An Explanation of my Lengthy Absence

Well Soccer Boss readers, I am only stating the obvious when I say that I haven't posted in a while. As finals week(s) approached in both college and my remaining high school class I could feel the helpless sinking feeling as I looked ahead at my busy school schedule that collided quite nicely (NOT) with the start of the equally hectic and slightly overwhelming schedule of EURO 2012 group games. With finals out of the way, I thought "at last, some time to focus on blogging!" but, alas, another project of gargantuan proportion, but a hugely satisfying final destination, landed in my lap.

Lexi and I

In January, my friend Lexi and I founded a football club for the locals in Nehemiah, Kenya, a farm town where aside from working and spending time with family there isn't a whole lot to do. No movie theaters and shopping malls and while many people see that as something terribly boring, I see that as a coaches freaking dream place to establish a football club. The players will be able to devote their recreational time to football without the distractions that potential footballers in other countries face. But anyway, long story short, I found myself establishing a football club in a country that I had never been to and quite frankly know nothing about. Luckily, Lexi had lived on the farm for three years and was familiar with the people and the place and we have a lovely connection, Shebby Mesharch, working very hard in Kenya to get the people together to practice and play. At first I felt like I had misled these people when I told them I could help them, for three days before Lexi and I were scheduled to meet and to pack the equipment I had collected, I found myself staring at a blank sheet of paper contemplating where to start. How on earth do you walk someone through building a football club with just words? Thirteen pages later, I had a rough idea of how it was done, but my Building a Football Club for Dummies: Written by an Even Bigger Dummy, First Edition and Likely the Last was far from complete, and I have a feeling that it never will be complete unless this whole football-club-establishment-in-far-away-places thing becomes a regular activity. In other words, I went out on a limb. I have no idea what the outcome will be, but I am hoping for a successful one. In all seriousness, I poured as much as I could into those thirteen pages and I add to it daily, hoping that someday I can provide an accurate compass for people to use to share the beautiful game and all of its benefits with all the world. In addition to attempting to contain my entire soccer ideology in thirteen small pages and make it understandable to anyone other than myself, Lexi and I also faced the task of packing up sixteen pairs of cleats and fifteen soccer balls to ship to Kenya with Lexi when she leaves on Tuesday. After about four hours, we had packed up all of the equipment, stayed safely under the 50lb cutoff and made our official club T-shirts. All and all it was a productive day!

Building a Football Club for Dummies
Written By an Even Bigger Dummy

For those of you who have seen my appearances at Puma games (I try not to miss any but opted not to travel to Abbotsford, Canada today partly because it has the highest murder rate in all of Canada and partly because I can't legally get over the boarder alone) the photos from those games can be seen on the Soccer Boss Facebook page and regular match reports will be coming now that I am starting to learn how to tell the voices in my head to please shut it for the ninety minutes in which I am pacing the sidelines simultaneously snapping photos and cursing at the referees in various languages. The knockout stages of EUROS are just around the corner and I will definitely be following those games closely and FC Basel resumes training tomorrow so, being the faithful FC Basel fan that I am, I will begin to follow them as usual and see how they are shaping up for this 2012/2013 season.