So I got relatively good responses from those that read my “Academy Soccer: Tradition Never Graduates” post and I had even submitted it into Mastermind Media and was awaiting a response because I do not think they had ever published an article written from an alum before. Well if they hadn’t, they have now. I have been told that it is in the November 2008 issue that I have put up scans of below and I even have the entire paper available if someone wants to read it.

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So every Thanksgiving, the Detroit Lions manage to make their way on the television sets of so many people at home with their families but this year, watching them is just going to be awful.

The Lions coming into this week are 0-11 with an average margin of defeat at 13.9 points per game. 4 out of their 5 losses at home have come by 18 points or more (lone close game was vs. Washington by 8 points). On the other hand, 4 out of their 6 losses and more specifically their last 4 road games have been decided by single digits.

They get blown out by an average of 20 points at home (5 games) while its only 8.8 on the road. Maybe it’s the pressure of being consistently being barraged by the home crowd and even the late acquisition of Daunte Culpepper didn’t help where they built a 17-0 lead IN THE FIRST QUARTER only to get outscored 38-3 the rest of the game.

This is where really awful teams need luck. It is really hard to go 16 games without winning one. The Miami Dolphins (1-15) proved that last year with an overtime thriller against the Ravens. The final 5 games for Lions are against the Titans, Vikings, @ Colts, Saints and @ Packers who are a combined 34-21 with Packers being the only team under .500 at 5-6.

I don’t think there’s anyway Titans lose tomorrow night after the beating they took against the Jets. The Colts who are still fighting to secure a playoff spot will not take the Lions easily and will look to dismantle them early. The Saints offense has looked explosive at times this year and they can easily outscore any team to win a game. That just leaves it to the two divisional games with Minnesota and at Green Bay. The Vikings is a home game where the Lions have done awful so I wouldn’t expect that to change this late in the season so I’ll mark that at a loss.

In the famous words of Matt Fitzsimmons that was heard during the most watched telecast in Empire 8 TV history, there was “Pandemonium in Hoboken” last night as the Stevens Ducks knocked off the defending D-III Men’s Soccer Champions in Middlebury Panthers in dramatic penalty kicks fashion. The Ducks now proceed to face Amherst in the national semi-finals which are to be played December  5th in Greensboro, North Carolina and the final is played the following day at the same site.

For an in-depth recap of last night’s remarkable sectional final between two of the top-5 defenses in the country, go and read Rob Kulish’s recap on StevensDucks.com. It just seems fitting where a Middlebury team that won it all last year despite scoring a goal in the Final Four (both games were scoreless ties from what I remember that went to PKs) lost their first NCAA game since 2006 on a scoreless tie. The Ducks scored only 1 goal in 220 minutes of playing time and still somehow managed to advance to the national semi-finals.

Hopefully I will be in North Carolina in two weeks and get to broadcast the Ducks game against Amherst but for those of you who are located on the campus of Stevens Institute of Technology and want to see yesterday’s game, it is available on SITTV’s website: (Men’s Soccer vs. Middlebury NCAA Sectional Final)

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We have seen Congress intervene on Major League Baseball’s steroid policy and now Barack Obama is talking about using his influence to finally get rid of the hogwash that is the BCS system. The two ideas could not have been met with receptions from different ends on the spectrum.

The intervention by Congress was met by questions of skepticism and outrage that shouldn’t Congress be doing other things like improve the economy and figure out a way to bring our troops back home. Yet when Barack Obama suggested on Monday Night Football right before the election and on 60 Minutes last night that there should be a playoff in College Football, all hell broke loose and everybody thought it was a great idea.

So why the double standard? Don’t get me wrong, I have been a fan of Obama for President since 2004 when he first gave the speech at John Kerry’s convention but just notice the different that a likability factor or personality factor carries with a person or a body of people. Congress generally has low approval ratings and them trying to mess with America’s pasttime was not going to improve any matters. On the other hand, a well liked President-elect recently getting support of nearly 55% of the American electorate weights on a topic (sports) that politicans usually tend to stay away and he has rattled some sticks.

I certainly hope that college puts BS bowl system away and institutes some sort of playoff format to truly decide a national champion. Maybe this is the President who can cause change all across the board from health care to a vast majority of Americans to improved tax situations for the middle class and even a playoff system for the college football fan.

I attended the Academy soccer awards night last night and decided that I would put up the piece I submitted to the MasterMind Media about the group of guys and girls that I coached the past few months. They were truly a team in every sense of the word and while I may have teased them or pushed them at times,  I still gained a lot of respect for them with they way they work as a unit and have developed individually.

Although the Academy soccer team may not have had the greatest season in program history, the development of younger talent and establishment of camaraderie is unlike anything I have seen from an Academy team. I was part of the few students that lobbied the administration and the district for Academy’s first ever sports program and I have been a part of or have been following the team since its inception in the 2003 season.

When I first started assisting in coaching these young student-athletes, I really did not know what to expect. I had been removed from high school life for over three years and that certainly brings some change in the environment. However, these athletes were eager to learn in practice like I have never seen before. They were ready to learn and accept advice from each other and more importantly from a stranger most of them had never seen or even heard of before. Some were real easy to talk to because they would come seek your advice or just be around looking to discuss every other play while for others, it was a little more of a  daunting challenge but nothing insurmountable.