Managing Coed Soccer

Coed soccer has been a popular sport in the greater Seattle area. I jumped onto the scene seven years ago as a manager of a team consisting of our IMA intramural soccer team at the UW.  It’s undergone a lot of changes, with people coming and going. At one point, it had to go under a complete rework and I had to start all over (had one person returning, but I put in the effort to make it happen). I started to apply the solutions to the mistakes that I made or problems that I dealt with and it’s resulted in probably the most successful team I’ve managed in my seven years as a manager.

As more and more teams are being created, there have been a lot of issues in terms of team composition, retaining players, and dealing with problems that pretty much every coed soccer team has been struggling with: keeping women. I figure I’d start sharing some of my insight to the problems I had to deal with and mistakes that I’ve made and how I went about creating a new team from scratch to having such a successful team today. Continue reading Managing Coed Soccer

Idols, Identity, and Fears

It was the fifth in six years. Another concussion. Most professional athletes don’t get anywhere close to that number in such a short time span. But somehow, I pulled it off. The night after I got the concussion, I went out with some friends to give him the PAX badges I ordered for them. I had other things on my mind, however. Continue reading Idols, Identity, and Fears

Bye 2012… Hello 2013

The world didn’t end. I was surprised. You’d expect that people from 2000+ years ago to be able to predict when the world would end and do so with exact precision (down to the day). Instead, we get to remember all the events that happened this past year and look forward to 2013… Continue reading Bye 2012… Hello 2013

Could the NFL end due to concussions?

Here’s an interesting story. Could the growing rate of concussions in football (American, not association) result in eventual end of the NFL? ESPN’s Grantland writers tackle the topic. (This isn’t the first time ESPN writers have brought it up.) But it will be something of concern in the years to come as more and more concussions happen, as well as what would happen to cities across the U.S. if the NFL were gone.

The Harsh Reality of the World Cup

World Cup is something I look forward to whenever it comes around. But at the same time, I hate it too. It’s by far one of the most heartbreaking events out there. I came into the tournament rooting for the French (who was one of the most underachieving teams of the finals), the U.S. (one of the most overachieving teams thus far), and the Spanish (who are just fun to watch). But more on this later… But just how hard is it to watch these games? And how hard is it to really win the World Cup?

Continue reading The Harsh Reality of the World Cup