Since writing that post I was contacted by the Associate Editor of Lei Chic, AC.  Lei Chic is a free, daily e-mail that tells you about new shops and boutiques, the best spas and salons, new restaurants, and cool services and events in Hawaii.  AC was interested in writing an article about the company and came in for a session this past Saturday.

The article was published on Tuesday: Mat Tricks: Sports Yoga Hawaii Opens in Kahala and I saw a significant boost in traffic to my website.  A few people even signed up for the newsletter.  But that wasn’t the best part.

Alyson Helwagen the Founder of Lei Chic was kind enough to feature Sports Yoga Hawaii on her bi-weekly segment Living Lei Chic on Hawaii News Now Sunrise.  Alyson and Grace Lee from Sunrise came down to the studio on Wednesday to shoot the segment.  It aired today and here’s the clip:

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=13049748

I am extremely honored and humbled and would like to thank both AC and Alyson for allowing my business to be featured on their website.

I know I still have a lot of work ahead of me and now’s the time for me to dig deep and really get the wheels rolling.

When you think about it, there are many things, factors, that shapes who we become.  These factors are different for everyone, but Gandhi is right (no surprise there…).  Our thoughts are probably the most powerful weapons we have and control that mold us into the individuals we are today.  What’s interesting for me is yoga really brought those thoughts out and it’s helping me get through this tough patch right now.  There’s something about lying in savasana that helps me relax and focus on me.

One of the things that I’ve realized is how important quotes are in my life and it’s funny where some of these quotes come from.  Just the other day I shared a quote with a friend and of all places, it came from a Disney movie.  This quote is one of the things/thoughts that is driving me today:

“What’s the one thing all great teams have in common?  Defense.  See, unlike scoring, defense never quits.  But to play great defense you need one thing above all else.  Confidence.  Listen, if you learn nothing else when you’re here, you learn this alright?  This is not about hockey.  It’s easy to be confident when you have control of the puck.  It’s very, very difficult to keep that confidence when you gotta take whatever strange bounces life throws your way.  Don’t be careless, but don’t be too careful either.  You cannot be afraid to lose.  That’s how you gain the confidence to attack the game when the puck isn’t yours.  That’s how you attack life…even when you think you don’t have any control.  And that’s how you play real defense.” – Coach Orion

As I move forward with Sports Yoga Hawaii, I know there’s a lot to be done to make this company succeed.  “The struggles I’m facing.  The chances I’m taking.  Sometimes might knock me down but no, I’m not breaking.  I may not know it but these are the moments I’m going to remember most, yeah.  Just gotta keep going.” – Miley Cyrus (yes Hannah Montana)

Coach Boone said, “I don’t scratch my head unless it itches and I don’t dance unless I hear some music.  I will not be intimidated.  That’s just the way it is.” And this is how I’m attacking Sports Yoga Hawaii.  People may say I’m crazy trying to start a business in this economic environment, but I’m not intimidated.  I just need to remember, “that the opposite of SUCCESS is not FAILURE, it’s MEDIOCRITY.” – Someone on a Podcast I was listening to.

As I welcome an intern(s) to the Sports Yoga Hawaii family I must remember, “A great player who is not a team player is not a great player.  Lewis Alcindor was a great team player.  Why?  Because his first priority was the success of the team, even at the expense of his own statistics.” – John Wooden.  (Lewis Alcindor aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

Coach John Wooden also taught me, “to expect failure – the missed basket – and be ready to do what comes next: a tip-in, rebound, fast break, or something else.  Don’t just stand around waiting to see if the ball goes in.  Assume it won’t; get ready to respond quickly and correctly…In any context, basketball or business, what happens after a missed opportunity, mistake, or failure is crucial.  Perfection is impossible.  Capitalizing on imperfection – mistakes – makes all the difference.”

If you find yourself stuck in a rut just remember, “hakuna matata.  It means no worries for the rest of your days.” Lie in the savasana pose and get in touch with your inner self.  However you do it, “Cool Runnings.  It means Peace Be The Journey.”

What are some of your favorite quotes?

A lot of times people need a little push to invest in their health and it is my goal as a trainer/instructor to motivate you to continue your Sports Yoga journey.  In the beginning of your journey, we’ll primarily focus on Sport Yoga, making sure you know how to properly do each yoga pose, and as you get better we’ll be throwing in a couple of curve balls: free weights, stability balls, and other special surprises.

It has been a dream of mine to start and run a company and Sports Yoga Hawaii has definitely made this dream come true. I’ve always thought I’d be starting some type of Marketing/Advertising/Branding company, and I never thought I’d travel back to my Middle and High School years when I wanted to get into athletic training.

Please check out my website: http://sportsyogahawaii.com and sign up for a few classes, or become a fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sportsyogahawaii.  And yes I do have a Twitter account: @SportsYogaHI.

While I am not surprised of the findings, I somewhat disagree with the fact that your photos can truly depict who you are.  There will be a lot of people who have “no shame” and will post or tag candid photos of themselves and their friends.  But there are other who are conscious about their personal brand and create a persona to portray an image that they desire.

I have a friend who “un-tags” himself in photos and asked us not to tag him in any photos because he is very conscious about his image and I don’t blame him.  Scott Monty said, “What happens in Vegas stays on Google,” referring to an image of college student doing a keg stand.  The implications Scott Monty made was if an employer did a Google search on you, and saw this picture they probably wouldn’t hire you.

I know we all want to have thousands of friends on Facebook because we all want to be seen as popular and posting candid photos of yourself may increase the likelihood of people “friending” you.  But we’re all going to reach that age where we will be conscious of our self image and the things we post.  When that happens the photos you post may not tell your whole story.  It’ll only portray the person you project.

Dinich wrote about how several universities are reaching out to a third party for some guidance on social networking.  According to the article, Sports Media Challenge “has helped universities and entire conferences embrace sites like Facebook and Twitter as marketing tools and ways of branding their athletic programs, but Sports Media Challenge president Kathleen Hessert also has been asked to help some schools set social networking guidelines for their athletes.”

Coaches and administrators are worried about what their student-athletes may post and often talk to them about what is acceptable and what is not.  But is it the athletic departments job to educate and monitor their student-athletes?  Or should the student-athletes be held responsible for their own actions?

Dinich highlighted Myron Rolle from Florida State who said “For me personally, what I did, I policed my own site. I wanted people to think of me as that upstanding scholar-athlete. Anytime someone was thinking about tagging a picture of me, I’d make sure I’d look at it first and say, ‘OK, is this picture OK? Would my mother appreciate this picture?…I didn’t put any status updates that had curse words or foul language or just wouldn’t be representative of who I am and who I want to be. As much as the school can do, each individual athlete has to look at himself and say, ‘What do I want out there, and what kind of person do I want to look like on these sites?’”

It’s unfortunate that not all student-athletes think like Myron Rolle, and I can see why he is a Rhodes Scholar!  He clearly understands what Scott Monty, the Head of Social Media at Ford, meant when he said: “What happens in Vegas stays on Google.”

I honestly feel it should be up to the individual/student-athlete to monitor their own social content and interactions.  The university can hold meetings, educate their student-athletes all they want, but ultimately it’s not the athletic department who’s going to be posting.  It’s the student-athlete and it’s up to them to create their own image in which the public will view them.

So I ask you, social networking etiquette: who’s responsibility is it?  The universities athletic department?  Or the student-athlete?

A freshman at N.C. State started a Facebook group in hopes of attracting a top-ranked high school basketball player from Raleigh.  According to the article, “After 700 people joined the group, this person received a cease and desist letter from N.C. State’s compliance director, Michelle Lee, warning of “further action” if he failed to take down the site since the Facebook group’s purpose violated NCAA’s recruiting policies, the Associated Press reported.

Here’s the article: NCAA Clamps Down on Facebook Group for Violating Recruiting Policies.

I’ve talked about this before on this blog about the NCAA restricting the use of social media.  I personally think the NCAA needs to update their polices to include the use social media, and to be honest I don’t think they have a clue as to what to do.  What if someone in the community, an avid fan of N.C. State who has no current affiliation with the school, created this Facebook page?  Would this person still need to take down the page?

The reason why social media has gained so much traction over the years is because it gives the ordinary person a chance to voice his/her opinion and communicate with others.  If you take away a person’s right to voice their own opinion doesn’t that violate their 1st Amendment and thus go against everything that social media is?

I’m looking at Facebook right now and I see a “Kentucky needs John Wall” fan page and this is what the description says: “This group is in no way attempting to promote Wall to UK but a group for UK fans to unite who agree that UK needs John Wall.  Do not contact John Wall or any recruit in anyway, this is a recruiting violation.”

I see Duke, UNC, Florida State, Kansas, Memphis, etc. just to name a few, so why hasn’t the school and NCAA sent out cease and desist letters?  I wish I had a chance to see the fan page.

The only reason why a Facebook fan page should be taken down, in this situation, is if there is personal contact information like a phone number, email address, IM screen names, etc.  This makes sense because you need to protect the privacy of the player.  Who wants to get 700 emails or phone calls?

Idk…to me as long as no personal information is disclosed, I don’t see why you would need to take a fan page like this down.  Again I didn’t see the fan page so I have no clue as to the content that’s on there.

What do you all think?

I’m looking for an identifiable name for all us fans.  The students are the Manoa Maniacs, Duke has the Cameron Crazies, Fresno St. has the Dog Pound, Texas A&M has the 12th Man, etc.  I’m looking for any suggestions as to what to call this fan club.

I guess the best example I can think of is Stephen Tsai’s blog readers.  They are called the Tsaiko’s.  Something along those lines so when people hear it they know exactly who we are.

Please let me know any suggestions you have and ask your friends to visit this blog and add their suggestion to.  The more the better and it’s the first step towards launching this effort.

I really look forward to your response.

Margie Okimoto has been with the University of Hawaii Athletics Department for 40 years serving as the secretary to the Athletics Director.  She has served under six full-time A.D.s which included, Paul Durham, Ray Nagel, Stan Sheriff, Hugh Yoshida, Herman Frazier, and Jim Donovan.  But what stands out is not her longevity but rather her dedication to the Athletics Department.  She is and always will be the heart and soul of Hawaii Athletics.

I’ve known Margie for four years now and while I wasn’t her student assistant, I’ve gotten to know her and she truly is a special person.  She genuinely cares about every person she meets, always greeting people with a bright smile and greatest customer service possible.  Margie treats everyone like family and truly embodies the “Aloha Spirit.”  I can’t imagine what it would be like passing her desk and not seeing her there.

I was honored that I was invited to attend her retirement party on Thursday, and I wish I sat down with her more and talked to her about the past.  Former AD Hugh Yoshida said that Margie should write a book about her 40 years of being involved with the Athletic Department, then jokingly said that it would be the size of “War and Peace.”  She’s been through it all.  The high’s, the low’s and I’m sure people would read the book.

What I didn’t think about when I heard she was retiring was why?  I knew she would be retiring soon and assumed it was just her time.  However, at the retirement party, Jim Donovan talked about how Margie understood the tough times the Athletics Department was facing financially and deep down inside Margie knew that by retiring now, she’s going to save five peoples job. That was really a touching moment for me, and I will admit that I got a little watery eyed.

Former Wahine Basketball coach, Vince Goo, also gave a little speech about her and in the end said that if he were still coaching, Margie would have been what he called “the total package.”  Then followed it up with, “Margie Okimoto should be inducted into the University of Hawaii Circle of Honor for her service, commitment, and dedication to the department.”  I would take that one step further and have the #40 retired for all sports in honor of her 40 years of service.

You may think I’m going over board with this but think about how many students athletes, coaches, administrators, and the general public she’s helped over the years.  It’s a automatic for me.  Help me make this happen.  Email Jim Donovan please, and ask to retire the #40 in honor of her service to the department.