In the beginning...

Hello all! I am Jake Manbeck, and I am the Sports Guru.

I am currently a junior at the great Pittsburg State University, and am majoring in English with an emphasis in Technical and Professional Writing. Some of you may ask, "Jake, why do you consider yourself a guru? You're still in college and have barely been alive for two decades!" My reply to this is that I have been "through the ringer" or "around the block" or any other puns that are used in this context.

I was born and raised in the small town of Humboldt, Kansas. In a town of less than 1,200 people, there isn't much to do, so our community thrives on sports. From an early age I was fascinated with the competition, the traditions, and the camaraderie that correlates with the world of sports. While other kids my age were watching Barney, I was watching Sportscenter. Some kids had Tonka Toys, others had coloring books, and I had my footballs and baseballs. Sure, there were others with the same interests as me, but I was hooked. I wouldn't just play, I would analyze, watch numerous hours of ESPN to memorize stats from Major League Baseball and break down film from NFL and NCAA football games. When I was a kid, I would research the histories and traditions of programs and professional teams. From the best of baseball like Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Mays, Rose, and Ryan to the greats of the gridiron: Unitas, Marcus Allen, Jerry Rice, Lynn Swann, and Dick Butkus, I know everything there is to know and ever was to know about sports. This theme has carried throughout my entire life.

I played all of the sports from elementary school through my high school days. It was my life. I had extracurriculars like FFA, StuCo, and FCA, but athletics was where I found true happiness. I worked hard enough to become an two-sport All-Conference player as a sophomore, and by the time I was a senior, I was a two-sport All-State athlete in football and baseball. "The reasoning for my success?" you ask. My answer is in my understanding of the games from such an early age and my work ethic. I am in love with sports because it teaches that the more a person works, the better he or she will become. We can take this idea from sports and insert it into any one's life, and the theory remains constant.

As an ex-college football player and a current high school football coach, I have been and still am around sports every waking second of my days. In this blog, I will write about some major topics in the world of sports, yes, but at the same time I will write about the morality and the lessons learned in athletics. This blog is much deeper than just the games themselves. I will dive into the importance of discipline and how it is distilled in the minds of young athletes, and how competition in athletics is beneficial to the success of the person off of the various playing field. Sports, in their purest form, can teach us alot about life.

Signing off,
The Sports Guru