maly, too: Drake's Zach Bosch Honored for Community Work

Friday, September 21, 2012

Drake's Zach Bosch Honored for Community Work

Zach Bosch, a senior offensive lineman on Drake's football team, has been named to the 2012 American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Good Works Team for his involvement in the community off the field.

“It’s great to be recognized, but when I started getting involved in the community, I never thought about something like this,” Bosch said. “It’s just what we do at Drake. Growing up, I was always taught to give back to people. For me, community service is the most simple and the easiest way to give back to others.”

A native of Tuscola, Ill., Bosch was recognized for the impact his tireless volunteer work has had on the Des Moines community. The AFCA Good Works team recognizes 22 student-athletes, 11 from the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and 11 combined from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Division II, Division III and NAIA classifications which consists of more than 5,000 student-athletes. One of the sport’s premier service honors, the AFCA Good Works Team shines a spotlight on the positive, off-the-field impact that a select group of student-athletes has on their communities.

“This is in my opinion, one of the biggest and most significant awards a college football player can receive,” head coach Chris Creighton said. “It is an phenomenal achievement and he is very deserving. It is not something where he did just one thing for his resume. He literally went to the VA and started a program where our guys are visiting and building relationships with our veterans and spending quality time with them. That is the most significant service he has done, but he has been a part of all of our service projects. I’m so proud of him and the AFCA for honoring him for what I believe is a richly earned award.”

Bosch has participated in nearly every service project the Drake football team has participated in, but his biggest accomplishment in the Des Moines community has been involvement with the Veterans Affairs Hospital. He began a program where he and his teammates regularly visit ill veterans at the facility – many of whom rarely have other visitors – to provide comfort, support and camaraderie to those that have served this nation.

“My grandfather served in the Air Force, as did his brothers, and I grew up in a very proud family,” Bosch said. “Two of my cousins joined the Air Force and one served in Afghanistan, so I have tremendous respect for our military. I know that without their service and sacrifice, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to play football and get an education. So I try to do anything I can for our veterans and men and women of the armed forces.”

Bosch’s other community service work includes

Boys & Girls Clubs--Drake's players have established a consistent program of visits to the local Boys & Girls Club branches, and implemented both a reading program to improve literacy rates and a mentor program for youth.
Des Moines Public Schools Reading Program-Zach and his teammates have developed and maintained a program in which players visit several Des Moines Public Schools elementary schools every Friday during the season to read to children. The program is designed to develop consistency and familiarity with the visits to encourage students to embrace reading and improve their skills through the time spent together with books.
Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall - Zach helped to make sure the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall exhibit is properly disassembled and packed to assist with the success of the program, and share it with more people.
Thanksgiving Meal—For military families with husbands and fathers serving overseas. Volunteering time and talents for this important local program.
Meals From the Heartland-Bulldogs players join other Drake student-athletes to help package food items each year in January to aid hunger relief around the world. Together they spend one day measuring and packing pre-packaged food allotments that will feed those in need.
Blank Children's Hospital--Visits with children at Des Moines' local children's hospital to provide companionship and encouragement to children suffering from a variety of illnesses.

This is the second straight season in which a Drake football student-athlete has earned the prestigious honor as Stoy Hall was one of 22 honorees in 2011.

Bosch is now eligible to become a Good Works Team Captain which is based on online voting. To vote, visit ESPN.com and search “Good Works.” Fans can learn more about this year’s team members and their charitable accomplishments by viewing player profiles on the website. The Team Captain and his fellow award recipients will be invited to New Orleans to take part in a special youth football clinic leading up to the 2013 Allstate Sugar Bowl.

[This story was written for Ron Maly by Ty Patton, Drake's assistant athletic director for athletic communications].

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.