The 2012 NFL schedule came out last week (CHECK IT OUT!) and the Draft starts tonight!!
Every year when the NFL season comes to an end, and the Super Bowl champions raise that huge trophy over their heads as confetti falls all around them, I get really sad. I feel like something is missing. Fortunately, this year, I've had grad school and a job as on-field host for the University of Miami baseball games to keep me busy and oblivious to this missing piece. But that emptiness is always there...until April. A glimmer of hope followed by excitement revives me as the NFL season schedule is announced and the NFL draft happens.
When that schedule comes out, I pull out my calendar and see who is playing who, when, and where...Where will I watch Peyton's first game on TV? Will I be home to go to an Eagles game with my dad (as is our tradition every year)? Who are the Dolphins playing and which game can I make it to?
For me, yes, I am a born Philadelphia Eagles fan. Born and raised and always will be. But there is something about attending an NFL regular season game, whether its an Eagles v Cowboys game or the Rams v. Bucs, I LOVE going to games. The atmosphere, the fans, the stadiums and the game...I just love it! Now, don't get me wrong, I'd much rather go to a game than watch it on TV, but there is no other way I'd like to spend my Sundays than parked in front of the TV watching the NFL match-ups.
In case you've never watched the NFL draft, it's been going on every year since 1936. The teams pick based on their win/loss record from last season, and whether or not they made it to the playoffs. The team with the least amount of wins picks first, and the order of teams to pick remain the same for each round. Teams can trade current players for higher draft picks. They can also negotiate during the draft and give up their pick in a round for an extra pick in a later round. There are seven rounds...in Round 1, teams have 10 minutes to make their choice, 7 minutes in the second round, and 5 minutes in Rounds 3–7.
Take a look at NFL.com's predicted draft picks, their colleges, positions, and future teams here. The Washington Redskins traded with the St. Louis Rams for the number two pick and are predicted to take Heisman Trophy winner, RGIII. Fingers crossed for the Eagles who traded Asante Samuel to the Atlanta Falcons for the seventh round pick. Tune in tonight at 8 pm on ESPN to watch the draft and see who goes where. Check back here tomorrow for more... :-)
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Of the beaten path...
For today's post, I'm not writing about the NFL, or anything about football for the matter. I want to post an article I recently wrote about Katie Meier. She is the Head Coach of the University of Miami women's basketball team. I wrote this profile piece for my sports reporting class and it was recently published on the Hurricane Sports website here. Check it out:
The Real Kate: Profile of Coach Meier
By Jennifer Somach
Growing up in a blended family with eight kids, it is easy to get lost in the crowd. This was definitely true for Kate Meier, head coach of the University of Miami's women's basketball team.
"One Sunday, we went to church," her mother Phyllis says, telling one of her favorite stories about her youngest daughter Kate. "We all sat in the third pew. And, at the end of the service, we got up and we left. I guess Kate had gone to the bathroom, but I didn't know she did."
Upon returning home from church, the family hung up their coats and the phone rang. It was the priest from church. He asked, "Do you have a Kathleen?" and Phyllis replied, "No, we have a Kate."
Then the light bulb went off.
"I realized she wasn't home! I didn't hang her coat up," Phyllis continues. "She was only three. She couldn't reach it, so I always did it. And somebody found her out in the parking lot. We hadn't even realized she was gone! I thought it was funny because I didn't even know she knew our phone number."
When they returned to church to pick her up, they found her sitting with the priest, having breakfast. "She wasn't a bit upset. She said she knew we'd come back," Phyllis remembers. "I think she was more worried because she didn't tell me she was going to go to the bathroom."
Even at three years old, Kate was wise beyond her years. (Nobody calls her Katie. "It's just a basketball thing. I was Kate my whole life," Meier explains.
When she got to kindergarten, her teacher called Phyllis to tell her the school was going to "double promote" Kate to first grade because her reading level was so advanced. It was the first exception in which the school district had allowed a student to jump from kindergarten to first grade mid-year. "And she didn't have any problem at all," Phyllis says.
Many years later, Kate attended Duke University. She earned a bachelor's degree in English Literature with Cum Laude honors in 1989. She was also named to the Dean's List and she received GTE Academic All-America Second Team honors. She then went on to earn her Master of Arts in Teaching English from Duke in 1990.
On top of being incredibly intelligent, Meier was born with a knack for athletics. She was the only girl on the boys little league team as a kid, and was the first girl to win All Star in her hometown of Wheaten, Illinois.
At age six, she started playing basketball and volleyball. One night, during a volleyball game her freshman year of high school, Meier turned her knee and had to be taken to the emergency room. After examining her knee, the doctor told Meier and her parents that she had a huge growth spurt ahead of her.
"Well, how tall are we talking?" Phyllis asked. The doctor said at least 6 feet or 6'1. At that time, Meier was 5'6. "We about died!" Phyllis explains.
Meier continued to grow throughout high school and eventually hit the predicted height. "She used to tell people she was 5'13, because she didn't want to say she was 6 foot. Now, I think she's very glad she is."
As a basketball player, who wouldn't be happy to be that tall? Meier used that height to her advantage and excelled in basketball. She was a four-year letter winner at Duke, and her name is all over the record books. She currently ranks third overall for all-time scoring average (16.2 points per game), steals (232), free throws made (447) and free throws attempted (624) for the Blue Devils. She earned ACC Rookie of the Year and Basketball Yearbook Freshman All-America honors. Even after missing her junior season due to a knee injury, Meier returned the following season as if she never missed a game. Her senior season, Meier earned Kodak/WBCA District 2 All-America and All ACC First Team awards, and the Blue Devils' named her MVP.
She continued to receive recognition long after she graduated. In 2002, Duke honored Meier for her efforts as a player by naming her to the inaugural induction class in the Blue Devils' Hall of Honor. That same year, Meier was named to the ACC's 50th Anniversary Team.
After completing her master's program, Meier travelled overseas to play professionally in Belgium. She began teaching conversational English classes, and eventually started coaching a youth team. Meier stayed in Belgium for the next three years and lead her team to three First Division titles and one Belgian Cup championship. Meier never looked back after moving into coaching.
"Do I miss playing? No," Meier says. "I coached a little team of kids that were the ages of 13-17 and I loved that more than wanting to play. I just loved it. The give and take. Just getting to know people and figuring out how to work and how to get them to play harder and how to feel good about themselves."
Meier welcomed the transition from player to coach. "Everything I do is an exchange and, when I played, it felt like I was just a player who woke up every day, worked out for myself. There was no growth or exchange."
When Meier returned to the United States, she pursued a collegiate coaching career, starting as an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina in Asheville from 1993-1994. Then she joined the coaching staff at Tulane for seven years, helping to lead the Green Wave to the highest ranking in school history and a school record of 27 wins the same season.
Before coming to UM, Meier coached at UNC Charlotte. As the fifth head coach in the school's history, she brought the women's basketball program to national notoriety. Meier credits her success as a coach from growing up in such a big family.
"That stuff just comes out in coaching," she says. "I don't have any background in psychology but I think I learned how to blend."
Meier's father died in a plane crash when Phyllis was pregnant with Kate, and they already had a 4-year-old, a 3-year-old and a 2-year-old. A few years later, Phyllis met Howard Skolak, a widower with four children as well.
They have been married for 43 years with their blended family of ten.
"We had the Skolaks and the Meiers, and the Skolaks had a different background than the Meiers. There were eight kids trying to learn how to live together, sharing rooms and everything from day one. And you just have to make it work. Your problems are never bigger than the group."
She brought that same mentality to Miami when she came to coach the Hurricanes in 2005. "My energy is being put to very good use as a coach. It's very much give and take. I love the exchange. I love demanding effort, and then people come through for you," says Meiers. "It's just a lot of fun."
She made it clear that her goal was to make Miami one of the best women's basketball programs in the country. And she has certainly achieved that goal. In her first season, the Hurricanes finished the season with an impressive 17-13 overall record, and came in sixth place in the ACC. Having just finished her seventh season as head coach, she has taken the women's team leaps and bounds from where she took them her first year. UM finished the 2011-2012 regular season No. 8 in the NCAA, with an overall record of 25-5 and 14-2 in the ACC. The Canes earned a No. 2 seed in the ACC tournament, losing to Wake Forest in the quarterfinal round.
And Meier could not be happier with the success of the team over the years. "I'm just thrilled that I had a vision when I came here. I thought this could be a top-ten program and win championships. I said it in my press conference and I could tell that people in the audience thought I was a little crazy. Because there just wasn't this real positive energy around the program when I first got here. The expectations weren't as high as I wanted them to be. And so I went ahead and put the pressure on the program and myself. If you don't expect things for the women's basketball program here, get out of my way, because I do."
Meier recently accomplished a major milestone in her own career: her 200th win. And throughout it all-the awards and recognitions, the wins and losses, the highs and lows, Meier stays grounded.
She still finds 45 minutes before every game to take a nap and clear her mind.
Her parents still come to as many games as they can while they visit Meier every year for six weeks.
She has no regrets and does not believe in quitting.
And Meier still gives her players the same advice. "I just tell them confidence is knowing the next thing that happens will be positive. If you have that expectation, you truly believe. Just live with courage and live large. You can be small if you want; you can shrink. But, you know, I just like to live large."
The Real Kate: Profile of Coach Meier
April 2, 2012
Growing up in a blended family with eight kids, it is easy to get lost in the crowd. This was definitely true for Kate Meier, head coach of the University of Miami's women's basketball team.
"One Sunday, we went to church," her mother Phyllis says, telling one of her favorite stories about her youngest daughter Kate. "We all sat in the third pew. And, at the end of the service, we got up and we left. I guess Kate had gone to the bathroom, but I didn't know she did."
Upon returning home from church, the family hung up their coats and the phone rang. It was the priest from church. He asked, "Do you have a Kathleen?" and Phyllis replied, "No, we have a Kate."
Then the light bulb went off.
"I realized she wasn't home! I didn't hang her coat up," Phyllis continues. "She was only three. She couldn't reach it, so I always did it. And somebody found her out in the parking lot. We hadn't even realized she was gone! I thought it was funny because I didn't even know she knew our phone number."
When they returned to church to pick her up, they found her sitting with the priest, having breakfast. "She wasn't a bit upset. She said she knew we'd come back," Phyllis remembers. "I think she was more worried because she didn't tell me she was going to go to the bathroom."
Even at three years old, Kate was wise beyond her years. (Nobody calls her Katie. "It's just a basketball thing. I was Kate my whole life," Meier explains.
When she got to kindergarten, her teacher called Phyllis to tell her the school was going to "double promote" Kate to first grade because her reading level was so advanced. It was the first exception in which the school district had allowed a student to jump from kindergarten to first grade mid-year. "And she didn't have any problem at all," Phyllis says.
Many years later, Kate attended Duke University. She earned a bachelor's degree in English Literature with Cum Laude honors in 1989. She was also named to the Dean's List and she received GTE Academic All-America Second Team honors. She then went on to earn her Master of Arts in Teaching English from Duke in 1990.
On top of being incredibly intelligent, Meier was born with a knack for athletics. She was the only girl on the boys little league team as a kid, and was the first girl to win All Star in her hometown of Wheaten, Illinois.
At age six, she started playing basketball and volleyball. One night, during a volleyball game her freshman year of high school, Meier turned her knee and had to be taken to the emergency room. After examining her knee, the doctor told Meier and her parents that she had a huge growth spurt ahead of her.
"Well, how tall are we talking?" Phyllis asked. The doctor said at least 6 feet or 6'1. At that time, Meier was 5'6. "We about died!" Phyllis explains.
Meier continued to grow throughout high school and eventually hit the predicted height. "She used to tell people she was 5'13, because she didn't want to say she was 6 foot. Now, I think she's very glad she is."
As a basketball player, who wouldn't be happy to be that tall? Meier used that height to her advantage and excelled in basketball. She was a four-year letter winner at Duke, and her name is all over the record books. She currently ranks third overall for all-time scoring average (16.2 points per game), steals (232), free throws made (447) and free throws attempted (624) for the Blue Devils. She earned ACC Rookie of the Year and Basketball Yearbook Freshman All-America honors. Even after missing her junior season due to a knee injury, Meier returned the following season as if she never missed a game. Her senior season, Meier earned Kodak/WBCA District 2 All-America and All ACC First Team awards, and the Blue Devils' named her MVP.
She continued to receive recognition long after she graduated. In 2002, Duke honored Meier for her efforts as a player by naming her to the inaugural induction class in the Blue Devils' Hall of Honor. That same year, Meier was named to the ACC's 50th Anniversary Team.
After completing her master's program, Meier travelled overseas to play professionally in Belgium. She began teaching conversational English classes, and eventually started coaching a youth team. Meier stayed in Belgium for the next three years and lead her team to three First Division titles and one Belgian Cup championship. Meier never looked back after moving into coaching.
"Do I miss playing? No," Meier says. "I coached a little team of kids that were the ages of 13-17 and I loved that more than wanting to play. I just loved it. The give and take. Just getting to know people and figuring out how to work and how to get them to play harder and how to feel good about themselves."
Meier welcomed the transition from player to coach. "Everything I do is an exchange and, when I played, it felt like I was just a player who woke up every day, worked out for myself. There was no growth or exchange."
When Meier returned to the United States, she pursued a collegiate coaching career, starting as an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina in Asheville from 1993-1994. Then she joined the coaching staff at Tulane for seven years, helping to lead the Green Wave to the highest ranking in school history and a school record of 27 wins the same season.
Before coming to UM, Meier coached at UNC Charlotte. As the fifth head coach in the school's history, she brought the women's basketball program to national notoriety. Meier credits her success as a coach from growing up in such a big family.
"That stuff just comes out in coaching," she says. "I don't have any background in psychology but I think I learned how to blend."
Meier's father died in a plane crash when Phyllis was pregnant with Kate, and they already had a 4-year-old, a 3-year-old and a 2-year-old. A few years later, Phyllis met Howard Skolak, a widower with four children as well.
They have been married for 43 years with their blended family of ten.
"We had the Skolaks and the Meiers, and the Skolaks had a different background than the Meiers. There were eight kids trying to learn how to live together, sharing rooms and everything from day one. And you just have to make it work. Your problems are never bigger than the group."
She brought that same mentality to Miami when she came to coach the Hurricanes in 2005. "My energy is being put to very good use as a coach. It's very much give and take. I love the exchange. I love demanding effort, and then people come through for you," says Meiers. "It's just a lot of fun."
She made it clear that her goal was to make Miami one of the best women's basketball programs in the country. And she has certainly achieved that goal. In her first season, the Hurricanes finished the season with an impressive 17-13 overall record, and came in sixth place in the ACC. Having just finished her seventh season as head coach, she has taken the women's team leaps and bounds from where she took them her first year. UM finished the 2011-2012 regular season No. 8 in the NCAA, with an overall record of 25-5 and 14-2 in the ACC. The Canes earned a No. 2 seed in the ACC tournament, losing to Wake Forest in the quarterfinal round.
And Meier could not be happier with the success of the team over the years. "I'm just thrilled that I had a vision when I came here. I thought this could be a top-ten program and win championships. I said it in my press conference and I could tell that people in the audience thought I was a little crazy. Because there just wasn't this real positive energy around the program when I first got here. The expectations weren't as high as I wanted them to be. And so I went ahead and put the pressure on the program and myself. If you don't expect things for the women's basketball program here, get out of my way, because I do."
Meier recently accomplished a major milestone in her own career: her 200th win. And throughout it all-the awards and recognitions, the wins and losses, the highs and lows, Meier stays grounded.
She still finds 45 minutes before every game to take a nap and clear her mind.
Her parents still come to as many games as they can while they visit Meier every year for six weeks.
She has no regrets and does not believe in quitting.
And Meier still gives her players the same advice. "I just tell them confidence is knowing the next thing that happens will be positive. If you have that expectation, you truly believe. Just live with courage and live large. You can be small if you want; you can shrink. But, you know, I just like to live large."
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Girl's-Eye View of Sports Revival
After a long absence, due to applying for and starting my master's program in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Miami, I'd like to start this first blog post back by talking about the crazy trades and other football news going on right now.
In case you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks or you don't pay attention to football and are just starting to follow it, Peyton Manning, one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, a 4-time NFL MVP, a 6-time AFC Player of the year, recently became a free agent and signed a contract with the Denver Broncos. This move came after 14 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts.
Let's go back a few months, when everyone was questioning whether or not Manning would even be able to continue playing football. He went through several neck surgeries to fix a bulging disk before his neck fusion surgery. The surgeries were successful and Manning announced he would be back and ready to play in the 2012 season.
Then the flood of rumors started. Where was Manning going next? Which team was going to pick him up? Would he choose the Jets and play in New York with his brother, Eli, who plays for the New York Giants? Would he stay in warmer climate and go to Arizona to play for the Cardinals who struggled to find a starting quarterback last season? Could the Miami Dolphins get him with the millions of dollars they offered? After weeks of predictions as to which team Peyton would chose, he finally made his decision. Peyton Manning decided he was going to become a Denver Bronco for the 2012 NFL season. (cue the shock)
Not once were the words “Denver” or “Broncos” mentioned while Peyton shopped for a new team. After all, the Broncos made it to the playoffs last season with the kneeling, Jesus loving boy from Florida, Tim Tebow. This shocking news was just the beginning. Now that Petyon Manning is going to the Broncos, Tebow needed to find a new team. So where was Tebow going? Would he go to Miami? What about the Jacksonville Jaguars? He played for the University of Florida, so he would have a huge following in northern Florida. Plus he could be exactly what the Jags need to finally make a comeback.
Instead, (get ready for be shocked again) Tim Tebow decided to go the New York Jets and be the second string quarterback to first string Mark Sanchez. Tebow: why would you chose to be a backup quarterback, when you could be the star quarterback and play for thousands of fans who have followed your career since college? Why would you go to a city that does not like change, especially when it comes to its sports teams, and has some of the toughest fans of any other city? You built up your career so much last season; you are the comeback kid; you proved to the NFL world that you deserve to be the starting quarterback. Instead, you decided to take two steps backwards and play for a team that can't seem to get their act together. Yes, we've all heard how “excited” you are for the upcoming season, and how “excited” you are to play for the Jets, and how “excited” you are to be on a team with Mark Sanchez. But let’s be honest, Tebow, until Rex Ryan puts you in the game (or Sanchez gets injured, whichever comes first), and you prove to those hard-headed New York fans that you are worthy of their acceptance, it will be a long, kneeling-less season for you.
Needless to say, I am very excited to see what the 2012 NFL season brings. (Let's be honest, I get giddy before the start of every NFL season) With the NFL draft just around the corner, I'm anxious to see what who gets picked by which team. First prediction of the next NFL season: it will definitely be an interesting one :-)
Let's go back a few months, when everyone was questioning whether or not Manning would even be able to continue playing football. He went through several neck surgeries to fix a bulging disk before his neck fusion surgery. The surgeries were successful and Manning announced he would be back and ready to play in the 2012 season.
Then the flood of rumors started. Where was Manning going next? Which team was going to pick him up? Would he choose the Jets and play in New York with his brother, Eli, who plays for the New York Giants? Would he stay in warmer climate and go to Arizona to play for the Cardinals who struggled to find a starting quarterback last season? Could the Miami Dolphins get him with the millions of dollars they offered? After weeks of predictions as to which team Peyton would chose, he finally made his decision. Peyton Manning decided he was going to become a Denver Bronco for the 2012 NFL season. (cue the shock)
Not once were the words “Denver” or “Broncos” mentioned while Peyton shopped for a new team. After all, the Broncos made it to the playoffs last season with the kneeling, Jesus loving boy from Florida, Tim Tebow. This shocking news was just the beginning. Now that Petyon Manning is going to the Broncos, Tebow needed to find a new team. So where was Tebow going? Would he go to Miami? What about the Jacksonville Jaguars? He played for the University of Florida, so he would have a huge following in northern Florida. Plus he could be exactly what the Jags need to finally make a comeback.
Instead, (get ready for be shocked again) Tim Tebow decided to go the New York Jets and be the second string quarterback to first string Mark Sanchez. Tebow: why would you chose to be a backup quarterback, when you could be the star quarterback and play for thousands of fans who have followed your career since college? Why would you go to a city that does not like change, especially when it comes to its sports teams, and has some of the toughest fans of any other city? You built up your career so much last season; you are the comeback kid; you proved to the NFL world that you deserve to be the starting quarterback. Instead, you decided to take two steps backwards and play for a team that can't seem to get their act together. Yes, we've all heard how “excited” you are for the upcoming season, and how “excited” you are to play for the Jets, and how “excited” you are to be on a team with Mark Sanchez. But let’s be honest, Tebow, until Rex Ryan puts you in the game (or Sanchez gets injured, whichever comes first), and you prove to those hard-headed New York fans that you are worthy of their acceptance, it will be a long, kneeling-less season for you.
Needless to say, I am very excited to see what the 2012 NFL season brings. (Let's be honest, I get giddy before the start of every NFL season) With the NFL draft just around the corner, I'm anxious to see what who gets picked by which team. First prediction of the next NFL season: it will definitely be an interesting one :-)
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