tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13009903.post-1138764734642984132006-01-31T19:27:00.000-08:002006-02-02T14:45:10.933-08:00After the Duals, I moved on to Minneapolis for several events, the first being a talk before the Minnesota Timberwolves game. US Bank sponsored speeches for a few of the T-wolves games and I did one of them. Pretty small group, but I especially enjoyed a local company. Its employees were well updated on my past. I think they were trying to set a milestone of numerous years of record performances, something we just missed with “X”. Hopefully they will make the mark. <br /><br />I next addressed the Iowa-Minnesota crowd before the meet (almost 7,000 attended). Enjoyed that, for my wrestling history has several past associations with Williams Arena. It goes back to wrestling my first match in college on that floor to coaching my first event there as well. It also entails training for the Olympics for 6 weeks on the elevated floor, not to mention wrestling Chris Taylor, Ben and John Peterson, Rick Sanders, Wayne Wells, etc. during this camp. Of course I have to mention the head coach, Bill Farrell as well for he taught me a step-over counter to a single-leg there as well. So what I am doing is giving Bill the credit for me going unscored upon at the Olympics. Why? Because late in my final Gold Medal match the Russian was in on my leg and I stepped over his head and kicked out for no points -- that kept me unscored upon. Thanks Bill! Lastly, and there are actually more, Williams Arena is where I shot out of the stands and somehow jumped upon the floor with crutches and made a spectacle out of myself on a referee's call that seemed to help the team to victory during my last Big Ten Tournament as the UI coach. <br /><br />Next was the Iowa-Minnesota match and I'll move on from there. <br /><br />I did miss the ISU vs. UNI match for IPTV, but Tim Johnson and Jim Gibbons are very capable so enough said as well. <br /><br />Moved on to Waterloo and met a few folks along with Bob Buckley to help secure the Institute and Museum move. Pe<strong>ople are stepping up – Wow!</strong> <br /><br />Spoke in Anamosa at a Chamber engagement to a local group of business people at the City Limits Restaurant. Felt it went well!<br /><br />The Iowa Wrestling team won at home against Purdue and the next day I attended the Big Boy Toy Show in Dubuque. I was a special guest and had to compete with Four Miller Lite models. That was a tussle, but there were a few die-hards that chose me over them. It actually was a good time and I stayed busy all day with one person or another. <br /><br />Lastly, I listened to the Iowa-Indiana wrestling match on the radio and I was happy to hear that all 4 All-Americans came through with victories and the team won as well. <br /><br /><strong>Before I end, my tip is this</strong> – <br /><br />To help our sport, coaches need to coach their athletes to perform aggressively (yet not at the expense of losing) and athletes need to do exactly that. And when it’s not happening – the referees need to step in and make it happen with their calls. I’ve actually seen some good matches lately and they were all good matches because of this philosophy.DanGable.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03454434672114917960noreply@blogger.com