Connecting to this Throwback Thursday post from last week, I'll do a little sequential picture thread getting through those couple weeks leading up to the 2008 season. It's strange looking back on it and realizing that was nearly 20 years ago. I had spent 2007 working in Baltimore with Nicole, Nick Rozdilski, and Greg Jones. Still friends with them to this day, even if we don't chat quite as often. I took the head job with the Syracuse Chiefs in December of 2007. As mentioned in the previous post, the playing surface had previously been synthetic and the renovation was made following the 2007 season to change everything out to a natural field. This was an incredibly educational experience. The older I get, the more I focus on learning something new every single day. The renovation and field were still under the control of the contractor through the winter. We worked together to do everything we could to be ready for opening day. With 18 years of additional knowledge and experience today, would I have done some things differently? Absolutely. But we can't change the past, we can only learn from it and get better going forward. I look back with great fondness for my two years in Syracuse. I met one of my most dear friends who, years later, would give me the unbelievable honor of being Godfather to his son. I look forward to spending time with that family next week. I met a young man with the same first and middle name as me with a great personality, a strong work ethic, and absolutely zero experience. We would work so closely throughout those two years, and he would go on to take over the head role when I left. He still holds that position today, and I can't wait to spend time with him and his wife and celebrate the birth of their second child next week. I could go on about plenty of other special people and experiences, but I'll leave it at that for now. These first few pictures were from March 10. We were beginning to clear the field of snow, but the ground was very much staying frozen and quickly began learning of the challenges of trying to thaw and dry a field that far north.