Texsox

I am looking for some attitude changing, team building ideas. As some of you know I am head golf coach for my high school. This year I got started too late to hire and assistant so I have everything, boys, girls, novice to varsity. I am the first "golf guy" to coach the team in years. The other coaches were great guys but basically were doing all they could to manage the business side and get kids where they needed to be. Using my Boy Scout professional training I quickly built a parents network and they are helping me with fundraising, communications, transportation. So that leaves me to recruit and coach. I doubled the team in numbers, I also have the #1 middle school player from last year. Of the twenty guys, 10 are freshman, 4 sophomores, 3 juniors, and 3 seniors. Up until this year the players thought a golf tournament was a day off of school and a chance to f*** around. I just kicked one of the seniors ass (last year the #1 player) when he complained he received a 50 on his report card for golf. I explained he hadn't been cleared by the trainers (he needs a physical) and until he gets on the course, he isn't earning a 100, that I got guys out there busting their butts to improve and he's not helping the team. That his teammates should be able to count on him and he's not there. You could have heard a pin drop. Afterwards I suggested that next time he has a concern, he should talk to me in private but I don't mind discussing matters in front of the whole team. The freshman understand clearly that there is a team we are building here for the long term. the sophomores came quickly in board, and one of the three juniors. Finally one of the seniors has just started kicking ass. But I am stuck with a few juniors and seniors that are just not understanding the changes. Right now, from what I am seeing on the range and putting green I have two freshman, two sophomores, and a junior that could easily be my top 5. I just didn't want to toss them into the fire during the first half of the season. I'd prefer they get some JV experience first, possibly win a couple tournaments, and let the older guys run out their high school careers, at least until our end of the year district and regional tournaments. (HS golf is August through April here in Texas). I set up the schedule so that our first varsity tournament is a 2-person scramble, I'm playing my three seniors, two juniors, and a freshman. Hoping for a little bonding between two guys. What else can you suggest? What has worked on other teams? I'm getting them the little stuff they have been complaining about, matching towels, bag tags, etc. Which I think will add to the team feeling. We haven't been "uniform".

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jul 25, 2014 -> 08:17 PM) OK, so when they present a real SS card but the number belongs to someone else, you want to jail them for that as well> I am all for screwing employers than knowingly hire illegals, however there has to be some discretion here. I have hired enough people in my time that I have seen a few fake SS cards and even a few DL's that looked pretty suspicious. I have even had one I thought was legit come back to me as not when I used the fax-check thing we had to do to verify the person. It isn't as cut and dry as you may like it to be. I thought I had already commented. This is one area that Dems and Reps who have ever hired a workforce agree. Short of DNA tests there isn't a foolproof system. And most small business owners can't be expected to be experts on the tens of thousands of different birth certificates out there.

Say what you will about Carter, no hostages died while he was in charge.

There is a code in journalism to get the story. Most journalist believe, with their lives, that what they are doing to worth doing, including putting themselves in harms way. Just like soldiers, medics, doctors, nurses, etc. We're just so accustomed to ripping them in this county we can't see that side.

So what do we do as a country when a segment of the society, for probably some valid reasons . . . Does not trust the police Decides that they will no longer abide by the laws of the US Destroys innocent people's property Steals Commits assault Say well they are justified and leave them alone? Enforce the law with increasing force?

Molotov cocktails? Has anyone seen stats on how many arrests have been to out of town people?

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Aug 17, 2014 -> 08:28 PM) A bit random, but does anyone have trouble hitting off mats at the driving range compared to actual grass? I'm guessing you are topping the ball or hitting really thin? It could be not wanting to hit your club into what is basically concrete. I'm glad all the ranges down here are grass.

Thanks LF, I've been struggling with understanding the violence that is happening. It is easy to see this community as thugs. A few people describe him as a good kid and then we see the video. If this is a good kid in the community, what do you have to do to be a bad kid? I'm clearly a liberal who finds it easier to follow the teachings of Gandhi or Dr. King. But you point out experiences that I can't possibly understand. I can understand being ignored and followed in stores because it happens to me. I understand being passed over for jobs because I am not the majority. I've seen first hand friends being treated unfairly because of their skin color, but my outrage was always tempered by their shrug of the shoulders and moving on. But I've never been harassed by cops because of the color of my skin.

We see what a small segment of the police force and a small segment of the community are capable of. No wonder there is no trust between the two groups.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 17, 2014 -> 07:21 PM) So, you're an educator, and you've now done this google search? Please wipe your computer's history now. I thought about that.

$300 for oral sex?? A quick google search reveals he overpaid.

In a perfect world a literature class would be a great place to discuss these issues, but the world of state standards says otherwise. Based on Common Core and every state requirements, discussing rape in a literature class is not an appropriate place or necessary. There are no standards that address this. With teacher evaluations increasingly relying on how well their students do on the state test, this sort of discussion is discouraged to a great degree. Sad but true.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 17, 2014 -> 10:34 AM) I'm with you on the looting, but what about the right to peacefully protest or freedom of the press down there? It was all taken away by that force. And replaced by looting and rioting. I'm not seeing peaceful protests. I'm seeing a portion of the community, that probably does not represent the mainstream population using this as a chance to loot and break laws. I also see some people justifying at and believing it is ok. I disagree as did a long line of civil rights leaders.

QUOTE (zenryan @ Aug 17, 2014 -> 06:34 PM) You made similar comments in the Trayvon Martin thread. It's pretty obvious you go around looking to be offended. From my many glimpses intoLostFan's personal life, that just isn't accurate. Not that you would necessarily know that, I'm just trying to offer a little help in understanding POV's.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 17, 2014 -> 10:54 AM) I didn't realize this many people still washed dishes by hand. I'd hate life with out my dishwasher. There are just two of us, our dishwasher takes over a week to fill.

We use the "sponge on a handle filled with soap" thingy. It automatically applies soap, uses less water, and keeps them very clean. BTW, don't confuse the suds with the soap. Manufacturers add a sudsing agent because people are use to seeing suds. You really don't want the soap and water to separate. What is best is the water and soap form a solution not an emulsion (for the chemistry folks). The Boy Scout three bucket method is scrap clean, bucket one has hot soapy water, bucket two is the rinse water (heated), and bucket three is a weak bleach solution).

Perhaps because the CDC is one of the world's greatest medical facilities equipped to handle severe cases and the knowledge they can acquire from working directly with a patient may save thousands of lives down the road? Ebola samples have routinely been brought to that facility, the biggest difference here is they are inside a living person.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 17, 2014 -> 09:53 AM) Do cops get to ignore laws? Neither side gets to ignore laws and our justice system. But the punishment for cops breaking the law can't be unending looting, violence, and lawlessness. Protesting against someone breaking the law by breaking the law is hypocrisy on the grandest scale.

The more the community ignores laws and the harder they make it to serve and protect their community from looters the more empathy I have for the police.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 03:53 PM) As he should...oddly enough, my first thoughts when I read it were, don't get your panties all bunched up.

Reading through the thread and the speculation about who may have used PEDs gets me weary. I remember a couple doctors at my old country club speculating like sports fans not necessarily doctors, suggesting that a guy that tore a bicep muscle must have been using steroids. They sounded very convincing. Odd injury that almost never happens with baseball players, etc. When I realized they were speaking about Frank Thomas, I just laughed. I like it when guys are caught and it is proven, the speculation just kind of bugs me at this point. Maybe that's what MLB wants.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 09:32 AM) One thing that messes with my head though is when I'm walking the course and there are people in carts behind me. I can't stand the notion of holding people up, even if there is a group directly in front of me that I am waiting on. For whatever reason I just cannot concentrate. This was an issue at my old club. Everyone was pointing to the walkers as holding up play. With a bit of objective evidence it was clearly fivesomes (allowed in the south) playing wolf (a betting game) that were the slowest. It shut up a lot of people.

I've watched the video a couple times and from the limited amount of information available, including his history, I'm in the "I wanted to teach him a lesson to mind his elders, but I didn't intend to kill him" camp. What is key would be the accident that preceded this one.

As I have always believed Managers get too much credit and too much blame. Ed, I met Bevington a few seasons ago while he was managing in an independent league that came to town. I came by the dugout and he saw the Sox cap and he wasn't certain what the reaction would be. He was very nice. He asked if I was going to ask about the bullpen moment, I laughed and said no, that had been beat to death. He still gave the impression he was just killing time between drinks.

Does anyone believe a system that places this much power with the owners and almost nothing with the high school athlete is fair? There should be some way for the kid to be playing mlb organization ball. Boras' system is about as good as it gets.