Hey USA community,
My name is Jon Laurent, known to some as JL or inJLwetrust on the offsite. You may have seen me mentioned in some of the game previews as magiker's sneaky assistant coach. The sneaky part might not be completely accurate, but the assistant part sort of is. I've been involved with the U21 team on the game threads and scouting this past season, and I've been watching the team and monitoring their progress since before that.
A little bit about me: I started this game back in season 16. I really didn't know what it took to be successful, but because I was in a league with only one other human manager I managed to promote via bot-cleanup into IV.62. That season (S18), I underwent trial by fire and stumbled to a 4-18 record, sending myself back to D.V. Instead of quitting, I decided to learn how to build a better team, so I wouldn't make the mistakes I had made last time. I also drafted a couple of really promising young players with great potential and starting skills, Paul Ogle
(23475388) and Richard McCauley
(22091670), so I set out learning how to train elite players while still fielding a competitive team. I'm not going to go so far as to say I've mastered that, but after promoting back up to IV.12, I was an instant title competitor and almost promoted in my first season. This season, I beat a former D.III team with a more expensive roster, and now I'm in III.9.
Why do I tell you all this? I think it demonstrates why I believe I can be the U21 team manager. First, having put significant effort into drafting and training my own players, I can appreciate the sacrifice by managers to train top-level youngsters for the U21 team. Perhaps more importantly, having built my team from the bottom up and having rebuilt my team completely, I learned how to quickly turn things around and build a strong, completely retooled roster. For a U21 manager with a roster that changes almost completely from year to year, this is a very important skill.
Keep in mind when you vote for the U21 manager that you're not entrusting one guy with sole power and sole responsibility. You're choosing for someone to initiate the discussion and ultimately implement the group's final decisions. But this coach has to respond to the will of the community. On the USA offsite, we have a great group of people, many of whom are much more qualified than me but choose not to run. So as U21 coach, it would be my job not only to offer my own opinions and insights, but also to consider other people's opinions and possibly change my decisions based on what they say. Like I said earlier, a lot of the knowledge I have about this game comes from reading and remembering the opinions of more experienced managers, then integrating that information to make informed decisions. This is exactly what a U21 manager is supposed to do.
I have two goals for the U21 team:
1:
Keep doing what we've been doing! Under magiker and Rambo before him, we've dominated Americas and won two out of the past three Worlds golds. Obviously we're doing something right.
2:
Be open-minded and willing to experiment with new ideas, builds, and tactics. I know this sounds a little contradictory to goal #1, but hear me out. A lot of the guards have been turning into pure OD/passing specialists for LI, and a lot of the bigs are monoskilled brutes that plummet in value as soon as they turn 22. I'd like to see us diversify our builds a little. Not only might this give us some more tactical flexibility, but it'll also be good for the National Team, which will have a more diverse pipeline of talent, and also the managers, who can hopefully get more salary-efficient club players to help their own teams.
In Jon Laurent we trust. Not because I know everything and can run the U21 team all by myself, but because I can listen and respond to the community, so we can build a great team together. Vote for me for S22 U21 manager!
Last edited by Jon Laurent at 11/27/2012 3:52:18 PM