Gem City Sports Network

Well, here we go again. I think I’ll make this a weekly thing from here on out. Weird news is shockingly hard to come by for me. At least it is for me. If there’s one thing I haven’t liked about this blog it’s that sometimes they end up short, and I have to pad it out with talking about stuff. Wait, that’s what a blog is supposed to be for anyway? I think I just confused myself. Anyway, onto this week’s topics.

Last week the Dayton Dutch Lions announced their men’s schedule for the 2015 season. Well, as of the time I’m writing this part of the blog, they just announced their head coach for this season. Sid van Druenen is returning to take the helm of the men’s team after a 2014 USL PRO season that I’m sure he’d like to forget about, and after a 2013 season where he took the womens’ team to the conference championship. Sid will also remain as DDL’s technical director. Sid’s other local soccer experiences include head coaching stints at the Miami Valley School and most recently, the West Carrollton High School girls’ soccer teams. Soccer things aside, Sid is a very good guy, was more than happy to talk to me for the brief time we did a DDL show here on gemcitysports.com (remember that? should we do that again this year?), and I really hope he does well for the team this season. Not just for himself, but for everyone who’s supported this team. Several other familiar faces round out the Lions’ coaching staff this season.

Bruno Lopes joined the Dutch Lions as an academy coach last last year, and as an assistant for the mens’ team late last season.

Shane Smith returns to the team in a coaching role after spending the better part of 5 seasons as both a player for the Dutch Lions, and as a coach in the Dutch Lions’ youth academy, where he is currently listed as the academy’s manager.

Catherine Gordon also returns to the team as an assistant after holding the same position with the mens’ USL PRO team last season. Catherine also held this position with the Dutch Lions’ W-League team for the 2013 season.

Eric Kissenger will also hold a unique role for the team this season. He was listed in the press release as being a player/coach. If anyone is capable of this job, it’s Eric. Like Shane, he has been with the Dutch Lions for the better part of 5 seasons as a player, as well as holding a coaching position in the team’s academy. Outside of the Dutch Lions, he is also the coach of the boys’ soccer team at the Miami Valley School.

Last Tuesday was a semi-whirlwind for me. After work, I went straight to the Nutter Center for the WWE Smackdown taping, and then after running a few errands, went home to catch the end of the Dayton at St. Louis game.

First thing’s first, with the Smackdown taping. As soon as I tried to walk to my seat, the usher told me that it was tarped off for the camera, and that I would be getting a new seat. This isn’t the first time this has happened at a Smackdown taping at Nutter. I ended up sitting on the side directly facing the stage and the Titantron (do they still call it that?). What was also disturbing, yet not unexpected, was that a good percentage of the seats on that side of the arena were curtained off. I’d say about 15 rows were blocked off. To make things worse for me, My new seat was right next to one of the hard cameras that was facing the stage. They had actually blocked off about a dozen seats for that. And the weird thing was, it was there for maybe half of the matches for the Main Event taping, and then they just took the camera away shortly after the Smackdown taping started. If you aren’t going to use that camera, why block off those seats? Poor planning.

The taping itself wasn’t bad, but the final match seemed like it went on, and on, and on, and on. I don’t know how it came across on TV, but the Tag Team Turmoil match went on for what seemed like forever. Furthermore, I don’t know how long the portion with Bryan/Reigns vs the Usos  lasted on TV, but it lasted FOREVER live. I understand why it went so long live, which is to make both sides look good. Bryan and Reigns because they’re the top 2 singles guys, and The Usos because they’re the tag team champions. Also, you could tell from the beginning that Bryan and Reigns were going to stand strong until the end. Very predictable.

Another thing that seemed kinda odd was that there weren’t that many wrestlers on the roster for that show. This was because most of then had already left the country for an international tour. It just seems like they could have done better with what they had. At the very least broken up the tag turmoil match to give the fans a bit of a break. But all things considered, it was a good show.

WWE will be back at the Nutter Center on Saturday June 13th. 22 years to the day that the WWF (as it was known then), held the first ever King of the Ring pay per view event. Who else would like to see that gimmick return as a WWE Network exclusive?

Note: I had just written a version of the following parts of the blog, but the stupid website timed out on me and I lost the part of the blog from here on. I feel like I should be smart enough to not do things like that. Time to re-write. Sigh…

After the Smackdown taping, I went to run some errands, and then checked out the tail end of the Dayton at St. Louis game. I listened to bits and pieces of the game on WHIO radio, and given how badly UD was playing for most of the game, I couldn’t bring myself to listen to it. When I finally got home, I turned the TV on to catch the last 10 minutes of it. Just like in the game against George Washington, despite playing like they shouldn’t win at all, the found a way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and win by seven.

Dayton is not 18-5 overall, and when looking at their resume, the worst loss on their schedule this season? None other than the reigning national champions on UConn. Who would’ve thought that? Yet by RPI alone, UConn looks the worst given how they’ve done this season. Yes, they’ve played much worse teams than that, but they’ve won when they should have, and their losses have been competitive more times than not. Their last real big test will come at the end of February when they hit the road against VCU. But there’s still plenty of basketball to be played. Anything can happen when your team is suffering from a lack of size and depth.

Things are getting worse for Anderson Silva. Not long after he got busted for failing an out-of-competition drug screening prior to his recent fight with Nick Diaz, Silva has reportedly failed another test connected to that fight. Best to wait for the official report, but man, this does not look good for Silva.

When I first wrote this, I went on at length about how I fell in love with MMA, and that with what feels like an oversaturation of MMA, that love is beginning to wane. Not helping at all is the reality that this sport, and other sports, have been at best changed, and at worst ruined because of money. I won’t repeat what I wrote, mainly because I’m lazy. The bottom line was that money encourages people to do weird things. And all it takes is one person to take the juice to skirt the system, and before you know it, everyone else has to do it to keep up. When it gets to the point that everyone has to cheat at that level to win, do the games really matter anymore? If it’s not about who’s best, but about who’s willing to spend the most money and effort to cheat instead of get genuinely better? It’s even worse for individual sports. One cheater may or may not have an extreme effect on teammates in team sports. But in individual sports, it’s all on the cheater. What does it all mean?

That’s all I can think of for now. If you have any suggestions of things you want me to talk about, or anything else to say about what I had to say, please leave a comment below!