Monthly Archives: February 2011

Veterans Benefits

Professional Soccer Comes To Tucson: Future Plans To Help Local Veterans Outreach

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Viva la soccer! The day has come for Semi-Pro and Professional Soccer to debut in Tucson. And your local veterans are here to land on the beach and help. Celebrations begin on the evenings of Friday March 4th and Saturday March 5th at Hi Corbett Field.

For nigh on 25 years the soccer community has been in search of a stable venue to host a local semi-pro franchise team, with the capability of inviting professional teams for exhibition matches and International Friendlies. The last one being in 1996 when Mexico was matched with a team from Austria that was training in Tucson. The game was at the University of Arizona and played to a crowd of about 16,ooo, with very little lead time for marketing.

Tucson is now on the verge of a historic sporting event with the prospect a huge economic development future, coupled with an opportunity to showcase the newly formed FC Tucson Soccer Team.

The 2011 Major League Soccer Desert Cup featuring the New York Red Bulls and the Sporting Kansas City is assured to be the most important soccer event in Tucson’s history.

This two day extravaganza  showcasing world class players marks the first time Major League Soccer teams have ever played in the Old Pueblo.

MLS  games have been offered in the past, yet no individuals or groups have had the organizing skills, as do the current promoters, Greg Foster and Dimitri Downing.

Neither was the City of Tucson ever able to provide an adequate venue that could accommodate a soccer pitch that meets FIFA standards. With the vacation of all Spring Training Baseball,the field at Hi-Corbett can be retrofitted to the needs of professional soccer, with the importing of some additional sod and approximating the necessary field dimensions of 75 yards by 115 yards.

This accommodation is not all that unique as many other baseball stadiums across the nation have been sharing their facilities with the local soccer teams for decades. Tucson is just now following suit. The Rochester Rhinos,( New York), are a prime example of that brand of sharing. The baseball team, the hockey team and the soccer team were all owned by the same investment group and both the City and the teams benefited from the synergy and cross marketing opportunities. Tucson would be wise to copy such a model.

The Rochester Rhinos now have their own 25,ooo seat stadium that was built near the downtown. Approximately 12 million dollars in collateral investment followed. As Yogi Bera so aptly put it, “cash is kinda like money.”  I do believe both the City of Tucson and Hi-Corbett concessions would enjoy a bucket of that cash.

On Friday March 4th and Saturday March 5th at Hi Corbett Field, two of the nations premier professional soccer teams will square off against each other as well as challenging the talents of our two Arizona squads; the Arizona Sahuaros from Phoenix, who have been consistently playing professionally for 19 years, and  currently based at Grand Canyon University, along with the new FC Tucson taking the mantle after a ten year hiatus of  a semi-pro developmental team in Tucson.

The genesis of this first of many MLS Exhibition games in Tucson is with the Arizona Sahuaros owner, Ali Alexander and his incredibly skilled networking coach Petar Draskin.  Coupled with the foresight of City Parks Administrator, Alex Guzman, the event first got its feet a year ago when all parties met to explore the possibility of bringing these games to the Tucson community. There is no question, Hi Corbett Field is the right place and the right time.

The old rivalry of Tucson/Phoenix  Soccer will be palpable. Add to that the Red Bulls and Kansas City and we got us some rock and roll soccer.

The MLS rosters are replete with  international stars including Thierry Henry,star of the French National team, and the striker for Arsenal in the English Primier League. Omar Bravo, hero of the Chivas in the Mexican League, and defender Rafael Marquez, beloved captain of the Mexican National squad and Barcelona FC in Spain’s Premier Soccer League.

Offering Tucsonans the highest level of professional soccer competition the Desert Cup promises to provide thrills for both the casual and the devoted soccer fans.

The Desert Cup, will be hosted by FC Tucson Events, working in collaboration with the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to highlight leading local companies and the Tucson Community. The Event managers have made great effort to be inclusive of the as many local businesses as possible with variety of sponsorship packages to meet all budgets  and tailored marketing goals. Thousands of fans are expected to attend this event over a two day period. These fans whom are both youth and adult represent a demographic community that is one of the broadest of all sporting enterprises. With approximately 16,ooo soccer players in the district, and a basic sports attendance multiplier, you are looking at touching about 57,ooo families in Pima County.

From a business entertaining their clients in a luxury suite to families bringing their children to see the best soccer America has to offer, The Desert Cup will be the place to be and be seen.

General Admission is $12 -One Night

$45 VIP- One Night- Includes; Meal,Soft Drinks, Water, 2 Cocktails

Group Ticket Sales: (25 or more)  $10 General Admission.

For ticket packages contact,  Yuri 520-440 7121   “yuri@fctucson.com”

Ticket Outlets:

Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce/ 4420 E. Speedway 620-0005

The Soccer Shop/ 2952 N. Campbell 326-7467

Maracana Indoor Sports Arena/ 555 15th St. 647-9059

Join the fans of FC Tucson at Facebook.   “facebook.com/pages/FC-Tucson”

There were approximately 9000 readers of this blog last month. That is a fair number of pals of the veteran community. Let us see if we can have the the most of any one group at the games. Get a squad together and come as a Veteran Group. Our chances are real good of helping with some donations to one of the many entities that are helping veterans transition home from war.  See you at the pitch!

Veterans Benefits

Spirituality And PTSD

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As a trained Chaplain, I can testify to the efficacy of a spiritual dimension in addressing the demons of war. I am mostly concerned about the evangelizing aspect taking a priority over the deep understanding of the ravages of war. A chaplain fresh out of theological studies can do much unintended harm. Particularly if they believe they are going to “heal” PTSD in a permanent way. I do not believe that is possible. You can dance with it, but it is not going to extinguish itself.

Military

Chaplains try a new path to deal with PTSD

Published January 29, 2011

| Associated Press

DENVER –  A Colorado theology school is teaching Air Force chaplains to consider the religious beliefs of servicemen and women to better help them cope with post-traumatic stress.

The goal is to build trust so a chaplain can encourage service members to draw on their individual concepts of God and spirituality, said Carrie Doehring, an associate professor of pastoral care at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver.

Doehring helped develop the one-year program for the Air Force, which wanted another way for its chaplains to respond to the stress of deployments amid two protracted wars.

Doehring said she believes it’s the only program of its kind in the country.

One student graduated last year and four are enrolled this year.

“This is incredibly helpful when dealing with trauma survivors,” the graduate, Air Force Chaplain Dallas Little, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. Little, a captain, is deployed in southwest Asia but said he couldn’t disclose where for security reasons.

Little said he starts by trying to understand a service member’s religious views. Trust and acceptance come more quickly, he said, and that person is more likely to relate the traumatic experience to Little so he can help.

Little said he’s used the approach in a veterans hospital, an Air Force hospital, a base chapel and on deployment, and it has worked well in each setting.

He also said it also discourages him from “premature judgment, hasty moralizing or proselytizing.”

Chaplain Matt Boarts, one of the students currently in the program, said he’s learning to help others find the right words to express their traumatic experiences or to phrase the questions they may have.

“They come back having seen things they don’t know how to share,” said Boarts, an Air Force major. “They become isolated. They don’t know how to ask it or they think the words in ther head might be offensive.”

If people want to ask for his spiritual advice about their experience, he will give it, said Boarts, a Lutheran, but refraining from proselytizing isn’t a dilemma for him, he said.

The issue of proselytizing is a delicate one, Doehring said.

“If they were leading worship where people have come to a Christian service of worship, of course they would lead out of their own tradition,” she said of the chaplains. “Or if they’re leading a prayer before troops go on a mission and the troops have volunteered to come to that prayer, they would use their own traditions.”

But when people go to a chaplain for help with post-traumatic stress or other issues, they want someone who respects their views and won’t try to impose other beliefs on them, she said.

Some military organizations, including the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., have been accused of tolerating unwanted proselytizing by conservative Christians. That wasn’t a factor in the Air Force’s decision to support Iliff’s program, said Abner Valenzuela, a chaplain and a major in the Air Force Office of the Chief of Chaplains.

“We’re just responding to the emerging needs,” he said, referring to the stresses of deployment.

Measuring the training’s success is difficult, Valenzuela said, as it is with most things chaplains do.

“You can kind of find out that what you are doing is effective based on the feedback from the person you are helping,” he said.

The Air Force pays for the training. Iliff officials declined to release how much the Air Force is paying but said tuition for a one-year, full-time masters progrm is about $16,000 a year.

Students are required to have a Master of Divinity degree to enter and are awarded a Master of Arts in pastoral and spiritual care when they graduate. Required courses include “Impact of War on Pastoral Care of Families,” ”Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Pastoral Psychological and Theological Responses,” and a comparative religion course.