Whats going on at the Simpsons?

Been a little busy lately. We just got back from our trip which Jamey wrote about. It was a great trip to Disney to see family.

Jamey and the kids then went to Texas to be with her family. Her grandmother is doing better now, but we weren't sure how she would do. So I was a bachelor for a week.

During that week I went to football camp at Troy State University. It was a good camp and our team was exhausted.

Football has been meeting at 6:00 and getting over around 9:30 each day. Our team is slowly improving and hopefully the long hours will pay off this year.

Jamey is working our church's Vbs this week so Avery has really been enjoying going to Vbs.

Don't watch alot of baseball, but the Marlins have a chance this year if they can keep it together. Jamey and I are also very excited about the olympics.

Hope everyone else is having a good summer like the Simpsons.

Big News

As of today I am the new head football coach at Alabama Christian Academy, a 4A school in Montgomery, Al. Any prayers for me will be much appreciated!!

Simpson update

A quick update on the stuff going on. Haven't been updating as regularly as I'd like, but with football over I may have more time...well if I'm not holding my boy or girl.

Braden is doing very well. He was born at 10 lbs even and 21 3/4 inches long. He is a big strong boy. Jamey says he is sleeping really well. Avery has been getting up during the night now. She is a proud big sister. Above are some pictures. Jamey has many other pictures.

Football ended last friday as we went 2-8. Highlight of the season was the Jodan Creel story. Read the last post for more on the story or this story picked up by Sports Illustrated. Now we start reloading for next season, with several new players and a few that played young we have a chance to be good.

Now Jamey and I turn our attention to track. The girls have a chance to be great and the boys have an outside shot at being a top team this season.

Also since I have time to blog (students studying for a US states and capitals test) thought I'd go over my preseason NFL picks at the halfway point.

Here's my link to the picks from preseason.
NFC East: Eagles at 10-6 is not a great pick, I did have Dallas at 9-7 and in the playoffs.

NFC South: Had New Orleans here at 10-6 which may happen, but did not see Tampa doing so well. Also had Carolina doing well, but without Delhomme they don't have a chance.

NFC North: Had Chicago here, did not pick Detroit or Green Bay (but who did?).

NFC West: Seattle was my pick here, and they may still be the team to make it, but no team here looks great. Arizona would be my new pick.


AFC East: I picked the NYJ to win, not looking so good now. Had New England at 11-5 and in the playoffs.

AFC South: Had Indy winning. But did not think much of Tennessee or Jacksonville.

AFC North: Picked Baltimore (bad) and Cinncy (also bad). Looking like Pittsburg wins the title.

AFC West: Had San Diego at 12-4, they still have a good shot at winning division, but not going 12-4.

Picked Carolina over San Diego in Super Bowl.

Jordan Creel

I will post more on this if I have the time later. But I was witness to God's work Friday night in the shape of a football player. Read this article and you'll see why...

...Many times as a Christian coach you question if God cares or not about sports. There are many stories about "religious" teams that give God the credit for their victories. But what about the teams that have Christians on them that do not win. I have been a coach on winning and losing teams and did not feel I was a worse or better christian on either of them. So what roll does God play in high school sports...

I am not sure of the answer, but do know that I was shown a little of his power in what he allowed Jordan to do last Friday. Not only did he play well, but his teammates played well above their heads to give him a small gift, that is insignificant in the big picture, but allowed him to see he was loved.

What do you think? Is God concerned with who wins and loses? Why do teams that give him no credit do as well as those who are followers of him?

Creel

Pep Rally

Had a good "black out" pep rally last night. Not much fun for me, but Avery loved the glow in the dark necklace and sticks. She danced and had fun. She is growing up quickly.

School...

School is already going on. Anyone else feel it is too early???

On a good note, only 2 weeks until our football jamboree...

Blessed

Most of you who read my blog know Jamey and I both coach at Alabama Christian Academy in Montgomery. Our track season was special to both of us this year because of the kids and how well we did. Our girls won the sectional meet an placed 4th at state and our boys placed second at the sectional meet.

What makes it even more special is what they gave us after the junior high and high school banquets. Normally the kids go in and get the coach a gift ($50 to some resteraunt) that is very nice. Here is what our kids got us:

$520 in gift cards that can be used on anything
$55 to Applebee's
$50 to Bonefish Grill
$20 to the Rave

Total that up: More than we would have ever expected. I have never even heard of anything like this much less experienced it.

Even without the gifts we loved the season, but it is neat that when Jamey and I are wanting to be able to afford to go out to eat for a date and are looking into planning a family vacation we will be able to go now!!! Thanks ACA families you have touched our lives this year and made us realize this is where we belong.

Update on life of the Simpson's

Well I can almost relax. Our football game went well, we won the JV game 7-0 and lost the Varsity 14-7. We fumbled twice inside the 5 yard-line, the last with 40 seconds left in a close game against a 6A school in Tuscaloosa. I was happy with the defense. We allowed 2 scores, but also forced 3 turnovers and held our own against a team with two division 1 prospects.

The next day we had our track party. I am sure Jamey http://www.jameysimpson.blogspot.com will post on this later with pictures of Avery jumping into the pool. She even liked the divingboard at the Young's house.

Mother's Day went well for the most part. Avery gave her mother her gift in the morning and we went out for lunch to celebrate. We wanted Olive Garden, but there was a 40 minute wait, so we chose Shoney's. I think Jamey enjoyed it and I promised to take her to Olive Garden some night later on, so if anyone wants to babysit...
I called my mom, but couldn't get her on the phone, so "mom happy mother's day" if you didn't get my message.

We should be able to slow down a little now. The past three weekends I have been to Mobile, Gulf Shores, and Tuscaloosa with coaching, I am ready to have date night with my girls this friday and Avery's birthday party this weekend.

4th in state

Our girls track team placed 4th at the state meet. We were hoping for top 5. The great news is we had no seniors. Jamey is quite the coach.

Now I can focus on us playing a 6A school in football Friday night...

Girl's rule...Boy's did well too.

Went to 4A section 1 meet this weekend. Jamey's girls won easily 138 to 39 (second place), beating 10 other teams rather easily. Our boys took second by beating the 3rd place team in the last race. You can view results with this link www.alabamarunners.com
Go to 4A section 1.

Junior High Champions

We won the Championship. In a domiating fashion we were able to defeat all the other junior highs in the city (well, at least the private schools).

Here are some of the results:

The final scores for the girls:
ACA 104
MA 26
MC 13
Trinity 7
Brew Tech 4

For the boys:

ACA 102
Trinity 47
MA 9
MC 5

Here are a few highlights:

Girls:

Lacey Smith (1st: 100, 1st: 4 x 100, 1st: Long Jump, 3rd: 200)
Sierra Gray (1st: 200, 1st: 4 x 100, 1st: High Jump, 2nd: 100)
Jasmyne Pollard (2nd in 200, 400, Long Jump, 4 x 100)
Ashton Foss (1st: 400 and 4 x 100, 3rd: Long Jump, 4th: 200)
Jadie Coleman (2nd in 800 and 1600)

Boys:

Ricky Toles (1st: 400, 800, Long Jump, 4 x 100)
Brooks Williams (1st: High Jump and 4 x 100, 2nd: 800, 4th: Long Jump)
Spencer Prescott (2nd: Long Jump, High Jump, 4th: Javelin)
Reed Teel (1st: 100Hurdles, Triple Jump)

A complete victory. The kids worked hard and earned a good win for them.

City Championships

Tonight Jamey and I have the city championships for our junior high track team. In reality it is the private school city championships (and whatever public schools show up) for Montgomery. We have a great chance at winning the boys and girls titles. I'll post results soon.

DOMINATION

As many of you know my wife and I are the track coaches at Alabama Christian Academy. We took over a program that had a few good athletes, but not much as a team. This year in the halls we have spent recruiting the best athletes to come out and run for us. We have had 3 meets now and are starting to hit stride.


Yesterday was the most recent meet we have had. We easily won JH boys, JH girls, SH girls and SH boys mostly because of our numbers (we have about 3 times as many people as the next closest teams). But we had several kids actually lower their times in the mile 20 seconds or more. For those non-runners that is an amazing feat to accomplish. We also had an 8th grader win the 800 meters by 25 seconds over everyone else.

Jamey's girls are starting to show they will also be a force at the state meet. She has one that has a legit shot at winning state in 4 (really 5, but we are only allowed to run them in 4) events. She also has several girls that are becoming close to marks needed to go to state.

The best news...Jamey has no seniors and I only have 1.

Workin' at the Carwash and the rest of the weekend

This weekend was a busy one for the Simpson's. First on Friday night we went to "game night" at the Mills. After throughly dominating the game "25 Words or less", I did not do so well with Catchphrase (which in my opinion requires absolutely no skill).

Next came the Carwash on Saturday. We had set a goal of $1000 for the day. I thought that would be a bit optimistic. So my goal was $500 or more. After several hundred cars on a balmy 40 degree day, we made $1400. We will now hopefully not have to do another fundraiser for this season. I also have a nice sunburn from this experience. That night we had Chris and Dawn over and Griffin.

Sunday was nice as we watched the Colts beat the Bears in a predictable victory. I actually was pulling for the Bears, but did not mind seeing the Colts get a deserved Super Bowl ring.

Great Quotes

As a teacher of 8th grade students I hear some wonderful thoughts every day. I wanted to share some of them with you. I don't put names because I am sure I said some dumb things when I was in that grade. Here you go:

When discussing the original 13 colonies one said: "yeah now we have 52 states". When asked by a classmate why we had 52 states he said, "duh, Hawaii and Alaska just joined".

When talking about how far away China was one said: "how far would it be to fly there". I said about 12-13 hours, to which he responded, "how far to drive there".

Still talking about China (but different student) one said: "how do they fit all those people on that little island, are they all in Tokyo" (the capital of Japan for any non-geographical people).

My favorite was last year: While taking a test over the states one comes to my desk almost in tears, "I can't find Alaska". I look at the map and see it and say, "it is there". She is still upset and says, "no it is always there", pointing at the spot between California and Hawaii, "it is always in a box right near California".

3-7

Well, now we are 3-7 in football. We had a team cheat and use an illegal player, so we were "rewarded" with another win. Boy doesn't that feel great.

Ouch

I hate needles. I have never in my life been okay with them. When I was about 5 my mom told me it took 5 military doctors to hold me down to give me stitches in my chin. I dreaded doing blood work for the life insurance company.

Well yesterday I decided to "man-up" and give blood at the ACA blood drive. I figured I needed to set a good example and face my fear. Besides, Jamey has given blood several times and was done in minutes it couldn't be that bad...could it?

After getting up my courage I got in the chair and looked away as the nurse took 10 minutes to find a vein. I kept thinking "is this normal". Apparently it wasn't. After she dug around in my arm to find it (OUCH) we finally got going.

Not too bad, until near the end when my blood stopped (how does blood stop anyway?). I had enough blood for the bag (with her moving the needle in and out of the vein to get more blood (OUCH), but not enough to fill up the little tubes. So...we had to use the other arm. After digging around in that one, we got the blood. So now I have two arms that are sore from the moving of a needle around on the inside.


OUCH

An update on the Simpson world of sports.

The year in review:

As most of you know Jamey and I coach junior high and high school kids. The beginning of this year was a good one for me. I coached the 7th and 9th grade teams and helped with the varsity basketball at Madison Academy. The 7th grade team I had went 21-0 and won the conference championship. The 9th grade team finished 13-5 despite playing many teams that were quite a bit larger than us. The varsity team at MA won the state title last year.

This summer we made a change to work with Alabama Christian in Montgomery. Jamey and I were both going to work through re-building seasons. Jamey took a team that had won 1 game last year and had very little experience to a 3-8 season (in which they led several games, but could not close them out), while I was the defensive coordinator for a team that went 2-8 (despite leading in 4 other games). We are both excited to actually be able to coach together in the upcoming year as we are the track coaches at ACA.

Most of you know I am a huge Florida Gator fan. So I was very excited when they won the national championship in basketball this past year, and they look like they have a great shot to repeat. I am also an Arizona and Air Force fan. Both had decent seasons last year, and each looks to go deep in the tournament this season (I see Air Force as a sweet 16 team, that already has beat Texas Tech, Wake Forrest (by 40) and Stanford (also by 40)).

In college football I am hoping to see Florida continue to do well. Air Force did not get invited to a bowl game, but I hope Arizona will.

In professional sports I was glad to see Dwayne Wade and the Heat win the NBA title. And while I do not see them repeating, my favorite team the Orlando Magic have the best record in the East to this point. The Dolphins got off to a very slow start at 1-6 and are now starting to act like they care. At 5-6 I don’t see the playoffs in the future, but maybe an 8-8 season. In baseball the Marlins played very well for a team of kindergarteners and maybe with a little experience they can challenge in the NL next season.

Also, in flag football in case you may have missed it. The Vaughn Park team won the title at Faulkner this past season, despite being much older and out-of-shape than every team we played.


That’s my world of sports.

David vs. Goliath

I think one of the favorite stories in the bible is the story of David and Goliath. Anyone who has ever felt themselves as an underdog can relate to David. I love this analogy on several levels, the obvious underdog level and the much deeper level of the faith in God.
Tonight we play Montgomery Academy or as they like to be called "The Academy". They are 9-0 and have scored over 33 points in the last 8 games (so you can imagine how great my nights have been as I cannot sleep). Do we have a chance? Did David?

Can't coach effort

As most of you know who read my blog, I am the defensive coordinator for ACA's football team. There are several things that coaches learn quickly (I learned many my first year at MA). A few of these things are:
1) Players win and lose games
2) You can improve a team, but you cannot make them want to win
3) Sometimes you can play the best possible, and the other team is just better
4) Sometimes you can play bad, and the other team is just worse
And I have now figured out...
YOU CAN'T COACH EFFORT

I have tried this all year. I have taken many different approaches as to how to motivate them, but some boys will play very hard and some will just play hard (if they don't at least play hard, they don't play for me).
This shows with my defense. I have about 7 guys that have bought into what we are trying to do and play with reckless abandon, and about 4 are still not too sure, or just do not understand what real effort is. That is why we can look great for several plays in a row, and then look like we don't have a clue what we are doing. The goal for next year...
Find 11 like Brent Teel.