Published in the early 1960s, Silent Spring was Rachel Carson’s landmark book documenting the adverse environmental effects caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. That same title could also easily be used to describe our current COVID-19 pandemic landscape.

Although Southern Illinois was able to open spring ball Feb. 26 and hold five team workouts, spring football practices will not be held on the campuses of the four Illinois Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) programs going forward.

According to a story last week by Todd Hefferman in The Southern Illinoisan, “Instead of talking to prospective athletes in person, SIU coach Nick Hill and his staff are talking to each other via video conference calls and reviewing film wherever they can. Social distancing takes on a whole new meaning when you’re talking about offensive coaches, defensive coaches and 86 players, but the Salukis are trying to take advantage of what they can off the field.”

Assistant Athletics Director/Communications Mike Williams of Illinois State University told Prairie State Pigskin that head coach Brock Spack made the decision to call off spring practice quickly after returning from a trip with his family.

“It’s my decision. I think it’s the right one,” Spack told Randy Reinhardt of The Pantagraph. “The health, safety and well-being of our players, staff, families and local community is our top priority. Having our players in close contact at practice is not safe at this time for any involved.

Williams said Spack wanted to take football off the players’ plates.

“They’ve got enough going on adapting to online classes and other changes in daily life,” Williams paraphrased Spack.

Like ISU, students are no longer on campus at Eastern Illinois and Western Illinois.

“Where we are is pretty much in the same boat as everyone else. We already canceled all the significant dates for this semester in terms of football-wise, our alumni weekend, our golf outing, spring game,” WIU head coach Jared Elliott told Prairie State Pigskin.

Academics

Each coaching staff sees academics as priority one.

Spack told Reinhardt “members of his team who are at risk academically and ‘making sure they get what they need. It’s hard to do from a distance.’”

Elliott said, “We’ve shifted everything online. We’re going to be online the rest of the semester. You’ve got young men from all over the country now at home. The biggest thing for me right now and for our program is that I’m a big believer that structure is a critical part to any human being’s life, specifically to our young men.

“The way that we’re doing that is still having a structured week for our players Monday through Friday. We’re trying to be as proactive as we can, utilizing the resources that we have. As I said to our staff, thank God that we have the technology that we have today to be able to stay connected to our players and to be able to facilitate the structure for our guys in this very uncertain and uncharted time that we’re in right now.”

The third-year WIU head coach added that “frequent, almost daily, academic checks with our academic staff and our position coaches” are in place.

“The biggest concern for every coach right now is all of the sudden you’re not having your players here on campus, it’s that element of accountability in terms of academics,” Elliott said.”You may have a large portion of young men that maybe have never taken an online class before, and so we’re trying to make sure all those steps have been really well thought out and preparing those guys for what’s coming down the pipe in what it’s going to look like in the foreseeable future.”

EIU head coach Adam Cushing told Prairie State Pigskin, “It’s structure. Any online class, any home schooling, the structure is the critical part. Humans, all humans, have a tendency when you’re not in your normal routine to be amorphous and just do whatever, whenever. So that’s our No. 1 goal as a staff, to provide that consistent structure so that everyone can succeed.”

The second-year head coach added that his staff’s first two semesters on campus have produced the highest football team GPAs in program history.

“We’re being creative in what we can do and operating as though they’re on campus and not at home,” he said.

Workouts

With the extreme nature of football as a team game, each staff must also be creative in its ways to meet the challenges of preparing its team for the day it can assemble on a practice field. Each staff is in the process of developing individual workouts for its players.

“Some of our players have access to a gym, some don’t,” Elliott said. “We have workout plans for both of those scenarios.”

Cushing added, “Some guys are more fortunate than others with home gyms, weights at home, resistance bands and all that other stuff.”

Cushing, a Chicago native, praised the work on EIU strength and conditioning coach Joe Orozco.

“His day probably became a little more crowded with training, but he’s got a great creative plan to make sure that he can still coach all the individuals on the team.”

Team bonding

All staffs have used a variety of means to communicate with and to organize players. FaceTime, Skype and Zoom are among the technology resources that have been utilized.

Cushing said, “That’s absolutely critical. Stuff that you and I could never have even imagined as kids, much less college-age. Our No. 1 offseason goal has been to create connections within our football team. My afternoon has been 30 minutes with the offensive staff looking at each others’ faces (via technology), and then I just got done with the defensive staff and that was after an hour of FaceTiming individuals on our roster.

“We’ve got a plan, and that’s a big part of our plan, connection on a daily basis. Every single day our coaches are looking our players in the eye, and they’re looking each other in the eye.”

Elliott said, “We’ve used group conferencing to run position meetings and do the installs. We have to continue to find a way to teach and coach.”

Final thoughts

Whether you’re a Leatherneck, Panther, Redbird or Saluki, you realize you have to make the best of a situation that impacts far more than collegiate sports.

“At some point this will pass, hopefully sooner rather than later and we can get back to life as is,” Elliott said. “I will say this, the biggest thing I’ve noticed is that our kids have that element of realizing how quickly things can be taken away from you. You take it for granted, you really do. Whether it’s a position meeting or a team meeting or a weight room session or a practice, and when something happens like this, it really opens your eyes and your perspective changes. That attitude of gratitude.

“I can tell our players miss being around each other. That’s always a good sign when you’ve got a team that loves each other and want to be around each other. Our players, the parents, the families have been amazing. It’s such a fluid situation. New information comes out day by day. Our kids have great in how they’ve adapted and handled this.”

Cushing praised Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s decision to enact his shelter in place policy in an attempt to slow the virus.

“I’m extremely thankful for Gov. Pritzker’s leadership and his willingness to do something that is extremely unpopular to protect the health and safety of everybody in Illinois, all of our student-athletes and all of our students at EIU,” Cushing said. “It was a difficult decision, I’m sure, but genius and strong leadership has boldness in it.

“The people who are going to come out of this on the other end much stronger are going to be the ones who maintain that connection that really focus on how we are still a football team and not just a bunch of guys who play football on the same sideline.”

“This is unprecedented,” Spack told Reinhardt. “We’ll try to prevent the spread of it so we can play next fall. We hope we can get things started in the summer.”

SIU’s Hill told Hefferman, “There will be a time to address all of that. Right now we gotta do our best to take care of our families and do what’s best for the country.”

Today is National Cocktail Day

With one cancellation after another, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, one thing is still on, National Cocktail Day (today) along with International Whiskey Day on Friday, March 27th

The only thing, it looks like you’ll have to celebrate at home this year since all Chicago and Illinois bars are closed until March 30.

Thanks to Legent Bourbon you can make some of the cocktails served at Chicago’s best restaurants and watering holes at home.

East meets West

Legent, which was introduced in March of 2019, is a collaboration between two whiskey legends. Fred Noe, from the founding family of bourbon and Jim Beam’s seventh-generation Master Distiller, and Shinji Fukuyo, from the founding house of Japanese whisky and Suntory’s fifth ever chief blending. 

The Bourbon uses the Beam classic family recipe and is aged in wine and sherry casks before being blended with more Kentucky Straight Bourbon.

Craft Cocktails

Legent Bourbon has found its way into many of Chicago’s upscale restaurants including Proxi and Bar Kumiko, both in the Fulton River District. 

Try these at home

Until they reopen, you can make the Proxi and Bar Kumiko cocktails at home along with Legent’s recipe for the Kentucky Kyushiki.

Proxi’s Born A Ramblin’ Man, ($14 at the restaurant) is a unique cocktail featuring Legent Bourbon along with amaro liqueur, orange bitters, and maraschino. 

Bar Kumiko’s Legent Manhattan, ($19 at Bar Kumiko) is a take on a classic Manhattan. It is made with Legent Bourbon, Japanese ume and herbal liqueurs, vermouth, bitters, and is finished with a cherry. 

Legent’s Kentucky Kyushiki 

The Kentucky Kyushiki is a twist on the classic Old Fashioned:

• Recipe:
  2 parts Legent™ Bourbon
  ½ part Green Tea Simple Syrup
  2 – 4 dashes Lavender Bitters
  Lemon peel for garnish

Method: Stir all ingredients. Serve on the rocks in a double old-fashioned glass and garnish with an expressed lemon peel. 

To make the green tea simple syrup: 

• 1 cup of sugar
  1 cup of water
  1 green tea bag

Method: Put sugar, water and tea bag into a saucepan over medium-high heat and cook until sugar is dissolved. Squeeze tea bag and remove from syrup. Cool before using. 

About Legent

Legent is available in 750mL bottles (47% abv) in select markets throughout the United States for a suggested retail price of $34.99 USD. 

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As the virus spreads, who knows what awaits.

All of us anxious of ominous fates.

To FDR look

When at war how he took

Command without saying ” Depend on the states.”

If I was a Democrat–which I’m not, but which I used to be before I was expelled for being pro-life and culturally conservative–I would want Andrew Cuomo as my nominee for president of the United States.

His televised briefings during the COVID-19 crisis were a textbook case of how government should operate and what qualities a leader should have. While President Donald Trump was struggling in his press conferences to read off a script enumerating everything his administration was doing, Cuomo, seemingly from off the top of his head, was reeling off the multitude of steps he was taking.

His presentation was not colored by political posturing and self aggrandizement, as Trump’s has been. It were factual, calm and, dare I say, apolitical.

The irony is that as apolitical as it has been, Cuomo has boosted his national profile and–this is more important–his reputation as a practical politician, who did not let ideology cloud his problem-solving approach in a time of crisis.

It’s what so many Americans crave. “Please, please end the BS, step up and solve our problems.”  It’s what huge hunks of moderate, independent and never-Trumpers hunger for. It’s what neither Biden nor Trump offer. In all this, Cuomo has the best chance of beating Trump–the heart’s desire of many Americans living outside of  Trump’s base.

Compare Cuomo’s performance with that of the apparent Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden. My Lord, did you watch him yesterday stumble through his scripted faux fireside chat in which he displayed again the reasons why he’s just not just a weak candidate, but not up for the job and bad for the nation.

So, a Draft Cuomo movement already has begun. Reports the New York Post: “#PresidentCuomo trends as governor’s star status rises over coronavirus response”. It’s hard to see how that could be done with Biden leading the delegate race, especially if he goes into the party’s national convention with a majority. Maybe those infamous 775 unpledged superdelegates will pull it off somehow.

Maybe, for the first time in decades, a convention will be worth watching instead of being the ceremonial crowning that it has become.

[email protected]

www.dennisbyrne.net 

My historical novel: Madness: The War of 1812

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2020, amirite?!?! Seems like only yesterday we were going to, you know, PLACES and doing things beyond raiding the closet of toys your mom kept from when you were kids and jumping around in Nickelodeon moon shoes. Just me? Okay, cool.

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Beyond the pandemic that has killed thousands and upended life for all of us, 2020 has certainly been a year of…something. Change? Opportunity? Grief? All of the above? Everything has happened so fast that it’s been hard to find time to sit down and write a life update. Well now I’ve got nothing BUT time due to lockdown, so I have zero excuses. So here we go.

Living in Canada was amazing, and El and I are so grateful to have explored so much of it in the 2+ years we were there. We hit 9/13 provinces and territories, made friends we’ll have for life, and both pushed ourselves professionally. But Canada isn’t home, and we knew that we’d eventually make our way back south of the border. So El started the conversation with work about opportunities back in Chicago (where HQ is), and I started my own job search. It wasn’t long before I found, and applied for, an awesome job with an established and respected health club company. I went through the interview process, loved the culture and the people I met there, and decided that this was an incredible opportunity for me professionally and personally. Not only was it a widened scope in terms of the number of people I’d impact, but it was a brand-new industry for me to test my learning and development chops. El was also offered a “can’t say no” opportunity at his current company, so we decided that I’d head to Chicago to start work the last week of January, and he’d join me at the beginning of March. We have renters in our East Village place through the end of June, so we had to figure out living arrangements until then. Because I have awesome parents, I was going to stay with them until El joined me, and then his company would pay for a temporary apartment downtown to drastically shorten our commutes. Our furniture and most of our things would then stay in storage in Canada until we moved into our home. 2020 was looking like it was going to be off to a good start.

El had to go to Calgary for the months of January and February, so I spent the first few weeks of January having goodbye dinners/drinks with friends, wrapping up things at Uber, and enjoying the rest of my time in Toronto. We had our rental lease through February, and El was going to take care of arranging movers with work, so I really only needed to pack things to last me five months. The plan was for my mom to drive up to Toronto on a Thursday, drive me to Chicago on Saturday, and I’d start work on Monday. A week before that was supposed to happen though, I got a phone call that changed everything.

Elliot’s dad, Ross, died on Saturday, January 18th after a week in the hospital following a heart attack. He was 83 years old and loved by so many people, including me. To get an understanding of how unique Ross was, and how much he was loved, you can read my tribute to him, originally posted on Facebook, below. His death devastated all of us, and El immediately flew to Minnesota to be with his mom and siblings. I joined a day later after confirming with my new boss that I could push back my start date a week. But I still needed to pack my things and get ready to move, so I came back to Toronto a few days later. Since the funeral wasn’t going to be until February 1st, the new plan was for my mom to pick up some things to drive back to Chicago on Friday the 24th, I’d fly to Minnesota the Wednesday before the funeral, and then I’d fly to Chicago on the 2nd to start my new job on the 3rd. Then I got another phone call.

My Uncle Lanny was diagnosed three and a half years ago with stage 4 kidney cancer but, against all odds, was doing great. So it came as a surprise to my mom and I when she got a call while she was in Toronto from her sister, my Aunt Mary Ann. Lanny had been rushed to the ICU in Erie (where they live) because he was having trouble breathing and was acting confused. The medical staff in Erie determined he needed to be in Pittsburgh because they had the equipment needed to diagnose the issue. So he was transferred to Pittsburgh’s ICU, and his prognosis was not good. My family is really close, and I love my uncle a lot, so plans changed yet again.

• On Monday, I packed up my shit.
• On Tuesday, I took a 6.5 hour Greyhound bus ride to Erie.
• On Wednesday, my cousin Tori (Lanny’s daughter) drove me down to Pittsburgh to, what I thought at the time, say goodbye to Lanny.
• On Thursday, I flew to Minnesota.
• On Saturday, we all said goodbye to Ross.
• On Sunday, I “moved” to Chicago, and on Monday I started my new job.

A month later, shit got really real with coronavirus, and all our clubs had to close and consequentially temporarily lay off over 2,000 people. And now we’re learning a new reality filled with terms like “social distancing” and “isolation”.

You might be thinking, “Jesus, Courtney, I was depressed enough before I started this post. What’s with the newly found pessimism?”, and I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that. But pessimism isn’t my style; I’m optimistic to a fault, admittedly bordering on naive. So this isn’t going to be a “woe is me, life’s so hard, blah blah blah” post. Because despite all that’s happened, I am well aware of how lucky I am and how much I have to be grateful for. And 2020 hasn’t been all bad! Let’s talk about the good!

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The biggest mercy the year has granted is the fact that Uncle Lanny is basically a phoenix, defying all medical expectations and is back in Erie, thriving. El and I are reunited after almost two months apart! I love my new job and am excited for the clubs to reopen so my projects can get going again. El is, unsurprisingly, kicking ass and overall just being awesome in his new role, despite the chaos. I get to spend more time with my family, and my mom and I do the crossword puzzle together every day now. I’ve reconnected with old friends via trivia nights, and have cried laughing on virtual happy hours and coffee dates with friends. I’ve been blown away by how people are finding ways to reconnect, and build new relationships, with one another. I’m trying to learn random skills, and I decided to take up knot-tying because why the hell not? GET IT?! Why the hell KNOT?! ::taps mic:: “Oof. Tough crowd.” ANYWAY, things may seem pretty bleak right now, but this too shall pass. We’ll get through this; I know it. Stay safe out there, and don’t worry, I’ll be back to my normal travel blogging soon… [Note: I don’t know why there’s a big space below, but keep scrolling to see the tribute to my incredible father-in-law!]

Tribute to my father-in-law, originally posted on Facebook:

Yesterday, I was sitting on my bed playing ‘No Woman, No Cry’ by Bob Marley, and I knew that I had to write. Not because I had some wacky mountain adventure to share, or some cheeky travel advice to give, but because it’s the only way I know how to grieve. And today, and pretty much forever, I grieve my father in law, Ross.

Ross was a man of many stories, most of which I was not a participant but he told them so vividly and with such humor that I felt like I was. I could see the cabin porch in Duluth where he slept under heavy blankets when the temperature was below zero. I could hear his grandfather, Willie, shouting to his grandmother, Maude, about a nearby bear cub (because where the baby goes, the mama ain’t far behind). I could hear the splash as his boot, one of the pair his parents had traded food rations for during World War II, hit the water after it accidentally flew off his foot when he was kicking the ground. Despite a frantic search, that boot was forever lost to the depths of Lake Superior. I could picture the blackness of Baltimore when he was a kid and the city went dark because of fears the Nazis were off the coast. I can imagine the silence as he sat in his plane at Andrews Air Force Base and watched John F. Kennedy’s casket come off Air Force One after it arrived from Dallas. What a truly remarkable life lived.

But stories are only a small part of what makes a life remarkable. Ross certainly made this world more entertaining with his stories, but it was how he treated people that made it so much kinder. Ross was beloved by so many people because he was kind, wise, and had the sweetest smile you can imagine. He also just knew so much about everything; El would call him for advice about everything from making pumpkin pies to woodworking. The man just KNEW things and would often surprise people with his interests. When we were in Minnesota a few years ago, I was watching some true crime documentary with him. It occurred to me that he probably was just being polite and wasn’t actually interested in the show, so I was like “Oh my gosh, we don’t have to watch this! What do you want to watch?” He replied, “No, no, I like this stuff.” Elliot forever gives me shit about my true crime obsession, so I got to gloat that his dad, his hero, was also into it.

Ross has been in my life since I first met him and Michele, El’s mom, for dinner almost twelve years ago in DC. I liked them immediately. When El and I got engaged, I learned that after that dinner, when Ross and Michele were alone, Ross said to her, “That’s the one.” I feel incredibly proud and humbled that he wanted me and his son to be together.

Over the years, I got to have my own stories with Ross. I think about the time an angry Portuguese woman whacked him and Michele with her cane when we were on a trolley in Lisbon. We still have no idea what the hell she was so pissed about. I remember the time they stayed with us for a month in Spain. I laugh about the four hour triple Yahtzee game we recently played in October. When we move back into our Chicago house, I’ll put books on the shelves of the closet library he and Elliot built for me. I smile when I think about his awesome 80th birthday party where we all got tours of planes and dozens of people came to celebrate an incredible man. I think about the “witching hour” in their house when the three dogs knew it was time to go out before bed (and their treat) and would run to Ross and bark like crazy. My mouth drools when I think about the buffet Chinese restaurant we took him to in Toronto that he talked about for months after their visit.

Recently, I asked El what kind of father he’d like to eventually be, and he responded that he wanted to have something special with each of his kids, whether that be a sport, an activity, or art, something that was just between the two of them. Just like his dad did. I also had my own special “thing” with Ross. Like I said, the man had some GREAT stories, and no one but him can do them justice. So I showed him how to record his stories on his laptop so we could enjoy them for years to come. That was our thing, and my favorite memory of Ross is when he and I were sitting in my Toronto kitchen, watching a video he recorded that day. In the video, he was smacking his lips a lot, and Ross looked at me and said, “I must have been eating something when I did this.” Immediately after he said that, video Ross said, “I’m eating a pecan roll”, and he and I looked at each other and just burst out laughing. That memory will bring me joy for the rest of my life.

Ross was a great man and his legacy lives on through his wife, his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends, and community. The world lost one hell of a guy, a true original, and we will miss him forever. I’m grateful for the time I had with him and for the lessons I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life. I’m filled with immense sadness, but I’m comforted knowing that he’s enjoying Portguese hard rolls, Vikings football, golf, fried potatoes, pottery, and true crime shows in heaven…

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