Thomas Campbell Blog #5: Seeing old friends

Thomas Campbell is a senior forward on the UNC Greensboro men's soccer team. This year will be different for the three-year starter, however. Campbell, UNCG's leading scorer last season, will be sitting out his redshirt season while recovering from a knee injury he suffered last spring. Each Friday, Campbell will blog about the Spartans' soccer season, his teammates, his classes and his journey back to the soccer pitch in the rehab process. Today is the fifth installment.

Hello All,

Homecoming was a lot of fun. Friday night we had a little get together with some alumni and friends. We presented Coach Parker with an endowment in his name. It was cool to see some old players there for the presentation.

Saturday was a busy day for me. I attended the UNCG Hall of Fame induction ceremony. As a member of SACIA (our student-athlete advisory group), our athletic director Nelson Bobb invited us to take part in this monumental day. One of UNCG's greatest players Siggi Eyjolfsson was inducted, so it was nice to be there while a Men's Soccer player was inducted. After the Hall of Fame lunch I showed my face at the UNCG Alumni Soccer game. It was cool to see some of the older guys kicking the ball around and enjoying time in Greensboro. The game Saturday did not go as well as the night before, though. We lost to Brown 3-0 in front of a great crowd that weathered the rain. It's always hard when you lose in front of your alumni.

On Monday, I had a little accident. I was walking to rehab at 8 am and slipped down a hill on campus. I must have looked like a complete idiot because I was watching the construction guys working on a building on campus. Anyways, I slipped and fell awkwardly. I bent my leg a little too far back and it ended up swelling up a good amount. My repaired ACL is fine; I just stretched out the muscles a little bit and ripped up some scar tissue. So this week's rehab has been cut short due to my stupidity and klutziness. I have just been laying low, icing, and stretching.

Tuesday's training was very short due to a game on Wednesday. We traveled to Davidson to open up our Southern Conference slate Wednesday evening. We played OK, but ended up losing 1-0. It's not the start we were looking for in SoCon play but it's still early and hopefully we can climb out of the hole we have dug for ourselves and start winning some games.

The stash ritual is still going; Jokull Elisabetarson passed it on to Matt Elliott. He looks like an absolute disaster, but it is hysterical. He will wear it for two more days before passing it on to another teammate. Speaking of stashes, one of the most classic looking one of all time was Michael FitzGerald. Fitzy is an ex-player that graduated after my sophomore year. He told me to give him a shout out when I saw him this past week. After he graduated he went home to Wilmington, played a little bit with the Wilmington Hammerheads, and then moved to Colorado to be a snowboard instructor. Now he is back in North Carolina looking for a job. So - there's your shoutout you mess. Someone please give him a real J-O-B!

We had the day off Thursday so the guys could rest their legs and prepare for an important game on that road at Furman. Furman is one of the toughest places to play so it's going to be a real challenge to scratch out a win. We can't afford to start 0-2 in the SoCon. Hopefully we can put it together, work hard for each other, and be determined enough to get a win.

Till next time ... Auf Wiedersehen.

Thomas Campbell, #7

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