The Professor

Remeber, the parent of the players have asked that I use the players nicknames on the blog. The kids seem to prefer it that way.

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The Professor plays keeper or goalie. It is very unusual to find a player at his age that excels in this position. Most kids do not want to play keeper. Who can blame them. Keepers stand in net while other players kick a soccer ball as hard as they can at the goal. The keeper is suppose get in front of the ball. When they are not facing down rockets, they are diving on the ball while players on the other team are trying to kick it. When I was a player decades ago, I had a coach who said keepers had to have good hands, allot of confidence, and bravery. I would say the first two are correct. As a former keeper, I can tell you that you don't need bravery, you need a lack of common sense.

Having said that, The Professor is an excellent keeper. We call him the professor because he looks like a professor when he is not playing soccer. The Professor wears wire glasses with circular lens. He has a very quiet unassuming personality. Like I said he, looks like a professor.

But when he puts on his sports glasses and goalie gloves, he becomes the Keeper. Almost like a super hero. Clark Kent, Peter Parker, the Professor become Superman, Spider man, and the Keeper.

Simply put, the Professor keeps us in games. Our team has been working hard on learning how to play team defense. As happens, there have been break downs and mistakes during the learning process. When these mishaps occur, the Professor is there to stop the other team. He regularly faces runs or breaks aways when one, two, and sometimes three players from the other team are racing at him with no one from his team there. More often then not, he made the save. He routinely makes saves when the other team should have scored. The Professor not only makes the spectacular saves, he very rarely misses the routine saves. He is an excellent keeper. He is so good in fact, I have had other coaches stop me to tell me how impressed they are with his abilities. With the Professor between pipes, I like our chances in Florida.

Check out our fundraisers and continue following then team. If you want to make a donation to the team to help pay for the trip, you can send it to U-10 National Team, 315 North Street, Paw Paw, Michigan, 49079. Please make ckecks payable to AYSO Region 250. We will make sure it goes into the team's account.

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