It's him and Ron Damron (Pikeville), Ron Freking (Bellarmine), Dale Lehman (RobMO), Mark Lewis (Wichita), and Randy Stoughton (Webber).
I don't believe he was nominated last year (might of been the year before), but this might be his best year coaching. He lost the best bowler ever at Lindenwood (Amanda) and 6 of his top 8 girls by diff, yet improved in the rankings to by one spot over last year and won their sectional.
Good luck, I know he's got one 1st place vote!
For those interested, the Men's nominees are DJ (RobMo), Shawn (Whitewater), Del (webber), Scott (Purdue), JJ (Midland) and Lindsey Wong (San Jose).
Excuse my somewhat self-centered rant, but...
The Women Coaches nominated went just like I would have picked. Dead on the money as far as I'm concerned, but the men?
I would;ve consider Gordon, missed Nationals last year lost their best player (Berndt) regrouped and won Matchgames and their sectional by 500; Urbana's Allen, top 10 team that made their first Nationals; Dennis at McK, they improved one spot and will have the bowler of the year: Bobby at Morehead, yes his team did drop in the rankings but he lost every player on his team and rebuilt them and led them back to Nationals.
And, yes, us. We lost 6 seniors in our top 10 and came back to finish 5th and win our sectional by 400.
I guess my real point is the COTY is very much a popularity contest. How other schools perceive us real has an impact in the voting. I compare the situation to when I first started coaching, Saginaw had the best team. Dan MacLelland, Tony LaCaze, and RJ Raymond. They won back to back in '06-07. However, Dan Dorian never won COTY, most years he wasn't nominated. The other schools perceived Sag as a party school and Dorian a good recruiter but not a good coach.
As mad as I get for not getting nominated, the real reason I post this rant is because how it reflects on our school. Phil and the women's program are very well respected around college bowling, while the men are not. Sadly, I think that is total misconception of this current team. Some isolated incidents of the past have framed this team in that same light (well, there was that Leatherneck thingy, but I digress...).
Only thing you can do is win, and more than that, win with honor and dignity.
Which I will leave for my quote of the day.
-- Edited by footpba on Sunday 30th of March 2014 07:35:56 PM
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"It's not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us."
I wanted to follow up, because I realize this could be bulletin board stuff for some teams.
Hayes, Wochner, Mastny, Savage and Wong all deserve their nominations. The opinion that I think some others are also deserving shouldn't diminish their accomplishments.
The only one who I really don't know in that group is Lindsey Wong. My assumptions about SJS was the Darren Wang sat out last year to bowl with his bro, which dropped them from 24th in 2012 to into the 70s last year. So I googled Mr Wong, and his resume is pretty impressive. He has several psychology audio tapes on the SJS bowling webpage that are very good, and their other coach it HOF Jackie Wyckoff. I also had forgotten than Tony Reyes was a player and later a coach at SJS. Him and Wong had been close friends and been partners in a pro shop.
I knew Tony only briefly when he was coaching SJS a couple of years ago, but I still have my friends in and around the tour. Tony was loved out there, something unusual for the PBA. He seemed to have the personality to bridge all the cliques out there. His death truly left a void in the PBA.
To bad I can't change my vote, I'm rooting for Wong to win. For Tony...
__________________
"It's not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us."
