#2 Rookie Season

[TubaDeus]

CPT #1

Captain Metalbeard's rookie season in the SSL was quite the letdown after setting the league on fire in the Academy. Back in the Academy, Metalbeard was one of the stars of the league and put up numbers like crazy. Two time player of the match despite playing defense. Most distance run in the entire league, owing to the excellent care he took of the useless hunk of metal he is forced to call his body. An astounding 43 key passes (good for 6th most in the league), many of which came off being the most prolific crosser in the league (2nd most attempts and successes, leading to the top cross% of anyone with over 100 attempts). Tied for the most successful headers while posting the 2nd best header% of anyone over 40 attempts (pay no attention to his enormous size), which directly led to him easily pacing the league in key headers. And don't even get me started on interceptions.

Sadly, all of that is in the past now. His first actual season in the SSL just failed to compare. The place where Captain Metalbeard made his biggest impact was goals. Specifically, own goals. I don't believe it's been fully verified, but my understanding is that Captain Metalbeard set the all time league record for most own goals in a single season with three. Not exactly something a defender wants to be known for. Aside from that, his conditioning regimen allowed him to remain in the top 10 in distance covered, which is something. He attempted a ton of passes and crosses, landing in the top 10 of each (though his success rates were rather poor). Plus there were two legitimate bright spots in being top 10 in both dribbles and interceptions, the latter of which carried over from his success in the Academy. Unfortunately, that also all came with being one of only two players to receive a red card in S27 Minors Division 2. All in all, I suppose not the worst rookie debut, but nothing to write home about.

Approved!

[Pelochyta]

The rookie season for Paulie Wag could best be described as 'rough', or if you're into more PR speech, challenging. His team, North Shore United, competed in division 1 of the minors league and came in last. Pretty resoundingly in last, actually. North Shore managed only two wins the entire season, with 8 losses, and the worst goal differential by 20 goals (a cool -28). The morale in the locker room was alright, given the circumstances - everyone knew the team was entering a rebuild, so a challenging season wasn't unexpected. There were five players taken in the season 27 draft: Wag, Thunder, Hane, Stotch, and Cheese. A common refrain among that group of rookies was that the team was building for the future and would be competitive soon, even if not this year. They just have to endure it and get through! All throughout the season the rookies would point to the training board and point out the growth in the group, especially compared to some other organizations. This kind of thing was most common after a tough loss, which meant it happened pretty often. Wag was initially a little skeptical of the groupthink, but by the end of the season was fully bought in: look at how much we've improved! Let's keep it up! We can run this league soon if we all commit to trying our best and improving!

Also, North Shore got relegated to Division 2 of the minors. So the lower level of competition should help for the next few seasons.

On a personal level, Wag did not have the success he was used to. Being the big fish in the small pond of his youth and then transitioning into being a very small fish in a very big pond was difficult, and meant there were a lot of struggles. From the first day, on the rebuilding team, he lined up at center defense - the last line of defense before the goalie, and one of the most important defensive positions. And with allowing by far the most goals of any team, you can infer how well that went... Wag tried to never let it bother him, but it's hard to fail repeatedly and still have an ironclad self-belief. As mentioned, though, he internalized that it was a season for growth and improvement and eventually let go of the moment and instead learned to treat everything as a chance to learn and improve. He spent hours upon hours in the film room after games, trying to study tactics and what things he could do differently - both big and small.

Now, with the first and toughest season out of the way, Wag was ready to take on the league.