John Evans Presentation/this weekend

Am I the only one who finds it incredibly difficult to pay attention during presentations in the lab? I try to shut the monitor off, turn the screen, and slide my chair to the side. I inevitably end up in the same place every time with monitor on, searching google to satisfy my ADD. I enjoyed John's presentation and learned some valuable things and ways in which to organize research materials but there is absolutely NO WAY I could pay attention for the entire 120 minutes. I'm sorry John, I like you but I can't do it. Nothing personal. As a follow up to my previous post, we played in Selkirk this weekend and won again. The record is now 14-0 and the bench recieved more playing time this weekend. That being said, the gap between players is widening and I even learned that there are girls on our team who have no interest in winning. Keep in mind that this is the varsity level? In your opinion should they care about winning and if so, should they play if thy don't? It is clearly not enduring to the coaching staff if they/we have players who don't care to win. As Herm Edwards says - "you play to win the game!"

Until next game,

Coach Thiessen

Last Night's Playing Time

I currently coach the 8th ranked team in the province and last night we hit the court against the 6th ranked team. This game was billed as the Brandon rivalry and just so happen to changed the way that people in Brandon view Varsity girls basketball. The game didn't disappoint as the ladies battled hard for 40 minutes with our team finishing on top in a 2 point victory. Our team trudged out to a 12 point deficit due to a sloppy press and a stagnant half-court offence that produced many turnovers. This deficit subsequently led to a shortened bench in a very important game. For the record I'd like to state that I'm not in charge of minutes and substitutions but only 7 of our 13 girls saw the court. I feel there were times when we may have been able to shuffle the deck and provide some rest for our 5 starters but I hold my head coaches back. There is a clear skill difference between our starting 5 and our last five and in a game like this our head coach preferred to shorten the bench to insure a victory. Although a situation like this may require you to have knowledge of the personnel, I invite your opinions on playing time at this level, and your suggestions on what you think I team like ours could do better to rest the starters. Were headed to Selkirk this weekend and we'll see what the girls can do in practice tonight to get off the bench and contribute.

Until next game,

Coach Thiessen

Lack of Rural Coaches From Within the Division

In my initial blog I'd like to speak about the lack of coaches coming from within rural school divisions. Many of coaches within rural schools come from out of town, another school, are parents of the athletes or are the physical education teacher. This puts a tremendous strain on the P.E. teacher as he or she is held solely responsible for the development of athletes in multiple sports. Another issue that may be in direct correlation to the lack of certified and devoted coaches within rural schools is Manitoba's recent performances in the Canada Games. In the most recent games in P.E.I, Manitoba finished 6th in the medal rankings. In the 2005 games, Manitoba finished an embarrassing 7th trailing Nova Scotia by 29 medals. What do you believe to be the cause of Manitoba's lack of world class athletes in every sport and what kind of an impact does the relative unimportance of skilled coaching have of Manitoba high school sport?