This has nothing to do with soccer.

Just thought I would share a picture of my brother, Tim who is in Iraq. He has been there for almost six months and hopes to return in May. He is engaged to be married when he gets back. I thought it was a cool picture of my little brother who I used to beat up when ever I wanted. I don't mess with him anymore. - C

Solarek

Here is a story in the Indianapolis Star that mentions James Solarek, one of our soccer alums and former assistant coach and Andrew "Junior" one of our current players. They are both members of the soccer family here at Maranatha even though the story is about basketball. . . I guess that's what we get for recruiting Indiana boys. - C

Hard Data

Here are some of the percentages regarding homeschool enrollment at Maranatha:

Percentage of homeshool graduates in 1997: 4%

Percentage of homeschool graduates in 2006: 19%

Early tracking of 2007 applicants: 24%

I'm still trying to figure out why the women's soccer team has benefitted greatly from the upsurge in homeschool applicants, but the men's team has seen almost no corresponding benefit. Female homeschoolers tend to play soccer in clubs and rec leagues, those avenues are not closed to male homeschoolers. . . - C

Homeschool and Maranatha Soccer

The Christian school v Homeschool v Public School debate is one that I try not to get into. I attended Christian schools, have taught and coached in public schools and there is a possibility that Sarah and I will homeschool our children. Every situation is different and I can point to good and bad products of each educational choice. There are advantages and pitfalls to each. At Maranatha, the percentage of homeschool students at one point was less than 1% - homeschoolers basically did not exist before the 80's - except on the mission field. 25 to 30 percent of the student body is made up of public school graduates and the rest are from Christian schools. The percentages of Christian school and public school grads have remained more or less the same over the last decade. However, the make-up of the Maranatha student body shows an interesting trend over the past 4 or 5 years - the percentage of homeschool students is around 15% and rising at a very rapid rate. This is interesting because, to my knowledge, we have really made no direct effort to market to homeschooler or homes "cool" as Gretchen says. If anything, we have sought to increase our public school demographic while maintaining the Christian school percentage.

So, what does this have to do with soccer? Well, here is how it has played out so far: the women's team has had a large number of homeschoolers and much of our recent success is due to homeschooled students. Sommer, Jen, Hayley, Fenster and others are all products of homeschooling. I am currently in contact with at least two promising recruits who are homeschoolers who I hope will be members of the 2007 freshman class.
I am in no way downplaying the role of the many Christian school and public school players that we have had over the years, we can use anybody who wants to walk with the Lord and loves soccer. But the fact remains that, homeschooling has been very, very good to women's soccer at Maranatha.

Interestingly, homeschool graduates have not helped the men's program at all. Our roster is dominated by Christian and public school grads. I find the difference between the two genders to be interesting, but I'm not really sure why the disparity exists. Maybe some of you have a theory or two.

Two Christian school grads, two homeschoolers and one public school grad below.-C

Wisconsin is #1

This is very exciting. I just hope it lasts. Sunday's game is huge, but I'll trade it for six wins in the NCAA tournament. Bo Ryan had an extremely successful career at nearby NCAA III UW-Platteville who has been one of our opponents for the last few years.

See, Two-Sticks, I like sports other than soccer.

Just one soccer picture.-C

Training Session

Picture from a 2002 college women's practice. That freshman class finished as the winningest class ever for Maranatha women's soccer.Here is a link to a training session that was published on a website about a year ago. There are several things that I wish I had done differently, but many coaches who come to this site might get something you can use from it. I am still working on ideas for releasing training sessions on this blog, but it is difficult to do with text only. If any of you would like a particular soccer topic discussed on this blog, send it to me and we will mention it.
David Harris the referee assignor for the Northern Athletics Conference has also taken the job as the head girl's soccer coach at La Follette High School. David has been one of the top referees in the state for many years. He started the boys and girls soccer programs at Watertown High School.

Another picture from 2002. According to the comments on the previous post, we won't be seeing this move at the 2007 Alumni Scrimmage. Too bad. -C

Where Are They Now?

I receive many questions about our soccer alumni here at Maranatha so I thought it might be nice to relay what many of them are up to. I only gave their last initials to somewhat preserve their privacy. If you played with them, you will know who they are. Most of these players are those who I have personally coached, although I always like to hear what any soccer players from Maranatha are doing, so if you would like to give me info about yourself, a teammate or have a good idea for a post, email me at jcaucutt@mbbc.edu.
Katrina (A) B. - lives in Columbus, WI; recently had her third child; works with the youth at New Testament Baptist.
KJ (does she need a last initial?) - lives in Texas, expecting her first child; married to a fireman; teaches in a Christian school
Adam S. - working on an MS in agricultural engineering at UW Madison; attends New Testament in Columbus, WI
Susie F. - working in a Christian school in Phoenix, AZ; has a significant other
Christine and Travis - both Maranatha Soccer alums; taking seminary classes in Pennsylvania; headed for the mission field
Sommer R. - just left on her third short-term mission trip in two years
Myles K. - just took a youth pastorate in Illinois
Lisa K. - just finished student teaching (finally!)
Laura (F) S. - living in the Chicago area; her husband works for Systems Parking; not sure what L is doing, I think she is teaching; she attend the women's match v Dominican University last fall
Lindsey D. - teaching kindergarten in a Christian school in MI
Steve D. - getting married this summer; hopes to attend dentistry school in the fall
Kimmy G. - just finished student teaching; living in Watertown (Kimmy, come visit us sometime!); I think she is planning to get married this summer, but I havn't seen the "rock" yet.
Hayley M. - student teaching in MI; has several options for the fall
Jennifer A. - working as a coach and secretary here at MBBC
Tim A. - married and working in IN; I think he is still attempting to play professionally

Michelle F. - married, her husband spent time in Iraq and has returned to finish his degree; just had their second child

Carrie (C) P. - lives in Watertown; I need to call her sometime. ..
I'm sure that there are others I have missed and I'm sure that I got some of the info wrong up above. Feel free to correct it or let me know how you are doing.
The 2007 Alumni scrimmages have been set for Saturday, August 25th. Women play at 10:00 am and the men play at 3:00 pm.

Jen Adam just gave me a bunch of great electronic photos - mostly taken by Mr. Coordes. I hope to post a few of them over the next couple of months. Among other things they include "skinny coach", "young Lindsey", "hustlin' Hyder", "headband Tsunami" and many others. Good times. - C

Some quotes and a cool picture.

I thought I would take a break from soccer pictures to post one of the best pictures taken of my daughters in a long time. I think it really captures both of their personalities. Once again, Lord willing, we will be adding a boy to the mix near the end of March. My lovely wife took the picture.

I am in the middle of correcting the Philosophy of Coaching papers from my Techniques of Coaching Soccer class. I am enjoying some of the thoughts and some of you might like them as well. Here are a few quotes from the papers. I don't necessarily agree with all of the quotes, but they are all interesting. I edited some of them for grammar:

In dealing with my athletes, a coach should be completely honest, straight forward, but not cruel.

I consider a successful soccer team to be one that is unified.

Perhaps the best part of athletics is that it allows success to be possible regardless of the outcome of the competition.

I need to remember that most athletes do not live to play sports.

Never accept less than the best.

I think the true purpose of athletics is not to just build character, but to reveal it and then help fix it if there is a problem.

Character will last a lifetime where a trophy will get broken, lost or become meaningless.

I will make an effort to make sure that my players understand that it is the team that wins the games, not the individual.

I would like to say that physical education is the best major on campus at Maranatha.

While I will definitely stress defense, I will always want to be an aggressive and attacking team. Maybe it is a bad strategy, but I think that teams have to take chances, and push the ball, and do things that pressure not only the opposing team, but also stretch themselves as well.

I want my program to be known for team play and passing.

Whether or not a player 'bends it like Beckham' or whiffs 3 out of 3 times will not be the determining factor for his or her success in life.

Another DIII player is going pro. Read the story here. -C

Week in Review

Last week was a busy one for me. I don't think things are going to slow down any until after our baby is born and until after graduation. Here are a few interesting (to some) thoughts and activities:

The men's basketball team lost to Northland on Tuesday night. It was a fun atmosphere and I was able to attend it with a coaching friend from UW-Green Bay. Nathan C, a highly sought after soccer recruit, had a big game for Northland. I wish he had chosen to come here, but I am happy for how well he is doing. I think there are several aspects of the game that our team can exploit if they face NBBC at Regionals in a couple of weeks.

The US men's national team defeated Mexico on Wednesday night 2-0 in a friendly. The second half was the only part worth watching. I hope the US can somehow start to win games when they really matter.

Travis M, a four-time all-conference soccer player for CUW came to town with the CUW basketball team on Saturday. He graduated from Watertown High and there are always a large number of folk from Wttn here in the stands. I am beginning to think that soccer helps with court vision. Andy Polka and Mariah Dunham, last year's Wisconsin HS Baskeball player's of the year both played soccer. This week we had point guards from NBBC and CUW come to our campus, both are standout soccer players. Steve Nash, two time NBA MVP, Spurs guard Tony Parker and fellow Spur, Manu Ginobili, were all exceptional soccer players growing up. Look in the bio of almost every player in the NBA who passes well and you will find soccer as a part of his athletic experience. Here at Maranatha, one of our best passers of the last ten years was also one of our best soccer playes of the last ten years - Clayton Callan. Furthermore, our own Maranatha men's and women's baskteball teams feature players whose names also appear on the soccer roster - Tagli, Knepp, Hollenbeck, Nichols, Muse, Kutz.

This was our fifth week of the Footskills clinic on Saturdays. We have one more week of instruction. I have enjoyed teaching the technical footwork required to perform the Rivelino, scissors and other soccer moves. Instructing 20 third and fourth graders during the 2 o'clock session is quite an experience. Several of the youngsters that age show some impressive ability.

I booked my second soccer camp for the summer. A boy's camp in Rochelle IL. It is the week before the Maranatha Soccer Camp.

The Techniques of Coaching Soccer class took their first exam. It went okay. They also passed in their Philosophy of Coaching papers. I look forward to reading them.

I was watching the Brazil-Ghana World Cup match the other day and my two-year old saw Ronaldinho's pony tail and though I was watching a women's match. I'm sure that TwoSticks will like that story.-C

Someone wondered what Landon Donovan looked like.

I wanted to say he looked like Steve Roby.

Victory!

The US National team defeated Mexico 2-0 last night. Too bad this win doesn't count for much, but for a friendly, this game had some intrigue.

The second half was fun.

The Mexican coach might lose his job because of this game.

The US coach might win his job because of this game.

I think Tim Howard established himself as the #1 keeper on the US side.

I really like Chris Albright and believe he should have been on the WC team this summer.

Eddie Johnson could earn more time if he would work harder.

The Mexican fans are not too excited about their team.

The United States as a whole could still care less about their team, but there were 62,000 in Arizona who cared last night.

It was very interesting to listen to the two color commentators - Bruce Arena who was recently fired as the US National team coach and Eric Wynalda, the ESPN commentator during the World Cup who called for the firing of Bruce Arena on more than one occasion. Wynalda has also expressed interest in becoming the national team coach himself. . . They definitely had some disagreements in the booth and the play by play guy sat between them. I would have placed them next to each other and hoped for a fist fight.

I don't know why US Soccer is taking so long to name a head coach. They should just hire Bradley and if he stinks after two years, fire him and hire me.

Is it just me or does anyone else notice how much Landon Donovan looks, acts and plays like Steve Roby? - C

Conflict

I hate it when this happens. . .a large number of event are coming together at one time tonight. First, I get off work at 5 pm. Then, I need to weigh in about 5:45 pm for my weight loss contest. Insert joke here. After weighing in, I will go to the Fellowship Youth Group for game time at 6 pm, then I teach the Bible study for the Alpha (Jr. High) at 7 pm. Then it gets interesting. . . Lord willing, I will arrive home around 8:15 pm. At which time, E and E will need to be put to bed - can be a long process. The Wisconsin/Penn St. game will have started at 7 pm and will be almost over by the time I get there. The Duke/N. Carolina game starts at 8 pm, featuring two of my favorite coaches. Finally, to top it all off, the US Men's Soccer team plays Mexico at 8 pm. It is only a friendly, but it's Mexico! USA has an interim manager who is trying to win the job outright. There will be several overseas players on the roster. It could be a very interesting game. I'll let you know how things go. I'm sure I will record it for SECO-437 Techniques of Coaching Soccer that meets 5th period Tuesdays and Thursdays.- C

Super Bowl

Like I have said before, I enjoy other sports besides soccer. Last night, I was able to watch a large portion of the Super Bowl. I especially like to observe how successful coaches and players handle themselves. Some thoughts:

I like both coaches. I think they both handle themselves with class. The commentators said that Dungy (read the whole article) never raises his voice and never uses foul language. . .that is pretty unbelievable given the climate of the NFL. I must assume that every word he says is important and because he is prepared and concise, his players are compelled to listen to every word. He does not need to shout or use curse words for emphasis. A good thing for me to remember.

Peyton Manning is an example of what can be accomplished when great talent is combined with an incredible work ethic. He was already talking about practicing for next year.
I enjoyed watching the teams play in bad weather.

I have a lot of respect for how Brian Urlacher plays the game. He will probably never win a Super Bowl.

I was once again struck by the issue of time. One of the players said before the game, "We have 60 minutes to settle this thing." Then the game lasted for almost four hours. As a soccer coach, I would love to have time-outs, TV TO's, quarter breaks, clock stoppages for almost everything. But when a soccer match starts, it is literally 90 minutes from start to finish (plus half-time). Your team must be able to think on it's feet and make adjustments without much help from the sidelines. That is why young teams rarely have great success. A soccer match can be like a runaway train, once it starts, nothing can be done to stop it. The fact that so little coaching can be done during a match makes training sessions much more important. I hope do a better job of using time wisely during training in the coming season.

Some will say that Rex Grossman choked - I say that he was never that good to begin with.

This hasn't been much of a soccer post, but here is a Maranatha Soccer picture anyway. Mike Knepp after scoring against Ashford. What a beautiful evening for soccer. . . - C

I know soccer is not the most popular sport in the US, but I like it anyway.

One of my friends from a long time ago and a far away place has a mildly amusing blog. At the moment, he is taking a poll about the Super Bowl. In his poll, he tries to take a swipe at soccer. I encourage you to read this post and then go vote. I'm really mostly jealous that he knows how to put a poll on his blog, but thought it might be fun to tweak him a little.

My response to "soccer is a game for girls" is "That's a bad thing?" - C

Talent?

While on the mission's trip in Germany this year we found out a lot about each other. . .sometimes too much. . .I won't give details. However, one of the hidden talents that we discovered was Bryan Oliver's ability to look terrible in almost every picture taken of him. Bryan is really a decent looking person in real life and at the rate Adam Steen was snapping pictures, you would think that at least one of them would turn out. It almost became a game at the end of each day to look through the 100 or so pictures taken by Adam and try to find a good picture of Ollie. I thought that the readers of this blog might enjoy a sampling of the pictures we found.

Okay, everyone was tired here, but you will see a pattern develop.

Bryan struggles with photos, but the camera loves Kirk . . .
Adam likes to hold up his camera and just snap random shots. He caught Bryan at a bad moment, but we wondered if he had any good moments. Kirk managed to look pretty GQ somehow. We have three pictures of this pose, this is probably the best one as far as Bryan is concerned.Okay, here is one good picture of Bryan from last season.Sorry, ladies, Bryan already has a girlfriend - and she probably doesn't have to worry about losing him after this post. While downloading these pictures of Bryan, I did find quite a few pictures of myself that I may need to destroy. . . especially if Ollie gets a blog. -C