Efe

This post was so long that the system wouldn't let me submit it without shortening the text. I felt I'd rather keep what I wrote and just post a Part II instead... enjoy!

continued from Part I

Meanwhile every practice I'm getting better and better. I'm watching games, studying books and DVDs and trying to add something new to my arsenal every week. Everyone constantly says how much I'm improving and I've even had one of the better players approach me after practice and tell me not to consider quitting hockey, that I am going to be a great player in the future. But I think next season I definitely need to play in the pro league, even if it means approaching a team and offering my services as a reserve goalie. It would have to be either an Istanbul (no pro teams right now, maybe on will be promoted at the end of this season?) or a Kocaeli (1 hour drive!!!) team for me to be able to make practices. The problem now is that there are only 2-3 guys in practice that challenge me, and it just isn't enough for me to develop myself. We had a couple of pro guys come to some of our practices and I got challenged more in those practices than I did in a month of normal practices. Worst case scenario, even as third goalie I get zero game time (unless I beat out one of the other goalies or they get injured) but get to practice on a pro team and develop myself.

Remember my comment in my last blog post in late January about forming a beer league? We were talking with someone about the possibility of getting financing for the formation of an alternate pro league, a private one, here in Turkey and how much the competition would help the game. It turns out, a really messed up rule here states that federations are the sole governing bodies of their relevant sports in the country (no problem there) and that anyone wishing to organize something in regards to those sports has to get permission from the federation. What??? So, just to make sure you get what this means, let me rephrase it for you. If I have finances to start up a private pro league with all the bells and whistles that the federation league doesn't have, I need permission from the federation in order to do so! Doesn't anybody see the conflict of interest here? How do you think the federation will react when I tell them I want their permission to start a better league to rival their league and that I will approach their players and teams about joining my organization?

Anyway, this has gotten to be one long blog post. One last thing, a non-hockey related update from my life this time. In early March, I applied to the Turkish Airlines Flight Academy to start training to be an airline pilot. Last week I entered the psycho-motor (Vienna) test and I felt like I did all right. If I pass this phase and get the call, the next phase in DLR testing in the Lufthansa Airlines center in Germany followed by simulated and real trial flights in Istanbul.