But remember, nothing comes easy and nothing is given.  Dream it, plan it, then go out and do the work to make it happen. No matter where you are now, you can be better.

Anything worthwhile is worth working for.

Hard work is the magic.

It is the only way.

I don’t think I need to show any love for the NFL or the Kansas City Chiefs since I wear that heart on my sleeve almost 24/7, so here is the post with some editorial updates in ( ):

The final chat presentation at last week’s Catholic Writers Conference Online was Catholic Poetry with David Craig.  Since it was the final chat, I listened in.  During the discussion, I had a poetry flashback.  Back in sophomore honors English, my teacher, Mrs. Goheen, gave us the assignment of memorizing and reciting a poem in front of the class.  I was/am not a huge fan of poetry (Note: It’s getting better) to begin with, so this was an assignment akin to flossing and brushing the dog’s teeth.  When I see poetry in books, the words get fuzzy and begin to dance around into a deadly vortex (Note: It’s getting better).  As the same time, I admit there are several poems and poets I really like (Note: Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, Frost) .  Well, anyway, completely true to form, I forget all about the memorization assignment until late evening the night before we are to be thrown to the wolves.  I search frantically through our home bookshelf listening to the “I told you so’s” from dear Mother and the laughing of the brothers.  All in the know go to bed that night thinking old MH is toast in the morning in English class.

I sit in class the next morning, waiting to be called to the gallows.  When my name is called, I feel the class and Mrs. Goheen in anticipation of great failure as I walk to the front of the class.  For those who don’t know me, I am a lineman, plain and simple.  I was probably the last over the cut line to get into honors English. I was a seat filler, a butt in the seat (Note: Always the dumbest in the smart group and being a decent to good athlete did not help me one bit with the “honors” class teachers).  So, there I stand in front of the class, trying not to make eye contact with anyone.  I crack my knuckles and clear my throat for a little slapstick comic relief, take my best Shakespearian stance and begin.

The Duck

I can’t remember what grade I received on the project.  The audience seemed entertained and Mrs. Goheen seemed satisfied with the selection (Note: She still saw me as a dumb jock at this point, and I didn’t really do anything to convince her otherwise until my late year cutting-edge, incisive biography book report on Bob Dylan).  I am sure it was probably a B+.   Mrs. Goheen asked why I picked that particular poem.  I told her it was my favorite poem, but in all reality, it fit when written on the top of my tennis shoe, just in case I got stage fright.  But, The Duck became my favorite poem and still the only one I have burned to memory.  Thank you Ogden Nash.

Happy Poem In Your Pocket Day to one and all!

You may not consider a college football coach scandal is a “tough” situation, but for some of us who are, or were, in the eat, sleep and live your favorite teams category, it is a tough situation. At a proud, tradition-rich football school like the University of Arkansas, there is A LOT of eating, sleeping and living Razorback football.  I do like the humor, the smart assedness, and the resiliency shown by these men. I laughed for an extended period when I first saw them. True, it is a sad, embarrassing situation for all involved, but here are a couple guys who have taken the first step to normalcy in their turned-over-on-its-head college sports fandom experience. I would bet these guys are ready to move onto the next coach, the next season; to put on their Hog hats on a fall Saturday afternoon and head to the stadium. That’s resiliency.

At Grandpa’s house, we used to throw stale crumbs to the birds in the front yard. The birds would eat the crumbs and fly away. But not anymore.

Since we bought Grandpa a bird feeder, the birds stay around all day. He tied the bird feeder to a branch of his oak tree and filled it with wild birdseed. When the birds land on the feeder, it rocks back and forth like a swing.

At Grandpa’s house, we used to watch television or play video games all day long. But not anymore.

Now we kneel on the sofa and watch the bird feeder from the picture window. There are robins and blackbirds and bluebirds and blue jays and cardinals and doves. Boy, there’s a lot of action at Grandpa’s bird feeder!

At Grandpa’s house,we used to run in and out of the house, make lots of noise, and bother Grandma as she tried to do her chores. But not anymore.

Now we follow Grandpa around and help him fill the bird feeder with wild birdseed. Sometimes, Grandpa gets mad at the blackbirds and yells,”Those darn blackbirds, they’re eatin’ me out of house and home!”
We all laugh when Grandpa yells at the blackbirds, even though Grandma says swearing at birds is not in the least bit funny.

At Grandpa’s house,we used to have wrestling matches and sometimes thing accidentally broke. Grandma would get VERY upset when her things broke! But not anymore.

Now we spend most of our time watching the bird feeder and playing games to see who can name the birds the fastest or count the most of each kind. It’s even better than wrestling, Grandma says.

At Grandpa’s house, we used to listen to Grandma’s stories about her bridge club, her bowling league, or how beautiful the neighbor’s third cousin’s sister’s wedding was. But not anymore.

Now she tells exciting stories about happenings at the bird feeder.”Kids, these two sparrows were on the bird feeder using their beaks to knock seeds to the ground and there were all these birds on the ground munching seeds! You could barely see any grass! Oh my! You should have been here to see it!”
(Since we bought the bird feeder, Grandma’s stories are much more interesting.)

At Grandpa’s house, we used to see very few animals when we visited because they live in the city. But not anymore.

Now we see hundreds of birds flying around the bird feeder, eating seeds, or sitting on branches.We also see squirrels and rabbits and cats and dogs, it’s almost as fun as the zoo!

At Grandpa’s house, we used to wonder where the birds would go when they left the yard. There weren’t any birdhouses or bird nests in Grandpa’s tree or in any other trees in the neighborhood. But not anymore.

Now we build our own birdhouses from a set of plans Grandpa found at the garden shop.We went to the lumberyard to buy the wood. Grandpa cut out the pieces for the birdhouses then we glued them together and painted them. Now, almost every tree in Grandpa’s neighborhood has a birdhouse.

At Grandpa’s house, we used to mope around with long faces because we’d be bored and couldn’t find anything to do. But not anymore.

Now there’s always something to do…At Grandpa’s bird feeder!

At Grandpa’s Birdfeeder by Mike Hays, April 2012

What do you think? Is there any potential for this old story? If you liked it, leave a comment. If you didn’t, also feel free to leave a comment. 

Walt was a great writer. He was a master at what he did. He was funny, kind, humble, and was always willing to help out novice hacks like myself.  Karina Fabian knew Walt much better than I did and she offered a great tribute post to Walt at the Catholic Writer’s Guild blog.

Walt told me one time in a chat to check out a short story he published at Digital Dragon Magazine called, A Feather’s Fall in Vacuum. It was the only time he even remotely “pushed” a work of his and it was only a mild suggestion. I felt like Charlie Bucket opening that Wonka Bar with the final golden ticket inside. I went from wondering where in the heck Walt was going with this story to laughing my butt off for about three hours after finishing it. Beautiful story.

The only proper tribute I could ever give to Walt Staples is to share the link to that story and another  from Digital Dragon with as many people as I can. These two stories are my favorite works of Walt’s, and in my humble opinion, are masterpieces of short fiction.

A Feather’s Fall in Vacuum

Going Postal… But Slowly

We will miss his talent, we will miss his quirky sense of humor, but mostly we will miss the Walt at the Catholic Writer’s Guild. Please pray for his people and friends. Read the stories and check out more of his stories from the links on his blog, Variable Credence.  Laugh, learn and giggle out loud as you read them, Walt would appreciate that.

Yes, it is true. I read the Bible AND I write. I had an idea, I scribbled it down, it rattled around in my head for several  years then I wrote all 25,500 words down in just the right order. A series of rejections, followed by a series of fortunate events, finally landed a contract with MuseItUp Publishing, who released it as an ebook on March 9, 2012.

Now that the ebook is out, I have to also become a salesman. It is the way of modern publishing; part writer, part editor, part marketer, part sales. I am not a salesman. Sure, I want as many people to read the book as humanly possible, but I am not a salesman. Never have been. I hated going house to house hawking fund-raisers as a kid.  As a 13-year old, I refused to sell candy bars for the school’s summer baseball program. Wouldn’t do it. My coach that year was also in charge of the fundraising for the baseball program. He told me I HAD to sell candy bars or sit the bench. I refused. I sat the bench. I was a pretty good player, but I wouldn’t budge on my position. I sat the bench. I am not a good salesman.

I stunk at trying to sell our summer conditioning program to the kids. I couldn’t bring myself to Tony Little-ize a sales pitch to the kids. Fortunately Coach Lane stepped in and was able to convince kids to come, he sold it much better than I ever could have.  My part became to sell the results through action and work.  Show up, work hard and you will notice a difference in your body in two weeks.  Once they gave the program a chance, they liked the results and came back day after day.

So, here’s the sales pitch. Try the book, give it a chance and you (or young people you know) may like the results. And priced at $3.50, it is actually cheaper than one of those World’s Finest chocolate bars or boxes of pastel-colored, candy-coated almonds.

You can find the ebook at these places:

MuseItUp Publishing Bookstore

Amazon Bookstore

And here’s a giveaway of an ebook copy of THE YOUNGER DAYS. Leave a comment here or at my author page, to respond to the question below. A winner from the respondents will be randomly selected on April Fool’s Day, 2012.

Question: What was the worst, most hated, most despised thing you ever had to sell as a kid?

And fifth grade at the CTK meant English with Sister Verene. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Sr. Verene. She was awesome. She was (and I know this is nearly impossible to believe) a nice human being who liked kids, but she was also perhaps the most insect-like human being I have known. She was a small, nervous creature. She had a skinny, pointed face. Her small hands were always in motion, grasshopper-like in concerted movements with her metallic voice.  Of course, this could maybe be the faded memory of a boy of the 1970′s, who maybe watched too many Saturday morning sci-fi monster movie marathons, but I digress. Sr. Verene plain, straight out LOVED grammar. It was her vocation. Most of the other nuns probably prayed rosaries and such, but I am pretty sure Sr. Verene broke down grammatical errors in the Roman Missal and diagrammed the Bible as her contemplation.

I know this is a major surprise to my wife (a.k.a The Grammar Police), my editors at MuseItUp Publishing, my former players and fellow coaches, but at one time (5th grade) this backward, redneck speaking (yeah, that’s speakin’) bubba boy  was a minor grammar god. I was mesmerized by the science of it all and drawn into the world of grammar by Sr. Verene. We diagrammed sentences like madmen. I would even volunteer to go to the board to diagram sentences. The best time was when Sr. Verene set up elimination-style speed diagramming tournaments. She was too cool.

Do people still diagram sentences in school? I don’t think they do it anymore. Too bad, it helped me. I should pull out the old grammar books and brush up on my sentence diagramming. It has to be like riding a bike, you never quite forget how to do it. Maybe it will make a comeback and become an Olympic sport someday, who knows?

I could never sleep much the week before playing the double wing offense. Around Thursday night and all day Friday, it was tough to even eat. I’d worry about everything. Did our kids know their jobs? Were they physically, mentally and emotionally ready for how tough this game is going to be? Then the litany of “What if’s”. What if they come out in some funky new offense? What if they spread it out? What if they break tendencies? What if, what if, what if…

But the biggest one, what if the Wingbuster doesn’t work first time and our kids lose confidence? That’s is the question that bugged me the most. If it didn’t work, I would have totally let the boys down. And letting the boys down was always the fear which drove me to go the extra mile as a coach.

So it’s game time. I honestly cannot tell you one detail of any of the days we played Rock Creek. Too nervous, too many different brainwaves fighting in my head. My head is about ready to explode, then Rock Creek lines up for their first offensive play.

Here is a clip on the Toss play from my final presentation of the Wingbuster. It will give you and idea of how dangerous the play can be, followed by how the Wingbuster performs. The bad defensive examples are Rock Creek (Black) vs. Royal Valley (White). The good defensive examples are Rock Creek (Gray) vs. The Tiger Wingbuster (Black).

I can’t tell the emotion felt when we made the Wingbuster work like this. I don’t have the video from the first time we played them in 2004, but the first play was just like the second good defense clip above. Here we were, coming off an 0-9 season, playing this powerhouse of a team, pressure is cranked to MAX and we just knock the living $h!t out of them on the first play. I seriously could have cried right there on the sidelines.

Thanks to all the coaches who I begged, borrowed and copied from to design the Wingbuster. Thanks to my fellow Tiger coaches for holding the line and teaching the skills and duties at such a high level. Finally, a bubba-sized THANK YOU to all the Tiger Wingbuster players, from the superstars, to the role players, to the substitutes and especially to the Black Dog scout team players. Without your belief in the system and without your dedication to learning and performing the system we would have failed. Your tremendous level of individual and team pride would not accept defeat, no matter how difficult the challenge.

The Wingbuster: Every man do their job on every play.

Tiger Football.

EVERY MAN, EVERY PLAY

But, they are teenage boys.  So, I know we have to sell this thing to the kids to get them to buy in hook, line and sinker. For this I turn to the expertise of Coach Paul Lane. Up to this point in my football coaching career, I went from an idiot with a football strength and conditioning book to a football coach who, under the tutelage of Coach Lane, could now walk and chew gum at the same time. One thing I learned from him on getting the boys to buy in to something is to come up with a cool name. I thought and thought of names. The Mustang? No, not the right ring to it. Dam the Double Wing? Nope, too hokey.  Bust-A-Wing? No, too 80′s break dance. Wing Stopper? Not bad, but Wing Stopper needed go talk to the 80′s break dance name. Bust-A-Wing Stopper? Hey, that’s closer. Wing…wing…wing…WINGBUSTER! Houston, we had a name! And a good name it was, too. The kids bought into it, the coaches bought into it. Now time to go to work.

Prep Week

Monday – Show team a video mash up of the double wing running over us in the past. Let the kids see the formation and see the basic offensive plays run at their very best. I wanted the video to scare them; use it to get their attention. I gave a short powerpoint on the WingBuster to introduced everyone’s alignment and assignment, then I talked animatedly about how we were going to shut this offense down. After the presentation, we went out for practice where the focus was on defending the Toss, the basic play in the double wing offense.

Tuesday – The focus was on teaching and getting repetitions on the proper physical techniques at each position. D-Line driving through blocker’s thigh pad to make a pile of humanity, D-Ends attacking a spot 1.5 yards behind offensive tackle, inside linebackers reading wing motion and being a wrecking ball to fill hole, the outside linebackers reading their wing and sifting and the deep corners reading their TE window then reacting to pass or run. The main plays we worked on Tuesday were the counter plays off the Toss, the Reverse and the Spin.

Wednesday – More repetitions on technique. Talk about oddball motions, flat motion for Buck Sweep; quick, long motion for fullback runs and play action passes.  More full speed team reps against scout team offense than technique reps.

Thursday – Review all plays in scout script. Hold back on contact, but try to keep full speed reaction repetitions against scout offense. Talk and ask questions and yell and scream and threaten to get everyone  focused on our EVERY MAN DOING THEIR JOB EVERY PLAY philosophy.

Check back for Part 4 finale, the Friday under the lights experience and my absolute coach-love for those underclassmen scout team offensive players, the true heroes of the success of the Wingbuster defense.

Research – I used two invaluable resources. Former Tiger assistant football coach Wayne Link let us use his double wing offense book. Formations, plays, blocking schemes; this book had it all. It was like taking a college course in the double wing.  Always helps to know the offense as well as possible before trying to find a defensive scheme to stop it.

The second resource I found on an internet search was a coaching site hosted by a football genius, Coach Bruce Eien, from California.  His BC Warrior Coaching site had a plethora of resources on offense and defense. But, there was an obscure little document he wrote called Defending the Double Wing that is football intellect at its very best.  Whatever success we had implementing the Wingbuster defense grew out of the principals in Coach Eien’s article.

THE PLAN

Double Wing Defense  

Alignments

            Mike 4-5-2

            Dog 5-4-2

The Jobs 

Defensive Tackles

The main cog in the defense is the DT. He might not make one play all night but he is vital to the defense. He rips through the OG/OT gap trying to get into the backfield. Most likely he will be double teamed.  Both DT’s will cut through the knees of the OL and cut the double team. Drive low and through causing a pile up. The DT on the pulling side should try and cut the pulling OL. Minimally, he needs to impede the pulling OG/OT.

If he does not get the cut, pursue down the LOS looking for cut back. Keep an eye out for the TE blocking down or trying to cut you.

Defensive Ends

The DE lines up in a 9-technique and will cut through the outside knee of the tight end to a point 1.5 yards behind B gap.  Drive through and cause a pile up by taking on the FB or pulling lineman.  The DE must cause the pulling lineman and backs to loop around the pile they create.

Inside Linebackers

Alignment: 5 yard deep over the DT.

Assignment: Cross read the opposite wingback

If the cross wingback goes in motion:

Blitz C gap, wreck havoc, stay low and find ball.

If the cross wingback blocks down:

Drag the anchor and slow pursue looking for cutback right back at you.

If the cross wingback delays

Look for Reverse/Spin to your wingback coming right back at you. Blitz C gap and wreck havoc.

If you can, get a read on direction of the pulling OL helmets, they will take you to the play.

MIKE/DOG

 The MIKE/DOG can play a vital role in disrupting this offense.

As the MIKE, he plays B gap to B gap, disrupting everything in his path.  He will put a stop to the FB running plays and the Wingback on the cutback.  MIKE will need to see the field and learn to read the pulling O-lineman’s helmets.

As the DOG, he might not make one play all night but he is vital to the defense. The DOG plays head up on the center and cuts low through the knee of the center to the play side A gap.  We want the DOG to be as disruptive as humanly possible to the pulling lineman and backs. We determine play side by motion, best back, or tendencies.  He rips through the center trying to get into the backfield.  Depending on their blocking scheme he may come untouched into the backfield. Most likely he will be double teamed.  Minimally, he needs to impede the pulling OG/OT.

OLB

The OLB are the key tackler’s in this defense.  We want to funnel everything outside of the alleys in which they want to run. The design and strength of the play is inside behind a wall of blockers, so any back running outside is by himself , defeating the purpose of the play. The OLB uses a OLE’ technique, like a bull fighter, avoiding all contact.

The OLB needs to read the motion of the wing to their side.

If wing BLOCKS:  Here it comes right at you.  OLE to sift through bodies to find ball.

If wing MOTIONS:  Slow blitz with a tight path and look for reverse or spin.  If no reverse, scrape, looking for cutback. If reverse comes, use the OLE’ technique.

If wing DELAYS:  It is reverse all the way to the other side.  Yell “Reverse” and try to chase play down from backside.

Corners

 The Corner reads his TE.

If the TE blocks: He becomes an alley player, filling the alley and containing RB if RB is forced wide.

If the TE cut blocks inside: Run play is going the other way, slow pursue looking for reverse/spin or cutback.

If he reads a pass release from the TE: He covers the deep ½ jumping a corner route by the TE, staying deeper than the deepest route in zone.

The two corners are the only players on the defensive unit that think:  “Pass first, run second”.

This is a normal Toss play schematic, the toss is the foundation of the Double Wing offense.

Defensively, if every one does their job, this should happen.

We have a RB that has no where to go, running into his line.  He ends up trying to bounce outside or falls over his own man.  Sometimes, the RB bounces out to a open space. While this is usually a problem it is not with a double wing team.

The RB’s in the double Wing are used to running behind people. They are not open field runners. A usual scenario has our line taking out their line and the OLB’s end up making the tackle.

 *Tg and R are OLB’s