Moving up the Ladder

I decided to say yes. It was a tough decision and I weighed the pros and cons, but in the end I said yes. I am now the Under 13 Boys Provincial Assistant Coach.

The head coach who I work with in a weekly soccer clinic asked me to be his assistant as he is the head coach. My biggest fear is getting burnt out. Last year the indoor season burnt me out. I was coaching the Under 14 boys Silver team, coaching Bethany College men's team, attending numerous soccer clinics put on by the Eastside Technical Director and also attending weekly mentorship sessions. Now don't get me wrong, I loved it all, but by the end I really needed a break from soccer and I ended up not coaching outdoor soccer that summer.

But I think this year will be different. The training sessions for the U13 Boys Provincial team are on the weekend and are all in Saskatoon. (Sidenote: this is actually the U13 Boys Provincial North team. There is also a South team. I don't know why they do that, probably to give more guys a chance. However the head coach told me that our North team is a lot stronger than the South team. So strong, that the guys we end up cutting from our team will probably go down south and be starters for the South team.) This means I don't have to spend time away from Shiela travelling which is nice. I will also be coaching the U11 Boys Gold team for the outdoor season. The plan is to practice with them from 4:30 - 5:45 Mon - Friday with one of those days being a game day. And both of these seasons end at the end in the first week of July. So although I will be very busy for the months of May and June, I will get July and August off to chill out and enjoy the summer...especially since my job ends at the end of July. Maybe I'll just take all of August off...hmmm, sounds like fun!

The fun part of the U13 Provincial team is we get to go to a couple big tournaments. The first one is May 19 - 22 in Surrey, British Columbia. We will be taking a team bus down there and it will be a lot of fun! So for all my West Coast readers feel free to stop on by and say hi...I'll be the assistant coach with the Saskatchewan team. The second tournament is the Rocky Mountain Cup July 5 - 9th somewhere in Alberta. Those tournaments will be a lot of fun. Another little perk is that I will get a bunch of free clothing including a windsuit, shorts, shirt, golf shirt, and fleece. But overall I am just really glad for the experience to be able to coach these kids at this level. I know I will be learning a lot from the head coach and also just how to coach at that level. It should be a lot of fun!

So, is anyone going to be in the Vancouver area on May long weekend?

My Interview Adventure - Embarrassed to Acceptance

This post will just be about the actual interview portion of my CTV News at Noon adventure. Later I'll post about the whole experience.

Being on TV is a little nerve wracking. My interview time came and I went up onto the stage and sat in the chair. Jeff was gone today so Jennifer Jellicoe was filling in for him. She put the mike on me and then we sat there and chatted briefly while we waited for the commercials to be over. She told me we had 3.5 minutes so we'd have lots of time to talk. Suddenly the camera guy gave us the finger countdown and our interview was happening...LIVE on TV!

As Jennifer started talking I glanced towards the camera and could see myself sitting there in the chair, but then I devoted my attention to the interview. I had spent a lot of time figuring out what to say and trying to remember all the different aspects of our run, but somehow that all seemed to disappear out of my head when the interview started. "Oh great," I thought, "it's just me and my memory now" and trust me, if you ask any of my friends including my wife they will tell you that my memory is not that good. Needless to say I forgot all the main points I wanted to get across.

Jennifer started off by mentioning that our run suited perfectly right now with the Olympics. That threw me off right away because I thought she would just start off asking me to talk about the event and I had a little speal ready, but suddenly I was talking about the Olympics, etc. You can tell I was nervous because I stuttered a bunch in the beginning and it took me a few seconds to get talking in an actual sentence. I felt as the interview went along that I was repeating a lot of the same things and was sounding really stupid. I hope it didn't sound that way.

There was one answer I wish I could take back. Jennifer asked me just before we went live if it was ok to ask why people should attend our run instead of the many others in Saskatoon. I told her to ask away and I figured I had an answer all ready...and I did. The answer is that our run is to help Canadian athletes, it's a national running event held in 10 different communties across Canada so the runners are part of a really large event, each participant receives a free technical running shirt and a finishers medal that has the Olympic rings on it. My big line was I was going to say, "It's probably as close to winning an Olympic medal that a lot of us will ever get! (cue laugh track now). However, instead of saying that I rambled on about how the other runs in Saskatoon have supported us in our run and how our run is great because there is something for the whole family since we have the 10K run, the 3K family walk and the 1K kids run. And if you don't want to run you can always volunteer. It probably didn't really sound that bad to the average person, but to someone who really knows the event (like my bosses in Toronto) it is obvious that I missed many key elements.

Suddenly Jennifer started talking and I could tell she was doing her wrap up speech. I was panicking on the inside because I realized that I hadn't mentioned a lot of stuff. So just as she is ending I blurt out that we also have prizes like $1000 for the top finisher and also prizes for each category (I forgot to say "age category".

As I drove back home afterward I felt like an idiot. I was wishing I hadn't told anyone else I was on TV because I had just made a fool of myself. However, after watching it again at home (yes, I taped it) I didn't feel I sounded too stupid.

So, did anyone out there see me? How do you think I did? (It's ok, you won't hurt my feelings!)

What a Great Band!

I'm a sucker for a new song. When I hear a good song on the radio (yes I listen to the radio a lot) I get pumped and want to hear it all the time. Yes, I love pop popular music.

So when I went over here I saw that he had posted about this band and also had a link to a few of their songs. After one listen I just loved the songs and knew I had to post it on my own website.

So go here to hear some great tunes by a band called Waking Ashland

For lyrics go here.

"Freeze Dirt Bag!" - Fact or Fiction

A couple weeks ago I was in Edmonton for a soccr tournament with my U12 boys soccer team. We were staying right near downtown in a great hotel right near the riverbank. We had a great view from our room as it overlooked the river and the rest of the city.

It was Saturday morning and we were about to make our way to our first soccer game over at the Edmonton soccer centre on the west side. My assistant coach and I were driving together and as we pulled out of the hotel I saw something I had never seen before. Actually, it was the screaming I heard first...a loud piercing scream for help that I had never heard before. And it was LOUD as I could hear it from inside my car. As I looked towards where the screaming was I saw a man running out of the store carrying a 24 pack of beer and running as fast as he could. My assistant coach, who happens to be from Toronto and probably sees this all the time, stated the obvious and said "that guy just robbed that store!".

As the man was running up the street we were driving parallel to him. I honestly didn't know what to do. I had a million thoughts going through my head...Did this guy have a gun? Is he dangerous? Are these Edmonton soccer teams really that good or can we win a game? It ended up that things would take care of themselves.

Being the brave hero that I am I decided there was nothing I could do and decided to just to drive to the soccer centre. Besides I could already hear the police sirens coming nearby and I figured they would catch this guy. Fate had a different plan. As I approached the first intersection (this all took place within a block of our hotel) I was going to turn left when I saw this robber barrelling across the road. Now of course he did have the right away as there was a walk light, but suddenly the hero in my decided to rear its ferocious head. The guy was running full tilt across the street and was constantly looking backwards to see if the cops were catching up. When I saw him glance back one more time the adrenaline in me kicked in. I was suddenly sweating and very hot and in a flash I was seeing all the injustice in the world...the tsunamis, the terrorists, the fact that Pepsi always makes fun of Coke and Coke never has done anything except be a better tasting soft drink. I pressed the gas pedal to the floor and shot out into the middle of the crosswalk just as the guy was running past. He didn't see a thing. He slammed into the side of my car and all I saw was him flying across the front of my hood. The case of beer went flying over the car and smashed onto the ground on the other side. The robber rolled over the front of my car and banged his head on the ground when he hit the other side. He didn't get knocked unconscious, but he just lay there groaning and holding his head.

Being the fearless and ferocious hero that I am I quickly locked all the doors in case he got up again. Luckily the police were there in an instant (I still don't know how they got there so fast except that there was a Tim Horton's across the street). Once he was in handcuffs I got out of my car and talked to the police. Needless to say I was almost late for our first soccer game since it took so long to give the police my statement. And so although this was the first time I had ever assisted in helping catch a robber, I think deep down I also hope it's the last (unless I can do it without endangering myself at all)!

Is the above story FACT or FICTION?
	FACT
	FICTION
Free polls from Pollhost.com

15 Minutes of Fame

Ok, it will actually be more like 4-5 minutes of fame, but none the less I will be on TV. To be specific, I will be on one of the greatest shows watched in Saskatoon by people who are home between 12:00 and 1:00pm during the week and only have ghetto vision (3 channels) and the best reception is on CTV. Have you guessed the show yet?

That's right! It's the News at Noon with Jeff Rogstadt! On Thursday February 23rd sometime between 12:00 and 1:00pm I will be making my grand appearance on TV for the first time. And what, you may ask, are you on TV for? Well, let me tell you...

I am in charge of promoting an event here in Saskatoon called the Hbc Run for Canada on July 1st. It's a running event consisting of a 10K run, a 3K family walk and a 1K kids run. And the best part is that all the money raised for this event is going to support our Canadian Olympic Athletes! It's going to be a lot of fun and I'm going to go on the News at Noon program to promote it.

So are you interested in running in the event? How about being a volunteer (you get a free shirt, hat and I think something else just for holding out a glass of water to some runners as they speed by you). If so, click here, or here, or even here and it will take you to the www.hbcrunforcanada.ca website (yes you can click that link too!) I hope you all decide to either run in the event or at least volunteer and help support Canada's Olympians!

Just one more question: Since it's a running event, when I go on TV should I dress up and wear a shirt and tie to show professionalism, or do I dress sporty to portray a more athletic look to the event? Please help me by telling me in the comments.

Poll Test

I'm getting ready to post a few more Fact or Fiction stories, but I want to make it easy for you the reader to choose, without having to actually make a comment. I'm thinking a simple poll will make it easier. So here is a practice poll, just to see if this will work. I've chosen something that is currently a big part of my life! (ok, I'm half joking) Please vote!

Here's the poll:

Who is your favourite O.C. character?
	Ryan
	Marissa
	Summer
	Seth
	Kirsten
	Sandy
	Julie Cooper-Nickel
	Jimmy Cooper
	I don't watch the OC
	No favourite
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I'm Caught Up...with the O.C.

When I first started watching the O.C. it was by accident. I was working on something on the couch and just happened to have the TV on while the O.C. was on. It was the episode where Jimmy finally decides to leave town and Ryan and Lindsay kiss just to make sure it's not weird (you have to watch the show to understand). I was all confused at first, but as the season went on things started coming together.

But like I mentioned earlier, Shiela and I have decided to play "catch up" with the OC. We started right at the beginning and finally, 9 discs and 34 episodes later (plus bonus features) I have caught up to where I first started watching the show. And I am going to enjoy the O.C. even more than I used to now that I understand all the history. First, there are a lot of characters I didn't even know existed: Anna, Oliver, Luke, Hailey, and Theresa to name a few. It's great to understand how everything developed from Summer not knowing Seth to being in love with him. How Seth was a loser until Ryan showed up. Understanding Seth's girl troubles. The list could go on!

But after watching a lot of episodes in a row, here are a few O.C. things I have noticed:

• Almost every episode opens in the Koehn house (usually the kitchen)
• People drink A LOT on the O.C. (I can see how Kirsten develops a drinking problem)
• They always sit in the exact same booth at the diner when they eat pancakes, etc.
• They constantly have parties, and they all look alike
• Their school dances and carnivals are WAY more decorated than anything I have ever seen at a high school
• How can they afford to order in basically every day?

The list could go on, but I'll stop. I'm looking forward to finishing off Season 2 in the upcoming weeks. Each episode is so good now that I know the history.

Anyone else out there ever notice anything interesting about the O.C. that you could add to the list I made? My favourite character is Seth. Who's yours?

Chuck Norris is Tough!

I found these Chuck Norris facts on another website and thought they were great! I never realized just how tough he was!

Here are a few of my favourites:

• Chuck Norris is the only man to ever beat a brick wall in tennis
• Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. But he has never cried. Ever.
• Chuck Norris has counted to infinity. Twice.
• Chuck Norris has two speeds: Walk and Kill
• Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs

There are lots more of these over here. Go check them out, but don't laugh out loud (Chuck Norris is watching and will roundhouse kick you in the face!)

My First Triple Double

In my entire basketball career I don't think I ever achieved a triple double... I just wasn't good enough (and didn't rebound enough). Anyways, this weekend I have decided to accomplish my own version of a triple double.

For those of you who are unaware Movie Gallery has bought all the VHQ stores...at least in Saskatoon. As a result there are a few new rules for renting, which really aren't a big deal. The best part is that right now you can rent any of their "Gallery movies", movies that are not on the outside walls (so basically most of their 7 day rentals) for FREE. That's right, it's not buy one get one free or anything...just plain old free. It only applies to the weekend though which is Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

So today I returned some previous discs of the 1st season of the OC (which I will write about in a separate post once I'm finished with Disc 7) and I had to go to two separtate VHQ's since last week the one closest to us didn't have Discs 4 and 5 of the OC. Anyways, while I was there I realized that I didn't have an account at the 8th street store. So I signed up for an account and rented a 7 day movie for free. This was great because I had just come from the VHQ close to us and had rented the final disc of the OC for free too! So I've decided that this weekend I am going to visit both VHQ locations each day this weekend and get a free movie from each one...my own version of a triple double! And the best part is that Shiela set up her own account at each of these stores too...so she also can get 2 movies per day this weekend. That means we could have a total of 12 movies at our house this week to watch!! I don't know when in the world I'll have time to watch them all, but who cares...they were FREE!!

Posting Something Big...Maybe Small

I've been debating about whether to post something or not. If I do, it will be an ongoing thing. But it might be a little embarrassing. But maybe that would be good. I haven't decided yet, but I think it would be good.

Any guesses on what it might be?

LaserQuest Fun

I really like to plan things. Now I am also quite ok with winging things and being spontaneous, but if I'm in charge of a bunch of people I like to have things planned out. So when our soccer team went to Edmonton this past weekend I planned a night of lasertag at LaserQuest. Now I phoned ahead on Wed to see if we needed to reserve a spot and they told me it was a good idea as it gets very busy on Sat night. So I booked a group for 15 people for 2 games at 8:00 and 8:40pm. I gave them my credit card number just to hold it and everything was great. The guy just told me to phone ahead if the number of people changes. No problem I figured.

Then came the call. I wasn't home but the answering machine message said that it was LaserQuest phoning to confirm my booking for games at 8:00 and 8:40pm on Sat evening. They said it's all booked and if something changes I need to phone. No problem I figured.

So Saturday around 5:30 pm I talk to my soccer team manager (I really love managers and Eastside soccer managers are the best, but that's a different post) and she gives me the final numbers for laser tag. So I phone them to let them know there will be 20 of us instead of 15. The girl asks me for which group and I tell her for Sheldon. She can't find it. Ummm...how about Mathies. Nope. Hmmm....how about Eastside Gold Eagles. Ahhh, there it is. But suddenly I'm put on hold. No problem I figured.

After being on hold for about 5 minutes while all the parents in the hotel room are staring at me wondering what I'm doing, a familiar voice comes over the phone. It's the guy I talked to on Wed when I booked the games. "Ah, we have a problem sir in that somebody erased your booking." "Really," I ask because I couldn't believe it. "Didn't I book it with my credit card?" I ask nicely. "Yes, you did." "OK, I also received a phone call from you guys confirming this booking." "Yes, you did." "OK, then how do I no longer have a booking." "We aren't sure exactly, but someone erased it." "So, what can we do?" I ask, really not knowing what the answer is.

This is where the story turns good. The guys says they are very booked but they have one opening at 8:20pm that they can get all 20 of us into. And to make up for the mistake, there will be no charge for this. WOW! I quickly agreed to this. We would only get 1 game instead of 2, but it would be FREE! When I told the parents that they were thrilled...everyone always likes free.

So we walk into LaserQuest at 8:00pm and the guys runs up to us and tells us that he can get 10 of us into a game right now, then all 20 of us can get into the next game, then the 10 that hadn't played 2 games can get into the 3rd game. And don't worry, there is not cost! Wowsers! I couldn't believe this! We were going to get 2 free games of lasertag each. We did have to play back to back which was a little tiring but not too bad.

Now I was in game mode. My nickname was "Gotcha". The first game I was in had all 20 of us including the 10 players I coach. I did ok until my players found me and it took me along time before I could shake them as they followed me around and kept shooting me. I only ended up in 6th place after game one, but there were a total of about 30 players so that was ok. But I wanted better.

The next game I decided to be abit stealthier and I stayed mostly in one area. I still got shot a lot but I did a lot of killing (not literally obviously) myself as a few people kept on coming around my area and I shot them over and over...some people just don't learn! The only bad part was when I was "moving quickly" (you aren't allowed to run) and I ran smack into a mirror! It didn't hurt but it sure was a shock. Needless to say when the game was over I ended up ranking in 1st place overall...beating out one of my players dads by 1 point! He was heartbroken. The funny part was that we didn't even see each other the entire game. However, when they were handing out the top 5 places they said "And in 1st place is Gotcha" and suddenly this lady I didn't know walked up and took the piece of paper. I was already walking up there too and I quickly informed her that I was Gotcha. She then looked at me and said "Gotcha!" and laughed. It was a good joke and I laughed (but if she had taken my paper I would have had to release a storm with thunder and lightning).

It ended up being a great night and due to the mixup it ended up costing us nothing (instead of the $260 it should have). So if you are ever in Edmonton (or Regina for that matter) go check out LaserQuest. It's a lot fun! Just watch out for "Gotcha"!

A Great Edmonton Tournament

This past weekend was so much fun as my assistant coach and I took my U12 boys soccer team to Edmonton for a soccer tournament. I knew the games would be extremely tough, but that is what I wanted. That way we could come back to Saskatoon and be able to play that much better against the Saskatoon teams.

We started off the trip by meeting at Galaxyland in West Edmonton Mall where all the boys spent the afternoon going on all the rides. They had a blast! I only arrived around suppertime so I didn't go on any, but the truth is I wouldn't have anyway...not unless I wanted to throw up again like the last time I had been at West Ed. We had a great meal at the Old Spaghetti Factory (all 25 of us) and then headed back to the hotel for a quick team meeting and some sleep.

Saturday we played our first game against the Strikers. They were the defending provincial champs from last year. Before I get into the score, I need to let you know that the rules in Alberta are different than in Saskatchewan. To keep it short, in Alberta the walls are live, they have a 3 line pass rule, you can pass the ball back to the keeper, they have blue cards, they run the clock right down to the buzzer, and it's stop time in the last 2 minutes of the 2nd half. Essentially it is exactly like hockey! Needless to say it was going to take some getting used to. So we lost our first game 5-0 which would come back to haunt us. That score doesn't show the game well as we scored on ourselves once, they managed to get a last second shot and score, and the referee called a goal against us when the ball was on the line but the other team complained and said it was a goal so the referee called it a goal. We just couldn't score.

Game number 2 happened 2 hours later. We came out fired up and dominated the other team...but again we had trouble scoring even though we were peppering their keeper with shots. But we finally managed to put one away and then Corentin kicked in an empty netter in the dying seconds of the game to give us a 2-0 victory!

Mike (my assistant coach) and I went and did a little shopping after that and when we got back to our room we had a little surprise. Our entire room was filled with streamers, toilet paper, mini pylons and soccer balls. There was also a big sign on our door saying that Mike and I were #1. It was pretty funny and they did a lot of work to do it all (along with the help of some of the moms). We went to our managers room for supper and Mike and I pretended we hadn't been to our room yet so all the boys were keeping quiet as if nothing had happened...they did a really good job of it! But they were nice enough to come clean it up for us later on.

We then went laser tagging and that was a blast. We had a little mishap with them, but I'll write an entire post on the laser tag itself later on.

On Sunday we had our final game. If we won or tied we would get2nd place (there was no final, just top teams after the round robin win). The other team scored right away and we played most of the game down 1-0. Finally in the 2nd half we put one away and tied it up. Then Corentin (who scored all of our goals on the weekend) scored another one and we were up 2-1. With about 5 minutes left a heartbreaker happened and our goalie let the ball slide underneath him and slowly roll into the net. 2-2. I didn't see how they scored their 3rd goal as the referee was yelling something and I thought he was talking to me. When I looked back at our goal I saw them shoot and score. So with 1:30 left we were down 3-2. Our guys played extremely hard but we couldn't score. The biggest play came with about 45 seconds left and Corentin was running down the field with the ball. He was in the crease and tried to shoot the ball when he was taken down and totally fell flat out...no call. That's when I lost it! My voice was hoarse after all that screaming I did after that. I couldn't believe this referee was robbing us like that. We lost 3-2.

That made a 3 way tie in our pool for 2nd place. This is where I realized that as a tournament coordinator you need to have everything specifically written out in the rules. Due to the 3-way tie it went to goal differential...but is goal differential just between the 3 teams that are tied, or does it include the games against the team that got first place? Most Saskatchewan tournaments decide goal differential with only the goals scored in the games between the tied teams...not so in Alberta. Due to our 5-0 loss we ended up in 4th place, where as if it would have been the other way around we would have taken 2nd place.

Overall it was a great weekend and a lot of fun! I was very impressed that my boys could handle themselves against the Edmonton teams and if we would play them in Saskatoon it wouldn't even be a contest as we would slaughter them. But it was so much fun and the boys had a great time which is what was really important. I need to keep reminding myself...these boys are only 12 years old!