Had a couple of days to collect my thoughts. At the very least it was an interesting first year. Here's my list of good points and bad.
1) We are the national champions. Sound nice doesn't it. For those who where there, it will be a monent in your life that you will cherish forever. Moments like these don't go away, they define who you are. It may be a small change, but the next time someone says "if you work hard anything is possible"; you can say to yourself, "been there, done that."
2) For those who weren't there, we all in the program should share in the victory. Everyone from Shea and Brian down to Cowboy are a part of this. I don't want anyone to say "they" won the title; "we" won it.
3) I decide that I had a great deal to with this win. Yupe, it was totally my coaching that made it possible. Well, actually, it was my decision not to coach and let BV, Shea and Ryan to take more responsibility for themselves. I'm not sure we'll do that next year, but it would be nice to have the bowlers that dedicated and responsible that we could. So you now know that I am a coaching fraud, I didn't do anything. What the heck, I didn't get coach of the year anyway.
4) To some of the bowlers, or bowler, who felt slighted by not being on the team, sorry. However, the fact that this team won supports the decision of who was taken on the team. The team wanted no one player to be greater than the team. Marc was the controversial pick, and he made many important shots along the way. Plus, hearing say "Randy, quit asking if I want more shot and pull me already" was worth the spot on the team.
5) Jeez, there were so many that made this posible. The ground work was laid by Coach Halwe and expanded under Coach Boxerman. I'm sure none of this would have been possible without them. Plus, Coach Dog, Hanke, Phil and Josh are obvious ones that made this possible with their work. Also I want you guys to remember Reggie and Keith in Chicago. Those guys gave tireless hours, and donated hundreds, if not thousands to this team and Reggie recruited many of the teams members. I know, I know; Reggie can be blunt, and in many cases, WRONG (he did say many times this team wasn't very good), but he cares as much for the kids in this program as anyone.
6) The girls team, while in conflict sometime, actuallly performed well. We lost 3 starters and made it back to Nationals. Plus, the conflict isn't as unusually as you may think. I talked to a couple of coaches at Nationals and they all said they had issues with their womens team from time to time. To see what happened to West Texas demonstrates how bad it can get. If you ask me, I think our future is bright.
The most disappointing parts of the season;
Actually not much. The only thing that sticks out is Danielle quitting. I'm not so disappointing in the fact she quit. That is something that I've seen many times with freshman. It's the way it happened. The Didions befriended us, took us into there house and treated us like family. In the end, they trashed everything about the program and let their daughter quit in the middle of the biggest tournament of the year. Danielle never told me that she had a problem with the program. Only later did her parents tell me that it was because she wasn't getting the adequate coaching and everyone on the girls team drank and smoked, among other things!! The truth is I heard she had problems with a roommate and I bet she felt she deserved more playing time. She'll be fine and I hope she has success where ever she goes, but she handles the next situation better than she did this one.
All in all, it was amazing first year. I made my share of mistakes, but in the end it was all worth it. Sure, I hate the traveling, my wife really hates the traveling, the never ending paper work from the school and CBUSAUSBcollegiate and the endless hours away from my real job at the bowl, which I love. The only reason I took the job is still the same, for you kids in the program. Honestly, the reason I took the job is because I thought the next coach would screw this up if I didn't take it. After one year, proud say we aren't totally, er.., you know, not so messed up. I make no promise for next year.
randall
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"It's not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us."
theres only 2 things that i would change .... 1. lets go to a tournament in Vegas & in PA. 2. lets stay at the hotel we stayed at for sectionals for every trip we go on. the showers there were the bomb-azz-bia!
other than that i personally feel the year went by pretty smooth. no fights at gas stations for instance.
well just so everyone knows, ill be back here next year....either as a coach (which im pretty sure will be the choice i make) or a bowler of some sort.
well thats all for now Bryan Chase ---champion extrodinaire--- (
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"You know what you can't outsource, Fareed? You can't outsource balls. America is the world leader in balls." --Stephen Colbert
I also want to say congratulations to all on a great year and thank you to everyone for making this year a completely enjoyable one. I don't want to keep restating what everyone has so far so I'll cut this short.
As far as next year goes, I am graduating in December so I don't know about bowling yet. I would like to bowl again and take one last tour of the fall schedule and maybe take grad classes afterwards to finish (if that's something CBUSA allows I don't know all the rules) depending on how the year is going.
Regardless of whether I do bowl or not, I would like to help out in any way possible after I am done whenever that is. I know I'm far from being that good of a bowler as far as performance goes. But I still would be willing to help in whatever way.
We are the national champions and that is something that can never be taken away from us. Congratulations and thank you to everyone involved.
I would like to say college bowling was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. For my 1st year I would have to say it was the best time of my life at nationals I didn't bowl to well, but watching the boys win was something I will never forget!
and to Randy and Phil thanks for helping me out so I can stay here next year!
This year isn't even over and I already can't wait for next!
OK...the site hasn't let me into the Forum in several days, so I'm finally catching up...
Great monologue, Randy... Can't think of anything to add. Thanks to everyone for letting me be a part of this great rollercoaster! It's been a fun ride so far and as Suzy indicated, I can't wait until the new season starts again! I feel really good about it!
