Okay, I'm serious this time.

Okay, no more 2-month delays. No more 'only-posting-to-the-blog-when-watching-Wedding-Crashers-at-10PM-on-a-Sunday-with-a-screwed-up-leg' sessions...kind of like this one. A few things I wanted to share, first about my life: I'm moving back to Walla Walla soon, sooner than expected. I'm just tired of being in Seattle when I really just want to be in WW and (most) of my work is there anyway. Hopefully I'll housesit for a prof. going on sabbatical, but if not I have an apartment lined up. Now, to important things:


This is a video of Stephen assisting Todd's first Puma's goal. Atta boy Toddy. Its kind of a crappy video. The goal is at the end, feel free to skip to it.


This is an article on how NOT set your password.


And finally...this was the highlight of my week..Thank you Kev.


Until next time...

Another Sweet Break

Originally, Stephen and I had heard that we'd be training primarily with Newcastletown. Then, we head that we'd have 1, maybe more sessions with Crewe Alexandra. Then, it became 3-4 with Newcastle town and 3-4 with Crewe. The most recent and by far the most absurd development in our trip came today, when Mike informed us that Ray had somehow hooked us up with two training sessions with Stoke City. Yes, Stoke City in the EPL. I wonder what exactly he's saying to these guys to get us to be able to train with them because I'm sure they're not in the habit of having relatively unknown players come and train with them in mid-season. We also found out that the athletics department wants us to keep a blog on our 2 weeks in England, so most of my updates from England will probably come on that, but I'll link that to my blog when the time comes. As for the Timbers, well, haha. It would still be nice to have an option in the U.S. and I'd love to have them turn down my skipping their PDL trials and training with the 1st team when I tell them that I'm missing the PDL trials to train with an EPL team. But, I'll be nice about it and not rub it in, just so I can leave my options open.

Being sick

So I came back out to Walla Walla on Jan 6 and on Jan 7 started feeling a bit sick. Almost a month later, I'm through the flu and pneumonia and just getting back on the inevitably slow road back to being in college soccer player's fitness. I had to miss the tryouts with the Timbers, but they offered me a chance to come out on March 28-29 for their PDL team trials, and if I "impress" then they'll have me train with the first team. However, this will be at the end of what will be 2 weeks in England training with Newcastle Town, Crewe Alexandra of League One, and perhaps Bath City. Mike's friend Ray Evans, who played for several top teams back in his playing days, set up up with most of the two weeks, including lodging, training, going to a game at Stoke City and a tour of the grounds, and travel when we need it. Unbelievable. He and Mike have been such a great help to us.

The FIRST POST...some background

Ohhhhhh man. My own blog. I figured I would set this up because I'm vain enough to think that people might care about what kind of adventures I'm having in my attempt to play professional soccer after college life. In any event, if no one else cares, I'm sure my family will. Since this is my first post, I'll do a quick run down of my soccer history. Started playing soccer when I was too young and started travel soccer when I was 7. Played for Union SC until I was 13, where my majority of my team and coach moved to Parsippany SC and became a serious club team. I played with Parsippany until I was 17, traveling around the country to compete (Richmond, Orland, San Diego, you get the idea) . I went to Union High where I started 3 years for the Fightin' Farmers (I also ran track for four years at Union). After high school I came out to Walla Walla for Whitman College and started for four years here. Most recently, we finished 11-2-7, falling just short of winning the Northwest Conference and an NCAA tournament spot.

Whitman is the perfect place for soccer training. All within walking distance we have a track, training fields, a top notch game field, training room, brand new weight room and swimming pool. I'd like to stay in the U.S. and play professionally, at least at the beginning. Relatively close to my family and friends and not having to deal with visas and such. Eventually I'd like to go abroad and challenge myself in other countries, preferably English speaking. Australia wouldn't be a bad place to end up, although the up and coming A-league doesn't offer the highest pay ever. On the other hand, if you've ever watched A-league highlights you'd have seen how atrocious their goalkeeping is. So, for the time being, I'll try and start off with the Portland Timbers of the USL 1st Division. I've watched their highlights as well, and from what I've seen, there isn't a single reason why I couldn't play in the 1st Division. That is something you'll come to learn about me: I think very highly of my game, but I also have the highest expectations for myself. You have to know yourself in order to grow as a person and as a player which means being honest with yourself about your abilities and limitations.

The tryouts are in a few weekends into January 23-25 in Portland. I'm heading back to Walla Walla on the 6th for an intense 2 weeks period of training and work on my thesis. I'll have an update on how training and thesising are going in mid January...