First Day of School

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 soccer things at a level that I only dreamed of back when I played high school ball. I couldn't tell you any of the finer points of what the team did and, more importantly, if they did it well. 

Fortunately following the training there was a press conference where Manager Ian Cameron was able to tell us what he thought of the first day of training. Some thoughts from him include:

• He wanted a taller team and he got it, so he said he had to get used to looking up at the team.
• The first day of training is always hectic and full of nervous energy, but once that was out of the way and the team settled in, he was happy with the energy at practice.
• The players returning are expected to set the tone in terms of how to act on and off the field.
• The biggest things he looked for in bringing players in were competency and character and after that it was trying to make the puzzle pieces fit.
• Pablo Jara's impact is impossible to replace and he'll lean on the returners as well as see who develops into a leader throughout the season to try to fill that void. "A lot of people are going to have to step up," he said.
• He said he'd love to work with Jara again, either by having him on his coaching staff or working on Jara's coaching staff one day.

One fun story Cameron told was last year during the final third of the season he noticed Akoto and Mukwelle Akale were developing a better connection on the field and the coaches hadn't done anything differently. He asked them what had changed since it wasn't anything in training and it turns out the two had spent a lot of time playing video games together and that connection off the field payed dividends on the field. "There's another tool we have at our disposal for guys spending time together," he said. 

Tormenta still has needs to address as the preseason gets underway. As of now, Ford is the only goalkeeper on the roster and that's not really a position you want to go into the season with only having one guy. We saw in 2022 how important having both Pablo Jara and TJ Bush on the roster was to that title run. Expect an announcement sometime in the near future about that situation. 

South Georgia opens its preseason with a game against Cameron's Alma Mater, Mercer University, on February 9th at 7 p.m. 

Will I be there covering it? Who's to say really. (My oldest is a freshman on his high school team and if he gets called up to varsity then I'll be at his game which is February 9th at 7 p.m. I appreciate you all and I'm thankful you take the time to read, but I don't like you more than watching my son play.)

*I have no evidence to back this up, but I think sports writers, in particular, use kick off as the sports metaphor to signify the start of a new season, playoffs, whatever. I wanted to say I was talking about the first pitch to a new year of Tormenta, but I figured that would be distracting and not add clarity. But I also want kickoff to have some competition for the go to sports metaphor.