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Soccer Poet

Action for Ace

general : Action for Ace : Friday, July 22, 2011

On the eve of our biggest camp of the summer, I jumped on a plane for Pittsburgh, rented a car and made the drive to Bethany, WV – population: one and a half pages of a phone book. Bethany is dead in the summer. It’s a small and quiet town even when the college is in session, but in July, you could pretty much sun bathe in the middle of Main Street without a care in the world. Bethany’s not going to be on anyone’s list of vacation destinations. There’s just not a [...]
Glory Glory HALLELUJAH

general : Glory Glory, HALLELUJAH! : Monday, July 11, 2011

“The difference between fiction and non-fiction is that fiction has to be believable.” So yes, it was going to take something just a little bit special to lure the Poet from his indefinite impasse. The American Idol finale couldn’t do it. The Biggest Loser finale didn’t do it. Cam Newton going pro (again) didn’t do it. The death and disposal of Osama Bin Laden came close, but then again, hadn’t he consumed enough of our time? But yesterday I witnessed [...]
One Year and Wake Forest

general : One Year and Wake Forest : Thursday, April 21, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my best friend and the most talented person you’ve never heard of, Scott Arnold. But I have unshakeable faith that one day Scott will sit down and write the book that will cast him into the stratosphere of celebrity author status next to Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris. Ask anyone who knows him. They’ll tell you the exact same thing. Speaking of famous writers, I am one now. Okay, that’s not even close to being true, but I did have an article [...]
5 Days In The Life

general : 5 Days In The Life : Tuesday, April 12, 2011

THURSDAY Okay, this monkey thing has gotten entirely out of control. I know I don’t post a daily monkey despite a title to the contrary, but believe you me, the pictures folder on my PC has more monkeys than a Lewis Leakey biography. They’re coming in from everywhere. My sense of monkey consciousness has become so deep, so finely tuned that it’s downright scary. Plus we have an army of monkey hunting enthusiasts here in Athens, and when they see a monkey, it comes directly [...]
The Beat

general : The Beat : Tuesday, April 5, 2011

So the Atlanta Beat came to Athens last night (at the time of this writing, last night has faded into last week). It’s not every day that you get to square off with a full-fledged professional team, so even for a spring game, and as much as we didn’t want to admit it, it was kind of a big deal. I mean, how do you not get just a little bit star-struck when Ms. All-Everything, Heather Mitts, is in your backyard? We’re only human. It was a gorgeous night for soccer and all [...]
Truck Stop Jugglers

general : Truck Stop Jugglers : Sunday, March 27, 2011

As you can see in the photo, the brainwashing of Izzy is nearly complete. If you ask her to spell Georgia, she does it in the same cadence as the Bulldog fans. She turned down a birthday party invitation to go watch the Gym Dogs. All that’s left is to wean her off of that dang stuffed alligator she’s so attached to. We may have to accidentally leave it at Chick Fil-A. Believe it or not, I’m actually the idiot that bought that gator for her. It was an hour before her first [...]
March Gladness

general : March Gladness : Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Congrats to the Georgia Bulldogs for getting a bid to March Madness! We’re probably the only bubble team that would be a top four seed if the basketball games were five minutes shorter. Hopefully we’ll continue our run of great starts and add a dash of close-the-door finishes. Women’s basketball is also dancing, so congrats to them, too! And while we’re at it, congrats to our softball and women’s swimming teams which are both ranked #1 in the nation. I guess the [...]
The Beat Monkeys

general : The Beat Monkeys : Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Today I asked Izzy what she learned about in school. She told me that her class was studying the middle ages. I’m big on history so I thought that was pretty cool. I asked for more detail. Well, apparently they talked a lot about a king named William the Carpenter. Yep. I should have mentioned this a couple of entries ago, but a new coach has joined our staff. Athens native and all around good guy Jon Harvey is now the Georgia Bulldogs’ goalkeeping coach. When Nooj left for [...]
The CoachParent

general : The Coach-Parent : Monday, March 7, 2011

Yes, it’s been quiet here lately. Part of that can be attributed to the lack of external stimuli in my soccer world as of late. And a bigger part can be attributed to the surplus of newfound stimuli in my personal life. About two months ago I had what some might call a major life event. Let’s just say that after 42 years of dodging responsibility in remarkable fashion, in December I became an adult. You’ve heard of parent-coaches, right? They’re the parents who [...]

general : Spring Has Sprung : Monday, February 28, 2011

We kicked off our spring season on Saturday by squaring off with a pair of very strong opponents. The way our spring training sessions have been going, the games couldn’t have gotten here soon enough.  Training has been the most intense I’ve seen, which as a coach makes you both happy and a little bit edgy.  You know what they say about familiarity breeding contempt?  Yeah well try being kicked by the same people day in and day out for a few weeks.  You start [...]
Nooj

general : Nooj : Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Sorry it’s been a little bit quiet here lately. It’s just that things have been, well, a little bit quiet. Not too much going on in the soccer world at the moment, which means we start to focus on all those other things we never seem to have the time to get to. Friday I had one of those days when I wish there’d been a camera crew following me around to give an inside look at the world of college coaching. Actually, there’d be no need for a crew. One exceptionally [...]
The Courage of Jill Costello

general : The Courage of Jill Costello : Sunday, January 16, 2011

Sorry for the delay since the last post. You may think that the recent dearth is indicative of the site losing steam, but I can assure you that is hardly the case. On the outside the Poet may seem serene, but under the hood a lot has been happening as we move forward to a newer, better Poet. For starters I wrote a book. Yep. Took me three days. Okay, it’s no Moby Dick, but I can assure you that many a soccer coach (and hopefully some players) will be thankful. I think it is the [...]
Making a Pro

general : Making a Pro : Saturday, January 1, 2011

A year ago I was living in Oxford, MS and one of our graduating Ole Miss seniors, Danielle Johnson (Dee), was a candidate to continue her playing career as a professional in the WPS. We had talked about her post-college career only once while she was still playing. It was early in her senior season and the conversation was brief. I told her that if she wanted to make a run at the pros, I would be happy to help her train. She said she’d like that. And then we agreed we wouldn’t [...]
Ten Things for a Better 2011

general : Ten Things for a Better 2011 : Thursday, December 30, 2010

Happy Holidays! Hope your Christmas was merrier than a Burl Ives claymation special and that your 2011 will be everything you hoped for. As for me, my 2010 closed in sensational fashion, but more about that later. Since the New Year is almost upon us, I thought I would write about 10 things that would make my 2011 even better. 10. The Georgia Bulldogs advance to the College Cup. We’ve lost some incredible seniors, but our cabinet is still well-stocked with talent and determination and [...]
POET MINDBENDER

general : POET MINDBENDER : Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Welcome to the world’s most important intellectual puzzle and a chance to claim the title of Smartest Person of 2010. If you can read this post, then the Mindbender is live and it’s game on! Anyone can play, but only subscribers can compete for the really cool prize. First one to submit all the correct answers… wins. That simple. If you don’t understand the puzzle, READ THIS. There were several solution submitted for the preview puzzle posted in the last entry: 4 = [...]