Tough Week in Sports

This week was certainly an interesting one in sports. For starters we had a former Spartan and current New York Giant shoot himself in the thigh ending his season. Then we found out another Spartan, and former Detroit Lion Charles Rogers violated his probation putting him back in court and off the field. We also had Sean Avery, current NHL bad boy berate fellow NHLer's and ex-girlfriend Elisha Cuthbert of "The Girl Next Door" and "24" fame. Finally as I write this I am watching former NFL great O.J. Simpson get sentenced to 18 years for armed theft and kidnapping charges.

Whatever happened to the days where kids could grow up and watch SportsCenter and hear the good stories about athletes? Unfortunately when you tune into SportsCenter now, it seems that you hear more about who was arrested, suspended, or using illegal drugs. When I was much younger I grew up watching sports, just like many of you I am sure. But when I turned on the highlights, I would see true role models like Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Barry Sanders, and Steve Yzerman. Don't get me wrong, I know there are still some great athletes out there that devote a lot of their time to helping causes, but its just sad you don't hear more about it.

Fantasy Weekend

Not sure how many of you are fantasy football fans like myself. Each year I join several different leagues, and I follow it every Sunday. This weekend most leagues begin playoffs. So I just wanted to wish everyone good luck unless of course you are the person playing me.

Just Weird

A guy has acquired (not sure how) the underwear of Alex Rodriguez, and Josh Beckett and is currently auctioning them off on E-bay starting at $9.99.

Sports Video of the Day
I figure since it was Friday and for some, it may have been a long week, I would treat you to something new. The sports video of the day. Hope you get a good "Kick" out of this one.



Enjoy your weekend,

KK

Another New Face.

Buck fans, supporters, and soccer freaks…..thank you for joining me on the 14 Point Blog. This is a place in internet space where you can come and enjoy firsthand insight into our organization from individuals behind the scenes. My name is Brad Jakubiec and I am the newly appointed Soccer Business Development Manager here with the Michigan Bucks.

As a former student of Central Michigan University with a degree in sports and business I was looking for an opportunity in the wide world of sports to learn the industry and hone my skills. When I heard of the opportunity to apply for the Bucks I jumped at it. Of course it took a lot of hard work to impress Kyle Karns, a man who has a vested interest in the Bucks as a former intern and current Team President, but he’s a sensible man who saw potential in me and brought me in to join this team.

Eastside Brad pictured left.

To tell you the truth the Bucks were not my first job choice. When I learned several weeks ago that a sports team president was needed, with no previous experience, with minimal hours and maximum pay I thought this was a job I could do. I thought to myself, “I know nothing about being a team president,” but neither did another recent Detroit team president. I will not mention any names but his last name rhymes with “chillen.” Anyway, myself being the highly coveted prospect out of CMU, had been trying to contact the Lions but surprisingly, unlike the Lions other 11 opponents, I had no success.

Now, unlike our marketing director, Jordan Przybylo, I am not an adrenaline freak. All though I enjoy being physically active and adventurous I prefer to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground and my body out of harm’s way. All though I enjoy Jordan’s attitude on life and thrill seeking style I do not share in those thrills. Call me the crazy one but I do not enjoy being thousands of feet in the air nor do I actively seek being punched in the face or letting my life teeter on the edge. I have been to the Grand Canyon and I was perfectly content looking down from afar. I was the guy enjoying the view, not from the edge like Jordan, and not next to the railing, I was perfectly content about 5 giant steps away from the railing.

As for the Bucks, it has been what seems to be a fairly busy first offseason. So far we’ve began the challenge of rebuilding last year’s team who had much success with quite a few good players. We are all excited around here about the upcoming season and are working hard and striving to continually distinguishing ourselves as one of the game’s elite teams. Get ready soccer fans for another exciting Michigan Bucks season.

Only 202 days left to the start of the Michigan Bucks 2009 Season. Get Ready To Get Buck Wild!!!

Sports Weekend Predictions: Lions 13 Vikings 45
Brad’s Weekend Outlook: Finding someone who will bet the Lions

A Day Late...

On Monday two NAIA schools with Bucks ties played in the Championship tournament in Fresno and both schools lost.

In the first match of the day #15 seeded Madonna University, coached by Bucks Hall of Famer Tino Scicluna, fell 2-1 to #2 Rio Grande University (OH). Trailing 2-0, the Crusaders were able to pull a goal back in the 74th minute but couldn't find the equalizer to send it to overtime. Madonna finished the season with a 17-3-0 record.

Later in the day #3 Lindsey Wilson, led by Bucks midfielder Nate Jafta were upset by #14 Mount Vernon Nazarene (OH) 1-0. Despite Lindsey's 29 shots, Mt Vernon were able to hang on to the lead causing the biggest upset in the NAIA tournament thus far. Lindsey finishes the season at 18-2-1.

Earlier in the week...

Bucks and Michigan State senior forward Doug DeMartin was named one of 15 semi-finalists for the Missouri Athletic Club's Hermann Trophy (The Heisman of college soccer). DeMartin ranked nationally this year in a number of categories: fifth in points per game (1.95), fourth in goals per game (0.89), third in the nation in goals (17) and points (37). Additionally he was named Big Ten Player of the Year and led the Spartans to the Big Ten Regular Season and Tournament Championship.

According to the NSCAA website:
"Division I college head coaches who are current members of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) will vote to determine the 2008 MAC Hermann Trophy recipient. Three finalists for the award [from the field of 15] will be announced on Friday, Dec. 12. They will be invited to the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis for a news conference on Friday, Jan. 9, 2009, where the winner will be announced. A dinner and formal presentation of the award will follow the news conference that evening."

Good Luck Doug!

-JC

A New Face

Hey, Bucks fans. To all those who don't know me I'm the new Marketing Director for the Bucks organization. My name is Jordan and I'm a student at Walsh College aspiring to be a marketing major (some day).

A little about myself, I'm an adrenaline freak. I'll do anything that takes my physical ability to the next level. Skydiving, hand to hand combat sports, barefootskiing -- done all those things and loved it. Each of those activities pushed me to the edge where I didn't know if I was going to survive, and I loved that feeling. I'm only content when I'm on the edge. My goals and ambitions are to take my energy and zest for life into the Bucks organization.

I'm all about having more than a good time, I'm about having an experience. A Bucks soccer game isn't going to be an event it'll be an experience for all those who attend. I have a lot of great plans and ideas for games this season. I'll be sharing them with you at a later date.

European Vacation

A little more insight about myself. I just got back form a little European vacation; I was in Hungary visiting my girlfriend's family. It's a very odd thing travel to Eastern Europe. Everything (except for the women) is very,very tiny. I had a go-cart as a child, which was a little bigger, and more powerful than the car we rented. The roads were a little bit wider than a king size bed.

Jordan met many interesting people at the public steam bath

Meeting the Hungarian people was interesting. I went through a little bit of culture shock there when her guy friends tried to kiss me on both cheeks when they said "Hello". To say the least it was a little weird, a little too weird for my liking. However, Hungary was a very beautiful country; all the villages look like towns from an old Christmas movie. The people seemed nice, even though I didn't have a clue about what they were saying. Over all visiting Hungary was an experience of a lifetime, I'd highly recommend to any person to travel to another country and experience a different style of life.

That's all for now, I'll be posting more later.

Jordan Przybylo
Marketing Director

The Next Day...

Let me preface this post by saying I am a graduate of the University of Michigan...at Dearborn, so although I don't feel the pain quite as bad when a team from Ann Arbor loses, I'm still not happy. Of course as the Bucks "PR Guy" I'm sad whenever a school one of our guys plays for loses. Its amplified though with Michigan because not only do we have 6 current or former Bucks players on the Wolverine roster this year but also two Bucks Hall of Famers, Steve Burns and Paul Snape coach the Maize and Blue.

Steve Burns (middle) and Paul Snape (right) watch the Wolverines in their 2-1 win over UC-Davis on Tuesday

For those unfamiliar, Steve Burns was the Mid-Michigan Bucks first coach from 1996-1999 while also serving as the UM Men's Club Soccer coach. When the UM program took on varsity status in 2000, Burns was elevated to lead the Wolverines fulltime and left the Bucks in the process. Burns was inducted into the Bucks Hall of Fame last July when we played back in Saginaw against Indiana, a game we won 5-1. He's the Bucks all-time winninest coach, going 53-25-2 in his four seasons at the helm.

Paul Snape was one of two Bucks to be original inductees into the Hall of Fame in 2006 along with Tino Scicluna (more about him later). He played for the Bucks from 1997-2003 and holds numerous records. In the US Open Cup he has scored more goals (5) and played more minutes (971) all-time than any Bucks player in history. In 2005 he coached the side to the PDL Quarterfinals.

Of course I got all this great information from the new Bucks History section located on our website. (shameless plug for all the work I did). Let me know if their is something you'd like to see that isn't already there.

Crows coming to roost...

With all that said, I need to eat crow as I predicted a 2-1 Michigan win last night and they ended up bowing out 3-0. Watching the match online, I thought it wasn't as one-sided as the score says and thought the Wolverines dominated the first quarter of the match. After IU scored 34 minutes in Michigan had a hard time breaking through on goal and got caught offsides a number of times. With the Wolverines pushing for an equalizer, Indiana caught them out to take a more comfortable 2-0 lead and with the game all but over added a third late.

Indiana was the better team and seem to be playing their best soccer of the season at exactly the right time. They'll visit St. Johns (NY) on December 6 for a right to go to the College Cup in Frisco, TX. Remember the Bucks are represented on the Indiana roster by Lake Orion native Billy Weaver, so thats a plus.

As has become common practice, I would like to congratulate the UM/Bucks seniors on great college careers, those players would be Mike Holody, Alex Morisset, Jake Stacy, Santos Perez and Steve Bonnell. Only Mauro Fuzetti has a year of eligibility left. Best of luck to all of you.

Others still alive...

Also of note, Bucks midfielder Luke Norman came on as a sub today and scored a goal in #1 seeded Wake Forest's 7-0 thrashing of Dartmouth. With the win the Demon Deacons will host South Florida on a date TBD in the NCAA Elite 8...

Lets also not forget midfielder Nate Jafta of Lindsey Wilson who will take on Mt. Vernon Nazarene tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 pm in the NAIA National Tournament in Fresno, CA. Also at that tournament is the aforementioned Tino Scicluna, now the head coach of Madonna University in Livonia. Scicluna's team will face Rio Grande College (OH) earlier in the day at 11:30 AM.

And finally...

If you're getting sick of hearing from myself and Kyle, have no worries, we'll have better blog posts from more interesting people later in the week. Tell your friends.

Hope everyone had a good holiday and avoids a case of the Monday's tomorrow.

-Jeff Crandall
DoC