Goodbye to blogspot

This will be the last post to whitmantennis.blogspot.com.

Never fear I'm going to continue to blog at my new site

www.whitmantennis.net

Why move? Nothing like a new project over the winter but honestly Wordpress has more features and allows for far greater control over content and layout. I've moved all the old content over to the new blog and am currently working through all the old posts tagging and adding categories.

Make sure to subscribe to the new blog so you are informed when new content is added.

Goodbye dear old blogspot!

Photos from 2009 spring break

Was going through my computer files and ran across these pictures from our 2009 trip to Hilton-Head. Certainly a blast from the past. Enjoy!

2009 Pictures

An evening with the sleep doctor

The team had a wonderful dinner with Dr. Richard Simon last night in the Reid Campus Center. Dr. Simon is a '72 graduate of Whitman (and varsity tennis player) who is now one of the leading sleeping researchers in the nation. Dr Simon made the point of telling the team that if you see someone who is truly great make sure to follow them. Sage words from the sleep doctor.

Was a great experience for the team to be able to sit down with Dr Simon and talk about sleep, sleep issues, and ask questions. Dr Simon had some really fascinating information on sleep. For instance about 8 years ago Whitman student Jenny Schwartz conducted a study with the Whitman women's tennis players that focused on their serve and sleep. Basically she tracked 2nd serve percentage to a specific target with the student's normal sleep patterns and repeated the experiment with 2 more hours. Not surprising there was a statistically significant improvement with the 2 hours extra sleep. That experiment has since been repeated with Stanford varsity basketball players with similar results (free throws). One interesting fact that Dr Simon presented to the team was varsity athletes typically get 1 more hour of sleep than students not involved in athletics -- 7 hours vs 6 hours. However the 7 hours is still well below the 9 hours most college age students need.

We also spent quite a bit of time talking about resetting one's "rhythm" to adjust to time zone changes. This year we will be spending time in Hawaii and Washington DC so the information presented is very pertinent to our situation. Dr Simon stressed it was the wake up time that adjusts one sleep clock. He suggested when traveling to an Eastern time zone to start getting up 1/2 hour earlier and immediately getting full spectrum light (sunlight) a few weeks before the date of travel.

Of particular interest was the topic of naps. Basically sleep is good and if done properly naps can make a person more alert and reduce "sleep debt". It was suggested that if one has an important task (like a test) in the afternoon or evening a good strategy would be to drink a cup of coffee and then take a 20 minute nap. However be careful not to nap too long and then potentially wake up from stage 3 sleep. Waking up from stage 3 sleep can cause "sleep drunkenness" and heavy lethargy.

Also for the parents out there -- it is completely natural for teenagers to have a sleep cycle of staying up late and sleeping-in the morning. It appears that humans are wired to have different sleep patterns at different ages.

Question for those that stayed away through this article -- how can you tell if you are getting enough sleep? Answer -- if you don't need an alarm clock to wake up.

Big thanks to Dr Simon for taking the time to have dinner with the tennis team.

Calling All Alumni

I can't tell you how excited I am that the Vegas reunion is less than a week away! I am looking forward to catching up with everyone during a fun weekend. Since we are all getting in at different times (even different days, for some people), let's plan on meeting at 9PM Friday evening in the lobby of the Mirage. If anyone gets in later, please call me on my cell phone and I will tell you where to meet us. If you don't have my cell number email me this week.

Going to be an amazing weekend and I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone!

Pumpkin Carving!

One of our annual team traditions is an evening of pumpkin carving. This tradition has become quite serious for the guys and they all strive to win the two prizes -- the Ben and Anna 1st place award. Several years ago I started asking my children which of the Jack-o-Lanterns they like most. This year the awards go to Matt's Harry Potter logo (Ben's pick) and Colton/James for their Kirby creation (Anna's Pick).



This year was a bit unique as the carving competition was during family weekend. Many of the parents came over for dinner (dutch oven chili and corn bread, smoked chicken and pork) and to watch the competition.

Here is a link to pictures from the evening.

Day 2 and 3 of the ITA's

Today is the end of day 3 of the ITA's. Yesterday Andrew had a struggle against the elements and #1 ranked Dillon Pottish of Emory. Andrew was disappointed that he lost to the #1 player in the nation 6-2, 6-2. It was a rough loss for Andrew as the high humidity and tough opponent were too much for him to handle. At the end of the match I was worried how Andrew was dealing with the heat and humidity and if he would be able to continue with the tournament. After a day in the hotel and lots and lots of water, Andrew was feeling like his normal self.

Today Andrew had a 8:30am match against #4 seed Amrik Donkena of Gustavus Adolphus College. Turned out to be a very streaky match. In the 1st set Andrew was up 5-4 serving only to lose 3 straight games and drop the 1st set 7-5. The second set was even up to about 3-3 when Andrew picked up his level of play reeling off 7 straight games to go up 5-7, 6-3, 4-0. Down 0-4 Donkena was ready to give up the match and made a major change in tactics (slicing most every ball) and clawed his way back into the set at 3-4 (Andrew up a break). Serving at 4-3 Andrew totally stepped up the plate to easily hold serve and break to win the match.

Tomorrow Andrew plays the #3 seed Joey Fritz of Amherst. Like Andrew, Fritz is a talented sophomore. I believe in his last year of junior tennis Fritz was ranked as high as #19 in the nation! He might be the highest ranked player ever to play DIII. Kind of interesting fact about the tournament -- because of the play-in match and the draw placement, Andrew will have played 4 of the top 5 players in the tournament. Talk about some tough matches!

As usual someone (thanks Conor) will be twittering the scores.

Day 1 at the USTA/ITA National Championships

Today was play-in day at the 2011 USTA/ITA National Championships in Mobile, AL. These championships have evolved to where the winners of the PNW and Texas regional tournaments arrive a day early for a one match play-in. Win that match and you are guaranteed three more matches. Lose and you are out of the tournament. Its not a perfect system but financially much better than the old format where the regional tournament alternated between Texas and PNW.

Since the separation of the PNW/Texas tournaments (6 years ago) it has been a Whitman vs Trinity affair in singles. I believe in doubles it has been Whitman and Trinity 4 of the past 6 years. Because of this history both teams/players are well acquainted with the play-in system.

In the singles play-in match sophomore Andrew La Cava had the tough task of playing the #4 player in the nation in Trinity senior Max Frey. At the end of last year he was one of the hottest players in the nation advancing to the semis in the NCAA individual tournament.

Today Andrew played a brilliant match to knock off the Trinity player 6-3, 6-1. Funny how tennis works. A few weeks ago Andrew wasn't sure if he was even going to play in the regional tournament because of shoulder tendinitis. Because of a sore shoulder he hasn't been able to serve big and play his typical attacking serve and volley game. The past few weeks he has adapted to playing much more patient from the baseline and picking his spots to be aggressive. Today he focused on getting a high percentage of 1st serves in play and rolling the ball deep to neutralize Frey's huge game (he has a monster serve and forehand). Andrew executed his game plan perfectly and played his way into the final grouping. An odd part about the tournament is the ITA committee had to produce 2 different draws because of the play-in match system. If Frey would have won he would have been the #2 seed in the main draw. Instead Andrew now goes into the draw and now plays the #1 seed Dillon Pottish of Emory. Basically Andrew has to play the #2 and #1 seeds in the tournament on back-to-back days!

Unfortunately doubles didn't go as well. Senior Conor Holton-Burke and junior Matt Tesmond took on Frey and his partner. The Trinity combo is very experienced having played together all last season and part of the 2009 season. The Trinity team played incredibly solid tennis making most every return, forcing Conor and Matt into difficult situations. In the 1st set the Trinity team broke the 1st game of the set and never looked back winning 6-2. Early in the 2nd set it looked like the Trinity team would run away with the match as they broke to open the set. At 0-2 down the Whitties started to find their grove winning 3 straight games to go up 3-2 (on serve). The experience of the Trinity team showed as they didn't get rattled by Conor/Matt's improved play and they reeled off 4 straight games to take the match 6-2, 6-3.

Tomorrow Andrew plays at 10:30am. I will try to keep a Twitter feed going with live scores.

Here is a link to some pictures (updating tonight)

Team Squirrel tries out for the team.

Some video footage of Team Squirrel trying to make the Whitman tennis team.

Stay tuned for more adventurers of Team Squirrel!

On the road

Talk about great timing -- Whitman's Oct break is the same week as the ITA Small College National Championships. This not only means the players traveling don't miss a week of school but also that we can leave a bit early to prepare for the upcoming tournament. Yesterday (Monday) we left Seattle in the afternoon and flew into New Orleans in the late evening. Even with a 90 minute flight delay we made into New Orleans before midnight. This morning we woke up to adjust to the time change and will be hitting the road for the drive to Mobile.

The ITA Tournament starts on Wednesday for the champions of the PNW and Texas regionals. Andrew has a play-in match against the #4 player in the nation Max Frey of Trinity. After that match Conor and Matt take on Frey and his partner. Going to be a tough set of matches as the Trinity players are very good. Its kind of strange but for each of the past 6 years it has been a Whitman/Trinity match at the ITA play in (5 of 6 years in doubles). After playing Trinity last spring and matching up at the ITA national tournament during the fall both teams are used to seeing each other across the net.

I will try to provide Twitter updates during the matches tomorrow.

Big thanks to the La Cava family for their hospitality during our hold over in Seattle.

A Camping We Shall Go..

It is that time of the year for one of the team's more valued traditions -- our annual camping trip. I started this event a few years ago to share my love of the outdoors with my team. In doing so, everyone on the team has  realized what a great opportunity the trip is get to know each other and hang out without the distractions of cell phones, computers, TV, etc.

In past years we have gone on a decent backpacking trip into a wilderness area for our overnight. This year everyone was so pressed for time we decided a car camping trip would be the way to go. I'm pretty familiar with the Blue Mountains outside of Walla Walla and thought Mottet campground would be an ideal spot. Its only about an hour drive (probably only 20 miles as the crow flies) from campus, pretty easy to get to, had running water, and would probably be empty.

We arrived at the campground about 2pm Saturday and sure enough the campground was basically empty and we our choice of places to throw our tents. Once the tents were set up the guys hiked down the rough fork trail to the head waters of the South Fork of the Walla Walla. It's about 4 miles hike (each way) into a pretty steep canyon. While the team was hiking my daughter Anna (8 years old) and myself set up our camp and started cooking dinner. For dinner I prepared a think, hearty, three bean chili in my large dutch oven. After 3 hours of simmering in the cast iron dinner I used a smaller dutch oven to make fresh corn bread. Honestly the chili and cornbread turned out better than I could have hoped -- actually I'm always a bit surprised when I cook something that turns out well!

The chili was a perfect choice for dinner as the temp. really dropped and it got a bit chilly once the sun went down. Certainly the coldest evening I have had in a while and I would venture it dropped into the high 30's that night.

Once the chili was all but destroyed (I'm always surprised by how much college guys can eat) it was time for S'mores! Nothing like a hot fire roasted marshmallow and chocolate to wrap up a dinner. My daughter was heaven - not only was she camping with dad, hanging with the tennis team (2 of her favorite things to do) but she got to stuff herself with S'mores! After chatting around the fire for a couple hours everyone turned in about 9pm. 

In the morning I fired up coals to make dutch oven for a breakfast that included 36 eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, potatoes, green onions, onions and mushrooms -- I actually used 2 ovens to make one breakfast without pork. Unfortunately we couldn't stay around the camp for too long since people had to return to campus and the reality of being a student.

Pictures of the trip can be found on my flickr page.

Team vs Food

Last week the team had the unique opportunity to try our version of man vs food. After the 2nd day of the USTA/ITA we headed out with several parents to the Oasis steakhouse for a late evening dinner. I must admit the staff at the Oasis treated us like kings -- amazing food, service and atmosphere.


The Oasis has an interesting challenge -- eat their 72 ounce steak, potato, and veggies and the meal is free. Plus you get your picture added to the Wall of Fame. We should of known the challenge was nearly impossible as only 1 person has EVER completed the challenge! Not to be deterred a few brave Whitties tried the 72 ounce challenge. No one really came close to finishing the steak but they gave it the old college try.

I have to say in all my years coaching college tennis this has to be the most unique and interesting team dinner I have EVER seen! Here is the link to the pictures.

Papa Roston thanks for the amazing dinner!

USTA/ITA Wrap up

*Disclaimer - the posts, stories, videos, pictures, themes, links, electronic media and other forms of communication contained within this blog do not represent the views of Whitman College or the Whitman College Administration. This blog is not hosted nor stored on any college server*


Amazing final day of the USTA/ITA tournament at Whitman. I hosted regional tournament as a Sat-Mon event so no players miss Friday classes and only a few miss class on Monday. It was pretty cool playing matches on Monday -- even though the tournament was all Whitman people would stop and watch between classes and as they walked to and from the library. It really is one of the special parts about Whitman tennis -- our courts are situated smack dab in the middle of campus.


The day started with #2 seed Andrew La Cava taking on Sam Sadeghi and #1 seed Conor Holton battling Jeff Tolman. Both were great matches and highly competitive. Andrew got by Sam with a break in each set 6-3, 6-4. Meanwhile Conor and Jeff had a wonderful match with each set decided by a late break. Conor squeaked by with a 7-5, 6-4 victory.


The finals between Andrew and Conor was an epic match. Perhaps one of the better singles matches I have seen on the Whitman courts. In fact long time Whitman tennis fan Martin McCaw wrote me an email saying the Andrew vs Conor match was the best match he had ever seen at the Whitman courts! When the dust settled Andrew defeated 7-6 in the 3rd 9-7 in the tiebreak.  Our amazing SID Dave Holden was a the courts and provide this write up.

 Two Whitman College tennis heavyweights, Andrew La Cava andConor Holton-Burke, went toe to toe for what seemed like 15 rounds in Monday's singles final of the USTA/ITA Pacific Northwest Fall Championships on Whitman's outdoor courts.

Andrew La Cava

Conor Holton-Burke

Both players were still standing at the end of three-hour title bout, even though both had landed and absorbed any number of feathery jabs and hard right hands.

Once the final bell sounded and the score cards were totaled, it was La Cava leaving the ring with an epic 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9-7) split-decision triumph.

Few points came easy in the slugfest, but La Cava needed one last remarkable flurry of punches to claim his crown.

After holding serve to even the third set at 6-6, La Cava quickly found himself on the wrong end of 5-1 and 6-2 counts in the tie-breaker.

But the crafty sophomore fought off four match points to the square the breaker at 6-6 and then added a fifth straight point to lead 7-6 and earn a match point of his own.

Holton-Burke, a rangy senior and the defending Northwest Conference (NWC) Player of the Year, picked off the next point to send the match back to deuce, only to see La Cava finish the marathon with the next two points.

In winning the regional singles title for a second straight year, La Cava used a service break to break free from a 5-5 deadlock in the first set. He then held serve to take the set at 7-5.

Holton-Burke bounced back to pocket a back-and-forth second set, breaking La Cava at 5-4 to win 6-4.

The deciding third set stayed on serve until La Cava broke Holton-Burke for a 5-4 lead. Holton-Burke broke right back, and both players held serve one more time to reach a 6-6 stalemate and set the stage for the climactic tie-breaker.

But the day was far from over for the two players. After a 90 min break both players returned with their partners for the doubles finals. If the singles final was epic I honestly don't know what to call the doubles final. This match also went the distance with Conor and Matt Tesmond winning 7-6 (12-10). Because of the length of the singles semi and finals this match started at 6pm and finished at 8pm under the lights. The match was so intense and the quality of play so high people started coming out of the library to watch the final set! 

Again here is Dave Holden's words about the doubles:

It took two hours for the doubles dust to settle, but Holton-Burke and doubles partner Matt Tesmond finally donned the doubles crown with a 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (12-10) victory over La Cava and his partner, Jeff Tolman.

The third set in particular was a sight to behold as neither side was able to break serve on the other, although they certainly gave it the good ol' college try.

With the third set even at two games apiece, Holton-Burke held serve on a game that needed two dozen points to decide.

Later in the third, with Holton-Burke and Tesmond leading 6-5, La Cava found a way to hold serve as he and Tolman staved off a match point to get the game back to deuce.

A few points later, La Cava reached into his bag of tricks for a semi-miraculous return to even the set at 6-6 and send the match to a first-to-seven tie-breaker.

While La Cava's match-extending return was a thing of beauty, it seemed to set the standard for a tie-breaker that featured more than just a few eye-popping returns.

After Tolman and La Cava jumped in front 4-3 in the breaker, Tesmond and Holton-Burke responded with three straight points to earn another match point at 6-4.

But the pendulum continued to swing and Tolman's stellar return made it 6-all. From there, the two sides swapped four more match points as the score deadlocked on points seven, eight, nine and 10.

The tie at ten proved to be last, however, as Holton-Burke and Tesmond strung together the next two points to claim the trophy.

Absolutely an amazing day of tennis. Funny emotions with the matches. While the tennis was electrify I was a bit depressed/sad at the end of the day that someone had to lose. The matches were of such a high quality and the matches so physical that it was a shame all couldn't share the winner's spotlight.

Day 2 of the USTA/ITA's

*Disclaimer - the posts, stories, videos, pictures, themes, links, electronic media and other forms of communication contained within this blog do not represent the views of Whitman College or the Whitman College Administration. This blog is not hosted nor stored on any college server*

Tennis fans sorry about the disclaimer but I have been advised to put some sort of disclaimer at the start of posts. Perhaps more on this later but for the moment suffice it to say that I have been asked to censor all my publications (including electronic).

It is actually day 3 of the USTA/ITA but once again a late evening (more on this later) prevented me from doing a write up of yesterday's action. We entered day 2 of the tournament with 10 players into the round of 16. We had some tough match ups but managed to get 7 into the round of 8. Steven Roston had one of the best wins of the day defeating #4 seed and last year's single finalist Cody Ferguson. One of the more entertaining (and draining matches) was Adriel Borshansky vs James Rivers. These two had an amazing 2.5 hour match with James ended up getting the better of his teammate 7-5, 7-5. Other all Whitman match up's included Sam Sadeghi taking out Will Huskey and Steven Roston. Andrew La Cava took out freshman Colton Malesovas and Jeff Tolman took out James Rivers.

Match of the day was Conor vs George Fox transfer Shawn Aldrich. Its a blast playing the Fox guys they are always incredibly fired up. From our point of view its awesome to be playing such a team -- it makes us better team/players and prepares us when we play on the road. It took Conor 3 sets be he showed a lot of maturity winning 6-1, 1-6, 6-3.

We also had great luck in the doubles. We managed to get 5 of the final 8 spots. Unfortunately for Will/Adriel they had to play #1 seeds Jeff/Andrew in the round of 8. Will/Adriel lost 8-3 but played great and both had a wonderful tournament. Conor and Matt took down the #1 team from Linfield (and #7 seeds) 8-3. Meanwhile James/Sam and Colton/Steven took out the only remaining non-Whitman teams (both from George Fox). In the semi-finals Jeff/Andrew got the better of Sam/James and Matt/Conor defeated Colton/Steven.

Singles semifinals are just about to get underway -- Jeff vs Conor and Sam vs Andrew. I will try to provide a twitter stream.

Sorry for typos or grammar errors in this post -- with matches starting I don't have time to do a proof.

Day 1 of the USTA/ITA

Man what a great first day of the USTA/ITA Regional Tournament. Unfortunately its getting late and I had a very early day setting up for the tournament. It is certainly a blast for the guys to be playing at home (especially on a day when the temp hit 90) but it makes for a long day for the tournament director!

Let me say it today was a wonderful start to the season for the Whitties. We had 12 players in entered in the singles day and we managed to get 10 through to the round of 16. Nasko dropped a tough match to a seeded player in the first round but he had some moments of great tennis -- in fact he had several opportunities to take a 3-0 lead in the second and couldn't quite get it done. Transfer Dylan Bodet had a great day of tennis playing well and bombing some serves. He won his first match in straight sets before dropping a close three set match to a seeded player.

Some highlights from the day.

• Sophomores Will Huskey and Steve Roston showed great character and intensity taking down seeded players. Will knocked off the #7 seed 6-1, 4-6 10-7 and Steven knocked off the #13 seed and #2 player from Pacific 7-5, 6-4. Andrew La Cava (#2 seed) rolled through his first two matches 6-1, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-0
• The Freshman came up big today! James Rivers took down the #3 seed 6-1, 6-0 and Colton Malesovas defeated the #8 seed 6-3, 6-2
• Not to be outdone the Juniors also posted a strong day. Jeff Tolman #6 seed advanced with a pair of straight set wins (6-2, 7-6 and 6-0, 6-3). Sam Sadeghi (#13 seed) rolled to a pair of straight set wins and Matt Tesmond knocked off the #5 seed 10-8 in a 3rd set match breaker.
• The two seniors also advanced to the second day -- #1 seed Conor Holton Burke won 6-0, 6-0 and 6-2, 6-1 and Adriel Borshansky won 6-1, 6-2, and 6-3, 6-1

In doubles everything went our way. We have the #1 seeds Jeff Tolman/Andrew La Cava who only dropped 2 games in 2 matches. And #2 seeds Conor Holton-Burke/Matt Tesmond won 8-5 and 8-1.

Colton and Steven continued their strong play winning 2 matches including defeating the #3 seeds 8-4. Adriel and Will took down the #5 seeds in the 1st round 8-4 and then won their second match 8-3. Sam and James completed a wonderful evening taking down the #4 seeds 8-2 and then coming back from 1-4 down to win their second match 8-4. Great doubles for the Whitties -- we took down the #3, #4 and #5 seeds and placed 5 teams into the round of 8. Our only loss was Nasko and Dylan and dropped a close 8-6 match to the #7 seeds.

Tomorrow matches start at 10am with the main draw on the outdoor courts and the backdraw on the indoor courts.

Remember my friends fun and go nuts!

Singles Draw

Doubles Draw

PS Sorry about not returning text messages and stopping the twitter feed..my phone battery died!

Team Squirrel gets ready for the ITA/USTA Tournament

Last night I had an interesting talk with "team squirrel" about playing on the team and the ITA Regional tournament. After our interview I'm really excited about the possibility of "team squirrel" joining the team. 

ITA/USTA Regional Tourmament Draws

Whitman is hosting the 2011 ITA/USTA regional championships this weekend. This is a such a wonderful event and opportunity for the players. Outside of the NCAA individual championships its the only event where everyone, regardless of team position, is put into one draw. Below are links are to the tournament draws.

More to come..

Singles

Doubles

Updated career matches

Hello Whitman tennis fans. I updated the Whitman career match statistics (since 1995) spreadsheet. Probably more interest for the alumni than parents or friends. Still kind of fun to look at. The link is posted on the right side of the blog.

Career matches

At the top of that sheet are links to different sorting options.

Interesting conditioning program for the team this afternoon -- 5 mile mountain hike (2.5 miles up and down) with 1500 elevation change. Will be interesting to see how quickly the guys can finish the "Blue Mountain Challenge"

Blackberry Picking Trip

Out looking for berries

In my last post I mentioned the importance of getting off the Whitman campus and exploring the surrounding area(s). Besides being historically important (at one time Walla Walla was the capital for the Northwest Territories) the Walla Walla area is full of incredible outdoor opportunities.

*As a side note to learn more about the wilderness areas around SE Washington/NE Oregon visit Grant Ritchie's (a Whitman alum and dear friend) webpage hikeandfishing. *

Prof Hutch

Sunday provided a perfect opportunity for exploration and team bonding as we joined the women's team for some blackberry picking and a dutch oven dinner at Professor Hutchinson's spread on the South Fork of the Walla Walla. Besides being an incredibly popular Whitman professor, Hutch is also a huge fan of Whitman athletics. He routinely shows up at a number of athletic competitions. Funny story -- last year he was kicked out of a men's basketball game!

The new Texas boys!

Turned out to be a great time for blackberries. We have had an unusually cool summer so the blackberries are ripening a bit late. Luckily everyone was able to find plenty of berries to fill bellies (seems more berries go bramble-to-belly than bramble-to-bucket) and to provide fruit for dessert.

Dutch Oven Dinner

While the men and women were out collecting berries and exploring the river, I got the dutch ovens ready for the dinner. I'm the first to admit that I'm a dutch oven rookie but I enjoy the experience of cooking outdoors over a fire. Honestly I was nervous about cooking for both teams. Besides preparing a new recipe I was also cooking for the women's team. Over the years I've learned that guys get hungry in college and are grateful for any meal I cook. They, in turn, have learned to heap praise on my cooking so I keep cooking for the them. Not sure if this is an example of a symbiotic relationship or a positive feedback loop, but it seems to work well.  However I wasn't sure how the women would react to my cooking. I used this chicken paad thai recipe as a start for my dinner. By the way I don't know the author of the "Back Porch Gourmet" Blog but he has some great outdoor cooking recipes and ideas. For the dinner I used two ovens -- one for chicken and one for a veggie version. Dinner must of been good because everyone went back for seconds! In fact the huge dutch oven with the chicken paad thai was gobbled up pretty quickly.

Wow what a dessert!

As dinner was wrapping up Coach John prepared Hutch's dutch ovens for dessert -- fresh blackberry & apple cobbler. Check out the picture of his amazing dessert! Throw in some vanilla ice cream, friends and roaring fire for one heck of a memorable evening.

Here is a link to photos from the evening.

At The County Fair

At the county Fair

Sorry, this should have been posted sooner but its been a busy couple of days. Besides the normal meetings, classes and appointments that usher in the start of the school year, a dead battery in my 1985 Jeep turned into a long few days of testing the alternator, replacing electrical lines, and for the heck of it replacing the power steering pump. On top of all this Saturday afternoon was the 23rd annual draft for my fantasy football league. And yes - our league has been at is so long that when we started there was no internet and we all anxiously waited for the Monday morning newspaper for player stats!

Heading up the grandstands

As a coach one thing I try to do with my team is get off campus to see the surrounding area(s). It would be a shame to spend the first week of college only spending time in the library, dorm room and courts. Besides, Walla Walla is fun to explore and, in fact, was recently named the friendliest town in the United States! And at the beginning of September there is no more interesting place to explore than the oldest fair in the state of Washington -- the Walla Walla Fair & Frontier Days!

Plus I wanted to give the guys on the team a very special experience -- a huge demo derby! The Walla Walla fair demo derby is one serious event. Its 3+ hours of speed, smashing and collisions in front of 4K yelling fans. Throw in some delicious (and very unhealthy) fair food, a beautiful evening and good friends for a very fun and very interesting evening.

flipped car at the derby

The first part of the demo derby is a series of heat races around the dirt track. Even though these heats are lap races there is plenty of bumping, crashing and broken down cars. In fact, this unlucky driver got pushed on his side and the fire trucks had to come out to make sure all was ok. Sam Sadeghi wasn't that impressed with the heat races and said driving in rush hour LA was a "bit like the demo derby except you don't get to go that fast."

Crazy time at the Demo Derby

 The end of the derby is a the-last-car-moving- wins race. All the cars line up around the arena and at the starting signal drivers try to a) disable other cars and b) try not to get disabled. Its a lot of loud cars, parts/tires falling off, crashes, and screaming fans. In this photo you can see unlucky car #19 getting pushed over the concrete barrier! Probably not a redeeming social value in attending the demo derby but I have to say everyone had a smashing good time.

Click here for more photos of the fair/demo derby

Beginning of the school year

Whitman is official off and running! Classes started yesterday but many members of the team been on campus for several days getting moved into dorm rooms/apartments/fraternities. Since most everyone back on campus it was time for an opening week dinner at coaches house!

Let me say I got a HUGE beef brisket from the market for the dinner -- dang thing was so large I had to cut it in half to fit it into the smoker! To go along with dinner I went to farmers market for a couple ripe watermelons, fresh green beans (I figured the mom's would be happy to know their sons were eating a veggie). To finish off the night I made dutch oven blueberry cake! I'm certainly not a dutch oven pro but I must say the cake was unbelievably moist and yummy.

Unfortunately I was so busy cooking and serving that I didn't have time to snap many photos. What I did take can found here.

Looking forward to more opening week activities with the team.