New President!

I hate to "bump" the post about my wife's birthday today, however, I need to mention to all of my readers that Maranatha has announced that our new president will be Dr. Chuck Phelps from Trinity Baptist Church in Concord, New Hampshire. The last 10 months with Dr. Oats and the rest of the administration in charge have gone extremely well, but it will be nice to have this position settled. Please pray for MBBC in the coming year.

Don't forget to wish my lovely wife, Sarah, a happy birthday on the post below.-C

Birthday

My lovely wife (a.k.a. "Mrs. Coach" or "Hot Mamma") turns the big Three Oh, today. There is not another person who complements my strengths and weaknesses better. She has always been a great asset to my coaching career and loves to be a part of the soccer programs at MBBC even though she is relegated to "home duty" while we are off playing or practicing soccer.

Please leave a comment here to wish her a happy birthday. It would be cool to have thirty comments . . .-C

Madison Master's Soccer

I managed to put one in the net on Saturday. Scoring a goal in a soccer game is such a great feeling. In each of the past three seasons, I have managed to score a goal during the first game of the season. The problem is that in each of the past two seasons, I have not scored again the rest of the season.

Gotta' be the shoes.

We had a great little scrimmage yesterday for our final training session of the year. We are now looking forward to Soccer Camp!-C

H.M.S. Pinafore

Here are a couple of picture of Jenny Harley from Ferndale, Washington during one of the performances of H.M.S. Pinafore at Maranatha last week. Jenny has been in several plays at Maranatha and has been a starter on the women's soccer team for the last two years. She also recently became engaged to Geoffrey Stertz. Incidentally, he is the young man in the photo below. Schedules can get extremely busy at college this time of year. Being in a play was probably the only way they could spend time together. Looks like quality time to me.-C

100th Post

I know it has been a long time since I have posted. This is my 100th post on this blog. Hopefully I have not lost too many readers over the last couple of weeks. Here are some of the latest happenings and a few observations:

The women's scrimmage v Cardinal Stritch was cancelled due to poor weather. Very disappointing, but it sure is nice outside right now. . .

Dan Campbell, Chris Jochum and Emily Kutz helped me run a 2 hour soccer clinic at a Christian school in Utica yesterday. While driving there, I realize that I had played my very first organized soccer game against that school in 1984. Maybe I will shared my memories of that day in a future post. . .

I was hoping to see a couple of recruits play next week, but I don't think I will be able to get out of town. It is much more difficult to travel now that Sarah and I have three children.

My first Madison Master's soccer game is tomorrow in Madison. Playing in these games might be the highlight of my year - within reason. Boy, do I love to play. Win or lose, doesn't matter.

I have been following the Virginia Tech tragedy pretty closely - an awful event. I have a lot to say on this topic, but something that really struck me is that we never hear about these shootings at gun shows, rifle ranges or Texas. They always happen in a place where guns are banned. . . it seems to me that guns are not the problem.

I have been blessed by the diverse talents of many of the players on the men's and women's soccer teams. We have many who are active in student government, ministry societies, plays, band and choirs. Several will be traveling in ministry groups over the next few months. If you ever have the ability to hire someone who played soccer for four years at MBBC, chances are you will be getting an employee who is well-rounded and knows how to get involved. I enjoy recommending our soccer alumni.

We have several solid recruits visiting the college next week.
Julie Muse will be returning to Germany again this summer with the Maranatha volleball team. We are all extremely jealous. Pray for her, this is a last minute decision and finances will be tight.

Elijah Ronald (or Elijah Ronaldinho, as I have taught Elise and Eliana to say) is doing well. Still not sleeping through the night, but he has been a pretty good newborn over all. -C

A Look-a-like?

One of my players sent me this picture and said that I look a lot like the guy on the left. I'm not exactly sure how to take this. Should I bench him? Or give him more time?- C

Cardinal Stritch

Our first every spring scrimmage went off without a hitch. It was fun to experiment a little and play with two of our graduating seniors - Mark Scally and Justin Monge - one last time. It was even more fun to get all the guys together one more time before the end of the school year. Cardinal Stritch has a strong NAIA program. and about 95% of their team was from the UK. I think we all felt like speaking with an English accent by the end. It took us a while to get our rhythm, a few of our players had not been able to touch a ball since last October. We gave up three goals in the first half, but shut them out the rest of the way and even put together several nice attacks at the end.
I had intended to have some pictures ready, but neglected to bring my camera. The ground was a little soft, but it was a great day for soccer. -C

Game Today!

The men will be playing in their first ever spring scrimmage. The match is at 4:30 pm on the Maranatha campus. We are still in the middle of a record cold spell that has hit the eastern part of the United States, but at least we are not Cleveland or Augusta. Thankfully, the weather report indicates that we will not have to deal with any precipitation. - C