Introduction

Hello all and welcome to my little corner of the Internet. Usually I will be talking about the beautiful sport of football/soccer on here, but today I feel a little introduction is due. What am I introducing you ask? Well... me, and what this will all be about I guess. So, without further adieu, here we go.

Myself:

I am a 20 year old married father. I have been married for over a year now to my wonderful wife Kathryn (Kate) and we have an amazing 6 month old daughter Annabelle. These two are the loves of my life. I attend Westminster College, am a junior (i think), and am majoring in economics/pre-law. I am a soccer nerd. Which leads me to my next part...

My soccer career:

The Early Years:
It all started, as my mother says, when I was about 6 months old. Any toy I got, I would kick. My older brother was playing soccer, and I was thrilled by it. From there on, I can safely say, I have had a relationship with this game unlike any other I have had.
For the first years of my life, I did what any boy (and girls, or not) in this world does, played sports and with balls. When I went into kindergarten I played on my first "team". For the next couple of years I bounced around on the local rec teams. It wasn't hard, it wasn't quality, but it was fun. It was the sport as simple as it could be given the amount of organization that went into it. We were a bunch of kids who either had parents who wanted us to play, get exercise, actually liked to play, or a combination of them all. I am not one to boast nor brag, I find it incredibly pompous and simply retarded to draw attention to ones self just to show off a talent, but I was getting better than pretty much anyone in the rec league. I single handily would beat teams, scoring goals from midfield while getting fouled. Dribbling an entire team just to pass to an open teammate at the middle of the goal (who usually missed). I specifically remember the first time I "pulled a move". My brother taught me how to do a basic step over at the house days before a game, I did it at the game and the other teams fans even were impressed (I had the reputation of the kid everyone should get the ball from up to that point).

The Opportunity:
Then, the day came. One day after a game a kid that was my age and his father came to the field. This man had been in contact with my dad about possibly making the step up to a "comp team". The problem was though that tryouts for the comp team had already occurred and my dad, being the man he is, thought I deserved a shot at making the first team. The only way I could do this, according to the coach, was to show that I had the ability to play at that level against his son (one of the teams stand outs). I did not find any of this out for years to come by the way. I thought that my dad knew this guy and the kid just wanted to play some soccer. Thank god I didn't mess around. The kid got a ball from his dad and came over to me and asked if I wanted to play some 1 on 1. Me, being the kid I was, said sure why not. He took the ball, and ran right pass me and kicked the ball in the net. I looked at him and he looked at me and laughed a bit and said "OK lets go". He passed the ball to my feet. I took one touch, and he was on me like a fly on a pile of dog crap. The usual space I had been given in rec league was not there anymore. He took the ball off of me with ease, turned around, took one touch, and finished it in the middle of the goal. I looked over to my dad, a bit confused as to what all was going on here. He and the other man were now sitting in some chairs, still talking to one another, but looking directly at us. I shrugged my shoulders and turned back to the kid. He kicked the ball to me again, this time missing me and hitting it a bit up field. He yelled, alright its your turn from the 6 with me standing on the 18. He sprinted out towards the ball. I turned around, got the ball, turned at him, pulled the step over move, and sent him into the next city. The net was wide open, and I easily dribbled the ball a couple times and finished it. My dad clapped and laughed a bit. I found myself smiling a bit too, I hadn't played a kid this good yet, but still got him to dive in. The kid, now obviously quite mad, took the ball and said OK its my turn again. He came at me, tried to get around me and take a shot, but I simply stuck out my leg, blocked the shot, got the ball back, and went at him. He was tight on me again and wasn't going to dive for any moves. I took the ball to the right, cut it back to my left, and hit a shot I still remember vividly to this day. It hit the far post and deflected in. While I didn't know it at the time, that shot got me on the path I am on now.

Club Ball:
I played club ball for the first 3 years with the club Arsenal. My first coach was probably the best young coach (coaching kids from 1st to 6th grade) I have ever met. The guy made the game a bit more complicated and rigorous, but he kept the enjoyable aspects of the game that got all of us kids into it in the first place. After my third year with Dave, I believe that was his name at least, the club changed names and joined with another club(s). The new name was Utah Soccer Alliance (USA) and my new coach was Beau Brown (a hero of mine still). If you know Utah soccer, this name might sound a bit familiar to you. He was one of the star players for the indoor team based in Salt Lake, the Utah Freezz. He, a guy named bob and another named nick (who both played for the Freezz as well) were our coaches now. This man brought me to another level and I can honestly say got me into the higher competitive aspect of the game within this state. He told me one day that he would do pretty much anything to get this team to play in at least one Dallas Cup (the biggest youth tournament in the states at the time) by the time we were 18. This seemed a bit funny considering we couldn't even stay in the premier division in the state for longer than one year and made early exits out of the state cup every single year we played in it. However, Beau said he saw the potential of the team and wasn't willing to give up. His hard work and dedication inspired our team and the level of play rose. We then started to actually hang with some of the best teams in the state, and on the occasion, knock them off in a crazy game (shots being like 20-1 and we would win 1-0). Myself and 2 other players were the talking point of the team. We didn't have the best offense, our midfield was pretty sloppy, but our defense was solid. I played center back, and my buddy Tyler Arens and Eric Severson played outside backs in a 3 back formation. It is also important to note that we had one of the best keepers I have ever played with in Matt Rogers in the goal for us as well. Our play was so good in fact, that other teams started to try and get us to come to their teams. However, we formed a little bond and didn't want to change clubs unless they would take all 3 of us (something none of the clubs could realistically do). Then came Rob Karas. He was a trainer with USA and he saw the talent in the state at our age level and got an idea that would change the way soccer was played. The top team in my age group was hands down Sparta. They had gotten a few players to come to their team from up north and had a solid group of kids from the sandy/salt lake area. The rest of the teams had some great talent as well, however they didn't have as complete of a team and that was the reason why Sparta had won 3 state titles in a row. Karas saw a solution, and with the support of USA went out and made what a lot of people called a "super team". He took the 3 of us from USA to form the back line along with a couple kids from Impact. He then went and got a midfield from Advantage up north and a few other stragglers from random clubs. We all gathered one day at a park in South Jordan to listen to Rob and his proposal. He came out and said what a lot of people wanted to hear "we are going to beat Sparta and win state cup". This new team was a collection of talent, that according to Rob and many others, was possibly the best team this state had ever seen. Our first year was fantastic. We traveled down to southern California, won our first tournament in the sun and surf cup hosted in Huntington beach. We traveled more and got a couple more good results and won a tournament or two. Then came state cup, the big one, the one that would get us into the bigger tournaments we all wanted to play in. We cruised through group play despite being placed in a really tough group (it is no coincidence that people who worked with Sparta made the groups for our age group). We got a little difficult challenge in the first round of the knockout stages, though we beat them handily. We then went to the semi-finals. We played in an epic game at Lone Peak Park under the lights. This game, for some strange reason, was played the day before the final despite the other semi being played the day before. The game also, "randomly" as the state put it, was played last out of all the games at the park (the only game at the time) that day. The game was very even, the opposing team was talented but was getting lucky quite a bit and scored some fantastic goals. The game ended tied and went into overtime. The overtime couldn't be broken and so penalties were going to have to decide who went to the final. Then, the lights went off. For some reason, they only had the lights scheduled to stay on until 11 that night despite our game being scheduled to start at 9ish. The refs scrambled to figure out who was on the pitch and who was not in order to make sure neither team slipped in a player that wasn't out there that was good at taking penalties. The solution, as we all found out the next day at school, was to have the penalties at half-time of the game before the final for our age group. So, we showed up, all dressed in jersey and such, just to take penalties. We ended up winning these penalties, despite being down 3-1 after they had taken their 3rd kick (we were second). We then went on to play Sparta in the final (go figure right). This game also was quite epic, about 2 or 3 hundred people decided to watch it (made for a great atmosphere). Jesse Kupher scored in the 60th minute to win it for us. The final whistle blew, and I had one of the best celebrations I have ever had.
From there though sadly, it was a very rocky road with a lot more downs then ups. We never won another state title (I never went to another state cup final myself). We turned down a trip to Dallas Cup (yes the same one that Beau Brown had promised to me) because it was in the spring and more players wanted to stay and play high school soccer (their sophomore year) instead, we only won one other tournament in the turkey shoot in las vegas, rob karas left the team after the dallas cup incident, we then hired a guy who worked with the Honduran national team, that lasted 1 year, then we went to Hickman, and then changed teams to Inter (we went from USA Milan to Inter, i kid you not).
Now, if any coaches are reading, I am about to give you an example of how NOT to handle a new team. I cant remember his full name, but I believe it was Matt. He was one of the top trainers in the state, well he was advertised as so, and worked with the Inter team that was a year older than us that was in reality the best team to ever play in this state (amazingly talented). After 2 weeks of making the transition, I went with a friend of mine down to summer games in cedar city to play with our high school team (a tradition that we tried to do as much as possible). Matt ok'd it and wished us well. The summer games were a nice break, and by the end, after losing in the final on penalties, I was ready to go back to the high quality ball back home. When I got home, my parents looked a bit sad. I thought they had found out about some decisions I made in cedar city (something not for this blog, but hilarious if I have the time to post later on) and was prepared for a huge punishment. Instead, my dad grabbed me by the shoulders and said "just so you know, its ok and in the end this will all work out ok". As I sat there, my mom and dad both explained to me how Matt, the "best trainer in the state", had called them while I was out of town (he had my cell number) and explained that I wasn't going to be able to stay on the first team. He said that he wanted me to go play with the second level team (something I had never done in my life yet) to get my skills up with the rest of the team then I could return with them. I cried. For one, I found it incredibly rude that he dealt with this via phone with my mom and dad and not myself. Second, that he didn't have the balls to face my dad, a HUGE supplier for the team financially, and tell him his son wasn't good enough. And third, that he blatantly lied (later found out he had no interest in getting me back on the first team, just didn't want to say "you are cut").
The worst part about this "cutting" though was the timing. In 2 weeks that team was going to surf cup. A tournament I had dreamed of playing in ever since I had heard of it. So, I took my dad's advice and just moved on. I went and played with the second level team for Inter, which was the first team before the move by Milan by the way. I played on this team for about 2 months. I developed some relationships that I still maintain today and saw some of the best future talent this state has to offer (gabby played with them regularly). My last couple of days with this team were at the Sparta cup. By this time word had gotten out that I no longer played for Milan to the guys at Sparta (a team that had displayed interest in me before and whom I had built a better relationship with via ODP) and they said they would love for me to make the transfer just didn't know if they had the room. Luckily for me, the second inter team, who i still played for at the time, played Sparta in their group and I, once again, played myself onto the team. I hit one of the best set pieces I have ever seen/hit and scored again to put Sparta on their backs early. They went on to win 2-3, but I had already found myself a new squad. It was hard to leave the second Inter team. The coach was nothing but brilliant and kind, the players were all great, but I still wanted to play at that high level and possibly get a look at play in division 1 soccer or some form of college ball.
I made the move to Sparta for my last year of club soccer. We had a bit of a rough season, but the game against Inter was sweet justice as I assisted the game winning goal. This game also showed who exactly had "assisted" on getting me off the team so that another player could come in as I got about 5 elbows to the face and still have stud marks in my shins from some of the tackles. You know its dirty when the other team is even getting on its players for a hard foul.
My last chance at getting into college ball was with Sparta at the Nomads cup. We played some very good competition and were really unlucky to not make it to the semis. I did, however, get what I had gone for. Numerous coaches approached me and I thought for sure I was on my way to playing at a top college somewhere.

ODP:
My ODP career lasted 5 years. These 5 were by far the least hectic and the most rewarding. I never made the region IV team, however, every single year I made significant improvement and was told by my coaches/trainers my last 2 years that I was just on the outside and that really all that seperated me from anothe player, sadly, was that I was from Utah. Utah has been getting more respect, but a lot of that has to do with how well the teams around my age group played. We knocked off SoCal, NoCal, Oregon, and Colorado my 4th year... yet we only got 3 players into the team (a new high for us though). Greg Maas and I developed a good realtionship here and honestly I owe a lot to that man for the training he did. Fantastic trainer, pure class

College:
Coming off the Nomads tournament I was on cloud 9. I had about 5 coaches looking at me, and 3 of them were very serious. However, as life does, things changed. First, the two teams not as serious just said no. They were full, and it wouldn't happen (the brutal reality of college ball). Then came Seattle Pacific. They were hard to work with, and in the end I knew this wouldn't be worth the hassle. Then it was San Jose State. I thought this was the one. I made the recruiting trip, loved the area, loved the team, loved the school, it all was good. But again, it happened. The coach gave me a call and said "I want you to come play here, but I just gave out my last scholarship for this next year." I was up front with him and said that if I didn't have the scholarship I couldn't afford the school (very expensive area as well). So it came down to Hawaii Hilo and the one I didn't mention as they were my ultimate fall back in Westminster. Hilo was great in talking, the coach was thrilled and seemed to know his stuff. But when it came to the recruiting trip, he couldn't do it. I had to pay for my own trip to Hawaii to go see a school and a coach who wanted me. This irritated me, but wasn't the deciding factor. No, instead it came down to the fact that I would live in Hawaii. While it sounds great to go there, living there doesn't, at least not to me. So, it was Westminster or no more soccer. Coach Dorich was thrilled to sign me as he thought for sure I was gone to another school. And 2 and a half years later... I have played in maybe 5 games.

The glass is half full:
While this may seem like a sad ending to what was a bit of a soap opera (don't worry, i have the rights for the movie/book in the works) it actually worked out for me. I found my wife, got a whole lot closer to my family, especially my dad, got taught some very big life lessons, and ultimately learned humility. Looking back at it now, it was all a good thing for me.


On to the Soccer:
Well, enough about me, at least for now, lets talk about the game.
I am a huge Real Salt Lake, AC Milan, Manchester United, and Real Madrid fan. This blog will mostly be about those teams, with a lot of emphasis on RSL.

Well, thats it for now. My first soccer related post will be on the RSL vs Houston match (had the nats won it would have been about them).


Cheers,
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