The Daily Gazette

Bison football team kicks off 2011 campaign

Monday marked the first day of practices for McCook High School football, girls softball and girls golf teams. The Bison boys tennis squad was set to open fall drills Tuesday morning, while the McCook girls volleyball and the Bison boys and girls cross-country teams will wait until Monday, Aug. 15, to start practices.

The McCook football squad hopes to extend an amazing post-season run, and the Bison appear to have the horses to field another strong team in 2011. McCook has qualified for the Class B state playoffs every year since 2000, and following a first-round loss to Hastings in 2000, the Bison have won at least one playoff game each year.

McCook capped perfect 13-0 seasons with state championships in the 2002 and 2003 seasons, then went 12-0 to advance to the 2004 title game before settling for the runner-up finish with a five-point loss to Lincoln Pius X. The Bison lost in the state finals in 2005 and 2007, and advanced to the semifinals in 2006 and 2008. Aurora has ended McCook's seasons the past two years with playoff quarterfinal losses.

Head coach Jeff Gross and his staff put the Bison hopefuls through the first of five twice-daily workouts with Monday morning's opening session. The majority of McCook players participate in a host of summer camps, and Coach Gross said that helps his squad be very prepared for the start of fall camp. It also helps the Bison staff have a good idea on the top performers entering the season.

"We have a pretty good idea after we spend all the time in the summer," Gross said. "There's still some competition to be had at certain positions. We've got a depth chart to work off of from last year. There ain't a lot of big surprises when we get to this point."

The Bison head coach outlined the plan for the first week of two-a-days.

"We will have more total input of X's and O's," he said. "We'll try to put as much in as we can, and then really toward the mid-part of the week when we put the pads on, it will be more about honing and refining our technique."

The Nebraska School Activities Association mandates two days of football practices without pads, meaning Wednesday morning's workout will be the first time the Bison wear full gear.

"Wednesday we'll start hitting," Gross said.

"The vacation that veered off course" by Dean's List - Daily Gazette

Summer arrived early on the North Carolina coast in 1963, and by April 22 it was oppressively hot, so hot that two among the big crowd of assembled people passed out.

Fortunately, they were in a place where medical assistance was readily available. The occasion was the formal dedication of the Craven County Hospital in New Bern, N.C., with Gov. Terry Sanford himself on hand to cut the ceremonial ribbon.

Fast forward 48 years and a few months and it’s every bit as hot on the Carolina coast, and we — my fiancée and I — are most grateful for the foresight of community leaders in Craven County who pushed for creation of what is today the CarolinaEast Medical Center, a modern healthcare complex on the site of the original county hospital.

Grateful because we spent a few days there recently when our mini-vacation abruptly took a frightening turn. (Is there already a TV reality series called “When Vacations Become Nightmares?” If not, I’d be glad to pitch it to any interested network.)

Have you ever been stricken with a debilitating illness while far from home? It’s a lot scarier than you can imagine.

Here’s what happened.

Our getaway had started with an afternoon and evening in Washington, D.C., where we had dinner at La Chaumiere with friends Jack Cahill and Craig Wilson and then got an insider’s tour of Georgetown courtesy of Craig, who’s a longtime friend and former colleague and who works for the newspaper USA Today.

It was a hot night, and we walked a lot, but enjoyed every minute of it.

The next day we flew to Charlotte, N.C., and then east to New Bern where we were to join in a family reunion with some of Beverly’s relatives.

We had dinner with family on Friday evening and on Saturday took a tour of the historic city — New Bern was the original capital of North Carolina and, among its claims to fame, is the birthplace of Pepsi-Cola. Again, it was sunny and hot with temperatures in the 90s.

After lunch with our family reunion members, we were on our own for the afternoon. Beverly read for a while and decided to have a catnap.

She was asleep for only five minutes when she awoke with vertigo so bad she couldn’t get out of bed. I thought it was heat related but after a half-hour of waiting for it to clear up, we agreed she needed medical help. I called the desk at our hotel and asked for an ambulance.

Anxious relatives who were staying at the same hotel arrived in our room only moments before the EMTs did. After checking her blood pressure and other vitals, the first-responders transported her to the medical center. I rode with Beverly’s cousin Beth behind the ambulance.

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