Season 4: Weeks 1 to 3 (and part of week 4!)
Week 1: I have been training pre-season working out at the gym and doing some treadmill work. I am a fat ass at 6' tall and 260lbs I need to lose some weight. My weight helps me when crashing into an opponent or boxing him out but it slows me down. I am determined to get lean and mean for this season. I want to lose 25lbs by the end of the season. We have some practices with much more running than in the past. We have a coach and an assistant player/coach. We have team meetings at work on Fridays at noon. By the time week 1 rolls around we are ready to go.
We learn that our first game is against NPS with their captain Henri at the helm. This will be a tough game but we hope that Henri has a new crew that hasn't quite gelled yet. Everyone agrees that we have a much stronger squad this season than we have had in the past. We show up to the game, Henri is reffing the game ahead of ours. That game ends and we learn that NPS doesn't have a team. Too many players are injured, Henri tells us. Why didn't Tom tell us? (Tom runs the league) Who knows? Tom knew on Wednesday but he didn't call Dan (our team organizer) until Friday. Dan wasn't at work on Friday, so no one found out. Some players stay for a pick up game/practice. I'm with the group that leaves in disgust.
Week 2: This week no practicing for me. I was sick this week and missed practice. I also fell off the wagon on the whole workout thing. I have gone into one of these periods in my life where ennui rules the day. My house gets messy, bills go unpaid and I stay up and sleep in late. I'm not depressed just kind of blah about everything. Weird mood but usually it doesn't last too long. We show up for the game and I know something is horribly wrong right at the begining. First, a lot of people don't show up until a couple of minutes before the game. Next the starting line up is decided but just a couple of minutes later it is being changed. This is never a good sign for us. In fact, any time we have a problem nailing down the starting line up, we get our asses kicked. It is just a sign of our general confusion. We play M City this week. They kick our ass. They beat us 13 to 0. We get maybe 3 shots on goal. No one is on the same page. No one plays their position. Some people listen to the coach (oh the coach is the guy with the concussions, we won't let him play anymore) most don't. Sad sad times all the way around. I am wondering if there will be a season 5 for yours truly after this terrible game.
Week 3: No practice for me this week as I have a messed up toenail that requires very very minor surgery. We are supposed to play MIIS but they are on spring break and can't put together a team. I wonder why Tom scheduled a game for them when he probably knew or could have found out that they had spring break.
Have I mentioned the general disorganization of our league? No? Oh! well we generally do not get a schedule. We learn through rumor and word of mouth when we have a game and when we'll be playing each week. I think you can see how well that works. Our field is a bog when it rains, during the summer the grass will die on it. It is full of pot holes and is not level, but other than that it's a great field to play on!
Week 4: This week. On monday we have some low level conversations about soccer but nothing major. Tuesday comes and the soccer talk begins to ramp up. A couple of weeks ago I emailed the local college and asked them to use their practice field. There is a form to fill out and then a price to be negotiated. We pick up the form, but it is more of an event contract than a general use form. The part that has me worried states that we may need $2,000,000 general liability insurance. I contact the person in charge of the soccer fields (who, unfortunately also happens to be the men's soccer coach, talk about conflict of interest!) and ask about the insurance. He writes me back, telling me we need the insurance as stated in the contract. The contract says, "...one or more of the following types of insurance..." I play dumb and tell him that's great. I then solicit proof of insurance from the players on the team.
I miss Tuesday practice because of a long running meeting at work. I show up late in my work clothes. Dan cusses me out for not being there and not dressing out. Only 6 people are dressed out and practicing, only 4 of them are on our team. I begin to have a bad feeling about Sunday.
Wednesday - This is our day to have the team meeting. Jacob, Andrew, Chris and I discuss the upcoming meeting. I am adamant that we need to have some structure at our team meetings as they are very unproductive. Everyone agrees with me and I decide to talk about throw ins at the meeting. We hold the meeting and lo and behold! Throw ins are actually discussed. We agree to have a throw in drill on Thursday! We agree on what people are supposed to be doing for throw ins. We then babble on about a lot of other things but I don't care. We have finally nailed something down. We have agreed on a plan of action for once! This is great!
After the meeting Dan sends out a list of everyone and what position he thinks they should play. He talks to me before sending out the list. I tell him that not everyone will agree with his choices, meaning me. The list comes out and I have issues. I fire an email back to Dan. He comes over to my area and we discuss the views. He has chosen to put a couple of people on our back line who I think need to be somewhere else. One because he doesn't understand what to do and the other because he doesn't buy in to our defensive philosophy (yes, we have a defensive philosophy, but Plato we are not). We hash things out with Chris' help and move on. At the end of the day I have 3 photocopies of proof of insurance not including mine. Sad times.
More tomorrow kiddies.
- posted by David @ 3/10/2004 09:19:00 PM