Well, the neighborhood fireworks didn’t keep me awake too late. Tonight, I’m sure that will be a different story.

Enjoy your Fourth!

Got a topic today? Are you working today?

I know that there are diehards out there, who recently celebrated Michael Jackson’s death with tributes, Facebook comments, memorial services that included moonwalking.

Check out this video from deadspin.com on how this CFL player paid tribute to Michael Jackson after scoring a TD.

Truly unbelievable.

But it got me thinking, what would your end zone celebration be?

What would your tribute be (not necessarily sports related)?

I’m personally a fan of Terrell Owens’ antics on the end zone. I’m usually laughing when he does it, especially when he’s doing the cheerleader routine. I wasn’t offended by Randy Moss faking that he was mooning the Packer fans. I loved Icky Woods’ dance, too.

My husband said they were always told to act like they’ve been there before when he played high school football. Of course, he rarely got there. His team wasn’t very good!

But me, I’d love to do the crazy stuff like Owens, but I know I wouldn’t have the guts.

As for tributes, I’ve never actually done one for anyone, although I have a friend who’s heading out to Neverland now.

I think we did this last summer on the blog, where people detailed the stories of people they saw out and about. I wrote about how I saw Ricky Ross in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart and ran over to introduce myself to the man I’ve heard so much about.

Who’s someone that you saw randomly while you were out and about? Got a good story?

Today I saw former Southeast football coach Dan Johnson at the Quik Trip where I was getting my 32 ounces of 49-cent pop.

Johnson is in town visiting family before he heads back to Edwardsville, Ill., where he’s coaching the single-wing with former Conway Springs and Derby coach Mark Bliss. Sounds like Johnson has a nice gig, coaching running backs (he’s always been a line coach). He loves the school and the town and coaching the single-wing.

We caught up on family, too. His said his son, Jeremiah, who played at Kapaun, still speaks so highly of current Southeast coach Gary Guzman. Not a surprise. Guzman is truly a class guy.

Let’s see, I’ve also seen Jefferson Airplane — on a plane! — it was my first plane trip and I was heading to Seattle.

I saw Jesse Ventura at a Twins game — before he was Minnesota’s governor.

I saw Mike Pelfrey at a YMCA soccer game last fall. He knows my husband well, so my oldest boys got a picture with him.

I saw Johnny Bench at the Johnny Bench Award for catchers. Oh, wait, that’s not random, huh?

Usually I need my husband with me to point out people for two reasons — I’m usually focused on what I have to do, not the people around me, and he always recognizes everyone. There’s not a place we go where he doesn’t know someone. It’s really amazing.

OK, so who are yours?

The Kansas State High School Activities Association was audited by the state Legislative Division Of Post Audit, and the report was issued on Wednesday. The KSHSAA was compared to six other states _ Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma.

My reaction to it? The KSHSAA is average.

Now I hear complaints pretty regularly about the KSHSAA from coaches and parents.

*The complaints are usually about how the state needs to allow more time with athletes (the new rule helps but it still doesn’t give the state’s coaches spring football or time in full pads). Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska allow unlimited coach contact during the summer.

*The state makes up ridiculous regionals and sub-states (the audit had nothing to do with that.)

*The state should allow teams to travel farther than 500 miles outside of Kansas. (The Heights girls, for example, were invited to a tournament several years ago in Phoenix, but weren’t allowed to go because it was farther than the 500-mile rule). Iowa, of the six other states compared, was the only one to limit travel, and its travel rules consisted of only allowing travel to the six border states and Kansas.

So that’s what I hear.

*The audit compared the governing structure. The KSHSAA has the largest board of directors (78) than other states.

*It looked at membership fees and sharing gate receipts.  The KSHSAA charges $400 for high school membership fees. Colorado charges $74, while Missouri and Oklahoma charge nothing. Kansas charges nothing for participation fees per school, per activity, while Colorado charges $108 and Iowa charges nothing.

The KSHSAA is cutting membership fees by 40 percent starting this month.

In sharing gate receipts for the postseason, Kansas gives 30 percent to the host school, keeps 70 percent. It is the only state not to cover travel costs. The other states varied in what they kept, but Kansas kept the most. According to a survey done through the auditing process, two-thirds of administrators who responded thought that they should get to keep more than 30 percent.

The average monthly operating costs are the lest of the states surveyed, but had the most cash reserves (20 months, as oppposed to Colorado, the next highest, at 8 months).

Kansas spends 42 percent of its expenditures on staff. The next closest state was Oklahoma (33 percent)

The third question dealt with regulating lengths of regular seasons. Kansas is below average of the other states in baseball (by 4 games allowed), football (by 1) and softball (by 2). Kansas is at the average in basketball, above average in soccer (by 1) and above average in volleyball (by 23)

In calendar days for seasons, Kansas is below the average by 7 in baseball, below by 19 in boys basketball, below by 17 in girls basketball, below by 11 in football, below by 11 in boys soccer, below by 5 in girls soccer, above by 8 in softball, below by 14 in volleyball.
It was interesting that compared to the six other states, Kansas produced the second highest number of athlets that went to colleges in the Big 12 conference in football and basketball, about 5 athletes for every 100,000 state residents.

So, do you have thoughts on any of this? Are you surprised by any of this?

I talked to Pittsburg Colgan football coach Chuck Smith today and he told me about a former player of his, Travis Newton, who died last Friday. There’s a funeral on July 3, at 10:30 a.m.

What caught my interest is when Smith said Newton was a four-year varsity player — and he had been given a new heart before he entered high school.

When he was a freshman, Smith said he came to him and said, ‘Coach, I want to play football this year.’ I said, ‘oh no, you’re not.’

‘Well, the doctor said I could.’ I said, ‘well I’m talking to the doctor first.’

Smith said the doctor cleared him to play. “Boy, you talk about a kid with a lot of courage.”

A 1991 graduate, he played in a state title game as a senior.

“What a feat for this young man,” Smith said. “He was on the list to get another heart. It had been 25 years, almost. He was on the list to get another heart. He didn’t get it in time.”

I’m always amazed by people like Newton. I know that there are many who go through extremely difficult times and show courage and, excuse me, heart.

I’m sure you know of people who are like Newton. Feel free to share a story.

Not a sports topic, but feel free to start your own on this discussion.

What movie, when it’s on TV, will you watch at any time. For some reason, mine is The Net, with Sandra Bullock. If it’s on, I’ll watch it.

There’s always someone getting dogged on the blog, and some people seem to get the heat more than others. But then there are other athletes and coaches who just don’t even get mentioned in a negative light.

So that’s what I want to talk about — the people you like.

There are coaches who have been successful and yet don’t seem to be well-liked. Then there are coaches who have had mediocre careers who are extremely well-liked.

So name a coach you like. If you want to take it national, fine. But I’d love to keep it local. Brag on your coach. By the way, this is not meant as an avenue to completely rip people. You all know how I feel about such negativity.

Feel free to talk about a coach in what you like about this person as a coach or as a person.

I’ll get it started with a coach who I think is one of the nicest people out there. It’s new Northwest girls basketball coach Jim Mernagh. The guy is just nice. He’s always got a kind word, he’s low-key and his wife, Rita, the Bishop Carroll volleyball coach, is the same way.

There’s a story below updating the death of a Kentucky high school football player last August.

This is a subject that all coaches should be sensitive to at this point because of the history of this area with heat and deaths. In 1998, a Circle player, Matthew Whittredge, and a Southeast player, Robert Alexander Barrett, died after practicing in the heat.

They were such sad, sad stories and they happened so close together.

You know, I hear about the days of coaches keeping water from athletes — remember that scene in Remember the Titans when they asked for water? — and those are so far in the past. Does that mean kids are weaker than they were back then? I don’t think so. I think that needing water at intervals of 10, 15 minutes, whatever, is fine. (Maybe what makes kids weaker now than in the past is that everyone spends all their time in the air conditioning and isn’t used to the ghastly heat when the season rolls around.)

Here’s a blog post on it back in January.

Here’s the Associated Press story that just came across the wire:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky school system’s report on the heat-related death of a football player has found that a Louisville coach and his staff did not break any high school athletic rules.
The Jefferson County Public Schools report was released Wednesday following the August death of 15-year-old high school sophomore Max Gilpin.
Pleasure Ridge Park coach David Jason Stinson has been charged with reckless homicide in a rare criminal case against a coach in a heat death. Stinson has pleaded not guilty.
The report is separate from the criminal case. The report concluded that Stinson and his assistants may not have used “appropriate means” to motivate the players but did not break any athletic rules.
Gilpin collapsed while running sprints at practice. He died three days later.

How big of a sports fan are you? Will you go to watch a game, even if you don’t have a kid playing or a friend playing? Do you love baseball or softball or soccer so much that you’ll go watch it in the heat of summer? How much money would you pay for a ticket to a professional game to see your favorite players?