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From Scrub to Star. The story and the player get better.

2005-12-25 Posted at 06:28:07 PM

Ricky Santos University of New Hampshire (UNH) player who came out of
spring practice in 2004 as the fourth-string quarterback and ended up breaking
most all the school passing records and being named USA Today's Player of
the Week in his first collegiate start had a forwarning. A very similar incident
happened in high school.

As his Bellingham High School team was leaving for its season opening game
the starting quarterback fell and hurt his knee and was unable to play. Ricky
who had been playing some as a wide receiver was called on to be the
quarterback. He was so unfamilar with the plays the coach delayed the bus
15 minutes so they could practice in the parking lot. Ricky almost almost
pulled out the victory, electrifying the crowd with a 50-yard run but coming up
short. He became a starter and led the team to a 9-2 season. He continued
as a starter for 3 years and became one of the most prolific passes in in
Massacusetts football history.

In spite of his success only a few schools showed interest Hofstra and
Massacusetts. None offered a scholarship. They evidently felt that since
he was playing against a small schools with small players he would not make
it in college. Even UNH initially turned turned him down but later offered him a
scholarship when someone they had offered changed his mind. Dale
Caparaso his high school coach delights in emailing the coaches who didn't
recruit him who loose to him now.

As a sophamore in 2005 Ricky had even greater success. He broke his own
season record for completions, touchdown passes passing yards, total offense,
percent completion and set a game record of completing 25 out of 26 (24 straight)
passes and led UNH to their best season ever with a 11-2 record. He was second
in the voting for the Payton Award ,the Division I-AA Offensive Player of the Year
Award to Eric Myer, Eastern Washington University 333 to 328. Ricky Santos
has come a long way since the end of spring practice. Both his coaches in high
school and college emphasize that there was never any doubt that he would be
successful. In both cases, injuries just meant it happened sooner.

Ricky faces big challanges next year as UNH opens the season against
Northwestern of the Big Ten and after losing in the quarter finals Division I-AA
in 2005 UNH has it's sites set on the National Championship in 2006.

Wally McRae

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From Scrub to Star

2005-12-17 Posted at 08:29:15 PM

After spring practice of 2004 red-shirt freshman Ricky Santos found himself as the fourth-string quarterback on the University of New hampshire (UNH) .    UNH is a Division I-AA team. It was quite a come-down.   Being a backup at UNH is not the same as being one at a Division I-A powerhouses like USC,  Notre Dame, Florida State or Michigan.

Things began to happen. First, one QB transfered to pursue a collegiete baseball career. Before the first game of the season with defending I-AA champion and number one ranked Delaware the second-string QB had a severe ankle sprain so Ricky found himself as as backup to the three-year starter Mike Granieri . Midway though the second quarter Mike when down with a knee injury. Enter Ricky Santos to a 22,727 Delaware sellout crowd. UNH's stadium holds only 7,800 and Ricky's home town of Bellingham has a population of only 15,075. A full house at UNH (7800) plus everyone in Bellingham (15,075) is 22,875.

Unfazed Ricky completed 10 out of 11 passes and threw the winning 44-yard TD pass as UNH beat Delaware for only the second time in eight years. Delaware lost their first home opener in 10 years.   Not bad for his first college game.

The next week Rick got his first college start against Div I-A Rutgers. Rutgers had just beaten perennial Big Ten power Michigan State University . Before 35,000 fans our hero completed 30 out of 40 passes for 385 yards and a UNH record 5 touchdown passes.   He was selected USA Today's College Player of the Week. He was selected over players from major football powers such as Darius Walker, RB, Notre Dame, Kyle Orton, QB, Purdue, and Santonio Holmes, WR, Ohio State.

Three weeks later Ricky Santos broke his own UNH record by throwing six touchdown passes and set a school a new record 538 yards as UNH beat  Villanova 51-40.

The fourth-string quarterback ended up the season with UNH records for touchdown passes 31, total passing yards 3,318, percent completion 64% and was named ECAC Rookie of the Year. and led UNH to the the quarter finals of the Division I-AA Championship with most wins ever ten.

Wally McRae

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Coin worth $300,000 Found in Dirt Pile

2005-12-12 Posted at 08:19:08 PM

One of my son's best friends, George Williams, a contractor
in Upstate New York had an amazing discovery. While raking a
load of fill dirt he had ordered for some backfill he heard a
clink. The clink turned out to be an 1817 half dollar.
George's 14-year old coin-collecting son, Cullinan did some
research on the Internet to find that it was a very rare
Overton-102a variety of the 1817/4 Capped Bust half
dollar.

George Williams has subsequently taken it to dealers and
experts at ANACS   to have it authenticated and
encapsulated. It was appraised as the second best coin of
the eight now known. One speciman was sold recently for
$193,359 at an auction in San Francisco. The finest known
example sold last year for $333,500.

The coin goes on sale at Heritage Numistic Auctions at
its January 3-7   Florida Numismatists Signature Auction .
Heritage President Greg Rohan said “... Bust Half Dollar
specialists will be out in force in Orlando to pursue this
extraordinary find. We can imagine that numismatists across
America will be thinking about their gardening chores in an
entirely different light after this coin sells.”

A few weeks after George's great find I found a Platinum
wedding ring in a load of landscape gravel that was
delivered to my house. It would have seemed like a great
find, worth a few hundred dollars but it pales in comparison.
I gave it to my son for his October wedding.

Wally McRae

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Wally McRae the Poet Lariat

2005-12-03 Posted at 08:26:06 PM

Wally McRae presents Wally McRae, the cowboy poet.

I first discovered that my namesake Wallace (Wally) McRae (no relation)
was a famous cowboy poet from  Montana when a friend brought me an
article he had seen in an Airline Magazine on Wallace D. McRae . I was
intrigued since it is not a common name.   There are only four listings in
the whole country for Wallace McRae at Switchboard.com and one is
my son.

The poem in the article was "Maggie".

I taught my good dog, Maggie
To lay down when I commanded
I also taught her "Set"
Whenever I demanded.
I'll teach her next to speak, I said
She struggled to comply
And when she learned to speak, she said:
"You twit. It's 'Sit' and 'Lie.'"

It turns out that this Wally McRae, the poet is famous and has some
distinguished awards. In addition to managing a 30,000 acre cow-calf
ranch in, Montana Wally McRae in 1989 received Montana Governor's
Award for the Arts.   President George W. Bush named McRae to the
National Endowment of the Arts and President. Bill Clinton appointed
him to the National Council for the Arts. He is listed as one of the most
influential Montanans along with Gary Cooper, Senator Mike Mansfield,
and Ted Turner

Wally McRae's most famous and requested poem is "Reincarnation".
Be sure to read it at servant.org Also, an hour-long video "Wally
McRae Live (More or Less)" is available at Western Folklife Center.

Wally McRae, definitely not the poet

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Never be afraid to be an Idiot

2005-12-02 Posted at 11:32:07 AM

Never be afraid to be an idiot. That is the advice of a one of Cornell University's most brilliant mathematicians. After struggling with the Sudoku puzzle Graeme Bailey, director of Cornell University's Computer Science Master's of Engineering Program said,

" .... that one must never be afraid to be an idiot, since the only way to learn stuff is to throw your thoughts into the open and see what comes back. Too many folks don't want to appear foolish, so (they) never risk making mistakes, so (they) never learn."

Bailey had never heard of Sudoku before accepting the challange of the Syracuse Post Standard for a logical and mathematical mind. He doesn't even like puzzles. To complete the Sudoku Puzzle one must complete a grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains every digit from 1 through 9.

He choose the easiest one-star puzzle and completed over half in a few minutes when he discover a fatel error . . two nines in the same row. After an hour of cross-outs and using two tubes of white-out the puzzle was too messy. He had to trash it and now tackle the most difficult six-star puzzle.

This time he did what he had been advised to do by his students . . to work methodically. After after a total of 2 hours, 39 minutes of work Bailey finished his first Sudoku Puzzle.

The lesson learned from this is not to be afraid of doing something because we think we will look stupid. How many times have we not asked a question because we fear we will sound dumb?

Graeme Bailey, a brilliant mathematician at Cornell, rated as one of the top computer programs in the country by National Research Council was not afraed to accept a challange. He did it knowing his students were watching and that his mistakes would be published on the front page of the Syracuse Post Standard.

Don't be afraid to accept challanges. When you become an "Idiot" take comfort that you are learning and that you have distinguished company.

Wally McRae

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Energy from the Sea. . . Better than Wind or Solar

2005-12-01 Posted at 07:58:16 PM

Ocean Power Delivery, LTD, Edinurgh, Scotland has developed a system to obtain electical energy from the ocean waves.    The system uses the Pelamis Wave Energy Convertors. The Pelamis (named after a sea snake )is a series of four cylindrical sections connected by hinged joints. As waves run down the length of the Pelamis and actuate the joints, hydraulic cylinders incorporated in the joints pump oil to drive a hydraulic motor that drives an electrical generator. Electricity is transmitted to shore by sub-sea cable. The slack-moored device is around 140 feet long and 12 feet in diameter. The Pelamus has the motion of a snake in the water, hence the name. Video to the Pelamus

Ocean waves present a huge renewable energy sourcse. Suitable sites are available worldwide. The western seaboard of Europe has a many potnetial sites.   There is sufficient energy breaking on the United Kingdom to power the country three times over. It is estimated that it is economically feasible to provide 87TWh or 25% of the current demand.

Wave power has some advantages over other forms of renewable energy such as wind power and solar photovoltaic. First its considered to be the most enviromently friendly ways to generate electricity.

Second, since they have a very low profile and are far enough from shore they aren't visable they minimize the "not the in my back yard" (NIMBY)
problem.   Wind Power opponents

Third Wave Power is more predicatable and steady. Waves are generated by the wind as it blows across the ocean surface. They travel great distances without significant losses and so act as an efficient energy transport mechanism across thousands of miles. Waves generated by a storm in mid-Atlantic will travel all the way to the coast of Europe without significant loss of energy.

It was annouced in a June 16, 2005  Press Release that Camcel was awarded a contract to fabricate the main tube segments for the Pelamis Wave Energy Convertor for the world's first commercial wave-farm project. The project is to be off the northern coast of  Portugul . The initial phase consists of three Pelamis Machines with a capacity of 2.25MW, and is expected to meet the demands of more than 1500 Portugese homes. With satisfactory results from the initial phase an order of 30 more machines is expected.

The cost of Wind Power has fallen 80% over the last two decades as a result of volume and efficiency.   With the its opening costs half the cost of Wind Power and one quarter the cost of Photovoltaic Solar, Wave Power has the potential to be the lowest cost of renewable energy.

Wave power was delivered to the electrical grid for first time in August 2004. The electricity was generated by a full-scale preproduction Pelamis prototype in Orkney, Scotland by Ocean Power Delivery, LTD.

To view the interactive model of the Pelamis Click Here

Wally McRae

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