Ups and Downs - Life.

A week of ups and downs.    Life's is like that.   Let me tell you why.......

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High school soccer started on Monday.

Hogwarts meets soccer

I mean, this is a guy who spent the summer absorbing every ounce of coaching genius from Paul Heffer and the West Ham Academy Team and now gets to impart this on a bunch of unsuspecting Indiana lads. It's beyond 'kid in a candy store' - it's like 'kid overdosing on a number of stimulant based yet barely legal drugs in a candy store where every piece of candy makes Wonka look like a wet weekend in Wigan and being served by Bobby Moore holding the World Cup and asking if I'd like to have a kick around with 40 years of classic West Ham players'. I know. You think I am mad. When you love a team this much and then have access to the magic formula, it takes a while to deal with it. Great start for the ISI lads. 20 back for the pre-season sessions. Best soccer field in Indiana thanks to Mike Ryan.

Down

U15 Lads warming down

I love the ISI lads but I have to re-adjust my expectations. Three weeks ago I was coaching the likes of Phillip Tran - U15 and fantastic. I had a group of U15 players at the WHUIA National Camp that would have made North Central / Carmel / Evansville etc plead for mercy. ISI boys were solid but need a couple of weeks to catch the wave. I wish they were my mates when I was a kid. We'd play until dark and my mum would shout 'Matthew' to end the game. Everyday. All day. Nevertheless, it is a pleasure working with the likes of both Sams, Brian, Ross, Conner and the lads.

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An great email from Paul Heffer. Paul is the Assistant Director of the West Ham United Academy. He is quite simply a genius. Paul was happy with the outcome of the National Camp and Darlington. It was a great camp and my mission is to get more ISI, Indianapolis soccer players going to that camp, especially from the Hispanic and African American population for my town. Why? Soccer is a working class / poor mans' sport. Example (although Hammers fans will be mad with me!) Paul Ince was an academy player but not really performing up to scratch as a lad. It turned out he was eating nothing but McDonalds as he lived with his Grandma, so West Ham sorted his diet out and things changed. Despite being 'set up' by the media during his move to Manchester United, Paul went on to represent England and be the first black captain of England and first black coach of a Premier League Club (Blackburn). 


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Fancy a danish pasty after this lot?

My bloody kids. So going on 6 but getting a little too feisty for me. Example. Henry gets his haircut for the second time at 'cookie cutters' and is not happy. His fringe (bangs - please someone explain to why that is the name in the US - muppets) is wonky / crooked. Henry, to the amazement of the cookie cutters store says....
"this haircut is shit"
and
"this haircut sucks like space"

Now, here is my problem with the last statement. It does and it does. It was a crap haircut and space, due to the lack of absolutely anything in space really does suck. It's a vacuum. What do I do? Punish my son for use of profanity and an offensive analogy or a high five for accurate assessment of the hairdressing skills of said so called 'professsional' and an excellent 'bad haircut - vacuum of space' analogy that even Stephen Hawkins would have been proud of. 

Welcome to parenthood.

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Hi Dad. Give me a squeeze.

Another Hammers fan on the way. I really do have 6 year old triplets who are mad Hammers fans. So now I have a fourth. 14 weeks as of today and the little bean is the size of a lemon. It's the most wonderful thing in the world. It's good news for West Ham United too. I am big on tradition. My Grandad Self lived walking distance from Upton Park and my dad would take me to see loads of reserve games with Billy Jennings and Geoff Pike. My other Grandad Clark was a quiet man but formidable. He had Polio as a child (it attacks the nervous system) and was never able to use his left leg. He spent a life walking with crutches, or crunchers as my kids call them. Grandad Clark was strong, he had to be. He rode bikes, drove cars and swam the Thames. When he gave you a hug he would squeeze the life out of you - Hannah, my daughter still asks for a Grandad Clark squeeze. It makes me smile. We even spent time outside the car place in Indy to smell the diesel oil like at my Grandad Self's garage.

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First game of the Championship Season - West Ham United v Cardiff City. I've dropped $65 to have access to 'West Ham United TV' so I get a live radio commentary. The Hammers take 55% of possession, hit the post, have one cleared of the line and yet lose 0-1. I love them still. West Ham till I die. I spent a miserable weekend in Cardiff once, well, Penarth actually. Our Welsh PE teacher, Tony Mescall (see earlier blogs for the full majesty) took a bunch of us to play rugby in Wales. Great experience but scared the crap out of me. Went to the old Cardiff Arms Park and also watched Cardiff play Bedford. Ate corned beef and chips (fries) for dinner and cried at night. I was an 'outside half' - like Johnny Wilkinson (well, actually not like Johnny at all). The scrum half popped the ball out to me and I could......
a) run like a nutter into a wave of significantly bigger kids
b) sacrifice myself to the same wave of death then pass to a team-mate
c) kick it a long way away


Not surprisingly I often chose to kick it. However, there is a catch. In Rugby you cannot play the ball to a team-mate ahead of you. So, if you kick it for someone else who is ahead of you you have to run ahead of them to 'play them onside' as you kick. It would be like that 'clearly I am going to die' charge from the frontline in movies such as Braveheart / Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid or Tora Tora Tora. 


OK. Time to draw things to a close. 
Lots of really great things happening in Indiana re soccer over the next couple of years.
I'm off to Minnesota in a few weeks and hope to chaperone those selected from the WHUIA National Camps to London in the Spring. Manchester United? Well, Manchester City should really worry. What I saw on Sunday was a glimpse of the genius of Sir Alex Ferguson - Nani's first and the the teams second was quite exquisite. The Hammers? Premier League next season for sure. COYI.