Toning Down the ‘Bangle Butt,’ BMW Redesigns Its 7
In its new 7 Series sedan, BMW AG is abandoning some of the striking design elements that characterized the previous model — and turned off some lovers of the luxury brand.
The new model, which comes as the conservatively styled Lexus LS has outsold BMW in the top-end luxury-sedan segment, will hit showrooms in 2009. Breaking with a look introduced in a controversial model unveiled in 2001, the 7 Series is returning to simple,thanksgiving crafts gifts, sleek lines. It no longer has a bulging trunk lid (dubbed the "Bangle butt" after its designer, Christopher E. Bangle) or headlights often described as "tearful," with accentuated curves on the lower lid.
The latest 7 Series, unveiled last week, combines elements of the German auto maker’s 3 Series coupe and the 5 Series, which have a more traditional look. BMW hopes to woo customers with radical innovations under the skin, such as a thermal imaging camera that spots stray pedestrians at night, Internet access and four-wheel steering, which reduces the turning radius of the car.
Although the car hasn’t yet hit showrooms, online photos and video of the new look are sparking comments around the globe. James Dills, the 33-year-old executive manager of a Big 5 Sporting Goods store in Sacramento, Calif., calls the new design a "definite improvement." Mr. Dills, who is shopping for a used 5 Series,tiffany bangles on sale, prefers the pre-2001 design to the current one but thinks the new design has BMW "heading in the right direction."
The launch of the 7 Series is a critical step for BMW as it seeks to boost sagging profit margins. The luxury sedan is one of the few vehicle categories where margins are robust, thanks to well-heeled, status-conscious buyers who tend to order vehicles with expensive options such as metallic paint, electric heated seats, navigation systems and entertainment systems.
When the current 7 Series was launched in 2001, it represented a radical break from the Munich-based firm’s traditional conservative styling. BMW at the time wanted to broaden its appeal beyond the German firm’s traditional customer base. It also aimed to help customers distinguish between the designs of its 3 Series, 5 Series and 7 Series sedans, which to some had become the same car in small, medium and large.
But some BMW fans disliked the design and launched an Internet petition calling for BMW’s top designer, Mr. Bangle, to be fired. More than 14,000 people signed the petition. BMW toned down some of the extreme design details in a 2005 reworking of the car. Mr. Bangle is now director of design at BMW Group, which includes Rolls-Royce and the Mini brand.
In designing the new car, BMW placed as much emphasis on making the new 7 Series "elegant" as on making it "distinctive," Chief Executive Norbert Reithofer said at a presentation in Munich last week.
Mr. Reithofer said the final design of the new model is the product of an exhaustive evaluation process that started out with six potential designs submitted by competing teams. "The entire management board was involved in weeding out designs that were deemed unsuitable," Mr. Reithofer said.
Although the current 7 Series is the most successful 7 Series ever in terms of unit sales, it hasn’t kept pace with its main competitors. Sales of the current model, despite the 2005 reworking, never managed to overtake the market-leading Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Last year, Mercedes-Benz sold 85,500 S-Class cars, helped by the fact that it presented a new generation in 2005. In 2007, BMW sold fewer than 50,tiffany Pendants sale,000 7 Series.
Perhaps more troublesome for BMW, sales of the 7 Series were overtaken by the conservatively styled Lexus LS in 2007. Lexus boosted sales of its LS to 71,760 sedans in 2007 — nearly double the previous year’s 34,833 — after introducing a new generation in 2006. BMW aims to increase sales of its 7 Series with the new model, which is known as the fifth generation.
Adrian Van Hooydonk, director of design at BMW automobiles,cheap tiffany rings, who styled the exterior of the new 7-series, says the car is distinctive and designed to reflect "authenticity and engineering precision." The new BMW now has a "stance and proportion" to express "power and dynamics," Mr. Van Hooydonk said.
Mr. Van Hooydonk, a Dutchman, said BMW kept to its custom of not polling customers before putting it into production. "We don’t use customer clinics," Mr. Van Hooydonk said. "They will be judging it based on the world today. Design needs to look good in eight years’ time. You can’t ask a customer whether he will like the design of the car in 2018." BMW does spend a lot of time researching customer needs before designing a car, Mr. Van Hooydonk said.
BMW is also keeping its i-Drive system, a button mounted near the armrest with which to control the vehicle’s suspension system, climate control,thanksgiving gifts, satellite navigation and entertainment systems. Like a computer’s mouse, it can be used to point and click through menus on an in-dash display. The system — which was quickly dubbed "why-Drive" or "iDunno" when it was introduced in 2001 — has since been copied by rivals Audi and Mercedes-Benz.
Analysts at HSBC say the global premium-car market has grown by 20% since 2003. Volume growth in the global premium-car market is set to rise 24% between 2007 and 2013, HSBC said in a research report last month. Competition is getting more intense in this segment of the market. Audi’s A8 is connecting with drivers, as sales rise, while Infiniti, the premium brand owned by Nissan, will launch a raft of new cars in Europe this year.
Separately, BMW on Tuesday said it’s exploring a cooperation deal with Fiat SpA of Italy to jointly develop components for Mini and Alfa Romeo vehicles. Both companies declined to divulge details of the possible collaboration.
FROM BEADS TO BANGLES
Old Dominion University issued the following news release:,Charm bracelet
The Old Dominion University Libraries are featuring an exhibit of beads and jewelry from around the world, including items from Africa,tiffany key rings sale, the Indian Subcontinent, Europe, the East and Oceania,tiffany bangle, through Aug. 14.
"From Beads to Bangles: An Exhibit of World Jewelry" is on display in the main lobby of the Patricia W. and J. Douglas Perry Library.
"During the summer,buy tiffany money clips, we like to do something that’s not as geared toward academics," said librarian Kathryn Boone, who along with Marissa Jimenez,shop for tiffany Pendants, put together most of the exhibit. "We try to focus on something that’s more geared toward a particular library staff interest."
Boone and Jimenez have also gathered and written historical information to be displayed alongside the beads in order to provide some context.
"We didn’t want to just show them, we wanted to tell people about them," Boone said.
The majority of the items come from Ms Boone’s own personal collection, with the exception of two strands of old African beads that were given Library staff member Sonia Yaco by her mother.
The exhibit also includes a bead history timeline, maps, books, photographs and other textual materials.
For more information, contact Boone at kboone@odu.edu.
For older, wiser Bangles, the road is more fun
Things aren’t so manic for the Bangles these days.
The all-girl band known for "Manic Monday" and "Walk Like an Egyptian" saw a career that was a rollercoaster ride during its ’80s heyday.
But the band’s singer-drummer Debbi Peterson says today’s Bangles, which include singer Susanna Hoffs and her sister, guitarist Vicki Peterson,shop for tiffany necklaces, are different.
"We don’t go on the road so much. We all have kids," Peterson says. "In the ’80s we were on the road for six months at a time and when we weren’t on the road we were making an album. We were living and breathing the Bangles."
The Bangles made their mark in much the same way at the Go-Gos — an all-female group whose members played their own instruments and who weren’t brought together by a male Svengali figure.
"That’s what I want people to know about us," Peterson says. "We played instruments, wrote songs and sang. It wasn’t a manufactured thing."
Albums such as 1984′s "All Over the Place," 1986′s "Different Light" and 1988′s "Everything" kept that dream alive and made it good to be a Bangle.
The best part of it, she says,thanksgiving gifts, outside of performing for hordes of fans, was meeting many of their peers: riding in an elevator with Keith Richards, recording with Prince,tiffany key rings for sale, having dinner with Duran Duran.
"It’s those fun little things we were able to do that otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to do. Some of the things I don’t even remember."
But things soon soured. As the band’s popularity grew, Peterson says, the record label pushed Hoffs into the spotlight at the expense of the other band members.
"We felt like sidemen. We all put our heart and soul and sweat into it. We felt the powers that be were making us into something we weren’t, and that was frustrating."
Peterson says it was stressful watching the group become Susanna Hoffs and the Bangles. That, coupled with some tours in the late ’80s during which "weird things were happening and everything went wrong,rings," led to the dissolution of the group.
After going their separate ways, the members reformed and in 2003 released "Doll Revolution." The group is currently working on a new album with producer Matthew Sweet.
Before getting back together,tiffany Pendants for sale, they all had to discuss their feelings about Hoffs.
"We realize she’s obviously going to get more attention," Peterson says. "But it’s not that important. We’re older and wiser, and we have different priorities going on."
BITTAR BRINGING BANGLES INTO BLEECKER STREET SHOP
Alexis Bittar is putting one more shopping destination on New York’s downtown map.
The Brooklyn-based jewelry designer is opening his second store in late May on Bleecker Street, home to designer boutiques, upscale eateries and specialty store chains.
Bittar unveiled his Broome Street flagship in March 2004 and plans to open four more stores in the next five years in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and London. He may also add another New York location on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
The new, 350-square-foot space will feature Bittar’s signature Lucite bangles in eye-popping colors and handcrafted pearl and gold vermeil pieces that have helped him achieve a cultlike status among the costume jewelry set. Having started out selling his collections on the streets of SoHo 20 years ago, Bittar has grown into a designer whose jewelry wholesales in 600 stores worldwide, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and Selfridges.
Like its other location, Bittar’s new store fuses antique touches and modern objects. Victorian wallpaper mixes with industrial pieces that showcase the jewelry, as well as works of art. Cherry blossoms adorn one wall – the inspiration for which was taken from a scene from the 1959 film "North by Northwest." With a dark gray rug sweeping the floor and oak veneer cases lining the walls, the store will evoke a homey feeling as opposed to the austere aesthetic that Bittar feels is dominating today’s retail climate. He claims the store is "one part bedroom, one part 1940s department store."
"I didn’t want to mimic the same store identity that’s been rolling out lately," Bittar said. "It seems like everyone is doing the ‘all-white Sheetrock’ look and it’s minimal to the point of boring. I want to keep the same fusion of antique and modern that my other store has, but in a different way."
Bittar’s Broome Street store also juxtaposes the new with the old. The walls vary between stark Plexiglas and antique wallpaper. A lion-footed Victorian table dominates the center of the room.
"I want my customers to feel something special upon entering my stores, like they are stepping back in time,discount tiffany," Bittar said.
According to sources outside of the company,thanksgiving gifts, his 13-year-old brand has estimated sales of about $25 million. Each year Bittar experiences double-digit growth and has just seen a record 30 percent sales increase from last spring into fall. He often collaborates with ready-to-wear designers,necklaces, having done Michael Kors’ bold necklaces, rings and bangles for the designer’s spring show,tiffany earrings sale, as well as the bright, beaded pieces for Bryan Bradley’s Tuleh spring collection.
"I enjoy straddling the bridge between costume jewelry and high fashion," Bittar said. "I think it’s all about the high drama in jewelry today and about having an impact. On the sales end, we’re feeding this insatiable need right now."
Tara Silberberg, owner of Brooklyn jewelry store The Clay Pot, is known for featuring independent, under-the-radar brands. She has carried Alexis Bittar since he began wholesaling the line.
"Alexis has really grown in such interesting ways over the years," Silberberg said. "Part of it is the strong fashion direction he takes, but he always does basics and favorites, so it’s a good combination that hits a wide age bracket. I recently sold one of his Lucite pins to a 90-year-old woman. He is so inventive and creates a big range for lots of people to enjoy. You’ve got the fashion girls and the grandmas. It’s amazing to me."
Bittar is also at the fore of a costume jewelry moment that is extending from the runway to retail. Fashion houses such as Balenciaga and Lanvin are delving into the category in great numbers and with the threat of a recession looming, the fashion jewelry market is still thriving.
"I think especially when times get tough, people love this kind of jewelry," Silberberg said. "With the metal market so crazy, fine jewelry is outrageously expensive and it’s going to definitely impact retailers this coming winter. So I sense that those in the midrange – if they can capture that and can have a customer for that – will do well. People are looking to not break the bank and still look good. And the runway backing is going to make a big difference."
Bittar doesn’t seem to mind the increasing competition in the marketplace. He managed to bring his eccentric, colorful brand into the fray during a time when minimalism was a key trend and bright Lucite bangles were not exactly lauded.
"Costume jewelry is a cottage industry that has been growing heavily over the past five years," Bittar said. "I remember in the Nineties, buyers would ask, ‘Is jewelry still happening?’ But now,cheap tiffany cuff Links, young girls are experiencing it for the first time and they love it. Older women want to know if it’s OK to pile on that next bangle and it is right now."
Montblanc Celebrates Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthda
Commemorating the momentous 90th birthday of international human rights icon Nelson Mandela, global luxury brand Montblanc proudly announced that it will support sales in the U.S. of the 46664 bangle, a bracelet introduced during the 46664 star-studded concert series hosted in London in late June. Distributed in platinum, gold, and silver,discount tiffany cuff Links, the bangles bear Mandela’s Robben Island five digit prison cell number, 46664,tiffany Pendant, along with a 3D imprint of his hand and have already been met with an overwhelming reception (see also <http://www.newsrx.com/library/topics/Montblanc.html> Montblanc).
"Already, bangle sales have exceeded our expectations," says Robert Coutts, CEO of Coutts Inc.,Atlas charm bracelet, and social justice entrepreneur behind the bangle initiative which aims to significantly contribute to the eradication of HIV/AIDS in South Africa by pumping up to 48 percent of the bangle sales proceeds into 46664, the Foundation’s initiative for the campaign for the prevention of HIV/AIDS.
46664 has already become a powerful international symbol and brand for social justice in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Projected to sell 250,000 bangles a year through 2010, each wearer who purchases this special bracelet will be able to track online how the funds will be used in alleviating HIV/AIDS through a unique serial number imprinted on the bangle.
"We have had to take necessary steps to boost production to meet the astounding demand from the international public," said Coutts. "Scale is critical to the success of this project as the goal is to raise sufficient funds to sustain HIV/AIDS prevention projects for the next 16 years for the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
"Montblanc North America is very honored to be a part of this major international initiative," said Montblanc North America President and CEO, Jan-Patrick Schmitz. "Our brand is one that takes as much pride in promoting worthwhile causes around the globe as we do in creating our hand-crafted watch and jewelry collections. The 46664 initiative and the impact that a leader such as Nelson Mandela has had in society is important to helping create a stronger, healthier world."
Produced using "fair trade" precious metals from South Africa suppliers and with workmanship accomplished by local craftsmen, many of whom are living with HIV, the 46664 bangle will be available in the U.S. at select Montblanc boutiques in New York, Las Vegas,buy tiffany bracelets, Miami, San Francisco, and Costa Mesa.
"This project is far more than creating the latest fashion statement," said Coutts. "Becoming the owner and wearer of a 46664 bangle is an affirmation of responsibility. As Madiba himself has instructed us: ‘The future is now in our hands,’ these bangles represent a commitment to bringing about a future for South Africa that is true to the vision of the man whose prison number they bear."
Achmat Dangor, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation,cheap tiffany earrings, said that they "welcomed the innovative social business model of the 46664 Bangle Initiative that ensures that local artisans and workers benefit" and added that, "the
Initiative also has the potential to raise significant revenues for the 46664 campaign."
A gentleman and a scholar
No one person is more closely associated with the University of Tulsa — or more honorably so — than Ben Graf Henneke.,thanksgiving money clips
Henneke’s lifelong involvement with TU began when the Central High School graduate enrolled as a freshman in 1931. He joined the faculty in 1936,shop for tiffany cuff Links, became academic vice president in 1952 and the university’s president in 1958 at the age of 43. After retiring as president in 1967, Henneke taught 12 more years in the classroom and was named president emeritus in 1982.
Along the way he wrote the TU fight song,tiffany money clips for sale, as a student,cheap tiffany key rings, and was instrumental in founding the school’s radio station,discount tiffany necklaces, KWGS.
As president he launched an era of campus expansion and improvement and sowed the academic seeds that have made TU one of the nation’s most respected small universities. Perhaps as important, as president he was unfailingly accessible to students, and beloved by them.
In retirement, Henneke exercised his interests in the theater, local history and what may have been his second love, behind TU — writing. He was a frequent contributor to the Tulsa World’s Readers Forum column, among other venues.
Ben Henneke was, in every aspect of the term, a gentleman and a scholar. He died last week at the age of 95. He will be missed.
Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess continues his geeksploitation streak with a story about a teen scifi writer (Michael Angarano) whose novel gets plagiarized by his hero, smarmy author Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement). The episodic comedy mixes a couple good laughs with familiar gross-out gags.
Auburn Gentleman Begs to Differ
Although we at Auburn University are honored to be mentioned in such a prestigious newspaper ("Southern Football’s Dating Game,thanksgiving Pendants," Sports, Nov. 13), I don’t believe the article portrays the true reasons for our Southern traditions. The tradition of dressing up and taking dates to football games dates all the way back to the late 1800s, when people believed the games to be social events where appearance and acquaintances reflected your social stature. The tradition has carried on through the years because Auburn greatly values its past.
Auburn men don’t take dates to "babysit" them when they are drunk. Dates exist because we see Saturdays in the fall as a celebration worth sharing with someone else. The dates aren’t there to fill seats or keep alumni from trying to take the student seats away. We take dates because the Auburn men and women before us did the same, and we believe in carrying on our traditions.
Auburn men are Southern gentlemen and Auburn women are young ladies who deserve to be treated like queens. This is the motivation behind our Saturday traditions, and it’s why I believe in Auburn and love it.
Peyton Alsobrook
Freshman
Auburn University
Auburn, Ala.
—
I read your article with no surprise. I taught at Auburn in the late 1970s and early 1980s,tiffany keys, and the same xenophobic, archaic,tiffany clearance, drunken attitudes prevailed then. Nothing has changed in 30 years.
One sighs for poor frat boy Peyton Alsobrook, having to avoid women who might enlighten him or widen his tiny world "because they’re from up North or something." Party like it’s 1792,pendants, boys! Or, more to the point,buy tiffany earrings, 1861.
Thank you for reminding me why I was so glad to get out of that benighted place and the Deep South in general.
George Jarecke
Bainbridge Island, Wash.
Veteran gentleman seeks to save rugby’s soul
Interview ; Malcolm Wall ; Harlequins chairman ; Club’s new chief sees governance reform as crucial, writes Ben Fenton
Few rugby clubs have a chairman who cites the virtues of the SarbanesOxley Act.
But just as the Enron and WorldCom scandals led to reform of US corporate governance, so " Bloodgate" at Harlequins this summer prompted soul-searching within a sport where infringements are traditionally punished by a penalty kick or, in the privacy of ruck and maul, just a kick.
Malcolm Wall, the new chairman of "Quins", believes the soul of rugby can now be saved only by a fundamental reform of its corporate, as well as on-field, governance.
This summer,tiffany, the club wanted an internal inquiry into Bloodgate and engaged Mr Wall, who was once a player in the club’s amateur days and was recently chief executive of cable company Virgin Media’s content division.
Bloodgate began on April 12 when Dean Richards, Quins’ then director of rugby, told his physiotherapist to order a player to crack a blood capsule in his mouth in the closing minutes of a game. By feigning a blood injury,tiffany cuffLink, rugby’s substitution laws allowed a specialist kicker substituted earlier in the match to return to the field in the hope of scoring a drop goal.
As a cover-up, the Quins’ doctor cut the player’s lip, but the opposition made a formal complaint. In spite of Mr Richards and other Quins’ staff lying over the incident, the truth eventually came out .
Charles Jillings, chairman, resigned, while Mr Richards was banned for three years by the sport’s authorities. The physiotherapist was banned for two years and the player for four months. The doctor faces legal action.
Quins suffered huge damage to their reputation, a fine and costs totalling more than pound(s)500,000 – wiping out what would have been the first profit of its 13-year professional history – and a noticeably poorer performance on the pitch this season.
"The players would not have been human if it didn’t get through to them," Mr Wall said in his first interview since accepting Mr Jillings’ invitation to become chairman,cheap tiffany necklaces, a post he also held in 1997-2000.
Mr Wall has acted on his own recommendations to the board, installing new lines of reporting and a whistleblowing mechanism. "We had a situation where the playing management were doing things that weren’t being signed off [by the board].
"It’s good business practice for a board to know what’s happening in its operations, particularly if [it is] essentially against the laws of the game."
He drew an explicit comparison with the US laws passed in 2002 in response to Enron and other scandals.
"Working within a Sarbanes-Oxley environment, most people groan because of the huge amount of administration involved. But the principles were right: the concept that you must put in systems that assume that some human beings will want to abuse the system," he said.
"If rugby is to be successful – commercially,tiffany bangles for sale, but also in terms of elite rugby being an example – we have to make sure that those levels of governance are in place."
Staff now understand there is "zero tolerance" of "what we euphemistically call gamesmanship but what is actually just cheating", he added.
Harlequins’ veterans’ team, until recently captained by Mr Wall, are called "the Gentlemen". But is there any room for the spirit of sportsmanship in the modern professional game?
"If you lose that, you potentially lose supporters," Mr Wall responded. "Many are attracted by [those] attributes of rugby. We have to keep it as a highly competitive sport played by wonderful athletes, that is genuinely entertaining . . . and that maintains standards of behaviour we can all relate to and admire.
"I don’t think that is a foolish dream," he said. "But these things, just by putting them in the ether, they don’t stay. What you have to do is manage them with good governance."
Credit: By Ben Fenton,buy tiffany bangles, Chief Media Correspondent
Ladies and Gentlemen, raise your glasses
Raise a pint and make a toast. The First Annual Great North Carolina Beer Festival is Saturday at Tanglewood Park.
"The time is right for us to have a beer festival here," said Scott Smith, the sales director for Foothills Brewing, one of more than 40 breweries that are participating in the festival. There is a mix of local, regional and national companies. "We’re seeing in the local market beers are beginning to change."
Much of that change, he said, has come from changes in North Carolina laws that have been "extremely friendly to microbreweries."
"We are able to self-distribute as opposed to going through wholesalers," Smith said. "And there was a law change five years ago (Aug. 13, 2005). We went from a 6-percent alcohol cap to 15 percent, which enabled an enormous amount of brands and styles to come into the state and be available to the consumer."
The N.C. Brewers Guild has 42 microbreweries currently with operating permits and several more under construction, he said.
"At least 20 of those will be participating," said Jessica Reavis, the marketing director for the beer festival. "Our vision was to have a location in North Carolina to bring all the North Carolina brewers together and have one of the biggest beer festivals in the southeast…. We want people from all over to attend."
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Second Harvest Food Bank, Forsyth Humane Society and the Special Olympics, said C.H. McMahan, the president of the festival.
The festival will provide music all day, including legendary rock-group Kansas as well as Big Daddy Love, the Part-Time Party-Time Band, The Plaids and Katelyn Marks Band. There will also be more than 30 arts-and-crafts vendors and concessions by various restaurants including Bib’s Downtown and WS Prime.
Patrons will get a wristband and a sampler glass, Reavis said. The booths will distribute small samples of various beers, but "every single one of these guys is very conscious of who’s been overserved, and when to cut those people off,Beads necklace," Reavis said. "Being in the beer industry, they’ve seen it every day of their lives, probably. Some of them do 60 festivals a year." Designated driver tickets are $5 off.
Foothills does about 40 festivals a year, in nine different states, Smith said.
"This is the first year we’re having a home-town beer festival," he said, "and we’re very excited to do anything we can to grow the craft beer culture in our area."
The beer festival is using the example of the North Carolina Wine Festival that is held each year at Tanglewood Park. It will be at the same location as that festival. "Wine’s big, but beer has much more broad appeal,necklaces," Reavis said.
"The Tanglewood wine festival has left a great footprint for a successful event out there," Smith said. "There’s enough area for you to spread out and enjoy yourself. There’s not just beer,cheap tiffany earrings, there’s games,thanksgiving money clips, music,tiffany money clips clearance, arts-and-crafts vendors … it has the formula to be a really successful event."
A champion and a gentleman
When Allen coach Tom Gallagher thinks of Lehigh Valley basketball, two names come to his mind.
Those two names may as well be one, because Mike Kopp and Central Catholic girls basketball are forever intertwined.
Kopp is in the early stages of his 30th season coaching the Vikettes. They have done nothing but win during his tenure.
The 2008-09 season saw Kopp and Central Catholic continuing to collect trophies. The Vikettes reached their 24th straight District 11 title game and won their 10th straight District 11 Class 3A title. They captured a league title for the eighth time in 10 seasons and reached the PIAA Class 3A state quarterfinals.
Kopp also became Pennsylvania’s winningest girls basketball coach in February, a feat that earned him the nod as The Morning Call’s male Sportsperson of the Year for 2009.
"I think everybody tries to copy what Central Catholic and Mike does," said Gallagher, who just enjoyed a great two-year run of his own in taking Allen to back-to-back Class 4A state playoff appearances,tiffany keys, including a berth in the state semifinals in 2007-08. "I have the utmost respect for him,tiffany bracelets for sale, and I think most people in the Valley do also.
"He gets accused of recruiting, and that’s a bunch of [garbage]. Good kids come to good programs. To me, he is Pennsylvania’s No. 1 coach."
Kopp has never cared about numbers. He long ago moved past being bothered by what people outside his program think of him.
What has remained important to Kopp is giving his players a chance to enjoy all aspects of high school. While some coaches demand a 12-month commitment from players, he continues to encourage his girls to take time away from basketball.
"I just think it’s the right thing to do," he said. "These are high school kids that want to have a great high school career,cheap tiffany earrings, and I’m not just talking about winning a lot of championships. I couldn’t imagine someone telling me, ‘If you want to play this sport, you have to do this all year round.’
"We want them to experience as many things as possible. Kids have to be kids. We’ve always promoted that here at Central."
Kopp’s demeanor and attitude are not lost on his players,Bead bracelet, past and present. Becky Guman, a Lehigh freshman who was a co-captain on Central Catholic’s 2008-09 team, credited Kopp’s calming presence for helping the Vikettes sustain their success.
"He just knows how to handle the girls," Guman said. "He knows how to mix in fun with a competitive attitude."
Central Catholic’s success shows no signs of ending this season. The Vikettes own a 5-0 record after winning in Maryland on Tuesday and have Kopp two victories away from 800 in his career. He went into Wednesday’s game with a 798-182 overall record, including a 724-158 mark at Central Catholic.
Gallagher,tiffany Pendant, who is going through some rebuilding this year at Allen, marvels at what Central Catholic has done. Kopp has been the one constant through it all.
"It really is a true testament to him," Gallagher said. "He really does an outstanding job, and he does it being a gentleman."
stephen.miller@mcall.com, 610-820-6750
COMING FRIDAY: Keith Groller looks ahead to the new year and new decade in sports.