January 5, 2010
When Bill Sedgewick's Rhinos playing career came to an end, I said that he was the best person to ever pull a Rhinos jersey over his head.
With yesterday's announcement that Bill is returning to the club as an assistant coach, I am yet again very pleased with a move that the Rhinos have made this off season.
The club is already talking about how the 3 time Rhinos Community Service award winner will be working with getting players into the community more and selling the club every chance they get is another indication that the new direction the club is taking under the leadership of Pat Ercoli is the right direction.
Another big piece of Sedgewick's job will likely be relaying the Rhinos tradition to the players that will be pulling on a Rhinos jersey in 2010.
And let's face it, Lilley doesn't really need someone to help scout
players with Ercoli as GM and he doesn't need a lot of help with the Xs
and Os.
To me, Sedgewick is about as good a hire as I could have hoped for.
News & Notes:
- I don't know Spanish, but this report leads me to believe that Alec Papadakis (USL), Jeff Cooper (NASL), and Sunil Gulati (USSF) are meeting again today.
- Apparently the the Nutrilite Canadian Championship for the Voyageurs' Cup will not be affected by the USL vs NASL situation.
- Landon Donovan has his Everton shirt , a commercial for Mexican lottery tickets , apparently there was some talk about him making his debut this weekend versus Arsenal. I was joking about that yesterday!
- ESPN 3D to show soccer in 2010?!?!?!? I think HD is good enough for me!
- The MLS Cup will be played at a predetermined site again in 2010.
- Spike Lee is the latest celebrity to join the US World Cup bid committee. I can't wait for the Mars Blackmon commercials backing the US bid!
- Toronto FC has the green light to add seats to BMO Field and construction of Chivas' new digs in Mexico is under way.
- Steven Goff says that Freddy Ado to Aris FC is in the final stages.
- It looks like FSC might be taking over Setanta Sports.
- Schelotto is working on getting a green card. That is really good news for MLS.
- Check out the Free Beer Movement. I think it would be really cool if they could get a lot of people to introduce new fans to the game ahead of the World Cup and the match versus England.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the Rochester Rhinos or SoccerSam.com. Feel free to send any comments or complaints to news@soccersam.com. James promises to read (but not to respond) to all of them.
