All Sport Academy - How Good Do You Want To Be Today?

A few months ago I offered to help put together a competitive cheerleading team. Knowing absolutely nothing about the world of competitive cheerleading, I figured it would be an ideal addition to the many things we do here at ASA (I type that as I’m rolling my eyes thinking, “what on earth did I get myself into”…). The coaches organized a tryout and after all was said and done we had 17 girls on the newly formed ASA Dragons Cheerleading squad, ranging in age from 7 up to 14.

Again, I know nothing about this sport, I’ve only seen it on TV a few times when they have the High School Nationals on ESPN or wherever they usually broadcast it, but when they started we were all pretty excited about getting this group up and running. The plan was to do a couple of competitions this year, workout over the summer and hit it hard next year. So, the girls started working on their routine, their tumbling, their movements, etc. and week after week they slowly started to come together. The first competition came and the coaches didn’t feel that they were quite ready, so they decided to pull out of that one and focus on the next, which was three weeks out. With a little over a week to go they were pretty worried that the girls were still not quite ready, but they were really close, a few more good workouts and maybe, just maybe, they’d have things down. Then, one evening I get a phone call to tell me that everything mysteriously came together and not only were they ready, they were going to be competitive.

The day of the competition arrives and they come to the gym to do a couple of run throughs before heading down. As they went through I could see that something was different, they were really sharp (or so I thought, what do I know about this stuff!). After the run throughs they got together and discussed directions, found out who needed things done with their hair and basically took over my office to set up the Dragons’ Beauty Shop. Hair straighting here, bow tieing there, etc., etc., etc. Keep in mind, I have two boys and no sisters, this is all very foreign stuff for me and I was feeling a bit closed in by the crowd that was gathering in my not-so-big space.

Kelly and I jumped in the car and drove down so that we could be there for the first competition. My wife has been to these things before, so she was prepared, I was not. This cheerleading competition thing is a whole ‘nother world and I’m not quite sure I’m fully comfortable with it all just yet (but I’m working on it…). Anyway, we got there just as the Dragons’ group was starting so we grabbed seats and watched. The first two teams were OK, but I figured that our girls would be better. Then, the Dragons hit the floor. I’ve watched them do the routine a number of times, I’ve heard them yelling their cheer even more (so has everyone within a two mile radius of the gym!), but I never thought I’d witness them perform as well as they did on Sunday afternoon. It was just amazing to watch and for those two and half minutes we were all on the edges of our seats enjoying what months of hard work can produce. In the end they placed second to a much larger and older squad (it appeared that all their girls were the same age as the Dragon’s oldest girls). There was much talk (and still is) about how we felt we outperformed them, but the bottom line for me is that 1st place or 2nd place doesn’t really matter, what matters is that they came together as a team, had an outstanding performance and they certainly made us proud…

I just need to find a room for them to do their hair in next time!

Last weekend I saw two last second shots during basketball games, which I find to be one of the most exciting things in all of sports. Here they are:

1). The situation was, with a few seconds on the clock, his team down by one point and two free throws, this kid sinks the second of the two to tie the game. With nearly no time left the other team throws the ball in (deep), a player grabs the ball, pivots and throws up a shot that falls in to win.

2). Another tie game, around 15 seconds left, player takes the in bounds pass and dribbles up the court, holds the ball for the last shot, he drives to the corner and launches a shot just before the buzzer. As the shot goes up, you see the official running towards half court blowing his whistle. He said the kid was fouled and gets two free throws, with no time on the clock. They clear the floor and put this kid on the line for his two free throws. He calmly sinks the first one, the near capacity crowd goes crazy and his teammates mob him on the floor.

Both were equally exciting, both were equally important to the players and fans, but as similar as they sound, they couldn’t have been farther apart in about a million ways… The first game was the ending of the University of Minnesota vs. Indiana game in the Big Ten tournament last weekend. I was watching TV and my wife called me in to see the ending, since I’m from Minnesota she knew I’d like to see it. Obviously it was a big college game in front of a television audience and a few thousand fans and the win sent Minnesota to the semi-final game of the tournament. The second game was the championship game of the St. Barts Rec basketball league in East Brunswick. The league is ages 3rd grade thru 8th grade, the player involved I believe is in 4th grade. It was nothing less than amazing to see this kid check the clock, dribble around, then head to the corner for his last-second shot. Anyone that’s ever played any level of basketball knows that we all do the 5-4-3-2-1 shoot drill with our friends a million times over our “careers” and I could see him doing it in his head. What was really amazing about it though was seeing him step up to the line, block out the crowd (I’d say there were 100+ people in the gym, all screaming) and calmly sink that first free throw. It was sports in it’s purest form…

After that game came the championship game we came to see, the girls 3rd - 8th grade championship. I love going to this particular gym, it’s small, but cozy and it’s named after my wife. OK, no, it’s not named after my wife, but the gym and my wife have the same name and I like that. Anyway, the girls warm up and they call both teams to the center of the floor, they all take a knee and the say a prayer (it’s a Catholic school, it’s what they do!), then they start the game. What I love about this league is they play six minute quarters and regardless of what’s happening on the floor they switch players after three minutes. I’ve watched two games there now and in both games there were fast breaks that were stopped because of the three-minute horn. The game was close, as all good championship games should be, but in the end our buddy Katie’s team came out on top. It was a wonderful afternoon away from the gym and there was some really great basketball from a bunch of young kids played. The winners of the tournament got a really cool sweatshirt that they’ll be able to wear proudly to school or anywhere else. If I’m not mistaken, both teams climbed into cars and went out for pizza together. You can’t beat that deal…

One of the great things about working in a place like All Sport Academy is working with kids. I was talking to a bunch of the guys that came in today from North Brunswick for their rec evaluations and I commented to someone how much fun it is working with young kids. He says to me, “You have to love kids to work in a place like this…” I spent the better part of the morning wandering around chatting with the guys (they were between 7 and 12 years old) about their positions, how exciting it was that baseball is here, what their favorite teams are, who their favorite players are, etc.

So, I’ve had a few conversations today about kids and what’s important to them, how they think, what they like and then I read this article:

Connecticut Boy Applies for WVU Football Job

You have to read the article to appreciate what this kid did. It’s really amazing and I hope I can keep track of him to see where he ends up coaching. That’s a young man with a future…

Hats off to the Mike Garrison, President at West Virginia University, for responding to him. It was a simple gesture, but that one simple gesture made a kid that was already a fan, a fan for life. Nice work Mr. Garrison, for a University President to take those couple of minutes to respond to Joshua was a really amazing thing.

Don’t you just love stories like this? Sure beats steroids, robberies, forged birth certificates, parents fighting officials and coaches and teams spying on other teams doesn’t it?

I remember the first day of baseball practice after we moved to New Jersey like it was yesterday (it was 13 years ago). My oldest son Matt was put on a team coached by three guys that were firm, but fair, very knowledgeable and all-in-all, good guys. After the first practice I told them all that I was happy they were his coaches as I appreciated the fact that even though they were young, they should be taught that being disrespectful isn’t tolerated and discipline is important on a team. Over the years he’s played on a wide variety of teams with a huge range of coaching styles and knowledge and has had a pretty solid “career”. As he grew older we knew the day would come that he’d finish High School and we’d be dealing with college and hopefully college that included baseball, but we knew he’d be off on his own and we probably wouldn’t be there.

We enjoyed the journey, enjoyed watching games, enjoyed the travel, enjoyed the friends we made and enjoyed the joy throwing a baseball brought our son. There were plenty of bumps in the road on that journey, but those are distant memories and we have moved forward and are excited about the prospects of Matthew playing for Rutgers-Newark. He has a new love for the game, he’s excited about the season (he got his number back finally) and he has great respect for his new coaches. For us, we are happy to see him smiling and happy about playing baseball again.

Today marked a new chapter in Matt’s baseball career as he boarded a plane and headed to San Antonio, Texas for a three-game series with Trinity University. It’s killing us to not be there, especially since we found out he’s scheduled as a reliever in Sunday’s game. Fortunately, Trinity will be broadcasting the game over the Internet so we’ll get to see it… (hey dad, that big monitor is certainly going to come in handy now! <g>).

Anyway, parents, enjoy the games you can and cherish every one of them because soon they are going to be done playing or are flying off to areas that you can’t get to and you’re going to be sitting by your phone waiting for the call to tell you how they did. I know Sunday is going to be tough on us and I know Matt’s going to do what he always does, look for us sitting someplace. We’ll be watching, but he won’t see us. It was only a matter of time and it’s hitting me pretty hard today…

Just about anyone that’s been in our gym knows that I have a small group of young high jumpers that I work with. There are three freshmen and a sophomore, all very talented, all with huge potential as jumpers. As I’ve written before, my son, one of those jumpers, has already had a lot of success and is the “experienced” one of the group with his two years of school and AAU/USATF experience. The rest have no more than two years experience and are working hard to improve their jumping skills with me and their leaping ability with our strength coach, J.R. Papernik. I like to tell them that I’ll get them to the bar, JR will get them over the bar…

Anyway, this weekend we had another one of our jumpers move up the ranks as Brooke Sassman (South Brunswick freshman) finished tied for second place in the Central Group IV Sectional in Toms River. Brooke has worked with us now for almost a year and I can’t even begin to express the transformation this young woman has had as a jumper in that short period of time. By finishing second in the Sectional meet she qualified for the Group IV State meet this weekend, again in Toms River, and I think she’s got a great shot at finishing in the top six there which would send her to the Meet of Champions.

As I told Brooke yesterday, the months of hard work will all be worthwhile when she steps on the track on Saturday to compete. So was seeing her name on the Jumbotron at the Bennett Center!

Speaking of the Bennett Center, if you have any interest in track, you have to see this place. Toms River Regional Schools built a bubbled track complex between and Elementary School and a Middle School that is just unbelievable. I’m trying to comprehend how and why they built it since it doesn’t look like they’ll be able to use it for winter workouts for baseball, softball, etc., but I could be wrong (I’m not guessing they are going to let baseballs fly around in there with that Jumbotron positioned where it is…). It had to have cost a small fortune to build it and to keep the bubble up and heat the place can’t be cheap. It’s amazing and I’m glad they have it, I just hope it’s successful.

There are occasions (not very often, thankfully) that I find myself wondering if the ridiculous hours I put in here at the gym are worth it. I wonder if the efforts of our instructors are appreciated, if they are beneficial, if the athletes they are training appreciate what they do for them. I wonder if those that come in to work out are getting anything out of what they do here and I wonder if having All Sport Academy open is a good thing. Usually those thoughts last about 3 seconds and I realize that it’s probably just sleep deprivation… Then, something happens to remind me just why we do what we do, in the last couple of days, I was fortunate enough to have two such events.

On Sunday I was having a discussion with a young lady about her new helmet as she waited her turn to hit. If I’m not mistaken, she’s 11 playing on a 12u team. We were discussing some of the helmets I’ve seen lately that have been airbrushed by a local artist and a few other things. She called her mom over so I could tell her about it and she jumped in the cage. As I spoke to her mom, I watched her take 15 swings or so. When she finished she came bouncing up to her mom all excited about how well the round in the cage was, speaking about a thousand words a minute, smiling from ear to ear. She finished with mom and ran over to her friends still thrilled. So I said something to her mom about it being nice to see her so excited, to which she said her too since she’s had some rough times with softball and it seems like she’s finally starting to really enjoy it and things are coming together for her from all the hard work she’s put in. It’s funny how hitting a few softballs in a cage can make a young girl that excited, but it’s fun to see a young girl get so excited from just hitting a few softballs…

Yesterday my son had a basketball game at JP Stevens. We knew the track team was there as well and I had hoped to catch one of the girls that has been working out here with us. I figured they were outside and it wasn’t going to work, but as we were leaving I noticed a few girls walking into another gym. Knowing that only a couple of events are usually held in a gym I thought I’d see if she might be in there. Turns out they were just starting the high jump and she was about to take her first jump. As the event progressed I made a prediction as to what she was going to jump based on what I was seeing in her early jumps, a prediction that would have her beating her personal best by 4 inches. As she made consecutive jumps is was clear that this was going to be one of those days you remember for a long time as jump after jump she seemed to get more comfortable. When she cleared her first jump for a personal best, she flew off the pit and was met by a few teammates with the typical teenage girl screams and hugs. When she made the next height (the height I predicted), it was a mad house. The best part was that she actually cleared the next height but brushed the bar off with her heals on the way over, which tells me that she’s going to have an amazing 2008 on the track. As her coach, I was thrilled that I was able to be there to see the pay off from the year of incredibly hard work that this young woman has put in to improve her skills and physical strength. It was even better to see how excited she was after, to get her text messages and to get the phone call from her mom how excited they all were…

That why we do it. That’s why we put in the time and effort. That’s the pay off we get.

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve written, it’s been incredibly busy here at ASA now that everyone is getting inside for winter workouts. Not only that, but we’ve got a million new things happening here, so I figured I should write about it all.

Baseball - First of all, we have two new baseball instructors, Ron Sutter and Andre Harris. Ron’s been doing lessons here for a few months, Andre only about a month and a half. Both guys come to ASA with a wealth of knowledge and experience and both guys are amazing instructors. Ron’s background is varied as he was a head coach, an athletic trainer, an athletic director, an instructor with the New York Yankees Youth Clinics (at Yankee Stadium!) and has been doing private lessons for about 25 years. He’s currently a principal in Brick, so he’s yet another professional teacher that we have on staff. Ron will be holding his annual baseball school at ASA starting January 19th, the nine-week school will meet twice a week for an hour and 15 minutes.

Andre Harris is an ex professional player that was most recently in the New York Mets organization (AAA). He’s played in the Minnesota Twins system and was on the Yankees spring training roster in ‘04 before an unfortunate car accident put him out of the game for a couple of years. Andre’s done lessons since ‘02 and has a steadily growing group he’s working with at ASA. Andre and Ron are currently planning our summer clinics and classes.

ASA is also forming 8u, 10u and 12u teams to play tournaments and games in ‘08.

Softball - Jodie Ricciardi, ASA’s softball coordinator, has recently finished a four week hitting clinic and has scheduled another one for January (10th thru 31st). Jodie’s been doing more and more lessons at ASA and will be working with a number of teams and individuals over the winter months. She’s also in the process of planning ASA’s summer softball camps and clinics.

Mixed Martial Arts - ASA is home to the NJ Combat Club, which is a competitive fight team. We’ve had three guys compete in the recent Grapplers Quest and have two guys competing this coming weekend in kickboxing matches in Rahway. At Grapplers Quest NJCC came home with two second places and a third place! The team trains three days a week at ASA and has grown to 15 members in two months. Head trainer and co-owner Tony Andreocci was recently certified by Shawn Tompkins as a trainer and affiliate of Team Tompkins Katsudo Fight Systems.

Wrestling - ASA has joined up with the recreation departments of New Brunswick and North Brunswick to start rec. wrestling programs for both communities. As a first year program we are looking to just get the group started and teach basic wrestling skills. We hope to get involved with a wrestling league, but will just pick up matches with local towns as we can. Coaches Chris Marshall and Jason McLean are both head wrestling coaches at local high schools (Marshall at Asbury Park and McLean at New Brunswick)

Cheerleading - The ASA Dragons Cheerleading squad has recently formed and will be competing in cheer competitions in ‘08. Coach Nicole Cecchini will lead the Dragons.

Soccer - Louis Ken-Kwofie has recently joined the ASA instructors crew and will be offering individual and team soccer training. Louis formerly played professional soccer in Europe and was a member of the MetroStars in the 90s.

Track - ASA will start a track club in the spring so that the athletes that are training here can compete as a team in the ‘08 AAU and USATF track meets. We currently have four high jumpers training here that all have tremendous potential to be amazing jumpers over their high school careers. ASA’s own, Derek Forthun (yes, my son), finished the ‘07 season officially ranked 19th in the USA in his age group by an independent ranking organization, which qualified him for All-American status. His middle school record jump of 5′9″ would move him up to a tie for 12th place in the country, but because school meets aren’t recognized, it’s wasn’t accepted. We believe the four jumpers (three freshmen and a sophomore) we have will not only do well in the summer meets but will compete for points in their counties. We are looking for more athletes to join the ASA track club in any event, as we get members, we’ll bring in coaches.

Personal Training and weightlifting clubs - ASA strength and conditioning instructor JR Papernik will be starting a weightlifting club. Individuals interested in Olympic lifting or Powerlifting are welcome to join the group. JR is a former NJ State record holder in the bench press and has trained numerous lifters.

Misc. - As many know, we’ve brought in a variety of pieces of equipment here at ASA to allow us to offer different items to our clients. We have embroidery, screen printing, photo enlargements, full color banners and recently purchased equipment to make a variety of personalized items such as plaques, mouse pads, car license plates, clocks, etc

Yeah, the warm weather must be behind us, my phone’s ringing off the hook. Not that I’m complaining, of course, but it’s pretty funny. Today was one of those nutty days where I think I only had enough time to sit down while I was watching our newest instructor, Andre Harris, work with some guys on their swing.

What was great about it though was at one point we had a cheerleading squad working out getting ready for a competition this weekend, wrestlers flipping tires and other conditioning drills, Andre was working out a baseball player doing speed and agility and a couple of other guys were hitting in a cage. Lots of fun things going on and all different.

I’d rather it be warm so we could be playing baseball, but I guess I have to resolve myself to the fact that it’s basketball season, I’m not happy about it, but it was bound to happen…

If you haven’t done so, check out all the things we have scheduled for the fall/winter months, plenty to pick from right now.

I’ve had numerous conversations over the last couple of years of where our motto, “How Good Do You Want To Be Today?” came from. Fortunately it has also started many conversations with people and athletes about the mental aspect of sports and training so I guess it’s working the way I had hoped…

Over the years of coaching, my two boys and I have had a few discussions about their performances (there’s an understatement…). As my oldest son, Matt, grew up and developed in each sport it was very apparent that he had potential to be a very good athlete in pretty much whatever sport he wanted to participate in. What was also very apparent was that he, like most athletes, could determine his success on the field, court or wherever, by coming in with a positive and aggressive mental attitude. I’d talk to him briefly before a game and I’d say something like, “you know, you can make yourself better by just wanting to be better, it’s all about how you mentally approach the game…” or “the next level of improvement in your game is how you approach it mentally, go at it hard and you’ll raise your level.” As he he got older the pre-game discussion got condensed to, “Hey, how good do you think you’re going to be today?” or if I was on the phone with his mom when I couldn’t be at a game I’d say, “ask him how good he’s going to be today.” It’s a silly question when you really think about it, but it would get him thinking about what I was getting at. Did it ever help him? I have no idea and I’ve never asked him (I’m sure he’ll tell me now…), but I hope thinking about it over the years did some good.

So, why did I decide to use “How Good Do You Want To Be Today?” as the All Sport Academy motto? What I hope it gets across to the athletes that work out here is that they have control of just how good their workouts are every day, which will directly translate into how good they perform in competitions. I’m a firm believer in the mental aspect of sports and by being sharp mentally as well as physically athletes have an edge over a competitor that hasn’t taken the mental part of their preparation seriously. If an athlete thinks about it and honestly answers the question it should trigger something that makes them work harder, even if it’s a slight improvement or makes them push a little bit, I hope it translates into a higher level of performance and that’s all we can ask…

OK, that’s pretty lame, but hey, we’ve got ‘em all here at All Sport Academy, so come on down (sorry, I’m all wound up now that I heard Joe Torre’s going to the Dodgers!).

So, what’s new at ASA this week? Well, we’ve scheduled a number of programs for softball and baseball and have recently worked out an arrangement with New Brunswick Recreation to run their Youth Wrestling program. We are very excited to be working with them on this and think that it’s a great way to kick start both our and NB’s wrestling programs.

First, softball - ASA Instructor Jodie Ricciardi, who’s a former assistant coach at Princeton University and a former All-Big Ten softball player, is heading up our softball program. Jodie has set up four programs for us for the winter: 1). A Fall Clinic, which will be four Tuesdays starting mid-November; 2). A Softball hitting league, which will be an league consisting of eight, four-player teams that will play games in the batting cages. It’ll be a great way to keep swinging the bat in the fall/winter; 3). Softball pre-season workouts, eight weeks, twice a week. One hour of softball skills and an hour of conditioning with J.R. Papernik, ASA’s strength and conditioning instructor; 4). Private instruction - Jodie has done hundreds of lessons with girls from elementary school through the college level and is nothing short of amazing with the girls. She’s also going to help us with teams, camps, tournaments and whatever else we can think of to do next year.

Baseball - Ron Sutter will be basically doing the same things that Jodie will be doing, with that addition of running his baseball school. Every year for many years Ron has run his school for players elementary school ages up to middle school and this year we are fortunately enough to have him at ASA. Ron’s been a great addition to the team here as he, like most of our instructors, comes from an education background (he’s a principal in Brick). What I love about all these teachers around here is that when they aren’t trying to get a player to hit better or pitch better, they are doing what’s really important, teaching our kids how to read, write, do Algebra, etc. They have a different personality when it comes to dealing with kids and a deeper level of patience than non-teachers. Anyway, Ron’s available for lessons and will be running camps, clinics, coaches clinics and whatever else I can talk him into (which isn’t tough, he loves this stuff!).

Wrestling - Chris Marshall and Jason McLean will be running our wrestling program. Chris was a Division I All-American and head wrestling coach at Asbury Park and Jason was a Division III All-American and is the head wrestling coach at New Brunswick High School. All I’m going to say about these guys is if you want to learn how to wrestle the right way, get in here because these guys know what they are doing. Not only are we starting the New Brunswick Recreational Wrestling program, but we have a year-round program for wrestlers of all skill levels. Marshall’s Law is our club wrestling team/program that will be kicking off soon. We have a number of guys working out with Chris and Jason now and have been competing in tournaments, but it’s going to grow into a full program once the wrestling season is over in the spring. Best thing is they have the coolest singlets on the mat…

Mixed Martial Arts - ASA is now home to our own fight team. The NJ Combat Club took up residence a month ago and has been working out three days a week. Any one interested in mixed martial arts is welcome to come in and check it out. If you’re interested in working out, speak to Tony Andreocci, the team’s manager. The guys are working out to compete in Grapplers Quest on November 10th. We are also hosting a seminar with Shawn Tompkins, ex-coach of the IFL’s LA Anacondas and currently the head trainer at Randy Coutre’s gym “Xtreme Coutre” in Las Vegas. Tompkins will be here on November 17th, the morning of the UFC matches in Newark at the Prudential Center. First 10 registrations get soap. You know you want to know why, so pay your money and get some… Yeah, that’s right, we’ve got soap and if I have anything to say about it’s gonna be our own soap…

Well, that’s way more than I had intended to write tonight, so that’s enough. I’m not discussing Torre, Mattingly, Girardi, A-Rod, Papelbon on Letterman, Marion Jones, Floyd Landis, this new team that all the Discovery riders and managers are going to or even the fact that I’m really not interested in the fact that the NBA kicked off their season. Although, I better make a note to touch on them all soon…