You might be wondering why I’ve written one article for the entirety of January so far. You might not have even noticed, or you might be here for the first time wondering why you should stay.
Well, first, I’ll take you back to my childhood.
I recently found a letter written for an eighth grade health assignment, titled ‘Letter to Self, Open in Year 2023.’ Much to my surprise, I had written in that letter that I wanted to be a sports broadcaster for Toronto FC.
I should probably thank my parents for fostering a deep love of sports, not to mention an over-active imagination, and never-ending analytical reasoning. Or, as my friend Ashley likes to call it, ‘deep thinking.’
I’ve also always loved to write. The many thoughts in my mind often feel as though they need an escape. Either that, or I feel like being creative and silly, and have few other outlets but to scribble down some nonsense. I wrote my first novel at the age of nine; and the first iteration of my Top 100 Male Footballers in the World book at eleven.
Throughout my teenage years, I experimented with website building and sports writing, before eventually creating TheMastermindSite as a way of sharing my musings about anything and everything that peaked my interest. It encapsulated mostly things that I’d watch on TV, like Survivor & The Amazing Race, or in-depth Team of the Week’s in the world of football. Two years later, in the midst of a dedicated coaching dream, I changed the focus of the site to be exclusive to football tactics, analysis and coaching. I wish I kept the reality tv nonsense…there was some good stuff on there.
I think my coaching dream from 2014-2022 ended for the best in the pursuit of other passions; one of which was turning to a more dedicated focus on tactics, or rather, tactical performance coaching on a more individualized, online basis. Continuing to help clubs, professional players, agents, scouts, football enthusiasts, and really anyone who wanted the help, I decided to test my hand with this as my main passion project and more of a business enterprise starting in April 2023.
As soon as it became work and less so creative, imaginative play, I started to resent the process of not only writing about football on a consistent basis, but even watching games. Skipping ahead to the present day, I haven’t been able to snap out of this funk. I haven’t written notes on a football match since the weekend before a trail race back in late October. I even missed the CPL final between two teams that I had every reason to be personally invested in, and still haven’t watched what sounds like a game for the ages. On that note, I’ve watched an average of 0.53 games per weekend as opposed to 10+ back in the day. I no longer listen to conjecture, football podcasts, even that one great show that should have been left untouched as Dion Dublin and Don Hutchinson forever. It’s been so long that I had to actually log-in to my Twitter to post this article, rather than it just opening automatically. I don’t know who I’ve become, but Manchester City even seem to interest me more than Borussia Dortmund.
The shift started to occur before the World Cup in late 2022. I couldn’t wrap my head around stopping club football halfway through to watch a tournament in an oppressive nation. By the time the World Cup finished, I’d moved on to other passions. I started teaching, I started thinking about coaching, leadership and recreation on a deeper, more theoretical perspective, I returned to writing fiction, and I started trail running. In January 2023, I published just eleven articles on TMS, followed by six the following month.
The passion dissipated right up until the Canadian Premier League returned in April 2023, and my interest returned as I gained new experiences collaborating with a CPL club. But as the CPL season came to a close in late October and my attention changed back over to those other passions, I could no longer bare the thought of doing more “work” after already long days of expending energy on those other interests. I love football, coaching, analysis, writing, educating, and helping others. It’s been nice to combine all those interests together. But I’ve had a hard time doing it solely as a passion now that it’s felt like work, especially when the work often results in end-payoffs that no longer interest me.
Even more so, when a life that revolves around football would feel like I’m only tapping into a few of my skills, rather than all of them.
As I reach an impasse in January 2024 within my career, my energy and attention has simply been consumed elsewhere. I no longer want to write about football because I feel like I have to, because I have a reputation or view-count to keep up, or for the purposes of making a few extra dollars a day.
So for the time being, I’m going to return with occasional posts when my interests are peaked, or an idea comes to mind. I’m going to continue writing Game of Numbers on weekends when I watch some of the football, without feeling like I need to come up with something creative. I’ll continue writing Coaching Newsletters for those that have dedicatedly followed my work for years (or recently found it and want more), when a topic that I teach feels like it needs further expansion. I’ll continue promoting the work of Charlie Ellis whenever he has an idea. Perhaps most prevalently, I’ll continue working with athletes through my performance coaching program.
There’s some hard working, hungry, young players in the CPL that are not only immensely talented, but willing to do what it takes to grow their game to that next level. I will continue working with them for however long they want.
But I don’t think TheMastermindSite.com will ever return to the glory days of being able to claim fame as one of the bigger enterprises in the tactics & analysis space. I’m far too interested in other things outside of football to ever take it there.
Writing for this site has been an overwhelming positive experience, and I’m nowhere near retiring this beautiful passion project that has led to some of the coolest, most brag-worthy moments of my life. But if you don’t see a tactical analysis on your favourite team this year, this is why.
Thank you to those that have supported my work or helped to keep my apartment rent afloat over the years. Your passion for my passion helped fuel me for years, and provided me a platform to accomplish wonders I would have only dreamt of as a child. Thanks for reading, and see you soon.
TheMastermindSite 