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.