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.