News for the Week of June 4, 2012

Program Notes for the Week of 6/4/2012:


Father's Day Weekend Signups:
Just a reminder to everyone to sign up for a shift at either the Duct Tape Festival or the Father's Day Tournament concession stand.  The sign up sheet is on line and adrres was included in an e-mail to all families.  We need everyones help to make this a successful fundraising weekend for the girls program.


Shorepal Meeting:
Our next Shorepals meeting is scheduled for Tuesday June 12th at 7:00 p.m. at The Old Firehouse which is located at the corner of Rt. 83 & Lake Rd. We will be finalizing our plans for the Father's Day weekend events. Hope to see you there!


20th Anniversary of Shoregal Soccer:
This season we will celebrate 20 years of Shoregal soccer. That is a long time and we have had a lot of terrific girls pass through our program over the years who have set the bar high for future generations. Each week, we are going to highlight some of the important games and important people to the program over these last 20 years.

In honor of the ALHS graduation this past weekend, we will feature Annette Ilg who was class of 2006 valedictorian.

Annette Ilg 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 for the fall of 2010. 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 2010 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!!