I don't have a clever title...

...even though I sat thinking about it for five minutes.

Whenever I prepare to call a game, I'm a sucker for cool biographical information on opposing players. Stats are great, but they don't help you understand who that person is trying to beat your team and ruin your day. So, a few interesting notes on Carolina Railhawks:

First, here's a brief explanation of what the heck a railhawk actually is.... Short answer: it's made up, like a Phoenix...or a Tucson (bam!)

Second, rarely used midfielder (2 appearances this year) Jon Caldwell went to Bradley University, where two of his teammates included TimbersLuke Kreamalmeyer and Salim Bullen.

Third, check out this story about midfielder Stuart Brightwell, who went from Old Trafford to Sunday Leagues, to the USL First Division.

Fourth (getting tired of the counting yet?), Railhawks Marcio Leite, Anthony Maher (whose younger brother Matthew is also on the team), and Chad Dombrowski (yes, of those Dombrowskis) all spent the winter playing with the MISL Milwaukee Wave, along with former Timber Greg Howes, and the other Bullen, Oral.

So there's a taste, plenty more to come Saturday. As for our travel tomorrow, I was planning on posting something brief during our stopover in Dallas, but apparantly that might be difficult. If they charge for power, I shudder to think what the wi-fi situation is like.

One final thought, for those of you with time to kill during work on Friday: I don't know how this got into my head recently, but it did. It's a clip from YouTube of Alanis Morissette singing the national anthems before game 4 of this year's Stanley Cup Finals up in Ottowa. I've become a big hockey fan the last two years, after working for a team in Eugene, and I remember being blown away watching this live, and it still gives me goose bumps.

Anyway....

--John