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I'm not sure if I'm sticking out the election to the end. If a more qualified or driven manager arrives, I will drop out and happily vote for him or her. I would like all the candidates to understand that this is a long-term commitment. You will be the U21 Manager for somewhere around 7 months. It's not something to take lightly.

First off, I'd like to expound a little on my term of service. I felt that my strength was taking the tournament as a whole and planning. Through the early portion of the season I played exclusively to our strength. Later, it was quite easy to tell when people would start adjusting tactics to stop us and throw out a different offense to give us the edge.
(10502)
(10508)

I truly believe our team was the best in the world in season 12, so it did make things easier. I doubt we'll ever have same depth and talent in our bigs again. Our guards were very complimentary to the bigs and it worked out quite well. Needless to say, I was quite happy with our Continental Team. We also got good turn out for our games and it was a fun environment.

Last season was completely different. I am pretty disappointed with myself on a number of fronts. I feel like I lapsed in communication with the community and the managers of people on the team and potential candidates. Derrick Anglin was one of the best 21 yo guards in the world and he was essentially useless as I could not get his owner to take his GS seriously. Percy Peachey , my favorite PG going into the season, was quite similar. I don't feel like I did an adequate job in staying in touch with potential candidates. Most importantly to our success, I did not follow my own gameplan for the tournament. Anytime we normal or CT a game we should win. The Chile game was very unlucky. They CT'd us and had a dominant run to end the game. The next game against the Philippines should have either been a CT or a TIE. I knew that Chile would be hard pressed to advance after CT'ing us. They had a 1-2 record and 1-1 in the last two games ended up not being enough to see them advance. I normaled Philippines and we lost. We needed the win against Italy to advance and it backed us into a corner and put us behind for the rest of the tournament.

The timing of the tournament games made attendance pretty horrible. I was only able to watch a couple games live. U21 Coach or not, I'll be at almost all the games this season. I love this stuff. =D


My main focus for a second term is improving the amount of communication that happens between me and the owners of potential players for our team. Most importantly, I think I would need to have more of a dialogue to help direct players to train their players in ways that are beneficial to their team as well as the U21 team. This is very important to develop more of a community here. This would also involve financial planning, especially for people training bigs.

Feel free to spank me, I'll be hanging around the debate thread.

So, I've decided to throw my hat in the ring too and run for U21 manager.

I'll start off by saying I think Jelme has done a good job so far and would continue to do so if re-elected. I think he's been excellent with tactics and forecasting the tournaments overall and which games he needs to win to advance, etc, and I think he has a lot of the right ideas about expanding communication with managers and helping people train in a sustainable way. It's hard for me to blame him for one down season if I'm not willing to also give him credit for one amazing season. I have no problem supporting him if he's re-elected and helping with whatever might be needed, and if I were elected I would almost certainly lean heavily on him for advice and insight on just about everything if he's willing to help me out.

I'm running though because I would like to see the U21 team make sustainable player development for the NT it's absolute #1 priority. I believe that training (especially of non-guards) that maximizes our chances of winning U21 games is not compatible with either sustainable big man training for mid-division managers or producing the most valuable sort of NT players (unique players, players with very good secondaries, etc).

If elected, my intention would be to see the focus of U21 become: what sort of players will provide the most benefit to both the NT and their owners, and how do we develop those players. We would try to win U21 games with these players and I think there is room to create mismatches and do well, but winning U21 games would not be how we judge U21 success. An example would be:

-A 21yr old 50k center with 12/12/12 inside and 8-9's everywhere else, vs a 150-200k center with 16/16/16 and 4's everywhere else. The 50k center is probably more effective for his club team, especially when you consider the economic impact for D.III and lower teams who can't afford the massive salaries, and who don't actually need triple 16's to compete in their division anyway. This 50k player with good secondaries is healthier for his owner and also better for the NT once his primary skills catch up around 24yr. The 16/16/16 player is probably better for winning U21 games. I would choose the 50k player because I think there is more benefit in helping the manager and the NT long-term than there is in winning one season's worth of U21 games.

It may seem like this strategy makes the NT more important than the U21 team but that is not true; they are equally important but they now have explicitly different functions. The NT's function is to represent the US in the world and win games. The U21 functions are the same ones it already serves: developing young talent, stimulating community interest and enthusiasm, rewarding managers who train well; however it embraces player development and helping trainers build successful, sustainable clubs as the mechanism to achieve these functions. So, different but equally valuable roles for the US community.

I would like to be the US U21 manager. As a player of this game since Season 2, I have seen the ebbs and flows of the game and would echo the need for some one who would be motivated for what is a long term full of high expectations.

As a manager, I have traveled to the NBBA 3 times and in a few seasons hope to be the first 4 timer. What is unique about this is I have taken 3 different types of teams to the NBBA. I am not afraid of trying different tactics to get the desired results, but know to balance those desires and against reality. I also have been demoted 3 times which means I am human as well, but show the ability to rebound.

I have made comments that may of annoyed the US community, but never let those comments cover the passion I have for winning and putting the best team possible forward. I have a lot more to learn about some elements of the game, but I would look toward the core group of managers who either have been apart of last seasons campaign, people who I know who play the game, and ultimately the group of US managers.

I want to emphasize that the junior team must put the best team out there. Yes it's valuable to nurture 18's and 19's but let's be real. I will be judged by the results first, support to the community second, communication to the NT manager third. I would utilize the tools we currently have and look to enhance scouting as best as I can.

My ultimate goal is to continue the tradition of NT and U21 NT managers passion, energy and desire to win. We will need some breaks along the way and am pretty confident the groundwork has been laid for a successful team.

Vote for me for U21 NT Manager