News OK Sports Writer Travis Haney got in touch about meeting up to do a story on the trip over. After missing each other the night before due to workload, we managed to squeeze in 5 minutes in the middle of each of our hectic days, at the tailgate! Now trying to direct someone to where you are at a tailgate is not easy, especially when all I can say is im in the middle of the road on Lindsey near Asp. Yeh, me and a few thousand others! Met up with Travis, managed to have a good chat about everything, the beginnings, the trip and so much more. But I’m not the writer, so I’ll leave the rest to Travis and put the article below and linked to the original here.

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The Tailgate Blog: Sam “The British Sooner” Deakin

He’s visiting Norman for the first time. Saturday night’s OU game, against Missouri, was his first at Owen Field.

“It’s not like this at home,” he said, pointing toward the pregame scene. “We don’t have the tailgating, the BBQ. We don’t have people setting up the day before games.

“And, the best part, when you walk up, people are so inviting. They want you to come hang out and tailgate with them.”

Yes, Deakin is from England. Yes, he’s a Sooners fan.

How’d that happen? Just did, really. Deakin was on vacation in Florida watching the 2004 OU-Texas game. He needed a team for which to cheer. Texas was the proven product to him, even across the Atlantic Ocean. He was curious about the Sooners, who had a running back named Adrian Peterson who caught his eye. Peterson rushed for 225 yards in a 12-0 OU win, and the Sooners had a new fan.

This trip – pilgrimage, if you will – came about because of a chance conversation last year on an English Premier League soccer message board. Deakin noticed an Oklahoma resident talking about Arsenal. He started talking to the Okie about the Sooners. Deakin suggested a trade-off: Come to England to see Arsenal play and let me visit America to see the Sooners.

That was it. Deakin welcomed Scott Mossman, the son of OU sports information director Kenny Mossman, in November. Now he’s on the return end of the football-futbol home-and-home. Deakin and girlfriend Stacie Ridley arrived in the States last week, in time to see OU’s big road victory at Florida State.

In Tallahassee, they met coach Bob Stoops and several members of the team, including Tom Wort, who was born in England. Teammates and team officials were stunned by how quickly Wort slipped into his native tongue, slang and all.

Deakin didn’t mind taking a little credit for Wort’s outstanding game against the Seminoles. Wort also had family from England at the game.

“Travis (Lewis) being back helped, I’m sure,” Deakin said, “but I’ve got to think the British Invasion helped.”

Deakin and Ridley, 24, got to Norman this week and attended practice Thursday, catching up with Stoops, Wort and others at OU’s practice. Deakin was astonished that Stoops, “with 120 players and plays and all he has to remember,” instantly recalled their names.

But, c’mon, how many English dudes show up to practice?

Deakin talked about how great it would be to play a little on the practice field, so OU went and grabbed a football. He ran pass patterns with no signs of fatigue.

“He would have stayed out there for hours,” said David Bassity, another member of OU’s sports information department. “Finally we were like, ‘Hey man, we’ve got to go.’”

Deakin and Ridley walked through the tunnel, onto Owen Field, after practice. Even without 85,000 in place, Deakin called the experience “monumental” and “epic.” Ridley, an accomplished gymnast, has spent time working out this week at Bart Conner’s facility in north Norman. They chatted for an hour with him Friday, since both Conner and Ridley have great passion for autistic gymnasts.

It’s all felt like a dream this week for Deakin and Ridley. Deakin said he’ll likely need to get home before he really absorbs the experience.

“It’s kind of been like a week at Disney World for them,” said Kenny Mossman, their Oklahoma host. “Every time he encounters something new, it’s absolutely the greatest thing.

“He’s seeing things we take for granted. It’s refreshing. It makes you want to do more for them.”

Deakin literally struggled to explain Saturday afternoon what he had seen this week.

“I’m losing my voice,” he said, “and the game hasn’t even started yet.” = Trav

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I was delighted to see this online. I didn’t know initially if it was going to be in the papers or not. I checked on Sunday and it wasn’t there and we were leaving town! A frantic message on Twitter from near Orlando, Florida on the Monday morning had a huge number of replies, It was there. Good job I work in logistics, and the great kindness shown by Oklahomans once agin to send me several copies over. I have to thank Scott Templin for buying and shipping several copies to Florida for me before I left there to go home. Was a great package to receive and then to take home to show the family!

I miss Tailgating, it really is something we shall never have here in Europe!

Obviously, Sooner Basketball is not high on the list for ESPN to show over here, yet! The college coverage is not too bad with the big games shown, but through other sources, this would bet the first Sooner basketball game I would get to see this year. Could they pull out a big Bedlam victory and send the cowboys home crying?

And then it happened, the first half that no-one would have ever put money on, holding OSU to 12 points and taking an 18 point lead into the half. Defense was King right here right now. Some poor shot selections along the way helped, but it was a ‘Bulldog’ spirit to never give them time to settle and set up on the ball that held OSU to their second lowest half points in history. If my memory serves me right, we hold that record, limiting them to 11 in the 50′s! It’s an often over used term, but it was team basketball that won the half, and would be needed in the second half to stop another second half collapse!

Plays of the half for me; Osby on the steal, runs the length of the court, lops it up to Clark who slams the ball down 1 handed with authority. It’s not often that the play of the half is called back by a (very dubious) foul but that man Osby again soars up and dunks over his man, slamming that ball down hard, wow! Energy and Intensity right there!

People began rolling into Lloyd Noble at the half, maybe due to the Thunder game coming to a close or the great first half from the Sooners had people coming out to hopefully see a Bedlam victory. I predicted at the half OSU would get 30 points in the second half, boy was I wrong and the fans must have been getting a feeling of deja-vu! Within 7 minutes OSU had scored 30, and we were only ahead by 3 at 42-39. It was if the Sooners were toying with them, or just needed to wake up!

They didn’t just wake up, they took over and dominated! The crowd started to get loud and the team seemed to feed of that energy, responding by scoring from 10 of the next 15 shots. But the key stat out of all of this was the Sooners turned the ball over just twice for the rest of the game. Ball security, whilst getting into the Bonus to keep having free throws, helps big time to seal the victory!

The play that said it all about this team but wont be on any highlight real, and im sure Pledger is feeling it today. Granted, he lost the ball but never gave up, ran back and made the huge block and ended up landing on his head and back sprawled on the floor. He got back up, and played through the pain, all heart right there. I will also have to say, Page for OSU came alive in the second half from 3, he hit them from miles behind the arch!

For tonight, it was mission accomplished. A victory always tastes great, but a Bedlam Victory only makes it sweeter! The Sooners improved to 14-13 with 4 wins in the Big XII. My MVP tonight was Osby! He came up big, hit some sweet 15ft jumpers, scored 16 points on over 50% shooting and grabbed 13 boards. Big mention to Pledger also for 16 points on 3-4 3 point shooting!

Gotta hope for bigger and better things next year and I hope I get to catch more Sooner hoops games next season. I enjoyed the game, glad my first game to see this year was a W and hopefully, if we can time the trip right, can get to a game or 2 next season.

The Men have 8 National Titles, winning no fewer than 5 of these in the 2000′s with the latest one coming in 2008. With Jake Dalton leading the way, the team has a chance to add another Conference title and fight for another National Title. Not to be out done, the Women will be looking to finally get what they deserve, that first National Title. They have made it to the Championship ever year since 2004, finishing 3rd in 2011 and 2nd in 2010 so will be looking to take it all this year. Lead by the ever consistent Megan Ferguson, the Sooners have all the pieces in place with an exceptionally strong line-up and a fantastic coaching staff. Lets hope this is the year they go all the way!

The Men are ranked #1 for a 4th consecutive week and the Women are ranked #2 Nationally. The Sooner Women are however ranked #1 in using the Regional Qualifying Score (as per GymnasticsCoaching.com)  which determines who competes where in the NCAA Regionals. The men are only 3 meet’s into the schedule and now set up in Norman for 4 home meets, starting with the home opener on 25th Feb vs Iowa.

The Women have 4 meets left before the Big XII Championship, and what an ending to the season! They host #21 Michigan and #3 Alabama and go on the road vs #6 UCLA and #11 Ohio State. If that is not the schedule of a champion, I don’t know what is. The Sooners have already faced SEC opposition, defeating the then #2 Arkansas earlier in the season. This will really test the girls, but K.J. has them on top form and they are polished and consistent enough to come through the test with 4 victories. This will set them up nicely for the run at the title.

Whatever happens between now and then, OUr gymnastics teams are in the elite band of teams pushing to win it all. With them both being in Norman this week (Womens 24th, Mens 25th) there is no better time then to try something new and getting down to watch them. It’s like being at a Cirque de Soleli performance, only being that much better! You will be amazed, you will be entertained and when the Boomer Sooner chant starts ringing around, you will get that tingle down your spine!

I am lucky that the first does not apply. Stacie knows what I do and understand the game as anyone who met us in Oklahoma will know! I’m not sure what my mum thinks, but she enjoys the NFL Wembley games every year when the family go to watch, so she is clued up! Yes, yes and yes… The rugby players really do think we just hug each other whilst wearing lycra and call use rude names for wearing all the padding! We keep telling them to get down and give it a go to find out, not many have taken up the challenge and the ones that have, generally admit its more physical and brutal than they imagined!

I will leave you guys to comment on how you see British American Football, although most have been nothing but supportive when reading about the League over here and are grateful that the game is expanding across the globe. Do I think I’m Ryan Broyles or Kenny Stills out there, off course, who doesn’t? When you make a difficult catch, when you make a clutch play we all think we do it like the pros!

But yes, the reality still is for a British American Footballer that we play the game in not much more than farmer’s fields, with no facilities and no spectators…..But the fact of the matter is we are playing, enjoying and sharing the love for the game!

If you walk your dog, you may want to download this app if you have an iPhone, Map my Walk! Download this and also sign up online and map all your workouts via the GPS on your phone. It keeps a running count of time and distance and when you save the walk, maps it all out. Online it keeps daily, weekly, monthly and yearly stats for all the walks! So for the challenge, it was idea for keeping track of walks. This was the one we did today, starting at the visitors centre and walking round the outside of a working Coal Mining Centre and back to the visitors centre. I do get a little stick from you Oklahomans about Nottingham and Robin Hood, but we do have Sherwood Forest on our doorstep which is rather beautiful! (And no, I havent bumped into him just yet )

We are one week in (well just under as we started on Tuesday) and we made some great progress walking a total of 33.19 miles. Lucie loves her walks and exploring so she is loving the new trails and woods that we are going to! Great start, got a few weeks to get her use to walking distances each day before our week away in the Peak District where there shall be much more walking!

I may start a new page to keep up to date on how we are doing rather than clutter up the blog posts each week! 33.19 miles down, many more hundreds to go!

But lets see who we face. It’s been planned some time, but the mouth-watering prospect of Notre Dame coming to Norman is a huge buzz. Yes, they have not been the team they were when this was scheduled, but you can never count them out of any game. This is a game that come around every few decades, so one that I would love to be at, just because its Notre Dame. ND are also the most supported team here in England (using a poll of several hundred fans on NFLUK forum) which automatically means I have a huge dislike for them. I think it’s the Irish thing why they so popular, and with them actually coming over to the Ireland this year to play Navy, I an only see that fanbase in Britain growing!

 UTEP away to open the schedule is a huge surprise, I thought we would be in Norman to start with. They are coming off a poor 6-7 season with the only good win coming over SMU. There other 4 wins (I discount the 1 over Arkansas Pine Bluff) were against teams with a combined record of 7-40, not exactly mind-blowing victories. Still, hats off for them to reach out and take an opening season game vs Oklahoma. As above, many teams would not wish this to start the year! I’m sure some of our Texas-based Sooners will make the trip over, and grab the first of many wins in Texas this year!

2008 was the last time we schedule an FCS school (Unlike the SEC who load up on these sort of teams every year!) Florida A&M are one of those who will be getting a good payday to come out and play, and I have nothing wrong with that. I don’t see this as OUr future plans for scheduling as Oklahoma prides itself on playing great schedules, but it filled a gap in the schedule.

We all knew who we would be playing in the ‘new’ Big XII, and there was a possibility that West Virginia and TCU would take over Texas A&M and Mizzouri’s places. They have as we get the task of visiting both Morgantown and Forth Worth. The first is going to be the harder task I feel. The final 3 games of the season will tell us this year if we are a good team, a great team or a potential Championship winning team. Away at WVU, Home vs OSU and then finishing off Away at TCU is a great finish. Some people are worried about this, I just say, Bring It On! Come on, this is the reason players come to Oklahoma, to be apart of great teams and play in great game to win conference titles and Championships. Barring another horrible year of injuries, we should be firing on all cylinders and ready to take back what we own, that Big XII Title. The rest then is up to computers and voters, all We can do is get behind the team and cheer them on to victory in every game, and get that home field invincible feeling back! We need Owen Field to be rocking every home game, let’s get it loud and feared and get another huge winning streak going!

The only thing I do not like is the tail loaded but of the schedule, meaning a couple of bye weeks within the first 5 or 6 weeks. But, I’m not a coach or a player, do they actually prefer bye weeks in the middle of Big XII play, or does that just get in the way when on a roll? I would be very worried if we do not roll into the RRS undefeated, we owe Texas Tech a whooping and Kansas State we should be able to handle with no real issues again! I say it now, the only team who will beat Oklahoma this year will be Oklahoma.

Just gotta work a few things out and hopefully Stacie and I can plan coming back over again! We cannot wait to be back in Norman amongst friends and family, least with the schedule out its has highlighted some possible dates for the visit!

Health, Fitness, Wellbeing and all things related are close to the heart for Stacie and I. We both have a background in Sports Science and is something we are passionate about. The Bart and Nadia Sports and Health Festival in association with The Oklahoman was dedicated to improving the health and fitness of all Oklahomans. A great cause, which was then headlined by the The Perfect 10 Challenge. This was the Sooners facing off with Iowa State and Southeast Missouri State at the Cox Convention Center.

Oklahoma (12-2) scored 197.200, beating Iowa State (195.175) and Southeast Missouri (189.600) easily, breaking 197.00 for the third time this year. Senior Megan Ferguson led the Sooners with event titles on beam (9.9) and floor (9.95) and continued her fantastic season, where she has being the Sooners most consistent performer. She is a joy to watch with some fantastic routines and you just get the feeling when she is performing, it’s always going to be inch perfect. The Sooners won  all four individual event titles, Sara Stone  (9.925) on vault with Brie Olson and  Hayden Ward (9.85) sharing the bars win . Taylor Spears also won the all around with 39.400. An all around dominating performance for the girls!

K.J Kindler spoke about the event in saying “What an incredible inaugural event for Oklahoma City. We were very excited to be a part of the first Perfect 10 Challenge. It was a classy event and I hope that more and more people will get involved, excited and come out every year to support this great cause.”

Former OU gymnast and Olympic Gold Medalist Bart Conner also mentioned that “Nobody is as polished as K.J. Kindler’s team” which will give everyone great confidence going forward. They do have a couple of early season losses but its better to get them out the way now and then finish strong and not lose another all the way to winning the Title! I fully believe the team has the ability, the passion and the leadership to achieve this. The whole squad is fantastic and the coaching staff are finest in the country (slight bias maybe, but its all the truth).

The team, after another road trip returns home to the Lloyd Noble Centre on Friday 24th Feb at 7pm. This is a tri-meet with TWU and #22 Michigan. I know many of you will be there, but if you have never been to the Gymnastics before, it is extremely great value for tickets and you will come away in amazement. The girls work so hard and really do appreciate the support and it would be fantastic to get more fans through the door to cheer them on to another victory. Heck, if I get enough response from this I’ll even think about giving away a pair of tickets from my own pocket to get a couple of people down…. the only catch is you have to be Stacie and I and talk in a British accent because we cannot be there!!

So get down and show your support! It can make all the difference! BOOMER

We had looked over hundreds of cottages from Cornwall to Scotland and even in Wales. Finding one to allow dogs and still have Wi-fi (yes, not total isolation but close enough) was not tough, but nothing stood out. Until we saw this one!

Crow Hill, a country house estate, is on the edge of the National Trust Marsden Moor, in the heart of beautiful Yorkshire. This dramatic moor landscape offers the most amazing location, furnished with designer interiors and period features, within minutes of Marsden, a small Pennine village, offering friendly shopping, a real ale pub, restaurants and a popular TV location for ’Last of the Summer Wine’. Set in private grounds and formal gardens with footpaths direct to the moors, the properties feature breathtaking views from every aspect, a true haven of tranquillity and relaxation at anytime of year.

We shall let you know how it is. Only a month to go!

I managed to watch the final last year after my good friend Scott mentioned that it was on in a couple of days, crowning what I’m sure the ‘Beckham Experiment’ was about (Winning the title and increasing the status and level of the league). I will talk about that game at some point, but it’s all about looking forward now and onto this season. With Beckham coming towards the end of his career, it’s a fitting tribute to follow his last few seasons. I have made it my aim to follow the MLS this year, from start to finish. I will be watching and following as many games as I can, and trying to blog my English perspectives on issues that come up, and well, how it varies from what I am use to, growing up in a soccer mad country.

It’s quite exciting to me to start the journey to follow the MLS. It’s still new and finding its way. It hasn’t totally be spoilt and ruined by crazy money, and the purity is still there. This is what I love about the game, not million dollar superstars having a stop because it’s cold or they don’t earn enough etc.  I do aim to find a team to follow more closely so looking for a few suggestions from people out there to make a decision on before the season starts. I have a feeling it may be Sporting Kansas City, as Scott may disown me as a friend if I don’t! I will be following Beckham, that does go without saying tho!

BTW – Is it wrong that I can call it Soccer without thinking now aftering being into Football for so long…

Has Thierry Henry looked at the state of many of the tops clubs in Europe. Many (read most) are under huge debts, running into hundreds of millions. Every week in the top leagues across Europe, there are thousands of empty seats where there should be a father and his son, or a group of mates enjoying ‘the beautiful game’. The leagues are full of teams that will never win them, and realistically there are only a handful of teams that will win the League (2 in Spain, 4 in England etc) and the rest of the teams are feeding off their scraps and trying to hit an European qualification place jackpot. Players move clubs freely, often just for more money. Gone are the days and players like Giggs who has only ever played at Manchester United.

Money has spoilt the beautiful game, I won’t say ruined, but its going along those lines. Players getting paid £200,000 a week is ridiculous and its absurd when you get a team like Manchester City who have a whole squad earning figures like that. A nurse would have to work for 10 years to earn the same money that the player gets in one week. Europe missed a trick years ago to put a Salary Cap in place before the wages spiralled out of control. They are implementing the “Financial Fair Play” rule to ban clubs from top events if they have a certain debt, but I don’t think it goes far enough.

If every league in Europe had a cap that they all had to stick to, would we see more teams emerge, probably. But can you do it now, no. The players who are earning the big money would never drop down and would take years to implement a system to cap wages, to hopefully bring spending under control. The only people who lose, are the fans. A local team to me, in the Conference (4 leagues below the Premiership) want £18 for a match (nearly $30) which is crazy. High wages = high price to get in = low crowds and local fans following the bigger clubs instead, who they can go watch for £25-£30! Why can Man United charge so little for tickets? Because they make billions selling the brand in Asia, America and across the world. Can the team local to me do that? No, they struggle to get local people to buy and wear the team gear!

I have digressed from the MLS, but you can see from the above why I know the MLS needs to keep the cap. I’m not 100% of all the details but I think there is a fine line, and balancing that cap is difficult. Set it too high, and a couple of teams with more money will come up and dominate, set it too low and American players will bolt for Europe where they can earn much more. You need to keep your National based players, especially the better ones to keep progressing the League. But that’s why I personally love the NFL, NHL, NBA caps, because every year, most teams are in with a shout (especially if they Draft well) of winning it all. And that my friends, you do not get in the Premier League. I also feel that if you let go of the cap, clubs will struggle (as many do already) financially and runs the risk of them going out of business and league stability is then lowered.

Do I think Beckham earns too much when some players probably earn less a year than he does a week, yes. I love Beckham, not just for the Footballer but for the man behind that. He puts his family above everything else, that’s all you need to know about a man to know what kind of man he is. He has helped MLS, not probably enough for the wage he is on, but he started the ball rolling for some European players to take note and think about moving over. I think more and more will look into it, with the DP rule enabling them to earn what they might do over here. But that really must put the backs up of some local players, but I’ll save that for another blog!

I am all for keeping the Salary cap. Is it perfect? Not quite. But I like the system much more than a Billionaire owner being able to come in and pour millions in to ‘buy’ trophies.