Blog

Last weekend, the Colorado Rapids season home opener was postponed one day for snow. The build up to the storm had a flurry of comments from sports writers and fans - many proudly encouraging a good showing to the club's opening game despite the inclement weather. Visions of players slipping and sliding, nicknaming the stadium as a type of "snow fortress," fans singing full-voice in blizzard-like conditions, and playing with the dreaded "orange ball" (which still has never made an appearance in Major League Soccer) reminiscent of youth soccer games of long-ago filled the Twitterverse and Facebook status updates nearly non-stop until the club finally announced the postponement of the game to the following day. The storm did leave some

If you went away a couple years ago, from Major League Soccer, and came back just yesterday, you might be surprised at the new look uniforms that many teams are now wearing. The Colorado Rapids (the team I chaplain) have a new kit look (see below), but not only is the look new on the outside, but on the inside as well. There has been a tremendous amount of turnover in the player personnel from two seasons ago and as some have declared, this is truly a different team, one that second-year head coach, Oscar Pareja, can truly call his own. New beginnings, while not always easy in football or life, are often necessary. Living in a digital age, most

The recent blog posting by American forward Robbie Rogers, who has stepped back from football, announced that he was gay. In a moving post that has been tweeted and mentioned by many in the soccer world, Rogers wrote of the pain of the secrecy that he has had to live with and the difficulty of telling and explaining to his loved ones after 25 years. Soccer, for Rogers, became an escape and a way to hide his secret - but one can sense the pain with which Rogers wrote. He describes seemingly religious attitudes prevalent as he writes, "Try convincing yourself that your creator has the most wonderful purpose for you even though you were taught differently." Whilst Rogers didn't state

Preseason often offers a challenge to players, coaches, and chaplains alike. For the player, there are the tasks of securing a contract, getting into match-fitness, making the starting 11, or, sometimes coming back from surgery or injury. For the coaches, they must make decisions on what players to name to the squad, what positions need more support, what formation to play, and what strategies to employ through the season. Teams spend their preseason time refining and working out the mechanics of the game and their work. Often, both player and coach are looking to work out of "preseason form" and begin to ascend to the peak of top shape, top form - physically and mentally. To accomplish this, each goes

I recently returned from the annual conference on sports chaplaincy, held by Sports Chaplaincy - United Kingdom (or SCUK). The two day conference centered on the growing issue of Mental Well-being in Sport and there was a tremendous amount of attention on the players and coaches with a view to how the pressure of sport is impacting to the social, spiritual, mental, and other aspects of life. Aside from the main conference, though, was an undercurrent, a subtext. Even from the beginning of the conference, the issue of chaplaincy standards and accountability was an issue that was brought to the table. In all other types of positions and places, there are standards of excellence that usually accompany and accredit one

As I recently watch a road game for the Colorado Rapids, the team was working to come from behind. Down 1 goal to 2, the team was struggling to avoid a record 10-game road stretch without a point (either a win or tie). Then in the 86th minute, with little left in the time of the game it happened: Rapids' Smith Goal As I watched the game-changing event unfold, I thought, "Good finish" and told the team as much in my weekly e-mail to them. That phrase (common amongst soccer fans) though made me stop and reflect on what it means and what it looks like to finish well. Not just by putting the ball in the back of the net on