..KICKING IT WITH THE WOMBATS – PART TWO…………………

By Charles Richardson in Singapore

April 5^th 2006

I attended my second Wombat practice this past Saturday. It was a typical swelteringly hot and humid day in the Merlion City. Being a "rookie" to their team, I was tasked with icing the beer for after practice. I'm not sure what fitness book says that a beer after exercise is good, but these guys are adamant believers.

We ran through some drills and I made a concerted effort to remember as many names as possible. A few of the guys were new to me but were somewhat familiar with USFooty. O.C had played with Dallas back in the late 90's for a game or two and was a good friend of Poppy's. Another guy had played with Denver a few years back. All of them had questions about the current state of the league. They all seem shocked when I told them about the number of teams and games played each year. Few of them could believe that every major city in the US now had a team and that Nationals had grown to be the event that it is today. They also seemed envious when I mentioned this year's final tourney would be held in none other than Sin City.

Practice continued and we broke into a 12 on 12 game. I played on the forward flank. We played with a mark-then hand ball rule to reinforce the idea of following your kicks and running in packs. It worked well. I scored the initial goal and then had a bit of the ‘soft-foot’ coming up with 3 other goal shots that were either tipped or blocked. I need to focus on longer kicking and will try to get some coaching the next practice. The scrimmage was physical and I was both the giver and recipient of some solid hip and shoulders. One of the players had his shorts torn almost completely off while trying to escape a tackle. Angrily, he decided to finish the shorts off himself. We were all treated to another 10 minutes of him running around in a jumper and sweaty whitey-tighties. Not a sight that would make the ladies swoon.

Practice concluded after 2 solid hours of running and the cooler of beer was immediately broken open. I made every attempt to elude a few of the guys I know well to prevent them from forcing beer on me but was unsuccessful. Unfortunately, these gentlemen are also on to the "nurse-one-beer-and-keep-it-visible" technique. They like to come over and tally of the number of beers I've imbibed along with the temperature of my current beer. If either is deemed deficient or low, another beer is immediately thrust into my hand with the understanding that I must immediately finish both. Beer, when your two quarts low on bodily fluids from running, does not do the body any good.

That's the latest from Singapore. The Chi-meister is currently visiting me and I'm trying to convince him to go have a run with us at training this Saturday. I think I'd really enjoy watching him get smacked around a bit. Until next week...

Charlie