February '09 Update

A few months ago, I found myself sitting around the house with not much to do. These days the situation is much different.

I'm working about 20-30 hours week at Ozzie Smith's Sports Academy. I mostly help manage the facility and office even though I thought I was hired to be a soccer instructor. I haven't coached soccer once. The job isn't the greatest but I'm thankful to bring home a consistent paycheck once again.

As college basketball season comes to a close, I end a tour of duty keeping official stats for St. Louis University men's and women's basketball game. Sports PR and Information is still a career goal, so any experience is a plus.

Another possible career route is soccer coaching. I recently received my U.S. Soccer Federation National "D" License, which means I am eligible to attend the National Coaching school in a year. I will assistant coach a pool of 36 U-13 girls for the St. Louis Scott-Gallagher Soccer Club. The girls all train together but compete as two different 18-man rosters. The rosters change from week-to-week depending on the competition or tournament. I will coach alongside former IU player Ken Godat who won a national championship with the Hoosiers in 1988.

Godat is also the Director of Marketing Programs for Saint Louis Athletica of the new Women's Professional Soccer league. He has hired me as a part-time consultant and gameday coordinator given my experience with the Houston Dynamo.

On Tuesday night's I am taking an accounting class at St. Louis Community College. I'm considering going back to school to get an MBA. My wise father thought it would be a good idea to take a few business classes as a warm-up.

I have also begun training to become a volunteer firefighter with the Eureka (MO) Fire Department where my parents currently reside. I've always wanted to be a volunteer firefighter, but this is the first time it's worked out plus its another possible career route given the economy these days.

Cashing in my man-card

After this past weekend, I have a pretty good idea of what it was like to be Big ... you know, Carrie's boyfriend from the tv show Sex and the City. Oh ... you really don't know who I'm talking about, huh?

Yes, I'll admit that I have watched Sex and the City late at night when Sports Center is over and I can't fall asleep. And yes, I'll hand in my "man card" right away.

Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda were some of Mahattan's finest socialites who never found a party or vodka martini they didn't like. Often times, Big was just along for the ride hoping he would survive the night.

When I went to visit my newly ordained "girl friend" this past weekend at Mizzou, I felt the exact same way. Being around your significant other within the friendly confines of each other is one thing, but when you add her posse to the equation, you can never be too sure what will happen.

To make a long story short, I did in fact survive and my girlfriend's friends liked me alot- or so I was told. So after a wild and sometimes rough weekend at Mizzou, it's back to normalcy as I ask myself how I ever survived college.

So after I make this blog post, I plan to watch all the Rambo movies, lift weights without a shirt on, eat a rare-cooked steak and possibly grow a beard to somehow hopelessly redeem my man-hood after using a Sex and the City analogy in a blog that is suppose to document my manly and testerone-driven adventures.

To all of man-hood, I apologize.