This past weekend I was in Shreveport for my last soccer camp of the offseason.  In the summer at my pre-college camp there were some high school age players who invited me and my assistant coach to have dinner at their house with their parents.  It was Friday night and the end of the week so we gladly accepted.  As we pull into their house I see there is a mini soccer field (I mean mini like a 1/3 of a real field; still big) fenced in with lights and perfect grass! I couldn’t believe it, it was awesome!  Dinner was great and the family was really nice and offered that I could stay with them the next time I was in town. 

Needless to say I have been thinking about staying with them since the last camp because their house is just a soccer players dream!  The two boys, Dean and Jordan, are seriously living the dream there.  They are good kids with good heads on their shoulders and it is credit to their parents Mr. and Mrs. Abdehou.  Dean let me stay in his room while he slept on the game room floor, which was very nice of him and I certainly appreciated it.  At the time I was heading up I was training like crazy and working like crazy between the camps and my new Online Soccer Academy that just launched so I was looking forward to just being a high school kid for a couple of days when I wasn’t at camp.  

Curious to know what it takes to be a cool high school kid these days; I soon found out.  It mostly consisted of hanging out, watching funny youtube videos, facebook, playstation, and talking soccer!  I wasn’t good at the playstation, but everything else I think I am still cool enough to hang!!

Wow, Jared's Online Soccer Academy is Cool!

It was great, when I wanted to train I just walked in the backyard and trained!  

Abdehou Field of Dreams

Dean, Jordan, and I after shooting Dean's skills video

On that Sunday morning the Manchester United vs Chelsea game was on (thankfully I had time to watch it before camp).  Where did we watch it?  In heaven!!

Lazy Boy cinema style seating too!!!

The older player Jordan is a good player, but doesn’t have any desire to play college soccer.  Fair play to him for knowing early he doesn’t want to do that. His dream is to go to UCLA!  The younger brother, Dean, is a soccer fanatic.  I love playing soccer too but a few times I had turn him down from going outside to play because it was 10 at night! His room was covered in soccer posters all over the walls.  It was definetly refreshing living like that again and remembering what it is like to be a young kid with a dream! Even though not much has changed for me at 26, except now I am a big kid with a dream and my fiance won’t let me hang soccer posters on our walls!!

Dean's room

Dean is a very good player and quite the funny character.  He was making me laugh the whole time I was there.  He is a freshman, plays club soccer, and holds his own and then some on the Varsity.  The kid’s got some good skills and he makes youtube videos showcasing his talents.  Its pretty impressive and he has like 5,500 hits on one of his videos (I am jealous)!!  While I was there we made a soccer skills video for his channel that I am featuring in so as soon as it comes out I will post it on the blog.  For now check out one of his more popular videos below; pretty cool!!

Special thanks to the Abdehou’s for letting me live the dream at their soccer fantasy land in Shreveport and I look forward staying with them again at my next camp!

Keep livin the dream! JM