Griesch's The Word (July 15)

Hello Husker Fans,

It's been five days since my last entry, so obviously I had a big weekend. While mid-July is a time of constant recruiting for women's basketball assistant coaches, it is usually time for a little vacation for women's basketball media relations directors.

While I won't count it as an official vacation, my wife, Emily, and I had a chance to take our three kids up to our hometown of Wayne, Neb. (aka Wayne America) for one of the world's great celebrations - The Wayne Chicken Show, July 11-12. I can't count it as an official vacation, because in fact I had an official obligation at the event.

I was honored to represent Nebraska Women's Basketball and the Husker Sports Network as a celebrity judge at the 29th annual National Cluck-Off. In the past, the winners of this amazing display of talent have appeared on the "Tonight Show" and "Live with Regis and Kelly", strutting their stuff and occassionally ruffling some feathers.

Obviously, the word "celebrity" was used very loosely in my case. In fact, the emcee of the event didn't even know who I was, and I spent 20 years living in Wayne, which is a town of a little over 5,000 people tucked in the corner of Northeast Nebraska about two hours from Lincoln. To be fair, I didn't know who the emcee was, so maybe we're even.

I am guessing that I was one of the first second-generation judges of this competition, since my mom was a judge in one of the first National Cluck-Offs.

As I was marking my score sheet in amazement at 11-time National Cluck-Off Champion Del Hampton's performance, I couldn't help but think that Husker senior center Nikki Bober would be a prime candidate for future participation in this contest. We see Bober strutting around the Devaney Center, and she is always crowing about something or balking at some comment made by one of her teammates. Next year, I may have to convince Bober and former Husker Danielle Page to come up with a routine that will bring the house down.

In all seriousness, The Chicken Show is really about seeing family and friends, and in the case of my kids, eating candy at the parade and feeling sick from eating too much ice cream or too many snow cones. They also have other great competitions such as the hard-boiled egg eating contest, the best chicken legs on a person contest and the always thrilling egg toss.

As you know, family is big to all of us around the Nebraska women's basketball program. A few weeks ago, our family added a new member, as Assistant Coach Tory Verdi and his wife Heather welcomed their third child. Their son Bradyn was born on June 18, and joins older brother Tyler and older sister Avery in the Verdi house.

The family will grow by one more this weekend, as Director of Operations Angela Timmons will be getting married to Chris Kiffin on Saturday. Chris is a member of Coach Bo Pelini's football staff at Nebraska. His father, Monte, was an assistant football coach at Nebraska in the 1970s under Tom Osborne and was a legendary defensive coordinator in the NFL. Monte has joined his son Lane on the football coaching staff at Tennessee to enter their first season in 2009.

Angela is probably the world's best operations director, and she takes care of the needs of our team at an unbelievable level. We certainly wish her nothing but the best and years of happiness with Chris.