There was a club that the I-mac had been begging to tryout at... it was ranked #1 in our area and had a national ranking in the top 30, the problem was it was up the nightmare known as Route 28, a bottleneck of a road prone to idiots wrecking into any and everything... it meant that the drive to practice would easily run close to an hour while the drive home would run close to 40 minutes... the I-mac not being the best student, mainly lazy and unorganized (a problem he blames on his ADHD and something his parents have been working tirelessly to help him with... to not much success) there was a deal that i wanted cut... i'd agree to sign off on his trying out at this club but he had to dedicate himself to getting on top, and staying on top, of his schoolwork while also committing to taking care of himself in order to have a productive spring season if he made this club... i contacted the coach and set up a tryout...
When the I-mac is focused and ready to play he is an excellent footballer... a natural winger who can play striker or attacking mid, he is fast and strong and in the game of soccer here in the US he's the rare kid with both size and speed, the sort of athlete that usually plays American football or basketball or baseball... or in this part off Pennsyltucky, hockey... not the kid one expects to see playing soccer... he went to his tryout and played exceedingly well, this club actually has a pro team in the lowest division of American soccer and on his second night the academy team scrimmaged the pro team, a team made up of high level college players and older guys who have played at high levels, some even overseas... the goalie was an eastern European chap who though now in his late 30s had played close to a decade in Europe... the scrimmage kicked off and the I-mac bossed it, he scored twice and was abusing defenders who were playing at a local Division 1 university, in fact it got so bad they were screaming at each other about how to stop him... towards the end of the scrimmage the ball fell to him at the top of the 18 yard box and the boy laced it, a dipping curling shot that went top right corner, the goalie had no chance, the pro coach walked over and said, kid what's your name? and added great stuff today... the goalie patted him on the back and said the same.. the academy coach seemed somewhat amazed he didn't have a team but also knew how shit worked in these parts... a lot of tunnel-visioned coaches who pigeonholed kids based on what they did three years ago...
The boy got an offer, he was placed in the pool with the top two teams and those teams would be selected by how the boys trained, it was the chance he was waiting for and with the best team around... the coaches, particularly the head coach, were excellent, the training was excellent, everything done with a purpose and a reason in order for the team and the individual to get better... sadly that tryout would be the highlight of his time at this club...
What started off so promising quickly went pear shaped and the I-mac had his hands all over it... he didn't take care of himself, spent the weekends partying, was constantly sick due to the sharing of carts and joints, turned up at home on weekends ripping drunk a few times, still was torching his stomach and ended up missing about half of the practices in the two months leading up to the start of the season.. he also had a mishap working out with the high school team and injured his leg which also set him back a week or two yet even then when the first tournament came around he was in the starting line-up, albeit for the second team who were still ranked rather highly in our region...
The weekend of the first tournament i was coaching my hoop team (which Disaster played on), it was the league tournament and i was not about to let my team go into it without their head coach, the BW took the I-mac to the showcase and thus began the beginning of the end... he was coached by an Englishman and if there is one thing i know about Englishman coaching in the States it's that they feel quite superior to everyone when it comes to soccer... the fact is, they are not, though i understand why they think that when one does see how shite most American coaches are... the boy took a knock about ten minutes in and asked to come off for a minute and then never bothered to tell the coach he was okay and ready to go back in... at this point i believe the coach was beginning to have his doubts about him and it would be the last game he would start the rest of his short, troubled, injury and illness plagued time at the club...
One could not blame the coach for not really factoring the I-mac into his plans, a common theme in these posts, the I-mac continued to not take care of himself, we had bloodwork done to see about his fatigue and stomach issues, thought it might be long Covid, but in the end it was more a lack of care and preparation, one can't play at a high level if one does not do the work to stay in shape and in form... the boy was playing in the President's Cup, the state tournament for second teams which then feeds into a national championship, when his luck went from bad to worse... granted i've always been a proponent of making your own luck and had the boy taken care of himself he most likely would have been playing in the State Cup with the first team... it was during warm-ups of their second game of the day when his teammate, for some unknown and stupid reason, passed a ball back through where they were doing drills, the I-mac was mid shot when the ball rolled under him and he came down on the ball rolling his ankle badly... he was done... on crutches and out for five or six weeks, basically the whole spring season... was it bad luck? yes... but sometimes the football gods are letting you know... it ain't gonna happen...
The reality of it was the boy had lost his focus, it happens, life happens, like most kids he discovered sex and drugs and rock and roll... and as Ian Dury once said it's all a brain and body needs... and there's some merit to that but it conflicted with what the boy had stated were his goals, to play in college and see how far he could go... when he was finally back there was basically one tournament left, in Maryland... in three games totaling 210 minutes he played roughly 40... once again he was sick, his stomach was bothering him, he claimed to feel like he couldn't breathe, he would pull himself off and the coach would basically relegate him to the bench for the rest of the game, maybe five minutes at mop up time if the game was decided, as we walked to the car to drive home after the final game, his final game at the club, the coach walked by him and said rather brusquely, "you need to go to the doctor and get healthy", that was it.. i could tell by his demeanor that he was done with the I-mac... the truth was i couldn't blame him...
In reality the end came before all of the above happened... it was a Thursday night, the night when he was guaranteed to be in front of the top coach, he was complaining that he didn't feel great and felt "off" and i was basically fed up, i asked if he wanted to go or not and if i should email the coach and let him know he wasn't going to be there, he mumbled about not feeling good and i told him to make a decision, he finally said he didn't want to go and play poorly in front of the guy, i stated playing in front of the guy was better than not playing at all, that if he's not there it looks worse, he then stated he didn't want to go... at that point i said fine, emailed the coach and basically checked out.. i knew it was over even if the boy didn't... as the saying goes the best ability is availability and he never made himself available, the top coach, an excellent coach, never saw much of him after his tryout because he was never healthy enough for one reason or another... by the time the tryouts came for the next season, held in early June, the club had sent out pre-offers to all it's current players... he had been dropped all the way to the third team... he could find a club playing in that division much closer to home if he wanted to play, a local division instead of the regional one the other team played in, the regional ones being where the college scouts looked for players... the I-mac felt insulted and was bummed but as i told him, what did you show them this season? he blamed his injury which was legit but the fact was before that injury he had a chance to show them for two months, 2-3 sessions a week, what he could do, he made maybe half... the team kept track of attendance and while they knew players wouldn't make every session for various reasons missing over half the sessions spoke volumes... he was an afterthought at his dream club and much of it was his own doing...
Searching for a new club he went back to his old one, he had arguably his best season at this club, a 15 goal, six assist campaign where he scored a hat trick in the national league they played in... unfortunately he had turned them down the year before and i wondered if that would affect his chances, even worse his high school coach happened to be one of the coaches who coached this age group... once again he was the only player currently not at the club to score during the tryouts yet after a few days we had heard nothing... i emailed the top coach who bluntly stated he had no interest in taking him and wished him well... i knew at that point the boy was in trouble and so i emailed the second team coach, Coach Cageboy, who got back to me saying that he wasn't going to take him either, that there was a numbers crunch and that what they had been looking for was defenders to fill out their roster... i smelled bullshit... he then added that this in no way was a reflection on the I-mac as a player and he was excited and expecting big things from him this high school season... i stated to the I-mac that it might be a long season for him... consider the fact the guy already had four of his high school teammates on this team and the I-mac was more skilled than all of them... things were not looking good...
Turns out my sense of smell was correct... there was another kid from the I-mac's high school team who tried out, a forward/winger like the I-mac with nowhere near the skill, a kid who dribbled with his head down and was thought of as a below average player when it came to knowledgeable minds... after the season i did a little digging and discovered the kid had made the team the I-mac had not, though Cageboy said he wasn't looking for offense, in truth maybe he wasn't cuz this kid wasn't going to give you any, but he had still taken this kid, as stated a far inferior player to the I-mac, his email was bullshit... the fact is Mr. Tell It Like It Is Coach Cageboy didn't have the balls to tell the truth, granted he knew he needed the I-mac for his high school team but had he just stated he didn't fit his plans or style of play or even that he never knew what he was going to get from the I-mac i'd have had some respect for the guy, the fact he lied basically told me all i needed to know... i've coached or a long time and always told my players if you have questions about playing time etc just ask, i also tell them i'll tell you the truth and sometimes it may not be what you want to hear but my goal is to make you better... this guy was a fucking clown, the typical paper tiger, he was good at bullying high school kids but his nut sack shrank to the size a pea when an adult showed up... i had never actually spoken to the man in person, preferring to let the I-mac handle shit, he's old enough, but there were certain things this clown pulled that made me want to pull him aside and have a discussion... i'll be honest... i've seen him looking at me and i'm quite positive i scare the living shit out of him... he should be fucking scared, i have no use for coaches who don't seem to respect the kids they coach... and this guy was exhibit A in that department... to be cont...
1 comment:
The Imac sounds a bit like my youngest -- we waited 18 months to get her into the ADHD clinic, but I'm not convinced it's ADHD, as there's a big dose of good old-fashioned laziness in it.
I'm sorry to hear that he's shot himself in the foot a bit -- he sounds like with a bit more application and taking care of himself he'd be an excellent player. But I look forward to the showdown with the coach :)
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