Just a quick update on what's going on: The Pumas clinched the NW division and a first round playoff bye last Saturday. Then we got killed by the Sounders' reserves and I ot my first playing time, completely embarrassing myself having trouble making kicks that a 12 year old could have made, with ease. Practice yesterday and the awful field (actually, Fredericksburg's field is a bit more manageable) and today on a turf field. I guess their game this Friday is on turf. Friday night in Victoria, BC and Sunday in Tacoma are the last two regular season games, then the playoffs start.

Also, I jut wanted to post this photo that I took last night. Obviously, a view of downtown Seattle from near the top of the Beacon Hill neighborhood. I live lower down in the Beacon Hill neighborhood right now.

First Pro Contact (woot)

I signed my first pro contract today with the Kitsap Pumas S.C. Woot. There are only a few games left in the season, but oh well. I won't go into details about it, but it is there and signed. I went over to their office today and met with the owner and his direct subordinate, basically the two hot shots in the club, to talk about it face to face. I also got the general jist of everything explained to me. Kitsap is one of about four clubs in the PDL that are technically "professional". They would eventually like to move up to USL-2 or 1, but the immediate future probably holds something more along the lines of the PDL splitting onto the USL-3 and PDL and they will be in the USL-3 (comprised of Pro-PDL teams, which they're hoping will grow next year). It cost $75,000 to establish a USL-2 franchise and $750,000 a USL-1, or something along those lines. So, its not just results that can push you up or down, more to do with money. Also I had explained that they have a stadium of their own in the works for the future, maybe a 8,000 seater, but that is several years away. Kitsap has a 3 year contract with Bremerton Memorial Stadium, which isn't a bad place. you can do much worse than that field.

Also, I met Thomas the last time I was at Franklin (I'll try and get some pictures of these places up soon). He is friends with Gabriel and Eban. He's 28 and runs what sounded like youth sports clinics and day camps for community youths.

In other news, I went on my frist bike tour of Seattle the other day and promptly got lost. Not really lost, I knew the general direction I was trying to go in, but I kept running into dead ends. Problem is in Seattle, when you run into a dead end, there's a good chance you have to bike up a really steep hill in order to get back to where you just came from. Finally I got to Lake Washington Blvd, my original destination, and road on that for a while until I got to Seward Park and rose around the bike trail the goes along the outskirts of that twice before heading back up Lk Wash Blvd way too far into Madrona and Capital Hill. About a mile or so and several large, large hills too far north of where I live on Beacon Hill. All in all, I have no idea how far I went. Then I made the horrible mistake of doing what my plan was all along. On Wednesday I biked to the ferry, took the ferry across to Bremerton, biked to Steve's house. In all, about 5 miles and several large, long hills later I was there. Unfortunately it used up about half my gas tank and I spent most of the practice going through the motions and humiliating myself in front of the keeper coach, the assistant coach, and the four other keepers (yes, four) because my body was just physically spent. Eventually, they ended up playing 4v4 with keepers. The last game went into overtime because apparently it was the "championship game". I didn't know. The way these things work is that the keepers stay in their places and the teams switch around. So, practice ends and I go over and look at my watch. 5:15. The ferry was at 5:30. According to google maps, the distance form the field to the ferry: 2 miles. But about half of those 2 miles is a 2 lane bridge that you can walk your bike across on a narrow walk way, or ride. Having 0% energy left at this time, I chose to ride...and hold up traffic for a quarter mile in a small town. Unheard of. Yes, I got to the ferry on time. Oh wait, not done yet, now I have to bike home. I didn't even try. I walked my bike up the MASSIVE hills near the waterfront, which alone are about a mile long with I swear to god, a 15% incline (Today I was stopped going up the hill at a red light and I burned rubber because you have to accelerate so fast from a dead stop so you don't go back into the car behind you). Long story short (too late), I got to the top of the hill and road the mostly downhill bike ride back to my house, another couple of miles.

Today my body felt awful, but it was okay because I also signed my first professional contract.

My new soccer friends...oh yeah and the game as well

I went to Safeway yesterday morning and came across Franklin HS, which just so happens to have a turf football field with soccer goals on it right now. Today, I went to work out there and met these two guys who were working out on the other goal. Gabriel is a 31 year old librarian at the local library who is trying to get back into soccer. It used to be his number one sport when he was in high school but he got a basketball scholarship to college, I didn't ask where. People like Gabriel are the athletes that soccer missed out on by not becoming larger in America until now. He's about 6'3-6'4, pretty built, but still trim and quick at the same time. And he's a keeper. And he still loves soccer, just hasn't played in 8 years. Then there was Eban, who was 35 and grew up in Paraguay. Eban is in music and also is a medical translator. He's 35 and has football in his blood. He's one of those guys who just goes outside and jiggles for half an hour without dropping it because he wants to. Anyway, we exchanged numbers since they love to knock it around, shoot, whatever. They're playing in a local indoor league and were trying to get Gabriel back into keeper mode. God he was a big boy.

Oh, as for the game yesterday. I went down, but did not dress, which annoyed me. I guess it annoyed me that they asked me to come down, but didn't have me dress, or even talk to me about it, didn't pay for my meals, and just kind of...had me around. What a wonderful way to spend July 4. I didn't really know what to do with myself. It would have been super awkward had they won (they toed 1-1 by giving up a 90th minute goal) because it would have clinched 1st place for them. While they were all celebrating, I would have been standing there, awkwardly. I have nothing invested emotionally with this team yet, and even when I do, it won't nearly be to the level that they do. At least not this year. They're next practice isn't until Wednesday, so I guess I'll be on my own to work out until then. I've gotta join a gym and get my swell on.

Whoa, that was fast.

I’m currently in Seattle. Who would have guessed that one a month, or even a10 days ago? I’ll give a rundown of how things went down:

Last Thursday: Steve told me that his coach wanted to talk to me about coming out to Seattle to play with Kitsap. Apparently their backup keeper left. Oh, and earlier in the day I bought a road bike. Cool.

Last Friday: I talked with the Pumas coach, John Wedge who I’ve met before and who has seen me play.

Last Saturday: I thought about it and made a decision: I’m going. The Fredericksburg training wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. The Pumas have potential t move up into USL 2 or even USL 1. I personally have a lot more connections and know a lot more people out in Seattle than in Virginia. A lot of my friends are still in the Northwest.

Sunday: Prepped for leaving on Monday.

Monday-Wednesday: Drove XC to Boise.

Thursday: Drove the last segment, from Boise to Seattle. Met the new housemates, pretty cool dude named Teddy. He’s a master’s student in social work. A woman lives here too, a teacher, but Teddy said she is away for a lot of the summer.

Friday: First practice with the Pumas. Didn’t know they were going to practice on turf, so I brought my six studs. Whoops. Sliding around and luckily not tearing a knee in half, I played pretty well for not having faced good shooting in months. Afterwards Wedge asked me to come down to Portland with them tomorrow for their game against the Timbers U23s to dress as a backup. Yes, I’m going. The downside is that 4^th of July in Seattle is really cool, I’ve been here for it before. The upside is that playing not great I still made a big enough impression in one practice session to warrant suiting up for a game, even if it is as backup, which I’m fully expecting to be for the remainder of the season. Their #1 I a solid keeper. He’s not the most agile or tallest, but he makes smart choices and doesn’t screw up much. They haven’t lost a game with him in net this year, except to the Timbers in the Open Cup. He’s Excused.

So, I’m in Seattle living in Capital Hill, apparently near Garfield. Simon said it used to be a pretty seedy area but has gotten better in the last 10 years. It’s a lot further to the ferry, and a lot more hilly, than I thought. I’ve gotta work myself into biking shape before I can bike to the ferry. Its also farther to the field on Bremerton, and again a lot more hilly, than I thought. Good thing Steve and his buddy pick someone else up form the ferry every day for practice. I’ll probably end up doing that. Later on today I’m picking Steve up from Alisa’s place in Renton and meeting the team bus where they meet up with I-5. So, that was fast. Here we go.

Waiting Game

I've been to a couple training sessions with the PDL team in Fredericksburg so far. It's okay, nothing special. I have to say, its surprising how laid back it is. For a team not doing so hot (I think they're 2-3-3 through 8 games so far), they're training sessions are pretty...normal. It seems like at this point int he season, something needs to happen for them to make a move and it was the same the last session I was at as it was the first session I was at. They've had a few games in between and not done too hot in those. It's a little frustrating to say the least.

On the foreign front, its just the waiting game now. Hopefully I'll get an email, call, letter back from someone. I've sent my resumé to teams in England, Scotland, Switzerland, and Malta. Probably 20 in total, half in England. I haven't heard anything yet, but most of these teams don't accept trial resumés via email, so I've had to physically mail it to them, which I'm sure takes a while. I might search out some more teams that take them by email, but I think I'm done with the mailing game. By now, by the time it would get to some of the clubs it would be way too late, as their preseasons will be starting in a few weeks. 

Finally some training

I got back from the XC trip about a week ago, For anyone interested, I went southeast from WW through Oregon and the souther part of Idaho into Utah down to Salt Lake. From there I started going almost straight west, through the souther part of Wyoming and across the Nebraska. In eastern Nebraska I went southeast to Kansas City and from there continues west through St. Louis, Louisville and West Virginia into Virginia and home to Charlottesville. Since then I've been sending my resumé out to a bunch of League 2 and Conference level teams, 8 in total so far. They only take trial enquiries through snail mail, which is annoying, but it is what it is. Tonight I'm finally starting training with the Fredericksburg PDL team. Richmond has stopped answering emails, obviously because they don't want some random keeper coming to their training sessions. I understand but still, come on, be a man and say it to me. Don't just stop answering the emails. Fredericksburg only practices 2 times a week, so hopefully I'll be able to find something else as well. Their coach said they have a bunch of UVa players, so maybe I'll talk to them about being in goal during their off season workouts, depending on what their keeper situation is over the summer. I've noticed that a lot of teams in England have their preseason schedules up. They generally are starting games in mid-July, so hopefully I'll get some replies and be able to get over there by early July. That would be ideal, but honestly I'm not so sure on the odds for that happening.

Update

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 4^th 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 24^th 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…