The Man vs. The Machine

This afternoon I got to run practice as our head soccer coach is also the cross country coach, and was at a meet today. So, I got to oversee the 26 players on our roster as we get ready to wrap up the regular season. My JV kids will play tomorrow in their final game before they final varsity game of the year on Saturday. So, we got practice taken care of, and I'm not sure the varsity kids like me much anymore. Maybe I should clarify, I'm not sure they ever did like me. At any rate, we did some running. Ok, we did lots of running, but at least it was their own fault for missing penalty kicks. 24 foot goal, 12 yards away, only you and the goal keeper. Tough? Only for our team, apparently. The usual success rate is between 85% to 90%. Ours is more like 60%. Only took us about half an hour of shooting and running to get it all taken care of. So, what does this have to do with a machine you ask? Well, that part came after the practice was over and the kids departed.

It is the coach's job to not only do practice, coach the kids during the game, and yell at the referee (that one is usually optional, although judging by my last few games I've refereed, I think it's become mandatory recently....). It's also their job to make sure the field is ready to be played on before the game. So, I got to paint the field for the first time this year prior to our game tomorrow night. It's not too bad, the lines are too wavy. At least they aren't any wavier then when the head coach does it. But, the problem was with just a couple lines to go, the painter quit working properly. It decided it wasn't going to paint properly, and kept plugging up at the nozzle where the paint comes down to the grass. So, we had a little "fight" about it. As one of the volleyball coaches said, "It looks like the painter won." Well, I'm happy to report, the painter didn't win. My response was, "The painter didn't win, but every battle does come with some casualties." If you're wondering, we have to repaint the field about once a week, whether we want to or not. But, the field, as you would guess, it all grass. I wonder how long it takes line paint to wear off of fingers.....and hands and arms....

Running

If you have never visited despair.com, you need to. I read several of these "demotivators" several times over, and still laugh every time. This one describes me, not so much because of the girl in the picture, but because I'm the guy in the back fading away from the pack. I went out for the incredibly long run today. Now, I'll be honest. I don't like running that much. It's not the worst thing ever, like cleaning out grain bins with a layer of rotten corn or beans on the bottom or anything like that. In fact, it's not even close to that bad, but still, not on the list of things I love doing. So, I ran somewhere around 7 miles this morning after I got off working the early shift at work. Ok, so it was only really 2.5 miles, but it felt like 7! The past week I'd agreed to run a half marathon in the Black Hills in June, and this afternoon I'm reconsidering that agreement. I know I should, and I know that running is good for me, and I can do it easily and pain free, so I really should to stay active, but I'll always be that slow guy in the back of that picture chasing things that are way too far out in front. In fact, that picture might be my cousins running away from me when we do the half marathon in June. Anyhow, I agreed to do it because I know I should for my benefit, so I'm going to stick to it, at least until I do my 4 mile run. After I figure out how tired I'll be only doing 1/3 of race distance, then I'll reconsider it again at that time.

Another Job Update...

After today, there is really no new changes, I'm ending my full time tenure at the station, however, it will not be a complete severance. I have been asked and agreed to, outside of my regular job, do some of the sports broadcasts and will still be the webmaster of the websites. This is a new development, but it is nice to include these items in limited terms, with a new plan to keep me doing some radio, and it is good that I'm going to hopefully get to do a handful of games through the season, and I'm going to look forward to that. There are still some bugs to be worked out, but I feel good that we will get these things taken care of before next Friday.

Season Endings....

Well, it's hard to believe but the end of the soccer season is rapidly approaching. In 2 weeks, the state tournament will be in full swing. With our group of guys, I felt that 7 wins this season would put us in a good position at state. Now, we are beyond that and looking for 9 wins with 2 games remaining. This Saturday night we head down to Mitchell. I can remember playing those games under the lights at Mitchell Christian. It was always a great rivalry game, and for four years, we would go down there for a road game on their homecoming. That was when I was a freshmen through my senior year. Since then, Mitchell Christian combined with Mitchell to become the Mitchell United, and this year, they split again to give Mitchell Christian their own team back. It's going to be exciting to head down there again and hopefully renew a rivalry.

Our JV season will end this Tuesday. We hope to get one more win before we wrap it up. So far, after the last loss (which I was not present for due to a refereeing commitment) leaves my coaching record at 1-5. When you have so many 7th graders, it can be tough to keep up with a much bigger school, but our kids make a great effort to play the game hard. So, the focus goes more to the ending of the soccer season now, as we get ready to trim the varsity roster down in the next couple of weeks and head to State in Aberdeen. Our first game there will be two weeks from today.

The changing....

As some of you were quite surprised by the previous post, and I received several inquiries about what I was going to do next, so here is the updates. I've taken a job in Mitchell as a computer support technician at Martin Group. The road to get here has been quite interesting, and I will be finished at the radio station on October 3. I will then be in the Huron area through October 12. Following that, I will be moving down to Mitchell, and will begin this new job on October 13. The timing worked out so that I could finish the soccer season without any problems or hitches. It is set to be an interesting winter....

Breaking News....

This may not come as a surprise to a couple of you, but I thought that I would share with everyone that today, I resigned from my position at Performance Radio. This will be effective October 3. More details will be posted soon....

Bees

First it was the ant invasion. Then, the crickets which are almost completely gone now. Once in a great while I will still hear one chirping, and I can't help but chuckle that all the others are dead, so there is no friend out there. Now, the bees have taken over my vehicles. In the Blazer, it doesn't matter because they are on the outside. But, that is having electrical problems right now with the tail lights, and I'm down to one mode of transport. On the motorcycle, they bees can be more of a problem. Not so much while driving, but while it's warming up in the morning, and when I got out of work today, they had followed me there and were still hovering around the bike. Well, it's no big deal, right? I mean, they won't sting you if they aren't antagonized, right? Well, I am not trying to antagonize them, but obviously something on the bike attracts them, and they are gonna get mad at me sooner or later when I keep moving it. It wouldn't be as big a deal, but I am pretty sure I'm gonna swell up like a marshmellow once one of them stings me, and I think it's only a matter of time. Ants, I can deal with. Crickets, while annoying, can be dealt with. Bees, no thank you, they cause pain.

Cross town rivals.

I don't think that it is any surprise that the game between us and Huron is a big rivalry game. It's turned out to be more and more in the past several years, but if I remember correctly, we began this in 1997 with a win, and I don't know the all time series record, but I'm pretty sure we have the upper hand, and put another one in the win column today, but not without a fight. We won 3-0, for our fourth shutout of the year. The defense was tough and physical, and fast, which matched everything they had on the attack at us. Our offense was well matched with their defense, and it took an own goal against Huron to open the scoring in the second half. Actually the play of the game was the first half when our goal keeper came out to try to stop a breakaway, and got beat with the forward putting the shot to the net, but our sweeper Ryan (who also happens to be my cousin) never gave up on the play and chased the shot all the way to the goal to bring it back out with a sliding kick save. Best play I've seen this year, hands down. That got a little fire going, and the second half we broke through and never looked back. We are now 7-2, with four games left to play. Our toughest spot of the season is now, with back to back tough games, and two others that we must show up for and be competitive.

On a junior varsity note, I'd figure that we'd have a tough time today, and we did. We were again match up against sophomores and freshmen, so the 7th graders were somewhat outmatched. Some of the eighth graders were too. It's a good time to teach teamwork and being a team, even when the going is tough. And tough it was, we lost 9-1. Our goal scored on a Penalty kick with no time left. It was nice to avoid the shutout, and the kids did take some pride in that. Now we go on the road too, Sioux Falls and Freeman next Thursday and Saturday. I'm lovin' the whole coaching thing....

My first win....

It felt kind of like I was a kid again. My JV soccer team won tonight for my first coaching win of my career. I now have a career record of 1-2. We are going to hit the challenging part of our schedule now though, because I'd bet that Huron's JV team will be tough, and I'm guessing the Sioux Falls JV team will be tough also, and we have two games against them in a row. Freeman has a team we might be able to edge out a couple wins against, so we will have to pull it together and play well here in a tough stretch in mid-September. Ohh, and for anyone who might care about the varsity they are 6-2 and look good to qualify for state, again if you're into the whole varsity thing. I hope you can read the sarcasm into that sentence. Actually, the varsity team has been quite good recently, allowing just 2 goals in our last 5 games. The defense we have put together is quite stout, and I like it that way. Of course, I come from the defensive background, sweeper and goalkeeper, so I preach defense until I'm out of breath. Tomorrow is the game we wait all year for. We play the cross town rival, the evil empire of Huron. We are looking to avenge a loss from last season, a winnable game for us at home, and we let it go, so we are out for the revenge of this year. Noon kickoff tomorrow (Saturday).

They do things differently in Huron....

Tonight I attended the homecoming coronation for Huron. I'd not seen them do this before, and I often wondered how things like that were done elsewhere. Well, it was quite interesting. First of all, I wouldn't have been there if it hadn't been for having to work the first part of the volleyball game. I got to the be the pre-game show host. That's it. I went and did all the grunt work, gathered interviews, got the coaches records, key players, keys to the game, and all the things that people hear and find interesting during the broadcast. Then, for the part I love the most, the play-by-play, I got booted. Duffy came in and pushed me right out to take all the glory right away from me. Boo on him for that. But at least I got to meet the Brookings coach, she was a very nice girl. I think that might be a rule, that if you're gonna coach in volleyball at Brookings, you have to be young and attractive. That was my big plus for the evening.

Anyhow, the whole coronation thing is quite a ceremony. First, they go through every team and team member from football, to volleyball, to soccer, to the special Olympians. They had their own place too. Then, the candidates, and they kill the lights the old king and queen go and crown the new ones in the dark, and when the lights come back on, there are the new king and queen standing in front. It was indeed quite an interesting series of events.

So, now on to the weekend. It's gonna be a busy one again. I was wrong on my earlier schedule. Apparently, I'm going to have to go remind my grandmother that the big celebration for her and grandpa's 60th wedding anniversary is not this Sunday, like she told me originally, it's actually next Sunday. So, mark that off, instead I'll have soccer games to coach Friday and Saturday, and who knows what all else I'll throw in there too.

Post 100!

This ever growing little blog has now exceeded 100 posts. So, I wondered what I could do that was special to celebrate, and came up with very little in terms of Ideas. So, I'm just gonna keep on moving through the week, and despite it being busy, I've been keeping up quite well. The busiest of the week is coming up soon though. Tomorrow and Saturday we are gonna be busy with 4 soccer games, two for my JV kids and two for the varsity. I got to watch USD smash a school from Nebraska last night, so that wasn't excessively fun. Anyhow, tonight, homecoming coronation at Huron after the volleyball game, which I'll be hosting the pre-game show for tonight at 6:30.

Unwelcome visitors

Lately, I've been fending off insanity from crickets. Apparently, some of the crickets from the neighborhood won the bid to hold the 2008 "Cricket Chirping Championships." It has been the most annoying past 3 weeks of my life. Apparently, it happens to be over now, with the crickets no where to be found now this evening. Usually this is where they are at their peak annoyance. I'm just glad they are gone now. Well, I must continue on with my busy week as it continues. Tonight is my one night of nothing on the schedule, and after tonight it gets tough. Tomorrow our varsity team will travel to Groton for the 6:00 contest. Wednesday, I am supposed to be on the road refereeing, and Thursday is homecoming at Huron, and I'm part of the volleyball broadcast team. Friday night, soccer continues, and Saturday we have games as well early in the day, then I might try to get back to SDSU in the evening for football. Sunday caps off my Grandparents anniversary celebration, so I might not get to do much Saturday if we are setting up for that in the afternoon. Anyhow, 60 years of marriage for my grandparents. Props to them. Ohh, and happy birthday to my mother too. She celebrates tomorrow. I don't even know how old she is, bit it doesn't matter. I wonder if this means I don't have to buy her a present if I mention her on this prestigious (or whatever kind of) blog.

On the road again

I'm quite sure that I've put more miles on my suv now in the past 2 days than I have all summer. It had to make a couple of nice long trips here recently, one to Sioux Center, IA for a soccer match that I was in the referee crew for on Wednesday. Went down there and did a women's game and a men's game back to back. That will get a guy tuckered out after a while. But, after making it home by 12:30, it was a new day yesterday which included working, running soccer practice since the head coach was out of town with his other coaching (cross country) duties, and another road trip to Watertown for a volleyball match last night. So, I've ended up with roughly 500 miles in distance travelled in the past 2 days, and I know I've not put that many miles on the Trailblazer since June, so it was a pretty big switch. This weekend, cannot let up though, I'll be coaching 2 games this afternoon and tomorrow morning, then on to Sioux Falls for more college games Sunday. Fall seems to be here, and it's the busy time of year, thus why I post at 7:30am.....not quite sure why I'm awake this early....

Goodbye Summer.....

It's been said the State Fair is unofficially the end of summer with Labor Day now behind us (almost), and the rest of fall now to go. I spent 3 days at the fair this year. Thursday I combined work with some fun while I was there. Got to work for the station and see some friends and hang around with them for a while. Sunday and Monday the only things i really saw were the customers at the smoothie stand. I worked in the food court so we served corn dogs also. It's tougher to work that with the different products and sizes of drinks and corn dogs, so that's obviously why I was placed there. It was fun. I'd worked with most of the crew before when I did this, and it was fun to talk with them and play tricks and joke around with everyone. I went home both nights covered in strawberries from the smoothies. Now tomorrow, it's back to work for the fall season, and it will be a quick kickoff to it. I've got soccer practices, two games to referee in Iowa, a volleyball game to commenate on, and 2 more soccer games this weekend. All that in a short week. But, as a man told me at the fair, there will still be some time left to find trouble....

Photo Credit: Tiny Trav's Photography (via facebook). Image not used with permisison.