Shoregal Soccer

Shoregal Soccer

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

News for the Week of Feb. 13, 2012

Program Notes for the Week of 2/13/2012:


Scholarship Time:
We want to remind all our graduating Seniors of $3,000 in scholarship money that is available to soccer players at ALHS. One of the scholarships is the NOGSL scholarship which is explained in more detail below. Two years ago Maddie Bernard received this scholarship from the NOGSL, so it can be won by our girls.


2012 NOGSL SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION

The Northern Ohio Girls Soccer League (NOGSL) is offering a scholarship program for former youth soccer players (members). This year’s program will award (4) scholarships, in the amount of $2000.00 each, to former players (members) who will be graduating from high school as a Senior in the class of 2012 and entering a U.S. college, university or a 2 year or greater technical school, as a full time student, for the first time in 2012. The scholarship is divided evenly over a period of 4 succeeding years at $500 per year towards the cost of college.

(NOTE: the program requirements are subject to change on an annual basis).

* Student Eligibility: Graduating high school senior, entering a college or university or and 2 yr or greater technical school the following fall, must have participated as roistered player (member) at least three (3) full seasonal years on an NOGSL registered youth team.

* The Application process: In addition to meeting the qualifying requirements defined above, a detailed application and a maximum 250 word essay must be completed and contribute to the selection process.

* Participation in High School or College soccer IS NOT A REQUIREMENT.

* Due by April 6, 2012

Mail Completed Applications to: NOGSL

Post Office Box 16205

Rocky River, Ohio 44116

Any question please emails them to Dan @ dgfrey2003@yahoo.commailto:dgfrey2003@yahoo.co


An application may be found at:

http://www.nogsl.com/

Go to the NOGSL scholarship area and click on the link.


The other scholarship is the Gino Strippoli Memorial Scholarship which is valued at $1,000. Applications for this scholarship are available in the Guidance office at ALHS. Past winners of this scholarship include:

2011 - Sarah Hudson
2010 - Bridget Lyons
2009 - Laura Rickey
2008 - Sammy Stewart
2007 - Sarah Lyons


Shorty Sez:
We continue to feature the teamwork philosophies from Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski who is a pre-eminent expert on leadership and teambuilding. This week we are continuing with the concept of the fist to reflect upon is as follows:

Coach K sees his team as the five fingers on a hand. When the fingers fit together, they create a powerful fist. When fingers are outstretched, they are on their own and can be easily broken by a fist. So it is with a team - if they play together and unite with a common goal they become like a fist which can always defeat individual fingers which are operating on their own. A great team possesses five qualities - Communication, Trust, Collective Responsibility, Caring, and Pride. These can also be thought of as individual fingers and when all five come together, they can form a fist which cannot be beaten.

This week we will look at Trust - Coach K believes in leadership there are no words more important than trust.  In any organization, trust must be developed among every member of the team if success is going to be achieved.  Trust involves having the ability to engage in straightforward face-to-face communication to overcome an obstacle or situation.  This can involve confrontation which Coack K believes is a good thing as confrontation simply means meeting the truth head-on.  In any kind of a team situation, the team members must be able to be open and honest with each other to create an environemt in which the highest level of performance can be achieved.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

News for the Week of Feb. 6, 2012

Program Notes for the Week of 2/6/2012:


Hats off to Fox Sports:
As some of you may have noticed on Super Bowl Sunday the Fox Network broadcast the Manchester United vs. Chelsea English Premier League game at 1:00 p.m.  It was a pretty entertaining game as Chelsea held a 3-0 lead early in the second half only to see a furious ManU comeback to tie the game at 3-3 at final.  A very bold move by Fox to telecast soccer on the biggest sports day in America.  Fox is using a smart marketing strategy to place soccer alongside American football instead of in competition with it. You are not going to replace American football - at least not in the near future, but soccer can find a place on Fall & Winter weekends in the U.S. around football.  Fox is starting to carve out this niche right now. As they would say in England - Brilliant!!!


Alumni Update:
One more quick update regarding Sammy Harris '08 who as we have reported had a reoccurrence of cancer. The latest word from the doctors is that she will not need to undergo any chemotherapy which is good news as the doctors feel confident that they got all of the cancer.  She has returned to Ohio State to continue work on her Civil Engineering degree and returning to life as a normal college student.  Best of luck and continued health to Sammy!!


Soccer Site of the Week:
While we are giving cudos to Fox Sports this week, let's highlight the Fox Soccer Channel's site at:

http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer

This site will give you news and standings and stats from the world of international soccer.  Almost anything that you want to know you can find it here.  Check it out!


Shorty Sez:
We continue to feature the teamwork philosophies from Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski who is a pre-eminent expert on leadership and teambuilding. This week we are continuing with the concept of the fist to reflect upon is as follows:

Last time we noted that Coach K sees his team as the five fingers on a hand. When the fingers fit together, they create a powerful fist. When fingers are outstretched, they are on their own and can be easily broken by a fist. So it is with a team - if they play together and unite with a common goal they become like a fist which can always defeat individual fingers which are operating on their own. A great team possesses five qualities - communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring, and pride. These can also be thought of as individual fingers and when all five come together, they can form a fist which cannot be beaten.

Let's look at communication - Coach K believes people learn how to think by communicating.  Leaders have to remind people to talk to one another. To be a great team people must communicate the competitive situations they are encountering whether it be on the field, the court, or the office. Team members must direct and coordinate each other through pressure situations and that can only be accomplished by talking so that everyone knows what must be accomplished immediately to achieve a winning result. Talk should be used to correct things that not going right and should be used to compliment and encourage when the game plan is being executed well.  A team of individual islands who stay quiet will never beat a team who talks and coordinates their actions during the heat of battle. 

Sunday, January 29, 2012

News for the Week of January 30, 2012

Program Notes for the Week of 1/30/2012:

We are going to take a little break from our usual content this week to concentrate on some college recruiting information.  Last week everyone should have been e-mailed the 2012 College Prep Guide and the area that requires the most immediate attention is the part that has to do with College soccer camps.  I am going to reprint below that part of our College Prep guide for everyone's information.


The College soccer camp is a tremendous opportunity for your daughter to display her soccer skills in front of prospective coaches. These camps are a win-win situation for the athlete and the school. Because of severely limited recruiting budgets for women’s soccer, it is nearly impossible for coaches to see a large pool of candidates. This is a major reason why they run summer camps – to bring the recruits to them. Remember also, that they are limited in when they can contact a player and the number of contacts they can have with a player. Generally, college coaches cannot have contact with prospective players until the summer before their Senior year and then the contacts are of a limited number based on NCAA rules.


However, the player can have unlimited contact with coaches at any time starting in their Freshman year as long as they initiate the contact through such methods as filling out the specific sport questionnaire for each college, sending the coach results from their season, informing them of upcoming tournaments they will be playing in, making college visits and by attending summer camps. The advantage to the players is that they get to display their skills to coaches over an 8-12 hour period over the course of 3-5 days plus personal contact. This is much more beneficial than having a coach come to one or two 80 min. games against possibly suspect competition where you are being substituted for frequently. In addition, the girls are hopefully improving their skill set at these camps by playing against higher level competition and learning college level techniques. If you are expecting college coaches to wander into Memorial stadium to see your daughter, this is not realistic. You have to put yourself in front of the college coaches and be very persistent at it. You have to make college coaches want to recruit you, not wait on them to recruit you.

Like everything else in the recruitment process, you need to focus in on the schools where you believe you have a realistic opportunity to play and then attend their summer camp. Now, which colleges run these summer camps? The following is a list of the schools in Ohio which are hosting camps this summer for high school aged players:


The Ohio State Univ.            Div. 1
Univ. of Cincinnati               Div. 1
Univ. of Dayton                   Div. 1
University of Akron             Div. 1
Kent State Univ.                  Div. 1
Youngstown State               Div. 1
Ohio Univ.                          Div. 1

Ohio Dominican Univ.         Div. 2
Ursuline College                  Div. 2
Cedarville Univ.                  Div. 2

The College of Wooster      Div. 3
Hiram College                     Div. 3
Ohio Northern Univ.           Div. 3
Wittenberg Univ.                Div. 3
Marietta College                 Div. 3

In addition, all Big Ten schools have soccer camps along with major schools such as Notre Dame, Marquette, and Pitt. In fact, every major conference D-1 school has a camp and you can access information on any camp through the college’s website.

You need to start making your summer plans now as these camps fill up quickly. Also if you select a camp, be sure to fill out the school’s soccer questionnaire and express your interest in playing at “ABC” college so they are aware of you when you come to camp.

A new development that has sprung up this year at many colleges is something known as the “College ID camp”. These are one day clinics held at the particular college in which the girls receive a day of college level soccer training and the coaches have the opportunity to initiate the recruiting process. Girls that they “ID” would certainly be invited to attend their summer soccer camp and the coaches will keep certain girls on their “watch” list. These ID clinics are held in the Winter/Spring and some colleges have already held theirs. So, if you are interested in a particular college, check their website and be sure to get an early start on this.


The remainder of the College Prep Guide may be found in this blog under the 2012 College Prep Guide page.
We have sent this out to everyone in the program and also to the incoming Freshmen as it is never too early to understand what is needed to play college soccer and to start planning accordingly. The four years in high school go by very quickly and many parents end up feeling as if they should have started on things earlier.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

News for the Week of January 23, 2012

Program Notes for the Week of 1/23/2012:

Some Thoughts about Soccer in America:
An interesting occurence took place this morning on the day of the AFC & NFC championship games The FOX network televised nationally the Manchester United vs Arsenal English Premier League game.  A soccer game being televised on a Sunday just hours before the American football chapionships?  Five years ago, this would have been thought impossible and they are going to do it again on Super Bowl Sunday with Man U vs. Chelsea.  This shows how far soccer has come in America that it can be televised nationally on a traditional American football day.  The U.S. appetite for international soccer continues to grow and soccer is becoming very integrated into the fabric of American life.  They only show these games because they can sell ads and they can only sell ads based on viewership.  So, it is obvious that there is a significant audience out there for international soccer.  This may be a beginning step in moving American soccer to a more international based schedule of a Sept. thru May season.  For that to happen, soccer will need to find its place on Fall &Winter weekends along with American football.  Soccer already probably has a larger viewing audience than Hockey and will soon become the "fourth sport" behind football, basketball, and baseball.   The popularity of soccer will continue to grow because it is a lifelong sport which can be played by all ages.  Also, when the stars of the game retire, they are not left as broken, crippled men whose lifespan is cut short by 20 years.  The public's perception of the brutality of football will eventually do it in and soccer will become the logical alternative.


Alumni Update:
We continue to have good news to report regarding Sammy Harris '08 who as we have reported had a reoccurrence of cancer. She has returned to Ohio State to continue work on her Civil Engineering degree and is in the process of catching up on this quarter's classes.  Please keep her in your prayers as she fights another round with this dread disease.  We will keep everyone updated on any future news as appropriate. But for now, things look to be very positive for Sammy.


Soccer Site of the Week:
This week's featured site is called the Student Athlete Scholarships Foundation site which can be found at:

http://www.student-athlete.net/

This is another site where you will find info. on college recruiting and scholarships. It consists of a number of publications some of which are free including a monthly newsletter and the rest seem reasonably priced. Check it out!


Shorty Sez:
We continue to feature the teamwork philosophies from Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski who is a pre-eminent expert on leadership and teambuilding. This week we will introduce the concept of the fist to reflect upon is as follows:

Coach K sees his team as the five fingers on a hand. When the fingers fit together, they create a powerful fist. When fingers are outstretched, they are on their own and can be easily broken by a fist.  So it is with a team - if they play together and unite with a common goal they become like a fist which can always defeat individual fingers which are operating on their own.  A great team possesses five qualities - communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring, and pride.   These can also be thought of as individual fingers and when all five come together, they can form a fist which cannot be beaten.  In the coming weeks, we will look at each of these 5 qualities in a little more depth.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

News for the Week of January 16,2012

Program Notes for the Week of 1/16/2012:

More Postseason awards:
One last award to report upon from the past season as Dana & Jillian Strimbu were named to the All-Sun newspapers soccer team - Congrats to Dana & Jillian!!


Alumni Update:
We continue to have good news to report this week regarding Sammy Harris '08 who as we have reported had a reoccurrence of cancer. She celebrated her 22nd birthday last week and it appears that there was only one tumor on her liver and the doctors feel confident that they got all of it. She is hoping to return to Ohio State in a few weeks to continue work on her Civil Engineering degree.  Please keep her in your prayers as she fights another round with this dread disease. Well wishes and messages may be sent to Sammy through the following site:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sammyharris

We will keep everyone updated as we know more in the weeks to come.


M.L. King Day:
This is traditionally an off day from school and for some people an off day from work and it is also a day where most of us are involved in indoor soccer. For those who may want to take a few minutes aside to honor Dr. King's life you can view his most famous "I Have a Dream" speech at - http://youtu.be/smEqnnklfYs.  It is only about 17 minutes long or you can view a complete transcript at www.usconstitution.net/dream.html  You can google on various other specches and biographical data also.


Soccer Site of the Week:
This week's featured site is the ESPN high school girls soccer site which can be found at:

http://espn.go.com/high-school/girls-soccer/

On this site you will find info. on nutrition, training, college recruiting, and top ranked players and teams.


Shorty Sez:
We continue to feature the teamwork philosophies from Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski who is a pre-eminent expert on leadership and teambuilding. This week's idea to reflect upon is as follows:

“When you are passionate, you always have your destination in sight and you are not distracted by obstacles. Because you love what you are pursuing, things like rejection and setbacks will not hinder you in your pursuit. You believe that nothing can stop you!”

-- Coach K

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

News for the Week of January 9, 2012

Program Notes for the Week of 1/9/2012:

Indoor Soccer:
We got off to a great start this past weekend to the indoor season as our Varsity squad played a competitive game and eventually lost by a goal.  Both of our JV teams won by large margins.  We are really pleased with the turnout this year as we have 45 girls playing during the current session.  Watch your schedules closely for games over the coming holiday weekend.


Alumni Update:
We have better news to report this week regarding Sammy Harris '08 who as we reported last week had a reoccurrence of cancer. Her surgery to remove half her liver and gall bladder was successful and she is now recuperating at home just in time to celebrate her 22nd birthday.  She is hoping to return to Ohio State in a few weeks to continue work on her Civil Engineering degree. Apparently, the liver can regenerate itself over the course of about six weeks. Please keep her in your prayers as she fights another round with this dread disease. Well wishes and messages may be sent to Sammy through the following site:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sammyharris

We will keep everyone updated as we know more in the weeks to come.


Soccer Site of the Week:
Once again, this week we will continue to feature a training site that I picked up from the Bishop Hartley high school website. The site is:

http://www.isoccer.org/

The site is called i*Soccer and features a system of 500+ training videos in combination with a personal profile on which the player charts their progress and can compare with other players across the nation. As their skill level improves the player earns a hierarchy of badges which signifies their increased ability. It is a self motivating program for the player which is being widely used throughout the country. It is difficult to describe in full detail here, so definitely check out the website.


Shorty Sez:
We will continue to feature the teamwork philosophies from Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski who is a pre-eminent expert on leadership and teambuilding. This week's idea to reflect upon is as follows:

"People want to be on a team.  They want to be part of something bigger than themselves.  They want to be in a situation where they feel that they are doing something for the greater good."

-- Coach K

Monday, January 2, 2012

News for the Week of January 2, 2012

Program Notes for the Week of 1/2/2012:

Happy New Year to all our soccer families!!   We hope your holiday season was good and now it is back to the business of Shoregal soccer!

Indoor Soocer:
Everyone watch their inbox this week as the final details on indoor soccer will be sent out via e-mail.  The first round of games will be on Sunday Jan. 8th and we will be fielding 3 teams this year.


Freshman Parent Meeting:
A reminder to all incoming Freshman (8th grade) parents that there is a meeting on Thursday Jan. 5th at 6:00 p.m. in room 114 at the high school.  This meeting is for 8th grade parents only and we will review both the indoor soccer program along with an overview of the entire HS program in general.


Alumni Update:
Some sad news to report regarding Sammy Harris '08 who overcame a bout with colon cancer a little over a year ago. The cancer has reappeared this time in her liver.  She will be in surgery on Tues. 1/3 to remove half her liver and gall bladder.  Please keep her in your prayers as she fights another round with this dread disease.  Sammy is one of our top statistical players of all time and may be best remembered for delivering a corner kick which Kimmy Ward scored on in overtime to give the Shoregals their only District championship over Magnificat in 2006.  Sammy is also determined to graduate on time from Ohio State in June with a degree in Civil Engineering.  Well wishes and messages may be sent to Sammy through the following site:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sammyharris

We will keep everyone updated as we know more in the weeks to come.  


Soccer Site of the Week:
This week we will feature a training site that I picked up from the Bishop Hartley high school website. The site is:

http://www.isoccer.org/

The site is called i*Soccer and features a system of 500+ training videos in combination with a personal profile on which the player charts their progress and can compare with other players across the nation. As their skill level improves the player earns a hierarchy of badges which signifies their increased ability.  It is a self motivating program for the player which is being widely used throughout the country. It is difficult to describe in full detail here, so definitely check out the website. 


Shorty Sez:
In the coming weeks, we are going to put up some motivational and team dynamics concepts from Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski who is a pre-eminent expert on leadership and teambuilding.  This week's idea to reflect upon is as follows:

"Sometimes adversity can work in your favor.  Instead of feeling sorry for yourself and using it as an excuse, accept the situation and try to make the most of it. That's how a team develops resilience and character."
-- Coach K