Dayton Flyers

Aug. 26, 2008

Every preseason the Dayton Flyers soccer players have a competition to become the "Red Jersey" winner.

The Competition, which started in 2006, is made up of close to 20 mini competitions which tests you on your fitness, soccer ability and teamwork. A point system is used to decide the winner.

In 2006 a European player, Anti Arst, won the jersey and in 2007 it was American Ryan Hartman. He was also the strong favorite to maintain his crown as the "Red Jersey" winner this preseason due to the fact that he is a machine.

I'm delighted to have brought the Red Jersey back to the Europeans in 2008.

It means a great deal to me to win this jersey because, first of all, I hate losing. So there is one reason, but additionally having trained so hard all summer, it's great to get some form of reward.

Going into the final day around seven players could have been named the winner, which shows how close the competition was heading into the final few events. Instead of getting worried and losing my head I remained confident and held onto my lead by winning three of the last five events.

It has been an intense, demanding preseason schedule for our team but all the signs coming from that preseason are positive.

This Dayton Flyers Soccer team is unified, talented, and full of winners. It's an amazing group of players and coaches and I am very proud to be a part of this team.

I have great pride in being named the "Red Jersey" winner and will look forward to take on any challengers next year.