Earlier this week, the students at the Nest were given a special treat: legends of the club were able to meet with prospective professional players in a group mentoring session.
Students make their way to the meeting room.
In attendance for the Owls were Malian goalkeeper Ousmane Traoré, Zimbabwean center back Nokutenga Mbangwa, Barbadian center midfielder Jonathan Braithwaite, and as a special guest... legendary Burmese wing back Oon-Keow Maung! In attendance for the Hatchlings were the U19 class, the U17 class, and the U15 class.
For about two hours, the two groups engaged in group-building activities and tactical discussions! We decided to quickly interview a few of the participants to gather their thoughts on this special event.
"It was like a dream," told us one prospective player, "it still shakes me to be standing and smiling with players like [them] after having seen them on TV the night before!"
"Union Omaha will always be my home," Maung revealed to us, "it is my pleasure to give back to the club that gave me so much." Maung, now retired from professionally playing football, now works as chief dietitian for Union Omaha's canteen. "It felt good to impart my knowledge on the young ones. At such an impressionable time of their lives, I want to make sure I hit home to them that they are capable of great things, to believe in themselves and to do the absolute best they can for not only the club, but also for themselves." We miss having you on the field, O Captain!
Let's look at some other news!
"Didn't know we had such clowns around here!"
Quite the funny scene early in the morning today! While the club was getting ready for another day, something quite peculiar occurred.
"While I was preparing breakfast for the club," accounted to us Mr. Martinez, one of the club canteen's esteemed chefs, "Mr. 元気 walked in and made his way to me." It was reported that the gaffer had made his way to Mr. Martinez, and immediately ordered him to quack like a duck while moving around like a chicken. Mr. Martinez was quite baffled, but after Mr. 元気 insisted with his famously convincing rhetoric, he felt obligated to do so.
"It was the longest minute of my life, but afterwards, I started looking for Mr. 元気 and I couldn't find him! It's like he completely vanished. What a way to start my day." However, when he made his way back to his post at the canteen, he found his coworkers peeking from the wall, giggling uncontrollably with a camera out! Turns out this "Mr. 元気" was none other than Giovanni Gasperoni, who has taken the time out of his day to dress up like Mr. 元気 and go around the club scaring innocent victims with his ludicrous requests. Other victims included Mr. Hawkins, the club's janitor, who was pressured into singing (with dance number included) Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up".
Everyone shared many laughs thanks to Gio's antics.
Gio's reign of terror eventually ended after being caught by the main man himself.
"Didn't know we had such clowns around here!" laughed a smiling Mr. 元気, "to be honest with you, he actually did such a great impression, I started to have an identity crisis! He's lucky though, had he gone just a little bit further, and he might have been doing laps around the ground for the rest of the day!"
Is there anything that doesn't happen at this club? Winning titles? It was a rhetorical question, Mr. Hawkins!
All the best as always, and we'll see you next time.
-T