HLS Peeps, its Throwback Week. Wherein Domer.MQ (AKA IDTHEMIKE) and I, The (one and only) Biscuit get back into things. For 1 week. Seriously. For 1 week. No longer. Sad? Sorry. All we can do. DEAL WITH IT DEAR READERS. DEEEEEEAL.

So, what’s going on here? Well, MQ and I one night, drunkenly, thought this would be good to do during the season. Then the season passed. And we kept winning. And winning. And winning. And we kept not writing, not writing, and not writing. And here we are. And the guilt, the guilt has been destroying me. So – we write! For 1 week. Despite all the pleas and bribes offered, we are here for up to 10 posts, and that’s that.

What shall we write about? The things that are possible include:

*Rants
*Rants about Urban Meyer Being Shady (SHOCKER)
*Rants about NDFB and things like respect
*Rants
*Rants
*More Rants

Tex and Bayou will of course continue to run the show, and we’ll slot in when we can, and we’ll see if it is good, awesome or amazing. I’m betting on a descriptor that starts with an A.

So, excited to be back folks. Even if for only a short while.

Word to Your Mother, in a good way.

Love,
Biscuit

The post We’re Baaaaaaaaaaack! appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

• There’s a Stadium, but it now has a $500 million facelift, a video board, and an artificial playing surface.
• Our helmets, while no longer painted on Fridays by student managers, are proper gold to match the Dome. The pants, too, are a darker gold.
• The Shamrock Series is on hiatus currently, but we still see the special uniform every once-and-again at a neutral venue.
• NBC keeps nudging home games closer to primetime Saturdays.

The Shirt, too, has its traditions. We’ll see the latest incarnation on Friday, and the color is its chief selling point. But in 2018, we’re in the HDTV era, where aesthetics matter. If the school colors are blue and gold, there needs to be a vibrant third color option that is highly visible in the background and provides a bright contrast to the on-field participants.

See how a bright color stands out?

You already know: The Shirt should be kelly green.

Enough of y’all have witnessed a game, whether in person or on television, where the crowd attire adds to the visual experience. So, taking a page from the “respectful innovation” playbook of recent Notre Dame aesthetics, let’s examine all the ways a concerted effort would make this successful:

1. The Shirt goes kelly green every year.
2. “But then annual sales would go down!” Ok, have the Bookstore limit sales of green shirts in the fall to the official current-year variety.
3. “But then the weather gets cold!” Ask Under Armour (and other vendors) to produce fall runs of kelly green jackets, pullovers, sweaters, sweatshirts, knit hats, etc
4. “Who would buy the same color shirt every year?” Hello Under Armour? Yeah, it’s Notre Dame again….listen, we have some students who need graphic design internships this summer because they’ll be designing the kelly green shirt for the following season. What’s that? Yes, we’ll send you those student names right away.
5. “But what about rain?” Last I checked they made those plastic ponchos in a bright yellow, and since we’re not Michigan let’s give those a subtle color tweak for consistency, hm?
6. “Won’t this hurt other merchandise sales?” When’s the last time y’all walked out of the Bookstore spending less than you anticipated walking in?
7. “People will just wear other ND stuff or their own gear to games.” Great, and few colors stand out more than kelly green. So over time we’ll be encouraging a more visible coherent fanbase color.
8. “But what will people wear to away games?” I don’t care — wear what you want. Just remember: bright colors stand out pretty well in visiting stadiums too (gesturing in the general direction of Athens, Georgia)
9. “You’re just a Brian Kelly lover and then what will we do once he’s gone?” The only way I see this causing a problem is if Swarbrick hires Ron Burgundy as our next coach. Just about every other varsity squad leverages kelly green and the Fighting Irish moniker to its advantage. It’s time the football gameday experience follows suit.
10. “What happens when we play a team wearing green?” There’s not one on the schedule between now and 2021.

The post You Already Know What Color The Shirt Should Be appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

There was the deficit the Irish came back from (15). The record low number of points that Notre Dame scored in the second quarter that caused said deficit (3). Muffet McGraw’s career win total (800). The amount of bullshit seconds added back to the clock to halt the Irish celebration (0.1).

However, the numbers that truly stick out, and define the season, can be sorted in a simple, clean countdown from four to one:

4 – Season-ending ACL injuries.

3 – Losses all season.

2 – Comebacks sealed with clutch game-winners from Arike Ognbowale.

Clutch. Clutch AGAIN.

Take a look back at the game winners by Arike Ogunbowale that lifted @ndwbb to its second national title. #WFinalFour pic.twitter.com/qWcWU3nO63

— NCAA (@NCAA) April 2, 2018

1 – Legendary coach that deserves a damn statue for this title run (and, as a bonus, how about we give her one pair of national title heels to wear on the sideline, especially in front of Geno).

PURE JUBILATION. pic.twitter.com/M6eY53YFvn

— NCAA WBB (@ncaawbb) April 2, 2018

Well done, ladies!

Welcome home, champs.#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/5Rr3DteFNK

— Notre Dame WBB (@ndwbb) April 2, 2018

The post A National Title Countdown appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

The capacity crowd of 5,515 were waiting to see the (24-9-5) OSU Buckeyes go to battle against the (25-9-2) Fighting Irish. The Buckeyes had reached the championship game by defeating the Michigan Wolverines 3-2 in overtime the previous weekend.

Early on in conference play, the Fighting Irish had all the right moves. Crisp passing, good puck handling, great defense, and established control offensively and defensively early in their games. Saturday night’s first period was a reflection of that. The Irish lines were skating hard and fast. They had an objective to complete. The opening moments to the game was more like a “shake the nerves off” period of time. Those emotions changed rapidly. From the glove side of OSU goalie Sean Romeo, Bo Brauer put a laser on net and scored the first goal of the game. Compton Family Ice Arena was alive in a big way. Irish fans love it when the Fighting Irish score first, especially in a big game like this.

Despite taking the lead early, the Irish were defending the lead, another early season trait. But the Irish were not done. At 14:30, Matt Hellickson hit the post and the puck got by Romeo from the glove side on the power play, giving the Fighting Irish a 2-0 lead. The Irish were playing in dominating form.

The anticipation of those in attendance, cheering for the Irish, was at a fever pitch as they hoped for a repeat of the first period. The OSU fans were thinking the complete opposite. They knew if the Irish continued to play the way they did in the first period, it was going to be a long evening. They started out strong, working on the momentum from the first, but the winds of change started to blow and not in the Irish’s favor. The Buckeyes launched a quick flurry of shots on their offensive end of the ice. At 6:21, Brendon Kearney silenced the arena just enough to hear the cheers of the OSU fans in attendance as he scored the Buckeyes first goal of the game in front of the crease, bringing the Buckeyes within one.

All of a sudden the Irish seemed to go flat, as OSU continued to fire shots on the Irish net minder Cale Morris. The Irish were falling into the spot in which they were in the waning part of the season. Struggling to stay out of the constant defensive mode as if they were on a continuous penalty kill.

The second period was the set up for the third period. Momentum continued to go the way of the Buckeyes. It didn’t take long for the Buckeyes to put the game tying goal on the board. The Buckeyes Matt Miller, put a one timer on Cale Morris to bring the game to all even at 2. OSU continued to dominate the Irish through the remainder of the period. The one thing the Irish had going for them, at that point, was that they never gave the Buckeyes a man advantage, and played penalty free hockey in the third. The Irish seemed to have gotten their legs back late in the third period. That was a good sign because with the game ending in a tie, there was going to be some “free hockey” in the form of “sudden death.”

Coach Jackson addressed the team at the third intermission with these words; “we need to get back to the basics, and get back to do what they did well earlier in the game. They earned the opportunity to play in this game in our building, and it was a tremendous environment. The band again was phenomenal, the crowd was great and they earned the opportunity to play in this game. We work all season long to get the opportunity to get the bye in the first round, play at home in the second round and play at home in the championship, the first year in the B1G. Now you’ve got to take advantage of it.”

And take advantage they did. The Irish came out on fire. They were back to what they looked like at the beginning part of the season. Crisp passes, great defense and crashing the net. That combination all came together at 9:23 in sudden death. Jake Evans drew in the defenders, passed it to Cam Morrison and GGGGOOOOAAALLLLLL!!!! The Irish win 3-2 in sudden death to with the B1G Conference Championship in their inaugural season.

Your three stars 3) Jake Evans 2) Cale Morris 1) Cam Morrison

Along with the B1G Conference Trophy, there were some other awards to give out.

All-Tournament-Team

Cam Morrison, F, ND: Mason Jobst, F, OSU: Tanner Laczynski, F, OSU: Jordan Gross, D, ND: Matt Miller, D, OSU and Cale Morris, G, ND

Most Outstanding Player

Cale Morris, G, ND

Your Fighting Irish will travel to my home state of Connecticut, in which they are the #1 seed, and will take on Michigan Tech at 3 PM on ESPN2.

The post Notre Dame Hockey: B1G Conference Champions appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

The Irish didn’t just squeak two wins out of this three game set either. They won convincingly and damn near swept the series.

In game one, the Irish took a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth. 5th year southpaw, Scott Tully, finally ran out of gas, loaded up the bases, and surrendered a grand slam. One more LSU swing of the bat, this time a three run blast, in the bottom of the eight put the Tigers up for good to complete the 7-6 comeback.

The LSU bullpen did masterful work as well. Matthew Beck and Austin Bain combined for 4.2 innings of shutout ball, surrendering only a single hit and striking out 9.

Game two appeared to follow the exact same script. The Irish again jumped on LSU starting pitching early, knocking starter Zack Hess out in the third inning which featured seven runs, staking the Irish to a 8-1 lead. Then, freshman starter, Tommy Sheehan, coughed up a three run fourth, but followed it up with a 1-2-3 fifth.

Shane Combs came in for a very rough relief performance, walking the only two batters he faced. A familiar face for Irish football fans, Cole Kmet, came in for four innings of shutout, one-hit ball, earning his first career save.

With a couple insurance runs in the ninth, another feature missing from game one, the Irish ended with a solid 10-5 win.

Sunday’s game three was just a flat out beating of LSU. Junior Eric Gilgenback had a 7 RBI day bolstered by a grand slam and three run homer. Notre Dame skipper, Mik Aoki, rotated through seven pitchers for a combined effort that saw LSU score put zero crooked numbers on the board in a single inning. In fact, only one Irish pitcher surrendered more than one hit–the only Irish pitching issues on the day were self-inflicted with walks.

Without two large swings of the bat and an other-worldly bullpen effort from LSU, the Irish could very well be looking at a 3-0 start to the season. But taking two games, on the road, from a top ten team is nothing to be disappointed about. Not only that, LSU hadn’t surrendered six or more runs in their first three games of the season until 1953.

Time will tell whether or not LSU is a top ten caliber team; in fact, in my opinion, if their starting pitching continues on down this path, I’d doubt it. Regardless, I saw this series as being a good measuring stick for what the Irish have this season.

What I saw was a team with incredibly solid fundamentals. At the plate, hitters were patient, didn’t press to do too much, and flat out destroyed any mistakes. They are a nightmare for opposing catchers with 10 stolen bases in the series. The defense played clean, having zero errors throughout the series, which is the longest stretch of errorless ball to open a season since 1994. Pitching was far from what I’d consider dominant, but did more than enough to win.

Notre Dame looks to be a rather fun team to watch that will give opponents fits. They will be more than happy to small-ball you to death, but still have the pop to make you pay if you get sloppy.

Color me surprised and optimistic. I’m excited to see what this team will do throughout the season.

The post Notre Dame Baseball Makes a Huge Statement with Series Win over #9 LSU appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Unfortunately, the Irish feel short of this on Friday night in a 4-2 defeat to Michigan.

First Period

Physical play is one way to establish control of the game and Michigan definitely established that style of play in the first period. The Wolverines established control on their offensive end of the ice with eight shots on goal in the first seven minutes of the period. Cale Morris stood tall and was once again seeing the puck, stopping the continuous attempts. The Irish drove the puck at the Wolverines goalie, Hayden Lavigne as well, but were stymied to just three in the same time frame.

A few minutes later, Adam Winborg, put the puck in the net from the front of the crease to give the Wolverines a 1-0 lead. A few moments later, the Wolverines once again put a shot on Cale Morris and Dexter Dancs from netted the goal at 15:40 from the left side, and put the Wolverines up 2-0.

At 17:41, the Irish got their first opportunity to go a man up on the power play, but it was short-lived as Andrew Oglevie was sent to the penalty box for hooking. During the 4-on-4, Michigan once again established control on their offensive end to the point that it seemed the Irish were on a self-induced defensive penalty kill.

In an effort to create some offense, the Irish pulled Morris for an extra attacker as the period ended with a delayed Wolverines penalty that was enforced at the start of the second period.

Second Period

The Irish came out of the first intermission with something to prove. The Irish cut their deficit in half at 1:27 when Joe Wegwerth found the back of the net. Just when the majority of the 5,993 in attendance thought the Irish were taking control of the game back with some increased pressure of their own, Tony Calderone buries the puck in the net at 4:27 to put the Wolverines up 3-1.

At 5:30, Bo Brauer was sent to the penalty box for hooking, but the Irish killed the penalty, one of six killed on the evening.

After the successful penalty kill by the Irish, they ended up with their own power play at 8:20. Once again, the Irish power play failed to capitalize on the man advantage. That wouldn’t be their last opportunity on a power play in the second period. That power play did not last long, as, eight seconds into the power play, Bobby Nadella ripped a one-timer from the blue line and scored to bring the Irish back within one at 3-2 at the end of the period.

Third Period

Similar to the second period, the Irish were putting shots on the Wolverines goalie, but nothing was going in. At 8:08, Michael Pastujov, assisted by his brother Nick, added an insurance goal that put the Wolverines up 4-2. From that point forward, the Wolverines went into defensive mode and Lavigne was not phased by the Irish attack, turning away 14 shots on goal in the period.

The Wolverines avenged their previous two losses to the Irish back in January, defeating the Irish fall at home 4-2.

Coach Jackson Post Game Conference

Discussion on continued low-level of play by the team spilling in from last weekend:

“A little bit, I feel we played much better after the first period. We made some bad plays defensively, defense-men getting trapped up the ice, and a few bad turnovers that led to goals. These are plays you can’t make against Michigan, especially their top two lines. We are playing play-off hockey, we are just not playing the way we were playing, and we need to get back to that. Cale made some big saves for us, one of my biggest concerns going into the playoffs, is giving up odd-man rushes. Over the last couple games we have given up more than our fair share and we have to clean that up. When we were playing well, were not giving up those odd man situations.”

Discussion on the Irish puck handling and second guessing themselves:

“Michigan puts a lot of pressure on you with their speed. they skate really well and you have less time to make a play. You have to move the puck quickly, in order to do that you need to have good puck support. The Morrison turnover–he threw it across the ice under pressure and they came right back up the ice and scored. The speed of the game creates turnovers, and that’s where we have to a better job of making safe plays when we are under duress. We just have to smart with the puck and our puck decisions.”

The post Notre Dame Hockey: A Rough Road Continues appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

“1585689 Inmate West. In prison, they count you multiple times a day, so it doesn’t take long to memorize your number.”

“The bus ride to prison was an awful ride. You’re handcuffed to another man, so if he needs to go to the bathroom, you go to the bathroom. You go everywhere together. It’s a 10 hour ride. It’s August, it’s hot and there is no air conditioning. It’s just like you see in the movies. Then, when you get there, you get off the bus and they strip you down. They do a cavity search, shave your head, and give you a sack lunch; a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a hardboiled egg, and prunes. They take a sample of your DNA, poke you, prod you, and look for identifying marks. You get boxer shorts and clothes, and they take you to your pod.”

“The prison they sent me to was in Beaumont, Texas, which happens to be right next to Port Arthur. I never thought I’d be coming home on a prison bus. It’s a mixed bag. Yes, I’m close enough to home that my friends and family can come visit me, but I’m going to prison. The Mark W. Stiles Unit, in the Texas Department of Correction. One of the toughest prisons in Texas.”

I’m riding with God.

“I remembered everything Mr. Jackson told me. I walked into my pod in section two, put my back against the wall, and 10 minutes later this little guy comes around. He asks me, ‘hey white boy, what family are you riding with?’ And I reply, ‘I’m riding with God.’ He laughs at me, and says, ‘we’re gonna come get you. God isn’t here. He left a long time ago.’ 10 minutes later this big corn fed white guy with swastika tattoos came up and once he got within range of me I hit him as hard as I could, and then he dropped me within 20 seconds.”

“I had three dozen fights while I was in prison, and I lost 75% of them; but in the end, I won by showing up. I learned so much more about myself from my losses than my wins. Let’s face it, no one analyzes a victory quite like they do a loss. Many times they would roll my cell door and another inmate would say, ‘West, I want to look at you in the shower,’ meant they wanted to fight, because in the showers, it’s easier to clean up the blood. After a few weeks, I’m done fighting the white gangs, and then the black gangs came. And they came four guys at a time.”

“At this point I’m starting to visit the chapel. There is a big Catholic presence there, and the Catholic representative is this woman named Dee Doucet. She carries a cane, and she is not one bit afraid to hit you with it. I go into her office and speak to hear about my situation. I tell her, I can’t do this; I think I need to kill myself. At which point she said, ‘you can’t do that, Damon. Follow your mom’s advice and get on God’s back.’ She gave me a bible and a rosary, and asked me to say a rosary with her. My mom had an extremely strong devotion to the blessed mother, and I knew my mom prayed the rosary quite often. My mom always had her rosary in her car, and she prayed it any time she had a few extra minutes. This gesture from Dee, giving me the bible and rosary, very much resonated with me. She enrolled me in all of her Catholic groups at the prison. She told me, ‘you need strength and you need help.’ That was a Saturday, and on Monday morning I got up and thought, I’m tired of these limits I’m putting on myself. I’m ready to surpass what I thought I could do.”

Man, white boy! Have you lost your mind?!

“That Monday, I decided I was going to start earning my respect … at the rec yard. The rec yard, like everything else at prison, is all about race. At the rec yard, far in the distance, is the sand volleyball court, and it’s for the whites and Hispanics only. To the left, you see big walls, and those are the handball courts. They are open to any race, but your partner has to be of the same race. At the weight stack, your spotter better look at you. And finally, there is the basketball court, and that is run by the blacks; no whites allowed. Growing up in Port Arthur, Texas, I was used to being the only white kid around, so I headed out to the basketball court. I know I’m better than some of the guys out there, I just need to get my hands on the ball. After each game, they ‘shoot for teams.’ Meaning, the first two guys who make shots get to pick the teams. So I go out there, and when the last ball of the game goes through the basket, I grab the ball, falling on it like a fumble ball in football. And the guys on the court are screaming, ‘man, white boy! Have you lost your mind?! We’re gonna hurt you!’ And what do I do? I scream back, ‘hurt me! I’m shooting for teams today.’ They are screaming at me and spitting on me, yelling, ‘we’re gonna kill you, white boy.’ The biggest Blood from Houston, he tells me, ‘get up there and shoot your shot.’ I get up to the free throw line and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Damon, what are you doing?’ I’ve now disrespected the whole race, but if I make this shot, I am one step closer towards getting their respect. I get up there, and I make my shot; and he gets up there, and makes his shot. I pick my four, and he picks his four, but the game isn’t 5-on-5, it’s 9-on-1. But I survive.”

“Tuesday, I go back out onto the court, and they are laughing at me again. ‘Man, we thought you had enough yesterday. What are you doing out here?’ And I look them straight in the eye and say, ‘man, I thought you were playing basketball.’ The Blood who I played against yesterday, he picked me to be on his team today, and they gave it to me even worse. I go out there Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; and they are all picking me to be on their team because they want to beat me up. On Saturday, this is when I see it happen. I’m out there playing in this game, and up until this point all I’ve been able to play is defense, when they finally pass the ball to me. I shoot, and I miss. They pass it to me again, and I make the shot, and then I hear; it ‘good shot, West.’ They weren’t calling me white boy any more. After that game was over, the guys came over and their posture was different. The head Blood said to me, ‘you pulled something off out here that we’ve never seen a white boy do before. You’ve earned our respect. You won’t have to worry about the black the rest of your time here in prison.’ All I could think of was Mr. Jackson and the coffee bean. In six days I had changed the environment out on the yard, and they and accepted me. From then on, they’d come get me, ‘West, let’s go shoot some hoops.”

“But, there was problem, based on a flaw in his statement. The head Blood, he couldn’t promise to keep the entire race off of me. That was out of his control. And then there was another problem, I’ve always taken shortcuts. Two weeks after that Saturday, I was coming off the court, and this guy named Carlos pulled me aside. He takes me into the stairwell and tells me that this big black guy is coming for me in the shower, and that he’s not coming to fight you, he’s coming to rape you and he has a knife. My reply? I just won’t take a shower today. To which Carlos reminds me that I’m a fool, because sooner or later I have to take a shower, and he’ll be waiting for me. He tells me, ‘You’re on the track and the train is coming. What are you going to do?’ I answer Carlos, ‘I don’t have a knife.’ At this point, Carlos gives me a knife, and I hand it back. I’ve never fought with a knife before, and if I go in there with a knife, he’s going to kill me for sure.”

At that moment it sinks in, I am going to kill a man.

“Carlos has an idea. We go back to my cell. I have this little fan in my cell, because prisons in Texas have no air conditioning, and you need that little fan when it gets hot in August. It is March of 2010 when this is happening, so I’m not actually using my fan. Carlos takes my fan apart, takes the motor off and puts it into this bag that he has, and makes a weapon out of it. He hands me the weapon and instructs me, ‘don’t wear your flip flops to the shower, and wear your boots. Turn the shower on, make the water as hot as it will go to create steam and as soon as he comes in, hit him in the head and kill him, or he will kill you.’ At that moment it sinks in, I am going to kill a man. How did this happen? How did I get here in life?”

“I walk the 20 steps to the shower, and I realize, I am never going home. If I kill him, they are going to give me another life sentence, or he’s gonna kill me. But I have to do it.”

“I do everything he says. I’m waiting in my boxer shorts and my boots with my weapon, and the wait seems like forever. My heart is pounding in my chest, and then he pops his head through. All I remember seeing is this big grin on his face, which pissed me off and I screamed as I hit him. I hit him in the breastbone, totally missing his head. He drops his knife, and now I’m on this guy, smashing the motor into him. He’s on the ground, and I’m smashing him in the head. Two of his gang brothers come and demand that I stop or they’re gonna throw me off the run, which would be my death for certain. You see, once he hits the ground, and I’m still hitting him, I’m violating the rule. The rule is, once the other guy is down, you have to stop fighting; you have to let him get up.”

“I snap out of it, grab my bag, and run back to my cell, closing the cell door and I start to cry. I fall asleep, or more like pass out, and sleep until the next day. When I walk out of my cell the next day, everyone knew I spoke the universal language that is spoke in prison, violence; and once they all saw that, they never bothered me again. No more challenges, no more fighting. Once that pressure was lifted off of me, I started working on myself; mentally, spiritually, physically, and I started the process of recovering. I learned that we all need to eat, and what you feed yourself is not only food, but it is also what you read, what you watch on TV, what you do to feed your spirituality. I started reading a book every other day. Whatever I could get my hands on. I started learning about the five major religions, and what I learned is that they are all based on four main principles.”

• Unselfish
• Honest
• Pure
• Loving

“Those are the four principles I based my recovery on, and through them discovered the secret of life. When I came to the understanding that those principles were how I needed to run my decisions, I discovered these retreats that they offered through the prison, called the ACTS retreat. The ACTS retreat is based on serving others and being humble. ACTS is an acronym for: Adoration – Community – Theology – Service. These men would come in to the prison from the outside, leave their jobs, their families for four days and come in and love the inmates. There were 66 of us who would go on these retreats, and the men would hug us and shower us with love. You could just see a transformation happening to the guys in the room.”

“Big murderers, crying like babies at the end of the retreat. I was mesmerized. I saw a transformation happen at that retreat that I never thought could happen in that deep dark place.”

Servant Leadership

“A great example of the ‘servant leadership’ that comes out of these ACTS retreats, is my buddy Joe Tortorice. Joe started a sandwich shop in 1976 in Beaumont, Texas. He began his Jason’s Deli restaurants with four employees and one store, and now he has 270 stores, 11,000 employees in 29 states. But if you ask Joe, he’s not in the restaurant business, he’s in the people business. He believes that you help others achieve their goals and through that you elevate yourself. That’s how the universe works, when everything is in harmony.”

“Since I already had a college degree, I couldn’t take classes in prison, but I came to the realization that I could teach others in prison. I became a tutor, and started mentoring my fellow inmates; helping them go in the right direction. Any way I could give back, I did. I learned that the best way to free myself of my addictions was to help others.”

“Next, I started going to AA meetings on a regular basis and working the steps. One day, I went into a meeting and the sponsor told us, today we are going to diagram the Serenity Prayer.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

“First, he drew a long line across the chalkboard. For the first line of the prayer, put all of the things you cannot change on God’s line. For the second line of the prayer, erase one inch of God’s line, and that’s your line. That’s what you get to work on every day. There are four things that you can control in your life: what you think, what you say, what you feel, and what you do. That’s what you need to work on every day. For the third line, the wisdom to know the difference, know the difference between what’s on God’s line, and what’s on your line.”

“Everything I went through in prison was very humbling. And I believe when you are humbled, it’s because you needed to be right sized. After you have been humbled, whether or not you stay there, is up to you.”

“I helped a lot of people during my time in prison, but then I got to a point where I wanted to get out.”

“There are two ways out of prison, through the courts, and through parole.”

“It came time for me to sit down and write my appeal. There are jailhouse lawyers, and they will tell you, in exchange for $100 at the commissary, I’ll get you out of here. But the more I thought about it, I knew I was a smart guy, so I paid one of the lawyers two bags of coffee to show me how the use the law library, and after an eight hour tutorial of the library, I got to work. It took me two weeks to write my appeal, and then I sent it off to Provost Umphrey Law Firm, asking them if they would review it and let me know if it was something I could use. My Umphrey responded to me saying it was one hell of an appeal, and that when I got out of prison I should come see him for a job.”

“I file my appeal, and I’m trying to do all of the right things, but as Dabo Swinney says, ‘you bloom where you’re planted.’ Growth happens outside of your comfort zone, otherwise you wouldn’t grow, and you’d stay stagnant. I was lucky, I had a lot of help. My parents came to visit me over 150 times when I was in prison. I had visits from friends and family almost every week. I had encouragement from so many people, but what I had most was hope, which is also in short supply in prison. With hope and time on my hands, I went to work on myself spiritually, mentally, and physically; and on November 16, 2015, the parole board set me free.”

“When they granted me parole, they told me this. ‘Hey look, if you come back to prison, we’ll keep you for the rest of your life. Make it right.’”

“The guard walked me to the gate and he told me, ‘here’s your last order. Once you get out of here, get off of our property and don’t ever come back to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice every again.’ I run to the car, where my parents are waiting for me, and my dad says, ‘You want to get a Whataburger?’ And my mom says, ‘hang on Bob, don’t start the car just yet. I have three tools that Damon needs to restart his life.’ First, she handed me an iPhone. I was blown away. When I had a cell phone before I went to prison, it had buttons, not a computer screen! Second, she handed me my driver’s license, which I had been able to renew from prison. Third, she put an ACTS bracelet on my wrist, from the men who ran the retreat I went to in prison. She told me, ‘all the men who have been on these retreats, just like you … they’re waiting for you. Wear your ACTS bracelet so that you can identify each other. I have signed you up for another ACTS retreat in St. Charles … go find your friends.’”

I am doing right by God.

“I thought I was in a good place with my bible and my rosary, but that first retreat after I got out of prison was so great for me. These men shared with me the failures in their own lives, explaining that they were sharing their stories so that others don’t make the same mistakes. This was the servant leadership guide that I have chosen to follow. If by sharing my story, I can save even one kid, or save one family from having to go through what my family went through, or save one future victim from suffering, I am doing right by God.”

“Now my prayer is, ‘God, put in front of me what you need me to do today, and let me recognize it when I see it.’”

“The best thing I have every single day is my program of recovery, because I will always be an addict. I go to meetings, meet with my sponsor, work my steps, and continue to clean out the junk in my life. I have made lists and apologized to people, because whether or not they accept my apologies, it’s my job to keep my side of the street and life clean. And if I can do that, I can stay right with my God. I do this every single day. It’s not something I’ll ever graduate from, it’s something I’ll have to do for the rest of my life.”

“The day after I got out of prison, I went to see Mr. Umphrey, as he had instructed me, and he gave me a job at his law firm. I work in the pharmaceutical division, and I’ve been there for two years now. To get a job at a law firm like this, it’s a one in a million chance, but they feel I am a real life service project.

On the side I started going to local prisons and speaking to the inmates, and then the next things I wanted to do was start speaking with students and student-athletes. I got the opportunity to go speak at the University of Florida. They couldn’t pay me, but they had me flown in, and they were blown away by my story. And then it happened … other schools started calling. What everyone started to realize was that I am the only former NCAA student-athlete to get a life sentence, get paroled, and have the opportunity to go out and speak about it.”

Damon has spoken at multiple Division I universities including Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Texas A&M, SMU, Michigan State, Pitt, Kansas, and many more. He has had coaches from Dabo Swinney to Nick Saban endorse his servant leadership, and he continues to speak at universities and prisons to make a difference in the lives of young men and women. He has devoted his life to sharing with others the dangers and consequences of making bad decisions, and the benefits of staying humble.

Are you interested in Damon West coming to speak to your organization? Please visit his website, www.DamonWest.org for more information!

And don’t forget … “Be a coffee bean!”

The post Part II: From Football to Coffee Beans? appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

This past Saturday, I met with another former football player who hails from Port Arthur, Texas. You may not have heard of him, but this is a story you don’t want to miss. Trust me on this one.

Damon West was born in Port Arthur, Texas; on the gulf coast where Texas and Louisiana meet. His father, Bob West, was a groundbreaking sports writer. In fact, he was the first sports writer to put an African-American athlete (former Oklahoma Sooner football player, Joe Washington) on the front page of the sports section in Port Arthur. And his mother, Genie, was a nurse, and raised Damon and his older brother Brandon and younger brother, Grayson. In the 1970’s and 80’s, when Port Arthur’s schools were becoming integrated and white people were leaving in droves, the West family decided to stay. There were many situations during those days growing up in Port Arthur in which Damon was the only white kid. Little did he know that these situations would one day help him, when once again he would be in similar situations, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The West family was a traditional Catholic family, with a cross and a prayer plaque hanging on the wall in each room of the house. In 1985, this strong faith was greatly tested. Damon came to his parents to tell them his babysitter was molesting him. They sent Damon to counseling and reached out to their family priest, but Damon went into a very dark place. That was his activating event. “By the age of 10, I was sneaking beers from my Dad’s fridge, sneaking liquor at friends’ houses, and smoking cigarettes. By age 12, I was smoking pot, and my belief system was in a bad place. I thought, I wasn’t hurting anyone, I was just smoking a little pot and drinking beer. I was a really good athlete growing up, and I would go onto become a three-year starter for the football team at my high school. I was recruited by many Division I schools, that is until they found out I was only 5’10.” In 1994, there were few successful short quarterbacks, so no one was eager to take a chance on me. I did, however, receive a scholarship to the University of North Texas, and that’s where I went.”

“Once I got out of Port Arthur and into Denton, I lost sight of a lot of important things in my life. I stopped going to church, and I turned my focus towards playing football, having a good time, and partying. Every person’s life is made up of a bunch of ‘fork in the road’ type moments, and September 21st, 1996 was one of mine. North Texas was playing Texas A&M on that day, and I was the starting quarterback for North Texas. On the third play of the game, I would go down with a separated shoulder, and that would be the last football game I would ever play in.” (The following summer, Damon would sever his Achilles tendon in a home accident, which would end his football career.)

Damon had drank and smoked pot quite a bit up to that point, but after realizing his football career was over, he began to shift towards harder drugs to help take away the pain. “I hit the harder stuff, ecstasy, cocaine, pills … I had no inhibitions. My grades suffered terribly, but somehow, by the grace of God, I graduated. After college, I worked in Washington, D.C., for a congressman from Houston, and following that job I worked for Missouri congressman Dick Gephardt while he was running for President in 2004. Then I worked for UBS bank and trained to become a stock broker. One day at work, one of my co-workers commented that I looked sluggish and told me to follow him to the parking garage. That’s when I was introduced to meth. Up to that point I was a pretty normal, functioning coke addict. Yes, my value system was so warped that I thought what I was doing was normal. But meth, that was a different story. That first time I used meth, I was up for four days straight, and I loved how it made me feel.”

Damon’s life went from functioning to spiraling out-of-control. “I lost my job, my home, my car, my savings account, my connection with God, my family, and my sanity. I was homeless, living on the streets of Dallas. I found a place to stay at a dope house, where all we would do was sit around, get high, and talk about getting high. We were a bunch of unemployable addicts, doing anything we had to do to get more drugs. The thing about addicts, we are selfish people and we are thieves. Addicts steal lots of things, but one thing that is stolen from an addict is time, and time is the most precious resource that once lost, cannot be regained. I started breaking into cars, storage units, and eventually into homes in the uptown neighborhood of Dallas where I used to live.”

DON’T MOVE, DON’T MOVE, DON’T MOVE!

“The burglary ring we were running would go on to be known as the ‘Uptown Burglaries,’ and I left a trail of victims in my wake. I hurt a lot of people. I took from them a sense of security that they may never get back. Their thoughts of a person coming into their home, unannounced, unwelcomed, stealing their sense of peace; that’s something they’ll always have to live with. By July 30, 2008, I had been running these burglaries for two years. On that particular day, I was sitting on a couch in a run-down apartment, with a dealer sitting next to me, and we were handing the pipe back and forth. I told the dealer that I thought the end was near; I thought the cops were coming to get me. My partner had been picked up 10 days prior to that day, and I felt my days were numbered. Just as I’m handing the pipe back to him, a window breaks and a cannister comes sailing through the window. I get up from the couch, look down at the cannister, and in a flash it explodes right in my face. The explosion blew me back onto the couch and I couldn’t see or hear anything. When I regained my senses, a cop was standing over me in full riot gear, and his gun was pressed into my eyeball. I look up at the cop and he says, ‘DON’T MOVE, DON’T MOVE!’ And then I hear them say, ‘we got him! The uptown burglar!’”

“When all was said and done, we had broken into dozens of homes in that uptown neighborhood of Dallas, desperately trying to feed that insatiable addiction. We were white, black, male, female.” Addiction knows no boundaries, it sinks its teeth into anyone who will let it.

“They took me to the Dallas County Jail, where they threw me into a holding cell for 24-hours. I only had one thought during that 24-hours. It wasn’t about the victims, my family, or about me. The one thought in my head was, ‘how in the world am I going to get high in here; how am I going to get my dope.’ After that first 24-hours, they moved me into general population, which was a terrifying experience. Never had I been somewhere, where I knew I wasn’t able to leave. In my first 24-hours in general population, I was in my first real fight over a breakfast tray. I called home from this blue jail phone that they had hanging on the wall, and I heard my dad crying. He was screaming at me, ‘how did we go so wrong?? How did we mess up so badly?? What could we have done differently??’ Then my mom gets on the phone, and I hear her say, ‘baby, listen. Your dad can’t talk to you right now. You’ve hurt us, but we love you unconditionally. That’s the deal we made with God when he loaned you to us. You know that, right?’ And I replied, ‘yes.’ She said, ‘now we have to give you to God. You’re now a captive audience to God, and you had better start listening to him. Do you remember the prayer plaque that was on the wall above your bed?’ That plaque had been on the wall in my room for 18 years in our house on Roanoke Street, and I for the life of me couldn’t remember what it said.”

“My mom replied, ‘it was footprints in the sand. Do you remember the story?’ When I could not remember the story, she ever so patiently and lovingly told me the story of footprints in the sand. How every time something good happened, the young man saw two sets of footprints, but every time something bad happened, he only saw one set of footprints. I asked her, ‘why is there only one set of footprints when things are bad in life?’ And she replied, ‘that’s because in those moments, God is carrying you.’”

“That night I started praying to God, something I had not done since I was injured in college in 1996. Reopening a conversation with God like this doesn’t just happen overnight. My first prayer, during those 10 months in the county jail awaiting my trial, was pretty simple; ‘Dear God, get me out of this jam. If you get me out of this jam, look what I’ll do for you: I’ll get a job, be a normal guy, and only smoke meth on weekends.’” Not exactly ‘Footprints in the Sand,’ but it was a start.

“I was in the Dallas County jail for 10 months awaiting my trial, but my hope, my thought, was that I’d get out on probation, and resume using the drugs that I missed so much. When my trial began, I sat there for six days, with my family right there with me. I listened to the testimony of victim after victim, accomplice after accomplice, and recordings of the phone calls I’d made from jail over the last 10 months. I was not remorseful, I was not sorry, and the jury only deliberated for 10 minutes before they came back with a guilty verdict. The next thing I heard was the judge saying, ‘you are hereby sentenced to 65 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice … life sentence.”

“After that, all I could hear was my mother gasping. It was my first felony conviction, but I received a life sentence. I would later learn, once I got to prison, that I was there with people who had committed murder and only gotten 8 years … and I got a life sentence. The jury was mad at me. There I was, this selfish guy who had hurt so many people. It definitely struck a chord with the jurors. They were sitting there looking at this smug guy who could have done anything to earn a living, and had chosen to do this instead. I was not remorseful. They had listened to calls I had made from prison trying to get someone, anyone, to move stolen property to bail me out. I didn’t care about anyone but myself. All of those jailhouse phone calls, ultimately, that’s what sealed my fate.”

“Once the verdict was read, they quickly handcuffed me and shoved me out of the courtroom. They put me inside of a holding area, with me on one side of the bullet proof glass, and my parents on the other side, and we get one last visit. I turned to my mother and said, ‘I’m sorry mom.’ My dad sits there, stunned with disbelief, and has no words. My mom says, ‘debts of life demand to be repaid, and you just got hit with a huge bill by the state of Texas, and you must repay it. You owe your dad and me as well. We gave you a life, and here is the debt you owe us. You are going to go to prison, and you’re going to get on God’s back, and you are not going to join one of these white hate gangs, you’re not going to get any tattoos, and you’re going to repay your debt. Do you understand me?’ And I replied, ‘yes.’”

“The guards took me back to the pod in the county jail, before I got transferred to where I’ll serve my life sentence, and I start asking every single guy in there, ‘how am I going to survive this?’ And this is what I’m hearing. I’m going to a building which is going to be my sole existence. There will be a chapel, chow hall, and law library. That’s it. They keep telling me I’m going to have to join a gang in order to make my life easier. Everyone but one man, Mr. Jackson. I was very receptive to Mr. Jackson. He was an older black man, and he pulled me aside to give me a different set of advice. He said, ‘I’ve been watching you, and you keep telling everyone that you can’t join a gang, in order to honor your mom. And that’s okay. You don’t have to join a gang. But there are a few things you need to know.’”

You don’t have to win all of your fights in prison, but you do have to fight them.

“Mr. Jackson continued, ‘The first thing you need to know is that everything in prison is about race. In the television room, the first row is for the blacks, the second row is for the Hispanics, and if there is a third bench, that one is for the whites. Otherwise you sit on the floor. Second, the white gangs will feel they have an ownership over you. You will fight them first if you don’t want to join them. If you survive what they are going to do with you, you will move onto the next phase which is fighting with the black gangs. The gangs all work together. If you survive all of that, you will be able to walk alone, and only the strongest guys in prison walk alone. Third, you don’t have to win all of your fights in prison, but you do have to fight them. (This is not only the most important rule in prison, but it’s the most important rule in life.) You have to respond quickly, and you have to get back up again. You have to fight.’”

“The next thing he told me, has stuck with me every day of my life. He told me, “West, imagine prison as a pot of boiling water. It’s hot, and the pressure is high. Now imagine putting three things in this pot of boiling water; a carrot, an egg, and a coffee bean. What happens to the carrot when you put it in boiling water? It gets soft. The carrot went into prison hard, and got soft. What happens to the egg when you put it in the boiling water? It gets hard. The egg went into prison hard, and it became hard on the inside, too. Now the egg is incapable of giving or receiving love, and never needs to come out of prison. What happens to the coffee bean when you put it into boiling water? It changes the water into coffee. The smallest of the three things changed the whole pot of water into coffee. That’s what you need to do when you go into prison, change everything. You have to go into this high pressure, negative environment, and change it forever. You get out of anything, exactly what you put into it. The other coffee beans will find you because your energy will shine. Where do you find them? Go to the chapel.’”

“The last thing he told me before I left the county jail is this, ‘when you walk into your pod for the first time, put your back against the wall and wait for it to happen. The first guy to come to you will not come to hurt you, he’ll come for info. The second guy, put your fist in his mouth because he’s coming to hurt you.’”

Please come back tomorrow for the rest of Damon West’s story!

Cheers!

Lisa

The post From Football to Coffee Beans? Discovering the Secret of Life appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Jeff Quinn has been promoted to Offensive Line coach for the Irish.

More: https://t.co/nwUe4YVjif#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/atTQsxLluj

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) January 23, 2018

Well…except for the whole “suddenly silenced” part.

Look, I get it. Just as we thought Notre Dame completed the fumigation of the BVG stank, Brian Kelly went and did the one thing that Irish fans will forever associate with BVG and never forgive him for: hiring (or in this case, promoting) within his comfort zone. Not only that, he basically hired his best friend, Jeff Quinn, whom many will remember as BK’s right-hand man and offensive coordinator during Kelly’s rise through the coaching ranks.

On paper, it’s absolutely an underwhelming hire, especially considering that any rumors or smoke swirling around the offensive line vacancy stayed far away from Quinn. I’m not here to sell you on it. In fact, I’m not even here to calm you down.

What I will say is that assistant coaching hires seem, from my perspective, to be a total crap-shoot. I was a little nervous last offseason that BK took Wake Forest’s defensive coordinator and then hired a guy from Memphis that had only a single season as offensive coordinator under his belt. Where there encouraging metrics to lessen the blow? Sure! Was there worry that this was 100% going to blow up in BK’s face? You bet!

In all honesty, Kelly’s hires and promotions this offseason have been largely outside his comfort zone. While Clark Lea’s promotion was certainly a move to maintain continuity from Mike Elko, he’s far from a “BK guy” and 2018 will be his first season as a defensive coordinator. Terry Joseph’s hire as the new safeties coach is also a bit out of left field (baseball pun absolutely intended) for BK as well:

It was Tierney’s understanding there was no past coaching connection between Joseph and ND head coach Brian Kelly or any of the current members of the Irish coaching staff.

“He said it came out of the clear blue,” Tierney said. “He had gotten a phone call, asked if he had any interest. Once he got clearance from North Carolina to talk to Notre Dame, it kind of just took off from there.”

Perhaps it shouldn’t be overly surprising that BK decided to make one pick of comfort with that in mind. Plus, let’s not forget that very few (if any) Irish fans were singing Harry Hiestand’s praises when he was announced as well.

No matter what side of the BK fence you find yourself on, let me give you some “BK Practices Networking 101 Hiring Comfort” around a handful of talking points:

What in the World Does Chip Long Think?

Keep BK: This move likely wasn’t made without Long’s input. Perhaps Quinn has been a bit of a mentor for the young coordinator as well. Maybe it wasn’t “option A” as far as Long was concerned, but certainly not an option that he feels threatens him or what he wants to do on offense.

Fire BK: Hiring a former offensive coordinator best buddy is a sure-fire way to cause internal strife within the staff and locker room. That BVG nail almost has BK’s coffin closed as-is and, if this blows up in his face too, it’s going to be near impossible to justify keeping BK around.

The Recruiting Trail

Keep BK: Yes, Quinn isn’t known as an all-star recruiter, but neither was Hiestand. In fact, that was one of the biggest criticisms running around after his hire and everything worked out just fine. The cupboard is well-stocked and as long as Quinn keeps things humming, the position under BK should basically recruit itself.

Fire BK: Remember how the BVG defense was such ass and we all thought “damn, just how good was Jaylon Smith?!” Or when Kizer struggled mightily in 2016 and his first year in the NFL and we thought “damn, just how good was Will Fuller?!” Won’t that be a not fun exercise to do for good ‘ol Harry if the bottom falls out of just one class? The guy hasn’t had to hit the recruiting trail since 2014 and, spoiler alert, he wasn’t exactly making any kind of meaningful waves at Buffalo.

Can Quinn Produce NFL Talent?

Keep BK: When you tune in to the Super Bowl next Sunday, you’ll see Jason Kleece lining up for the Philadelphia Eagles. He’s been to two Pro Bowls. Seems good, no? He’s not the only NFL draftee that’s served under Quinn on the line either and Quinn hasn’t had the benefit of the talent pool that Notre Dame has.

Fire BK: Can we not judge success here and there at Central Michigan and Cincinnati as sure-fire guarantees? Because, ya know, there’s a guy in charge that hasn’t fully translated that same success and it’s year number nine at ND for him. Quinn’s walking into a situation in which two departing first round picks are leaving the line and the occasional late-round draft pick isn’t exactly the replacement production needed to fill those shoes.

The BK Buddy System

Keep BK: Look, BVG was bad, but beyond that BK’s network hasn’t been that bad. Charlie Molnar would be the only other example and, hilariously, people would’ve preferred Quinn as offensive coordinator at the time–but, don’t forget Molnar had an offense that beat Southern Cal, in their house, with one Thomas Rees leading the charge. Paul Longo could be another one, but are you really going to lay loads of blame at a strength and conditioning coach? It’s just a position coach. It’s fine.

Fire BK: This BK comfort zone is a systemic issue. If the narrative of 2017 was that BK had to change everything down to doing yoga and avoiding fundraisers, why in the blue hell would he revert to old habits after a single ten-win season? Can someone remind me of the definition of insanity?! Let’s go ahead and throw Lea onto this pile as well because arguably the two biggest coaching vacancies have been promotions within. And let’s not even start with Mr. Tom Rees because BRANDON, NO was not fun this season.

How Are You Feeling About Next Season?

Keep BK: Not great. ND has loads of questions beyond the new coaching hires. It’ll likely be rough. Send booze.

Fire BK: Not great. ND will somehow win just enough for BK to keep his job. It’ll likely be rough. Send booze.

The post Jeff Quinn Promoted; Offseason Angst Begins appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

The post HLS Podcast: Tide Rolls and the ND Offseason Steamrolls appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.