JV Skyline - Coach Brough

What motivates you?  Why do you come to practice and games each week? Why do you play soccer?

These are questions that we need to answer individually and as a team.  I believe the sooner we can answer it, we can form a team identity.  Today's team didn't really show up to the field or have an identity.  We were lazy, too easily pushed off the ball, played with zero passion and just didn't seem to care.  Skyline was bigger and faster and worked together as a team.  We can do everything they did today, and better.  I know we can.

Gentleman, I care.  A lot.  If that wasn't noticeable today on the sideline, I don't know what more I need to do.  As much as it may seem I like to yell and scream, I really don't care to.  I love being positive, encouraging great play that COMES FROM WITHIN players who demonstrate their desires in their actions.  There's no greater manifestation of will, grit, determination and everything I love than hard work.  That's what it takes to be successful in life, soccer, anything! HARD WORK.

I hope setting that expectation now to work hard will stick with you all season long, and hopefully all your lives.  Come ready to work tomorrow, and please re-visit your goals.  I hope to see a lot more hunger and passion in our practice tomorrow and games going forward.

**As an aside, I heard a lot of people say, "no one was supporting me coach," or, "I didn't have anyone to pass to."  If we're all saying this, then that means we're ALL guilty of not supporting our teammates (w/ or w/o the ball).  This is important that everyone realize they're all equally responsible, both people with and without the ball.**

SOME GREAT QUOTES:

"You build on failure.  You use it as a stepping stone.  Close the door on the past.  You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it."  -- Johnny Cash

"Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be." -- John Wooden

"Consider the rights of others before your own feelings and the feelings of others before your own rights." -- John Wooden

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." -- John Wooden

Losing Is A Disease -

Driving home from the Murray game I was something I haven't been in a very long time - angry. I get frustrated from time to time, but not angry. I'm not sure how I let this game get to me at that level. 

After returning home from a weekend away with 7 smelly and immature scouts, I was still a little upset about the game and went back to one of my filed documents entitled something like "life changing advice". I have a list of talks and quotes that I've gathered throughout the last 10 or so years of my life. There were 2 things that I gleaned from the advice on these documents.

#1 - Never let failure progress from an action to an identity. One of the biggest predictors of success is the ability to fail, learn from that failure and move forward with a better knowledge of how to succeed. Failing isn't the problem, not learning from the failure and working on the solution is.

#2 There was a U of U football player who lost a really tough football match. He told his mother about it and she gave him this advice, "come what may and love it."

He further commented, "I don’t think my mother was suggesting that we suppress discouragement or deny the reality of pain. I don’t think she was suggesting that we smother unpleasant truths beneath a cloak of pretended happiness. But I do believe that the way we react to adversity can be a major factor in how happy and successful we can be in life."

"If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness."

As mentioned, how we react to adversity will lead to either greater happiness or unnecessary suffering. Greater progress, growth and capability or digression, damnation and disillusionment. Sports is a great way to learn this great lesson that our attitude and work ethic are much more important than a single event.

What did you learn from our failure on Friday?

What are you going to do about it?

How is it going to make you better?

Text "come what may and love it" before today's practice.

JV Post from Coach Brough:

Wow gentleman...gutsy performance today to pull out the win.  Congratulations to Cameron Peterson, with a number of huge saves to make Marc Bichon's trickling-across-the-goal-line effort the game-winner.  Player of the game goes to Cameron just by a hair because of the multiple big saves.

There were some great things I saw today on our field.  I loved the increased communication (can still improve) and positivity on the field (can also improve as well).  It's incredible to see the impact that has on your mental state both individually and collectively.  I'm not sure if you all see it as clearly as I do, but there are definitely times when it's more apparent than others.  I hope to continue to see that type of approach to the game.

The attribute of the day is hard work.  Hard work is what allowed us to beat a much faster and seemingly more physical team today.  We out-worked our opponent; simple as that.  Some great 1-2 combinations, Marc's goal, and long-term possession resulted from a lot of hard work.  I hope you took to heart what Skyler Halford said the other night at the team dinner: "there is no replacement for hard work.  Coaches were 'forced' to play me because I just worked harder than others and wouldn't quit."

Now, before we go on patting ourselves on the back, realize that soccer is a fickle game.  We played other less-skilled opponents this season and tied or lost to them.  It seems we play best when playing "up" competitively.  I hope you all can take what you learned from the game and apply it to your individual efforts for improvement and come ready on Monday to bring it all together as a team.  Our defense was shaky at best, and our first touch is still letting us down too often.  But let's savor the moment and the big win against a great opponent for now...just realize that we need to continue to work hard at practice and most importantly: 

HAVE FUN! :)

Last game reminded me a lot of my truck I bought last year. Back in the day vehicles used carburetors and they get clogged pretty easily. The carburetor mixed the fuel and air so the engine had the right mixture to run properly. If the mixture was off a little, or a jet was a little clogged the vehicle would usually still run, but not well. For running around town and doing basic off road stuff the truck did fine and the parts functioned well enough to get around.

 I enjoyed the truck for basic stuff and basic obstacles. I sold it to my brother who drove it everyday and did some very demanding off-roading in it and the carburetor kept getting clogged and the truck wouldn't run well in these circumstances. Eventually the truck broke down. Not for lack of effort, but merely because the parts weren't functioning well together and couldn't handle the strain of more demanding situations. Our team functions very well against basic teams and we have played a couple of them this year, but what is it going to take to function well in demanding situations? What is stopping us from having smooth transitions from the back to middle to front?

How many of you have done research on the 4-3-3 system?

Here is a very basic interpretation of the 4-3-3 - it's all about triangles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXWq34XByjc

Here's another one:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv5RDv8KbEQ
Germany played a very similar system to destroy Brazil 4-2-3-1 which is what I was telling our center forwards to do yesterday. Watch the game and see how they are rotating their midfielders and wing defenders. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0hcrqf4Af0 I couldn't find it in English, sorry.

"It is often said (with good reason) that games are not won on paper, since there is no one given tactical system that is inherently better than the next – it’s all about team dynamics."

I'm not asking you to like the system or be the best at it, I'm just asking you do your best to learn it. I'm asking you to do your best to work on your foot skills and vision at home. We are not going to be state champions by just working hard at practice. Do you have a goal for the season? Have you written it down? Defense do you have a goal, offense, etc.? What is our team goal besides winning state? Once we get the right mixture to fire to full capacity, you'll be amazed what this team is capable of.

Text "carburetor" to me if you have read this.

Referee Schedule for this week. Blacked out games are already complete.

Here is the ref schedule for Saturday:

Coach K asked each of you to watch "Who Moved My Cheese?" Each player needs to watch the youtube video of this and text me the answers to the following questions concerning the clip.

1. What are the names of the four characters from the book?
2. What was one of the writings on the wall?

▶ 12:52

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDNhEYpBPbY

Text me the answers before Friday's practice and we will play a couple rounds of world cup instead of piggy backs. Eveyone on the team must text me before practice.

I've been trying to process this game in my mind, were we tired? Was Park City in better shape than us? Was it the turf? The ref? Did we understimate them?

I'm not sure what to think of the main problem, but it seems like there were a couple factors here at play that all affected us. I think there was a great deal of individual effort in spurts, but we really never came together as a team to connect consistently enough to tire out the other team. We played well in the final third, but had a tough time finishing very straightforward chances.

I want to highlight something more important from this game and from the CC game. Here are the 2 emails that I received from opposing players:

From Park City:

"My name is Charlie Urban. I am the goalie for Park City High School. To begin with, I would like to formally apologize for my ill-tempered behavior. What I did out there was irresponsible and impudent. I have no idea what factors led to my undesirable actions, but I want you and number 8 to know I am sincerely sorry. Also, no my coach did not make me write this, I just feel resentful towards my mannerism and I hope if we meet again I behave appropriately."

"I play on Corner Canyon's Soccer team. During tonight's game I said some things I regret and usually don't say. I was frustrated and lost my head. 
As a result I changed my behavior. I would appreciate it if you read this to your players so they can know that I'm sorry as well. I talked to a few after the game and apologized. I don't want to represent Corner Canyon in the way that I did. Who I was tonight wasn't me and it didn't truthfully reflect me or my school. The one thing that sucks about sports is that you make enemies with people that you don't know, and it's because you have the same goal. I don't want to make enemies with any of your players so I apologize for my behavior this afternoon. You guys have a great soccer program and I look forward to playing you guys again."

Here's my email back:

"I just received your email and am very impressed with your willingness to apologize. It shows a lot about you, not only as a player, but as an individual.

Though sports does have the ability to bring out the worst in people, it also has the ability to bring out the best. I’m not sure that you realize this yet, but you sending this email is sports bringing out the best in you. Sometimes it takes a mistake to do that and we all make mistakes. Just don’t let the mistakes define you and in this case it hasn’t, your apology has!

I’m going to post your email on my blog www.mrtsoccer.blogspot.com tonight and will make sure they all read it. I’m really proud of you and glad we get to play against players like you."

I hope that our conduct on the field and off the field reflects to others the person we want them to see. I will never forget when I lost my temper and threw another player out of the indoor arena after he punched me in the back of the head. My parents, girlfriend and other people were in the stands and I felt so stupid. I went to apologize to the other player later and he wouldn't accept my apology. I had a hard time forgiving myself, but knew that I never wanted that to happen again. 

We all make mistakes and what we do after the mistake is much more important than the mistake itself. If you're never making mistakes then that is the biggest mistake of all. For you perfect people, you landed on the wrong planet and I've built a homemade rocket to send you back where you came from.

Text "apology" when you have read this with your name please.

Post from Coach Brough:

Roger

Today was a frustrating game for us as a team.  As I think back on the things I saw today, our first touch and lack of patience in maintaining possession really hurt us.  I believe we were a better team in a number of ways, but the most prominent thing that we can learn from Park City's team was the speed of play with regards to ball movement.  They were excellent at taking controlling first touch and then looking to distribute quickly to their moving teammate. 

Please recognize the operative words in the previous sentences (italicized). I don't want to dwell on the things that we didn't do well or execute, but it's important to recognize where we fell short, learn from them, and re-double our efforts to improve those parts of our game that are lacking.  The previous paragraph's last sentence is something I would LOVE for our team to be better at.

I've listed some things for us to work on below, but most importantly, I want to see and feel that we have collectively "bought-in" as a team to a vision that we all agree on.  Please come ready tomorrow to work hard and discuss what this will be for our team this year: 

THINGS TO IMPROVE:

1. Individual work/effort...aka "hustle", particularly on defense; and everyone defends.

2. Communicating with teammates.

3. Playing simple and patiently, maintaining possession until an opportunity arises.

4. First touch.  This was killer today, and something we all need to work on individually.  **Just like a music group, we have to work on our own craft/skills and then bring that to practice to put together as a whole team.**

As a last side note, I was a bit perturbed on the bus ride home as many players were joking and laughing with each other after a poor team performance.  I would have hoped that players would have taken to heart what I said on the bus a bit more seriously: "Taking the time to analyze your individual efforts and contributions on the field today and see what you can do to improve yourself for your own satisfaction and the betterment of the team."  Just like Coach Taylor's previous blog post about Varsity's game vs. Corner Canyon (2nd-to-last paragraph), we need to be all about the success of the team...I believe that is fundamental to the success and vision that we need to have for this season.

Thank you for working hard, and let's get back to it tomorrow!

Player of the game: Marc Bichon (again)

"If you fail to prepare, then you are preparing to fail." - Benjamin Franklin

We have been working a lot on combinations in the final third. Watch the first 2 goals from Arsenal to see why we work on these combinations - combinations

Dribbling is just too much effort for too little reward.

Friday's game was an attestation to the potential that this team has. There was no individual out there that did not play with heart and no individual that wasn't smiling on the sidelines (except Aaron) don't worry your behind will heal. With great potential come moments where we make mistakes and where we have moments of brilliance. We won 5-1 against a team that had a great front line and a solid midfield. Their defense was suspect, but mostly because of the way we moved the ball out of the back and exhausted them. We started to do a couple thing very right in this game:

1. Defense playing out of the back and pressing up the wings.
2. Forwards crashing the goal and making them make mistakes
3. Midfielders and defense moving the ball quicker
4. Holding the shape on defense to not get too stretched
5. Hustled back on defense and supported offense on counter attacks

This is a great win to build off of and work harder. If any of you have watched Saturday's Warrior there is a missionary who writes his girlfriend all of these love letters and she always ends her letters with "work harder!" Now is that time for us to use this win as a catalyst to a fantastic regular and post season. If we work harder, smarter and better we have already seen what we are able to do on the pitch. You guys are talented, and will able to reach the goals you believe in and move heaven and hell to accomplish. Happiness is victory, joy is knowing you did everything you could to achieve it. You will love the change that happens through this process. I hope some of you are putting at least an hour in today of individual practice or team practice to meet the next challenge.

It would be uncoachtaylorlike to not mention a couple things that need to change for us to have this kind of success against top teams. I'm all about giving each of you opportunities to have some fun in the game, but not if it comes at the expense of teamwork.

When I was in High School one of my friends was obsessed with WWF (world wrestling federation). I watched it a couple times and I still remember "The Rock" who later acted in movies which all were hilarious because of how horrible of an actor he was. Anyway, he had saying that some of you might now "Know your role and SHUT YOUR MOUTH!!" He would always yell the second part of it.

You might think you're a winger, a forward, a defender, etc. What you need to realize is you are whatever your team needs you to be. You shouldn't care if it's boring, too hard, unbecoming of your abilities etc. Great teams are satisfied when the TEAM succeeds, not when yourpersonal wants are entertained. When you get your chance to be whatever the team needs you to be you take it on full force. Be it playing in a JV game to inspire other players and be an example, go in goal, shag or tell coach Taylor to drink more water, whatever your role is, know your role and find joy in the privelage to be a part of this team.

Text "know your role" to me after you have read this. You will all run Monday until everyone on the team has read this blog so spread the word. I would also suggest that you guys get together on your own and work on those combination drills and free kicks.

There was a doctor who met with an 88 year old man who had all sorts of blood, kidney and other health issues. The patient had been to many doctors and this latest doctor thought, how can I help this guy, he's already been to every specialist out there and nothing has helped. He looked at the patient and he quietly just asked "What are your goals and how can I help you?" The man quietly explained that all he wanted to do was be able to walk without falling down and go home.

That's what I'm asking you guys this year. Come ready Monday to discuss it with me - "What are your goals and how can I help?

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865623794/High-school-boys-soccer-4A-team-by-team-region-capsules.html?pg=all5. Timpanogos High School

Team schedule

Head coach: Scott Taylor

2014 record: 7-8-3 (Tied for fourth in Region 7 with 5-6-1 record)

2014 postseason: Lost to East in first round

Returning contributors:

Caiden Brown — senior — goalkeeper

Aaron Conrad — senior — midfielder

Ryan Steggel — senior — forward

Dustin Henrie — senior — defender

Coach comment: “We are a very young team but most have seen significant playing time for top teams and varsity last year. Two of our four returning seniors have already committed to play at BYU and are very excited to showcase their collegiate-class talent in their final high school season.”

Game Recap American Fork:

I like to bake occasionally, but it is sometimes hard to do. Especially when structure is so important for the cake to not collapse on itself. I've noticed that cake taste fine as dough or  fully cooked, but a doughy middle ruins the whole batch and the cake will collapse on itself.

We played hard against AF, heart was there, but our midfield was a little doughy and it hurt our efforts moving the ball forward and side to side. Our exhausted midfield had little combination play and we collapsed on ourselves. Granted we did outplay them and had many more chances than they did, but chances don't necessarily equate to wins. Heart kept us in the game.

One thing that got me excited about coaching this year is that you guys wanted to go to overtime. Last year against copper hills and against PG everybody just wanted to quit, a tie was good enough. We have people begging to go on the field this year instead of wanting to get taken off. We have some great potential and I'm excited to see how we progress as we work hard and work together this year.

First one to text "dough" to me has 5 minutes of shooting drills instead of 5 minutes of running.

Players of the game - Dustin Henrie for talking, moving and distributing out of the back.

JV AF Post

From Coach Roger

Today was a great learning experience for our young team.  There were a lot of great things I saw both individually and collectively.  The team we played from AF is an excellent team, well disciplined and technically sound.  I hope our team can recognize a great team when we play one and learn from the experience and become better because of it.

Before we get into the game, I want you to know I love being a positive reinforcer type coach.  When we share the same vision and belief, I believe we can accomplish anything we set our minds to.  I hope we can work to establish this shard vision and belief as the season progresses, but it is still early and we have a ways to go.  I'm proud of you and the efforts you made, and I hope we can learn, improve and be successful together.  I love reinforcing the positive and will look to do so throughout the season.

We are still struggling to communicate.  When we all take upon ourselves the responsibility to defend "our man" (depending on shape/formation), or work a quick 1-2 combination, communication has to be at the core of what we do.  Marc and Ben had some great combinations, as did Rasband and Jacot on the other side with some forwards checking to the ball to assist the ball forward (Alex, Silverio, etc.).  

We are still learning and growing with each other, and through that there will be some growing pains.  But lets look to stay positive, work together and share in that belief and vision, and the sky will be the limit for our team.

Player of the game: Marc Bichon

Friday was the largest margin of victory since I've been coaching at Timpanogos. We beat Orem 5-1 and Murray 4-0 last year. 5-0 is not only a great win, but every one of our forwards has already scored this year. According to the stats sheet we outshot them 25-1. This all started with a great combination in the first 5 minutes of the game that set up a great chance for Steggel who did nothing less than bury it in the net on his first attempt of the game. I watched each player work, move, communicate, cover and combine to run the other team ragged. It takes a lot of heart to come out swinging like we did and not stop until the KO punch has been delivered, no matter how tired you are.

I'm excited to see what this year has to offer. If we keep improving, keep striving and work hard, nobody will be able to stop us.

Player of the game: Ryan Steggel 2 goals and an assist.
Goals: Ryan Steggel, Ryan Steggel, Jackson Bretzing, Vincent (Pollo), Drue Stritikus

We will be leaving right after the game on Friday to go on the retreat.

Retreat Packing list

Sleeping bag
Pad (waterproof if possible)
Tent
Shovel
Pole Digger
Pole driver
Working Gloves
Pick
Lunch for Saturday
Wood for fire
Knife
Paper, Pencil/pen
Running shoes
Extra fence posts if any, extra fence wire, supplies, etc.
Working boots

Address

5074 W 7300 S Benjamin (Spanish Fork, UT)

For detailed instructions type in address above into Google maps. For some reason it won't let me post them.

I will have a truck with a trailer so we should be able to haul everything down.

Timpview 1-0. This was an interesting game. 1st time with a new formation and many players on the field that have never played together before. New formation, new players, not bad. We fought hard, no one came off the field crying (one came off the field bleeding), no penalty kicks, no silly fouls right outside the box and very little negativity. I'm excited to see how we do when we start to get used to each other, learn the system and get healthy.

I watched an interesting documentary while doing the dishes last night. There is a small creature in Africa called the honey badger. In South Africa there is a saying in Afrikaans that translates "as tough as a honey badger." These little creatures fight lions, hyenas, rhinos, you name it. On top of all of that the thing that impresses me the most about them is their perseverance. They will literally stop at nothing to get what they are working for. To the point of defecating in the same place and piling it up for 3 weeks to get a pile high enough in order to climb out of their cage.

We can learn a lot from nature. If you read this, text "honey badger" to my phone before 5pm today and you (if player) or your son (if parent) will be first in line to eat Friday at the retreat.