Kickin’ It With David - Blog Entry #12

BACK IN YEG

Happy 2012 everyone.

Writing this blog today feels a bit weird after 3 weeks of not doing it. I guess you could say my vacation included a break from everything I've been involved in, including the blog. I'm not going to lie I missed it but it was nice having absolutely nothing to do for 3 weeks.

I landed in Toronto with Pele (my dog) to a snowless, warm(ish) and traffic infested Toronto. Right away I couldn't help but feel right at home! I swear, I could walk off the plane and out of the airport blindfolded and know I landed in my city after the first breath. The smell, the sound, and the feeling you get when you’re home, you just know you’re somewhere great. The people that know me know that I take pride in my city and always talk about it. So obviously I enjoyed my time at home.

At home I had a lot of time to do nothing and just be lazy. I stayed home and just took full advantage of the benefits about being there, like mom's home cooked meals. Being home for the holiday's is special to me but even more so because it’s Christmas, New years and my birthday. This year I spent every occasion with family and my close friends. My birthday consisted of having people over the exact day of and then on the weekend we had a night out downtown Toronto where I had close to 25 people there to celebrate with me. Christmas was spent at my aunts house where this year I was selected to be "Santa". In my family Santa is the person who distributes the gifts at midnight to the rest of the family. New years we went to a family friends house where we, along with about 50 other people had dinner together before dancing to salsa and other traditional Colombian music. Besides those 3 occasions I didn't do much going out.

I spent a lot of time concentrating and putting my effort towards KICK IT AGAIN. It's something I've been excited and been looking to put together for a while. The idea was presented to me by a very good friend of mine, who inspired me to do something that would help people. KICK IT AGAIN is my way of doing so, by collecting new or gently used soccer equipment and distributing it to underprivileged youth. By doing this we'd be providing them with the opportunity to experience the joys and benefits of participating in organized sport. When I started to talk about the idea of starting this I was lucky to have the support of FC Edmonton, my family and friends. This is still the case today and with their help this will be a great way to give to the community. KICK IT AGAIN is something I've become very passionate about and take a lot of pride in, although we are still in the stages of development I know it's going to make a big difference in the lives of youth. More information will be up very soon and available to you through Facebook and Twitter.

I also was invited to join the good guys at the footy show to be apart of their weekly "Take Your Kick" pod cast. I've been on the show before and it's never anything but a good time. The usual came up, as we spoke about the EPL, took questions from fans on twitter and just cracked a joke here and there. It's definitely worth the listen.http://blogs.thescore.com/footyblog/2012/01/04/the-footy-shows-take-your...

Now I'm home and looking forward to picking up where we left off. Pele came back with me and it's obvious he enjoyed Toronto as much as I did. He's not as happy as he was when we were there, he had a lot more people around him showing him the attention all puppies crave. He's not around any other dogs here as often as he was when we were in Toronto. But he's getting over it and starting to get used to being back in Edmonton. Since we've left Edmonton for the holidays he's doubled in size and weight, he's now 30lbs and only 3 and a half months old. He's going to be a big boy.

The teams been training this week and some new faces have joined us. A couple trialists are here as well as Kevin Hatchi, our newest signing is now training with us. Everything has been looking good so far. It just feels like the seasons so far away and it's not fun having to wait to get on the field and compete. But I know we'll be ready to compete for a championship once we travel to Florida for our opening game in April.

For those interested in getting involved in KICK IT AGAIN, more info will be made available to you through Facebook and twitter. So be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on twitter @davidamonsalve, @_KickItAgain and@FCEdmontonNow.

KICK IT WITH YOU NEXT TIME.... @davidamonsalve, PELE and all of us from@_KickItAgain

Kickin’ It With David - Blog Entry #11

HOLIDAY BLOG

I’m writing to you from my living room once again...and to be honest with you I'm writing to you in a bit of a rush. It's because I’m preparing everything before I jump on a flight to Toronto. I usually leave everything to the last minute before I fly anywhere but this time it’s a lot different, this time I forgot to calculate one crucial thing. PELE. Having a dog with you while you fly is a lot of stress. I have to make sure he eats well 4-6 hours before the flight, I have to bring his toys on board with me, I have to make sure I have proper documentation for him to fly, I have to keep him awake and not let him nap in order to ensure he is calm and sleeps the whole flight and if that doesn’t work it was recommended I give him something to make him drowsy. So as you can see, for a procrastinator like me it was a little hectic.

With that being said, it doesn’t take away from my excitement to be home. It’ll be nice to have some time off and time to spend with my family. I’m excited to introduce Pele to my family and to the dogs that are in my family. It’ll also be good to celebrate my birthday and the holidays at home with the people I hold closest to me. I’ve grown to really enjoy this city and the people that I’ve met while being here, and it kinda sucks that I can’t spend the holidays with everyone.

And now for the moment we all have been waiting for in anticipation…..THE VIDEO is out. Beyond the Pitch is a short video of Kyle and I training and talking about what we do best. It's a fun and interesting look at a bit of our lives. It’s the beginning of many more projects we have in mind. I’m sure you guys will enjoy it. Please feel free to comment on the video, send us questions or anything at all to our Twitter accounts. We enjoyed making this and working with the producer Jordan on the project and hope you guys enjoy it enough in order to give us the opportunity to do more of these types of videos/projects.

I apologize for the short blog but the video speaks for itself. View it and enjoy it…

Kick it with you next time….

@davidamonsalve

Kickin’ It With David - Blog Entry #10

INTERESTING LOOK AT WHAT WE DO




Last week I mentioned to you guys how important it is to have good people surrounding and supporting you in order to get through the tough situations life often throws our way. This week I’d like to tell you how right I was when I said that. Haha… this week was a much better week, I’m proud to say I have a lot of good people around me that made all the difference in keeping me focused on the positives. While going through what I was going through last week I was told that “it could be worse” and those words really got me thinking. It is so true that “it could be worse”. I along with many of you live a comfortable life, where we have friends and family and live in a society where we all live pretty much equally. This immediately got me thinking about the places soccer has given me the opportunity to see and experience and the fact that living in a community with equality and comfort isn’t always the case for a lot of people in the places I’ve been. Many people don’t have the same privileges we have. Something as simple as playing an organized, competitive sport can be difficult to be a part of. Being a pro athlete myself it upsets me to know that kids are denied the opportunity to experience something as wonderful as a competitive, organized sport due to lack of funds or equipment. I think it’s something every kid should have the opportunity to be a part of, being on a team of some sort helps shape the person you become and can positively influence someone.

This is why today I’m excited to tell you guys about the progress we’ve made with the projects I mentioned in my past entries. I’m refering to the charity I’m very eager to launch. The charity is still in it’s developmental stages but much closer to being finalized and ready to get out there. The name is now concrete and like I mentioned, it’ll be up and running soon. I hope to see it make its first contribution to the community early in the new year and keep growing as it gains experience. I know I’m not going into much detail about what the charity is about but I plan on explaining exactly the services the charity will offer in the next few entries. I feel It will be great for the people we are targeting to help out, as well as for the local soccer community as we invite them to participate and contribute as much as they possibly can.

Another project that is now complete and ready to be released is the video I’ve been mentioning lately. The video features @KylePorter19 and I going about our day as we train and speak a bit about ourselves. This project was done by a friend of ours who’s good at what he does, Jordan Oram (@jyeOram) did a great job putting together this production and we’d like to thank him for having the patience and drive while working with us. I enjoyed doing this and I hope you guys enjoy watching it, it was something that was fun and different from anything I’ve ever done or been a part of. Be sure to check it out, it’s an interesting look at what we do. It’s something we decided to do to give you guys an idea of what our life is about. Click the link below to be directed to the video and keep up to date and informed by following me on Twitter. Feel free to comment on it, send us questions or just say hi.

KICK IT WITH YOU NEXT TIME ...@davidamonsalve

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo-bKCEw1Ck&fb_source=message

Kickin’ It With David - Blog Entry #9

"PELE SIT"


I want to start off by saying that this week was the unluckiest week I’ve ever had to deal with. Without going into much detail I’ll tell you that a number of unlucky situations led to me feeling the way I do about this week. It was one of those weeks where nothing goes your way and everything that could have possibly gone wrong did. It’s one of those weeks that make you question everything, I found myself reflecting and questioning things I usually don’t think twice about. I felt like all this bad luck had to be a sort of pay back for something I must have done wrong sometime in my past, Karma as some of you guys might call it. It got to the point where what was happening to me was such bad luck that I just started laughing in disbelief. Often when you're in situations where you find yourself struggling in any way, you start looking for guidance or comfort in some sort of way. This is what got me through it, I’m happy to say I have a great group of family and friends who support me and help me when I’m not in the best of moods. I can’t stress enough the importance of positive people in my life. That along with Pele (my dog if you don’t already know) is what got me to stop thinking about this week and allowed me to concentrate and enjoy the time I get to be on the field.

Personal life can sometimes interfere with what happens on the field. A distraction off the field can lead to off performances on the field. That’s why I’ve always looked to have positive people in my life. I feel that’s the most important thing to have in order to be ok. And it works both ways, sometimes off days on the field may lead to off days off the field and in turn effects the things most important to you. Pele has been one of those things that have kept me real busy but very distracted. Pele has been a lot of work and I definitely don’t recommend anyone get a dog if you live a busy life. I leave the house for training and I try and make it back as soon as possible because I can’t imagine it’s fun being in a kennel for 3 or 4 hours straight. It’s a huge responsibility and pretty overwhelming to be honest but after a full week of having him it’s been a bit easier. I’m happy to say I’ve taught him a trick in the short time I've been with him. I've taught him how to “come” and “sit”! It’s not at all perfected but I think it’s progress and I’m proud of my boy. Check out the video I’m going to post with this blog entry. And like I’ve mentioned before I’ve been updating my Twitter with pictures of Pele. I’ll continue to do that so make sure to follow me and keep up to date with what I’m doing and what Pele is up to.

On the field things are looking positive. The guys seem to be closer to top shape and looking sharp. Trialists are in and out as we all hope to find the guys who can come in and contribute to the team. We’ll be having a few come in every week, from now until the beginning of the season. Finding players of good quality is crucial and necessary in order to do better than we did last year. We're all looking forward to putting together a great campaign in 2012.

In my past blog entries I've mentioned a video that @kyleporter19 and I have been working on, well it’s almost ready and I cant wait to show you guys how it came out. It’s a video simply showing us as we do what we do on a regular day. Again, follow myself and kyle for the latest, not to mention the rest of @fcedmontonnow for their updates…

KICK IT WITH YOU NEXT TIME…..

@davidamonsalve and #Pele

Kickin’ It With David - Blog Entry #8

PELE IS IN EDMONTON




What’s up everyone? I’m writing to you today from my living room again as I’m on the foam roller, rolling out the knots in my muscles. This week like most was an exhausting one, and I’m a bit sore. We start our week off on Monday with a TRX workout at Goodlife Fitness, it’s a workout that forces you to use every muscle in your body and it really gives your core muscles a good workout. Tuesday through Friday we train indoors (of course, it’s like -20 outside….CRAZY!!!!) for a couple hours each day, at a pretty intense level. It becomes exhausting but it’s what we love to do, so can’t complain at all. But I am glad it’s the weekend, we have it off to give us time to recuperate and just chill out and enjoy sleeping in. It also gives me time to enjoy the TV I bought last week.

If you remember I left you guys with the news of a new TV. Well now I’m coming to you this week with the fact that I feel it was well worth buying. Before getting it I wasn’t the type of person to watch much TV, but all of a sudden I find myself turning it on wether I’m sitting in front of it or not. It’s a 50 inch and besides it looking great and sounding great, it also does a good job filling up the empty space in my living room. This week there’s a few other new additions to the house. A couple of trialists are here looking to make an impression on the coaching staff and win a place on the squad for the 2012 season. I wish both of them the best as they continue to work hard and strive to become a part of the team. But the addition that I’m most excited to tell you guys about is the fact that I’m pleased to announce the arrival of Pele in Edmonton. Ye, that’s right I said PELE.

Pele is in Edmonton. He is a foot tall, 20 pounds and has a golden coat. If you haven’t already realized, I’m not talking about the great Pele of Brazil who’s played in World cups and famously ranks as one of the best footballers of all time. No, I’m talking about my two-month-old dog. He’s half golden retriever half chow and I decided I’d name him Pele. I decided to name him after the great Brazilian footballer because the name is a symbol of greatness and well I know my dog will be great! I’m hoping to train him well, raise him in a good home and make sure he’s always taken care of. I got him on Wednesday and since then I’ve done nothing but try to accommodate to the needs of a puppy. From the suggestions I got on twitter I went down to G&E pharmacy on the south side and bought him everything from food to a crate. I’ve watched YouTube videos on how to best train a dog and like I said, I asked my followers on twitter for any help or advice they might have. Today, only after 3 days of having him I’m proud to say he waited by the door for me to let him out so that he could go to the bathroom. So I’m doing well as a first time pet owner. If any of you guys have any advice or guidance you can offer please make sure to follow me on twitter and send me a message, I’m very eager to learn and obviously happy to make this run as smooth as possible, especially after having to clean up a few accidents. I will regularly be posting up pictures of Pele and updates on he’s doing so all the pet owners or non-pet owners who like animals, follow me and feel free to send me a line or tell me about your pet. Hope to hear from you guys…

KICK IT WITH YOU NEXT TIME…..

@davidamonsalve and PELE

Kickin’ It With David - Blog Entry #7

SO FAR SO GOOD



As the weeks pass, the level of play in training becomes higher. I think now after a few weeks of training everyone is comfortable and used to the routine. The quality of play is very good and seeing this only helps with motivation to keep pushing and become better. So things seem to be going according to plan, the idea was to come back from our time off to develop the team and strive to be better then last year and so far, its looking good!

The new additions to the team this year so far clearly show the comitment the ownership has to raising the level of professionalism in our club. Having a goalkeeper coach whose sole purpose is to help make the keepers better, bringing back an internationally experienced coach who's familiar with the team and signing a defender who not only has European experience but also experience in the NASL is exactly what I'm reffering to when I say the club is looking good.

Along with the development of our play, the development of our relationship with the community has grown too. This week we made apperances at schools across the city, encouraging the kids to participate in drills and games. I went on two school visits myself and had a lot a fun at both, seeing the kids happy to meet us meant a lot. It reminded me of when I was in elementary school and had the Toronto Argonauts (Toronto's CFL team) come in and do the same types of activities with us. It was motivating to have a pro athlete interact with us on a personal level and that's the feeling I hope the kids left with after we went to their school. We played with them, answered their questions and signed some autographs. We encouraged them to come to our games this season, check out our website for updates and to come out and train in our camps.

I haven't mentioned it in any of my past blog entries but we've been running camps Wednesday and Thursday evenings. It's been cool so far to be honest and I actually like going to them. My group is just keepers and It's nice to see the kids respond to me the way they do, they come back every week excited and ready to learn. They've come back knowing what they learned last week and ready to add to that. These camps are a way to help develope the kids in the Edmonton area as soccer players for the future. And so far so good!

On a more personal level, I added a piece of very important furniture to where I'm staying. I never realized before because usually I'm busy in the afternoons but on Wednesday of this week I found myself at home, bored and quickly realized I don't have a TV....well I do but it's really small and not very cool when you have friends over and all you can offer them is a small 20inch screen with minimal volume. Basically it's a TV that can fit in the head rest of one of those pimped out rides on MTV Cribs. So I was on the Internet on Wednesday looking for a better one and after a few hours of searching for one I was on the phone arranging to pick up a BIG 50 inch screen TV. I'm going to pick it up today and next week I'll definitely let you all know how awesome it is.

I'm going to post a video of a question we were asked in today's school visit, check it out. And to see more pictures or videos take a look at FC Edmonton's Facebook fan page or on my Twitter account @davidandresmonsalve.

http://youtu.be/IOUlP_C3Xas

KICK IT WITH YOU NEXT TIME.....

@davidamonsalve

Kickin’ It With David - Blog Entry #6

KICKIN' IT WITH DAVID

What's up everyone? I'm writing to you today from my living room where I'm preparing to have some of the guys over for dinner as we watch the Canadian National team take on St.Kitts for World Cup Qualifying. It's almost time for kick off and the guys should be getting here very soon so let me start telling you about my week.

This week was the most challenging I think I've ever had while being apart of F.C. Edmonton. For the first time in club history (I think), a goalkeeper coach was brought in to train us. If you're a goalkeeper reading this blog entry, you can relate and understand the importance of a coach whose sole purpose is to help you develop. Having a coach who concentrates on creating drills and exercises specific to the position is mandatory in order to get the best out of your goalkeeper. like I told you, I felt challenged and because I was able to push myself I felt I was improving as I kept training. The fact that the club is investing effort towards my development and the development of the other goalkeepers, it makes me happy and shows their support and belief in us. I look forward to having a goalkeeper coach around all year!

Antonio (Rago), Kyle (Porter) and I went to the Farm Fair Rodeo on Tuesday, yeah I said it, the ro-de-o! Like horses and other animals and people screaming "YEEEE HAWWW". At least that was my initial thought of what it would be like. I've never been to an event like a rodeo so I had no idea what to expect. At first we got to the Expo Centre and had dinner with people who were directly involved in the festivities as well as a group of Mexican farmers who were in town to experience the difference in agriculture here in Canada. We then signed a few autographs and greeted people, as they passed us before they made their way to the rodeo. We were right behind them and eager to see what the Farm Fair is all about. It was honestly a good time as we watched teams from all over the country compete in different events to win a spot in Saturday's Final at Rexall Place. In one event we saw horseman rope cattle and try and get them on the ground in order to (pretend) brand them. We got it on camera so be sure to check it out.

Some progress was made on the projects I mentioned in my past blog entries. The video project kyle and I were part of is soon to come out and is looking great so far. The charity I've been working on is coming along and I'm very excited to be get it officially started and out in the community helping others.

Before I go I'd like to leave you with something I felt was real nice to be apart of. Today November 11, 2011 at 11 a.m. the team gathered at centre field and we had a moment of silence, a moment of silence well deserved for the people who fought for our freedom. Lest We Forget.

KICK IT WITH YOU NEXT TIME.....

@davidamonsalve