maly, too: Thoughts

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Thoughts

By RON MALY

A few thoughts while pondering the what-it-means-in-the-total-scheme-of-things importance of the headline on page 1 of the Sunday paper that told us IOWA SLIPS IN BICYCLE RANKING:

It's no secret that I'm a big follower of the athletic program at Valley High School. I've lived in West Des Moines for 48 years, and my three sons and three of my six grandchildren own diplomas from the school. A fourth grandchild will graduate from Valley in two years.

I happen to think that Valley's Gary Swenson is the best high school football coach in the state, and one of the best anywhere. He has five state championships to prove it.

But I don't necessarily think the Tigers should be ranked No. 1 in the state by the paper at this stage of the season, even though they walloped Waukee, 44-13, Friday night.

As far as I'm concerned, Valley's opponent from a few miles down the road in West Des Moines--Dowling--should be on top of the class 4-A rankings.

Dowling won the 2014 state championship, and I know coach Tom Wilson has another standout team this season.

Wilson is a very good coach and he'll have his players sky-high when they tee it up Sept. 18 against Valley in a Dowling home game at Drake Stadium.

Until the Maroons lose, they're No. 1 in my book.

*

In reference to Dowling, I can't figure out why the Maroons' game at Xavier of Cedar Rapids wasn't played this weekend.

Because of lightning and hail Friday night in Cedar Rapids, the game was canceled.

The game should have been rescheduled in Cedar Rapids for either Saturday afternoon or Saturday night.

"Distance" was the reason given in the paper for the cancellation.

I'm trying to figure out exactly what that means.

Motel rooms could have been rented to house Dowling's coaches and players Friday night in Cedar Rapids, or they could have ridden school buses back to West Des Moines Friday night, then back to Cedar Rapids Saturday for the game.

A lot of us want to know how Dowling and Xavier--two Catholic high schools with powerful athletic programs--would stack up against one another.

"Maybe neither team wanted a loss," a guy told me.

Maybe so.

*

Urbandale thumped Hoover of Des Moines, 68-7, on weekend 1 of the high school season.

I'm sure editorial writers at the paper are oiling up the keys on their computers so they can attach a thistle [in the roses-and-thistles segment of the opinion pages] next to Urbandale's name in the Central Iowa Metro League standings.

Well, maybe not.

Randy Evans has finally retired at the paper.

Either that or he was told to retire.

When Evans headed the opinion department, he either wrote that Valley deserved a thistle--or told someone to write it--after the Tigers ran up 80 points or more against some pitiful team from Council Bluffs.

Evans knew nothing--absolutely nothing--about football, or what took place in that particular game.

Gary Swenson

Valley coach Gary Swenson used everyone in the game except the student managers to try to hold down the score.

I mean, you can't tell some fourth-team halfback [who never gets to play except when his team leads by a half-dozen touchdowns] to fall on his knees in the fourth quarter when the score is already 75-0.

Whatever, I haven't seen a thistle sent in Urbandale's direction yet.

Maybe Valley got its thistle only because it's Valley.

Valley is, of course, the school everybody [well, most people] at the paper loves to hate.

*

All in all, the sports department did a pretty good job with its high school coverage this weekend.

I liked Chris Cuellar's "Take Five" column in

Chris Cuellar

Saturday's paper, and I liked it that most of page 1 in the sports section was devoted to high school games that were played Friday night.

I think high school results should take up most of the room on page 1 of the sports section during every football season. I used to say that today's high school students would be tomorrow's newspaper subscribers.

I no longer feel that way. There's no way today's high school students will have any reason to read papers. They''ll get their news elsewhere--probably their telephones, maybe TV.

The way things are going at the paper here, it'll be interesting to see if the high school football teams are able to get an inch or two of page 1 coverage next Saturday morning in the sports section.

Iowa and Iowa State start their 2015 schedules next Saturday, of course. So it'll be difficult finding any high school coverage until about page 5.

*

By the way, I have no idea who's calling the shots in the sports department of the paper these days.

Maybe a robot is in charge.

Robot

Evidently, the department head no longer has the title of sports editor.

Regardless of who's making the decisions, the high school coverage this weekend was the best it's been since Dave Witke was the sports editor in the 1990s.

I sure don't miss the Brubaker/Miller/Leistikow days.

*

One other thing.

I'm absolutely thrilled that Rekha Basu has decided things are getting better at Valley High School.

Rekha Basu

I've really been worried about that.

That's a joke.

Actually, I don't give a damn what Basu thinks about anything.
[Photos and illustrations courtesy of Google].

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.