Entry #68 - 1/8/08

Happy New Year! There is nothing quite like it when the calendar year turns over. Saying goodbye to the past year and welcoming the New Year is always exciting. The anticipation that 2008 is going to be a great year really gets the juices flowing. The fall/winter semester really seemed to go by rather quickly. I’m sure the 41 days we have until our season opener will go by just as quick. I felt like the last eight weeks before Christmas vacation were very productive for our program. Our players let for break in very good condition. Everyone was healthy and individually our strength numbers were better than ever before. Our strength coach, Lee Morrow and our players deserve all the credit for working extremely hard and putting in a lot of hours.

We always take weight and specific body part measurements of all our players before we start our winter strength and conditioning program. We like to chart the progress and changes that their bodies make over the winter. We only had one young man who we were trying to slim down and the rest of our guys were trying to add some size, strength and flexibility. We ended up being on the plus side an average of almost 11 pounds, which really changed the bodies of a lot of our players. I’m confident these individual improvements will lead to improvement on the diamond for our club.

The other area which I would like to mention is the wonderful job our players continue to do in the classroom. My hat goes off to Bob Baker, Maya McCoy and the rest of our academic support staff for all their hard work they do with our athletes. Bob is a huge asset to our department and constantly goes above and beyond to support our player’s academic pursuits. We are very lucky to have him. We actually had 15 of our 25 players with at least a 3.0 grade point average and some who were considerably higher than that. We also had 3 others who were just shy of that mark. So all in all it was a good semester academically for us.

It is hard to believe the season starts in 41 days. Our first team meeting will be this Sunday evening and then it is time to get to work. I remember as a player that first team meeting after the holidays was always special. It was so much fun to see everyone after being away for over a month. To hear about everyone’s holiday experiences and stories was always fun. Back then it was different because the only form of communication was the phone and those calls were usually long distance and you didn’t make those kind of calls unless it was an emergency. Today, with cell phones, text messaging and email, kids can communicate on a daily basis from all over the world. Still, I know that college baseball players are excited all over the country to see their teammates again.

The holiday season in the Skole household was very fast paced and very fun. We always do a lot of traveling during the months of December to see numerous family members and friends. With the addition of our third son, Gehrig, things are even more interesting. Gehrig is almost nine months now and is crawling and starting to move around. With it being almost four years since we had an infant in the house I had forgotten just how much “stuff” you have to pack anytime you travel anywhere. Thanks goodness for the luggage rack on top of our car. It is also amazing at how much technology has changed in just the brief time it has been since Jack and Gehrig were born. Everything from the quality of car seats to cribs is better than ever.

I’ll share one of the many funny holiday stories which occurred in our house this year. One night couple of weeks before Christmas, Jody was getting the boys ready for their evening shower. She left them in the bathroom and went to get their pajamas ready and as she approached the bathroom door she overheard the boys having a discussion about Santa Claus. It went something like this… Jack who is five years old asked Tilo in a very concerned voice, “Hey brother is there really a Santa Claus?” Tilo responded, “Don’t worry Jack, I’m quite sure there is a Santa Claus.” Jack replied, “But how do you know for sure?” The wise eight year old big brother then responded, “Here is what I’m going to do just to make sure. I’m going to go ahead and ask for a cell phone as my number one present. Being only eight years old, I know I don’t need a cell phone, but if I don’t get one, then we’ll know for sure there is no Santa Claus.” The thoughts and ideas that go through an eight year old boy’s head are amazing. The next morning when I took them to school, I made sure to discuss that Santa Claus sent out a memo to all parents that he was not going to be delivering any cell phones to eight years olds this Christmas season. They seemed content with that statement and never brought it up again. Never a dull moment.

Before I sign off I want to leave you with an email I received today. It is very relevant as in our meeting Sunday evening with our players, having a great attitude will be one of the many topics we will discuss.

Attitude

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today?" So she did and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head. "H-M-M," she said, "I think I'll part my hair down the middle today?" So she did and she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head. "Well," she said, "today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail." So she did and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head. "YEA!" she exclaimed, "I don't have to fix my hair today!"

Attitude is everything. Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle. Live simply, Love generously, Care deeply, Speak kindly.......

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Until Next Time…

COACH SKOLE