Christmas Break

I am already counting down the days to Christmas Break! All I got to do before break is two presentations, a paper, and take two finals.  It will be nice to have almost a month off from school to spend time with friends and family.  I also will be able to celebrate my birthday with my family since my birthday is on the 21st so I will be home.  On December 22nd, I am going to visit my high school and do a panel with other classmates of mine on how college life is going for us.  We will be doing that in front of the senior class to get them ready for college.  There will be a student from several colleges that include, Wartburg, St. Ambrose, NICC, Hawkeye, Winona State, Iowa State, and Northern Iowa.  I thought it was really helpful last year when the class above me did that, so I knew that I wanted to be one of those people to help the class below me get prepared for college and what to expect.  This break will give me time to sit and relax and spend time with friends and family.

Coaching Authorization

This weekend I am taking coaching authorization classes at Hawkeye Community college.  The course is two "power" weekends, starting December 2nd through the 4th, and the December 16th-18th.  The class starts on friday night at 5 p.m. and goes till 10 p.m..  Saturday and Sunday are suppose to go from 8 a.m. to 8:15 p.m..  On Friday, I arrived to class late because I was not sure where the location of the class was. Then on Saturday and Sunday instead of going to 8 p.m., our class instructors let us out early at 6:30 both nights.  That helped a lot because it was starting to be a long day sitting in a classroom.  In our class we learn about Coaching Theory, Ethics, Anatomy, and Care & Prevention for Injuries.  Once I am done with this class on the 18th, I will have my coaching license so I'll be able to sit and watch practices.  I am hoping that I can be an assistant at my high school this summer for baseball, and then next winter take the basketball job that I was offered at Hudson.

Thanksgiving Break

My Thanksgiving Break has been really busy so far and it will get even busier.  I had Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house on Thanksgiving day for my mom's side and spent the whole day there with my family.  On Friday I watched football most of the day while my mom and sisters went shopping the whole day, they even went shopping all Thursday night. On Saturday I went to my girlfriends family Thanksgiving and got to meet her whole family that is on her mom's side.  It was a fun day as I got along with everyone well and we spent the entire day there.  On Sunday, I had Thanksgiving on the Kuennen side at my grandma's house and all of my cousins were home so her house was packed.  The food was amazing at every place I ate at.  I had a great break and am so thankful to have an amazing family and girlfriend to spend it with.  I cannot wait for Christmas break and being able to see them again.

Morning workouts

On Tuesday we had our first morning baseball workout of the winter. We usually have our workouts at night from 8:30 to 10, but now that football is done we moved our workouts to the morning at 6.  I had to get up at 5:40 to get ready and head over to the "W."  This workout was by far the hardest we have had, as we did 6 suicide sprints, and while you were not running you had to do push-ups, mountain climbers, planks, and push-up holds.  It was a very tough workout to do at 6 in the morning because I felt like I was still half asleep.  Once we were done with our sprints, we had to lift weights, and my body was so sore from the sprints that I was exhausted.  I hurried and got all my lifts in and once we were done, without any hesitation, I climbed right back into bed and slept till 11.  It did not help that during our workout I had a very bad headache, so now I know that the next time I workout I am going to drink a lot of fluids to keep me hydrated.

Being with friends

This weekend I was able to see some of my friends that I have not seen in awhile.  We met at my friends apartment at Hawkeye and just hungout watching the Iowa State game and telling stories from high school.  There were about eight of us at my friends house and we all spent the night together.  We watched movies the rest of the night before we went to bed.  The next day we woke up and had breakfast while watching the Iowa football game.  I always enjoy going down to Waterloo and visiting my friends because most of them either attend Hawkeye or UNI.  I usually plan to go down and visit once a month or so.  I know that I'll for sure visit and hangout with them during break.

Iowa State Upset

Last week the Iowa State Cyclones were hosting the Oklahoma State Cowboys for a chance to become bowl elgible for the second time in three years under Head Coach Paul Rhoads.  Their chances were not very good since they were playing the number two team in the nation in the Cowboys who were blowing people away with their high powered offense as they were 10-0 coming into the game.  I myself did not think Iowa State had a chance, and many Iowa State fans did not either.  But they were playing at home so they had that advantage going for them.  I watch the game with my friends as Oklahoma State jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead in the second quarter. The Cyclones were able to respond back with a touchdown of their own to make the score 10-7, but the Cowboys scored on their next possession to take a 17-7 lead at half.  The Cowboys started out the second half with another touchdown to make the score 24-7 and many had thought that they would finally pull away and blow the game open.  But the Cyclones kept battling back and were able to tie the score 24-24 late in the 4th quarter and forced overtime after the Cowboys missed a potential game-winning field goal.  In overtime the Cyclones scored first but the Cowboys answered with a touchdown of their own.  In the second overtime the Cyclones intercepted the first pass from the Cowboys and all they had to do now was score and they win.  They did just that as they scored a touchdown on the third play in the second overtime with practically the whole crowd rushing the field.  It was a monumental win for the Cyclones as it was their first win over a top 5 team ever.  They are a program on the rise.

Penn State Scandal

This past week a horrific scandal took place at Penn State University involving a former Defensive Coordinator molesting young boys.  This took place about 10 years ago, and on Saturday the news about it just came out, as the Athletic Director and Vice President were arrested for perjury charges.  Due to what happened, Penn State fired there legendary coach Joe Paterno, who was a coach at the university for 61 years.  Paterno has the most victories of any Division I football coach with 409.  Paterno had first said that he was going to resign at the end of the season, which I thought was the right thing since he is in his last year of his contract and is about to be 85 years old.  What I did not think was right was the way that he was fired.  After all of his devotion to the university where he donated millions of dollars, you would have thought that the Board of Trustees would talk to him in person about the firing, but no they left him a note at his door step with a phone number on it that he had to call and the Board fired him over the phone.  Now after all of the devotion and service that Paterno has done to the university, you would think that they would have the dignity to tell him in person that he was fired.  Not telling him in person was one of the reasons why students started to riot on downtown State College, Pennsylvania.  A lot of the students were mad that they fired Paterno over the phone and that they didn't let their loved Coach finish out the season, especially coach the last home game which is this weekend and is Senior Night.  Students even supported Paterno at his home and are still doing that today.  Now the main question for Saturday's game will be how the football team reacts and plays without their coach being on the sidelines for the first time in 61 years, and how the fans react as well.  This is a terrible situation going on right now and it will probably still get worse, as I'm sure there is more information out there that we don't know about.