Tim Clive, the longtime girls soccer coach at Sauquoit Valley, was busy living his life earlier this year, secure in a perspective shaped by his 65 years.

Then, life tapped Clive on the shoulder and reminded him how fragile it all is.

Cancer has a way of altering the landscape.

You think youre doing OK and life is going on merrily on its way and all of a sudden nothing is more important than seeing the sun come out, he said. Seriously. I have 10 grandchildren, and when they talk to me and give me a hug, it means so much.

Last winter, Clive was diagnosed with melanoma, a type of skin cancer that was found initially near his right shoulder.

He first noticed some discomfort when he tried to carry a large bag of soccer balls. When he no longer could ignore the problem, he went to a doctor. Two procedures and many moments of worry later, Clive received good news: the tumor had not spread. The result, he said, is a miracle, considering the size of the mass.

And for awhile, sports and coaching were set aside, but now hes back on the sidelines, perhaps as a slightly different version of himself.

I would say he has always been open and accessible, Sauquoit Valley assistant coach John Del Buono said. But since this has happened hes starting to open up more. I feel like now hes smelling the roses more.

Clive, who will be 66 in October, is coaching Sauquoit players in a summer league and he plans to be with the Indians for his 18th season this fall.

Sauquoit has won sectional titles in two of the last three years, and the team made consecutive appearances in the state finals in 2009 and 2010. Clive is not about to skip out on a chance to guide Sauquoit back to state-level competition. The diagnosis, though, moved athletics and coaching into a different place.

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Cancer diagnosis gives Sauquoit coach perspective

It all started many years ago in the basement of Matt OBriens parents house.

As OBrien and best friend Matt Cada spent countless hours acting as managers on baseball video games, they dreamed of having their own team.

Now, an actual scorebook has replaced those hand controllers and the players are no longer video-image; they are real people.

Oh, and perhaps the most important thing: the two Winona VFW Buddies coaches are still just that: buddies.

This team is like having our own video game come to life, OBrien said. We love to think about the game. We have our style and system, but we are creative. That video game aspect, its allowed the creativity to come in.

Those hours playing video games have been put to good use as OBrien enters his sixth season as the Buddies coach and Cada his fifth. The two will sit on buckets in the dugout instead of a couch in the basement this weekend as the Buddies play in the Divisional Tournament.

We can finish each others thoughts, Cada said. When a play happens, (OBrien will) say to me what I was going to say. We see the game with similar eyes. We know what we are looking for and what we expect. Its easy to be on the same page.

The similar style comes from growing up two blocks away from each other in Winona and being best friends for 22 years. Cada still calls OBriens parents mom and dad.

They have played on at least four teams together, but that doesnt count the backyard games or the times they hopped the fence at Gabrych Park. In a single summer day as 12-year-olds, they would play for the Winona Park and Recreation in the morning, have a Goodview Park and Recreation game in the afternoon, practice with their traveling team and still find time for some backyard whiffle ball as the sun went down.

If we werent playing it, we were playing a video game of it, we were talking about it, OBrien said of baseball. When it comes to our thinking, we are pretty darn close on the same page. It doesnt happen very often that we arent on the same page.

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Coaching Buddies: O'Brien and Cada team up to lead Winona VFW baseball team

HOOVER, Ala. -- In these troubled times, we need a role model, a leader, a visionary.

We need a statue that isn't the topic of a national debate.

Nick Saban qualifies today, right now. That may change in 20 minutes. We trust and believe at our own risk these days. But let's give him the moment, at least. He's our guy, college football's oracle.

Dictionary.com defines that term as "a person who delivers authoritative, wise or highly regarded, influential."

We all know who used to own that title in amateur athletics. His legacy is ruined. His statue needs student body guards. His name is being dragged through cyberspace, headlines and mud. Saban spoke for half an hour Thursday at the SEC media days and never said the words "Joe Paterno."

Maybe it was an oversight. Maybe it was intentional. But, for now, Saban fills the role vacated by the once-respected coach. Not only because he has won two of the past three national championships or that he is the coaching gold standard.

For the most part, his players haven't embarrassed him. He hasn't embarrassed himself.

His daughter is the stuff of tabloids at the moment, but that has nothing to do with her father. Those vacated wins on Saban's record come from a trumped-up textbook probation. If that bothers you, then you haven't noticed the bar has been lowered significantly for the coaching profession -- and mankind.

Trust and faith are in short supply, measured almost by the day -- along with blood alcohol content. Coaches throw away marriages for helmetless joy rides. The player you adore today could be in jail tomorrow.

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Saban stepping up as new coaching icon when we need one the most

Nice to meet you, Joel Hines, new Osbourn boys basketball coach. Youre a 2001 Potomac (Va.) High grad? So you must have played for Kendall Hayes at Potomac then.

No, I didnt, actually.

(Courtesy Old Dominion/ODU Athletics) - Former Old Dominion director of basketball operations Joel Hines is the new boys' basketball coach at Osbourn.

But he was the coach when you were there.

I didnt play at Potomac. I just went there.

Oh.

Hines, 28, takes part in some version of that exchange on a regular basis. He never played a high school sport, let alone basketball, yet last month he took over an Osbourn program his second head coaching job that reached the past two Virginia AAA tournaments.

Hines is not the first coach to go from the bleachers to the bench, but it is a seldom-taken route, one that in his experience seems to demand an explanation. Because inevitably, the conversation will veer to his hoops background, or lack of.

Theres that assumption that at least you played high school basketball, Hines said with a laugh one recent afternoon over lunch at a sandwich shop near his home.

Hiness at times awkward position raises a question: Why should playing a high school sport be an assumed prerequisite for coaching a high school sport?

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Joel Hines takes an unconventional path to an Osbourn coaching job

Anthony Griffin started NRL coaching life as a fill-in while the Broncos waited for Wayne Bennett but he has since become one of their best bets, with the club re-signing Griffin to an extended deal in the top job.

Brisbane chief executive Paul White formally announced a two-year extension to his contract, which finished at the end of 2013, at a press conference at Red Hill this morning. He will coach the club until the end of 2015 now and likely beyond.

The 46-year-old has been an instant hit at the Broncos, not only for winning 31 out of 44 games with a young squad and taking them back to the NRL finals.

His management skills and ability to ease the club into the post-Lockyer era have been a hallmark of his short tenure and its highly likely his services would have been sought by rivals.

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He has also shown that he is able to make tough decisions on playing talent. Griffin showed the door to one of the clubs brightest backline talents, Dane Gagai, when his discipline wasnt up to level demanded by the club.

Griffin began life as an Under 20s coach before becoming an assistant to Bennett then filling in after the dramatic axing of Ivan Henjak, which unfolded just weeks before the start of the 2011 season.

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Broncos extend Griffin's contract

Chris Greenacre has turned down a quick buck and two Australian A-League clubs to instead kickstart his coaching career with the Wellington Phoenix.

The 34-year-old Englishman began life in football as a 16-year-old apprentice with Manchester City. In three seasons with the Phoenix, he scored 19 goals in 84 games.

However, Greenacre has been eying up coaching since his mid-20s. Yesterday, he was confirmed as the Phoenix's assistant coach for the next two A-League seasons.

"I don't want to sound arrogant but I had other options in the A-League, and I could have probably chased a dollar for a couple of years," Greenacre said.

"The way I weighed it was the longevity of this job and this part of my life is hopefully going to be there for the next 30 years. And for the sake of chasing a few dollars here and there, I think it's more important that I kind of cut it off and started that process of the next chapter of my life."

Greenacre holds an Uefa B coaching licence and is studying towards an A licence.

He helped out with some coaching duties while playing last season and did not believe it would be difficult to no longer be "one of the boys".

"I had a little spell of that last year when I kind of had a foot in both camps, and, to be honest, I'm not really going to find that such a challenge," Greenacre said.

"I just want to be an all-round coach and have that discipline when I need to have it and also the respect from the players when I need to have it as well. At the end of the day, I'm on their side; I'm not trying to pick fights and be an ogre with anybody. A big part of it is trust, I think, and if I can get that I'll be happy."

Greenacre and goalkeeping coach Jonathan Gould have been running the Phoenix's pre-season sessions with head coach Ricki Herbert away with the Olympic Games team.

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Greenacre switches sides for Phoenix coach role

Fencing, despite its masked and padded exterior, hurts.

And not in the physical sense.

You get hurt emotionally, more than anything else, Greg Massialas said. Because its still a confrontation. Its life or death, in a sense.

He should know.

A fencing veteran of three Olympics (1980, 1984 and 1988), Greg was turned away each time and each time without hardware. But after coaching last years USA fencing team, Greg will again return to the grandest of international stages this month for the 2012 London Games.

Though hell return not only as a coach.

When I was five or six, I may have not understood the grandeur of the Games, Gregs 18-year-old son, Alexander Massialas said, the youngest male fencer at this years Olympics. But I told my dad, Hey, Im going to be an Olympic champion.

Given his childhood, the early proclamation is anything but surprising. His youth was one dominated by the sight of his fathers foils and Olympic rings. But the 6-foot-2, 155-pounder a recent graduate of San Franciscos Drew School and the International Fencing Federations No. 13 senior foil fencer in the world never had a blade forced upon his right palm.

I never forced them into doing it. If anything, I actually kind of kept them away from it, said Greg, whos daughter also fences. Its something they wanted to do for themselves. Unless its something you want to do for yourself, you will not be successful, in my opinion.

And so far, the younger Massialas has succeeded. In shuffling schooling and fencing careers for most of his adolescent life, hes collected numerous championships and medals, including a bronze in the 2012 Paris Foil World Cup.

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Father-son duo lead USA fencing team in 2012 London Games

Named one of Time magazines 25 most influential Americans, Stephen R. Covey, bestselling author of the self-help book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," worked to help individuals discover how they can be more effective by making conscious decisions as to how they will respond, act, and think. More than 25 million copies of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" have been sold worldwide since its publication in 1989, but Covey was insistent that what he taught was not original but rather was based on universal principles and mostly common sense he credited himself only with laying the material out. Covey held a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University and spent the majority of his career teaching at Brigham Young University as a professor of organizational behavior and business management. In 1997, Covey co-founded Franklin-Covey, a leadership development organization that aims to help individuals and organizations improve through coaching, mentoring, workshops, and assessment services based on Coveys principles. It is the largest management and leadership development organization in the world.

- Elizabeth Drake,Monitor contributor

Photo: Steve C. Wilson, AP

We see the world, not as it is, but as we are or, as we are conditioned to see it.

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Stephen R. Covey: 7 essential quotes to commemorate his life

VOL. 127 | NO. 138 | Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Booksellers at Laurelwood will host a life-coaching workshop with Cynthia Schulz Tuesday, July 17, at 6 p.m. at the bookstore, 387 Perkins Road Extended. Schulzs presentation is titled Failure is Never Final. Visit thebooksellersatlaurelwood.com.

Talk Shoppe will meet Wednesday, July 18, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Hutchison School, 1740 Ridgeway Ave. Certified public accountant Jimmy Luke of Titan CPA will present New Tax Tips for Real Estate Investors. Cost is free. Visit talkshoppe.biz or call Jo Garner at 482-0354.

Sales & Marketing Society of the Mid-South will meet Wednesday, July 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Holiday Inn University of Memphis, 3700 Central Ave. Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich will speak. Cost for nonmembers is $25 in advance and $30 at the door. Visit sms-midsouth.org.

Dixon Gallery and Gardens will host a Munch and Learn lecture Wednesday, July 18, from noon to 1 p.m. at Dixon, 4339 Park Ave. Cost is free with regular gallery admission.

Books for Kids will open its second Memphis library for at-risk children Wednesday, July 18, at 2 p.m. at the library, 2635 Spottswood Ave. Visit booksforkids.org.

Memphis Botanic Garden will hold Farmers Market at the Garden Wednesday, July 18, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 750 Cherry Road. Visit memphisbotanicgarden.com.

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC will hold a breakfast briefing on Workplace Bullying Thursday, July 19, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Baker Donelson, 165 Madison Ave., suite 2000. Whitney Harmon and Joann Coston-Holloway will speak. Registration begins at 8 a.m. Cost is free. Email rsvp@bakerdonelson.com.

Lipscomb Pitts Breakfast Club and Littler Mendelson PC will present Is Your Handbook Legal? as part of its HR Lunch Bytes series Thursday, July 19, from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Littler, 3725 Champion Hills Drive, suite 3000. The series is geared toward human resources executives and business owners. Cost is free. Email rsvp.lpbc@lpinsurance.com.

The Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division board of commissioners will meet Thursday, July 19, at 1:30 p.m. at the MLGW administration building, 220 S. Main St. Visit mlgw.com for an agenda.

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Events

MIAMI -- Here at The Other End the smiles are more sincere, the work a lot harder and the satisfaction, well ... step inside Mario Cristobal's office for a moment.

"It's a hell of a book one day," Florida International's 41-year-old coach begins.

And with that Cristobal is off with harrowing memories of what it used to be like at FIU. Six years ago he arrived to find a toddler of a program needing one heck of a diaper change. Cristobal, of sound mind and body apparently, took over a program that was about to go on probation. By the coaches' count, the program lost 17 ineligible players, and sported an APR less than 900 (the new NCAA minimum is 930). Oh yeah, and it was coming off an 0-12 season.

"It's kind of frightening the first meeting we ever had, I was the biggest guy in the room at 250 pounds," Cristobal continued. "That's not good. I was like, 'When is the varsity coming in?' We didn't get a weight room until going into our fourth year."

Before that, the workout facilities consisted of four benches inside roped off racquetball courts. Somewhere in a corner was an infomercial -- a Bowflex minus Chuck Norris.

Here at The Other End of major-college football is a rising program with a rising coach. The school exists in the shadow of big brother (Miami), playing in what is traditionally the lowest-rated FBS conference. The only link, in most people's minds, is that unfortunate 2006 brawl.

That doesn't make Cristobal, the Panthers and the Sun Belt any less worthy. It might make them the next Boise State. That's the standard, isn't it, for every wannabe trying to make do with a 20,000-seat stadium in a "What's That? conference" with big boys monopolizing the sport?

The case can be made: We are witnessing FIU's breakthrough before our eyes. The program is arguably ahead of the standard set by Boise State at a comparable stage. This season will mark Year 7 in FBS for the Panthers. In 2012, FIU has a chance to go to its third consecutive bowl.

Forget Boise for a moment, the comparison here will always be with the U. Cristobal grew up here, played offensive line and won national championships for the Hurricanes. The tall, striking coach oozes hotness as FBS' first Cuban-American coach. Cristobal has had more than one chance to leave, but is sticking around, at least for a bit longer.

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Cristobal turns Florida International around, and himself into a coaching commodity