Danny Kinda’s Crossroads Blog #5

I think I got in trouble today, but I’m not really sure. So the Women’s National Team was warming up to play an exhibition match (against themselves) and while they were stretching in a big circle I figured they should at least have a leader in the middle of the pack so I led the team in stretches. They were really easy, you know, basic yoga stuff like downward-dog and that one where you put one leg in front of the other and try to rip apart your groin muscles/tendons. Mine didn’t rip, which is good. After our morning stretches, some lady grabbed me by the arm and “escorted” me off the floor, although I’m sure she regretted grasping my arm because after I flexed my biceps she appeared to be in pain. So basically I won that. I got the whole thing on film if you don’t believe me, but some other random guy with a big camera told me we couldn’t release the footage without some acronym-titled organization’s approval. I wonder if it’s the same acronym-titled organization that never gave us permission to put my Danny Kinda and Team USA video up. Hmm…

Speaking of that video, there’s a rumor spreading around Crossroads that a girl from Sports Shack 18 executed a PERFECT Gator, which led to a Sports Shack trip to SpikeTown! I don’t know if anyone remembers from the video, but OF COURSE it was perfect. The Gator works EVERY TIME! Mad props to Sports Shack for jumping from the 35th-ranked team to the 2nd-ranked team in like 36 hours. It probably has something to do with the fact that the ENTIRE Sports Shack coaching staff sports royal-blue KG tees. Don’t you wish you were Kinda Good?

Bump Record!Las night I provided commentary for another men’s exhibition match with my new colleague Ed Fiallos, a Front Range Volleyball Club coach. I mention this now because I forgot to write about it last night, when the game actually happened. Ed’s pretty good at telling people what happened in the match and I’m the best at filling in listeners on all the techie-lingo and whatnot that goes on during college matches. Tonight I watched Johnson & Wales University play Lindenwood University. I knew about this match like a year ago or something because Lindenwood’s assistant coach Facebook-messages me almost every day and he always gives me an itinerary of his team for the upcoming week. Anyway, Lindenwood won the match in 5 games or sets or whatever they’re called nowadays.

Okay, now this may just top everything. At around 7pm I decided to go incognito and sport a sweet wool Irish cap and my brand new Gator! tee. But at 7:01pm I was recognized by Jaime of the 900VB Club, who requested my services as head-coach of her team. Um, FINALLY someone wised up and got me on the bench! So after a quick pep talk to a group of girls with a bunch of uncommon names (Cassandra, Eleanor, Margaret, etc) we had match point. At that point the referee blew his whistle and started pointing at me vehemently, so obviously I suspected a yellow card and started pointing back, assuming I’d be getting a red card in return. Nope. This guy keeps pointing at me and tells me to get up on the referee stand and finish officiating the match! Now THIS ref knows what time it is! So I officiated my heart out for that last point (which was an ACE) and crossed my arms across my chest. What a great way to end the night!

I conclude this entry with a simple Thank You to Ernest, an assistant coach at Kent State and referee here at Crossroads. He knows why.

• Topic: More KG
• By Dan Madden
• March 16th, 2008