Redshirt-freshman Alex Gatewood will be writing a blog all season long, giving fans an in-depth look at the Portland Pilots men's soccer team. Make sure to bookmark portlandpilots.com/gatewoodblog and follow Alex and the Pilots as they venture through the 2011 season.
ENTRY #1
Tuesday, August, 30, 2011
Hello pilots fans, and welcome back to another exciting year of men's soccer and the men's soccer blog.
To begin, let me introduce myself as your inside man within the men's soccer team and all things Pilots for the season to come. My name is Alex Gatewood and I'm a redshirt-freshman defender from Portland, Oregon. When I'm not crushing my teammates Steven Evans and Marc Tonkel in Super Smash Bros, I can usually be found watching movies, playing guitar, or munching on a piece of pepperoni 'za' from the University Commons. At first, when I discovered I would be responsible for the blog this year I was a little apprehensive. Alex Kraus, the Pulitzer nominated team blogger of last season, left me with big shoes to fill pertaining to blog responsibilities and innovation. Like any self-respecting Portland Pilot, however, I accepted the challenge and hope to deliver.
Our season officially began Saturday, Aug. 27th against the Oregon State Beavers, but if you ask any of us on the team we would tell you the season began back in early July with captain's practices and early morning runs to prepare us for pre-season camp. After a long summer of hard work and determination we progressed into pre-season where dwindling valuable time was assigned to training and tactical fine tuning. Our effort paid off last Saturday night when Connor Barbaree and Michael Nielson scored the first two goals of the 2011 season against the Beavers, a game we look forward to every year. Spirits are high amongst the team after the 2-1 victory and everyone is looking forward to our home opener against Florida Gulf Coast this Friday night.
Last weekend was also a monumental landmark in the life of a fellow men's soccer player and a friend very dear to my heart, junior Colin Barich. Colin turned 21 over the weekend and may now walk where no minor has before. Strangely, Colin celebrated the occasion by watching several hours of Jersey Shore shortly followed by a long session of karaoke alone in his bedroom, but I guess that's just Barich. Happy birthday Colin!
In future blogs look for introductions to the new freshmen class and tours of your favorite men's soccer player's cribs along with more inside information about the team. Thank you for all your support Pilots fans and I hope to see you Friday at 7 PM at the beautiful Merlo Field.
-Stay classy Portland
