News for the Week of Feb. 6, 2012

Program Notes for the Week of 2/6/2012:


Hats off to Fox Sports:
As some of you may have noticed on Super Bowl Sunday the Fox Network broadcast the Manchester United vs. Chelsea English Premier League game at 1:00 p.m.  It was a pretty entertaining game as Chelsea held a 3-0 lead early in the second half only to see a furious ManU comeback to tie the game at 3-3 at final.  A very bold move by Fox to telecast soccer on the biggest sports day in America.  Fox is using a smart marketing strategy to place soccer alongside American football instead of in competition with it. You are not going to replace American football - at least not in the near future, but soccer can find a place on Fall & Winter weekends in the U.S. around football.  Fox is starting to carve out this niche right now. As they would say in England - Brilliant!!!


Alumni Update:
One more quick update regarding Sammy Harris '08 who as we have reported had a reoccurrence of cancer. The latest word from the doctors is that she will not need to undergo any chemotherapy which is good news as the doctors feel confident that they got all of the cancer.  She has returned to Ohio State to continue work on her Civil Engineering degree and returning to life as a normal college student.  Best of luck and continued health to Sammy!!


Soccer Site of the Week:
While we are giving cudos to Fox Sports this week, let's highlight the Fox Soccer Channel's site at:

http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer

This site will give you news and standings and stats from the world of international soccer.  Almost anything that you want to know you can find it here.  Check it out!


Shorty Sez:
We continue to feature the teamwork philosophies from Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski who is a pre-eminent expert on leadership and teambuilding. This week we are continuing with the concept of the fist to reflect upon is as follows:

Last time we noted that Coach K sees his team as the five fingers on a hand. When the fingers fit together, they create a powerful fist. When fingers are outstretched, they are on their own and can be easily broken by a fist. So it is with a team - if they play together and unite with a common goal they become like a fist which can always defeat individual fingers which are operating on their own. A great team possesses five qualities - communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring, and pride. These can also be thought of as individual fingers and when all five come together, they can form a fist which cannot be beaten.

Let's look at communication - Coach K believes people learn how to think by communicating.  Leaders have to remind people to talk to one another. To be a great team people must communicate the competitive situations they are encountering whether it be on the field, the court, or the office. Team members must direct and coordinate each other through pressure situations and that can only be accomplished by talking so that everyone knows what must be accomplished immediately to achieve a winning result. Talk should be used to correct things that not going right and should be used to compliment and encourage when the game plan is being executed well.  A team of individual islands who stay quiet will never beat a team who talks and coordinates their actions during the heat of battle.