Hard Luck For Tyson Russell

Tyson Russell has had a hard soccer career thus far.  The 25-year-old began his professional career only 2 years ago and in that short time has endured more setbacks than most footballers experience in their entire career.

Russell is originally from upstate New York.  He was playing recreationally there when a new club was formed named "You don't know".  That club has already folded and didn't accomplish much in their short existence, but they did recognize Russell's potential.  But Russell was only on the books for a week.  In a bid to raise cash to start the club Russell was sold to Italian club Aygo for $72,000.

After flying out to Italy Russell soon learned that Aygo were only speculators and had no intention of playing him.  Within another week he was sold to Italians Polisportiva Ciaccolata.

At Polisport is where Russell's real soccer education began.  His prospects looked bright at first.  He got his first start with the senior team in round 2 of season 36.  He didn't score a goal, but he made a decent debut in a 4-0 win for Polisport.  It wasn't enough to impress the coaching staff, however.  For the bulk of the season Russell saw regular time with the reserve team.  He played well and scored goals at a brisk pace, but he couldn't seem to get a second chance with the senior team.  Russell said of the experience, "It was a very hard time.  After so much turmoil with the transfers and the travelling it was at least nice to have some routine.  But I felt like my good showings for the reserves weren't being noticed."

His persistence did finally pay off, and in round 13 of that season he got another chance with the senior squad.  The club won again, and this time Russell scored in a 3-0 win.  That was enough to Russell to finish the season with some hope for the future.  "I only got 2 games in, but I felt good about getting more time the next season."

Russell's optimism looked to be justified.  He played regularly in the club's preseason friendlies.  But in those matches he suffered a series of injuries, the last of which was a horrific ACL tear.  For the final insult Polisport decided to sell him rather stick by him through the rehabilitation.  "It made me sick to my stomach," said Russell.  "It was the first glimmer of hope I'd had and it was taken away so quickly."

That's when Cedar Park came calling.  Coach Whittington had enacted a policy of buying injured or out of form players on the cheap and rehabilitating them with the club.  Cedar Park purchased Russell from Polisport for $81,000.  "We knew we were taking a chance," said Whittington.  "But I also think that Tyson will be able to repay the first one who gives him a real chance."  Russell missed the first 4 rounds of the season rehabbing his injury.  When he finally appeared in the starting lineup for the round 5 matchup against A&M FC it had all the makings of a triumphant return.  In the 13th minute Russell scored his first goal for his new club to put them up 1-0.  But 20 minutes later he crumpled to the field in agony, this time an MCL strain in his other knee.  It will be at least 4 more weeks until he can try to play again.

So in a season and a half of being a professional, Russell has made 3 appearances.  The good news is he's scored in 2 of those 3 matches.  It's impossible to say what the future looks like for Tyson Russell, but you can hear the desperation in his voice when he talks about it.  "If I can't play this game I don't know what I'll do.  I'm fully committed to playing again, and I think Cedar Park is the perfect environment for me to recover in.  I don't want to be anybody's charity case.  I want to contribute."

CPH Youth Academy Promotes First Player

For months the speculation has been flying about who the first player would be to ascend from the youth academy to the first team.  That speculation came to an end this week when Nathaniel Tackett was promoted to the senior side.

There is some reservation about Tackett being the first choice.  He's been a solid contributor to the youth team, but not a standout.  He appeared 11 times for the youth team and register 3 goals, 2 of which came against the Cambridge Run.  He moved around the field and eventually found a home in central midfield.  Jorge Leavitt defended the choice by saying, "You have to understand what the purpose of this youth academy is.  For each kid we need to take that kid as far as he can go.  So whether or not Nathaniel is our best player is beside the point.  We've taken Nathaniel as far as he can go on this team.  It was time to let him move on to see what he can achieve elsewhere while at the same time giving another youngster a chance."

Jorge Leavitt and coach Jamie Whittington conferred with Tackett about his first team prospects.  The club policies state that Tackett is entitled to a protected spot on the roster.  But if both player and management agree the player can be sold to another club where his prospects might be better.  In Tackett's case all parties agreed that he would have more chance of playing first team soccer at another club.  So immediately after being promoted Tackett was put on the transfer list.

Said coach Whittington, "We would have loved to have our first youth player come right into the first team lineup, but people need to understand that that's not realistic.  Nathaniel has evolved beyond our youth team but doesn't fit in with our senior team, so it's best for all of us if he goes on to another club.  We didn't pressure him into this at all.  It was a mutual decision."

Tackett himself is excited about his future.  "I would have loved to have played for the first team, but I'm more interested in getting consistent playing time.  Cedar Park has been very up front with me, and of course I've developed into the player I am because of them.  I hope to always maintain some connection to the club, but I'm looking forward to leaving the nest."

UPDATE:  No buyer for Tackett was found, so he's settled in with the reserves.  His first team prospects are still not good, but in the coachs' view he can continue to develop with the reserves for the time being.

CPH Pulls Off Surprise Draw With Panathinaikos

The senior team recorded what most observers are calling the club's biggest result in years by securing a 0-0 draw with massive series favorites Panathinaikos.  GM Ross Houston could hardly contain himself:  "It's hard to expect the coaches and players to be content with a draw, and they aren't.  But any objective observer knows what a massive result this is for us.  Everyone thought we were years away from getting a result against a team like this."

Panathinaikos had the better of the early exchanges and missed their first 2 chances.  But the tide turned when standout Panathinaikos midfielder Bertil Normand suffered a nasty injury in the 17th minute.  From then on CPH gained a small edge in the midfield play and was able to create a few chances of their own.  Anselmo Cruz went close in the 34th minute to give Hounds some hope before halftime.  After the break Hounds resumed their fine play and Adam Isaac probably should have grabbed the lead in the 75th minute.  After his miss the momentum swung again as Norbert Carlton was shown his second yellow card in the 80th minute.  From that point on Hounds were on the defensive, but in the end were able to keep the clean sheet.

Panathinaikos will undoubtedly view this as an upset, though they will still be confident of taking all 3 points when the two teams rematch later this season.  For the time being, Hounds can celebrate.

Jamie's View

Every so often I think the readers of this blog need to hear an assessment of the team directly from the coach's mouth.  Coach Whittington recently agreed to sit down with me for an interview to give the fans an idea of what he thinks of the current team, the new club policies, the youth academy, and the future.

RH:  So let's start with the current team.  Goalkeeper seems to have been a frustrating position for you.

JW:  You're right about that.  We started the team with Charlie Melendez in goal and very quickly Herschel Womack was brought in to challenge him.  Coach Alfaro thought he could improve on those two and brought in Dominik Čejka.  The whole international debate aside, I think the idea at the time was that the 3 of them would compete for 2 spots.  What I don't think anybody expected was that Dominik would have such trouble adapting and that Charlie and Herschel would respond to the situation so well.  I think there are many reasons Dominik didn't work out here, and I think it's unfortunate and not completely fair that the blame for that debacle ended up falling squarely on coach Alfaro.  As for my coaching tenure I've been content to let Charlie and Herschel compete for the starting spot every week.  They've done reasonably well, but I think we all know that we still need to improve at that position.  And then on top of all that upheaval we now find out that Herschel has suffered what looks like a career-ending injury.  We've brought in a new keeper named Stanton Zimmer.  We made this move out of necessity, but we also think Stanton can be the improved keeper we all know we need.  He's had a rough career where he's been a professional for a lot of years, but has had a lot of trouble getting games.  He had a very rough first outing with the reserves, but unlike the situation with Dominik I'm committed to giving Stanton a lot of games to get his form back.  Unfortunately I can't say the turmoil is over.  But we're hopeful that Charlie and Stanton will be a reliable team for a while.

RH:  In contrast it seems like your first choice defense has been very stable.

JW:  Yes, very much written in pen.  Evan Williams in the middle, with Bart Driscoll and Curt Hamby on the sides.  It says a lot about that trio that both coach Alfaro and I have both been comfortable with a 3-man back line.  The only player I think you'll see getting some time back there is Larry Yazzie.  When Larry was brought in coach Alfaro was still in charge, but I was already in the loop for transfers by then.  We recognized Larry as a very versatile player.  We weren't sure if he could take one of the wing back starting spots, but we already knew he could play wing or even up top.  Larry's had his ups and downs since he's been here, but his versatility is priceless to us.  But our main 3 have done great.  Curt in particular has helped us out a lot by scoring all those goals.

RH:  Just like the Cedar Park teams of old, the attraction seems to be the dynamic central midfielders.

JW:  Yes, we've always liked that system and we've always had pretty good players to fit it.  The 3-5-2 comes from this.  I'm very happy that we're finally seeing some stability here.  Antoine Draper, Michael Novak, Andrea Elba, those are the guys.  Antoine and Andrea are the magic-makers that we count on.  Novak is another one of those guys who can play in different positions.

RH:  You also haven't had the luxury of playing with consistent wingers.

JW:  The competition has been brutal and often times the performances have been below our standards.  In my mind only one of them has truly stepped up and grabbed his spot and that's Anselmo Cruz.  On his day I think he might be our best player.  The others, Norbert Carlton, Chris Goodacre, Josué Mahon, they've had their moments.  You will see them all in and out of the lineup.

RH:  As for the forwards, you don't seem to have a problem writing your own name on the team sheet.

JW:  Well, I've been fortunate enough to score at a pretty regular clip in my time here.  As long as that continues nobody seems to complain too much about my name in the lineup.  I hope that I'll be the first one to recognize when it's time for me to have a seat on the bench.  My strike partner Adam Isaac has been consistently good enough to hold on to his starting place, but not good enough to take his goals and keep his confidence up.  I think he might have a break out if he can just get that first goal.

RH:  You are the first coach who has to deal with the new club policies approved by the members.  Can you talk about those?  What do you think about them?

JW:  I think the whole idea of club members having a real say in how their club does business is fantastic.  Even if I disagree with particular points I am wildly in favor of the overall idea.  As for particular policies, I think the emphasis on the youth academy and developing youngsters in general is fantastic.  I'm looking forward to the day when we have some youth academy graduates on the senior roster.  I'm not much of a fan on the limit on international players.  I understand the reasons behind it, but we play an international game and it's going to make it hard for the coaches.  The policies about stadium expansion and ticket prices don't really effect me, so I don't have much of an opinion there.  That's your department.  I also appreciate getting the support of the members by getting elected.

RH:  Do you follow the youth academy?

JW:  I do, but maybe not as much as you might think.  I have enough to worry about with the seniors and the reserves.  Also there is a lot of trust between Jorge Leavitt and myself.  So occasionally he'll whisper in my ear about some player he thinks might make the senior roster some day.

RH:  Where do you think this club is headed in the future?

JW:  It's hard to say.  I don't know if we can make it to division IV like the previous incarnation of the club was able to.  We've changed our priorities and that kind of thing might no longer be possible.  I think we can win in division VI, no doubt about that.  I think we can win some competitions with our youth academy as well.

RH:  Thanks for you time.

JW:  No problem boss.

General Meeting Notes

The first general meeting of the club's members was held this past weekend.  The following club officials were elected:

Head Coach - Jamie Whittington

General Manager - Ross Houston

Head of Marketing and Sales - Peter Heit

Youth Head Coach - Jorge Leavitt

Whittington, Houston, and Leavitt have already been serving in those positions.  The Head of Marketing and Sales position was new and club legend Peter Heit will lead that effort.

The members passed the following general policies:

* The team should have a maximum of 5 international players.  We recommend trying to keep the number at 3 so that emergency transfers won't be held up because of nationality.  There is no minimum number of international players.

* The club should pursue league games and US Open Cup games with an equal commitment.  Any other competitions should be considered secondary without an explicit recommendation from the members.

* The club has an ongoing mission to promote local players.  Youth team academy players promoted to the senior team but still under the age of 21 shall have 2 protected roster spots.  These players cannot be fired or transferred from the club without the player's consent.

* All efforts must be made to ensure that the youth academy team and the reserve team have as many matches to play as possible.

* The roster size must be at least 24 players at all times.  (Including the 2 youth academy spots)

* We do not wish to be a club that makes short term money buying and selling players.  When we acquire a player in the transfer market we expect that player to be of service to the club on the playing field for at least a season.  In general we want our players to have careers at our club, not stints.

* As the stadium expands we want ticket prices to remain affordable.  Terraces, basic seats, and seats under roof are all acceptable options, but we do not wish to see any luxury boxes or other VIP seats in our stadium.  This would undercut our values as a club of the people.

* We would like to prioritize an expansion of Milburn Park to at least 20,000 before the end of season 38

Support for the policies limiting internationals and discouraging short term players was probably spurred on by the short stint at the club of goalkeeper Czech Dominik Cejka.  The 37-year old was brought into the club to compete with Charlie Melendez and Herschel Womack for the starting spot, but so failed to impress that we appeared in only one reserve match before being dismissed.  The incident has raised a lot of questions about the player evaluation process.

As expected some of the policies have to do with supporting players from the new youth academy.  We are glad to know that the members of our club are of the same opinion as we officers are about the importance of this new part of the club.  After some initial difficulties finding competition for the academy team we have now found a strong youth league for our boys to play in.  We've started the season well with a 2-1 record and are optimistic about a strong showing.

Regarding the stadium we are confident that we can expand our stadium within the given timeframe.  We might even be able to expand before the end of season 37, but we appreciate the members agreeing to a more flexible timeline.

This Is Your Club

We've finally come to an agreement about how to share ownership of our club with you, our supporters. The premise that has underlined this resurgence of Cedar Park Hounds is that we want to be a club of the people that represents the community we come from. To do that we need your voices to be heard, and this is how.

Anyone can be a member of the club for $200 a year. This fee is completely separate from all ticket sales, though club members will get discounts on season tickets. There won't be different levels of membership. No business membership, no first class membership, no platinum membership. What you get for your money is a real voice in all club matters. Every offseason there will be a general club meeting where the primary order of business will be to elect (or re-elect) members to the following positions:

Head coach (currently held by Randy Alfaro)
General manager (currently held by yours truly, Ross Houston)
Head of marketing and sales (currently vacant)
Youth head coach (currently held by Jorge Leavitt)

Assistant coaches, psychologists, spokespersons, economists, physiotherapists, and doctors will be hired by the head coach and the general manager as necessary.

The second duty of the members at the general club meeting is to propose, vote on, and pass club general policies. These are guidelines that elected club officials and all other club employees are expected to follow on daily basis.

To vote on any of these matters members must either be present at the meeting or have previously submitted an absentee ballot.

Twice during the season there will club meetings at which policies can be debated and voted on, but the elected positions will not be up for election. These meetings will coincide with match days 5 & 10 in the league season.

To be elected to any elected position you must be a club member in good standing for at least one season. "In good standing" is defined to mean that you've voted at every club meeting during the last season. While the club itself is not yet one season old we will consider all founding members.

So that's it. The majority of the definition of what this club is and what it means to be a member we are leaving up to you. Our first meeting will be August 25 immediately following the home game with Tansen. Anybody who becomes a member on or before that day will be considered a founding member and thus will be eligible for elected office at the end of season meeting. The agenda for our first meeting will be to pass a set of initial club policies that we club officials will be bound to follow.

Bumps In The Road

We've passed several milestones in this new chapter of the club's history. For the most part things have gone better than we could've possibly imagine. We saw over 3000 at the club's "first" home match, a tough 2-1 win over redrhinos. We're currently ranked 4th in our series and believe we have every chance of improving that over the remainder of the series. But we've also had our share of troubles and this new version of Cedar Park Hounds wants to be honest about our shortcomings.

The team performance against Tansen was not good enough and many fans are pointing the finger of blame at coach Randy Alfaro for fielding a less than full strength team. We understand your frustration, but please remember that we are chasing multiple objectives over the course of the season and we are not a big enough club to achieve them all. We placed a high importance on defeating the Cambridge Streak (formerly of Reno no matter what they say) and Randy thought we needed our best players to do it. The consequence of that was a public humiliation on the biggest stage our series has to offer at the Tansen Dome. You can argue that coach Alfaro's priorities were wrong, but you really can't say he wasn't doing his best for the team. We can't ever have direct fan input into team selection, but if the fans consistently tell us what their priorities are, we will respond accordingly, since you are our bosses.

A bit more out of the public eye have been the travails of the new youth academy. The youngsters haven't been getting meaningful matches due to the disintegration of their league, NY Stud Farms. CPH is committed to this league for 7 more weeks and in that time we hope to encourage the other clubs to put together teams capable of participating. We will definitely not be renewing our commitment to NY Stud Farms and will be looking for other leagues for our youth academy to play in.

Back on the bright side, we are very comfortable with the roster of first team players we've assembled. We are very optimistic about our second home match against series strugglers Molson Export. The two following weeks will likely be the most important of our season as we play back to back matches against Davison SC who we consider to be our most important rivals this season. We're very close to releasing the details of our club's membership policy which will place the power firmly in the hands of the fans.

We're Back (And Why We Left)

Season 32 was a trying time for Cedar Park Hounds. We stated as a club that our goal for the season was to go as far as possible in the cup, and our 7-round cup run was thrilling. But the toll it took on our league performance was plain for all too see as we failed to pick up a single point all season long.

The mystery that many of you have pondered is why the club closed up shop after this season of ups and downs. We probably did owe it to our fans to accept relegation and come out swinging in division V. The common misconception seems to be we quit for financial reasons. After all, that is the customary reason why an American soccer club fails. But the real truth is not quite so tangible. We simply lost our will to compete. It permeated all levels of the club, from the director all the way down to the field crew. With such a mindset we couldn't continue.

We realize now the shock this was for our fans. As we see it there are two things we can do to make it up to you. The first is to offer our eternal and sincere apologies. The second is to make ourselves into a club you can be proud of again.

If you come back you will notice many changes. We will be competing in division VI. The Dog House was torn down a year ago, and our club's new home is at the far more humble Milburn Park. We have made a new commitment to be a club that represents where we come from. That means a focus on American players and particularly on players that we develop ourselves via our youth academy. We may not win all the trophies, but we will be a club with heart. We will be offering fans the opportunity to purchase Barcelona-style membership in the club so that we can truly be a club of the people.

We've made a good start to our season with 2 road wins. (and many division observers didn't expect us to do that.) Our first home game is this Sunday at Milburn Park. Please consider giving us a second chance.