Success & Failure

From Fitness Girls

One Word by Jon Gordon

Even Willow knows the concept of One Word.

One of the best courses I ever took was Behavior Modification at the U. of Wisconsin-Madison. It was one of the most practical courses I have had. As anyone who is familiar with operant conditioning can attest- a lot of behavior modification is pretty common sense. The course provided me as a young teacher with ideas to make my classroom, my teams, and myself better.

One of the topics was on self-modification. The professor claimed self-modification is much harder to accomplish than the modification of other people. He went on to claim the problem for most of us when it comes to self-modification is we start out wanting too much change in ourselves. We know the target we want to reach and we try to get there today. So we have not been reading but we want to get to where we are reading 100 pages a day- we start with a plan of reading 50 pages. We want to lose 30 pounds so we set out to lose 5 pounds per week. Usually with the plans we start out great but we cannot maintain. This is the problem with the classic New Year's resolutions. The lesson was keep it simple and be patient.

American Cemetery in Margraten Holland

Rubbing sand from Omaha Beach on William
Allen's stone. 

In World War II American military leaders made a promise that no American soldier would be buried on enemy soil. Most American soldiers were buried in cemeteries near the battle field where they were killed- many in France. As the War ended, American soldiers had invaded Germany and were fighting on German soil, in some cases approaching Berlin. The soldiers who died in Germany were all removed and taken back to Margraten Holland.

Each family of the fallen soldiers was given the choice to have the soldier buried in Margraten or to be returned to the United States to be buried in a private or national cemetery. Once the decision was made by the family, the decision was considered final and could not be changed.

At one time there were over 17,000 soldiers taken to Margraten. Today the cemetery holds only American soldiers, and it has over 8,000 fall US soldiers from WW2 buried there.

William Allen's grave.

My wife's uncle, William Allen was killed at the end of WW2 and is buried in Margraten. We had an opportunity this summer to visit the cemetery. The assistant supt. of the grounds took us to visit William Allen's grave and to also visit Bob Arnold's grave. Bob was Bill's brother in law. We were escorted by Frans and Pauline Roukins. Pauline's family has cared for Bill and Bob's graves for over 60 years.

We had the opportunity to place flowers on the grave. The Supt. then explained a special practice they do with families of the soldiers. The stones of white marble with engraving are very difficult to photograph. To help them be more photographed, they provide sand for the family members to rub over the name so it can be seen. The sand is shipped in from Normandy beach. The significance of the the sand is that the soldiers who are buried in Margraten all started their invasion of Europe at Normandy beaches in France.

Over 8,000 fallen US soldiers are
buried in Margraten.

Our visit was a very emotional experience. It certainly makes one appreciate the sacrifice made by these soldiers.

Massey Roots

This is a picture of Gun Inn as you get off the
bus in Hollingworth. 

One of the courses I have taught at Galesburg HS is Diversity Studies. We look at different groups in America and their history- Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans. One of the focuses of the course is to look at the immigration process and the lives of immigrants. Even as we studied immigration, I never looked at that process and how my family had been impacted by immigration.

When I went to grade school in a different era, one of our lessons had to do with our ancestors country of origin. The teacher would have you find the origin of your ancestors. Then we would do work with fractions, you were 1/4 Irish, 1/2 English, and 1/4 Welch. As we did the work, my ancestors might as well have come to America in 1612 for all I cared- it was a long time ago.

Player Impact Estimate

Story on stat used to evaluate NBA and WNBA players....

PIE In the Sky

Anthony Oliva, WNBA.com

Tamika Catchings is the reigning WNBA MVP. She's a versatile forward that can score, rebound and distribute the basketball. LeBron James, the 2012 NBA MVP, can claim the very same.

And in the past, the comparisons between these two superstars would have stopped there.

For the 15-plus years that the WNBA has been in existence, drawing parallels between WNBA and NBA players ended up as an exercise in subjectivity. The styles were different. The rules were different. Maybe above all, thegame clocks were different (the NBA plays for 48 minutes and the W goes for 40). So, when you wanted to measure an NBA player against one in the WNBA (or vice-versa), you had to use some imagination. Until now.

NBA.com/stats has developed a new rating called the Player Impact Estimate, or PIE, that calculates a player’s impact on each individual game they play. Because the formula accounts for a player’s influence relative to each specific game, it eliminates statistical biases created by league, style of play or even era.

And now, thanks to PIE, we can make a definitive link between Catchings and James.

2003 State Finals

2003 State Finals-
Press conference
with 6 year old Allen.

Tony Bennett's Core Values

Coach Tony Bennett at the University of Virginia doesn’t believe in having a lot of team rules.

Instead his teams are taught 5 core values that must be constantly demonstrated both on and off the court.

These same values were used by Coach Bennett’s father, Coach Dick Bennett at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay for over 20 years.

1. Humility

Knowing who you are – not thinking too highly of yourself but not thinking too little of yourself either.

Purdue Pictures

Team Building- untie the knot.

Team Building- helping each other stand up.

Salem Trip

This is a picture taken after the last game vs. Salem at the Salem Tourney. This was the group who played in the varsity division.

Matt Wheaton- Galesburg Summer League

The following is Matt Wheaton's article on Galesburg Summer League. It is the second longest running summer basketball league in Illinois (behind Maine West). It is the largest downstate league in Illinois.

It’s not really hard for Galesburg High School girls basketball coach Evan Massey to figure out how long he’s been organizing the Galesburg Summer League. 



“This is the 27th year we’ve done it,” said Massey, who is entering his 36th season at the helm of the Silver Streaks. “The only reason I know is you put it at the top of the sheet and the next year you change it.”

Massey started the league for a simple reason.

Trip to Salem

Salem gym was a neat old gym with balconies around it.
Veteran Streaks fan, Steve Bryant said it reminded him
of old Steele Gym in downtown Galesburg.

This past weekend we went to Salem to play basketball. It was one of the best run tourneys/camps we have been to. Very good facilities, on time, good competition, and well officiated- it was very worthwhile.

It is always nice to go some place where you play people you don't see. I think this enables players to be more focused on their game and their team vs. being worried about other teams. The competition level in southern Illinois is outstanding.

Jason Shay Works w/ Teams

Jason Shay was back in Galesburg for "vacation." He spent about 10 hours in Thiel Gym working with the Streaks varsity boys and girls basketball teams.

William Allen- Teacher & Soldier

The following is a sermon which was given at First Presbyterian Church in Galesburg on Memorial Day 2013 in honor of William Allen who gave his life for his country in WW2.

Time To Remember

I did not attend theology school but I will have you know, I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express. Some probably expect me to give a sermon connected to sports. I did think about a sermon entitled “Jump Shots and Jesus”, but my wife vetoed that. I even thought about one entitled “Wisconsin and Heaven- The Same Area Code”, but Carl Strauch warned I might be excommunicated.

I really appreciate the opportunity to speak this morning. I am going to share a story involving the death of a soldier in war. This week we saw a tremendous tragedy take place in Oklahoma. The story of my soldier and of the Oklahoma tornado, beg the question, ”Why?”  In the book, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” Harold Kushner states, “It is not because God intended it or planned it. Bad things happen to good and bad people because we live on earth, and earth is not a perfect place.”

Mark Retiring

Brother Mark is retiring after 39 years of teaching in the Clinton, Ia schools. Mark is a 1967 grad of the prestigious Savanna High School. (It was really the Illinois Math & Science Academy first). He went on to be a political science major at Knox College. Upon graduating, he took a variety of jobs before deciding to get a teaching certificate. He chose to go to the University of Arizona at Tucson for his degree as at that time they did not have out of state tuition.

He applied in Arizona as well as in the Savanna area. He was hired to teach at Lyons Jr High in Clinton. Ironically it is where our mother got her first teaching job. After a few years, he transferred to Clinton HS, where he has been since.

Sunday, May 26

This is a picture of Bill Allen with his
12 year old brother outside the family
farm in Alta, IL before Bill left for Europe.
This would have been the last time Ben
saw his brother. 

Sunday, May 26, I have the privilege of delivering the sermon at 1st Presby at both the 9:00am and 11:00am services. With this being Memorial Day weekend, the theme of my message is going to be talking about Bill Allen. He was a Knox grad, who taught at Galesburg High School. He chose in 1943 to enlist in the Army to fight in WW2. His division fought in every major battle in northern Europe.

He was a prolific writer and wrote letters to his parents, his family, and to friends back in Galesburg. The Allen family kept all of the letters and shortly after the war, they published the letters in a book.

The letters describe life from boot camp in Georgia, staging in England, liberating France, and fighting to within miles of Berlin. Bill Allen was killed in April of 1945, just 19 days before V-E Day. His story is a story of courage, commitment and sacrifice. His letters give a first hand account of life as a soldier.

I would like to invite you to attend either service on May 26 as I share this story.