OK -we have had a bit of rain the last few days here at our camp in Oberharmersbach, Germany – don’t hold me to the spelling! Yet it has remained awesome. No – Really awesome!! These guys love football!
They practice hard – work to get better each day and truly just enjoy the game and competing with each other. It is apparent this is fun, yet at the same time it is a hard competition between guys who have a lot of respect for each other.
We stay in this fantastic old hotel where everyone caters to your needs. These people want to make sure we are happy – part of it is because we are some of the few paying customers during this part of tourist season I am sure. But in reality the people around here are just really nice folks.
Oh yeah and there is this great bakery right around the corner. Trust me is is awesome. In fact it is so good that the people in the town buy everything before we can get there. But, using my James Bond moves I was able to infiltrate the lines to the goodies and get some chocolate filled crescents and a few donuts as well. I am telling you these things are awesome (for any friends from Konkrete Kid land – think Hellertown Bakery!)
OK – so before practice I am walking to the field (a little more than 10 minutes away). It is a steady downpour and I am trying to snap some pictures to chronicle our stay here in the big “O” (I am not going to keep trying to spell Oberhammersbach – because I am not sure I am spelling it correctly.)
Like I said – taking snap shots for you guys and getting wet as I go. I keep telling myself the rain will start to let up soon. So imagine this as my mind spins:
“Here I am 65 years old…I am in Germany and don’t speak the language, its raining pretty hard….last evening on the last night in town most of the team has been drinking and raising hell (they are young men after all!). Many stayed out till the wee hours of the morning drinking beer etc. and we have practice in a few minutes….
I am walking over a bridge swollen with water and many of the players, several of the coaches are still in the hotel lobby…why in the world am I smiling? Will they even come to practice – will I be the only guy at the field today? Why am I finding this fun?”
Easy!
It is football and it is fun! I get to visit with people from all over the world…who cares if you are wet and your shoes are squishing water out of the holes where the laces go?
Who cares if I am several thousand miles from home and pretty much under water. It doesn’t matter – we are here and well – here comes practice by the way!
Guys show up (coaches too!) … we pretty much get going on time. Practice is a lot of fun and we accomplish a great deal through the morning (hung over or not).
But this is the way it is done overseas and I am learning. (Every time I think I should push for more – I realize these guys are paying for everything here in the big “O”). Hard to get on somebody’s ass after he shelled out several 
hundred dollars (francs, Marks etc) of his own to play ball.
That means that really – they control the show. Not the coaches.
I love the way we play here in Europe (Switzerland). There is no formula…yet there is. No one can really define how things should look in regards to football. – but we will know not when we see “IT.”
Most players we have are really interesting athletes.. Many just need some seasoning and help to improve themselves. Yet a lot of the coaches are uncomfortable jumping in and coaching – I mean REALLY coaching their guys.
I am not talking about yelling and screaming. I am talking about coaching, instructing….teaching. Right now I see a lack of confidence in the coaches – and that is what is holding them back.
But, to me this is not discouraging. Why? They are really good coaches! They just need to see they are. They know the game…they are truly capable
Why? Here is why…
They pretty much all played like the guys on the team now. But, they came through the ranks when there truly was little coaching and a pretty loose understanding of the game. They figured out they enjoyed playing and decided to give something back to the game – and really their country if you think about it.
Many of the current coaches spend some serious money acquiring manuals on coaching and drill work. They visit the states to learn because they feel a responsibility to the game. These coaches are serious.
In my eyes…these guys are the real deal. This is their hobby, but it is also their passion. This is truly “giving something back” to the game they really enjoy. They coach because they love it!
So…my goal as the “Ambassador of football” is to provide anything I possibly can to help the players and the coaches is Switzerland, and all of Europe for that matter. Now, just need to keep getting more coaches from the US interested in helping out.
