Dear Barbarians:
It seems that these newsletters have met with a great deal of infrequency during the course of this indoor season and admittedly they were more infrequent than in most years’ past. If you will allow me to indulge myself, I will take us back to the beginning of the season for me, and in the process I hope that more things will become clear to you as we bring light to many of the aspects that help shape our time together.
In July of 2005 The Barbarian Football Coalition was incorporated as a for-profit entity, with the purpose of training youth in the sport of soccer-football. We felt strongly that this would prove to be a positive step in trying to maintain a level of consistency and continuity that would also be a part of the gradual steps we have taken over the years to continue to move forward our notion that we can eventually impact and raise the level of play in Western Pennsylvania. We have always felt strongly about our commitment to the players and families we have recruited, and try to maintain a simple organization that is forever committed to coaches, players and families, and as it is in this case our aim is to make certain we stay true to our beginning as we attempt to progress. Always in mind is that there can be no progress without change, and the more things change the more they stay the same. Well, in time all avenues are proven either unnecessary or viable and as we venture further down this avenue we reserve the right to make that determination at a later time than now, as we will also reserve judgment on a number of uncharacteristic decisions we made throughout the course of the coming season and year.
August brought a vision to me that I had never encountered in all my years of observation of what is going on around me, literally, a sight that I wonder how many have witnessed. Across from my home there is an old, well maintained by the school district football field that is used by many in the community for various sport’s endeavors. As a matter of fact, The Barbarians held 2 organizational practices (for those who can remember, which we used to do to help familiarize players with one another and) to help get ready for indoor. Of course, these were the days before we began our current training sessions. Ah, but I digress. The vision I observed on this occasion was a group of eight vultures that had settled on the field while there were at least two others circling above. Noticeably, one of these enormous birds was picking away at a carcass of some sort while the others on the ground seemed disinterested. Yet every time the bird would stop pecking one or two of the others would draw nearer to it only to have it flare its wings, and the others would shutter away. I have no idea of how long they had been there before I got there but after watching for 15 minutes or so, I noticed that of the two birds that would draw near to the other one eating, one of them would actually fend of any of the birds who might try to draw near to the one who was eating. Another few minutes revealed something I could have never imagined. One of the birds that had been circling landed and went right to the table and began eating while the one who had been eating took to the air, and still, one stood guard on the ground as the others just stood back. I have not had the time to think about what all I had witnessed but it was as if a bolt of lightening struck me; even vultures have a pecking order! Live and learn.
From there we continued preparing for the upcoming indoor season by trying to attain additional training facilities in anticipation of an onslaught of newcomers, and as always making sure there are enough coaches to keep things moving in the right direction. Drawing up and diagramming the make-up of possible teams, seeing where we might use some that were recruited and wondering who might not return as well as if I might have to fill some void elsewhere. It all seemed as if it was going smoothly and I was ahead of any pace of years’ past when the unthinkable occurred. It is still too difficult to explain but it involved having an additional team in an age group that was already over populated with numbers. Well, the biggest drawback to this is that the request was one that violated many aspects of our long held-to make-up, something that I have always maintained and that is at the core of being a part of The Barbarians. (There are some of you who may be able to follow the implied but there is no need to worry about the Barbarian Teams that have seemingly been routed in the same direction.) Over the years, many of the players in question had been sought by me, or had been seeking to be a part of The Barbarian Football Coalition. In my eyes, I was concerned with one player in particular whom had been denied access to The Barbarians because at the time of his possible inclusion a few years ago, I let his parents know that while we were interested in working with him and had him train with us on occasion, we would not place him on the team due to the fact that we already had too many players from that one area. While at this time my accommodating a request may have seemed hypocritical, at the same time my attempt was to keep true to another aspect of our make-up and that is to not interfere with any other organization or team’s ability to function in the manner it sees fit. I draw no other conclusion and reserve the right to make a determination as to whether my decision to extend an offer to the players was a benefit or detriment. It has made me more aware of the ardent support we enjoy from our members but it also made more aware than ever of the vain insecurities that cause some to become very manipulative, seizing the opportunity to distort the understated and circling the wagons just in time to sell the insurgents their weapons of demise.
Up and down the merry-go-round would take us from that point in time and having to deal with a similar scenario from a team in the same age group only of a differing gender, truly uncertain if they would be a part of our participating teams or not. Unfairly I characterized these two situations as distractions, which they were not, but rather they robbed me of the precious energy I needed to be able to move forward in a continuous and consistent manner that allows for all who are members to be able to improve their skill level and be rewarded for participating with us. Just remember this all took place before any of our teams would play their first match! The distractions were yet to come but perhaps none more so than the disappointment you learn from betrayal. Perhaps I am an idealist but it seems to me that if most are given the choice between doing harm to someone when they can do something in its stead to help, that they would chose to do what would help, as opposed to choosing to harm or malign those who are here to help and who only seek cooperation. Unfortunately, some are so jaded in their attempt to farther their own cause they can care less about those they would do in: a tough lesson for those of us, who wear blinders and mufflers as our ordinary, every-day attire. I have seen similar types bring down teams that were well organized and who were winning everywhere they played. I have seen clubs not be able to recover after having lost a team, or teams in this fashion and now it was facing us! As if through some sort of understated reverie, it came to me like this: whosoever the ringleader, or leaders are, always keep in mind that a ring is a lot like a noose. The more gossip you spread the bigger the ring (noose) gets, and the more likely for many to dangle, but also keep in mind that the bigger the noose the greater the chance for many to slip through and leave only one to hang! We quickly adopted the attitude, onward and upward as the saying goes.
This saving grace was reiterated by a gentleman I had not seen for nearly 15 years, someone that I always had a sincere appreciation for, who prior to running into at the WPIAL Soccer Playoffs, a person whom I had spoken to regularly for nearly 5 years on a weekly basis when he had to travel to Hibbing, Minnesota for business. When he asked me what I was doing these days, and I told him about The Barbarians and the players who were involved in the playoffs as well as how things were going with the approaching season, he shared an anecdote as was always his custom upon our prior meetings, which is what helped me move forward in all that I would do for the next few months, the course of the 2005-2006 indoor season. Part of his anecdotal story was about how he no longer had to travel for business and how now the business people had to come to him, for after over 20 years on the road he finally built the business to a point that was there all along, but in order to learn this he had to walk-out on a call to a customer, who had been stroking him and was just wasting my friend’s time and effort, for no other reason than the customer could. At that point in time, he related, his adoptive attitude became, ‘well either you are going to use the product or get it from someone else, so get it from somewhere else’. You see, no matter how far one bends it is never enough for some, while there are many more who appreciate what is being done and understand it is being done for them, at a price, and not to them.
We will stop here for the time being and revisit the season to conclude my indulgence, in hopes that we learn whether we have met our regularly stated goals of progress, they being individually, collectively week-to-week and so on…
As usual, I will see you on the pitch!
David W. Sayles