I had to reset my password to leave this comment. Living in San Antonio, I have felt alone in the wilderness in terms of both fellow Michigan alumni and good Irish pubs. Not only does this post arrive, but then you list my 2 favorite beers (Smithwick's and Boddington's) as being on tap. Were you sent from heaven? I will definitely be making a pilgrimage or several this fall. Congrats on what looks to be a very different American Irish pub!
I'm coming from a bit different perspective but wanted to echo pretty much everything from XM's original post. My daughter was deep in AAU level basketball in Texas from 5th grade on. Until she blew out her first ACL at the end of sophomore year and the other one exactly one year later, she was the starting PG on a team that ended up with 6 players on D1 scholarships and another 3 playing at lower levels. It was a huge part of her (and our) lives for a long time. I'd have to say that even with the unfortunate end to her career it was worth every moment. She developed a lot of pride and self confidence. Being part of an elite team, no matter what the team is trying to accomplish is huge for girls. We avoided almost all the angst associated with the teenage years. Starting early at this level creates dominant players at the high school level resulting in all-state designations which really stand out on college applications. Even with her nonfunctional knees she got offers of admission from high academic D-III schools that she otherwise may not have received without the basketball component.
Tips: Find a club with coaches who are doing it for the right reasons and focus on fundamentals. Practices and facilities should be routine and scheduled. Your child should be getting plenty of playing time as there can be up to 4 one hour games played in a day for 2-3 days at tournaments. He or she might be better off on a better team with more talent and coaching than starring on a lesser team even if they aren't starting as long as they get playing time. The team should be playing regionally and nationally to get any real attention. There should be at least 10 tournaments a year within a day's drive and 4 or 5 a flight away to get adequate attention. All these should have recruiters floating around. Most all good teams are sponsored by a national brand. When my daughter was playing the hierarchy seemed to be Nike over Adidas, but both sponsorships seemed to have some really good teams. Work with other parents to tape games and keep tape of highlights both for yourselves and recruiters. Cherish the time with them as when it's over, it's over quick. Finally, I've seen a lot of families with plenty of money for college send their kids to lesser schools because they got athletic scholarships. I've never understood this approach. Realize the benefits are gained along the way and that the D1 scholarship shouldn't be the goal - it just gives you another option.
The really crazy thing is that, as I understand it, the B1G divisional 3 way tiebreaker can depend on the record of the cross divisional match-ups for each team. That means this year if MSU had beaten Purdue, OSU would have gone to the championship game because they beat a better collection of the bottom half of B1G teams than Michigan or MSU did. To base the tiebreaker on schedule happenstance would have been ridiculous.
The above commenters are all correct. The Aria Express runs for free on the West side of the strip connecting the Bellagio, Cosmopolitan, Vdara, Aria and Park MGM and gets you close to the arena. This is different from the tram on the East side of the strip. The Vdara is a nice place to stay that does not have casino stuff downstairs, so it's a little quieter. Looking forward to that weekend!
The other branches of the UT system are also a bit stronger and larger than the outlying UM branches, so they do say UT - Austin. All the high school wannabe engineers down here call Michigan "UMich", and people wishing the team well tell me "Go Big Blue!". It's all good.
Here's the real Marshall Field from the 1905 version of The Game. Built on land donated by...Marshall Field of department store fame. Soon renamed to Stagg Field. Famous for Enrico Fermi creating the first sustained fission reaction underneath it as part of the Manhattan Project.
Thanks for everyone's input! Some of the smartest people in the world right here. It's nice to have a choice between several good options, and I'm sure she'll make the right one.
Sorry to threadjack, but do any MGoEngineers have any experience with Olin College of Engineering in Boston? My daughter just got accepted today. She loved her interview there, but my wife and I who are not engineers know very little about it and are having a hard time sending her there over in-state U Texas - Austin EE (not programming). Now we can't travel to see it and are flying blind. Any help for us Wolverines at the far edge of the country would be greatly appreciated!
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I had to reset my password to leave this comment. Living in San Antonio, I have felt alone in the wilderness in terms of both fellow Michigan alumni and good Irish pubs. Not only does this post arrive, but then you list my 2 favorite beers (Smithwick's and Boddington's) as being on tap. Were you sent from heaven? I will definitely be making a pilgrimage or several this fall. Congrats on what looks to be a very different American Irish pub!
I'm coming from a bit different perspective but wanted to echo pretty much everything from XM's original post. My daughter was deep in AAU level basketball in Texas from 5th grade on. Until she blew out her first ACL at the end of sophomore year and the other one exactly one year later, she was the starting PG on a team that ended up with 6 players on D1 scholarships and another 3 playing at lower levels. It was a huge part of her (and our) lives for a long time. I'd have to say that even with the unfortunate end to her career it was worth every moment. She developed a lot of pride and self confidence. Being part of an elite team, no matter what the team is trying to accomplish is huge for girls. We avoided almost all the angst associated with the teenage years. Starting early at this level creates dominant players at the high school level resulting in all-state designations which really stand out on college applications. Even with her nonfunctional knees she got offers of admission from high academic D-III schools that she otherwise may not have received without the basketball component.
Tips: Find a club with coaches who are doing it for the right reasons and focus on fundamentals. Practices and facilities should be routine and scheduled. Your child should be getting plenty of playing time as there can be up to 4 one hour games played in a day for 2-3 days at tournaments. He or she might be better off on a better team with more talent and coaching than starring on a lesser team even if they aren't starting as long as they get playing time. The team should be playing regionally and nationally to get any real attention. There should be at least 10 tournaments a year within a day's drive and 4 or 5 a flight away to get adequate attention. All these should have recruiters floating around. Most all good teams are sponsored by a national brand. When my daughter was playing the hierarchy seemed to be Nike over Adidas, but both sponsorships seemed to have some really good teams. Work with other parents to tape games and keep tape of highlights both for yourselves and recruiters. Cherish the time with them as when it's over, it's over quick. Finally, I've seen a lot of families with plenty of money for college send their kids to lesser schools because they got athletic scholarships. I've never understood this approach. Realize the benefits are gained along the way and that the D1 scholarship shouldn't be the goal - it just gives you another option.
The really crazy thing is that, as I understand it, the B1G divisional 3 way tiebreaker can depend on the record of the cross divisional match-ups for each team. That means this year if MSU had beaten Purdue, OSU would have gone to the championship game because they beat a better collection of the bottom half of B1G teams than Michigan or MSU did. To base the tiebreaker on schedule happenstance would have been ridiculous.
The above commenters are all correct. The Aria Express runs for free on the West side of the strip connecting the Bellagio, Cosmopolitan, Vdara, Aria and Park MGM and gets you close to the arena. This is different from the tram on the East side of the strip. The Vdara is a nice place to stay that does not have casino stuff downstairs, so it's a little quieter. Looking forward to that weekend!
The other branches of the UT system are also a bit stronger and larger than the outlying UM branches, so they do say UT - Austin. All the high school wannabe engineers down here call Michigan "UMich", and people wishing the team well tell me "Go Big Blue!". It's all good.
https://www.loc.gov/item/2007663753/
Here's the real Marshall Field from the 1905 version of The Game. Built on land donated by...Marshall Field of department store fame. Soon renamed to Stagg Field. Famous for Enrico Fermi creating the first sustained fission reaction underneath it as part of the Manhattan Project.
Thanks for everyone's input! Some of the smartest people in the world right here. It's nice to have a choice between several good options, and I'm sure she'll make the right one.
Sorry to threadjack, but do any MGoEngineers have any experience with Olin College of Engineering in Boston? My daughter just got accepted today. She loved her interview there, but my wife and I who are not engineers know very little about it and are having a hard time sending her there over in-state U Texas - Austin EE (not programming). Now we can't travel to see it and are flying blind. Any help for us Wolverines at the far edge of the country would be greatly appreciated!