The Season

Saturday was the final day of my run as the coach of the Singles branch basketball team. It was a great experience.

We had our ups and downs. We came back to win games being down by 10. We beat teams by 31,33, and 35 points. We lost two close ones by 1 and 2, and 3 points. Some games we had 12 guys, other times we had 5 or 6. Either way the guys played hard, they left it all on table and finished with a 6 and 4 record, losing in the semifinal game of the tournament.

Here is my tribute to all of my players.

Mikey: My assistant coach! He called most of the guys, washed the jersey's, never missed a practice, read more of the play book than I did, and eventually beat me at one on one.

Corey: I lovingly called him midget towards the end of the season. He is my fiery point guard, that if only 2 feet taller would destroy every big man in the stake. Corey in all of his passion was the most willing to learn and follow.

Brad: Brad and I played on the court last season. He started at point towards the end of the season, setting a great example for Corey. His slow spin on his shot made you never think that he would take the ball to hole and finish with his left hand.

Steve: Steve has one of the purest shots I have ever seen on a basketball court. Very few people know the game better than Steve or have as much as a desire to be better at it.

Ken: Even with a short season, this man was a stud. He played more minutes that most of my players, ran the zone defense down low perfectly with Sam and always caught his opponents off guard with his strength.

Sam: Not only did Sam make us the most fashionable team in the stake with the sweet jersey's he brought, but when playing zone defense, he was the perfect example of communication and execution.

Ryan: Being the coach, I take the liberty to name Ryan MVP of our team. He was very quiet all season, was by far the super star of our team but was our greatest asset. He had the hops to play down low. He had the speed to play up top. He used the baseline like no other person in the stake. He never questioned me, or the refs, he never complained, and never missed practice. It was the saddest day of the season when he missed our final two games of the tournament. Congratulations Ryan, you are the MVP.

Some people will not understand this blog, most of you probably didn't even get this far in reading it, but let me tell you something. Nothing is quiet as satisfying as seeing your players sitting on the sideline of the championship game, not complaining that they didn't win, or that they weren't playing. They were talking about playing on Wednesday, like we normally do. They were laughing and joking. They had left it all on the floor. They knew how important it was to play hard and to give it their all, and they did, and they knew they had. They had nothing to be ashamed of. They are all amazing players, but even more important than that, they are amazing people.

The Tastes of the Periodic Table

Kelly and I are at an impass about our toothpaste. No matter which one we use, they never have a satisfying aftertaste for Kelly, where I care more about the clean feeling than I do about the taste. I believe that I have found the answer to our problems.

I soon realized that the one key ingredient in most quality toothpastes is that flouride is the main ingredient. How can something that is an element on the periodic table have a great taste? In chemistry class, I never remember working with chemicals and thinking to myself, "this calcium smells so good, I wish I could eat a big spoonful of it!".

Most things on the periodic table will never in fact be eaten. I have never eaten a neon lightbulb, I have inhaled helium, but the taste in no way can be described as "yummy". In fact, most of the elements would probably have some weird degenerative effect on your children. If I was in fact going to eat an element, I would like to try Boron. Besides the fact that Boron has an excellent name, it sounds less harmful than other elements such as Radon, or any other isotope.

Soon after my discovery I started a converstation with my brother in law, Steve, about the same subject. We tried to remember some of the elements that we knew and then proceeded to find examples of foods that contain a large quantity of the element. We were having very little if any success until we stumbled upon Iron. The first thing that came to my mind was red meat. Thinking of a juicy and tender medium rare steak with Garlic mashed potatoes was making my mouth water. Just as I was about to open my salavating mouth to share my discovery, Steve proceed to say two words. Grape...Nuts....(yes, that funky cereal with the name that makes no sense!)

My mouth then became very dry again as I imagined the small, dry, and rock hard cereal that is named after the seeds found in grapes! He then went on to explain that in the past his doctor had told him to eat a diet high in Iron and had suggested Grape Nuts as an excellent source of it. I tried to shrug off the outlandish comment (I loathe cereal) and proceeded to explain my perferred source, steak! Steve seemed unmoved by the comment. Is it true that he would rather eat Grape Nuts over a steak? The audacity of that assumption is horrifying. I will probably never ask, for I am truly afraid of the answer.