Ed Ho is a passionate sports Dad, who loved coaching and developing young athletes in NYC for over 10 years. His day job is developing investment strategies and products at Fundstrat Global Advisors based in New York.
Having moved to town four years ago, Ed found a new passion, covering youth sports for the New Canaanite after “retiring” from coaching in NYC.
Winter, received by some with dread and others with glee. A season when the birds have flown away, trees grow bare, with the days ever shorter consumed by cold air. And yet, a wonderful transformation occurs round this time of year. The autumn palate replaced by the majesty of winter’s white, lifts our town and its folk with a new sort of merriment—the holiday season, a time for joy and celebration. The change in season also marks the start of basketball, a great winter sport.
For more than 30 years, Nobel Prize winning economists and scientists who study human behavior and judgment led by Thomas Gilovich, Robert Vallone and Amos Tversky (GVT, for short) have questioned whether human beings can defy statistical probabilities and get “hot” or streaky in their performance, particularly in sports. Out of that skepticism came the technical term “The Hot Hand Fallacy,” empirically attempting to debunk the amazing performances that each of us have witnessed with athletes who frequently defy statistical probabilities (see Steph Curry).
Now, please bear in mind that I’m not a PhD nor am I close to being nominated for any awards, let alone a Nobel Prize. But this much I have read from contemporary academics, “recent work has uncovered critical flaws in the research which underlies this consensus (the hot hand fallacy). In fact, these flaws are sufficient to not only invalidate the most compelling evidence against the hot hand, but even to vindicate the belief in streakiness.”
And here’s someone who knows a thing or two about hot streaks, the legendary Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach who famously said regarding the academics who disputed the hot hand: “Who is this guy? So he makes a study.
The incredibly rich and storied history of Notre Dame football has given the fans of the Fighting Irish 11 national championships and seven Heisman trophies, a fight song that induces goose bumps whenever, in all of their glory and splendor, the Band of the Fighting Irish marches out playing the ND Victory March.
More than any other college football program, Notre Dame has created heroes and legends on the field that have translated into tinseltown legends. I of course am referring to the two classics topping USA Today’s 25 best football movies of all time, “Knute Rockne, the All-American” and “Rudy.” Thank you in advance to the Fighting Irish for the key ingredients for my New Canaan Youth Sports story this week.
This past Sunday on the pastoral fields of New Canaan’s beautiful new athletic facilities, the NCFC Boys Red 2007 team embraced its new leader and Coach, Maegan Doyle. Coach Maegan is a highly accomplished soccer player who hails from Harwich, England, played for England’s U19 Women’s team and recently won the NCAA Division II National Player of the Year for the University of Bridgeport Women’s soccer team while leading them to the 2018 D2 National Championship.
And just before this weekend’s match, one of the NCFC Red ’07 Boys players, Javi Minuesa, broke his collar bone and will be sidelined for four to six weeks. A team favorite, Javi definitely will definitely be missed on the field and on the sidelines. See where this is going?
I am learning to appreciate Father’s Day more each year, especially as I strive to become a better dad.
I have to say, there are some great role models here in this amazing town. Men who support, love and encourage their kids. Guys who lead by example and help their children become, as we hear so often these days, “the best version of themselves.”
But gosh, that’s a real challenge.
I just read that the Pew Research Center now finds 57% of fathers in the United States find being a dad rewarding all of the time, right there with Moms at 58%. But here’s the rub, 63% of Dads still believe that they spend too little time with their kids, way more than the Moms at 35%. I am no PhD in child psychology and I haven’t written a best-seller (yet?), but I do know that cheering my kids on with some really cool dads on the weekends while watching the boys revel in playing team sports sure goes a long way in the ‘Be a Better Dad and Quality Time’ camp.
It’s March—and that ushers in a very special time of year for basketball fans. Long ago someone aptly called it “March Madness,” and for the parents and players of the New Canaan Chargers this Fairfield County Basketball League Tournament was most definitely madness, New Canaan style. Having never played together as a team and under the guidance of a new coaching staff, the Chargers surprisingly got off to a quick start with three wins and one loss as they kicked off the 2018-2019 campaign.
But the back end of season was not pretty, as the boys finished the regular season with five losses over the last six games by an average margin of 14 points. Opposing coaches realized that the Chargers could not handle full-court pressure. No lead that the boys built in any game was safe and the team’s winning ways seemed a distant memory.
