Looking Back, Looking Ahead

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on March 7, 2010
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Great week for the track teams.  Competed well at the national meet in Johnson City, Tennessee and had  some all-American performances and some personal records.

Mark Eekhoff managed a couple All-American performances.  Got one in the 4 x 800 where the team blazed to a third place finish and got another in 600 meters where he finished fifth.  According to assistant coach Greg Van Dyke, Eekhoff went to make a move in the closing meters and pulled his hamstring, forcing him to hobble in for fifth place.

A disappointment, but still a great finish for the senior from Montana.  Now the team will focus on the outdoor portion of the schedule….hoping the snow is a long ways down by the time spring break is over in a couple weeks.

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Hockey team will head to nationals this week in Florida.  Dave Schenk will also be making the trip to do some work for the ACHA webcasts (they own the rights to the broadcasts so the only outlet is through them…..can’t get it on KDCR or the www.dordt.edu page, sorry).  Anyhow, Dave will be filing reports on the games when they are done and will spend the better part of the week in the ice rink.  Previews for the tournament are up on our website.

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Why do I like athletics so much?  That’s the question I ask myself often, especially on road trips that take me far away from home.   I think I got a glimpse into why this past weekend.

Basketball and baseball are my first loves in terms of athletics.  Growing up we had a basket on the garage and if the work was done I could shoot as many baskets as I liked….or knock the baseball around the yard for a while.  I even got some shots in when the work wasn’t done.

I grew up in a house where athletics, music and  drama all were fine things to pursue if the work was done and grades in school were satisfactory. None was pushed more than another…..you’re listening to someone who performed in two drama productions in high school along with taking piano lessons for five years and played trumpet for seven years.  So why I fell in love with athletics, I’m not real sure.

In the past three years I’ve had the privilege of coaching a youth basketball team.  Started with them when they were in fifth grade.  Practiced once a week and played in some Saturday tournaments.  Full disclosure here, we lost more than we won but we had fun and we got better each year.  Make no mistake, I don’t want to be someone who is living vicariously through his kids, but, I don’t mind showing them my love and enthusiasm for the game.

Anyhow, this past Saturday was the final tournament for the year, and, in all likelihood will be my last tournament with this group.  They’ll move on to bigger and better things and someone will have to fix all the things I’ve done wrong.

Back to the tournament, we lost one to a very good team.  Beat another team on a buzzer beater and got paired up with the host school for the final game of the day.

A ten point  deficit in the first half of that final game, our team fought back and got to within two at halftime.  After trading buckets early in the second half we gave up two three-pointers that made it an eight point difference in the final quarter and we couldn’t get over the hump and lost by six.

Now, you ask, what’s there to love about athletics? You lost for Pete’s sake!  Well, for the final three minutes  of that game I knew it was going to be tough to come back.  So I sat back and just watched.  What I saw was a group of boys who started playing three years ago and couldn’t dribble the length of the court and back without kicking the ball out of bounds–unguarded mind you, having become a group that ran  a pick and roll for a basket and lobbed into the post for a basket in the final minutes.

I saw a group that actually shared the ball with each other and enjoyed it.  I saw a group that may not have been the best of friends all the time, be able to appreciate what each player could do.  I saw players come to the realization of what they were and weren’t capable of.

I saw a group of players who gave up way too many back door cuts on defense earlier this year, play like their lives depended on a defensive stand in the final three minutes and got a steal with everyone playing position defense.

And we were down six points and I didn’t care.  Don’t get me wrong.  If we’re keeping score, I want to win, and I’m going to try to get the players I coach into a position where they can be succesful and potentially win a game, but I also know when things are going to be tough.

We’d improved and we had fun and gave it our best shot.  The players, all eight of them, walked out of the gym exhausted, and I don’t believe there is a better feeling in the world then giving it all and having no regrets.  I hope that’s what they remember, because that’s what I’ll remember from this first coaching experience.

Some may say it’s only a game.  And in this time period where we can get things out of whack very easily, you’re right, it is only a game.  But it, like  many other things can teach us a lot.  It teaches we’re probably more capable to perform acts than we think we’re capable of.  We need to trust and rely on others for success–one man teams don’t go far.  We need to listen to direction and we have to give effort and when we do those things, win or lose, I believe God is glorified.  Did I come right out and tell my team this?  No, I didn’t, and maybe I should have, but,  I still hope the message got through.

Boys, I learned more from you, than you learned from me……….

Wednesday, March 3

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Track coaches and national meet qualifiers should be approaching Knoxville as I write this.  They’ll be on the ground a little after five and should be in their hotel around 8:00 tonight.  After a workout to get the kinks out late this evening they’ll get a night’s rest and hit the ground running tomorrow, literally.

The women’s pentathlon is run tomorrow starting at 1:30 and the women’s 4 x 800 and men’s 4 x 800 semifinals will be run at 5:30 and 6:00 respectively and the men’s 4 x 400 will be in action at 7:00.  You can get more information here if you wish…….   http://naia.cstv.com/genrel/2010IndoorTFChampionships.html

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This one got buried in my stack of stuff last week.  Eagle eyed Harry Wieringa sent me the following web address regarding Whitinsville Christian where Dordt recruit Kurt Steiner attends and plays basketball.

For your reading enjoyment.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20100205/COLUMN62/2050515

NAIA National Qualifiers

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The big question this time of the year in NAIA basketball circles is: What teams will receive at large berths to the NAIA National Tournament?  Under the system the NAIA has you can map things out and get a pretty good picture where your team falls and with the final day of conference championships being today you can get a pretty good handle on where the at large berths will go.

No, there isn’t a selection committee.  Simply put, the final ranking is your standing for an at large berth.  There are 11 at-large berths available.  If a team qualifies automatically through their tournament qualification you work your way down the list until the 11 at large spots are given out.

Here goes, and remember, nothing is official until the invitations are extended tonight.

Men’s NAIA Division II Qualifiers

Nat’l Rank

1 Walsh AMC Auto

2 Oregon Tech CCC Auto

3 Indiana Wesleyan MCC Championship 3/2 v. #10 Bethel (at large or auto)

4 Oklahoma Wesleyan AT LARGE

5 Indiana Southeast KIAC Auto

6 Bellevue MCAC Auto

7 Dakota Wesleyan GPAC Auto

8 Embry Riddle Sun Auto

9 Cardianal Stritch AT LARGE

10 Bethel MCC Championship 3/2 v.#3 Ind.Wesleyan(at large or auto)

11 Northwood AT LARGE

12 Cornerstone Wolverine Hoosier Auto

13 Eastern Oregon AT LARGE

14 Cedarville AMC Championship v. Notre Dame (auto or at large)

15 St. Francis AT LARGE

16 Grand View MWC Auto

17 Sioux Falls GPAC Auto

18 Black Hills State AT LARGE

19 Davenport AT LARGE

20 Warner Pacific CCC Auto

21 Spring Arbor AT LARGE

22 Friends KCAC Automatic

23 Ozarks Host

24 Hastings AT LARGE

25 Evergreen State AT LARGE or OUT Depending on outcome of Cedarville v. Notre Dame

Women’s NAIA Division II Qualifiers

1 Hastings GPAC Auto

2 Davenport AT LARGE

3 Northwestern GPAC Auto

4 Black Hills State DAC Championship v. #10 Jamestown (At Large or Auto)

5 Cedarville AMC Auto

6 Ozarks MCAC Auto

7 Indiana Wesleyan AT LARGE

8 Shawnee State AT LARGE

8 Briar Cliff Host

10 Jamestown DAC Championship v. #4 Black Hills (At Large or Auto)

11 Morningside AT LARGE

12 St. Francis MCC Auto

13 Iowa Wesleyan MWC Auto

14 Sterling KCAC Auto

15 Minot State AT LARGE

16 Cardinal Stritch CCAC Auto

17 Grand View AT LARGE

18 Huntington AT LARGE

19 Kansas Wesleyan KCAC Auto

20 College of Idaho CCC Championship v. Eastern Oregon (At Large or Auto)

21 Concordia AT LARGE

22 Haskell AT LARGE

23 Holy Names CPAC Auto

24 Walsh AT LARGE or OUT Depending on outcome of Idaho v. Eastern Oregon game

And that’s where the lines fall this year.

The Last Chapter Is The Hardest To Write

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How do you sum up a season in a few paragraphs?  How do you put on paper what players mean to and have meant to a program?  It’s not easy and with sleep still elusive as the bus rolls on and with  Billy Joel and Elton John keeping me company as we roll  through the night  here goes.

A couple of tough losses for the Defender basketball teams tonight.  For the women the script had them beating Briar Cliff to avenge a loss they felt was stolen from them in early February.  Briar Cliff deviated from the script and got out to a double digit lead and Dordt had to stray from the game plan, and, well, things got awfully tough with things snowballing from there.  Points were hard to come from, Briar Cliff got easy baskets and the Dordt season came to a close at 19-13.

The men were slow in starting, getting lots of good shots early, but weren’t able to make them.  I don’t think it was a matter of them being tight…maybe tired but not tight.  Still down 23 with under 12 minutes left the Defenders proceeded to score 57 points in the remaining minutes, cutting the lead to four with a minute left and they made the Broncos sweat it, but the hill was too steep on Thursday and the Defenders fell 106-101.  76 points in the second half.  As coach Douma said on the bus, “it would have been a great story if we’d won.”  That sums it up.  76 points in a half is a new school record, by the way, breaking the old record of 69.

And now it’s done.  A season that began with a road trip to North Dakota in early November ends with a pair of road trips to Briar Cliff and Hastings.  And for six seniors, for the first time in four years of college basketball there is no practice tomorrow and nothing to work on and improve on basketball wise.

McKinzie Schmidt and Kate Du Mez will leave Dordt littering the record books with numbers that don’t do justice for what they’ve meant to the athletic program.  Schmidt got as much out of her ability as any player I’ve been around.  Not the highest jumper, nor the fastest runner, she made a lot of mid-range jumpers to get all the way to 1000 points.  Ends with 900 career rebounds as well.

Kate Du Mez was as rare a player as I think I may ever see.  Someone may come along to match her numbers in one sport or the other, but the combined two-sport excellence the Wisconsin native  exhibited will live on for a long time in the memories of those who watched her.  Beyond the numbers she was as fierce a competitor as I’ve seen and I truly mean it when I say she is a once in a decade type talent for our level.  She was the kind of player you hated to face and the kind you love to have on your team.  We may not know until next season how much those two players will be missed.

Near Christmas the men’s team was  at a crossroads, and I doubt I was the only person who thought things might go south on the young team.  Didn’t happen, and, according to coach Douma, that was due largely in part because the seniors refused to let that happen.  Brett Heidema accepted a role as a player who logged a few minutes a game and didn’t get much in the way of points but he worked and made people better and took pressure off some younger players.  Justin Van Kooten was the back up point guard and well, when you back up Michael Eekhoff,  you aren’t going to get a bunch of minutes.  Van Kooten was the player who worked as hard as anyone in the off season and got himself into good shape.  He, more than anyone else, provided the vocal leadership this team needed when things weren’t going well.

Michael and Logan, Logan and Michael, they’ll be forever linked.  As good a pair as we’ve had at Dordt.  Durable, lots of points, lots of rebounds, lots of minutes and lots of thrills.  Buzzer beaters and circus shots.  I put them in that handful of players that people made a point of coming to see over their careers at Dordt because you didn’t know what they were going to do and you didn’t want to miss it when they did it.  Logan could score and this year he pushed himself in ways that I would think he didn’t imagine were possible.  He was better defensively and in Coach Douma’s words “He became our best practice player.”   Michael?  Well, I’ve said it so many times that I’m sure some people are sick of it, but I’ll say it again.  When the ball was in his hands it was magic.

Seniors, as you leave your respective programs, thank you.

Survive and Advance

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Is the name of the tournament basketball game.  Dordt succeeded on both the women’s front and the men’s front on Tuesday night earning their school record tying 19th win in women’s play and the 20th win of the season for the men.  The women were 56-53 winners over Midland Lutheran in a game that ended up tighter than it needed to be while the men overcame a slow start that had them down early but up by 11 at halftime.  Had to re-focus with about three minutes left and coasted in for the 89-69 win.

Amber Soodsma knocked down 18 points and didn’t shy away from taking the big shot, hitting a three pointer that extended lead late in the game.  Always good to see someone willing to take that shot….Kate Du Mez did it against Mount Marty a week ago late in the game.

The men had balance, balance, balance.  Michael Eekhoff and Dustin Katje each went for 16, three other players had double figures and two others had eight.  Good all-around game against a team that likes the dribble drive motion.  Never really let the Vikings get comfortable after the first few minutes and limited them to 5-21 shooting from the arc.

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Straight chalk in the women’s bracket with all lower seeds winning on Tuesday to set up a 1-8 seed quarterfinal.  Six teams have 20+ wins and Dordt has 19 and Sioux Falls has 18.  Men had one upset and a near miss.  Doane dropped Morningside by one for a nine over eight upset while Mount Marty lost to Northwestern 67-64.  Five of the eight teams remaining have 20+wins and with Doane crashing the party with seven wins.  Northwestern and Concordia have 16 and 18 wins respectively.  The games happen in a hurry from here on out.  We’ll get previews up tomorrow and we’ll work on the baseball previews as well.

Dordt women travel to Briar Cliff and the men take the bus to Hastings.

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It’s been with a heavy heart I’ve gone about my business the last day and a half.  A friend of mine who was fighting cancer passed away a year after being diagnosed.  Joey Elbert was sports director at KUOO in Spirit Lake when I started in this business 18 years or so ago.  Always looked forward to my trips to Spirit Lake when we’d visit for a few minutes before broadcast.  He was the veteran, me, the newbie trying to figure out what I was doing.  What I learned in the years I knew him was he was a guy who didn’t have much of an ego, loved kids and loved his work.

In recent years he’d call with a “Hey Mikey how’s it going?” and we’d catch up with our professional lives and that would be that.  Those phone calls won’t be coming anymore and I’ll miss them.

I’m sure there were times he felt like he was spending more times with other people’s kids than his own, and it’s probably accurate.  One thing he always told me was this–”That’s someone’s kid playing….the game is important to someone.”

Heck, I even borrowed some enthusiasm from him…Screaming Joey was what we called him because he’d hit the high notes when it got exciting, and he didn’t care.  He’d hug a coach after a win and slap him on the back when he lost.  He had such a good relationship with coaches he could ask the tough questions and not offend.  He wore his emotions out on his sleave and it come through on every broadcast he did.  I never, ever heard him put together a poor broadcast…..not once did he mail it in.

And that voice is now silent.  I’ll miss him, and I know literally thousands of others will too.  He leaves behind a wife and two children, one in college the other in high school.  He also leaves a legacy as a Christian who treated people fairly in a business that doesn’t always reward people like him.

I can’t think of anything else to say, other than, I’ll miss him.  Rest in peace Joey.

Improbable

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That’s how I would have described the chances of Dordt making the National Tournament in hockey this year.  Struggled to find consistency through the course of the season.  Good for the guys and coach Elgersma.  Now they have a little time off to prepare for the nationals March 10-14.  We’ll have more information on scheduling and webcasts in the coming days.

A few milestones were met yesterday at the basketball games in Crete.  Amber Soodsma is now tied for the all-time single season points record with 475 after her 27 point salvo on Saturday.  Kate Du Mez went over 1300 career points and is within striking distance of second all-time.  The men made a team record 17 three-pointers, shattering the previous mark of 15 set in a game against the Huron Screaming Eagles in February of 1997.  Du Mez is also the all-time leader in field goal attempts now.

The Defender women won their 18th game which ranks for a second all-time, tying the 1991-1992 team.  The all-time record is 19 which was set in 1990-1991.  As Bruce Springsteen sung me home on Saturday night I looked that fact up. As the Boss sang about Thunder Road I had to chuckle.  1991-1992.  You know who was the broadcast team for several of those games?  A couple of students, one of which didn’t know what he was doing.  That would be me.  The guy who knew what he was doing–Gregg Zonnefeld.  Good grief.  Zonnefeld has moved on to bigger and better things and is now the superintendant at Central Wisconsin Christian, me, well I’m still trying to make something of myself.

That 1991-1992 team made it to the District 15 finals against Mount Mercy in Cedar Rapids.  Got behind big early and then scrapped in falling short of a berth in the national tournament.  That team was similar to this year’s team in that they left the record books littered with names.  Team was led by a mix of seniors and a couple underclassmen.  Didn’t go very deep in the rotation regularly.  Coach Len Rhoda was at the helm.  Jill Bousema left with the career scoring mark with 1318….she was the scorer.  Beth Hollander was a sophomore post player that set a single season scoring record with 475 points and was on the back side of the defense swatting shots away as the Dordt perimeter players had the luxury of gambling with her to protect the basket.  Hollander left after two seasons with over 700 points and 300 rebounds.  Lou Ann Bolkema was the defensive stopper and left with the career steals mark with 334 steals and she had 606 points and 546 rebounds after making the switch from six player basketball in high school.  Lisa Wubben was the do it all player–kind of filled in where she was needed and ended up with 855 points and 708 rebounds–may have been the most athletic player on that team.  Finally the point guard, and I had to explore the deeper recesses of my mind for this one, was Tawnia Vander Veen (I think) what I remember most about her was she didn’t make mistakes and didn’t turn it over.  Main player off the bench was Carla Zevenbergen, if my memory serves correctly……this was  a long time ago you know.

Well, there’s your history lesson for the day…..hopefully there’s more history in the making on the way, the next week will tell.

Man, do I feel old………..

Not A Bad Day

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Not bad at all.  An uneventful travel day to Crete for myself and the basketball teams is done.  The hockey team is in transit from Las Vegas and the track teams should be home from Lincoln by now.

The good–well a third straight trip to the ACHA Division III national hockey tournament for the Blades.  Got a win last night against Air Force and turned in a 4-1 win over Wyoming tonight.  Seems like they are playing with more focus than they had been playing with and that has resulted in winnning  a trip to Florida for the tournament starting March 10.  Congrats to coach Elgersma and the boys.  Jordan Janz, the hockey playing KDCR announcer had two goals tonight, the second night in a row he scored a pair and the Blades, without the glossy record of a year ago, get to the nationals the hard way, winning a pair of games against teams that were seeded higher than them entering the tournament.

Track and field crowned an individual conference champion in the 600 meters with a time of 1:19.95 and the men’s 4 x 800 relay also claimed first.  Briana Wubben continues to improve in the pentathlon–anxious to see how she does in the multi at the NAIA meet in a couple weeks.

More tomorrow……right now it’s time for bed.

Updated Scenarios

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Hmmm…..ok, the scenarios are a little murky in the GPAC standings but fairly straight forward for the Dordt teams.

Here are the women’s standings:

Hastings 15-1

Northwestern 14-3

Briar Cliff 12-5

Morningside 11-6

Concordia 11-7

Dordt 9-8

Mount Marty 9-8

Sioux Falls 9-8

Doane 8-9

Nebraska Wesleyan 4-13

Dakota Wesleyan 4-13

Midland Lutheran 3-14

Dana 1-16

And the men:

Dakota Wesleyan 15-2

Hastings 13-4

Sioux Falls 12-5

Briar Cliff 12-5

Concordia 11-7

Dordt 9-8

Northwestern 9-8

Nebraska Wesleyan 8-9

Morningside 5-12

Doane 5-12

Dana 5-12

Mount Marty 4-13

Midland Lutheran 2-15

Here’s what we know for certain. Hastings will win the women’s regular season title and Dakota Wesleyan will take the men’s crown. Dana will finish 13th on the women’s side and Midland Lutheran will be 13th in the final standings in the men’s division. After that, wow, the scenarios abound.

First, for the Dordt teams….a women’s win at Doane will get Dordt to 6th and in a likely tie with one or two other teams as Mount Marty and Sioux Falls play Dana and Northwestern respectively. A two way tie with Mount Marty gives the advantage to Dordt because of head to head wins by the Defenders over the Lancers. Suffice it to say a win by the Defenders locks them into a home game on Tuesday night while a loss likely drops Dordt to 9th and sends them on the road Tuesday.

Men, locked into sixth or seventh. A win by Dordt on Saturday gives them sixth and a game at home against Mount Marty, Dana, Doane or Morningside, all of whom could finish in a four way tie for 9th—too many scenarios that I don’t want to haul out the tiebreakers on them with necessity. A loss by Dordt on Saturday combined with a Northwestern win allows Northwestern to leap frog the Defenders back to sixth and Dordt to seventh at which point they’d play one of those four teams as well.

On the men’s side a three way tie for second is very possible. If Hastings loses to Dakota Wesleyan at the Corn Palace; Sioux Falls beats Northwestern in Orange City and Briar Cliff handles Midland Lutheran on the road a three-way tie will occur, and, if I have all my information correct, Sioux Falls would be the second seed, Briar Cliff the third and Hastings fourth. Concordia men will finish fifth and are in the clubhouse right now with an 11-7 mark.

The options, they’re limitless………..

Waiting on hockey results from Vegas. Blades play Air Force late this afternoon into this evening. Need a win to stay alive for a national tournament berth. Top two teams out of the eight team field advance to the national tournament in Florida.

Scenarios

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Time to trot out the slide rule and start figuring scenarios for the last week of the basketball season.

Dordt women and men are both 8-8 in conference play and have steadily been working their way up through the standings, trying to better their seeds in the post-season tournament which starts one week from tomorrow.

Ladies first of course.  Could finish as high as fourth, although I don’t believe that’s likely when you start taking a look at the games remaining for the teams involved.

Here are the teams right around Dordt in the standings with their records and remaining games….

Morningside (10-6) @ Briar Cliff, @ Nebraska Wesleyan

Concordia (10-7), Nebraska Wesleyan

Mount Marty (9-7) @ Dordt, Dana

Sioux Falls (9-8) @ Northwestern

Dordt (8-8) Mount Marty, @ Doane

Doane (7-9) Midland Lutheran, @ Dordt

Too many scenarios in this quagmire, so, I won’t get carried away with laying things out until Thursday when the dust, or snow, starts to settle.

Men?  Locked in at sixth or seventh.  Pretty simple.

Northwestern (9-7) Dakota Wesleyan, Sioux Falls

Dordt (8-8) Mount Marty, @ Doane.

Dordt wins out in a tiebreaker with Northwestern, the way I have it figured.

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Women’s rankings are out and the GPAC has five teams in the top-25 and six in the top-28…..ho hum.

Hastings #1, Northwestern #4, Briar Cliff #7, Morningside #11, Concordia #22, Mount Marty #28.    Others who were on the Dordt schedule this year…..Jamestown #10, Grand View #18, Kansas Wesleyan #20, Cornerstone RV.

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Still waiting on the men’s rankings……

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And they are in…….#1 Walsh, #7 Dakota Wesleyan, #17 Hastings, #21 Sioux Falls, #28 Briar Cliff, Concordia-RV.  Others of note……….Bellevue #6, Grand View #16,

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There, time to head out into the snow……

Random Thoughts

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As previously noted the Dordt College baseball team hosted Terry Steinbach yesterday and he spoke to the team about his experiences, his baseball career and challenged them to improve and be good teammates.  That’s a very condensed version, but in the interest of space limitations, that’s what I’ll stick with.  Ashlee Stallinga, a student at Dordt and an assistant in the sports information office, had the opportunity to sit in while Coach Schouten, Wayne Dekkers and Terry visited yesterday and she filed a story for the Diamond which also appears on our website and in a blog posted earlier today.

Got me to thinking about some of the individuals I’ve had the opportunity to meet and interview over the past 15 years or so.  Steinbach  goes in the class of people who reached the pinnacle of their sport.  He won a World Series with the Athletics and appeared in two others.  He was also an all-star game mvp and had the opportunity to play out his career with his home state team, the Minnesota Twins.  Of comparison, for me,  is Vern Den Herder who was  member of a Super Bowl Champion Miami Dolphin team and the undefeated squad of the mid-1970’s.  Also met and interviewed Tom Brands shortly after he won a wrestling gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics.

Those are three men who competed at the highest level and succeeded.

When I interviewed Brands he was coming right off the gold medal high.  Hyper and wound as tight as a violin string.  Ready to take on the world and had a king size chip on his shoulder.  In fact, he may have had a chip on both shoulders.  But that’s part of what made him succesful as a wrestler and what makes him succesful now as a coach.

Den Herder, well, that was when the Patriots were making a run at 19-0 two years ago only to fall short with a loss in the Super Bowl.  I remember him as having an air about him that he’d been to the top of the mountain, and he knew something we didn’t.  Confidence, that’s the word I’ll go with.

Finally, Steinbach.  As down to earth  as you will find.  Really wants to help others succeed.  I was surprised in listening to him how much he talked about his failings and shortcomings as a ballplayer.  Here’s a guy who shared a locker room with some of the biggest names in sports at the time, a time when the A’s were like a rock band on tour, and you could put him in a crowd and he wouldn’t stand out, nor would he need the spotlight.  I hope the baseball team enjoyed hearing him speak, I know I did.

There are the differences.  The similarity?  Every one of them exhibited a passion when they spoke about their respective experiences, and every one of them was effective in conveying that passion even though they did it in very different ways.

I guess there is more than one way to skin a cat……….