The last of the year.

Well, one semester is over and I am quite pleased with my progress.  I spent far more time at sporting events than I intended , and I wrote less than I intended. I consider this a win.

Now, let us discuss two pairs of games. The first pair is Michigan Hockey Vs Union and Michigan Hockey vs MSU.
Foe hockey, the contrast was our team's attitude.
All I can say is that our game against Union was embarrassing. It was embarrassing because it felt like we were not even trying. It's hard to go to a game and watch us not play with fire. When I came to Michigan, our Hockey team was one that would steal the puck in the neutral zone, and bring it hard on the penalty. Why were we letting them pull that on us? Well we did play with fire when we were two men short and getting scoring opportunities. We also hammered it to them int he last few minutes.
Altogether, as a fan, it was disappointing. The crowd was small and the team didn't push it. I did start a new trend of wearing a fedora and a Michigan flag to all games.
So our team went up to Alaska to find themselves, (and snap the losing streak.)
The MSU game was completely different. We scored first, we pushed hard, and kept the puck away from them. Also, the crowd was really into it. The best chants were "BCS" and "rough the punter." They came turned on. Unfortunately, they decided to fall asleep a couple of times; once after our first score giving MSU a goal and during a couple of penalties in the first five minutes of the third bringing the game to within one. Still, we showed how we play when we bring it. We just have to bring it for the full sixty minutes. It is good to see our effort back.


Now let us talk about a pair of games attended mostly by children.
The first game was the Women's basketball game against Iowa State. The game had no student section, but there were tons of little girls, (a lot of whom were girl scouts.) There was a significant birthday party in front of me. I suppose that is a good idea. My kids will be raised on Michigan Sports. Actually, I am very disappointed in our students. Our ladied are very good, and they played an exciting game. Yes, I understand that the students can't give everyone their time, but I think I saw three other students there (other than the teams and the band.) I might head back, the team earned my respect. They already have the respect of the band and the national media, just not the students. Ug. Just go out people.

So, let us wrap it up with Men's Wresting vs Wisconsin. This was odd, because I was surrounded by children once again, but this time they were boys. I guess it figures. Little boys like wrestling. I was actually quite surprised at how well attended the match was. Anyway, little boys come for the sport, not for birthday parties. They come for themselves. I guess I am just projecting gender bias now. So I will shut up. As for match, what is there to say about Wrestling? It's a simple sport that moves pretty quickly. It can be pretty exciting, especially when it is close. Michigan went up early, then Wisconsin tied it up with three matches to go. However, we won the last three putting us on top. I guess I have a few observations. The first observation is about weight classes. Obviously, it is to a wrestler's advantage to be muscular and lean to try to maximize their effectiveness of their allotted mass. All of them pretty much looked alike, except their frames (an bicepts) got larger as the weight classes got higher. The heavyweight was an odd jump though. Since all weight helps these guys have some extra padding on them. Muscle helps more than other mass, but there is a diminishing return on the effectiveness of building muscle. Bodyfat, on the other hand is easy to add. I would never call these guys fat, but they are noticably bigger than all of the other weight classes. It was a stark contrast since they went last. My other observation is that almost all of the wrestlers for both teams, were state champs in high school. When you think about it, there are a number of weight classes in high school, and like 8 athletic division, so for each state there are quite a few kids crowned champ in a year and they have four years to get it. So, I guess, having state champs isn't that uncommon. Also, Michigan and Wisconsin, pretty much have their pick of the litter when it comes to in state recruiting. However, to have teams full of them shows that these are the big name schools in wresting. Once again, this is a sport for which I could attend quite a few events.

I am sorry, if these are not the most exciting posts. I will try to get back to the before-after format I had at the beginning of the year. Now that I am not worried about papers and assignments, I should have a little more mental energy. Also, I may not attend as many events next semester.

OK now for some statistics for the semester.
Sports Attended: 16 (of 28)
Events Attended 43
Weekly High (6)
Daily High (3)

Next Event: Ice hockey vs Lake Superior State, January 6th

Winding down.

Unfortunately, There are not may sporting events over the course December.
This past week. I attended the MAC football Championship, and Michigan's hockey game against Union.

In a few minutes, I will be heading to the Michigan Women's Basketball game against Iowa State.
Beyond that, the only thing I have for the month, is Ice Hockey against Michigan State and Wrestling against Wisconsin, Next weekend. Wow, I have attended as many Michigan events in one day as I am planning to in this entire month. Hmm... Anyway, I must be off. Analysis of the past week or so will come tonight.

By the Way, my BCS Predictions:
AQ (Already picked): LSU, OSU,Oregon,Wisconsin, Clemson, WVU
NON AQ: Boise (Although TCU won its conference)
At large: Alabama, Stanford, Michigan
I think Michigan's brand name will put it above Virginia Tech and Kansas State, even though they might be a little more deserving. I am not even going to touch who goes to which game besides LSU in the BCS title game and the auto tie-ins.

A pair of safeties.

They say the definition of a rivalry is that one fears losing more than one desires to win. I couldn't agree more. While the game is a nice capstone to the season, it doesn't really prove all of that much. However, what it avoids is a very stinging shame for yet another year.
As for the game. I was honestly expecting one team to bring it and the other team to, well not. I thought it would be pretty obvious by the end of the first quarter. It wasn't, but we kept ahead. As for the game, if you were a Michigan fan and felt that you you paid too much for your ticket, then you are not actually a Michigan fan.

I showed up an hour early and the stands were full within a half hour. What was strange about it is that we were not just excited about the home team. We were anxious about the visiting team. I have never really experienced that. Part of what makes Ohio State a worthy rival is that they show up as the team to beat. It starts with the fans. They took over a lot of one side and peppered themselves throughout the stadium, and they made themselves known throughout the game. Their band was spot-on despite the difficulty of their arrangements, and their traditions are actually fun to watch (American flags and running on shoulders). They came in with all of the pomp one would expect. They played well, but not as well as us, for once. Braxton Miller will be force next year. However, Denard Robinson had shown himself to be a force right now.

So we won, It was odd, a seven year monkey off our back. We all knew what we were going to do. We needed it to mark the release. The celebration spilled onto the field, but it certainly took its time. We waited for the players to exit before we went on, and even then it was slow. It had something to do with the six foot drop. Still, what does one do when storming the field? Bounce up and down, sing along, take pictures, mill around, I did all of those. I joined in chants of "B-C-S" and "Bra-dy-Hoke." Then we left. Michigan Stadium is not made for rapid field evacuations. Even the teams take a while. We ended up walking up some stands on the side of the field to get back over the wall.
On matters of control, the students were pretty well behaved. Circles of police surrounded the goal posts. I did see one injured girl being carted off the field. My guess is that it had something to do with the drop. I can only hope that it wasn't because someone fell on her. Blarg!

Anyway, what does it mean? It's hard to believe that we are really on top. A ten win season, undefeated at home with a number of wins on which to hang our hats, and lacking the embarrassment of an eight straight loss to OSU, what more could we want? How about the Big Ten and National Championships? Yes, I said it. It's what we want. Still, we have to love this year. We are also confident to take on whomever we get in whatever bowl game we get.
Next year is going to be tougher. We start against Alabama, and a lot of the chaos in the Big Ten will settle out. OSU will be a tough team. Why am I talking about this? Because, I do not look at this season as the end of anything. It is not an accomplishment, per-say. It is only the beginning. I am looking forward to the long and storied era of the Brady Hoke vs Urban Meyer.

On a side note, I attended the NIU-EMU game yesterday. I of course rooted for NIU. There was everything I would want in a game, mainly, my team scored a safety and we won. Huskie stadium is pretty nice with its internal facilities (including a gymnastics gymnasium,) but it does not lend itself to the field storming because of the ten to twelve foot drop. Anyway, I am impressed that NIU kept it together even with Coach Kill leaving. I apologize to all of you who has adopted EMU as their local MAC team, since it is not bowl eligible thanks to NIU. I am hearing good things on the recruiting side of EMU. It would be cool to see them turn around what can best be described as "The Rodney Dangerfield of College Football."

Tomorrow is the Men's Hockey game against Union College.

PS. I am watching the Stanford vs Notre Dame, and their shiny helmets are just mesmerizing me.

Now what?

OK so I officially wrote two articles for the school paper.
http://www.michigandaily.com/sports/wolverines-place-15th-overall-ncaa-championships-terre-haute
http://www.michigandaily.com/sports/michigan-runners-place-20th-ncaa-nationals

I am also getting sick of writing, and I need to prevent burnout.

I attended the basketball game on Monday by sneaking into the student section. While I appreciate that we started the game by being 21-0, I would hardly call it a run. It was more like Towson forgot how to score.
Lets be tough; turning down the lights and blasting music is a little too NBA. We do not want a player lockout. Forming a line of cheerleaders is a little high-school. Still, I would take a little bit of immaturity over unnecessary show. Can't we just run out to the fight song with everyone looking on? Maybe we could be lead out by the mascot? Oh wait, we don't have one, and my idea of making the rocket man out mascot has a few foreseeable obstacles for a basketball arena.

Training for the paper?
I don't think I can attend another sorting event not in the press box. Forget the student section. The press box has snacks and lots of pertinent reading material. Still the downside of the  press box is that you have to wear team neutral clothing and cannot celebrate after a big play.
Thus was my training for the paper. The only problem is that I doubt I will ever enter one again. I might have a bit of a personality conflict with the daily staff. I will not discuss that here. I have no real complaints, and would not discourage anyone else for writing for them.
I was glad to see my two favorite big ten teams go at it in a tough volleyball game. If you don't know me, those teams are Northwestern and Michigan.

Road warrior points and a complete freek out;
Let is not be said that I did not support the cross country teams this year. Why did I drive 6 hours and spend the night in Indiana, because I agreed to do so. The national meet was cold and wet (perfect cross country weather), and we didn't make it as top teams. That being said, the interviews were really fun. I found it quite easy to talk to the coaches and runners, which is odd because I hate talking to people. I guess when I am talking about something I like, it isn't that hard. I got some good stuff. It's kind of disappointing that I had to leave a few great parts out of the articles because they didn't really fit the angle of the story. I will hang onto coach Gibby saying, "I don't beleive in moral victories in athletics." I would like to write up more events. We will see how it goes.

Utter disappointment in hockey with some rude Ohio State fans:
 Not much to say about the Hockey game, other than the OSU fans are not as polite to the guy who gives the one minute warning at the game. It is better to be the on the nicer side of a rivalry. We did not paly our best in either game. I blame the home whites. We always play better when we wear the yellow uniforms. I don't know why.

What can I say about the football game? I'm kind of getting tired of standing around in the cold, but this week will see my last outdoor event of the season. It was a packed house to see our best win in the past four years. I have been looking forward to this game all year. I don't know why people thought that Nebraska would just walk over the big ten this year. Just because a team can consistently beat Kansas and Colorado but lose to any given team from Texas or Oklahoma, does not mean it can waltz through the Big Ten. We aren't the Big East. We actually play competitive football here. I like how the video boards shared my sentiment when they displayed, "Welcome to the Big House."
On a side note I think football analysts need to have shorter memories when it comes to assessing the strength of a football team and program, but that is a topic for a different day.

Looking forward. Tomorrow I head back to Illinois, where I will hopefully be able to catch NIU sealing the Mac West Championship for the second year in a row. I may also eat a big turkey dinner with my family.
Then I am back to Ann Arbor for The Game. The Game is an odd thing. It's like all other sports don't matter compared to it. It's like records are gone, and all there is at that time is a field, two teams, and over 100,000 a lot of noisy fans. It's like all of sports begins at kickoff, and then goes back on hold when the final seconds tick off the clock.

A new endevor.

As I said before, I feel very awkward when there are no other spectators. For cross country I ended up standing around the awards ceremony,the teams started filling in around me. I didn't know anyone and I felt like a creep. Why? I know they appreciate the fans, but I don't really feel like a fan. I can't even bring myself to congratulate the teams. I am socially awkward.
OK, are you ready for my means around the awkwardness. I will now be covering sporting events for the Michigan Daily. I have to shadow another reporter at the volleyball match which means I will have to miss the hockey game. However, on Monday, I head off to my first assignment, the cross country nationals in Terre Huate Indiana. W00t! I will be missing class for it. I don't care.

Andrew Crow
Michigan Daily, Corresponding Reporter

Let's hear it for running

I went on location to Toledo on the Ottawa golf course, where my good friend AJC (No relation) ran her city meets in high school. It was an absolutely perfect day for a meet. It was cool enough to make running pleasant, but not so bad as to make it painful to stand still.
For the men, I showed up at the gunshot. The men stayed surprisingly clumped together through the first half. Michigan had a great showing, staying in the top teams throughout the first half half. They passed up Notre Dame (who have some serious fans) to take third. Indiana fought a war of attrition to take second and Wisconsin began in first and ended by their five runners crossing shoulder to shoulder just because they could. Wisconsin is yet to no make it to nationals since the system was put in place. While Michigan does not Automatically qualify, they stand a good chance of getting to nationals on time.
I was considering not staying for the women's race, but I am glad I did. The women tended to break up much more quickly, which is understandable as the race was shorter. Our women pushed it better than I have ever seen.  We dominated. Our top ladies were first, second, fourth and eighth in the overall scoring. They earned a first place finish and a trip to the nationals in Terre Haute Indiana a week from Monday. I am half inclined to skip class and head down there.
A bit of commenting on spectating. First off spectating a Cross Country race involves running. You have to beat the runners to the next viewing location. Thankfully they have a longer trip to go. We'll I wouldn't have a problem, maybe. Anyway the spectators do have one restriction on how they can get to the next location, they cannot interfere with the race. This was not a problem with the men, because the men were so clumped together. The women, had a problem though. People got impatient and started moving between the runners in droves. This was complete disregaurd for the sport. I am disapointed. Boo.

As for being a spectator, I always feel so weird being there. Cross country spectators are essentially a few parents the other gender's team and the the track and field teams. Since I am not a member of these teams, I feel really out of place. I can talk to a relative or two, but that is about it. There was a woman taking notes, I was not sure if she was working for the paper or the school. I asked her if she was working for the Michigan Daily. It turns out she was working for my second guess and one of my favorite websites, mgoblue.com. She said that the daily would not send anyone to the meet. I feel i must rectify this. I am heading the daily sports meeting tomorrow. I will volunteer to cover any minor sport I can, including the national championship for cross country, and possibly the field hockey championship if we upset UNC tomorrow. What this means is that I will actually have to start writing in an interesting manner.

Weighing in.

It is odd, I don't have any work to do this weekend? Do you think that means I would spend more time with sports. To be honest sports are a distraction. A free weekend means I don't need to get distracted. It also means that I am not tied to A2 this weekend. I might take off for Illinois (That has nothing to do with football), or perhaps some state which I have never visited. New Jersey? Nah, I think I'll head out there for a crew meet. That being said, I will head down to Toledo for the NCAA great lakes cross country regional. It is an excuse to get out of the house. Getting out of the house might actually take precedence over sports. I actually, may not stay for the entire race. I only need to punch my card for a mens event. I have no clue what to do on this beautiful day.
I realize that after my last post, I need to explain why it is so great to be a Michigan Wolverine. I will explain soon.
Finally, I will just say my piece on the scandal. First off, the outrage is what happened to the children. Let us not forget about that. They are the ones for whom we should be concerned. Secondly, the players and students are just caught up in this. Do not blame or punish them. Finally, who do we blame. I will save the discussion of sin and the nature there of at a later time. Everyone has an opinion on who is innocent and guilty, I will not sway that with what I say. I will let the fallout happen. Its all I can do.

Halfway there.

Lets be honest. In the fall, there is no place I would rather be than Ann Arbor Michigan. Last week, I got some lovely pictures of the foliage on campus. This week, we had some beautiful rainstorms. Before you ask why I like the rain, Midwestern storms are awesome. They can come up quickly, and allow for sunshine and blue skies interspersed between downpours. I got in my necessary Guns'n'Roses fix for the month. Finally, last night a little bit of snow stuck to the ground, but then the moon came out, beautiful. Why do I say this? I say all of this because there is no place better to be than Ann Arbor, and there is no better team to root for than the local Michigan Wolverines, even when things do not turn out so well.

I attempted to attend 5 events last weekend. I will explain as follows.
The first event on the roster was the Belleville Classic. I skipped out on work early Friday just to attend. I decided that such classy events as crew races deserve classy gear. I picked up a pennant, hat, and scarf before the race. There is something comforting in wrapping oneself in maize and blue. So the quick trip out to Belleville yeilded two things. First, the crew teams are in an awesome location. Second, it appears that the only competitive event for the fall was the Head of the Charles in which they took 3rd. Way to go ladies. The Belleville Classic is mainly a scrimmage, and it didn't have a set start time. The teams started arriving at 4 and probably wouldn't have raced until 6. I decided to head home and pile all of my Michigan gear on my bed. I love a good lump of school spirit.

I just want to say that some of these minor sports, especially the ones with individual events, need to communicate a little better. Is it competitive or an exhibition? Who is involved? What is the order of the day? Most game based-sport are pretty clear about all of these things.

Next it was the Men's swimming and diving meet against Indiana and Texas. While it was on-time and we knew who was competing, they never gave an order of events on the sheet. So I had to make a judgement call as to how long to stay. Altogether, the Natatorium is an awesome building, and I admire the families that came from Texas to spectate. I sat by myself in the Michigan Section (There were other Michigan fans at a distance), but slowly a high school team started arriving and filling in around me until I was completely surrounded. Altogeteher it looked like Texas was winning because they kept beating us on the turns, boo, and I had to decide weather to stay or hit up the hockey game. I already paid for my hockey tickets so the decision was pretty easy. A few thoughts were raised about cheering for swimming. First, obviously, it is hard for the participants to hear the supporters and then, only intermittently. So, the teams encourage their racers intermittently. Personally, I would like to create some unique intermittent cheers for our team, or we could just get really loud such that one could hear it when plunging ones head in water. That room is great for reflecting sound.
Next up, the Hockey game. I took the long walk across the parking lot to catch my Wolverines taking on the Western Michigan Broncos. I made sure to ware my fedora to the game, because Yost is classy like that. As far as well-played games went. It was awesome. There were few penalties and a lot of well done plays. A kicked-in goal by our own keeper is kind of a disappointing. Western got winning it with less than a minute to go(not the kicked in one.) I could see it coming with the way they were pushing. Personally, I would rather lose in the last minute of regulation than the first minute of overtime. It certainly created an emotional rush.
The next morning was woman's swimming. Let me start off by saying two things. First, swimming is the one sport where the women show significantly less than the men. They are dressed to race. The men are too, but the just ware the bare minimum. Actually, if you are a lady, you might want to consider hitting a men's meet which its muscular men who ware almost nothing. Anyway, I digress. My other comment is that the ladies were kind enough to put the schedule of events on the program. That way I could better know what the heck was going on. Our ladies tried their best, but fell to both Florida and Stanford, both of which were very tough competitors. Everyone put forth great efforts which made it fun to watch. I really don't know what to take away from it all, except that I really like swimming pools. Also, swimming is a weird sport, where the one who looks like they are putting forth the least effort are winning. I guess that means they are being the most efficient. Swimming is a sport of efficiency.
Next up sitting on my couch and watching football. I live doing that, but watching us not punch it in the endzone with four tries, is a little hard on the heart, especially after the previous games I watched.
Given some personally, issues, I decided that I needed some alone time. Where better to be alone than in a crowd of rowdy students? So, I hit up the soccer game. Our men took on Northwestern. If you know my history, you know I support my Wildcats, but not over my wolverines. I would say we were playing quite well. I don't have any major comments except that the student section brings drums, awesome. A game winning goal by Northwestern int eh last few minutes seems like the only natural way for it to end. It was disappointing again.
Needless to say, I was getting kind of tired of this emotional roller coaster that sports were doing to me. However, I am reminded of "Beauty and the Beast:" "Anyone else would like to be you, Gaston, even when taking your lumps." That is right it is better to be a disappointed Michigan fan than any other fan out there. So pick ourselves up and continue cheering for the teams we love with the best fans in college sports.
The second hockey game of the weekend, turned out much better. We ripped it open and played hard. The kid who shot the goal during intermission, did a nice little touchdown dance. That was also nice. When Western Pulled their goalie, we started chanting "Better goalie." Which was the case. Their goalie, allowed four goals, while the open net only allowed one. It was good to have a victory and it took the sting off of the losses but it did not make up for them. Another thing which took the sting away, was that our men's swimming team pulled it out and won the meet on Saturday securing them a number one ranking in the nation awesome!
Next up: The NCAA regional cross country meets in Toledo on Saturday. I may also, snag a ticket for the basketball game tonight.

Part 2, I guess.

I apologize for not updating about last weekend until now. I have four past events and 4 future events to talk about.

Past events 1 and 2: Thursday night hockey against Ferris State. OK so Ferris State was supposedly really good. We just dropped one to Northern Michigan. This should have been a tough game. I think what I saw could best be described as handling them. Its something about how int he first half we could just take it away from them between the blue lines consistently, that was pretty awesome. Anyway, I am not going to be a sports reporter here. I just think we played well, and we were not trying to be overly fancy like we were against UOIT. As always, we played better on the PK than on the  powerplay. My theory as to why a lot of teams do this is because on the powerplay a team does not have to be aggressive. Therefore, they are not. On a PK a team must be aggressive. Their aggression more than makes up for the missing man. Also, no icing is a huge advantage when you are trying to score. There were a few weird notes though. First, I was kind of late, and as I ran up to the bleachers the usher actually stopped me and made me wait until the whistle. I have never experienced that at a sporting event before. I think it is kind of classy. That means I will have to where my fedora to the future games. I said there was something about Yost that brought us back into the past. The other thing was that when Ferris State pulled their goalie, we stole the puck before he could get off the ice. He turned back to the goal but it was too late. In desperation, he threw his stick at the puck. It did not work. Even if it did work, it would have resulted in a penalty shot. Still, I woudl take a penalty shot over an open net goal any day. Besides, goalies do not have to serve their own penalties.
The next game was a much tighter, and much better played game on our part. There is not much to say except Farris state had a different man in net that game. Michigan's man in net, Shawn Hunwick, played very well, and posted a shutout. Gotta love a shutout.
Past event 3: Football vs, Purdue.
Yes we shut down Purdue except for the opening and closing drives. Yeah, we got the all important safety, my favourite kind of score. However, much like I am more pleased about the MSU game the more I think about it. The more I think about the Purdue game, the less pleased I am about it. Why did we get a penalty when we had them backed up to the one yard line? Why did we trip over ourselves on the opening drive? Why did Gardner throw it straight to a Purdue player? If we want to win the four remaining games, these things are unacceptable. I guess I cannot complain too much. A solid win is still a solid win. I don't have any good stories for this game. The girls behind us didn't know the rules. That was kind of amusing. Next up  is Iowa who still control their own destiny in the Big Ten. No really, look up their schedule. I would not count out them at home. I may not watch the game.

Finally, there was field hockey. Michigan vs. Stanford, a top twenty five matchup. We outplayed them in the first half, we outplayed them hard. They got a lucky goal,and their goalie was a monster. In the second half, it is less that they outplayed us, and more that we were not the surgeons that we usually were. It was a hard way to end a season especially when the shot ratio so heavily favored us. Next up the Big Ten tournament. We already have the regular season crown. I would hardly call the season a wash.
Field hockey wrapup. I have no clue as to why I watched so many of the games. I still don't quite understand what the rules are. It was probably because our ladies were so good that they made it worth watching. While I don't really know anything about the team, I can at least say that I supported them. Maybe I will follow them a bit closer. Mgoblue has had some profiles and whatnot. Good luck ladies. You are fantastic.
On a side note, a pair of Michigan rowers were in the stands and they brought along with them the cutest little puppy. I was half tempted to go up to them and ask to pet it. Isn't that why people bring dogs to events anyway? Ah, missed opportunities.


This makes a good transition.
Tomorrow at 4 in lake Belleville there is the Belleville Classic. I don't have much to say about rowing except it is one of the classier college sports. I feel as though , I need a scarf and a pennant to properly watch the event.

What: The Belleville Classic
Who: Michigan, and someone else, I suppose. I can't find out much.
When 4PM, Friday November 4th
Where: Belleville Lake (Van Buren Park, I think)

OK, now I have a decision to make about men's swimming. If the rowing even is over by 5:30-6:00
I can catch part of the men's swimming at 6 PM. Otherwise I have to hit it up at noon on Saturday. This would interfere with watching the football game. I do have a question, why does my spellchecker not recognize "Natatorium?" Anyway, I don't know what to say about swimming at the moment. I may be board out of my mind, but I think the building will be cool.

What: Men's swimming and diving
Who: Michigan, vs Indian and Texas
Where:Canham Natatorium
When: 6 PM Friday November 4th or 12 PM Saturday November 5th

Women's swimming
About the same as the men's I guess. The event is at 9 AM on a Saturday. I'm not even out of bed by that time during the week. Ug. It's a labor of love. I am looking forward to another Stanford event. I am partial to Stanford. I may end up working there when I am done with this silly degree. However, I feel a need for some vindication after the field hockey game.

What: Women's swimming diving
Who: Michigan vs Florida and Stanford
Where: Canham Natatorium
When: 9 AM Saturday November 5th

Finally, Ice Hockey. We have  a pair of games against Western Michigan. Let us se how we fair against another top ten team. Will we shut them down like the last team? It is a possibility. We are playing very well right now. The funny thing, is that every time this year I will have seen Michigan play Western Michigan it will be in three period games, unless it goes to OT. That would make up for the football game.

What: Ice Hockey
Who: Michgian vs Western Michigan
Where: Yost Ice Arena (Parking will be a pain on Friday)
When: 7:30 PM Friday November 4th and 7:30 PM Saturday November 5th.

2 parts, I guess, and cheering.

While I have been absent from this for quite a while I have not been absent from the sporting events. Since I have written last I have been to one women's cross country race, one women's soccer match, two ice hockey games, one football game, and one field hockey game.

While I have more to say about he second half of those (the ones I attended this weekend.) I will only talk about the first two tonight.

Last Friday, I ditched work early and drove to Dexter for the EMU fall classic. Michigan only participated in the Women's race. I know what most people say, "How can you just watch running?" I guess the only real way to do it is to admire how hard they are pushing themselves. I suppose, also you can try to understand their aptitudes and their drive by their form. That is about all you get. Since running is more of a mental sport than anything else, it's really hard to appreciate it from the outside, especially when you only see flashes of people. I'm glad the races are short because I would have gotten majorly bored. I didn't necessarily cheer for anyone as I did not know anybody's name. Actually, I have mixed feelings about directly cheering for a person when they are in the middle of doing something. I think it goes back to my own neurotic time in cross country. I half hated it mainly because I hate pushing myself. Anyway, sometimes I was not in a good mood on race day, and encouragement had a negative impart on me. Even when I was doing well, encouragement didn't mean much to me. I'm like, "Don't tell me I'm doing well, or I can keep it up. I know how I am doing." It was very annoying. For me cheering is all about uplifting the person's mood and getting them focused. What I needed during the event was just a wall of positive noise. I needed to know that people were behind me. I didn't need to think that people were weighing things on me specifically, but that they supported my team. After the event is when I needed the individual encouragement, to help me recover mentally, and/or enjoy the fruits of it all.
I take that into what kind of a fan I am. At races, I just want to clap for people. They are pushing themselves as hard as they can, and that is all they can think about. They need some energy behind them to keep them going. It is after the events that I dish out the "good jobs." then they start to think and reflect. It is then that you go to remind them that the effort was worth it.

In case you were wondering. It was an non-scoring race, but if it had been, a handful of random girls would have gotten the individual prizes. Michigan  State would have been first. Michigan would have been second followed by EMU. Poor Concordia would have been dead last.
I will have one more cross country match of the year when I head to the NCAA regionals in Toledo on the 12th of November.
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I put these beliefs into effect for the women's soccer match-up against Penn State. I only caught the second half because it was Sunday and I was listening to a sermon. On to the match. Once again, our student section was a disappointment. Maybe, they sat over by the parents.
To be honest, Penn State was the more entertaining team. Why were they so good? Maybe it was because their bench did co-ordinates cheers. Maybe because when they shouted stuff at each other on the field they actually enunciate things. To be honest, I don't know the secret of their success, but they were good. They had amazing ball control and played it in the air when most people would let it drop. They were also fast and had a great ability to collapse on a player. It means that the only way we were going to move the ball, was to pass, let them collapse and free up someone, then pass again. It kind of worked, but we never really got anything going. It was a tough end to a tough season, especially when being shutout by Ohio State two days prior. We have a very young team, so I believe that we will get better, but in order to get better they have to want to keep playing. It was obviously their spirits were quite low at the end of the game. As they did their final jog across the field I did all I could do as a fan. I stood next to the two other students, and the two parents who made it a point to get down the field-level, and I cheered for them anyway.  Sometimes you need to be reminded that people care about an appreciated you regardless of the outcome. I think it was one of those times.

The highlight of the game was being nearly taken out by number 8, Tori McCombs. She sped for a ball heading out of bounds and managed to deflect it off a PSU player, before running into the stands. While it was less that she came very close to hitting me as it was that I was just the nearest person to her as her momentum carried her up into the bleachers. (Like I said, we had a disappointing turnout). She was fine and stayed on her feet.

My next update will be tomorrow.
It will include the following items
Old school and slightly formal Yost,
Football bounceback, or so we hope,
And the field hockey final against one of my favorite schools

Next week we start with some new sports,
Rowing, and Men's and Women's swimming and diving.
We will also continue with More ice hockey.

Closer to something

I was fully intending to spend this time berating the Michigan coaching staff for not taking enough risks during the game. There was no way we were going to win that game by being more physical. We just had to be trickier. I feel like I saw too many attempts to run it up the center and not enough short routes and long runs. In retrospect, we did a good job, just not good enough. I will leave it at that. Lets see how the rest of the season plays out. 11 and 1 sounds good to me. Although, Devon Gardener needs to learn not to panic.

On Sunday, I slept until about noon, which meant that I was a little late to the field hockey game. When I showed up, Penn State appeared to have the advantage and we were on the defensive. This totally changed in the second half. We looked like the team that I love watching. Why to I love this team? They are just masters at ball control. The passes are precise to say the least. They can dribble through the defenders. Also, they are experts at stripping the ball from opponents. Also, these ladies are attackers. Penn State could barely get anything going int he second half because we turned everything into an attack. The technical quality of the team and the tenacity is great. There are only a few games left int he season. I strongly recommend you come out.

Now about the atmosphere. I was surprised that so many people were in the stands on Sunday, especially considering that there was a soccer game going on at the same time. It was the biggest crowd I have seen at the game, although it was still mostly made of odds and ends.
Let us discuss the information table. The trivia question was "How many shutouts have the Wolverines posted this year?" that kind of an easy one when the information table has the programs with the records. More importantly, they were doing a silent auction for a pink autographed field hockey stick for their, "Stick it to cancer," day. I wanted that stick (it woudl be a trophy for the events of this year) and I have no problem writing a couple hundred dollars to charity. So, I placed a bid at the end of the game a waited. As expected a girl who had been bugging her mother about the stick came up and bid on it too. They outbid me by ten dollars. I smirked and  gave them some grief about it. I could have completely crushed them. I paused for a moment trying to decided to up the bidding, or just go nuclear. It was at that point the girl was mouthing the words "oh, please." I really did not want to deny a young girl what is going to be one of her most prized possessions. I told her "Take it," and walked off. I know it seems like nothing to write home about, but being even slightly nice is completely out of character for me. I just hope I am not loosing my edge.

To make matters worse, when I returned home that evening, my housemate was waiting on the Indy car race. The crash had already happened and we did not yet know the fate of Dan Wheldon. I am not motorsports fan at all, and I have seen Dan Wheldon on TV maybe once before, but there was something about it that really got to me. It's completely out of character, once again, but after the 5 lap salute, my eyes were starting to well up.
Anyway, I find it odd that I would cry over someone I saw on TV once or twice. The truth of the matter is that if there is a name, a family, and a story for someone's death then you would have to be inhuman not to feel something. That is what happened to me.

On a side note, I am sick of people criticizing the masses. The critics get mad because we come out en-mass to mourn the death of one person, yet no-one morns when people die en-mass. I cannot blame people for mourning when they know the person's story. They would have to deny their very selves to not morn. On the other hand, if they sought out to morn every person who ever dies, they would never be able to function. I am talking about an emotional breakdown more than a logistical impossibility. Life is a balancing act we have to feel but we cannot let the feelings overwhelm us. If that means we appear to be hypocrites, then so be it.

Nerves

The great Don Richards may have said something along these lines, "You must prepare like they are going to crush you, but you need to go in there like nothing can touch you."
I have no clue what the Michigan football team has been going through this week, but let me explain why I have been more nervous about this upcoming game than I have about any other game in my life.
Upon hearing the northwestern score I knew we were not invincible. We've been saying that we were overrated for weeks, now but now that is being put to the test. We know we can't go in there and expect an easy win. Over the weekend I thought about several factors. The first is that Michigan State is a very good team this year. The second is that they have had two weeks to prepare exclusively for us. The third, as we all know is that for the past couple of years, we have been on hot streaks until the State game, and then our seasons went downhill. So by the time I got to a computer on Monday, I was thoroughly nervous and wandering how we were preparing. What I got on Monday was reflection of how we could win against Northwestern. I don't need to hear about Northwestern. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I wanted to hear about how our practices were going, still more reflection. This did not inspire confidence in me. We are going to be facing our toughest challenge to date (only because they have more time to prepare than Notre Dame)  How are we preparing? Thursday, I hear nothing.
Needless to say I am a ball of nerves. I remember going to the office thinking two things, 1) I was not sure if I was going to get any sleep tonight, and 2) I would need a drink before the end of the day, but that is a different story. Anyway, my attitude changed when I read the dueling columns int h Michigan Daily today. Michigan talks about how State is our rival, but no one really cares. State said that Michigan is arrogant and needs to acknowledge them as an equal.
That got me thinking. Do I consider State a rival? Yes. This game carries a lot of bragging rights, but as the second most loud-mouthed person in my department pointed out (I am number one, in case you were wondering) we are more concerned with winning championships than rivalry games (Except for OSU which will get its own post.) We need to win. We don't beg others to tell us we are as good as them. We simply let our actions show that we are the best. Yes we are arrogant, but that arrogance rests on tangible proof. So no, we are not going to be Voldimort to State's Harry Potter. We will not obsess about defeating them after elevating them to our level. We are simply contenders and we need wins. So now I have the attitude that we will get one tomorrow.

A little analysis:
 That being said, they are frightening team this year. I sure hope that we are not preparing for a grind out game. What very well may happen is that State's offense will pull out all of the stops early and they will take a commanding lead (possibly with trick plays). Then they can rely on a trenches game to hold us complacent.
If we are going to win this one, we need to just hammer them with everything we got. If we can turn this into an offensive shootout, I think we can win it, especially, if we can get in there and rattle Curt Cousins a bit.
If we succeed, great, we get some bragging rights and we remain contenders. If we lose, we take the lessons, and push forward. An 11 and 1 season will still get everyone's attention, and put us up front in the championship race next year. Besides, who says we still woudln't win the division?

Also, this weekend, I will be attending the Field Hockey game on Sunday.  We are facing off against number 6 Penn State. more to come.

It's been far too long.

My apologies for not updating in over a week. I have only been to one sporting even in the past week. I missed the two hockey games this weekend, due to a school/work related trip to stanford, and I decided to forgo any Stanford sporting events in favor of a trip to Tahoe. I am not a good fan. I didn't even try to watch the football game. I had Dennis "The Hair" Sidharta check the score when we were driving back. For some reason, the ESPN article mixed up the scores, and upon hearing the misinformation that we had lost, I was worried that I was going to loose motor control. This would have been particularly bad because I was motoring at the time.
On the plus side, Tahoe was beautiful, and we turned out to have won.
To make you hate me even more I will not be attending the hockey game this weekend because I am going to a concert in Coldwater. That's right I am going to see "The Blanks" aka, Ted's band from "Scrubs" instead of going to a Hockey game. I know it sounds like I am not a serious hockey fan, but it's just bad timing this past week. I will attend the rest of the home games, and at least one away game.

The one hockey game I did attend last week was against Niagara. I am glad we got our act together a little better than against UOIT. Fewer attempts at being fancy, and more strait good hockey. Altogether a good performance. A 5-0 victory is always fun. We also go ushered into the student section. Apparently, students don't think that a Tuesday is a good day for a hockey game, and they chanted that. I was glad to be in the student section. While I would not say that we were the rowdiest, or the rudest, we were well coordinated and creative. I love a good mob-improve. I can only hope to get a between the students and the glass in the future.

So, my next event, hmm. I might go back to NIU for their homecoming this weekend. They play Western Michigan. For some reason, they crew team is not heading up to the Travers area this weekend.
My next Michigan event, provided that I actually skip town this weekend, would be in a little over a week with one( possibly two) women's soccer games, a cross country meet, and maybe swimming. If I stay I would head to the field hockey game. Then again, I could head to the "Head of the Charles" in Boston. That would qualify me as hard-core status.

Anyway, I will give you fair warning for my next event.

What in the world

I regret to inform you that I was unable to attend neither the volleyball game on Friday night nor the field hockey game on Saturday morning. Even more, I regret to inform you that William Francis Michels, father of my good friend from NIU William Tenner Michels, passed away this week, and I returned to Illinois on Friday to attend the wake. I would have preferred to see William again under better circumstances, such as him coming out to the Michigan Minnesota game, since he is one of the most adamant Minnesota fans I know.

So, I was out of town, but the only thing that keeps me from a football game is another football game, and possibly an important even like a wedding. (In case you were wondering, the football game was not the reason I did not stay for the funeral.)
So, of course I was up at 3:30 AM on Saturday, to drive back for the game. I set my alarm for 4:00 AM. The drive was very pleasant, and the entire time I was being passed my my fellow maize and blue faithful. While I returned home in time to catch the second half of the field hockey game. I opted to eat breakfast and rest a bit before the game.
We all know that Minnesota was not going to be the toughest opponent, but we also know that upsets happen in conference play. Going into the game, I was a little nervous. After a few minutes of play, I was shocked. I turned to "The Mad Latvian Slammer" and said, "We secretly replaced Michigan's Coach with Les Miles. Let's see if anyone notices." Seriously, several people made the comment that Al Borges had ripped up his play book for this game. They also introduced me to something I have dubbed, "The diamondback formation." Anyway, this game was a major confidence booster for every aspect of the game. Our offense was clicking on all of the plays, which I am sure will completely mess with all remaining opponents, seeing as we can turn the same setup into a traditional play or some crazy scheme. Our defense was all but perfect. It doesn't mater who you play; a shutout means you are good. I know what you are going to say about us kicking the ball out of bounds and the return coverage, still it was promising. Also, as all true Michigan fans know, the test is in the field goals and three for three is passing with flying colors. To be honest, I have been hoping for a victory like that all year, but I hope every game is not like this. It would get boring. Although we would be ranked #1.
What we were expecting to be another crushing that turned out to not be the case was The ice hockey opener. Let me start by saying our seats are in one of the worst locations in Yost, but that is no reason to complain since there are no bad seats in Yost. It's just not big enough. For those of you who do not know about the hockey system, it varies by country. In America, it pretty much like basketball or football, except that, they can continue playing in school after they are drafted. They are then moved to either a major or minor league pro team. In Canada, they go to Canadian Junior League where they get a very small stipend, but if they stay for four years and do not make it pro then they get a college degree paid for. Honestly, I like that system. It give the good athletes complete concentration on their sport, and it means the ones who are going to go to school, can completely focus on their studies without distraction. What this means to the game is that when the University of Ontario Institute of Technology comes to play Michigan, it should put up about as much resistance as a club team, and judging by the number of penalties they got and how we robbed them of the puck it kind of was. What they did have was a Guy (that's his name) in the net who was on fire. He was nuts. Also, we need to learn the simple rule that fancy setups are nice, but when they don't connect they don't offer second chances like hammering it to the net does. We really need to learn that. So, in a shocking upset, we lost. The thing I liked about the event was that the atmosphere of Yost brought me back to an older time. Also, the fact that this game matter's not and that we don't have to have a perfect record means that we can always look ahead to the next one. It's that classic sports spectator's mentality, that I think has been lost in this era when men do not wear hats.
Finally, there was lacrosse. On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I took a trip to a nearly empty Michigan Stadium to watch an exhibition lacrosse match. Without any scale reference the stadium felt smaller, but it echoed like a cavern. I briefly thought about moving in there. At least, I would like to spend more beautiful afternoons there without the crowds. I would end up running up and down the bleachers, and through every section entrance. I love exploring stadium. I ran into my friends Brian and Sarah Samuel at the match who thought it would be an awesome thing to watch. Lacrosse is a fun physical game. It's tougher than field hockey, but tamer than ice hockey.

Still it was pretty crazy to see how well they passed and moved. We completely dominated. We got one penalty as opposed to a number where I lost count. We also won 16 to 3, which I guess I very one sided for lacrosse. I know we are supposed to be D1 and they are D3, but we are little more than a club team at this point. I guess the lesson of the weekend is that a good club team can beat a varsity squad. I had my friends take a picture of me in front of the final score, which I have forwarded to my father.

OK, I might go to the hockey game tomorrow night, then I am out of town until Sunday night. To hold you through the weekend, I will give you a picture of a giant inflatable hamster ball race I saw at the women's soccer game last week. I think part of the challenge is not using up all of the oxygen in the ball.

Midweek Musings: music

Let us not fool ourselves, music plays a huge part in the game experience. However the band is not the 12th player regardless of how adamant the band geeks may argue their cases.
Let us explore some patterns. First off, the intercom music.
The first thing to note is that for some reason, smaller sports programs tend to play more hip-hop, and larger programs tend to play more classic hits. My theory is this. In small programs, someone is simply told to fill the air with music, and whomever that happens to be, just creates a playlist. So, generally we get one person's taste, and without fail it is all about the beat. I am not, all about the beat, so I tend to kill time behind the bleachers where I can gut some sonic shielding.
Larger programs know that music gets the crowd charged up. They specifically choose classics which they know will be crowd pleasers, and they make sure that they bring an attitude. Attitude is important, and it varies by gender.
Men's sports tend to have songs that start slow and build up the pressure until it is in overdrive. They convey the feeling that we are about to completely cut loose and crush all that is in our way. Women's sports are a little different. The first notable difference is that, they choose female artists. Men never choose female artist. I guess, when you are trying to be as macho as possible, certain things must go. The second thing is that the women's songs tend to be high energy, but they are often things of which I have not heard. It must be the team's personal choice. It more likely than not turns out to be some dance mix. It's not bad, but its not my cup of tea. Then again the, teams are choosing the music for themselves, not me. I do admire a good ritual pump-up song though. At NIU, the volleyball team would play "Heartache Tonight." Yeah that is a good one to prep for the crushing. Still, notice the attitude. It's not the crazy adrenaline pumping overdrive. It is confidently taking pleasure in beating one's opponent. Hmm, men and women approach things with different mentalities. Who would have guessed? I'll talk more about the differences between Men's and Women's sports at a later musing.
Now, who can not mention the band? They may not be the 12th man, but they are fun, potentially. I am by no means a connoisseur of these things. I can tell you that Alabama State has crazy power. I can also tell you that Michigan generally underutilized its band. I was very pleased the last game when we brought the entire band on the field for half-time. We never do that. We did leave one person on the benches. I wonder what he did to earn that seat. I hope it is something to which the band will refer for the rest of the year as "The chicken nugget incident." The most important rule of band music is to get the crowd into it. That is why you can get away with only playing the fight song. Anything that is overly complicated or muddled just doesn't do the trick, even if it is a well known song. Play something clear and loud that will get the crowd to sing or dance. Is there any question why "Sweet Caroline" is a staple across the country? Why do band's play Lady Ga Ga, because it is clear and it gets the crowd moving. That is the purpose of the band, to get the crowd moving. It is not the 12th man. It is the loudest cheerleader. I guess we could make them all wear short skirts to drive home that fact. Nah, I like the uniforms.

Finally, songs to sing along to, because the lyrics mean something. "Don't Stop Believing." comes to mind. In Michigan this has a special meaning, because we like songs that mention Detroit. Although, isn't South Detroit technically Windsor Ontario? I digress. Usually, it is played when the team is down but not out. In Michigan Stadium, this year, it has been played after the first quarter, which does fit the aforementioned pattern. What it really means to Michigan is that we need to keep believing that we can still be champions. After years of losing to rivals, and really, just about everyone, we need to be reminded. Another important song was "Oh What a Night" played after the craziest last two minutes of any football game I have every witnessed. Its an instant classic when you attend the loudest and biggest party in the world. Isn't that what football games are? Big parties? There are guest lists, bouncer, crazy outfits, drunks, and live bands. Anyway, another song which should be sung for the lyrics, but just get's chanted, is "Seven Nation Army." Listen to the the lyrics some time, and try to come up with a reason, why that is not the perfect, defense song. I dare you.
Now I wil leave you with one song which I would like to submit: "Lightning Crashes." While I am pretty sure that this song was written about the life of River Song from "Dr. Who." She is a time traveler, so the fact that the song was written in 1994 and River was introduced in 2009 all works out, no wait, it doesn't. Anyway, when one is on the verge of taking back greatness, especially when one's first game is lightning-shortened, there are no more appropriate lyrics than,
"Oh, I feel it coming back again,
like a rolling thunder, chasing the wind
forces pulling from the center of the earth again
I can feel it."

because I can

I'm writing this entry on my Kindle just because I can. Also, I am getting really sick of staring at bright screens all day. So, this is a nice change-up.
So, women's soccer was fun even though I was disappointing with the crowd. I figured that because men's soccer had a big following that women's would also have a good following. Let us not forget that the woman's team was ranked going into the weekend. However the student section was mostly populated by hard-core soccer fans who all appeared to know "The Wandering Canonical Helmsman." I feel they loved to analyze the game a bit too much and not admire the beauty of the game at all. That being said, our most skilled ball handler lacked hustle, and while other ladies had a lot more energy and speed, we never really attacked. Maybe we did, I cannot recall as I am in a bad mood, and that is tainting my memory. Still it was pretty awesome when the ladies got close to us. Our ladies had excellent moves. Personally, I thought that we were the the more skilled team, but Minnesota found ways to organize attacks, and that is why they won. I kind of regret not going to the Sunday game. It would probably have been better attended. Alas, I had work to do. That is part of the reason why I am in am bad mood. Oh well, there will be other games, and I will be there.

Now, let us discuss what we all really think about: football. The game was definitely hyped-up as you know. It was a major boon to see our defense rattle their quarterback. It is especially comforting to see that the only way San Diego State could score was when we turned over the ball in our territory. What was not comforting was that wonderful field goal miss. Here we go again. What I am glad to see is that Denard Robinson chose to forgo obvious rushing yards in favor of passing attempts. Needless to say, it's good to have the cushion to play around like that, but it would be nice to have a "gimmes" actually be completes. When they are afraid that one will outrun the blitz, one has all of the time in the world.
Altogether, this bodes well for us as a program. We know we will not go undefeated this year, but we have the tools to make some noise in the Big Ten, and we are improving. Maybe next year. This year, let us just focus on beating Ohio State. We can worry about winning the Big Ten, the Rose Bowl, and the national championship next year. The national championship will come. Somebody was quoted in The Michigan Daily saying, "Michigan will win the national championship under Brady Hoke." I have to agree. I think it all goes to a statement he said in his introductory press conference, which is played before every football game, "It's Michigan for God's sakes." This statement iterates an attitude that we did not have under Rich Rod. Michigan is not supposed to be a good team; Michigan is supposed to be the best team. I know it sound arrogant, but if you want to win a national championship you have to strive for it with the attitude that you will not settle for less. We finally have that attitude. That attitude is our greatest tradition. It is why we are too proud to have a mascot, as winning is our mascot. It is why we brag about our stadium, because we like to believe that we can attract the most people. It is also why our fight song declares us The Victors before we even take the field. Also, one thing that helps is, even though he doesn't talk about it. Everyone expects Denard Robinson to get the Heisman. Whether or not he gets it is irrelevant. The point is that the people want greatness once again, and that is the mark of Michigan. Michigan men understand this.
My homework for the week is done, and I will have my slides and poster done tomorrow. What this means for you is that I will treat you to a midweek musing tomorrow, and if you want to come out, I will be ice skating in the greatest ice aren't in the world on Thursday.
Next weekend is ice hockey, football, and men's lacrosse.
PS. Kindles do not have spell check. So, bare with me.
 Roar!

The upcoming weekend

Its late and I am tired

Let us see here.

I told people I would be attending the soccer game on Friday. So, I guess I will. Back in high school I was weird and shameless. I was the ballboy for the girl's soccer team. I never missed a game my senior year. Looking back that was probably a bad thing. Whatever, it got me out and active on many a spring day. Also, I supported my school. So what if I was viewed as creepy. Actually, I just a wrote a weblog entry on the aforementioned behavior. Anyway, I like women's soccer. I think I like it more than men's soccer, maybe because, it is viewed as such a  feminine sport here in the states. That's right. In other countries female soccer players are viewed as overly masculine, while here they are viewed as the peak of the female athlete. I will write more on this later. However, when it comes down to it. I like women's soccer because the competition lever is usually very intense and the ladies demonstrate a lot of athletic prowess. I will take a trip down memory lane, while supporting my team on Friday.

What: Women's soccer
Who: Michigan vs. Minnesota
Where: Michigan soccer Complex
When: 7:00 PM Friday, October 23rd

If I don't mention it. I will be at the football game on Saturday.

What: Football
Who: Michigan vs. San Diego State
Where: Michigan Stadium
When 12:00 PM Saturday, October 24th

In other news I may see "Moneyball" this weekend. I am totally looking forward to it, because even as a kid I knew that baseball statistics were misleading. I am glad that there is a strong financial incentive for people to improve how they keep them. Let's face it. That is the only reason why people change.

Finally, they just announced a few games on the Michigan Lacross schedule. It looks like on October 2nd we will have some kind of match against Concordia Wisconsin. This is important to me because my dad just started a faculty position there. It is important to show him my school is better.

Golf revisited and redeemed?

I am officially tired after this weekend. I am quite glad that tomorrow is a workday which means I can sleep in. I love being a grad student. Anyway, in my last few waking moments. I would like to talk to you about some of the more exciting names in Michigan sports.

While you may be thinking of Denard Robinson, and if you paid attention to the game this weekend, you know the name Fitzgerald Toussaint, but let us talk about some other outstanding Michigan athletes.

First, remember the name Emy Guttman. I forgot it, and I regret forgetting it, mainly because if I had remembered it, I would have gotten the trivia question right, and potentially won another prize pack. Emy is a freshman forward for our field hockey team, scoring five goals in the games I attended  She is also a local girl who played in high school just a few feet down the road at Pioneer. This girl is going places. actually, the whole team is going places. They didn't even let Ball State get a shot on goal, and they crush teams that are supposedly equal to them. All I can say is that a Michigan field hockey game is great on its own, or as a pregame to football. Like I used it on Saturday.

Football, was...  what do you expect from Michigan vs. Eastern Michigan? You can be proud of your defense any time you hold a team to a field goal, especially, when they execute good goal line stops. It was good practice. Although, our offense really needed to take the opportunity to improve its passing game. Did we need to run all over them just because we could? No, we should a have sacrificed a few more plays to work on our passes. Remember, an effective passing play does not have to be a long bomb. It just has to advance the football. Still, it was the one-sided performance I was expecting. Putting Devon Gardiner in for the last set of downs was a nice touch. The fans were certainly happy to see him get some playing time.
As for the fan experience. I was kind of expecting the stadium to look half empty, but honestly, by kickoff the maize and blue faithful had filled it out with almost no EMU green visible. It still had about 4000 people less than last week, and from what I can tell those were the 4000 people who were trying to cram into my seat last week. Our crowd was good, but I don't understand why they weren't more excited about our field-goal. We made it. We made everything we kicked. I guess they are just a little leery after the past couple of years. I can't really blame them. As for the rest of the game, I regret to say that my maize shirt was not showing as I was wearing my blue hoodie, not because I was cold but because I forgot to put on sunblock. Yes, I am kind of paranoid about my skin. That being said, my nose is a bit red.

I opted to hang with friends at Buffalo Wild Wings instead of attending the volleyball game. On a side note, the person in charge of changing the channels at BWW hates his job because, they do not have a remote. Instead he has to push the same button, possibly, several hundred times to switch stations, and if his finger slips he has to start all over again. Seriously, I think the manager could justify the expense of getting a remote, or something with a keypad on it.

Now it is time for me to mention someone else to you. Yugene Lee was the individual runner up for the Mary Fossum Invitational today. The Michigan Ladies golf team placed third, just three strokes behind Ohio State and 15 behind host, Michigan State. That's right. despite my protests earlier this week. I drove to Lansing this morning and attended the entire last round, sort of. I was there for the signal for the shotgun start and I was there for the awards ceremony.
However, a little before noon, I skipped out to head to MSU's campus. My reason was simple, their dairy store.  I do love ice cream. My antics on campus included, wandering around the engineering building, photographing student club projects, trying to coax a squirrel into said engineering building, and trying to sneak into Spartan Stadium. Having failed to cause the lease bit of trouble, I returned to the end of the match.

Now, you might be wandering why I returned to the match. I have several reasons. First, it was Sunday, so I had no real place to go. Second, there were other spectators there this time. They were all family members, but they gave me people to whom I could talk (usually about football), and they made me feel not nearly as awkward wandering around a golf course watching other people play. Another factor was that they had posted leader boards in different locations allowing me to get a feel for what was happening. Also, since they paired ladies from the top three schools, there was a feeling of competition when I watched a trio. Finally, I have to admit that I find female athletes a little more appealing than male athletes when it comes right down to it. I'm sorry, but can you really blame me for appreciating healthy young women applying themselves to something they enjoy?
While I am not sure if I will ever take up the sport, I appreciate some more of the nuances of the game, and the difficulties that the course can cause. This course had narrow fairways and some crazy hazards. the narrow fairways played into my day when a ball flew wide from the fairway behind me and landed right in front of me. To be honest, I am kind of disappointed that I have not gotten beaned at one of these things. I love having a good story to tell, and it woudl have been something to impress the ladies. Well, at least the ladies who are impressed by that kind of thing. I don't know if I know any of those kind of ladies. Can you introduce me to some?
So I stuck around until the awards ceremony where a few ladies from the team came over and personally thanked me for coming out. In the end, is that not why I am doing all of this, to support my teams? No, it is not. I am doing this because, A) being a sports spectator is emotionally addictive, and b) to try to give me an impressive story to tell. Still, Meagan and Lauren, you are quite welcome. I had a great time.

Spikes to the face and rolling on the ground.

Once again I update far too late at night.
Tonight, I attended the volleyball home opener against Xavier with Alton "The Wandering Canonical Helmsman" James Benjamen Luder III. I guess I have a few simple thoughts.
First, let us discuss our opponents. Xavier has some cool things going on with their uniforms. Any team that can put "X" all over their uniforms has something going for them. Their school name is on their backs right above the letters. At first, it looked like the whole team was comprised of one family. They were extremely excitable and shrieked a lot, especially when number 9 was on the floor. Her spikes were predictable, but she was loud, fast on defense, and not shaken by balls to the face. She gets the crazy spirit award. Also she gets the, "Oh my goodness, you look like a kid," award. If she is a freshman , then she has a lot of potential.

Now, our team. We have some monsters, that is to say the least. our spikes are scary. Admittedly, not know much about the game it appeared that we relied quite a bit on our sheer power to win points. Xavier was much faster to the ball on defense than we were. However, our power lowered their success rate significantly. Well, there is always room for improvement. I did appreciate one of our players scoring with her face. Back in high school gym class I would try to score with my head. That may have worked once.

Now, the student section, aka "The Zone."  That is right, we have a crazy student section with matching t-shirts. How many schools have that? Seriously, how many? They are noisy, and creative, shouting something about wanting Cheetos for no good reason, and yelling at the Xavier assistant on the laptop to "Get off Facebook." Altogether they were good they often shouted things which were intangible to me. One of their habits was to make noise while Xavier had the ball. This kind of behavior can be deafening in some sports, but for volleyball, its kind of pointless, because the ball is over the net before we get ramped up. You know, unless there is a series of really high bumps, or gravity and air viscosity get messed up somehow. Some standard but good chants were: "We still love you," after a mistake by us, "Face Ball," after "The Shrieking  9" took a spike to the face, and "There's a net there," after a failed serve by Xavier.

One final though: net serves. Why do these exist? I think my friends would agree with me that a net serve warrants a benching. I mean, even I can get it over the net consistently, and they practice this every day. Fundimentals first people. I don't care how hard you can hit it if you keep on hitting the net. No, going through the net will not cut it because, it still counts as a service fault.

Anyway, we won the set in four games. It was definitely a good time, and I may go tomorrow night as well. We will see. I may attend the field hockey game tomorrow morning, but I will definitely attend the foootball game.

As for football. Let's face it. EMU should be easy pickin's. That being said I admire that our coaching staff, is warning everyone that we expect Eastern to bring their best, and they have some talent on that team and some good coaches. Most people see this as a much needed practice.

Prepping for Lord knows what.

Two quick things. First, I apologize fort he quality of the posts this past week. I generally just write what comes to me. Normally, I woudl spend a day or two pondering and editing in my head. I will play the Grad-Student Card, and say that I am just allowing myself to work until mental exhaustion.

Anyway this upcoming weekend well see quite a bit of variety and possibly some repeats.
I will definitely attend a volleyball match this weekend. Also Heading up to Lansing for Woman's Golf. I cannot resist the Football game. Also I may try for another prize-pack at the field hockey game. I am playing a hunch here. I will talk more.

What: Volleyball
Who: Michigan vs Xavier or Texas A&M
When: Friday, September 16th or Saturday September 17th, 7:30 or 7:30
Where: Cliff Keen Arena?

What: Field Hockey?
Who Michigan vs Ball State
When: Saturday, September 17th 10:00 AM
Where: Phillis Ocker Field

What: Football
Who: Michigan vs Eastern Michigan
When: Saturday, September 17th, noon
Where: Michigan Stadium

What: Woman's Golf
Who: Ferris State, Eastern Michigan, Indiana, James Madison, Kent State, Miami (Fla.), Michigan, Michigan State, Oakland, Ohio State and Toledo
When: Sunday, September 18th, 9:00 AM
Where: Forest Akers West Golf Course, East Lansing, MI

Midweek Musings: Conjuring up Some Chants.

What makes me me proud of student sections? Creativity and dedication. As far as dedication is concerned, I have been very impressed with the football students section this year. They refuse to leave in the rain, the heat, when we are being crushed, or even when the game is over. I don't think they would have stuck around like that last year. This is a definite improvement. As far as creativity is concerned, though. They are somewhat lacking. What are their rivalry chants? "F*** the Irish," of "F*** Ohio State," they are uncreative and offensive, and they are mostly offensive because they are non-creative. Some people praise swear-words because they can be used in almost any context, and even as almost every word in a sentence. I find that profanity tends to oversimplify sentences and never fully express the complexity of the sentiment that one is trying to convey. Now, we here at Michigan can be loud, proud and creative. Our ice hockey student section is notorious. Also, as I have discovered our volleyball and soccer student sections are good at coming up with chats as well. Why is football so bad? I am guessing because it is the sheer size of the student section along with the fact that many students are only marginally interested in football. Also the noise tends to drown out anything creative.
Still, I believe that we need to come up with some good stuff. Let us take our upcoming game against EMU. Now, personally, I have nothing against EMU, and many EMU fans are  Michigna fans as well. Still we can work something in there. We can refer to them as the "Rodney Dangerfield" of division one, because they get no respect. We could taunt their mascot, "You had a cool mascot, but you got Shanghaied, by an overly powerful politically correct movement, and instead of choosing an obvious awesome replacement, the emu, you chose one of the most generic mascots in the country, so ha." I admit that it needs some work, but maybe we could go with "Boring mascot." in the meantime.
What also need are some good rivalry chants. "Bust their nuts," would be great against Ohio State. Other ones could be, "Nice Tattoo," or possibly, "Where's the vest."
I guess we have a few good rivalry chants with "Little brother," and "Worst State Ever." But we can always do more. I mean, when is the last time we taunted Notre Dame about their Lucky Charms?

Other things we could do is possibly make some things a little more relevant. Personally, the chant I hate the most is the "You suck," chant. What has been worse about it in recent years is that we usually chanted it while we were loosing a game. If they suck, but they are crushing us, what does that say about us?  Personally, I am all about being sarcastically positive towards the other team. While telling them "Good job," or, "You're OK," might not catch on, I like the idea of a condescending applause (with no voices) when we stop a drive. another option is "Better luck next time." How about , "Punt that ball?" I'm just saying, its a lot more amusing to taunt a team by being condescending, than it is to insult them.

I was wrong.

I said that the Hockey Game had the exact opposite feel of the Football Game. I was wrong. Monday morning golf is much farther away. When I showed up in my Michigan Polo the first worker who saw me thought I was a player. I think I saw I pair of parents from Detroit, but other than that I had free reign over the course, you know except for the greens, and the fairways, and the tees, and the bunkers, and the water hazards. To be fair, I have no desire to stand in the water hazards. For some reason there are signs telling people not to do that. Despite this freedom somehow got into a disagreement about where I could stand. That squirrel wanted me off its stump.
While I have never played it, I will take people's word for it that golf is more fun to play than watch in person. A fourth round of a golf major is somewhat exciting, with its skill shots. Also, they have the luxury of switching holes over showing people walking down fairways and waiting for the people ahead of then to finish.
Needless to say, I watched a handful of holes, and decided to head to work. It's enough to count so men's golf is in the bag.
I do have to admit that it is nice being on a golf course in the morning, but I have to side with Mark Twain on it.

I will talk about the outcome, possibly tomorrow.

As for looking forward, I broke down and purchased season tickets for ice hockey.


My next set of events will begin on Friday with volleyball.

Five Scores by them and one by me.

This afternoon I attended the field hockey game against Bucknell. While any game would seem small compared to the spectacle of the game last night, this field hockey was the extreme opposite. While not unattended, it felt at most like a High School game. A large part of this was because of the large section of Bucknell parents who get points for coming out to the game, but lose some for coaching from the stands. I could go into a theological exposition of why that happens, but I will spare you. Still the Bucknell shirts with a picture of a buck and "NELL" on them are pretty cool. Another reason it felt like a high school game, was the complete lack of a student section. While I beleive that students were present as given evidence by a man in blue waving a Michigan flag, they were generally outnumbered by what can be best described as Michigan field hockey enthusiast. Where do they come from parents, local coaches, alumnae? I have no clue.

I enjoyed listening to our field hockey enthusiast, they discussed how field Hockey is more of the domain of private schools and east coast schools. In the Big Ten, Michigan is the second closest thing to an east coast school after Penn State and the second closest thing to a private school after Northwestern. I find our general demeanor very strange. We are definitely Midwestern, but we are not as informal as the schools west of the Mississippi. As my dad pointed out, we are more uptight and less rowdy than Wisconsin or Michigan State. I guess making your own ice cream can make you restless. We do not have to cope with being in the middle of nowhere like Illinois. I've been to UIUC enough to vouch for that. And while we are northern, we do not center our focus on being northern as much as Minnesota. We are also not as monolithic as Ohio State, since we share the local spotlight with MSU.
What we are is a cultural blend that somehow puts studying, and awesome professional endeavors on generally the same level as sports and partying. We are active and progressive like a west coast school, focused and elite like an east coast school, and relaxed  and sports crazed like a Midwest school. What this gives us is an awesome blend in just about everything as can be seen in our addition of Lacross this year, to which my response is, "Why did we not have this earlier?". We are unique and anyone who has ever been here can vouch for that.
 Finally a little discussion of the game
It was a dominant performance by our ladies with a freshman forward getting a hat-trick and an assist. With plenty of great action and some awesome moves, it is a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I strongly recommend that you come out for a game. We could totally get a good student section going. Just remember to make some creative chants. I may very well be back. It might be because I received a prize bag with a Michigan Flag, some Wolverine-aid, "M" rubber bands, and a water-bottle. Total score!

My Next Adventure will be either Monday or Tuesday Morning. Men's golf is hosting a tournament at the U of M Gold Course. I have never played, let alone witnessed a Golf Tournament. I will try to get there as early as possible and maybe stay for a front 9 or something. I might become bored out of my mind, but I never accomplish anything on Monday mornings anyway.

By the way, I apologize for the lack of action shots in this web-log. My camera does not like moving targets.

What: Wolverine Intercollegate
Who: Baylor, California, Detroit, Iowa State, IUPUI, Marquette, Michigan, Michigan State, Missouri, North Carolina and Oakland.
When: 8:00 AM Monday September 12th and 8:00 AM Tuesday September 13th
Where: University of Michigan Golf Course.

The songs that get us through.

I'm sure, if you paid any attention to college football you heard something about the Michigan and Notre Dame game. If you watched the game on TV, then I am sure you got plenty of shots of some worried looking girl with block M on her check and her hands together in front of her face. I'm not really here to describe the crazy game.
What I can say is what I felt. I went in with no real expectations. When the game got going I was kind of wishing the crowd would have quieted down so I could have calmed my nerves. Needless to say, they didn't quiet down. What I was looking for in the game was improvement. I  am not sure if I saw that this game. We did make some good adjustments, but we have work. I went from hope, to watching people argue about seating, to hopelessness, to trying to find a silver lining, to disbelief. What carried me thought it all was the music. We played "Don't Stop Believing" after the first quarter, which was a bad sign as "The Mad Latvian Slammer" put it. When we broke into "The Victors," after what can best be described as "Butt Pull" plays, I remembered that I was a Wolverine. When we played, "We are the Wolverines" during downtime, we charged up tot he next level. When we chanted "Seven Nation Army" on defense we felt invincible. Feeling invincible in football is a foreign concept, especially for defense. We have been down for a while, but tonight, the energy, the noise, and the emotion were incredible. It felt like we belonged among the elite programs once again. You can say that Notre Dame and Michigan are not as good as their former glory, but for a handful of noisy, and very unlikely plays, we are back on top.

All I can say for this is that right now, we are still perfect. (The national championship hopes remain.) We may not be invincible, but we can certainly feel it tonight, especially when we are chanting, "Severn Nation Army."

The next goal is Women's field hockey. Please Join me. I have never been to a field hockey game, but having jogged by practices at other schools I really want to go. I have no clue what to expect except. Michigan is running a .500 record but it is ranked #14. I might be able to talk Anna into going with me. Apparently they play field hockey in India.

What: Field Hockey
Who: Michigan and Bucknell
Where: Phillis Ocker Field
When: 1:00 PM, September 11th 2011.

Gameday and a pre-game game.

Tonight is the quite hyped Notre Dame night game here in Ann Arbor. This, of course brings college gameday, fee food and lots of time to kill.

How do I deal with this? Well, first I head down to Gameday. The important thing about Gameday is to cheer loudly  whenever they put the camera on the crowd. There is no point in trying to hear what they are saying. If you want that you might as well go home. The other important thing is to search around campus for free food. The Michigan Union decided to put out a major spread for the students. The notable quote of the event was a pair of girls one of which had never eaten bacon, and the other one exclaiming, "You've never had bacon?" Unfortunately, there was no bacon at the event.

So, what am I supposed to do for the 8 intervening hours? Why not go to another football game? I noticed on ESPN.com that EMU was playing Alabama State. About 20 minutes later, "The Mad Latvian Slammer" and I were in Ypsilanti at the a MAC SWAC showdown. The advantages of EMU games are plenty. There is free parking next to the stadium. We caught a courtesy shuttle to the front gate. That was my first time on a golf cart. Another advantage is that it is $10 general admission. As for the game. EMU was clearly the better team even though the final score ended.
The true star of the game was the Alabama State band. SWAC bands are known for being loud and proud. I only wish that Michigan rocked like that. Chalk that up to one more tradition we need to add to our arsenal.
Another cool thing is EMU's stadium. I like the setup, it is small but it is not generic.

As for looking ahead, Having watched EMU play, I think we will beat them next week. Of course, now I realize that if I attend the NIU vs. EMU game in November, I will have attended three EMU games this year.


Looking forward to the Notre Dame game, I do not know what to expect. I am favoring Michigan, of course.

Midweek Michigan Mascot Musings.

Michigan sports are spoiled. We have  the best uniforms, the best fight song, the best record, and the best student sections. We do not have the best traditions. The banner jump is great, but we need more. Our band tends to play the same songs in the same formations. We need to spice up things. Given the events of the last game I think we should add a series of lightning rods around Michigan Stadium. We could name them after former coaches. That way we could forever have a "Rich-Rod" at Michigan.

So this leads to the great Michigan debate, the mascot. I know here at Michigan our mascot is winning, but we can still have some fun. Here are a few ideas.

A live Wolverine. I know we tried this in the past. I also know that wolverines have too much energy to be caged and are too ferocious to run through the stadium. What I do not know is where we would get one.

A foam wolverine: Just make it look unique. The first time it gets called a bear, it's out of there.

A Block M: As my housemate put put it, this would be far too much like a Sesame street puppet. Still it would be fun to have a two person "M."

A Nutcracker: Yes, it would essentially be someone in a band uniform with face-paint. Yes, we would be blatantly playing up the rivalry. Yes, Buckeye nuts are poisonous, but who said that college traditions had to make any sense?

A frontiersmen: according to my sources, it was either the residents of Ohio or the native tribes that described the Michigan settlers as fierce wolverines. We could totally have someone dress in a frontier outfit. The best part is that he could have a backpack with all kinds of trinkets hanging from it, each representing an important part of Michigan's culture and industry. I know we would sort of be steeling the Mountaineer from West Virginia, but we have never been bashful about steeling from them in the past. We get bonus points if he rides a horse. Mascots on horses are cool.

A male waterfowl: That right we would call it, "The Michi-gander."

The outline of the state: We could have a tall skinny guy dress up as the UP and a short fat guy dress up as the lower peninsula. They could do comedy routine.

Some kind of monstrosity: A block M with a plush wolverine head riding a horse would be awesome. I would totally get behind that.

In the end, I think we need a mascot. I like both serious and silly ideas as long as they are unique. Also, I would totally volunteer to dress as the frontiersman. Maybe, I will just declare myself the mascot and see where it goes from there. Anyway, I need to get behind the mascot campaign.