[sterlingice]

A very busy season for us: We had a few transfers, we hit our 100th hosted flag including some rare ones, and we survived II for a second season.

Originally Posted by 7-14-2011

(19:26) Hippos in Transit

In the last couple of weeks, Houston has reshaped the roster with veteran midfielders Damion Marsh and Arild Jensen leaving the team to pursue other leadership opportunities on younger teams.

Norbert Hiermayer ($6M winger), Hilton Bender, and Roberto De Bacco were transferred in and will all start for the team this season. They will be starting across the midfield with John King and winger Juan Carlos Carreño. Hans Meikar, Carlos Thacker, and August Gunderson will give the team a deep and flexible bench for their first season in II.3.

Last but not least, Adir Weissglass has retired as coach of the Hippopotami. He presided over the team's second visit to III.3 with 2nd, 2nd, and 1st place finishes and auto promotion. He is leaving to spend more time with his family and will be succeeded by his assistant coach of the last few years, Gilceu Bianco.

Hopefully these additions will help keep the team afloat in their first season back in Division II.

Originally Posted by 8-1-2011

(19:23) Thomas Ovesson, Set Pieces Hall of Famer

Long time Hippo defender and goal scorer Tomas Ovesson retires to the Hippo Hall of Heroes. He was the first ever Set Pieces specialist for the team, purchased for over $4M in season 29 for both his amazing defense but also his ET set pieces skill.

After playing a few seasons for the team, he went to NyFF, an elite team from Sverige in their equivalent of Division II. With Denyson's team, he scored 86 goals in 206 competitive matches.

He took great pride in his physical shape and when he returned to Houston at age 37 he still had magnificent defense and the extraterrestrial set pieces skill that made him great.

At age 40, he retires with 138 career goals and 7(!) hat tricks (5/30, 2/31, 5/33, 2/35, 10/35, 4/36, 3/37) despite playing defense most of his career.

His legacy number has been lost to time so he picked the #44 to retire. He will enter the Hall at halftime of Sunday's game vs Spocker.

Next PA, we'll run down the current and future Hippo Hall of Heroes roster.

Originally Posted by 8-9-2011

(19:05) Hippo Hall of Heroes and Possible Future Members

Below is the Roster for the HHH and possible upcoming members

Current HHH Members
#15 Carlos Alberto Benito
#22 Edwin Phelan
#13 Mick Starks
#99 José María Miquel
#31 Vaikhan Satyanarayana
#97 Xacobo Armengol
#19 Allan Brik
#18 Thomas Little
Hnr Sergio Chapin (23361083)
Hnr Quintin Staples (28383532)
#01 Tim Kimber
#17 Erwin Vickers
#12 Donald Sidorczak
#44 Tomas Ovesson

Upcoming Honorary Members
Hnr Marcin Tetkowski - Notable goal scorer
Hnr Adir Weissglass - Coach for second stop in III.3 for 3 seasons

Upcoming Locks
#11 Charlie Partridge, 39 - 18 season Hippo PM who played alongside Little and Vickers
#40 Stephen Williams, 30 - WC def, 1st youth pull!

Upcoming Candidates
#39 Juan Alberto Quijada, 39 - 15 seasons with Hippos, many as starting middie
#27 Volfs Treibahs, 35 - 16 seasons as backup forward
#09 Carlos Thacker, 34 - 8 season elite middie
#14 John King, 34 - 7 season elite middie
#05 Birger Manholt, 32 - 8 seasons as backup keeper

Originally Posted by 8-23-2011

(04:05) Weissglass Honorarily Retired Sunday at Halftime

#96 Adir Weissglass (118357573) was never much of a player. The highest rating he ever put up was 3 stars as a middie. But it cost the Hippos a $205K transfer fee from LErick to lure him away from another coaching job to train under legendary Hippo Tim "Timber" Kimber. He played mostly in friendlies and as a sub, gaining valuable experience as an assistant coach until he was promoted to Head Coach after Timber retired at the end of season 42.

In his 3 years as coach, Houston finished 2nd, 2nd, and 1st in III.3 with 26, 28, and 34 points, thanks largely to his tactical leadership. In his final season, the team autopromoted back into II.

However, at the end of season 45, he received a call with a job offer he couldn't refuse. Adir left to pursue his dreams of coaching back home in Israel. The Hippo Hall of Heroes typically will not retire a player for 3 seasons, however, the team made a special exception to allow him to retire honorarily as he left to pursue other opportunities.

Originally Posted by 8-30-2011

(19:15) Hippo Friendly Cup #26

After a respectable 7 round cup run, Hippo Helpers know what this time of season brings. It's time for the annual Hippo Friendly Cup! Houston is in its 26th season of flag chasing and this season promises to bring more excitement.

We're actively looking to visit the following:
Al Yaman (H)
Cameroon (A)
Cuba (H/A)
Palestine (H/A)
Suriname (H)
And we'll host more teams along the way.

Currently, here are where the Hippos rank:

Visited (125 Visited Flags; 498 791.28 Coolness)
Coolness: USA-1, World-T117
Flags: USA-T1, World-T54

Hosted (95 Hosted Flags; 475 534.67 Coolness)
Coolness: USA-2, World-208
Flags: USA-T16, World-T1077

Visited+Hosted (222 Total Flags; 974 325.95 Coolness)
Coolness: USA-1, World-92
Flags: USA-2, World-T104

Sometime this season, we should net our 100th Hosted Flag!

It all begins Wednesday night, with steaua orhei from Moldova! Hope to see you all at the Hippodrome!

Originally Posted by 9-16-2011

(06:26) 100th Hosted Flag: Al Yaman!

Houston made their 100th hosted flag Wednesday a special one as Yemen All Star paid a visit to the Hippodrome. This was a flag the team has been chasing for over 10 seasons (since 2008).

Next week, we have another exciting flag as we visit our 126th country in neighboring Cuba. The Hippos will be playing the Div III All_Starts at Ciber Arena.

With 5 weeks left to go in the season, the Hippos are looking to collect the following hard to get flags:
Cameroon (A)
Cuba (H)
Palestine (H/A)
Suriname (H)

In addition, it is likely they will host Scotland and South Korea before the end of the season, leaving only the above as countries to play with less than 1000 users.

Provided HT does not add any more teams, after next week, the Hippos will have 30 flags to go!

Originally Posted by 9-24-2011

(23:36) Your Number's Up, Part I

Head Equipment Manager Vaikhan Satyanarayana was bored. And when he got bored, the Hippos got a new numbering and position system. Old players who are potential HHH members were able to keep their old numbers but everyone else had to switch to conform to the new format.

Below is a reminder of the HHH Retired Numbers
#01 Tim Kimber
#03 Quintin Staples (28383532) - Honorary
#12 Donald Sidorczak
#13 Mick Starks
#15 Carlos Alberto Benito
#17 Erwin Vickers
#18 Thomas Little
#19 Allan Brik
#22 Edwin Phelan
#31 Vaikhan Satyanarayana
#44 Tomas Ovesson
#83 Sergio Chapin (23361083) - Honorary
#97 Xacobo Armengol
#99 José María Miquel


Rules
------
* Keepers: 00-19 and GK
* Forwards/Wingers: 20-39 and FW/WI, respectively
* Midfielders: 40-59 and MI
* Defenders: 60-79 and CD/WB, respectively
* Coaches: 80-99 and separate designations (E1, for instance)
* Reserves play almost exclusively in friendlies, while the 3rd forward in a 2 forward rotation would still be FW

Originally Posted by 9-24-2011

(23:36) Your Number's Up, Part II

Below are the updated numbers and positions for the Hippopotami. Old numbers are in parentheses.

Keepers (00-19)
05 GK Birger Manholt (**)
06 GK Antonio Ricardo De Carlo (**)

Forwards/Wingers (20-39)
20 WI Juan Carlos Carreño (20)
21 FW Giancarlo Schalks (21)
25 FW Joseph Pittesser (25)
27 SU Volfs Treibahs (**)
33 WI Hans Meikar (22- was retired)
34 WI Norbert Hiermayer (--)
38 FW Yohan Coupard (--)

Midfielders (40-59)
09 IM Carlos Thacker (**)
11 SU Charlie Partridge (**)
14 IM John King (**)
39 SU Juan Alberto Quijada (**)
47 IM August Gunderson (--)
54 IM Roberto De Bacco (--)
56 IM Hilton Bender (--)

Defenders (60-79)
40 SU Stephen Williams (**)
62 WB Ciprian Pârvu (32)
63 CD Carlo Teti (33)
68 WB Christian Svatunek (38)
70 WB Iosif-Constantin Chiacu (--)
71 CD Nicu Stoian (41)
72 CD Eddie van Acht (42)
76 WB Niko-Ville Hallasaari (--)
79 CD Rubén Enrique Portas (39)

Coaches (80-99)
96 E1 Adir Weissglass (--)
95 E2 Gilceu Bianco (--)

Originally Posted by 10-17-2011

(15:37) Hippopotami Survive II, will return in Season 46

The Houston Hippopotami finished 4th with 21 points, their first ever season in II with no qualifier. The team started out the season with 4 straight losses but went 6-1-3 the rest of the way. This includes a season-ending 7 game unbeaten streak, currently the longest in Div II.

In less relevant games, Houston is 12-1 on Wednesday with the only loss coming in week 7 when the team was bounced from the Cup.

In Sunday's 3-3 draw against the Mudville Kickers, the Hippos tied a franchise record with a 333 Hatstats rating. The previous high of 333 was a II.1 Season 41 loss to the Pythons which rates 2% higher overall.

Joseph Pittesser scored his 15th goal of the season in Sunday's game, netting him the series Top Scorer honor. It his his second scoring title (III.3 S43) and the seventh in franchise history. It is our 1st ever in Div II.

Finally, a minor change to the kits as the home and away kit have been swapped so that visitors to the team page have something new to look at.

Originally Posted by 10-25-2011

(13:00) Hippos Complete Successful Hippo Friendly Cup 26

After Wednesday's game, Hippo Friendly Cup 26 will have drawn over 25K fans this season. It was an exciting Cup, with the club receiving some very difficult flags this season including newcomer Cuba and two flags we have chased for over 10 seasons(!) in Al Yaman and Suriname.

Thank you to the following teams we played this year:
steaua orhei (Moldova)
Gomel (Belarus)
Yemen All Star (Al Yaman)
All Starts (Cuba)
FC Paramaribo (Suriname)
Uridium Skara Brae (Scotland)
F.C. 13 (Sakartvelo)
ROK Marine Corps (Hanguk)

This leaves 4 difficult flags:
Cameroon (Away)
Cuba (Home)
Palestine (Home/Away)

It also leaves 22 additional flags to host, all from countries with over 1000 users. Next season, the team will likely host a Baltic Cup with teams from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (where the GM's family hails from) as well as many other countries.

Next up: Preparations for Season 47, our second in II.3!

SI