Kansas City Royals pitcher Brady Singer used part of his $4.25 signing bonus to give his parents a special Christmas gift. In an effort to thank his parents for all of they did for him, he paid off the mortgage on their house and all other debt they had. Brady also wrote a beautiful letter to his parents, thanking them for their time and money over the years. I’m sure his parents sacrificed mightily to help Brady reach his dreams. Imagine the cost for all of those travel teams, tournaments, and private lessons. Imagine the cumulative time off from work that each parent had to take. Joe’s Pers ..read more

I always remember my mother telling me to choose my friends wisely. If you befriend the wrong person who does the wrong thing at the wrong time, and you are with them, you too might get into trouble, even if it isn’t your fault. That’s life. Many a person is in prison because of just such a situation. It was always an important lesson to remember. The lesson below is similar.  It says that you need to pick your friends wisely, but for a different reason. He says that, “you are the average of the five people you spend the most amount of time with.” So, if you want to be goal-oriented and s ..read more

Nick Saban is regarded as the best college football coach of all time. He had an amazing career, winning 7 national championships. This career came to an end a few months ago when he retired. He recently testified in front of the US Congress on the impacts of NIL (athletes being able to be paid for their name, image and likeness) at the collegiate level. The summary of Coach Saban’s testimony is that he retired from coaching because of NIL. He believes that NIL directly clashes with his intention to develop players over their collegiate career. He testified that incoming recruits and their par ..read more

In the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, Chad Baker-Mazara, an Auburn player, deliberately elbowed a player from Yale. Chad lost his cool. For his actions, the official assessed a Flagrant 2 Technical Foul and ejected Chad from the game. Auburn, the heavy favorite, lost that game to Yale.  Here is the play. Now, the part that caught my eye, was a subsequent interview with a coach from a team that was not playing. A reporter asked the head coach of Alabama what he and his players could learn from this incident. In essence, Coach Oats said, “We’re trying to win on the sc ..read more

Caitlin Clark is a phenomenon. She is a senior at the University of Iowa. This year she has broken too many records to list here. However, the big one is that she became the leading scorer in men’s and women’s college basketball history.  She currently has 3,685 points. In her career, she has averaged 32.8 points per game. She also has more assists than anyone else this year, which tells you a lot about her game. She also has more three pointers this year than any other player. In short, she has a lot of great components to her game. Joe’s Perspective: Before Magic Johnson and Larry Bird ..read more

Gene Simmons was born in Israel shortly after the end of World War II. Most of his family perished under the Hitler regime in concentration camps because they were Jewish. When Gene turned 9, he and his mother legally immigrated to America. Most people know Gene Simmons as the former lead singer of KISS, a rock-n-roll band, who wore makeup and platform shoes while singing loud music. However, the following video allows us to see him as a thoughtful and reflective immigrant to America. He tells us that the luckiest moment of his life was the day he immigrated to America. He calls this country t ..read more

During the first half of the Super Bowl that featured the Kansas City Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers, the Chiefs were not playing very well. To make matters worse, they had just fumbled the ball. So, an irate player for the Chiefs, Travis Kelce (a.k.a. Taylor Swift’s boyfriend) approaches head coach, Andy Reid on the sideline. Kelce grabs Reid by the arm, bumps him to the point that he loses his balance, and from about two inches from his face, he vehemently yells something to his coach. Since then, everybody in the world has expressed an opinion about this 10-second incident. Every sp ..read more

As you know, every Wednesday we provide you with a new athlete or coach who exemplifies the featured character trait. It is called, Role Model Wednesday. I wrote 132 chapters to cover 3 seasons a year x 4 years. Even if you are a 3 sport athlete, you will never have to read the same chapter in a 4-year high school career.  You should see a variety of athletes representing diverse sports, diverse ethnic backgrounds, diverse time periods (historical and contemporary), diverse childhood experiences and diverse life perspectives. The idea is to give you a new athlete to inspire you on and off ..read more

Okay, simple video. It’s the bottom of the 9th inning and the tying run is rounding third base. It’s a close play at the plate and the ump calls the runner out. Game over. The only thing is the catcher did not hang on to the ball. He tagged the runner with an empty glove, which makes the player safe at home. The ball is lying on the ground. The only person who spotted the ball on the ground is the catcher. At this point, the catcher has a choice to make, and it’s a simple choice: A. Call the ref over and tell him he didn’t catch the ball. The ref would reverse his call and the runner would tie ..read more

During the home opener for La Crescent-Hokah High School in Minnesota, the fans were rough on the referees. Members of the student section were yelling at the refs and criticizing the refs. Some thought the student section went too far. Senior captain Noah Bjerke-Wieser of the boy’s basketball team was one of those individuals. So, he decided to make a post on social media to remind his fellow students about sportsmanship. “We need to stop yelling at the refs.  We all get that it is frustrating when the officiating in a game is not great, but we need to stop the harassing behavior. It is ..read more