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et your face in front of these coaches. And once you do that, its follow-through, follow-through, follow-through.And sti
Etihad Stadium will host the 20th Melbourne derby on Saturday night, and all signs point to it being another classic.The injection of Tim Cahill into a Melbourne City side already bursting with attacking options should ensure another goal-fest.Its been nine matches since there were less than three goals scored in the cross-town rivalry.City holds the record for the biggest derby win - ex-Victory man Harry Kewell capped a 4-0 demolition in March 2014 - but overall the ledger is tipped against them.In 19 matches, Victory have won eight, City have won six, with five draws.Victory claimed the only finals meeting - in the 2014/15 semi-final - with an emphatic 3-0 win on the way to their title success.Here are five of the best Melbourne derbies in the fixtures seven-year history.DERBY 1: Melbourne Heart 2-1 Melbourne Victory, 8 October 2010, AAMI ParkThe A-League finally had a derby with the admission of Melbourne Heart into the league, it was the red-and-whites that won the first.John Aloisi scored the first goal in derby history, heading home after 10 minutes. Kevin Muscat played in Robbie Kruse for a first-half equaliser but after setting up Aloisis opener, Alex Terra won it off his own boot. In front of 26,000 fervent fans, Heart held on for the win despite Aziz Behichs late send-off.DERBY 8: Melbourne Heart 1-2 Melbourne Victory, 22 December 2012, AAMI ParkArchie Thompson gave Victory fans the perfect Christmas present, popping up at the last to give Victory coach Ange Postecoglou his first Melbourne derby win. His 92nd-minute winner - after Marco Rojas and Fred goals had the score locked at 1-1 - remains the latest goal in the fixtures history, and one of Thompsons most important in his storied Victory career.DERBY 13: Melbourne Victory 5-2 Melbourne City , 25 October 2014, Etihad StadiumTwice behind but not beaten, Victory surged to the top of the A-League table with a pulsating win in front of 43,729 fans. One-time City man David Villa (remember him?) helped draw the crowd but it was Dutchman Robbie Wielaert and Jason Hoffman that put City ahead in the first half. But a hat-trick from Besart Berisha, a double from Archie Thompson and a standout performance from Kosta Barbarouses brought down City in stunning fashion.DERBY 17: Melbourne Victory 3-2 Melbourne City, 17 October 2015, Etihad StadiumVictory, playing in Melbourne for the first time after their 2015 title, were in cruise control at 2-0 but a little known Uruguayan flipped the contest. Bruno Fornaroli scored his first goal for the club, before Aaron Mooys super through-ball allowed Stefan Mauk to put the game on terms. Victory stole it at the death through Berisha - the fixtures leading scorer.DERBY 18: Melbourne City 2-1 Melbourne Victory, 19 Decemeber 2015, AAMI ParkThe Sorensen derby. After conceding two early goals, Victory seized control of the contest, forcing an astonishing 12 saves out of the veteran Dane - several from an exasperated Berisha. Former Victory youth-teamer Paulo Retres 30th minute goal was the winner.Joe Cronin Red Sox Jersey . After taking two big hits this week -- losing at home and dropping back-to-back games for the first time all season -- Indiana struck back by playing its most complete game of the year. Tzu-Wei Lin Red Sox Jersey . LOUIS -- Theres no telling how these wacky World Series games will end. https://www.cheapredsox.com/2871z-pedro-martinez-jersey-red-sox.html . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. Michael Chavis Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. Pablo Sandoval Red Sox Jersey . McCarthy, a player who played some games in the second tier for Wigan at the start of this season, would go on to shine inside Evertons midfield, outplaying the man he was brought in to replace, on one of the grandest stages in English football. On Saturday, it was fitting that Manchester Uniteds most recent dagger into the chest was delivered by Frenchman Yohan Cabaye, a wonderfully gifted central midfielder who put on an outstanding effort for Newcastle at Old Trafford.We all do it. We sit on the field, in the stands, in the gym. We watch our young kids compete, improve, show promise, and we fantasize about that day when our talented little goalkeeper/point guard/running back will be a college athlete. At that point, we just hope someday they want it, too.And when they express an interest, we pour resources into that fantasy. By resources, of course, we mean time and money: private trainers, travel teams, club fees, recruiting showcases, recruiting services. There is nothing wrong with the fantasy, by the way. Its a good one. Collegiate athletics often provides young people extraordinary, character-building, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. But it comes with some realities that only begin with the process of getting there.The statistics are not hard to find.* According to the NCAA, 8 million kids are participating in high school sports.* Only 480,000 of them (6 percent) will eventually compete in collegiate athletics at an NCAA program.* Only 56 percent of those athletes will receive some level of scholarship assistance, and that amount averages less than $11,000 per student athlete.The myths, meanwhile, are not hard to bust.* Its all about the scholarship. Full-ride scholarships are not the norm in college athletics. Only six NCAA Division I sports offer full scholarships for athletes who make the team: football, mens and womens basketball, womens gymnastics, volleyball and tennis. The rest of the NCAA sports are called equivalency sports, in which each team has a set number of scholarships (11.7 in Division I college baseball, for example), and those scholarships are divided up among the players on the roster at increments determined by the head coach. That means some kids might get half of their tuition paid for. Others might only get their books covered. Some get nothing but a spot on the roster.* College programs will come looking for you. In reality, even the strongest, hardest-working, most talented kids on your high school team likely arent going to catch the eye of big-time college programs without a lot of legwork on your part.* If youre good enough, youll get your pick of schools. Often, kids who are being recruited are not choosing among the colleges they are most interested in attending, but among those who are most interested in them. And equally often, those choices are limited.And if you are a parent of a kid who truly, honestly wants to be a college athlete, one who has already demonstrated he or she is willing to put in the work and the effort to achieve that goal, keeping it real is the best thing you can do.I think as parents, we have to be realistic about where our kids fit in, said my friend Shari, whose three kids have been recruited by colleges in the past five years. It was a very different story for each of them.Indeed. In our house, our experience was shepherding a hard-working kid who was a successful high school athlete to the best opportunity he would have to play baseball for another four years. Because lets face it, considering the minuscule number of college athletes who end up playing professionally in their given spports, that is what we are talking about here.dddddddddddd A chance to play for four more years.As a family, we put in a lot of labor, setting him up for exposure by signing him up for showcases and individual recruiting events at specific schools. He joined summer teams that might maximize his chance to get seen.He emailed coaches, sent videos. We created a spreadsheet to keep track, along with a nice one-page reference to his stats, academic achievements and goals. We suggested to him that if he was interested in a school, he should check their roster on the website and see how many of the guys on the team were his size. (A reality check for our 5-foot-9 right-handed pitcher.) We reminded him to follow up. We encouraged him through the frustration of not getting a response from a school he really liked, or the coach who said he didnt get a chance to come out and see him throw after all.?And on the odd day that he didnt throw particularly well, we tried (really hard, in my case) not to say much at all.We watched him for signs that maybe this wasnt what he really wanted. But he kept working. And he kept wanting. So we kept going.Thats not to say we did everything right. But we did it with a sense of reality and appropriate expectation that this was going to be hard, and it wasnt just going to happen because it was what he wanted.My son ended up at a Division III school, where he has indeed gotten his opportunity to play -- an opportunity initiated by a contact from his high school coach and barely any of the stuff we did. And sometimes, that is just how it goes.Sharis oldest son, a football player, used a recruiting service that matched him up with a Division I-AA school that was a fit for his academic profile. Her middle son is a Division I swimmer at a school in the Midwest after getting a late start in the recruiting process. And her youngest daughter, a swimmer and high school senior, began making lists and sending out letters to coaches in her sophomore year.You cant sit back and wait to be discovered at a meet or a tournament, Shari said. In a lot of instances, like 99.9 percent of the time, unless you are a star athlete who gets a lot of press coverage, you have to be very proactive, get your face in front of these coaches. And once you do that, its follow-through, follow-through, follow-through.And still, theres no guarantee how things will turn out. The week after my son decided where he would be going to school, the coach stepped down. My son went anyway. Sharis oldest son went across the country for his opportunity to play football, but his college career was limited by injury. He still loved his college experience.It is a tenuous thing, the opportunity to be a college athlete. Shari was right when she called it a gamble. Shes also right about this:I think kids end up where they were meant to be, even if its maybe not where they thought, she said. But I think thats true whether they are an athlete or not.A reality that trumps fantasy every time. ' ' '