Thanks to the many of you who have sent me links and forwarded emails over the past 24 hours about the Seattle Sounders FC upcoming open try-outs. I know you recall my glory days of high school soccer. So do I. They were glorious.

Like Gordon Bombay (played by Emilio Estevez) lacing up his old skates in The Mighty Ducks after a pep talk from his mentor Hans, it's time for me to strap on the old shinguards and cleats again and hit the field.

According to the Sounders FC Web site, the new MLS team will host open tryouts in three Washington cities during the month of November. The tryouts will be filmed for a reality-TV series that will air on the local NBC affiliate, King 5, in late January 2009. A minimum of three finalists from each market will take part in a one-hour tryout in Seattle. The winner will be awarded a spot on the 2009 Sounders FC roster.

The Tukwila tryouts are November 15, which gives me approximately three weeks to get in shape. Mentally I'm ready, and getting back my touch on the ball is just like riding a bicycle. Getting in soccer shape by then... well... I'm going to try and run around Green Lake once without stopping. Does that give you a benchmark?

Dad brings up a good point that while I'll see some old friends and have fun playing at a high-level again, I might be a little injury-prone. What's an ACL good for anyway, I say.

NO MATTER WHAT I am going to Tukwila on November 15. Whether I go to the tryouts or check out the newly renovated Southcenter Mall is still up in the air.