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!

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!

More 2007 Pictures - Men

Here, Brett dropped the ball to Kirk who then carried the ball into the space to his left and made a great, driven cross to the far post. Exactly how we practiced. I'm sure it happened.

Friends and family picnic.

Don't ask. I'm just glad that I am not in the picture.

No caption needed.

I would not mind going into "battle" with these guys again.

2007 Men's Soccer Summary

Before the season began, I thought that the men's team might be in for a rough season. We had lost some key players and I was not sure how the recruiting class would work in to our system. There were two factors that I did not consider:

a) The outstanding contribution from our transfers
b) How well this group of young men would learn to work together

We always talk about the strength of team play, but this season the men allowed me to experience it firsthand. I will always be grateful for what the players demonstrated to me. There is no way that our team could be considered “talented”. We have some talented players, but most of the men simply worked hard and played their roles. By the end of the season, I felt like we could match up with anyone and have a reasonable shot at a win. Our leadership was consistent, other key players consistently followed that leadership and everyone tried to help their teammate succeed. At times, the coaching staff felt as if we could throw anyone into the line-up and they would play great.

Offensive MVP: Brett Hollenbeck
Defensive MVP: Bryan Oliver
Most Improved: Everett Callan
Leadership: Timothy Reinert
Jamie O’Dell: Daniel Kaminski

Daniel Kaminski finishes his career 3rd in saves in a single season with 161, 4th in saves per game over a career with 7.77, 2nd all-time in career saves with 397, and 2nd all-time in goalkeeper minutes with 4,562.

These men played in every match:
Kaminski, Riffel, Oliver, Hollenbeck, Board, Reinert, Esgar, Huber

These men started every match:
Kaminski, Riffel, Oliver, Hollenbeck, Board, Reinert

Our four year players are Andrew Swift. Swifty was unable to continue his playing career after 2005, but became a part of our staff and filled a valuable role as our goalkeeper coach. Aaron Hale’s career had some stops and starts, but he eventually worked his way into a strong role on our team. I often wonder if we had had one more player during that last weekend in October. . .

Tim Reinert is a young man whose college career was almost cut short by an ACL tear. Tim showed great determination and discipline in his rehab and returned at full strength by the following season and even played during out trip to Germany, six months after his surgery. Tim as always led by example on the field. He leaves big "boots" to fill.

Daniel Kaminski's work ethic made him one of the greatest goalkeepers in MBBC history. He did not arrive at college with great technique, but he constently drilled himself into a smart soccer player. Many of his saves were nothing short of amazing. No one who was at the game will forget his 23 saves against NBBC in September. . . The most remarkable thing about Dan is his walk with God. His teammates and coach are better men for having played with him.

JBoe's Team Advances

One of the objectives of the Maranatha Soccer program is to produce young men and women who can coach soccer and disciple young people at the same time. Whenever possible, we like to highlight alumni who have moved on to the coaching ranks and who are coaching with an eternal mindset.

I did not coach Jason Boe. I was his teammate for a time - you might remember him from the Top 11 Men post from a year or so ago. For several years now, Jason has been the head men's soccer coach in Minooka, IL. Here is a news article about how his team is advancing through the playoffs. It is a good story and we wish Jason and his team all the best. In the article, Jason has an opportunity to reference his faith in Christ in a public way. I am certain that even though Jason is coaching soccer in a secular setting, his players know for Whom he lives:

"This is business for us," Minooka coach Jason Boe said. "We're not surprised by this win. Even though we upset Bloom, it's not a surprise to us. Because we know what type of players we have on our team, the leadership that we have, the ability that God's given us. And it's not a surprise. We're basically telling the world, 'We're here. Welcome to our world.' "

Here is the thing: Jason would not have the opportunity to coach and mentor and disciple in a public school if he did not possess athletic talent and training. The doors of ministry for someone who knows their sport and walks with God are wide open right now.

There are three young men and two young ladies who will be graduating from our soccer program this season. All of them love God and know the game of soccer. Furthermore, a person who can survive the rigors of 4 or 5 years at MBBC, can survive almost anything. Their character has been proven. If you are looking to hire someone for your business or ministry in the coming year, you must consider Daniel Kaminski, Tim Reinert, Andrew Swift, Kristen Kowalcyk or Shasta Miklowski. I can't promise that you will compete for a state title like JBoe, but you will never question their faithfulness or competence.

I'm just trying to get a couple of them to stick around and be my assistants next year. . . -C

Alumni in Chicago

After the women's game on Saturday in River Forest, IL, our ladies team was invited to the home of Laura and Tony Shaver who live about five minutes (depending on traffic) from CUC. They have a cozy apartment into which we squeezed (not a fat joke) 23 players, 2 coaches, 4 soccer alums, and 3 soccer alumni husbands - two of them are actually football alums. They dont' really know what is going on, but we like them at games because they make a lot of noise. They served pizza, veggies and lots of desert. It was a great time for me to catch up with some former players and a chance for our current players to meet them.

We had five members of the starting line-up from our 2003 squad that won 13 games in attendance: Jen Adam, Hayley McGrail, Laura (Frazee) Shaver, Kim (Gavitt) Terpstra and Angie (Fenstermacher) Aulph. It is really difficult to keep up with the name changes sometimes, but I am doing better - we did decide that Angie will always be "Fenster". We also argued about who was a better player: Melissa or Laura. We had a great time of fellowship - we just wished we could have added a victory to the evening. . .

The last few days have brought a lot of contact with alumni. Some of whom have donated for the Women's soccer nationals trip. I don't want to embarrass any of them, but here are some email excerpts:

Wow, I cannot believe how many life-lessons, exciting memories, solid, godly friendships and an assemblance of decent health I can attribute to Maranatha
Soccer!

I am so excited for you guys getting to go to the tournament! That is absolutely awesome...wish I was going =) I can't afford much, but I want to do what I can to help the team since the time I was on the team made a huge impact on my life.

We wish the rest of you could come as well. We consider all of the soccer alumni out there to still be a part of our program. I hope to blog often while we are in Kissimmee - don't forget that the men also have a chance to earn a trip to nationals this week- we play NAC opponent Marian today. We earned the #2 seed in the Midwest Region and so we will play Moody at 3 pm on Friday, if we defeat Moody, we will advance to the region final on Saturday.

Men v Concordia Chicago

Wow. The men's team pulled off quite a victory on Saturday.

We came out flat against an opponent that had a similar record as we did. Sometimes it is easy to come out flat after a game like last Thursday, when we took one of the top teams in the conference, Edgewood, to double OT before succumbing to a deflection off of one of our defenders that ended up in the net.

We gave up a goal early in the first half simply because we were not playing with much intensity. The men are a little banged up right now. Hollenbeck missed all but ten minutes of the Edgewood match and only played 60 minutes against CUC, several other starters are playing through fairly significant pain - although that is fairly normal for this time of year. The men stayed disciplined, stuck with our system and began to have some success, even though we were unable to put anything in the net. We put 11 shots on goal and with a minute left and CUC in our half, it looked like the match was over. We were finally able to muster one last push up the field and things got a little crazy. CUC managed a high clear to our left side, in their end, the ball was way up in the air and looked like it was going to go out of bounds on that sideline. A play out of bounds at that point, would have probably ended the match. But Timothy Solarek caught up to it and gave the ball kind of a little bicycle kick back over his head in the general direction of the CUC goalmouth.

His brother Andrew gave the ball a little touch to the right post, where Dave Esgar, our left defender was crashing the goal. Dave took the ball at full speed and just managed to cut the ball back behind the goalkeeper without running into the post and before running out of bounds. There were 14 seconds left in the match when we scored the tying goal.

Seven minutes into overtime, Dave put a header in the net off at corner kick from Hollenbeck.

I'm still recovering. . . - C

Praisemen Out East

Check out reports and pictures from the MBBC Praisemen. What does this have to do with soccer? Two of the men are former MBBC soccer players: Jon Bennett and Geoffrey Stertz.

Lakeland College

The men's team is on a three game winning streak. Last night on our home field, we defeated Lakeland College for the first time since 2001. We have faced a great deal of adversity this year with injuries to key players and a lack of experience, but the young men keep trying to get better. Hollenbeck had four goals last night and two assists on Monday. An unbelievable week for him and we still have another match yet to play. Read more here.

Our defense is really solid right now and our offense is beginning to click. We haven't won a championship or qualified for the playoffs (1-3-0 NAC, 5-7 overall), but winning is fun - especially for our four year seniors: Aaron Hale, Dan Kaminski and Tim Reinert.

Pray that we stay healthy and continue to walk with God. - C

Pictures Posted at www.mbbc.edu

Lot's of good men's soccer pictures here. Some of the best are near the middle of the slideshow - from our match against MSOE. My favorites include: 21 (orange socks), 34, 48, 53, 83, 119, 121, 145, 166, 181, 194, 201, 207, 278, 282, 284, 285, 287.

Lot's of good women's soccer pictures here. My favorites include: 33, 38, 48, 52 (some of you remember my post about the photogenic abilities of Bryan Oliver), 57, 62, 79, 149, and 154.

Let me know which ones you like.

A Good Win and a Tough Loss

The men travelled to Lake Forest College on Monday night for our last non-conference match of the season. LFC are members of the tough Midwest Conference and while they're record was not that great, they play a very difficult schedule. We started the game a little flat - it always takes us a while to get used to field turf, but we managed to not give up any goals during the first half. That is the difference between last year's team and this year's team. We have not had a huge upsurge in talent, but we are able to shut teams out - even when we are not playing our best. In 2006, I think we gave up a goal in the first 15 minutes in 3/4's of our games.

The score was 0-0 at half-time, but our men came out very strong at the beginning of the second half. Even though we were controlling play, LF managed to spring a break-away that resulted in their first goal. We did not let down, however and a couple of minutes later, Reinert finished a very nice cross from Hollenbeck and Solarek stuck the ball in the net from the left side off another feed from Hollenbeck. The end of the game was pretty crazy, but we made the final score, 2-1 stand up. This was a good win for us. We have been floundering a bit over that last few weeks as we adjusted our formation after Josh Marino went down for the season with an injury. Our midfield defense is improving and we are retraining some of our bad possession habits that we fell into in blow-out wins over Great Lakes and Lincoln Christian.

The women's team came into last night's match against Marian College with a 5-5 record, 3-2 in conference. MC was also 5-5, 3-3 in conference. A very big game with playoff implications. Unfortunately, we were bit by the "finishing bug". We controlled the match, outshot them (12 shots on goal, 22 total), but could not seem to put anything away. Kutz, Nichols, Jones, Dow, Collogan and others all had great chances, but we could not shake the net. The match went to OT and we controlled play once again, but shortly into overtime a MC player struck a nice ball with the wind that went into the corner of our net, just out of Barb's reach to give them the win.

This is the kind of loss that sticks with you for a few days. Our team has a lot of potential and we look forward to improving even further over the next couple of weeks. - C

Breese Stevens Field

Over the years, Breese Stevens, has always been one of our favorite places to play. The stadium is 82 years old and has held high school football, car races and soccer games. I believe that both my grandfather and father played highschool football in the stadium. My grandpa attended the old Central High School and my father is a La Follette grad. I remember seeing two great matches played there - one was between Concordia Wisconsin and Edgewood for the conference championship in 1998 - Concordia won 2-1 in 2OT. The other great match was between Maranatha and Edgewood that ended in a tie 2-2. MBBC was down 2-0 for most of the game before Sarah Beardslee and Sommer Rodolph both scored outstanding hustle goals in the last 10 minutes to send the match to overtime.

Recently, the city of Madison announced renovations to this facility that will make it a much nicer place to play. . . although I kind of liked the crumbling concrete, rusted seats, tiny locker rooms where you can hear the other team talking. . . - C

Men and Women v Wisconsin Lutheran

The women played a great game against a tough conference opponent last weekend. WLC is usually one of our biggest conference rivals going back to the days of Rebekah Himm and Kari Seijkowski (also known as "Psycho") for WLC and Sommer Rodolph and Jen Adam for MBBC. In 2003, we defeated them in regular season play and they spoiled our home playoff game. Every year since then just about every match has been decided by 1 goal:
MBBC 1 WLC 0
WLC 4 MBBC 1
WLC 2 MBBC 1
MBBC 1 WLC 1 2OT
WLC 1 MBBC 0 (MBBC outshot WLC 20 to 7)
MBBC 1 WLC 0

This year was no different as both teams played a tough, phyisical game. For the second year in a row, we held the advantage in possession, but struggled to find the net until Melissa Nichols picked up a ball near midfield, dribbled through about 3 people and just about "willed" the ball into the net. We had strong play out of our midfield, especially Cara Harrisonn who slammed the door shut defensively and Barb Gerlach who earned her first conference shut-out. Our team is relatively healthy right now and we are starting to catch glimpses of the potential of the talent on our squad. We still have a lot of work to do, but we are ready for the challenge.

The men have similarly played a number of close matches with WLC in recent years. Last year's contest featured, physical play, a weather delay, 40+ stitches, lot's of shots by MBBC, but a 2-1 WLC victory. This year's contest showed signs of being another tight match as Maranatha hit the crossbar in the first half on free kick by Hollenbeck and a couple of guys going for the header. The score was 1-0 WLC at halftime and we seemed to be playing okay. WLC scored fairly quickly into the second half to make the score 2-0, but we put together an attack that saw Andrew Solarek hit the right post after a good pass from his brother, Timothy. Then in the 71st minute, everything started to unravel. You can check out the box score here.

We are very injured right now on the men's squad. Joel Smith is still trying to return from his broken arm this summer. Josh Marino had surgery on his elbow yesterday. Steven White, Jarid Lawson, Levi Deiss are all unavailabel due to various tears and pulls. There are also several players playing through their various injuries. Hopefully they do not get worse. -C

Parents and Senior Day

Parent's and Senior Day came a little early in the season this year so it was a scramble to get everthing together, but in the end, everything turned out well. We had a good number of parents who were able to attend and the weather could not have been better for soccer.

Both teams earned victories and we had a great picnic at Riverside Park. I need to thank my wife, Sarah for all her hard work in planning and executing the picnic. There were also several other families who live in the area and helped with the preparations - the Moses', Kutz's, Dow's and Harrison's. The Parent's Day picnic is one of the highlights of our season. I greatly enjoy spending time with the players and their families away from soccer. The players on our teams are a great joy to be around. Only two got dumped in the river as far as I know. . .

Here are the notes that were read during our recognition of the seniors before each match last Saturday:

Aaron Hale
Aaron has been a faithful member of the Maranatha men’s team since 2003. He was a big part of a team that won 9 games in 2004 and continues to provide faithful leadership in a supporting role this season. Congratulations for a great four years and for finishing the course!

Andrew Swift
Swifty came to Maranatha in 2004 and won the starting goalkeeper job. His presence in the net was a great asset to our team. Unfortunately, injury limited him to two seasons but he agreed to remain with the team as a member of our coaching staff. He has played an integral role in training keepers for both the men’s and women’s teams for the last two seasons. Congratulations, Swifty!

Timothy Reinert
Tim was a member of Coach C’s first year as the men’s coach and made an immediate impact. He is a strong and smart player on the field and a leader off it. The greatest accomplishment of Tim’s career was when he tore his ACL in September and rehabbed in time to take a mission’s trip to Germany in June of 2006. Tim is a second year captain and hopes to finish his career with a great season. Congratulations, Tim!

Daniel Kaminski
Dan did not start as a freshmen, but earned a spot as the regular keeper in 2006. He has had an outstanding career. He is close to being the all-time leader in goalkeeper minutes in Maranatha history. He is a great player and a great teammate even though he is from the state of Oregon. Congratulations, Dan!

Kristen Kowalcyk
There has been a Kowalcyk as a member of the Maranatha women’s team every year since 1999. Kristen has remained faithful to our program and we hate to see her move on. Kristen has played a key role off the bench and was a great part of our Germany 2006 Mission’s trip. Congratulations on a job well done, Kristen!

Shasta Miklowski
Owner of the all-time great names in Maranatha women’s soccer history, Shasta is a four-year starter and the leader of our defense. However, Shasta’s most significant accomplishment has been playing four years of college soccer while studying to be a nurse – and she hopes to finish in four years! This accomplishment is unlikely to be repeated. Congratulations, Shasta! - C

Northland

Last year, I quit posting half-way through the season. This year, I have determined to do better, but I am already behind. Anyway, the matches at NBBC were a great experience as usual. The ladies defeated the Pioneers 4-1. Melissa Nichols hit the post 2 or 3 times. She has the worst luck of any player I have ever coached, but she still managed to find the back of the net twice. Our possession was better, but we still have a long way to go. I had forgotten what it was like to coach a team this young. I am still excited about our potential. Our first conference match is Thursday against an improved MSOE team.

The men's match was a great game. Tim Reinert led the way with a nice header in the first half off a corner kick by Hollenbeck. Our defense then held strong until the 61st minute when NBBC tied the game 1-1. I would have been very happy with a tie, but we just didn't have the horses to last through double OT. It was a team effort: Andrew Solarek, Timothy Solarek, Shane Foy, Chris Jochum and Levi Deiss were all unavailable for various reasons. Everett Callan, Jarid Lawson, Tim Huber and Dan Reid all came off the bench to record quality minutes. Each of them played double or triple the time that they are used to.

Kaminski recorded 23 saves and had a great game. When he is "on", he is awesome. Our defense over-all, including the midfield played well. We wish we could have lasted another 14 minutes. . . but positive comments about the character and testimony of our young men was mentioned several times by spectators after the match. God was glorified. -C

Ashford

The women's team struggles continued yesterday against Ashford. We are missing our defensive stopper Angela (Fenstermacher) Aulph and our checking forward, Sarah Beardslee both of whom we we lost to graduation last year. I think we have the talent to replace them, but there is no easy way to make up for experience - other than experience. Freshmen Shannon Delany from New Hampshire and Lisa Collogan from Des Moines, IA continued to show improvement and both will become significant players in future games. We have a quick turn-around with an important match against North Central in Chicago on Tuesday and then three days to work on many of the topics that we missed during preseason. It was nice to see Julie Muse get on the board by converting a PK in the waning minutes of the match even though the final score was unpleasant: 5-1 Ashford.
The men's team played very well in many aspects of our game against Ashford. We had an unfortunate "own goal" in the first half, but we did not back down even though the sun was pretty intense and we had just played a match the night before. Steven White tied the game off an assist from Andrew Solarek late in the second half, but we allowed Ashford to score the game-winner with seven minutes remaining. I still see a number of things that I like about this team. I think we have good team speed and our ability in the air is the best I've seen in my previous three seasons with the men. We look forward to working hard all of this week in preparation for our next match. - C

Dubuque

Both teams played against University of Dubuque today. UD is one of our tougher non-conference opponents and a good early season test. The ladies jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a great hustle goal by Hillary Lockhart from Danville, IL and we led after the first half. The second half was another story as inexperience and poor early season conditioning took its toll. We ended the match with a 5-1 loss and are anxious to move on to the next game tomorrow at Ashford. It was only the second day that we had been on a full-sized pitch with 11 players on a side, however, we had hoped to perform better. Junior Melissa Nichols had a strong game on both ends of the field. Freshmen Cara Harrison and Lisa Collogan showed some early promise.

The men actually played relatively well against Dubuque today. I liked our strength in the air and physical play. We need to finish better - but that will come. Today was the first day that I was able to get a real picture of where people will play this season. We made a couple of critical mental errors and a penalty kick added up to a 3-0 defeat. Sophomore Brett Hollenbeck and transfer Alex Board did a nice job in the middle controlling the attack and starting our defense. Freshman Timoth Solarek from Greenwood, IN had a very good first collegiate game. -C

One More Time

Just in case you did not see this post or this post or this announcement, the arrival times for preseason have been adjusted per NCAA directive.

Athletes who have travel plans that cannot be altered will be housed and fed starting the evening of August 17th.

The dorms will be available to preseason freshmen athletes on Saturday, August 18th, however the first required activity for preseason freshmen is Freshmen Testing that begins at 1:15 pm on Sunday, August 19th.

The first required function for all preseason athletes is an eligibility/insurance meeting at 8 pm on Sunday, August 19th in DC 102. Plan to be on time and check this page to make sure that all of your paperwork is in order. We have a training session for women's soccer at 7 am and men's soccer at 8:45 am on Monday morning. You cannot practice until all of your paperwork is finished - make sure this is done! Tryouts will begin on time and we need everyone there.

See you on Sunday. . . or Friday. . . or Saturday! - C

Recently Brought to My Attention

This is a sad post and somewhat belated, but I thought it would be a good idea to bring it to the attention of the Maranatha Soccer family. Tyler Burcalow, a student athlete from Edgewood College, passed away this summer in a car accident. You can read the story here. Even though the accident took place around the Fourth of July, but I am sure that his family is still hurting and in need of prayer. It is also a sober reminder of the brevity of life on this earth and a challenge to focus on the eternal.

This incident brings to mind another tragedy that, oddly enough, also involved Edgewood College - when a referee passed away during a soccer match between EC and MBBC in 1993. These events emphasize the sovereignty of God and should affect how we interact with fans, players, and referees in the arena of athletics.

"Only what's done for Christ will last." - C