Stormwatch912

Way back before he was the co-owner and president of Tormenta, Darin Van Tassell was, among other things, a college professor. Before his tests, he would say something to the effect of "I wish you luck, but that won't matter. It's all about how you prepared," which, while true, I'm sure his students still would have appreciated a little luck on his exams.  One of the other things he used to tell his students was something to the effect of "you have to call things by their name," which I took to mean he expected us to use clear language to talk about whatever we were discussing and not to use vague or euphemistic descriptions in our class discussions or papers.  I know he said this because I was one of his students way back when. (If you're curious, I got a "B" in his class. I keep hoping that maybe if I publish a good enough article maybe he'll retroactively give me the two points I needed to get an "A" even if I'm sure 24...

Bolt and my youngest at Saturday's Tormenta game. We're going to try something and see if it works. It's preseason and so much like the players and coaches are working out the kinks and trying new things, we'll do that here, so let's see how it goes. It may be fun or it may be the absolute worst thing I've ever written, which would be saying a lot because I've gone back to read some of my stuff when I was working for the college newspaper and it was... well let's say I wasn't winning any awards and, if anything, was actively hindering the Georgia Southern paper from winning any awards. Anyway, we're going to try to write this as though it was an early 1900s baseball writeup with the vernacular and phrasing that I imagine would be used for a soccer game. We'll find out together how this goes. The quotes are actual quotes from Ian Cameron and the players, so they're not going to sound like they're from early last century. A blustery and...

Letting a fan wear your championship ring is one way for Tormenta to create memories and experiences . It was a busy Thursday around Tormenta. Ian Cameron held his weekly press conference and previewed the upcoming preseason games against Jacksonville University and Charleston Battery before we get to games that count. Last evening at the Russell Union Theater on the campus of Georgia Southern University, Tormenta held their preseason season ticket holder event (a better writer would find a way to not say "preseason season ticket holder" but alas. On the plus side, I at least recognize it's an issue even if I didn't take steps to fix it. That's the first step, right?) Co-Owner and President Darin Van Tassell spoke along with Cameron and a few of the players. The big news out of this event was they showed off the new uniforms for the 2024 season. However, no photos or videos were allowed so you'll have to trust me when I say they're going be different from ...

Tormenta Manager Ian Cameron looks out over Tormenta Stadium following a goal. I'm cropped out of this photo. So it's almost go time for the season. Teams have been training for a few weeks. Team bloggers and podcasters have been hard at work scouring the internet for bits of information and news that they can then synthesize down into something usable for you. Hours upon hours of reading reports, talking with sources and long nights is something someone who was good at this would do.  I, however, am not that. You've been here long enough to know that's not how things are done here. We ... we take a different path when it comes to power rankings . Today, we're ranking our League One teams based on the year the city they are named for was incorporated. Let's get to it.  (All information is taken from Wikipedia) 12. Northern Colorado (Windsor, Colorado, 1890)  If you live in Windsor, you get to be called a Winsord, which is kind of cool. On that fact alone they s...

Tormenta defender Preston Kilwien If you missed the " Why We Love League One " post featuring voices from around the league, please go back and read that and again thank you to everyone who gave of their time to answer that for me. You may have noticed that I didn't include why I love League One in that post. I'd written something to go at the top, but it got longer and longer and it didn't seem fair to include several hundred words of my thoughts and then ask others to say it in a sentence or two. So you get a whole separate post for why I love League One. But first, a story. My oldest son goes to every Tormenta game with me. Partly it's because he loves soccer and likes watching the games. I won't lie to you, there's also the part where he's excited to get to go on the field with me after the games while I conduct interviews with Ian Cameron and the players. He loves that, over the course of the season, players come to recognize him and have aske...

Happy Valentines Day Tormenta fans. We're 24 days away from the start of the 2024 regular season. One preseason game behind us, two more this weekend in Huntsville and then back home for a few more preseason games before we get to watch games that count. With it being Valentines Day, I decided to reach out to people around the league and asked them one question. "Why do you love League One?" I asked that they keep their responses to one or two sentences but didn't have a problem if people wanted to write longer. A huge thank you to everyone that took the time to respond back and to give of their time. Bryan from Omaha ( League One The Rocks )  ( @mediocre_ace )   I l ove League One for the sense of community. Some of the bigger leagues focus more on the bottom line than the fan experience. League One isn’t like that. You can tell the owners and league really care about the fans. League One also has the best content creators in the world. Riccardo Cominelli ( Linners ...

My real job will keep me from writing an actual recap of Ian Cameron's press conference this morning, but here are some highlights. Who knows, if you all like this, maybe we'll keep this format. We're still figuring things out here as we go. If we do stick with this, I need a title for this segment. Cameron's Corner sounds like an NBC sitcom that aired after Seinfeld featuring Rob Schneider that was cancelled after four episodes because it lost half it's audience.  Anyway, here are Cameron's comments leading up to Friday's preseason game against Mercer. Coaching in a game against his alma mater is "quite a proud moment" for Cameron. He spoke very highly of his time there as a player and assistant coach and of the coaches he had during his time there. "That institution left and indelible mark on my life and those were, in many ways, my formative years as a young man." The roster is about 85% complete. Looking to add a few players before th...

Sunsets at Tormenta Stadium never disappoint There's a game this week, so I guess we should actually talk about the team as it stands now. There will be time for more nonsense and fun later, but it's time to get serious (or as serious as I get on here) about where the squad is going in to their first preseason game against Mercer University. The most important thing to know about Mercer is that it is the alma mater of Head Coach Ian Cameron. A four-year midfielder for the Bears, he tallied 17 goals and 16 assists from 2007-2010. I would imagine it's pretty cool to be able, as a professional coach, to be able to face your alma mater and a place you served as an assistant coach for three years.  Fortunately I don't have to imagine as Cameron said in a press conference recently that "they were a no brainer to bring in and give us a real stress test." Friday will also be the first look at the revamped Tormenta lineup. (All positions taken from USL League One Updat...

Remember the first day of school? Not like your very first day, but maybe 3rd or 4th grade when you kind of knew some of your classmates from the year before, but there were also a bunch of new kids that you didn't know. You're looking around trying to figure out who the nice kids are and who will play kickball at recess and who was really in to Batman. No reason for mentioning that, just a thought I had. In totally unrelated news, Tormenta kicked off* their 2024 training session Thursday morning with about a two hour practice that saw six players return from the 2023 season and a host of new players together on the field for the first time. Absolutely not like the first day of school. My quick takeaways from the first training session. Yep, they sure did practice.  That's about what I got. There were some familiar faces out there like Preston Kilwien, Pedro Fonseca, Nick Akoto and others. There were some new faces out there like Conor Doyle  and Parker Ford. They did socce...