Front Page Of Sports This Week

From The Cheap Seats: NCAA Ending Didn’t Disappoint, One Shining Moment Did

Come on CBS. Seriously? Jennifer Hudson singing ‘One Shining Moment’? In another attempt to balk at tradition in sports, CBS had to out do itself in the final lasting images of their annual NCAA men’s basketball tournament that fans stay up past 10:30 to see.

The song has history. It was written by David Barrett a singer/songwriter from Michigan in the mid-1980’s. It was originally planned to debut after the Super Bowl in 1987, but was cancelled. Then, CBS asked to use the song after the 1987 NCAA championship game between Indiana and Syracuse. The positive public response led to it becoming an annual feature. It didn’t hurt that Keith Smart made the game winning shot as time expired to give kids all over the country dreams of doing the same.

I have watched over the years as they have gone from Teddy Pendergrass and Luther Vandross have sung it. Pendergrass was ok, Vandross was not.

It’s like going to your favorite band’s concert and not hearing that one song that made them as a band. Why mess with it? Why change something that works? Was there data somewhere that said that they needed a change? I’d like to see that information if it exists.

I go back to what changed. Did the Pendergrass version not inspire? Did the Vandross version not motivate? What will this version do? Ruin the moment? Turn off TV’s?

So, how do they come back from this? My suggestion is move everything to ESPN. The NCAA wants to expand the tournament to 96 teams which could open the door for a new network to cover the new first round of games. If any part of the tournament is on ESPN, I suggest the just move the whole thing there. They already have Jay Bilas and Brent Musberger calling games for CBS as they also work for ESPN/ABC.

ESPN covers college basketball well and basically camps out each week during the season with their College Gameday show that they started in recent seasons for basketball.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, this column is about the 90 seconds after the postgame is over. Youtube it if you need to.

Maybe I’m stuck in the 1980’s. However, when the song begins with Indiana celebrating and shots that pan the disappointed Syracuse bench and crowd, that is good stuff. Oh well, I wonder what the public response on this will be to this years version? Will there be one?

With that said, this was the best NCAA tournament that I can remember. There were so many good basketball games.

Monday’s title game was a gritty performance by the Butler Bulldogs and part of me felt that the last shot by Butler was meant to go in.

Though next year may not match this year, there will be a lot of watchers I am sure. Can UNI make a third straight tournament? Will Iowa or Iowa State get back to the big dance. We will see.

Thanks for reading and we’ll see you, at the game!

From The Cheap Seats: CVC Has New Website

Like many of you I look for as much information as I can find about the respective schools that I cover (Tipton, North Cedar, Durant and Wilton). Whether it is in a newspaper or on the Internet, news is news. With that, I thought that I would make you, the reader, aware of a new outlet for Cedar Valley Conference news.

The Cedar Valley Conference has recently launched a new website. The web address for the site is: http://www.cedarvalleyconference.org

Tipton athletic director Tom Gruenwald said that the idea behind the site is to be more efficient.

“This is a great site for everyone that has an interest in our conference. It will have scheduling information for the whole conference and much more,” said Tipton athletic director Tom Gruenwald.

According to Gruenwald 10-percent of the site is live right now, but that is more than enough for users to get something out of a visit to the site.

The site came about as the CVC athletic directors and principals were looking for a way to be more efficient and get the conference brand name out to the public more.

The site has pages for each school and a conference wide calendar for athletic and fine arts programs. There are also pages for By Laws, Championship History and a tally for the All Sports Trophy.

Wilton athletic director and conference secretary Lance Pedersen said that the conference athletic director’s would update the site.

“We (AD’s) and a few others at each school will be responsible for inputting the information on the site. We will be getting spring schedules up in the next month or so and then baseball and softball schedules will be up in the coming months,” he said.

Pedersen also said that a feature that will help the athletic directors is that administration duties like contracts and master schedules for every activity will be used with this site.

“From my job perspective, this will make things a lot easier. Instead of mailing out contracts, we can electronically send them and that will save a lot of time. Also, if there is a change in anything like practice time, game time, etc. you can get an instant e-mail about it. That will be nice,” he said.

Both Gruenwald and Pedersen said that the site is live, but still being updated. They both encouraged those curious about the site to visit it and see what it has to offer.

“What is up now is just a scratch of the surface. There will be a lot of features that will be up as time goes on and fans, parents and administrators of the conference will be impressed with what it is going to have to offer,” said Gruenwald.

Tipton will use the team of Michele Gipson, Chris Habben and Gruenwald will input the information on the website.

Sorry Wrestling Fans!

Due to a fax not coming from Winterset High School and complicated results sent from the Northeast Goose Lake tournament, there will not be wrestling results from Tipton, Durant and North Cedar in this week’s paper. Weather forced the postponement and/or cancellation of all wrestling action on Thursday, thus you will notice an absence of wrestling coverage in this weeks paper. Don’t worry, those stories will be in next week and looking ahead to this week, there will be plenty of wrestling news coming up in the paper next week and through the end of the month.

From The Cheap Seats: Not Quite Goal Reached

Goals are good to have. Written down goals are even better. Every year, I try to have some personal goals of some sort. This year’s goal was to read more. More specifically, one book a month, which comes to 12 a year. I got the idea of reading a book a month after reading a book in 2008 by Orlando Magic Vice-President Pat Williams. Williams challenges people to read a book a month. If you read an hour a day, by the end of the week you should have read an average 300-page book. In theory, you could read four books a month that way, so when I put a goal down, I aimed low, after all, I am a busy man.

I fell short. I have read eight books this year. All have been fun and I would suggest them to anyone. This next year, I will try again with 12, knowing that reading eight is very possible to do.

Some of the books that I read are at the Tipton Public Library, some books I have and some books I have bought. Here is the list of my eight books, with a brief summary to hope to draw you in to want to read one:

Playing For Pizza, by John Grisham

A fictional NFL cast-off resurfaces in Italy playing for an Italian professional football team. Not your typical law-type Grisham story, however, it was a quick read and pretty descriptive on what life playing for a football team could look like.

Have a Little Faith: A True Story, by Mitch Albom

Albom is a sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press. He has written novels like Tuesdays With Morie. I actually listened to this as a book on tape. First one in a while for that matter. Very entertaining and a non-threatening, religion hammering, you must do this to get this type of book. Follows a rabbi and pastor around and tells how they came to their present day jobs.

Hayden Fry: A High Porch Picnic, by Hayden Fry

This is one of my favorite books. It gives a detailed account of Hayden Fry’s coaching career. It takes you from Baylor, SMU, North Texas and to Iowa and it is well written. Good book for Hawkeye fans.

Around The World In 80 Days, Jules Verne

I don’t read many non-fiction books, however, this is the second one that I read this year. I am a big Back to the Future fan and Verne is mentioned as a favorite author by Emmet ‘Doc’ Brown. I saw this book at a Tipton Public Library book sale and bought it. Read it, liked it and would highly suggest it be read. It’s a good adventure book.

Covering Iowa: The History Of the Des Moines Register, William B. Friedricks

Being in the newspaper business, this book is really interesting to me. I think that if you like to know about how businesses come to be successful, you would like this book. With the current state of the Register, you would be shocked at how far the paper has fallen from its early and even as late as 1980’s days.

How Do Be Like Rich DeVos: Succeeding With Integrity In Business And Life, by Pat Williams

Pat Williams is a good story teller and this book is a good look at a successful business man and how he got to be successful. DeVos is the owner of the Orlando Magic and the co-founder of Amway products.

Cinderella: Inside The Rise Of Mid-Major College Basketball, Michael Litos

This book is a behind the scenes look at mid-major basketball. The best part about this book is how they tell the story of the struggles to fill out a schedule. Why won’t D1 teams play them home and home? Also what struggles they face as they try to get up the respect ladder of basketball is a highlight of this book.

Insanely Great: The Life And Times Of Macintosh, The Computer That Changed Everything, by Steven Levy

If you want to know how Apple came to be, this is the book for you. It starts back in the 1970’s and goes up through the IMac computer.

I have already got a list of books to read for this next year. It stars with the book that I am reading now, Brand NFL, Making And Selling America’s Favorite Sport. Other books that are on my list are: The Last Amateurs by John Feinstein; Last Dance by John Feinstein; Coaching Your Kids To Be Leaders by Pat Williams; From Six-On-Six To Full Court Press by Janice Berans; E.Wayne Cooley And The Iowa Girl by Chuck Offenberger; The Games Do Count by Brian Kilmeade; Dave’s Way by R. David Thomas; Team Of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin; and When The Game Stands Tall by Neil Hayes.