News for the Week of May 30, 2011

Program Notes for the Week of 5/30/2011:


I want to share with you a good news story that was underpublicized here in Avon Lake, but definitely should be told.  The story concerns Annette Ilg who was a 2006 graduate of Avon Lake HS where she was a three sport star excelling in soccer, basketball and track.   In soccer, she was one of the finest players to ever don a Shoregal uniform and ranks in the top 3 all time in goals, assists, & points.  In basketball, she was a Varsity starter and played on a SWC conference championship team her senior year.  In track, she qualified for the state meet her senior year in the 400 meter dash after running it for the first time just a few weeks before the state meet. She was primarily a 100 meter, 200 meter, & relay runner.  On top of her athletic accomplishments, she was also valedictorian of her class.

She wanted to play soccer in college, but received little interest from any schools.  She finally settled on UC San Diego, a Division II school to play basketball. She played four years of Varsity basketball there and was named to the all conference team her senior year,while earning a degree in biochemistry.  The soccer coach was aware of her ability in soccer and persuaded her to join the team this past fall.  She was now going to get that opportunity to fulfill her dream of playing college soccer which seemingly had passed her by. So, Annette enrolled in graduate level classes in Chemistry & Biochemistry and went out for the team.  Now UC - San Diego is a national power in Div. II soccer with 7 national championships to their credit, so playing on their team is no small accomplishment.  She made the most of her opportunity and had a dream season as she led the team in scoring with 11 goals and chipped in with 5 assists for a team leading 27 points.  She led her team to the National Championship game by scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win over undefeated and No. 1 ranked The College of Saint Rose.  Unfortunately, a story book finish was not in the cards as UCSD lost to current powerhouse Grand Valley State in the championship game by a score of 4-0.  UCSD finished the season with a fine record of 19-3-3.

Just an amazing run for a girl who had not played competitive soccer in 4 years.  I believe she is the first soccer player from Avon Lake either boy or girl to play in a national championship game.  This is an inspirational story whose message is to never give up on your dreams no matter how unlikely it seems that they will be fulfilled.  Also, make the most of every opportunity that comes your way. An additional fact to make the story even better is that Annette torn her ACL during her Junior season of basketball and needed to rehab her way back for an outstanding senior year in all three of her sports and then onto college.  Yet another chapter in the impressive tradition of Shoregal soccer!!

Annette Ilg (#14) moving the ball upfield against Saint Rose in the National Semi-final game.


Shorepals Meeting:
The next Shorepals meeting will be held on Thursday June 9, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at the Old Firehouse at the corner of Lake Rd. and Rt. 83. This will be an important meeting as we make our final preparations for the Father's Day weekend.


Soccer Site of the Week:
We continue our build up to the Women's World Cup with a link to the FIFA site:

http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/ 

This is the offical site for the 2011 Women's World Cup.  There you can find information about all the teams and players along with schedules and results during the tournament itself.

News for the Week of May 23, 2011

Program Notes for the Week of 5/23/11:

Girls Soccer Division Realignment:
A couple of weeks ago the OHSAA voted to realign girls soccer into 3 divisions state wide starting this Fall.  Historically, girls soccer has had only two divisions.  The new divisions will look as follows:

Division 1 - 371 girls and above     169 teams

Division 2 - 202 to 370 girls           169 teams

Division 3 - 201 girls and below     169 teams

The divisions are based on the female enrollment at the member high schools.  There are currently 507 high schools fielding girls soccer teams in the state of Ohio and the OHSAA strives to keep an equal number of schools in each division. So, they simply figured out where to break the divisions based on what would make three equal divisions.

Now, where does Avon Lake fit in?  We will remain in Division 1 by a mere 41 girls.  That puts us in the uneviable position of being a small Division 1 school.  Right now it appears that tradtional rivals Avon, Bay, & Rocky River are headed into Division 2 pending updating of current enrollment figures.  This should immediately make them very competitive for a long run into the playoffs.  For comparison sake, let's take a look at the enrollment figures for the schools that are on our 2011 schedule:

Berea                                               392 girls
Avon                                                350
Westlake                                          511
Amherst                                           531
Valley Forge                                    568
Midpark                                           513
Hathaway Brown                              255
Olmsted Falls                                    410
Lake Catholic                                   296
Rocky River                                     337
North Olmsted                                 563
Strongsville                                      911
Brecksville                                       605
Magnificat                                        625
Solon                                               662
Sylvania Northview                          501

Avon Lake has 412 girls and as you can see, there are only 5 schools on our schedule that are smaller than us and most of the schools are significantly - more than 25% - larger than us.  This has always been an underpublicized fact across all of Avon Lake athletics that we are a small Div. 1 school that must go up against much bigger schools.  This is a great testament to the girls and the program in general that we have always played much bigger schools and have maintained 16 consecutive winning seasons.   This past season we won a conference title by beating out a 500+ girl school in Westlake and a 600+ girl school in Brecksville.  It is truly representative of our motto - Respect All..... Fear None!!


Shorepals Meeting:
The next Shorepals meeting will be held on Thursday June 9, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at the Old Firehouse at the corner of Lake Rd. and Rt. 83.  This will be an important meeting as we make our final preparations for the Father's Day weekend.


Cudos Corner:
We would like to thank everyone who worked the concession stand at the NOGSL All-Star game this past weekend.  This list would include Betsy Mielcusny, Colleen Robinson, Ali Robinson, Suzanne Krause, Karen Krause, Eva Zunich, Rada Zunich, Rod Braye, Chris Nedrich, Taylor Nedrich, Emily Dargenio, Matt Heschel, Ali Heschel, Kathy Crooks, & Amy Crooks.


Congrats to...
Also, at the NOGSL All-Star game this past weekend one of our graduating seniors - Maddie Bernard - was awarded a $2,000 scholarship from the NOGSL.  The scholarship is based on academics, activities, community service, leadership, and an essay on the subject of your most memorable moment playing in the NOGSL.  I believe Maddie is the first Avon Lake player to receive this award from the NOGSL.  Congrats to Maddie!!!


Soccer Site of the Week:
We are going to start our build up to the sixth Women's World Cup which will be held in Germany on June 26th thru July 17th.  The U.S. is in Group D and their schedule is as follows:

June 28th vs. North Korea at 11:45 a.m.

July 2nd vs. Columbia at 11:30 a.m.

July 6th vs. Sweden at 2:30 p.m.

For more information visit the U.S. National team site at:

http://www.ussoccer.com/

Once there, click on the tournaments tab and then click on the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.  Rosters, schedules, stories - everything you need to know about U.S. team.

News for the Week of May 16, 2011

Program Notes for the Week of 5/16/2011:

Blogsite Updates:
Please note that we have updated a number of items on our blogsite. We now have the major dates listed for the 2011 Calendar.  As we move into the summer training session in June, we will update the specific activities for each week in the blog.   The 2011 game schedule is now listed.  In addition, we have weeded out the defunct websites from our Soccer Links, so all the websites should be active.  Lastly, we have updated the Shorepals College Prep Guide for 2011.

Cudos Corner:
We are starting to organize our parent volunteers for next season and would like to thank the following people for heading up our various committees:

Father's Day Tournament - Ken & Suzanne Krause

Duct Tape Festival - Paul & Amy Kress

Alumni Game - Chris Nedrich & Holly Spitz

Concession Stand - Betsy Mielcusny & Linda Gates

Shoregal Yearbook - Jim Coyne

Photographers - Vic Strimbu & Ron Petras

We still have some open jobs that we would like to fill very soon as follows:

1) We need someone to head up our digital media with a website and our blogsite. 

2) We are also looking for someone to head up our Kicks for the Cure event.

3) We also need someone to organize our team dinners.

Let John Kenny know if you are able to fill these positions.


Soccer Site of the Week:
This week's site is:

http://www.nationalsoccerranking.com/

This is another site where they rank club teams on a regional and nationwide basis.  This may be of interest to those who are heavy into the club soccer scene.  They also have information on college camps and youth tournaments.

Next week, we turn our attention to the Women's World Cup which starts in about 5 weeks.

News for the Week of May 9, 2011

Program Notes for the Week of 5/9/2011:

Attention parents - there will be a couple of meetings this week that you will want to attend:

Parent Calendar Meeting:
This meeting is held in order to review the season calendar with parents and to outline the expectations for the season.   It will be held on Tuesday May 10th at 7:30 p.m. at ALHS. It is expected that at least one parent will be in attendance.

Shorepals Meeting:
The next Shorepals meeting will be held on Thursday May 12th at 7:00 p.m. at the Old Firehouse at the corner of Lake Rd. and Rt. 83. We will be discussing our preparations for Father's Day along with the Alumni picnic and the Teambuilding outing plus many other activities.

Strongsville Showcase Reminder:
This a reminder to Junior/Senior parents whose daughter may be interested in playing college soccer to sign up for the Junior/Senior spotlight games during the Strongsville Showcase weekend.  These games are held on Saturday night during the Showcase and are scrimmage type games where girls from all different schools are placed on teams which play against each other while observed by a large number of college coaches. It is a good opportunity to be noticed or to solidify in a coach's mind that they would like to recruit you. Each parent must sign their daughter up for the games themselves, the coaches don't handle this for you. The cost is $40 and the games do fill up and then you are placed on a waiting list. Don't wait until June to decide to play, sign up now so your spot will be reserved. You may sign up at:

www.adidasnationalshowcase.com

then go to the Girls tab and then hit Spotlight Player Registration and then follow the directions from there.

Also, be sure to inform the coaches of any colleges that you are interested in playing for that you will be participating in both the spotlight games and regular games with Avon Lake.


Soccer Site of the Week:
This week's featured site is:

http://www.gotsoccer.com/

This site provides information and rankings for club teams and tournaments.  Once on the site, hit the "Rankings" box on the right side of the screen.  Follow the various prompts until you get to the clubs ranking page that you selected.  By the way, Ohio North is located in Region 2.

News for the Week of May 2, 2011

Program Notes for the Week of 5/2/2011:

Welcome back to everyone from Spring Break!


Shorepals Newsletter:
Be sure to look in your e-mail inbox as the latest issue of the Shorepals newsletter went out last week. In this issue you find info. on open committee positions, fundraising events, Kicks for the Cure, and more.

Shorepals Meeting:
The next Shorepals meeting will be held on Thursday May 12th at 7:00 p.m. at the Old Firehouse at the corner of Lake Rd. & Rt. 83. We will be discussing our preparations for Father's Day along with the Alumni picnic and the Teambuilding outing plus many other activities.

Soccer Site of the Week:
As we are in the offseason training period, we will pass along some additional training info.  This week's featured site is:

http://www.aclprevent.com/

This is the site for the Santa Monica PEP program which is the most popular program in use today for the prevention of ACL tears in female athletes.  Once you are on the site, simply hit on the PEP program title at the top of the screen and a listing of the exercises that make up the program will appear.  PEP stands for Prevent injury, Enhance Performance.  Female athletes at the high school and collegiate level in the United States suffer more than 30,000 serious knee injuries each year, so you can see why a regimin of prevention exercises would be important.