Some Soccer Thoughts:
I hope you got the chance to see the various English Premier League games telecast on the Fox & ESPN on Sunday morning, especially Manchester City vs. Queens Park Rangers (QPR). What a game!! - in a game that Manchester City needed to win to earn the league championship and QPR battling to avoid relegation, QPR took a 2-1 lead into 5 minutes of injury time. Then City pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in EPL history as they scored twice in the injury time to win 3-2 and secure their first EPL championship since 1968. Amazing sight to watch that stadium erupt after the winning goal. As for QPR, after Irish National team goalie Paddy Kenny, who is my favorite player for obvious reasons, made some outstanding saves during the game, they were able to hang on to the last spot above relegation despite the loss and will be back in the EPL next year. The other games shown on the other channels were good as well as teams were fighting for Champions League spots or to avoid relegation. This is the kind of excitement that soccer can generate and what makes it fun to watch!
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.
This week we are going to spotlight Joe Bradley:
Joe was a key figure in the formulation of both the boys and girls soccer programs in Avon Lake. In 1977, he started the Avon Lake youth soccer association. A program which today has grown to serve over 800 kids each year and is the main feeder system for our high school teams.
Joe continued his association with soccer by becoming the Shoremen head coach in 1985. During his 7 year tenure, he developed a program which had never had a winning season into a perpetual winner.
Joe would find himself back on the sidelines again in 1995 as head coach of the Shoregals soccer team. Once again, during his 4 years as head coach, he took a program which had little success and turned it into a consistent winner. He took the girls to their first District final in 1996. All together, Joe amassed more than 100 victories with boys and girls teams combined. Along the way, he was named Southwestern Conference Coach of the Year three times, once with the boys and twice with the girls.
In the years before his sudden death from a heart attack in 2007, Joe contributed his talents to the program as the "Voice of Avon Lake High School Soccer" as he handled the announcing duties for the boys & girls teams. His smooth style and distinctive countdown to the end of the game will be long remembered. If anyone could be called the "Father of Avon Lake Soccer" that person would have to be Joe Bradley.
Joe was also a beloved basketball coach in Avon Lake. He was one of the founders of Avon Lake youth basketball. However, his signature accomplishment was the 21 years he served as the Learwood Middle School 7th grade boys and girls basketball coach.
Joe continues to be remembered fondly by all those whose lives he touched!!
Soccer Site of the Week:
This week we would like to feature a site called "The Car Ride Home" which can be found at:
http://thecarridehome.com/
This website features a book by Mike Bergstrom which is intended to be a gentle reminder of the things we as parents should already know, but sometimes lose sight of.
It is a quick read and is only $7.95 and can help you put perspective back into your relationship with your child regarding athletics.
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