COLLEGE FANTASY COACH

The US men’s national team fell to Honduras last week 3-1 in a game that was

The USA vs. Honduras game was interrupted by an unwanted visitor.

marred by an American player taking an early exit to the showers in just the 17th minute of play when defender Jimmy Conrad took down a Honduran player in the box.  The yellow card was Conrad’s second of the early goings of the game and the USA team had to play a man down the rest of the way.

Honduras, a qualifier for the 2010 World Cup along with the USA team, took a commanding 3-0 lead into the locker room.  This had to be a big surprise to the bookmakers who had the USA team tabbed as a favorite playing on its home soil in California.

I was out to dinner and wasn’t able to see the first half of the game so I was keeping tabs on the game through my cell phone.  When I checked the live score at halftime, I was surprised to see that not only was Honduras leading, but it had a commanding lead.

The USA team fought valiantly in the second half as Clarence Goodson notched a goal in the 70th minute, but it was not nearly enough to overcome the attacking Honduras team.

I understand that you need to call fouls, but I’ll forever be perplexed that a second yellow card in soccer results in such a severe penalty.  It seems to me that a better rule would be to banish the player, but allow the team to substitute for him.

When it comes to sports, I like to think I have a pretty decent amount of knowledge.  In fact, that’s in part why I usually am able to win in my fantasy sports leagues.

When it comes to cars, however, it’s a totally different story.  I can’t tell you how many times, I’ve got my car repaired only to have a friend tell me that I got ripped off.  The bottom line is that I just don’t know how much car repairs should cost.

It would be great if I could enter information about the car repair that I require and get an estimate on how much is a fair price.  For instance, how much should I pay to replace a head gasket?

I happen to drive a Ford Explorer so its a big car.  Big car repairs always seem to cost more, but how much more is the question.  I simply don’t know.  When it comes to cars, I’m dumb.

The cool thing is that not only will RepairPal.com tell you how much a repair should cost, but it will also tell you where you should get it repaired in your area.  For instance, let’s say you need a Los Angeles auto repair.  Repair Pal will tell you the best place to go to get a repair done in LA.

What an awesome service!

One thing is for sure, the trophy business must be doing better every year.  More kids are playing sports and at many different levels of play.  Plus, at the younger ages, kids win trophies even if they “tie” every game of the year!

And, if the kids are good athletes, you accumulate a lot of trophies.  My basement is filled with some of those trophies.  Many of them are soccer trophies that my son and daughter have won.  There are a lot of soccer tournaments for kids at the younger years and many of them give out trophies for the top four places.  So, they tend to accumulate if you have kids that play soccer straight through senior year.

Basketball trophies are a slighter different situation, because kids play basketball at a young age and then they tend to drop out.  It’s tough to make the high school basketball team since only five guys are on the floor at the same time.  Even with a freshman, JV, and Varsity, that’s only about 36 players out of four grades in high school so it’s not a lot of players considering an entire school.

Finally, there are golf trophies.  Most golf trophies are won by adult men.  When there is a club championship, for example, there isn’t just one trophy given, but often as many as 12 flights.  With 12 flights, if you are in the lowest flight, you could win a trophy by shooting a 91.

If you are looking for the perfect gift for your favorite college football fan

West Virginia football vault

(yourself), then look no further than the College Football Team Vaults.

I am a West Virginia Mountaineers fan and getting excited for WVU’s clash against Florida State and Bobby Bowden in the Gator Bowl.  So, I bought this book for myself for Christmas and boy was I happy.  It’s the perfect coffee table book!

You can spend hours looking at the vintage pictures and information in the college football team vault books.  For the Mountaineers one, they have the script for the Shakespeare play put on by the 1891 football team to raise money for its travel to games.  Can you see today’s players performing to raise funds for travel?

The college football team vaults are a great buy for any college football fan.  Take a look here at the college football team vaults!

Watch as this quarterback scores a touchdown then spikes the ball and hits himself right in the footballs.

On Thursday morning, former West Virginia wideout Chris Henry died due to complications following a fall out of a pickup truck on Wednesday evening. He was only 26 years old.

I worked for the Associated Press Sports Division during my collegiate career at West Virginia University. Henry and I were in the same freshman class (along with about 7,000 other students). His redshirt freshman season was my first season covering Mountaineer football as well.

In no way am I trying to act like I knew Henry personally – quite the opposite. We had several interviewer-interviewee professional interactions, that’s all. But anyone who spends those formative years of their life at WVU knows that there is a special connection between Mountaineer alums. The ties that bind us all together may be unique only to that campus.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you have never shopped at Shop Wiki, you should try it now that it is Christmas season.  It’s so easy and the great thing about Shop Wiki is that it actually compares the best of many sites on the web so that it can provide you with the best price possible.

I was searching for an Umbro England football kit for my nephew for this holiday season and I found one right on Shop Wiki.  I ordered it easily and had it shipped.

My son is a big football player and although he has finished his season this year, I went ahead and ordered him new Adidas football cleats for next season.  That should lead to at least a few more touchdowns.

You can never have enough sporting goods equipment as far as I’m concerned and in those football tournaments, football shinguards can really take a beating so I try to stock up on them for my family as well.  If you don’t change your shinguards, you can have real problems with sweat build up on the equipment.

We all want a cheap seat.  A cheap seat to a great college football game, a

Penn State basketball tickets

great show, or a great event.

But, that’s easier said than done, isn’t it?  My wife recently wanted to get Adam Lambert tickets because she was a big fan of Lambert when he was on American Idol.  I went on the site and bingo, seats in the seventh row for half price!

But, it’s not just about cute young singers.  The ticket web site is also about sports and my favorite sport, and my favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles.  If you want to go to an Eagles game, you know that obtaining Lincoln Financial Field tickets are very difficult to get.  Not here.  There were over 100 good seats at fair prices for the game against the Redskins.

Now, we all know that Penn State football tickets are tough to get, but until recently, the Nittany Lions were giving away hoop tickets.  No longer.  They are a major force this year after winning the NIT last year so getting Bryce Jordan Center tickets will be no easy task this season.