I have a few more comments about the workout Iowa's football team had Sunday at Valley High School in West Des Moines. All in all, it was a good show by the Hawkeyes. I don't know if the fans who showed up to watch it knew that it was going to be just a practice, not a game, but I think most of them left happy. Indeed, none of them could beat the price. All of 'em got in free. Now about the crowd. Folks from Valley estimated there were 8,000 people at the practice. If so, they must have been counting the players, folks like me in the press corps who watched the workout from the east sideline, the people working in the concession stands and the game officials. Valley Stadium is supposed to hold 8,000 fans, but there were empty seats in both the west and east grandstands. There could, and should, have been more. And it certainly wasn't the Iowa football team's fault. I'd heard that 15,000 tickets had been distributed in central Iowa and in Iowa City. If so, there were a lot of no-shows. And I think I know the reason. There were continuous warnings on TV and in the paper that parking would be a problem. Because of that, I know a lot of people who decided to stay home. "Why drive over there and risk not finding a place to park?" a guy asked me. Why the paper and TV kept saying there'd be a parking problem, I don't know. Hell, the Valley-Dowling game that's played in the stadium every other season [when Valley is the home team] always draws 10,000 to 12,000, and no one seems to complain about the parking. Before Sunday's practice, there even were warnings in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City throughout the week that parking would be a problem. It wasn't. The only problems were TV and the newspapers.

Empty seats in west grandstand at Valley Stadium.

Todd Townsend Hired for Drake Basketball Coaching Staff

Drake basketball coach Ray Giacoletti has announced the final member of his coaching staff with the hiring of Todd Townsend.

“Todd brings the last piece of the puzzle in to our coaching staff with great recruiting ties in Chicago and Milwaukee,” Giacoletti said. “He has a great background having played at Marquette under Tom Crean and he gives our program a staff that is capable of scouring the Midwest to attract the best student-athletes to Drake.”

Townsend, a former captain and member of a Final Four team at Marquette, comes to Drake after spending the last four seasons in a similar role at Northern Illinois. While at NIU, his recruiting efforts helped attract some of the top talent in Illinois to campus.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to join coach Giacoletti’s staff and the Drake men’s basketball program,” Townsend said. “Drake’s mix of strong academics and a commitment to creating a first-class student-athlete experience – coupled with coach Giacoletti’s vision for the program – makes this a very attractive program to be a part of.”

On the court, Townsend helped mentor Xavier Silas, the leading scorer in the Mid-American Conference and seventh-leading scorer in the nation during the 2010-11 season. During Townsend's first season on staff, Silas became the first NIU player to earn All-District honors in more than a decade. Silas went on to become the first Huskie to play in the NBA since 1997, spending the 2011-12 season as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers organization.

As a recruiter, Townsend helped NIU sign a number of high-profile in-state recruits, including Abdel Nader, a top-10 recruit in Illinois and Dre Henley, a top-25 recruit in Illinois. Tim Toler, a first team junior college All-American, and highly-recruited twins Keith and Kevin Gray were also actively recruited by Townsend and helped the Huskies start to rebuild the program with a young foundation.

As a member of NIU head Mark Montgomery's first staff in 2011-12, Townsend helped coached one of the youngest teams in the nation. NIU saw 55.9 percent of its minutes played by freshmen, the sixth-highest percentage in the country, and the Huskies lead the MAC in offensive rebounds while ranking second in rebounding defense and third in rebounding margin. Abdel Nader became the first NIU player since 2009 to be named to the MAC All-Freshman team.

Prior to coming to NIU, Townsend spent the 2008-09 season in Europe, playing and coaching professionally. Townsend started the season in Germany playing for the Dusseldorf Giants before finishing the season in Sweden as a player/coach with the Norrkoping Dolphins.

A native of Chicago, Townsend worked as an assistant coach at Northeastern University during the 2007-08 season under head coach Bill Coen. Townsend helped Northeastern's Matt Janning earn second team All-Colonial Athletic Association honors and Chaisson Allen receive CAA All-Rookie team recognition.

Before beginning his coaching career at Northeastern, Townsend served two years as the director of basketball operations at his alma mater, Marquette. Working under then-head coach Tom Crean, Townsend was part of a staff that guided the Golden Eagles to two-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, a 20-12 BIG EAST Conference record, and a combined record of 44-21 in back-to-back 20-win campaigns.

In four seasons as a player at Marquette (2001-05), Townsend helped the Golden Eagles win 91 games, advancing to postseason play in all four seasons. Marquette made two trips to the NCAA Tournament during Townsend's playing career, including a trip to the NCAA Final Four in 2003. Townsend started all 33 games on the team that reached Marquette's first Final Four since 1977. He captained Marquette during his senior season and was a two-time recipient of the Bart Miller Standard of Excellence Award during his playing career with the Golden Eagles.

“I think his playing experience is huge, having played alongside Dwyane Wade and been to a Final Four,” Giacoletti said. “That builds instant credibility for our players. I’m excited to have him. He’s a hard-working, organized and well-respected young coach.”

Townsend earned his bachelor's degree in communication studies from Marquette in May of 2005. He has a son, Tyson, born in December of 2009, and a daughter, Leila, born in June of 2011.

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

 

Todd Townsend. Photo courtesy of GoDrakeBulldogs.com

It was a windy and sometimes wet Sunday afternoon in West Des Moines, but that didn't stop 8,000 fans [all of whom had free tickets] from watching the Hawkeyes' football team practice at Valley Stadium. There were some empty seats in both the west and east grandstands, so the size of the crowd wasn't up to Valley-Dowling standards during the high school season. But it was a good turnout considering the weather. Rain fell before the workout and there were occasional sprinkles during the practice. Because of the weather, the stadium lights were turned on throughout the practice, which began at 1:30 p.m. The wind blew hard out of the south, which pleased the punters, placekickers and passers who did their work south to north. One of the passers was Cody Sokol, No. 19, who is pictured below being interviewed. It was a homecoming of sorts for Sokol. He was born in Des Moines on March 19, 1992, but moved away at an early age. Sokol, who will be a junior at Iowa, passed for 3,807 yards and 43 touchdowns in his second season at Scottsdale Community College in Arizona. Sokol didn't play last season, but is one of three players trying to be Iowa's starting quarterback in 2013. Sokol said he had a number of relatives at the practice. "Oh, my gosh, I couldn't count the number," he said.when I asked how many. Others vying for the quarterback job are sophomore Jake Rudock and redshirt freshman C. J. Beathard. No one other than James Vandenberg, who has used up his eligibility, took a snap last season. "Everyone is doing really well," Sokol said. "It's close. It's going to come down to who's doing [the job] day in and day out. We all want to play, we all want to start." Sokol said he and his teammates enjoyed playing the game at Valley Stadium in front of fans. "It was awesome," he said. "It's good for us to travel a little bit. It's cool for the underlassmen to travel in the spring to get them accustomed to going to away games.This is a great stadium. It's pretty cool to come in here and play on the turf." By the way, anyone with the name Sokol should feel right at home in eastern Iowa, which is full of people of Czechoslovakian descent. Sokol is also the name of Slavic gymnastic societies in Europe and the United States. Indeed, many young athletes in Cedar Rapids belonged to what Ron Maly's late father called "the Sokols" in the early 20th century. Julius Maly was a proud member of the Sokols. So there's some history for you, Cody Sokol!

The Hawkeyes brought their show to West Des Moines.

Quarterback Cody Sokol is interviewed after the pracitce session.

Some of the 8,000 fans enjoy the happenings.

West stands

East stands.

Going at it.

It was a field day for news photographers.

Bringing him to his knees.

Here's a message I sent to award-winning photographer Bob Modersohn up there in Decorah: 'Bob, I just finished watching a movie on TCM that starred your favorite western hero, the legendary Gabby Hayes. The good thing was that Gabby was still alive when the movie ended, even though lots of other bank robbers, four-flushers, killers and other assorted thugs and other assholes weren't.' Memo to other readers: I went on a lot of jobs with Modersohn during the golden age of newspapers. When we ran out of stuff to talk about while shooting baskets on an outdoor court at some high school along Highway 6, we'd sometimes turn to the subject of the effervescent Gabby Hayes and his distinctive talents in western movies.

Gabby Hayes. Photo courtesy of Google.

Now I think I've heard everything. People who follow the circus [not just the registered clowns] have informed various news services, CNN and AP among them, that a Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus elephant was wounded in a drive-by shooting at 2 a.m. in Mississippi. I'm hoping the elephant, named Carol, recovers, and I'm also hoping the idiot who shot her is found and ordered to have both of his arms amputated. It's sad enough that these elephants and other animals are taken out of the wild. To be shot while performing in a circus adds to the horrible and embarrassing things going on in this nation.

Photo courtesy of CNN

I wasn't able to watch the NCAA basketball championship game on the tube tonight, which is probably just as well. Someone told me Louisville won the title with an 82-76 victory over Michigan. I didn't need to see Pitino and his players win another game. The best thing is that I don't have to be a Michigan fan any longer. My 2-day stay in the Wolverines' camp is over.

Try to not let this get around, but I guess I'm suddenly a Michigan fan. At least for a couple more days. Hey, you didn't think I'd be rooting for an all-Big East championship game Monday night in the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament at Atlanta, did you? Michigan of the Big Ten prevented that from happening Saturday night by getting past Syracuse, 61-56. I guess I'm tired of hearing about how good Syracuse's zone defense was, and evidently so was Michigan. The Wolverines didn't it bother them on their way to their 31st victory of the season. So it'll be Michigan against Louisville in Monday ngiht's title game. The Cardinals got past Wichita State, the team I picked to win the championship, 72-68. A sad finish to the Wichita State-Louisville game, that's what it was. Sad that Wichita State couldn't quite get the job done after blowing a 12-point lead. I realize I'm the only guy in America [other than Wichita State's players and coaches] who thought the Shockers would win. And they didn't win, but they gave Louisville a heck of a battle before yielding. Indeed, they handled most of Louisville's starting players most of the night, but couldn't control the reserves. I mean, who in the name of James Naismith is Luke Hancock, the guy who came off the bench and scored 20 points for Louisville. In the end, Wichita State buckled under Louisville's pressure defense, forcing the Shockers into mistakes they didn't make early in the game while building a 12-point game. Tough way for Gregg Marshall and the Shockers of the Missouri Valley Conference to end a 30-9 season.