A Quick Career Update: Jacob Carson

[jacobcarson877 2,578]

The Illustrious Career of a Journeyman Backup: Jacob Carson

Hey everyone, hope you’re all doing well. It has been a LONG time since I’ve written one of these and a lot has happened in my career. As some of you may know this is my first player, and it has been an incredible experience to watch my career unfold. I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about my journey in the VHL and what the future may hold for me.

First of all, I want to say thank you to Warsaw, Prague, Malmo and wow would you look at that, Warsaw again. These teams bet on me while my stock was low, as I have been on Welfare for months now. Although I wasn’t developing much, they gave me the opportunity to play games and show them what I could do.

Obviously when you’re entering the VHL you hope to join a team and build a dynasty with them. Given my lack of earnings, I wasn’t exactly the cornerstone piece of any of the teams I have been on, but one could say I have been a part of a multi-team dynasty. I joined a powerhouse Warsaw team and went on some crazy playoff runs with them, and I always think fondly of those first couple of seasons and the team we assembled and the energy of that locker room. We dominated the regular season and we all sat waiting for the sims every day seeing if we could keep ourselves on the top of the league. Of course, with any powerhouse eventually the salary cap catches up with you, unfortunately I was one of the casualties, but I took it as an opportunity. Since this is my first time around the league, I’ve tried to relish the opportunity to meet new people and see what the league has to offer, and so the chance to join a new team is always exciting. When I joined up with Prague, my life got very busy and unfortunately, I wasn’t as active as I would’ve liked to have been. But once again we had a good long run in the playoffs, eventually losing out to Warsaw (of course). After that I was once again on the move, this time to another European Conference rival, Malmo. Again, life was rather busy for me, so I wasn’t around much, but once again I joined a powerhouse ready to win. What a magical run we had, and I was almost beaten out by Warsaw again. This time however the dream came true and I got to win the Continental Cup.

There’s a few things I have learned from my time in the league so far that have stuck with me, both in the VHL and real life. The first one being that not everyone can be, or has to be a star. Obviously in the context of sports, it’s always nice to have a few superstars kicking around, but more often than not the  thing that is missing is people who can fill a role, do their job and give the stars their chance to succeed. I had not, up until this season, had the chance to be a starting goaltender in the VHL. Obviously it hasn’t been easy to be active and participating when I wasn’t getting a lot of starts, but by gathering welfare, doing practice and some press conferences, I was ready to give my dynasty a chance to succeed. I’ve never been a star player, but I’ve done my job well enough to allow my teams to succeed. The next thing I’ve learned, through failing to do so for quite a while, is to take every opportunity you can to get to know new people, and see what sorts of positive relationships you can form. The structure of the league rewards those who are active contributors to the league, and I think it is a very important structure for forging these new relationships. We are all here bonding over our shared rather niche interest. This concept leads into my future in the league.

Since I am reaching the end of my career, I have really been taking the time to think about when to call it a day. When I was asked to come start for Warsaw I obviously had to say yes for many reasons, and it has delayed my retirement by at least a season. It has certainly been interesting being a goaltender in a goalie heavy draft year with so few spots available to play. I think the VHLE is great, especially for graduating goaltenders, to get the chance to play games and keep activity and interest high. I think my career would have been much different with that option available and it almost makes me want to create another goaltender to see how that would go. To my actual point, as my career comes to an slow end, I have thought about my future and you should all keep an eye out for a new player in the coming seasons.

My next section will be about the current season with Warsaw. For anyone who has stuck around through this word-dump, thank you and I appreciate your support. I was so excited when Warsaw had interest with me, and I accepted the offer immediately no questions asked. It also happens to be my first run as a starter in the VHL and as of the time of writing, I’d say it’s going rather well (a cool 5-1-1 .920 3.63, not to brag). Although the team may no longer be a lock in cup contender (although I think some of us might disagree), it is so exciting to see what the remnants of this core can do. It is sort of a victory lap for many of us and seeing the players I entered the league playing with and their glorious careers is something special.

You might think at this point I’m just filling words to get to 1000, and you’re partially right but I want to reiterate how awesome this league has been and how much of a wild ride it’s been since reading that Reddit post back on July 15^th, 2020. I’m not sure whether you’ll see any more of my writing before I retire, what with school ramping up, work on the side and the NHL season starting up, but if you don’t, thanks for a great first player experience and I hope to get to know you all better my next time around!

1079 words. Claim for weeks ending:

-          October 3rd

-       October 10th  

Edited September 28, 2021 by jacobcarson877

[animal74 1,863]

You were a great teammate in Malmo and so happy you could win a Cup with us! Good luck with Warsaw and I look forward to meeting your new player when that time comes! 

[jacobcarson877 2,578]

claiming week of october 3rd

Edited September 28, 2021 by jacobcarson877

[jacobcarson877 2,578]

claiming week of october 10th

[Tomat0 50]

REVIEW

 

So let me start off saying that I really liked this article. I feel like a Career Review type of article is a great pick that makes for an interesting article. I really think you could've put some more effort into the formatting though. You started off well with the headline, but the text is in dire need of some separation into paragraphs. It read very well despite the formatting problems. 8/10