Dallin and football part 4
http://www.dallincoons.com/dallin/97
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Sunday, May 10, 2015
April 2015 stuff
April has historically been our least favorite month. This April kind of kept the theme going, but as far as Aprils go this one was relatively mild.
The good stuff: I started a new job. I like it a lot better than my old job. It's more difficult and allows me to use my brain while paying me 10,000 more a year. Two thumbs up.
The not-favorite stuff: While my new job was an improvement, the drive wasn't. It took 45 to 60 minutes to get to work. I had to drop Emily off and pick her up after work and there were days where I had to stay late but Emily had to go early so we ended up just being at work for 12 hours. Luckily Emily has nice comfy outdoor chairs outside her work where she could read.
I'll be your guide as I go through the stuff that happened in April. It'll be short and relatively painless.
We went to the beautiful land of Lakeside in the White Mountains (on the other side of the Shire). We hung out with Janae. She's going to heading out to Oklahoma to meet some dude's family before she heads to Rexburg to learn things at skool. We got my mom to play Time's Up (amazing game), and we laughed quite hard.
We ate dinner at The Stand, which is a restaurant across from my old job. It was ironic.
I went skeet shooting with my home slice A.J. It was actually supposed to an Elders Quorum activity but we were the only ones to show up. We went to a gun range where they had machines that would launch clay pigeons and I had an amazingly fun time. I had gone skeet shooting once before but really only shot about 2 rounds so this was essentially my first time. I did much, much better than I was expecting. I hit at least 70 percent of the targets. Beginners luck? I don't know!
The good stuff: I started a new job. I like it a lot better than my old job. It's more difficult and allows me to use my brain while paying me 10,000 more a year. Two thumbs up.
The not-favorite stuff: While my new job was an improvement, the drive wasn't. It took 45 to 60 minutes to get to work. I had to drop Emily off and pick her up after work and there were days where I had to stay late but Emily had to go early so we ended up just being at work for 12 hours. Luckily Emily has nice comfy outdoor chairs outside her work where she could read.
I'll be your guide as I go through the stuff that happened in April. It'll be short and relatively painless.
We went to the beautiful land of Lakeside in the White Mountains (on the other side of the Shire). We hung out with Janae. She's going to heading out to Oklahoma to meet some dude's family before she heads to Rexburg to learn things at skool. We got my mom to play Time's Up (amazing game), and we laughed quite hard.
We ate dinner at The Stand, which is a restaurant across from my old job. It was ironic.
I went skeet shooting with my home slice A.J. It was actually supposed to an Elders Quorum activity but we were the only ones to show up. We went to a gun range where they had machines that would launch clay pigeons and I had an amazingly fun time. I had gone skeet shooting once before but really only shot about 2 rounds so this was essentially my first time. I did much, much better than I was expecting. I hit at least 70 percent of the targets. Beginners luck? I don't know!
Now I kind of want to buy a shotgun.
I want to fight, fight fight fight
for my constitutional rights
to party and bear arms
yeah!
- Guttermouth
The new apartment is awesome and I'll tell you why.
1) We have many windows! The apartment has light! Our old apartment was a depressing cave.
2) We have a sweet patio that's private enough that we feel comfortable eating breakfast/dinner outside.
2) We're right in the center of everything. If we want to go clothes shopping, our favorite stores are literally right down the street.
3) We have a gigantic full length mirror. I don't care about that but Emily loves it.
4) They just remodeled and we have brand new appliances and all that junk.
5) We live close enough to Emily's work that she can walk to and from work.
The weather is still cool enough that we can open the windows at night. It's gonna get hot really soon but thankfully we only have to deal with a few months of face melting heat but everyone here has pools and state of the art air conditioning.
We put a pause on paying off student loans and we're going to save for a car, although we may end up not getting it and putting the money towards student loans. We're going to save just in case so that we have the freedom to make the decision. At the end of June we'll have enough to pay cash for a $6,000 car. Right now we're down to $13,500 on the student loans, which could be lower if we hadn't paused paying it off. Debt sucks. Not recommended. Boooooooo! We're pretty optimistic and excited about life though.
Time for May.
RAINBOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Dallin and Football Part 3
Check out part one and part two .
When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, my family lived in the small town of St. Johns which is about an hour away from Lakeside, where the Blue Ridge High School is located. At that time, the St. Johns football team had been undefeated for three years straight (they were in a lower division).
The previous year, Blue Ridge had won the first state championship in what would end up being a long string of championships. When the two teams met each other on the St. Johns field, Blue Ridge ended their 30+ game streak with a massive 66-6 victory. I have vague memories of people talking about it and laughing it off in a wow-that-was-a-really-bad-game sort of way. I had no inkling that I would later move and attend that school. When I first joined the football team, I still didn't have any idea about the teams "tradition of champions".
The Blue Ridge team of the 90's were fast, hard hitting, and intimidating. After several years of complete domination, they reached a certain critical mass where most opposing teams would show up anticipating a loss. From 1994 to 2001, the only games Blue Ridge lost were state championship games, where there probably wasn't so much of a psychological intimidation factor. Still, some of the state games were massacres. In 2000, they beat Park in the big game 67-19. My brother-in-law was on the 2001 team that beat Coolidge 58-8 in the state championship.
Something changed in 2002, the year Winslow beat Blue Ridge on their homecomeing night 20-0. Although Blue Ridge would not lose another regular season football game, they came close to losing several times and eventually lost to Winslow again in the playoffs.
After I had graduated from freshman football and joined the JV/Varsity squads in 2003, I became aware of the level of disappointment and resentment the team held because of the previous years outcome. At both Mountain and California camps, we had late night meetings in which the Seniors on the team informed us of how we were going to do better than the previous year, and I could tell they wanted a state championship very, very badly.
After the exhausting ordeal of California camp was over, we had a day off, and then immediately began our actual football practices which commenced on the first day of school. The people who decided to join the team and hadn't gone through any of the summer extremities were doomed. They couldn't keep up, and I don't recall any of them staying on the team.
It was a tradition of Coach Moro's to schedule the previous years state champions for the first game of the season, provided that the team had lost the previous year. Teams in the past would work all summer and the first couple months of practice preparing for the opportunity to smash the defending champions into the ground, take the wind out of their sails, and establish dominance. This year was no different, we were scheduled to play Globe who had won the 2002 state championship.
We knew that we probably had prepared better than them and should have the upper hand, but I sensed fear in the locker room before the game. I felt like I was surrounded by people who knew they were not only expected to win, but win big. There was a genuine fear of not being able to live up to expectations.
We ended up winning that game, but it wasn't a very large margin. We were maybe two touchdowns ahead. So it was a victory, but it didn't seem to alleviate our self conscious anxiety.
The next few games were unexpectedly easy (which allowed me lots of playing time). However, our fears were realized when we go completely shut down by Snowflake in a devastating loss, 42-7. We didn't only lose a regular season game, but we got smacked around. This was definitely not supposed to happen. This was bad. Really bad.
Blue Ridge's rivals, Show Low High School is just a few miles down the road. It so happened that a former Blue Ridge coach, Jeremy Hatchcock, had recently left Blue Ridge and accepted the position as head coach at Show Low. He knew the system that Coach Moro used, and he knew that it worked and so he replicated it. They spent the summer going to Mountain and California camp, which they didn't bother to rename. Whether people might accuse them of imitation was apparently of no concern. Their practices were exactly the same, and even the way they did their pregame stretches were an exact replication. And the team was good. Really good. Not only were they in shape and disciplined, but they had incredible talent as well.
Every day at school, during lunch, we were expected to either bring our lunch or go grab it as quickly as humanly possible from the cafeteria and then head straight to a classroom where we would watch film. We would either watch ourselves in the previous weeks game or we would watch the team for whom we were preparing for.
One of the vivid memories I have is the Monday in the film room after we had been badly beaten by Snowflake. Coach London was in his usual seat with the remote control with which he could rewind or slow down the film, and then he started the Show Low film. For the next 30 to 45 minutes, we watched as one by one he pointed out each player and the high level of talent they possessed.
Even though the Varsity had lost to Snowflake, our JV team had won which meant that the team that had gone undefeated as freshman still hadn't lost. Our hopes of being the first team to go undefeated all four years was still alive. I had gone from being completely ignorant of all things football related to being a starter on JV, which meant that I would play the first half of the game until we were winning by multiple touchdowns.
However, Show Low still loomed on the horizon.
When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, my family lived in the small town of St. Johns which is about an hour away from Lakeside, where the Blue Ridge High School is located. At that time, the St. Johns football team had been undefeated for three years straight (they were in a lower division).
The previous year, Blue Ridge had won the first state championship in what would end up being a long string of championships. When the two teams met each other on the St. Johns field, Blue Ridge ended their 30+ game streak with a massive 66-6 victory. I have vague memories of people talking about it and laughing it off in a wow-that-was-a-really-bad-game sort of way. I had no inkling that I would later move and attend that school. When I first joined the football team, I still didn't have any idea about the teams "tradition of champions".
The Blue Ridge team of the 90's were fast, hard hitting, and intimidating. After several years of complete domination, they reached a certain critical mass where most opposing teams would show up anticipating a loss. From 1994 to 2001, the only games Blue Ridge lost were state championship games, where there probably wasn't so much of a psychological intimidation factor. Still, some of the state games were massacres. In 2000, they beat Park in the big game 67-19. My brother-in-law was on the 2001 team that beat Coolidge 58-8 in the state championship.
Something changed in 2002, the year Winslow beat Blue Ridge on their homecomeing night 20-0. Although Blue Ridge would not lose another regular season football game, they came close to losing several times and eventually lost to Winslow again in the playoffs.
After I had graduated from freshman football and joined the JV/Varsity squads in 2003, I became aware of the level of disappointment and resentment the team held because of the previous years outcome. At both Mountain and California camps, we had late night meetings in which the Seniors on the team informed us of how we were going to do better than the previous year, and I could tell they wanted a state championship very, very badly.
After the exhausting ordeal of California camp was over, we had a day off, and then immediately began our actual football practices which commenced on the first day of school. The people who decided to join the team and hadn't gone through any of the summer extremities were doomed. They couldn't keep up, and I don't recall any of them staying on the team.
It was a tradition of Coach Moro's to schedule the previous years state champions for the first game of the season, provided that the team had lost the previous year. Teams in the past would work all summer and the first couple months of practice preparing for the opportunity to smash the defending champions into the ground, take the wind out of their sails, and establish dominance. This year was no different, we were scheduled to play Globe who had won the 2002 state championship.
We knew that we probably had prepared better than them and should have the upper hand, but I sensed fear in the locker room before the game. I felt like I was surrounded by people who knew they were not only expected to win, but win big. There was a genuine fear of not being able to live up to expectations.
We ended up winning that game, but it wasn't a very large margin. We were maybe two touchdowns ahead. So it was a victory, but it didn't seem to alleviate our self conscious anxiety.
The next few games were unexpectedly easy (which allowed me lots of playing time). However, our fears were realized when we go completely shut down by Snowflake in a devastating loss, 42-7. We didn't only lose a regular season game, but we got smacked around. This was definitely not supposed to happen. This was bad. Really bad.
Blue Ridge's rivals, Show Low High School is just a few miles down the road. It so happened that a former Blue Ridge coach, Jeremy Hatchcock, had recently left Blue Ridge and accepted the position as head coach at Show Low. He knew the system that Coach Moro used, and he knew that it worked and so he replicated it. They spent the summer going to Mountain and California camp, which they didn't bother to rename. Whether people might accuse them of imitation was apparently of no concern. Their practices were exactly the same, and even the way they did their pregame stretches were an exact replication. And the team was good. Really good. Not only were they in shape and disciplined, but they had incredible talent as well.
Every day at school, during lunch, we were expected to either bring our lunch or go grab it as quickly as humanly possible from the cafeteria and then head straight to a classroom where we would watch film. We would either watch ourselves in the previous weeks game or we would watch the team for whom we were preparing for.
One of the vivid memories I have is the Monday in the film room after we had been badly beaten by Snowflake. Coach London was in his usual seat with the remote control with which he could rewind or slow down the film, and then he started the Show Low film. For the next 30 to 45 minutes, we watched as one by one he pointed out each player and the high level of talent they possessed.
Even though the Varsity had lost to Snowflake, our JV team had won which meant that the team that had gone undefeated as freshman still hadn't lost. Our hopes of being the first team to go undefeated all four years was still alive. I had gone from being completely ignorant of all things football related to being a starter on JV, which meant that I would play the first half of the game until we were winning by multiple touchdowns.
However, Show Low still loomed on the horizon.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Born Free
Born Free by The Bouncing Souls
Fear is in the air that's the way they want it to be
"Don't trust friends or neighbors everyone's your enemy!"
Kidnapped children on TV; fear runs through the family
They'll put a chip in your arm.
Keeping track of where you are.
With all of this technology have we come so far?
It's easy to get lost, forget who you are
Don't forget that you're born free
It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees
People are so greedy, it's almost funny
How many ways can they ruin lives for money?
I see the choice to enjoy the truth in life
In the middle of all this deceit and strife
A nation's future stands in doubt
Peace and love are on the way out
Why can't they just let me be?
How I live is up to me
Don't forget that you're born free
It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees
We get the message loud and clear
We refuse to live in fear!
Fear is in the air that's the way they want it to be
"Don't trust friends or neighbors everyone's your enemy!"
Kidnapped children on TV; fear runs through the family
They'll put a chip in your arm.
Keeping track of where you are.
With all of this technology have we come so far?
It's easy to get lost, forget who you are
Don't forget that you're born free
It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees
People are so greedy, it's almost funny
How many ways can they ruin lives for money?
I see the choice to enjoy the truth in life
In the middle of all this deceit and strife
A nation's future stands in doubt
Peace and love are on the way out
Why can't they just let me be?
How I live is up to me
Don't forget that you're born free
It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees
We get the message loud and clear
We refuse to live in fear!
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Football part 2
Check out part one if you missed it.
Attending Mountain Camp was a prerequisite to attending California Camp. I can only assume the reason is because California Camp would simply be too difficult for somebody who wasn't properly prepared and in physically fit.
Attending Mountain Camp was a prerequisite to attending California Camp. I can only assume the reason is because California Camp would simply be too difficult for somebody who wasn't properly prepared and in physically fit.
California Camp was held the last week of summer, when I would normally be savoring the last moments of freedom. We were to meet and then leave the school at 6:00pm to make the all-night journey from eastern Arizona to Huntington Beach, California.
Sleeping on a school bus is not very easy or comfortable. As a result, we got only a couple hours of sleep if we were lucky. I finally fell asleep in the upright position with my head resting on the seat ahead of me. When I woke up, we were traveling very slowly on the freeway and there were cars everywhere. Welcome to California.
It must have been between 5 or 6 in the morning when we arrived at the beach. We were allowed a bathroom break and then instructed to "run to the pier and back" which overall was probably a mile run. This was surprisingly easy since we were used to the thin mountain air and we felt like we could run all day with the nice sea level air. When we we arrived back we got in our usual formation of exactly straight rows and columns with enough space in between us that we weren't in danger of hindering each other.
Every day at California Camp started the same way, which would our usual football practice regimen. We would systematically go through our stretches in the usual manner, and then we were offered a challenge. We would be given a number with a fraction such as three and three quarters. This number indicated how many jumping jacks we were to do - and we were expected to incorporate the fraction. If we were given three and three quarters, we would need to do three jumping jacks and then stop a third of the way through the last jumping jack. We were expected to be absolutely perfectly in sync with each other, otherwise we were compelled to experience pain.
We were always to be judged on our performance in a manner similar to a Roman emperor deciding the fate of a gladiator - with a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Coach London would pause for effect, allowing us to entertain the smallest of hope that perhaps this time we would get a thumbs up. Occasionally he would mess with us by momentarily holding out an upright thumb but then turning it to give us the inevitable thumbs down.
That first morning we had absolutely zero chance of completing this task due to our tired brains. Unsurprisingly we received the thumbs down, and it was time to receive a thorough anus-kicking.
I don't recall the exact punishment that day but typically one of the scary coaches (Williams or London) would pick a punishment, such as up-downs or leg lifts, and we would do that punishment until we reached our breaking point. That's when we know we were halfway done with that particular exercise. Leg lifts involved lying on our backs and lifting our legs a couple inches above the ground until our whole bodies were shaking, or maybe we would run in place but every time we heard the whistle from the upright standing position, we would touch our chests to the ground and get back up before the next whistle which would likely be in a manner of seconds. More than one time I literally thought my body couldn't go any more, but then after hearing Coach Williams yell at someone a few rows down, somehow I was able to do one more up-down.
After we were punished for not being perfectly in sync, it was time to do another couple hours of intense physical conditioning. After this point, however, the practice we typically did activities that weren't straight up punishment although they were still physically exhausting. For example, one day the coaches threw out a football into the ocean, and a group of 4 people would go and attempt to be the one to return the football. I don't even recall if there was any reward for doing this, but we fought as hard as we could, doing whatever we physically could do, to get the football. As soon as we could get our hands on the football there would be three football players trying to rip it from us. There were even a couple beach tackles as people fiercely fought to best their opponents. After I was done with this ordeal, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Our bodies were accustomed enough to physical exhaustion that I only puked on the first day (more like dry heaved since I didn't have any food in my stomach). We would do seal crawls (which pretty much meant dragging ourselves across the beach with nothing but our arms), crab walks, and lots of other types of animal walking/crawling. We would have to pick each person in our row and move them to the next spot in the line, and then we would carry people on boogie boards. We had moments where we were expected to stand with our hands on our knees and legs slight bent, staring into the ocean. If anybody moved, we were in for another round of punishment. I remember in one such situation, Coach London was pissed about something. A good indicator to us that he was angry was the fact that he chucked his coffee as hard as he could on the beach. This is was a very vivid and terrifying memory, and I don't remember the punishment we received but I know that I survived.
I don't recall the exact punishment that day but typically one of the scary coaches (Williams or London) would pick a punishment, such as up-downs or leg lifts, and we would do that punishment until we reached our breaking point. That's when we know we were halfway done with that particular exercise. Leg lifts involved lying on our backs and lifting our legs a couple inches above the ground until our whole bodies were shaking, or maybe we would run in place but every time we heard the whistle from the upright standing position, we would touch our chests to the ground and get back up before the next whistle which would likely be in a manner of seconds. More than one time I literally thought my body couldn't go any more, but then after hearing Coach Williams yell at someone a few rows down, somehow I was able to do one more up-down.
After we were punished for not being perfectly in sync, it was time to do another couple hours of intense physical conditioning. After this point, however, the practice we typically did activities that weren't straight up punishment although they were still physically exhausting. For example, one day the coaches threw out a football into the ocean, and a group of 4 people would go and attempt to be the one to return the football. I don't even recall if there was any reward for doing this, but we fought as hard as we could, doing whatever we physically could do, to get the football. As soon as we could get our hands on the football there would be three football players trying to rip it from us. There were even a couple beach tackles as people fiercely fought to best their opponents. After I was done with this ordeal, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Our bodies were accustomed enough to physical exhaustion that I only puked on the first day (more like dry heaved since I didn't have any food in my stomach). We would do seal crawls (which pretty much meant dragging ourselves across the beach with nothing but our arms), crab walks, and lots of other types of animal walking/crawling. We would have to pick each person in our row and move them to the next spot in the line, and then we would carry people on boogie boards. We had moments where we were expected to stand with our hands on our knees and legs slight bent, staring into the ocean. If anybody moved, we were in for another round of punishment. I remember in one such situation, Coach London was pissed about something. A good indicator to us that he was angry was the fact that he chucked his coffee as hard as he could on the beach. This is was a very vivid and terrifying memory, and I don't remember the punishment we received but I know that I survived.
California Camp was not always 100% butt kicking and work. After our grueling morning practices, we would hang out on the beach for a several hours and go boogie boarding. Coach London brought a trailer full of boogie boards and wet-suits and we certainly put them to good use. It was always a good feeling knowing that the worst was behind us that day and we could relax for a while on the beach, eat Jamba Juice, hang out on the pier, and generally have a good time. During the middle of the week we were able take a day off and visit Six Flags and spend the day riding roller coasters.
After our morning practices and boogie boarding, we would have lunch and then have an actual football practice on a grassy field that we were able to use all by ourselves. We would go through the same ordeal of doing the jumping jacks, getting the thumbs down, and getting whooped. This time though, once were through the punishment, we were done with the conditioning (until the end) and could focus on actual football. We would practice tackling, running our offense and defense plays and everything else that I imagine every other football team does. After several hours, we would run sprints far longer than we wanted to, and then finally we would be done. It was time to get some sleep so that we could wake up the following morning at 5am and do it all over again.
I came back from California Camp about 15 pounds heavier from an increase of muscle mass. We arrived back home on Sunday morning, and I was absolutely exhausted. We were able to enjoy a day off and the next day, after the first day of school was over, we were out practicing.
I learned a lot about what success looks like from this experience. I understand that it comes with a price.
We expected perfection in the upcoming season. However, we were in for a bumpy ride...
I came back from California Camp about 15 pounds heavier from an increase of muscle mass. We arrived back home on Sunday morning, and I was absolutely exhausted. We were able to enjoy a day off and the next day, after the first day of school was over, we were out practicing.
I learned a lot about what success looks like from this experience. I understand that it comes with a price.
We expected perfection in the upcoming season. However, we were in for a bumpy ride...
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