Big Announcement at MBBC

Many at Maranatha have know about this for some time, but last Friday the official announcement was made: Jeff Pill is named as the new soccer coach at Maranatha! You can read the story here. Ironically, I have been "stealing" Pill's Drills for a long time and a couple of years ago I learned that Jeff was a member of Dr. Phelp's church in New Hampshire. In fact, when Dr. Phelps became the new president of Maranatha, I had hoped to get Coach Pill to instruct at the Maranatha Soccer Camp. This is a great hire for soccer at Maranatha. I have been privileged to spend some time with Coach Pill and believe that he and I are in lock-step when it comes to coaching philosophy - the difference between us is that he just might be a little bit better coach.

I have shared this on a number of occasions, but I believe that both the men's and women's teams are poised for outstanding seasons. Anyone who watched us play late in the season last year will know that both teams have the talent and now the experience to win on both the D3 and NCCAA levels. I also believe that with the addition of a coach the stature of Coach Pill, there may be some recruits who who will chose Maranatha and put the teams "over the top".

In the meantime, I have taken a new position at Colorado Christian University. The announcement was made a couple of weeks ago and I am looking forward to a new challenge as their head men's soccer coach. Things have moved very quickly and we will be moving at the end of March so that I can be a part of the spring season at CCU and start recruiting for the fall.

Please keep Coach C and Coach P in your prayers as we make transitions to our new places of ministry. - C

Another Mission's Trip

Many of you remember the men's and women's soccer team trips to Germany in the spring of 2006. That is when this blog began. This summer several members of our soccer rosters will be joining Maranatha's project: Global Encounters and taking the Gospel to other cultures.

A mission's trip is a great encouragement to missionaries already on the field and a way to further train our own students for further service. The teams are preparing for their respective trips through meetings and language study. They are also in the fundraising stage of the trip - a great exercise in faith for the young people.

I want to encourage some of you to consider a gift toward this effort - either a general gift to Global Encounters or a gift to a specific individual. Here are the soccer players who are going:

Mexico: Sarah Berry

Argentina: Emily Dow, Matt Huggins, Chris Jochum

China: Elise Jones, Rebecca Manion

If you cannot give, please keep Global Encounters in your prayers.

Maranatha Choirs

I am going to interrupt the series of memories with a post about the choirs at Maranatha. Last night, my church was privileged to host the Maranatha Chamber Singers, a group of which I am an alumnus. I was able to travel on five choir tours in three years. Chambers used to travel once in the fall and once in the spring. I have often said that choir tour was the best thing that I did in college. I was involved in sports and plays and other events, but nothing beat choir tour for sheer enjoyment.

I enjoyed the bus trips. Hanging out with college friends, walking up an down the aisles, trading jokes, endless games of Rook or looking out the windows at the new terrain that we were always passing through. I always tried to do my homework before tour. I knew that I would do very little (if any) on the trip itself, so I usually just left my books in my dorm. Visiting the homes of church members was also a memorable experience. Folks were always very kind.

Last night's Chamber's Concert was one of the best that I have heard in my 15 years around MBBC. Hand's down. Mr. Ledgerwood always does such a good job with harmony and over half of the package was acapella - kind of appropriate since I always remember him trying to get the pianists to play more softly when I was in choir. Looks like he just decided to go without the accompaniment altogether. Other new things included:

• Formal dresses on the ladies
• Tuxes on the men
• Larger choir (40 vs 36 when I sang)
• Mr. Ledgerwood's hair seems to be under better control than it was back in the 90's

Things that are still the same include:

• Mr. Ledgerwood's hand gestures - minimalist but effective
• The emphasis on harmony over volume
• Singing in "the round"

I missed "O Thou, In Whose Presence" and "Jesus Paid It All", but the current selections were outstanding as usual. I also enjoyed seeing several soccer kids in choir. There seemed to have been more of them in the fall, but the spring '08 Chambers include Joel Smith, Kat Alley, Jarid Lawson, and Laura Kennedy. The Chamber Singers leave for their tour on March 7th. If you can make it to a concert, I highly recommend it.

The Madrigal choir just returned from their tour. Soccer/Madrigal members include James Collard, Chris Jochum, and Hillary Lockhart.

Soccer Memories Part II

Today's post is a continuation of this announcement and this article. It is a list of events and opportunities that I remember when I reflect on the last 11 years that the Lord allowed me to be a part of the soccer program at Maranatha. If you think I missed one, feel free to share it in the comment thread.

• Our trip to UW Stout when Coach Carrie locked the keys in a running van.


• Our trip to Benedictine when Coach Jen locked the keys in our van and Kristen pulled the window open just enough for Elise to reach her arm in an unlock it. No one else had arms that were skinny enough.
  
• Our return trip from Lakeland in 1998, when I missed Hwy 26 and took Hwy 23. It was the first of many "missed turns" - usually because I was having a fascinating conversation with one of the players. . .


• Running out of gas on Main St. in Watertown.


• Our trip to Camp Chetek to help with fall clean-up and Monica (our goalkeeper) broke her finger and then broke her leg a week later. . .


• Our trip to Camp Chetek in late September - the men's team had to help to get the docks out of the water. One of the coldest swims that I have ever had.


• Our trip to Finlandia when Eloe played the whole match and missed a point-blank goal.


• Our 7 hour drive, play a match and drive 7 hours back in the same day to play GLCC.


• O'Morrow's flip throw assist to Spencer v Edgewood.


• O'Morrow's own goal on Swifty v CUC.


• Stueb's playing a whole match with a separated shoulder.


• Roby's goal with his left from 35 yds v Marian to cost them the conference championship.


• All of the four-year players.


• The adidas jacket that the 2005 team gave me - still wear it.


• The framed verse (Job 23:10) signed by the 1998 team.
  
• Autumn's height.


• Shasta's goal against Alverno.

More to come. . .

Women's Team Memories Part 1

After the annoucement of my resignation, I will be writing a series of posts that include many events that stick in my mind from the last 11 years. There is no way that I will get them all written down, but I will post as many as I can think off and maybe some of you can add a couple in the comment thread.

• The first pair of team shorts that we bought for the women. The length was fine, but the material did not respond well to washing and drying. If you ever wore a pair, you will never forget them. The next pair were far better soccer shorts, until someone (not me this time) washed them with something red and the white adidas stripes turned pink. We still wore them for another three years.


• Kelly Smith's accidential "rainbow" that led to our first goal ever against Mt. Mary.


• Tsunami's do' rag.


• That game against Concordia University -Wisconsin in 1998. We had only one girl who had played high school soccer on our team - Colleen (Schultz) Keppley. On Saturday, we played CUW in our last regular season match and lost 14-0 (might have been worse, I can't remember). Unfortunately we were matched up against CUW for the first round of the playoffs on the following Monday. We ended up losing 1-0 in the 82nd minute. One of the greatest displays of hustle that I have ever witnessed as a coach. I think I can just about name that entire starting line-up off the top of my head: Jacqui, Kelly, Melissa, Michelle, Jaime, Colleen, Vianne, Andrea, Carrie, Jessica, Angela.


• KJ (Kowalcyk) McCuistion (still not sure if I am spelling her new name correctly). There are a million stories about KJ and I think she continues to add to her stack of unforgettable moments. . . there was that time she fell down and everyone stopped playing, her incessant talk about penguins, her toughness . . . and off course, who could forget that van ride back from Lakeland her freshman year? But I won't embarrass her.


• When the freshman class that included Jen and Sommer beat all the returners plus me during a preseason scrimmage. That's when we knew they were good.


• 2003: We won 13 games and had one of our greatest years ever.


• Fenster and the post.


• Beardslee's goal in OT against MSOE.


• Endless games of "kill the coach". I don't think I ever lost. . . :)


• Lindsey's goal in the 97th minute of Parent's Day in her senior year.


• Mrs. Skrade at Parent's Day.


• Steph (Ujvary) Johnson's 23 goals in 2003.


• Frazee's moves, Gavitt's wit, Sommer's gallop, Julie's temper, Shasta's lack of talent, Melissa's free kicks, Sandy's volunteering.


• Our first soccer camp when only three girls showed up. KJ, Jen and I were the staff - we had the same number of staff as campers.


• Our second soccer camp when six girls attended. I think that 4 out of the 6 ended up enrolling at MBBC.


• Lenny's nickname, Skrade's ankle, Kel Mel and Smel, Susies' durability, Christine's perfection, Lisa's knee.


• Eating at Chi-Chi's after our last game.

More to come. . .

Some News

I have not been looking forward to this post.

You may have seen this article or this one or this announcement or read this post over the past few days. My resignation as head men's and women's soccer coach has been public for some time, but the official announcement was made this week.

When I finished my last season of eligibility as a player at Maranatha in the fall of 1996, I never thought that I would be involved in coaching to any great extent. Little did I know how difficult the following fall would be for me without team involvement. Little did I know that when Coach Morris offered to let me help with the new women's club team in the fall of 1997, that I would find what has been my life's calling for the past 11 years.

I don't know exactly what our future plans hold (do we ever?), but I am confident that God will continue to direct our path. There is potential that God may lead us away from Maranatha, He may even lead us away from Watertown, on the other hand, we might just remain right here for the rest of our lives. I am confident that the college will find a great replacement for me and I look forward to helping them to understand the tradition that is Maranatha soccer.

I want to thank all of the players who have contributed positively to this program and to my experience as a coach. I have enjoyed cultivating relationships with all of you and many of you have earned my respect as godly young people. We have always tried to cultivate an atmosphere of gratitude for the opportunity to play college soccer, an atmosphere oriented toward solutions to challenges and an ethos that encouraged leaders to stand up and act in a positive manner. I been witness to a hundred acts of humility, sacrifice, courage, and thoughtfulness. Another goal was balance. Soccer was not the most important thing in any of our lives, but when you stepped between the lines, the game was on! Today, Maranatha soccer alums are successful in all walks of life, I hope that some of you learned something from your soccer experience that you can apply to real life in ministry, family and vocation.

I possess a thousand memories from the last decade, some of them occupy pictures on my wall, some exist in little notes, some are just memories that resurrect when I hear from former players. Over the next few days, please humor me and allow me to list a few memories off the top of my head. I think that I could fill an entire year's worth of posts if I tried.

If I miss your favorite memory - feel free to add it to the comments on this page.

Plays, Choir, Soccer?

Maranatha women's soccer player, Jennifer Harley just received a feature on the MBBC website. Jenny has been a three year starter on the women's team and a key member of our defense for the last three years.

It isn't mentioned in the article, but Jenny is also one of the toughest and most physical players on the team. Even though I originally thought she was too small for college soccer. . . She never lets me forget that. As you read the article, you realize that Jenny has done a lot more than just play soccer at MBBC.

If you are in the area, stop by and see her in Pygmalian this spring!

Award for Joe Harding

One of my coaching friends and mentors received a much deserved award at the annual NSCAA convention in Baltimore last month. You can read about it here on the NCCAA website, scroll to the bottom of the page. Joe has always done a good job in promoting a balance view of athletics, especially in a Christian context. He has also been a great resource for me as I seek to improve my ability to work with Christian young people through the medium of soccer.

The other reason that makes it easier for me to like Joe is that Maranatha defeated Moody two times this year in men's soccer. . . Of course Maranatha's all-time record against Moody is 7-23. . . but we won't dwell on that. Joe and I are 3-3 against each other over the last four years, but beyond that, he is always willing to respond to an email or take my call and give me his perspective on the challenges of life and soccer.

Congratulations, Joe!

Last night was a lot of fun

Yesterday, the Pioneers from Northland Baptist made the trip down to Watertown for men's and women's NCCAA II Midwest Region games. The gym was packed and the noisiest that I can remember. Check out the pictures here. I was able to run the scoreboard for both games - that way I get a front row seat with an unobstructed view. I enjoy basketball, I've played it and coached it, but I lose patience with the endless timeouts and merry-go-round of substitutions. . . I guess that is why I am more of a soccer guy.

Maranatha won the women's game without too much trouble and two soccer players got into the game. (I always enjoy that) Lisa Collogan played several minutes, grabbed a board and shot a couple of free throws. . . Melissa Nichols received some major time and played great defense on a couple of the Northland guards. . . side on. . .feet staggered. . .wide base. . .eyes. . . on toes. . .etc. Ihose of you who have been to a soccer practice here at MBBC know what I am talking about. you can read more about the women's game here.

The men's game started off with prayer and the national anthem. We were led in prayer by Pastor James Solarek (one of our top 11 men's players) and Hayley McGrail sang the national anthem (Not one of our top 11 women's soccer players, but definitely one of the best singers to play soccer at MBBC). David Esgar (current men's soccer player) had a fantastic game for Maranatha. He had 22 points, 3 assists and 4 steals on the night. Check out the men's write-up here.

When Northland plays Maranatha, the score doesn't matter - there is no lack of passion the competition and we always enjoy catching up with friends from the other team after the game. Check out another account of the night from Melanie Killingsworth, other wise known as "killer".

Catching up. . .

I have not posted much lately and I need to catch up on a few things.There were several weddings over the last month that deserve mention here at Maranatha Soccer.

First, Sarah Beardslee married Cole Gelderneck on December 15th. Sarah is third all-time in goals scored for the women's soccer team and she was a part of one of our best squads that won 13 games in 2003. This was a tough wedding for us to miss, but we enjoyed checking out the pictures on her sister Karen's facebook page.

Emily Yogerst was married to Dave Marriott on December 21, during a huge snowstorm in Wisconsin. Lack of a babysitter and the weather kept us away from this one, although it would have been great to see Travis and Christine and other former soccer players at their wedding.

Erik Eloe and Erika Licht (their first names are not a typo) were married on January 12. We were able to attend this wedding since it was in Watertown at our homechurch and I was an usher and a nursery was provided (Thanks Elise Jones!) It was a beautiful wedding. Both the bride and groom played on the Maranatha soccer teams and each of the bridesmaids were also former Maranatha soccer players: Shasta Mikolowski, Emily (Yogerst) Marriott and Charell Kukowski.

After observing the number of weddings that I have seen over the last 11 years as the women's coach, I have come to some conclusions:

• I am quickly becoming an expert at running wedding rehearsals. Coaching a soccer practice is just like running a wedding rehearsal.


• While you may want me to run your rehearsal, you do not want me to decorate for your wedding.


• I enjoy being the MC at wedding receptions, although you need to prepare to be embarrassed. Boy, I wish I had been on the mike at KJ's wedding. . . I also do bar mitzvah's and sweet 16 parties too.


• It is fun to attend weddings with your spouse, as long as we can leave the children at home.


• If I ever let a guy come near enough to ask one of my daughters to marry him and I say yes, I will strongly suggest that they elope and I might even pay for the honeymoon if they agree to the plan.

Four Year Players

Here is a picture of the 4-year shirts that have arrived and I will be giving out over the next couple of weeks. If your name is in the picture, stop by my office!