Soccergeezer@spartan stadium 

Let's start at the beginning

I am not sure why anybody would want to read this, but in case extreme insomnia is more prevalent than I know, I will begin by giving you some random tidbits about moi. I am a middle-aged, mid-level sort of person. I may seem eminently forgettable at first sight, but then I’ll bet you are too.

Anyway – I do have a couple of passions – first, I really enjoy spending time with my family. I have a son in college and a daughter in middle school, and believe-it-or-not I am still with my original wife (I think she’s out of warranty – at least it seems to me she’s getting a bit creaky!)

I am also truly enamored of the game of soccer. I participate as a player, referee, spectator, a member of the field crew for Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes http://sanjose.earthquakes.mlsnet.com/MLS/sje/index.jsp and a soccer-dad. In fact, that’s how I first got into the game. My son came home from school about 16 years ago and let us know he wanted to play in the PAL soccer league. From there, it grew. Eventually, my son went on to play in the class I select league, state premier league, and the Olympic Development Program as well as captaining his high school team and capturing offensive AND defensive all-conference honors his freshman year. Unfortunately, he was never in the right-place-at-the-right-time to get the necessary notice and this, along with his temper and sometimes overly aggressive style of play that got him into frequent trouble with referees led him to give up the sport at 19. I still believe that I have seen very few better left-footed defenders in the US, and he was always also an offensive threat. Anyway, back to me. I started playing coed soccer at the ripe age of 32 or 33. I also started refereeing soccer matches about the same time. I currently play on a coed team and have played on Santa Clara Sporting’s http://www.santaclarasporting.com/ over-35 men’s team for about 11 years (I guess that tell’s you about how old I am!)

My other passion is guitars! I love playing music (much to the annoyance of my family) and currently have a stable of five guitars (three acoustic and two electric) as well as a bunch of associated equipment. My musical tastes run the gamut – from punk rock to country – and I am one of the all-time great wannabes!

Well – I’ve wasted enough of my employer’s time on this today. Back at ya’!