July 24, 2015
RUNNING LATE
Pressing business obligations precluded us from meeting our usual publishing time for this newsletter. Look for the same, next week, too. We’ll be back on track in a couple of weeks from now. Sorry for any imposition. To twist an axium from our legal friends, hopefully, Journalistic Brilliance Delayed is NOT Journalistic Brilliance Denied!
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SPORTSCENTRAL
SportsCentral aired tonight! Schedule information is just below
Join co-hosts Steve Johnson and Sid Edwards and their guests were scheduled to be joined by Central HS Offensive Coordinated David Dykes and Senior plyers Trenton Guay and Kyle Kennedy.
BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
Thursday, July 30: 5pm—6pm: SportsCentral… with Sid Edwards and Steve Johnson
WUBR, 910AM (CBS Sports Radio) Baton Rouge
PelicanSportsTV.com
App: search WUBR… from Coach’s
SportsRadio 1310 Radio, Lake Charles Programming of Interest (also heard on KEZMOnLine.com):
Saturday, July 25: 9AM—10AM: All Things Football with Scott Holtzman
Monday, July 27: 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
Thanks to all who sent in questions this week. Let's tee it high and let if fly, starting with golf.
Q: Scott, I thought Jordan Speith had it. Does this ruin the PGA Championship for you?
A: I don't know that I ever thought Speith had it, but I found myself pulling hard for him to win. I loved how bunched the leaderboard was in the third and fourth rounds so ESPN had to constantly jump around and show us tons of action. Those two rounds had the feel of the first two days of March Madness when there are intriguing and emerging story lines all over.
As for the PGA Championship, I will still watch to see if Speith can win three of four majors. I think it is amazing he has won two and finished one shot off the lead in the third major this year. He has turned into Must See Golf TV for me. And not a moment too soon as Tiger and Phil have fallen completely off my radar.
Q: You bypassed the NBA free agency signings this month. How about Los Spurs?
A: I am amazed the Spurs were able to get Aldridge, keep everyone they wanted, AND Tim Duncan is going to come back! The Clippers are a tad better, but now have two terrible free throw shooters that will hurt them at the end of the game. I think Milwaukee made a move forward in the East by signing Greg Monroe.
Overall, though, the story of the off season in the NBA to me was how many teams were able to stay consistent with their rosters. The Cavs and Warriors are definitely built to make another great run. Meanwhile the Pelicans, Thunder, Rockets, Hawks, and a few others are intriguing and poised to build on their success from last year.
Q: I am starting to get fired up about football. I was fired up last summer too, and the fall was a flop. Should I try and remain cautiously optimistic or let my guard down and dream big?
A: This is the time of year to dream big. Get fired up and look forward to the season.
But, if you are asking me to start predicting what is going to happen this year, then you are asking me to give up my material for August. Sorry, I am not biting.
One more week for the mailbag next week, and then it is time to talk football.
HEY REF
By Dennis Dearie
Veteran Louisiana High School Referee
Hey Ref 7 23 15
Respecting the wishes of both the LHSAA and its official’s associations state wide I’ve been sitting quietly on the sidelines waiting on an agreement between the sides before I make a comment. For a while the differences between the two sides had threatened the start of the football season. Despite all the happiness and togetherness exhibited by LHSAA Executive Director Ed Bonine and LHSOA President Paul LaRosa there truly IS NOT AN AGREEMENT… YET…
What was settled is nothing I’d be sticking my chest out and claiming victory. All the sabre rattling going on by both sides is a sham as nothing has been formally agreed to. The only thing definite is the football officials will get their $5.00 per game increase and a “promise” from Bonine that he’ll work to get the Principal’s Association to approve the game fee increases in January 2016.
We’ve (Officials and Principals) have been down this road before where a promise is made only to have the principals vote “NO” on allowing a pay raise. In this day of instant messaging and conference calls it’s absurd to hide behind the excuse that we’ve got to wait until January for the principals to approve these changes. The failure to call a vote on the changes to the fee schedule and other changes just shows me the powers at the Official’s Association really have no power.
When negotiating a new contract or revisions to an agreement already in force you must call a vote when your side has a better stance than waiting for the other side to grab the upper hand. What this means is the LHSOA is holding the best hand it could ever get by having a vote done now right before games are played and not when football is a distant memory.
The LHSOA should be very much aware that the hand it holds now will not get any better AFTER the crowning a state champions in January. In a best case scenario when the principals do vote at its annual meeting there will be no surprises and the fee increases will be “written in stone”. But we’ve seen how this group votes on pay raises for its officials and to be asked to “trust” them again is just beyond me.
I’ve sent texts to both my association and the LHSOA and expressed my displeasure with how they’ve caved in and are once again asking for us to trust the principals. They feel that since voting the new agreement down will look bad on the principals, etc. that it’s a sure thing they’ll sign it. Again, there seems to be no one home when trying to get a new working agreement in place now so that we won’t have that to be a distraction come the first game of the 2015 season.
What we have in place right now is another “Trust Us” with no guarantee that the vote on the changes will pass. Many of the officials I’ve talked to really don’t give a rat’s butt on any issue except how much they’ll be paid on any given Friday night. And yes that’s what has been the case whenever talk of learning the rules and mechanics comes front and center. Too many of the officials working games today are doing so to supplement their income since pay raises at their companies have been on hold for years and the excuse they continue to get is “it’s the economy and we can’t give raises this year”.
I’ve seen the decline in the quality of candidates that are now just calling games for the money. When I started the pay issue hardly came to light. We were much more tuned to the game and the kids. The players and coaches respected the guys in stripes back then. But that’s not the case today. I’ve told everyone that’ll listen that “I’d give half of my game check back to the schools if we’d get just 1% of respect from the coaches”.
I was warned about how things have changed when I decided to try and return to the sidelines after 12 years off due to health issues. I was shocked at the degree of pure contempt for officials by the coaches upon my return. But that wasn’t even close to the shock I got when I heard the way young officials talked to coaches during games and at our weekly meetings.
I hope come January there won’t be any surprises and the principals do what they’ve said they were going to do and give a very small raise to the football officials. But I won’t be shocked if all the handshakes and pats on the back were for nothing. After all a leopard can’t change its spots!!!
Till next week…
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