Stormwatch912

My youngest came out to Saturday's game In case you missed it (and if you're reading a team specific blog about a team in the USL League One, then it's highly unlikely that you did, but just in case), Tormenta clinched the sixth seed in the playoffs following their 3-0 win over Texoma and a few other results around the league, primarily Portland drawing against AV Alta. That sets up a first round playoff matchup with Spokane Sunday night in Washington, so I can finally relate to Carrie Underwood saying she's been waiting all day for Sunday night.  We're planning to have much more on the Tormenta/Velocity match up on Friday's post, but I did have a little in my game recap Sunday in the Statesboro Herald . (May require email or subscription). Before we get to that, I have had a few things kicking around in my head that I haven't been able to turn into a full length blog post, but I do want to discuss them. (I'm sorry for the soccer pun, but my keyboard is ...

Photo Credit: Tormenta FC Can I tell you a secret? Just between us ok? No one else needs to know. Ok, here goes. I was super nervous after my preview post last week before the Greenville game. I spent a lot of time talking about the playoffs and Tormenta likely returning for the first time since 2022. I wrote stuff like "any playoff game is something to savor," which, while true, could have been premature.  You see, Tormenta hadn't actually clinched a playoff spot yet. There was still a chance South Georgia crashed and burned and missed the postseason completely. I tell myself I don't believe in jinxes, but there's always a small part of me that worries that maybe, just maybe, I can jinx something and suddenly things go terribly wrong and somehow I was responsible. (I promise you that if I had the power to jinx things, I would use that power on more important things than getting a running clock in a high school football game or Tormenta making the playoffs.) As i...

Photo from USL League One website This could be the week Tormenta makes its way back to the playoffs for the first time since their 2022 title-winning run.  After missing out in 2023 and 2024 and, honestly, midway through July it looked like 2025 was going to continue that trend, Tormenta is just a win over Greenville or a Madison draw/loss away from punching their ticket to the dance. (Does the USL issues paper tickets to the dance? It seems like it's all digital now. Could you crash the dance? Could Richmond just show up to One Knox and demand to play in the first round of the playoffs? Is Darren Sawatzky going to walk up to Ian Fuller and be all " Mind if we dance with your dates? " like in Animal House? ) Anyway, with just two games remaining, Tormenta could finish as high as 4th and host a playoff game, but that's about as likely as me suiting up for Tormenta this season. A lot would have to happen and, frankly, it's not worth getting in to.  The more likel...

It makes sense why this is here, I promise.   My mom played softball growing up. Nothing super competitive, but rec league stuff. She enjoyed it and was pretty good, but this isn't a story about her softball prowess.  She told me stories of an umpire in her town that had a reputation of not always paying attention to the game and regularly missing calls. I don't mean he got the calls wrong. I mean he just didn't see them at all. I'm not sure what he was paying attention to (obviously I wasn't born yet), but apparently it wasn't the game. Rather than make the call and just go with it, he did what every kid does when they are on the playground and you can't agree on the call. He just called a "do over." Yep, just replay the whole thing  like the first event never happened. He did this often enough that he had the nickname "Do Over Harold" and while I'm sure Harold was a fine gentleman in all other aspects of his life and likely has sinc...