Women's Football Clinic....Meet Margaret Richards

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SUNDAY @ THE COUPLE

-Second annual Charlie Strong women's football camp

-Meet Louisville's Margaret Richards..part of Weber State's coaching staff 

(Janet Williams took part in the Saturday camp drills. She shares her observations with us)

Charlie Strong is a
different guy when he gets
on the football field

It was hot yesterday. And, yes, Charlie we were tired. Doing sit ups, running, putting on the pads, discussing plays and formations. Hustling. Nearly six hours of alternating fun and exhaustion. I had no idea of what all a football player has to go through to just be ready to play the game. I understand it now.

We started the day over at the indoor Trager Center. A lecture, then going through pregame warm ups, weights and push ups. I used to be in pretty good shape but after that I realize that I'm not anymore. I was getting dusted by several of the younger girls out there and the coaches weren't shy about telling me about it.

We took to the field and there was more in store for us. Drills that had us exploring the worlds of passing, receiving, tackling and learning the names and the plays that the offense and defense have to learn and master. Mike Sanford, the offensive coordinator for the Cards, was great. Interjecting humor with terminology - he received a big round of laughter when he asked us if we knew what the term "hot receiver" meant and then commented that it didn't mean the guy was good looking. 

I now understand why the guys on defense are so fired up about defensive coordinator Vance Bedford. Talk about a motivator! And, slacking is definitely not allowed on Charlie Strong's football field. Charlie is a great guy when you meet him in public and off the field. When he's on the field, though, he's demanding, loud and persistant. You listen, to try to perform and you hear about it if you don't do it to his satisfaction. I used to think my old sotball coach was the most demanding person I ever met. She's in second place now.

Rule #1: You don't walk anywhere. Period. You run. Walking is for little old ladies in the parking on the way to church. Cardinals run. They run with a purpose and if you don't - you do it again. And again. 

I emerged at the end of the day tired but proud. I think that I can now discuss football with "the guys" and not embarrass myself. I have a great respect for what these athletes go through to get ready for games and what they are expected to be able to do. I have a 8 yr. old son and if he decides he wants to be a football player (right now basketball is his major sport) and gets good enough to play in college-I'd send him to play for Charlie Strong and his guys with no hesitation.
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There's a lot more involved in a running play than Janet
ever imagined. You blow your assignment...you hear about it.

We were there with questions and expectations. Both were satisfied. And, as I type this out to send over to Paul and Sonja, my calves are sore, my arms are aching and I'm still queasy, I think, from a pass that I was supposed to catch but ended up directly in my stomach. Thud, ugh.  

I never thought I'd say this:

I'm looking forward to football season.

(Janet Williams was a pretty fair softball and track star back in high school. We thank her for her report and we agree...Janet. We can't wait for football to start.)

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Margaret Richards played
for Nebraska after gathering
All-State honors at Central.

Margaret Richards is the latest coach with a Louisville connection to join Bethann Ord at Weber State. Richards was an all-state hoops star at Louisville Central before going to Nebraska to play her college ball. Richards has a great deal of coaching experience...she was a graduate assistant at UofL for a year, an assistant at Kentucky State and head coach at St. Augustine College in Raleigh, NC. Her most recent job was at North Texas...where she was the team's recruiting coordinator and special situations coach.

"I'm very excited to have Margaret join our staff. I have a great deal of respect for her ability from our time together at UofL. Ord commented. "Her head coaching experience will be vital to our staff. She gives us instant credibility and will have a huge impact on recruiting."

We like this move by Ord and can see Richards being of great service to Ord as she begins her first year as the head coach at Weber State.

Ord hires Devan Newman as assistant coach

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SATURDAY : THE CARDINAL COUPLE REPORT

-BethAnn Ord hires Cardinal special assistant Devan Newman as assistant at Weber State

-Rules changes approved for women's college basketball

Weber State Wildcats are beginning
to get quite a Louisville lineage.

-Mess with the Triple Crown? Two opinions

-UofL baseball beats Pitt 12-2

Weber State head women's basketball coach BethAnn Ord has hired special assistant to Jeff Walz Devan Newman as an assistant coach at Weber State. Newman held the special assistant to Walz position for two years and also served a year as a graduate assistant at UofL.

Ord was excited about the hire and commented:

"Devan is going to be a great addition to my staff. She is a young, up-and coming star that I have had the opportunity to work with at Louisville for the last three years. She is also a coach's daughter who grew up on the court."

Newman is no stranger to the northwest part of the United States, getting her bachelor's degree in business from Oregon in 2007.

We've really never noticed too much or understood what a special assistant to a head coach does...so we asked a friend who has been in basketball for many years. A special assistant wears a lot of hats. They assist with coordinating team road trips with the Director of Basketball Operations. They aide in recruiting, helping players with academics and can be helpful with individual instruction with players. Special assistants also carry out specific duties and requests that the head coach has. Special assistants are the head coach's "aide de camp"...taking care of the little but important details that a head coach must deal with...so the coach can concentrate on the major issues with a team.

WE here at CARDINAL COUPLE wish Devan the best of success at Weber State. Pretty soon, we're going to have to start calling the program up there "Louisville Northwest."

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Those enterprising young men of the NCAA rules committee have followed through on the rules changes we discussed a couple of weeks ago here at CARDINAL COUPLE.

10 second clock in women's hoops?
We're against it.  

-The women's three-point line will be moved back a foot to 20 feet, 9 inches...same as the men's line.

-An arc three feet from the basket has been added, inside which a defender cannot take a charge.

-Terminology changes on intentional fouls...which will now be known as "Flagrant 1" fouls...and flagrant fouls are now "Flagrant 2" fouls. Same as claasifications that are used in the NBA.

-A 10-second half court shot clock will be experimented with in exhibition games this upcoming season.

Here at CARDINAL COUPLE, we feel that the first three listed above are fine...no big deal and shouldn't affect play all that much,   The 10 second shot clock during exhibition games is a poor choice, though...in our opinion. Power conference teams usually schedule pretty weak opponents for exhibition games and usually rout them as a rule. With a 10 second shot clock, the stronger teams will have an even greater advantage now to capitalize on weaker opponents inferior guard play if they decide to full court press. 80-48 blowouts
may turn into 110-28 romps. If you're going to do this...maybe install a "mercy rule" also...where the clock runs continuously if a team takes a 40 or larger point lead and stop the game if a team falls behind by 50 or more. And, what good is doing this during exhibition games when it won't be used in the regular season? After all, the main purpose of exhibition games is to prepare teams for regular season play. How does
changing the nature of the game in exhibitions help for the regular season? We hope this proposed change does not go well and is dropped from consideration.

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We recently sat down with Alan Patterson, respected handicapper and race analyst and discussed the Triple Crown. The main point of discussion was centered around the issue of lengthening the days in between the races. Currently there is a two week period between the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. Then, three weeks between the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. For those who participate in all three...it's three races in a six week timespan. As Patterson points out:

Does the Triple Crown need changing?

"Most of these will never run three races in six weeks again for the rest of their lives...plus you're asking a young horse to go further distances than they've ever gone in their racing careers and less time to rest in between them. It's destroyed horses in the past. I know that "that's the way it has always been" but it needs to be changed. Remember, the way it used to be is that we all had to use pay phones if we needed to make a call away from home and now everyone has cell phones. Remember when women's basketball had a center jump after each basket? Remember when there was no three point line or designated hitter in baseball?

Things change. The Triple Crown format needs to change also."

Patterson is in favor of still running the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May and then moving the Preakness to Memorial Day Weekend...building in a little extra "rest time" for those who attempt both races. Then, he's in favor of moving the Belmont Stakes to the Fourth of July weekend.

Veteran handicapper Norm Stienberg disagrees...

"You can't go and change the nature of these races and the tradition involved...because it would mean very little if a record happened to be broken. What if a horse breaks the time record for the Belmont after having that extra five weeks off to rest? Do you put an asterisk by that? The only change I'd like to see is probably going to happen soon enough..and that is moving the second leg of the Triple Crown to somewhere else than Pimlico Race Track. that place is on the verge of going bankrupt...the racing is inferior up there all year and it's time to get this race moved to a better track...maybe out in California or Gulfstream in Florida.

WE can see both handicapper's points here...but disagree with certain aspects raised by each. We say, leave it alone except for moving the Preakness to the west coast. Maybe Del Mar or Santa Anita. West coast horses come east to participate in the Triple Crown, no reason that east coast horses can't go west. And, Pimilco is a crappy track. Period.
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Congrats to the UofL baseball team...12-2 winners over Pitt yesterday in the BIG EAST Tournament. They advance to play St. John's today at 10 a.m. Eat your Wheaties, fellas and come out with the big bats again today....Charlie Springer's UofL Card Game has a recap of the romp at http://www.uoflcardgame.com/
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Ord leaving Lady Cards to take Weber State head coaching position

It's that time of year when the coaching carousel
gets cranking. Realtors love it...

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THURSDAY at C.C.

-Bethann Ord headed to Weber State

-Former Lady Cards coach out at Winthrop

-Softball vs. IU

Bethann Ord, assistant women's basketball coach for Jeff Walz the last four years at UofL, has been named head basketball coach at Weber State University. The Ogden, Utah school competes in the Big Sky Conference.

Bethann at Colorado with Whitney Houston. Not the Whitney Houston you're thinking of...Bobby Brown with the photo? No, probably not... 

"I am very excited to be a part of the Weber State family and I am grateful for this tremendous opportunity" Ord said.

This is Ord's first head coaching job. She was an assistant for 21 years at Colorado, Tulsa, Dayton, Pittsburgh, Wagner and Nazareth.  Pictured here with former Colorado point guard Whitney Houston (no, not the singer...) Ord came to Louisville from the Buffaloes...where she had been an assistant for two years. Brittany Spears ( not the one you're thinking of) was on the 2006-2007 team, too...and is considered a possible WNBA candidate.

Jeff Walz commented on the new position for Ord.

"Bethann is ready for this new challenge and Weber State is getting a wonderful coach. She is an extremely hard worker and a tremendous recruiter. She is tireless when it comes to recruiting. She will be fantastic in the community with the fans and supporters. I couldn't be happier for her and for this opportunity."

There's no doubt that Louisville has had some top notch, highly ranked and impressive recruiting classes since Walz and Ord came to Louisville. Leaving the BIG EAST for the Big Sky is a pretty interesting move...but if a head coaching job is the end game result, then it's a advancement in one's career. If Ord can dazzle them in Ogden like she did in Louisville, she'll do well there. Just don't get any ideas about taking Sara Hammond or Jude Schimmel with you, coach...

Before you get to feeling sorry for Coach Walz, let the record show that he still has assistant coaches Michelle Clark-Heard and Stephanie Norman, graduate assistant Liz Sherwood and director of Basketball operations Becky Bonner around the basketball offices. Just who Walz will peg to replace Ord isn't known yet, except possibly by him. We're pretty sure it won't be Sonja.

Uncle Jed and Jethro favor Sonja joining the UofL coaching staff but can't
talk Mr. Drysdale into donating enough  of Jed's money to the WBB program to get her an job interview 

If she can get top flight players to Ogden ,Utah and have success there, we fully expect that Ord will be packing her bags again down the road and being introduced as the new head coach at a larger program. Ord hasn't let sand settle in her shoes, in her recruiting or career, and Weber State is getting a good hire. Ord has NCAA Tournament experience, has learned the Walz philosophy of basketball and if she can apply that to her WSU players...we could be seeing her and Weber State on future Selection Mondays when tournament time rolls around. Good luck, Bethann!

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Former UofL head coach Bud Childers is out at Winthrop after seven years as the head women's basketball coach at the Rock Hill, SC school....that we knew about a month ago. What we can't seem to find any information on is the events that led to Childers being reprimanded by the Big South conference for "actions following the regular season final game against Charleston Southern that were violations of the leagues' ethical conduct policy."

Childers agreed to step down as head coach after the Big South Tournament. In seven years at Winthrop, Childers was 83-130.

Bud Childers coached many talented players at UofL, including Gwen Doyle, Nell Knox and Jody Martin

At Louisville, his record was 152-88 in eight years. He succeeded Peggy Fiehrer as the Lady Cards skipper in 1989...and the Cards went from 4-24 in 1988-89 to 17-12 in his first season...1989-90. Childers left the Cards after the 1996-97 season to go to James Madison University. At the time, the JMU program was considered a step up from coaching at Louisville.

Those were some hardship times for Lady Cards hoops. We attended home games everywhere it seemed...Louisville was in the Metro Conference for six of the eight years Childers was here. He led Louisville to three trips to the NCAA Tournament. Attendance for Lady Cardinal hoops was nowhere near what it is these days and... in those pre-Jurich days...news even more scarce to come up with about the team. It wasn't till the 1998-99 season that the Lady Cards began playing their entire home schedule in Freedom Hall without playing before the men's game....like they did off and on from 1976-77 to 1982-83.

As a student at UofL back during those early days, several of my frat brothers and I would go early to watch the Lady Cards play, sit down near or behind the Cards bench and then wait to get shooed out by the ushers when the crowd started to fill in for the men's contest. They sat the students in Section 335 back in those days...just off half court in Freedom Hall..for men's hoops and we'd make a mad dash from the floor to up there to get good seats for the men's game.

We tried to recall all the different places that we've attended Lady Cards home games over the years and came up with 10 venues... Ballard, Manual, Butler and Thomas Jefferson High Schools, Bellarmine College/University, Cardinal Arena, Commonwealth Convention Center, Freedom Hall, Spalding University and the KFC YUM Center. We're probably missing or fogetting a couple places in this list...but it goes to show the 'nomad nature' of the early years of WBB at Louisville. Manual always had the best popcorn...I remember that...and Tuonisia Turner (1988-1992) had a cross-over move with the ball that was an opponent's ankle breaker.

We're not sure what happened, Bud...but here's hoping you land on your feet and find success elsewhere. You were an integral part of Lady Cards hoops growth after the dismal Peggy Fiehrer reign and your (.633) win percentage at UofL is third all time behind Tom Collen and Jeff Walz.

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Louisville softball extended the winning streak to eight straight games with a 1-0 win over Indiana Wednesday night in Ulmer Stadium. This one was a pitchers duel. no doubt...with Cardinal starter Caralisa Connell (14-4) allowing just four hits and fanning eight and IU's Morgan Melloh allowing six hits and striking out six.

The Cards had runners in scoring position in the first, fifth and sixth innings but couldn't get anyone past home plate. After Connell retired the Hoosiers 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh...Louisville opened the home half of the seventh with Jennifer Esteban reaching base on an error and then scoring on a one out Katie Keller single to give the Cards the game.

Up next, Louisville heads to Pittsburgh to face the Pirates...oops, the Panthers... in a three game BIG EAST Conference series that will take place April 9th and 10th. Wish there was radio coverage of this trip..Pitt is 4-0 in the BIG EAST and has just recently begun play at the newly created Softball field in the Peterson Athletic Complex. It will be only the second time the Panthers have played at home in a series this season.
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