Season's End Shizzle

Ok folks, you have heard me rant and rave for weeks on end now on how much the NJ HS football scene needs fixing. So, I have assembled my thoughts for all of you to crucify me or laugh - mock me if you must - but dammit...consider what I am saying!

But for real dawg - consider this:

1. The VanZile Plan. Mike Van Zile of Walkill Valley gets the BRASS BALLS award for the 07 season.


Yeah, I know, he's whining right? No WAY!! He is merely the one who has the courage to bring to the table the issues that have been f-ing up NJ football for many years. The NJSIAA rulebook says that "schools may not recruit for athletic advantage" (or something like that - YOU can look it up, ok?). Well, guess what - that is the source of all the real problems with HS sports in this state, especially basketball, Football, and Baseball. (Nobody f-ing gives a shizzle in America about "soccer", so get it through your thick pansy skulls ok? - but more on that later.) Private schools can give "scholarships" to anyone they wish, from anywhere in the state with impunity, and it has been happening for years.

The NJSIAA has neither the will nor the means to enforce this on the privates, and they never will. (as an aside, if I was the parent of a kid in Paterson, and I had the opportunity to send my kid to Delbarton on a ride vs. Eastside High - the decision is no brainer - I don't blame the kids or the parents - nor the schools for providing the opportunity). But the problem is real when i comes to athletic advantage...the publics just can't compete with the privates, especially when it comes to playoffs. Simultaneously, publics are scrutinized annually for possible recruiting violations. It is simply unfair.

Goats: NJSIAA (for having their thumbs up their asses)

Villains: Every AD who voted against the VanZile Plan.

Heroes: Mike Van Zile. Those who voted with him.

Victims: The athletes. All of them.

Aftermath. It looks like the NJSIAA finally got off their Herodic asses and put together a team to study how to work out a compromising plan addressing many of the issues. If you ask me, Steve Timko (the "Pete Roselle" of the NJSIAA) just doesn't want to get a pink slip, but at least he recognized that there is problem here, which is more than can be said about his predecessor (whoever the hell that chump was).

2. Why are the NJ state football trophies so lame (in design)? Hey, Robbinsville...WAKE UP. It is 2007. Time to redesign that lame ass trophy that you cheap bastards issue! Gimme a break. You want inspiration? Take a look at the Lombardi trophy. These kids broke their asses for god knows how long and all you can do is issue that lame piece of wood? Football is the premier, distinct, unique, American sport. Act like it and step up. 'Nuff said.

3. Steroids testing. This is where the NJSIAA demonstrates it's biggest amount of authority and where they could have the biggest impact at leveling the playing field. Imagine how the playing field would change if no one used 'roids? Inerestingly enough, this dovetails with the recruiting problem, and is exacerbated by it.

How? Consider this: you live in smalltown A and the genetically best athletes you had ended up going to Seton Hall, and then you still have to play them and expect to be competitive, what are you going to do? If you live in Smalltown B, and you play innner-city schools who have a much larger genetic pool to choose from, what is your alternative to be competitive? Both cases can lead to using.

The current NJSIAA policy only tests a random 2 players from each team in each Championship game. Really. Is that a deterrent? F-NO. If you are a user, you have less than a 5% chance of getting caught - IF YOU ARE ON A FINALS TEAM. That number falls DRASTICALLY (about nil) if you don't make it to the finals because it is basically left to the coaches. The vast majority coaches don't want to know or can't ask if their players are users, because it would cease competitive advantage or is otherwise procedurally or legally limited to ask. On a personal note, I played with at least one kid who was an obvious user - everyone knew it - the coaches looked the other way; he was, of course, a standout. How would he have been had not used? Probably average.

So how do we fix this? By issuing a policy that is ACTUALLY A THREAT TO THE USERS!

Example 1: Test a random sample of 1-2 players, from 20% of teams each week during the regular season and larger samples in the entire postseason.

Example 2: Test all players on all teams in the finals.

Example 3: Test 1 random player from every team prior to every regular season game and all players in all finals.

The bottom line is this. There is still roids use among many HS athletes, especially football players. In order to discourage it propoerly, we need a policy that actually has teeth to stop it. If you are serious about stopping it, then you need to get serious with your policies. The current policy is as useless as the paper (or electrons) it is printed on. It stops no one.

4. Religion and Football.

a. Amazing Grace. Supposedly, according to the mighty Joe Hof, the Mount Olive band played Amazing Grace during one of its home games early this year. Good for them.

b. Team Prayers. Apparently their are some atheistic a-holes out there who make it their mission in life to remove any reference to religion from public life including that of any public high school football coach making any reference to God or prayer during, before, or after a game. My message to you - get a life, and put down the doobie. Remember, it is precisely our Judeo-Christian moral heritage/traditions in this country that instruct us to be tolerant of other religions (or no-religions). Remove that and the tolerance baseline goes bye-bye too.

c. F-The ACLU. American Communist Lawyers Union.

5. The Sissification of America. Here's something I have been preaching for many years. The kind of kids that play football are the kind of kids who would have been the warriors 10-6000+ years ago. You want to sissify this country? You want to let other people conquer us? Start watering down our contact sports, start playing more soccer, take the hitting out of lacrosse, outlaw boxing...and so on. We'll end up with Lesbian-Amazons in charge and we'll be slain by third world a-holes like UBL and AlQaeda.

American Football is one of the last bastions of true masculinity being allowed on a mass level. Football helps our boys become men and has many rewarding life-lessons that cannot be understood well enough unless you have played it. Start messing with the rules on contact and keep participation levels down at the low levels and in the words of Jesse Ventura in PREDATOR, we'll end up with a bunch of "slack-jawed, fagg!t$ 'round here".


6. Racism, Football, and Recruiting. The Mighty JoeHof had an excellent, Pulitzer Caliber, article in the Daily Record, about midseason, speaking to the systemic racism against white men in college football recruiting. Nice job Joe...you are the brass-balls award runner up, for having the courage to speak truth to power, and stand up to the Race-baiters, etc. If you haven't read it, you need to. The brief synopsis is that standout white players have a much harder time getting scholarships to play football, especially at the skill-positions. One things though Joe: You mentioned Martinek in that article...he is poor example of one of these cases as he is not the talent that you wrote him up to be in High School (IMHO). Yeah, he broke* the NJ state rushing record, but he is certainly not anywhere near the level of Craig Heyward (Passaic '83?), Willie Wilson (Summit '73?), etc. If Hayek and others had been starting at RB since they were Frosh as well, where would they stand in total yards? Schiano had good reason to switch him to DB.

7. Iron Hills Divide. There should be a Iron Hills championship game to decide an Iron Hills Champion. The Iron division Champ should play the Hills division champ annually, this would solve any questions about which team the best in MoCo annually (yeah, I know there are other conferences in the county, but who cares? - just kidding).

8. The Star-Ledger. For the love of Peter, DOES THE STAR LEDGER WEBSITE BLOW OR WHAT??? They took a bad site and made it worse. It is the most frustrating site I have ever had to navigate.

9. Thanksgiving Day Games. Bring em back. Especially where you can keep or revive rivalries by doing so, like an annual Mendham-WMC game.

10. West Morris Central. What in the name of Mike is going on at WMC?? Has that program imploded or what? 3 losing seasons in 4 years or something? They should be much better next year, but I feel bad for those kids.

11. (Omitted/Classified)

12. Par Hills. Congrats to their coach for turning that program around, but you need to work on your sportsmanship...remember you set the example...and that is why you are known as the dirtiest team in the Hills.

13. Mendham. You had a great year. You got robbed of a playoff berth. You should have killed Ridge in that consolation game. Next year is probably your best shot at a state-run in 10 years...take advantage...you have the talent...spend your off-season in the Gym and work hard...it is yours for the taking but you have got TO WANT IT BAD ENOUGH TO GET IT. I have hunch you have a few dry years coming up after the '08 season...just a hunch.

14. West Essex. 1) Great Season, and congrats on both titles. 2) You need to find other teams to beat up on than the Hills (see recommendation of an IHC title game above.). 3) Stop paying off the Refs. It's old, and you don't need to do it. ;)

15. Randolph. Lusardi. Suk. Dunn. Good lord. I don't know what the truth is over there, but it sure as hell smells like something stinks over there. If there is corruption, it needs to be addressed. ...And NO SUK is clearly not DI talent...at least not based on his performance this year. (of course neither was Mendham's QB in '06, but he is amazingly playing D-III college ball. Go figure.)

16. HP's Jerkoff annonuncer. This guy is an embarassment to every legitimate announcer out there. Get a life you f-ing loser. A good game announcer's affiliation should be transparent...announce the yardage gain...who carried the ball...who made the tackle...etc. that's it. None of this "another HP [pause] first DOWN!!" crap. A-hole.

17. Joe Hofmann and the Daily Record. Joe, you and the Daily Record, for the most part did a fine job this season. I give you a B+/A-. You get the A- if you want to argue your grade and you can get Megan Fox to show me her breasts...OK, I'll settle for a hooters girl shoeing me her cleavage if I can do the "motorboat".

18. "Mr. Dunn". If that actually was you all year on JH's blog, you need to get a life. I actually sympatized with you early on, but your unintelligible, ridiculous, cruel rantings have jeopardized your credibility. Leave the kids alone. Stop drinking. Shut up.

You are the recipient of the Trojan-ENZ, boner of the Season award. Congrats.

An Interview with Sam Garnes

Former NFL defensive back Sam Garnes spent some time with me this week talking about something that he feels very strongly about; helping young athletes to be the best they can be.

The 6’3, 225 lbs Garnes spent 7 years in the NFL from 1997 to 2004. He was drafted by the Giants in the fifth round and played with them for five years. He was a big part of their defense when they played in the Superbowl in 2000. Then he spent the remaining two years as a part of the Jets, helping them to make the playoffs as well.

Within a few minutes of talking to Garnes, I realized that football was not something that he just fell into, but something he worked really hard at achieving. Garnes’ message he wants to get across to young athletes is that if they want to move to the next level they need to work for it.

He said that many people he played with in high school were at the same talent level as him but didn’t have the right guidance to take it to the next level. “Our running back was Sheldon Cooper. He was definitely good enough to play in the NFL.”

Currently Garnes spends a lot of his time running clinics, camps and one-on-one trainings to help players get to that next level. His approach is all about teaching fundamentals so athletes can improve their skills necessary to excel in football. His goal is to help the people like Cooper who with the right direction and coaching can make it to the next level.

Garnes would really like to see football have more resources dedicated to it in the tri-state area. “In Texas they play football year round. There are so many talented players in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. If there were more focus on developing these kids, this area would put out a lot of great players to colleges and pro's.”

“There is so much money pumped into this area and they should really allocate more to sports for kids. In the city, kids either do battle on the streets or on the playing field.” Garnes said. “When the season ends, the kids go back to the streets.”

Garnes works in partnership with Primo Sports in Florida, NY and Legends Resort & Country Club Vernon, NJ to help youngsters learn skills from a real professional. His football academy is set up for youngsters from 9 to 14 years old. “We want to get them started young before high school because at that level the coaches bring them to football camps in the summer.”

Garnes also spends time doing private training lessons for many local high school atheletes who are serious about excelling. “Being a defensive back, you get to know about every position. I help quarterbacks with their three-step drops. I teach running how to run. We teach runningbacks how to run. We teach the right fundamentals so when they are on the field it just comes as an instint.”

Earlier this year, he helped out with the Montclair High School football team, which ended up making it to the State Finals in Giants Stadium.

When Garnes was in High School at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, he was a defensive back and a wide receiver. Then he was given a scholarship to go to the University of Cincinnati. “I considered myself a wide receiver. I thought I was going to be the next Al Toon or Jerry Rice. But in college they thought I would be better at defensive back.”

Garnes attributes his attitude to his success on the field. “When I was in college, I had an edge that since I was from New York I was tougher than everyone. Not that that was necessarily true, but that was the motivation I used. Our coach said to use whatever motivation works for you, and that is what I did. I told myself that I was better than the kids from Texas and Florida, because I grew up in New York City.”

On his vision to get to the NFL, Garnes said, “I knew I was good enough to play in the NFL. When I was in college my friends used to bust on me because I was so confident about getting to the NFL. It wasn’t a question of ‘NFL or bust’; it was ‘I am going to the NFL’. I didn’t matter, I was going to work as hard as possible and do whatever I needed to do to get to that level.”

Once in the NFL, Garnes made the most of his opportunity. In his first game as a pro, he intercepted a pass and returned it 95 yards for a touchdown vs. the Eagles. “That moment let me know that I could play at this level.”

He also discussed what it was like playing at the Superbowl. “I can’t even describe in words. It was just a dream come true. The two weeks before the whole country is just focused on the game you are about to play. It was really amazing to watch all those camera flashes coming from the stands during that first kickoff.”

Garnes also talked about how he understands how deflating it was to lose that big game. “It was like you worked so hard and played at the highest level you possibly could to get there. I understand how difficult it is for teams to come back and do it again.”

Garnes actually retired in 2003 after starting every year for the seven years he played. “I played a very emotional and physical type of game. My mind and passion were still there, but your body just cannot bounce back as easily when you get older. It was really hard to retire.”

Now Sam lives in New Jersey and is dedicated to using his experience to helping others. If you are interested in talking to Sam or getting private or group training from him just go to his website at http://www.samgarnesfbc.com/ or email him at sg@samgarnesfbc.com.

Van Zile Foiled Again

You have to give Walkill Valley's Mike Van Zile some credit for trying...but his plan to move away from the Power Point system didn't pass for a second time today. But the margin is getting closer. Seven years ago the NJFART voted 4 to 1 against his proposal. This year, they voted 209 to 155 which I think is closer.

At any rate, his plan which is basically designed to get away from the Power Point system and move to a giant playoff platform reminiscent to what the NCAA does for collect basketball. What would happen is they would put all of the high school teams into a big 64 team bracket and let them battle it out to see who would be the champion.

At least that is the gist of it. If I am wrong you can blame NJ.com because that is were I get all my info. For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to navigate their website.

The one thing I love about the Daily Record and Star Ledger's coverage of this plan is that they make Mike Van Zile to be some crazy nut who is proposing all these preposterous ideas. My understanding is that he is not a nut at all. But those articles are like, "Here comes Crazy Old Van Zile with another crazy proposal again!" Read those articles and tell me they are not out to get Van Zile.

OTHER NEWS:

*Put on your swim cap because HS Swimming starts up today! Van Zile has a proposal for HS Swimming as well. He basically wants to keep swimming a winter sport, but wants every team to compete outside instead of indoors. His idea is that would allow more schools to participate in the sport. Normally Van Zile has some crazy ideas, but I see this one passing.

*Hockey starts this week as well. Van Zile's proposal for Hockey is to change from ice hockey to roller hockey. This way every school can play in their school gymnasiums. But that is just crazy old Van Zile stirring up the pot again.