Tag Archives: college

How to Become a Successful Coach

Coaching can be a very difficult thing, but to be a successful one you have to remember certain things. These things can help you along the way greatly and are very important. So, you might ask, what does it take to be a coach? Well, you will need college degrees, experience, certification, and key skills. These key skills can vary but the most important keys to becoming a successful coach are, listening, questioning, constructively challenging, and encouraging and supporting. You might also ask, to be a college basketball coach, does it help to be a former player? It certainly can have its benefits to be a former player, but it is not necessary to be a successful coach. It also does not matter your age either to become a coach. Some are even saying that it is becoming less important when hiring.

My view and opinions on how to become successful coach are very similar. I agree that you need to have certain key skills. Some other key skills that I think are important are to see different perspectives, trusting and using intuition, and keeping focus. I also believe that age should not matter and being a former player should not matter on being a successful coach. Experience should be very important for becoming a coach so you can know what to expect and understand how to be one. These reasons are how to become a successful coach.

~Caroline

The College Football Playoff: A Trial Run For the Ages

 

For many years, NCAA Division I college football fans have been begging for a playoff system in the “postseason,” and this year, their wish is being granted. Starting this season, Division I FBS college football will have a mini “playoff” at the end of the year, with the four best teams in the nation (as voted upon by a selection committee made up of experienced officials) playing in a semifinal, followed by the championship game for the two winners. Leading up to the playoff, starting on October 28th, weekly rankings will be created by the same committee, listing the best 25 teams in the country in order. The old system, which was made up of one championship game in which the two teams were selected by a computer program, is different from the new system, in which the selection committee does it all without any help from computers. They only use necessary data and  their own personal observations/opinions to make their decisions. I have called this a “trial run for the ages” because if this new system doesn’t pan out well, it will most likely be reverted back to the previous method, much to the dismay of pretty much everyone.

I am a big fan of the college football playoff for most of the same reasons as everyone; it is more fair, exciting, and we get to watch more football. As I previously stated, unlike the old championship scenario, the teams involved in the playoff will be selected by real, experienced people, not computers. This allows unimportant and irrelevant information to be excluded from the decision, which wouldn’t be possible with computers. For us, we just get to watch more great, high-powered football as well. The semifinal games will be played on New Year’s Eve and New Years’ Day, and I don’t know one college football fan that wouldn’t like to end the old year and kick off the new one with exciting and well-matched football. Plus, this new popular system will increase revenue for the NCAA and all of the schools involved. For example, schools that make the playoff will be able to make merchandise for making the semifinal, possibly moving on the championship game, and then potentially winning it all.

Personally, I feel that this new, intriguing system will be a great thing for college football, and it will only continue to grow in these coming years.

~Mark

Education Growing Further Away

For the last three decades, college tuition has been rising dramatically. With low incomes and skyrocketing tuition, college is becoming out of reach for some people. Inflation in the economy is one of the contributors, and it has been harsh on colleges lately because of factors that have to do with the school’s budget. Another contribution is the availability of classes, or lack thereof. Since many schools are limiting their classes, students are completing their college classes later than they would like. Another factor is the scholarships of the students. As scholarship numbers rise, it continues to raise the price of higher education for the remaining students.

Although the solution is not even close to being developed, one of the obvious answers to me would be for colleges to increase their number of classes. Since their lack of classes is one of the reasons why their prices are rising it would only make sense for the school to offer more courses to their students. This way, their students can graduate faster. Another solution could be to save their budget money on things they only truly need. With more of a spending budget available, the colleges should lower their tuition prices. They can do this by instead of updating their provided technology, they can have their students provide their own devices to use in class.

~Cassandra Calabrese

The Final Showdown

Every year the two best teams in college football battle it out in the final game of the season. Since 1998 the BCS title game has decided who is the best team in the nation. This year the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will be playing the Alabama Crimson Tide in Miami Florida on January 7th. The two best defences will be up against each other as both offences will have to find a way to get something going. Bama is looking to collect their second straight title but the undefeated Irish are the only team in their way who are trying to earn their first since 1988. Both teams strategies are to stop each others running game but on offence to pound the ball up the middle so the turnout will be decided by execution. Also turnovers will greatly impact the results of the 2013 NCAA BCS title game. Notre Dame’s key player is Heisman candidate Manti Te’o who plays left back. He will need to have a great performance to give his team a victory. On the other side of things Alabamas key player is center Barrett Jones. To give the Crimson Tide the edge he will need to protect his quarterback from Notre Dames tough front 7.

Personally I believe Notre Dame will come out with the win against number 2 Alabama. I think this because Alabama just gave up  384 yards and 28 points to Georgia in the SEC title game and the last few games Everett Goldston and the Notre Dame offence has been clicking gaining 439 yards and 22 points against a good USC team. Also Notre Dame went undefeated this season beating number 6 Stanford , number 11 Oklahoma and number 18 Michigan while Alabama only beat number  8 LSU ,number 7 Georgia and number 18 Michigan but they lost to  number 9 Texas A&M. The reason they lost this game was because they couldn’t contain the  pass and run player that AJ McCarron is and Everett Goldstone is exactly that type of player.

Another reason why I think Notre Dame will win is that they have  an extra week of preparing and Alabama had to play a tough Georgia team so they could be a little beaten up. Notre Dame has one of the top defences in the nation against the run. This is not good news for Alabama because most of their offence comes out of the running game. They are going to have a tough time scoring if they can’t generate the run gain. Lastly Notre Dame’s defense is first in defensive points so if Notre Dame can cause these turnovers and score like they’ve been doing then they will definitely come up with a victory.

~Robert Pellegrino

The World’s Worst College

The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal presidential poll showed both candidates, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, deadlocked at 47% of the votes each. As the race tightens up, it is very possible that we may see what has only happened 4 other times in American history. A candidate may get more votes than the other candidate but still lose the election. How is this possible? Well, the presidential election is not determined by popular vote, it’s based on the Electoral College. In the Electoral College, each state gets a certain amount of electoral votes, which are based on population. For each state a candidate wins, they get that state’s Electoral votes. A candidate wins the election by winning 270 electoral votes.

I think the electoral system is really dumb, because a candidate should be chosen by how many total votes he or she gets, not how many populated states they win. A lot of other American’s must feel the same way I do, because in a recent poll by Gallup, 62% percent of adults want to abolish the Electoral College. The Electoral College makes it seem like votes in California (55 electoral votes) count more than votes in North Dakota (3 electoral votes). The electoral system probably also dissuades some citizens to vote, because they don’t think their vote counts. If we want a real democracy, then we should abolish the Electoral College once and for all.

~Rayan Vatti

Do you Feel the MADNESS!!!!!

Are you feeling the madness yet? If you didn’t know the March Madness tournament is about to get going starting March 15th until April 2nd, and on April 2nd a National Champion will be decided. The March Madness tournament or the “Big Dance” was created back in 1939 when the NCAA was known as the NABC. Then it slightly changed in 1950 when the NCAA started giving at-large birth’s, which is chosen by the NCAA committee. Also, in 1984 a member of the NCAA named Bob Walsh created the March Madness celebration and ever since then all number 1 seeds have never lost in the first round to a 16 seed and the record for that since 1984 is 108-0.

Next, in this tournament they specially designed it so then all the match-ups in the first round equal up to 17, then in the following rounds there is no exact number because you never know which team will win. This is why the call it March Madness because you never know who will upset who. Another interesting fact you might not know is that every weekend during this tournament the number of teams is decreased by three fourths (Round of 64, “Sweet Sixteen”, Final Four.) Finally, where the teams play is never chosen right before the tournament they are preselected so that no team get a higher advantage then the other teams.

But if you can’t already tell, this Madness is quickly evolving and quickly getting more popular. Anyone could just go onto a sports website and find March Madness somewhere on the cover of it. They have also learned how to make money or turn these match’s into a competition by letting people make there own brackets which is a printable layout of all the match-ups and have people guess who they believe will win. They also make money on these games by making bets with other fans or other people about the winners of that particular game. But some questions that I still have for the NCAA committee is how do they chose the Final Four locations or National Championships’ location? How do they decide on the at-large births? Why do they play four extra games to see who makes it to the tournament why not just pick it there? Finally, how do you guys decide if one team with a better record gets a lower seed then a team with a lower record gets a better seed. To conclude, did you know that all number 1 seeds have only made it once to the Final Four at the same time out of 72 years (this year is the 73rd.) Do you feel the Madness now?

~Eric Dishnica