I was recommended a documentary called Mitt. It's a painful documentary to watch. Hopefully some of you know who Mitt Romney is. If not he was the last presidential candidate for the Republican party. He worked, he prepared, he put himself out there, sacrificed it all for his dream and his dream never came true. Do you think he thinks it was worth it?

There were four things that I hope all of you think about from this movie as we go through the rest of the season:

1. After the last debate his campaign manager said one thing to him, whether you won or you didn't you want to be known as a fighter.

2. The sequence of the movie shows him flying into the venue where he is to watch the results and he said this, "I always slept well before an election because I knew I'd given everything so I didn't worry, I'd done everything I could, left it all on the field."

3. His campaign manager in his concession speech said "I'd rather lose with this guy than win with anybody else."

4. True wealth in life is the associations you have with other human beings.

Would your teammates consider you a fighter? Have you left it all on the field this year? Would you rather lose with his team than win with anybody else? What relationships have you built over this season that have enriched your life?

Goals - Aaron Conrad, Drue S.
Assists - Trevor Monney, Dustin Henry

Player of the Game: Trevor Monney, hustled, talked, sent some great crosses in the box, kept his head up.

Have your answers prepared for Thursday's practice. I'll be asking you. If you don't want to answer them, then email me in advance and I won't pick on you herrtaylor@gmail.com.

Text "mitt" after you read this.

I think today was the first time I've been heckled by a fan. He kept yelling, "Don't you want to win the game coach?" as I kept telling you guys to leave the ref alone and play soccer. To answer his question, NO, I don't want to win games where we yell at the ref and each other. Soccer isn't about winning, it's about learning. If we won because of an unsportsmanlike play on our behalf, or after playing terrible, the win means much less than a loss that we learn from or a game we played our best.

For those of you that lost your head and got upset at others, apologize, forgive yourself and remember what losing control got you today (benched, carded, Coach Taylor's semi-righteous indignation, etc.). I'm so tired of hearing, yeah but he, but coach, but the ref, but my parents, etc. You wouldn't be on this planet if other people were responsible for your actions. For you gamers, PWN your reactions to these situations.

I just got done reffing a U14 competition game for our fundraiser/service project. The score was 10-2, pretty boring game, but the kids were just glad to be playing soccer. It was a refreshing reminder that although it means everything in the moment, it still is a game. A game that is supposed to bring out the best in us individually and collectively.

Let me show you some examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WtyJO9R3I0

I know this was a rough game and losing isn't fun. Could you imagine being Brazil and getting beat 7-1 in front of a country where soccer is religion? It's just part of sports, some games you just get beat badly. The 1992-93 Chicago Bulls won the NBA championship. You weren't born then I know, but ask your parents about it, they'll remember Michael Jordan and his 3 peat NBA titles. One stat that I'm sure you'll never hear is that they lost to the Knicks that year, by almost 40 points. This stat is irrelevant because it's just one game. The stat everyone remembers is that they won 3 titles in a row. It's what you do after the defeat that people remember.

Players of the Game:
Alex Jessop - played his 15 minutes with everything he had, I told him to go in, hustle, press the wing and that's exactly what he did
Anferny Mendoza - pulled him off, told him to start winning balls in the middle and distributing, that's what he did.

Let's win, let's learn and let's love. Text "PWN" to me when you read this.

What a crazy game! I don't ever remember the wind being such a factor in a soccer game. A great thing about this game was that despite the circumstances (wind, cold, turf, ref) we prevailed. We won the game in overtime into the wind with a great combination and finish up front. I also never in all my years remember a referee adding 10+ minutes of stoppage time and awarding 4 corner kicks in a row.

As much as many of us don't like to admit, what we achieve in life is due to our choices and attitude regardless of circumstances. It was a bad pass, ref was terrible, their defense was so cheap, yeah but a ref can't say that, coach doesn't put me in long enough, my teammates aren't giving their best, etc. 

Here is a quick anecdote for you:

“Widely regarded as one of the best wingers ever to play the game, Garrincha was a world cup winner in 1958 and 1962, playing in the same Brazil team as Pele. The South American’s achievements are made all the more impressive given the fact that his spine was deformed, his right leg bent inwards and his left leg six centimetres shorter and curved outwards from birth.” With his condition he shouldn’t have even been able to walk.” The team never lost a game with him and Pele together on the pitch. It was said of him that only 2 players have single handedly won a world cup, Garrincha in 62’ and Maradona in 86’.

Keep this attitude, keep this frame of mind that you are responsible for results. I see many of you working harder and harder as the season goes on, this is exactly what it takes. You will be proud of the results.

Goals: Ryan Steggell, Jason Parades
Assists: Vincent Luna, Ryan Steggell

Player of the Game: Jason Parades – Game winning finish!

Text "We can do it!" to me before practice and we'll give you an extra 10 minutes of 4v4 instead of 10 extra minutes of running. 

Mountain View was one of those games where things didn't go our way.  We get a couple different bounces and the game goes our way. We can do it!

The easiest way to begin believing in yourself is to work as if every game's outcome depended on you and you alone. This eliminates blaming others, the ref and cheaters on the other team. The only way to help others be better is to inspire them through example.

From a blog I read the other day "I learned this lesson at an early age…I had a basketball coach take me aside after I finished far ahead of the pack after a long set of down-and-backs. He pointed to a slower teammate who was still running his lines and said, “he may not be as fast, but he’s giving 100% – Did you?” He went on to say, “it takes no talent to hustle and your team deserves better.” I don’t ever remember dogging-it again."

When we watch game film I'm so impressed with the moments when I see someone hustle back, press forward, mark, make runs off the ball, etc. when no one is looking, they are just hustling. I love these kinds of plays and it is so important for the game to tilt in our favor for us to hustle. You guys are working much harder than last year's team.

I remember when I was a senior in high school. We had a decent team, but I swear the first 2 hours of practice was running. It was so painful. We were doing the 10 yard down and back 100 yard ladder drill. Such a painful drill. Most of us cheated because it was just so hard. I remember looking around as a senior, seeing all the people cheating and saying to myself, no, I'm going to give it my all even if I'm last. 

Every drill from there on out I gave it all I had. I didn't notice it right away, but I started to be a standout in the drills, even against the cheaters. I began winning races against kids that were at the beginning of the year, much faster than me. Not only was I faster, but others started to work harder to try and beat me. Every game from there on out went differently. We won region outright the only time ever in PG history. We were arguably the least talented team in our region. We only had 2 players that played in the competition premier league.

I went down to college a couple  years later. I told the other referee before the game that I was from PG. He said he used to ref them a bit and there was some forward with an afro who was the fastest forward he'd ever seen. I told him it was me and he laughed, then I punched him in the face as hard as I could and filled his gas tank with powerade. Well I didn't do the second part, I just said it was me and thanks, then I stole his wallet.

Hustle changes your mindset. It tips the luck scale in your favor. It gives you a sense of satisfaction no matter how the game goes. Hustle isn't working harder than the guy it's pushing harder than you thought you could push. 

A couple examples - Jason's goals against Skyline and Corner Canyon. Vinny being in the right place at the right time for all his goals. Elijah keeping the shutout against Skyline!

You guys are a great team and you can do it!  Text "it's up to me" if you believe in yourself. If I don't get a text from you before end of day tomorrow ere will be lasers. 

Timpanogos 2 Skyline 0

The first Timpanogos team to beat Skyline, congratulations boys!

From lowest lows to highest highs. We lost 2-0 when we were up a man to Murray then showed up yesterday and beat a great team.

Although the first 15 minutes looked a little scary, a hustle goal from my hispanic connections put us back on our game. I re-watched the game film and I noticed a couple things that got me excited about the rest of the season. First off, Skyline is a solid team, their weaknesses were few and far between, but both our goals came off them. They didn't do the little things off the ball - marking and hustling and their winger backs weren't great distributors.

Watching game film is always revealing because you can't argue with what you see. Once our hustle, communication and ball movement becomes instinctive vs forced we will be the best team out there. I'm looking forward to our next game!

Goals: Jason and Vincent
Assists: Vincent and Ryan
Player of the Game - Eljiah Nimmer - great tackles, good composure, his girlfriend must have been at the game or something.

Lastly - watch this video on moving the ball forward. BVB, 2012, one of my favorite teams to watch didn't play around with the ball much. Passes were forward and quickly. Purposeful longballs when they were there. But ball is advanced forward with number as quick as possible. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkB7INWU3sA

Text "hustle" after you have watched the video.

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.