Time Out with Duke men's basketball Mike Krzyzewski

By Garrett Whitt

Special to vincedadamo.blogspot.com

Editor’s note: Duke University head men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski has played
a key role in the Jimmy V Foundation for the past several decades as the organization
helps try to an end to cancer with research funding. This year’s V Foundation Wine
Celebration Aug. 2 - 5 raised over $18 million, all of which will go towards cancer
research. This is a Q and A with the legendary Coach K that originally published in the
St. Helena Star, which is a sister publication for Napa Valley Publishing.

What are your recollections of Coach Valvano being that it’s the 25th anniversary
of The V Foundation?

Coach Krzyzewski: Well, I think having the V Foundation, it gives us a chance not only
to keep his memory alive, but more importantly his spirit and his vision alive and the goal
of beating cancer. And although we’re able to celebrate that every day as being part of the
V Foundation there are certain days that you celebrate it more, like anniversary dates. And
obviously the Wine Celebration which was the 20th anniversary of The Wine Celebration
and it gives us a chance, in those dates, in those events, to share it together. And it helps
me when I see that speech (by Valvano at the 1993 ESPY Awards) and think about Jimmy,
just what incredible vision he had and he’d be really proud of what has happened over the
last 25 years to fight cancer. However, being proud, he would not be satisfied like we’ve
shown we can do all this; [but] we can do even more. And the fight’s not over.

What do you see as your role as part of the V Foundation?

Coach Krzyzewski: One just to be passionately supportive of what we’re doing and give
not just time but give my mind and thoughts about it. And to listen, to think to react, but
also, I feel like I was one of Jimmy’s first recruits. I’m not sure I was the first one, but I
know I’m one of the first recruits because he recruited me at Duke Hospital where he was
being treated [during the final months of his life]. And I’d like to bring a coach’s
perspective. And try to think like Jimmy would think in those events, and just the event
but the board meetings and I think that’s one of the reasons he wanted me to be a part of it.

Where do you think we are in the process of the fight against cancer?

Coach Krzyzewski: We haven’t won completely obviously, but we’re getting wins over
and over again, and I think one of the key things the V Foundation does is recruit young
scholars, young researchers. We’re like a farm system for the fight against cancer. And
then to provide grants and then to help people follow through and really leverage the grant
from tens of thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands [of dollars] to millions [of
dollars]. And I think we have to remember our role, but also look to see if we can expand
our role in the fight against cancer.

How do you think Coach Valvano would react to the growth of not only the V
Foundation, but events such as The Wine Celebration?

Coach Krzyzewski: Yeah, he would them. He’d be jealous of me, that I have the
opportunity to host it. If he was here, he wouldn’t let me host it. He would host it, and that’s
why (laughs) one of the reasons I’ve chose to do it because somewhere up there he smiles
and laughs every Wine Celebration that I’m hosting and (he’s) a little bit envious of the
fact that I’m doing it. I know that because he loved to have a good time, obviously from
his speech he loved to laugh, think and cry and The Wine Celebration certainly gives us
an opportunity to be a family and to do all three of those things.

What did you want the people who attended The Wine Celebration to take away
from their experience?

Coach Krzyzewski: I think one, you want everyone to have a good time, and you want
everybody to be real and I think that’s what happens at [The Wine Celebration]. Everyone
feels like they’re family. The love and that togetherness that is shown at that Wine
Celebration by everyone is what we need going forward, with researchers, with
fundraisers and everyone where it’s coordinated and I think everyone went away proud
to be just not at the event but they were the event. They were the V Foundation during
that event and hopefully they went away being a member of our team.

I know you pride yourself on being the coach of your basketball team but also that
the team goes beyond basketball which is the title of your radio show. But one of
your players, Brennan Besser, did something very special this summer bicycling
across the country to raise money for people with disabilities. Can you speak about
what he did this summer?

Coach Krzyzewski: Yeah Brennan Besser comes from a great family and his sister has a
life of disability but not a life without love and support and their family has really bonded
even greater as a result of his sister being part of that team. And Brennan did a great job
of biking of the United States and stopping in so many cities and not just raising money
but even more importantly raising awareness and bringing out people who are suffering
from disability and their caregivers the people who are with them. You are not just
celebrating (the people with disabilities) you are celebrating the team they have around
them. I think (Besser) wanted to show that his family is a team that surrounds and gives
support to his sister. And I think he did a great job of that.

What do you want the young men who play for you to take away from the experience?

Coach Krzyzewski: We don’t always have them for a full four years but just the fact that
one being a part of an outstanding team is the best way to go. And be part of something
that’s bigger than you and hopefully when they leave Duke they realize that they were part
of two things that were bigger than them: Duke University and our basketball program and
for them to understand that they will always be a part of those two families, and those are
two good things to be a part of.

Week Zero for Napa Valley high school football a rugged one

Unless you are a St. Helena Saints fan, opening week of high school football in
the Napa Valley was, as Archie Bunker was notorious for saying, “stinko.”

By virtue of St. Helena’s season-opening 26-20 win over the Arcata Tigers, the
Napa Valley avoided a winless weekend in high school football.

American Canyon (36-21 to Deer Valley-Antioch), Justin-Siena (28-7 to
Piedmont), Napa (55-7 to Pitman-Turlock) and Vintage (35-7 to Wood-Vacaville)
all sustained losses in Week Zero. Calistoga had neither a good or bad week
because it did not play. The Wildcats open their season under new head coach
Jim Klaczak on Friday against South Fork (Miranda). Two other coaches also
made their debut: John Montante (American Canyon) and Tom Pettithome
(Napa).

With these defeats, I do not sound alarm bells because it is just one game out
of a minimum of ten and it’s important to remember that one game does not
transfer to the next. However, at 1-4, I cannot pretend the weekend was anything
other than a subpar one. This week will reveal, win or lose, whether or not the
teams can hit the reset button and perform better next week. Had the teams
gone 4-1 or 5-0, the narrative would have been, “can they stay grounded?”

Here’s a closer look in alphabetical order:

AMERICAN CANYON

The tail of the tape is pretty simple. Four turnovers for the Wolves offense, three
of which came inside the Deer Valley 20. Deer Valley also recovered three onside
kicks. As a result, the Wolverines fashioned a 22-0 lead after one quarter that
swelled to 28-0 in the second. In the first quarter, Deer Valley ran 26 plays while
American Canyon ran two. For the game, Deer Valley had an offensive snaps
advantage of 56-47. Therein lies the problem, the lost onside kicks do not go as
turnovers in the scorebook but they had a similar effect because they are lost
possessions. The good news is the Wolves have an offense that can score when
they aren’t committing costly mistakes. The defense, however, was routinely
gashed with quarterback power runs by Joshua Scott (29 carries, 216 yards,
four touchdowns) and pistol runs by Patrick Robinson (24 carries, 150 yards,
two touchdowns).

Next week gets no easier for the Wolves, who travel to Inderkum (Sacramento).
The two teams have met the last three years. Inderkum won the 2015 (43-6) and
2017 (53-0) matchups while American Canyon won the 2016 contest 54-19.
Inderkum defeated Elk Grove 37-13 on Friday.  

JUSTIN-SIENA

The Braves started about as auspiciously as one could but early success proved
to be fleeting. Justin’s defense forced a three-and-out on Piedmont’s first series
and later fashioned a 7-0 lead on a three-yard Barrett Donohoe to Jordan
Bowman-Davis connection. The alarming thing for Justin is that Piedmont won by
three touchdowns and scored 28 unanswered despite committing 15 penalties,
most of which were holding calls against the offensive line. The Braves defense
had no answer for Highlanders’ running back Myles Smith (14 carries, 151 yards,
one touchdown). The Braves offense, which has many returners, managed just
120 yards of offense.

On the surface, next Friday would appear to be a chance for a bounceback week
as Justin hosts Healdsburg, which was once a consistent winner but has gone
18-34 the last five years. The Greyhounds lost 41-0 to Sir Francis Drake (San
Anselmo), which has not been setting the world ablaze in going 15-34 the last
five seasons, on Friday.

NAPA

Napa’s debut as the Grizzlies after 120 years as the Indians was not a good
one on a sultry night in the Central Valley, specifically Turlock. The game reached
running clock territory with Pitman leading 42-0 after three quarters. On Pitman’s
first possession, Napa’s Domenic Topete recovered a fumble at its own 47 but the
Grizzlies got no further than the Pitman 40. After Pitman took a 7-0 advantage
with 4:12 left in the first quarter. Napa had a chance to tie the game on its next
series but a dropped pass and subsequent interception for a touchdown by
Pitman’s Payton Bass. While those two missed opportunities likely don’t change
the outcome, they changed the complexion and gave Napa a none chance to be
competitive.

The Grizzlies will host East Union (Manteca) at Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
The Miners have ten starters returning and have gone 13-9 the last two seasons.
East Union fell to Downey (Modesto) 39-19 on Friday.

ST. HELENA

For a team seeking a bounceback season after going 3-5 a year ago, winning a
seesaw battle over the Arcata Tigers was a step in the right direction. Junior
running back Cody DiTomaso has all the appearances of giving the Saints offense
an explosive element, rushing 24 times for 128 yards and a touchdown. One
sequence that loomed large came when the Saints capped off a 65-yard drive
covering 6:37 that culminated with sophomore quarterback Daniel Martinez
connecting with Luis Robledo for a 3-yard touchdown pass, scrambling away
from Tiger defenders as time expired in the first half, tying the game at 14-14.
St. Helena later trailed 20-14 before the defense stiffened to give the offense
a chance to take the decisive lead.

The Saints travel to Marin County to take on Sir Francis Drake (San Anselmo)
on Saturday afternoon. St. Helena has dominated the previous two matchups,
winning by a combined 93-41. Drake, which has not had a plus-.500 season
since 2013 whitewashed Healdsburg 41-0. The Pirates, however, have not had
back-to-back wins since Oct. 9 and 17 of 2015.  

VINTAGE

The Crushers entered 2018 with high hopes in head coach Dylan Leach’s third
season. While one loss does not eliminate Vintage’s goals, it served as a
reminder to pump the brakes. I need to remind myself because I’ve been high
on this team. I still am but you get the point. Losing by 28 points to a perennially
good but not great Wildcats team is not what anyone had in mind. Wood scored
a touchdown on the game’s opening possession. Vintage followed by turning the
ball over and the proceedings got worse. The Crushers committed six for the
game. In one respect, perhaps Wood’s inspired effort was rooted in playing its
first game at newly constructed Wildcat Stadium after playing previous 26 at
Vacaville High.

Vintage will host Acalanes (Lafayette). The Dons are coached by former Solano
Community College head coach Floyd Burnsed. Acalanes lost to Las Lomas
(Walnut Creek) 12-7 on Friday.

Another excursion of high school football coverage

High school football will make its triumphant return throughout the state of
California this weekend.

If it seems earlier than the norm, it is. As for why, I have my theories from an
earlier writing:

http://vincedadamo.blogspot.com/2018/07/early-start-to-high-school-football.html

Here in the Napa Valley: American Canyon hosts Deer Valley (Antioch), Napa
visits Pitman (Turlock), Vintage travels to Wood (Vacaville) and Justin-Siena
visits Piedmont in Friday action. St. Helena opens its season on Saturday at
home against Arcata. Calistoga begins its season on Aug. 24 with a home game
against South Fork (Miranda). There are three coaches making their debuts: John
Montante (American Canyon), Tom Pettithome (Napa) and Jim Klaczak
(Calistoga).  

I enjoy high school football so much that I still cover it as a freelance writer over
three years after changing careers from sports reporter to route sales
representative (upscale way of saying truck driver). I did not plan cover games
after leaving the newspaper industry but Andy Wilcox, who is a former colleague
from the Napa Valley Register, reached out to me before the 2015 season and
asked if I would be interested in continuing to cover games. I told myself, “Well,
I would be going to games as a spectator anyhow, why not get something out of it.”
So, I agree to do it and I’m still doing it until further notice.

The money you make as a freelancer is pretty nominal, without going into
particulars, but I don’t do it for the money. I do it for enjoyment. When it comes to
hobbies, some guys work on cars and others hunt and fish. I never took to either
one but give me a high school football game and “all in” becomes my mentality.
By the way, just as an inside humor, Andy and I refer to covering football as
“runnin’ shine,” in reference to running moonshine on the Dukes of Hazzard.

There are many reasons I love being around high school football as either a
spectator or reporter. Since high school football is played mostly on Friday nights,
it is an event that stands alone in that there are generally no other sporting events
coinciding. It’s not like Monday-Thursday where you have multiple sports events
going at various locales. Occasionally on Fridays, there will be other sports events
taking place but for the most part, football flies solo. It has everyone’s attention
and lends itself to being both a social and athletic event in that you have people
attending even if they have only casual interest in the sport.

Though participation numbers in football have experienced a decline over the
past decade or so, high school football is the last bastion where you might see
an 150-pound quarterback will his team to victory. You see alums turn out and
yuck it up about the glory days.

There is also a certain sense of pureness in that while you see the passing game
and spread offenses more prominent in high school, you still see schemes that
you will not see on Saturday and Sunday. For example, you see different
misdirection offenses in high school because at that level, asking a 17-year old
linebacker to stay disciplined for 48 minutes is difficult. You’re not going to see
NFL or college teams run a Houston Split Back Veer or Wing T.

Depending on the location of the game, you can smell delicious food burning on
the grill from hamburgers, hot dogs, polish sausages, perhaps tri-tip, etc. The
food can often make the attendance of a high school football game even greater.
Those places serving reheated hot dogs and nachos, you might want to hit up a
local establishment for your pregame meal. The smoked steak sandwiches at St.
Helena High = melt in your mouth. Shoutout Darrell Quirici. I once covered a
game at Fort Bragg High, which is on the Mendocino Coast, and they served
clam chowder at the concession stands. I also once covered a game at Sonoma
High and they served turkey legs.

Though outsiders think of California for its beaches and metropolitan areas, I
have covered high school football in many Northern and Central California locales
where you might as well be in small town Mid-America.

I have covered football in every environment from inner cities to rural. Both have
elements where you want to clear out as soon as the game is over. My fondest
memories are my years coverage St. Helena and Calistoga, which are located in
the Northern part of Napa Valley, CA. In those years, I had many road trips to
outposts in Lake and Mendocino County. The road trips could be long in that
because of the windy roads, an hour and a half drive feels like three hours but I’ll
take that over sitting in traffic on Interstate 80 going toward Sacramento.

Some of the views I witnessed included but were not limited to the Pacific Ocean
at Mendocino High, cow pastures at Tomales and a cemetery that included a
heckler at Upper Lake. I mean this affectionately but trips to Upper Lake and
Tomales were like taking a step back in time.

I don’t know what stories I will see unfold in 2018 but like any season, I welcome
the anticipation.

Coaches and admin are often a clash in styles

Sometimes you write or talk about one topic and it triggers interrelated topics.

Once upon a time, OK about five weeks ago, I wrote about how cynical I become
when I hear of high school coaches resigning to spend more time with their family,
when often times it is a smokescreen for something else that happened beneath
the surface, such as conflict between coaches and administration:

http://vincedadamo.blogspot.com/2018/07/reading-between-lines-on-coaches.html

While such conflict can happen pertaining to any sport, the most volatile by my
observation happens among football coaches with the administration.

The coaches’ job, whether on campus or off campus, is to make sure
student-athletes are making grades and having a pleasurable experience, dealing
with parental and administrative concerns, being well-versed in safety issues and
while we’re at it teaching the fundamentals of their sport to give the team the best
chance to win games.

Administrators are dealing with district and state bigwigs, parents, teachers, kids,
staff members and coaches. To make an analogy, in corporate America, your
on-site bosses are like administrators, they deal with employees, foremen,
corporate bosses in all pockets of the United States. Also, let’s be brutally honest,
we think of the world as it pertains to us. We are all myopic whether we admit it
or not.

For example, my route with Alhambra Water in California covers parts of Martinez,
Pleasant Hill, Concord, Pittsburg, Antioch and Brentwood. Anything in our
company that is addressed beyond my route is none of my concern. Well, it is to a
certain extent but you get the point.

Coaches are the same way, they care most about what pertains to their team and
their kids, the rest are details. If an administrator deals with a complaint that a
coach is too difficult on the student-athletes, the administrator’s job is to reach out
to the coach to address the problem. Subsequently, the coach goes into the
“cornered animal” mode and pushes back. Some will do it more forcefully than
others but, again, you get the point.

The analogies I give are explanations more than justifications. The disconnect is
easy to understand, even though we may not like it.

As a for instance, football coaches are a different breed, most that I have known
are Type A personalities. Different variations of Type A? Yes, but Type A
nonetheless. After all, football is an emotion based sport. Other sports can be to
a certain extent such as basketball and soccer to name a few.

As a broad generalization, the only administrators that can relate to football
coaches, or any other emotion based sport, are those that played in high school
or coached that particular sport. If you took a snapshot of practice it would not
play well in the administration weekly staff meeting. I’m not suggesting that’s good
or bad but that’s no different than a construction site work environment is not the
same as a Microsoft office culture.

I have worked in both blue and white collar environments. I understand the locker
room culture of the former but I can also comprehend being more polished around
mixed company that the latter involves.

I had the pleasure of covering the Oakland Raiders in Jon Gruden’s first stint
from 1998-2001. I saw more than a few instances of him peppering players with
four-letter words.

On the high school side, I would occasionally catch glimpses of a coach chirping
in profanity. Without mentioning names, I heard a coach say to a kid, “I’ll (blank)
your (blank) up!”. I heard another say, "Get moving or I'll put a boot in your ass
until you taste what I stepped in two weeks ago.” People that have been around
sports understand the verbiage and in general the kids understand it. The
coaches are not so inhumane that they are literally going to stick their size
whatever Nikes up a kids’ rearend. They are simply doing it as a motivational
tool. Kids know it’s not realistic yet they respect the fear of letting their coach
down. The right kids bust their tail to please coaches, themselves, their team
and school.

Having transitioned into being a sports parent, I hope my kid gets a coach or
teammate that is a not easy to deal with, not because being that way is right,
but it’s reality. You deal with that element in life, sometimes more so than others.

Adding to the clash in styles is the exceedingly political correctness and litigious

society. I am the first to rail against that mentality, which is an entirely different

conversation for another day.