2026-10-08, 01:26 PM - Word count:
Extract from “The Kasak Tapes: My Story in My Words”
Published after Nick Kasak’s sudden and controversial retirement in Season 40 after punching a mascot. A series of tapes were posted to his agent’s office and written up by (for some reason) mathematician Hannah Fry.
In his second season at Kaapstad, glory seemed like it would a very distant prospect indeed. The S27 minor league is dominated by Paris. Kaapstad were languishing near the bottom of the table, the very real threat of relegation looming.
Struggling without a league win for 5 games, with Nick unable to pull himself together for a decent performance as well. Unbelievably, they’ve drawn 3 times on the bounce.
“There was a real threat of relegation then, and we were all surprised,” future Superstar and Hall of Fame nominee Tex Star was a rookie at the time. “I blamed myself because I thought that my inexperience compared to the other guys was the problem, but we were struggling all over the place.”
The team’s focus on physical training in the off season meant that some of the technical fundamentals appeared to be lacking - especially compared to the other teams in the division.
Paris were dominating once again, Magyar and Krung Thep has progressed well, and the two promoted teams had started the seasonal in a much better place than anyone expected, with Montreal especially getting great results early on. It was only North Shore’s team of rookies that seemed to be predictably struggling.
“It felt like Dante couldn’t hit water if he fell off a boat at this point- I lost count of how many times he hit the post.” Nick recalls in an interview after few years later. “Hard to believe he was going to end up as one of the best to ever do it.”
Management were concerned a little, but this was nothing they hadn’t seen before. But the young Kaapstad side were hungry for success.
“I just wanted to win, I was trying everything I could. I can’t be everywhere on the pitch – I couldn’t even be in my position. We had worked so much on acceleration and pace I’m not sure we could pass the ball properly.”
“Of course, everything changed after that season…”
Luckily, Nick Kasak’s future was still ahead of him, and what a future it was going to be. More on that later in the book.
Published after Nick Kasak’s sudden and controversial retirement in Season 40 after punching a mascot. A series of tapes were posted to his agent’s office and written up by (for some reason) mathematician Hannah Fry.
In his second season at Kaapstad, glory seemed like it would a very distant prospect indeed. The S27 minor league is dominated by Paris. Kaapstad were languishing near the bottom of the table, the very real threat of relegation looming.
Struggling without a league win for 5 games, with Nick unable to pull himself together for a decent performance as well. Unbelievably, they’ve drawn 3 times on the bounce.
“There was a real threat of relegation then, and we were all surprised,” future Superstar and Hall of Fame nominee Tex Star was a rookie at the time. “I blamed myself because I thought that my inexperience compared to the other guys was the problem, but we were struggling all over the place.”
The team’s focus on physical training in the off season meant that some of the technical fundamentals appeared to be lacking - especially compared to the other teams in the division.
Paris were dominating once again, Magyar and Krung Thep has progressed well, and the two promoted teams had started the seasonal in a much better place than anyone expected, with Montreal especially getting great results early on. It was only North Shore’s team of rookies that seemed to be predictably struggling.
“It felt like Dante couldn’t hit water if he fell off a boat at this point- I lost count of how many times he hit the post.” Nick recalls in an interview after few years later. “Hard to believe he was going to end up as one of the best to ever do it.”
Management were concerned a little, but this was nothing they hadn’t seen before. But the young Kaapstad side were hungry for success.
“I just wanted to win, I was trying everything I could. I can’t be everywhere on the pitch – I couldn’t even be in my position. We had worked so much on acceleration and pace I’m not sure we could pass the ball properly.”
“Of course, everything changed after that season…”
Luckily, Nick Kasak’s future was still ahead of him, and what a future it was going to be. More on that later in the book.
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