What The Tide Rolled In

In an early conversation this year, my good friend Pele1410, expressed a need for a Goalkeeper for his Coed Soccer Team SPQR. I was glad to accept the request and set out to find the appropriate kit, fortunately, the Tim Howard Everton Kit was more than happy to find life in my closet.

The season came and game 3 saw us playing at night. It was a moderately wet night. The team we played was solid and tested us on all levels. The ending result of my kit was the picture below. I wasn't at all excited as I immediately assessed the worst possible scenario as my kit was indeed ruined.

I stared at the unpicturesque habiliments in front of me for quite some time, thinking of all the different remedies I had known some years past in clothing industries. Nothing came to me. I entered the laundry room and saw a bottle of Tide Boost Stain Remover. I had nothing to lose, all was lost. I soaked, literally, soaked the kits with Tide Boost Stain Remover, the result was astonishing.

My excite knew no bounds! The world was in balance and good people still existed. I am a big advocate of giving credit where credit is due, and quite frankly, Tide hit a homerun with this one. The next day I called them to thank for a great product. I gave the young woman on the phone a quick synopsis of the events and could not be thankful enough. She said she would send me some coupons for future purchases. I instructed that was not necessary, I was merely calling to say thank you, no freebies needed. We said our farewells. 

This is what they sent me!!!!

Thanks Tide! Big Corporation, small company appeal!

Most Frustrating

Tonight my U18 Team played the CSC Coach's Men's Team. Not a big deal right? The last time we played them I had my full 20 man roster and we won 3-2 in a very hard fought, educational game. It was a big win and we played pretty well. Tonight wasn't horrible per say, but there were some differences from then until now, and a certain Coach from the opposing team had me almost on the field in a fight. I came very close to pulling my entire team off of the field and walking away.

The night started slowly, only 10 of my players showed with an 11th showing minutes before game time. With 4 starters out, I wasn't sure what to expect, but as a Coach/Trainer I have to find the Coaching moments... so I did. We were going to run a 4-5-1 and hold the ball up as much as possible, conserve our runs and progress up field as a unit and shoot from range with one striker crashing. All was set.

We possessed the ball quite well for the first 7 minutes (I have a player that can't make a rudimentary pass so every time the ball went to him, we lost it, but it was a practice for us so I kept composure and coached through it. In fact, at one point, one of the coaches from the other team was helping him with a few pointers, I was happy to hear that). On to the good part...

... The other team has a Coach that doesn't know what a friendly game is apparently. He had a foul called on him in the first 10 minutes, he forearmed one of my players while that player was over a ball about to make a pass. His forearm went in to his neck his hips followed suit, player down, foul called. Moments later, my striker working back to play a ball from his position to a center back, Coach Player, slide tackle from the back, grabs players jersey and pulls. Another again, my CM working the ball to the outside dribbling looking to play over the top, Coach Player, incessantly hacking his ankles telling him as long as he holds the ball he's gonna hack his ankles. (that wasn't so bad, but it gets better). Second half, my players are tired of him, his players are making jokes at his expense, every time someone missed a shot he came unglued at them, whatever. We go in to the second half down 2-1, but considering our circumstances we were playing extremely well. I was getting amazing results from some guys who don't play much. 15 minutes in to the second one of my CB's goes shoulder to shoulder with Coach Player guy and Coach Player guy goes down, ball goes out of play. CB reaches out a hand to help him up. Coach Player response, "Get the f*** away from me, I don't need no f****ing help from this sh*tty ass team! This is the luckiest piece of sh*t team ever!"

These are distinct instances that I can recall. There were a few more but they were inconsequential. I am all for physical play, almost all of the other players were playing physical, but not aggressively dirty. In fact, I would love to play that team all the time because of their type of play, but because that one individual plays for them, I have refused to play that team any more. It's not worth risking injury over something so trivial as a friendly match. Maybe I'm just being a bit ridiculous, but I could never imagine cursing at my players, or someone else's players on a field. My players don't even curse that way and they're 17 years old.

At the end of the night I was happy with how we played and certainly happy with the result. But I was very upset with the quality from one specific individual from the other side. Well two individuals. As Coach's in this program it is imperative that set certain standards for ourselves and our team.

After typing all of this I just realized, I have had an issue with CSC for a while now, this is just me searching I'm sure. Ah well, another lesson learned.

If You Don't Like Michael Jackson You Can Go To Hell... I Mean Chelsea

Fulham erects a statue of Michael Jackson outside of the clubs stadium. Al Fayed says, "I don't want them to be fans. If they don't understand and don't believe in things I believe in, they can go to Chelsea, they can go to anywhere else."

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/soccer/04/03/fulham.jackson.statue.ap/index.html#ixzz1IZUPzwxP

The Weekend Behind...

Beautiful weekend we had, interesting chain of events in the Lafayette Soccer Tournament. My U17 Storm went 1-1-1, I played the entire weekend with 11 men and 2 of them injured for games 2 and 3, but I have to admit that we looked promising more often than not but we just weren't fit to run all weekend with limited numbers. I had to respect the boys perseverance through such conditions. They never quite working, they rested when necessary and worked when they saw the opportunity. I deduced that the problems I am having could not have been fixed with more numbers, rather, advancements in practice. All in all for them I was proud. I look forward to the tournament in Gulf Port, MS this coming weekend.

As for my U12 Titans, these kids have been a work in progress for 2 years now. But 3-0 this weekend was the best showing these guys have shown ever. I was very proud of their ball movement all weekend long. A shut out for them is still elusive, but a work in progress is always a work in progress.

Houston Dynamo FC Custom Kit

Dynamo FC Clima Cool Custom

It's safe to say that I have a spending problem, but only when I'm idle. Being down for the 6 hours I was post my teeth removal I had time to do some much "needed" shopping. I purchased that huge watch by Invicta, I purchased another ESQ Beacon (photos to come it too came in today), I bought Ashley a brand new HD Digital Camcorder (that was so she wouldn't say mean things to me about buying all this other stuff), and then there's this; there's some other stuff, but this is my favorite. I was on Soccer.com looking to piece together a new GK kit now that I'm back playing 11v11. With absolutely no luck matching anything together I gave up all hope and decided to search through some of my favorite club apparel. Well that didn't take long, Chelsea had nothing reasonably priced (including the players for the club) Everton's pink jerseys aren't available, and there were no "I Hate ManU" shirts so on to the MLS where my first query led me to the Dynamo uniforms... Sort low to high, click to page 2 and Viola! there it was. I thought, well that's pretty nice, then I saw the shorts, and socks, and well, a new pair of gloves were following shortly. I ordered a pair of White/Red socks but they are on back order and won't be in till next week. The Adidas Elite Formotion Socks are really, really, really comfortable; price justified. The kit is really comfortable, light weight and cool, I suppose that would be the idea since it is a ClimaCool Adidas apparel item. 

Ross Barron, the Talk of Lafayette

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of Coaching for Lafayette High School. We were playing Pineville High School in the first round of the playoffs. I expected this game to be like any other, with the talent and caliber of this, it was to be an absolute rout. I was in for much more. With 20 minutes left to go we were winning 8-0, and things were all well, then the most amazing thing I have ever seen happened. The opposing Coach, Grant Eloi (a Class A Gentlemen and Sportsman) put in a player named Ross Barron. Ross has Downs Syndrome. I was baffled, awe struck, this kid was so passionate in every move he made. Head Coach Jeremy Cart walked over to Grant and chatted him up about Ross' situation. It was to be Ross' last game of his career and come to find out Ross had never scored a goal, other than a PK, well Jer Bear decided to orchestrate a goal for Ross. We had both teams involved, as you will see in the video, it was well planned. Here is something most people don't know, Ross was diagnosed with a disease that caused all of his hair to fall out at the age of 3, he was always very embarrassed by it. When he reached High School, the players caught wind of Ross' inhibition with his bald head. Well one day Ross' mom drove up to pick him up from practice and saw the whole team huddled in the center circle. They were chanting and cheering and then Ross' bald head pops up and everyone was cheering and laughing, the team had made Ross' bald head a good luck token for the team. He told his mom that night that he liked being bald, he felt special. Ross is a great kid, he was so elated to have scored. This video does nothing for the excitement that was on his face. I am very glad to have been a part of such an amazing event. And much respect to Coach Grant Eloi of Pineville for giving Ross the opportunity to fulfill his dream and become the leading playoff goal scorer for the Pineville program for 2010-2011. It takes a man of strong character to have the selflessness of Grant's actions. 

Officially Official

I was recently involved in a licensing course here in Lafayette at CSC with administrator Colin Gilmartin, in an effort to receive my Level 1 & Level 2 Goalkeeper licenses. I was able to learn a great deal in those two days. I have been a goalkeeper for a very long time and truth be told, I have never had any formal, or informal training. So this course was insightful and informative. I have the books we used for the course, I am scheduled to get one to Wilablog pretty soon, if anyone else needs a copy let me know. It's a pretty extensive binder, so it will take some time to copy, but it's a great tool to have for any coach.

Rooney Comes To America for Rehab

I am sure this is an article that is not lost to anyone who views my blog, but I thought for the theoretical people who read here, this is interesting stuff.

Injured Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney will spend a week in the United States undergoing intensive conditioning work on an ankle problem.
The 25-year-old will miss Wednesday's Manchester derby, and is not expected to play for another three weeks.
Rooney is to train at the Nike Town centre in Oregon.
"He can go there without the attention he'd get here," said United assistant manager Mike Phelan. "He needs the conditioning. We all agree with that."
The England international caused controversy recently when he signed a new five-year contract only two days after stating that he wanted to leave Old Trafford.
Rooney said that concerns over the club's squad strength were behind his decision to seek an exit, but then made the shock U-turn after speaking to manager Sir Alex Ferguson and the club's owners who he stressed "convinced me this is where I belong".

Full article

Brilliant Reffing, Brilliant Attention by Nani (no sarcasm needed)

Not quite sure how this panned out, but well played to Nani for not giving up. Should have been a PK to start with. Manchester United deserved the goal. If Gomes would've punted the ball away this would've never happened.

Got My GK Diploma Level 1 & 2, and the Bruises to Prove It

Had a little 1 on 1 action Saturday morning and these are my battle wounds. Came out against striker Andrew Wright for a 1 v 1 battle and the ground took the position of victor on this go round. I played the whole damn weekend with this annoying scrape. The lighter pictures are from Sunday night, the scabbed photos are from this morning. Burns like all hell.

Goalkeeping Diploma Course

This past weekend I attended the local Level 1 & Level 2 Goalkeeping Diploma Course held here at CSC hosted by the amazing, the magnificent Colin Gilmartin (more on him later). It was a great success. I have been a goalkeeper my entire life and I learned more in this past weekend than I have in all my time. That is primarily because I had no formal training as goalkeeper growing up. The weekend went off without a hitch with an attendance from the likes of FC Gold Pride Women's Professional Soccer GK Brittany Cameron attending, striker Andrew Wright from the Baton Rouge Capitals who also played pro in Brazil for some time and is a graduate of Wake Forest, DOC from the Chicago Fire Program in New Orleans Saul Martinez and Javier Pastor. We also had a gentlemen Daniele Zangolli from Canada, and Josh Guay from Alaska. Another outstanding individual was Aaron Avila from Laurel, Mississippi. Others attending were Bret Malone of BRSA, Chris Ireson from Alexandria, Brandon Lewis of Houston, Tx; Arms Brown of Shreveport, John Carriere of CSC, Greg Comeaux of CSC, myself, and Don Smith from Mississippi.

I have plans on attending the Level 3 GK Diploma Course in San Jose, CA with Brittany Cameron in December. It will be an experience of a lifetime. I wish all of my colleagues could've been there. For those who attended, I cannot express my gratitude enough. You guys made this weekend worth every minute. There is no doubt in my mind that we evolved from Players, to coaches, to friends in a short time with the commonality being soccer, and by the end of the weekend we spoke of everything but...lol. This course was priceless, the magnitude of character that was represented by the individuals we were able to interact with was most satisfying. Thank you all again and I hope to see you all soon in the future.

Premature Celebrate Goal Keeper At It Again....

Apparently Khalid Askri is getting great play from the mainstream media. Here he is again, well, being himself I suppose. Not a good season for him thus far. My U-17 squad had a similar showing this past weekend in New Orleans.

My National D License

It's finally here. After two painfully hot and exhausting weekends under the rule of Colin Gilmartin from LSA, I have attained what I set out to achieve. I was fairly confident in my passing of this class in the beginning, but after a phone call I received from a fellow classmate whom I was confident was getting his told me he failed the National D and only received his State D, I was well concerned. Upon arrival home I opened the mail box with caution (as though an irate raccoon would jump out at me had I not). I saw the large manila envelope and thought, "well, they wouldn't put a rejection letter in an envelope that big" but my fears refused to subside. Well, it turned out ok in the end. I am an officially certified National D License Coach. I don't really know what that translates to but I can get my National C now and really improve my resume.

D License Complete

Finally finished my D License, it was grueling but I highly recommend attending it. This is my itinerary for the future:

1. National Youth Coaching License (hopefully joined by willablog)
2. Level 1 & Level 2 Goalkeeper License (again, willablog should attend this one too)
3. AGM January
4. NCSAA Membership
5. C License Course Next August

I am the darkest I have ever been in my life. I feel kinda sexy.

Pepsi Commercial

Thanks to my buddy Pele1410, this video is awesome.