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Submitted by Stephen Doherty for Jim McGuinness: “Alright sir, which current Donegal player do you reckon could do a job for Charlotte Independence if they wanted a change of sport.”
“The Donegal team actually played a game of soccer against the local professional soccer team when we won the All-Ireland in 2012 and Frank McGlynn was the best player on the pitch. He's good technically and he played both anyway. Frank would have been back and forth on trials in the United Kingdom for soccer teams, and a number of other guys have been, too. But their first love is Gaelic Football and that overtakes everything.”
Furthermore, we asked McGuinness which Independence player would be best suited for Gaelic Football.
“I think the guy who is best suited for Gaelic Football is Andrew [Gutman]. He's got high aerobic capacity, he's strong and brave, and he can take a hit and get on with it, ya know? I think in terms of physicality and mentality, he could be a guy could play as a wingback — not too far off of left back he plays now. ”
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Submitted by anonymous: “Do any of the players have special game-day rituals?”
We would venture to say that most of them have a few things to get them in the zone for a match, for example, Afrim Taku occasionally likes to take a pre-game walk. Our personal favorite, however, is Hugh Roberts. We should all learn a little something from his pre-game necessities. Sweet Hugh will not play a game without two things: 1. A hot shower and 2. a nice long nap. How much better would the world be if we all had this kind of dedication to being clean and resting? It would be huge.
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Submitted from Russ Liachoff: “I see the Knights advertising and receiving time on each of the local stations. Why isn't the Independence more aggressive in getting attention?”
When it comes to local media coverage, the honest reality is the Independence just isn’t high enough in the pecking order to receive a lot of attention. Those media outlets make decisions based on their audience and along with football and basketball, baseball is bigger in Charlotte. For now. That’s not to say we don’t receive any coverage. The Charlotte Post and Matthews-Mint Hill Weekly covers the vast majority of our home games, President Jim McPhilliamy was on WFAE for an hour segment just a few weeks ago, many times our final score will make it to the sports segment of the nightly news and on many one-off basis we do receive attention for our major announcements.
Rest assured, on a weekly and daily basis we are sending out press releases and stay in contact with each outlet. In the meantime, if you want to see more Independence coverage in local media, one thing that can help is if you ask for it. Directors listen to their audience and if they understand that enough people are interested, they’ll give us more love. Sometimes it can feel like a futile exercise, but it’s all a part of building the profile of our club and that’s what we work day-in, and day-out to do.
4. Submitted by anonymous: “What types of exercises/workouts do you do the players do the day after a game?”
A question best answered by Novant Health Sports and Performance Medicine by EXOS trainer and Independence Strength and Coach, Cam Miller:
“The day after a game we like to do a recovery session. It's usually light to moderate activity, just to get the blood flowing. That helps clear out some of that lactic acid from the previous game. The guys who play 60 minutes or less will have a different workout that involves a little more conditioning to mimic what the rest of the group got going for closer to 90 minutes.
They usually do a lot of mobility workouts, which is like foam rollers and some dynamic warm-up routines and stretches that get both body temperature and heart rate up. Typically, we'll do a circuit workout that involves light weights and light intensity, just to get the heart rate up for about 25 to 30 minutes.”
5. Tweet from @jas_bai : “why is pollen”
Pollen, the fine to coarse powdery substance comprising grains which are male microgametophytes of seed plants, and produces male gametes, is why because of many reasons. Mostly because of nature, but ESPECIALLY because of bees. Did you know that “One out of every three mouthfuls of food in the American diet is, in some way, a product of honeybee pollination” That’s a lot of mouth fulls each of us would be missing if not pollen. We need plants, plants have pollen, plants need bees, bees need pollen, we need food, and therefore we need bees and pollen.
6. Tweet from @Chargersrock54 : “Do you think the Denver Nuggets can make a run in the playoffs?”
All is fair in love and basketball, ESPECIALLY playoff b-ball, so yeah.
7. Tweet from @BoRoundNRound : “Let’s pretend Joel Johnson can fly, but only under special circumstances: unlimited speed at no higher than 3 feet off the ground or unlimited altitude at no faster than 10mph. Which scenario is he picking?”
When we asked him, he took a second to ponder. Then he explained, “low to the ground but fast because the other way you have to worry about airplanes.”
Submit your questions for next week's Mailbag Monday
-
Submitted by Stephen Doherty for Jim McGuinness: “Alright sir, which current Donegal player do you reckon could do a job for Charlotte Independence if they wanted a change of sport.”
“The Donegal team actually played a game of soccer against the local professional soccer team when we won the All-Ireland in 2012 and Frank McGlynn was the best player on the pitch. He’s good technically and he played both anyway. Frank would have been back and forth on trials in the United Kingdom for soccer teams, and a number of other guys have been, too. But their first love is Gaelic Football and that overtakes everything.”
Furthermore, we asked McGuinness which Independence player would be best suited for Gaelic Football.
“I think the guy who is best suited for Gaelic Football is Andrew [Gutman]. He’s got high aerobic capacity, he’s strong and brave, and he can take a hit and get on with it, ya know? I think in terms of physicality and mentality, he could be a guy could play as a wingback — not too far off of left back he plays now. ”
-
Submitted by anonymous: “Do any of the players have special game-day rituals?”
We would venture to say that most of them have a few things to get them in the zone for a match, for example, Afrim Taku occasionally likes to take a pre-game walk. Our personal favorite, however, is Hugh Roberts. We should all learn a little something from his pre-game necessities. Sweet Hugh will not play a game without two things: 1. A hot shower and 2. a nice long nap. How much better would the world be if we all had this kind of dedication to being clean and resting? It would be huge.
-
Submitted from Russ Liachoff: “I see the Knights advertising and receiving time on each of the local stations. Why isn’t the Independence more aggressive in getting attention?”
When it comes to local media coverage, the honest reality is the Independence just isn’t high enough in the pecking order to receive a lot of attention. Those media outlets make decisions based on their audience and along with football and basketball, baseball is bigger in Charlotte. For now. That’s not to say we don’t receive any coverage. The Charlotte Post and Matthews-Mint Hill Weekly covers the vast majority of our home games, President Jim McPhilliamy was on WFAE for an hour segment just a few weeks ago, many times our final score will make it to the sports segment of the nightly news and on many one-off basis we do receive attention for our major announcements.
Rest assured, on a weekly and daily basis we are sending out press releases and stay in contact with each outlet. In the meantime, if you want to see more Independence coverage in local media, one thing that can help is if you ask for it. Directors listen to their audience and if they understand that enough people are interested, they’ll give us more love. Sometimes it can feel like a futile exercise, but it’s all a part of building the profile of our club and that’s what we work day-in, and day-out to do.
4. Submitted by anonymous: “What types of exercises/workouts do you do the players do the day after a game?”
A question best answered by Novant Health Sports and Performance Medicine by EXOS trainer and Independence Strength and Coach, Cam Miller:
“The day after a game we like to do a recovery session. It’s usually light to moderate activity, just to get the blood flowing. That helps clear out some of that lactic acid from the previous game. The guys who play 60 minutes or less will have a different workout that involves a little more conditioning to mimic what the rest of the group got going for closer to 90 minutes.
They usually do a lot of mobility workouts, which is like foam rollers and some dynamic warm-up routines and stretches that get both body temperature and heart rate up. Typically, we’ll do a circuit workout that involves light weights and light intensity, just to get the heart rate up for about 25 to 30 minutes.”
5. Tweet from @jas_bai : “why is pollen”
Pollen, the fine to coarse powdery substance comprising grains which are male microgametophytes of seed plants, and produces male gametes, is why because of many reasons. Mostly because of nature, but ESPECIALLY because of bees. Did you know that “One out of every three mouthfuls of food in the American diet is, in some way, a product of honeybee pollination” That’s a lot of mouth fulls each of us would be missing if not pollen. We need plants, plants have pollen, plants need bees, bees need pollen, we need food, and therefore we need bees and pollen.
6. Tweet from @Chargersrock54 : “Do you think the Denver Nuggets can make a run in the playoffs?”
All is fair in love and basketball, ESPECIALLY playoff b-ball, so yeah.
7. Tweet from @BoRoundNRound : “Let’s pretend Joel Johnson can fly, but only under special circumstances: unlimited speed at no higher than 3 feet off the ground or unlimited altitude at no faster than 10mph. Which scenario is he picking?”
When we asked him, he took a second to ponder. Then he explained, “low to the ground but fast because the other way you have to worry about airplanes.”
