Two weeks of Tiger soccer in the books and we are moving along as expected. We struggled this week to have a full squad make it to any practices, our numbers were between 8 and 11 all week. The roster stands at 15 currently and hopefully we will keep all of them as we go forward.
Dribbling and passing are core skills that are absolutely necessary to be able to function as a soccer team and both of these are areas that we need to work on. My biggest concern, however, is our conditioning. Once a week we walk the extra 6+ blocks to the closest full soccer field and this past Wednesday I kept looking at the other half of the field (that we never used) and then back at our team wearing themselves out on half-field exercises and realized that I am going to need to recruit a few more kids just to be able to give our kids a break once our games start.
Our parent meeting is Tuesday night and our biggest issue will be transportation. We do not have a van or a bus, so we need parents to drive their kids to the games. Last year during both basketball seasons this was our biggest struggle. Hopefully enough parents are getting excited about having a soccer team that they plan on attending all of our games.
Overall I think we are where I expected us to be. The older kids expect us to get "murdered" in our games and the younger kids expect us to be "raw". It would be nice to be somewhere in between, we'll know more in another week or so.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Week One
Our last practice of our first week was today. We had 12 kids show up bringing the total number of participants for the week up to around 16. When a car of parents pulled up (our number one fans from basketball season), the mom driving shouted, "Hey Hope Hope! We got ourselves a team!" The past two days at school several other students took the schedule as well so it is possible that next week we could have a solid 16-18 kids coming to practice.
We walked the 8 or so blocks to the nearest full soccer field today so we could get some shots on goal. One of our 8th graders has actually played goalie for 4 or so years and this was his first practice. If you have to start a team from scratch and you only get one player with experience then goalie would be the spot you would want. If he turns out to be pretty good, then we only have to figure out how to score 2 or 3 goals a game instead of 8 or 9.
When we get to the actual playing (versus just drills), a couple players are beginning to show that they have skills above the rest of our players. A couple of my basketball players have finally showed up and have shown themselves to be pretty good at throw-ins. We'll see if that ends up being a "secret weapon" of sorts. Our only big worry at this point is that we only have $40 raised for uniforms with $50 on the way. Our school budget is not yet finalizes, so I am not sure what we are going to do but I am sure that the kids are excited. One boy described for me the "raw" cleats he was going to get this weekend.
Practices have been slow and are stretching me in my ability to slow down myself and reteach and remodel and repeat things I am saying and showing. This whole season will be just as great of a benefit to me as it will be for the kids.
We walked the 8 or so blocks to the nearest full soccer field today so we could get some shots on goal. One of our 8th graders has actually played goalie for 4 or so years and this was his first practice. If you have to start a team from scratch and you only get one player with experience then goalie would be the spot you would want. If he turns out to be pretty good, then we only have to figure out how to score 2 or 3 goals a game instead of 8 or 9.
When we get to the actual playing (versus just drills), a couple players are beginning to show that they have skills above the rest of our players. A couple of my basketball players have finally showed up and have shown themselves to be pretty good at throw-ins. We'll see if that ends up being a "secret weapon" of sorts. Our only big worry at this point is that we only have $40 raised for uniforms with $50 on the way. Our school budget is not yet finalizes, so I am not sure what we are going to do but I am sure that the kids are excited. One boy described for me the "raw" cleats he was going to get this weekend.
Practices have been slow and are stretching me in my ability to slow down myself and reteach and remodel and repeat things I am saying and showing. This whole season will be just as great of a benefit to me as it will be for the kids.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Day One...
We are off and running! We had 7 players show up today: 1 girl (8th grade) and 6 guys (two 6th, three 7th and one 8th grade). Four of our players have played soccer enough before that it showed a little bit in the simple drills we did today.
We kept it pretty basic with stretching, plyometric leg drills, beginning dribbling and passing drills and a good game of my favorite soccer drill- keep ball (keep away).
The attitudes of the seven who showed up today were great with a couple actually talking about how many games we are going to win. We all planned to call somebody tonight to see our numbers increase for tomorrow. If we doubled our size we would be set as an ideal size for us would be 14-16.
A few kids were surprised when I told them that our plan was to order brand new matching uniforms to play in this year. They must not be used to their sports teams wearing good uniforms. In Brian McLauren's book The Secret Message of Jesus, he tells about a friend of his from Malawi, Africa who began to do some amazing work with his homeland that included work with children.
"He made connections and got twenty-six soccer balls donated to the children of the village, because in the Kingdom of God, fun and play are important things. Carter knew this. He even helped them get uniforms, because in the Kingdom of God, dignity and pride are also important things."
As of today we have enough support for one full uniform (shirt, shorts and socks) with another pledged for. Each kit costs $40 and it would be great if anyone could help us out.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Support City Soccer!
As many of you know, Kate and I are thoroughly enjoying our life in Milwaukee. Part of the reason for that is my job working at HOPE Middle School. The ministry here perfectly fits our calling to minister to urban youth and families and is very rewarding and challenging.
This fall at HOPE we will be fielding our school’s very first soccer team for our 6-8th graders. I am very excited about this new adventure for many reasons; primarily because I love soccer and I love coaching youth sports with a focus of using athletics as a vehicle for discipleship. Beyond that, the prospect of introducing the “beautiful game” to students who have traditionally been uninterested in or overlooked by the sport really thrills me. Additionally, any program that gives our students an opportunity to spend their time and energy on something positive (and someday possibly open doors to college) is something I want to be a part of.
All but one of our current students at HOPE Middle School are enrolled in the Milwaukee Parent Choice Program which means that the city pays their tuition to attend our school. Given this context we do not ask our students to pay to participate in our extra-curricular activities. We have an athletic budget, but it is small and is used for all of our sports teams (soccer plus three basketball teams and cheerleading) to pay for referees and equipment. We are literally starting from scratch with our new soccer team and need everything to get started (with the exception of three soccer balls in my basement and a smattering of cones we have been using in gym class). Do you care greatly enough about me, the game of soccer, urban youth or all of these to help us out?
I’m calling this our “Support City Soccer” campaign and would love for you to be involved. Below, I have outlined various ways you can choose to “sponsor” our soccer team. In exchange for your financial support you will receive updates throughout the season on how things are going and a team photo at the end of the year to remind you about the difference you are making in the lives of city kids.
Thanks so much for thinking about how you can help us, God bless you.
*** All donations are eligible for tax deductible status and we can send you a giving statement if you want.
*** Please make checks payable to HOPE Middle School with “Soccer” in the memo
HOPE Middle School
Attn: Christian Arvold
510 E Burleigh St
Milwaukee, WI 53212
A $5 donation would get us…
- 2 “Captain” arm bands
A $10 donation would get us…
- 1 soccer ball
- 1 pair of shin guards
(We hope to have 14-16 players)
A $20 donation would get us…
- 1 pair of soccer cleats
- 1 net for the goal (Need 2)
- 1 mini-goal (For practice in our local park, need 2)
- 2 pair of goalie gloves
A $30 donation would get us…
- 1 goalie jersey (Need 2)
- 1 pair of goalie pants
A $40 donation would get us…
- 1 full kit/uniform
(Jersey, shorts and socks- we would love to have 20 kits)
This fall at HOPE we will be fielding our school’s very first soccer team for our 6-8th graders. I am very excited about this new adventure for many reasons; primarily because I love soccer and I love coaching youth sports with a focus of using athletics as a vehicle for discipleship. Beyond that, the prospect of introducing the “beautiful game” to students who have traditionally been uninterested in or overlooked by the sport really thrills me. Additionally, any program that gives our students an opportunity to spend their time and energy on something positive (and someday possibly open doors to college) is something I want to be a part of.
All but one of our current students at HOPE Middle School are enrolled in the Milwaukee Parent Choice Program which means that the city pays their tuition to attend our school. Given this context we do not ask our students to pay to participate in our extra-curricular activities. We have an athletic budget, but it is small and is used for all of our sports teams (soccer plus three basketball teams and cheerleading) to pay for referees and equipment. We are literally starting from scratch with our new soccer team and need everything to get started (with the exception of three soccer balls in my basement and a smattering of cones we have been using in gym class). Do you care greatly enough about me, the game of soccer, urban youth or all of these to help us out?
I’m calling this our “Support City Soccer” campaign and would love for you to be involved. Below, I have outlined various ways you can choose to “sponsor” our soccer team. In exchange for your financial support you will receive updates throughout the season on how things are going and a team photo at the end of the year to remind you about the difference you are making in the lives of city kids.
Thanks so much for thinking about how you can help us, God bless you.
*** All donations are eligible for tax deductible status and we can send you a giving statement if you want.
*** Please make checks payable to HOPE Middle School with “Soccer” in the memo
HOPE Middle School
Attn: Christian Arvold
510 E Burleigh St
Milwaukee, WI 53212
A $5 donation would get us…
- 2 “Captain” arm bands
A $10 donation would get us…
- 1 soccer ball
- 1 pair of shin guards
(We hope to have 14-16 players)
A $20 donation would get us…
- 1 pair of soccer cleats
- 1 net for the goal (Need 2)
- 1 mini-goal (For practice in our local park, need 2)
- 2 pair of goalie gloves
A $30 donation would get us…
- 1 goalie jersey (Need 2)
- 1 pair of goalie pants
A $40 donation would get us…
- 1 full kit/uniform
(Jersey, shorts and socks- we would love to have 20 kits)
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