SportsHoncho

New feature to the blog...

I have added an "Events Attended" column on the left side of the blog.  Here, I will keep track of all the sporting events I attend throughout the year.  I am only including "significant" sporting events.  I don't consider my 5-year-old's weekly soccer game a significant event.  Although fun, its just not the fanatic environment that say, a college football game generates.  I hope to average an event every week throughout the year, that's 52 for those who were wondering.  Currently, I am a little behind the pace (at 30), but I should be able to catch up, it being the start of the pro/college/high school football season and the college basketball season starting soon.

Cincy-Louis(y)-Indy, the Midwest Football Triangle, Part I

This is how I, the Sports Honcho, use my own website ZipCodeSports.com. 

My brother-in-law Wayne, brother Bruce, his son Jaxon and myself decided to plan a football trip to the Louisville vs Utah football game on Friday, October 5th.  Since we are going so far we decided to make it a full weekend of football, including a pro game in the area.  Below is the process taken to put the trip together and, of course ZipCodeSports.com was used extensively.

The best, and cheapest, flights to the area were Thursday night into Cincinnati.  We first searched for a Cincinnati Bengals game on Sunday 10/7, but found nothing (Fig.1).  So I increased the date range to include the following weekend (Fig.2).  I wanted to find at least one result for the Cincinnati Bengals, and did on 10/14 (Fig.3), so that I could select on the Cincinnati Bengals name in the search results (the blue text) to get their full schedule pop-up (Fig.4).  Their schedule showed the Bengals have a bye the weekend of 10/7. 

(Fig.1)                (Fig.2)                (Fig.3)

(Fig.4)

So I changed the team selection to the Indianapolis Colts (Fig.5) to find their next game (Fig.6).  I found a game to attend, the Colts are at home on 10/7.  I clicked on the "Buy Tickets" button to find some tickets to the game (Fig.7).  By selecting the specific game on StubHub.com, you get a list of available tickets to choose from (Fig.8).

(Fig. 5)              (Fig.6)                 (Fig.7)                 (Fig.8)

Going back to the search results shown in Fig.6 and clicking on the "Map" button, you get a map directly to the Indianapolis Colts stadium, RCA Dome.  By changing the zoom and centering the map a little, we can see the Midwest Football Triangle (Fig.9).

(Fig.9)

I am going to use this map and search results from ZipCodeSports.com to find another college football game to attend on Saturday, in the area.  So I did a search for 200 miles around Indianapolis, IN for Saturday, 10/6, (Fig.10). As you can see this brought up way too many results.  So I limited the radius to 60 miles from Indianapolis (Fig.11).  Looking at these results, I liked the Purdue/Ohio State game, but by opening the map, we found that West Lafayette was another hour away on the opposite side of Indianapolis from Louisville.  So we decided to go to the Indiana vs Minnesota game, the map to the University of Indiana is shown in (Fig.12).  Again, I selected on "Buy Tickets" to find tickets for the game. (Fig.13).

(Fig.10)             (Fig.11)               (Fig.12)             (Fig.13)

Now, all I need to complete the trip, is to get tickets for the Louisville vs Utah game (Fig.14).  I selected "Buy Tickets" for some tickets (Fig.15), got some Utah gear by selecting on the "G" button next to Utah (Fig.16) and a hat by selecting on the "L" button (Fig.17).

(Fig.14)             (Fig.15)                (Fig.16)             (Fig.17)

So the final itinerary for the Midwest Football Triangle:  Fly to Cincy, drive to Louis(y) (Louisville vs Utah game), drive to Indy, (stop at the Indiana vs Minnesota game), (Colts vs Buccaneers game), drive to Cincy, fly back to SLC.

Follow these steps and ZipCodeSports.com will find a game for you to attend.  Decide where you're going, set the date range, then choose a team in the area or enter a zipcode or city/state.  Choose the game to attend from the results list, get the gear, get your tickets, get a map and Get to the Game!

Another 180 by Utah?

Utah played UNLV tonight, who we have not lost to since 1979, yes... that's last century... almost 30 years ago... I was 5!  Not only did we loose, but we were embarrassed, 27-0.  Utah goes from destroying #11 UCLA a week ago to embarrassing ourselves this week.  We now have a 1-3 record, 0-2 in conference.  I can't even type anything else, it was such a horrible performance, I should have stayed in the rain at the AST Dew Tour.

AST Dew Tour in SLC

The Dew Tour included SLC on the tour this year, with the Toyota Challenge.  I think it helps that the governor of Utah, Jon Huntsman, Jr., rides motocross; in fact he handed out some of the medals to the FMX finalists.  My buddy Alan hooked us up with some tickets, so Me, Holly and the boys went.  We saw the FMX finals, which of course, were amazing.  Its amazing that it was only a year ago that the backflip was introduced in motocross and now every competitor has several tricks that incorporate it. 

We also were able to get great seats in the Energy Solutions Arena for the BMX preliminaries.  Those guys  are crazy/amazing.  One guy spent his entire 60 seconds trying to land a huge flip transfer trick, which got the crowd pumped and he did finally land it. 

(I looked into my ZipCodeSports.com database, and found that the AST Dew Tour was not included.  This has been changed and the remaining event, the PlayStation Pro Event in Orlando, Oct.18-21, has been added.  We will also include the full schedule for next year.)

We left the BMX preliminaries to find it raining pretty hard.  Unfortunately the rain will probably cancel the remaining outside events for the day.  However, we were leaving anyway, time to take in some college football games, including Utah vs. UNLV.

Back from another vacation....

This has been a great summer for me and my family, with several great vacations.  We spent the last couple of days in southern California, spending 2 days at the happiest-place-on-earth; Disneyland.  We are always amazed at how many people go there without any kids.  We had a blast, but mostly because the boys, 2 and 5, were so excited about the entire experience. 

After last weekend's performance by the Utah Utes, I am once again excited for another football weekend  (I'll admit that the first two Utah games had soured me slightly).  Utah plays at UNLV, which played #5 Wisconsin to the wire.  The Rebels have lost 2 straight at home, so the Utes are in for a fight.

Early next week, I will start a several part series on how I, The Sports Honcho, use ZipCodeSports.com.  I am planning a football weekend with my brothers to the midwest, including the Utah at Louisville football game on October 5th.  I will find several games to attend, map the locations and buy the required tickets.  The series will continue with a trip report of the games we attend, the driving we undertake, the food we eat and people we meet.

I apologize for the random thoughts expressed above, luckily it was short.

Utah Football does a complete 180!

I planned to write this entry no matter what happened this afternoon at the Utah game.  I was prepared to defend the Utah football team and remind you all that they were without the starting QB, RB, WR, TE, and that is only the offensive side.  However, Utah dominated UCLA this afternoon, winning 44-6.  On offense, on defense, on special teams; in every aspect of the game.  If we had had one quarter of this team in our two previous games, we would have won both.  This was a completely different team.

Utah did an amazing job preparing for this game.  The offense was ready, confident and had only one mistake, a fumble.  The defense played well and stopped them when required.  One of the biggest changes however, was in the running game.  Darrell Mack had 107 yards, and established the running threat early.  We had no running offense in the previous two games, and all of last year.

We destroyed this team, and it felt great after two loses, oh and did I mention that UCLA was ranked #11?  Man, it was sweet!

The Launch email has been sent, and people are flocking...

..okay, not really flocking, BUT people are coming to the site and, more importantly, signing up.  It will be a slow process, but I am hoping for continued interest and steady registrations.  To the right is the Launch email:

I am really grateful to my friends and family for spreading the word for me.  Its great when you send such an email and you see those who are supporting you, send it out to all their friends and family.  I would estimate it has been ten fold.  For those of you who have spread the word, Thanks!

My Fantasy Team is KILLING me!

I entered the last Monday Night Football game needing 18.3 points to win my match-up, with 2 guys to help me out.  San Fransisco's wide receiver Darrell Jackson and cornerback Walt Harris, who were projected to get a combined 16 points... so I had just a little hope.

Harris is pulling more than his weight, getting 5 tackles, 2 pass deflections and an interception by the mid-point of the 4th quarter for 10 points.  That means I only need 6 points from Jackson, thats 6 receptions and 60 yards, or one touchdown, just one, thats it.  Well, wouldn't you know it... both of them decided to take the 4th quarter off.  They weren't on the bench, they just refused to get ME more points.

What is worse is that I should have easily won the match-up.  However in the earlier MNF game, my opposition had L. Johnson who averages about 10 points, but went superhuman and got 19.25 points.  Its incredible to go from knowing you are going to win, then watching a defensive lineman intercept a pass and return it for a touchdown... to knowing that you are now going to lose.

What's worse is that its a horrible game, but due to the fantasy eliminate, I am compelled to watch.  This is killing me.

Home Openers

Is there anything better than football Home Openers? I say to you "NO!"

Since I live in Utah, with no NFL team, I am talking about the University of Utah's home opener on Saturday.  The Sports Honcho Crew,* consisting of me, my brother-in-law Wayne, brother Greg and his daughter Jensen, went 3 hours early to line the streets as the team walked from the practice facility to the stadium.  This is a new tradition for this year and was pretty fun.  My brother-in-law has done some billboard and signage for the stadium so he ran into the Manager, who was talking to the University's AD, Chris Hill, who was out & about with the fans.  Chris Hill has been great for Utah and has basically built the program to its national presence. 

The SH Crew then went back to the stadium and ran into Utah's new Men's Basketball coach, Boylen.  Me and my brother-in-law both shook his hand and told him we were excited for the season.  Boylen told us he was also excited and would see us there.  We entered the stadium 2 hours before game time, got some food and sat right above where Utah was warming up.  We sat there until 45 minutes before the game and wondered back to our seats.

The atmosphere was tense and excited, I took this picture right at kickoff.  Although Utah struggled and lost the game, it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  (I will remind you that Utah is struggling because we lost our starting RB, broken leg, and Q, separated shoulder, in the first half of this season.  Good news was seen on this front, however, Brian Johnson was throwing the football for 10 minutes as the team warmed up.  It seems he may be back fairly soon.)

* - The Sports Honcho Crew is the nomenclature I am going to use to refer to the group I am attending games with.  Honcho Crew, SH Crew will be used for shorthand.

ZipCodeSports.com is LAUNCHED!!!

We finished all of the Application and Graphic issues today and the site is now live and ready for use.  Here is a screen shot of the website.  Please visit ZipCodeSports.com, sign-up, search and find the sporting events wherever you go across the nation.