Hi there, I’m Jon. I’m the manager of the silly-named “That’s What She Said” crew in the NBBA. I’m throwing my name into the ring to be the next manager of the USA NT.
I’m certainly the most experienced and qualified candidate for the job. My reasons are below.
• To start, and most importantly, I was the NT manager of New Zealand for 6 seasons, from Seasons 9 to 14. Three terms as an NT coach taught me a whole lot on how to run a National Team. I became very adept at domestic and international scouting, as well as enthusiasm managing (it’s different than your normal team’s!), the tournament calendar (when does enthusiasm reset? What records/enthusiasm carry over?), and interacting with the local managers to keep their NT players in good Game Shape. I also made the National forums far more active, as I started numerous threads for things like training updates (it’s still being used, almost at the 1000 max post count!) and weekly gameday updates and recaps. I also created a private offsite NT forum that boasted almost ¼ of the country’s entire userbase where we could discuss game plans and roster moves. Did we perform well? No not really, but there were only 30 managers at the start. By the end of my final term we were up to nearly 100 active managers and New Zealand even made the Consolation knockout round (top 32 of 86 countries advance after round-robin play). That allowed NZ to host the next season’s Asian qualifying tourney. I love those crazy Kiwis, and they came a long way in terms of their knowledge of the game and training regimens. It feels good knowing I had a lot to do with that.
• I’ve been playing this game since SEASON TWO. I’ve been through it all and seen it all. I advanced from Division IV to the NBBA in only 5 full seasons, and this will be my 7th season in the NBBA. Again, no one running for NT manager has more experience than me.
• I’ve drafted and trained two players (Marcus Nichols and Dan Billingsley) that have been on the USA U-21 and NT rosters, each for at least 3 seasons. I know what it takes to train up an NT-worthy player, and I can help out anyone who has questions for me. I love giving advice, just ask some of my former Kiwi managers, I must have answered at least 5-10 questions a week through BB-mail!
• I was the official assistant coach to the honorable Mr. Jfarb this past season, dealing primarily with international scouting. I drew up the intelligence on our Worlds opponents and broke the data down in many different forms for him and the rest of the community to digest and form opinions on gameday tactics and enthusiasm. It was a fun role, and it helped me understand how the top-ranked teams operate their roster and tactics decisions. I’ve also been participating on the USA NT offsite forum for many years (not just seasons). It’s a great resource that has exploded in growth which is beautiful to see. I also watched almost all of our NT games live and actively chatted with fellow watchers. I’m also a one-trick pony of numerous “That’s What She Said” lines in many of SpF’s pre-game and post-game recaps.
I’m sure I could think of more stuff, but I’m not sure anyone is still reading any more :-). I’ll just reiterate my main points: I already have 6 seasons of NT head coaching experience, I’ve been playing since season 2, I’ve trained and managed former U-21 and NT players, and I interned under the US NT coach last season. I’ll take any questions you may have for me in the forums. Thanks for your time!
Last edited by GM-namssor at 7/27/2011 9:23:56 AM