Third Time the Charm?

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Jamaican scorer has had two previous trials with Indy scuttled due to injury

By: Brandon Cockrum

One week into official preseason training and the Indy Eleven have just 15 healthy, signed players on their roster. Two positions that they're most shorthanded at are forward and wide midfielder but there may be help on the way. In a February 9 interview with Casilero Deportivo, Indy Eleven head coach Tim Hankinson said that Indy would be adding Jamaican Dino Williams to the roster this season. Hankinson previously coached Williams at Montego Bay United in the Jamaican Premiere League. Of the player’s skills, Hankinson has said, "There are strikers and there are goal scorers, and Dino is a goal scorer, but he also possesses the versatility to be a dangerous performer on the wings.”

Williams also signed with Indy in 2016.

Williams, has twice previously trialed with the Eleven and twice had said trials derailed by medical issues.

The 26-years old Williams is prolific goal scorer in Jamaica’s Red Stripe Premier League for defending-champion Montego Bay United. Upon the announcement of his signing with the team in 2016, former Eleven GM Peter Wilt stated, “Williams is a promising player that is coming off the best form of his career while playing for Coach Hankinson. We had Dino in as a trialist in 2014 and he showed promise before sustaining an injury."

After again returning injured to Jamaica from Indy in the spring of 2016, Williams play was limited but he salvaged his season by finishing as the league’s golden boot winner and scoring the decisive goal in the league final. When the Premiere League kicked off its current season this past September, Williams told Jamaica’s Gleaner that his body was fully rested and recovered from groin surgery and that he was ready to set the league’s goal-scoring record. 

Williams has partnered in both the Montego Bay attack with Owayne (Omar) Gordon, formerly of Indy Eleven, helping lead the team to the top of the Jamaican table. After 23 match days the striker is sitting on 7 goals, good for third place in the league’s golden boot race. (Former Indy Eleven and Sheffield Wednesday forward Jermaine Johnson is in second place with 9 goals.)

Willams has six appearances for the Reggae Boyz at the international level and most recently wore the green and yellow jersey of Jamaica this past November against Suriname. The attacker was called into camp in January 2017 to train for February friendlies versus USA and Honduras but skipped training at his club’s request due to injury. He did not make the traveling roster for the two matches. (Former Eleven attacker Gordon has made four consecutive appearances for the Jamaican national team.)

Assuming that the as-of-now unofficial loan of Williams to the Eleven becomes official, the attacker's arrival in Indianapolis will likely be delayed so that he will be available to United for their first round matches in the Caribbean Football Union’s Club Championship group stage, held March 1 to March 5. The player will then have to pass through immigration process' as well as a medical test (or two) before he could begin play for Indy. It will not likely be known until at least mid-March if Williams will get his third chance to practice with the Eleven. And then, as some might say, Only Jah knows if we will ever see Williams in the blue checkers.

His revolution would not be televised - The Story of Gil Heron

Gil Heron (Celtic) 1922 - 2008

by: James Cormack

This story has been told before many times, I am not telling you something that is new, but it is a story that should be retold periodically. Hopefully it is new to some who can appreciate and share it. The beautiful game has many interesting stories.

Throughout Black History Month there will be many great stories retold of great activists, artists and athletes and scholars, who have contributed to the advancement of Africans throughout the known world, the story of Gilbert Heron often goes unnoticed.

Gil Heron was a Jamaican born football player, and as you can tell by the picture he played for Glasgow Celtic. Although not the first black player to ever play in Scotland, he continued to blaze a trail that was started by Andrew Watson who played for Queens Park and Scotland in the early 1880's.

In 1951 Gil Heron, known to Celtic supporters in Glasgow as "The Black Arrow" and also "The Black Flash", became the first ever black football player to play professionally in Scotland and the first black player to play for Celtic FC.

Born in Kingston in 1922, Gilbert Heron also known as "Giles" undoubtedly would have discovered football in his youth as many other children had in the far flung reaches of the British Empire.

During the second World War Gil joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. After the war in 1946 Heron's footballing skills began to attract attention, he was fleet of foot and very skillful on the ball, like many black athletes of his generation, he stood out by excelling through determination and by his very appearance.

Gil was also very physical, he had to be, during his early playing career in the Midwest he frequently became a target for some of the over zealous local players in Detroit and Chicago. His speed and agility quite often helped him avoid tackles designed to remove him from the game.

Gil joined several clubs in the North American Soccer Football League (NASFL) during the late forties and early fifties including the Detroit Wolverines, Detroit Corinthians, Chicago Maroons and Chicago Sparta. The league was short lived lasting only two seasons in 1946 and 1947 but many of the teams continued playing afterwards.

Celtic FC's first major tour of North America took place in 1931 and coincided with a period of severe decline in the US game. A prolonged war of words between the American League and the US Football Association combined with a crippling economic depression had a devastating impact on the sport.

Despite all of that, Celtic managed to pull decent crowds against the odds. 30,000 turned out to see Celtic play the New York Giants. One of the most notable ASL teams of the time, the Fall River Marksmen who's attendances had dropped from the tens of thousands to a mere 3500 in 1930 managed to draw 7,000 in a match that saw them defeat Celtic by a goal to nil.

It would be another twenty years before Celtic would again tour North America, joined by Fulham and Eintracht Frankfurt the "Bhoys" turned out against teams such as the American League Stars, Philadelphia Stars, New Jersey Stars (Kearney XI), Canadian National League XI, and Chicago Polish Eagles.

Somewhere in amongst that tour Celtic scouts had been dispatched to check up on the progress of Gilbert Heron. It is unclear whether Celtic officials went to seek out Heron or whether he played in the tour, but regardless they found him and he was offered a contract to play professionally, 4000 miles away in Glasgow.

Gil Heron's career at Celtic was not a lengthy one but it was successful, he scored on his debut in a cup game against Greenock Morton, earning himself the nicknames "Black Arrow" and "Black Flash". Heron went on to play in a further three league cup games and one league game for the Hoops.

There is no official reason why Gil Heron was released by Celtic but some reports from around the time were that he did not adapt well to the physicality of the Scottish game, and back in 1951 I can imagine it was pretty brutal at times, probably more so than the suburbs of Chicago and Detroit. Gil transferred to Third Lanark and then Kidderminster Harriers in England before returning to the USA to play again for Detroit Corinthians.

18-24 months before signing for Celtic, Gil Heron met his wife to be Bobbie Scott in Chicago, a jazz singer. When Gil Heron left for Scotland in 1951 they separated, but not before bringing a son into the world, that child of course was Gil Scott-Heron, a spoken word poet and jazz musician widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of Rap.

Father and son would not renew their relationship until young Gil was 26 years old. At appearances in Glasgow he would remark that people would turn up at his gigs wearing Celtic jerseys.

In an interview in Scotland, Gil junior was asked about his father's time in Scotland he stated that his father often talked about it, and his son was happy that his family had given a representative of the two things Scottish people love most, football and music.

Gilbert Heron passed away in 2008 in Detroit aged 86, three years later in 2011 his son Gil Scott-Heron died in New York aged 62. Together they had broken new ground as both athlete and artist.

There are many other interesting facts surrounding this story including that the family ancestry actually comes from Scotland, Gil Heron's great-great-great-grandfather was Alexander Heron from Wigtownshire in Scotland.

Gil Scott-Heron gave a Celtic shirt to Robert King, one of the Angola Three, King wore the jersey in an interview on CNN, he had spent 29 years in solitary confinement and a total of 32 years in the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola before his conviction was overturned in 2001.

If you are interested in this story you can find more source information in the following writings and video.

"Celtic's Black Arrow" by Steve Welsh
Andrew Watson, Scotland's first Black Footballer (video)
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - London Celtic Punks album review.
Gil Heron - Obituary The Guardian Newspaper
NASFL The Philly Soccer Page
Gil Scott-Heron "Pieces of A Man" full album - (audio/video)
Gil Heron Celtic Photos - The Celtic Wiki

Bloody Shambles Soccer Show Ep.23 - with James Cormack, Aaron Gunyon and Noah Buonanno

Noah loves his Guinness!

In Episode 23 of the Bloody Shambles Soccer Show, Jamez pays up his bet with Aaron over the Atlanta Silverbacks and also sweetens the deal with a very nice gift!

Noah Buonanno the Bloody Shambles resident musician tickles the ivories as much as possible at any given moment.

Aaron Gunyon dips into old skool with his "Bloody Shambles Rap"!

We discuss the announced schedule, new Indy Eleven Presidente Jeff Belskus and other offseason signing news.

You can follow all episodes on Soundcloud and iTunes, also follow the BS Crew on twitter @bloody_shambles or at our website Bloodyshambles.net we are also on Facebook.

A Conversation With Tim Hankinson

Indy Eleven head coach Tim Hankinson
(photo by Gus Ochoa)

By: Aaron Gunyon

Indy Eleven hosted a meet and greet Wednesday evening at The Tomlinson Taproom in the Indianapolis City Market.  The occasion was to celebrate and to introduce Head Coach Tim Hankinson to fans and to a few select members of the media.  The formal announcement came earlier in the afternoon in the lobby of the Emmis Communications building, but internet rumors of the new hire had been percolating for some time.  

Tim Hankinson's hiring was not a shock to anyone pretending to be General Manager on social media where his name was passed around quite a bit.  Many other names were mentioned in recent days, but not many gave any weight to any Eric Wynalda talk. Hankison's sudden availability combined with his decades of experience gave very little room to speculate.  The question was less "If" but "When".

The man of the hour was busy rubbing elbows with many others when I got a chance to introduce myself.  He promised me 5 minutes which was more than the 4 minutes that I had proposed. The Head Coach already exceeded my expectations for such a popular guy on such an important night and it was hard for him to get away.  

Hankinson sought me out, true to his promise, and we sat down at a 4-top table apart from most of the commotion and the conversations of the crowd.  Hankinson immediately began spilling his excitement for Indianapolis, as a sports town, and Indiana for its renowned soccer heritage.  He knows Jerry Yeagley through collegiate level coaching clashes 30 years ago.  And he mentioned following the career of Tony Dungy after Dungy left Tampa Bay for Indianapolis.  Hankinson is new to Indy Eleven and to Indianapolis, but he is keenly aware of the culture here and the enthusiastic fans we have.  

I found it easy to begin a conversation with the new coach.  His personality is nothing like my brief image search portrayed him to be.  He seems to have a scowl in most of his common internet photos.  Other people have told him that.  I was not among them. 

40 seconds into my "one on one" and we were talking about the strengths and weaknesses of American players and his more recent experience with Jamaican players.  Hankinson said that Jamaicans have the heart of Brazilian players and posses great speed, but some grow up playing street ball and that can pose a problem where team discipline is concerned.  Hankinson explained to me that American players are "Go-Go-Go" and very quick to get to a ball, but they sometimes lack the ability to slow it all back down and play at another speed.  

As we sat and talked and I drank my beer, a sophisticated Indy Eleven staff member came by to check on the new Tim in town and to see if he needed anything. The staffer returned to the table with a beverage for Hankinson, but stayed much longer to join the conversation in what soon became known as the "seminar".  The table for 4 had become a table for 5 within seconds as a few soccer savvy members of the Brickyard Battalion Slaughterhouse-19  became curious and slid in seamlessly to a few open seats.  My 5 minute interview had become a 30 minute interview and no one seemed to notice.  Hankinson didn't seem to care.  

That staffer that I had mentioned left the table to retrieve some food order and placed a to-go bag directly in front of Hankinson in a polite rescue attempt.  "You'll want to get that home before it gets cold." said one of my favorite Indy Eleven employees with a delicate touch.  Tim Hankinson smiled, sat back a bit and replied something like, "Salad is best when its cold." And then he settled back into the conversation.  

The strikingly white haired man continued to educate and the table's numbers fluctuated up and down with as many as 7 people seated now in and around.  It was very organic.  There was almost a revolving door of new participants and all were welcomed.  All had concern for the team and all had a very respectful interest in what the coach had to say.  Hankinson didn't skip a beat as he grabbed a pen and paper to illustrate his thoughts on tactics and player utilization.  He described scenarios that casual observers have missed that are specific to Indy Eleven.  Hankinson has prior knowledge about players like Dane Richards and Greg Janicki that make it seem like he had been watching all season long.  He was no longer answering questions.  It was more like he was teaching.

Tim Hankinson was announced as the head coach today, but the truth is he has already put in work with Assistant Tim Regan going over potential players and evaluating returning players.  He has reviewed film on candidates at a rate of around 25 per day and he hasn't even moved into town yet.  Indy Eleven is searching for an on-field "maestro" to conduct the flow and the tempo of the team. While he spoke, Hankinson's hand gracefully mimicked the use of baton to keep time and demonstrate a methodical pace.    

It's something that has clearly been missing.  It's easy to diagnose, but perhaps it harder than it sounds to make chemistry where there was none.  

Hankinson told me that Indy Eleven will be returning only 1 international player.  That is good news for roster flexibility but it does come as quite a shock considering that the Eleven were using all 7 allotments for such players in 2015.  I was not given any indication as to which player that would be, but I was told another astonishing fact that took me a few moments to get my head around.  Only 2 regular starters will be coming back, but they will have an opportunity to earn their roles in the upcoming season.  

I was not alarmed by this news, but it seems that the new head coach feels the Indy Eleven were playing to their potential last season.  They just weren't good enough.  The claims of upgrades during last off-season may have been true, but they fell short of the mark.  Hankinson is taking no chances on players he doesn't feel can impact this team immediately.  

"The Brickyard Battalion gets its name from a military history." He said.  "The Indy Eleven take their name from local military history and I am looking for warriors."

There was a sense of optimism and excitement as Hankinson spoke about freeing up money and players, but the pressure will be on him to get the job done.  This kind of renovation requires an architect with a clear vision and these decisions will fall squarely on 60 year old shoulders with 36 years of experience.  General Manager Peter Wilt will probably get the final say, buy it sounds like a collaborative effort between Tim, Tim and Peter.

The "meet and greet" was officially over at 7pm but the lecture continued even after I excused myself and closed out my tab sometime around 7:45. 

It is impossible to deny Hankinson's confidence or comfort level as he speaks.  It is not arrogance, but knowledge acquired from decades of study.  Experience is something that Indy Eleven have needed for some time so perhaps this can be a good fit.  

Expect a new player announcement very soon.  Expect a maestro.  This first player signing could be an indication of things yet to come.