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!