Contact: Stan Cole

The 91st Minute: Inside Campbell Men's Soccer with Head Coach Doug Hess

Greetings to all and welcome to the first edition of the 2006 91^st Minute with your's truly Coach Hess...(I feel like a bad game show host with that intro, sort of like Jack Barry and The Joker's Wild...Do you remember that game show? Give me a woo-ha two-times if you do, or don't actually). Week 1 and already I have no idea what I am saying...a good sign of things to come for my avid 91^st Minuters, all 10 of ya!

Anyhow, it is here! As I rolled out of the driveway to work this morning, I slid an old Kinks album into the player and was inspired by the words of Ray Davies:

Standing in the middle of nowhere
Wondering how to begin
Lost between tomorrow and yesterday
Between now and then

And now we're back where we started
Here we go round again
Day after day I get up and I say
I better do it again

Where are all the people going
Round and round till we reach the end
One day leading to another
Get up go out do it again

Expectations are high here in Camel Country after last year's successes and a solid pre-season. We've lost and gained over the past year and I am real excited to coach this group of players. Picked first for the A-Sun and a target on our back, so it doesn't look like we will be sneaking up on anyone this year.

Our first game was a tale of two halves against the Richmond Spiders. I thought the team moved the ball well during the first half, but lacked a bit of urgency in the final third. As I told the guys at the half, keeping the ball and looking "good" is one thing and scoring goals is a completely different thing. We were efficient in possession, but totally ineffective and as a result down a goal.

The boys answered the call with four second half goals...two off the foot of the "Wee-man," Vince Petrasso, and two from Josh Elliott. Thought we did a great job of stretching Richmond's back-line and forcing them to defend behind rather than in front.

We followed that with a trip to Elon on Friday. The game started slow and it looked as though the effects of a long pre-season were setting in for both teams. I thought we were opportunistic with our chances more so than anything else. A solid counter goal off the foot of Willy Guadarrama gave us a lead midway through the first half. A great little win in midfield by Richard Jata, quick play to the Wee-man who beat his man and slipped Willy in behind. It wasn't three minutes later that we were celebrating again as Jairo Zambrana swung in a corner to Josh Elliott, who headed it home, 2-0 at the half.

The game would stay the same score-wise, but we were under a bit more pressure I thought in the second half, a credit to our opponent. All-in-all, a solid showing from our guys and a slight tipping of the hat for a good performance during the pre-season.

We rounded out our pre-season friendlies with the annual Alumni Game on Saturday. Good to see some old faces and see that their brains can still think the game. A tale of two halves again, 4-0 to the varsity in the first and aided by a speculative 12th man...1-0 to the Alums in the second...apparently fitness was not an issue, "Hey I'm in shape, round is a shape." Tom Robey (Dayton, Ohio) and Otis Burris (Miami, Fla.) grabbed the distance travel awards and Billy Englishby grabbed MVP honors. The Englishman was standing on his head making saves, recording 9 saves on us and showing shades of his 13 save performance against Carolina back in 2000! A great thanks to all those that returned for the afternoon and hope we can have a bigger turn-out next year!

All-in-all, a solid showing from our guys and a slight tipping of the hat for a good performance during the pre-season. As we all know though, the real deal starts this week and now it counts! First up, UNCW...a 1-0 thriller last year in OT and I expect this year's addition will be an exciting one as well (our last 5 games have all been decided by a goal).

Our awards for Black Knight and Red Hot for the pre-season are...

Black Knight—Justin Madrid...has been so consistent in his play and is the glue in the midfield. J is really taking ownership of his role holding things down.

Red Hot—Josh Elliott...changed the game against Richmond off the bench with two goals and an assist and finished his lone chance against Elon. He's reading play well and finding ways to affect the game in the final third.

So here we go Mr. Davies...Standing in the middle of nowhere (a.k.a. the lovely village of Buies Creek)....wondering how to begin (opening whistle, 7 pm this Saturday, Eakes Athletic Complex)...lost between tomorrow and yesterday (new faces, old faces finding their way in the college game)...Get up go out do it again!

(I may have to get the boys to slip that one on the old warm-up tape...give an aging man his due...although I doubt it, as the beats from my music won't be going down in the club...or in the mall...or even in Buies Creek).

Please feel free to drop me a line with your thoughts at hess@campbell.edu. Take care and have a great week!

Regards,

Coach Hess