| 07 February 2012
My friend Dean is a short stubby man with narrow set eyes, as wide as he is tall. He's in his early 50s and drives a delivery truck for the cable company, but he's quitting in four months.
"If I keep driving truck I'll die in four years," he said, looking off to his right at the uncertain future.
Dean's going to mine gold in Alaska, north and west of Nome. It's not an idle dream. He's worked a claim for years just south of the Oregon border on the California side, and he knows about dredges, assays and permits. A buddy of his knows the guy in Alaska.
"The guy works a dredge just off the coast on the bottom of the ocean. He made over $200,000 last year. He walks the dredge out and sets down anchors. There's a cabin on the claim. He said we could use his tools and equipment for 15% of what we find. Most guys charge 15% to work their claim and you have to bring in your own crap. We're getting the buddy deal."
His cap is pulled low over his eyes, a habit from the Marine Corps. The belly pushes against his dark blue work shirt. Dean is gentle and good-humored, with a shock of reddish-brown hair that makes him look perpetually boyish, easily underestimated. There's a sweetness to him but he's a tough guy who collects guns, fishes and can work a mine.
"You work three and half months. There's snow on the ground when you go out and the snow is back by September when you leave. I'll probably won't make what he did, but I'll like it up there."
I asked him if his family, his wife and daughter, supported the idea. He smiled. "Oh yeah, as long as they don't have to go."
We all have to mine the gold in our lives, and exhibit the courage to write our own stories. It's not enough to watch or wait. Doing that, you just hasten your own death and watch the seasons change, fill your hours with collections and payments, mild sophorics like TV and sports.
Sports. Duck football is a continuing, wonderful story. It's a story of vision and heart and commitment. But I'm not close enough to the story to write it well. I have to guess and speculate. Sometimes, I'm very near to just making things up, working the dredge, not doing much but stirring up mud. One way or another you have to get to the gold in your own story.
It will be interesting to see what Chip Kelly and the Ducks make of themselves in the next 11 months. They have a new quarterback now and supporting offensive stars have to take bigger roles. The defense might have to play a larger one. Chip Kelly, having decided that his gold is here, has to mine the choicest nuggets, keep the group focused on the main task, and teach the newcomers the family business. Some of them will have unglamorous jobs to begin with, carrying anchors or dragging chains, jobs without glamour or shine, and they'll be challenged to keep their eyes and hearts focused on the promise of a payoff that may be a year or two away. The hardest thing in life is to sustain your effort after the initial enthusiasm wanes and your dream is still a long way off, when there's a lot of necessary drudge to slog through and equipment to haul before you reach your shiny reward. Some folks make the mistake of giving up just before the breakthrough. They dabble, picking a little here and then there, while the patient man digs deep, confident of his target.
Ted Miller of ESPN published his after-season edition of the conference power poll today, and he rated the Ducks second behind USC. The Trojans are loaded for this coming year with their star quarterback and safety coming back, two unguardable wide receivers, tall and sticky-fingered and fast, signing 12 highly-touted freshman to add to their stable, 9 from California, Zach Banner, a 5-star tackle from Washington, and a 5-star defensive tackle and another elite receiver from Florida. Oregon, meanwhile, signed a class the experts rate only fourth-best in the conference, landing just one five-star player, the rest a notch below the elite talent gathered by Stanford, the SC or UCLA.
But recruiting is just one part of the equation. The bigger part is the long months of preparation when no one is cheering, the voluntary workouts and weight training sessions that transform bodies. Today Devon Blackmon, an Oregon wide receiver who's just completed his redshirt year, ran two photos of himself on Twitter, one taken a year ago at 18, the second after a year of training as a college football player:
This weekend LaMichael James earned his first pro endorsement deal. After turning pro just a month ago he's already made it to the Super Bowl, one of the featured athletes at the Gatorade Sports Performance Lab, a sophisticated hi-tech testing center where the researchers at Gatorade demonstrated the effects of proper hydration and nutrition on performance.
The Gatorade team put James on a treadmill and other equipment wearing a special facemask that measured his breathing and heart rate while exercising at maximum effort.
James with his likeable personality, underdog size and exceptional drive and ability, is a great choice for the Gatorade message, "win from within." If he's drafted by the right team and continues to grow as a player, future little tailbacks may want to grow up to "be like LaMike."
The news is great for Duck fans in two ways. One, their will always be a deep affection for Oregon's inspirational leader, all-time leading rusher and scorer, and two, James success and notoriety extends and promotes the Oregon brand. LMJ will always be, "LaMichael James, the speedster from Oregon" who led the Ducks to two Rose Bowls and a National Championship Game.
His flash and achievements captured the imagination of players all over the country. This weekend Mark Schlabach of espn.com wrote the story of a young fullback/defensive end, Robert Nkemdiche from Grayson, Georgia. Experts are comparing to Julius Peppers, Derrick Thomas and Lawrence Taylor. He's 6-3, 270, explosive and fast. Last season Nkemdiche scored 17 touchdowns and had 18 sacks, leading his team to a 15-0 record. His top few schools early in his recruiting? The usual suspects from the SEC, and the Oregon Ducks.
For many promising young players around the country, the Ducks have become nationally relevant and a part of their dream. They're forward-thinking enough to know that without one, you're just another spectator or critic, or a pretender with too much time on his hands.
