Sign Up for Soccer Camp! II

Register for Soccer Camp this week! The early registration discount of $30 is good until June 1st! You can also combine this discount with the group registration discount of $10 before June 1st and $20 after June 1st. With the group discount plus the early registration discount, you can go to soccer camp at Maranatha for $180 - includes room, board, soccer instruction and fun.

Let me spell it out clearly:

$220 - no group discount, no early bird discount

$200 - group discount, no early bird

$190 - no group discount, early bird

$180 - group discount and early bird

Last year, one father thanked me for taking his two sons off his hands for a whole week. Parents, what is it worth to you to have your kids out of your hair for a whole week this summer? I'm sure it's more than $180. . . :) - C

later edit: The group discount after June 1st is only $10 so the group price after June 1 is $210.

UEFA Cup

Personally, I think the soccer in the UEFA Championship is more entertaining than the soccer during the World Cup. The things that make the WC so exciting is the nationalistic fervor and the chance to see "home grown" talent instead of professionals who play for the highest bidder. Either way, I love to watch both and today I am recording the UEFA final on ESPN2 at 1:30 pm CST. Wish I could go home and watch it live...-C

From a few years ago...

Scott Hawes and I came to Maranatha in the fall of 1993. You can see from the pictures posted here that we have changed a little. I have also added a few new links to the right including the link called "History Blog". Over the next year, our publications department will be posting many pictures and articles about the history of Maranatha from the last 40 years. 2008 marks our 40th year in existence. Feel free to leave comments there and many of you alumni are welcome to submit articles or pictures for that blog. -C

Sad News

I hesitated to make this post, but I think there may be a large number of you who may not find out in any other way - Nate Miller's mother passed away this last weekend. Nate is a senior at Maranatha and is not a soccer player - he played football and basketball for MBBC. Most of you know that I happen to coach soccer, but I have a high level of interest in all of the other sports here on campus. Furthermore, several soccer players also played on the basketball team with Nate. I remember Mrs. Miller as being outgoing and her ability to feed an entire football or basketball team was well-known. This last winter I was stranded in Lincoln, IL while on my way to the College Cup (NCAA I Final Four) in St. Louis, MO during an ice/snow storm. It just so happened that the Maranatha basketball team was also in town for a tournament and so I called Coach Cronin and I was able to "bunk" in the hotel with the basketball team for the night. Mr. and Mrs. Miller were there and - I guess they did this often - had made a meal for the entire team and whoever else was around - including me.
Here at Maranatha, it is a sad, but fairly common occurrence for a grandparent of one of our students to pass away during the school year. The passing of a parent is an entirely different matter - especially when so many of us on campus knew the parent. Please pray for the Miller family. I'm sure that Nate would appreciate hearing from some of you who knew him well. If you need his cell # or other contact info, don't hesitate to get in touch with me or Coach Cronin.-C

Freshmen

Those of you who have been through the soccer program here at MBBC know that I tend to ignore freshmen - at least it seems that way to players in their first year. It isn't a conscious decision on my part that is just how things happen to play out. We like freshmen, we couldn't have a soccer program without freshmen - it's just that they are meant to be seen and not heard. :) Honestly, most freshmen don't know enough about college soccer to offer any suggestions that are worth while. Mostly, they just try to tell me how their high school coach did things. Another part of the reason that this happens is that I want to gauge a player's level of committment to the program before I invest a great deal of trust in him. The Maranatha Soccer program is run for the benefit of the player who is committed over the long haul. The player who has proven his committment - not the flash in the pan freshmen who has one fantastic year and no one ever hears from him again.

However, by the time a player is a junior, he and I are typically very good friends. Sometimes I even consult seniors about tactical decisions. They have been through the wars, they know what is going on. Furthermore, I want each of them to become a coach someday and it is a good opportunity for them to begin to exercise their abilities.

I believe that God rewards faithfulness and I hope that Maranatha Soccer helps to instill this virtue.-C

Deadline for Soccer Camp!

Soccer Camp is filling up quickly. Remember that you can register online and that there is a significant reduction in cost if we receive your registration before June 1. We have recently added a group discount - but you have to call the athletic office here at the college to get details. The group discount applies to early registration and for registrations received after June 1.
I scored another goal for the Madison Masters last weekend. The keeper was out and I collected a rebound and chipped him from 40+ yards. It made up for the PK that I missed in week 2...my shot was on goal, but the keeper saved it in the corner. Some of you may remember that I tell you to never change your mind about what you are going to do on a PK. I always shoot low and right if the goal means something, but in my approach, I changed my mind and hit low and left. As Charlie Brown used to say, "Those who can't do, coach instead." - C

From Germany

I just found the Team Germany blog. We have a team of volleyball players, staff and Julie Muse who are on a mission's trip in Germany right now. There are posts, pictures and comments. Leave a comment and say hi to Julie.-C

I've had this post ready for a couple of days, but I couldn't get the picture that I wanted for it. You'll have to check out the pictures on the Team Germany blog. Can you find the one where one of the players is wearing a Maranatha Soccer sweatshirt?

Graduation

Commencement is always a great time of year. It is such a blessing to see those who have persevered and finished the course get to walk across that stage and receive their diplomas. This year, we had one of our largest graduating classes of soccer players. Here is a picture of most of them. Somehow Eloe missed it... - C

Mark Scally, Steven Dow, Laura (Frazee) Shaver, Lisa Kowalcyk, Cheri (Knepp) Wredberg, Autumn Byers, Hayley McGrail, Kim Gavitt, (not pictured: Erik Eloe, Justin Monge)

Field Test

Last Monday, the members of the Techniques of Coaching Soccer class gave their field tests. The field test consisted of preparing a training plan, administrating that plan and actual on-field coaching of their classmates. Each student was in charge of a 10 to 15 minute session then all of them participated in the sessions run by others. The whole exam took almost 3 hours. I would like to thank Daniel Backhaus, Dan Campbell and Chris Jochum who were not a part of the class, but participated in the exam so that we had enough players to execute the drills that were given by the coaches. They all did well, especially considering that almost half of the class had never played soccer previously. Here are some more pictures:

Volleyball Mission's Trip

Julie Muse and Grace Komis (Sommer Rodolph and Jen Adam in the background) at the church in Erlange, Germany - June 2006.Many of you know that this blog began as a result of the men's and women's soccer team's missions trip to Germany last summer. You can read about that trip and view pictures by clicking on the May/June/July 2006 links to the right. This summer the Maranatha Volleyball team is taking a mission's trip to Germany and they will minister in a few of the same places. Two weeks ago, Julie Muse, a member of our women's soccer team and a good all-around athlete was asked to be a part of the volleyball trip. Before she know where the money would come from, Julie agreed to go.

Julie will have a great opportunity to minister in a place that will be more familiar to her than anyone else on the trip. An even greater blessing is that many of you were so generous for the soccer trip that we had a surplus left in the account. (I wanted to spend it on warm-ups for the women's team but that would not have been a wise use of the money that had been donated for mission's work.) We decided the best choice was to keep the money in the account until the next time we took a mission's trip - until we found out that Julie would be going with the volleyball team. The surplus was enough to cover Julie's trip this summer.

All of us who participated in last year's trip are a little jealous of Julie but we wish her the best. I hope all of you will remember the volleball team in prayer when they leave for their trip at the end of May. It is a great blessing to see the hand of God work.-C

...and if anyone is interested in helping the Maranatha women's team purchase new warm-ups for the upcoming season, you know where to find me. :)