An End to the Glorious Weekend

A beautiful Sunday, sunny and warm.  Too little too late though to make much of a difference in the tournament.  The U13s got absolutely manhandled by a very, very good St Louis SC team (which was a good experience for the Bangu players and the parents involved), and then I finally got to take in some U14 action.

I saw the Hawks (MI) play FC Milwaukee (WI) for about 20 minutes, then headed over to another field to see St Louis SC (MO) play CASL (SC).  The Hawks game was on a full side field, the SLSC game was played on a shortened field, about 100x 70, due to wet conditions surrounding that field.  It was a very good game, at least the part I saw, given the field constraints.  I finished up the morning by watching the Mustang girls from Cali battle Carmel (IN).  Not the 10 hours of U14 soccer watching I was hoping for this weekend, but at least I got a bit of a taste of what else is out there.

More Driving Than Soccer

I arrived at the Libertyville field complex around 7:45AM for our 9:00AM scheduled kick off.  Once again, no one was there to take my $5 for parking.  Nice!  Once again, I was bewildered by the lack of cars in the parking lot and once again was stopped by the tournament volunteer, waving me down with a sheepish grin, the feigned grin that one wears when they know they have to give news that people aren’t going to like.  Ah, good morning the volunteer says after I rolled my window down.  Is it?  I ask.  Ah, well, all morning games have been cancelled.  They are working on the revised schedule and should have it for you at the tent down the road.

What the…?!?!  Couldn’t they at least try to make contact with the team coaches/managers and let them know earlier that this?  So I got on the phone with the manger and let her know to try and corral the girls and their families before they all left the hotel.  Too late.  Real fun.

I headed over to the tournament tent to find out that that first round of games for the U13 age group had been moved to the Geneva Township fields, the complex an hour away from our hotel.  The Eclipse people had been out all night with wet vacs and squeegees trying to dry out the fields, even renting a helicopter (brilliant!) to try and get the fields in playable condition.  To no avail.  I was also informed that due to the scheduling constraints and trying to give all the teams game time, games would also be cut down to 40 minutes.  There was still no word about the second round of games for the day.  Keep checking the website.

What was really disappointing was the fact that the U14 games were being played at a completely separate venue in Oak Brook at the same time as the U13s so I had absolutely no chance of watching any of those.  Real bummer.

When all was said and done, we drove a hour to Geneva, played a 40 minute game, had to hustle back to Libertyville (an hour) to play our second game of the day at 5:30PM (another 40 minute game) on one of the two semi-playable fields at the main complex.  I say semi-playable because due to the wet conditions, 5 or 6 yards of the field width had to be lined off and were hastily painted with orange paint indicating the revamped sidelines.  It took the girls on both teams about half an hour to adjust to the unfamiliar orange lines and the narrow field (the ref wouldn’t let me put down any disks to help the teams), and by that time the game was done.  Real fun.

No word about the schedule for tomorrow, but the organizers said they would be trying to get everyone 2 games.

So much for my plans of going home on Saturday night.  I figured I was down here and still wanted to see some of the U14 games.  My wife understood and gave me her blessing, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Oh, and with a little help from YouTube and other internet sites for nerds like me, I finally solved the cube!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

A huge storm came through the Chicago area in the early morning hours on Friday.  It had been a wet week, but the clouds were breaking as I headed to the complex to take in a number of the U14 games at 11AM.  I had the day all mapped out.  Which games to see and for how long in order to make sure that I could watch all the U14 teams in attendance.  I was very interested in watching the Mustang Rampage team from California, as well as the Real Colorado team and the PDA Charge (NJ).  I also wanted to see the St Louis SC girls and the Michigan Hawks team as I know they are both top teams in Region II.

As I drove up to the complex, I didn’t see anyone at the entrance.  Sweet!  I can save the $5 weekend parking payment because I’m here so early.  But as I made my way into the 20 field complex, something obviously wasn’t right.  Where were all the cars?  I can’t be that early.  Halfway along the one way circle drive through the complex, I was stopped my a tournament volunteer.  All morning games had been cancelled due to the wet field conditions.  Field changes and future updates would be posted on their website, but the U13 games were likely going to be moved to fields in Geneva, about an hour away.  Perfect.

We had at least half the U13 team driving in that morning from Minnesota and on the road.  If we were going to play in Geneva (western suburb of Chicago), families driving in should alter their route and come through Rockford.  If people stayed on their current route through Milwaukee, they would have another hour of driving to get to Geneva.  A few frantic phone calls and word began to get out to the team.  Most coming in that morning had got an early start and were already past Milwaukee.  The team manger was just passing Madison and turned around, planning on taking I90 through Rockford and meeting the team in Geneva.

An hour later, we got word that all Friday games were cancelled and to keep an eye on the website for tomorrow’s schedules.  By that time it was too late to re-re-route the manager, so they had a nice 8 hour drive into the hotel.  Fun.

A little bowling, a team dinner, and a Rubik’s Cube (one of the girl's younger brother was toting around a cube and I asked to borrow it) saw the rest of the day fly by, still with no word about Saturday’s games.  The girls went to bed planning on getting up for a 9AM game as was on the website’s schedule.

I remember when the Rubik’s cube first came out when I was in 5th grade.  I was immediately hooked by the movable cube and spent many and hour twisting and turning the colored faces trying to hone my technique.  Me and my nerdy friends in junior high school used to take the cube apart and Vaseline the pieces in order to reduce the friction and thus improve on our already stellar sub-one-minute times to complete the puzzle.

Unlike riding a bike however, solving the puzzle in 2007 did not come easily.  I could finish one side, no problem, but I had forgotten the pattern algorithms for aligning the layer 2 edge pieces, permutating and rotating the bottom layer’s corner pieces, etc. that I had spent hours memorizing 25 years ago. 

When I first got the bube from TJ at the team dinner, I was confident I could solve it.  I ended up returning it to TJ with only one side completed.  Stupid puzzle.  I’ll get you tomorrow!

Looking at the website that night, I was still excited about the prospects for the weekend.  The U14 line up for Saturday looked good, and I would be able to catch a number of the U14 games I wanted to see in between the two U13 games scheduled.  I hit the hay still with a positive attitude about the weekend, trying to quiet my mind and meditate the Rubik’s Cube solutions back to the forefront of my consciousness.  Tomorrow would be a fun day of soccer and cube solving!

Driving, Driving, Driving...

Much to my wife's chagrin, I headed to Libertyville on Thursday afternoon.  Why do you have to go?  You're team's not even playing in the tournament! 

The issue was that the newly formed U13 Blue team's coach, Ben Gaddis, had fall colligate coaching commitments with UW River Falls and was unable to fully jump in to partially start with this team until at least September.  Our Girls Coaching Director (Mark Cook) was out of town, so it fell to Andy Kaasa (who coached a number of these girls last year in the East Academy) and myself to take the reigns.  It was disorganized at best with this age group due their coach and coaching director not around, and Andy and I felt a need to try and make this first experience a good one for the families. 

However, Andy, with HS commitments, could not get to Libertyville until close to midnight on Friday, so the plan was for me to cover the U13s on Friday afternoon as, as was initially no problem as until this past Monday,  I was going to be there anyway with the U14s.  Even though the U14s pulled out, I still needed to cover the U13s.  I tried to explain this to my wife, but it wasn't easy :)

Happy to help out the U13s, I was just as interested in seeing the U14 age group play.  What was so great about this event is that all the games were played at one complex and we had worked hard to secure a hotel within a few miles of the facility.  I planned on watching a number of the U14 games on Friday, take the U13s for their 2:30PM game, watch more soccer, have Andy arrive on Friday night, co-coach the U13s for two games on Saturday while watching more U14 action, then driving home Saturday night to leave Andy with the U13s on Sunday.  Alas, all great plans are thrown to the wind once the battle begins.

* * * * *

I love the 3 - 6 hour drives to near-by regional events.  It's all me time as I stuff my face with coffee, sun flower seeds, SoBe, and fast food.  I had a great Book on CD, as well as a shoe box full of cassette tapes.  Yes, I said cassette tapes.  Man, those are almost in the same Jurassic park category as 8-tracks now.   

Back in the early 2000's after retiring from the professional playing ranks, I didn't have much to do.  Without soccer to occupy my everyday, I looked to pursue my other dream - to become a rock superstar!

My ascent to music stardom had an auspicious start at best.  In third grade, I was forced into violin by my parents (and later into piano).  I absolutely hated the stringed instrument.  I couldn't make the stupid thing even come remotely close to sounding in tune no matter how hard I tried.  I liken the sounds I produced to those of a mating (or dying) domestic feline.  I dreaded going to our neighbors for private Suzuki Method lessons (titty titty ta ta, titty titty ta ta), and more than once thought about smashing the expensive piece of polished woodwork into a thousand pieces.  I “accidentally” dropped it once in 5th grade, but then experienced first-hand the “benefits” of musical instrument insurance and was utterly disappointed on how quickly the violin was replaced. 

In 7th grade, I joined (well, I was forcefully enlisted into) the junior high school orchestra and was surrounded by 30 others nerds who, like me, couldn’t make the stupid string instruments make music.  There were 12 of us in the violin section, and only one knew how to play.  She obviously sat First Chair (the place of honor for the most proficient musician) and her name was Becky DeBuss.  Becky is surly a violin virtuoso somewhere today.  I wonder if she still wears those Coke-bottle thick eyeglasses?

Though the rest of us in the violin section despised our instruments, we were all fully aware when we listened to Becky that we were in the presence of greatness.  Our orchestra teacher, Ms Danielson bless her heart, tried her best to work with us, but it was difficult to control the cacophony of sound (save from Becky's instrument) as the rest of our violin and viola bows kept glancing off our head gear or pocket protectors and hitting incorrect strings. 

On top of this all, my violin case became a badge of my nerdism in the junior high hallways and a magnet for all the 9th grade bullies.  It was like there was a Sim's arrow hovering over me constantly that said "Kick me".  Actually, it would have said “Check Me Hard Into the Lockers!”  Moreover, the stupid instrument hampered my usual cat-like agility, so though I would dance out of hip checks into lockers more often than not, the bullies knew that if I was carrying my violin case I was easy prey.  Man, I felt sorry for the cellists.   

Our first concert my 7th grade year for the parents in the auditorium was comical at best.  I knew I couldn't play a lick so most of the concert was spent with me feigning the bowing and the fingering with my rosened up bow moving back and forth a hair's breath above the strings without ever touching them.  It was sheer brilliance!  Even Ms Danielson, who clearly knew what I was doing, smiled at me.  Thank you, you nerd, for not completely ruining our performance! 

Wonder if the parents could tell that out of the 12 violinists, only one or two were actually producing any sound, as being very intellectual nerds as they were, most of the violin section quickly picked up on my geniusness and feigned playing.  Actually, the parents must have figured it out because every time Becky stood for her violin solo, it sounded exactly the same as when the full section was supposedly playing. 

Now if I was a band geek, I think I could have pulled this off without a hitch.  It would have been easy to fake fingering when playing a saxophone or trumpet.  However, when the video of the orchestra concert was transmitted to all the home room classes the next day, it was obvious that something was not right with the violin section.  When Becky's bow was at the bottom of her down stroke, mine looked to be projecting 2 stories into the air.  When Becky would hold a long, drawn out note with a slow, fluid bow stroke, mine would be changing direction like I was playing triplets. 

I'm sure you can guess what happened next.  Yep!  Me and my nerd air-violin virtuosos still never played a note, but we all focused on Becky to make sure our bows were doing what her bow did.  Up when hers was up, down when hers was down.  We were a bit slow to pick up on the changes at first, but we honed our skill so that the delay between Becky's changes and ours would never have been picked out by the untrained eye.  It was hard work, but we did it!  Looking back at it now, if we put that much effort into actually learning the stupid instrument, we might have actually been decent.

Where was I going with all this???  Oh yeah, rock stardom. 

At the first party of my high school years (10th grade) I had an epiphany.  I noticed a bunch of people crowded around the bonfire.  To be more specific, I noticed Gaye Sterrioff, the mintest girl in school, and her entourage of other smoking hot babes there.  I sauntered in that direction, proudly displaying my Bartles and James Wild Berry wine cooler, to see what they were all goggling at. 

There on a couple of tree stumps sat Jamie Gathje and Scott Nargan strumming away on acoustic guitars. The girls gazed at them in complete adoration and that was that.  From that point on, I knew the guitar was the instrument for me and the way I was going to score all the babes.

OK, I know I’ve gone off on a little tangent here.  I’ll try to find my way back to the drive to Chicago. 

After I retired from the Thunder and didn’t have much else going on, it provided an opportune time to pursue my rock star dream.  My problem was that my buddies that I hung out with had no clue about music.  I had collected a ton of music gear over the last decade; a full drum kit, 5 or 6 guitars, a bass, electronic key board, PA system and mics, amplifiers, and more.  I moved into a cool place in uptown (Minneapolis) and set everything up in my basement.  It wasn’t long before I convinced my long time teammate Amos Magee (now current MN Thunder coach) and another buddy of ours, Ross Hoaglund, to try and pick up and learn the different instruments.  Ross and Amos both showed tremendous musical ability and fairly soon our band was up and running.

For a good three years we were together and produced many a top 10 hit that unfortunately will never be aired on mainstream radio… though they were for sure good enough to be.  A year into it, we began looking to record our sessions.  Not one of us had much cash, so our initial investment into high tech recording came in the form of a $12.99 purchase of a walkman-type recorder from Walgreen’s Drug Store.  We had some great times, playing and recording music into the wee hours of the morning, then heading upstairs to play cards and huddle around the tiny recorder to listen to our sessions played back.  Ah, the good old days. 

Anyway, life happened and we all moved on to different things.  I still have crates of our recorded jamming sessions, and road trips allow me time to reminisce.  Believe it or not, I still have the same recorder.  The absolute best investment I’ve ever made.  I plug my $200 Bose headphones into the $12.99 device and I’m off!  A 6 or 7 full cassette tapes later, I’m passing 6 Flags and looking for the hotel exit in Illinois.