Greg Cielec's Blog, page 7

Football 2018: Week #1: At North Carolina Wesleyan

(I am trying to blog at least once a week about our football season this year at Thomas More. Over the last four years I have tons of notes, pictures,  and scribbles about the adventures of coaching small college football. One day I hope to put it all together in a book.)First game at North Carolina WesleyanWhat can I say but that it was a real heartbreaker with no one else to blame but ourselves. We were down 21-0, tied it at 28. They hit a Hail Mary with under a minute left to take the lead. We marched down the field and hit on a Hail Mary on the last play of the game, only for it to be waved out of bounds by a ref. If we would've came out and played at the beginning like we played for most of the second half it would not have been a game. But give NCW credit, they came to play and went away with the win.Some misc comments...One of the refs in the game had to be taken out for heat related symptoms. It was well over 90 at kickoff and did not cool down as the afternoon went on. One of the refs told me afterward he dropped twenty pounds over the course of the game.Someone tell North Carolina Wesleyan that they are not the real Battling Bishops.The trip down there was not good. Heavy holiday traffic and road work projects made the trip down there take longer than it should have. Then on the way back the air conditioning in one of busses blew out and that turned into quite the ordeal. Nothing like eating at Golden Corral with 80 of your best friends.
We ate not one but two meals (lunch on Friday, breakfast on Saturday) at Golden Corral. The key to eating multiple meals at Golden Corral is not to eat the same thing both times, excluding the fruit and salad bar. A North Carolina sunset on the way to Rocky Mount for our game against North Carolina Wesleyan.


Watched a lot of bad and one classic movie on the bus coming and going. The classic was the first and original Jaws, which a lot of the kids on the team had never seen before. Made before this era of animated special effects, the movie holds up well and kept the kids attention. The worst of the other movies was Tag. What studio spent the big money it took to make this movie? Stupid, very few laughs, a waste of a pretty good cast.I listened to a lot of music and read a good book. The book was Trunk Music, one of the Bosch books written by Michael Connell. I have been loading a lot of good stuff onto my computer and iphone, and amongst the things I listened to were Traveler by Chris Stapleton; the first Marshall Tucker album; the Essential Waylon Jennings (I think "Wurlitzer Prize" might be my favorite Waylon tune of all time); America's Greatest Hits; Dwight Youkum's Greatest Hits (I'm really digging him after all these years); the second Almon Brothers live album from the 90s 2nd Set with "Soulshine" and "Where it All Begins"; and the first self titled Warren Zevon album, before Excitable Boy, with his versions of some great songs we first heard Linda Ronstadt sing, including "Hasten Down the Wind", "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", and "Mohammed's  Radio".
This week we stay closer to home, traveling 90 minutes or so west to Hanover College. It's a mid afternoon on Monday as I write this and it is over 95 degrees outside. Another scorching week of practice. At times on Saturday we looked really good, now we just need to do it for 60 minutes. Go Saints!


(ROCKY MOUNT, N.C.) – The Thomas More football team opened the 2018 campaign today (Saturday, September 1, 2018) with 35-28 setback to N.C. Wesleyan College at the Rocky Mount Athletic Stadium in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.First Quarter•    N.C. Wesleyan took a 7-0 lead when Nate Gardner connected on a 14-yard touchdown pass to Ben Dorfman and Caleb Mann added the PAT with 6:57 to play.•    Battling Bishops increased the lead to 14-0 with 3:54 to play when Trey Lancaster caught a 31-yard touchdown pass from Gardner and Mann added the PAT.Second quarter•    Gardner connected on a 13-yard touchdown pass to Dupre Falls and Mann added the PAT with 10:15 to play to extend N.C. Wesleyan's lead to 21-0.•    Saints cut the lead to 21-7 when first-year wide receiver Nick Hall (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder) scored on an eight-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Justin Post (Macedonia, Nordonia) and junior kicker Cole Mathias (Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) added the PAT with 3:03 to play.Third Quarter•    Senior running back Luke Zajac (Edgewood, Ky./Dixie Heights) scored on an 11-yard run and Mathiasadded the PAT to cut the lead to 21-14 with 5:15 to play in the quarter.Fourth Quarter•    Battling Bishops increased the lead to 28-14 with 6:38 to play when Gardner scored on a five-yard run and Mann added the PAT•    The Saints closed the deficit to 28-21 when senior wide receiver Logan Winkler (Independence, Ky./Simon Kenton) scored on a 30-yard pass from Postand Mathias connected on a the PAT with 5:43 to play.•    Thomas More tied the game at 28-28 with 3:07 to play when senior running back Hjavier Pitts (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mt. Healthy) scored on a 24-yard run and Mathiasadded the PAT.•    N.C. Wesleyan scored the eventual game-winning touchdown with 46-seconds to play when Gardner connected on a 46-yard touchdown pass to Lancaster and Mann added the PAT for the 35-28 score.Notables•    Post was 18-of-31 passing for 238 yards and two touchdowns and also had four rushes for 14 yards.•    Pitts had 19 carries for 121 yards and a touchdown, while also catching four passes for 56 yards.•    Zajac had six rushes for 62 yards and a touchdown and also had three catches for two yards.•    Winklerpulled in four catches for 76 yards and a touchdown.•    Junior wide receiver Mitchell Hogue (Harrison, Ohio/William Harrison) had four catches for 56 yards.•    Junior linebacker Cody Coffey (Anderson, Ohio/Anderson) had seven tackles (six solo/one assisted), including one tackle for a loss.•    Sophomore defensive back Devon O'Bryon (Oregonia, Ohio/Clinton-Massie) had seven tackles (five solo/two assisted).
•    Junior defensive back Thomas Williams (Oregonia, Ohio/Clinton-Massie) had seven tackles (four solo/three assisted).

Week #1: At North Carolina Wesleyan

(I am trying to blog at least once a week about our football season this year at Thomas More. Over the last four years I have tons of notes, pictures,  and scribbles about the adventures of coaching small college football. One day I hope to put it all together in a book.)First game at North Carolina WesleyanWhat can I say but that it was a real heartbreaker with no one else to blame but ourselves. We were down 21-0, tied it at 28. They hit a Hail Mary with under a minute left to take the lead. We marched down the field and hit on a Hail Mary on the last play of the game, only for it to be waved out of bounds by a ref. If we would've came out and played at the beginning like we played for most of the second half it would not have been a game. But give NCW credit, they came to play and went away with the win.Some misc comments...One of the refs in the game had to be taken out for heat related symptoms. It was well over 90 at kickoff and did not cool down as the afternoon went on. One of the refs told me afterward he dropped twenty pounds over the course of the game.Someone tell North Carolina Wesleyan that they are not the real Battling Bishops.The trip down there was not good. Heavy holiday traffic and road work projects made the trip down there take longer than it should have. Then on the way back the air conditioning in one of busses blew out and that turned into quite the ordeal. Nothing like eating at Golden Corral with 80 of your best friends.
We ate not one but two meals (lunch on Friday, breakfast on Saturday) at Golden Corral. The key to eating multiple meals at Golden Corral is not to eat the same thing both times, excluding the fruit and salad bar. A North Carolina sunset on the way to Rocky Mount for our game against North Carolina Wesleyan.


Watched a lot of bad and one classic movie on the bus coming and going. The classic was the first and original Jaws, which a lot of the kids on the team had never seen before. Made before this era of animated special effects, the movie holds up well and kept the kids attention. The worst of the other movies was Tag. What studio spent the big money it took to make this movie? Stupid, very few laughs, a waste of a pretty good cast.I listened to a lot of music and read a good book. The book was Trunk Music, one of the Bosch books written by Michael Connell. I have been loading a lot of good stuff onto my computer and iphone, and amongst the things I listened to were Traveler by Chris Stapleton; the first Marshall Tucker album; the Essential Waylon Jennings (I think "Wurlitzer Prize" might be my favorite Waylon tune of all time); America's Greatest Hits; Dwight Youkum's Greatest Hits (I'm really digging him after all these years); the second Almon Brothers live album from the 90s 2nd Set with "Soulshine" and "Where it All Begins"; and the first self titled Warren Zevon album, before Excitable Boy, with his versions of some great songs we first heard Linda Ronstadt sing, including "Hasten Down the Wind", "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", and "Mohammed's  Radio".
This week we stay closer to home, traveling 90 minutes or so west to Hanover College. It's a mid afternoon on Monday as I write this and it is over 95 degrees outside. Another scorching week of practice. At times on Saturday we looked really good, now we just need to do it for 60 minutes. Go Saints!


(ROCKY MOUNT, N.C.) – The Thomas More football team opened the 2018 campaign today (Saturday, September 1, 2018) with 35-28 setback to N.C. Wesleyan College at the Rocky Mount Athletic Stadium in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.First Quarter•    N.C. Wesleyan took a 7-0 lead when Nate Gardner connected on a 14-yard touchdown pass to Ben Dorfman and Caleb Mann added the PAT with 6:57 to play.•    Battling Bishops increased the lead to 14-0 with 3:54 to play when Trey Lancaster caught a 31-yard touchdown pass from Gardner and Mann added the PAT.Second quarter•    Gardner connected on a 13-yard touchdown pass to Dupre Falls and Mann added the PAT with 10:15 to play to extend N.C. Wesleyan's lead to 21-0.•    Saints cut the lead to 21-7 when first-year wide receiver Nick Hall (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder) scored on an eight-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Justin Post (Macedonia, Nordonia) and junior kicker Cole Mathias (Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) added the PAT with 3:03 to play.Third Quarter•    Senior running back Luke Zajac (Edgewood, Ky./Dixie Heights) scored on an 11-yard run and Mathiasadded the PAT to cut the lead to 21-14 with 5:15 to play in the quarter.Fourth Quarter•    Battling Bishops increased the lead to 28-14 with 6:38 to play when Gardner scored on a five-yard run and Mann added the PAT•    The Saints closed the deficit to 28-21 when senior wide receiver Logan Winkler (Independence, Ky./Simon Kenton) scored on a 30-yard pass from Postand Mathias connected on a the PAT with 5:43 to play.•    Thomas More tied the game at 28-28 with 3:07 to play when senior running back Hjavier Pitts (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mt. Healthy) scored on a 24-yard run and Mathiasadded the PAT.•    N.C. Wesleyan scored the eventual game-winning touchdown with 46-seconds to play when Gardner connected on a 46-yard touchdown pass to Lancaster and Mann added the PAT for the 35-28 score.Notables•    Post was 18-of-31 passing for 238 yards and two touchdowns and also had four rushes for 14 yards.•    Pitts had 19 carries for 121 yards and a touchdown, while also catching four passes for 56 yards.•    Zajac had six rushes for 62 yards and a touchdown and also had three catches for two yards.•    Winklerpulled in four catches for 76 yards and a touchdown.•    Junior wide receiver Mitchell Hogue (Harrison, Ohio/William Harrison) had four catches for 56 yards.•    Junior linebacker Cody Coffey (Anderson, Ohio/Anderson) had seven tackles (six solo/one assisted), including one tackle for a loss.•    Sophomore defensive back Devon O'Bryon (Oregonia, Ohio/Clinton-Massie) had seven tackles (five solo/two assisted).
•    Junior defensive back Thomas Williams (Oregonia, Ohio/Clinton-Massie) had seven tackles (four solo/three assisted).

(I am trying to blog at least once a week about our footb...

(I am trying to blog at least once a week about our football season this year at Thomas More. Over the last four years I have tons of notes, pictures,  and scribbles about the adventures of coaching small college football. One day I hope to put it all together in a book.)First game at North Carolina WesleyanWhat can I say but that it was a real heartbreaker with no one else to blame but ourselves. We were down 21-0, tied it at 28. They hit a Hail Mary with under a minute left to take the lead. We marched down the field and hit on a Hail Mary on the last play of the game, only for it to be waved out of bounds by a ref. If we would've came out and played at the beginning like we played for most of the second half it would not have been a game. But give NCW credit, they came to play and went away with the win.Some misc comments...One of the refs in the game had to be taken out for heat related symptoms. It was well over 90 at kickoff and did not cool down as the afternoon went on. One of the refs told me afterward he dropped twenty pounds over the course of the game.Someone tell North Carolina Wesleyan that they are not the real Battling Bishops.The trip down there was not good. Heavy holiday traffic and road work projects made the trip down there take longer than it should have. Then on the way back the air conditioning in one of busses blew out and that turned into quite the ordeal. Nothing like eating at Golden Corral with 80 of your best friends.
We ate not one but two meals (lunch on Friday, breakfast on Saturday) at Golden Corral. The key to eating multiple meals at Golden Corral is not to eat the same thing both times, excluding the fruit and salad bar. A North Carolina sunset on the way to Rocky Mount for our game against North Carolina Wesleyan.


Watched a lot of bad and one classic movie on the bus coming and going. The classic was the first and original Jaws, which a lot of the kids on the team had never seen before. Made before this era of animated special effects, the movie holds up well and kept the kids attention. The worst of the other movies was Tag. What studio spent the big money it took to make this movie? Stupid, very few laughs, a waste of a pretty good cast.I listened to a lot of music and read a good book. The book was Trunk Music, one of the Bosch books written by Michael Connell. I have been loading a lot of good stuff onto my computer and iphone, and amongst the things I listened to were Traveler by Chris Stapleton; the first Marshall Tucker album; the Essential Waylon Jennings (I think "Wurlitzer Prize" might be my favorite Waylon tune of all time); America's Greatest Hits; Dwight Youkum's Greatest Hits (I'm really digging him after all these years); the second Almon Brothers live album from the 90s 2nd Set with "Soulshine" and "Where it All Begins"; and the first self titled Warren Zevon album, before Excitable Boy, with his versions of some great songs we first heard Linda Ronstadt sing, including "Hasten Down the Wind", "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", and "Mohammed's  Radio".
This week we stay closer to home, traveling 90 minutes or so west to Hanover College. It's a mid afternoon on Monday as I write this and it is over 95 degrees outside. Another scorching week of practice. At times on Saturday we looked really good, now we just need to do it for 60 minutes. Go Saints!

Football 2018: Summer Practices

Some of my fellow coaches during summer practices this season. I hate summer practices, more now than when I was a player. More to come...

Summer Practices

Some of my fellow coaches during summer practices this season. I hate summer practices, more now than when I was a player. More to come...

barbecue!

Last month I accompanied my brother Larry to a BBQ contest in Lima, Ohio, that he was a judge. Had a great time, and met a lot of the participants.

New Orleans Pictures (Finally)

Franklin College at Thomas More 2 September 2017

OK,OK, I’ve been a little behind on blogging the football season so far, but I promise I’ll get caught up. I have a lot of things I want to get down on paper. But first things first…
We won our opener last week against Franklin College 47-37. It was a big game for us for several reasons: they beat us last year; they are very good and probably will win their conference; and there is a chance we will play then again in the playoffs.I had a good crowd of family and friends at the game including both of my sisters, my brother in law Bob, and my good friends Dave Hostetler and Bob Thomas. Bob is a Franklin grad, and came up from Florida for the game (and a week or so of partying in both Indiana and northern Ohio). Check out the official game story on the TMC athletic department website at www.tmcsaints.com/football.
The weather was shaky and a lot of our students were off celebrating the Labor Day weekend, but we still had a great crowd for the game. Franklin isn’t that far away and travels well, and Thomas More is one of the best, if not the best, tailgate venues in DIII. I’ve coached in four different DIII conferences and have not seen a tailgate atmosphere like we have at TMC.  Our stadium is down in a bowl and we have a tiered parking lot that over looks a portion of the field. There are 300 spots that sell out each year, and fans can tailgate and watch the game from the same spot. And our fans come early with tents and RVs and grills and, of course, coolers of adult beverages. And we get a great mix of alums, parents, students, faculty, and people from the area at our games. Northern Kentucky really supports TMC sports.
In their tailgating revelries my family had a major snafu, they forgot a cooler of cold ones. When I got up to our tailgating spot I had to go across the aisle to one of my coaching colleague’s tailgate to find a cold one. This was the first game without my dear departed Mom, and she was definitely missed. And I know there would’ve been a cooler of beverages if she were still around…

Summer Football Practice

One thing I'm going to do this year, something I have said I was going to do the last several years but haven't, is keep a blog of this football season. Every week or so I'm going to post some notes and pictures about the coaches and players of the 2017 Thomas More College Saints football team. The pictures below come from one of our earliest practices, as well as a swim party we had to help celebrate the end of summer practices.

McGuffey Lane "Legend of the Red Eye" 2017 Lick Records

Sometime in the early to mid 80’s, Columbus’s McGuffey Lane became a national touring band, leaving behind, for the most part, their days playing bars, clubs, and college campuses. By the time that had happened their concert sets were mostly filled with their own self penned songs, songs found on their four national releases for Atlantic Records and currently available on CD from Collector’s Choice. What got left behind at that time were all of the wonderful covers they did of rock, country, and bluegrass standards, many of which would go on and influence their own compositions, and that were very popular with their earliest audiences. And even some of their own early compositions that were crowd favorites got lost over the years.
The bands recent release “Legend of the Red Eye” harkens back to those saloon-playing days, with seven covers of classic country and rock gems and three original tunes from those days that have yet to make it on a McGuffey Lane release. The album’s title is homage to Zachariah’s Red Eye Saloon, ground zero of central Ohio’s live music scene at the time, and the place that McGuffey Lane was considered for a time the house band.
The covers on the CD are mostly on the countryside, and touch every decade from the 1950’s to the 1980’s. The disk opens with what has been the band’s most popular cover over the years, their rendition of the New Riders of the Purple Sage classic “Panama Red.” They then go back to the days when members of the band performed solo or in pairs in the various Holiday Inns and Ground Rounds of central Ohio with an almost perfect version of the John Hartford penned Glen Campbell classic “Gentle on My Mind.” The most recent of the country standards is next with Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road,” the mid 1980’s classic about a Vietnam era veteran who is the son of a moonshiner who decides to harvest marijuana instead of running moonshine.
The three oldest covers come next, going back to the days when the band members listened to the Beatles and Rolling Stones with their friends all week, but then on Saturday night sat down with their parents and grandparents and tuned in to the Grand Old Opry. Bassist Steve Reis channels George Jones with a fine rendition of the classic “She Thinks I Still Care.” Then they cover the great Texas songwriter Guy Clark with “Baton Rouge.” Then go all the way back to the early 50’s with a version of “There Stands the Glass” that Webb Pierce would appreciate.
The last cover on the CD is another long time live favorite of the band and their audiences, the blue grass standard “Fox on the Run.” Bassist Steve Reis’s vocals are perfect for this song, and the background harmonies are pretty damn good too.
Intertwined amongst these classic covers are three original ‘Lane songs that go back to the late 70’s, have been played live on and off for years, but have never made a studio release; including Steve Reis’s “Cowboys Like What Cowgirls Do”; and two John Schwab penned songs “Sing a Song” and “Cowboy in the City.” All three will sound familiar to long time McGuffey Lane fans.
Like most bands going back forty years McGuffey Lane has had some personnel changes. However, this current lineup has been together longer than any other version including the original one, and with three original members and four long time additions, is loyal to the true McGuffey Lane sound of rock, country, along with just enough bluegrass. For more about McGuffey Lane and “Legend of the Red Eye” visit www.mcguffeylane.com.