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Published: October 7th 2008
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The second week in California saw me really get into my stride. The enjoyment of coaching various age groups and seeing them enjoying the sessions was a great feeling. A sense that I am out here to help these kids improve as players.
This week started in a rather different way to the last. Myself and the other four UK coaches decided to go on a little adventure. This adventure would take us into the heart of California's woodland. The Big Basin. This is home of the famous Redwood tree. These are huge buggers!! The tallest one we saw was 397 metres tall!!! Just 20 metres taller than Peter Crouch. The journey to this forest was quite intense as, the roads leading to the visitor centre were long and windy, with steep hills and sudden bends to turn around. There were a few hair-raising moments when I thought to myself that this is it, I'm going to die. The drop at some points was 900feet so that would've been rather painful to say the least. But we survived the trip.
Once we arrived at the visitor centre, there was a choice of hiking trails to venture onto, as we
were only going to be there for an hour or so, we decided to take the shortest one. The trail took you around some very historic trees that have been there for hundreds and hundreds of years. Certain trees were completely hollow, you could see right through the middle of the tree to the top. The trail took us also to the tallest of the Redwood trees, standing at 397 metres, an awesome sight if ever I saw one.
During the rest of the week, there was a routine that was being established by us all, meeting up for a few hours, having lunch, then going to our various fields to coach.
The coaching for me was really starting to take off. I decided to set up base at a different field as last week. A field called Roosevelt, The teams at this field seemed more focussed and listened an awful lot more. There was this one Under 8 boys team who were a delight to coach, they listened, always had a smile on their face and looked as if they were really enjoying themselves. The same would go for the Under 12 girls team I coached on
Host families, family
Having yet another lovely meal the Thursday, they were a great team to coach, they loved my accent, but again listened and took everything on board that I would say to them and above all enjoyed themselves. I even got them to get in a picture with my Manchester United flag. Even the parents were loving having their kids being taught by an English lad! I had more parents introducing themselves to me, really happy that I am coaching their kids, all very nice people indeed.
So for me, coaching this week was really starting to move on. Next week, I will have the same teams as this week so I will look to improve them and look at different aspects of the game to coach.
Wednesday evening saw me being being introduced to Erica's (host family mum) mother and father. I was invited round for dinner. Erica's mother originates from Sweden and Erca's-brothers-girfriend comes from Portsmouth!! very interesting combination. They were really nice people and the dinner was as expected, delicious.
The weekend came along really quick. I had organized to meet my long lost old school friend Mike in San Francisco. He picked me up at my house and gave
Mike and Myself
He looks like Rod Stewart me an 'American bear hug'. It was good to see him as we were at school together from the ages of 13 to 18. We got to his apartment around 2pm and cracked open the beers as soon as we stepped through the doors. He works for the same company as me, but he is more permanent, He works for club teams and has been living in the city since March.
Many beers later, we hopped on the local bus and headed downtown for some serious drinking. Of all things we went into an Irish bar and within 30 seconds of arriving there was a fight! this huge guy was being wrestled to the ground by this skinny little runt. It lasted 30 seconds then they all got chucked out. Mike ran around the corner. plonker!
Anyway, we carried on drinking, got to another Irish bar called Folly's, stayed there for a while, got talking to this lad from Ohio, really nice guy, he brought us a pint before he left, which was a nice gesture. Think he was minted. Then these London lads started talking to us, asking us where the best places to go were, Mike
was the tour guide for them on this occasion. They supported West Ham!
The rest of that night would just see us going to various bars, meeting a few of his mates etc. We went for something to eat at midnight!! We were starving, so we popped into this grotty little restaurant on a street corner and I ordered a turkey sloppy joe!! it sounded nice and tasted nice but when the server prepared it in front of me, it looked like i was going to eat a load of sick. But like I said it was very tasty.
The night ended.
As Mike has a couple of teams he coaches in the city, I said I would go and watch his teams play. They were really good teams. The first team an Under 10 boys team won 2-1 and the second team, an Under 8 boys team also won but by the more slender lead of 9-0!!! The coach on the other team was Scottish so there was always a few fiery words being exchanged between Mike and this Scottish bloke.
After the matches had finished, Mike took me to a local par 3 golf
course. I was up to my old tricks again! starting off well, then going completely downhill from the first hole!!! The only thing that kept me from losing my temper was the fact that the course was overlooking the bay and the City!!! my excuse for playing poorly was the fact that we were in the direct flight path of the airport! I even saw a 747 British airways fly above us. I saluted!!
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