Time Flies When You’re Working Hard

Where does the time go? Why don’t I ever seem to have enough of it?

Since the fall sports athletes reported to campus on Aug. 21, it’s been one big wind sprint getting things operational. Morning, nights, weekends – anytime I could find an extra 15 minutes to work on Linfield athletics I did.

Rosters had to be finalized, season outlooks had to be written, and the athletics Web site had to be brought up to date for eight varsity teams. Football guide had to be completed, our sponsorship campaign had to be wrapped up, and student work crews had to be hired and trained.

Speaking of students, without a great work-study staff to help shoulder the load, this monster of a job surely wouldn’t get done.

The Wildcats’ first football game is this weekend and people are excited. I’m just relieved it’s on the road. But Abilene, Texas, is a long ways to travel for any kind of competition. Hurricane Ike is bearing down on Texas, but shouldn’t affect the football team’s travel plans. We’re flying to Dallas-Fort Worth, then driving the three hours over to “The Prettiest Town I’ve Ever Seen.”

The Linfield Football Guide, themed “Expect to Win” is due from the printer on Monday (Thanks to alum Eric Fricke and his staff at Print NW for their hustle getting this publication produced quickly). As is customary, we had a lot of last-minute editing and pagination to accomplish before we could say we were truly “Done.” It should be another collector’s item.

If you want your own copy of the football guide, we’ll have information on how to receive one by mail posted soon on the Web site.

Been busy organizing the radio broadcasts. Writing copy, working with sponsors, and preparing the schedule of commercials.

Soccer and volleyball teams are off to good starts. Volleyball is 4-0. Men’s soccer is 2-0 and women’s soccer is 2-2. Cross country squads are running well, too. Could be a great fall ahead.

Our sports info crew has also meeting to develop our “New Media” elements. This blog is the first deployment in a series of new wrinkles you’ll be seeing in the weeks to come.

Rockin’ and Rollin’

Time to get serious about Linfield athletics (not like we weren’t all along), but things reached a fever pitch on Thursday when close to 300 student-athletes report to campus to begin training.

Football, soccer, cross country and volleyball teams all arrive early in the day for a gauntlet of check-in stations. Those stops include securing housing, checking out equipment, meeting with coaches, having their photographs taken for the sports info guy, filling out NCAA paperwork, shopping the Nike and AQx equipment stores, and on and on. It’s enough to wear anyone out before they even get dressed down for the first practice.

Teams settle into their regular practice routines on Friday with the first competitions coming Aug. 29 when the volleyball and cross country programs make their season debuts. For those squads, time is precious. There’s not much time to get to know new teammates, learn the team philosophy and show their coaches they deserve playing time.

This much we know: Every coach is competitive and expects their teams to raise their levels of performance from the previous season. Which ones live up to expectations (and which ones don’t) will be determined in the weeks and months to come.