Summer School

Summer school is in session, and our three freshmen have all arrived safely with most of their bags.

I think summer school is so valuable for incoming student athletes to get acclimated, ease their transition to college with a couple of classes rather than a full load, play with their new teammates, and work with our strength coach.

Yesterday, our freshmen Ausha Cole, Kate Webb, and Emily Allen confirmed my opinion when they sat in on the wrong orientation for 45 minutes.

So we HAD to ask, "Why did you sit there for 45 minutes?"

Or more importantly, "Did you learn anything?"

This season is already fun. I can't wait to see what happens next!

Coach Bin

Campfire Myths

Wrapping up the summer Bobcat Socials in Fort Benton.

We held the social at Steward and Rita Elliot's home. Numerous towns were represented including 80% of the town of Highwood when Rachel Semansky, now a sophomore on our team brought her parents, grandparents, aunt, and uncle. Monk, Rachel's dad was able to draw a map of Highwood on one post it note.

All kidding aside, I enjoy the smaller communities as I am from a small town myself. I like to brag though that Carbondale now has TWO stop lights!

As Coach Starr and I started mingling with the guests, I corrected Amy at one point when she introduced herself as Amy Saneholtz. Sorry Temesghen, it will take some time to get used to.

When it hit dusk, Rita made a pretty darn good firepit so we could avoid the millions of local misquitos. That's when I heard the campfire "myths."

If you stare at the campfire you will wet the bed.

Hmm, I am thankful I got through the night without an accident. Myth #1 is false.

If you put poop on the campfire it will not smell like roses.

We were all sitting around when I smelled what seemed to be dog poop and it continued to get worse. I then asked if anyone else smelled it and we all started cracking up. "Duke", Rita's and Stu's dog,  must have left a surprise on on one of the logs. Myth #2 true.

If you want your guests to go home, put poop on the campfire.

Once the odor was in the air we all called it a night. Myth #3 is a no brainer unless you like the smell of poop.

More to come on our road trip.

Coach Bin

Big Brother

This weekend I had a family reunion at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. One word for the Grand Tetons, MAJESTIC!

A weekend isn't nearly enough time to enjoy your surroundings so we settled for just a few.

• The hike around Jenny Lake didn't disappoint as we saw two Moose.
• We did a little shopping although it doesn't seem quite right to buy something at an Eddie Bauer when you have that in Bozeman.
• The Alpine Slides were the kid's favorite down the Snow King Ski Hill. Papa even got trashed talked by a six year old when she told him she beat him down the hill. One of our closest friends showed us why the slides had "CAUTION" written on a few turns when he fell off and got scraped up.

Our last night we celebrated my brother's 40th Birthday so my older sister came up with a great idea of drawing pictures of our favorite thing about Jeff. If anyone knows my brother you understand why I became who I am. Just to name a few of the things he did to me in no particular order,

1) Offered me toilet water to drink
2) Made me jump out of our two story home
3) Threw me into the garage door when we played basketball
4) Took me Kayaking down the Colorado river my first time on a kayak

The funny part about this is I look for athletes who have older brothers as they have to learn early how to survive and are just naturally TOUGH.

In full circle of my 37 years with my brother, he has always protected and supported me. I am so thankful for having a big brother, AND an older sister for without her I might not have survived Jeff.

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Quality Time

Exercise is so important to all of us, and for me personally makes me feel SO much better.

One of the best ways to get in shape quickly or burn off some major calories is to do an interval workout. I have the perfect interval workout for working parents looking for quality time with their kids.

It's called "Catch Me If You Can!"

My son is now 6 years old, and he is a very fast bike rider. One of our rituals is for him to ride his bike while I run with him. We are both extremely competitive so we typically have a game around our neighborhood on who is catching who.

Whether I am sprinting to catch up, jogging while he sneaks up, or sprinting to stay ahead, I imagine my speeds fluctuate enough to get a pretty challenging workout in. Justin, on the other hand, is pretty fresh by the end of his ride as he says "Optimist Prime" (his bike-also known as an Autobot from the movie Transformers) is doing all the work.

When you don't have as much quantity time with your children the quality time becomes that much more important. My workout with my soon to be 2 year old, Brooklyn, is sprinting after her when she puts a crayon in her mouth, crunches while she is sitting on me, or just LOTS of dancing.

My assistant coach's wife was sitting with us at team camp this weekend and said she needed to get more "play dates" with our kids because her daughter Camryn (3 years old) always gets a good workout in. She said this as I am giving the start signal for the kids to sprint from baseline to baseline.

I didn't really realize how active our kids were although I did clock my son in our house once when he was 2, and he ran for 45 minutes straight. Maybe they'll be Olympians.

Regardless, I am blessed to know I will be staying in shape at least until they graduate.

Coach Bin

Love Hate Relationship

We began our team camp yesterday and I was asked to come speak with our officials today about what coaches look for in them. I will not speak for all coaches but here are a few of the points I addressed.

• Demeanor: Officials who show confidence, make their call quickly, don't get too emotional, and show they are human when they do make a mistake and admit it goes along ways.
• Control: Officials who keep the coaches and players under control don't let the game get emotional, and don't make me have to get on them to get the calls the other coach is getting.
• Invisibility: Officials that go unnoticed and let the game be played are always the best. We are trying to get our teams to a championship level. Calls aren't made in the post season so why make them now. Make only the calls that are necessary.
• Listen: Officials have a million things to concentrate on, but paying attention to end of game situations so they can give a timeout when a coach is asking for it may be one of the most important calls an official makes.

I think the next conversation should be what officials are looking from coaches. I would imagine it might be to sit down and be quiet!

I think both officials and coaches need to have some thick skin, but winning sure makes everyone better.

Coach Bin

His Name is Steve

I just returned from my trip to Billings, Montana for a Bobcat Club function.

I drove over with our Athletic Director Peter Fields to meet with over 50 Bobcat Club members. On the way we talked about Nebraska's jump, whether or not we would have chicken wings for dinner, and most importantly the best concert we ever saw.

Peter has seen some good ones. The most interesting on his list was ZZ Top who was pretty big back in the day but he said the best entertainer was Reba Mcentire. The best entertainer I saw was Janet Jackson, but Carrie Underwood rocked when she wore a Montana State Women's Basketball uniform for her encore in Bozeman.

Two hours later we made it. We walked into the Red Door Lounge surrounded by the electric energy in the room. Bobcats are all around our state. They are loud, proud, and most of their names are Steve!

Peter, our men's basketball coach, football coach, and I all spoke to our members, thanked them for their contributions, and as I shook the last hand before heading home I told him to read my blog the next day.

His name was Steve.

Coach Bin

We are ready for camp!

Dancing With The Starrs

What a celebration!

The evening began with three beautiful supporters sneaking in the back as the wedding began. This would be Jamie Thornton, Lyndi Seidensticker, and Katie Bussey. All eyes were on them as they whispered back and forth whether to sign in or be seated. What a chuckle.

The cutest moment of the program was the flower girl dropping her basket of flower petals not knowing what to do next until a spectator graciously picked it up and handed it to her.

We were all on the edge of our seats when Amy walked out in her radiant gown and walked along the balcony, down the stairs and was greeted by her dad as she took a deep breathe.

The Reverend, Albert Starr, also known as Temeshgen's dad, gave us all a lesson on marriage as he recommended not competing with one another but rather playing as a team.

During the communion Amy and T held the cups while Albert held out the bread. One of our friends wasn't used to dipping the bread in the wine for communion so he just put it in his mouth and took the cup from Amy before Amy told him "no". He wasn't sure if he should go ask for another. I think God found that pretty amusing.

Most importantly, Amy & T both looked stunning, said their vows, and got married.

It was time to party. We had all levels of rhythm on the dance floor, the best being the ring barer who was six years old. I won't tell you where Todd and I fell in line, but we didn't care. It was a blast.

Trivia you wouldn't know if you didn't attend the wedding.

• I played against three of the women in the bridal party, all from Washington State.
• Temesghen's mom, Judy reads my blog. Congrats Judy!
• Amy's sister Jenny admitted Starr is a much better last name for Amy than Saneholtz. Sorry Marcia and Barney.

We finished the evening at the hotel with the men's and women's basketball staffs and spouses, and all I could think about was, both of our programs will have some VERY GOOD Bobcats with Amy and T's future kids!

Coach Bin

Congrats Coach (Saneholtz) Starr

Vacation Tidbits

This has been a vacation like none other. Here are the latest tid bits.

• Owls and Freethrows.

Todd's dad's home sits in Greenleaf, Idaho in the middle of the "whoop whoop," defined by Australians as the middle of nowhere. One night we went to bed an owl woke, and it sounded injured. I teach my daughter owl noises to sound something like, "hoo, hoo" but this one would wait until you were just about to fall asleep and then would screech "eehhh!" All I could think about was how our student section should start that noise when our opponents are shooting freethrows. It would be a lot more effective then waving balloons.

• Clean or Dirty

If you are a parent, then I assume you have similar stories to this one. The first lesson is to learn how to multi task which I was doing as I was drying my hair while watching my kids play in the bath. My mistake, however, was that I wasn't watching close enough. When I turned to see what they were doing, Brooklyn was playing with the toilet plunger.

• Basketball is Vacation

People ask me how I take a break from basketball. Are you kidding? Basketball is my "break" from work. Yesterday Papa and Justin put together a basketball shooting game in the garage which my son is now addicted too. My brother-in-law Ryan McCarthy is also a coach and came over to my parents for dinner with his wife Jenny, Todd's sister. I coached Jenny at Boise State which is how I also met Todd. To make a long story short, Ryan and I talked about quick hitters for over an hour.

At the end of the day, it's about making the most of the time you have with family and friends, and if there is a sick owl outside your window, make sure to close it!

Coach Bin