Integrity

I've done a lot of thinking about a lot of things over the course of the week, most of them revolving around integrity. Although I know I'm far from perfect, one of the things that I hold very dearly to is my integrity. I can lose everything in my life, but noone but myself can take that away from me unless I choose to compromise it. During my time here on this planet, I pretty much just want to have fun and help people along the way, and it makes me wonder about other people's motives sometimes and their lack of integrity.

First off, I'm dealing with the not coaching thing fairly well. Just as nature abhors a vacuum and tends to fill it in with stuff, my life abhors boredom and things like ultimate frisbee and adventure racing have filled in the space where coaching once stood. But, that doesn't stop me from thinking about coaching and what it means to me, which is why the ASU football situation bothers me. ASU hired a new football coach, Dennis Erikson, last year to replace their old coach, Dirk Koetter. The football program under Koetter had its own share of problems regarding NCAA violations and even a murder between players. Not the best of situations to say the least. So, when AD Lisa Love decided to fire the guy, I wasn't that surprised nor saddened (except that taxpayers, including myself, are still paying his million dollar salary). When she fired him, she could have started the ASU football program over with a fresh, clean, new beginning devoid of violations or lawsuits. But she didn't. She, along with Pres. Michael Crow, decided that money and success were more important than integrity, and they hired Erikson. Sure, he's won a handful of national championships and knows what he's doing as far as winning (though not of late), but the guy has been involved in numerous NCAA violations and basically led to the downfall of Miami football. He (along with his fellow assistant coaches) drank with players before big bowl games, allowed drug use to go rampant within his team, turned a blind eye to pay-for-play deals that rappers were giving his players, helped players to file bogus financial aid forms (and then later lied about it), and basically lacked any control of his team. And ASU bought the guy away from Idaho - where he had said that he would finish his career. But, supposedly, Erikson will help to increase ticket sales as our team gets more notoriety and "success." Last time I checked, the University was here to graduate students (including athletes) that will go on to represent ASU in a positive light. When we hire instructors (including coaches) who lack loyalty, discipline, and personal integrity, we cannot possibly expect our students to learn these qualities. To me, one of the most important jobs of a coach does not lie on the playing ground, it comes from the life lessons that are taught alongside the drills, sprints, and plays. Leadership, determination, work ethic, time management, integrity, and teamwork can only be taught with a leader that possesses those skills, and it makes me sad when I see that money, greed, and politics are more important than the true values in life. As a coach, mentor, and someday as a mother (not soon, no worries), I hope to instill these qualities in the younger generation so that they can live full, wholesome lives.

Another incident that I found disturbing revolves around the Phoenix Summit Challenge. Although I've never participated in the event myself, it sounds like an amazing way to challenge yourself within the Phoenix city limits. In 2005, Phoenix adventurer and REI employee Carla Olson created this event that spans seven of the highest summits in each of the city mountain preserves. Through her own ingenuity, hard work, and finances, she founded a highly successful and enjoyable event. Partnered with sponsors REI and the City of Phoenix, several hundred participants lined up to take part in the challenge in 2005. In 2006, the event filled to capacity within just a few hours of registration due to the success of the previous year's event. There were no injuries, and everything went very smoothly. It was a win-win situation for all involved: participants got a challenge (and some pretty sweet door prizes from what I hear), REI got some great exposure, the City got donations for its trails projects, and Carla got the satisfaction and pride that comes with organizing a successful event from its infancy to fruition. And then 2007 came around... and things got ugly. The City, seeing that the event was such a success, decided that they should be the ones controlling the event, and earning any consequent revenue that came from said event. So, they told Carla that they were not going to give her the permits to use the City preserves and said that they were in short, canceling the Phoenix Summit Challenge. Which would have been bad enough for such a successful program, but then they decided to host their own challenge and tried to file suit against Carla and her LLC for trademark issues and other irrelevant claims. In the City's "Phoenix Summit Challenge," they basically stole all of Carla's e-mail lists from the past events (under the guise of information needed by law for the litigation) as well as information straight from her website to use for their own challenge. So, for this year's challenge (which REI is not sponsoring, good for them), you have to sign up for a "class" (much like the City of Tempe rowing programs) online in order to participate in the hikes. Basically paying the City to use their trails to hike, and not much else - no door prizes, no dinner afterwards, no communal bond of hikers and adventurers to share in the joy of the event, because the city government has taken all the fun out of it with their greed and lack of integrity. For Carla's sake, I hope the City's event flops and she is able to put on the real event next year... because I want to participate, and I won't participate in something that the City stole.

But enough of that... many other fun things to think about. I'm headed back to beautiful Prescott this morning for some more mountain biking adventures. Have a good one!