One of my favorite books is by Dave Dravecky, the former San Francisco Giants pitcher who inspired the nation when he came back from cancer in his throwing arm to play professional baseball again.
Dravecky, who is full of wisdom on everything from spirituality to sports, gives a description of how every play of a game is so crucial, so important, that a bad pitch can turn a no-hitter into a 10-run deficit. One walk, he says, can quietly change an entire game, maybe a season.
Understanding how important every second of a game is, I have realized recently in college sports how important every day is, whether or not there is a game.
Naturally, people like Ohio football coach Frank Solich have figured this out long before I have, and they work around the clock to make every second count.
That's why I was so pleased on Saturday to find Solich in Wailuku, Hawaii. No, he wasn't on vacation; he was coaching the East all-star squad in the annual Hula Bowl, a game that his team won 20-13.
With the national signing day for high school players next week -Feb. 2 -Solich was in the national spotlight of college football.
The game, which aired on ESPN Saturday night (What? Instead of a poker tournament? That's bush-league), was the perfect opportunity for Solich to publicly declare how he's single-handedly putting Ohio football on the map. And while Ohio didn't get the air time that it deserved -the coaching staff all had to wear unmarked, tacky tropical shirts -just seeing his face on the sidelines soothed my soul.
Coaching a college all-star team with literally dozens of players that will end up in the NFL in one way or another is an impressive feat for any coach, but for a Mid-American Conference coach it's bigger than a pair of Star Jones' jeans.
Consider this: The East team's slated head coach was Georgia Bulldogs coach Mark Richt. Yes, the Georgia Bulldogs, who finished the season 10-2, good for No. 6 in the final AP rankings.
Now can you feel that small, yet ever so important, ripple in the college football ranks?
People have told me that I'm taking the Solich hiring too seriously, that I'm placing too much emphasis on how one man can change a program, but I don't think that those people understand how little things like this will build Ohio.
When those recruits sit down for their final decisions, they will know that Solich led a team of potential NFL players to victory in the national spotlight. That is what top-caliber athletes are looking for. In case Solich wasn't enough of a salesman -and with his fresh tan from Hawaii, I'm sure he is -he has the aura of the man next on the coaching list when Mark Richt is not available. Let's see Kent State compete with that. Um ... you should come here because Dix Stadium has nice turf.
These are the little waves of momentum that Dravecky is talking about; little ripples in the very fiber of the game that make big things happen. Solich knows these waves and is riding them to a better Bobcat future.
-Cottrill is a senior English major who thinks he might coach the Hula Bowl next year to get his writing career started. Send him an e-mail at michael.cottrill@ohiou.edu.
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Mike Cottrill
