August 9, 2010
Publisher's Message
For this week's issue, we look at the upcoming Pleasant Grove Viking girls' soccer season, and we will have an essay on what moms tend to do with their sons' new girlfriends. Let's get to those items.
Dean Von Memmott
Publisher
deanmemmott@hotmail.com
Vike Kickers to Begin Home Season with Two Games This Weekend
By Dean Von Memmott
Timp Sports Weekly Publisher
The Ferocious Pleasant Grove Viking girls' soccer team are going to be opening its home seasons with two games against St. George area schools this weekend.
On Friday, the Ferocious Vikings will battle the Snow Canyon Warriors, AKA the Flakies. This Saturday will see Pleasant Grove finish its two-game home stand with a duel against the Pine View Panthers, AKA the Kittens. Both games will be at 6 p.m.
The Vikings have a new head coach this fall. The third one to skipper the Viking program in these last three years, Caitlin Young brings with her years of coaching club girls' soccer and experience of having played soccer for the Mountain View Bruins, AKA the Teddy Bears.
"I've coached a club team called Celtic Storm, and in the off-season, I'm going to form a new club squad named Utah Soul," Young said. "I was going to play college women's soccer, but I got married."
Through her youthful appearance, she could easily mistaken for the 36 Ferocious Vikings she'll be coaching this fall. Young said, "We had 46 girls come out, and we had to cut 10 of them. Among those we've kept are goalies Alisa Daniels and Kennedy Williams."
Kourtney Dinehart is another Ferocious Viking back this year. A starter last year, she emerged as one of Pleasant Grove's top scorers. Dinehart is a senior.
The coach said, "The philosophy that I'm going to pass on to the girls this year is to maintain possession of the ball 51 percent of the game. If we do that, we will win."
Young admits the Vikings will be playing in a really tough region this year. The coach pointed out, "Region Two is home to really strong teams like Lone Peak, Jordan, Hillcrest, Alta, and Brighton."
Those four schools usually do well in post-season play.
This season will give Young a chance to coach against two longtime acquaintances who were involved in the Teddy girls' soccer program years ago: Becca Murdock and Mike LaHarogue. Murdock played for the Teddy Bears while LaHarogue coached them. Murdock is now the head coach for Awesome American Fork Cavewomen's soccer team. LaHarogue is now mentoring the Lone Peak Knights, AKA the Loners, in both boys' baseball and girls' soccer.
"I'm still friends with Becca and Mike, but I'm looking forward to coaching against them," Young said.
Publisher's Column
That's What Moms Do With Their Sons' New Girlfriends
By Dean Von Memmott
Timp Sports Weekly Publisher
While at his then girlfriend Jade's home last May, Ryan Pitcher, a quarterback for this year's Awesome American Fork Cavemen's football team, received a surprising command from the girl's mom. She said, "Ryan, load up the dishwasher."
While watching this scene, his dear longtime friend, McKay Lewis, snickered, because he knew what Jade's dearest mom was going to do next. As Pitcher proceeded to load up the dishwasher, the mother proceeded to ask him all sorts of personal questions.
On the way home, Pitcher asked Lewis, "Why did she put me to work and then ask me all sorts of questions?"
"I didn't bother telling him the answer, because I knew he wouldn't understand," Lewis later recalled.
I turned out to be the one who provided Pitcher the answer. In discussing the above story with him, I said, "Your girlfriend's mom wanted to find out what kind of son-in-law you might make."
Pitcher was a unique subject of an old practice that moms often employ in selecting mates for their kids. Usually, guys' new girlfriends are the ones that moms have come work with them in the kitchen.
"My mom [Diane] did that with my older brothers' girlfriends," Lewis said. "As she would put those girls to work, she would ask them lots of questions about themselves."
That practice is not carried out in every home. At an American Legion baseball game, a junior high girl said she never knew about that moms putting their boys' sweeties to work "until a few months ago. My boyfriend's mom, out of the blue, told me to come help her with fixing dinner, and while we worked, she interviewed me. When I got home and told my mom about it, she said, 'Your boyfriend's mom wanted to find out what kind of daughter-in-law you might make.'"
I divined that purpose while I was writing the first draft for my novel Strong Preference for Gentile Girls, now available online at www.lulu.com. In portion of that book, its main character, Ken Griffith, tells his 17-year-old son, Doyle, to bring over for Thanksgiving dinner Camille Mason, a Methodist, college coed, that the teenager has been trying to date secretly. Doyle tells his father, "I'll bring her over on one condition. That you order Mom not to have her come work with her in the kitchen."
Ken's wife, Emily, disregards Doyle's wishes and has Camille come work with her in the kitchen. Ken tells his angry son, "Sorry, Doyle, but wives don't take orders. Besides they have a right to have their sons' girlfriends come work with them in the kitchen, so they can find out what kinds of daughters-in-law they're going to get."
After putting that scene in my novel, I started asking acquaintances if such an incident was believable. Not only did they tell me it was, but it was something that had been a common occurrence for generations.
Last June, I warned an American Fork High soccer players what they might be in for, once their boyfriends had introduced them to their mothers. Through her body language, the girl showed she didn't want to believe me. Suddenly, one of her younger teammates shouted, "My mom puts older brothers' girlfriends to work."
Teenage boys don't understand that purpose, though. A father of Awesome American Fork Caveman baseball player Nick Slater, Brian Slater said, "When I was in high school, my mom would have every girlfriend I would bring home come work with her in the kitchen. That made me feel both frustrated and embarrassed all through high school. Now I understand why she did.
"When Randy, my oldest boy, would bring home girls to meet me and my wife [Valerie], Valerie would have them come work with her in the kitchen. That bothered Randy, and I explained to him, 'She just wants to find out if this girl is going to be a good daughter-in-law.'
"Randy had one particular girl that didn't impress Valerie. My wife said, 'I just don't like this girl. She's a player.' Valerie's suspicions about were confirmed when Randy went on his [Mormon] mission. Five months after my boy got out into the mission field, the girl got engaged to another guy, and then she broke up with him. She then wrote Randy a letter, asking to get back together with her upon his return home. My boy, though, decided he didn't want anything more to do with her."
When he played baseball for the Brighton Bengals, AKA the Bad Old Puddy Tats in the 1980's, Jason Reynolds, father of Awesome Caveman baseball player Jeremy Reynolds, had a twin sister, named Lisa, who always ended up working in kitchens with moms of his friends that she dated. During a ride home from an American Fork baseball game at Brighton last June, Jason told me, "My friends would complain to me about how their mothers would have my sister come work with them in the kitchen. I didn't appreciate hearing that. I would tell, 'Stop talking about my sister. You're with me now. I want us talking about us.' Lisa didn't marry any of them. She married a really nice Catholic guy she met at work in New York."
Yes, high school boys can view as infamous the practice of their moms putting their new girlfriends to work. Still, mothers have a right to find out what kinds of daughters-in-law they're going to get. Jason's wife, Stephanie, agreed with me on that point. She said, "It is a good idea to have a girl come work me with in the kitchen."
Dads wisely endorse that practice, because their wives know how to get potential daughters-in-law to reveal more about themselves than they wish to.
Furthermore, the practice enables young women to form bonds with older women who just might turn out to be their mothers-in-law. Those bonds can turn out to be really vital down the road.
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