Celebrity role model role has no connection with raising kids

Sometimes we can remember what happened 20-plus years ago with much more clarity
than we can recall what happened 20 seconds ago.

I had a senior moment at home and I’m only 45. I put in a new filter and fresh coffee grounds
into the pot. So I come back ten minutes later to get a cup, only to find out I didn’t pour fresh
water into the pot to brew the coffee.

NBA Hall-of-Famer Charles Barkley made headlines in 1993 when recording a commercial,
he said, “I’m not a role model. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise
your kids.”

Good thing for Barkley that he didn’t play in the social media/cell phone camera era. Can
you imagine Barkley on Twitter back in the day? Good Lord.

The issue of professional athletes being role models has always been a hot button issue for
a lot of people. My take has always been, “like it or not, professional athletes are role models.
Whether they are good or bad at being role models is another matter.”

Don’t get anything twisted, before you play the cop out parenting card, I’m not asking them
to raise my kids. I have an 11-year old and two 9-year olds. I believe my wife and I are more
than holding up our end of the equation. Are we perfect? No. Are we good and functional?
Most definitely. They get good grades in school, participate in extracurricular activities and
in general are well-behaved. Do they have moments of squirelliness? Absolutely. That’s to
be expected. They are kids, not robots.

Let’s not fool ourselves, kids are impressionable and they emulate the behavior of their
heroes. Why are there more high school kids getting tattoos? That answer, at least partially,
lies in many professional athletes having them. I never thought I’d live to see the day that
I’d find a JV basketball player with one. The day I saw a high school student-athlete with
multiple tattoos, I felt like Rip Van Winkle.

That said, the important distinction to make is they are “secondary” role models. I could
get on a diatribe saying that raising kids starts at home but that’s not what this column is
about. Parents are where the buck starts and stops.

Much of the focus on professional athlete role modeling often tends to focus on negative
behavior such as “don’t run afoul with the law like Michael Vick” or “watch what you do
when out in public.” The latter takes on even more importance in this day and age with
social media.

It’s just as important, however, to point out to youngsters the positive aspect of professional
athlete role modeling such as “look at the teamwork and humility that the San Antonio
Spurs showed in winning the NBA championship in 2013-2014” or “look at the training
regimen of Tony Gonzalez that allowed him to play at a high level for 17 years.”

Those are two examples of many where sports stars make great role models for children,
teens and adults, they show the benefits of a healthy lifestyle while they eat, train and play
healthy. They encourage children to be strong and fit, and not all sports stars take drugs, it
is only a couple of people that ruin the reputation of the other sports stars. The problem is,
the ones that ruin it tend to stand out more.

Of course, there are bad behaviors to learn from as well.

Much of the venom toward professional athletes is related to the exorbitant salaries they
make. However, I have always said that being a millionaire does not make you any less
human.

You hear the groveling all the time, “Why the hell are they making way more money than
teachers, policemen firemen, et cetera?” True enough but notice how those doing the
groveling wouldn’t turn that money down. It doesn’t bother me at all that pro athletes make
way more money than most in society.

Much has been made of how more than half of retired professional athletes face financial
hardship after their careers. The role modeling aspect of parents teaching their kids comes
in and subsequently says, “Son, just because you win $10 million dollars in the lottery
does not mean you buy a $10 million dollar home.”

Whether they like it or not, professional athletes have the power to influence in negative
ways, whether it is by firing a gun, taking drugs, drunk driving, or whatever stupid behavior
may be the flavor of the day, but the behavior can be positive too.

As a result, athletes need to be incredibly responsible about what they do and say,
particularly today thanks to the juggernaut of social media making them so accessible.

Time Machine: Unpacking a lot from the 1999-2000 boys basketball season

Sometimes you remember events because of irony and revisionist history.

Napa Valley has long been remembered as a football community when it comes to high
school sports. From Calistoga to the North to American Canyon to the South, each school
has had its Golden Ages of football. There have also been numerous athletes play at the
Div. I-A level such as Warren Bowers, Donnie Taylor, Jim Hunt, Tom Blanchfield, Sean
LaChappelle, Justin Dragoo, David Illsley, Steve Hendrickson and most recently John
Boyett, Ed Blanton, Mike Gibson, Chris Seisay, and Jomon Dotson. I could name many
more but in the interest of time and space, I’ll spare you.

In 1999-2000, however, the opposite occurred. Calistoga won the CIF North Coast Section
Class B title, its first section title since 1978 but that story resonated more in the Northern
part of the Valley than the rest. By no means do I disparage Calistoga. I covered a few of
their games that season. I loved that story. St. Helena struggled to a 2-8 season.
Justin-Siena was an up and coming team under then third-year head coach Rich Cotruvo
but missed the playoffs, going 6-4. Napa and Vintage each went 2-7-1 with the latter
winning Big game 18-14 in thrilling fashion. American Canyon High was not built until ten
years later.

In boys basketball, there have been pockets of success but not necessarily extended runs
of success.

The 1999-2000 boys basketball season in the City of Napa was one to remember in that
Vintage, Napa and Justin-Siena all played at high levels in the same season. Such a
campaign will be hard to duplicate any time soon.

The narratives were ultra-compelling. There is Justin-Siena, which is the smaller private
school of about 600 students (plus or minus a few). As a school and athletic program, the
Braves have long carried the underdog/little guy approach. Their narrative was everything
from “small but mighty” to “we get overlooked because of big schools” to “we’re competitive
for our size.” Justin fans, players and coaches alike would have liked nothing better than to
have a shot at Vintage or Napa.

Napa and Vintage, at the time, had enrollments of about 2,000 students (plus or minus a
few). They are the larger public schools. While Justin would love to have had its shot at
Napa and Vintage, at least a segment of fans of the latter scoffed at the idea of playing
Justin, citing that they were a Div-IV school while Napa and Vintage were Div-I. The Napa
and Vintage narrative was that playing Justin would be a no-win situation in that, “If we
beat them, we’re supposed to do so because we are a big school, they are a small school.
If we lose, we’ll never hear the end of it.” The narrative from a segment of Justin was, “We
welcome the challenge” to “They’re scared to play us.”

Justin went 27-4, which was best in school history. The Braves earned the No. 1 seed in
the Sac Joaquin Section Div-IV playoffs, going 15-0 against Superior California Athletic
League teams. The SCAL disbanded after that school year. Justin defeated Orestimba
(74-58) and Bret Harte (74-66) before losing to Colfax (58-53). The undersized Braves
had a dynamic backcourt of Garrett Halverson (21.6 points per game; 108 3-pointers),
Derek Flegal (18.2 points per game) and Jerrad Bullock (12.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.1
assists, 3.1 steals) while Steve Andres (8.3 rebounds, 3.5 steals) played the Dennis
Rodman without the tabloids role.

Braves head coach Tom Bonfigli made certain the team’s season would not get derailed
after Flegal was forced to missed the rest of the season with four regular season games
remaining because of school disciplinary reasons.

Vintage went 24-5 under head coach Mike Flohr winning its first Monticello Empire League
title since 1976-1977. The Crushers were led by 6-6, 240-pound center Nick Basinger,
who added 25 pounds of muscle before the season to withstand double-teams. Basinger
averaged 22.6 points and 10.3 rebounds per contest. Basinger scored 20 or more points
20 times and topped the 30-point mark five times. With Ryan Hill, you had a solid
one-on-one defender who became more of a scoring threat by hitting 38 3-pointers. Point
guard Anis Salah, like Hill, also made a quantum leap as a senior, providing a steady
captain at point guard. His long arms could create steals and rebounds and he could knock
down open shots. Salah averaged seven assists in 16 MEL games.

The Crushers’ season ended as the No. 3 seed in the SJS D-I playoffs, losing at home to
No. 14 McClatchy (Sacramento) 59-57.

Napa went 22-9 finishing 12-4 in the MEL behind aforementioned champion Vintage and
runnerup Vallejo. Throughout the season, center Mike Stephens, who later went on to play
college basketball at Princeton, showed steady improvement as a junior. He averaged 17
points in Napa’s 16 MEL contests. The 6-foot-10 center also blocked 126 shots and altered
several others. Stephens recorded 50 steals. In the backcourt, Jay Bakker averaged 15.5
points, hitting 54 3-pointers while Peter Skidmore provided a steady presence whether
starting or coming off the bench.

Napa’s season ended as the No. 9 seed in the SJS Div. I playoffs, losing to Laguna Creek
(Sacramento) 57-48.

Reflections: I remember my friend, and colleague, Andy Ward, and I feeling like we had
an embarrassment of riches of high school basketball to cover. I also remember after going
back and forth in our All-Napa County team selections, we arrived at a co-Player of the Year
choice between Basinger and Halverson. The grovels we heard were endless. Both schools
had people that felt one should have won the award in solo fashion. This was a good
problem to have because there were years where the Player of the Year was the best of a
mediocre lot.

The irony of these team’s seasons is that all three schools along with American Canyon will
be joining the NCS as members of the Vine Valley Athletic League. Just think, this season
happened in the pre-social media era. You would actually have to call landlines or listen to
KVON for updates to get the score. Or heck, you just picked up the newspaper the next day.

In talking to parents, fans, etc. from all three schools throughout the season, each side had
strong opinions on what would have happened. Being MEL foes, the Napa-Vintage
matchups spoke for themselves. The Justin crowd had members that crowed, “Napa and
Vintage are scared to play us because we’re a small school.” Members of the Napa and
Vintage crowd scoffed, “They (Justin) can’t compete with us.”

We will truly never know what would have happened because the matchup never took place.
I see it as a prime example as “styles make fights.” Napa and Vintage would have had the
advantage in the frontcourt with Stephens and Basinger being equally adept at playing
back to the basket or hitting faceup jumpshots. However, I can also make a point that
Halverson, Flegal and Bullock would have been difficult matchups for Napa and Vintage’s
backcourt. All three could knock down 3-points and drive to the hoop.

Translation, in a half court game, I’ll say advantage Napa-Vintage but in an uptempo game,
I’ll say advantage Justin.

I feel confident in saying this much, outcomes would not have surprised me but blowout
wins either way would have.

Having teachers double as coaches should not be an automatic.

We all have things we are told to believe are true.

Not necessarily always facts, but ideologies:

“You can’t win in football unless you run the ball well.”

“Offense sells tickets, defense wins championships.”

I have always believed there is no right or wrong approach to winning games.

You do what gives you the best chance to win.

One belief that while I understand in spirit, I don’t just roll over for on command is that
“it’s better to have a teacher as a coach than one who is off-campus.”

According to the California Teachers Association, if a district employee and an off-campus
coach apply for a coaching job, the former is higher in the pecking order than the latter as
far as consideration for the job.

Some districts, however, might automatically hire a district employee even though he or she
is less qualified as a coach than the off-campus applicant.

There will always be a few that come to mind that I witnessed during and after my career as
a sports reporter, though the examples are endless.

At Calistoga High, Mike Ervin recently resigned as football coach. Ervin has coached at
Calistoga for two stints (2006-2010; 2015-2017). Ervin and the Calistoga administration
had been at odds in part because in past years, the administration knew no on-campus
employee wanted the job, thus clearing the path for Ervin’s return. The current administration
wanted to open the position up to a teacher but said they would have circled back to Ervin if
no one surfaced. Ervin did not see it that way and resigned.

At Napa High, there has been soap opera like turmoil the past year and a half between the
school’s mascot trade between Indians for a mascot to be named later. There is also the hazing
scandal that led to former head coach Troy Mott’s resignation because of a power struggle.
Long story short, the administration wanted the final say over which assistants Mott kept.
Well, Mott was not going along with that and resigned. Various candidates applied but turned
down the job. Napa then turned to long-time JV coach and former Indians quarterback Jesus
Martinez, who is an off-campus coach. Knowing the Napa High powers that be like I do, they
would like a teacher that doubles as a coach but given the incendiary atmosphere, none will
go near that job in the foreseeable future, which means circling back to Martinez.

The one that still resonates with me today took place at the end of the 1998-1999 season
when St. Helena High boys basketball went 19-10, winning a playoff game for the first time
since 1985. Tom Hoppe, who has been the school’s athletic director since 1998, was a teacher
and that status pushed former coach Ray Particelli out the door. The backstory is that for
years former St. Helena High principal Len Casanaga circled back to Particelli year after year,
thus rewarding Particelli’s commitment. When John Hamlin came aboard, he had a different
idea. Particelli never reapplied because he knew when Hoppe applied, his application would
be negated. With the aforementioned team being senior dominated, Hoppe’s first year was
difficult with the Saints going 1-22. To be fair, I think even if Particelli returned, the Saints
would have struggled mightily. I’m not just saying this to be politically correct but as much
as I like both people (Hoppe and Particelli), I remember fallout that followed.

Those who espouse the argument that it is better to have a teacher double as a coach would
suggest that a student-athlete is less likely to get in trouble if his or her coach is also a teacher.
The logic is that if a problem on campus arises, the coach doubling as a teacher can address
the problem right away.

True, they can address the problem immediately but that does not necessarily mean the
student-athlete is less likely to get into trouble. At least, I don’t know of any hard evidence
that would suggest one or the other. Granted, a coach that is a teacher is going to be more
readily accessible than an off-campus coach, but in the era of cell phones, text messages,
snapchat and e-mail, off-campus coaches are very accessible. Heck, e-mail so 2001. Whereas
in the pre cell phone era, I would buy the argument that off campus coaches might be harder
to reach.

In a small town, many off-campus coaches live and work in town and are just as likely to
have significant player contact as a teacher.

At a larger school, the argument of having a teacher double as a coach might be a little more
prudent because it is much harder to police the players.

But even in this situation, is having a coach double as a teacher really the be-all and end-all?
This is not an anti-teacher sentiment. My wife is a teacher and I know numerous others. I
am abundantly aware of the pitfalls they face on a daily basis.

My argument has always been that you can know all the mathematic formulas, Shakespeare
lines and scientific facts known to man — but it does not make one a better coach when it
comes to Xs and Os or motivating Jimmys and Joes.

It’s no different than while I am an experienced sports reporter, I would not be any more
qualified to be a cops reporter if I lived next door to the Chief of Police than someone who
is experienced in that job.

All I’m saying is that if you have an on-campus applicant and an off-campus one that are
equal as coaches, well and good, hire the teacher if you think that breaks the tie.

However, if the off-campus candidate is clearly better, you are doing yourself, students and
student-athletes a disservice by hiring the on-campus candidate.

Let’s also reverse the argument and say that you have a very good coach, who is not a very
good teacher? Translation, they teach so they can coach, so teaching is Priority No. 2. If
you are a parent whose youngster is not athletically inclined, then that person is done an
equal disservice. The problem is that angle is never given any thought.

You hear the point so frequently, “Do what’s best for the kids.”

Unfortunately, people who say that are not necessarily always thinking that way. Granted,
high school is going to be the pinnacle for most people athletically, but if it’s a time in your
life you are not going to get back, why not make the most of it?

We also like to preach how important education is too, remember? That said, if you hire a
teacher that is not up to par in that role, you are also shortchanging the youngsters’
education.

Again, I understand the spirit of wanting a coach double as a teacher; I’m just not convinced
fulfilling one role makes you any better at fulfilling the other.

Time Machine post: The evolution of Mistah Bus Drivah

Sometimes identities happen when you least expect them.

As I was transitioning out of my career as a sports reporter for Napa Valley Publishing,
I trained and subsequently received my Class B driver’s license in October 2012. Four
months later, I landed a part-time bus driving job at the Springs of Napa, which is an
independent living facility geared toward senior citizens in Napa, CA.

In a previous blog entry from last year, I shared what that experience was like:

http://vincedadamo.blogspot.com/2017/04/time-machine-two-years-of-driving.html

Well, there is another story within a story. One of the residents, Eileen, formed a group
called the “Chinese Lunch Bunch.” I have no idea how long the group had been formed
before I was hired but about a dozen or so (plus or minus a few) would have an outing
once a week at a restaurant called Mini Garden, which was a locally owned Chinese
restaurant in Napa. Since I chauffeured the group to the establishment, Eileen always
invited me to join them. The Springs management encouraged me to do so. Eileen also
encouraged me to do so. Well, I needed no more convincing. They were happy to be
joined by a 40-year old. To them, I was like a surrogate grandson joining them for lunch.

The group had its regulars and occasional members. The restaurant owner, Ava, would
go around the table to take everyone’s order and adeptly putting them on separate checks.
More often than not, one of the residents would offer to pick up my bill. Goodness knows,
I was not going to decline that generous act.

Ava knew everyone by name: Eileen, Dee, Glenn, Bill, Ethelyne, Phyliss, Kathy, Sally, Nancy,
Joyce, etc. Ava would reach me and without knowing my name, she would say, “Mistah Bus
Drivah!” I must be honest, if she pronounced it as “Mister Bus Driver,” I would have said, “Uh,
honey, my name is Vince.” However, there is something hilarious about broken English. After
Ava began regularly referring to me as “Mistah Bus Drivah” I never wore my name employee
tag inside the restaurant. She kept calling me “Mistah Bus Drivah!”

I posted the story on Facebook and even changed my social media name. Whether I was
shopping at the store or covering a game, I would have people say “Mistah Bus Drivah!”
from afar.

As time went on, I introduced my wife, Jackie, to the establishment one year on her birthday.
We actually had the chance to enjoy a kid-free evening. So we walked into the restaurant,
Ava uttered, “Hello, Mistah Bus Drivah!” Without skipping a beat, I reply, “This is my wife, Mrs.
Bus Drivah!” She chuckles, referring to our kids, “Welcome, Mrs. Bus Drivah! Where’s the
little Bus Drivahs!”

From time-to-time, we would order meals to go. I would call to place the order. Ava would
ask, “Can I have name?” Without even batting an eye, I would say, “This is Mistah Bus
Drivah!” She would chuckle and say, “Oh it’s you Mistah Bus Drivah!” I would usually bring
one of my kids with me to pick up the order. If I brought my son, Tommy, she would say,
“Oh, it’s Mistah Bus Drivah and Little Mistah Bus Drivah Junyah!” If I brought one of my
daughters, Juliette or Danielle, she would say, “Oh it’s Mistah Bus Drivah and Little Miss
Bus Drivah!”

Though I no longer drive buses and Mini Garden has changed ownership, the identity of
Mistah Bus Drivah seems like another lifetime ago. However, it is a time in my life I still
remember fondly. It’s a reminder of how as a first-generation American I am all in favor of
learning English, I’ll never frown on broken English as long as the person makes the effort.
Plus, there is a certain humorous side of broken English.

Let’s be honest, “Mistah Bus Drivah” sounds much more hip than “Mister Bus Driver.”