Meeting Minutes – 5/19/09
Meeting Held at Bean Coffee House
Present: Jim Coyne, Daegen Duvall, Linda Glasser, John Kenny, Mary O’Malley, Ingrid Mills, Susan Bernard, Vanessa Furrer, Jane Lyons, Caroline & Frank Szocs, Chris Higgins, Randy Srail
Purposes for forming a soccer boosters club:
Provide a foundation and support system to enable the program to move into an elite level in the Cleveland area.
- Ensure continuity in the program so that future generations do not have to “reinvent the wheel” but rather will be able to take the program and continue to step up to higher levels.
- Create an environment where our players can expand and develop their skills.
- Create an environment where the valuable lessons of teamwork and goal achievement can be realized through a positive 4 year experience in the program.
Topics covered:
1) We are going to try a different approach to the management of our group. We will reduce the number of meetings per year to 6. In the other 6 months without a meeting a newsletter will be published keeping everyone informed of what is happening within the program. The schedule will look as follows:
Meetings Newsletters
April Jan.
May Feb.
June March
Aug. July
Sept. Nov.
Oct. Dec.
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In addition, we are looking for one parent per grade year ( Freshman, Soph., etc.) to serve as a coordinator for that grade. Their duties will be similar to that of the team parent at the club or travel levels. We will need them to contact the parents in that grade year and make sure that everyone has signed up for the various functions that we need volunteer help with. This way it will be easier to contact smaller groups of people which will help to make sure everything is moving forward even when attendance may be low. It is still best to have healthy attendance at meetings as things get planned and completed faster that way.
2) Coaches Update – We spent some time discussing funding for the team along with the need for new uniforms for both of the JV teams. Out of this discussion, a plan was formulated with the coaches during the subsequent week on how to get the uniforms and the remainder of the needed funding. Also, the coaching staff will be approaching the athletic dept. with the idea of having at least two of the JV Gold games played on the high school field. The balance of their games will be played at Troy.
3) Concessions:
Some good news here – there will be a new concession stand at the Stadium next year and there will be a cooler that we will share with the Boys team. This will be a big bonus for us as we will be able to store our drinks and keep them cold throughout the season. We should not have to haul the drinks back and forth and spend money on ice. This should make the job of managing the concession stand much easier. With that being said, we still need new volunteers to run our concession stand next year. It would be optimal to have parents from each grade level to be familiar with the operations of the concession stand as this will facilitate a smooth transition from year to year. Below are the positions that we need filled for the next year. Let me know if you are interested.
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1) Setup – this would involve getting the stand ready to go by the 5:00 p.m. start of the JV games. We will need a new volunteer or team of volunteers for next year. Really, with the beverages situation being taken care of now, this job will only entail setting out the snacks and candy, getting the hotdogs ready, and some general set-up tasks. We really need some volunteers here, no one has stepped forward! The time parameters make this job suited to a stay at home mom.
2) Staff – this is usually not a problem as people sign up and work their shifts. Ideally, people only need to work one game per season. JV parents work Varsity games and Varsity parents work JV games.
3) Close –up – we need someone to close down the stand, pack up the food, secure the money, etc. Once again, we will need a new set of volunteers for next year. Ideally, the best way for this to work is to have the same person or persons handle nos. 1,3, & 4.
4) Inventory – we need a volunteer to keep the food and equipment between games and over the offseason. Need new volunteers here also.
5) Purchaser – Ingrid Mills has volunteered to fill this job once again this year.
6) Financial – volunteer to manage the booster club account, deposit receipts, and dole out money for apparel & other items. I will continue to handle again this year.
4) Fundraising:
Our next two fundraising events will both be coming up in June. One is the Father’s Day Tournament and the other is the Duct Tape festival. We need volunteers to head up both of these events. We will also be asking our soccer families to work at both of these events. More details are listed under the Team Related Activities section below.
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As the summer progresses, we will be working on two more fundraising opportunities. The first event will be working the refreshment stands at two road races – one will be in July and the other in Sept. The way this works is that we supply 10 volunteers per station and receive $250. If we can get enough volunteers for two stations at both of the races then we can earn $1,000. The work entails setting up the drinks, passing them out to the participants, and clean up afterwards. All the drinks & supplies are provided by the race organizer. Mario Quintero has set this up for us and will be the coordinator. More details will follow.
The second project revolves around selling pizza cards. The pizza card will offer discounts/freebies to all of the local Avon Lake pizza establishments. The card will sell for $10 or $15. We have been approached by a firm who takes care of everything associated with card. Our role is to sell the cards for which we will keep 50%. Other teams that have sold these cards start out around $2,500 profit and by the 3rd year of sales are bringing in $5,000 and above for a reasonable time investment. One “blitz” day in Avon Lake and additional sales to family and friends. Everyone loves Pizza and it is easy to sell. At this point, we are still investigating this idea. But, if we were to do it, we do in early Aug. and be finished before the season starts.
Lastly, we are looking at selling Robek’s smoothies in our concession stand on games days. Robek’s is very popular right now amongst the high school age group. Once again, Robek’s takes care of everything and we just sell. Easy way to make some extra money.
5) Team Related Activities:
These are activities that we do during the year for and with the girls. We need to find volunteers as coordinators for next year for the activities listed. A brief summary of what we have done over the past year is listed below:
1) Father’s Day Tournament – We will be working at Troy on Sat. & Sun. and Walker Rd. on Sat. We need someone to coordinate the logistics of the two locations including getting volunteers to work at the two locations and setup/closeup. We have general instructions on how to run the stands. Ingrid Mills will handle the purchasing of food items.
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This is a critical need – we are less than 3 weeks away and we still do not have a volunteer. It looks like the Szocs will coordinate Walker Rd. on Sat. for us. However, we need a coordinator for the 2 days at Troy. The sign up sheet has been circulated previously and we will be pushing to fill up the slots once the FD schedules come out.
2) Duct Tape Festival - We work the three days of the festival manning a booth where we sell duct tape and other promotional items. Once again this year, the program will receive a $1,000 for our efforts. This has traditionally been held over the Father’s Day weekend also, so it makes a very busy but lucrative weekend for our program. The sign up sheet has been circulated previously and we will be pushing to fill up the slots once the FD schedules come out.
3) Relay for Life – Our main community service project as a team. We raise money by running games at the Relay itself and through donations. Our “score a goal and get a stuffed animal” is always a hit. Yes, we do stay the entire night. Pat Donegan has volunteered to head this event for the 3rd year in a row. We need two parents per shift to oversee the girls. In honor of Sammy Harris we will be doing “The Poop Shoot”. Also, we need stuffed animals – as many as possible – bring those over to the Relay.
4) Alumni Game & Picnic – This event is scheduled for Sunday July 12th in the afternoon and early evening. We want to do some fundraising at this event and are thinking about holding a reverse raffle or at the very least a 50/50 raffle. Chris Nedrich, Holly Spitz, Karen Liska, and Linda Gates have volunteered to coordinate.
5) Annual weekend outing – This is a team building event to get the girls comfortable with each other and revved up for the season. Update – coach Nate Taylor has helped us out quite a bit here and has planned for the girls to go down to Pilgrim Hills Camp which is somewhat near Columbus. The dates are August 7 – 9th Friday, Sat., & Sunday and will involve camping, canoeing, etc. No soccer, no lectures, just spending time together having fun. We will need to have a number of parent chaperones to assist with this weekend. More details and costs to follow as we get closer.
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6) Team Dinners – There seems to be a strong sentiment to going back to the full team format which has been done in the past for at least a few times next year. The Srails, the Glassers, and the Kowalskis have all volunteered to host one of these full team dinners for next year. We will need a coordinator to schedule the remainder of the dinners.
7) Senior Night – The senior parents will need to coordinate. After 4 years in the program, we need to ensure that the girls are properly recognized in a dignified manner.
8) End of season gifts – Need coordinator; also parents of seniors plan on helping.
9) End of season party – I think the parents enjoy the socializing more than the girls, but it is a positive way to end the season no matter what our results. We will need someone who would like to host this event.
10) Post season games – We need to make a habit of attending District championship games, Regional games, and State Tournament games. Hopefully, we will soon be playing in these games. For that matter, we need to have our JV girls attend our own playoff games. At any rate, the girls need to experience the atmosphere at these games so that when they do play in them, they know what to expect. The crowds and atmosphere at Regional and State games are very different than your normal regular season game. Those who prepare for success will experience that success. Once again, I will need a volunteer to coordinate this activity.
6) Program Related Activities:
These are specific tasks that can be done by parents to support and enhance the overall soccer program:
1) Program – Jim Coyne & Chris Higgins have volunteered to lead the way this year with our program. As you know by now, our plan is to make the program self sustaining and at least pay for itself by selling advertisements. Jim is heading up this process along with Jane Lyons, Frank Szocs, Holly Spitz, and Joe Kowalski. We have made good progress so far in selling the ads. As the summer progresses, you will be contacted by your grade leader to assist in this effort.
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2) Website – please continue to visit our website – www.alshoregalsoccer.org . We continue to add more links and more information. This is the place to find out about all things Shoregal soccer. A main intent of this website is for it to be a resource for both the girls and their parents. As our current webmaster Pat Tarter’s daughter is a senior, we will need to transition the website to a new person this year. If there are any web saavy parents out there who would like to take over our website, please let me know.
3) Film games – We are looking for new volunteers for next year. We would like to film Varsity games, JV games, and focus on filming the girls who intend to play in college so that game films can be made for each girl to send to various colleges. We need both parents and JV’s to help with this task and there will be some compensation involved. Update – Coach Duvall has arranged for a bank of 3 cameras to be available for our use through the high school AV dept. One will be used to film the game for coaching staff use and the other two will be used to film individual girls who are interested in playing in college and need to make a highlight tape for prospective coaches. We need volunteers to man the cameras both home & away and will use some combination of JV’s and parents to get this done. Let me know if you would like to volunteer.
4) Game Banners – We are trying to create an atmosphere and make girls soccer games an event. Banners and signs add to the ambiance. We want to expand our sign making for next season.
5) Stat Keeper – right now the coaches handle this duty, but it would be helpful if a parent was willing to keep stats while watching the game. We will instruct you on what to do, you just need to be very observant. Karim Nasr has volunteered for this important job for this year.
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6) Scouting – once again the coaches handle when they can, but it would be helpful to have others involved to lessen the burden. We would like to scout ahead on challenging opponents and you would be instructed on what to look for.
7) Soccer ball sign keeper – We need someone to coordinate the soccer ball signs for the varsity and store over the winter/summer and do a little maintenance when needed. Mary O’Malley has volunteered to babysit our signs again over the offseason. Please get your signs over to her.
8) Picture taking – Vic Strimbu has volunteered to help us again this year with both our Shoregal Yearbook pictures and a season highlight disk as well.
7) Offseason Program:
The coaching staff just sent out an updated summer schedule this week. Conditioning will start bright and early on Monday 6/8 at 7:00 a.m. There will be a combination of conditioning, open plays, and skills training throughout the summer. Key dates are as follows:
June 16-18 Soccer Skills Camp 7-8:30a.m. & 2-4p.m.
July 13-16 Soccer Training sessions 7-8:30a.m. & 2-4p.m.
July 17-19 Strongsville Showcase
Aug. 7-9 Teambuilding Camp
Aug. 10-14 Team tryouts
8) Shoregal Soccer History:
I have the all time stats put together with the info. that has been made available to me, but I am still missing data for a number of years. Info. that I need to make the records complete include:
1) I need to borrow a 1999 ALHS yearbook from whoever may have one.
2) I need help with data from 1999, 2000, 01, 02, & 03. I have minimal or no data at all from those years. Coincidentally, they happen to be the highest goal scoring years in the history of the program. Anyone that knows of any players or parents from that era, please let me know. I would like to get in contact with them to see what data that they may have.
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9) College Corner – This is a feature where I will present options that are available for the girls to play soccer in college. Many parents are bewildered by where to start to find a place for their daughter to play in college. One of the functions of our booster club should be to help parents through this process and we have compiled a number of resources to help. I have on hand the The Sport Source’s Women’s Soccer Guide which lists 1,300 women’s college soccer programs throughout the U.S. The book is available to be circulated among all the parents in our program. Let me know if you want to take a look. Also, we have a number of links on our website to assist with college recruiting. In addition, I have the following three books on college recruiting on hand:
a. The Student-Athlete & College Recruiting by Rick Wire
b. Athletic Scholarships for Dummies
c. Make the Team The Art of Self-Recruiting by Avi Stopper
These are all available to be circulated throughout the group.
The coaching staff has expressed a sincere interest in helping the girls to play soccer in college. They have numerous contacts with college coaches, they are going to attempt to have coaches attend our more significant games, and are going to circulate info.on the girls on a wider basis.
This time I would like to present our annual College soccer summer camps listings and general info.
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.
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But the player can have unlimited contact with coaches at any time from freshman year on 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:
Bowling Green State Univ. Div. 1
Miami Univ. Div. 1
The Ohio State Univ. Div. 1
Univ. of Cincinnati Div. 1
Univ. of Dayton Div. 1
Wright State Univ. Div. 1
Xavier Univ. Div. 1
University of Toledo Div. 1
Youngstown State Div. 1
University of Findlay Div. 2
Tiffin Univ. Div. 2
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The College of Wooster Div. 3
Heidelberg Univ. Div. 3
Mt. Union College Div. 3
Oberlin College Div. 3
Ohio Northern Univ. Div. 3
Wittenberg Univ. Div. 3
Cedarville Univ. NAIA
Malone College NAIA
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.
10) Open Discussion:
1) We are looking into coming out with a line of Shoregal soccer wear which could be worn by both the players and parents and provide a consistent look. We may also offer the line to the ALSO travel program as well so everyone can look like a Shoregal!!
2) We need to get some plastic or metal racking for the storage shed at Troy. The shed needs to be organized as both the Boys and Girls equipment is mixed together and the available space needs to be used more efficiently. Bluntly put - It is a mess. The racks should be 5 to 6ft. high with adjustable levels. If anyone has any old racks that they would like to part with, we would be interested in getting those.
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3) Financial report – We now have a checking account in the name of the Shorepals Soccer Club. No need to write checks to John Kenny any longer! This will make it easy to transition from parent group to parent group in the coming years. We are low on funds right now as this is before we start on our fundraising activities for the year. Our checking account balance is at $65.28.
Our next meeting of the SHOREPALS will be on Tuesday June 16th at 7:00 p.m. at the Bean Coffee House in the Learwood Plaza.
Respectfully submitted by
John Kenny
