As I say all too often anymore, “Every day’s an Easter Egg hunt.”

2 sheets? Now you're just braggin'! I'd have to call you "Sky."

And this from the UCD athletics website:

Baseball 10/4/2021 4:32:00 PM
Statement from Director of Athletics Rocko DeLuca
Interim coaches named to helm UC Davis baseball as university investigation continues
DAVIS, Calif. -- The UC Davis baseball program has been approved to resume practice and some team activities while the investigation continues. These activities will be closely monitored to ensure compliance with the University's rules prohibiting hazing. 
We are fortunate that a few talented members of our local community have agreed to assist with team practices and baseball activities while the coaching staff remains on leave. These individuals have diverse baseball backgrounds and will provide a depth of experience for our student-athletes. I am pleased to introduce the following interim coaches who will help us prepare for the spring season:
• Tony Bloomfield is one of the most respected and successful coaches at the California community college level, with over 25 years of experience as a head coach. His Cosumnes River College teams made playoff appearances 17 of the 19 years he served as head coach. 
• Randy Choate is a former professional baseball pitcher. The New York Yankees selected him in the 1997 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft from Florida State University. Choate made his MLB debut for the Yankees in 2000, and also pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Rays, Florida/Miami Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers, and St. Louis Cardinals. He won the 2000 World Series with the Yankees, beating the New York Mets.
• Ray McIntire has served as Director of Baseball Operations at the University of Arizona and has volunteer assistant coach experience at the University of San Diego and his alma mater, the University of Nevada. 
We ask for privacy for the interim coaches and our student-athletes as they start practice later this week. There will be no additional updates or comments until the conclusion of the investigation. 
https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2021/10/4/statement-from-director-of-athletics-rocko-deluca.aspx

SACRAMENTO BEE:
UC Davis baseball team resumes practice while the school investigates hazing allegation
By Joe Davidson
UPDATED OCTOBER 04, 2021 5:07 PM
UC Davis athletic director Rocko DeLuca on Monday afternoon announced through the school’s communications office that the Aggies baseball program, suspended since July due what the school labeled as “credible” hazing concerns, has been “approved to resume practice and some team activities” while the hazing investigation continues.
DeLuca also announced three interim coaches are in place to help the transition to a spring season. They are: Tony Bloomfield, a longtime Davis resident whose Cosumnes River College baseball teams in Sacramento were among the best in the state, reaching the playoffs 17 of his 19 seasons; Randy Choate, a Davis resident who pitched in the major leagues in 2000s and won a World Series ring with the Yankees in 2000; and Ray McIntire, the one-time director of baseball operations at Arizona of the Pac-12 Conference.
DeLuca said that as a university and as a baseball program, “We ask for privacy for the interim coaches and our student-athletes as they start practice later this week. There will be no additional updates or comments until the conclusion of the investigation.”
He said of the interim coaches, “We are fortunate that a few talented members of our local community have agreed to assist with team practices and baseball activities while the coaching staff remains on leave. These individuals have diverse baseball backgrounds and will provide a depth of experience for our student-athletes.”
More than two months have passed since UCD suspended its baseball program after a hazing allegation and we still don’t now the answers to those questions, nor do we know why the school abruptly shut down the sport. The coaching staff has been on administrative leave while the school investigates the allegation. The school has refused to say what happened, when it happened or even whether anybody was hurt.
The school didn’t even initially say why the baseball program was suspended. School chancellor Gary S. May referenced hazing in a note in the middle of a blog posted for faculty and alumni under the headline, “Checking in with Chancellor May: Onward Toward Fall” and the subhead of “Checking in elsewhere.”
He wrote that “we are responding to credible allegations of misconduct primarily related to hazing” and that “the university will take appropriate steps to review those claims. The university has a posture of zero tolerance with respect to hazing.”
UCD went 14-43 this past spring and finished last in the Big West at 8-32, the program’s poorest showing since 2009. UCD said the investigation could last well in to the fall months.
https://www.sacbee.com/sports/article254761062.html


KCRA TV
UC Davis baseball team allowed to resume practice while misconduct investigation continues
3 community members will serve as interim coaches
Jonathan Ayestas
DAVIS, Calif. —
UC Davis' varsity baseball team is now allowed to resume practice and some team activities months after allegations of misconduct led to the entire team and coaching staff being suspended, the university announced Monday.
A statement from UC Davis Director of Athletics Rocko DeLuca said the university has enlisted the help of three people, each with baseball experience, to serve as interim coaches.
DeLuca in the release noted that the investigation is still ongoing, and the team's activities "will be closely monitored to ensure compliance with the University's rules prohibiting hazing."
"We are fortunate that a few talented members of our local community have agreed to assist with team practices and baseball activities while the coaching staff remains on leave," DeLuca said in the release.
The university did not detail specifics of the allegations when they were first announced mid-July. DeLuca told KCRA 3 that all players on the roster on the school's website are returning to practice, but he would not say if anyone has been dismissed during the investigation.
The three coaches assisting as interims are as follows:
Tony Bloomfield, who has over 25 years of experience as a head coach in the California Community Colleges system. At Cosumnes River College, his teams made playoff appearances 17 of the 19 years he served as head coach.
Randy Choate, who was selected by the New York Yankees in the 1997 Major League Baseball draft from Florida State University. He's also pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Rays, Florida/Miami Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals. He won the 2000 World Series with the Yankees, beating the New York Mets.
Ray McIntire, who served as Director of Baseball Operations at the University of Arizona and has volunteer assistant coach experience at the University of San Diego and the University of Nevada
https://www.kcra.com/article/uc-davis-baseball-team-resume-practice-misconduct-investigation/37860198

And don't I feel like an idiot. I was thinking about UOP's classification and forgot that we weren't even FCS or 1-AA at the time.

Thanks,

And it sounds like Mitchell's injury is not fully healed...good to have Maier in the wings. Be interesting to see what happens in the off-season.

Stampeders had a bye the weekend of Sept. 25th.

Mitchell started this past weekend and played most of the game in a Stampeder victory, however he left the game in the final moments favoring a sore shoulder and Maier came in to close the game without any real meaningful statistics. Stampeders defeated the Roughriders at home. They will play a back-to-back game against the Roughriders on the road this coming weekend.

Another "not Big Sky or other FCS," but Cal took another step towards taking a look at alum Troy Taylor. They lost to Washington State 21-6 in a game that was not that close. Happy Homecoming.

The Highs and Lows of the ‘Cheer Mom’
As a sport grows more competitive and demanding, an archetype has emerged.
By Hayley Krischer
Sept. 24, 2021
Updated 2:54 p.m. ET
By mid-January of this year, Kristin Wheeler, a self-described “cheer mom,” was exhausted. She was spending most of her days in the cheer gym or in the car with her bottomless cup of coffee while her 14-year-old daughter, Abby, a high school varsity and All Star cheerleader, practiced for major competitions.
Like most cheer moms, Ms. Wheeler was also entrenched in squad fund-raisers, scheduling travel plans (March to May is the pinnacle of cheer season), heaving out emotional support, reapplying fake eyelashes and smearing glitter gel on her daughter’s cheeks.
“I went into cheer saying, ‘over my dead body’ and ‘I’m not going to be one of those moms,’” Ms. Wheeler, a mother of two and a restaurant owner, said in a phone interview. But the next thing she knew she was up at 5 a.m. doing hair and makeup, and spending up to $10,000 a year on travel expenses, uniforms, competition fees and camps.
And she’d started doing what many parents of teenagers do these days: She turned to TikTok.
No, Ms. Wheeler, 38, didn’t do any dancing. She created an array of cheer mom characters, poking fun at herself and the stereotype of the domineering cheer mom that’s become a symbol of the overinvolved sports parent. There’s the naïve parent who’s overwhelmed by the commitment; the exhausted sports mom at the end of the season; and a group of cheer moms gossiping, calculating and obsessing over which squad their daughters will make.
One video was especially popular. It depicted a peak tyrannical cheer mom who, in the voice of Cardi B — a popular meme — screams, “What was the reason?” over and over at the coach all because her daughter was taken out of the coveted flyer position.
Mothers from all over — in person and on social media — approached Ms. Wheeler about the video. They felt seen, they told her. They felt understood. “The more awareness we bring to it, we can kind of say, OK, let’s take a step back and maybe not do that again,” she said, laughing. “Because we do crazy things when we’re broke and tired.”
All Star cheer’s primary purpose is competition. Unlike typical high school or college sideline cheerleaders, whose objective is to uplift the crowd’s spirits, All Star cheerleaders don’t “cheer” for anyone in particular. There is no rah-rah. No go-team-go. All star cheerleaders practice up to seven days a week, all year around, spending hours upon hours in the gym, with heads often slamming into mats and shoulders collapsing under bleach-white cheer shoes. (According to a study published in the journal Pediatrics, cheer is second only to football in the number of concussions during practice.)
All of this emotion and tears and athleticism is poured into a hyper-aerobic, high-flying routine that lasts two and a half minutes, with wired parents watching their child’s every move.
The U.S. All Star Federation spells out the “role of the parent” in a graphic-heavy guide that addresses topics including how to behave at events, when to call the coach and how gossip is damaging. But in recent years, some have seemed to struggle with boundaries.
In the Headlines
Cheer moms aren’t alone in being accused of atrocious sideline behavior. In the past few years, parents have brawled at a softball game, cursed each other out at a Little League game and have been ejected by the referee at a girls soccer game. A referee shortage is currently plaguing youth sports, with many jobs going unfilled in part because the verbal abuse from parents has gotten out of hand.
Sign Up for The Great Read  Every weekday, we recommend one piece of exceptional writing from The Times — a narrative or essay that takes you someplace you might not expect to go. Get it sent to your inbox.
Remember the soccer mom? In 1996, she was described in The New York Times as: “pacing the sidelines of her children’s games,” and she wore T-shirts emblazoned with slogans like “I don’t have a life. My kids play soccer.”
In comparison to the caricature of the cheer mom, soccer moms were just a benign voting bloc. Cheer moms are often cast as more deranged, more calculating, more controlling — sometimes even vicious or villainous. Why?
For one, a few have been in the headlines. In March, Raffaela Spone, a 50-year-old mother of two, was arrested on charges of harassing three girls from her daughter’s cheerleading squad. Ms. Spone allegedly sent texts and voice mail messages to the girls from an unknown number that said, “You have no friends” and “You should kill yourself.”
According to a police report, a video that was allegedly doctored was also sent to the girls’ coaches at the Victory Vipers cheer gym in Doylestown, Pa. But in mid-May, the Bucks County district attorney’s office said evidence of the video being doctored was no longer clear. Ms. Spone declined to comment for this article. The case is scheduled to go to trial in October.
In 2014, Andrea Clevenger, who appeared on the TLC show “Cheer Perfection” with her young daughter, went to prison after pleading guilty to one count of first-degree sexual assault and engaging a child in sexually explicit conduct; the victim was a 13-year-old boy. She was released in 2017 and is now on parole.
But cultural fascination with cheer moms who commit crimes can probably be traced back to the Texas cheer mom Wanda Holloway, who in 1991 tried to hire someone to kill the mother of her 13-year-old daughter’s rival, in order to secure her daughter a spot on the high school cheerleading squad.
Ms. Holloway’s face was plastered on entertainment and news shows, and she was sentenced to 15 years in prison. (Her defense lawyers petitioned successfully for a new trial, but before her case went to trial, she pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 10 years; six months later she was released on probation.) Two campy made-for-TV movies came out of it, including, in 1993, a Holly Hunter classic, “The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom.”
It should serve as the perfect plot twist that Shanna Widner, Ms. Holloway’s daughter, didn’t even want to be a cheerleader to begin with.
When Ms. Widner was 5, her mother convinced her it would be fun — the skirts, the pompoms. Then, Ms. Widner says now, it became this thing they were going to do, not something Ms. Widner herself wanted to do. Ms. Widner, who is now an English teacher near Humble, Texas, just north of Houston, tried to quit, but her mother wouldn’t allow it.
“And then I got disqualified and she got arrested and it didn’t matter anymore,” said Ms. Widner, 44, with a nervous laugh during a phone conversation. (Her ability to laugh at herself may have come from the many hours of therapy she’s had to deal with her trauma.) “Part of me was really relieved,” she said.
Now, when Ms. Widner sees parents getting into fights at sports events, she’s still amazed by it. “I’m fairly sure the kids are embarrassed when the parents act like that,” she said. “Parents think they’re doing it for their kids, but they’re causing damage. They don’t see the harm they’re causing.”
Rah-Rah? Nah.
Much has changed since Ms. Holloway was in the news, including cheerleading itself.
There’s the rise of All Star cheer, a different beast than your regular sideline cheer squad. In 2019, more than 10,000 cheerleaders on 550 teams competed at the Cheerleading Worlds, according to the U.S. All Star Federation. (Known as the Super Bowl of cheer, Worlds was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic.)
There is no question that All Star cheer is difficult and dangerous. But it doesn’t matter how much athleticism it takes: Cheerleading still isn’t considered a sport by the N.C.A.A. or by U.S. federal Title IX guidelines. In July, however, the International Olympic Committee recognized it, for the first time, though it is not yet an Olympic sport.
Laura Grindstaff, a sociology professor at the University of California, Davis, who has studied the intersection of cheer and gender, said cheer’s girlie girl aesthetics detract from the status conferred upon football, hockey or baseball and other sports typically dominated by boys and men. “The hair ribbon, the makeup, the glitter, the bows, the crop top, the short skirt, the smiling, the head wag, the cheer fingers,” Dr. Grindstaff said. “It’s this hyper-feminine performativity that gets married to the athleticism and therefore compromises the athleticism.”
Additionally, she said, there is sexism, including stereotypes around mothers and the idea that there is no higher calling in life than being one — and more, that mothers must help their children at all times.
“So you have the sport itself that struggles for legitimacy,” Dr. Grindstaff said. “And then mothers themselves are perceived as over-invested in something that’s not even legitimate to begin with — so it’s double the disdain.”
Social media has exacerbated the cheer mom-as-stage-mom archetype. She’s just as glamorous as her daughter. She wants to photograph her daughter looking her best, shoulders back, head up, pompoms in the air, arms raised in a V. She sends her daughter to the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleading camp. She posts countless photos with hashtags like #cheercompetition, #cheermomlife, #cheermomproblems and #mybabygirl. She gets slammed by coaches for micromanaging her daughter and pressures her to be a flyer. At major competitions, the cheer mom wraps her kid up in a banner like a champion.
Just last year, the cheer parents John and Debbie Butler were accused by many on Twitter of capitalizing on and micromanaging their superstar cheerleading daughter Gabi, who appeared on the Netflix documentary series “Cheer” as a member of the Navarro College cheer team. In one episode, her mother told her daughter to eat jackfruit instead of eggs before a competition because jackfruit “can actually hold your stomach for 10 to 12 hours with no other food.”
The internet went berserk. Gabi defended her parents on Twitter, and the director of the series, Greg Whiteley, said he owed them an apology. The Butlers did not respond to repeated requests to be interviewed for this article.
The Compassionate Coach
For the cheer moms who like to stay on the sidelines, who are doing it for their kid — and there are many of these parents — it’s a difficult sport to be part of.
This is how it felt for Stephanie Rothrock of Yardley, Pa., a therapist and elementary school counselor. A friend encouraged her to bring her two oldest daughters, who were in the third and fourth grade at the time, to a highly competitive cheer practice.
There, the coach told parents that cheer would be their No. 1 priority. Kids must show up to every practice. That if they have 104 temperature, you give them Tylenol. If they’re vomiting, they still come to the competition.
Ms. Rothrock’s daughters were eager, but she found an alternative: a modified competition team with practices twice a week. “And if you were vomiting, you could stay home,” Ms. Rothrock said with a laugh.
The girls had to wear a face full of makeup. Bright red lipstick and glitter everywhere. One mother went around doing wiglet checks to make sure the wigs were tight enough. Ms. Rothrock’s girls hadn’t even turned 10 yet, but they loved it: the stunt groups, being in the gym, competing.
By the time Ms. Rothrock’s daughters were teenagers, she found it impossible to relate to the other parents. She likes to give people the benefit of the doubt, she said, but she had experiences that she wouldn’t want any child to have. When her daughter Aly Martin was 14, a mother screamed in Aly’s face. Ms. Rothrock described the woman as a “typical cheer mom” who was “trying to live through her daughter.”
Ms. Martin, now 23 and a substitute teacher in Pennsylvania, recalled that year as filled with what she called “cheer drama” — fistfights and school suspensions, all antagonized by the cheer mom who screamed at her. The year culminated with a nasty rumor spread by members of the cheerleading team about her younger sister. Aly was told that she couldn’t join the team again, but that didn’t mean her cheer career was over.
At 19, she became a junior cheer coach for the Pennsbury Falcons Cheerleading Association, about 40 minutes north of Philadelphia. They were a team of 14-year-olds with a rough reputation, and few people were willing to coach them.
A majority of the parents were completely supportive, Ms. Martin said. Their kids were happy, so they were happy. Until one cheer mom who came into a practice as a backup coach got aggressive with the girls.
According to Ms. Martin, the woman hovered over one of the cheerleaders and screamed at her until the girl got up from the mat, crying hysterically. “The girl was having an emotional day and didn’t want to be there,” Ms. Martin said. “But I don’t talk to kids like that. I’m positive. I told the mother, give her a second, don’t tear her down. My whole thing is they’re 15. They’re moody. They’re kids. Her mom didn’t have a problem with her not participating, so why did this woman?”
Ms. Martin has a child of her own now, an infant girl. Despite everything she went through as a cheerleader, Ms. Martin would love for her daughter to cheer. She loves the team mentality, she loves supporting the other cheerleaders. She’d try to be an involved cheer mom — but not too involved. She’d let her daughter’s coaches do the coaching. And she’d sit in the stands and watch.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/style/cheer-moms.html?searchResultPosition=1

If you're from the Midwest you either love Notre Dame or hate it. My Midwestern born and raised father clearly did not love them. His first comment on seeing a UCD football game on TV was, "Their uniforms look like Notre Dame's." It was not meant as a compliment.

Great article. I would only add a footnote that whatever fine lines we might draw between Davis, Cal and the other campuses, that school in Los Angeles has to come in tenth in the poll, at least until the regents add another campus in which case it will drop to eleventh. And that includes UCSF which may have a handful of club sports but does not field true intercollegiate sports teams. Not only is the LA campus' blue a far cry from the dark or navy blue of the other schools, but they continue to search for some elusive shade...baby blue? Aquamarine? Topaz? Robin's egg blue? Sort-of-royal blue? San Diego, er, Los Angeles Chargers' blue? Known to their cross town rivals as the Baby Blue Bruins.


(The Aggie arts department, such as it is or was, gets one point deducted for reversing the UCI logo.)

The list is in a table format; ten rows, and about ten columns, per page. Not sure how that would cut and paste and at ten colleges per page that would be 80 pages. Don’t think I would live that long. One of the few times I’d prefer to have the physical edition rather than digital. Sorry.

I live in Sac. Regrettably the local Target carries you-know-who t-shirts....and a couple of years ago the local Raley's was carrying reusable bags for you-know-who. I contemplated driving to Davis. Used to be an annual trip to the bookstore. Maybe time to do it again.

Saw UCD facemasks on Amazon, but they had the recently retired horse profile logo (RIP). Would like the "lemon CA" and prefer gold. We're a UC, not Penn State, Kentucky, or BYU.

I wondered about that name but really did not want to go down that road.

Additionally, it’s a little confusing to have a school west of the Rockies known as Dixie State. Way back when I first heard of the school I assumed it was located in the Southeast. Kind of like having a school called California University of Pennsylvania or Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Florida State’s woes continue. Wake Forest 35 - Florida State 14.

USC 13, UCD 7.

Mitchell did not do much better in his second game back. Eventually pulled for Maier who engineered a TD drive, but Stampeders lost to Hamilton Tiger Cats (or TiCats?). Weird game in that 15 of Hamilton's 23 points were field goals. Only Hamilton TD was off a Mitchell interception.

https://calgarysun.com/sports/football/cfl/calgary-stampeders/stampeders-commit-costly-turnovers-mitchell-pulled-in-loss-to-tiger-cats

Absolutely my bad. I quit following after seeing that SJSU scored in the first OT. Did not know they play 2 OT's before going to sudden victory. Ag's tied it up again in the second OT, then won in sudden victory. So far a good year for water polo. Today will be tough, but "to be the best, you've got to play the best."

Sorry I hijacked the volleyball thread. A short comment has gained a life of its own.

Go Ags!

This is when your professor looks at you over the top of his/her/their glasses and says, "Mr. Movielover, Did you read the assignment?" and your breakfast backs up in your stomach. As the article notes,

"UC Davis improved to 4-6 overall on the year, posting its second straight win in the series with the Golden Bears and the first since a four-set victory back in 2013. California, which was held to .116 hitting on the night, fell to 7-4 overall.'

Wish we could have the same luck tomorrow. Aggie men are hosting a water polo tournament. Beat UOP earlier today, playing SJSU as I type. Play Cal and USC tomorrow. Depending upon what you read the Bears and Trojans are 1 and 4 or 2 and 3 in recent polls. Ags are #9, 6-0 after this morning's victory.

Great VB win for a young team.

{That will teach me....Aggie men's water polo scored with .02 in the 4th period to tie SJSU 9-9, but the Spartans scored the lone goal in OT to win the match. Ags beat SJSU 10-7 in San Jose last weekend. Ags are now 6-1 on the season.)

It's a huge oversight. I agree. I'd buy one.