In 2003 The Home Front Cares, a charitable organization that supports families of deployed servicemen and women, was founded. Then-Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry worked closely with the organization to help it get off the ground and flourish.

When Troy Calhoun took the reigns of the Air Force football program, he also followed in DeBerry’s footsteps with The Home Front Cares.

When the Colorado Coaches for Charity holds its annual event May 18 at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, it will be attended by Calhoun, Colorado coach Jon Embree, Colorado State coach Jim McElwain, Northern Colorado coach Earnest Collins, CSU-Pueblo coach John Wristen and DeBerry. Each coach designates a charity to receive a grant from the Fisher DeBerry Foundation, and Calhoun’s charity is The Home Front Cares. That charity, which became one of DeBerry’s causes when it started, has become an important cause for Calhoun as well. On the organization’s annual report, Calhoun is listed as donating between $5,000-$9,999 last year, one of six individual donors who gave more than $5,000 to The Home Front Cares in 2011.

That’s a pretty neat full-circle story, from the legendary Air Force coach DeBerry to his successor and former player, Calhoun.

“I’m just proud he feels that commitment,” DeBerry said.

DeBerry is well known for his charitable work, and the Colorado Coaches for Charity event – which is run through DeBerry’s foundation – is an extension of that.

“I realized if it wasn’t for the people in Colorado Springs and all around Colorado supporting Air Force football, it wouldn’t be what it was,” DeBerry said. “That was a way of giving back.”

The Colorado Coaches for Charity event (the website is here), in which each of the coaches will speak, has individual tickets for $150 with packages all the way up to $10,000 for a presenting sponsor.

When Air Force was considering moving to the Big East for football (and, in fairness, I think superintendent Lt. Gen. Mike Gould was listening to the pitch but at no point did I get any strong sign that he was ready to make that leap), the strong consensus among Falcons fans was they did not want to go to the Big East. Then, strangely, when Air Force didn’t go to the Big East, there were plenty of fans that took any Mountain West/Big East news as a sign that the Falcons needed to change course and go to the Big East. They voiced this on my blog comments, my Twitter feed, and elsewhere. What they usually fail to mention, when talking about the failings of the Mountain West, is that the Big East has plenty of uncertainty issues as well.

Today, Big East commissioner John Marinatto was forced to resign. Here are a couple of stories, from CBSSports.com and Sports Illustrated, that get a little into the unrest among the school presidents that led to the change.

Mostly, I just wanted to point out and recommend this After Action blog entry from the Military Times site. It is a well thought out and excellent entry on why the Marinatto departure isn’t the best news for Navy, which will join the conference in a few years for football only – as Air Force would have. Certainly, we’d be hashing out some of the same issues here today had Air Force made the jump late last year to the Big East.

Air Force lefthanded pitcher Ben Bertelson became the third Falcons player to get Mountain West player of the week honors, as he was named pitcher of the week after throwing a complete-game shutout against Kansas on Saturday. The Falcons won that game 3-0, for their first road victory of the season and first win over a Big 12 opponent since 2001. Catcher Garrett Custons (Feb. 20) and pitcher Evan Abrecht (April 9) have also won conference player/pitcher of the week honors this season.

The win over Kansas is a highlight of an injury-filled season for Air Force. The Falcons has a goal of making the conference tournament, which would require finishing at least fourth in the five-team league, and they could still do that. They are in last place right now, with a 5-13 conference record, but not far behind UNLV, which is 6-15 in conference play.

The Mountain West announced its national television schedule, and among the more interesting parts of the Air Force television schedule is that two of the games have moved from Saturday to Friday night. The Friday night games are Oct. 26 against Nevada and Nov. 16 against Hawaii, both home games. The changes were to get the Nevada game on CBS Sports Network and the Hawaii game on ESPN2.

I wonder how popular this will be with fans.

Air Force traditionally does not draw well during the week for football or basketball. For an entertaining matchup against San Diego State last season, Air Force had a small crowd because it was on a Thursday night. The Friday games (at least the Oct. 26 one) could conflict with prep games in the area, which won’t help attendance either.

The exposure, especially with the ESPN2 game, will be a hit with Air Force coaches, but it might not be accepted by everybody.

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has had unquestionably the greatest career in basketball of anyone associated with the Air Force hoops program, and he added to his resume today. Popovich was named NBA Coach of the Year for the second time.

“To be singled out amongst so many wonderful coaches in our league is a humbling experience,” Popovich told the San Antonio Express-News.

Popovich has won four NBA championships and led the Spurs to the top seed in the Western Conference this season. Popovich averaged 14.3 points per game as a senior at Air Force in 1970.

ESPN College GameDay is going to be shooting a commercial on a campus and is letting fans decide the location by voting at www.gamedayvote.com. Air Force is among the schools on the ballot, and the academy is hoping to get the show to come to Colorado Springs – it sent out a press release reminding people to vote for Air Force.

ESPN has brought its iconic pregame show to Air Force three times – 2001, 2002 and 2009. GameDay host Chris Fowler graduated from Palmer High School in the Springs. Voting starts on Tuesday. ESPN had started to tabulate votes on April 23 but the number of votes crashed the website.

For details:

http://www.gazette.com/sports/gwynn-137565-tony-brings.html

The comments weren’t much on the surface, but from Air Force coach Troy Calhoun, they spoke volumes.

Calhoun doesn’t usually single out players during or after spring practice, to keep competition alive and well and push players to improve over the summer months. But, when it came to quarterback Connor Dietz, he offered that Dietz looked pretty good over those 15 spring practices.

“I thought he did some really, really good things in the spring,” Calhoun said.

That Dietz played well isn’t a big surprise, he’s going into his fifth season (he got a ninth semester under the Cadet Hardship Program) and played extensively over the past few years behind Tim Jefferson. He will go into training camp as the starter, and even with some intriguing young players behind him, it’s hard to believe he won’t be the starting quarterback for the season opener. That’s important for a team that replaces a lot of starters. Of course, Calhoun did stop short of proclaiming Dietz the clear starter.

“He’s a candidate,” Calhoun said. “And he had a really quality spring.”

We’ve talked about former Air Force player Antoine Hood’s dream of making the NBA before, and now there is a documentary in the works that features Hood’s desire to reach that goal.

The film is titled “Dreams Don’t Die,” and they’re about a third of the way to their fundraising goal of $25,000. Here’s a link to get more information on the film. There’s a great video on the site giving a glimpse of what the documentary will be about, I recommend checking it out.

Former Air Force player and assistant coach Tim DeRuyter was an assistant for more than two decades, waiting for his shot to be a head coach.

You don’t get too long to celebrate when the dream job finally comes. DeRuyter was hired by Fresno State to be the Bulldogs’ head coach this offseason. He found out that the responsibilities of being a head coach are a lot more than they are for the defensive coordinator.

“It’s been a little like taking a sip out of a fire hydrant,” DeRuyter said.

DeRuyter has had a busy few months. He put together a staff and landed a recruiting class. He met with fans and became active on Twitter. He had more media requests, and then had to coach spring practice, where he and the staff installed entirely different schemes on offense and defense.

“We’ve got a much better feel for who we are and where we’re going,” DeRuyter said about the end of spring practice.

As busy as he may be, he’s enjoying it. He said he liked putting together a staff of assistants he knew and respected. He enjoyed getting to know the players, before spring practice started, then seeing what they could do on the field once those practices started.

Although he wasn’t entirely ready for how busy he would be, the experience has been what he hoped for.

“It’s been fantastic,” DeRuyter said.

There are still more milestones for DeRuyter to come, such as when Air Force comes to Fresno to play the Bulldogs on Nov. 24. That will be an unusual experience for the former Falcon.

“You always have mixed emotions when you go to battle against your alma mater and guys you know personally,” DeRuyter said. “That part is tough. I owe a ton in my coaching career to Troy Calhoun and guys on his staff, in addition to Gen. (Mike) Gould and Dr. (Hans) Mueh. But when you tee it up, it’s like going out in the backyard with your brothers. You compete as hard as you can, and after you wish them well and go from there.”