Archive for October, 2011

Eat Some Candy and Vote for Me!

Posted by Staci on Monday, October 31st, 2011

Adrian Bumbut as Bob Marley and Scott Buete as...wait, why didn't Scott dress up for Halloween? (Photo Courtesy Adrian Bumbut's Cellphone)

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you got your candies and your scares and enjoyed the official end-of-the-rest-of-the-year-before-Christmas-season-starts. Not that I’m complaining. I like my Christmas Pandora station just as much as I like my Halloween Pandora station. (But neither as much as my Lil Wayne station.)

What did you dress up as? I dressed up as struggling writer.

Anyway, as advertised, the voting for the Mobbies opened today! So…

VOTE HERE!! VOTE VOTE VOTE FOR ME (us)!!

You’ll have to sign in or make a log-in to the Sun’s website, but it’s free and only takes approximately 30 seconds. You can vote once a day in my category – Best Sports Blog.

Vooooooooote!

And just know that I’m going to annoy you a lot via Facebook and the Twitter. Aaaand maybe in your inbox if I have your e-mail address. Sorry in advance, except not really.

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In legitimate soccer news, the Blast announced today that they have signed Ptah Myers, perhaps just to prove me wrong when I said Akira Fitzgerald has the best name ever. I mean, Ptah sounds like a pharoah or something, right? If that’s not intimidating, I don’t know what is.

Myers is a veteran midfielder, and you probably recognize his name from his seven seasons with the now defunct Philadelphia KiXX. He spent last season with the Chicago Riot and also coaches the Philadelphia men’s soccer team.

This is a nice pickup for the Blast, whose veteran presence on the roster took a hit with the departures of Robbie Aristodemo, Pat Morris, Giuliano Celenza, and Billy Nelson.

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Finally, big shoutout to my buddy Adrian “DJ B” Bumbut, who is taking time out of his busy schedule to support Care for Africa, a charitable organization working to aid the efforts in easing the pain caused by drought and famine in east Africa.

Bumbut is holding a soccer clinic to raise money to send help to Somalia. The clinic will be held December 14 at 7:30 at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Bel Air. For more information, and to support Bumbut’s efforts, visit Care for Africa’s facebook page.

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Posted in Baltimore Blast, MISL | 4 Comments »

Akira and the B(last)

Posted by Staci on Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Akira Fitzgerald

Coolest named Blast player ever? (Courtesy Wake Forest/Baltimore Blast)

Yeah, I went there. Horrible punny (unfunny) title, and I didn’t even see that movie. I hope someone out there figures out where I was going with that. OK, enough of that.

Anyway, the Baltimore Blast announced earlier this week that they have signed local goalkeeper Akira Fitzgerald. The 24-year-old Baltimorean grew up attending Blast games and developed as a young player with Kevin Healey’s Baltimore Bays.

Fitzgerald, who graduated from Loyola Blakefield, went on to play college soccer at Wake Forest, where he won an NCAA championship in 2007 and earned All-ACC accolades multiple times. He spent the summer playing alongside Matt Watson for the regular season NASL champion Carolina RailHawks.

“It’s my first season playing indoor, so a lot of things are new to me, but the first thing I’ve noticed is that the guys are just so helpful,” Fitzgerald said. “They’ll explain the game to you; there are so many different rules I never knew about, and they’ll help you out there. During the games and stuff like that, they’ll talk you through it. That’s been real helpful to make the transition a lot easier.”

Fitzgerald will back up veteran keeper Sagu, entering his ninth indoor season. What’s he looking forward to most?

“Just the opportunity to get better every day and train in such a good environment with such good pros,” Fitzgerald said. “And hopefully if I can get in some games that’ll be great, it’ll be a bonus, but just bettering myself each day and making sure my team gets better every day.”

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Voting for the Mobbies begins MONDAY! Halloween, so don’t forget it. If you vote for me, you’ll make my life. I may even buy you some candy corn. Everyone likes candy corn. (OK, so I’m informed every year that not everyone likes candy corn, but if you don’t like candy corn, that’s just…well I don’t know, maybe you just haven’t had it in so long you forgot how delicious it is. And festive.)

Look how excited Ugly Betty was when she won a Blobby for her blog. I’m just like Ugly Betty, just without the sunshine-y outlook on life.

YouTube Preview Image

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Posted in Baltimore Blast, MISL | 4 Comments »

Notebook: Zombies & Mobbies

Posted by Staci on Sunday, October 23rd, 2011

VOTE FOR ME!!! (Courtesy of the Baltimore Sun)

So last night my friends and I went to these haunted dungeons at Fort Howard in Dundalk or somewhere thereabouts, and the line was too long and the air was too cold, so we actually ended up drinking in Canton, but the point is — next weekend is Halloween weekend! Which means next week is November, the month of the kickoff to the 2011-2012 MISL season.

The first game for the Baltimore Blast will be November 12 against the Syracuse Silver Knights at 1st Mariner Arena, and this year’s coaches, squad and hopefuls will gather together tomorrow morning to begin training camp for the season.

The Blast announced last week that they have signed three players, two from last year’s roster. Forward Matt Watson will join the Blast for his fifth season in Baltimore, and forward Warren Ukah will be back for his second.

New to the team, defender/midfielder Stephen DeRoux will fill in some of the gaps left by versatile and now-retired veterans Robbie Aristodemo and Billy Nelson. Most recently, DeRoux, who went to high school in Beltsville, played for the Montreal Impact of the USL.

And with training camp beginning, I’m looking forward to watching as we get a clearer view of the full roster.

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In other news, my dreams are finally coming true. That’s right, I’ve been nominated for a Mobbie, so when voting begins October 31, you best be voting for me. It’s the closest I’ll ever get to winning a Pulitzer, so help a brother out, yeah? Don’t worry — I’ll remind (read: spam/nag/flood you social media-style) as voting time gets closer. Come on guys, just put me in the win column, yeah?

Let’s not forget that a vote for me is kind of like a vote for the Blast, you know? Gotta represent. Just sayin’.

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It’s well known that Blast members, both current and former, are very much involved in the community in Baltimore. Former Blast star Tarik Walker is no exception. The 35-year soccer veteran recently founded a new soccer training business, TW9Soccer. So if you (or really, your kids) have ever dreamed of becoming a soccer star, now’s the time to check it out. Walker offers speed and agility training, individual training, team training, camp and more.

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Posted in Baltimore Blast, MISL, USL, Unsoccer | 3 Comments »