Tough Loss Last Night

Growing up, becoming a sports writer is always what I wanted to do for a living. However, the less than ideal hours, the minimal pay most receive, and the lack of quality sports writing positions led me away from that path. I routinely read the message boards that discuss all things Iowa Hawkeyes related, but I never leave posts of my own as feel that many of the posts end-up sounding ignorant. So here I go; I'm writing this post for several reasons: 1) to get the feelings that I have from last night's tough loss to Arizona out of my head and off of my chest so I can go forward with my Sunday, and 2) because I've always wanted to write about this stuff for a living. If this isn't going to interest you, don't read it. I'm writing this post more so for me; sorry for being selfish.

Let me preface this with the following information. I am a huge Iowa Hawkeyes fan; I always have been, and I always will be. I have seen maybe two great Iowa football teams in my lifetime, several very good Iowa football teams, a lot of above average Iowa football teams, and yes, unfortunately, even some bad Iowa football teams. For the most part, I would say, that we would fall into the category of being above average; recently, we have been lucky enough for Kirk Ferentz to begin to lead us into the category of, almost, consistently being in the very good category. Where Kirk Ferentz has taken this program is great! It is great for recruiting better players, it is great for gaining exposure throughout the entire country, and it is great as a fan to see your team competing to win every single Saturday. However, when you are consistently good and expecting to win, losing hurts a little bit more.

Unlike some of the message boards and preseason prognosticators, I never envisioned this Iowa Hawkeye football team to contend for a national championship this year. To me, this idea was always too far fetched due to, mainly, three reasons. One, we won too many games last year that could have very easily been losses. Two, even though our schedule this season is favorable, there are too many good games that we would have to sweep. And three, we are Iowa; we've won one national championship ever (and even that, in 1958, was not an outright national championship), we tend to thrive without the spotlight shining on us, we are a state that does not have a huge population and that gives us a disadvantage when it comes to recruiting, and unfortunately my favorite teams just don't usually win it all!

All of that being said, when I looked at our schedule at the beginning of the year I didn't see any match-ups that I thought we would lose. Head-to-head, week-by-week I thought that we would win every game. At the same time I never thought that we would go 12-0. I figured we would lose at least two, maybe even three, possibly even four games; I just didn't know which games we would lose. I know now that Arizona is one loss. I think that we will finish the season at 10-2; still not sure who I think the other loss will be. Hopefully, if you are still reading, this paragraph hasn't confused you.

Now for some reaction to last night's (Arizona) game. First of all, it started horribly. ESPN could not find one of their million different channels to put the game on at the very beginning. It was very difficult to only see: a blocked punt, a touchdown, and a pick six without seeing all of the little things in between. Once ESPN finally did tune in, it was already 14-0 Arizona. Secondly, I know that there were a lot of Iowa fans there; however, that crowd, in the red with the white pom-poms was unbelievably intimidating (and it did not help that we let them go up 14-0 right off of the bat!). And third, I don’t want to hear about how hot it was.

We got outplayed. The better team, us, did not win; that sometimes, unfortunately, happens in sports. If we play this game 10 times, in Arizona even, we win over half of the time (I think). You must give credit to Arizona though, they came ready to play. We made too many mistakes: blocked punt, tipped ball that goes for a pick six, kickoff return for a touchdown, blocked PAT, and the three or four sacks in a row that we surrendered to end the game highlight a few of them. Even with all of those things going wrong (Murphy's Law - everything that can go wrong, will go wrong), we still tied the game at 27 in the fourth quarter. That speaks volumes to the resiliency that this team possesses. They never quit, and you have to congratulate them for that.

Two other notes. Prior to the last drive, I thought that our pass protection was pretty good. I even mentioned at one point in time, I thought that it was one of the highlights of our performance; how quickly that changed. Adrian Clayborn is my favorite Hawkeye. Adrian Clayborn is the best player we have on our team. However, Adrian Clayborn needs to be more consistently dominant with his performance/production. I thought that last night would be his breakout game for this season, I was wrong. I'm sure he will still have a great season, but I was a little disappointed with the lack of disruption that he caused last night.

We are 2-1, but more importantly we are still 0-0 in Big Ten conference play. My goal going into the season was to get to another BCS bowl game, and more specifically the Rose Bowl game. That is still my goal; nothing about last night's performance has altered that goal. The fact that I see fans talking about benching Ricky Stanzi, firing Kirk Ferentz and his staff, finishing the season 7-5 is ridiculous! Look at the body of work of Ricky Stanzi; what is he, 20-5 as career starter? That is 20 wins compared to five losses, I'll take that record any day. Look at the body of work of Kirk Ferentz; he should be given a life-time contract to stay at Iowa for as long as he pleases to do so. NEVER has our football program been consistently as prominent as it has been the past ten years. 7-5? Come on. I guarantee you that these are the exact same fans that were talking 12-0, national championship prior to the game. Relax, it is one game. Have faith that our players will rebound; they did in the second half. Have faith that our coaching staff will make adjustments and coach these guys up; they've done it in the past. As Kirk says, weather the storm - play through the highs and the lows. That goes for fans, too; there will be more lows this season, but there will be highs also. Try not to get too high, and try not to fall too low. As is his rule for the team - you've got 24 hours to either celebrate a victory or dwell on loss before you must flush it and move on.

I think this just officially flushed the loss for me; as I feel better already. Thanks for listening.

Is it Saturday yet?!

You are captivating to me because...

I guess I haven't ever really grown up. I still have heroes, and I am still in awe when I see certain people. Just ask Amy and Scott how fast I ran when I saw Mike Ditka at O'Hare. Just ask Kyle how nervous he was that I was going to make a fool of us by bothering Brian Urlacher when we were recently eating dinner at the same restaurant. But I don't care...I'll be the first person to tell you that I'm a dork when it comes to stuff like this.

Recently, when filling out a "get to know you" questionarre at work, in an effort to build relationships, I was asked who my role models are, who my mentors are, and who I look up to. I thought about that question. Multiple people came to mind that I look up to and model myself after, but the two names that I put down are people that I admire a great deal from afar. I answered the question by naming Kirk Ferentz and Tony Dungy. Yes, these two men are very successful/were very successful football coaches, but that is not why I chose them. I chose these two men because of how they act, how they lead the young men that they work with, and the values that they hold.

Tony Dungy was an excellent football coach. He leads quietly; he is not an extremely vocal man . He is a man with very strong religious faith. He serves as a mentor to young men that are going through adverse situations. He has a website (allprodad.com) that I frequent. This website is full of good advice for dads, future dads, and people in general. From this website I signed up to receive their daily email, which is basically a tip of the day. One tip of the day that I want to talk about (the purpose of this particular blog) is how husbands (or men) should let their wives (or women) know that they captivate them. While I may not always be the best at verbalizing these things, and I may not always be the best at showing these things - I am pretty confident that I can write these things. So Amy, here you go (sorry that I don't tell you and/or show you all of these things regularly (I am who I am), but I feel them and I mean them!), here is the blog post that you wanted - dedicated to you!

Amy, you are captivating to me because you are beautiful; I thought this when I first saw you in our introductory elementary education class (I knew there was a reason I became a teacher), and I think this more than ever today while you are pregnant with our child. You are captivating to me because you are the nicest person that I know; you are nice to everyone, even when you don't want to be. You are captivating to me because you like to relax and have a good time. You are captivating to me because you have a passion for chlidren; you have a meaningful job and you work very hard at being successful at your job. You are captivating to me because you have inherited SOME (not yet enough ; -)) of my passion for sports. You are captivating to me because you do not try to limit my passion towards sports. You are captivating to me due to the excitement you have towards our unborn son. You are captivating to me because even though you are excited about Ryne being born, you still want to go to as many Iowa football games this year as possible (small things like this mean a lot to a foolish guy like me). You are captivating to me because you are fashionable and always dress nice, even though I tease you about never wearing enough Hawkeye, Cubs, Bears, etc. tee-shirts. You are captivating to me because you are such a good cook - and you cook with a lot of cheese and make things spicy, the two things I like most in my foods. You are captivating to me because I know that you love me. Amy, you are captivating to me. Thanks!

E is for Emotion

I don’t know how many of you, if any of you, ever had to create acrostic poems, the type of poem where a word is written vertically and then each letter represents a different word, during your schooling, but I frequently remember having to do them. Usually the word that was written vertically was my name, either Eric or Ewald. And usually each letter was supposed to be a word that you felt described yourself. I’m guessing that all of you that read this blog know me, some on a deeper level than others, but one word that I never selected for the E was emotional.

Chances are if you know who I am, emotional wouldn’t be a word that comes to your mind to describe me. I wouldn’t use it to describe myself. Very seldom, do I exhibit a lot of emotion externally. However, there are exceptions to the norm. As a senior in high school, while playing a football game that would decide the District Championship, in the fourth quarter of a game against our biggest rival, with only a touchdown lead for my team, I showed emotion. I fell on a fumble that in the backfield that a friend of mine had caused while rushing the passer. I was so excited and happy that without regards for the rules (because I fell on the fumble, I was down), I got up and did a celebratory sprint into the end zone! Remembering back to that moment…it felt like someone else was inside my body controlling those actions; not something that people would imagine to see out of me (on a side note, that was probably one of the five greatest single moments of my life. The others being (in chronological order): witnessing, live, Drew Tate to Warren Holloway’s touchdown that won the Capital One Bowl for the Iowa Hawkeyes over the LSU Tigers, my whole wedding weekend, Amy telling me that she was pregnant, finding out that our unborn child is a boy!).

However, I frequently have tears trickling down my cheek during movies; I can watch Remember the Titans, Rocky IV, or Rudy a million times and cry every time. It is good to cry. I can cry on command when I start to think, or see, or hear certain things. In Jimmy V’s famous ESPY speech, he said that there were three things that people should do on a daily basis. He said that you should think, you should laugh, and you should cry everyday. I try to do all of those things everyday; I think that it is good advice.

I cry. I show emotion. I feel. I’ve always told my teams that I coach, “Don’t ever get too high when things are going good and don’t ever get too low when things are bad,” (I’ve also heard Kirk Ferentz preach this same concept) and I try to live that. However, I must admit, when we were having the ultrasound done to determine our baby’s sex, it was a good thing that the room was dark. I had tears of joy rolling down my cheek after hearing the technician tell us it was a boy! I am extremely excited about the birth of our son, I just don’t wear my emotions on my sleeves…for better or worse.

I’ve never been an emotional person, and I’ve never aspired to become one. Traditionally, emotional men have never been well received by society. That is starting to change. I recently read a book that talked of how this generation of young boys is, for the first time on a wide scale, being raised by fathers that are openly showing emotion towards their sons. I realize the importance of this, and I realize that I will have to actively work toward this. However, I fear nothing because when there is something that I have to work towards, I always work until I’ve accomplished it!

The Decision

I left the powder at home.





Man, this whole pregnancy experience, looking forward to it.





This process has been everything I've thought and more.





I have enjoyed it. And I want to thank my wife. And our doctors, also.





It's been an unbelievable experience, a real humbling experience to be even to be in this position...





No one knows our decision right now.





I think we decided this morning. I mean, we decided this morning. It went day to day. We'd wake up one morning, it's this name. We'd wake up another morning, it's that name. And it's a process that we felt was the best opportunity for us and our son.





No. We don't have any doubts at all.





In this fall, this is very tough, in this fall we're going to name our son...Ryne Bailey Ewald





That was supposed to be a parody of the Lebron James "Decision" that ESPN aired this past July. Lebron James was criticized a great deal for how he handled his decision, and therefore it has been mocked at great lengths. If you are interested in seeing Lebron's decision, I'm sure that you can find it on YouTube. So I realize that not many of you probably realized where I was going with this, but I really enjoyed it and thought that it was clever.





Seriously though, Bailey is a great middle name! It is my middle name, and it is my mother's maiden name. James was a front runner for Ryne's middle name until July. I really liked the name James, and so did Amy. James is my mother's father's name (whom I unfortunately was never able to meet). James is my brother's middle name. James is Lebron's last name. Lebron, before he made a fool of himself with his "Decision," was my current, favorite basketball player. If Lebron had taken his "basketball talents" to the Chicago Bulls, I would have pushed EXTREMELY HARD for our son to be named Ryne James Ewald. However, that didn't happen.





We are happy to announce, on this blog, that our son will be named Ryne Bailey Ewald.

Hope Springs Eternal

I like reading and writing of many different genres. Poetry is the exception. I don't like to read it, and I don't like to write it. I don't even like to teach it to my sixth grade students because I don't usually understand it very well. However, there are some poems that I do like. One line of poetry that I particularly like is Alexander Pope's, "Hope springs eternal." It is a pretty simple line that I interpret to mean that hope lasts forever in the spring. In the spring things are being reborn, there is a fresh start, and optimism is in the air. I take great liking to the line, especially as a Cubs fan; the season has yet to start, the team has yet to lose a game, and there is the hope and the optimism that this could be the year (although it never is) that they win the World Series.



But what about fall?



I love fall far more than spring. I love fall far more than any other season. It is a brand NEW school year with a FRESH start. Students going back to school are able to resume their friendships with their classmates that they may not have seen over the summer. Football is beginning! Playing football or watching football is and has always been (remembering back to kindergarten) at the very top of my list of favorite things to do. The weather is no longer blistering hot, but usually cool enough to be comfortable in jeans and a sweatshirt and sleep with the windows open. I could never live anywhere that did not experience the changing of seasons. I love fall.

High school football has started, college football starts in one week, and the NFL starts in two weeks!

Did I mention that this fall is going to be significant more so than most falls. And no, I don't mean that it is more significant than normal because the Iowa Hawkeyes are supposed to contend for the Big Ten Championship and possibly even the National Championship (although that is pretty significant!). This fall is significant because Amy and I are welcoming our first child into the world. Our first son is coming into the world. Ryne is coming into the world. And he is coming into the world during the fall (not to mention a fall when the Iowa Hawkeyes could be experiencing unprecedented success! Wouldn't that be great, Ryne born during a year that Iowa won a championship!). That has to be a pretty good sign of things to come!

The End of Summer as We KNEW It...

When I got my undergraduate degree a professor told my graduating class that the number one reason that teachers got into education was: June, July, and August. Fact. I have completed four years of teaching sixth grade at a school that could be classified as challenging. Every year, by May, I am ready for summer. I am ready to relax, rest, and recharge myself as a teacher. This is a much needed break. Most people talk about how easy teachers have it come the summer months. However, no other profession deals with such defiant and irrational people (adolescents) on a full-time basis. That being said, I love my job. And I love my summers.

Did you read my profile? I LOVE to travel. Over the past four summers, I have had the luxury to go to such places as St. Petersburg, Florida, Chicago (MANY times), San Francisco, Jamaica, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Austin and San Antonio, Texas, and Louisville, Kentucky. I have gone to approximately 20 Major League Baseball games in six different stadiums. I have had enough time to follow baseball so closely that it has become my second favorite sport (it however, has zero chance of ever passing football as my favorite). I have become a runner. I have been given enough time to pursue and receive my master's degree. I have had enough time to move residencies. I have had enough time to enjoy every minute leading up to my wedding, and not had to worry about missing work at the same time. I am very lucky.

For the past four summers Amy and I have had an agreement regarding our summer vacations. I pick where we go one year, and she picks where we go the next. If you know us, you know that our ideas of a vacation vary greatly. One of us likes to go somewhere and relax; the other one of us likes to go somewhere and do as many things as we can possibly do while we are there. Amy's choice is the first, my choice is the second. I picked to go to Texas; Amy picked our honeymoon destination of Jamaica. I picked to go to San Francisco; Amy picked Florida. Where will we go next summer? It is my turn to pick, and I have several places in mind. However, we are about to be thrown a curve ball. As much as I like to plan-out my days, weeks, months, and years that may no longer be possible.

I hope that we are still able to take our vacations - the two of us, but we will see. That being said, I look forward to my upcoming summers. I look forward to teaching Ryne how to swim. I look forward to being able to be home with Ryne throughout the day. I look forward to taking family vacations (all three of us). I look forward to teaching Ryne to play catch. I look forward to, possibly, coaching Ryne through tee-ball and little league. I look forward to taking Ryne to watch the Iowa Hawkeyes basketball players play in the Prime Time League. I look forward to taking Ryne to the Chicago Bears training camp to get autographs. I look forward to taking Ryne to the Iowa Hawkeyes football family day. I look forward to taking Ryne to Wrigley Field (and wearing our matching jerseys!). I look forward to all of these things, as well as the other things I am unable to predict.

Summer will still be something to look forward to at the end of the school year.

An Introduction

There are several questions that I think need answered before I begin blogging.



Question one, why am I blogging?
Well, for starters, it is because, my wife, Amy, and I are expecting our first child, a son - Ryne, this fall so...Well, I thought that blogging would be an easy and fast way for people to follow the growth of our son from afar. I could upload photos to Facebook, but with this blog I can add narrative and video! I can think of several grandparents who will love that, probably a couple of aunts and uncles, and maybe even a couple of friends. Secondly, I love writing; little known fact that I've kept a journal of some form off and on since high school. And finally, I love being up-to-date with technology. Blogs are very common in the culture of the United States today so why shouldn't I have one? Eventually, I might (hopefully) expand the scope of my blog, but for now I will just use it as a method to communicate what my family is doing.



Question two, why is my blog titled Second to None?
Recently, while in Chicago with my brother, Kyle, I told him the title of my blog and he immediately thought it was an arrogant title on my part. It's not what you think...Growing up I had two favorite baseball players: Bo Jackson and Ryne Sandberg. The Cubs were and are my favorite baseball team, and that is where Sandberg played. (This is how Ryne Ewald got his name; Amy and I had a deal. If our child was a girl, she got naming rights and I got veto power. If our child was a boy, I got naming rights and she got veto power. I won! She chose Ryne instead of Adrian (Clayborn) and Nile (Kinnick).) I resume, in the early/mid nineties Sandberg wrote an autobiography. For some reason I thought that his autobiography was titled Second to None. I really thought that that would make a great title for my blog; I would be incorporating Sandberg with his autobiography title and my son who will be second to none. I Googled the book title to make sure that it was correct...I was wrong, his book was titled Second to Home (Sandberg was a second baseman). Regardless, I liked the title Second to None much better so that is how it was decided (it has nothing to do with me, Kyle!).