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Cal Poly… athletes as property

 Kaylene Wagner was refused a release from Cal Poly San Luis obispo... and sat out a year at Kansas State

I wasn’t too surprised when I gave my first ‘Weenie Award’ for 2007 to Cal Poly State University at San Luis Obispo. They have been the recipient of many such awards in the past… including the infamous U.S. News Report ‘Sheldon Award’ given each year to the worst president.

Sometimes athletes find themselves at universities that are a poor match  socially, athletically or academically and they end up wanting to transfer somewhere else. “Regular’ students transfer… so it seems reasonable that athletes may wish to do the same.

The process of transfering for an athlete is a bit more involved than it is for a regular student. The athlete must first obtain a ‘release’ from their present school before they can begin to talk to anyone else. Actually, I think this is a good idea… coaches and teams deserve to be notified if one of their athletes is unhappy enough to desire a transfer. However, obtaining a ‘release’ should be automatic… but as we will see… it isn’t.

Kaylene Wagner jumped for Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo for two seasons. We noticed she transfered to Kansas State and sat out last year… I discovered asking around that Kaylene did not recieve a release from Cal Poly! Why would any school be so…. nasty & vengeful, and self serving ?

Well, here are some of the reasons I have heard that athletes are not granted waivers: 1) we trained and developed their talent 2) the big programs don’t give waivers to their top talent 3) we don’t want to be treated like a junior college where they ‘move on.’ Hmmmm…

When you have powerful athletic programs like Southern California & Florida & Arkansas providing releases… It’s hard to understand small schools with token athletic programs like Cal Poly not having an athlete’s best interest at heart…

The underlying problem here is some athletic programs view athletes like ‘property’. If this issue emerges in the NCAA… it will be because of schools like Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Now, IF I were an athlete deciding on a school… I would look at how athletes are treated when they want to leave… if they are treated poorly… I would drop them from my list.

 

Roger Freberg

Presented to Cal Poly the first

CAL POLY San Luis Obispo
“Big Weenie Awardee”

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NCAA caves in on Graduate Transfer Policy

Karen Freberg competed as an Undergraduate for the Florida Gators and a Granduate Student for the Southern California Trojans 

Who was it who said — referring to the NCAA’s graduate student transfer rule, “we gotta close that loophole!” ? Yep, it was Florida Gator football coach Urban Meyer… and what seemed like only moments later he brings in a ‘ringer’..er… a ‘graduate’ student.

Ryan Smith, a former athlete under Urban Meyer at Utah transfers to Florida. His reasons seem more athletic than academic… but so be it.

“Unhappy with his position coach and his playing time at the University of Utah, the cornerback wanted a chance to come to Florida to reunite with former position coach Chuck Heater.“

Here’s how one of Urban’s local papers reported the recent NCAA decision to eliminate the Graduate transfer rule:

 The override came despite overwhelming support by the NCAA’s Student-Athletic Advisory Committee.

“I think a lot of coaches and athletic directors are very frightened. Fear drove the circumstances and won,” said David Goldfield, a professor and faculty athletic representative from North Carolina-Charlotte. “All of us here — coaches, athletic representatives or administrators — are in the business of helping students fulfill their dreams, whether they’re academic or athletic. This override contradicts that objective.”

As the NCAA Advisory committee said: “fear drove the circumstances and won.”

Karen wrote a nice blog about the NCAA transfer policy back in August.

As Karen said: “The main reason that athletes go to college is to get a college education– sometimes coaches and others in the athletic department sometimes forget that.”

This policy also hurts female athletes :

“Transfer policies make it difficult, if not impossible, for athletes to escape an unprofessional coach without sacrificing their athletic careers.”

 

Art by Karla Freberg

The issue is not as simple as many coaches would like everyone to believe… and they really can’t offer any justification for blocking or penalizing someone who wants to leave or pursue their academic career.

  Very few athletes who went on to graduate school this year (less than 1%) took advantage of the former transfer rule…

Let them go, Urbans out there..  It shouldn’t all be about you.

Roger Freberg

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Florida WHO? Ohio WHAT? CALTECH WINS!!!!!!

Caltech has always held a special place in my heart… and it’s not for what you might anticipate… it is their sports.

If you have ever been to Caltech, you will notice that athletics has a surprising history there… if you look at their records and dig a little…  the football team ended one of the worst losing streaks a while back… even with a line averaging over 300…. IQ (okay, typical athletic hyperbola… ). They have a dirt track with ancient records stretching back to the Olympic Champion ‘California Comet’.

yep... that me on top a few years ago... I learned from a wrestler/Ph.D. from Caltech

So where is my connection? Although it may have been an NCAA violation… I was sent up to Caltech to learn the rules of wrestling and train with a young red headed Ph.D. who had also been a very successful NCAA wrestler. I’m the guy on top ni the picture. I discovered that wrestlers are some of the smartest athletes… I learned a lot. After weeks of training… I never lost again…. never

Caltech Wins in Men's Basketball!So I want to add my congratulations to Caltech in their latest basketball win… breaking one of the longest losing streaks …ever. The AP had a nice write up.

Although it is glorious to win… there is much to be gained from the journey and the struggle…. and in doing things that others never expect from you.

For those who don’t know… it’s the Caltech Beavers….  hmmmm… I would have thought the ‘engineers’… Caltech humor.

Roger Freberg

 

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Ohio State & Florida… the National Championship?

Gator... it's what's for dinner!

I live with and love a Buckeye fan… soooo…. here I am.

However, I have to say that a Trojan and Buckeye contest would have been glorious. It would have been a football game that…. as the Klingon’s say, “worthy of song!”

Worthy of Song!

The Japanese at the top… roughly means: “Gator it’s what’s for dinner!”…the Samuri drawing was lifted from the movie poster of  “The Last Samuri” ( a personal favorite of mine along with “True Lies”, “Red October”, “Patton”, “Braveheart”… and a few secrets like… “the Devil wore Prada” and “Pride & Prejudice”).

Although I am not sure, I don’t think the warrior was carrying the Ohio State battle Flag in the movie… but I could be wrong.

FIGHT ON !

Roger Freberg