I attended the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Convention this past week from Wednesday, January 16 through Sunday, January 20.  This is the 3rd consecutive year that I have attended the convention – and every year just gets better.  If you ever want to know what all the newest tracksuits look like – all you need to do is attend the convention for an hour or two.  You will see every brand of tracksuit from Nike, Adidas, Diadora, Puma & Umbro in every color & style they make being proudly displayed by every soccer coach in attendance.  It’s literally like walking through the catalogs.

During the 2006 convention in Philadelphia (my rookie year of attending the convention), I walked 10 blocks from my hotel to the convention center site every day in the middle of January.  If you have ever attended a sporting event in Philly in January – or even watched the Philadelphia Eagles on TV during the NFL playoffs – you know how bitter cold it can be.  Dumb rookie mistake.  But I did have a good time.  The 2007 convention was held in Indianapolis, IN.   I had even a better time in ‘07 – you could walk for blocks and still be indoors. But this year I was smart enough to get online early and reserve a hotel that was connected to the convention center. 

2007 was the first year that SoccerPro.com helped sponsor the Missouri State High School Soccer Association party.  The party was thrown right before the exhibit hall opened – and it went very well.  The exhibit hall was open from Thursday evening through Saturday and had a couple hundred manufacturers there – Nike, Adidas, Puma, Diadora, Umbro, Kelme & KwikGoal were the obvious big ones. There were also many pro-turf companies and many other small manufacturers.

We even put a team together to play in the Walt Chyzowych 4-a-side tournament that Saturday.   The team name was Soccerpro.com (of course).  The team members were Jon Klein (Head Men’s Soccer Coach at Columbia College and retired MISL star), Vinnie Darnell (Head Men’s Soccer Coach at the University of Missouri – Rolla and a retired pro), Ryan Swan (Associate Head Coach at Drury University), Travis Cairier  (Asst. Coach at Sedalia HS), Matt Stacey (Head Women’s Soccer Coach at Jeff City High School) and myself.  We went undefeated in our bracket and was awarded the second seed going into the quarterfinals.  Vinnie pulled his hammy halfway through the quarterfinal matchup and that was the beginning of the end.  We tied the game with about 10 seconds left to send it to PK’s.  We lost in PK’s 2-1 (only 3 shooters per team) – Klein was the only one to make ours.  But we played well for a bunch of old guys (besides Matt & Travis).  All in all it was a great convention but that doesn’t hold a candle to 2008’s in Baltimore, which I’ll be writing up in the next day or so.

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