Saturday, February 10, 2018

Gather the Tribe

The Tribe's on the move this weekend, spreading our feathers and heading out into the world. Don't tell the NCAA. Here's just a sample.

This morning in Orlando, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) holds its first contested
Presidential election since 1998. Among the eight candidates, Kathy Carter (W&M '91) is considered both the establishment choice and one of two front-runners. The process is a complicated one, with multiple constituencies holding relatively equal power. The Athlete Council, made up of 20 current and former men's and women's national team members has 20% of the vote, though it doesn't always vote as a bloc. The Professional Council (featuring the MLS, NWSL, USL, NASL and others) controls 25.8%, as do the Youth Council (state youth soccer associations) and Adult Council. The remaining 2.6% is comprised of various board members, life members, and two fan representatives.

Carter has all but locked up the Professional Council vote, and has received the endorsement of enough others to push her over the 30% mark. She's likely to split votes with Carlos Cordeiro, the current USSF Vice-President, and the other establishment candidate. The six other candidates (former players Eric Wynalda, Kyle Martino, Hope Solo, and Paul Caligiuri, and attorneys Steve Gans and Michael Winograd) have reportedly issued a statement to the voters urging them to eschew Carter and Cordeiro in favor of a change candidate. If the upstarts can keep either Carter or Cordeiro from winning a majority of votes on the first ballot, then the election could get very interesting.

Says here that if Carter hopes to win, she'll either need to do it on the first ballot, or get so close that she can convince Cordeiro to drop out and support her on the second. If that doesn't happen, then I like Kyle Martino. The former USMNT player and NBC soccer broadcaster has impressed a lot of people with his hard work building grassroots support and his thoughtful approach to addressing American soccer's challenges. If Carter does win, she could do a lot worse than sign Martino up for some sort of leadership role within the Federation. Or she could hire me.

Later this afternoon, your Wrens hope to get back on track against an up and down Delaware squad. The Tribe is 8-5 in conference play, good for a third-place tie with Hofstra, two games behind Charleston. After a 5-0 start in the CAA, Tony Shaver's boys have come down to earth a bit, mostly because they can't stop anyone. W&M averages 85 points per game, and remains one of the nation's best shooting teams. But they give up 82 points each contest, making for exciting basketball, but for some tough times.

As usual, the regular season really isn't that vital. As long as W&M can finish somewhere around 10-8, and hang around third or fourth in the regular season, they'll have a shot. That shot will be somewhat easier if they can avoid Towson and Charleston.

One week from Sunday, Marcus Thornton represents the Tribe (and the Canton Charge) as part of the USA roster in the G League International Challenge. The G League squad will face the Mexican National Team in Los Angeles. As part of the event, Thornton will be training with USA national team coach Jeff Van Gundy and trying out to be part of Team USA during World Cup qualifying. Marcus is averaging 18.4 ppg, and making 41.1% of his three-pointers, growing rapidly as a scorer at this level over the past month.

Speaking of Tribe hoops, redshirt junior Paul Rowley is the kind of representative that makes us all proud. A Loudoun County product, Rowley's already graduated from W&M, and is now in his first year of law school. He's one of three players in the country combining Division I hoops with law school. He's an impressive kid:



And since the topic of W&M Law came up, let's talk for a moment about one of the Tribe's most famous (and in some circles infamous) alums. Former FBI Director Jim Comey will teach a class in Ethical Leadership starting next fall, both at the school's Washington Center and in Williamsburg.

Comey (W&M '82) stirs emotions on both sides of the political aisle at the moment, accused of both tipping the 2016 Presidential election to Donald Trump and of seeking to undermine the same Trump. I work closely with current and former FBI executives, and they're unanimous in their loyalty to Comey and praise for his ethical standards and moral leadership. We may never really know why he did what he did last October, but even as I hate what happened, I believe that Jim Comey did what he believed to be right.

Finally, we're now into the swing of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, and it's nice to have some Tribesfolk to root for. It would be nice, anyway, if there were any W&M reps in South Korea. There aren't, though, so we'll have to make do with American ski jumper William Rhoads (with whom I share a birthday) and U.S. cross country skier Mary Rose.

USA!

37 comments:

rob said...

fox sports is reporting that the athletes council is voting as a block for cordeiro on the first ballot. that's not good for kathy.

rob said...

carter got 34.6% on the first ballot to cordeiro's 36.3. the establishment gets 70% of the votes. question now is which can get other blocs to go their way, because i don't think this means the voters are gonna go for change.

rob said...

grant wahl, who's as good a soccer reporter as we have, thinks it's going to be cordeiro

rob said...

41/33 cordeiro/carter in round two. pretty obviously gonna be one of them. likely cordeiro at this point, as there are a lot of people who actively dislike what carter stands for.

rob said...

cordeiro wins. bummer.

hope tribe hoops has a better day than tribe soccer.

Shlara said...

ARGH!!!
I'm so bummed Kathy didn't win.
She is the best candidate.

rob said...

the silver lining for kathy is the fact that the us soccer diehards are pissssssed at the outcome of the election. had she won, she would've spent the first six months of her tenure dealing with some nasty shit.

Whitney said...

What does she stand for that people actively dislike?

TR said...

Fell down the vinyl rabbit hole a bit at local record store: Best of Buffalo Springfield, Little Feat Live, a ‘73 Hall and Oates studio album and The Killers’ Hot Fuss.

zman said...

There is a special place in hell for the guy who runs Chuck E Cheese. On the bright side, zdaughter played ski ball for the first time. She uses an overhand technique.

Danimal said...

Takeaways from Olympic viewing thus far...I don’t remember ever seeing relay speed skating. Madness!
Cross country skiers > everyone else

Danimal said...

Also, same question as Whit? Have a soccer fb friend (more like an old acquaintance) who is peeved w Carter making first ballot? Can we get a post on this? Somewhat knew her...I think I played tonsil hockey with one of her old roomates....or maybe a teammate. Either way it was awesome.

Danimal said...

Oh...and curling is boring.

Danimal said...

Several peeps in the hood here work for Fanatics, NFL clothing seller which is hq’d Here in Jax. One told me today Iggles gear sales topped 10M in the 60 minutes after the win. One hour.

Mark said...

A good friend threw a 40th birthday party for his wife at a very small local brewery tonight. A bunch of us teamed up to DJ the event and then he staged a trivia contest. Our team won. The prize was a round on the host, his 4 pack of dogfish 120 and souvenir glasses from the brewery. How is everyone else doing tonight?

Mark said...

Zgirl just hucks skee balls? I like it. Probably need some video.

rob said...

went to dinner with my daughter, and she drove, so i drank. now sipping on some lickinghole creek 9 mile goodwater ipa. not bad.

rob said...

here's the kathy carter deal, danimal:

she's been the president of soccer united marketing (sum) since 2010. sum has a very tight financial connection to us soccer and to the mls. sum is responsible for marketing us soccer and mls' television and other rights (as well as those of the mexican soccer federation). there are many in the game that think us soccer/mls/sum prioritize revenue over lower-league player development and the overall growth of the american game. those folks were never going to vote for her.

Danimal said...

Nice recap. Have been doing my own investigative journalism now. She’s got a few haters out there, but don’t we all.

zman said...

If you want to grow soccer in America, might it not make sense to have a marketing expert running things?

rob said...

we've done a pretty good job building interest in the game at the highest levels.

the argument is that by focusing on the top level of the game in america, we've starved second, third, and lower level professional leagues, where players in other countries can earn a living while developing as players. without viable lower-tier leagues, we lose a large number of players who might someday develop, reducing the overall depth in the game.

Shlara said...

we don't have viable lower league development programs for any pro sports in the US
The free labor NCAA football & basketball programs are NOT that. At all.

Shlara said...

Ok, MLB and NHl minor leagues
Those kids make poverty level incomes
Better than free labor in college sports
Still not good

zman said...

At least the college athletes can theoretically get a college degree in exchange for playing a sport, and I hope that in most cases it's more than theoretical. Pro tennis is much more exploitative. You can get an IPIN at age 13 years 11 months. That's messed up. Most pros do not go to college, let alone graduate. I don't know how it works for golf but I assume boxing and other individual sports are the same.

TR said...

The Red Gerard broadcast last night was one of the most profanity-laced things NBC has ever aired. The kid could not stop saying shit and fuck after his run, as he waited for the other competitors. Was highly entertaining. Tirico apologized to the audience.

rob said...

strong editing by nbc, too, since the run actually happened before they aired it.

Mark said...

As some of you may know, my family has lost both of our dogs in the past year and a half. One was really old and it was expected. The other died suddenly and sadly. My daughter was wrecked when it happened.

With all that said, we just bought a new dog. Picking her up in two weeks. Pretty excited.

TR said...

Johnny Weir looks like Pee Wee Herman impersonating Stanley Tucci from Hunger Games.

Flaming does not appropriately describe his vibe. It is a whole new level, even by his lofty standards.

rob said...

johnny and tara are fabulous. in the best way.

zman said...

Zagitova!

Whitney said...

ORF Rock tonight at 7.

zman said...

Westminster Kennel Club dog show is on opposite the Olympics. Tough ratings scheduling for the dogs.

zman said...

Shannon Sharpe is, inexplicably, the sideline reporter for the dog show.

rootsminer said...

I see that George Carlin's BMW 850 is going up on Bring a Trailer later today. I assume Zman will make be making a play for it.

TR said...

Just found out my sister’s dog has an Instagram acct w/ over 1,000 followers. That’s not weird at all.

rootsminer said...

Nope. Totally normal.

I guess it's no weirder than the fact that I have Instagram followers and have never posted anything.

TR said...

But you are THE Shenandoah music sensation! That in itself is worth some follows from Russian porn bots.