Happy Thanksgiving!

As sang by one of the younger member of Kohawk Tennis (my daughter):

"Give thanks for sweet ice cream; for ducks in a row.

Give thanks for great stories, which help you to grow."

Coe College and Kohawk Tennis wishes you well in the days ahead.  Enjoy family, friends, healthy food and your own "stories" as they unfold!

Holiday Cheer

The holiday season is about to kick into full swing next week with Thanksgiving and the even bigger Black Friday celebrations bringing on the full feeling of holiday cheer. I’m sure we’re all excited for the holiday season and all the joyous feelings that it entails. I’ve been getting in the holiday spirit in a slightly different way from the norm of eating and shopping until you either develop Type II Diabetes or Bankruptcy – both detrimental to your health I’m sure. I have re-started my boxing lessons because nothing says Merry Christmas like a right hook to the face.

and a Happy New Year!

Now I’ve never been in a fight before in my life. My plan, if I ever get in a rough spot, is to follow comedian Rodney Carrington’s advice and just take my pants off… because no one wants to fight the naked guy. Or I would use my speed and run away as quickly as my feet could carry me. Obviously neither one of these plans inspires confidence and after successfully navigating my whole life thus far with nary an incident involving fisticuffs I have decided now is the time to learn how to fight.

So a couple of times a week, I wrap the wrists, don the mitts, and take the shirt off (in some ways I guess unclothing myself is still part of my fighting plan?) and work to learn the sweet science. I wish I could say I am the next de la Hoya, Mayweather, and Pacquiao all wrapped into one

And now, Gold-Money Pac Maaaaaaaaannnn!!!

Sadly for several weeks the first 30 minutes of each lesson was spent re-learning how to not swing like an idiot. Seemingly simple combos caused my brain to blow a gasket, “Oh sorry, when you said to throw a jab, punch, and 2 hooks I thought you just wanted 4 straight punches followed by me leaning my face into your swing.”

Finally after much practice and Zen-like patience from my instructor I have gotten to where it only takes 5 minutes at the beginning of each session for me to become un-stupid. It’s been great progress. In the course of our journey we found out something most people would find odd: I’m a much better southpaw than righty and my best punches definitely come from my left. This is not surprising for those that know I throw a baseball left-handed. I was always better at most tasks with my left hand until my pre-k teacher – who apparently was stuck in 1850 – decided I needed to be right handed and thus have no advantages in life. Thanks God I never threw anything in class, or I probably would’ve had to switch that too.

Left hands are of the devil or something

I realize that in the previous paragraph I have quite possibly given away my biggest advantage in a fight. If you’re reading this and plan on accosting me then please forget the fact that I will start out right handed and switch midway through to southpaw in an attempt to confuse you and land a big left on your face.  Otherwise I am ready for the holiday shopping season and all the joy that brings. Now that I think about it, I better go hit the heavy bag to make sure I have plenty of joy to spread around. 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Kohawks Receive Best App Award

Tyler Wilson '14, Mike Cranwill and Lucais Piot from Prof. Chen's Entrepreneurship class formed a team called Studera to produce a mobile app to help manage study hours for fraternities/sororities. Tyler and Mike traveled to Des Moines last weekend to participate in a start-up event known as CodeDay Iowa. They polished their app and won the Best App Award at the competition. Congratulations to Tyler, Mike and Lucais on a job well done!

Tyler is a Senior on the men's team this year.  He has been a consistent smiling (always!) face in the Racquet Center for four years now....in and out of season....and will certainly be missed next year.   

Cycling Project

Today I did something a little bit weird… or weird for me at least. Now you may be wondering what could be weird for someone who runs 12 mile obstacle courses for fun, reads books over cosmology, and rides a bicycle 10 miles for cup of coffee in solitude. Well today I did that immensely weird thing known as driving my truck.

Complete Madness

Yes while most people spend a great deal of their lives tethered to their vehicles, something as seemingly normal as firing up the car is a huge detour from my usual day. I’ve talked before about how I’m slowly dipping my toe into the world of cycling, and over the last few months I have eschewed driving for biking in most instances. Luckily my house next to Coe enables me to ride my bike to work as well as downtown. If I have a little free time and want to partake in a new coffee shop or do a little reading I can takeoff for my destination with no problems. This riding has been helped out a great deal by the amount of bike lanes being added around Cedar Rapids. It turns out those lanes aren’t just for passing on the right like I was previously led to believe. Those lanes are actually for bicycles and the people said bikes carry. One drawback of this whole system is that people in cars are most often hell bent on crashing into cyclists like a big game of pin ball.

One more biker and we get an extra ball!

I haven’t biked a lot back home but I’m sure this little problem would be even more prominent there. If you’re not polluting or killing something with your daily commute then the license gets taken away. I have no doubt that for my previous statements I’ll probably be forced to sacrifice a vegan before being allowed back in the state.

We need you to prove your loyalty before proceeding into the state.

Here is my next project: I have reset the Trip Meter on my truck’s odometer and plan on seeing how far I drive in the next few weeks. At the same time I will track how many miles I bike each week. And I hope this project gets carried out with more vigor than some of my previous ideas like my New Year’s Resolutions which are laying scattered in my mind like confetti in Times Square. I won’t count the time I am away for Thanksgiving or Christmas since I won’t have my car or bike with me while I’m gone. That would obviously make no sense for the purposes of this project. Some of you will probably point out that we are heading steadily toward winter and I’m not exactly a huge fan of the cold, but I plan on continuing this endeavor even when faced with the cold. I rode 20 miles yesterday with a starting temperature of 27 degrees and quite enjoyed myself. I know that sounds like madness, but for me driving my truck? That sounds like madness.

Total Miles Driven today: 8

Monday Morning

Tough Rules to Live By

We all know that a few weeks ago I took a little trip to Texas, and while a good deal of that time was spent eating, drinking coffee, and just generally spending money this was not the original reason for planning the trip. Yes this was first and foremost a trip about masochism, and as promised it’s time to detail little adventure in all its tear-filled, mud-stained, blood-filled glory. As an added bonus I'll add some rules to race by that have come to me the hard way.

A Tough Mudder for those who do not know is a 12 mile course usually filled with 24 obstacles. These obstacles range from something as simple as running up muddy hills to something as sadistic as a water filled trench with dangling overhead wires that deliver an electric shock when touched (and it’s impossible to avoid all the wires). My starting wave was on the second day of the event. Couple that with the fact that it rained heavily all night and you can start to imagine just how muddy things were.

We arrived at the course location south of Dallas and were met with our 1^st test even before the event started: a 1 ½ mile walk from the parking lot to the starting area. This was unexpected but when you’re planning on running 12 miles anyway what’s a couple extra gonna hurt? After registration, signing your death waiver, and marking your bib number on your forehead in permanent marker you’re all set to go. This brings me to my first rule for running a Tough Mudder – or any race for that matter. Don’t fear the port-o-potty. I learned this the hard way during my first Mudder. After properly eating and hydrating all week, you had better stop for a little visit to pay the water bill, or there will be hell to pay while you’re out on the course. There are things nearly all people have natural aversions to such as snakes, spiders, and port-o-pottys, but you better close your eyes and pretend it’s a bad dream while you’re in there; otherwise you’ll end up living a nightmare out on the course.

Now for rule 2 for running a Tough Mudder: don’t try to avoid the mud! Without fail everyone at the beginning of every race I’ve done runs around the mud holes in the beginning. We’re about to experience an obstacle that’s actual name is the “Mud Mile” and they’re worried about getting dirty in the 1^st mile!?

Oh yeah, it looks like a lovely place

Just look at the starting area. Yeah, it’s not getting any better from there, so no trying to avoid getting dirty at the beginning. Or like an old college professor used to tell me, “sometimes you just gotta drop your pants and slide on the ice.” I’m a little confused as to how that advice is helpful here but that’s okay because that leads directly into rule number 3: Get a little confused and disoriented. Take a look at this picture. I have no idea what part of the course this was. Sometime after mile 4? Maybe?

And look at me here. I’m obviously deranged at this point, otherwise I wouldn’t be smiling

I don't even smile when I'm happy

So after you’ve successfully succumbed to full dementia and paranoia you have to keep slogging through. I mean that literally. It’s muddy. I fell more times than I can even count because I only have 10 fingers and am not wearing sandals. Let’s just say it was a lot of falling. I spent a fair amount of my time crawling up hills on my hands and knees because I had no traction – and the same balance as a baby deer.

So after all 12 miles you have just one obstacle left and you’re home free. Unfortunately this obstacle is the 2^nd time you’re going to get shocked today. The last Tough Mudder I ran, the “Electroshock Therapy” as they call it, gave me such a shock that I was knocked out for a few seconds and was welcomed lovingly by the grounds sweet embrace. In a clear sign that Life felt bad for last year, this time I was spared any shocks! I almost have regained my faith in a fair universe… almost. Once it’s all over and you’ve got your free shirt and headband and negotiated for some extra Clif Bars because, after all, you deserve them, it’s time for one last thing. Rule number 4: take a post race picture. Here is me after my race last year post-unconscious

It was a great day

In this year’s post race picture, sadly, I wasn’t nearly as dirty looking

Yes, in case you were wondering, I do actually have friends

There it is, my Tough Mudder experience or the parts of it that I can recall. And the rules to race by the next time you decided to be less boring. 

D3 Pre-Season Rankings

The Fall/Pre-Season Rankings have been released for NCAA D3 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association and for the first time since 2004 the Crimson & Gold were represented in the Men's National Singles and Doubles listings.

Noah Sprinkel is slotted in at the 21st spot in the National singles, and Riley Galbraith makes his first ranking a good one, teaming with Noah as the 25th doubles pair in the country.

In the Central Region (one of 4 regions across the country) Tai Lucero was ranked 16th. Jordan Ferree makes her debut in the rankings, teaming with Tai as the #12 pair. On the Men's side, Noah begins the year at #5, while Riley appears at #16. In doubles they are ranked #6. Both Teams carryover their 2013 Spring rankings to start the 2014 season. The Women will begin the year at #12 and the Men at #7.

In May of 2014 the NCAA will select 8 singles players and 4 doubles pairs from the Central Region to vie for the NCAA Individual Championships which be held in Claremont, California at the Biszantz Familty Tennis Center on the campus of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges.