Hola a todos,
Well, now the Holidays are over and everybody is getting back to some kind of normality. It is great to be back on the Island and, now, pressing on with what I and the staff do best, WORK!!!!
Prior to coming back, which was over 10 days ago, I had the pleasure of going into Sarasota to the InfoSport Combine. For those of you that aren't aware of what Infosport is, it is a Combine for any player to attend to be evaluated by a whole range of coaching staff from MLS, NASL,USL, PDL, etc. This all gives us a great opportunity to look at players for the future, sit and chat with all the Coaches and catch up with agents. To me, this is invaluable networking.
Funny how things work out as on my team was a player with Puerto Rican connections and I duly noted this and forwarded his relevant information to the National Team. There were also other Puerto Rican participants and they were duly noted by me. The one problem I always have is the same problem as last season in having so many National Team players on my roster is that there is always a cross over in fixtures. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than fielding an all Puerto Rican team and I think you can see from last season we had more home grown players. This is something I will continue to work on and always aware of is the conflict in FIFA dates and our own fixtures.
The work has already started in preparation for the 2nd part of the season with the Staff and I am sure you are all aware that we are not playing in the early part of the season. There is obviously a reason for this to allow the football club to be prepared properly for the second season and there is restructuring and organization being done as we speak from the management and Staff.
For me this is tough as I love to be out on the field practicing and getting ready for games. I am not a good office person and love being outdoors and getting bored very easily doesn't help. I am a doer and not a good sit and wait person. I am going to be very pro active and plan to go into the NASL Combine at the beginning of February. Again, this is another great opportunity to network and, even though we will not be playing, it is important to still be out there getting ready.
Of course this will not be easy in attracting players as a lot of players will be tied to teams already, but there will be enough players wanting to come to the Islanders and it is funny how our team is more well known than a lot of other teams and this was proven at InfoSport, where everybody seemed to know the PUERTO RICO ISLANDERS.
As we continue to move forward, the Staff are working extremely hard. An example is that Iam planning to hold tryouts for the team not only off the Island but here as well. Keep an eye on our website for further information.
The same can be said for our local childrens' clinics. We still plan to be out in the community much as possible and, as this is a Team effort, not just the Owners and Staff, if you have ideas please message me on my inbox on Facebook.
Thanks for you time in reading this,
Whitt
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