Michael Jordan Underwear

What's the "best" Christmas present you received this year? Was it big and expensive? Was it exactly what you had hoped and wished for? Will you still like it this time next year?

Last week, as we took turns opening brightly wrapped packages, boxes, and gift bags, there was something very specific I was hoping to get. With each and every gift that was removed from under the tree I wondered to myself if that could be the one. Finally, tucked way back under the lowest branch was a lumpy blob of red wrapping paper that said "To Dad - From Brad" on the front. I tore the paper off as fast as I could and seconds later was holding the "best" present of the year - a three pack of Hanes, size 6, "tighty whities" with Michael Jordan's name and image imprinted all over them!!

See, a long, long time ago, when he was just a little boy, my son Brad, who is now 18, gave me the very same package of Michael Jordan underwear for Christmas. Unfortunately they were size 6 and since I haven't been able to squeeze into a kids size 6 since. . . well, since maybe never, I put them into a dresser drawer and pretty much forgot about them until they were rediscovered around Christmas time the following year. That Christmas Eve I took the Michael Jordan underwear, rewrapped them, wrote Brad's name on the package and placed it under the tree. The next morning Brad opened the package and laughed and never mentioned them again until the next Christmas when he wrapped them up and gave them back to me. And so for the last dozen years or so we have taken turns caring for the Michael Jordan underwear like it was the Holy Grail and then regifting it to each other every Christmas.

During that time we have lived in three houses and one apartment. Walkman's and CD players and Super Nintendos have all come and gone. Laptops have replaced desktops. Cordless phones aren't as amazing as they used to be. There have been a few Presidents, a couple wars, and a terrorist attack. Brad has gone from grade school to middle school to high school. Housing markets and stock markets have both skyrocketed and crashed. But through it all, the package of Michael Jordan underwear has endured and has become my favorite Christmas tradition. And I'm already expecting that two years from now it will be the "best" present I get!

Christmas Break

The last week has been so hectic and crazy that it just wouldn't be fair to call it a vacation or even a break!! It started at the Chemeketa tournament in Salem where we played extremely well and beat both Treasure Valley (110-65) and Seattle (113-72) and then had the opportunity to play Chemeketa. Once again that didn't work out when Chemeketa couldn't guarantee that the weather wouldn't keep their players from making it back to the gym.

So instead of playing another game, all the girls scattered for various destinations and Linda and I drove back to Roseburg by ourselves. Most of the girls made it home without a problem but not all of them. Mykie ended up spending a day and a half in the Portland airport before she could finally get a flight out to LA; Cassie had to take a 12 hour detour driving to Idaho because I-84 was completely closed; and Titi's standby flight to Hawaii was first redirected to Utah where she remained for the next four days.

Kristi sent me a text Christmas morning asking if I would open the gym again for her after everything slowed down. (We worked out a couple days ago.) So at 7:30pm nine year old Taylor and I picked up Kristi and headed to UCC. As I was driving I couldn't help but making up my own version of "The Night Before Christmas."

"Twas the night we call Christmas and all through the Northwest; not many players were shooting; only the best. . . ."

After we shot for an hour, Kristi kind of put her around Taylor and said, "Now you're a day ahead of every other fourth grader you'll play against." Not only was it a very wise statement but it also gave us great insight into Kristi's thinking. I couldn't help but wonder how many times Kristi has walked out of the gym after working out by herself and thought, "Now I'm one day ahead of everyone else!" Probably too many to count.

(Mykie just called from a pay phone at the Portland airport to tell me that she made it back safely. She is going to meet Titi, who is on a flight now, in an hour and then Cassie will meet up with both of them on her way back from Idaho and drive them to Roseburg. It's always a proud and happy time for "dads" when they see their "kids" looking out for each other!)

Champions By Forfeit

I guess if you coach long enough you see just about everything but somethng happened this weekend that still has a lot of people shaking their heads. After winning our first two games by an average of 44 points, we were scheduled to play Chemeketa CC in the championship game of the Edmonds Winter Classic tournament. But less than an hour before the game, the Chemeketa coach sent one of his players into the gym to tell me and the tournament director that because another winter storm was on the way they were going to go home instead of play for the championship. Let me say that again - the team was AT THE GYM and decided to leave without playing. It wasn't like bad weather prohibited them from getting to the game because that would be completely understood by everyone. . . .but they were already AT THE GYM. . . .and neither myself, the three game officials, the President of Edmonds CC, the tournament director etc. etc. believed or understood the stated reason behind leaving.

If there was a bright side it was seeing the reaction of our players who were more upset than I was/am. If you are a competitor then you want to compete and they are competitors! If I ever tried that I would have a complete mutiny on my hands and would be going home by myself!!One of our players even said to me, "If you ever told me to go tell another coach that we were going to go home instead of play I would say "F*#@ You!! We're going to play with or without you!"

Chemeketa is in our league and so barring some unforseen circumstances (it happened last weekend so it could happen again) we are scheduled to play them twice. Should be interesting!!

Oh, did I happen to mention that they were already AT THE GYM when they left!!

Umpqua 91 Wenatchee Valley 53

Opened the first round of the Edmonds Winter Classic tonight with a 91-53 win over Wenatchee Valley. We've spent the better part of a week trying to improve our defense and I thought the extra work really showed tonight. The thing that I was most pleased about is that we did an excellent job of keeping up the defensive intensity even as we constantly subbed to keep fresh legs in the game. As a result, our defense created a lot of offense and we probably had close to a dozen fast breaks that could end up on the year end highlight DVD. For the first time this season we had five players score in double figures and we scored over 90 points for the fourth time in five games.

Almost as exciting as the tournament is the weather! The first big winter storm is blasting the Pacific Northwest which is eventually going to make travel back to Roseburg a challenge. Weather reports predict lots of snow most of the day tomorrow and Sunday followed by freezing temps for a couple days. We'll have to wait and see what happens but Linda's and my coaching instincts tell us to start preparing ahead of time and still have a backup plan just in case!

Alumni Game & Dinner

Other than playing for a championship the Alumni game is the most fun game of the year! We've had some pretty good teams over the years and so our alumni are pretty good and even though don't play everyday they are still as competitive as ever. Fortunately for our won-loss record, the alumni just aren't in as good as shape as our current players. Last night the scored was tied at 50 with about 15:00 to go in the game before conditioning became a factor and our current team started to pull away. It was hard resisting the urge to coach both teams. At one point, alum Katie Stephens, who drove up from Chico, CA to play in the game, had the ball on the wing in front of our bench and was being pressured while trying to find someone open. I watched the official counting out five seconds and instinctivily told Katie to "take a dribble" so the count would start over. It was fun to watch Micaela (Williams) Leinonen switch players so she could "D-up" Kristi Fallin after Kristi hit her eighth 3 of the game. (Micalea holds the UCC record of 10 3's in a game) And I couldn't help but smile after Mykiea Russell stripped Krissy Scoggin (2000 NWAACC Champion, 4th all time scorer at UCC, and mother of 3) and layed the ball in and then the two of them high fived on the way back down the court.

After the game most of us went out to eat (picture above), told war stories and took turns holding Becci (Randall) Beneau's baby daughter. My daughter Taylor asked for a dollar to play in the arcade and as soon as I opened my wallet Cassie Scheffelmaier and Kristi asked if they too could have dollars to play in the arcade. Titi Takai and Kirsten Strawn teamed up to set the arcade basketball shooting record while the cheers from teammates, alumni, and kids drowned out most casual conversations. It was a great time and ended way too soon for me.

After everyone else left, Craig Scoggin, Tim Randall and I stood around and talked about the impact that UCC basketball has had on their families and the community in general. Eventually we all left and as I drove home I thought back on the entire night and kept thinking to myself "That's why I coach."

Tournament Champs & Cassie Drops 50!!

What a difference a week makes! We played with much more poise than we did opening weekend and ran our season record to 5-1 after beating Blue Mountain and Southwestern Oregon in the first two rounds of the Clackamas Thanksgiving Tournament and then Clackamas for the championship. The Clackamas score was 99-90 which has been typical of UCC-Clackamas games the last few years. I know both teams spend a lot of time working on defense but it just seems to go right out the window when the two teams play each other.

A couple of things definitely stood out this weekend. First of all, Cassie Scheffelmaier scored 50 points and grabbed 21 rebounds in the championship game.Unbelievable!! Use the link on the right to go to our team's web page and read more about it. That's definitely a once in a lifetime experience and I just feel lucky that I was part of it! 60 years from now Cassie's going to be telling her great grand children about the game and for a brief moment will think again about UCC, her teammates, coaches, etc. (Of course, by then she'll be 80 years old and probably won't remember any of our names!!)

The other thing that impressed me was the number of family members that we had at the tournament which was played in Oregon City, about three hours away from UCC. We have 10 players on our team from five different states and all but one had family there for at least part of the time! That's almost as rare as a player scoring 50 points!! We took a head count when we got to the restaurant after the championship and there were 32 of us! And that's not counting Cassie's family who went back to Idaho right after the game instead of eating with us. We really are a big family here - a little dysfunctional at times - but a big family nevertheless.