I’m feeling a bit nostalgic writing this. Let me explain.  Exactly a week ago the African student organization at my school put on a fashion show that I creative directed along with a wonderful young lady by the name of Tara Dorilus.  So where does the nostalgia come in? I began making t-shirts as a 12 year old high school kid, and at the end of the year there was a talent show.  My “talent” was getting a bunch of “models” to basically walk and pose on stage wearing my then-horrific t-shirts.  My fellow t-shirt-painter-friend, Mike Nixon and I ended up winning the show.  Fast forward to almost a decade later, and OAS (Organization of African Students) is putting on a fashion show.  What is even more exciting about this is that while I was president of the organization a year ago, I wanted to implement a spring fashion show.  Some way or another it didn’t come to pass during my tenure, so to see the new executive board pull it off was incredible.  And they did an amazing job with it as well.

Four designers were featured in the show and LBF was one of them!! I won’t write too much, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking as usual.

Oyinkan + Lordley wearing the Classic LBF tri-blend tee. Available Here

Wura wearing the Heather XXI tri blend tee. Available Here

Song wearing the Navy XXI. Available Here

Bisola wearing the Red Cantona tee.  Available Here

Ayo wearing the smoke Gray XXI. available Here

Sola also wearing the Classic LBF tri-blend tee. Available Here

Models in order of appearance: Oyinkan, Lordley, Wura, ‘Song, Bisola, Ayo, + Sola

Yours truly looking like a mischievous schoolboy brought before the headmaster.

I also just realized that this is the first time I have pictures of all the shirts being worn by real people. Pathetic! Hope you all enjoyed the photos!  Thank you to those involved with the show and for supporting LBF. This is just the beginning…

All pictures taken by Mr. Ricky Codio

-Ebun.

The New Players is going to be a small initiative that features early 20- somethings who are doing something unique, interesting or cool to promote and celebrate futbol all over the world.  I’m fascinated whenever I speak to someone on twitter or they e-mail me about their futbol-centered project and find out that they are the same age as me or even younger (I’m 21).  If you think about it futbol is a young man’s game, but the folks who run the game seem to have been drinking buddies with Moses.  This initiative was born in part by the fact that football’s governing bodies need younger guys in there who are closer to the game and understand that banning snoods should be of very little importance.  The other part of it is an examination of the  influence that social media and blogs gives to young creative individuals driven by their passion for the game.  This new wave of individuals have a bright future and I hope to see their online influence translate into viable positions within the game of futbol.  This can be legendary.

Early last week, a buddy of mine asked me to play on his team for this charity tournament that I had heard absolutely nothing about. I jumped at the chance because, other than it being a chance to play futbol for a worthy cause, I saw it as an opportunity to practice with my intramural team… Sadly, most of the boys were going home for the weekend so I was forced to make up an entirely new squad. A few calls and text messages later I assembled the first championship LBF team in history. More on that later.

Instead of telling you about the charity myself, I’ll let the former president of  Kappa Phi Gamma sorority, inc.  Mya George do so:

The sisterhood follows our 8 principles on a daily basis- Sisterhood, Character, Leadership, Scholarship, Service, Womanhood, Culture, Self. We host various programs for our university and community that highlight and strengthen our knowledge of each principle.

Our philanthropy is Cancer Awareness and we host an annual CARE Week which stands for Cancer Awareness A Real Effort
Kick for the Cure was our first soccer tournament in an effort for us to raise money for the Fox Chase Cancer Center and we made $900 at the tournament with 14 diff teams playing

I arrived at the field and to my surprise, there were well over 100 people there.  I was a bit confused because most of the guys I play pick up with at Temple hadn’t heard about the tournament, and we are usually on top of that sort of thing.  Anyhow, we paid the team fee and began to get ready.  Almost immediately there were eyes on us because we all had on the Classic LBF shirt and people thought we were some sort of legitimate team.  We weren’t.  We were simply a group of guys who sometimes play pick up together.  The first game was won 4-0.  The second was a performance of Arsenal proportions.  You know the one where you can’t seem to figure out a way to win and the team capitulates under pressure; complete with a shambolic defensive display.  Yeah.  Based on the weird and utterly complex rules of the tournament we advanced to the knock-out round based on our goal difference instead of accumulated points.  I wasn’t complaining.

The third team had a great deal of fight in them and the game ended in a goalless draw.  Since this was the QF, the referee called an additional 5 minutes of play with the game being decided by golden goal.  After I failed to convert a corner into a goal, Keith stepped up and put the game to bed.  Somehow between capitulating and this game we had figured out how to stay strong and see the game through.  This newly found mental strength (hello, Arsene) would come into play in the Semis.

The team we faced in the semi finals was a familiar group of faces.  They were all guys we play pick up with/against so we were all familiar, and to be fair, they were one of the strongest sides in the tournament.  They were unable to find the back of the net after bouts of great passing and link up play, and, as a lone striker, neither could I.  I began feeling a bit like Fernando Torres.  Game goes into sudden death, which favored  us because we had just been successful, while our opponents had breezed through the tournament recording victories of Barcelona proportions (Think 8-0).

Keith, the star of the QF sends a cross into my path and I chest to control with my back facing the goal, turn and nutmeg the defender (last man) as the ball finds its way into the back of the net.  I began feeling a bit like Lionel Messi.

The Final.

Remember the squad that embarrassed us in the second game? Yeah, they were our opponents in the final.  No sweat. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.  And the LBF boys were not to be shamed twice.  Both teams agreed to widen the pitch and lengthen the game.  This favored both teams’ style of play, but their failure to adjust their defensive shape after the pitch extension proved fatal.  Once I cut in from the outside to score, the next I drew the full back out wide, only to slip the ball through to Mo’ who found the back of the net.  GOoooooooooooooooooool. Champions. No better feeling in the world.

In case you read absolutely none of that, it’s ok, I hope some of these photos convey the message.  Enjoy.

Tomes. Hard man.

All of the Lights…All of the Lights.

Mo’ doing some sort of Gatorade x LBF commercial thing.  Gatorade if you’re reading this, let’s make it happen.

Those belong to Kutaiba. A pretty crafty freshman kid who could pass as Carlota Fabregas’ brother.

Brendan.  This kid is a workhorse.  Great footwork, great attitude and never loses a fight for the ball.

Yours truly using my hands to breakdown the complexity of  my quantum-physics-like footwork.

(I’m actually just doing some weird twisted thing with my fingers)

The first LBF Championship team.  Onto greater endeavors.

L to R: Kutaiba, Keith, Mohamed, Ebun, Brendan, Tomi (missing: Karl + Keith R)

Champions with the girls of Kappa Phi Gamma.

Thanks for reading!! Many thanks to the lovely TaioShooes for the photogs.  Lots more to come around here. As usual, follow me on Twitter and Like LBF on Facebook!

A friend of mine who knows that I’m mad about football tweeted me this link and I thought I’d share. This is an advert, but it’s very well done, it’s heart-felt and inspiring. It’s the sort of commercial that makes some want to cry and others want to get up, get out and do something memorable. Hope this makes you do a little bit of both. Enjoy.

Yesterday, I made a post with a picture of some sketches to show you all that I’ve not neglected LBF.  This post is to highlight my other full time job: architecture studio.  The time is currently 3:18 am ET and I won’t be getting any sleep soon. I’m currently building some sort of light contraption that is supposed to test how light interacts with different surfaces and materials. Sounds easy enough, but this requires lots of building and fabrication in the woodshop. Fun times. Here are some photos shot by my good friend, Colin, to show just a small portion of the process.

Measure twice, cut once.

2″ drill bit. Things are about to get fun. Real fun.

But first, I must prepare the cow for slaughter…

…Almost there.

….Just a little bit more.

The fun begins!

If you’re an expert carpenter or woodworker, I’m pretty sure I’ve committed some unforgivable sins in this process, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun.  I’m not entirely sure that 2″ drill bit was designed to be used by a hand-held drill, but the drill press was being used by Eric, so I had to improvise.

Hopefully, this small post gives you a better idea of what I do.  I miss spending all my days drawing shirts with futbol players and ridiculous phrases on them, but I would be lying if I said this isn’t fun.  That’s part of the reason why I decided to really get involved with the making of the LBF hoody.  I will do a detailed post about that process in the upcoming week or so.  Thanks for reading and thanks for the support!

Don’t forget to “Like” LBF on Facebook and follow me on Twitter where I tweet about anything from nothing to seeing a pair of Nike Mercurial Victories in Wendy’s