It’s still amazing how quickly things can change in our lives. This has been a mantra of mine personally as a way to really focus on all the blessings I (and my loved ones have), and a focus of gratitude. A less positive, but still powerful mantra, is things could be worse. This has been acutely clear to me personally, and recent events have shown how precarious our world is.

When one of the site Q’s of the friendliest AO in Churham – #The-Piranha – called me out to sign up to Q in January…I jumped at the chance…Was planning on a St. Patrick’s Day themed Q – St. Patrick driving the snakes away from Ireland yada yada yada…but lost that inspiration and needed some catharsis to process losing a big piece of my professional life – the inability to provide leadership to our GameDay team at Carolina and to educate and inspire through athletics. No more games. No more supporting our amazing student-athletes who work so hard in the classrom and work so hard on the field. No more opportunities to provide joy, distraction, community, pride, schadenfreude, and inspire so many through bringing people together, and to win championships. Four teams that I am particularly close with the coaches, student-athletes, staff and teams were legit national championship contenders (4 UNC teams (Women’s Tennis ranked #1, Men’s Tennis ranked #2, Men’s Tennis ranked #2, Men’s Lacrosse ranked #4) .
I still currently have a job. I’ll be home a whole lot more with my precious young family – a big sacrifice of my job. I still have a unit to lead and a department, university and community to serve. There is suddenly the gift of time – to do that training that we never had time to do. To do that planning. To do that research. To think. I still have 51 undergraduate students to teach…In that vain, lets do some catharting!

It’s First Four Tuesday – traditionally the beginning of March Madness. With COVID-19 disrupting our world (including most recently Churham F3)…there will be no games this year. The NCAA decided not to release the brackets, but Joe Lunardi (who is one of many who makes a living on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament) still released his projections, which are remarkably accurate. I decided to use these projections as an inspiration for this morning’s first Virtual Q .

I acknowledge that I am forcing some round pegs in square holes. I had to dig deep into the Exicon. I did I take some liberties with matching teams and work outs…Well here we go:

Eight 8 count in cadence warmups (in honor of the 8 first 4 participating teams per Joe Lunardi projections):

Warm up
Arm Circles big/small and forward/backward – NCCU Eagles
BEVO kicks – Texas Longhorns (think hardier donkey kicks)
Peter Parker Peter – Richmond Spiders
Dancing bear (on all 4s, lift arm and opposite leg to an uncomfortable height and alternate) – UCLA Bruins
Werewolf (downward dog to low plank to upward facing dog and back) – Boston U Terriers
Moon gods (side plank, bring top foot into air as high as comfortable in circular position after 8 reps then alternate) – Robert Morris Colonials (from Moon, PA)
Prayer squat – Prairie View Panthers
Jack ass merkin – NCSU Wolfpack (obvs)

The Thang
(To be done in the “half court” 25’x 25’ square)
4 rotations, 8 reps each
8 count body builders
Bunny hop to next corner
8 cadence count Lunge jumps
Bear crawl to next corner
8 Cadence T merkins
Crawl bear to next corner
8 Derrick Phelps (Much better defender and shooter than Bobby Hurley)
Gorilla walk to next corner

Mary (?)
In honor of Top 8 seeds per Joey Brackets (8 reps each)
Hill billies – Kansas Jayhawks
Johnny drama (100/most famous alum-John Stockton) Gonzaga bulldog
Bear crawl merkin – Baylor Bears
Superman – Dayton Flyers
60 second plank (2 seconds for every win) – San Diego State Aztecs
60 second low squat hold (solid D of 2020 ACC Champ) – FSU
8 burpees (hate burpees and hate Creighton for ostensibly ending UNCs 2012 season with a cheap follow on Kendall Marshall) – Creighton Blue Jays
8 tuck jumps – University of Kentucky
Finish with an 8 count 8 rep hi/lo plank

Moleskin
As many have said in person, through slack conversations and should be obvious to everyone in F3…We are here for each other. We are here to support each other through all of life especially challenging situations. Our world, our country, our community, and our relationships are going to be put under a lot of stress – this my lead to some positives and some negatives. Reach out to your support networks to help. In my mind, that is our ultimate purpose to be there for each other. If you need to talk – call someone. If you need a job – ask. If you need money – ask. If you need help moving – ask. This is our time to serve our community’s, family and our world.

There are opportunities to donate food and money to local charities – particularly for those who are food insecure – many children get two square meals per day at school. There is a big need to support these efforts to take care of those less fortunate.

Be well, make good decisions, and be sure to take care of yourselves and your family.

AYE!