Stormwatch912

Photo Credit: Tormenta FC So, I'm sorry for the absence lately here. If you missed it, my recap of Tormenta's 4-0 win over Madison was posted at the Statesboro Herald. I'd had plans to write earlier this week, but the covid got me and let me tell you that trying to power your way through that is a bad idea. If and when it hits, just take the nyquil, sleep as much as you can and don't, whatever you do, try to caffeinate your way through the day. But I'm feeling slightly better after spending the better part of three days asleep and I've been symptom free for 24 hours as of this posting, so one more day of rest and I'll be good as new.  Editor: Well that's just not true. Dude, you're 46 years old, you'll never be good as new. The best you can hope for is gently used and that's only if you get two straight nights of good sleep and take a couple of walks on those days to get the blood moving.   Fine, fine, I'll be as good as I can reasonably...

Look how excited Taylor Swift was to meet me. It's been a cruel summer for Tormenta, but they have to shake it off if they ever want to get back together with the playoffs. We know all too well that Tormenta has been down bad at points this season. There's still time to make a playoff push, so you need to calm down so we can begin again and be fearless as as we exile ourselves from out of the playoffs and reach the postseason in style , leaving those on the outside seeing red . Ok, I got all the Taylor Swift stuff out of my system and I was able to fill the blank space on the page with a good paragraph of her song titles. Today was a fairytale for Swifties as she got engaged. (Well, she and Travis Kelce announced it on Tuesday.) Look what you made me do , Taylor. I'm chasing trends in a blog about third division soccer. It'll be a fortnight before I forgive myself and I'm sure it will result in bad blood among my readers. It's probably karma for me n...

Photo Credit: Tormenta FC The previous item you were reading online ran longer than anticipated, so we join this edition of Stormwatch912 already in progress. ...and with that we wrap up our reviews of the 3-3 draw with Westchester and the 3-2 win against Richmond, bringing us to this weekend's matchup with Chattanooga. Currently Tormenta is in 11th place with 20 points through 20 games, just two points outside of the playoff picture. Omaha (21 points in 19 games) and Portland (21 points in 17 games) sit ahead of them, with Forward Madison at 19 points through 19 games* right behind Tormenta. In other words, the hunt for the playoff spot is tight. Saturday's match is against the Chattanooga Red Wolves who sit atop the table right now** with 37 points and just two losses in their 19 games so far. Just looking at the stats, it seems Chattanooga has unlocked the key to soccer. The score a lot of goals (31 so far, good for second in the league) while they also don't give up man...

Photo Credit: Tormenta FC Interim Head Coach Mark McKeever (center) celebrates following a goal in Westchester. At some point we have to get back to talking about the games on the field. That's what we're all fans of and that excitement is what draws us in and causes us to be fans in the first place. Seeing incredible athletic feats on the field is why we show up to games. But today is not that day. Soon, I promise, but today we're talking about Tormenta's interim manager Mark McKeever. I think it was a surprise to everyone when former manager Ian Cameron (yep, still weird writing that), stepped down and in the same announcement we all found out  Mark McKeever would take over the helm at Tormenta. I think I audibly said "What?!?" in my office when I got to that point of the release. Mark McKeever? The One Knox guy? Wasn't there something that went on with him in Knoxville?  Oh? Ohhhh. Right, that. There were allegations of physical and verbal abuse during ...

Photo Credit: Luke Martin Ian Cameron at Tormenta practice in June I don't know where to begin, so I'm going to begin with a story that I've likely written about before. It was probably 2023 but maybe late in 2022 and I'm on the field at Tormenta Stadium interviewing Ian Cameron after a game. The details of the game aren't important, which is good because I don't remember them anyway. We're maybe a minute or two into the conversation when his daughter, who was likely three or four at the time, runs up to give her dad a hug, not caring that he's in the middle of an interview as no kid that age should care about that. All she knew is that daddy was done with the game and she wanted to run up and give him a hug. Cameron pauses the interview, talks with his daughter for a few seconds and then sends her off to kick soccer balls on the field while we continue our interview. As she runs off in that awkward way that little kids who are still figuring out the mec...

Photo Credit: Tormenta FC I'm happy that USL League One is getting some coverage on CBS Sportsnetwork and it's even better when Tormenta gets to play on there like they did Wednesday night. Any time you can get some national coverage for third division soccer, you've got to be excited. But despite subscribing to far too many steaming services, CBS SportsNetwork is not a channel I have access to, thus making covering the Tormenta/Naples game slightly more difficult. But we're not going to let a little thing like not being able to watch prevent me from writing a recap of the game. You all know me better than that. I had big plans of trying to cover the game from both team's BlueSky accounts and try to write it based only on that. Unfortunately for me, Naples still doesn't appear to be on BlueSky and Tormenta uses it intermittently so there was a decent chance I'd end up with nothing. Also unfortunately, both Tormenta and Naples are still on Twitter and post re...