Hello all!
After months of lurking, I decided to join the GOT and get onboard.
My name is Jay and I'm from southern California.
I started following the beautiful game when I was 4 years old playing in my great uncle's yard in Ohio. He noticed I was decent at kicking the ball, suggested I take up the sport and I was forever in love with the sport. I started playing club football at age 6 and played for the state champions. I grew up playing against Landon Donovan before he left for the IMG Academy. I started watching the First Division in '89 without a favorite team. I was a forward on the left flank, but my coach switched me to right back. I never lost the attaching mindset so my coach gave in and made me watch Ronald Koeman because I never wanted to stay in defense. I always wanted to be Alan Shearer or Johan Cruyff. I remember watching VHS tapes studying them over and over. I vividly remember watching the '89 FA Cup final weeks after Hillsborough and being the only one on my team pulling for Everton. Our club was blue and white and yet everyone was pulling for the red team. It still did not endear me to the club, but it was a start.
When I was 8, my father went off to war and my mother found out she was pregnant weeks later. My brother was born 9 months later while my father was at sea and I ensured that he understood the love of the game. He grew up attending my matches and playing himself. I managed his clubs as an assistant for years and spent weekends watching matches. We watched every match that came on American television from 2001 on. I watched Shearer and Gary Speed at Newcastle and Unsworth, Big Dunc and a young Wayne Rooney at Everton. It all started to click around 2004 on as I grew to love watching Tim Cahill, Mikel Arteta, Graveson and Nigel Martyn. I was working on my genealogy for a class and found that my ancestors came from Walton-on-the-Hill, Lancashire. It chose me at that point and I knew I was a Blue. My heart would be broken later by Perluigi Collina and lifted as the team added key pieces such as Baines, Jags, Fellaini and Coleman. I love watching the local lads come through the youth system and start to get integrated. I don't have a favorite player as I believe the team is much more important, but I tend to feel endeared to the positions that I played so Baines and Coleman tend to be the ones I gravitate to. I'm pulling for Jonjoe Kenny to get more involved as Seamus recovers. I'm excited about the future and realistic about our chances as we build the squad to the greatness that it once had.
In 2010, I met a beautiful woman from Death Valley of all places who knew nothing of the sport. Her daughter was skeptical of this sporting phenomenon, but then again, if it's not a pre-teen show or music, she's not interested anyways. She quickly became adopted as if she were my own and started attending my Sunday league with me warming up before each match. I proposed in 2012 and my daughter answered yes for her mother. We were married 2013 and fast forward to present day and my wife and daughter have kits, shirts and jackets in the closet. My wife asks about transfers and if I saw the news about Everton. She watches Men in Blazers with me. In 2015, my son Jack was born and he was first held by daddy wearing my kit. We play kick about when we aren't playing with trucks and T-Rex. He yells "Football!" every time it's on TV and can say "E'erton." One of his favorite things was for me to lift him up to the Goodison Park plaque in the house so he can touch it.
We are putting away our pennies so that we can make it to Goodison Park as a family before they make the move to the docks. I'm excited to be able to meet fellow Blues and get to know you all a bit more. COYB.
P.S. I am lactose-intolerant so I don't eat pizza, but when I do eat pizza, it has pineapple on it.
After months of lurking, I decided to join the GOT and get onboard.
My name is Jay and I'm from southern California.
I started following the beautiful game when I was 4 years old playing in my great uncle's yard in Ohio. He noticed I was decent at kicking the ball, suggested I take up the sport and I was forever in love with the sport. I started playing club football at age 6 and played for the state champions. I grew up playing against Landon Donovan before he left for the IMG Academy. I started watching the First Division in '89 without a favorite team. I was a forward on the left flank, but my coach switched me to right back. I never lost the attaching mindset so my coach gave in and made me watch Ronald Koeman because I never wanted to stay in defense. I always wanted to be Alan Shearer or Johan Cruyff. I remember watching VHS tapes studying them over and over. I vividly remember watching the '89 FA Cup final weeks after Hillsborough and being the only one on my team pulling for Everton. Our club was blue and white and yet everyone was pulling for the red team. It still did not endear me to the club, but it was a start.
When I was 8, my father went off to war and my mother found out she was pregnant weeks later. My brother was born 9 months later while my father was at sea and I ensured that he understood the love of the game. He grew up attending my matches and playing himself. I managed his clubs as an assistant for years and spent weekends watching matches. We watched every match that came on American television from 2001 on. I watched Shearer and Gary Speed at Newcastle and Unsworth, Big Dunc and a young Wayne Rooney at Everton. It all started to click around 2004 on as I grew to love watching Tim Cahill, Mikel Arteta, Graveson and Nigel Martyn. I was working on my genealogy for a class and found that my ancestors came from Walton-on-the-Hill, Lancashire. It chose me at that point and I knew I was a Blue. My heart would be broken later by Perluigi Collina and lifted as the team added key pieces such as Baines, Jags, Fellaini and Coleman. I love watching the local lads come through the youth system and start to get integrated. I don't have a favorite player as I believe the team is much more important, but I tend to feel endeared to the positions that I played so Baines and Coleman tend to be the ones I gravitate to. I'm pulling for Jonjoe Kenny to get more involved as Seamus recovers. I'm excited about the future and realistic about our chances as we build the squad to the greatness that it once had.
In 2010, I met a beautiful woman from Death Valley of all places who knew nothing of the sport. Her daughter was skeptical of this sporting phenomenon, but then again, if it's not a pre-teen show or music, she's not interested anyways. She quickly became adopted as if she were my own and started attending my Sunday league with me warming up before each match. I proposed in 2012 and my daughter answered yes for her mother. We were married 2013 and fast forward to present day and my wife and daughter have kits, shirts and jackets in the closet. My wife asks about transfers and if I saw the news about Everton. She watches Men in Blazers with me. In 2015, my son Jack was born and he was first held by daddy wearing my kit. We play kick about when we aren't playing with trucks and T-Rex. He yells "Football!" every time it's on TV and can say "E'erton." One of his favorite things was for me to lift him up to the Goodison Park plaque in the house so he can touch it.
We are putting away our pennies so that we can make it to Goodison Park as a family before they make the move to the docks. I'm excited to be able to meet fellow Blues and get to know you all a bit more. COYB.
P.S. I am lactose-intolerant so I don't eat pizza, but when I do eat pizza, it has pineapple on it.
