(NOT) Your Average Joe

What did I do?

Whoa Whoa Whoa, what did I do to get thrown under the bus on this wrestling thing.  I simply spoke the truth.  I never dogged the sport or said it was unworthy of coverage.

My point is this people. I am not a journalist, so I do not get paid to go on assignment to cover certain events.  I am not paid for this blog, it is simply something I enjoy doing.  I mean am I expected to go on my days off and watch wrestling or any other sport for that matter.

I attend sports that I like watching, which are football, track, cross country and occasionally basketball.  You people are faulting me for the El Paso Times no covering wrestling as much as yo feel they should. 

For the last time, I do not write for the "Times".  This is all I can offer you guys.  I do respect the sport of wrestling and if someone gives me a personal invitation, then I will go and watch it. Now if you invite me, then you better be there.  I will meet you there and you can introduce yourself to me. 

See, that way I get can first hand knowledge and you can show me the ropes.  I am serious about this.  After that I promise to write an insightful blog on wrestling. That is my word.

With that I hope to hear from you wrestling fans on this.

Let me skip real quick to a post I read about sports enhancing drugs in cross country.  Someone mentioned taking Motrin as a sports enhancer.  Whomever wrote that has obviously never run.

The pain that you feel in running comes from having lactic acid build up in your muscles.  Anyone who has ever run knows that no pain killer would even touch that pain. I think "Pre" said it best when he talked about blood doping.

I seriously doubt there is any runner that could afford to have that done.  Most of our kids that run do not even have health insurance, so I would say the chances are slim that our track stars are blood doping. 

I thank you all for reading and I look forward to hearing from you wrestling heads.  Lates!!

Joe Weissbard

kingrain77@aol.com

More Steroids.

It seems that the subject of steroid use and its pending testing amongst high school athletes is a subject that will not die.  It has obviously been in the media lately and people are very interested.

Let me touch on this further and put in my two cents.  We all know that the U.I.L. will begin testing or have already begun.   

There have been a lot of comments and opinions on this matter.  I do not think it is a secret that football will be the sport that is hit the hardest.  People will probably be surprised at the amount of kids that will test positive for sports enhancing drugs.  Especially here on the border.

Fans of Track and Field have dealt with a huge steroid scandal the last 3 years.  This was a sport that many thought was immune from such scandal.  It was sad to see that a lot stars I grew up looking up to were involved in the illegal use of these drugs.

I would hope that these high school athletes take this very seriously and I hope that the consequences are harsh for offenders.  A message has to be sent to them at a young age that it is illegal and can ruin their careers if they are shooting for an athletic scholarship.

I do not see the sport of long distance running being very much affected at the high school level. 

I hope to hear from you readers about things you have seen or heard involving steroid use at your schools.  Talk to you all soon.

Joe Weissbard

kingrain77@aol.com

Wrestling

Well well well, the dragon has been awakened.  I am writing this blog in direct response to Mr. Richard Perales who basically slammed me.

Let me start off by saying that I do not write for the El Paso Times.  This is actually a private blog sponsored by the "Times".  What ever beef you have with the "Times" not covering wrestling has nothing to do with me.

I do not write about wrestling because I know nothing about the sport and choose not to learn anymore about it.  In my blog I simply said that the newspaper does not put as much into it because it is not a mainstream sport. Whether you like it or not it is the truth and the interest level just is not there. Newspapers cater to the masses and wrestling is more of a secular sport that is not as popular as football, volleyball and track.  Please do not blame me for this fact.

Trust me Mr. Perales, when I talk about long distance running at work, there is not a huge interest amongst my peers.  I love track and cross country and am a football fan. That is what I know and it is what I write about.

I am here to also tell you that I respect the sport of wrestling very much and think it is a great sport.  I never competed in it and have never really been around it.  This blog is my hobby and I do not feel like taking time from my own day to go learn about wrestling. Sorry, but that is how I feel.

I am not sure what sports you like, but I am willing to bet that if there is one you do not care about, you do not read it.  Well I am the same, I never read articles about tennis, golf or volleyball.

Would you rather me write about it ignorantly and do an injustice to your sport? I am just trying to be as honest as possible. 

If there is something you want me to mention in a blog or some results, I would be glad to post them or discuss them if you shoot me an e-mail to my personal one.  I do not have the time to write about all sports and I have a pretty good following in running sports because it is what I know.

Take care Mr. Corales