known state a little over a year ago, I left things very well in hand. Highland would make the state championship game every year. If a team from eastern Idaho won the 4A championship, it would Tom Harrison and Pocatello. Ditto for 2A and Firth.
In the one year I was gone, Highland lost in the first-round to a team in its own district. Not only was this a team Highland had beaten already, not just in the regular season but also in a Kansas City playoff, but it was a team from Idaho Falls. Highland sees teams from Idaho Falls on its playoff schedule and immediately starts reserving hotel rooms for the next round.
A team from eastern Idaho won the 4A title, sure, but it wasn't Poky. It was Blackfoot, who apparently finally realized that just because it's Poky doesn't mean you can't win. All you have to do is get out of the Dome and away from the Fifth District officials who love to make some interesting calls in favor of District 25 teams in the waning moments of tight playoff games. Anyone remember the Century/Blackfoot debacle from 2003?
And Firth... everyone wanted to run Bill Vasas out of town on a rail, even after winning two state championships, but here's one thing he never did -- lose to West Jefferson. Not that that's a bad thing -- WJ went on to beat.. someone.. for the 2A state championship. Sorry to say it, northern and western Idaho people, but down here in eastern-ville, the 2A squads don't really know who they beat in the actual state championship game. They just know who they had to go through in Districts 4, 5 and 6 to get there. Just make the title game, and winning it is usually a foregone conclusion.
At least Shelley kept things normal. It was an odd year on the calendar, so of course, Shelley won the 3A state title. Snake River, Fruitland, the IHSAA... doesn't matter who lines up against the Russets. If the year ends with 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9, Shelley will win the state championship. Which, unfortunately, bodes not all that well for Shelley this year.
Anyway, I'm home now. No more 18,000 fans at high school football games. No more dealing with TV crews at high school games (unless you're talking about this weekend's Rocky Mountain Rumble at Holt Arena, which could end up being four nationally-televised butt-whippings on Idaho teams by four middle-of-the-road California teams). No more 20 or 25 Division I-A recruits to worry about every year, and no more mythical USA Today national rankings to trifle with.
Just Friday night Idaho football. Hopefully, things will get back to normal around here.
But that didn't give everyone else in eastern Idaho the right to send the high school football scene straight to hell in a handbasket while I was gone.
Mitch Buck is at Bonneville? What? Who's running things in Rexburg (and from the looks of things, he is _running_ things, which is something 'ol Mitch never cared much for)? Hillcrest has a coach from California? Someone from California was willing to coach Hillcrest? Wait...... Hillcrest won a game? AGAINST A 5A STATE SEMIFINALIST?
What have you people done? When I left this happy hardly known state a little over a year ago, I left things very well in hand. Highland would make the state championship game every year. If a team from eastern Idaho won the 4A championship, it would Tom Harrison and Pocatello. Ditto for 2A and Firth.
In the one year I was gone, Highland lost in the first-round to a team in its own district. Not only was this a team Highland had beaten already, not just in the regular season but also in a Kansas City playoff, but it was a team from Idaho Falls. Highland sees teams from Idaho Falls on its playoff schedule and immediately starts reserving hotel rooms for the next round.
A team from eastern Idaho won the 4A title, sure, but it wasn't Poky. It was Blackfoot, who apparently finally realized that just because it's Poky doesn't mean you can't win. All you have to do is get out of the Dome and away from the Fifth District officials who love to make some interesting calls in favor of District 25 teams in the waning moments of tight playoff games. Anyone remember the Century/Blackfoot debacle from 2003?
And Firth... everyone wanted to run Bill Vasas out of town on a rail, even after winning two state championships, but here's one thing he never did -- lose to West Jefferson. Not that that's a bad thing -- WJ went on to beat.. someone.. for the 2A state championship. Sorry to say it, northern and western Idaho people, but down here in eastern-ville, the 2A squads don't really know who they beat in the actual state championship game. They just know who they had to go through in Districts 4, 5 and 6 to get there. Just make the title game, and winning it is usually a foregone conclusion.
At least Shelley kept things normal. It was an odd year on the calendar, so of course, Shelley won the 3A state title. Snake River, Fruitland, the IHSAA... doesn't matter who lines up against the Russets. If the year ends with 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9, Shelley will win the state championship. Which, unfortunately, bodes not all that well for Shelley this year.
Anyway, I'm home now. No more 18,000 fans at high school football games. No more dealing with TV crews at high school games (unless you're talking about this weekend's Rocky Mountain Rumble at Holt Arena, which could end up being four nationally-televised butt-whippings on Idaho teams by four middle-of-the-road California teams). No more 20 or 25 Division I-A recruits to worry about every year, and no more mythical USA Today national rankings to trifle with.
Just Friday night Idaho football. Hopefully, things will get back to normal around here.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
"I'll take 'Things That Get Underpaid People Fired for $300, Alex'"
Or, as my... uh... only reader so far... pointed out...
"I'll take, 'Pranks played by somebody that rock for a thousand!'"
Priceless.
On the other hand... this was Adam Everett. This is the only time he'll be on camera all season. Seriously. He could hit the walk-off homer to win the World Series and still not get camera time.
Are we still in America?
I know this is supposed to be about Idaho and Utah sports, but something came across the wire today that absolutely irked me.
The LPGA is forcing all its players to know English by the end of next year.
Golf Magazine Senior Editor Michael Walker wrote an editorial about this which pretty much sums up my thoughts: check that out here.
Here's my thing -- this is not, as one clueless tournament director said in the first article, an American tour. It's the "Ladies Professional Golf Association," not "Ladies Professional Golf of America." Its best two players over the past few years, Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa, are not American. Walker uses the exact stats in his column, but something like half of the top players are east Asian.
Two of the tour's four major events are played outside of the US, in France and Great Britain (and while English is spoken in the latter of the two, it ain't the same kind we speak over here). More than half of its players are from a country other than America. So why don't we force every single person on the tour to know all languages?
Sure, the point is for players to be able to better interact with sponsors and playing partners at pro-am tours. So, we going to force the sponsors of the tournament in Paris to get with the program? Tell the CEO of Evian that he can't play unless he can understand every word of Will Ferrell's ESPY acceptance speech on behalf of Tiger Woods? Yeah, right.
This is still America, right? Last I checked, we don't have a national language. We're supposed to be a melting pot where people from different cultures can come together and co-exist peacefully. These golfers aren't even trying to become American citizens -- they just want to ply their trade here, among other countries. Its ridiculous to force them to conform to an arbitrary standard just because we can.
The LPGA is forcing all its players to know English by the end of next year.
Golf Magazine Senior Editor Michael Walker wrote an editorial about this which pretty much sums up my thoughts: check that out here.
Here's my thing -- this is not, as one clueless tournament director said in the first article, an American tour. It's the "Ladies Professional Golf Association," not "Ladies Professional Golf of America." Its best two players over the past few years, Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa, are not American. Walker uses the exact stats in his column, but something like half of the top players are east Asian.
Two of the tour's four major events are played outside of the US, in France and Great Britain (and while English is spoken in the latter of the two, it ain't the same kind we speak over here). More than half of its players are from a country other than America. So why don't we force every single person on the tour to know all languages?
Sure, the point is for players to be able to better interact with sponsors and playing partners at pro-am tours. So, we going to force the sponsors of the tournament in Paris to get with the program? Tell the CEO of Evian that he can't play unless he can understand every word of Will Ferrell's ESPY acceptance speech on behalf of Tiger Woods? Yeah, right.
This is still America, right? Last I checked, we don't have a national language. We're supposed to be a melting pot where people from different cultures can come together and co-exist peacefully. These golfers aren't even trying to become American citizens -- they just want to ply their trade here, among other countries. Its ridiculous to force them to conform to an arbitrary standard just because we can.
Friday, August 22, 2008
What in the... is this? And who in the... are you?
My name is Mitch Worthington. For four years, I worked as a sports writer and Sports Editor at the Idaho Falls Post Register, the largest-circulation paper in eastern Idaho and the second largest in the state besides the Idaho Statesman in Boise. I also worked at a couple of newspapers in Texas. Over seven years, I won a bunch of awards from state, regional and national press associations for everything from football game stories to 40-inch features about near-death comebacks to breaking news about sexual harassment involving a high school coach.
I've left that business now, and I'm finding I don't miss it much. The only thing I really wish I could still do is write columns. Sure, I loved covering games. I enjoyed chatting with the athletes, and I dug the adrenaline rush that came with filing stories on deadline. But to me, life is about so much more than what happened and how it happened -- it's about how it affects people, how it alters your view of the world, how it changes the way you live your life.
So, now that I'm back in a place and immersed in a sports scene I feel like I know as well as, if not better than, anyone, I'm gonna talk about it. Anything sports-related in Idaho and northern Utah is fair game -- from Utah Jazz basketball and BYU and Idaho State football all the way down to high school soccer, and anything in the middle. It'll be informative, but it will also be irreverent at times. Since I'm no longer affiliated with any specific news organization on a full-time basis, I can be opinionated, critical and homer-ish, all at the same time if I want.
At the very least, it should be a fun ride.
I've left that business now, and I'm finding I don't miss it much. The only thing I really wish I could still do is write columns. Sure, I loved covering games. I enjoyed chatting with the athletes, and I dug the adrenaline rush that came with filing stories on deadline. But to me, life is about so much more than what happened and how it happened -- it's about how it affects people, how it alters your view of the world, how it changes the way you live your life.
So, now that I'm back in a place and immersed in a sports scene I feel like I know as well as, if not better than, anyone, I'm gonna talk about it. Anything sports-related in Idaho and northern Utah is fair game -- from Utah Jazz basketball and BYU and Idaho State football all the way down to high school soccer, and anything in the middle. It'll be informative, but it will also be irreverent at times. Since I'm no longer affiliated with any specific news organization on a full-time basis, I can be opinionated, critical and homer-ish, all at the same time if I want.
At the very least, it should be a fun ride.
God help me.. but I might like soccer.
If you know me at all, you know this -- I don't like soccer.
If you don't know me at all... well, count your lucky stars. Then, know this -- I don't like soccer.
Just in case that was a bit fuzzy, let me clarify: I would rather be sentenced to a lifetime of front-row seats at Backstreet Boys concerts than watch soccer. I would rather mix up liver, asparagus, cherries, tofu and spoiled milk in a blender and chug it like it's a Miller Lite than watch soccer. I would rather vote for George W. Bush than watch soccer.
OK... maybe that third one was pushing it. But I'll assume you get my point.
My biggest problem with soccer is ... nothing. Nothing happens. They run back and forth, up and down a field for 90 minutes, sometimes more, and it's perfectly acceptable for both teams to leave the field without settling anything. Tell me another sport where neither team can score, but after a certain amount of time elapses, everyone just gets together and says.. "Yeah, let's just call it good." You can't. It's not out there.
Aaron Sorkin summed it up best in an episode of his sitcom SportsNight:
"We'll bring you the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat and, because we've got soccer highlights, the sheer pointlessness of a 0-0 tie."
So, with that in mind, let me stand up and make my confession: My name is Mitch Worthington, and I might like soccer.
Of course, it would make sense that, due to my acute disdain for the sport, I've been afforded many, many opportunities to watch it. I covered high school sports for seven years and probably watched 100 soccer games or more. I've seen several dozen college games. I watched Real Salt Lake play Real Madrid. None of it changed my mind.
The game I watched Friday did. At least a little bit.
It wasn't an Olympic match or an ESPN Classic replay of a World Cup final. It was a college soccer match between Idaho State and Utah State.
For those who don't know, I work as a graduate assistant in the Idaho State Sports Information department. There are many duties associated with my job, but on Friday, it sent me to the press box for an ISU soccer match, where I ran the scoreboard.
For the first 20 minutes, Idaho State looked... well... I guess bored is the best word to describe it. Utah State controlled possession and looked a little bit like a varsity team playing somebody's JV squad. ISU eventually got itself together and tied the game in the second half.
This led to overtime, where I fully expected no one to score. Ties in any sporting event are a lot like kissing your sister, and Idaho State had a whole bunch of tie games last year. That's just too much borderline-incestuous behavior for my tastes, but I expected I would be seeing more of it Friday.
Utah State thought not, and nearly scored twice in the first overtime. They had a few other decent chances in the second overtime, but in the end, Idaho State waited until the last second -- or, more accurately, the 16th-to-last second -- to avoid an overtime tie. Ashley Askwig, a freshman playing her first real college soccer match, picked up a loose ball, saw that Utah State's goalkeeper was laying behind her, and calmly scored the game-winner. All that happened because Alex Hansen basically flung herself at the ball and into a mass of humanity, forcing the keeper to dive for the ball.
I actually felt vindicated. Not because it was ISU's goal and match, although I do support the school I attend and work at. I think I'd have felt the same if Utah State had won in overtime. Overtime ties suck. Games that go into overtime but have a clear winner, do not. Games that go into overtime and lull me into thinking they're going to be ties before shocking me in the final 20 seconds -- very much do not suck.
So, maybe I'm not a real soccer fan -- just a fan of soccer games that have exciting finishes.
If you don't know me at all... well, count your lucky stars. Then, know this -- I don't like soccer.
Just in case that was a bit fuzzy, let me clarify: I would rather be sentenced to a lifetime of front-row seats at Backstreet Boys concerts than watch soccer. I would rather mix up liver, asparagus, cherries, tofu and spoiled milk in a blender and chug it like it's a Miller Lite than watch soccer. I would rather vote for George W. Bush than watch soccer.
OK... maybe that third one was pushing it. But I'll assume you get my point.
My biggest problem with soccer is ... nothing. Nothing happens. They run back and forth, up and down a field for 90 minutes, sometimes more, and it's perfectly acceptable for both teams to leave the field without settling anything. Tell me another sport where neither team can score, but after a certain amount of time elapses, everyone just gets together and says.. "Yeah, let's just call it good." You can't. It's not out there.
Aaron Sorkin summed it up best in an episode of his sitcom SportsNight:
"We'll bring you the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat and, because we've got soccer highlights, the sheer pointlessness of a 0-0 tie."
So, with that in mind, let me stand up and make my confession: My name is Mitch Worthington, and I might like soccer.
Of course, it would make sense that, due to my acute disdain for the sport, I've been afforded many, many opportunities to watch it. I covered high school sports for seven years and probably watched 100 soccer games or more. I've seen several dozen college games. I watched Real Salt Lake play Real Madrid. None of it changed my mind.
The game I watched Friday did. At least a little bit.
It wasn't an Olympic match or an ESPN Classic replay of a World Cup final. It was a college soccer match between Idaho State and Utah State.
For those who don't know, I work as a graduate assistant in the Idaho State Sports Information department. There are many duties associated with my job, but on Friday, it sent me to the press box for an ISU soccer match, where I ran the scoreboard.
For the first 20 minutes, Idaho State looked... well... I guess bored is the best word to describe it. Utah State controlled possession and looked a little bit like a varsity team playing somebody's JV squad. ISU eventually got itself together and tied the game in the second half.
This led to overtime, where I fully expected no one to score. Ties in any sporting event are a lot like kissing your sister, and Idaho State had a whole bunch of tie games last year. That's just too much borderline-incestuous behavior for my tastes, but I expected I would be seeing more of it Friday.
Utah State thought not, and nearly scored twice in the first overtime. They had a few other decent chances in the second overtime, but in the end, Idaho State waited until the last second -- or, more accurately, the 16th-to-last second -- to avoid an overtime tie. Ashley Askwig, a freshman playing her first real college soccer match, picked up a loose ball, saw that Utah State's goalkeeper was laying behind her, and calmly scored the game-winner. All that happened because Alex Hansen basically flung herself at the ball and into a mass of humanity, forcing the keeper to dive for the ball.
I actually felt vindicated. Not because it was ISU's goal and match, although I do support the school I attend and work at. I think I'd have felt the same if Utah State had won in overtime. Overtime ties suck. Games that go into overtime but have a clear winner, do not. Games that go into overtime and lull me into thinking they're going to be ties before shocking me in the final 20 seconds -- very much do not suck.
So, maybe I'm not a real soccer fan -- just a fan of soccer games that have exciting finishes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
