The Penalty Box: Of Resting Horses And Coaching Changes
May 17, 2022 at 11:50 p.m.
The Penalty Box: Of Resting Horses And Coaching Changes
By Roger Grossman-
So forgive me for jumping around.
I want to start with the longest of long shots that won Kentucky Derby.
Rich Strike is a movie in the making, really.
This horse was only added to the field of 20 entries in the race the day before the race. The last odds before post time had him at 80-1.
The race saw Rich Strike start slow and fall back in the pack. By the time they got to the top of the final turn, there were four horses at the front and a pack of 15 horses bunched up behind them.
Then the most amazing thing happened.
As the field made the final turn, the pack swung way out wide—like a group of NASCAR cars that got loose coming out of a corner.
Rich Strike ducked to the inside and took off like Popeye when he eats his spinach. He passed the pack, and then weaved his way past the leaders and took the lead in the final 10 yards to win the race and make Derby history.
Then, an even stranger thing than an 80-1 horse winning at Churchill Downs happened—the owner and trainer of the horse that captured the hearts of America announced that their horse would not be running in the second leg of the Triple Crown to focus on the last one.
I read the headline on my phone and yelled “They are WHAT???”
They say that their plan all along was to run Rich Strike in Louisville and in the Belmont, but not in the Preakness.
I am not an expert on the exercise and training habits of horses. As a matter of fact, it’s been two years since I even rode a horse, and we didn’t go very fast that afternoon.
But inside the skull in my head is a brain that wonders how a horse running as hard as he can for two minutes, but can’t do it again for two minutes 14 days later.
I understand…the plan was to run him in only two of the three races. But you WON THE DEBRY! That chances everything, doesn’t it? You are the only horse on earth that has a chance to win the Triple Crown, and you are politely holding up your hand and saying “we’ll pass…it’s not part of our plan.”
May I politely say back to them “your plan stinks and you all are stupid.”
If you weren’t going to run him again because you were afraid he’d look bad and it might ruin your chances for big pay days on the stud farms makes more sense than sitting out the second leg but entering the third.
I don’t get it.
What I do get is that Tippecanoe Valley was looking to make a big splash with their boys’ basketball coaching hire, and I think they accomplished that.
Joe Luce takes over at the helm of the Vikings, and becomes the first coach whose last name isn’t Patrick since 1998.
Luce has coached at some pretty high-profile schools: Jeffersonville, Richmond and Marion to name three.
He took the Giants to the 2008 4A State Championship game, where they lost at the buzzer to Gordon Hayward and Brownsburg.
He’s been at the Whitko Academy lately, and now he’s the coach at Tippecanoe Valley.
The administration at Valley was looking for a new direction and a new voice. Luce will definitely give them that.
Lakeland Christian just experienced the best season they’ve had since becoming at IHSAA member school, and then they had to search for a new coach this spring.
They have turned to a guy who played on the other side of town.
Taylor Long is the new coach of the Cougars.
Long was part of Tiger Basketball teams during the Nic Moore Era, and so he knows about winning.
He is the nephew of former Warsaw coach Doug Ogle and he’s been learning from quality coaches like Jason Groves, Gordon Mosson and Jim Kessler.
Kessler’s endorsement of Long for the LCA job was nothing short of remarkable.
“I believe his teams will exhibit Christian character in competition on and off the court,” Kessler said in a press release issued by the school. “Taylor Long is a winner, and his teams will represent Lakeland Christian Academy very well.”
That’s pretty high praise.
It feels like Lakeland Christian is positioning itself to take its boys basketball program up a couple of notches. I applaud them for that.
Maybe Valley is, too.
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So forgive me for jumping around.
I want to start with the longest of long shots that won Kentucky Derby.
Rich Strike is a movie in the making, really.
This horse was only added to the field of 20 entries in the race the day before the race. The last odds before post time had him at 80-1.
The race saw Rich Strike start slow and fall back in the pack. By the time they got to the top of the final turn, there were four horses at the front and a pack of 15 horses bunched up behind them.
Then the most amazing thing happened.
As the field made the final turn, the pack swung way out wide—like a group of NASCAR cars that got loose coming out of a corner.
Rich Strike ducked to the inside and took off like Popeye when he eats his spinach. He passed the pack, and then weaved his way past the leaders and took the lead in the final 10 yards to win the race and make Derby history.
Then, an even stranger thing than an 80-1 horse winning at Churchill Downs happened—the owner and trainer of the horse that captured the hearts of America announced that their horse would not be running in the second leg of the Triple Crown to focus on the last one.
I read the headline on my phone and yelled “They are WHAT???”
They say that their plan all along was to run Rich Strike in Louisville and in the Belmont, but not in the Preakness.
I am not an expert on the exercise and training habits of horses. As a matter of fact, it’s been two years since I even rode a horse, and we didn’t go very fast that afternoon.
But inside the skull in my head is a brain that wonders how a horse running as hard as he can for two minutes, but can’t do it again for two minutes 14 days later.
I understand…the plan was to run him in only two of the three races. But you WON THE DEBRY! That chances everything, doesn’t it? You are the only horse on earth that has a chance to win the Triple Crown, and you are politely holding up your hand and saying “we’ll pass…it’s not part of our plan.”
May I politely say back to them “your plan stinks and you all are stupid.”
If you weren’t going to run him again because you were afraid he’d look bad and it might ruin your chances for big pay days on the stud farms makes more sense than sitting out the second leg but entering the third.
I don’t get it.
What I do get is that Tippecanoe Valley was looking to make a big splash with their boys’ basketball coaching hire, and I think they accomplished that.
Joe Luce takes over at the helm of the Vikings, and becomes the first coach whose last name isn’t Patrick since 1998.
Luce has coached at some pretty high-profile schools: Jeffersonville, Richmond and Marion to name three.
He took the Giants to the 2008 4A State Championship game, where they lost at the buzzer to Gordon Hayward and Brownsburg.
He’s been at the Whitko Academy lately, and now he’s the coach at Tippecanoe Valley.
The administration at Valley was looking for a new direction and a new voice. Luce will definitely give them that.
Lakeland Christian just experienced the best season they’ve had since becoming at IHSAA member school, and then they had to search for a new coach this spring.
They have turned to a guy who played on the other side of town.
Taylor Long is the new coach of the Cougars.
Long was part of Tiger Basketball teams during the Nic Moore Era, and so he knows about winning.
He is the nephew of former Warsaw coach Doug Ogle and he’s been learning from quality coaches like Jason Groves, Gordon Mosson and Jim Kessler.
Kessler’s endorsement of Long for the LCA job was nothing short of remarkable.
“I believe his teams will exhibit Christian character in competition on and off the court,” Kessler said in a press release issued by the school. “Taylor Long is a winner, and his teams will represent Lakeland Christian Academy very well.”
That’s pretty high praise.
It feels like Lakeland Christian is positioning itself to take its boys basketball program up a couple of notches. I applaud them for that.
Maybe Valley is, too.
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