Great googly moogly! Another article yet so soon?

Sure, what the heck, but it won’t be a very long one since I pretty much shot my load last week.

I would write some stuff about field hockey but the UFO, who has continued to manage to avoid being unmasked (or un-bagged), does a great job. I know that he/she seems to attend some of the same games that I have attended over the years since information only noticed at a live event gets written. But it would be unrealistic to try to remember all of the faces on the sidelines and start matching up possible suspects.

But, who cares who it is really? Ok, some people do but I am just grateful for the submission of the information, let me tell ya.

I heard something interesting from a colleague who has been saying wonderful things about a particular athlete over the past couple of years. I was told that the father of this particular athlete wants this writer to lay off all of the publicity. It was assumed that the reason for this was that the team wasn’t going to be all that great this year and since this athlete is a leader of the team, it could reflect negatively on the perception of his/her performance.
Now if that didn’t beat all, I don’t know what would. I’ve been accused of being negative, been asked not to criticize, etc., etc. But to stop writing nice things about kids now? Give me a break here, because none of the above is going to stop, most particularly glowing endorsements of athletes.
The major thing to realize about this athlete’s father is that he is actively promoting his child to potential college programs; he wants the attention for his kid. But after all of this recognition that he/she has had, apparently there is now just too much pressure.
Welcome to the real world now where pressure is part of daily life.

So when do we begin to pressure kids in life? I had another interesting conversation last evening with the grandmother of a 4-year-old boy who is concerned that he isn’t willing to struggle to earn a reward. In this case, the story was about this boy who loves to ride one of those 3-wheeled plastic bikes down a decent sized slope in the driveway. For quite some time he was pushed by whomever wanted to make him happy at the time so that he could have his joy ride, but Grandma has decided that he should now push the bike up the hill and earn that thrill ride downhill.

It was an interesting conversation in which to engage and I write about it now basically to get some input from other parents. Since I am not a parent and have never coached a child so young, I really don’t have a clue.
The basic ideas to debate are when is it a good time to teach a child the concept of "no pain, no gain," and also just how to do it. That was really the sticking point with Grandma. She really wanted to teach the boy how to exert a little more effort to earn a reward and didn't know how to go about doing it.
My idea was pretty simple: if he doesn’t so something, he doesn’t eat. That will motivate him eventually. Now I realize that might earn me a trip to court so I’m looking for other ideas.

Thanks to those who still read this section and mention it when they see me. It is a little embarrassing, to be honest, since I never quite know how to react when someone says anything, other than to say thank you, of course.

Corey Phelan, from the Charter School of Wilmington, nearly single-handedly led his team to victory down in Seaford Friday night. For a QB who is not on the large side, he is as tough as they come physically. Not only can he throw a ball with speed and accuracy, but don’t think you’re going to just push him out of bounds when he scrambles. Indeed, prepare to get your bell rung instead.
Phelan was a DB for a while with Charter and was pressed into action briefly this past Friday. He hits with the best of them back there and when he runs with the ball.
He did get rocked from behind and had to sit out a play Friday night. The backup QB (forgive me for not knowing his name) was about half of Phelan’s size. When I saw him warming up rapidly on the sideline while trainers were attending to Phelan, I saw the linebacking corp from Seaford drooling in the middle of the field.
I thought that perhaps this might be the first and last game for the replacement Force back who was forced to handoff to the backup RB in the game.
Sure enough a 26-man blitz came, but the little guy managed to let his RB get smooshed for a loss before Phelan came back in to save some lives.

Who could say if it was the hot weather or the hot defense from William Penn that gave Salesianum all they could handle Saturday. From my view, the Sals just didn’t drink enough fluids before the game and it had a big impact.
But Khamil Algahnee and Darin Henry were probably more troublesome for the Sals. Algahnee was crushing his way through blocks all afternoon from his linebacker spot and Henry picked off two passes, one for a touchdown, and had a 90-yard punt return that set up a touchdown.
Henry is a money player and, in my opinion so far, the best all around football player in the state. Not only can he play D and run back punts that electrify crowds, he can also catch the ball with the best of them. I still recall two amazing diving catches he made in the St. Marks game last year that are still highlight reel worthy.
There is little doubt that the Sals were missing Bob Sabol Saturday afternoon also. Sabol violated some school rule and was not allowed to dress. He is also a big money player who can single-handedly turn the momentum of any game here in DE.

So the Brandywine Bulldog football team is now 2-0. Its been quite some time since the Dawgs have started a season 2-0. The win against Archmere was an important win for the program even though it put Archmere at 0-2. Archmere is always tough on the gridiron and this victory gives Cordie Greenlea capital with his fans, who were clearly excited about this start to the season.

Now that the season is under way, the Player of the Week awards have started again. Please remember that this site was never intended to be one where just I have all the say. I always wanted fans to become more involved so please feel free to submit those nominations for awards.

It seems as if our resident fitness guru, Dave Kergaard, has disappeared for a while. I will take over in his absence for a little while since I go to the gym a few times a week.
That reminds me that I have seen some recent high school graduates working out in my gym who were tough to recognize at first because of the growth spurts brought on by weightlifting and age. Former St. Elizabeth and Widener linebacker Matt Swarter is a regular in my gym and is just huge. The owner of the gym is trying to convince him to compete in bodybuilding, but his goal is to land a job on the state police force.
I’ve also seen former All-Heart Team winner Chase Noll from McKean and McDaniel College. I happened to see him on one of those days that I was working real light. I had some real low weight on one of the bench press machines and left to get in a set on some other machine when he walked over to it. I thought, "oh great, now this dude thinks I’m some sort of girly man or something." Then when I figured out who it was it was just worse for me.
Anyway, Noll, now a senior at McDaniel, told me he was expecting to be the starting nose guard for the Green Terror.

In all honesty, I was working light that day because it was soon after injuring myself, which is one of the two quick topics I will cover now.
Ever have one of those days where you just feel super and that you believe you could do just about anything? Well, I had one of those days in April or May (I forget now) where I was feeling that way. I asked myself a very profound question which was "I wonder if I can lift something that even I can’t lift?" Well, I tried to do just that and promptly suffered dueling labral tears in my shoulders. Surgery is the only way to repair those tears since there are no blood supplies to the injured areas. But sadly these injuries, even after surgery, could take over a year to fully heal and even then coming back to 100% is probably not going to happen. So, at 43, life continues to be about pain management.
The moral of that story is to forget about lifting so much weight. I hear guys all the time in the gym talking about their injuries and its just simply because there is just too much weight on the bars. I should know better but who would have thought that sort of injury would happen? Heck, I didn’t even know what a labrum was until 2 weeks after the incident.

Part two of Marshal’s Guide to Strange Ways of Doing Things is all about motivation. I have found that to reward myself for working hard and to simultaneously give me a reason to work out during the week, I take one day each week and just eat a whole bunch of crap. Candy bars, ice cream and pizza are basically breakfast, lunch and dinner for that day and that doesn’t include snacks. I earn the right to eat whatever I want after a hard week and then the next morning I feel so stupid that I make sure I get back over to the gym as fast as possible.

Ok, that’s all folks! See y’all soon.