The Cellar - Been a bit busy lately

so I haven't been around much but here are the most interesting events of my life in the last 6 months.

I've spent years assembling and training a particularly skilled set of soccer players including Lil Lookout. One particular family became a downright cancer during the spring of 09 but the club wouldn't allow me to remove them from the team so they stayed. The cancer grew and grew until in December I was removed as the coach for the team. The basic problem was that I just wouldn't let two boys rise to their "proper star status". The main piece of evidence was that Lil Lookout was the leading scorer for two years. Let's ignore that he also led in assists during that same time period. Silly me, I was trying to build a well balanced squad built on a one and two touch passing system preparing them for the increasingly competitive environment as they got older. Most of the families still wanted me to be the coach but they lacked the balls to stand up to their friends. They asked me to move the boys from the loyal families to another club but I told them I believed the boys should finish the season with the club they started.

Anyway, Lil Lookout and K who were the leaders in both goals and assists for more than two years, were effectively frozen out from the day I was removed as coach. The team quit passing and started playing through the two new stars who led the team to... exactly 1 goal and zero wins in 22 games.

So I decided I would just leave coaching permanently and enjoy being dad. K's dad said "where Lil Lookout goes, K goes". We left the team at the end of the season and went to some tryouts at other clubs. The parents who stayed behind actually laughed and told us the only reason LL and K were ever on the team was because I was coach. OOOOOK. They flat out said in front of the boys that they wouldn't make it on any other team without the rest of the team to carry them. OOOOOOK.

LL and K went to tryouts for 3 teams and were offered spots on each. Then I started getting phone calls from clubs they hadn't tried out for asking us to bring the boys to check things out.

The result? LL and K were recruited (didn't go begging to get on) and moved straight into the first team for the number one ranked team in the state. who has won so many tournaments they now are required to enter tournaments at least one age bracket above their own. Did I mention that it is also the number one ranked Club in the state? and in the top 10 in the nation? And is a part of the feeder for one of the big four in England?

yeah, I'm a proud papa. I've coached both those boys since they were 3 years old and now my work is done. Those boys have earned their way into something special.