Soccer Poet

When I woke this morning there were certain things I’d never expect to happen. Like me running a four minute mile (or a 5, 6 or 7 minute mile for that matter). I never would have expected to see a hummingbird play the oboe and I certainly never ever imagined that we would hang five goals on a Big 12 team. But sure enough, the Dawgs put on a pretty convincing performance to beat Kansas 5-0. Before the game I spoke to the team about how flat we looked coming out of the gate on Friday [...]

The drive home on Friday night is so much more enjoyable after a win. Sincerely. Top down, cool breeze and the feeling of satisfaction from a job well done. It’s a little slice of heaven I tell ya. Tonight was our first win of the season and for Steve and me, our first as coaches at Georgia. And from the moment we potted our third goal, my life has been the most wonderful and relaxing thing a coach could hope for. I’d guess that 90% of the games I’ve been involved with [...]

Monday. Late. I hope this is a short one. Came home from work today and the craziness of preseason and these 7 A.M. training sessions finally caught up with me. I hit the wall to the tune of a 15 minute nap that magically turned into a two hour one. Thus explaining why I am up two hours past my bed time and why I’m dreading tomorrow morning. If I fell asleep right this second I would get a max of 5.5 hours of sleep. Except we both know that I’m not falling asleep right this [...]

It’s Sunday. Preseason has officially ended which means the lives of coaches across the country finally fall back into a rhythm with some semblance of normalcy, relatively speaking. To be fair, not having a Sunday game made today the least hectic Sunday I’ll see for a while, but I wasn’t worrying about that when I walked barefoot onto the back deck and threw that ribeye on the grill. For the first time in a long time, today there was no rush to do anything. Today offered up a [...]

This weekend my oldest nephew, Justin, begins his days as a college student at the University of Hartford. So WooHoo to that! When I left for college no one gave me a whole lot of good advice (or any advice really). To be fair, I was the first in our brood to actually go to college so there wasn't a lot of life-experience to be passed down. But I know I could've used some pointers. So tonight I took it upon myself to flatten out the learning curve and pass on some pearls of wisdom. [...]

UGA 1 FSU 1 Okay… new coaches, new system, new style and 14 rookies. All that against the nation’s #6 team (according to the preseason poll) and the defending ACC champions. Let’s just say that my wish-list for our scrimmage with Florida State was pretty modest. I was hoping we would play well and leave Tallahassee with our players believing that their new coaches aren’t idiots and that we were all on the right track. That’s what I was hoping. Then [...]

Tomorrow morning the Dawgs are bussin’ it to Tallahassee for a preseason duel with Florida State on Friday night. Talk about a baptism by fire. The Seminoles have been among the nation’s elite for the past few years, in no small part due to the success of their international recruiting efforts. We know they’ll be talented and technical and skillful and patient and that they’ll try their best to make us chase and chase. I’m not concerned with the result… [...]

So let’s just say the first week of preseason is behind us. The days all run together at this point, but I know tonight is Sunday, and Monday starts a new week, so our first week, although abbreviated on the front end, is over. Like several thousand other college soccer players across this nation, the Dawgs went to bed Tuesday night dreading the fitness test that awaited them on Wednesday morning. And for good reason. Fitness tests are freaking hard. No way around it. Plus [...]

So it’s here. Preseason 2010 has finally, and I do mean FINALLY arrived. Coach Holeman and I were very excited about coming to UGA when we were hired back in mid-April. We knew we had scored one of the premier gigs in all of college soccer. So we hurried to get packed and get to Athens. Then we got here. And then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. It was like being 3 months early to your own surprise party. We knew we were going to be coaching a group of very talented [...]

“...that MIG really messed him up.” - Top Gun That quote from Top Gun was the only thing I could think of when I said my last goodbye, to Scott (Scott has always been my last goodbye), and headed off campus and back for the Newark Airport. That MIG was my homecoming weekend, and I had one drive and two flights to sort out all that was going through my head... and through my heart. On the flight from Newark to Atlanta my pen took over. One photo. That’s all [...]

This entry originally appeared in my previous blog. It was one of the most popular entries so I've reposted it here. Steele popped by the office today to kill some time. She asked, “Coach, what were you like in high school?” When you’re closing in on forty and someone serves that pitch over the plate, you’re going to swing for the fences. I went to a prep school, which among its numerous distinctions, wins the award for most pretentious sounding: The Hun [...]

Soccer iQ - The first great book for soccer PLAYERS Do you want to be a smarter soccer player? Then read on. I’ve written a book for you. It’s easy to read. The chapters are short. And best of all, it will immediately make you a better, smarter soccer player. I’ve spent the past 22 years cataloging the most common tactical mistakes in youth, high school and college soccer. Soccer iQ addresses these mistakes. Each chapter presents a situation, tells you the mistake most [...]

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After about 30 minutes in development, here is the official Soccer Poet bumper sticker! I only had enough money to make like a hundred of them, so we may as well call them limited edition collector’s items. They look great on your car, your friend’s car, your skateboard or that fridge in your dorm room. UPDATE! Want one?  Just email me your address and either a review of Soccer iQ or a pic of Soccer iQ in some interesting setting, like on your team bus... or on top of Space [...]

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