It’s been a while, but after England I was real busy with senior stuff. My thesis was due two weeks after Stephen and I got back and that got done on time. Likewise, I passed my oral exams, an hour and a half long defense of my thesis. But, all of that and other academic work is done with the exception of one paper and one exam. I’ve been in contact with various PDL teams in Virginia about playing once I return home after graduation, basically the beginning of June. It looks like I’ll be training and playing with the Fredericksburg Gunners. The PDL is, if I haven’t mentioned it, a semi-pro league that could be argued as the 4th level of American soccer. Its mainly rising college juniors and seniors and people up to 3 or 4 years out of college trying to stay sharp over the summer or work their way up to professional teams.
Its been hard to train as much as I would like 1) given the academics and 2) our returning team has two goalkeepers, so it would be a bit awkward if I trained in with them. ‘Hey I’m not on the team anymore, and you guys are, but I’m going to take time away from your practice anyway so I can get some time in a net.’ No. I’ve done some light things in a goal but not a whole lot, still trying to get my right index finger back to a normal size. Its still pretty fat and jammed from the first day of playing in England with Stoke City. A quick update on those teams: It looks like Stoke City will stay up in the Premier League but Crewe Alex will probably be relegated to League 2.
I haven’t started emailing teams abroad yet, but will start that real soon. I’ve been concentrating more on finishing up a few things at Whitman as well as worrying about getting something set up for over the summer. It’s not easy being in a different place than where I’ll be playing for several months. Most coaches want a look even before they let a player train/trial with their team.
So, that is where I am at this point. Graduation is the 24th of May and I’ll probably head out of Walla Walla a few days after that to try and be home by the first few days in June. I’ll update again if anything develops before then…
