More Ron Howard

Training Camp for the NBA teams has started and the Mad Ants continue to root for Ron Howard and Chris Hunter on making the Knicks squad! You can spot Ron in the middle of the picture above.

Mad Ants Volleyball Tournament Action about to get underway tomorrow. Right now we only have three people playing. If you are a volleyball ringer give me a call! Apparently some people think vacation time is more important than volleyball tournament time. Please send angry emails to Heidi Busch and Jeff Johnson. Kyle is out as he is taking the Mad Ant to a kids birthday party. What an excuse! I will let you know how it turns out.

Mad Ants Open Tryouts are on October 10th and 11th (Fri/Sat) from 11 am -5pm at the Concordia Seminary gym. Feel free to stop out and watch guys giving it their best to make the team. This will also be the first opportunity to see Coach Joey Meyer in action.

Ron Howard signs with the NY Knicks

Big news today coming out of New York about the one and only Mr. Mad Ant Ron Howard. Ron is a Mad Ants favorite among fans and office staff. I was very happy to hear Ron Howard was signed by the New York Knicks and will join Chris Hunter in their training camp. It could not have happened to a nicer guy, and we are all rooting for him.

Brag Post: Ran a half-marathon for the Fort 4 Fitness Saturday morning. Went well and it's always a great sense of accomplishment when you finish. Although I will admit to announcing my retirement from running several times in my mind during the race, but I have pulled a Brett Favre and will be back next year. It is a great event and I recommend every one trying it out in year 3, they also have a 4-mile run for all you wimps.

Volleyball Tournament this Thursday and we are down two staffers, what ever will we do!?! WIN that's what.

Mad Ants Media

Well, I went and killed my blog again. If anyone is still reading this, I really appreciate your tenacity. As things pick up here in the office as deadlines for corporate partnerships come in, it does not leave a lot of time for blogging! I did want to post a link to our brand new Mad Ants TV Commercial. Post comments on what you think. I think this is by far our best television commercial to date. It really shows what the Mad Ants product is and promotes the entertainment coming to a game. You can check Ridiculous Upside in a few days to get their review of the commercial, as they get a sick enjoyment out of analyzing and poking fun at D-League team television ads. They have been airing since last week and I have already caught the commercial a few times. We have also put up billboards all over town, so be on the look out for those as well.

As for volleyball, we had a very disappointing last regular season game. We only had four players: Jeff Johnson, myself, Heidi, and Sarah that night. We were crushed 0-4 but we came close to winning one of the matches. It is almost impossible to beat a decent team with just four players against six, too many open spots. Our tournament is Oct. 4th and we will be gunning for a Mad Ants championship.

Pacers sign 2nd round draft pick

What is probably a small blurb down in Pacer-land, could potentially be big news with the Mad Ants. The Pacer's recently signed AJ Price (UCONN) to a multi-year agreement. This means they will not be waiving him during pre-season or any of that jazz. This almost means he could potentially be a prime candidate for the Pacer's to send down to the Mad Ants for a stretch. A lowly Account Executive such as myself does not get to make those types of decisions, but we can hope. I know many of our fans would love to see a Pacer in a Mad Ants uniform. Here are the reasons the Pacer's should send down Mr. Price to the Mad Ants:

1.) Publicity-Advertising: Sending AJ down to us will bring more attention to the Pacer's in Fort Wayne. Once AJ starts playing more for the Pacer's, more Mad Ants fans would be inclined to tune in for a game or drive down to follow a guy they knew as a Mad Ant. I think in the minor leagues, fans develop much more of a personal attachment to players and enjoy following their careers if they "make it".

2.) Development: This is what this league is all about right? How much better can you get during the NBA season if you are consistently getting no playing time. Once the season start, practice time gets cut way down as well. If he comes to the Mad Ants he goes from 0 minutes to 35 plus minutes a game. He would be playing with a myriad (is this a real word and did I use it correctly?) of hungry talented young players and guys with former NBA experience and could not help but improve his game.

3.) Convenience: This is just a no brainer to me. It is a two hour drive from Indy to Fort Wayne. He could come up to Fort Wayne in the morning for shoot-around, play in a Mad Ants game, and be back to Indy by midnight. If he was assigned for longer than a game or two he would need to move here but he would be close at hand if the Pacer's needed to recall him for a game. It would also be easy for Pacer's staff to come up to evaluate his play.

So what are the odds of the Pacer's assigning AJ Price or anyone else? I am going to go with 23%, simply because they have not used the NBA D-League up to this point. Does it make sense for Pacers to put the Mad Ants and the D-League to better use? I think so, the problem is I do not believe Mr. Bird follows the Martz Madness blog.

Okay now for the Volleyball updates..... I went 0-4 with the team I substitute for last week. It was an embarrassment! But we came back and went 4-0 this week to make up for it. I will be posting some pictures of my adopted team "The Tainted Tigers" soon. The Mad Ants team went 3-1 last week and is on a bye tonight. I believe we have one more regular season week and then it is tournament time!

I also got a glimpse of the Mad Ants TV commercial today that will be airing in Fort Wayne soon. It is safe to say that this is our best piece of advertising to date and I think every one will like it. It is a great display of what the Mad Ants are all about.

Alright, time to finish up for the day and then off to the Tin Caps game.