Final Season Recap
Our season ended with us going to the Midwest Regional playoffs after finishing first in our division. We had a very, very successful season especially since this is the clubs second year in existence. The owners of the team were absolutely fantastic about every aspect of the team. I think they found the perfect balance of being hands on and knowing when to let the Director of Soccer and Coach Rudy take over. They seemed very pleased with Rudy's performance this year and I know they want him to come back to the team and coach again next year. I had a great time working with team. I had thought beforehand it would be similar to working with another collegiate sports team. While there were some similarities, there were a lot of differences and things I had not experience before. There was a lot more paperwork before the games than I thought such as roster exchanges and keeping the PAs up to date. Sponsors were another big task that I had not dealt with before. We had a variety of sponsors with different tiers. Buffalo Wild Wings sponsored our kits while Promedica sponsored our travel gear. Then we had a several other sponsors that we had on banners that we put up during the game. Another big thing was having the games live online. Travel and itineraries are two things that I was used to, but I gained a lot more experience at working with Villa. Overall, it was a great experience for me to work with a semi-professional team at such a hands on level. I am really thankful to Chris Black and the owners for giving me this opportunity!
Wednesday June 20th
Our first game during the week was today. Really nothing much was different we just had a half day at work. We played away at Carpathia FC who are located just north of Detroit. Rudy and I went early and got the rental 15 passenger van and regular van and drove to our pick up site at the Pacesetter Fieldhouse. I organized the per diem so it would be easier to pass out and got the location of where we would be playing ready in my GPS. Rudy and I sat inside the Fieldhouse and waited until players started trickling in. I gave them their per diem and a game day booklet that I make for them. In the booklet, it covers how we want to run set pieces and where we want people on the field. The players don’t really look at it all too much. Once everyone arrived we departed. I took the 15 passenger and Rudy took the minivan. We arrived at the site a little later than usual because of traffic. I passed out jerseys to players and we headed out onto the field. The UPSL requires us to give a roster to the refs and then exchange one with our opponents. I gave the refs our roster and I then went up to the pressbox and gave the PA the starting lineup and correct pronunciations. It doesn’t matter if I tell him the correct way to pronounce our guy’s names because they always say it incorrectly no matter what. I think I need to write down the phonetic spelling or something because when I say it to them repeatedly it doesn’t seem to be sticking. The game started and I began with my pictures and videos and live tweeting. We didn’t play our best game and lost 4-2. Our first loss of the season. I packed up my camera and headed back to the locker room where I collected jerseys. After we were back on the vans, I routed us to get something to eat. I try to pick somewhere that has a couple places around it so players don’t have to just go with whatever I want. Sometimes it can be challenging when we play a 7pm game because restaurants close at 9pm. The location I found for this week had a Five Guys and a Panera that both closed at 10pm so we were good. After everyone got their food to go, we traveled back to Toledo. After unloading all the players and cleaning up after them, we dropped the vans back off at Enterprise and headed back to Tiffin.
Saturday June 9th
Today is our first home game so things were a little bit different than our first two away games. We did not have to meet a pick up site like we did for the away games instead we just met at Saint John’s High School in Toledo. This is our home stadium for this season. Last year we were at a different high school but the previous owner left a bad taste in their mouth so we had to move. As usual, we arrived very early to the game and we had to wait close to two hours to get in our locker room. Saint John’s has been really stubborn with us using their facilities for some reason. They wouldn’t let us on the field before 3:30 for our 5pm game. We were hoping to get on at 2:30 to get a little walkthrough in but that didn’t happen. After I handed out jerseys I made my way out on to the field. I talked with the pressbox people to get name pronunciations correct and to see if the scoreboard clock could count up instead of down. The scoreboard counting the game time up instead of down makes it way easier on my part to live tweet the game. The guy that was going to work the clock had no business being up there. He really did not have a clue. I explained to him 3 times how to change the clock from counting down to counting up. I thought he got it so I went down to the field and took my position on the sideline to take pictures and videos. The clock winded down and players were on the field ready to begin. The ref blew their whistle to signal the start of the game and I started snapping pictures. About two minutes in I looked at the clock. It read 0:00. He didn’t start the clock. I look back up in the pressbox and see him and some other guy next time him trying to figure it out. I ran up and there and the guy was really flustered and apologetic and all. I fixed the clock and just put 2 minutes on it and it started back up. I thought I had explained it well enough but I did not.
Saturday June 2nd
Today we have our second game vs. Oakland County FC who is located north of Detroit. They are a pretty solid team and I believe they were ranked second when we played them. Rudy, Nathan, and I left Tiffin around 12 to get the vans from enterprise. This time it was a nightmare. It took maybe 30 minutes for us to get the vans for some reason. They only had two people on staff. Eventually we got our vans and headed over to one of our indoor fields where we pick up all the players from. We had already given assigned clothes for them to wear on the trip but those that didn’t travel the first game I handed out the new travel gear.
Rudy wanted everyone to arrive early to the indoor to have a little walkthrough before we left. That took about 30 minutes and then we loaded up. I took one van and Rudy took the other. This was only about 2 hours and 30 minutes away so a lot closer than the Indianapolis trip. After arriving, we found our locker room and players got ready to warm up. I ran up to the press box to give the announcers our starting lineup and correct pronunciations. I had to give a list of our players playing to the refs so they have some sort of official document about who’s there. The last game I was unaware about this so I made sure to bring it this time.
Once the game started I started taking pictures, filming, and live tweeting the game. It’s a lot easier to have someone else live tweet because I don’t want to miss any of the action that happens on the field. It was a very competitive game and we ended up scoring in the 45th minute of the first half. It was the only score of the game and we walked away with a 1-0 victory. I chatted with the owner of the team after the game for a bit just about the teams and what’s it like owning a team and stuff. The team got dressed and we headed off to Chipotle to pick up our meal. After we arrived to the stadium, I dropped off an order list to Chipotle explaining to them that we would be picking it up at 9:15pm that night. We got our chipotle and headed back to Toledo. After dropping off the boys back at their cars, I had to clean mine out. Even after telling them to get all their trash you can’t trust them. We returned the two vans to enterprise and then made our way back to Tiffin.
Rudy wanted everyone to arrive early to the indoor to have a little walkthrough before we left. That took about 30 minutes and then we loaded up. I took one van and Rudy took the other. This was only about 2 hours and 30 minutes away so a lot closer than the Indianapolis trip. After arriving, we found our locker room and players got ready to warm up. I ran up to the press box to give the announcers our starting lineup and correct pronunciations. I had to give a list of our players playing to the refs so they have some sort of official document about who’s there. The last game I was unaware about this so I made sure to bring it this time.
Once the game started I started taking pictures, filming, and live tweeting the game. It’s a lot easier to have someone else live tweet because I don’t want to miss any of the action that happens on the field. It was a very competitive game and we ended up scoring in the 45th minute of the first half. It was the only score of the game and we walked away with a 1-0 victory. I chatted with the owner of the team after the game for a bit just about the teams and what’s it like owning a team and stuff. The team got dressed and we headed off to Chipotle to pick up our meal. After we arrived to the stadium, I dropped off an order list to Chipotle explaining to them that we would be picking it up at 9:15pm that night. We got our chipotle and headed back to Toledo. After dropping off the boys back at their cars, I had to clean mine out. Even after telling them to get all their trash you can’t trust them. We returned the two vans to enterprise and then made our way back to Tiffin.
Tuesday May 29th
I had a fun task today. I created two posts for our home and away schedule. I used Photoshop which I have gotten pretty handy at over the year that I have been working here. Rudy told Chris that he wanted me to be in complete control over social media. What sparked this was other people that had access to the account were posting and I was just unaware of it. I just didn’t want people to post while I was posting and have things get screwed up. So now I’m the only one who will be able to post. It makes sense though just having one person tweet and upload everything. I still want them to create things if they wish to do so but just send them to me if they need to get posted.
Saturday May 26th
Today, we had to head to Pacesetter Park to promote the club. It was probably the busiest day of the year at Pacesetter park because they were hosting the Pacesetter Park Invitational in which over 300 teams participated. It was sort of a madhouse and I don’t even want to begin to think about the person that handled the logistics for the event. Rudy and I had a booth and had these flyer type papers that had our schedule on them and we basically just handed them out to anyone who passed by. I really am not a fan of doing that stuff but I went through with it all the same.
After a couple hours when we had reduced our flyer stack greatly, we walked over to one of the Toledo Villa players who was coaching a team competing in the PSI tournament. We watched half his game and then went back to Tiffin.
After a couple hours when we had reduced our flyer stack greatly, we walked over to one of the Toledo Villa players who was coaching a team competing in the PSI tournament. We watched half his game and then went back to Tiffin.
Friday May 25th
This morning, we drove up to Waterville Primary school to assist them with their field day. We really had no idea what exactly we would be doing until we got up there. The elementary school kids were having their field day where they head out to the giant field behind their school and participate in a bunch of different sports. There were 5 of us total, Rudy, Nathan Jones, Adam Mitchell, Chris Black, and myself. We got checked in and were told we were going to be in charge of the soccer station. No surprise there. Our job was to simply divide the kids up and play soccer. There were a bunch of different stations and they would rotate through. They spent about 6 minutes at each station and we had two different games for fields. When the kids came over, I split them up in half and then split the half that stayed on my field in half again and gave them yellow pennies. All the kids were wearing a blue shirt with their name on the back so to differentiate them, we gave some a penny to wear. The group of kids we got aged from Kindergarten to 4th grade. Kids are pretty fun to work with so it was a good experience. I also took pictures of our players with the kids so we could promote on our social media pages just to make it look like we are giving back to the community and all that.
Tuesday May 22nd
Yesterday, I was informed of a new player that was joining the team. His name was Peter from BGSU so I got in contact with him about filling out a registration form that would be given to him at practice later that night. Today’s practice was at Pacesetter Park, the outside park in Sylvania, OH. I assisted Rudy with the usual set up of practices cones and balls. When Peter arrived, I got him sizes and grabbed him Toledo Villa practice gear. We usually wait to hand the gear out to the players if we know they’ll stick around but Rudy gave me the go-ahead to give him the gear.
Saturday May 19th
Today is our first game. We’re playing a team called USAi Old Bhoys located in Indianapolis at 4:00pm. I got up at 6 because I had to run to the office to print an itinerary for myself. I needed the exact address of the high school we were playing at because I was one of the two drivers. We departed Rudy’s house at 7:30 and grabbed the rental vans from Enterprise. We’d be taking two 15 passenger vans. They were less than halfway full when we picked them up, which wasn’t ideal. We drove them next door to the Pacesetter’s Headquarters. We told all the players to meet us here and we’d be leaving at 10:30 sharp. As the players trickled in, I handed them the ¼ they’d be getting to wear on the trip and Rudy gave them their $25 per diem. I checked everybody off and we left on time.
I had my GPS so I was the leader of the two vans. About 45 minutes in, Rudy needed gas. We found a gas station, filled up, and carried on the road. We took I69 through Fort Wayne and it was some of the most boring highway I’ve ever seen. Similar to taking 23 to Columbus. We arrived around 2 in the afternoon and headed in to the locker room. We gave everyone their number and I headed out to the field to talk to their manager, Andy. We had been communicating back and forth throughout the week about the game and an itinerary he had sent me. I walked up to the pressbox and gave the PA announcer the player numbers.
Shortly thereafter, the game started. My responsibility during the game was to take pictures and live tweet the game. We were better than our opponent and won the game 3-1. Their only goal came on a PK which I really don’t count because PK’s are made like 80% of the time. I got all three goals on video so that’s a plus. It was a great start to the season for sure.
After the game we all grabbed our gear that we brought and headed back to the locker room. I waited in the van and put the next address into our GPS. The boys piled back in the vans and we headed down the street to Moe’s. It was really Moe’s and a bunch of places next to Moe’s in the same strip. We let the players go anywhere they wanted on the strip and told them to get their food to go. Once we were all ordered, Nathan and I grabbed the vans, pulled them around back, and loaded everyone up. We drove back the way we came, driving on the boring strip of I69 back through Fort Wayne. We got back to the Pacesetter Headquarters at around 10:45pm. After dropping off the vans back at enterprise, we drove back to Tiffin. We celebrated our first win in Tiffin for a few hours.
I had my GPS so I was the leader of the two vans. About 45 minutes in, Rudy needed gas. We found a gas station, filled up, and carried on the road. We took I69 through Fort Wayne and it was some of the most boring highway I’ve ever seen. Similar to taking 23 to Columbus. We arrived around 2 in the afternoon and headed in to the locker room. We gave everyone their number and I headed out to the field to talk to their manager, Andy. We had been communicating back and forth throughout the week about the game and an itinerary he had sent me. I walked up to the pressbox and gave the PA announcer the player numbers.
Shortly thereafter, the game started. My responsibility during the game was to take pictures and live tweet the game. We were better than our opponent and won the game 3-1. Their only goal came on a PK which I really don’t count because PK’s are made like 80% of the time. I got all three goals on video so that’s a plus. It was a great start to the season for sure.
After the game we all grabbed our gear that we brought and headed back to the locker room. I waited in the van and put the next address into our GPS. The boys piled back in the vans and we headed down the street to Moe’s. It was really Moe’s and a bunch of places next to Moe’s in the same strip. We let the players go anywhere they wanted on the strip and told them to get their food to go. Once we were all ordered, Nathan and I grabbed the vans, pulled them around back, and loaded everyone up. We drove back the way we came, driving on the boring strip of I69 back through Fort Wayne. We got back to the Pacesetter Headquarters at around 10:45pm. After dropping off the vans back at enterprise, we drove back to Tiffin. We celebrated our first win in Tiffin for a few hours.
Thursday May 17th
Rudy and I drove up early to Pacesetter Park early today because we got our jerseys and other travel gear that we needed to sort out. We tried to get travel polos for the players it has not happened. They are receiving a ¼ zip to wear overtop their practice game shirts for travel. I was also given the per diem to give to the players. The players and staff will each receive $25 to spend on the players after the game. We received this money from Aaron Swiggum, one of the owners of the team. Practice commenced as usual and Chris and I discussed travel arrangements such as where we would be getting the rental vans from and the like.
Tuesday May 15th
Today before I went to practice, I had to register our players in the UPSL website. UPSL is the United Premier Soccer League, one of many semi pro soccer leagues in the United States. Last year, which was the first year of the program, we were in a different league. This year, we moved to the UPSL and are competing in the Midwest – East region. There are six teams total, four in Michigan, one in Indiana, and us in Ohio. Registering them is just part of the process for the league, so there is something on file about them and to make sure only the people registered are the people playing. So we had our players fill out the UPSL registration form last week and I inputted their information into the website to get everyone registered. It was a long, tedious task but wasn’t difficult by any means. At practice, we had a new player join the squad who Chris Black had told me about previously. I got his information for our own roster purposes, and then practiced commenced as normal.
Saturday May 12th
So today we had a community event the team was volunteering for. It was the Girls on the Run 5K that takes place on the University of Toledo’s campus. Us volunteers had to arrive at the volunteer tent at 7:45am. We were donned the Course Marshalls and were basically the people that waved flags telling people where which turn to make (even though most of the time it’s pretty obvious) and give words of encouragement. I believe it was Danny Fisher or Chris Black who told them we were going to bring 25 people. We brought 3. I was one of the three. Chris Black and our head fan supporter, called the Black Swamp, were the only people who showed up. Part of the issue was it was very last minute. On Wednesday, I got a forwarded email from Chris Black talking about volunteering at this race for this upcoming Saturday. It was on the way up to practice and I read it aloud to Rudy, who wasn’t too amused. This was the first issue, that is was communicated to the team super late. Apparently this was because Danny Fisher had set this up and expected some of the girl’s teams from Pacesetter Club to work it. Something happened where they ended up not being able to and we were voluntold to volunteer. I obviously had to go because this was part of my mentorship but none of the players went. Ouch. Chris and I were discussing what should change next year to ensure our team went. I suggested that we give out the gear after we volunteer. If you don’t volunteer you don’t get gear. He suggested that we put it in their contract that they have to volunteer. Next year it will be handled differently I imagine.
Wednesday May 9th
Back in the dome today, which I prefer because it’s much closer. I went up with just Rudy in the car and we had a range of discussions from which players were doing good to which players shouldn’t come back to the team. On the drive up, I got an email from Chris Black talking about the team and staff volunteering at a 5K this weekend. This was the first time I heard about this. Chris said he was going to be at practice today so we chatted about that. Apparently we got volunteered to work a 5k run this upcoming weekend. It was pretty short notice and I’m not sure how many guys will actually come. At the end of practice, Chris told everyone that we need volunteers for the 5k and if they could make it out it would be greatly appreciated. I had the responsibility to make sure everyone signed a contract so we could turn it in to the UPSL so I just set up a station at the front desk of the dome and made sure everyone signed it on the way out. We had a really good practice today. Having a good practice is something you sort of feel.
Tuesday May 8th
Today we had practice at Pacesetter park. I’ve been learning a little bit more about Pacesetter park and its relation to Toledo Villa. Our head coach for Toledo Villa is Rudy Brownell and his assistant coach is Jimmy Walker. Jimmy Walker was a star soccer player here at Tiffin decades ago and played with Rudy. He was in charge of the Pacesetter Club last year. This year, he took the Findlay head coaching job for the women’s team but is also serving as an assistant coach to Toledo Villa with Rudy. Danny Fisher is now in charge of the Pacesetter Club and he is also serving as a Club Manager type position. Sort of. He’s at practice maybe 50% of the time. There was some sort of deal that happened between Pacesetter Club and Rossford dome where they helped pay for it or something like that. I have to dig deeper.
Practice was pretty standard today. It started at 7:30pm. We moved it up a little the sun is still going down fairly early. I helped out with the standard setting up drills and getting pennies ready.
Practice was pretty standard today. It started at 7:30pm. We moved it up a little the sun is still going down fairly early. I helped out with the standard setting up drills and getting pennies ready.
Friday May 4th
Today was our first exhibition game. I got there earlier and assisted with moving goals off the field and making sure the proper goals were set up for our game. The team we were playing was another local team called Club Toledo who I believe won the conference last year. I wore my game day polo and shorts and we gave the players red jerseys to play in to not clash with our opponents black jerseys. During the game, I was taking videos of the action, hoping to capture some goals on camera. The artificial lighting in the dome makes it difficult to take clear pictures but it doesn’t seem to effect video quality. We had a couple of our club supporters there, called the Black Swamp, beating on a drum and chanting throughout the game. The sound of the drum reverberated off the blow up walls and made it sound even louder. There was a crowd of about 20-35 people in attendance.
The game was really exciting to watch. We had a lot of opportunities to score but couldn’t find the back of the net. Club Toledo scored first and we scored quickly after. At the end of the first half, the score was 1-1. In the second half, we changed some personnel around and scored another goal. They rallied back and scored a goal of their own. Then, without about 5 minutes left, we scored the last goal and sealed the win. Toledo Villa FC won their first exhibition game of the 2018 season 3-2. I managed to get 2 out of the three goals on camera, which are below. Throughout the game, I was tweeting updates on the Toledo Villa FC twitter page. I tweeted a picture of the starting 11 at the beginning of the game and at the end of the game I tweeted a picture of one of our players who scored 2 goals.
The game was really exciting to watch. We had a lot of opportunities to score but couldn’t find the back of the net. Club Toledo scored first and we scored quickly after. At the end of the first half, the score was 1-1. In the second half, we changed some personnel around and scored another goal. They rallied back and scored a goal of their own. Then, without about 5 minutes left, we scored the last goal and sealed the win. Toledo Villa FC won their first exhibition game of the 2018 season 3-2. I managed to get 2 out of the three goals on camera, which are below. Throughout the game, I was tweeting updates on the Toledo Villa FC twitter page. I tweeted a picture of the starting 11 at the beginning of the game and at the end of the game I tweeted a picture of one of our players who scored 2 goals.
Thursday May 3rd
We had practice at Rossford again. This time we used the whole field. The next day was our first scrimmage so I got with Chris and discussed what I needed to do and what to prepare for. After practice, we continued to make sure everyone had their gear. We were sponsored by Hummel for our gear. Hummel is a sportswear company that is headquartered in Denmark. It’s way more popular over there than it is here. They have a plant located near Toledo so I believe this is why we get their gear.
Wednesday May 2nd
Today, we had practice at an indoor facility called Total Sports Complex Rossford. This was my first time at this location. The front half of the building was a large warehouse type building with two sets of indoor soccer fields, batting cages, and a crossfit type area among other things. The back half was a large blown up bubble with a full turf field inside it. There were multiple teams practicing on the different halves of the field. When we practiced, we had the whole field but worked on just one half. After practice, I continued to hand out practice shirts and shorts to those that did not receive it earlier.
Tuesday May 1st
We had practice outside at Pacesetter park today. I brought my camera and took pictures of the players some of which I would use on social media for our twitter and Instagram accounts. Some of the guys were curious what I was doing with my camera. I made a small joke about not getting nervous and there’s no pressure while took pictures of them. I help set up drills before practice started and throughout practice whenever needed. At the end of practice, Chris Black came with some practice and game gear. I assisted him in passing them out and marking down who received what and what other sizes we needed.
Thursday April 26th
First day of mentorship. I drove up to the indoor practice facility that is located in Toledo. The team featured some former players that just graduated in May and some players who played before I got here. Also, my two coworkers, Adam, who is the Men’s Assistant coach here, and Nathan, who is the Graduate Assistant here, both are playing for the team. I was introduced to Chris Black who is the Director of Soccer Operations for Toledo Villa. There was another lady there, Abby, who worked as an administrator who started taking headshots of the players as they came in to use for the website. I then started talking to Chris more about my role. I would be doing some marketing, social media, travel, and administrative duties as needed. This was the second practice that Toledo Villa was having so players were still registering on computers and I helped Chris in getting players off the field and signed up during practice. I met the owners of the team during this time as well. It was a group of three men, I’m not sure what their profession was.
During the week, Chris sent me things through my email to work on such as putting a roster template together and making posts for Instagram.
During the week, Chris sent me things through my email to work on such as putting a roster template together and making posts for Instagram.