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Meeting Date: February 18, 2020

Today's Meeting

President Tony Delevati got the meeting started by having Les Engelmann lead us

in today’s Pledge of Allegiance. Next, Rotary Gracers Dan Stroski, Jim McGibbon,

Steve Venables and Clancy Duppong stretched our vocal cords.

President Tony’s inspirational thought of the day was…

I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to

waste any of mine running around doing exercises. – Neil Armstrong

Unfortunately, no one guessed the correct author so there no ‘fine free day’

awarded.

President Tony thanked Aniek Ramsay for doing Meals on Wheels today, and

Clancy Duppong and Roger Kohlmeier for handling set-up duties.

Visiting Rotarians and Guests

None today.

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Announcements

President-elect Tabb Randolph said work on the Club’s 2020 Dinner Auction, set

for Saturday, February 29, was moving forward. He encouraged every member to

sell or purchase at least two of the Winner’s Choice raffle tickets since we are

counting on selling all 150 raffle tickets to meet our goal. President-nominee Dan

Stroski reported Woodland High School has selected a design for the new

scoreboard in their Stadium project. He expects to see an artist’s rendition of the

new scoreboard soon. The main beneficiary of this year’s

Dinner Auction is the new WHS scoreboard.

Chuck Maltese said he is accepting signups and checks for

the May 6, 2020 Mystery Golf Trip. Cost is $100 per player.

He says several Sunrise Rotarians have already signed up, so

he encouraged interested people in our Club to sign up soon.

Steve Venables announced he has

written & published a new book about

Woodland and it is for sale at $20 per copy; $10 to Club

members.

Nick Roncoroni gave us an update on the Interact Club at

Woodland High School which our Club is sponsoring this

year. A new club president has been selected and they are

attempting to get a group of their members to attend the

Dinner Auction.

Foundation Chair Tom Schwarzgruber presented

Bob Nakken with his Paul Harris +3 pin in recognition

of Bob’s contributions to the Rotary Foundation.

Anniversaries

None today.

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Birthdays

Les Engelmann (Joliet IL) celebrated

his 74th birthday on February 8.

Recognition

District 5160 Foundation Chair Karl Diekman took the

Recognition helm today. Jim Nolan was happy that after

a recent two week trial, a jury awarded him $750,000!

Dan Stroski was happy he was winning a fight with AT&T

about his service.

Karl then asked a series of questions about Rotary. First,

Les Engelmann was reminded an important preparation by

new club presidents was to set goals for the club. Lisa

Martinez found out club members are responsible for

supporting the club president, an act which leads to a

more vibrant club. Chuck Maltese was reminded

President Tony’s goal for Foundation giving this year is

for the Club to maintain its status as a 100% Paul Harris

Sustaining Club. Jim Nolan knew over 50% of Club

members have already contributed $100 or more to the

Foundation this year; 28 members still need to make a

similar contribution for the Club to maintain its 100%

Paul Harris Sustaining Club status. Ken Nordgren knew

every member must make a minimum $100 contribution

to the Foundation this year for the Club to qualify for

100% Paul Harris Sustaining Club status. Mark Werum

was reminded Foundation Chair Tom Schwarzgruber can

help every member make their contribution to the

Foundation.

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President Tony Delevati indicated Jim McGibbon has been

working to submit a grant application for the Club. Jason

Smith found out the Rotary Foundation began in the 1920s.

Steve Venables was reminded that 50% of every local dollar

donated is returned to the local area in the form of grant

awards. Jim Taylor learned a committee of Rotary officials

make the decisions on who receives District grant awards.

Gary Wegener discovered any Rotarian can apply for a

District grant, but it must be approved by the Rotarian’s club

it is accepted by the District.

Rags to Riches With the pot at $247 and 24 cards

remaining, Ernie Hodges got himself a

free lunch.

Today’s Program

President Tony Delevati introduced our

guest speaker today, UC Davis Men’s

Basketball Head Coach Jim Les. Jim grew up

in the Chicago area and excelled as a point

guard at Bradley University in Peoria IL.

Selected in the 1986 NBA draft, Les played

nine seasons in the NBA, including four with

the Sacramento Kings. He then entered

coaching, working as an assistant for the

WNBA Sacramento Monarchs before

returning to Bradley University as its head coach for nine seasons. Looking for a

return to the Sacramento region, Les was named the head coach of UC Davis Mens

program in 2011. After UC Davis won the Big West Conference title in 2014-15, Les

was named Big West Conference Coach of the Year. UCD has also made two other

appearances in the post season under Coach Les’ leadership.

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While Jim shared several funny stories from his playing

days, he concentrated his comments on UC Davis’ philosophy

of student athletics and strong academic work. Coach Les

must recruit students who will achieve a minimum GPA of 3.0

in core classes, far above what many larger schools require.

Recruiting is hard work. He must find elite student athletes

who are, essentially, going to do two full time jobs: study yet

still practice and travel with the team, and do community

service on the side. Player character is a critical factor in

deciding which students to select. UCD offers 13 full

scholarships to players selected for the team. 100% of

UCD’s athletes have graduated during Coach Les’ tenure.

When the his team qualified as one of the 68 teams to play in the 2015 NCAA

tournament, several members had to take exams on the morning the team traveled

to their first game in the tournament.

Coach Les was asked about the choice he had to make to play his son, who was on

the team a few years ago, versus other players. Even though his son had earned his

right to play, there was lingering doubt about possible favoritism. Coach Les said

the decision to play his son was fairly easy actually, because that night ‘I was going

to go home with his mother!’

On the subject of allowing college athletes to be

able to be paid for playing, Coach Les said he

favored the idea as long as the system set up avoids

troubles in recruiting players.

Coach Les says the approach to coaching young

athletes today is different from when he was in

growing up. Not long ago coaches were never

questioned about their decisions by their team

members; you did what you were told to do. Today,

athletes are allowed to ask the reasons behind a

coach’s decisions, and expect to get an answer.

There is a greater emphasis on building and

maintaining coach-athlete relationships today.

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Upcoming Programs

February 2020 Peace & Conflict Resolution Month

25: Christy Hayes, Woodland Downtown Business Owner

https://www.comstocksmag.com/article/driving-force

March 2020 Water and Sanitation Month

3: Derrek Kaff, Chief, Woodland Police Department

https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2019/11/05/woodland-swears-in-new-police-chief-

derrek-kaff/

See more program listings on the Club’s website at:

http://www.woodlandrotary.org/Programs.cfm