Scott Adamson, Author at Adamsonmedia.com

2 more games, then Squadron begins anew

The Birmingham Squadron (8-6) finished the regularly scheduled portion of its Showcase Cup slate with a flourish, winning three consecutive games – including a road sweep of the Osceola Magic.

Although T.J. Saint’s team fell just outside the eight-team tournament field for the Winter Showcase Tournament in Orlando, there are still two games to be played in Central Florida.

**Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Threads @sladamson1960 and Adamsonmedia on Facebook.**

First up is the Rip City (North Portland) Remix on Tuesday at 4 p.m. CST, and then the Stockton Kings on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

“I think there are 12 teams out of the 31 that are 8-6,” Saint said. “That’s over a third of the league. And it’s like those little plays that happen, the attention to detail within games, that make the difference. We’ve been good at a lot of them to get to this point, but if we’d been a bit more focused, we might’ve been one of the teams in the tournament.

“But where we are is a good measuring stick of what we’ve done, but how much better we have to be to be at the top of all this.”

Not only will the games give Birmingham players some extra court time heading into the 2023-24 regular season, it’ll serve as an additional “job fair” for Squadron players.

The annual in-season scouting event allows all G League players to see game action in front of general managers and player personnel executives from all 30 NBA teams.

And while the Squadron is the affiliate of the New Orleans Pelicans, the majority of G league players are free agents, meaning players not already under NBA contracts can be signed to deals.

The Winter Showcase takes place just before NBA clubs have a window to sign free agents to 10-day contracts, and more than 100 players have earned call-ups over the course of the previous 18 cups.

“Really, I think the whole season’s a job fair,” Saint said. “One of the things we talked about with our guys is the front office personnel, scouts and GMs who are going to be in attendance here at the Showcase have already been watching you from afar, whether on film or at some of our games.

“And they’re really here to confirm what they already think. All you need to do is play the same way you have played and not try to do anything outside of what’s always been the case and developing yourself as an NBA role player.”

Among those players who have suited up for all 14 of Birmingham’s Showcase Cup games, Jalen Crutcher is the leading scorer with 19.9 points per outing, followed closely behind by Malcolm Hill with 19.2.

Izaiah Brockington has chipped in 12.9 points, while Trey Jemison is pulling down 10.9 rebounds to go with his 8.9 points scoring output.

Two-way player Dereon Seabron has averaged 23 points over five games, and Kira Lewis – sent to Birmingham on assignment from the Pelicans – scored 32 points in his season debut with the club last Friday.

Other double-digit performers for the Squadron are Landers Nolley II (19.4 points over 10 games), E.J. Liddell (14.9 points over three games) and Devin Cannady (10.2 points over 11 games).

One constant is that the players genuinely seem to like each other and enjoy playing together.

“We identify high character people,” Saint said. “We had some of them on the summer league team and they kind of started developing relationships there, but then we bring them in right after Labor Day in New Orleans, and we’re there for almost two months together. You just kind of get some natural connections going with that.

“And then when we get to Birmingham, myself and (general manager of basketball operations) Adam Barnes really set the record straight on what’s going to be tolerated and what’s not, and how I’m really big on culture and connectivity.”

That connectivity has extended to the coaching staff as well.

Jodie Meeks returns for his second season and Joe Barrer, Jonathan Mitchell and Jalen Cannady have been added to the mix, along with Barnes. Saint said the crew meshed from the start, and thinks the addition of Barrer has been a boost.

“It’s been really, really good,” Saint said. “We made some changes on the coaching staff in the offseason … I felt like I needed – and we needed – somebody with a lot of experience, somebody who I thought was more experienced than me and had been in the league, and we got that in Joe Barrer, who was a G League head coach at Lakeland.

“He’s someone who’s sat in the seat and who can really bring a new perspective, and somebody who can really tell me when he thinks that I’m doing something the wrong way and how we need to change it.”

One the two Showcase games are done, the Squadron will break for the holiday and then hit the reset button.

Birmingham opens a 34-game regular season schedule at the Indiana Mad Ants in Indianapolis on December 29, and the teams complete a two-game set on December 31.

The Squadron in on the road again on January 1-2 with the Grands Rapid Gold hosting, and its home opener is on January 5 when the Sioux Falls Skyforce comes to Legacy Arena for a 7 p.m. tip.

“We’re gonna fly everybody into Indianapolis sometime on the 26th of December, and we’ll try to get a team dinner for the guys that night,” Saint said. “That way everybody can sleep in the hotel and we’ll have a practice on the morning of the 27^th and get back to a normal routine.”

Goldfarb leads Maccabi USA team

Like a band with too many songs to fit into one performance, soccer coach Preston Goldfarb has come back for many encores in a long and storied career.

His last one, however, is set for the Pan American Maccabi Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The Games, which are open to Jewish athletes from North, Central and South America and Israel, begins on December 28 and will crown a champion on January 4, 2024. Goldfarb’s team will compete in the Men’s Open Division.

After transforming Birmingham-Southern College club soccer into a nationally respected intercollegiate program, Goldfarb – who has been inducted into the Jewish Sports Heritage, NAIA and Birmingham-Southern halls of fame – gained international prominence as head coach of the United States Maccabi USA men’s soccer team.

He led two different sides to gold medals in the World Maccabiah Games (sometimes called the Jewish Olympics), the last coming in 2017. That group is the first team to win back-to-back men’s soccer championships in the event’s 91-year annals, and Goldfarb is the winningest soccer coach in Maccabiah history at 19-5-1.

Including his stint as founder/coach of the Birmingham Grasshoppers of the United States Interregional Soccer League – which is now the United Soccer League – his teams have won 435 matches.

So, what prompted him to take on one more challenge?

“I’ve never done a Pan Am game and wasn’t planning on doing one,” he explained to me on Friday. “As a matter of fact, when I was in Philadelphia – the headquarters of Maccabi USA – for the annual coaches convention, I went by the office to see some of the people I know there.

“One person that I really like, he’s the program director, Steve Graber, asked if I was interested, and I really wasn’t.”

Graber, however, was persistent.

“About two weeks later, I get a phone call from him,” Goldfarb said. “He said, ‘I know you told me you wouldn’t do it, but we really want you to coach. We’ve been embarrassed the last couple of times we’ve been there, and don’t want that to happen again.’”

Goldfarb considered the matter further, and decided he’d take it on – as long as certain conditions were met.

“We got on a Zoom call and I told him I have four requirements, so, this call can either end in 35 seconds or we’ll have a deal,” he said. “First, I have to fly business class because of some of my health issues. Second, I have to choose my own players … there are no tryouts, which is kind of strange, but that’s how they run it, so I have to pick who I want. And third, I told them they had to scholarship the players, so the ones who need money can get it. And finally, they have to pay my fee. I said if you can meet those four requirements, I’ll do it.”

They did, and Goldfarb has been working toward the opening match ever since.

Of the 19 players on the roster, seven have played for Goldfarb previously in other competitions in the Israeli World Maccabiah Games, which he says “gives us continuity in our team working with new players.” Two more athletes have suited up for him at FC Birmingham of the United Premier Soccer League.

“I really like our team,” he said.

And as for the draw, well, Team USA’s is hardly an easy one.

“Frankly,” Goldfarb said, “we got the worst draw of all the teams competing. Mexico has two teams in the Games, and we’ll play their number one team on the first day. The next day we get Uruguay, the defending World Maccabiah Champions from 2022, and the day after that, we have the Argentina 23s and then our old nemesis, Argentina’s full team. The games are on consecutive days, and if you make the final, you’ll have just one day of rest.

“It’s just crazy. And the Argentina team has been together and playing several games already, so that will make that match even more difficult for us.”

Goldfarb admits he has no idea what to expect from the tourney, other than he’ll do everything he can to put his team in the best position to be successful.

“I’m going there to try and win it,” he said. “I’m not guaranteeing anything, but we’re not going just to participate. That’s what I told them at the start, and that’s why I insisted on picking all the players myself. And as I said, I like the roster we’ve put together, but the fact that I’ll only get one good look at the team before we start playing makes it a challenge.

“I won’t really know what style we’ll play until we get out there. I like to go with a 3-5-2 lineup, and then maybe a 3-6-1, and fall back to a 4-5-1, so we might play a hybrid. But we’ll just have to see. I love playing with three backs offensively and four backs defensively.”

Regardless of whether or not Team USA returns from Argentina with a medal, Goldfarb said it’ll mark his final bow as a soccer coach.

“I’m 76 years old and not in the best of health, so I’m done after this,” Goldfarb said. “But my grandson is playing basketball and soccer – and I love basketball and obviously soccer – so I might help out his group.

“I guess you could say my soccer coaching career is ending, but I might still have some coaching left in me on a much smaller scale.”

The kicker

Charlie Mitty walked to his pickup truck – cleats slung over his left shoulder and weighted down by a bag full of pads and equipment – opened the door, and flung the cargo onto the passenger seat.

It was a Saturday in December, and just as he had done most Saturdays since the arrival of fall, he donned a green jersey with the number 99 ironed on the front and back, and squeezed into a pair of grass-stained football pants.

He’d then load up his vehicle, pull out of the parking lot and drive away.

There was nothing particularly odd about any of that – at least not on the surface. It was still football season, and football games weren’t the sole domain of college and professional athletes.

Thing is, Charlie was well into his 60s, and most of the residents at the Serenity Valley retirement community he called home didn’t quite know what to make of him.

Oh, he was friendly enough; he smiled and waved at everyone. But he had a reputation for telling tall tales about his gridiron exploits, and that would usually put a quick end to any potentially lengthy conversations.

Ex-athletes often talked about their glory days – it’s a default setting for some – but Charlie would have you believe he was still living his glory days.

Those who maintained their version of an active lifestyle at Serenity Valley played pickleball or golf, and some would make use of the faded shuffleboard in the back of the complex – once a vibrant green but now more of a mint color thanks to frequent beatings from the sun.

“Hey, Charlie,” Vester Taylor would ask from time to time, “You, uh … you planning on playing football again today?”

Charlie would give him the thumbs-up sign.

“Yessir,” he’d answer. “I’ve got to practice my kicking. Still can’t quite hit a 50-yarder yet, but I’ll get there … I’ll get there. Made a 35-yarder last week against the Dolphins. We lost, and I missed an extra point, but you gotta put it behind you.

“Like they say, the biggest game is the next one.”

Vester and his wife, Sandra, lived in the complex across the street from Charlie. They had followed his “ballplayer activity,” as Sandra called it, for several months.

At first, they noticed him wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt and carrying a football under his arm. Since September, however, the sweats had been replaced by a uniform.

“I think something must be wrong with Charlie,” she’d say to her husband. “We’re getting on in years, and people our age don’t go around wearing ballplayer outfits.”

Vester would laugh.

“Ah, I don’t suppose he’s hurting anybody. And if you look at him, he seems fine. Drives fine … shoot, he’s got a lot more spring in his step than I do.

“Nah, I imagine he’s just a little off. When you get down to it, we’re all a little off. If he wants to think he’s in the NFL, I say we should just let him think that.”

Still, Vester and Sandra would often amuse themselves by wondering where Charlie went each Saturday – and what kind of attention he attracted.

They’d envision him going to the playground down the road, putting on his helmet and pads, and running around in circles while parents hurriedly snatched up their kids to shield them for the “strange old man.”

When they’d see him arrive home several hours later, he did, in fact, look like a man who spent an afternoon doing something other than sitting on a bench.

On this particular Saturday, Vester was taking out the garbage when Charlie pulled up and hopped out of his truck – still wearing his cleats.

“I shouldn’t be driving in these things,” he said with a chuckle. “But I’m too sore to bend over. They had me punting today, and that worked on some muscles I hadn’t used in a while.

“But get this … I kicked a 45-yard field goal that won the game for us. Kicked it on the last dang play, can you believe that? Jets 10, Giants 8. I don’t like to brag, but this time I will. Still haven’t kicked a 50-yarder, but 45 was all the yards I needed today.”

Vester offered up a polite smile, then shook his head after Charlie walked away.

Once Vester got inside, he eyed Sandra with a concerned look.

“I think poor Charlie has finally gone around the bend,” he said. “Talking nonsense about the Jets beating the Giants and him kicking the winning field goal. I wish I knew if he had any kids or relatives we could talk to. They need to know he’s not right.”

Sandra winced.

“That’s sad,” she said. “You know, seems like I remember seeing some younger people over there a few times. Maybe they’re his grandkids. Let’s keep an eye out, and next time we see one of them …”

Sandra was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“I’ll get it,” Vester said. “Probably something we ordered.”

Charlie opened the door and was surprised to see a twentysomething young man wearing a green jersey – and holding a football.

“I’m sorry to bother you, sir, but I’m a little turned around,” he said. “I’m looking for Pops, uh, Mr. Mitty … Charlie Mitty. These buildings look alike, and I can’t remember exactly where he lives.”

Vester opened the door, stepped on the porch and pointed toward Charlie’s dwelling.

“He’s right across the way,” he said. “Let me ask you something, son … are you related to Charlie, or maybe know some friends of his?”

The young man grinned.

“I am one of his friends,” he said. “Actually, I’m also his teammate on the Jets … we’re a semi-pro team – well, mostly amateur, really – that plays over at the high school field. When he asked to try out back in August, I thought it was a joke, but Pops is amazing, and a really great guy. He’s my grandpa’s age but man, can he ever kick a football.

“Anyway, I just came by to give him the game ball because he made the winning field goal for us today.”