BEHIND THE LENS - August 25 2006 -

Football Stars For Tomorrow - www.storkmontgomery.com

Give it your best!

Focus on what affects YOU

Cramping and the "Electrolyte"

Hey Gang Welcome back!

Here we are at Week 1 of High School Football in TN.

Yes, I know we played last week with what they call “Week 0”. Now it is fully underway, as all the teams across this long state are playing tonight.

Why wait around dive in? Let’s go!

Give it your best!
You are not going to win every game. You are not going to score every time you get the ball. Things are not always going to go your way, but if you give it your best shot things seem to feel better when you miss.

I announced the freshmen game last night between Smyrna and Brentwood. I've got to be honest and tell you that I made some mistakes on some of the kid’s names. It bugs me when the roster numbers and names don’t match up with what we have on the field. It makes me look like a fool. I also had a terrible time with some of the kid’s names. No announcer ever intentionally wants to butcher a child’s name. I like it when the parents come to the press box and in a calm voice tell me that “53 is Doug Sims not John Doe”. My reply works for me, "I can’t see from the press box to field what child is wearing each jersey, so I go by a list.". Calling a Football game is so different than basketball; you have a lot more players, and a lot more to watch.

Go easy on every body tonight: from the parking attendants, the gate people, the concession stand worker, the managers, the refs, the clock keeper, the coaches, the cheerleaders, and the players.

Give it your best, and if you make a mistake let it go and move on.

Focus on what affects YOU
You can’t control others and you can’t control this ever changing world. I think kids at times have way to much pressure put on them.

You would think kids are running America, and they do sometimes when they forget something at home, and they need you to bring something to them at school. The sky is always falling when that happens.

We put a lot responsibility on our kids, and at times they try to take on more than what really pertains to them. Parents need to make sure that they focus on what they need to, and make sure their kids focus on what their needs are.

If you are in 10th grade, focus on being in 10th grade and having fun. You don’t need to worry about how to fix the broken dryer at home. At times I wish kids would look at their parents and say "I am doing all I can to be a kid and enjoy life.".


Cramping and the "Electrolyte"
I was trying to figure out why last week during the game that some players cramp worse than others?

I had a long discussion with my mom about this topic. (Even though my mom owns and operates a florist, she worked in medicine prior to the flower business. She still keeps up her education, just in case she wants to work in that field again.)

Mom’s are always right, she explained that everybody’s body is different in chemistry. We each eat different, we weigh different, and most all we are made different. The body needs “Electrolytes” in order to function. We all burn energy in a different way, and when we do, those “Electrolytes” must return to the body in order for us to live.

You can put those back in so many different ways. Drinking Gatorade etc. , but it gets crazy when you are releasing more “Electrolytes” than you are replacing, The body can shut down. Therefore you cramp up. So what can you do? I found something on the internet that I will share with you in a minute, but the best thing is to take in many different forms of Potassium and Sodium prior to an event that you know will cause you to put your body in this state. When you get low on “Electrolytes” and you drink Gatorade, it is going to take a lot more than you can probably put down in order to recover so you can play more in the game.

The big boys (NFL) they bust out the IV and it is an immediate replacing technique. If you eat bananas and other fruit and vegetables that are high in potassium and sodium this will help late in your event, because they have slow release of replenishing those ever needed electrolytes. Example: If today I started eating bananas and oranges etc. around 3:00 for a 7:30 kick off, late in the game those bananas and oranges would kick in.

Below is some medical jargon I robbed off the internet.

Electrolyte is a "medical/scientific" term for salts, specifically ions. The term electrolyte means that this ion is electrically-charged and moves to either a negative (cathode) or positive (anode) electrode:

ions that move to the cathode (cations) are positively charged
ions that move to the anode (anions) are negatively charged

For example, your body fluids -- blood, plasma, interstitial fluid (fluid between cells) -- are like seawater and have a high concentration of sodium chloride (table salt, or NaCl). The electrolytes in sodium chloride are:

sodium ion (Na+) - cation
chloride ion (Cl-) - anion

As for your body, the major electrolytes are as follows:

sodium (Na+)
potassium (K+)
chloride (Cl-)
calcium (Ca2+)
magnesium (Mg2+)
bicarbonate (HCO3-)
phosphate (PO42-)
sulfate (SO42-)

Electrolytes are important because they are what your cells (especially nerve, heart, muscle) use to maintain voltages across their cell membranes and to carry electrical impulses (nerve impulses, muscle contractions) across themselves and to other cells. Your kidneys work to keep the electrolyte concentrations in your blood constant despite changes in your body. For example, when you exercise heavily, you lose electrolytes in your sweat, particularly sodium and potassium. These electrolytes must be replaced to keep the electrolyte concentrations of your body fluids constant. So, many sports drinks have sodium chloride or potassium chloride added to them. They also have sugar and flavorings to provide your body with extra energy and to make the drink taste better.

That's A Wrap
Well I have bored you enough.

Congrats to the Bulldogs on their first win last week against La Vergne.

We travel to Brentwood tonight to the high dollar school of Middle Tennessee. Game kick off slated for 7:30.

Thanks, and give a shout or a wave if you see me at the game.

Until next week...God Bless and Take Care

From Behind The Lens.
The Stork
“A man who truly delivers”

Football Stars For Tomorrow - www.storkmontgomery.com

BEHIND THE LENS - August 18 2006 -

Football Stars For Tomorrow - www.storkmontgomery.com

Cross Town Rival

Destruction of Property

Jitters

It is a wonderful day in Middle TN, and we are about 6 hours away from punching our ticket to the 2006 football season.
Like it or not, the time has come to buckle up the helmets and crack some plastic.

Cross Town Rival
Every community has them, and they exist in all sports. The team you must beat regardless of talent either squad has. I have heard it all, from siblings who played in these, all the way to parents who went head to head years ago and now their sons will battle it out for bragging rights until the next meeting.

The rival that was big in my time was the Edmonson County Wildcats versus the my Grayson County Cougars. They called it the Famous Tobacco Bowl. We played for a tobacco stick colored in each teams dominant color for keeps until next year. The games were always close and it was usually the first game of the season.

Wow, the irony is we play La Vergne tonight, our cross town rival and it is game 1.

PS: We are not playing for a tobacco stick.

Destruction of Property
I never will understand why people destroy things - Vandals damage high school ball fields.
I understand the rival part, but the destruction of property has no relationship to the game.

Edmonson County once shot a shotgun at our bus on the way home, and another year they put a dead skunk on the bus while we played. If you play a sport or you are a fan of the game, please email me and explain to me the relationship of destroying property. storkmontgomery@earthlink.net

I guess it is like destroying friendships, marriages, and families. When you really get to the person who is the catalyst for starting the whole thing their reason or purpose has no substance. In the end it just causes bitterness.

Jitters
Players have them

Announcers have them

Coaches have them.

Moms, Dads and Fans have them

Lights Camera Action

Tonight’s contest between cross town rival Lavergne and Smryna is on CSS. I have received several text messages from the players and they are so excited about this game. Both of these squads are loaded and this game is going to be a knock down drag out until the buzzer sounds.

I have jitters also, I have a son who is playing in the game and I want to catch all the plays, good or bad, on film. Once the ride starts tonight the grind begins.
I am so ready for this year to get going, I have been giddy about the kids getting to play on TV. This maybe the only time that some of them ever get on TV unless they do something stupid like the paragraph before touches on.

That's A Wrap
Thanks, and give a shout or a wave if you see me at the game.

Until next week...God Bless and Take Care


From Behind The Lens.
The Stork
“A man who truly delivers”

Football Stars For Tomorrow - www.storkmontgomery.com