There is no "off" season in Soccer

Who could have known that teaching is such a tiring activity.. probably the 20 or so teachers in my extended (and immediate) family. I spent 3 hours on Friday, 9 on Saturday, and 8 on Sunday teaching referee class. 3/4 of the 35 or so students were under 18, yet they were quite a good bunch of students.

I guess in this picture most of the students look bored, sleeping, dazing, day-dreaming, or otherwise uninterested. That is probably because they are just finishing or have just finished a 50 question multiple choice test and a pretty boring test at that. In the end this class saw about 22 new grade 9 (recreational) referees certified with USSF after 12 hours of being stuck with me as an instructor.

This is the smaller group on Sunday that was either recertifying as a grade 8 referee or upgrading from a grade 9 to grade 8. I ended up with 9 folks taking this class and only 3 of them were not 18 or older. This class is a bit more fun for me since a lot of the class already has referee experience and we don't have to cover in painstaking detail all the little details of the lawbook. At any rate, we got 9 more referees either certified or recertified in this class. Then at the end of class we got the update that the USA men's hockey team had tied the game in the last minute, so everyone rushed off to try and watch OT, though I only made it home in time to hear the bad news.

In other news, I tipped the scales Monday March 1st at 199.5 lbs after my 5 mile run. My original goal was to hit 200lbs by the end of January, but since I wasn't able to really start conditioning and workouts seriously until almost the end of January, that goal was pushed until the end of February. Besides this past weekend where I was stuck in a classroom each day, all day, I have been pretty strict with a minimum of 4 core workouts a week (sometimes 6) for 40-60 minutes and a minimum of two 5 mile runs a week, sometimes 3, and two 90 minute games of lunch bunch basketball at the YMCA, and 2.5 hours of indoor soccer on Sunday night when I am in town. So far this week: I ran yesterday and today, 5 miles both times, on the treadmill. I plan basketball Wed/Fri and another 5 mile run on Thursday and hopefully some outdoor running on the track on Saturday. (the weatherman is promising 40F and sun) And then I plan to start next week with Sunday night indoor soccer.

I've been accepted to Jefferson Cup as a referee on both the boys and girls weekend, so I will start getting back into referee mode here in a week and a half. Shortly thereafter the spring club season and assigning duties start as well as college spring friendly games. I also got my official paperwork back from NISOA saying I was accepted into the NRP program and if I send them some more $$ I will be at Elizabethtown National Referee Camp this summer.

In a little family news update, Sarah and the kids and I will be traveling to the DC/VA area over spring break to visit with Sarah's uncle and to do some touristing in DC - and then Sarah and the kids are going to stay with her uncle while I travel down to Richmond for Jeff Cup. Harrison has two more indoor soccer games left and I'm hopeful he will get at least 1 more goal (especially since I wasn't there for his 2nd goal). I have also signed Harrison up for spring outdoor soccer on a U8 rec team and he is very excited for this. The last time he played outdoor soccer he hadn't quite turned 5 and he wasn't very focused!

Safe for work - Lets laugh at soccer players and refs!

-John

Welcome to my blog!

Seems like just yesterday that I posted on this thing last, but I guess it was a month ago. I guess I'm not very dedicated to my blog - probably because my blog is terrible..

Yes, that is Harrison moving so fast on the court that he is entering a time warp and moving Back to the Future. Harrison has had 4 soccer games now which means we have played the other 3 teams once each and one team twice. The team we played twice is the "best" team. They have 2 dominant boys (co-ed teams with usually 3-4 girls and 4-5 boys per team). So we lost twice to the "best" team and tied a game and won a game. We are not supposed to be keeping score, and winning is not supposed to be "important", but the kids sure keep track and so do most of the adults involved, and surely when coaches have their best players on the floor all the time.. Yes, I'm too competitive for recreational sports and get easily frustrated with unbalanced teams.

At any rate, Harrison is having fun(most importantly) and he scored his first goal this past Sunday (SUPER AWESOME HALF-VOLLEY). We didn't get a live action picture of the score, but I heard it made the ESPN shot of the week reel. Sarah did get some pics of the team and then a little "coaching moment."






In other exciting news, winter has kicked the crap out of PA the last couple of weeks. A week ago Saturday Harrison and I spent 4 hours sledding after we got 14" overnight. That was the storm that all the sissy policitians in DC used as an excuse not to go to work. That storm was followed by another 6-8" the following Tuesday & Wednesday. We have had up to 4' snow drifts. A few days of sun this past week melted a lot, but we still have a lot of snow on the ground, especially where stacked up from plowing and shoveling. And now last night we were getting snow again, expecting 4 or 6" more by tomorrow night. When God deals you a messload of snow, make table top jumps! I built a launch ramp and a nice sledding track in our front yard:








Was good fun for Harrison & Claire. Harrison and I built the 4' table top jump on a much steeper, longer hill at the park - no pictures, sorry. Harrison did outsled the other kids and adults in the neighborhood down at the park - never once wiped out off the table top jump and had the longest 3 runs. He was easily clearing 5-6' vertically and launching 10' out over the jump. Impressive stuff - he admitted he was closing his eyes.







In other not-so-exciting news, I have been keeping a pretty rigid workout schedule. Basketball for 90 minutes Wed/Fri, running 3-4 miles Tue/Thur, 30-40 minute core strength workouts 5 days a week and 2.5 hours of indoor soccer on Sunday evenings after Harrison plays. I've almost lost back the 10 lbs to where I was before the evil Holiday break. This weekend I have a referee meeting in Monroeville and then the following weekend I will teach a grade 9 referee class as well as a grade 9->8 bridge class, both in State College. I'm looking forward to teaching the class in State College since I was getting my appendix out last year and missed the class. I kind of feel like a sissy, however, since Bryan Johnson has like 40 stitches in his foot and changed the fuel pump in his car in the snow like 2 days after major foot surgery. Appendix removal is for kids.

Lets see if I can update this thing again within 1-2 weeks. I didn't feel like posting a youtube about doing Russian twists (which is all I could come up with), so instead I will share one of my favorite quotes:

"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
-George Orwell

First day of Indoor!

Harrison had his first indoor soccer game yesterday. In fact it was the inaugral indoor soccer match for Bellefonte Soccer Association. Things went really well for a first game. The entire team showed up - on time, and all of the kids were really easy to work with and appeared to have fun. We got spanked - while we don't keep track of the score, it was like 8-2. The best part of the whole thing was this: at half-time the kids on my team were making suggestions for a team name. We were getting standard suggestions for a team with a color of blue - blue whales, blue jays, blue dragons, etc. One girl on the team, however, had very direct suggestions for the team name. "Blue Soccer Players" and yes, she even suggested "Blue Balls" AHHhhHHHhhhh. If only to be young and innocent again. We get next Sunday off and then play again on the 24th - I'm hoping to play a team we can beat to help the kids get some morale building.

In other surprising news, the weather in January in central PA SUCKS! I know this may be shocking to many of you. HI temps this weak are forecast in the mid-20's with most nights in the teens or single digits. This makes outside time mostly suck and I try to limit my outdoor time to that which it takes me to travel from some [heated] building to the car.

In referee news there just isn't a lot going on. I've decided to attend the pro clinic in Ohio South for the 2nd year. I also have found an assessor course in MD at the end of the month to attend, so hopefully I will finally become a legitimate assessor.

No youtube videos today - hopefully in my next update I can find some pictures or a good youtube to share.

-John

New Year Resolutions

It is not #1 on my list, but updating this thing once a week or so is one of my goals for this new decade. Since I last updated this thing, lots got done - the house finaled and we moved in (last summer), the college soccer season came and went, and I drove the family out to AZ for the Christmas break. Sarah also finished her first big step in her PhD program - that much closer to Dr. Douglas. Lots of little things in there as well.

In no particular order, some of the goals for this year:

-finish up some details on the inside of the house
-complete all our landscaping needs
-spend more time with the kids
-go shooting more
-go hunting more
-lose 20 lbs
-pass the "new" USSF pro fitness test this spring
-get accepted as a NISOA national candidate
-submit my USSF national candidate paperwork

A little soccer summary for the college season of 2009:

I worked about 55 games including my August pre-season exhibitions. I traveled over 7000 miles for those games. I did about 10 Div. I games. I was the center for the AMCC mens final (Div. III) played in Buffalo, NY. I was the center for 1st round NCAA mens tournament match at Slippery Rock, PA (Div. II). In total I think I worked 6 or 7 post-season games. I also completed the required assessments and other requirements to become a NISOA national candidate.

My NISOA goals for 2010 - referee at least 60 games, at least 15 Div. I, at least 8 post-season. Complete at least 1/2 of my national assessments, work at least one NCAA tournament center. Score a 5 on all parts of the NISOA fitness test. Attend national camp this summer.

A summary of my USSF soccer season:

I didn't do nearly as much as I would have liked, but I did get in a couple pro games. I attended a pro clinic in Columbus in the spring and passed the fitness test (even though I only had ~2 weeks to get in shape after my emergency appendectomy at the end of Feb.) I upgraded to grade 7 as an instructor. I finally completed my grade 5 upgrade as well. I officiated some state cup and open cup games for PA west. I officiated at Region 1 championships. I taught 2 recertification courses as lead instructor here in Bellefonte.

Looking forward to USSF in 2010, I have some more goals. First is to attend a pro clinic in the spring and pass the new fitness test (interval testing). I hope to work at least 5 pro games (USL1, USL2, PDL, W-league) and would like to work 10 or more - we'll see how many folks pass the new pro-clinic fitness test. I hope to get officially certified as an assessor, but this seems doomed since the course I was scheduled for in PA West this coming weekend got cancelled. I hope to attend 2-3 major tournaments (Dallas Cup, Vets Cup, Regional Championships -youth or adult, Disney Showcase, etc.). My goal is to end this year by submitting my paperwork for national candidacy for certification in 2012.

The holidays always tend to be a brutal time for fitness and healthy eating. This year was no exception. I took my running gear to AZ, but only managed 1 good run and a few long walks. The rest of the time I ate, drove, ate, watched TV, ate, hung out with family, ate, hung out with friends, ate. Unsurprisingly, I gained 10 lbs due a lack of exercise and an increase in eating. 10 lbs is not much, but my goal is to be back to ~200 lbs by the end of January and 190 by fitness test time in the spring. My goal is to maintain 188-195 lbs for the majority of this calendar year, but definitely during the pro and college soccer seasons.

Harrison starts indoor soccer this coming Sunday (U8) and I will be coaching his team. Not much coaching to do, however, as this is the first season of indoor for Bellefonte Soccer and they are not allowing practices - just 8 weeks of games. I'll update on how that goes in my next post. Other than that, not a lot is scheduled for January. Sarah starts back to work/school next week and Harrison started back to school yesterday. Claire and I will be chillin' around the house a lot until I find some jobs.

Some Youtube action: Bellefonte City Rap

Happy New Year!

-John