Caiden's football collage from 2009

One our team parents, Mindy Tuikolovatu, is a photographer specializing in portraits. The past two years she has done these AMAZING collages of our kids at no charge (she even prints it up on a huge poster-sized photo for each kid). If anyone is looking for a person to do a great portraits, please visit her web site at: http://www.photographybymindyt.com/

(Click HERE for large version)



(Click HERE for large version)

Hi everybody

Just wanted to let everyone know I am around. With work and coaching Caiden's football team, I haven't had a ton of time to blog. I really miss doing it though.

So, if there actually is anyone out there that reads my blog, I apologize for letting all one of you down (Alene).

A few updates though:

Family: Ups and downs as always, but I love my family more than anything. Bailey is the cutest little girl in the world and I adore her dearly (even when she throws a tantrum). When I came home late from work tonight I kissed her on the cheek and she kept leaning in for kiss after kiss. Caiden is busy with football and doing well. He could be doing better in school, but we'll just have to stay on top of him. Alene just finished running in the "other" half marathon in Moab and beat her expected time by 10+ minutes!! HOLY CRAP!! She was amazing. We also had the amazing opportunity to meet Alene's son Cade and his wonderful mother Lori. We'll never forget that moment.

Football: I'm coaching Caiden's team as the defensive coordinator. We are currently undefeated at 8-0 and we have our last game of the regular season against a team we are tied for first place with. From there we will have the playoffs, which is two rounds. I keep a team blog with highlights from each week (click on the word "Football" above).

My job: It's going well. I finally have a grasp on what is expected of me, but there is so much more to do in regards to getting organized and having some structure. I REALLY wish I could have an assistant, even a part time one, but I doubt that will ever happen. I've been traveling a lot for work and with the winter coming on, hopefully it will slow down.

Outdoors: I suck in that respect. I have not gotten out for much outdoors stuff all year. Our schedules were pretty hectic this past spring/summer with Alene filling in for other people at work AND Caiden playing baseball. I really hope we can get out more next year. We have a great trip planned for our anniversary next year. Details to come in a few months. I'm so pissed that I failed to even get out mountain biking ONCE this whole year. I really suck.

Alene and I also went a few concerts here and there.

The football season should be over by November 14 if we make it to the championship game. After that we are taking a LONG awaited vacation to a (hopefully) warm place in San Diego, CA. It will be fun to vacation as a family and I look forward to it.

So, you can see my life is pretty boring. Sorry if I've disappointed.

Training a baby to learn to sleep

Lately I've felt like Bailey, who we are "training" to get used to knowing when it's time to sleep......for a long time. It's not easy and Alene has honestly done most of the work. Alene is so good because she's so consistent and believes in staying focused on the task at hand, no matter how hard it is on her own sleep. She sacrifices so much for Bailey. I think most people would give in here and there and just bring their baby into bed with them, but Alene knows that it would mess up all the work we've been putting into getting Bailey used to sleeping.

Bailey still wakes up a few times every night and what we're trying is to just let her cry until she falls back asleep. It's very hard because that crying keeps us up too. If Bailey cries for over an hour, Alene will then go in and get her up, but she usually cries for 45 minutes to an hour, then falls back asleep. I'm so happy that Alene is so strict in this endavor and doesn't waver. She's a great mother.

So, getting to my point about feeling like Bailey. I haven't done any house "projects" for a good 3-4 weeks now. I've done some small stuff here and there (hanging a shelf, dinging around in the garage trying to pretend like I'm doing something), but it's been weird.

For most of the 10 years I lived in my old house, I was constantly working on some sort of "project". I'd take small breaks here and there and it wasn't always "constant", but there was always something to do. Then after I got married and it became even worse (not Alene's fault, it was my own because we had more money coming in I guess).
Just before getting married I tackled a kitchen/bath remodel (the largest "job" I've done for someone to date) for my ex in-laws. This took a lot out of me at that time.
I started off by putting laminate wood flooring in our front room.
Then, I built a playhouse for Caiden.
Then I did a tub/shower tile job.
Then we re-modeled our kitchen/dining area.
Then I built and tiled a shower for my parents.
Then we re-roofed the house.
Then I tiled the bathroom and back laundry room.
Then I painted our bedroom, Caiden's room, and our office area.
Then I moved all our extra stuff out of our house and into storage so it would look more sellable.
Then we sold the house and moved everything else.
Then we bought another house on our way out of town to Canyonlands.
Then we came back and I had this genius idea of expanding our own bedroom to make more room.
Then we went on a trip to Joes Valley just before Bailey was due and we came home to a flooded basement.
Then I spent the rest of summer/fall re-doing our basement AND adding a bookshelf unit.

Not to mention, over the course of completing all the projects I also coached FB during the fall, went on some great camping trips to Arches, Zion, Glacier, and Canyonlands National Parks. We also camped at Escalante, the San Rafael Swell, Robbers Roost, and the Uintas. We tried to fit in hikes here and there as best we could too.

Now it's done and I'm still busy, but I have this itch to work on something else. It drives my mind mad sometimes like I need to be doing a project, but then I have to just talk myself away from that ledge. It's really funny to think of, but sometimes it actually hurts. Like it's a drug. Like I have to "train" myself to not do a project, even though I look at the house and see stuff that could be done to make it nicer. I know it doesn't have to be done and I'm trying my best to just be patient.

Over the course of this time though, this work has taken a toll on my body. My back is constantly sore, more sore than it's ever been. I'm extremely tired all the time. But I'll live. I know I will. There are still things that we want to finish on the house that kind of eat at me. We bought paint for our front room and hallway, but I have yet to do that....but I'm being patient. I recently bought some material to build a lattice wall around our hot tub, so that will be another little project. For the most part though, it's nice to not feel somewhat burdened by it. My only problem is now wasting the free time I have and making it feel like I'm busy. However, this "free" time couldn't have come at a better time because I'm attempting to get back into school this week AND Alene has started her new job, so I'm pretty busy on Monday/Tuesday afternoons/evenings while she's at work.

The thing is, I wish I was strong enough to simplify my life. I wish I could easily choose one thing over the other. My biggest "vice" I would say in my life is my love of being around the game of football. When I'm not, it eats at me constantly. I first started coaching right out of high school and I found what I thought was my calling. I had dreams/aspirations to coach on the college level someday, but now that I decided to take the route of not teaching, I think it's a little more impossible than it ever was. Still, I have an extreme love of the sport.

My biggest thing I'm torn over is the fact that football is during some of the best times to be doing my "other" love, which is being outside camping and hiking (during the fall). Every year around this time I go through the same little feeling of "why am I doing this". I get this urge to just stop and drop football for good, but here is where it gets complicated: Caiden is now playing and loves it.

So, with Caiden playing, all his games are on Saturdays, which takes out every weekend. So even if I wasn't coaching, he would have games that he is obligated to be at. When it comes to sports, I've always tried to live by the "creed" if you will, that you always finish something you start. I would hate to go against that by telling him he wasn't going to be able to play in a game because "I" wanted to go camping. I think that would be selfish and even if I gave him an option to stay or go, I think it would make it hard on him.

Anyway, I'm currently mulling the fact of at least stopping coaching at the HS level. It takes so much time and energy. I think maybe it would be best if I just focused on coaching Caiden's team and leave it at that. If he keeps playing at the HS level, maybe I could help out there too. I just don't know.

Sorry this post may be so depressing. I know I sound like a whiny idiot to most of you, who are probably saying, "buck up and do what you know you're supposed to do". Well, that is the problem...still can't figure it out.

I hate the BCS

and I'm not a fan of the Utah utes (being they're my favorite schools rival), but I respect the hell out of them. They are getting the shaft with not having a chance to officially be crowned "national champions".

If you hate the BCS, like I do, check out this article by former Sports Illustrated and current ESPN magazine columnist Rick Reilly:


http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3815656

Utah's dominating win really made a great argument for either the end of the BCS system, or allowing the Mountain West Conference to join. We deserve to be a part of the chance to earn more money based on our performance and for a chance to truly play for a national championship.

Read the article (not too long).

1994 Ponderosa Bruins High School Football Team

I've decided to compile information here from my Sr year of Football. Our team was good, we just under-performed in a few games to not make the playoffs. We lost a couple of games we should not have and we finished 4-6. The highlight of the year was our win over our Rival, Eldorado High School, 40-0.

As I do this, people may think I'm obsessed with my "high school days" and maybe I am in some ways, but I can't deny myself that they were fun times and I learned many valuable lessons in this great game of football. I now teach the game to other high school kids and I love learning of it and the many ways it can be used for good. The one thing I'll always remember is how confident it made me feel about myself. My story with my introduction to this game is not unique.

I played as a 10 or 11 year old, but didn't have a clue what I was doing. My dad loved watching football, but I was always more into basketball, but I sucked at that sport too (as I did at pretty much everything I tried). I tried out for the 7th and 8th grade flag teams, but was cut. Then one day in May of 1991, the head coach at Ponderosa called my house and invited me to come out for the freshman team. He said if I showed up every day that I would not be cut. I felt so honored to have THE head coach of the varsity team calling me to ask if I was going to come out to football. As if he had seen some un-seen potential in myself. Little did I know that he was a first-year coach and was calling EVERY incoming male 9th grader to encourage more numbers out. Even so, without me knowing, it made me feel special.

I played sparingly as a freshman, not having a clue what I was doing, but it built my confidence and lead me to a starting position as a Sophomore, most of my Jr year and all of my Sr year. I learned all 5 offensive line positions and I grew to really love the game, my team mates, and my coaches. It was a fun time, despite our team losing games we shouldn't have. I hope there are others I played with that look upon it at least somewhat the way I did.

I was fortunate enough to have been able to save all but one of the newspaper articles from that season.

1994 Game Summaries

Click on any link below to see the photocopied articles from every game this season. This will include pictures from the original newspaper articles. In order to read the article, you will need to click on the picture and it will "zoom" in.


Ponderosa Bruins 14 Oakmont Vikings 7 (@ Ponderosa)
I remember being really excited for this game. As freshman we were destroyed by this team and it continued as we were Sophomores too. Our Jr year we beat them, but this was the year we were to do it with our class in control. As the article says, Drew Shelstad's interception really sealed this game. We actually could have goose-egged them, but their one TD was scored earlier-on because on an identical play to the one Drew intercepted on, Drew stepped up to pick off the pass and slipped and fell, which left the WR wide open and gone for a TD. Other than that our defense played great and our offense did enough to win.

Ponderosa Bruins 13 McClatchy Lions 33 (@ McClatchy)
This one was ugly (as the score indicates). I remember us being able to run all over them, but we fumbled a ton in this game. As an offensive lineman, there is nothing more frustrating than having a RB fumble while you're blocking your guts out. There is also nothing more frustrating when a RB doesn't read your block too. However, I'm sure there is nothing more frustrating for a RB when nobody blocks for you :) (it goes both ways). I remember this team having ridiculous speed with a HUGE fullback and a super-quick tailback (he was an all-city type of player). It was a horrible feeling, but I think it made us focus for the next game...


Ponderosa Bruins 32 Tokay Tigers 13 (@ Tokay)
Tokay was supposed to be this big bad beast. They had a HUGE OL and a QB (Lenzi) who was big too and being recruited by a few colleges to play football. I remember our defense playing lights-out and our offense playing a solid game. I was most excited because in the 4th quarter my best friend Roman got to play running back a lot. I kept telling him to just follow me. He had two carries for 22 yards. Whenever we talk about our playing days, he says "I averaged 11 yards a carry one game" as a joke. We get some good laughs.

Ponderosa Bruins 21 Folsom Bulldogs 13 (@ Folsom)
This was another "statement" game for us. Folsom was pretty good and as a school, we had history with them. As a class, we had never played them, but they were new to our league and we knew they were a tough team. They had a great little league program, so these kids had played football a lot longer than we had.

Ponderosa Bruins 7 Placer Hillman 27 (@ Ponderosa)
Another horrible game. It was our homecoming game, which is the game we are supposed to come out and dominate. This team was another HUGE team (big OL, big RB's with speed, quick/tough QB). We got destroyed by them as freshmen and sophomores AND as Jr's. I hated playing them. I remember knowing their JR class went un-defeated as a JV team the prior year and they featured a 6'2" 235 lbs tailback (not a fullback). Dude was fast, but wasn't much trouble for us for some reason. Still, the most frustrating part of this game was the play of our offense as a whole. I remember our running game was not doing very well and the RB's were having a hard time reading our blocks. I remember the coach tearing into the OL after the game, ranting about how horrible we played, but then come Monday he apologized to all of us and said we actually blocked quite well and he laid into our RB's. I felt bad for them because I feel, as a whole, it's a team game. I think as a team were getting a big head at this time because we were 3-1 and had beaten a couple of teams we, as a class, had had a hard time beating in the past years and we figured Placer would be easy too.

Ponderosa Bruins 40 Eldorado Cougars 0 (@ Ponderosa)
Also a second and third article HERE and HERE What can you say about a major shut-out over your rival team? Eldorado was a long-standing rival to us and I remember we were really jealous as Freshmen because they had a little league feeder program, so most of their kids were well-versed in playing football. We got beat by them as Freshman, but we beat them as Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors. It was a great feeling of just flat-out dominating this team. I remember Zach Hatch going crazy against them, rushing something like 10 times for 110 yards and also catching for around 70 or 80 yards. I also think I set a team record for most positions played in a game. I played all 5 offensive line positions in this game. It was a blast.

Ponderosa Bruins 21 Mesa Verde Mustangs 49 (@ Mesa Verde) Ugly, Ugly, Ugly. I thought for sure we were going to beat these guys. I remember playing them somewhat close as a JV team, and our Jr year we beat them pretty good, but they absolutely stomped us our Sr year. It would pretty much set the tone for the rest of the year. They had a RB that flat-out dominated us and they had a HUGE fullback who's name I remember pretty well: Shawn Thornton. His name is burned into my memory because I remember our teams "shared" a locker room with the only thing separating us was a chain-linked fence. After the game, this Thornton dude (who was 6'2" and 230 lbs of muscle) was mouthing off to us and then he turned around to walk away and dude had "THORNTON" tattooed all across his back in Olde English. I had NEVER seen a HS dude with a tattoo, let alone a HUGE one like that. I knew that dude was hard. Anyway, we were dominated and our coach really gave us a butt-chewing for this one.

Ponderosa Bruins vs. Oak Ridge Trojans (@ Oak Ridge)
This is the only game that I forgot to save the article on. I really wished I had it. I'm going to attempt to contact the Mountain Democrat and see if by chance they have archives, but I doubt it. I can't remember the score to this game, but we did lose by a few TD's. I remember this team having a HUGE line (one of which signed to play college FB at BYU) and too much speed for us to handle (typical). It sucked because Oak Ridge was also another Rival to us (our HS was situation between Eldorado and Oak Ridge, so they were both Rivals). Oak Ridge was pretty "revolutionary" at the time because they were the first of the "spread" type of offenses you see so commonly now days. They usually only had one RB and 3 WR's. We were so used to seeing power-type teams (I-formaiton, wing-t, double wing, etc.) that having to match up against a team with a spread mind-set was difficult. I think our score was something like 13-28

Ponderosa Bruins 23 Valley Vikings 27 (@ Ponderosa) Valley was a team on the rise. They had a lot of athletes on the team (two of which went on to play in the NFL) but as you can see from the score and the article, we took them down to the very end and almost pulled it off. This is the only game from my Sr year that I actually have film of and I love seeing the first play of the game, where I pull and block their all-section DE Jerry De Loach. This dude went on to play at Cal and then in the NFL, starting for the Houston Texans. They also had a Jr Lineback named Jeremiah Pharms, who went on to star as a LB with the Washington Huskies, then get drafted to the NFL, only to never play a down due to murder charges. This dude was pretty good too. They had some great RB's and DB's too, all of which went on to play college FB.


Ponderosa Bruins 6 Del Oro Golden Eagles 33 (@ Ponderosa)
This was our last game of the season. Del Oro was a dominate program, always finishing with only one loss, maybe two sometimes. Their QB was a Sophomore, who went on to play at Stanford, then in the NFL for a few years. He was a great athlete. He wasn't the big player in this game though, it was their RB Anthony Floor, who ran all over us. Del Oro also operated out of a "spread" set, which was so hard for us to defend. Their defense was really good too. If it wasn't for our Kicker being so good, we would have been shut out. Anthony Floor also went on to play college FB at Oregon State I believe. He wasn't the biggest guy, but he was stronger than an ox and so fast.

It sucked losing our final game at home and ending our season so lousily, but it still felt good for me on a personal level. There were so many times I questioned why I put in so much work, figuring in the end that I would not get anything out of it like a college scholarship. However, I learned so much more about commitment, about team work, about working hard and not worrying about the lime light (that's an offensive lineman's perspective), and about respecting authority. Quite a few of the guys on our team did not like our head coach. I learned to really love and respect him. I can only hope as a coach that I represent my mentors the way I was taught.

Here is the list for the All Sierra Foothill League team. These were the kids from the 3 high schools in our county only, so it did not show all the other kids from the other high schools out of our county.


All Sierra Foothill League

Here is an article by our school newspaper that talks about how our season is going. Notice the underlined section that mentions my brother Russ as a RB on the JV team and a game he had against Placer. Russ is by far the best athlete in our family, but he didn't care much for football. He was a dang good RB and LB though.

Paw Print

Here is the team picture of our Jr year as Varsity players: Junior Year

Here is the team picture from our JV year: JV Year

Here is the team picture from our Freshman year: Freshman Year

Here is my Sr, Jr, Sophomore, and Freshman pictures (respectively):

Sr

JR


Soph (JV)

Frosh

Here are a couple of "action" shots from my JV and Varsity years. I was a lineman, so the "action" shots aren't that cool.

JV


Varsity

Lastly, here is a picture of my two best friends and I from our Sr year

Roman, Tyler, & Brian

I take so much crap at work

I am, literally, out of 200+ people, the only BYU fan here at work and I take a lot of crap for it. I've been fortunate the past two years, for BYU to have won and to come back to work on Monday with a smile on my face. This year, I can only hope we win. I don't have a lot of confidence, but I think we're capable of it.

I doctored up my co-workers sign hanging outside her cubicle. It didn't last long.

Rivalry Week

It's BYU vs. Utah this week and I believe this is the biggest game both teams will have played in. BYU is ranked # 14 with a 10-1 record while Utah is # 7 with an 11-0 record. The game is at Utah, so Utah will be favored (along with their undefeated season). So much is on the line in this game. If BYU wins, they will force a 3-way tie for the conference championship with Utah and TCU. In addition, they knock Utah out of the running for a BCS game, which Boise St. will likely get (unless they lose one of their two remaining games).

It's so tough being a BYU fan and living in SLC. Pretty much everyone at my work is a Utah fan, so I get a lot of crap about that when I proudly wear my shirts around the office.

The one thing BYU has going for them right now is the fact that they've won two of the last 3 games and have shown that they have the ability to come from behind to make some amazing plays to win the games. Their offense is still pretty high-powered, but their defense is clearly weak, so that should be interesting how they play against Utah. Utah has a pretty good group of WR's and that is where we are weakest. It could be a shoot-out and a somewhat high-scoring affair, although the last 3 years each team has scored in the high 20's and low 30's.

I'm stoked for this game though. Unfortunately (OK, kind of fortunate because we're getting out), we will be in St. George for that weekend. We plan on going to Zions National Park, then just chill in St. George to watch the game on Saturday and possibly visit with one of Alene's old friends. I really wanted to see this game in HD, but our hotel TV's are those crappy tube TV's. I have a buddy who's parents have a vacation home in St. George along with a nice TV, so he's looking into whether it's being used this weekend or not. If not, we get to use it to watch the game. That will be sweet.

To close, I have to post this video that tears me up a bit at the end. It's a little long (5 minutes), but it picks up at the end and if you're a BYU fan, the payoff is always great. If you're a Utah fan, sorry :-).

Pictures from the BYU game

BYU is 9-1 and just destroyed San Diego State 41-12 today, but some of our "fans" still think we suck and we aren't as good as we should be. Losers.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took during the game:

Grandma and Bailey


Grandpa and Caiden


The Offense


Austin Collie


4th Down Stop!


The Defense


Max Hall was looking for me in the stands to say "What up?"


Bailey in the sky


Bailey's reaction after a big play


Bailey got "sacked"


Caiden and Bailey


Bringing the team out

Caiden's football video

Here is a video I made of Caiden's football season. I apologize for the generic music in the background. I had a song by Weezer on there, but youtube banned it (immediately) because of copyright issues. They must be really cracking down on that stuff.

The end of the season

Whew! It's finally here. As much as I wanted my teams to keep going, I also wanted it to be over. I'm exhausted. I know everyone keeps saying, "well, you were on paternity leave, you've got nothing to complain about", but I spent a good portion of it daily working on the basement. After that I'd get cleaned up and go to East's practice from 2:30-5:30, then bust it across town during rush-hour to get to Caiden's practice late until 8pm. Yeah, it's all volunteer and it's my decision to do, but it was still tough and tiring.

So, my Sophomore team finished 7-2. We had a fun season and thinking of the "what-if's" I wished we had our QB for every game (he started varsity at Free Safety, so his time with us was limited). He did not play in the two games we lost and I'm positive we would have won those games if he was in there. We had a freshman QB for us most of the season and he did a great job of running our offense and doing what we asked of him.

Here is a picture of the Sophomore team after our last game.


Here is a picture of me in my element.



The varsity team ended their season 8-2 and made it to the playoffs. We got DESTROYED in the first round on Friday, so the season is over. I really hope my boys will be able to make a contribution next year for the Varsity squad.

Caiden's team finished 6-3 and we too made it to the playoffs. The top 4 teams in your division make it to the playoffs and play each other in a tournament style (1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3). We finished 3rd, so we faced a team that was 8-1 and beat us our first game 34-7. We played them so tough and took the game into double overtime, only to lose 28-21. I felt badly for Caiden because he really didn't know what was going on. When the game was over, those kids that were crying knew, but Caiden looked confused. He shook the other teams hands, then asked me "so do we still get to go to the playoffs". I told him that that WAS the playoff game and our season was over. He stopped and all of a sudden tears started gushing from his eyes. I felt so badly for him.

Most of the kids cried for a good 20 minutes. They had worked so hard (we started off our season 1-3 before rattling off 5 straight wins to make the playoffs) and it was so sad to see it come to an end for them. The great thing is that these kids can all play together again next year (you play according to the high school boundary you live in) and they can continue that all the way through Jr high and up to high school (so long as they still live here obviously).

Here are some pictures from after our last game (when the tears were all wiped away).

Caiden and coach


Coaches and their boys


So all in all, I had a lot of fun coaching. It was stressful, but worth it. I'm tired now and I'm happy to just have nothing to do. I go back to work next week and my boss will be out the week after. Alene and I are taking the family to St. George for an extended weekend in a few weeks to just relax and visit Zions (even though it will be cold, it will be nice to get out).

East Soph Stats

Here is the link to the final stats for the 2008 East Sophomore Football Team:


http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pbWad6AYo9rmo_PXOqj_KQA

Football updates

For anyone that cares. My Soph team is now 6-2. We have one game left on the season and if we win, we will finish second in our region. We won our last game 55-12. They scored on our second/third string kids, but it's still fun to be able to get them into the game. I HATE "running up the score" on kids, especially in high school, but we scored our last two TD's with second string kids, so I didn't feel as badly.

I'm really loving coaching. I feel like I learn more and more about the game every year, so it doesn't get boring or stale. Every week I seem to find a new play I can add in and work on the execution, then see it become effective. It's great. I feel like I am really coming into my own as an offensive coordinator. I don't think I'm ready for the big-time (Varsity), but it still feels good to make good decisions on the level I'm coaching.

Caiden's team is now 4-3 with one game left. In his league, they actually have a play-off, so they have a good chance of making the playoffs now. I coach the defense and we have dominated the last 4 games winning 34-7, 26-0, 27-6, and 27-0. If I recall correctly, my defense hasn't allowed a 1st down in the last 3 games (the 6 points from the previous game came from an interception returned for a TD). It will be interesting to see how far we can go in the playoffs.

I'm happy for Caiden because I think he's really getting the understanding of commitment and hard work. There are many times in practice where he get's hurt. He cries, but then he shakes it off and goes back and tries harder. He is turning into a pretty good blocker. I wish I had more time to work with him, but I should have plenty next year when not having to deal with selling a house/moving into a new house, basement floods, etc.

Anyway, if anyone is interested, here are my soph teams stats:

East Sophomore Stats

What's new???

Man, time flies. My life has been pretty much working on the basement and football with a little Call of Duty 4 here and there and checking into work a couple of times a week.

Bailey is growing so fast. She is still the sweet little baby, but it's amazing how much she's grown since we brought her home 2 months ago. She is so lucky to have such a loving and devoted mother in Alene. Alene really amazes me every day with her love and patience for Bailey. Bailey relies solely on her to grow, gain immunities, and things like that. It's so amazing how that works. I'm so happy that Alene is my daughter's mother.

Football is going pretty good. My Soph team lost a close one to an undefeated team (14-6) last week. If we had won that game, we would be in the drivers seat for first place in the conference. We had so many chances to win that game, but didn't capitalize. Our record is currently 5-2 and we have two more games to play. We can finish strong with a 7-2 record and second place in our conference, that is not too bad. We also played that game without our complete group of Sophomores as 3 of them play varsity, but play with us from time to time. The varsity game was so big the next night, that they didn't want to risk these kids getting hurt. I totally get and support that, but it just sucks not having your complete team. We are averaging around 28 points per game on offense and only allowing 8 points per game on defense. Not too bad.

Caiden's team is in the drivers seat to make the playoffs now. We're 4-3 and we knocked of the team ahead of us today 27-6. I'm coaching the defense for them and we're finally getting what we need to do. Our past three games we've allowed 7, 0, & 6 points, so I'm really proud of the kids for learning and playing tough. We just have to win our next two games to ensure we finish in 4 place, which put's us in the playoffs.

The basement is almost ready for carpet. After that I'm going to build a bookshelf unit and then lay the base boards and I hope I never have to hang another piece of sheetrock or mud/sand again in my life. I hate doing it and I'm so tired and sore from it. My back hurts so bad. It will be so nice to have it done. I'll post pictures soon enough.

So that's about it. Not much else in my life. I'm kind of excited the season is nearing an end. I'll be around to help out the varsity for playoffs (they too should finish 2nd in region, which ensures one home game in the playoffs). It will be nice to be able to just be home.

Football stats

If anyone is somewhat of a stat geek like I can be, here is a link to my Sophomore team stats. It's a spread sheet in Google Docs, so there are tabs along the bottom of each game's stats, as well as the season total at the beginning.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pbWad6AYo9rmo_PXOqj_KQA

Coaching Hats

So, I'm currently coaching two teams, the East high Sophomore teams (offensive coordinator) and Caiden's Kearns Gremlins (defensive coordinator). I wear two different hats (literally) at each game. It's a lot of work and time, but it's fun too.

So far my Sophomore team is 3-1. We won our last game 48-20 last week. It seems all impressive to be winning that well, but I can't really take much credit. I call the plays on offense and I hope the kids execute them. We do, however, have a few amazing athletes on the team who also start on Varsity. One is our QB, who is only allowed to play one half of our games so he's not too banged up for the Varsity game (he plays defense on Varsity). This kid is absolutely amazing and very responsible for our good record. Passing the football he's 9-12 for 298 yards and 3 TD's with no interceptions. However, that is not the most impressive. Running the ball he's carried it 20 times for 371 yards and 5 TD's. That means the dude averages over 18 yards per carry! He's a VERY good kid and works his tail off, so he's very deserving of how well he's played.



They let 1 coach on the field for this age group (8-9 year olds).


Here are some pictures of Caiden's last game (he's # 4):



I was actually quite proud. This is perfect blocking form.

Are you ready for some football???

Here are some photos of Caiden playing football. He is a Tight End and an Outside linebacker. He starts at TE and is a backup at LB.

I thought it was funny he ended up with #4 and in a jersey that looks like the Green Bay Packers. Brett Favre is one of my all-time favorite players in the NFL.

Busier than I thought I would be

So, I've been pretty busy since Bailey was born, especially with it being Football season. She came on the second day of two-a-days, which somehow made me only miss one practice (a morning session). Alene was so good about allowing me to run off and tend to those duties.

I'm so thankful that I have a job that provides paternity leave. I get 1 week off for every year I've been with the company. I've been with them for 10 years, so you do the math.

Before the basement flood, I imagined my paternity leave days being filled with mountain biking in the mornings and lounging around catching up on sleep. It's been the exact opposite, but I honestly wouldn't want it any other way.

Anyway, Coaching is going well. I call the offense for the team this year, which is a different thing for me, being that I've been a defensive coordinator for the past 6 years I've coached. Our team is 1-1. We lost our first game 12-18 due to some bad turnovers by our RB's (3 fumbles), however one of the RB's ended up rushing for 274 yards and 2 TD's. Our second game was fun because we were down 6-20 at halftime, but in the second half we were able to use 4 of our sophomores that play up on Varsity (they are only allowed to play 1/2 of the Soph game, so we picked the second half). We ended up coming from behind to win 34-27 with these guys helping us out. They all start on the Varsity right now, so you can say it's a little disadvantage, but they're all still legitimate sophomores, so no skin off our back. We have a huge rivalry game with Highland this week. We have 6 kids that formerly played at Highland in their little league program, so it will be fun to see how that pans out.


Here is what my average day is like:

7am (ish) get up and get Caiden up, showered, and help him pick out clothes for school. Make his lunch and get him some breakfast.

8am (ish), lounge around with Alene and Bailey. Check email, waste time surfing the net. Prepare stuff for football (re-do depth chart, plan practice for that day, make notes on things that need to be improved)

9/10am to 1pm (ish) Work on the basement and try to get it ready. So far I have all the rooms sheetrocked and ready for paint except for the laundry room (not a big area) and the main room, which IS a big area, but should be easy.

2pm, leave for practice. Try to stay sane dealing with 34, 15 year olds

5:30pm, leave practice and head to Caiden's practice (which I'm an assistant coach on his team) which has already started

6-7:30pm, help coach 21, 8-9 year olds, which is even harder than the 15 year olds.

A couple of times a week I don't work on the basement and just go into work. I have to check in a couple of times as well as be available via my cell phone and the email I get on it.

Friday's can be even crazier because I'm at practice from 2:30 to 5, then break for dinner, then at the Varsity game from 6pm to 10pm or so. Saturday's are filled with Caiden's FB games and BYU FB games. There isn't a weekend this fall that is available until the end of November. It's hectic, but I LOVE it.

Anyway, it is a blast, but I feel bad for the time Alene and I don't have. She is very good about it, but it is hard for her too. I know she wants to support me, but it isn't easy.

We were able to take some time out on Saturday night and go to a drive-in movie with Bailey. We had the truck bed all decked out and cozy. It was a ton of fun and I look forward to doing it again, and next time I'll remember to get pictures.

It's peanut butter jelly time

It's been a while since I've blogged. Mostly because I've been pretty busy, despite not having to work a lot since Bailey was born. She's just over 3 weeks old now and we're having fun just getting to know her more. Still, I thought I'd get more sleep than I'm getting, or more time for resting and naps and fun stuff like that. Even though Alene gets up with her every night (especially every 2-3 hours every night), I still wake up with her and don't really fall back asleep until Bailey stops crying, or sometimes I have so much on my mind I can't fall back asleep.

So, not as much sleep. Also, I'm coaching football, which takes a lot of time, but not just high school, I'm also an assistant on Caiden's team, so every day I'm gone from 2pm to close to 8pm coaching football. I still have to check into work a couple of times a week to get some stuff done there. AND, I'm trying to get our basement finished. I've got all the rooms mudded and almost ready for paint except for the main living room, where I have to take out our old heat stove and I'm replacing it with a gas fireplace.

Anyway, I really want to blog about Alene and how wonderful of a mother she has been. I honestly can't say enough about how great she is. When I whine about not getting enough sleep, I whine for both of us really, but more for her. She is the one getting up every 2-3 hours through out the night with Bailey, but here is the thing, she NEVER complains. Not one bit and she does it with an almost glee about her, like she's excited to take care of our baby. I could not ask for a better mother for our child. The thing is she could whine to me if she wanted to because she deserves it, but she never does. If it were me and I had to get up, I'd kind of be grumpy or something. Not her. She's amazing and we don't deserve her.

Bailey is amazing too. I really can see the bond she is forming with Alene. When Alene talks, she just stares at her forever. Bailey loves here so much and obviously depends on her, but she's just so cute when she's mesmerized by her mommy talking to her. I love it too when Bailey cracks a little smile. She definitely has the beautiful smile that her mom has.

Caiden has been busy with football and school. He has games every Saturday and practices 3 nights a week. It's nice for him to be able to get up, get dressed, breakfast, make lunch (usually PB&J or a turkey sandwich), and have him walk off to school with the neighbors. A few kids on his team go to his school and are even in his class, so that's nice for him to start off a new school with kids he knows. The only tough part that I'm not sure how to deal with, is that he had an incident where he was chased home by a couple of bullies yesterday. I still don't know how to deal with that. My first obvious reaction is to tell him to stand his ground and fight them, but I know it's the wrong thing. We're going to see if anything happens again. If it does, we'll take action by contacting the school, but other than that, I hope the kids chasing him were just playing around and Caiden just took them too serious.

This is life though.

BYU 17 Utah 10.....HOLY SHIZ!!!

Wow!! What another GREAT game between BYU and Utah. It was mainly a defensive game until the last 1:35, when Utah scored a TD to go ahead 10-9. BYU got the ball back and I had zero confidence we could pull off the win. We had to go 80 yards for a TD. At one point, with about 1 minute left, it was 4th down and 18. I told Alene, "After this play, either everyone will be exiting the stadium, or everyone will be glued to their seats". Luckily for us, we stayed glued to our seats. Max Hall scrambled outside the pocket and found Austin Collie for a 47 yard pass that was thrown amazingly!

BYU then moved the ball into FG range (which would have won it), but then were aided by a couple of penalties against the U, which eventually had us 7 yards from the goal line. BYU's freshman RB, Harvey Unga (who ended up rushing for 144 yards in the game), took a simple hand-off 7 yards for the TD. We went for a 2 point conversion and took the lead 17-10. For the final 30 seconds, BYU's defense held off the Utah offense (who came close to scoring to tie it up several times).

What a great game. Here are some of our pictures from the game:

Football

Alene gave me a hard time last night about why I don't blog much anymore. I guess I'm just totally burned out and tired from Football, that I have nothing left in my brain. I have this stupid air-vent cover that requires two screws to be screwed into a wall and it's sat all season, not screwed into the wall. That's how tired I am.

Alene is awesome. I love her support for me coaching football and her encouragement for me to blog about the team I coach, so he5re it goes:

Football is going OK. The team I coach (East HS Sophomores) struggled early on, but we've won 3 of 8 games and have one more left which we should win. We will end the season 4-5 and on a winning note (hopefully). As I pondered how the season went, I thought of what we dealt with (hazing/arrest of players, losing players to grades, etc.) and it's been pretty good. However, there are a few games I wish we could get back and play again. I believe there are two games we could have won if we played them again in the shape we're in now, so this team should/could have been 6-3, which isn't too bad.

As a Sophomore coach, you're basically teaching these kids the Varsity offense and defense so they're prepared for the next couple of years. Last year's sophomore team went 1-8 on the season, so we've definitely made great strides from the previous team, but I think it's amazing that the JV team (mostly this years Juniors) are 7-1.

Anyway, the Varsity team is still doing great. They're 6-2 with one game left. They're currently tied for first with 2 other schools in the conference (if it weren't for losing to one of those schools by a point, they would have first place locked up for themselves). They will make the playoffs and should go deep into it. I'll be helping coach the Varsity during the playoffs, so that should be a lot of fun.

I really love coaching, but it is a lot of hard work and really stressful. Sometimes I wonder how I could love something so much that stresses me out. I guess I can just say, "that's life I guess". I love life.