Food For Thought

Hello All,

I have finally made it to the blog (well overdue, I know).  I will admit that Coach gave me some motivation to sign on to read over Em’s post from last week about David.  When we hear stories like David’s or when we experience the pain through someone else as they suffer a loss of somebody near and dear to their heart, I believe it is a wakeup call for most, if not all.  I have found, however, that as I have heard these stories growing up, it is easy to let them affect you for just the time being—not long term.  Just over the past two years, have I finally begun to remember others’ unfortunate stories each and every day that I am here.   Sadly, I used to carry the attitude that my loved ones, and most importantly my family, would be here day in and day out.  I realize today, and every day, how truly lucky I am to lie in bed each night and be able to thank God for allowing my loved ones to remain in my life for one more whole day.

This brings me to a status I came across on Facebook posted by the one and only, Karen Hansen.  I’m sure some of you chuckle or sigh at the fact that I mentioned Facebook, but I am a huge quote person, and I definitely hit the “like” button for her status!  This status read: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”  This status can obviously be interpreted in many different ways; it reminded me of several different things.

One of the things that it reminded me of was the people in my life.  I am the person I am and I cannot change whether or not I am accepted for that.  Another one of my favorite quotes to go along with this idea states that “Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”  There are other things about life in general that this status can pertain to, but I will jump to explain what it means to me in terms of softball.

While Em has already made this point, allowing ourselves to get flustered because of a weather delay or the wrong kind of sandwich is simply silly.  It may not be the most ideal situation, but there could be much worse situations that we could be presented with.  We cannot control the weather, but we can control our attitude about it.  As long as we have tried out hardest, we cannot control if we get thrown out on a steal or strike out at the plate.  Even though frustration is an acceptable emotion in this situation, we can control if we choose to instead move on and learn from our mistakes.  These are only two of many examples related to softball.  I am plenty guilty of complaining or making comments about little and uncontrollable things, which is why I think it was important to come across a status like Karen’s.  Not to mention, I can’t begin to count how many times my parents have told me to “Control the controllables” (another good reminder).

A couple of weeks ago Jess and Sam presented their leadership lesson.  They closed with the challenge for each of us to fulfill a promise we made.  I have not yet done that, but I am now committing and promising to myself to not complain about the little and unimportant things in life.  What is your promise?  On this note, I will end with the understanding that my post may have been a bit intense, if you will, for some.  However, I think it is good for us all to hear once and a while.

I have a feeling tomorrow we are going to need a broom after we SWEEP River Falls!  See y’all then!

-Britt

UWEC CC/Track – Outdoor Update

The cool and rainy weather the last two weeks hasn’t slowed the UW - Eau Claire middle distance / distance crew. The past two meets at UW-La Crosse on Friday, April 15th and last Friday, April 22nd at Winona State have seen strong performances on the track from the Blugolds. In La Crosse two weeks ago the distance men and women focused on the 10K. On the men’s side, Charlie Daehler (jr.-Whitefish Bay) and Aric Runzheimer (so.-Kettle Moraine) ran strong finishing 2nd and 4th overall in 31:59 and 32:13. The duo passed through 8K together in 25:49 and separated during the final 3 laps. Charlie made a late surge during the final lap but came up just short of the win finishing less than 2 seconds behind 1st place with a 17 second PR.

The women placed 5 individuals in the top 9 in the 10K at UW-La Crosse. Michelle Brunshidle (so.-St. Croix Central) led the way placing 2nd overall in 39:12 in her first ever 10,000m race. Molly Woodford (sr.-Waukesha South) ran with Michelle until the final lap and finished 4th overall in a PR time of 39:21. Rounding out the top 5 for Eau Claire was Ilse Renner (so.-Green Bay East)-5th, 39:28*PR; Kacey Rindy (jr.-Fennimore)-7th, 39:56 and Teresa Coughlin (jr.-Coon Rapids, MN)-9th, 40:19.

Here’s a link to the complete UW-La Crosse results:
http://www.uwecblugolds.com/stats/motr/2011/otr_uwl_041511.htm

At Winona State this past Friday the Blugold men had several strong performances despite very rainy and windy conditions. In the 800, sophomore Aaron Easker (Wittenberg-Birnamwood) PR’d by over 2 seconds finishing 5th overall in 1:56. Eric Pronschinske (so.-Arcadia) won the 2nd section of the men’s 1500 and finished 8th overall in a PR time of 4:10. Eric closed his final 300m in 45 seconds. Senior Max Renner (Green Bay East) ran his first race of the season placing 4th in the 3,000m Steeplechase in a time of 9:47.

The Blugold women set nine lifetime PR’s on Friday in Winona. Leading the way was sophomore Ashlyn Mauer (so.-Sheboygan Falls) who won the 5K in a PR time of 17:36, which was 59 seconds ahead of the second place finisher! Freshmen Victoria Janasz (Elk River, MN) and Alana Jenkins (Eau Claire Memorial) also had 5K PR’s finishing 4th and 5th in 19:04 and 19:18. Maria Peloquin (sr.-Prescott) ran a 4 second PR in the 1500m run finishing 5th overall in a time of 4:44. Four other Blugold women broke 5 minutes in the 1500 all in PR times, and they include: Madison Sawyer (so.-Champlin Park, MN)-7th, 4:52; Erica Tiffany (so.-Mounds View, MN)-8th, 4:57; Taylor McMillan (so.-Stoughton)-9th, 4:58 and Jami Riley (fr.-Fairmont, MN)-11th, 4:59. Kelly Palmer (sr.-Chaska, MN) also had a strong performance in the 3,000m steeplechase winning by 20 seconds in a time of 11:34.

Here’s a link to the complete Winona State results:
http://www.uwecblugolds.com/stats/motr/2011/otr_winona_042211.htm

The Blugolds are competing at three different meets this weekend, which include the St. Mary’s Invite in Winona, MN; the Gina Relays at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, MI and the Drake Relays in Des Moines, IA. Outdoor Conference is next Friday and Saturday, May 6th and 7th at UW-Platteville.

A Week in the Life - Day 2

As promised, I'm following up with Saturday, so here goes.....

Approximately 6:00 a.m. - wake up, have my coffee (you'll see this entry a LOT, as it's the way I start EVERY day - the only variable is the time I get up) Have breakfast, get packed (a full duffle bag of about every possible option for warm clothing - you can never prepare too much for the possibility of cold weather), and finish getting ready to go.

7:45 a.m. - leave the house a little early because we discovered a broken bat yesterday so I need to make a quick stop at our local sporting goods store to get a replacement bat.

8:05 a.m. - arrive on campus to get the bus loaded - but wait! NO BUS!!! You've got to be kidding me! We just confirmed this yesterday - Coach Baker calls the emergency number for the bus company and we're told the bus is at Hwy 53 and Hwy 29 - still 20 minutes away, and we're scheduled to LEAVE at 8:30. I'm NOT happy - we soon find out the driver was told to be here at 8:45 - NO, that is supposed to be NEXT Saturday, not THIS Saturday.

At this point it is raining and some doubt about whether or not we'll be able to play creeps into everyone's minds, but the players know better than to ask me because for one, Oshkosh is 3 1/2 hours away, so just because it's raining here, doesn't mean it's raining there; and two, regardless of the weather, we are always preparing "as if."

The players wait inside the McPhee Center with their bags and the equipment, as I keep my displeasure with the bus situation under control.

8:40 a.m. - the bus finally arrives and the players move to the bus with all their gear faster than they typically run from home to 1st - they know we were supposed to be on the road 10 minutes ago and they joke that we'll need to implement our "flat tire" pregame warmup. Our "flat tire" warmup, as we've named it, is an abbreviated version of our pregame warmup - it is designed (and we have practiced it) so in the event something happens that is out of our control on the way to a road game (like a flat tire), we don't go into panic mode thinking we'll never play well because we didn't get a full warmup.

8:45 a.m. - we are pulling out of the parking lot - the bus driver knew he was late, and we loaded that bus with reckless abandon - hence, only 5 minutes of time has passed since the bus arrived and we are pulling out.

We experienced some heavy mist for a good part of the ride to Oshkosh, but were confident that we were going to get the games in. During the ride, the coaches discuss strategy and our opponent while the players typically sleep, watch a movie, some do homework, and eventually they all eat - we take food with us so they can have a sandwich or whatever else they need/want while we're on the bus. Doing it this way saves us money, and we're able to keep our players in class more because we don't have to leave an hour early just so we can stop and eat along the way. (By the way, today's movie choice - Pirates of the Carribean)

12:00 p.m. - we arrive in Oshkosh at the softball field right on time - the trip is pretty quick on Hwy 29 to Wausau, 39 south to Stevens Point, then Hwy 10 over to the Fox Valley area. All 4 lane - just the way I like it. They players prefer that type of trip as well, as opposed to the Decorah, Iowa, trip, which resulted in more car sickness than I've ever experienced before on a single trip!

Pregame warmup as usual - but everyone had wet socks due to all the rain they had received the night before - oh well, they'd get wet eventually anyway.

2:00 p.m. - game time - we pull off a double header sweep at Oshkosh - always a very difficult feat to win on the road there.

6:00 p.m. - the bus pulls out from the stadium, minus a few players who have elected to ride home with their parents to spend Easter with their families tomorrow. The players and staff who remain on the bus make a stop at Culver's for some food on the go. The ride home will be enjoyable because everyone feels good about what we accomplished today - plus we all know we have an entire day off from work and classes tomorrow - life is good.

Movie choice on the bus ride home - Enchanted - which we receive bonus singing from Emily Muller and Ashley Meinen - I couldn't even hear the actual movie because they were bellowing in my ears. By the way, the players all CHOSE to sit at the front of the bus on the ride home. They will never admit it, but they really do LOVE their coaches and just wanted to spend quality time with us on the way home. :)

Second movie option - The Incredibles. I really wanted to watch this movie, but there was so much chatter going on I couldn't hear it, so I finally put in my earphones and watched a video podcast.

10:00 p.m. - arrive back in Eau Claire - exhausted, but happy. Load the food bins in the Pilot, haul the equipment to the storage room, load the dirty uniforms into a big bag to take home.

10:45 p.m. - arrive at home - put one load of uniforms in the washing machine. Have to do laundry at home tonight because the equipment/laundry room won't be open to do the unis before we play again on Monday.

11:30 p.m. - or approximately that time - after a little unwinding with a bit of TV, the eyes won't stay open anymore, so it's off to dreamland.

Easter Sunday up tomorrow. See you then!

Coach H.

Softball Moves up in NFCA Poll

The UW-Eau Claire softball team moved up in the latest National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll, announced April 27.

The week 11 poll has the Blugolds tied for 23rd. A week ago they were 25th.

View Week 11 Poll

Women's Outdoor Track & Field Moves up in Rankings

The UW-Eau Claire women's outdoor track & field team moved up four spots in the latest USTFCCCA top 25 poll.

A week ago, the Blugolds were ranked 22nd but they are now 18th.

In regional rankings, the women are fourth while the men are 10th.

Complete National Rankings

Complete Regional Rankings

A Week in the Life - Day 1

As I sit here at my kitchen table watching the rain come down (at least it's rain rather than snow this time!), I'm reflecting on the past few days and considering what to write about. This invitation to blog has been staring at me, as my student manager, Karen, has used the subtlety of sending me a "reminder" about posting......ok Karen, I get it! :)

The season has presented its share of challenges. The weather has been the most persistent of them all. We've faced our share of adversity - and I don't use that term lightly. So what of the "life lessons" we are learning as we trek through another season of Blugold softball?

So as I sit here, trying to be profound, what keeps coming to mind is doing a series of entries about a "day in the life" or "week in the life" of a Division III softball coach.

So I think I'll go back to last week - I'll just pick Friday as my starting point and we'll go from there.

To start, I'm an assistant athletic director, so my job is not just coaching softball. At this time of year, I'm actually working very hard on getting things ready to go for summer orientation as well as Fall 2011 for the teams to come back to campus and start practices. So I spent a few minutes with the women's hockey coach determining when his team athletics orientation meeting would be held next fall.

Also as an assistant AD, I am in charge of facilitating team evaluations at the end of each season. I use a pretty slick computer program through the University, but I have to enter every email address and name manually (well, I use copy/paste for the email address) :) So I spent a good part of the morning setting up the emails to go out to the spring sport athletes.

After having lunch at my desk, it was time to load equipment into my vehicle to take outside for practice. Another challenge with the ever-changing weather - the equipment spends more than its fair share of time in the back of my Honda Pilot!

So Friday was the day after a double header, but the day before a double header as well - a pretty typical schedule for the spring of 2011, given all the changes the weather has forced upon us. What was the forecast? Cold, windy, and possible rain. Ah, what the heck, practicing outside will make us tougher - plus, there were just things we HAD to do that couldn't be done in the gym. So outside it was.

Now, there are certain things that I will compromise on - how LONG we practice outside is one of them, especially when the wind chill dips into the 30's. So we had a plan of things we needed to do outside where space makes all the difference, and our goal was to be done in 1 hour. Mission accomplished.

After that 1 hour, however, we had not done any hitting. So back into the gym we went. Friday afternoon was Good Friday, so basically the entire student body was gone - no worries in having to chase pick up hoops players out of the gym. Bring the cages down, get the pitching mats out, and away we go for about another hour. At this point in the season, we have done drill after drill after drill - the players have certain drills that are their favorites and certain drills, that although not their favorites, are necessary for them to get better - those are the things we work on inside.

As we start to hit and pitch, the rain comes down in sheets - good decision to come inside when we did.

We're supposed to play the next day in Oshkosh - thankfully they have a tarp to protect the infield. But are we 100% certain at this point that we'll play? Not really - but like most other days, we have to prepare "as if." We have to know for sure by 7:30 a.m. the next day because that's our deadline to cancel the bus so we don't get charged. My assistant coach, Amber Dohlman, made her regular trip to Sam's Club earlier today to get meat, bread, cheese, etc., so we can save money by fixing sandwiches on the bus on the way to the game

Get the gym cleaned up, put up the cages, put the mats away - unless you hear from me, bus leaves at 8:30 a.m.

9:45 p.m. - Oshkosh calls - we should be a go for tomorrow. No need to cancel the bus. Good night.

"A week in the life" continues with Saturday - tomorrow. See you then.

Coach

A Bus Ride

Hey All,

This is Coach Husted; I'm the volunteer pitching coach this season for the 'golds and since it has been many years since I've coached at the college game; this is my first time riding the bus in a very long time.

Sure I ride the rental car shuttle from some airport to some rental car facility on a regular basis but this is a full on coach bus experience.

Last week was my maiden voyage, a trip to Whitewater that lasted 4 hours maybe. Right now, we are on the way to Oshkosh.

Here is what happens on the bus...

1. A lot of sleep. As I sit here we have 2 AT's sleeping in the row behind me; Jessa has been out cold since we left and I think Amber is also sleeping. I'd nap BUT the reality is that I'd snore and that probably would get me kicked off the bus. My entire goal is to not get kicked off the bus.

2. We watch movies. So far, here has been the movies we've watched in 2 trips. First we watched "The Blind Side" and "Cars" on the way to UWW. I had never seen "Cars" and based on the first part, I'd probably watch the 2nd half if I found it on cable. On the way back we watched something about Harry Potter (I have no clue). This trip we've started with Pirates of the Caribbean.

3. There is also a decent number of kids who use this time to get homework done. Being a student athlete means you have to have great time management skills and so post game homework is often a key part of that time management process for our brilliant athletes.

But here is my favorite part of the bus trip -- getting from the front of the bus to the back of bus for the water closet. It is the ultimate challenge of under, over and past sleeping legs. You have to look for random players sleeping anywhere and with a small pathway to navigate often you have to use creative problem solving to get to the back. Even more fun, on the way back; kids have shifted etc so you may have a different "course" to tackle on the way back.

I have my trusty stopwatch here, maybe Coach and I can do time trials to see who is quickest; actually... she has a lot more experience at this; maybe I don't want to challenge her after all.