December 5, 2013
GREAT SEASONS
A very special thank you to those that contributed to our fall programming… which has now officially concluded. Our sponsors—you’re the best, coaches were terrific, principals were just about all on the ball, hosts/announcers—Brian Abels, J. B. Barker, Chris Ledoux, television superstar Dru Nettles and Brian Romero-- operated with their usual aplomb… and we couldn’t do it without Cox 4 Television, Clear Channel and WPFC Radio. They provided the outlets for this mostly mellifluous madness. To anyone and everyone else who had a big part in whatever small success we experienced, your time and efforts have been greatly appreciated
So, the 2013 The Dru Nettles Show, Denham Springs HS Football broadcasts and St. John HS/Plaquemine HS Football broadcasts are in the books. Fooled em for another year!
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
Our programming now consists of The Central Story—Monday night’s Destined To Win with Rocky Bezet, Pastor, The Rock Church and Thursday night’s The Central Sports & Business Report, with Steve Johnson. Speaking of which, tonight’s program (broadcasting live from Me’ Pa’s Diner in Central, 5:30pm—6:30pm, WPFC, 1550AM and JonFineProductions.com) will feature guests including Central HS Basketball coach Ron Lewis, Senior athlete Donnie Lewis and Senior football players Brandon Lee, Braelen Mattox and Ryan Morris.
UP ON CRIPPLE CREEK
With all due respect to the Band’s old song that includes Bessie in Lake Charles, Louisiana
I look forward to a continuing working relationship with SportsRadio-1310-KEZM-Lake Charles and owner Bruce Merchant. A shout out to the Lake Area businesses who I’ve bamboozled into advertising on KEZM.
CHIPPENDALES IS OUT OF THE EQUATION
If anyone should want to have the ignominious distinction of providing a business/employment opportunity the next 6 month for a short, fat, middle-aged, lazy, unskilled, uneducated (modern technology, if not the statute of limitations, has certainly rendered my degree obsolete), brash, arrogant, narcissistic, but oh so good looking partly employed sportscaster, I’m all ears (and a little mouth too!)
IVY LEAGUE
One of the great lawyers (amongst several great Denham Springs barristers) of our time, Ivy Graham—cloning rights owned by Jon Fine, addresses The Livingston Parish Rotary Club. She also is full of bull. See Rotary Bull, which (after a couple of false starts), we will carry each week in this newsletter
I guess all you have to do is put up with me in your organization and, who knows, we might print your propaganda.
BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
Thursday, December 5: 5:30pm—6:30pm: The Central Sports & Business Report (on The Central Story)… with Steve Johnson … broadcasting live from Me’ Pa’s Diner in Central
WPFC, 1550AM, BR
Internet: JonFineProductions.com
Monday, December 9: 5:30pm—6:30pm: Destined To Win (on The Central Story)
Pastor Rocky Bezet, Pastor, The Rock Church
WPFC, 1550AM, BR
Internet: JonFineProductions.com
SportsRadio 1310 Radio, Lake Charles Programming of Interest (also heard on KEZMOnLine.com:
Saturday, December 7: 9AM—10AM: All Things Football with Scott Holtzman
Monday, December 9: 8AM—10AM: The Locker Room with John Goodman and Jim Gazzolo
WE THANK YOU FOR DOING YOUR UTMOST TO PATRONIZE SPONSORS OF OUR PROGRAMMING. THIS HELPS US TREMENDOUSLY IN SUSTAINING OUR WEEKLY LINE-UP AND WILL ASSIST US IN ADDING MORE PROGRAMS IN THE FUTURE. KINDLY MAKE AN EFFORT TO LET SPONSORS KNOW YOU HEARD THEIR BUSINESS MENTIONED ON OUR BROADCAST(S).
THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
It would be an understatement to say it wasn’t the Saints night on Monday. Yet, I think the statement is accurate. Personally, the worse it got, the easier it was for me to handle. It was a night where the Seahawks scored a touchdown on a deflected dropped pass that went perfectly to another Seahawk receiver. Yet, later in the game the Saints deflected a Russell Wilson pass 20 feet in the air that hung for about 3 seconds and the ball landed in no man’s land 5 yards away from the closest defender.
To be clear, the Saints got beat. The Seahawks totally outplayed the Saints. Still, I find myself oddly encouraged by what I saw. I don't believe the Saints can play much worse and I think Seattle played the best they can. The breakdowns in the secondary were awful, but the Saints held their own at the line of scrimmage. The offense also played poorly, but the score dictated some of that. The offense handled the crowd noise without pre snap penalties. If the Saints can somehow regroup and find themselves back in Seattle in the playoffs, I think they will benefit having played in Seattle already.
I know all the NFL experts are going to use this game as evidence that the Saints can't win on the road, blah, blah, blah. These are the same people that are shocked when the Giants make a run in the playoffs or the Seahawks beat the Saints as the sixth seed. As badly as the Saints got beat, an NFL game can change on a few plays. That is why team like the Chiefs and Falcons have wild changes in success from one year to the next. I guarantee you those teams records could easily be reversed if a few plays in each game had a different result. This fine line is also why Panthers are on a winning streak, but that streak can be broken if the Saints just play the way they are capable Sunday night.
Transitioning to college, I thought Michigan was outstanding in their effort against Ohio State. I thought their play calling was brilliant, and Hoke made the right call in going for two. I was just disappointed in their two point play. It seemed to me the Wolverines could have pulled something out of their bag of tricks that would have been more difficult to defend. I give Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes credit for going undefeated for two straight years. Nick Saban is getting all the attention these days and rightfully so. Yet, Meyer's track record is amazing when you look at his record, his quarterback development, and how he has done it at different levels across the country.
Speaking of Saban, I am sure there are things he would do differently in the Iron Bowl if given the chance. Nevertheless, the Tide got beat, but not out coached. I hope the end does not overshadow the entire game that was an instant classic. This game had it all: big plays, mistakes, comebacks, questionable officiating (check out the lineman downfield on Auburn's game tying TD).
If I were Auburn, I would do everything I could to win by large margins since they have used up all the magic a team usually gets for 20 years in the last two weeks.
Speaking of magic, LSU finally had some end of game magic for the Razorbacks. The hope last week was that LSU had turned the corner and were on their way to being a dominant team. Instead, this year's LSU team simply proved this weekend that they are a very average team with a few excellent players. Nevertheless, it was nice to see Jarvis Landry show Tiger fans just how amazing he is with the ball in the air. NFL personnel people will have the chance to show how smart they are the air this spring. Landry was a great special teams player as a freshman and has developed into a great receiver whose skills translate perfectly into the NFL the way it is played today. He led the nation in third down receptions which is one of the biggest stats in determining who wins on Sundays (refer back to Monday night’s Seahawk win for proof). He would have scored more touchdowns too if LSU wouldn't have taken him out of the game one they got within the 10 yard line.
As for the LSU/Arkansas rivalry, I am glad this game is being moved from Thanksgiving weekend. Maybe on a different weekend, LSU will find a way to play to their ability level against Arkansas because they certainly never figured out how to do that in the series history the weekend after Thanksgiving.
HEY REF
Not sure if I should label this week’s fun-facts as either “Shooting thyself in the foot” or “Cutting off ‘da nose to spite ‘da face”? Sometime we think we’ve got a solution to a problem when in all actuality we’ve really just created an enormous “cluster”!!!! High school principals state wide a few short years back attempted to improve the officials that worked their games by requiring them to attend a training camp once every two years.
Many officials didn’t think twice about the strings that were silently attached to that clause in the new contract that had to be signed between said schools and each local association. The reason they very quickly looked the other way was simple. You might think common sense ruled the official’s decision but it was in all actuality copper cents as in currency.
Sad for me to think this way but many of my official brothers, with the sorry economic situation our country has been in for what seems some thirty years; many need the few dollars working high school games to feed their families and\or pay the rent. This is a very cold, hard fact of our modern society.
The camp attendance clause was thought by many of the voting principals to be THE answer! But there are too many questions for a simple answer to a very complex set of problems when we start talking on how to insure the game officials are up to the highest standard in rules knowledge.
I’ll share some very quick numbers to maybe help the principals understand that the attendance requirement is a loss cause at best. The main expense incurred by officials is of course the camp registration fee. The attendance requirement at its simplest forces each official to spend from $500.00 to maybe $7 or $800.00 bucks.
Not a cost many of us can afford but the principals think it’s a great return on their investment and the money they’ll spend in increased fees on game night. And that’s where the vast majority of principal’s opinions lay. But it’s not that simple in the real world. The monster they’ve created actually binds the hands of all assignment secretaries in the state.
I’ll use my case to try and help the principals realize the system needs fixing because it is costing their schools in more ways than just the bottom line. I sat out about 10 years due to some severe health issues. I came back in Aug. 2012 with 20 years varsity experience, worked many playoff games, and even worked the state championship in the Dome between Curtis and Eunice in 1997.
I attended a mandatory camp in Aug. 2013 and also worked the ’13 regular season. You’d think I met the camp attendance rule since I’d only worked one year before I attended a camp. But you’re wrong as rain as I and many other officials found out when the regular season started. A little unknown stipulation says you must attend a camp before the end of the FISCAL year which ends of course on June 30th.
So those like me that attended a camp after July 1 were out of luck and couldn’t keep their certification. We were bumped DOWN a classification which caused me to lose $25.00 a game in pay which totaled over $250.00 also we aren’t allowed to work more than one playoff game instead of two, three or possibly four. Add a loss in playoff revenue of at least another $100.00.
When you add the cost of new shoes, pants, shorts, etc. we put up another $200 - $300.00 on top of the camp fees, dues ($75.00) and we’re talking a net loss in income somewhere between $400 to close to maybe $500 or more after figuring your game checks. So when good officials start dropping out because of the not intended screwing we took you can understand why many drop out altogether.
So, principals when you scratch your head and wonder why you can’t attract or keep good officials try and remember this, it’s all about the bottom line nowadays. No more love of the game, it’s all about the bottom line. Sad that it’s come down to this but as personal incomes continue to nosedive in this one world economy you can’t blame many guys to walk away and not give a second thought about a career in officiating.
The system is broke but we should be able to fix this problem before games are called by guys that just volunteer to do it instead of making it a job that involves rewards for doing a good job.
Till next week…
The Rotary Club of Livingston Parish
Rotary Bull
“Service Above Self”
Please visit our website at www.rotaryclublp.org.
This week’s meeting:
• This week’s meeting will be held at Big Mike’s. Fellowship begins at 11:30. The meeting is from 12:00-1:00. Our “Who am I” speaker is Ivy Graham! She is awesome, fantastic, coolest person ever, terrific, and a superstar. Simply ask her and she will confirm all of these things to be accurate, judicially provable facts. This week’s meeting could reach legendary status. Do you want to be the person who missed that meeting? I think not. Better clear the schedule.
Last week’s meeting:
• Happy Thanksgiving. Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday and spent the time eating, drinking, and enjoying quality time with family.
• Dude, we haven’t met in so long I don’t know what’s going on as far as Rotary business.
• Supply lists for the veteran’s house were distributed. It was asked that members follow up with their contacts to see who is willing to donate what items.
Upcoming Events/Projects:
• Dec 13 – Club Elections
• Dec 20 – Club “ugly sweater” Christmas Party
• Dec 27th - no meeting
Note from the President:
• December’s educational focus is Families. During the holiday season it is important to take a step back and celebrate our families that support our work as Rotarians, who assist our Rotarian efforts and projects, as well as the family of Rotary. Rotary is an important and valuable connector. You know you are dealing with good people when you deal with Rotarians.
Guest Speakers and General Membership Meeting Dates:
• Dec 13 Club Assembly and Elections, Winter Committee Presentation
• Dec 20: Christmas Party
• Dec 27: No meeting
Brags:
• There is one and only one brag for this addition of the Bull. It is a huge Kudos to the women of Rotary. Abigail, Leesha, Lisa (Orlando), Donna, Heather, and Ivy
The most tenacious, tough, strong, butt kicking, rough, brawny, unyielding, Rotarians the world has ever seen!! These women, without the help of any man, took down a roof. A dare any of you to challenge the facts of this statement in front of these women. You may not come out with your limbs. Remember, Lisa has been previously authorized to break bones. (She’s experienced). I wouldn’t mess with these chicks!
Members:
• Your quarterly dues will be emailed. Keep a lookout! AND Please kindly and timely submit your payment to Lisa Casas.
• Shirts for sale only $7.00 for members. These things are selling like hotcakes!
JON IS PROUD TO WORK AS A MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE FOR SPORTSRADIO-1310-KEZM-LAKE CHARLES, IN ESTABLSHING THE “DOLLAR A HOLLER” MARKETING PROGRAM AND HELPING SELL SULPHUR HS FOOTBALL BROADCASTS AND BARBE HS BASEBALL PLAYOFF BROADCASTS.