The pitcher’s name was Eric Estrada.

“Eric Estrada,” I said to the play by play kid between innings. “Have you made any CHiPs jokes?”

He looked at me like a cow looks at an oncoming train, and I came to a split second realization. This kid doesn’t know what CHiPs is. Also, holy crap I’m old.

“Do you even know the TV show CHiPS?” I asked.

The answer was quiet, yet deafening.

“No.”

So, there it is. I’ve reached the next level of old guy. The days when I could at least half-relate to kids in high school or college may be coming to an end. Or, perhaps, I’m overreacting and CHiPs just didn’t have the cultural impact on everyone else that it seems to have had on me. Yeah, maybe that’s it… .

In case you’re not familiar, here’s the iconic opening with the song.

Rick Rosner, your creation was splendid. Straight out of the 70’s and into my generation’s childhood.

Just to be sure that the one kid from northern California wasn’t just sheltered, I asked a 16 year-old the next day whether he knew what CHiPs was. Of course he didn’t.

Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada brought highway patrol capers into my living room through most of my growing up. For whatever reason, a 21 year-old and 16 year-old telling me they have no clue about CHiPs feels like a tipping point for me.

With a jolt, I’m middle-aged. It’s probably been going on for a while. Self-awareness is a bitch.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel with my university’s women’s rowing team to the prominent Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia, PA. While UC San Diego had a challenging Friday and Saturday, rowing against East Coast powerhouses such as Drexel, Delaware, and Virginia, it was a great experience for our student-athletes, allowing them to be exposed to one of the sport’s highest level at the collegiate stage.

Being an Assistant Athletics Director has allowed me to work with many different sports teams I never personally participated in or was exposed to growing up. After three years of being involved in the San Diego Crew Classic, one of the largest regattas on the West Coast, I have come to truly appreciate the sport and have very much enjoyed the rowing community.

Last minute check before UC San Diego takes the water at Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia.

The sport itself is absolutely crazy if you think about it. Practice begins at 5:00 AM on the water — by far the earliest practice time for any sport that I can think of. Not only are we talking early morning starts, these collegiate student-athlete rowers have one of the longest seasons. At UC San Diego, rowing begins in October and concludes in May. That is eight months of training for only a handful of races which last somewhere between six and seven minutes. Then there is the actual act of rowing. One, two, four or eight athletes in one boat, rowing in sync with each other. I cannot tell you the last time I did anything in sync with anyone. It’s all about the technique, staying together, and the team. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that in a training session if you are tired, you are not allowed to rest for a few strokes, unlike the many times I stopped swimming in a water polo game to catch my breath — you have to keep up with your teammates and not stop.

Coaching this sport is interesting as well. Coaches sit in a launch boat at every practice, trailing the rowers and using a megaphone to communicate. While that part seems somewhat normal, on race day it is another story. Due to the length of the race, and because launch boats are not allowed on the course, coaching becomes challenging. A coach can communicate with their athletes on land prior to their warm-up, but once they are in the boat, that its – it’s in the hands of the athletes and one can only hope all the 5:00AM coaching translates to a win. After the boat is set, the coach has approximately one hour to walk to the finish line to view a small portion of the race. It is later they receive 500 meter splits (not to mention every race, although the same length, can result in a different time because of water and wind conditions).

UC San Diego winning the Varsity 8 Petite Final.

A major perk of the rowing community are the parents. They are supportive and involved, but not that annoying involved where you want to tell them to take a seat and let the coach speak. These parents rise early, bring massive amounts of food, and cheer on all the athletes when a regatta takes place. The best part – they are so inviting. My first regatta I thought I was going to stick out like sore thumb: I didn’t know what to wear: do I go for the Hamptons look and what type of shoes do I wear? I didn’t know where the starting line was. I had no idea how a day of racing would be structured and what the difference was between a grand final and a petite final? These parents took me in, showed me the ropes, and in no time I was motivated enough to hop on an erg at the gym the next day and give it a go- I was all in.

So, after expanding my rowing horizons, traveling with the Tritons to Philadelphia and having two wonderful days on the water enjoying this sport immensely, I began to think: why is rowing not big on the central coast? We have the water: Santa Margarita Lake, Lopez Lake and apparently Morro Bay. We have the weather. We have Central Coast-ians who are incredibly active year-round. So why is rowing not popular?

As our team was de-rigging their eight-man boat, getting it ready for the cross country trip home, I couldn’t stop thinking about this concept. In the middle of my deep thoughts, one of our student-athletes introduced me to her aunt and uncle who live in Philadelphia. We got to talking and it turns out, not only did they attend Cal Poly in the late 80’s, early 90’s, but they rowed for the team! I was shocked. I needed to know everything about their experience. They told me that the team was club and that they rowed at Morro Bay. They recounted how fun their experience was and how beautiful pre-dawn rowing sessions were with the rock in the background.

After talking to our student-athletes’ aunt and uncle for a bit, I knew I needed to get to the bottom of what happened to the Mustang rowers. It turns out that the mid 90’s did not fare well for the club team, experiencing many setbacks that ultimately shut down the club. I found a 2007 Mustang News article that stated that the team had been reformed, but unfortunately the club seemed to never get back on its feet again. I even called the Recreation Department to find out more information, but they couldn’t provide me with much, saying the club has been nonexistent for almost 10 years. Maybe they just simply couldn’t field a boat, but it sounds like they tried.

Tritons coming together for one last cheer before heading back to San Diego.

What I appreciate about the Central Coast, and what I ultimately benefited from as a high school athlete, is that the Central Coast is not afraid of giving non-mainstream sports a chance (whereas many other areas nationwide would only support traditional sports only). In the mid-90’s girl’s water polo exploded on the high school stage, giving young girls like me a chance to excel. The now defunct Northern League and Los Padres League took a hold of this new sport and grew it immensely amongst the high schools. Boy’s volleyball experienced the same phenomenon on the Central Coast, even now fielding teams at the Junior High level. I have so much pride in San Luis Obispo County and Santa Maria County because I was given a chance to play an obscure sport and the community embraced it.

The benefits associated with girl’s water polo and boy’s volleyball would be similar if rowing was able to take off. Rowing would allow young athletes a chance to experience an unconventional sport, and perhaps give them an opportunity to participate at the collegiate level. Rowing would bring the community together, including parents and those adults interested taking up the sport. Rowing would highlight our beautiful lakes, our wonderful towns and our active community members. Rowing would attract tourism during large regattas that would take place at Santa Margarita Lake or perhaps Morro Bay. A rowing explosion would give the Central Coast yet another reason why we live in one of the best areas in the nation.

Will rowing be the next big thing? I say let’s give it a chance.

Danielle is an Assistant Athletics Director for External Relations at UC San Diego and an Arroyo Grande native.

This week, Owen and JD decide to take a break from the regular format and go all-Avengers, all the time. How did they like Age of Ultron? Can Marvel keep momentum up despite some mixed reviews? How will Ant Man and other upcoming Marvel  be as a follow-up?

Also, is Black Widow’s character appropriately-developed and why aren’t there more toys of her and Hawkeye in stores?

Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there!

As I was coming of age, ESPN was getting cool. The network itself is two years older than me. We all know how cool juniors and seniors can seem when a 14 year-old arrives at high school. Scott started at ESPN2 when I was 12 and was really coming into his own during my freshman year of high school in 1995-96.

That year UCLA had just won the national championship, Michael Jordan was at the height of his reign, and ESPN was at the height of showing highlights.

Stuart Scott, who passed away Sunday morning, was a bright, shining star. Young, hip, and vibrant, Scott’s highlights, attitude, and delivery set a standard for how young people talked about great feats of athleticism for decades to come.

Music fans of my generation reminisce about days when MTV showed actual music videos. While ESPN’s highlights have given way far more gently to analysis and hyperbole, it wasn’t that way in the mid-90’s. There were still fewer than 50 channels. Sports programming was a fraction of what it’s become. The Internet, for all intents and purposes, didn’t exist as it does today.

To find out how teams did and who won important games, SportsCenter was a must. You could watch for a half-hour or an hour, depending on the show, and you always got excited when your favorite anchors were on and doing highlights fro your team. Any time I had my druthers, it was on in the background. When I was doing homework — Sportscenter. When I was eating — SportsCenter.

I know my experience was the same as millions of young sports fans at the time. For my money, Dan Patrick and Keith Olberman or Stuart Scott and Kenny Mayne couldn’t be beat. Rich Eisen was good, too.

As Scott battled cancer over the past number of years, his attitude never seemed to change. Everyone who worked with him is crushed, which tells you a lot about the kind of guy I’m sure he was. I’m basically in tears this morning over a guy on television, which says something about the impact he had on me and, I think, other sports fans of my generation.

He will be missed.

 Here’s Rich Eisen’s reaction this morning. 

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-gameday/0ap3000000453849/Rich-Eisen-remembers-Stuart-Scott

And, finally, some vintage highlights from a guy who loved his Tar Heels:

Here are some of my favorite photos from 2014.

I chose them for lots of different reasons. Some for how they looked. Some for the moment and what was happening. Some because I felt like it.

So, scroll through and enjoy. If you want to look at all of them on the page, or if you have an iPhone or iPad, you can click here.

We break into double digits talking about our favorite old video games, a special kind of comic JD found, and the lockdown at Righetti High School.

How should young basketball players take charges? JD will break it down for you.

I’ve not had cable for a few years now, and I’m definitely not missing it. Sure, sports are tougher to come by, but between an antenna on my roof, sports bars, friends’ houses, and the Internet, things are easier to find than one might think.

Today, I came across this video on social media. Segments like these, available freely online, make me pretty happy with the decision I made to cut the cable.

I’ll admit it, Tosh.0 is a show I have enjoyed in the past. ESPN is huge, and is an easy target in lots of places, but this I had to share. While Tosh sometimes says or does things for shock value, he actually seems to have the moral high ground on this one.

In this week’s episode, we try to figure out who would have stolen a Lady Gaga scarecrow, JD gets into potty training, and find out why Owen thinks Cal Poly head football coach Tim Walsh might be a ninja and/or Jedi master.

Owen is morose over the Dodgers’ loss. Should he update his iPhone? JD takes us through some outdated phrases, how we should replace them, and another episode of “What’s Crappenin?”.

JD and Owen talk about Owen’s recent run-in with a cyclist. JD starts to create a list of “Owen’s Rules to live by” and we keep it clean and drought-proof in another feature of SLO News Day.