R-C Sports Notebook: Get a new motto

I don't get it.

Maybe I'm the only one, but when a school plasters a battle cry on its team T-shirts one would think it's meant to mean something ... to someone.

One of the Douglas High School baseball team's opponents last week had the words "Feel the burn" emblazoned over a baseball that is apparently on fire on the backs of their shirts.

Coaches have gone to great extents over the last couple of years to make up some unique catch phrase to get their kids to buy into a system, and on the whole, they generally make sense (Think along the lines of "Respect", "Deserve Victory" or "Determination").

Every once in a while, there is one that is just too much of a stretch to go without mention.

I can understand not wanting to resort to things like "Run Fast" or "Don't Lose", but "Feel the Burn" doesn't generally evoke images of baseball. It's not the most prolonged aerobic activity out there and there certainly aren't any pitchers this team's roster who are going to knock you over with their velocity, so what does it mean?

These things happen when you're trying to come off serious. Several years ago, while working for the University of Nevada football team, one coach came up with the mantra "Together we can, together we will."

When the coaching staff sent out for some 150 T-shirts with that phrase, the screenprinting company took things into its own hands.

To add a graphic element to the shirts, the company split the phrase and placed the Wolf Pack's logo, at the time a stylized "Pack" at the bottom on each side.

When all finished, the shirts read "Together we can Pack" on the front and "Together we will Pack." They became known within the program as the "You pack, I pack, we all pack together" shirts.

The following year, the coaching staff went with "Start to Finish" for the season motto, which would not have been bad, except they tacked on a "Law of the Jungle" to the front.

The thing is, while Wolves are known for their widespread range of habitats "ranging anywhere from forests and grasslands to mountains and tundra "they are not really known at all for being in the jungle.

All that aside though, if it works to get the kids fired up, then who am I to gripe about it?

You have to smile, though, at a team willing to poke a little fun at the whole process.

Take the Douglas cross country team this year: We're not running from you, we're running from Chuck Norris.

Douglas baseball coach John Glover, known for his tendency toward the way the game was played in its glory days , has taken another step toward the past with his team's new uniforms this season.

He outfitted the Tigers in off-white home jerseys and pants with black trim, old-fashioned numbering and no orange accents. He also ordered black stirrups for the team.

"I had some fun with it," he said. "I love that old school look."